In The Blood of Roses
Kenlei
Summary: It was a time when the code of chivalry bound even the strongest knight, in a land where only the savage ruled..
Bethrothed to a man she barely knew, in love with a man who had pledged to see her untouched across his untamed land…Yolei Inoue was trapped within the fiery coil of passion, and an icy shield of honor…
AN: The men and women in this story must fight, defeat and persue love before love destoys their very souls…
Part 3 / Shattered Ice King.
Ken lifted a gauntelet clad hand to his helm, reaching up and lifting it off to seek succor from the cold pervading all their senses.
The heavy metal did nothing but make his lips chatter.
It had been two days since his fight with the lanky archer, and he had not apologized, nor expected the fool himself to.
All it had taken was the brunette to try his wiles with the untried maid they sought to keep pure for Lord Davis, to stir his temper to the slavering hights bordering on explosive.
It was hard enough to restrain himself from seeking out Lady Yolei, he wasn't going to hold off his archer and the rest of the men!
But all she had to do was look at him with those golden, haunting eyes, and he would be trapped.
Best ignore her and keep them both safe.
He chanced a glance at her, where she sat huddled against the cold in a pile of furs. Beside her, the little maid Kari chattered gaily with the cleric, Tk.
Yolei looked vulnerable and sweet, her hair swirling coyly around her face and limbs. She watched the flames before her flicker and dance, no doubt imbroiled in her wretched state of life.
Twas a foul night indeed, to be out and under God's sky.
"Milord?"
He glanced up, taking in the redhead beside him.
"What is it Izzy? I am cold and would lay 'pon my palette afore I freeze…"
The mage cocked a brow, glancing at the armor clad knight.
"And well I see this, Lord Ken. Metal does not for the bones but aid the hasty grip of winter."
Stiffly, Ken nodded before gesturing to the fire.
"Go, inventor mine. Seek out companionship with the fool you call friend. I have not the patience to warrant your nagging…"
Izzy leaned back, giving his leader the once over.
"The fool I call friend, good sir, hath told me the very same. Evidently, thy fool and thee are at odds…Again,"
With a snort, The blue haired knave doffed his gloves in order to eat the meal a squire was handing out.
"Aye! He hath vexed me sorely! Putting airs about the tender maid we now protect! A foul soul he hides beneath that foppish grin! Bah!"
He scowled at the plate, while Izzy tried to contain his mirth.
"Sir! Thy malady plagues us all! Come now! Do not tell me yonder maid has shifted the ground beneath thee!"
AT the silent glare bestowed upon him, the sorceror stood.
"Aye! The air grows chilly! I take my leave of thee, Lord Ken, and hope the morning brings about a better mood…"
He stepped closer, leaning as if to share some devios secret.
" I shall give my regards to Tai for thee…"
He guffawed as he strode through the milling comrades.
Yolei watched the short little red haired man amble lazily through the crowds, hands stuffed into the folds of his monkish blue robes as he chortled like a drunken sailor.
"Milady?"
A glance upwards, and she received a plate stacked with vittles, and a small hot toddy.
"My thanks." She murmmered, before the squire scurried away.
Sighing, she watched the fire some more. Utterly bored.
The sun had hidden behind mountains and a snow laden sky for what looked to be a long time, and the night stars began to glimmer and twinkle overhead through the clouds.
She listened as the archer, lord Tai, summoned forth the watch to guard the borders of the clearing.
It would be lively game to have a wayward band of brigands storm the clearing!
Aye! They would sweep through, catchinng the men unprepared, to steal the bounty housed within!
A handsome and courageous knave would sweep her into his arms, saving her from this foolish journey! With his long dark hair and glittering eyes…
Even as she imagined, the face of her stalwart savior began to take form.
Indigo hair, as dark as a ravens blue wing, and eyes as stormy and turbulent as the sea smiled down at her.
The handsome face of Lord Ken Ichijouji…
The brave lord would be dressed in simple green brais and a leather jerkin, like the fabled Robin Hood. He would carry her off to a starlit glen and profess to love her for just who she was!
"Lady Yolei!"
She started, jerking awake from a sleep she hadn't known happened.
"Heavens!"
