Sakakku
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Chapter 17
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"Look what I finished," Téa showed Odion the second he entered the room. Her cheery expression was such a change from the night before that he stopped and studied her, to make sure she was okay.
"What is it?" he asked finally, moving forward. She looked up at him and noticed his tray of food. "Hey, thanks!" She hopped off the bed and took the tray from him, placing it carelessly on a side table and snatching up the bread. "I never ate last night," she said through a mouthful of food. "I'm starving."
Odion picked the smooth blue fabric up from where she had dropped it. "A cloak?" he asked, turning it over in his hands. "Where did you get this?"
"I made it," she said, after carefully swallowing. "Mel gave me some cloth; she said I should learn to sew."
"Ah," Odion said, frowning slightly. "Yes, Marik and Bakura were discussing providing trade for their subjects. I suppose prisoners weren't exempt."
"Why did they decide now?" Téa asked in partial confusion, partial interest, tearing off another piece of bread.
The troubled frown grew on Odion's face. "Master Marik and Master Bakura… they had high ambitions. However, once they realized their dream of ruling the world, they had little idea how to go about it. Neither of them has much experience politically. The world is falling apart, Téa. No one does any work. They have finally realized this; they believe they can reverse the problem by ordering people to do various jobs."
He was surprised, to say the least, when she snorted with laughter. He blinked at her, unsure of what to do now.
"Sorry," she said around a mouthful of bread, and stopped to swallow it. When her mouth was clear, she took a sip of water, and promptly spit it back out giggling again. "Bakura and Marik take over the world. But they don't know what to do with it! What's the point in world domination? Why did they even want it?"
"I-" Odion stopped abruptly. He decided not to say anything about what he'd noticed about their strange behavior. It was only a hunch. An instinctive feeling. He couldn't prove anything about the odd aura around the God Cards…
Téa's giggles died away and she shook her head in all seriousness. "It served me well, I guess. What do I do now?"
"Tonight," Odion said in a low voice, feeling a chill run up his spine. He felt like he was being watched, but dismissed it as paranoia. "I'll come into your rooms with a friend- you won't see him for very long, and it's best if we keep conversation to a minimum. Then you and I will leave this room. We'll be forced to take the main hallway, but as soon as possible will slip into a smaller corridor. Those are less likely to be guarded. If we can make it to the lower level, we'll leave through one of the side doors. I know which ones have Rare Hunters standing outside; I'll guide us to a deserted one. There are Hunters patrolling the grounds at night, however, so it might take us a few minutes to judge when the area is clear enough to go.
"Come here," he said, taking her elbow and guiding her to the window. "Look outside."
Téa did as she was told; she had a fairly boring view. Plain white wall, and if she craned her head very far to the right, she could see the main gate.
"That's the only real way in or out of the palace yard," Odion told her. "It's consistently guarded. This will be the hardest part. I'll Summon a Monster, hopefully catching the Hunters in there off guard. They tend to be lazy, especially in the middle of the night."
"And then, what, we run for our lives?" Téa asked, voice slightly hysterical.
Odion was silent. It didn't matter; they both knew the answer was yes. Odion finally began to say something, but abruptly whirled around. Téa was confused for a second, but then heard the tell-tale sign of the latch opening. In a moment of horror, she pictured how close they were standing; how Odion's hand was still on her arm. What would whoever was behind the door think?
Graceful as a jungle-cat, Odion slid a few meters away. He had sidled up to the tray on the table and picked it up. Téa had eaten enough to make it seem plausible that he was simply carrying the food away again.
The door swung open to reveal a short, stocky, brown-haired boy standing slightly behind Marik. Téa's stomach plummeted; she hadn't seen her captor in at least four months; the last glimpse of Marik had been when he was circling the grounds. She'd looked out her window and the two of them had made eye contact for a split second before Téa broke away, stumbling with a gasp from the window. There was something horrible and dead about his eyes.
"Master Marik," Odion said smoothly, managing to sound pleased.
"Odion," Marik acknowledged. "You can put that back down, Odion; I'd like you to stay a while longer. You might find this interesting."
Odion merely nodded, replaced the food, and stood in a straightened, at-attention position, facing Marik with polite respect.
"Téa, dear," Marik sneered, walking up to her deliberately. He put a hand on her shoulder; it seemed to sear her flesh through the cloth. She held her jaw rigid, refusing to pull away.
"This is Geoff," Marik said with a slight flourish in the boy's direction. Geoff gave her a slight nod, focusing his eyes on her. Briefly, they twitched to Odion, but Geoff quickly wrenched them away.
"Geoff is," Marik said lazily, "What you might call a… precaution on our parts. He's here to seal up your room, little girl. It's his job to make sure you never get out." He smiled unpleasantly, and Téa felt a sinking feeling. She forced herself to not glance at Odion. How would his plan ever work now?
Geoff silently circled the room, trailing his fingertips around the wall, mouthing words. He glanced at Téa and Marik occasionally, when he hit an apparent break, but never at Odion. Téa's heightened senses told her that something was off. A furtive glance at Marik assured her that he didn't notice anything, but he caught her staring and apparently misinterpreted it. He leered; she shuddered and glanced away. He seemed satisfied by her reaction.
