Contrary to popular belief, I have not given up on this story. School, work, and God are taking up most of my time, but I will try to update as soon as possible. Gomen, minna-san, and domo arigatou gozaimasu for your patience, de gozaru!
Comments: Lady_Tsunami@hotmail.com
Disclaimer: I own Rurouni Kenshin DVDs, a Kenshin figure, and playing cards, not the series. However, this story and its plot are mine.
To the reviewers: I cannot thank you guys enough for pestering/encouraging me. It makes me feel all warm inside. ^_^
A/N: Because ff.net hates italics…
//….// denotes thoughts

Desert Rose
By Lady Calliope

Chapter 13: Flight Into Peril

"What's happened?"

"Someone's been murdered!"

"The Prince of Nihamra is dead!"

"Assassins? In Sumaktra? Has our kingdom fallen into darkness so soon…?"

"It was a group of rebels!"

"I heard someone saw a woman running out of the room, blood all over her…"

Sanosuke ran through the sea of inane babble and gossip, desperate to find his friends. And, despite the emperor's adamant objections, Megumi was on his heels. Finally reaching the edge of the crowded room, they burst through the exit only to be confronted by some of the palace guards. They bade him to follow, and quickly lead the two of them through many corridors and around several turns. At last, they reached the room where the assassination had taken place. The thick stench of blood satiated the air.

Five guards were standing in the room, groggily rubbing their heads and backs as if they had been subject to an awful beating within the past ten minutes. Sanosuke approached the nearest one. "Tell me what happened here! Who killed the Prince and his advisors?"

A long pause followed in the wake of his demand. The guard knew that what his eyes had seen was more than likely to be met with a great deal of doubt by the emperor. Again, Sanosuke enjoined him to answer his questions. Sighing with the weight of one defeated, the guard returned his sovereign's steady gaze. "It was Miss Kamiya, Highness. She killed them and, when we came upon her, she attacked us and fled."

At first, the guard thought that his words had not been understood, and so he prepared to relate the story once more. However, he quickly noticed Sanosuke's trembling fist and glanced at his contorted face.

The emperor was enraged.

"How dare you accuse a woman of her stature. She is one of my most trusted friends, and as such I know she is not capable of this kind of…of treachery!"

"Highness…"

"Stop covering for your inadequacies and tell me the truth!"

Megumi's eyes fretfully darted between each of the men before her. She herself would not, could not believe Kaoru had committed such a crime, but the guard held no reserve in his face. It was obvious that he was convinced of Kaoru's guilt in the matter, but it simply was not true! Her friend was a sweet, kind-hearted person who had never before killed anyone in cold blood; Kaoru appalled the very idea! And yet the guard was so certain…

"Your Highness, I am not trying to cheat you. Miss Kamiya is very respected amongst the palace guards, but my eyes have never deceived me before. If you will, ask my comrades for their accounts. You will see I hold to no unjust accusation."

"But Kaoru would not do something like this! She's not a killer!"

"Sano…" Megumi whispered. She was bent down on the floor near the prince's body, clutching something in her hands. There were tears shining in her eyes as she held it up in the moonlight for everyone to see.

It was a translucent veil, specked with blood.

Sanosuke's eyes widened in shock as he recognized the cloth as the same type that Kaoru had been wearing that night. He immediately fell silent, concentrating on something that no one else could see. He stood perfectly still.

"Highness, we tried to stop her, but she wouldn't…"

"Have you sent any men after her?"

The guard was taken aback. After a few moments, though, he shook his head. "We tried to follow her, but Mister Himura found her first. We could not catch him without…"

"Good. Do not make any attempt to find them until I give the order."

With that, Sanosuke turned and left the room, leaving the guard speechless. Megumi was still holding her friend's veil in her quivering hand. She made no effort to hide her tears.

*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-

A thin strip of gray began illuminating the eastern horizon, scattering the cold darkness of the night sky. Sand swirled and flew all around them as he rode, pushing his steed as hard as he could without completely exhausting the animal. They had been riding for a few hours now, but Kenshin did not want to take any chances. He wanted to put as much distance between them and Sumaktra as quickly as he could. The guards could not be allowed to discover the location to which he was fleeing.

