Gojyo tried to control the urge to scratch under his corset. He was supposed to be a fucking well-bred young woman, and they didn't do that. "Shit," he muttered, then tried to look as if he hadn't said it.
The two tall guards -- women weren't usually taller than him, and he wasn't sure that he liked the experience -- leaned towards each other in an oddly angular way, then separated again. The torchlight in the fortress yard gleamed thickly on their black leather armour. They were clearly dressed for practical fighting, in cuirasses, greaves, and those things that you wore on the arms which some schoolteacher like Hakkai would know the damn name for, and they wore their swords as though they were competent to use them. He upgraded his judgment on the threat rating by a couple of notches; while he'd be able to dispose of a group of them quite fast, he probably wouldn't be able to do it instantaneously or silently, which narrowed down his options for escape or for letting the others in.
"Where do we take her?" one guard asked the other. Oddly, she sounded more annoyed than anxious to devour on the spot.
The other guard shrugged. "The kitchens, I suppose. That's where they usually get dumped."
That settled it. He was obviously due to be the main course of that night's supper, or perhaps cold cuts and fricassee for breakfast. On the other hand, kitchens usually had thick walls and were likely to have convenient passages to the outside world. He lowered his head and prepared to go meekly.
"Come along, honey," the first guard said, and pinched his bottom. "Ooh, you're muscular."
Gojyo bit his tongue hard, and stalked along after the guards. How do women handle this? More to the point, how do women handle this when it's other women? Should I giggle?
"Hold it!" another voice broke in. Another female youkai in what seemed to be the universal black leather gear, though with gold ornaments -- odd, he hadn't seen any male ones here yet -- was approaching. "Orders. This one," she jerked a thumb at Gojyo, "is being assigned elsewhere. We've got a visiting dignitary and he wants her as a body-servant."
Gojyo closed his eyes. When he got away from whatever fucker he was being assigned to (and it shouldn't be too hard to dispose of one youkai in private) he was not going to give the others a blow-by-blow account of how he got to the back door. Especially not Sanzou.
"Mm? He's got good taste, then," one of his guards commented.
And he was never going to tell them that apparently he made a convincing pretty woman.
"Yes, well. At least we're not going to have to explain about the Queen's Law." The new guard put one hand under Gojyo's chin, her fingers long and warm and dry against his skin, and tipped his face up so that he looked at her. "You've got an easy job, sweetheart. The guy's polite and refined. Looks like butter wouldn't melt in his mouth. Just be nice to him and do whatever he wants, and if you're really lucky, he'll take you with him when he leaves. He's here for a couple of days, so you've got a decent chance of making yourself indispensable. Understood?"
"Yes, madam," Gojyo husked, trying to keep his voice soft enough to sound feminine. The guy was a wimp? Good. It'd make him easier to dispose of. He might even just knock the guy over the head and leave him tied up.
"Right. You two." She nodded to the gate-guards. "Walk her up to his bedroom, leave her there so she can be waiting. He'll probably be back in an hour or so, honey, but he's got to make his bow to the Princess. Get yourself prettied up and you could be looking at a cushy future." She stalked off, yelling what sounded like universal military criticism at the few youkai lounging around the central yard below. "What do you think you're doing, you useless excuses for soldiers! I want to see you standing up straight, and I want to see it now . . ."
Gojyo's two escorts snickered, before each taking him by a shoulder, and marching him along at a quick trot.
It could be worse. At least this way he might not have to kill any of these women.
---
Kougaiji was actually finding the whole business much easier than he'd expected. The Princess of this tribe was behaving politely, and without the whole I-am-trying-to-seduce-you-please-fall-at-my-feet-and-lick-my-toes behaviour which he got so much of from his dear, dear mother-in-law. Of course, her rank was local, while his covered a wider area, so he was technically superior to her, but she wasn't trying to invoke any hostly privileges to dominate the situation, which she might technically have been entitled to do. He'd had to play enough games like that in the past, and while he was competent enough to avoid most of the pitfalls, life was always easier when there weren't any hidden vendettas, power-plays, or other amusing little games.
The Princess leaned across to refill his winecup with her own hands. "I trust that this visit has not inconvenienced you," she said blandly. Her hair was laced into a complicated lattice of braids that kept it well back from her face, and that displayed the web-markings on her cheeks proudly. She was dressed in a shifting collection of silk scarves rather than the apparently ubiquitous black leather, though it didn't actually hide any of her anatomy. "We are, of course, honoured to receive the son of the Emperor here."
