Chapter 15:
The First Hints
Brynn fidgeted irritably, longing more than ever to get her hands on her katanas again, if for nothing more than to put an end to the torture she was being subjected to. The Emperor had invited her to his personal rooms, and then he, Asako and Yoruko led her out into the Emperor's private courtyard garden and beneath a pavilion that had been set up there. Then the three of the subjected her to the cruelest torture Brynn had ever imagined: the tea ceremony.
She had heard Master Touga talk about tea ceremonies with glowing praise and a sort of wistful voice. He missed them, of course, having been raised in a noble family and trained to appreciate all the finer things in life, but Brynn found the whole nonsense unbearable. Asako served the tea, and then, for three hours, they knelt at the small table under the pavilion and sipped at their cups, one sip at a time draining the green liquid until it was almost gone. There was no conversation, nothing to break up the slow, almost hypnotic sound of the four of them drinking. It would have been bad enough if the silence was the only real problem, but Brynn's injured leg protested so much at being forced to kneel for so long, sitting on the heels of her crossed feet, the muscle around the wound stretching as she did so, that it almost brought her to tears. Her side ached too from having to sit up straight for so long, and her feet had fallen asleep well within the first hour. She figured she would have to be carried back to her room because there was no way that she was going to be able to walk after this.
At last the Emperor set his cup down and let out a quiet sigh of contentment. "Are you enjoying yourself, Brynn-san?" he asked politely.
Brynn wanted to tell him that, no, she was miserable, and that she would much rather be poked with a red-hot iron rod than endure one more moment of kneeling and drinking tea, but she held herself back. "Yes, thank you," she said tautly over the pain in her leg and side. "You have a lovely garden."
"Oh no," the Emperor demurred, "it is not so nice. The palace gardeners could have done better, but I wanted to design it myself." Brynn could see that contrary to what he said, the Emperor was very pleased with what he had accomplished. He had reason to be of course, the garden truly was lovely, but Brynn found his smug self assurance grating and obnoxious.
"How have you been enjoying my hospitality?"
Hospitality? She was a prisoner, trapped more by her own infirmity than iron bars, true, but she was no less a prisoner for being bound in a cage of pain, sly tricks and silk. "It's been very pleasant," she said. "I've enjoyed it very much. Still…" she trailed off.
"What is it, Brynn-san?" Yoruko asked. "Is something not to your liking?" There was the faintest hint of malice in her voice, as if she were enjoying every moment of Brynn's suffering.
"No, no, it would be rude," Brynn protested, playing their little game of masks and layered deceptions.
"Oh, please, tell us if there is something amiss," Asako encouraged her. She too seemed not displeased that Brynn was uncomfortable, but she either wasn't as obvious as her sister, or she wasn't as vicious to begin with.
"Well…" Brynn began hesitantly, "you and I both know that I don't belong here, this is all too much for me, I think. I was wondering if… no it's too much to ask."
"Go on, please," the Emperor prodded her.
"I would like to go home, if it's no trouble," Brynn said at last. "I've enjoyed my stay with you, Your Highness, but I feel like a fish out of water. I think it would be best if I returned to my own land, don't you?"
"Of course, of course," the Emperor agreed, "and you will very shortly. I have it on good faith that your companions will be coming for you tomorrow in fact. I was wondering if you would like to welcome them with me."
Brynn's blood ran like ice water. "I don't understand, Your Highness, not to imply that you could be wrong, but perhaps your informants were mistaken. I'm sure my companions have left already."
"Oh no, I'm sure my sources are quite accurate," the Emperor corrected her. "It seems Barbarians can be more loyal than I had thought. They will be arriving some time tomorrow night. Would you like to be there when I greet them?"
"Of course she would, wouldn't you Brynn-san?" Yoruko asked sweetly.
Brynn didn't know what to say at first, but she realized she had no choice but to agree. "Of course," she said quietly, "I can't think of anything else I rather do."