He glanced down at the young woman pressed against his chest. Despite the smatterings of blood on her dress and face, she was still the most radiant person he had ever seen. Her hair whipped about her face as they sped on, but her eyes remained closed. A sense of worry had been growing in Kenshin's stomach for the past hour. It was obvious that she had been hit with some kind of poison, but he knew of very few tranquilizers whose effect was this great. And if she had been hit with something more lethal, then each second was all the more precious.

Suddenly, her breathing began to quicken and her face contorted in pain. She began to whimper, sweat beading on her forehead.

With his doubts confirmed and escalated to outright fear, Kenshin urged the horse on even faster. They only had an hour's worth of travel left, but it seemed her condition was worsening by the minute … 

He had to get to the camp, to the medicine they kept. He had to save her; he was her protector.

"Don't die on me, Kaoru, please…"

*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-

Saitoh stared down at the man before him, his impatience and frustration nearly palpable. The evening had been almost enjoyable until the guests began screaming about an assassin in the palace. Falling quickly into the mindset of the General of the Kahaktrian Army, he had questioned every one of the palace guards. Yet, he had not heard two accounts of the night's events that agreed with one another. The only part of the story he could gather to be true was what had transpired inside the room.

The guards had heard commotion from within the room as they made their nightly rounds, and so, in accordance with proper procedure, investigated. It had taken three men to force open the locked door, and what they found inside had shocked them all. Kaoru had been standing in the middle of the room, covered in blood, holding a sword that was gleaming crimson in the moonlight. The bodies of the Nihamran prince and his delegates were scattered about the room, soaking in pools of their own blood. She had fought and defeated them, and fled.

That much was true. However, Saitoh felt that several things were out of place. He continued piercing the guard in front of him with his cold gaze. "So you believe," he questioned pointedly, "that Miss Kamiya assassinated the prince and all his delegates?"

Saitoh had a way of making the guard's judgment sound like a child's logic. The guard swallowed slowly, petrified by the hard look in the General's eyes. "Y…yes, sir," he replied, stumbling as he licked his dry lips.

"And what makes you so sure?"

Again he was subjected to Saitoh's demeaning gaze. "No other living person was in the room, and she had the murder weapon in her hands. She was also covered in the victims' blood, and fled when we discovered her, sir."

Several other guards nodded their heads in affirmation. A long silence followed those last words. Saitoh narrowed his eyes at the man who had spoken, but turned away a few moments later. The guard's muscles relaxed at once and he closed his eyes in relief, finally free of that penetrating gaze. However, he immediately snapped his eyes open, catching the one word uttered by the General as he turned away.

"Idiot."

Saitoh stared at the inky blackness beyond the threshold of the room. Pale moonlight filtered in through the translucent curtains of the arched balcony entrance, casting slivers and washes of light amongst the still corpses. An eerie dance of ghost like figures seemed to haunt the dead men. It seemed as if the General had no more to say on the matter, until he suddenly whipped his head around and fixed the guards with a mocking glare. "Have any of you ever dealt with an assassin before?"

Slowly, all the men shook their heads in denial.

"Let me educate you then, as one who has witnessed the work of many assassins. First, I can tell you, this was no regular assassination, if you could call it that. When one goes about killing government officials and dignitaries, one does not leave a mess behind. The object of assassination is to kill with precision and effectiveness. Obviously, this particular case involved either an amateur or someone who deliberately wanted to spill as much blood as possible. I believe it was the latter.

"Furthermore, true assassins are trained well in the art of invisibility. They do not want to be seen, and they leave nothing behind that could incriminate. You say you found Miss Kamiya standing amongst the bodies, covered in blood? A true assassin does not waste a moment after his task is complete; he vanishes with the last fallen body. And you found her veil, you say? No assassin would make such a careless mistake. And they especially do not waste time on meaningless battles with palace guards.

"Therefore, I have no confidence in your assessment. Miss Kamiya obviously played some role in this, but she did not draw blood tonight."

The guards hung their heads, refusing to meet Saitoh's smug gaze of satisfaction. He had methodically analyzed and reasoned through everything in a matter of minutes what they had been unable to see for hours.