Odion had spoken of a 'friend'. Had this been it? Had Geoff been the 'friend' who was supposed to help her escape later that night?
She couldn't let Marik sense her thoughts. She focused all her energy on appearing to be desperately afraid or worried, and felt Marik's glee at her distress.
xXx
"I shouldn't have left her."
"You didn't have a choice," Yugi replied calmly. Mai was glad one of them could be calm, anyway. She was about ready to smack the Pharaoh.
"We all made the decision," she said testily. "Serenity was safe with Duke and Tristan, but Soul Release informed us that they weren't planning to leave the village for another few days. We couldn't hang around the desert that long. Think of it this way: You saved Yugi and I, as well as yourself. Now will you please stop complaining and focus on finding our way to Akuma?"
Yami was silent, but the thing with him was that he radiated depression. She gritted her teeth.
"Joey would have gone back for his sister," Yami murmured.
"Well, Joey is-" Yugi began, but Mai interrupted him.
"Joey is an idiot. Of course he would have gone back. He's impulsive and silly and he'd get himself killed to look brave. You don't want that, Yami. You have to be the responsible one. I'm sure Serenity will be fine. Duke and Tristan are both in love with her anyway. They'll also get themselves killed to protect her. With all those morons around, Serenity will survive. The smartest one always does."
"Um, Mai," Yugi started to say in a low voice, but she brushed him off.
"Save it, Yugi, I know," she said wearily, veering off to the side. She walked a few yards away from the boys, trying to cool herself off. She heard Yugi talking in a soft voice to Yami, clearly reassuring him. Probably much better than her pathetic attempt anyway.
She moodily reached down and tugged at her sandals. For purposes of traveling miles upon miles in the sand, she'd adopted flat-footed sandals that were fastened on by bits of twine. She didn't mind the style, but they made her feel short, even next to Yugi, despite the fact that she still towered over him. But it brought her a little closer to eye-level with Yami, and she just wasn't used to being on equal levels with anyone. She'd even been taller than Joey. Of course, she'd been wearing boots then. She spent a few seconds wondering if he'd be taller than her now, because of the sandals. She supposed so, and for some reason, the thought made her even angrier.
"Hey," she called, and Yami and Yugi glanced over. She motioned over to a cluster of rocks over to the right. "Should we stop and rest?"
"I think so," Yugi said, glancing up at Yami for clarification. The ex-spirit furrowed his eyes a little.
"We should keep moving to Akuma as fast as we can, but if you're tired, Yugi…"
"Just a little," Yugi said valiantly. "I'll only need to stop for about five minutes."
"You can take longer if you need it," Yami said, putting a hand on the smaller boy's shoulder and guiding him over. Mai rolled her eyes and primly stepped over the first boulder. The rocks formed a half-circle with a warm cluster of sand in the middle.
That perfect habitat should have been her first clue. The second clue, the slight scraping sound of scales upon sand, came too late for her.
The sound hit her ears a split-second before the snake's fangs sank into her exposed lower leg. It didn't hurt at first, not a bit. She simply looked blankly down at the snake, not two feet long, looking so innocent and harmless. It hissed at her, and slithered back under the rock she'd just stepped over. The sound of more sand being rustled was heard from under the rock; she supposed there was a snake family under there. She choked back a giggle; how cute. The sand and the sky seemed to be blurring together.
"Don't come in," she said faintly, taking a few staggering steps toward what she hoped was Yami and Yugi. It turned out she was wrong, but that was lucky; she would have tripped over the boulder and probably gotten bitten again.
"Mai?" Yugi's concerned voice. He'd obviously noted something was wrong. Good for him.
"Snake…" she said lightly, spinning in a circle. She felt someone grab her arm and lower her to a sitting position in the sand; likely Yami.
"An asp?" Yugi asked, horrified. Maybe he'd seen the telltale colors, the tan and black oddly reminiscent of a jungle-cat, of the snake slithering around the rocks. "Yami, she was bitten by an asp!"
She felt a pressure on her leg. Yami was attending to the bite. Suck and spit, suck and spit, she chanted softly in her head. Mai, hold on… someone said that. Yugi, she thought. But it didn't really matter, because her vision was slowly starting to go black.
xXx
"Okay," Tristan said, taking a deep breath. "You've got your meds?"
Serenity nodded faintly, not trusting herself to speak. Today was the day she, Tristan and Duke were going to try and leave the Rare Hunter's city.
The 'meds' Tristan was referring to was a bottle of dried herbs. The three of them had spent the last few days in the same warehouse. Every night, when Serenity tried to go to sleep, she was stricken with horrible nightmares. She dreamt about her brother, running to find her but he never could. She saw pictures of him dying, burning, screaming… Monsters cutting him to pieces, two strange boys laughing. She'd woken up every few hours, either in a cold sweat or screaming bloody murder. Eventually, it progressed so that she couldn't sleep at all.