***
As Hiruma had promised, a teenage boy arrived the day after his meeting with Yoshimo and delivered a message indicating a time and place where they were to meet the next evening. The boy gave Yoshimo a curious look as he was leaving, which made the bounty hunter a little wary. Having performed similar duties while he himself was under Hiruma's tutelage, Yoshimo knew very well that it was never wise to look at one of Hiruma's customers with wondering eyes if you were only a boy, particularly if you had any aspirations of living to manhood. Either there was something fishy going on, which, knowing Hiruma, there undoubtedly was, or the boy was just stupid, which, knowing Hiruma's rigorous training practices, was very unlikely.
Thus, when the Blades arrived at the appointed meeting place at the appointed time, they were not only armed as they needed to be for the rest of the mission, but very alert and ready for any subterfuge. Five people were waiting for them, Hiruma and four women dressed in men's clothing, though Yoshimo guessed that was not so much to hide their gender as it was to give them a free range of movement. It was dark so he couldn't see their faces, but if it was the four women he was thinking it was Yoshimo would have almost preferred subterfuge.
"Do you have our money?" Hiruma growled quietly as they approached.
Jaheira handed him a sack of gems and coins, items that Yoshimo had gone over personally and decided were all together worth the sum that Hiruma had mentioned. He wasn't taking any chances, and no one else knew what the hell a 'koku' was in the first place, so they wouldn't know what to pay.
Hiruma took the sack, ignoring Jaheira's dark stare, and handed it to one of the women. "We wait here until it has been counted," he said.
Yoshimo snapped, "There is no time for that, old man!"
"Either we wait or we don't go at all," Hiruma replied, unusually even-tempered. The man's moods were manifold as easily changed, but normally he wouldn't take insults or anything that even remotely resembled a threat with such a calm demeanor.
Yoshimo grew warier. "We go now," he said firmly. "I never lied to you before, why would I start now?"
Hiruma started, and Yoshimo smiled. Then Hiruma chuckled. "That's what I said to you, isn't it? Before you took my eye?"
"Before you betrayed me, actually," Yoshimo corrected casually. "Nevertheless, unlike you, I mean what I say. This is too important to me to risk by cheating a nothing like you."
"Oh! Yoshimo-kun!" exclaimed one of the women, "that's just terrible!"
"Oh yes! Just awful!" chorused a second.
"Terribly funny though, I have to say," added a third.
Those of the Blades who were watching Yoshimo actually saw him wince as his fears were proved true. It was them. The three people who had made his year in Hiruma's household one of the most awful years of his life. This was how Hiruma was getting him back for his eye, he decided. Having once faced death and come back again, there were very, very few things in the world that frightened Yoshimo more than facing the Terrible Threesome again.
He had a faint hope that in the sixteen years since he'd last seen them that they had grown up, but no, his hopes were dashed when they, in unison, leapt on him and bore him to the ground in a flailing, kicking knot of limbs. He managed to extricate himself from their over-enthusiastic hug and got to his feet again, feeling none the worse for wear physically, but more or less like he'd had his pride and reputation stomped on by a herd of rampaging elephants. Two words easily described how he felt and they were: not happy.
"Why did you bring them?" he demanded angrily of Hiruma. "This is none of their business."
"Yoshimo-kun!" one of the women said in a hurt little voice, "aren't you glad to see us?"
"Don't worry, Kurenai-chan, that's just how he is, remember?" said the second, patting the first girl on the shoulder.
"Hana-chan, he doesn't love us anymore!" Kurenai bawled the other woman's shoulder.
The third woman, Ayame by process of elimination, rubbed Kurenai's back and said, "There, there, he didn't mean it Kurenai-chan, he's just cranky. You remember how he gets cranky don't you?"
Kurenai sniffed and look up at Yoshimo with her lower lip sticking out like a child's. "You don't mean it?" she asked pleadingly.
Yoshimo, feeling a little cornered, said, "No, I didn't mean it." He turned back to Hiruma and added, "But still, this is none of their business, and I want to know why you brought them along."
The fourth woman, who Yoshimo didn't doubt was Hiruma's long-time companion, Kaede, said, "Come now, Yoshimo, they wanted to see you again. You needn't worry; we won't get in your way. In fact, we came to help."