Although he had discerned part of the mystery, something still tugged at the back of Saitoh's mind. The other guards that had come running after hearing the battle inside the room said that they had seen Kaoru flee, with Kenshin joining in behind her. Some said she fell and hit her head, and the redhead had picked her up and continued running. Others said they saw a glint of something metallic in the air, and shortly after Kaoru began to stumble and finally fell. Then Kenshin gathered her up and resumed his sprint out to the stables, where the two escaped on horseback.

It was the second account that kept pulling at Saitoh. It reminded him of someone all too familiar and vengeful.

He quickly made his way to the hallway where the chase had begun, and deftly examined the area. There were bloodstains on the stone floor marking the places where Kaoru had staggered and fallen, but nothing beyond that. Saitoh turned around and began re-examining the part of the hallway from whence he came. After contemplating Kaoru's last, stumbling steps and taking her stride into account, a new train of reasoning began to unfurl itself. If something had attacked her from the shadows, its presence went unnoticed by both Kaoru and Himura. It could also move very quickly, proven by the fact that none of the guards or himself had seen it. So, whatever attacked her was well trained in the art of invisibility and the shadow world. He began searching around the many tall, marble pillars that lined the passage, and smiled grimly when his efforts were duly rewarded.

He fingered the single silver dart, careful to avoid its sharp, and most likely poisoned, point.

// I see Misao is just as clumsy as she ever was. Apparently, not even years of hatred can change some things…//

Pocketing the weapon, he slowly stood, solemnly facing the door that lead out into the courtyard at the end of the hall. The time had finally come; there was no longer room for indecision and hesitation.

// Aoshi, you must go to them now. You cannot play this game any longer.//

*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-

"Mm..mhm…"

Kaoru groaned as her eyes slowly fluttered open. Her body felt like solid lead, and her neck screamed in protest when she tried to turn her head. Reaching a hand up to the aforementioned sore muscle, she was shocked to discover a bandage wound around her throat. Fully awake now, she darted her eyes frantically about the room, or rather, the tent. Soft blankets and pillows greeted her fingertips as she lowered her arms to the ground beside her. She struggled to sit up, but a strong hand gently forced her back down to the bed.

"You should not try to move so much, Miss Kaoru."

// That voice…no, it can't be…//

"Ken…shin?"

"Yes, I am here, that I am. Your body is still recovering from the poison, so you should refrain from trying to sit up, Miss Kaoru," he instructed her, his tone forceful yet soft.

"Poison? What…why…?"

Suddenly, all the events from the previous night came rushing back to her, and her eyes widened in shock and sadness. Tears began rolling down her pale cheeks, mixing with the dried blood on her skin and leaving coppery trails in their wake. // They accused me of treason…I was framed and poisoned…I can never go back…// She was angered, tired, weak, and anguished. But before she could even move to wipe the salty wetness from her face, a callused hand gently stroked her cheek while another removed the blood and tears with a wet cloth.

"Kenshin, why…?"

"Don't cry, Miss Kaoru. Please, anything but tears," he pleaded, looking into her stunned eyes. Seeing her in such a sorrowful state pulled at his heart until he thought it would tear.

A slow blush began to creep upon her cheeks at their proximity, the rosy color giving her face a warmer glow. Kenshin smiled tenderly at her reaction as he continued to clean the rest of her pale skin. He listened to the sound of her unsteady breathing, chuckling to himself at her anxiety. Having her here with him, safe and alive, gave him a warm feeling of comfort and contentment he hadn't experienced in…he couldn't remember.

The two sat in calm silence as he finished wiping the blood off her face. Smiling sincerely, she whispered, "Thank you, Kenshin."

Both of them knew there was more weight to those words than their simplicity conveyed. He nodded in reply, never breaking eye contact with her.

After a few moments, the heat of his gaze was too much for her to hold, and she turned away, blushing. All of a sudden, something from the previous night resurfaced in her mind, something that she had thought was a dream in the midst of her nightmares. She turned her face back to his, looking up at him as he knelt beside her. "Kenshin, about last night…Something has been slipping in and out of my mind, as if it were only a dream…"

His gaze was completely transfixed on her, and once again she was forced to look away. "What is bothering you, Miss Kaoru?"

Suddenly nervous, she stumbled before she finally found her voice again. "Kenshin…I thought I heard…did you swear to protect me last night?"

