Kiyo swallowed, and struggled to maintain her composure. Taking a deep breath, she bowed. Yamani custom dictated that visitors were to be treated with the utmost respect and care. While Hatsuoki wasn't exactly a visitor, Kiyo could see no other way to handle the situation.
"We thank you for the pleasure of your company," Kiyo murmured the traditional visitors welcome. "We apologize that we have no food nor drink to offer you, but - "
"Oh be quiet, Jiu." Hatsuoki snapped. Kiyo winced at the hateful term. She felt Elijah tense up beside her, and willed for him to stay calm.
"I did not come for chitchat." Hatsuoki stretched her lips into a cruel smile, and reached out a pale, manicured hand. Kiyo gasped as red fire laced from Hatsuoki's fingertips to slam the door shut. More red fire blossomed from the Yamani mage as she turned to flick her fingers at each corner.
"What are you doing?" Kiyo gasped. She had no inkling that Hatsuoki possessed the Gift, and the idea did not comfort her at all.
"She's silencing the room," Elijah whispered. The pair looked at each other, worried.
"Scared, are we?" Hatsuoki walked towards Kiyo, chuckling. "No matter, I am going to do things right. Give me your hand."
Kiyo stared at her, mute.
"Your hand," Hatsuoki stamped her foot like an impatient toddler.
"Hey!" Elijah cried angrily. "Look, you crazy - "
Hatsuoki turned and, surprisingly, smiled sweetly. "Shush, you." she said, calmly. With a small wave of her hand, she sent red fire shooting towards the commoner.
Rage filled Elijahs eyes as he found himself pinned against the wall with a mouthful of magic serving as a gag.
"Stop it!" Kiyo screamed. "I'm jiu, the contract is broken, your family is fine now. Leave us alone!"
Hatsuoki hissed, reverting back to her vicious self. "There will always be talk." She snarled. Kiyo bit back a scream as Hatsuoki grabbed her hand and pulled it towards herself. Kiyo tried to tug it back, but the older woman held it tightly, palm upwards. Hatsuoki fumbled behind her and triumphantly lifted a glinting dagger with her free hand.
Kiyo stood, shocked, as Hatsuoki traced the dagger tip lightly over her inner arm. Muffled cries came from Elijah as a thin line of blood appeared. Belatedly, Kiyo remembered her own dagger she carried in her obi.
Everything happened quickly.
As Kiyo tugged the dagger out from the folds of cloth, Hatsuoki dropped the hand she was holding, and expertly flipped her dagger so she was holding the blade. In a blink of an eye, she slapped the hilt painfully across Kiyo's cheek. The blow caused Kiyo to stumble on to the couch. Her dagger fell from her grasp to slide uselessly into a corner.
Holding her palm against her throbbing cheek, Kiyo blinked. As the room came back into focus, Hatsuoki's face filled her vision.
"I was old Nariko's best student," the older Yamani boasted. Kiyo met her gaze and shuddered. She had heard the saying that the eyes are the windows to a person's soul. If that was correct, then Hatsuoki's soul was filled with nothing but madness and fierce pride.
"What do you want?" Kiyo asked, dully. At first, she thought Hatsuoki hadn't heard her. The Yamani mage wondered around the room, picking up trinkets, glancing at them, then tossing them aside. Finally, Hatsuoki spoke.
"When Arashino discovered you were gone, he looked everywhere. He offered rewards, interviewed people...When some low-life wharf-workers finally said they saw you get on a boat for Tortall, he washed his hands of you. If you had stayed in the Islands, he would have found you and beaten you, but you're not worth chasing to Tortall! That's what Arashino thought." Hatsuoki gave a bitter laugh. "And then the Emperor had another banquet. He caught my stupid cousin eyeing his daughter. The first-rank princess, Sayuki-amaro. Ha!" Kiyo looked at Elijah, but the commoner was engrossed in the Yamani's tale. Hatsuoki continued pacing around the room. "The Emperor laughed - he laughed in my cousins face in front of the whole court! He said, how could Arashino even look at another girl when his own wife-to-be had run away from him. He said, a wife is a man's possession, whom he must look after and dominate." Hatsuoki paused, breathing heavily. "Find your wife, he said, tame her and bring her back if you consider yourself worthy of my favor. Ha!" The Yamani clenched her fists, "We are more than worthy of his favor!"