The overcast sky had begun to drizzle, and a light misting of rain tickled her face and hair.
"Lady Yolei! 'Tis time to continue!"
Kari pulled her up, quickly brushing the snarls from the lavender tresses and arranging a delicate coiffer.
Tk milled around, close to his love as usual, and checked the horses and gear.
The knights, squires, arches and footmen bustled around, getting ready to set forth once more.
Lord Ken pulled his horse up beside her, gazing down with hooded icy eyes.
"Milady…I must seek thy forgivness for my curtness on the yester noon…I fear I was not as gallent as I should have been…"
Blushing, as she remembered her girlish dreams, she nodded and pulled onto her white mare
"Have no qualms Milord. Twas not as if thy shirked from obligations…"
She turned her horse to the path behind a wagon, and Ken fell into step beside her.
"Now I know that thou art angry with me! A colder tone would freeze the netherwords!"
She tilted her chin to a lofty angel, not dismissing his statement.
"I conceed, Lord Ken, that I was slightly hurt…But twas not as if thou and I are 'friends' or anything…Else."
He frowned, eyeing her graceful jawline and smooth neck.
"Are you sure of that Milady…?"
He could have bit off his tongue for uttering such a blatent comment, and the girl turned a vivid hue beneath his perusal.
"Lord Ken…I fear that we pull upon strings that coil round a more complex knot…"
He sighed, glancing at his hands.
"I would agree, my dear, for I sense this growing thing betwixt the hidden gazes."
She bit her lip.
"It is as I said…We have met before…"
Ken looked her over.
"It is as I say, my lady fair…We will love again…"
He spurred his steed forward, leaving her to watch his retreating back, mouth agape.
Kenneth frowned into the darkness. The black shadows cast even blacker by the frigid white light of the lunar orb.
All was not well.
He slid from his hard bedding, slipping his sword from his sheath. A stir to the left of him threw his guard up, and he watched as a hulking silohette disjoined his fellows and lurched behind a tree.
He was not one of his own men.
"WE ARE UNDER SIEGE!"
He bellowed, jolting slumbering men from their dreams and galvanizing them to action.
Now was not the time for a sly counter attack.
Squires and footmen alike scrambled to light the torches, as a sudden slew of men spewed from the once quiet forests around them.
Torches flared, illuminating the faces of over a 60 filthy brigands armed with crude weaponry.
"Fight men!" He shouted, matching swords with a thick hewn man roughly twice his size. However, skill won out and the man was soon bested.
Blood rage filled his brain as he watched the scattered remnants of his men, still exhausted from the days journey, fall beneath the onslaught.
His eyes flew upwards, to where the archer, Sir Tai, was now perched upon a tree limb, taking careful, quick aim and slaying the group of looters one by one.
The sorceror Izzy quietly mumbled rapid phrases as he began to glow with an eeriy blue-white light. The woodsmen drew back in fear, but it was all for naught.
A blinding whip of fire snared the men in it's grasp before climaxing in a roaring inferno of heat, silencing their terrified screams in it's fury.
"Churlish knave!"
A scream penetrated his awed eyes, and he pivoted, taking into sight the Lady Yolei as she drew a slender dagger from the confines of her gown.
Her length of mauve hair swathed her shoulders in gleaming silver from the moon, as she took on the reed thin brute with outraged vengence.
"Back I say, or I'll-"
Ken solved the dilemma for her, as he gutted the man silently from behind.
Turning horrified eyes to her savior, Yolei's knees weakened.
"You, you killed him!"
With a barely contained snarl, Ken grabbed her arm.
"This is no fools fight, Girl! This is to the death!"
He dragged her with him, slicing another through as he weaved a way through the crowd.
"Lard Ken!"
Tai's bellow from the tree tops hindered their progress, and an arrow whizzed past the knights ear, connecting with a sneaking brigand seeking to grab the Lady Yolei from the leader.
Ken raised startled blue eyes to Tai.
"My lord! Seems 'tis always my job to defend the womenfolk from your brutish manners!"
The mocking cry was cast above the din of war, and a mocking salute followed from the gleeful archer of Clerid.
"Tai my friend! Thou hath taken your sweet time to bandy about tart wordings! Go, friend! The battle is lost! Escape to the trees till we meet again!"