She turned her gaze up to his, wanting to read his response in his eyes as well as his words.

"Yes, I did," came the calm reply. His eyes were filled with nothing but kindness and amiability, and yet they did not reveal anything deeper than what a friend might feel.

Deflated and heartbroken, she began to turn her head back when he caught her chin and forced her to look at him once more. "And I swear it to you now. I will never let any harm come to you, Miss Kaoru."

His eyes reflected a completely different emotion now.

The sincerity of his words combined with the strange feeling in his eyes was enough to make her heart leap into her throat. They stayed still, staring at each other, a great myriad of emotions flowing between them for some time. Then, as if his movements were subconscious, Kaoru found the distance between them rapidly decreasing. She was surprised at how right it felt to be here, like this. With him. Her eyes fluttered shut in anticipation that made her heart beat faster than ever before.

With their mouths just centimeters apart, she murmured, "Kenshin…"

"Kenshin!"

The redhead in question jumped back faster than the human eye could blink. Standing at the entrance to the tent was Sagara Sozou, panting hard as if he had just run the circumference of the camp twenty times. Seemingly oblivious to the scene he had interrupted, Sozou entered the tent and walked toward his leader, hand tensed at his sword hilt.

"Kenshin, something's happened at Sumaktra. Saitoh was in attendance at the banquet, and investigated the assassinations. He found some kind of poison dart in the hallway where Miss Kaoru was attacked, and is now searching everywhere for you. He wants you to meet with him," the young man reported, eyes grave. "He says it concerns Lieutenant Shinimori Aoshi."

Something in his tone indicated that he was nonplussed about the importance of his commanding army officer's involvement with his leader and fellow marauder. Something was very much amiss.

At the mention of his late friend's name, Kenshin's gaze narrowed dangerously. "You must be mistaken. Aoshi has been dead for years. I saw his corpse with my own eyes."

"Unless there are two Shinimori Aoshi's running about Kahaktri, I believe my lieutenant and your comrade to be one and the same, Himura," Sozou averred, his face never flinching, though his eyes still reflected confusion and pain. He had been serving in the Kahaktrian army for all this time under Kenshin's orders, and yet had never once guessed at the possible connection between the army lieutenant and his bandit leader. All this time he had been watching Saitoh, while Aoshi had completely eluded his thoughts…Something of this magnitude should not have been kept secret.

A heavy silence fell over the tent, and the air suddenly seemed much closer and denser. Breathing seemed to require a great deal more effort.

"Himura," Sozou's voice sliced the atmosphere with its seriousness, its betrayed tone. "Why was I never informed of Aoshi? I thought I was your most trusted advisor and friend."

A deep sigh escaped Kenshin's chest. "There are some things about me you, or anyone else, must never know.

"To know me completely means you have accepted death as your companion."

Kaoru looked at him, her complete disbelief at his words evident. // This man…he is not speaking like the Kenshin I know. Yet he is not quite the image of Battousai, either…//

He was a mix of the two souls, both a man of compassionate peace and cold lethality.

*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-

Sozou left the two of them, the shock in his eyes hidden by a practiced taciturn mask. Kenshin's eyes were closed, his face contorted in deep thought. His hand was at his hilt.

She felt hot tears gather behind her eyes as realization dawned on her. // Since when did I care for him this much?//

"Miss Kaoru?"

His eyes were open, focused on her efforts to hide her sorrow and her feelings.

"So, I assume you'll be going then, Kenshin," she surmised, inwardly marveling at the control in her voice.

When she did not receive a reply, she continued, still avoiding his gaze. "It was all my fault in the first place, and now you've become mixed up in this crazy plot as well. I'm so sorry, Kenshin. I wish you the best of luck…"

She was silenced by a gentle finger on her lips. "Kaoru, did I not promise to protect you?"

She nodded absently, wondering once again at the foreign emotion in his eyes.

"I will remain here, with you, until you have sufficiently recovered from the poison. When that time comes, then we'll be concerned with what happened last night," he murmured softly.

Then, he pressed his lips to the crown of her head and stood up, walking to the entrance flap.

"Rest now, Miss Kaoru. I will not leave you."

*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-

tbc…