"Tame me?" Kiyo asked, dazed.
"I will not kill you," Hatsuoki said, turning to face Kiyo. "I will break you though."
Kiyo shuddered.
"Will you come back with me?" Hatsuoki asked, simply.
"No." Kiyo tried to put some defiance into her response, but the room spun and she felt weak and light-headed.
"Until next time then." Hatsuoki bowed slightly, and walked out of the room, pausing to click her fingers. As the door swung shut, the red magic that had flickered in the room disappeared. Elijah lurched forward and gasped in a full breath of air.
"Kiyo! Your arm!" He said, running to where Kiyo lay on the couch.
"What?" Kiyo murmured, sleepily.
"You've lost too much blood. Hold on." Elijah pulled off his shirt and hurriedly ripped a strip of fabric off. With deft fingers, he knotted it tightly above the cut on her arm. Steadying himself, he held two fingers slightly above the gash. Lime green magic pulsed from his fingertips, healing the wound. Kiyo felt her usual energy return, but the dizziness remained. "That blow to your head probably didn't help too much," Elijah said, dryly. Moving his hand to her face, he rested his fingers lightly on her cheek. "Hold still," he instructed.
Kiyo closed her eyes as the throbbing subsided, and the dizziness faded. Relieved at having a clear head, she opened her eyes slowly. Elijah still had his hand on her cheek and was looking at her with a strange expression in his eyes. It dawned on Kiyo how close he was, how close his face was, and how shirtless he was.
Elijah lent forward slightly, "Kiyo, I - "
At that moment, there was a knock on the door, and the pair sprung apart. Elijah blushed beet-red as he looked down at his bare chest. He disappeared into his room muttering something about changing.
"Yes?" Kiyo called. She wasn't too eager about opening the door to see who it was, what if it was Hatsuoki deciding she'd like another round? She sighed with relief when she heard a timid voice announce it was time for dinner. "Please wait a minute!" Kiyo called through the keyhole. "We'll be ready in a second, if you could show us where to eat."
She rushed into her room, and hurried out of her kimono. Looking over the cloth, she discarded it sadly. It had been one of her favorite kimono's but now it was stained a rusty-red color. Rinsing a towel with water, she washed off the dried blood on her arm. Elijah had done a good job with the healing. There was only a faint scar left. Rummaging through her clothes, she debated between the red wool dress and another kimono. Hearing Elijah in the main room, she pulled on the dress. Tortallan clothes seemed much quicker to put on than Yamani kimono's with their yards of cloth. Tugging a comb through her hair, she ran out of the room and met Elijah, who was waiting in the hallway with one of Shinkokami's maids. The maid bowed and started down the hallway. Elijah and Kiyo followed a slight distance away.
"Um..." Kiyo started. "What did you want to say back then?"
"Oh..." Elijah looked uncomfortable, "Uh...I just wanted to say that, I...was sorry that I couldn't do anything to help you back then."
What did you expect him to say? Kiyo silently scolded herself. Silly girl. Out loud, she said, "She didn't exactly give you a fair chance to do anything."
"She didn't give you a fair chance, either." Elijah pointed out.
Kiyo shrugged.
Elijah stopped walking. "How can you be so calm about this?" he asked. "She threatened you, not to mention cut you and bashed you in the head!"
Kiyo tugged at his arm to get him walking again. "I'm calm because I'm supposed to be."
"You're supposed to be?" Elijah yelped. The maid paused mid-step and glanced over her shoulder.
"Shhh" Kiyo hissed. "It's a Yamani thing."
