Chapter 16:
Traitors
A flock of maids, under the direction of Asako and Yoruko, made Brynn ready to meet her friends. They chattered like garrulous crows as they swathed her in layer upon layer of blue, white and gold silk, remarking over her strange appearance as if they though she couldn't understand them. Perhaps they did, because Brynn didn't say a word to any of them. She moved when the pushed her one way or the other, let them manipulate her arms and legs like a doll's, but she didn't speak, even when their comments came close to insults.
"What strange color!" exclaimed one of the maids and she brushed Brynn's hair and bound it up at the back of her skull in a complicated knot.
"Her eyes too," agreed another. "They're the color of sea."
"More like the color of the fish in the sea," a third joked. "They're cold as fish scales."
"This kimono just won't look right on her no matter how I try!" a fourth complained. "She's all…" the woman made indistinct motions with her hands, "…All…"
"Her breasts are too big," the fifth maid supplied, which wasn't something Brynn had heard before. "And her buttocks are much too large as well." That was another complaint Brynn had never heard.
All the while Asako and Yoruko sat nearby, their expressions unreadable. Brynn hated them, and perhaps the coldness in her eyes that the third maid had remarked upon was because she was in the back of her mind planning how she would make them pay for the suffering they'd put her through. Irenicus' physical tortures were crude in comparison to the way those two snow-crowned demons tormented her mind. Brynn was strong, she'd been through enough to have nearly as much steel in her soul as in her blades, but being helpless, truly helpless, turned thumb-screws into the heart of her very being. She had no choice but to sit and let the maids play dress-up with her, no choice but to play along with the games that the Emperor wanted to play with her, because if she refused...
If she refused they would cripple her. The threat was there; they could as easily cut her hands off as let her wounds heal improperly, and she had no doubt that they would do it. Or they could do something worse, like snap her spine, taking the feeling from her limbs and body, but leaving her alive in a body that wouldn't move, that couldn't move. Even the thought of it took her strength from her. She was nothing without her physical ability. She had almost been a Goddess, but the heights of power she had achieved would do her no good if she couldn't pick up her swords.
The first maid patted Brynn's hair one last time, jolting her out of her reverie, and said, "Well, we've done the best we can."
"You have done very well," Asako assured the maids. "She looks almost presentable."
"It's time," Yoruko said. "We should go now that they are done."
Struck by a sudden surge of defiance, Brynn stood up, ignoring the pain that shot through her leg as she put normal weight on it for the first time in almost a tenday. "Shall we go then?" she said in clearly in eastern common. She was pleased to note the astonishment on the faces of the maids. "Asako-san, Yoruko-san, will you please guide me, I am afraid I do not know where we are going. I would hate to keep the Emperor waiting after receiving his kind hospitality." She wasn't quite sure how, but she managed to sound sincere enough to make the sisters look at her with curious expressions.
Despite their surprise Asako and Yoruko were quick to gracefully usher her out of the room. Asako took up a place on Brynn's right, and Yoruko on her left, and four guards flanked them as they moved through the palace, two in front and two in back. Brynn noted that the guards wore the same uniforms and the same emblems as the men who had captured her back at the prison. The four of them walked with the sort of poise that was indicative of excellent training and superior swordsmanship. She had little doubt that these men were the imperial elite, the very best in the entire empire of Wa, perhaps rivaled only by a very few people on and in Toril. They were not nearly as skilled as she -at least when she wasn't injured- and she was sure that wasn't mere egotism on her part, but they were very, very good indeed, and in any large number they would be a certain challenge for the Blades to defeat, especially if the Emperor was holding her hostage against them.
They reached the room the Emperor was in, and found him seated on a raised dais and silken cushions. He gestured for the guards to take up positions at the front of the dais, two on each side, and Asako and Yoruko took Brynn with them to sit at the Emperor's feet.
"Ah, Brynn-san, you are looking radiant this evening," the Emperor said grandly. "Your friends will be astonished by the change in you. I trust you are well?"
"I am feeling better, Your Highness," Brynn replied matching his regal tone. "You look well yourself."