What the cause of these were, she couldn't guess. Or rather, she didn't know what had brought them on. Perhaps it was being separated from Mai for the first time in about a year; maybe it was losing Yugi and Yami. Maybe it was the approaching fear that Joey was moving toward Akuma, the center of all evil; or so she'd been told.
Tristan and Duke, conferring, had finally agreed to get her some medication. There were certain herbs that would put her into a deep sleep with one sniff. After a brief squabble over who was to get them (both of them wanted to do Serenity this favor, but neither of them trusted her alone with the other), Tristan had finally fetched them to her in a small glass bottle.
He claimed that the man who'd sold it to him had said it would be a dreamless sleep, but the one night Serenity used them, she'd dreamed. She didn't mind, though. It was a nice dream. A beautiful woman, with silky blonde hair and deep, sad eyes was talking to her. She looked relieved, like she'd been trying to break into Serenity's dreams for a while. She stroked Serenity's hair like a mother, and petted her eyelids. In her dreams, Serenity could see, and the woman assured her that soon she'd be able to see in reality as well. She'd woken up refreshed and at peace, and Duke and Tristan decided that they would try and leave.
"No disguises," Duke was saying. Tristan had seemed unsure when they discussed this before, but Duke had always countered him. "Disguises would only draw attention to ourselves. Even if they recognize you or I, so what? What do we have to hide?"
"Let's go," Tristan said finally, taking up Serenity's hand.
"Yes," Duke said, grabbing her other hand. The boys steered Serenity outside. She couldn't see the sun, but she felt it on her face.
As they moved through town, she felt them relax. They must be nearly on the border by now. They would make it.
"Hey- you!"
Serenity was pretty sure, by the stiffening of their hands, that the speaker was directing this unwanted attention at them.
"Good day," Tristan replied neutrally.
She felt a presence approaching her, standing in front. She could practically feel the breath of the stranger on her face.
"This girl," he said finally. The man's voice was average, somewhat high, rather pleasant. It didn't seem like the sort of voice that would belong to a Rare Hunter. "She was with the others."
"The others?" Duke inquired levelly.
"I'm sure of it. I saw her enter this village a few days ago with two boys and a girl. The three of them attacked the Hunters and fled. They are on our wanted list now."
"This doesn't seem to concern us," Duke said tightly.
"Well, maybe not you. But I'll have to take the girl in for questioning."
"What?" Duke and Tristan exclaimed as one, moving in front of her.
"You heard me," the man repeated, and his voice took on a dangerous tinge. "When did you two meet up with her?"
After a moment of hesitation, Tristan answered. "She's an old friend. We met up with her in this village. By- appointment. The other three you speak of were her escorts. They planned to split paths. Whatever they did, she is not responsible."
"I believe your story," the man replied, and Serenity let out a breath of air. "However, as a safety precaution, I'll still have to take her in.
"Don't worry," he said hastily, when they started to voice their protests. "She won't be harmed. I'll bring her to Akuma with the caravan going that way. If she cooperates, and gives all the information she knows, Marik and Bakura will arrange an armed guard to bring her anywhere she desires. It's those other three we're after."
"Can we come with her, at least?" Tristan asked, his voice tinged with despair. There was a pause, the man seemed to be thinking.
"I'm sorry, but I don't think so," he finally said thoughtfully. "There's room for her on the camel caravan, but for no more. You have several options. You can either start walking to Akuma, take a later caravan, or arrange for the guard to bring her to a pre-chosen city when the questioning is completed."
There was another long pause. Duke finally asked, defeated, "When is the next caravan?"
"Six days," the man replied.
"How long would it take to walk to Akuma?"
"If you leave now and walk continuously, you should arrive at approximately the same time as if you took the second caravan."
"Serenity," Duke murmured in her ear. "Tristan and I will run to Akuma. Stay put once you're there. Stay out of trouble. Don't tell them who you are. Don't tell them anything about Yugi or Yami. Lie if you have to. Play dumb."
"I can take care of myself," she said, glad her voice wasn't shaking. "But promise to come soon."
"I promise," Duke and Tristan said immediately in unison. She gave them both a quick, grateful hug, and held out her arm. The man, who she supposed had to be a Rare Hunter, took her hand gently. He was polite, at least, and seemed apologetic for this trouble.
"See you," she said to Duke and Tristan, and then the man led her away.
She was placed atop a camel, much to her surprise, though she didn't know what she had expected. There was another girl about her own age with her, who seemed to be a more experienced rider. The caravan must have been nearly ready to go, because they left the city within half an hour. Judging by the wind in her face, they were moving faster that Serenity had supposed a camel could go. The clock ticked down, they steadily approached Akuma, and dread began to fill her heart.
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Notes: I don't know how many of you are familiar with traveling by camel, but it's commonplace in the desert. Camels can move pretty quickly; at least, a lot faster than people could. It's not entirely comfortable, though; I believe they have a rolling gate a lot different, much more lurching, than a horse. That's why Serenity was placed with another rider; that other girl is supposed to keep control of the reins and make sure Serenity doesn't fall off because a single, inexperienced, blind rider couldn't control a camel by herself.
Just some information that I didn't want to throw into the story, but felt was good for you to know to understand what Serenity's going through!