"It is my pleasure to visit," Kougaiji replied promptly, taking a courteous sip of the wine, and allowed himself to verbally freewheel for a few minutes on the splendid position of her castle and the obvious ability of her castle guard, and anything else that he could think of to compliment. While doing so, he considered what he'd seen so far of the place. It was well-designed and defensible, and the local villages, as seen from dragonback while he flew in, hadn't looked particularly oppressed or starving. The fact that there weren't any male youkai around wasn't necessarily too strange; some of the remoter tribes had unusual customs. Merely because this whole place was decorated with woven silk webs, and the general decorative motif was spider nouveau, wasn't going to make him nervous. It was still better than having to manage back with his beloved mother-in-law. "Might one hope to meet your lady mother the Queen, or is she still in seclusion? I understood that she retired a while ago to pursue the comforts of religion."
The Princess coughed. "Her presence is still felt strongly through this fortress, though she rarely emerges from her private chambers below. We obey her in all matters."
Odd how familiar that sounded. "Of course," Kougaiji said non-committally. "If this person can hope to be of any assistance, we are naturally at your service."
"As are we at yours," the Princess replied on cue. Good, that's half the standard diplomacy sorted out. "We must thank you for your kind adherence to our customs. It is my Mother's wish that none of your gender enter our fortress, and while we naturally make an exception for the Emperor's son and heir, we do not wish to go against her desires."
Kougaiji made polite noises of agreement, and tried to work out what Nii was playing at. From the way he'd been smirking when the "Empress" delivered her little speech about reaffirming old ties and diplomatic missions, the pervert scientist had found something that amused him in the situation. The fact that Kougaiji couldn't work out what it was only meant that it must be that much worse.
Eventually, after a vague agreement that he'd be staying for the next couple of days, and equally vague offers to inspect the fortress' defences, observe the guards drilling, and admire the local weavers, he was permitted to retire to his quarters.
Fairly standard, really, he mused as a guard led him to his quarters. Of course, if there really is something hidden here . . . He had to break off the train of thought as the guard bowed and opened a heavy wooden door for him. With a polite word of thanks, he stepped inside, and she closed the door behind him.
The room was clearly luxurious, and equally clearly furnished for normal-sized visitors, rather than for youkai of the local height. The walls were hung with several thicknesses of silk tapestry. He tried to convince himself that it gave the place a delightfully enclosed and isolated air. Rather than looking like the middle of a spider's eggsac. A four-poster bed against the wall was made of ebony and ivory, and hung with black silk curtains, while several armchairs and a table with a chessboard set out on it offered more mundane relaxation. In one of the armchairs slouched the young woman whom he'd requested for his service.
Damn, Kougaiji thought. Forgot about her. I hope she's not going to be the screaming sort. After all, it wasn't as if he was actually going to ask her to do anything, except perhaps tidy his clothing. He had less than no interest in some pitiful human girl who'd been sent up here by lottery to serve as supper . . . and at this he frowned, for this place certainly didn't feel like Hyakugan Maoh's castle, which he'd once unfortunately had to visit. There was none of the metaphysical stench of rape and murder. But perhaps there was something odd in the spiritual undertones here, a deep-buried vibration of despair, of . . .
The woman looked up at him, and her mouth opened in blank surprise.
Kougaiji was vaguely aware that he was also gaping in shock. That wasn't a woman. That was Sha Gojyo, one of Sanzou's men.
If this was an assassination attempt masterminded by Nii Jieni, the pervert's sense of humour was even stranger than Kougaiji had thought.
--
Elsewhere, Yaone was considering tearing her hair out. "I don't know," she replied to Doku. "I've done everything that I can think of for the last three days. I let her in my laboratory so that I could keep an eye on her while I was working, and I had to spend half the time stopping her trying to identify my samples by taste! I've been sleeping outside her door..."
"Did it work?" Doku asked, amused.
Yaone sighed. "Yes. She tripped over me. Then she tried to convince me that she'd been sleepwalking and needed me to go away for half an hour and find her some food. I did everything that I could think of to stop her getting away!"
Doku pointed at the gaping hole in the wall.
The female youkai shrugged. "How was I to know she'd try something so obvious?"
"Eh. We did our best. We'd better just go after her and try to find her. Where do you think she's going?"
"Where does she ever go?" Yaone replied, annoyed, as she quickly packed mini-grenades and other impedimenta. "She's either gone after Kougaiji-sama, or she's trying to hunt down the Sanzou-tachi." Briefly she blushed. "She'd probably be safer if she's gone after Hakkai-dono and the others. They're not likely to hurt her."
Doku frowned. "Well, if she's gone after Kou, she's probably safe enough. He's on a diplomatic mission, after all, and we weren't supposed to be following him . . ."
Their eyes met. On one hand, Lirin could wreck a diplomatic mission with her hands tied behind her back and her mouth stuffed with pork buns. She'd managed it in the past. On the other hand, not going to investigate meant staying behind with would-be-Empresses, mad perverse scientists, and all the other inhabitants of the place.
"I'll pack," said Yaone.
"I'll get the dragon ready," said Doku.
---
Fanfic Page