Unquenchable

~§~

Last Chapter:

Sakura's eyes glazed over. The world swam in front of her eyes…the stars were dancing in front of her eyes…

…she felt so dizzy…

The last thing she remembered were the cruel amber eyes laughing at her before everything went dark.

~§~

Chapter 2: Helpless

Regaining consciousness was a painful experience. At least, in Sakura's case, it was. She knew she was awake, yet didn't bother opening her eyes. Not just yet.

First, she knew that she was in hot, hot water. That demonstration on swordplay with Li must have cost her life…or worse…the lives of all those in the Resistance…

What would happen to them? What would happen to Tomoyo, and Chiharu, and Rika and everyone else who had come to trust her during those two years of the Resistance?

What would happen to the Resistance?

Would Tomoyo continue them?

A thousand questions hammered in Sakura's head. All of them unanswered respectively, thanks to that conceited fool that calls himself a king! Sakura thought bitterly.

Sakura had never felt so helpless. Not even that table-turning day when the Lis took over the Kinomoto kingdom. And she knew that there was no way out. None. No light on a horizon that had never looked darker.

No way out…

She was closed in on all sides…

She was trapped!

Sakura felt like hammering her fists against one of her prison walls, hammer and beat and thrash and pound until both she and the wall faded away into nothing…

But fate would never allow her to do that…

Why? Sakura felt like demanding things from God. You taught me how to be free, to live free, to set others free…You taught me freedom…and then You imprisoned me. Why?!

But no matter how much she pondered this, it too remained unanswered (again thanks to that no-good idiot! Sakura thought furiously.)

Where was she?

Was she going to be spared?

Perhaps the king would spare her?

No, Sakura decided. It stood to reason that since the king had just acquired a very handsome source of information, he would not rest until he had everything he needed, and then…

Then he would do away with her.

Sakura shuddered, wondering if the king could read minds.

~§~

Hours later, Sakura finally opened an eye to survey her surroundings, unable to withstand the fury of the barrage of unanswered questions.

She was in some sort of carriage, seated in one of the green seats…

Green, Sakura thought nervously, remembering all she had learnt from two years of undercover spying. I'm in a carriage with green seats…

This obviously meant that she was in a carriage being driven by Li soldiers and taken to the Li kingdom…

"You're awake," came a cold voice from beside her.

Sakura slowly turned her one open eye to the figure seated beside her. The blurry figure swam into focus. Green robes, a emerald-studded crown, amber eyes, a smirk playing across his features…

"It's you!" Sakura half-shouted as her eyes snapped wide open and she frantically realized that she was pinned between the wall of the carriage and the notorious King Syaoran Li himself.

"Yes," the king drawled. "It's me. The spineless king Syaoran himself in person…for once."

Sakura's gaze turned frosty.

"What do you want?" she asked coldly.

The king chuckled.

"True…what would I want? The king of the most prosperous kingdom in the world…I have a wonderful family, a wonderful palace, a wonderful kingdom, the most loyal subjects, the most powerful warriors…why, I even have the long-lost Princess Sakura Kinomoto in my grasp…"

"You're not answering my question," Sakura stated stiffly through gritted teeth.

"That is also true," the king said, "my, you Kinomotos have a knack for speaking the painstakingly true…"

"Are you too much of a coward to answer my questions or are you just naturally dense?" Sakura asked, her tone dead cold.

The king drew his sword and placed it gently across Sakura's neck.

"See how easy it is from my eyes?" he asked, face still smiling benignly, but his tone was sharp and icy. "All it is for me is just one flick of the wrist…but it's your life you are gambling with here. And who are you?" he asked.

Sakura held her head high and kept her eyes level with the kings'.

"I am Sakura Kinomoto, former princess of the ex-Kinomoto kingdom!" she said.

"As such, you are nobody, as neither are you a princess, and nor does the Kinomoto kingdom exist!" the king said.

Sakura's glare was penetrating; her rage was so great that the king could have sworn that at that very moment, Sakura's vivid green eyes had flashed scarlet. With one hand, she slowly placed her hand around the blade of the sword and pushed it off her neck. There was a pause as she slowly held her bleeding palm toward his face.