With a nod and a challanging smile, the handsome brunette joined the shadows out of reach from the dancing fires of flickering torches.
Ken threw himself against a thief carrying a pitchfork, using his size to knock the man down.
"Cur! I send thee straight to Hell from whence thou was spawned!"
With a splatter of gore, the looter was dispatched, and they continued through the battle.
Izzy Izumi, clutching a bleeding limb, roared in full fury, letting another horrendous explosion of light decimate the enemy.
"Sorceror!" Ken called, and he felt, rather then saw, the black eyes of the mage upon him.
"All is lost! We must regroup! To the forest!"
With an almost imperceptible smile, the red head nodded, muttering more phrases before disappearing in a cloak of black wind, men in heated pursuit.
"Safe journeys, my friend…:" The blue knight whispered, before dragging the cringing lady to the menacing shadows.
"You, You Cad!"
Yolei wrenche her bruised limb from Ken, and sank to her knees.
They had been running through the trees for what seemed to be hours, her feet were torn and bloodied, hair in snarled strands.
She clutched her knees to her chest and vented her rage in a torent of tears.
Cold, frightened, and broken, she refused to look upon the face of her once girlish affection.
He himself was silent.
Ken cursed himself for his lack of regard after forcing her to run through the forest.
She was disheveled and cold, her shoulders shaking from tears as well as temperature.
"Milady…"
He knelt beside her, unsure of how to deal. "I meant only to save you from harm…"
"Aye!" Her teay gold eyes threw him back a pace, and she sniffed, jerking her head accusingly in the direction they had come. "And For that I thank thee! I thank thee for leaving my poor maid Kari behind! I thank thee for letting a young, inexperienced priest fight without backing! I thank thee for cutting down a lad no older then myself right before my ey-"
She was choked by tears, and she rocked herself back and forth, seeking to soothe herself.
Ken swallowed, realizing that he had not thought of her sheltered up bringing, merely let the sword control his actions.
He clenched his eyes shut, averting his face.
"Lady Yolei…I-I apologize…."
She refused to face him.
Kenlei
Summary: It was a time when the code of chivalry bound even the strongest knight, in a land where only the savage ruled..
Bethrothed to a man she barely knew, in love with a man who had pledged to see her untouched across his untamed land…Yolei Inoue was trapped within the fiery coil of passion, and an icy shield of honor…
AN: The men and women in this story must fight, defeat and persue love before love destoys their very souls…
Part 3 / Shattered Ice King.
Ken lifted a gauntelet clad hand to his helm, reaching up and lifting it off to seek succor from the cold pervading all their senses.
The heavy metal did nothing but make his lips chatter.
It had been two days since his fight with the lanky archer, and he had not apologized, nor expected the fool himself to.
All it had taken was the brunette to try his wiles with the untried maid they sought to keep pure for Lord Davis, to stir his temper to the slavering hights bordering on explosive.
It was hard enough to restrain himself from seeking out Lady Yolei, he wasn't going to hold off his archer and the rest of the men!
But all she had to do was look at him with those golden, haunting eyes, and he would be trapped.
Best ignore her and keep them both safe.
He chanced a glance at her, where she sat huddled against the cold in a pile of furs. Beside her, the little maid Kari chattered gaily with the cleric, Tk.
Yolei looked vulnerable and sweet, her hair swirling coyly around her face and limbs. She watched the flames before her flicker and dance, no doubt imbroiled in her wretched state of life.
Twas a foul night indeed, to be out and under God's sky.
"Milord?"
He glanced up, taking in the redhead beside him.
"What is it Izzy? I am cold and would lay 'pon my palette afore I freeze…"
The mage cocked a brow, glancing at the armor clad knight.
"And well I see this, Lord Ken. Metal does not for the bones but aid the hasty grip of winter."
Stiffly, Ken nodded before gesturing to the fire.
"Go, inventor mine. Seek out companionship with the fool you call friend. I have not the patience to warrant your nagging…"
Izzy leaned back, giving his leader the once over.
"The fool I call friend, good sir, hath told me the very same. Evidently, thy fool and thee are at odds…Again,"
With a snort, The blue haired knave doffed his gloves in order to eat the meal a squire was handing out.
