Field of Innocence
By Lady of the Ink
Disclaimer: I don't own Inuyasha, but you knew that . . .I hope. But I do own this plot and all the twists that it takes.
x
x
Chapter Eleven
Rin sat with a cup of tea in hand across from the woman who had introduced herself as Myra. They had been talking for what had to have been a couple of hours; or at least Myra had been talking. Rin had just been listening intently and nodding when something the older woman said prodded an old memory to the surface of her mind. She nor recalled several occasions spent with a laughter prone girl who was a younger reflection of the one in front of her. With those memories as proof that Myra had been telling the truth about their shared past and her open personality, Rin was certain she could trust her.
In the beginning, all of the reminiscing had been of happy times, like picnics on sunny days and birthday trips into town. They had both smiled at her brothers' antics and sighed at the romantic things her father had done for her mother. It hadn't taken long, though, for the conversation to turn to the more important and unfortunately darker memories.
Rin had known what was coming when Myra's smile faded and she had started fidgeting in her chair while redirecting her gaze to the floor. She braced herself for it but did nothing to try and stop it. It was bound to come up sooner or later and she was actually very interested in what someone who had been older at the time remembered. She had been so young then that she knew there were a lot things that she had missed noticing or that had been kept from her.
"Your father . . .when he . . .when he . . ." she began, her face twisting with the pain of what she'd have to say. Rin tapped a finger against her mug to get Myra's attention. She smiled a bit sadly as she nodded in what she hoped would be recognized as a sign that she understood and was ready to hear what she'd have to say. After a moment, Myra took a deep breath and went on. "When your father was k-killed, I never believed what they said. He was a good man, one of the best people that I have ever known. There is just no way that he could ever have done what they said he did. I just wanted you to know that."
Rin lifted a hand and shook her head with a frown. She had no idea what Myra meant by that last remark. She remembered that her father had died, of course, especially since her brothers had been with him at the time and met the same fate. To her younger self, though, it had just seemed like they weren't around anymore and she remembered wondering when they would be back. Her father had gone on trips often and had taken her brothers with him once or twice before. She had thought it was just another, longer trip that time and had waited for them to walk through the door with the small gifts they always brought from wherever they'd been. Her mother's tears had only confused her then. Time had finally brought an understanding of what had happened to them but by then her mother was also gone, taking any knowledge of a scandal like the one Myra was talking about with her.
Myra seemed to catch on to her confusion quickly. This time her hesitation was almost unnoticeable before she explained. "For several months before . . .what happened, bandits started hitting just outside of town. They knew when the deliveries were being made or when someone was particularly vulnerable or carrying a lot of money. It was pretty obvious that the only way they could find such big targets with the level of consistency that they were was if they were with or for someone living in the town. Someone was feeding them inside information that allowed them to strike at the best possible times to suit themselves.
"Everyone in town started looking at everyone else, trying to figure out who the traitor might be. It was an awful time with so many suspicions where they had only been friendship before. The town split into small groups, each one certain that another was behind it all. Even then it was a big deal and it only got worse when people started getting hurt. It was like the bandits were getting cocky. They started striking bigger caravans and hitting closer to town."
She shook her head sadly. "Your father made a lot of trips out of town and your mother was understandable worried. She wanted him to stay home until everything got settled and traveling was safer. He decided to make one more big trip and then stick around until after the bandits left or got caught. Since there was so much stuff to take, he took your brothers along to help him.
"It was just after he left that the rumors started popping up about him being the one behind the raids. He traveled a lot and unfortunately, many of his trips came either just before or just after an attack. With all the times he would have been a perfect target, he never became a victim." Myra's face took on a disgusted expression as she went on. "That was all it took for people to start thinking that her was a pretty good suspect. Suddenly everyone stopped turning on each other and started turning on him."
Myra thumped a fist against the arm of her chair. Her face almost glowed with the conviction of what she was about to say. "If your father had been here, I believe that he would have set them straight in no time. He was such an honest, good man that anyone facing him would see that he would never be involved in something so wrong. He and your mother were always the first ones to help anyone out; neither of them would have put their neighbors in danger for something so stupid as money. They might not have had a lot, but they were as happy as anyone else here.
"But your father wasn't around to defend himself and your mother refused to dignify their suspicions by talking to anyone who actually believed them. Because of that, the rumors spread and grew stronger. And when the robberies stopped right after you father and brothers were killed, it just seemed to support their theories. They said that her must have had a falling out with the bandits that were working for him and they killed them before moving on.
"It always bother me, you know, and not just because I knew your father like he was my own brother. Even an objective person would have noticed that there were huge holes in the story. Why would someone conducting a group of thieves make himself the only merchant not robbed? And what kind of father would take his two young sons with him to meet with such despicable characters? Everything pointed to him until you looked at the clues closely; then it was clear someone wanted it to look like your father was the bad guy."
She shook her head in disgust. "Of course, no one wanted to do that. They had their neat and tidy ending and that was all that they cared to know. There were no more questions asked and everyone went back to their normal lives. Everyone but you r mother, that is." Myra's brow furrowed. "That was what I wanted to ask you about, actually. She mentioned a couple of times that she knew something about the who was really behind the bandits' attacks. I was worried that she was putting herself in danger by getting involved." She laughed humorlessly. "Maybe I was right to be worried since I heard you and she left in the middle of the night not long after. She died not too long after that, didn't she?"