"You see this?" she whispered, her voice like a winter wind howling in the frozen tundra. "This is the scar you gave not only me, but my kingdom. That day, with one flick of your hand, you ended the lives of two hundred men and women. That day, you stole the honour of all the women in our kingdom – those you hadn't butchered to death, that is. That day, you orphaned more than half the children of the kingdom. Your name lives in infamy; both you and the scar you have placed across our kingdom's golden name!"

Saying this, her voice went, if possible, even colder.

"But I swear upon the dead of my kingdom," she said, "I swear upon my brother, my mother, my father, the orphaned children, the shamed women, the butchered people, all those you so cruelly mistreated, one day, this country will be ruled by someone through whose veins run the blood of a Kinomoto. I promise this much."

Stunned, the king watched, as in a trance, as Sakura wrenched the sword from the king's grasp and closed her bleeding hand around it. The sharp steel cut even deeper into her hand, as the blood seeped down onto the hilt. Sakura lifted the hilt of the sword until it rested just above the king's forehead. Then, the blood dropped onto his forehead.

The king had known what that had been all about. Sakura had just invoked the bond of blood; a blood oath, in which the enemy's steel is used to shed the blood of the one making the oath, honouring both the maker of the oath and the ancestors.

Sakura then thrust the sword back into the king's hands and clasped her two bleeding hands together. The king impatiently wiped the trickle of blood off his forehead. Brilliant, he told himself. She was making a blood oath and you let her get on with it!

He had never felt so stupid…ever. How could you let a stupid girl get to you? He thought savagely to himself.

"Very well," he said sharply. He closed his palm around the blade and winced as it cut through the flesh and the blood dripped off his palm. He then grabbed Sakura's bleeding hand and closed his bleeding palm around hers, so that the blood intermingled. He pushed her hand away.

"Your promise has been fulfilled. I now have Kinomoto blood running through my veins," he said, with the slightest suggestion of a laugh in his voice. He smirked and turned his head away, for at the exact time, Sakura's glare would have murdered.

"You are the worst type of evil," Sakura said in a low voice.

"Thank you," he snapped.

"You are such a conceited, arrogant, self-centered, egocentric, snooty, spoilt brat, that you can't even get anything for yourself, even if you tried – "

The king turned around slowly.

"I don't think you get it yet?" he said, and leant over her, so that his mouth was right beside her ear.

"I am your king now!" he hissed. "I caught you, and now you must serve me, and me only – "

Sakura placed her hands on his chest and shoved with all her strength, as a result, the king literally went flying into the other side of the cabin.

"And I don't think you get it!" Sakura seethed. "I – am – a – human – being! And unless I'm very much mistaken, you're one too! No matter how much you try to be God, you never will be! Got that?! And unless you expect me to prostrate at your feet and beg for mercy, well Syaoran Li, you are once again mistaken!"

I'll never beg, Sakura thought bitterly. Never. I'll show him what true courage is. If it means I'll go down fighting, then so be it. But I am not going to lie low and let him – walk all over me. Never. Come on Sakura. Stand up. Fight for your rights.

I know exactly what you're thinking, Sakura, Syaoran thought amusedly, watching the emotions flicker in the girl's emerald eyes. But nevertheless, you will bow down to me. I will win you over, no matter how much you resist, Syaoran Li always wins!

~§~

They had almost reached the palace when Syaoran suddenly held his arm in front of Sakura's body.

"Let me get one thing straight to you, Kinomoto," he said menacingly. "Since now the decision of your fate is up to me, do not try to escape. You will most surely be caught, and then most surely die."

"Then let me die!" Sakura snapped. "It's not like you're going to spare me anyhow! Besides, I'd rather die myself anyway. It'd be better up in heaven than it would be serving you!"

The king sighed. "Be reasonable, girl – "

"What reasonable?" Sakura shot back. "Who are you to tell me about being reasonable?! Who the hell am I to you? Just another…prisoner, I suppose! And very soon, a corpse, as far as I'm concerned, am I right?"

"The Resistance can't operate without you," the king said silkily.

"Tomoyo Daidouji will run them!" Sakura bellowed.

"And who is Tomoyo Daidouji?" the king asked.

Sakura froze. Damn, she thought furiously to herself. Great. This is how he operates. He gets his victims so angry they let all the information he needs to know all at once. And you blew it. Very smooth.