"Not to interrupt this… touching… family reunion," Anomen cut in somewhat acerbically, "but have things we must be doing."
"Ah yes, your little foray into the palace," Hiruma said. "Follow me and I'll show you the back way in. Try not to be too loud and obtrusive, though I know it'll be hard for you Barbarians to manage."
***
"So, my friend, who are those enthusiastic ladies?" Haer'Dalis asked as he walked along at Yoshimo's side.
"Before you start, bard, no."
"No what?" Haer'Dalis said innocently.
"No. Just no. Whatever you are thinking regarding them I suggest you stop it now. It's not worth the risk."
"My, my, a touch overprotective of them, aren't you?"
Yoshimo snorted. "I'm protecting you. You may think yourself suave and sly, but those three would consider your machinations nothing more than the plots of foolish child. You are out of your league."
"Surely you are overestimating them, my friend," Haer'Dalis said. "This sparrow is no newcomer to the games that men and women play."
"Actually," Yoshimo said darkly, "I think that I'm underestimating them. Pursue one of them if you wish, but don't say I didn't warn you. They're all madder than a priest of Cyric and twice as dangerous. I shudder to think what they are like if they've kept up with their study of sorcery."
"Oh, come now, they can hardly be as bad as you say," Haer'Dalis chided him. "They seem quite free-spirited and fun-loving, almost childlike in their fashion."
"That is merely one of their many ploys," Yoshimo warned him. "Oh yes, it is all fun and games until they tie you up on the floor and start drawing runes on you with chicken blood."
Haer'Dalis raised an eyebrow. "Speaking from bitter experience?"
"Not my own, thankfully."
"What're you talking about, Yoshimo-kun?" asked Kurenai, sidling up on Yoshimo's other side and taking his arm in hers. She craned her neck and grinned at Haer'Dalis. "You have pretty blue hair."
Yoshimo, Haer'Dalis noticed, paled visibly and something akin to a shudder ran up the bounty hunter's spine. "Ayame…"
"Chan!"
"Kurenai-chan," Yoshimo conceded reluctantly, "please release my arm."
"Why?"
"Because I am going to need it very soon." Yoshimo spoke in a voice that was better suited to talking to a small child than a grown woman.
"Why?"
"Because we are going to be fighting."
"Why"
"Because… aren't you a little too old for this game?"
"Why?"
"Because… arrrgh!" Yoshimo jerked his arm away from her and muttered under his breath, "And yet you still wonder why I was not pleased to see you!"
Kurenai giggled. "You're lots of fun still. Good."
"Will you be silent, filth!" Touga snarled from somewhere more toward the back of the group. "Do you want to alert the entire empire to our presence? Fools and filth all of you!"
"He's grumpy," Kurenai whispered.
"Go back to Kaede," Yoshimo instructed her. "As much as I hate to say it I think that Touga is correct in this matter."
Kurenai gave him a sad look, her lower lip sticking out again, and picked up her pace until she was walking beside her mistress again. Yoshimo breathed a long, quiet sigh of relief. "Do you see what I mean now?" he asked Haer'Dalis pointedly.
Haer'Dalis shrugged. "Well, I can see how they could get on one's nerves," he admitted. "Do they always behave like this?"
"As long as I knew them," Yoshimo replied, scrubbing his hands over his face in a tired manner.
Haer'Dalis grinned devilishly. "Why?"
"I don't know."
"Why?"
"I… damn you to the hells, bard, don't you start that as well!"
***
Touga, walking near the back of the group with Yukiko beside him, was irritated and nervous. Irritated because the foolish Barbarians and that blasted ronin were loud and obnoxious –as always- and nervous because if anything went wrong now… well nothing good could come of all of his efforts if that happened. Whatever had possessed that senile old rogue to bring his concubine and her apprentices along Touga hadn't a clue, but their presence was a severe complication, and not one that he had planned for.
Probably sensing Touga's mood, Yukiko reached over and squeezed his hand reassuringly, communicating through that simple gesture her confidence that all their efforts would not be in vain.