The Emperor smiled beneficently down at her. "You are most gracious," he said. "Now then," he continued, "We need only wait for your friends to arrive, and then our gathering will be complete. I am very much looking forward to meeting them. Is there anything you care to pass the time with while we wait?"
"Your Highness," Brynn said suddenly, "may I ask a straightforward question of you, and if I do will you grace me with an equally straightforward answer?"
The Emperor looked at her and nodded. "I will do my best to answer you, if I deem your question to be worthy of an answer at all."
"Why are you doing this?"
"Why is His Highness doing what, Brynn-san?" Asako inquired.
Brynn kept her eyes on the Emperor when she clarified, "Why are you treating me like this? If it is your intention to kill me, as I think it is, why not just do it and be done? Do you want to dishonor me with capture, or is this merely to sate some curiosity? If it is neither of those, what can you want with me?"
The Emperor smiled slightly. "Let us wait for your friends to arrive for that question to be answered," he said softly. "It is their concern as well as yours, and I would hate to have to repeat myself."
"And what if they don't care to listen?"
"Then they will be dealt with."
Brynn shivered, struck by the cool assurance in the Emperor's voice. "I must warn you, Highness, my friends are not so easily 'dealt with' as you might think. They are quite formidable."
"Your caution is duly noted," Asako said, "however, I do not think it will be a concern."
"And why is that?"
"Tut, tut," Yoruko chastised her. "We cannot give all our secrets away. Be patient and you will see."
***
Hiruma led the Blades up to the base of the on which the Emperor's palace was built, and then behind an outcropping of rocks that shielded a small divot in the hillside. It looked as if a giant had taken an enormous shovel full of earth and pushed it to one side, creating a cave not more than ten or fifteen feet deep and maybe half again as high. A thick stand of bamboo curved around the open sides, further protecting the tiny cave and hiding it from sight. It must have been done on purpose, so efficient was the design, but it was so naturally done that it would have been hard to find without a guide that knew where it was.
Gesturing grandly at the cave Hiruma said, "Well, go in, there is a secret passage at the back. You can find it on your own."
Yoshimo was the first in, followed by Imoen and then the rest. Yoshimo ran his hands along the back wall of the cave, squinting in the darkness. He checked every inch of the wall, but found nothing except dirt and stone. It showed no signs of being worked aside from having been dug out of the hillside.
He turned around angrily. "What are you trying to pull, old man? There's no passage back here."
Hiruma smiled. He moved to stand at the entrance of the cave, and Kaede and the girls came up and stood two on either side of him until they filled the opening. "No, no there isn't. I expected you to know better than to trust me, Yoshimo. Twice now you've been my fool, and while last time you escaped, this time you won't be so lucky."
He stepped back and in the darkness Yoshimo saw the four women weaving their hands, their voices softly murmuring the beginnings of a spell.
Minsc roared in rage at their betrayal and charged at Hiruma, but Yukiko stepped in front of him and met his onslaught with her blade, parrying his reckless attack to one side. The ranger stumbled, startled by the unexpected attack. Touga moved in like a cat and made as if to block Yukiko's follow-up strike, but instead he shifted his weight and turning around, thrust his katana firmly into Minsc's chest.
In unison Dynaheir and Aerie shouted their protector's name and their hands, which until then had hung at their sides while they tried to come to grips with their shock, came up as they began to cast spells. Ayame and Hana broke away from whatever spell they had been casting and together Dynaheir and Aerie, their twin smiles cold and cruel.
Meanwhile Yukiko and Touga came face to face with Khalid, stepping in front of the half-elf as he moved to protect Minsc's prone form. Anomen began to chant a prayer of protection to Helm and Imoen, Nalia and Jan started a spells to counter whatever Kaede and Kurenai were doing. Jaheira moved up to support Khalid, and Haer'Dalis spattered Touga with a round of magic missiles. Yoshimo drew his bow in the blink of an eye, but the entrance of the cave was too crowded for him to get a clear shot, and it was too dark to see who was who in the dark. Despite his skill he could easily miss and strike a friend instead of a foe.