"Where is Tomoyo Daidouji?" he asked.

Sakura unfroze her tongue.

"How should I know?" she snapped. "I don't keep tabs on where everyone lives; it's an ensurance that I won't murder them all in their sleep if they drop a pin or something!"

The king was amused.

"How accurate," he said. "But we are not here to discuss how I treat my followers – "

"No," Sakura interrupted. "We're here to talk about how you treat your prisoners."

There was a pause.

"Hmm…" the king mused. "I think that is all for now, young Kinomoto. You have given me enough information for now. When you are calmed down, you will recite to me all the details about Tomoyo Daidouji…or else…"

"Or else what?" Sakura asked aggressively.

Syaoran smirked.

"Or else we will use more…ah…persuasive methods. Hunger, thirst, floggings…they all prove to be quite efficient in the end…"

"You are a fool," Sakura said in a low voice, "to think that my anger can be calmed in a mere few moments of peace. When I couldn't calm my anger for over ten years when you orphaned me, do you really expect me to calm my wrath when you captured me, just on your bidding? Truly, you really overestimate yourself."

"Why thank you," Syaoran said smoothly.

"You are also a fool," Sakura said, "to believe that mere – "

She could say no more. Strong hands had tied a gag around her mouth and nose, and tied up her hands and feet at the same time. A halter was tied about her neck. Through narrowed eyes she could see that Syaoran held the other end. More hands pulled her out from the carriage. She lost her balance as she hit the ground.

"I remember the last time I saw you," came Syaoran's voice from above her. "You were lying in this exact spot, on the ground, unconscious. Clearly, ten years has not taught you much."

~§~

Sakura sat against the wall of her stone cell, her legs folded into her chest, her arms wrapped around her legs, her face half-buried into her legs, thinking.

It had been a full six hours since she had been knocked out on the ground. When she had awoke, she had found herself untied, but in this dark, damp, filthy cell with the rotten sickly odour of decay strong about her. She had realised, with a sickly jolt in her stomach, that the cells around her contained skeletons, the bodies decomposed and gone, dead free. She recognised the skeleton that lay in her cell – it had belonged to her brother, Touya. The brow of the skull had been fractured – that had happened when Sakura was four. Touya had been practising his ability with a sword, when his adversary flung the sword at him, the hilt thudded right above Touya's left eyebrow.

Sakura's eyes brimmed with tears…

Touya…

I'm trapped here, just like you were…they locked me in here…with you…

But don't worry…

The secrets of this country are safe with me…

No one will come to harm because of me…

I'd rather die…

Suddenly, the door to her cell burst open. Sakura shielded her eyes against the light.

"What the-?"

There were six Li soldiers, and several others behind those initial six.

"What are you doing - ?" Sakura tried to ask, but they pounced before she could finish. Two grabbed her arms. Another two grabbed her legs. The six soldiers, each with iron grips and twice as much strength as she possessed, pinned her to the ground.

Another four came in. The last one to come in was one Sakura recognised…

He was the advisor to the king.

In his hands, he carried a needle, and a bottle of green ink.

"Good afternoon, Sakura Kinomoto," the advisor said. "You may not know me, but my name is Eriol Hiragiwaza. Now, you may or may not know, but people who stay at the castle must have the symbol of the Lis put on them. Now, as you will be staying here for a while, we must make sure you are…ah…marked."

"Get off of me!" Sakura struggled, but what good was her strength against six trained soldiers?

"Here," Eriol said and the remaining three soldiers lowered her neckline to right beside her left armpit.

"That will do," Eriol said, and they pinned her down. Eriol swiftly tattooed the Li symbol onto Sakura in green.

"Does it hurt?" Eriol asked, a malicious smile on his face, staring into Sakura's pain-filled eyes. "Well, think again young lady. You have openly rebuked the king…be lucky to be alive."

They left, leaving Sakura helpless, with nothing to distract her from the bubbling pain in her tattoo. A tattoo of the hated Lis.

~§~

Disclaimer: You know the drill.

A/N: Whew! Sorry it took so long to update, but then again, it was quite lengthy – for my standards anyway. I have been swamped with homework so…please forgive me.

Review please!