"Aye! He hath vexed me sorely! Putting airs about the tender maid we now protect! A foul soul he hides beneath that foppish grin! Bah!"
He scowled at the plate, while Izzy tried to contain his mirth.
"Sir! Thy malady plagues us all! Come now! Do not tell me yonder maid has shifted the ground beneath thee!"
AT the silent glare bestowed upon him, the sorceror stood.
"Aye! The air grows chilly! I take my leave of thee, Lord Ken, and hope the morning brings about a better mood…"
He stepped closer, leaning as if to share some devios secret.
" I shall give my regards to Tai for thee…"
He guffawed as he strode through the milling comrades.
Yolei watched the short little red haired man amble lazily through the crowds, hands stuffed into the folds of his monkish blue robes as he chortled like a drunken sailor.
"Milady?"
A glance upwards, and she received a plate stacked with vittles, and a small hot toddy.
"My thanks." She murmmered, before the squire scurried away.
Sighing, she watched the fire some more. Utterly bored.
The sun had hidden behind mountains and a snow laden sky for what looked to be a long time, and the night stars began to glimmer and twinkle overhead through the clouds.
She listened as the archer, lord Tai, summoned forth the watch to guard the borders of the clearing.
It would be lively game to have a wayward band of brigands storm the clearing!
Aye! They would sweep through, catchinng the men unprepared, to steal the bounty housed within!
A handsome and courageous knave would sweep her into his arms, saving her from this foolish journey! With his long dark hair and glittering eyes…
Even as she imagined, the face of her stalwart savior began to take form.
Indigo hair, as dark as a ravens blue wing, and eyes as stormy and turbulent as the sea smiled down at her.
The handsome face of Lord Ken Ichijouji…
The brave lord would be dressed in simple green brais and a leather jerkin, like the fabled Robin Hood. He would carry her off to a starlit glen and profess to love her for just who she was!
"Lady Yolei!"
She started, jerking awake from a sleep she hadn't known happened.
"Heavens!"
The overcast sky had begun to drizzle, and a light misting of rain tickled her face and hair.
"Lady Yolei! 'Tis time to continue!"
Kari pulled her up, quickly brushing the snarls from the lavender tresses and arranging a delicate coiffer.
Tk milled around, close to his love as usual, and checked the horses and gear.
The knights, squires, arches and footmen bustled around, getting ready to set forth once more.
Lord Ken pulled his horse up beside her, gazing down with hooded icy eyes.
"Milady…I must seek thy forgivness for my curtness on the yester noon…I fear I was not as gallent as I should have been…"
Blushing, as she remembered her girlish dreams, she nodded and pulled onto her white mare
"Have no qualms Milord. Twas not as if thy shirked from obligations…"
She turned her horse to the path behind a wagon, and Ken fell into step beside her.
"Now I know that thou art angry with me! A colder tone would freeze the netherwords!"
She tilted her chin to a lofty angel, not dismissing his statement.
"I conceed, Lord Ken, that I was slightly hurt…But twas not as if thou and I are 'friends' or anything…Else."
He frowned, eyeing her graceful jawline and smooth neck.
"Are you sure of that Milady…?"
He could have bit off his tongue for uttering such a blatent comment, and the girl turned a vivid hue beneath his perusal.
"Lord Ken…I fear that we pull upon strings that coil round a more complex knot…"
He sighed, glancing at his hands.
"I would agree, my dear, for I sense this growing thing betwixt the hidden gazes."
She bit her lip.
"It is as I said…We have met before…"
Ken looked her over.
"It is as I say, my lady fair…We will love again…"
He spurred his steed forward, leaving her to watch his retreating back, mouth agape.
Kenneth frowned into the darkness. The black shadows cast even blacker by the frigid white light of the lunar orb.
All was not well.
He slid from his hard bedding, slipping his sword from his sheath. A stir to the left of him threw his guard up, and he watched as a hulking silohette disjoined his fellows and lurched behind a tree.
He was not one of his own men.
"WE ARE UNDER SIEGE!"
He bellowed, jolting slumbering men from their dreams and galvanizing them to action.