Rin nodded, knowing what the older woman was thinking. If her father had been set up and her mother had begun looking into the real culprit, that person would have had to have been angry. They were very close to getting away with their crimes and someone was coming along who might bring them all to light and ruin everything. If her mother had been careless enough to get caught, their quick departure from the village might have been an attempt to avoid whoever she had found to be the true mastermind.
Thinking back with the new information from Myra, Rin was able to put together a few memories that had confused her up until that point. The rushed packing and the way they had left in the middle of the night had been explained by her mother as an adventure. When she was older, she had thought he mother had just wanted to get away from all the memories without having to face the townspeople who had known her husband and sons.
Now she wondered if her mother hadn't somehow gotten a last minute warning that she was in danger. It would explain why after leaving the only home Rin had ever known, they had headed to the north, a place filled with remote villages. The people there were very private, having few dealings with the surrounding villages. Their customs were outdated compared to the others, their beliefs sometimes laughed at as backwards and ridiculous. She had probably thought she would be safest there, away from anyone who might have heard about what her husband had been accused of and far from the reach of the one who had actually done it.
In the end, she had been very, very wrong. In the short time that they had lived there, her mother, as was her nature, had generously shared her knowledge of plant life and its healing abilities to the sick in the village. Everyone had been amazed at how quickly her "patients" recovered.
A little too quickly in the eyes of the town's former healer. He had started on a campaign that marked her as a "consorter with the evil ones", as he had put it. He swore she must have sold her soul to learn what she knew and that her medicines were designed to make it easier for her to tempt the townspeople into accepting a life of sin like her own. He'd even gone so far as to call her a witch, a word that held a power in the primitive province that it had lost everywhere else generations before.
The worst came when a small boy her mother had been attempting to help died in spite of her attentions. Though she had told his parents from the start that it was a long shot that she could save him, they had apparently thought otherwise. The moment he passed on, they had turned on her with a fury born of grief. Trying to ease their pain by placing the blame on someone, they had joined with the healer and helped spread his cause. Before the child's body was laid to rest, they had gotten word through the town that letting him die was her way of getting revenge upon them for not joining in her wicked plots.
Rin's mother, having lost two children of her own not so very long before, had known what they were feeling. She'd gone to them without a bit of anger at the lies they had spread and offered them her understanding and what poor comfort she could give. Upon learning of her sons' deaths, they had calmed and it had seemed like everything was resolved. While there was still a lot of restraint between them all, the townspeople had quieted down and life had returned to what Rin had come to know as normal.
It made what happened next all the more unexpected. The small group of men had come to their home a few nights later. Rin didn't remember faces, just the sight of the torches they carried. The flickering glow had been the only light on a night where the moon was nowhere to be seen. They had yelled through the door, saying a lot of things that she didn't understand. Her mother had been furious, locking the door and screaming at them to leave them alone.
Rin had blocked out most of what happened after that only to have it return as fragmented sounds and images that haunted her sleep. The thud of boots as they crashed into the door, finally knocking it from its place. The cold, painful grip on her arms that drug her outside. The snarling voices that rose and fell like waves, spitting words that she had never heard before but somehow knew were bad.
The clearest memories were of her mother, proud and defiant even in the face of what she had to have known was coming. She stared the men down as they tied her hands behind her back, not saying a word as they placed her at the thick post they'd had waiting. It was only when they'd moved Rin into a similar position that she broke her silence and yelled at them to let her go. She'd begged and pleaded for them to leave an innocent child out of their plans but it had done no good. Minutes after dragging them both from their home and into the woods, they'd set the brush at the base of the post aflame with their torches.
The smoke had been awful from the beginning and had grown thicker with every passing second. Rin remembered the feeling of it being pulled into her lungs, so burning and heavy that it had felt like swallowing liquid fire. Her eyes had stung and watered and everything had melted into a hazy blur that made her almost able to pretend it was nothing more than a bad dream.
That illusion had ended with the first searing lick of the flames against her legs. She dimly remembered screaming at the pain as it climbed to her knees, so strong and unavoidably real that it had taken with it the blessed numbness the smoke had provided. Her already sore throat had grown even tighter as scream after scream was torn from it.
When the ties on her hands suddenly came loose she would have dropped into the flames had there not been an arm around her shoulders holding her up. She remembered being dragged backward, too dazed to know exactly what was going on. When her mother's face floated into view in front of her, she'd relaxed in the knowledge that somehow they would both be all right.
That had ended when her mother's hoarse voice had reached her ears. She'd told her very calmly that she had to run, to get as far from this village as she could as quickly as possible. She was supposed to find somewhere where she could be safe and stay there. Her mother's final words before urging her off were that she should keep quiet about what had happened. Don't say anything, she'd made her swear; just keep quiet and you'll be safe.
Rin had only looked back once, just long enough to see her mother collapse to the ground. When she didn't move, Rin knew that saving her was the last thing her mother would ever do. She had started to run then, moving as fast as her throbbing legs would let her. Instinct had led her to their home, but she knew it wasn't safe to stay long. Grabbing the first things she could get her hands on, she'd shoved them into a bag and taken off into the night.
From that moment on, she knew she was on her own.