The moment the Blades had crowded toward the front of the cave a flash of light appeared in the back and five armed and armored men wearing the uniforms of the Emperor's elite soldiers teleported in. Yoshimo turned around just in time to block an incoming attack on the shaft of his bow. A moment later he dropped the bow and drew his sword to block a second attack, and then a third. The fourth soldier's attack glanced off his armor, but drove him back into the knot of people near the front of the cave.
Anomen turned to help him, and so did Haer'Dalis, who, next to him and Imoen, were closest to the back of the group, and between the three of them they made short work of the soldiers. But no sooner had they finished they finished and started to turn back to the rest of the fight then another group of four soldiers appeared through a portal and they found themselves tied up again, literally. Their four opponents gave up on the pretense of fighting and instead tossed four iron balls, which unraveled as they sailed through the air. One wrapped around Anomen, pinning his arms to his chest. Another caught Yoshimo about the ankles while a third tightened over his wrists. The fourth snapped around Haer'Dalis' arms and drove him to the floor with its momentum. The three men struggled in their bonds, but the iron bands offered them no opportunity for release, and all they could do was watch while the fight continued around them.
One of the soldiers sliced Imoen across the chest as she turned about, and another ran Dynaheir through from behind while she was casting a spell. A third hamstrung Aerie, dropping her to the ground like a sack of potatoes, and the fourth brought his blade down hard on Nalia's shoulder, cutting deeply into her flesh and nearly separating her right arm from her body.
One of the soldier's companions chastised him, "Be careful! The Emperor wants them alive; if there are fatalities he will be displeased."
At the front of the cave Yukiko and Touga struggled to fend off the attacks of Jaheira and Khalid, finding the tables turned on them, but from out of the gloom Hiruma struck first Jaheira and then her husband, dropping them both, though from where he lay Yoshimo could not see where either of them had been struck.
Now only Jan was left standing and nervously he put his hands in the air. "I don't suppose you fellas would let a harmless gnome go on his merry way would you?"
In response one of the soldiers came up behind him and wrapped another set of iron bands around his upraised arms.
Kaede opened a portal at the back of the cave, and Touga said to the soldiers, "Disarm them and take them to the Emperor. Don't forget to knock the spell casters out; it would unfortunate if they were to cause trouble. Yukiko, stabilize the injured ones; Brynn would be angry if any of them died."
"Not to mention the Emperor," Kaede murmured.
"Now who is a filthy traitor, Touga?" Yoshimo demanded, managing to sit up despite being restrained. "Where is your honor now?"
"Shut up!" Touga snarled, backhanding him across the face. "You don't know what you are talking about. I…"
Yukiko laid a hand on Touga's arm. "Save your anger, beloved. It will be time soon enough for them to know all, and then you will have your revenge."
Touga's expression grew cool and distant. He gave Yoshimo a smile that was full of promises of pain, and said, "Of course." He turned around and left the cave. Yukiko left too, but she moved between the injured Blades, casting spells to heal them, but also leave them unconscious.
Hiruma came in his wake and crouched before Yoshimo, his scarred face mirthful. "Where's your pride now, boy? Where are your angry words and threats when you're trussed up on the floor at my feet?" He chuckled. "Soon I'll collect on the debt you owe me for my eye, and then you won't have any more words at all."
Yoshimo looked him in the eye. "Get in line."
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Notes:
Yes, I'm back. I'm sorry I kept you waiting for so bloody long, but I sort of lost my train of narrative for a (long) while. I've picked it back up again, but since I've let this sit for so long I've had the time to go back and look at some of it again. Like most everything I write I've found things that, in hindsight, are horrendous. Not just little errors, but some plot things that must be revised at some point. For example, I've decided that Hiruma is more the kind of guy that works best with only little back up, and isn't the sort that would become a crime lord. When I finish I'll go back and edit and revise, but I want the whole thing done before I go changing things. Anyway, the whole shebang will be revealed in the next chapter, and then there will be some mopping up and bam! Finished.
-Blue