Now was not the time for a sly counter attack.
Squires and footmen alike scrambled to light the torches, as a sudden slew of men spewed from the once quiet forests around them.
Torches flared, illuminating the faces of over a 60 filthy brigands armed with crude weaponry.
"Fight men!" He shouted, matching swords with a thick hewn man roughly twice his size. However, skill won out and the man was soon bested.
Blood rage filled his brain as he watched the scattered remnants of his men, still exhausted from the days journey, fall beneath the onslaught.
His eyes flew upwards, to where the archer, Sir Tai, was now perched upon a tree limb, taking careful, quick aim and slaying the group of looters one by one.
The sorceror Izzy quietly mumbled rapid phrases as he began to glow with an eeriy blue-white light. The woodsmen drew back in fear, but it was all for naught.
A blinding whip of fire snared the men in it's grasp before climaxing in a roaring inferno of heat, silencing their terrified screams in it's fury.
"Churlish knave!"
A scream penetrated his awed eyes, and he pivoted, taking into sight the Lady Yolei as she drew a slender dagger from the confines of her gown.
Her length of mauve hair swathed her shoulders in gleaming silver from the moon, as she took on the reed thin brute with outraged vengence.
"Back I say, or I'll-"
Ken solved the dilemma for her, as he gutted the man silently from behind.
Turning horrified eyes to her savior, Yolei's knees weakened.
"You, you killed him!"
With a barely contained snarl, Ken grabbed her arm.
"This is no fools fight, Girl! This is to the death!"
He dragged her with him, slicing another through as he weaved a way through the crowd.
"Lard Ken!"
Tai's bellow from the tree tops hindered their progress, and an arrow whizzed past the knights ear, connecting with a sneaking brigand seeking to grab the Lady Yolei from the leader.
Ken raised startled blue eyes to Tai.
"My lord! Seems 'tis always my job to defend the womenfolk from your brutish manners!"
The mocking cry was cast above the din of war, and a mocking salute followed from the gleeful archer of Clerid.
"Tai my friend! Thou hath taken your sweet time to bandy about tart wordings! Go, friend! The battle is lost! Escape to the trees till we meet again!"
With a nod and a challanging smile, the handsome brunette joined the shadows out of reach from the dancing fires of flickering torches.
Ken threw himself against a thief carrying a pitchfork, using his size to knock the man down.
"Cur! I send thee straight to Hell from whence thou was spawned!"
With a splatter of gore, the looter was dispatched, and they continued through the battle.
Izzy Izumi, clutching a bleeding limb, roared in full fury, letting another horrendous explosion of light decimate the enemy.
"Sorceror!" Ken called, and he felt, rather then saw, the black eyes of the mage upon him.
"All is lost! We must regroup! To the forest!"
With an almost imperceptible smile, the red head nodded, muttering more phrases before disappearing in a cloak of black wind, men in heated pursuit.
"Safe journeys, my friend…:" The blue knight whispered, before dragging the cringing lady to the menacing shadows.
"You, You Cad!"
Yolei wrenche her bruised limb from Ken, and sank to her knees.
They had been running through the trees for what seemed to be hours, her feet were torn and bloodied, hair in snarled strands.
She clutched her knees to her chest and vented her rage in a torent of tears.
Cold, frightened, and broken, she refused to look upon the face of her once girlish affection.
He himself was silent.
Ken cursed himself for his lack of regard after forcing her to run through the forest.
She was disheveled and cold, her shoulders shaking from tears as well as temperature.
"Milady…"
He knelt beside her, unsure of how to deal. "I meant only to save you from harm…"
"Aye!" Her teay gold eyes threw him back a pace, and she sniffed, jerking her head accusingly in the direction they had come. "And For that I thank thee! I thank thee for leaving my poor maid Kari behind! I thank thee for letting a young, inexperienced priest fight without backing! I thank thee for cutting down a lad no older then myself right before my ey-"
She was choked by tears, and she rocked herself back and forth, seeking to soothe herself.
Ken swallowed, realizing that he had not thought of her sheltered up bringing, merely let the sword control his actions.
He clenched his eyes shut, averting his face.
"Lady Yolei…I-I apologize…."
She refused to face him.