Elijah rolled his eyes. "Right. Whatever. We'll tell Shinkokami there's a crazy lady here, and she'll send her away or something and it'll all be okay."
"You'll do no such thing!" Kiyo whispered, alarmed.
"What?!" Elijah yelled as quietly as he could. Muffled voices and the chinks of cutlery could be heard behind the door the maid was leading them towards.
"It's just...you can't! I have to deal with this on my own. I have to fight my own battles. Shinkokami will understand, it's a weakness to get others to do my fights for me. It's...It's a Yamani thing!" Kiyo said, wildly.
"Well, it's a crazy thing!" Elijah yelled as they entered the room. The room fell silent. He had forgotten to keep his voice down. Kiyo managed to keep a smooth face while Elijah turned pale at the sight of a group of nobles staring at him. "Er...I mean, it's the darnest thing, the dining room being here..." He stammered. Kiyo bit back a laugh at the confusion on the nobles' faces.
The room the maid had led them to was a small dining room with places for about 50 people. The decorations were not too grand by any palaces' standards, and the benches looked like they had received a lot of wear during their lifetime. An odd assortment of mostly young nobles filled about half of the seats. Glancing around the room, Kiyo saw Shinkokami and her assemblage seated at the end of a table. Seated next to her was a young man with coal-black hair and startling blue eyes. Kiyo also recognized Keladry, who was seated next to the red headed man from the stables.
Bowing to the astonished nobles, Kiyo was embarrassed to hear hushed whispers travel through the room. "Is that...Is she...Yamani? In that dress?...Well, she certainty has the composure..." She followed Elijah to a gap next to Haname and across from Shinkokami. A gray-haired man with a cheerful smile and a shaggy haircut moved down to make more room. Conversation picked up again as maids hurried to set wineglasses and soup for Kiyo and Elijah.
"We're sorry" Elijah apologized to Cleon. "We didn't realize we were this late for dinner."
Cleon waved a hand "Don't worry about it" He laughed. "We just started, and it's not a formal dinner at all." He grinned, cheekily, and added, "It's not the dining room, either." Seeing the confusion on their faces Kel laughed.
"It's a dining room, but it's not the dining room," She explained.
"It was the squires dining hall during my fathers time as a squire," The black-haired man politely explained. "They changed the system, and now the pages and squires eat together in the old pages dining room, and this one's...well, spare, so - "
"So, we like to use it when most of us are all here together," Kel finished.
"Oh!" Shinkokami exclaimed. "I forgot to introduce them properly." Half rising, she gestured "This is Elijah, he's from Blue Harbor, and this is Kiyomuri, from the Yamani Islands." The people around the table took turns at introducing themselves as the maids served the meat dishes.
There was, of course, Lady Keladry and Sir Cleon, Shinkokami, Haname and Yukimi. The black-haired man was Prince Roald, (Elijah choked on his wine when he heard this and tried to bow) and the shaggy-haired man was Sir Myles. ("A scholar - and a bloody good one" Cleon whispered loudly) The other names were lost as Kiyo struggled to remember them all. Eventually, the conversation splintered and the room was filled with a healthy buzz.
Turning to Elijah, Kiyo said bluntly, "I didn't know you had the gift."
The commoner shrugged. "I can only heal with it, and not too good, either," He grinned. "But it certainty came in handy!"
Kiyo grinned back. "Thank you for that," She said.
During the desert course of iced cake, Shinkokami caught Kiyo's eye. "Everything okay?" She mouthed. Kiyo smiled and nodded.
"It's fine" She mouthed back. Smiling politely, the princess turned to Elijah.
"How did you find your rooms?" She asked, kindly. Elijah and Kiyo stared at each other. Please Kiyo begged with her eyes.
Sighing, Elijah said, "Very well, thanks. They're great rooms." Turning back to Kiyo she heard him hiss under his breath: "We found them filled with madness, thanks."
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AN: umph. I've got an idea of where this is heading, but any suggestions to fill in chapters until then? Thankyou all muchly =)
--Edith