Spoil of War Chapter 10: Twisted Fates
A little note to readers and a preview at the end. I apologize for taking six months to update, but I hope you'll see why at the end. This story will continue. Thanks for sticking around to read it.
When Syaoran returned from inspecting the village that the guardians of Lao Hu had ruined, he found Sakura helping out in the kitchens, to his surprise. It was two hours past the noon meal, but she was busy at a large cauldron. As he approached, she sensed him and turned.
"Syaoran!" She ran towards him, embracing him and kissing him happily; her hands and cheeks were smeared with flour, and despite his frustration and anger at the slaughter he had just seen, Syaoran smiled. How could he not, for the woman he loved?
"Okari . . . Welcome home," she greeted him.
"Tadaima . . . I'm home. What are you doing in the kitchens?" he asked.
She began to babble excitedly. "Making our food. Your mother was surprised but she let me after I begged her. You have to know, I cook quite well, I've been doing so since I was a child and I make good noodles, only all there was, was pork so I decided to make an omelet after your sister said you liked those as a child, and . . ."
"SYAO-RAN!" Syaoran was hugged from behind by his sister Feimei. "Welcome back. What did you find?"
He hesitated. What could he tell her? That neither she nor Sakura had foreseen the deaths of over two dozen people, a calamity which clairvoyants and dreamers were supposed to be sensitive to? No, they would beat themselves up over it.
"I . . . er . . . Maybe you should talk to Feimei," he said. "My sister is clairvoyant," he hedged.
"Yes, Feimei-chan and I were talking about visions. She uses coins and joss sticks for the i-Ching method, while I have dreams, and she promised to teach me!" Sakura exclaimed.
"That's good," Syaoran forced himself to smile. Sakura cocked an eyebrow at him curiously, but before she could say anything, her sister-in-law interrupted.
"I think she'll master our magic quite easily," Feimei smiled fondly at her sister-in-law, who smiled back happily.
"I also learned how to wield a magical dagger from your sister Fanren-chan," Sakura added. "It was such fun, learning so many things from your mother and sisters!"
"Wait. Did you get any sleep?" Syaoran narrowed his eyes suspiciously at Sakura. "You were supposed to rest!"
"But I wanted to make your lunch," she protested.
He touched the tops of her eyelids with a finger. "My little cherry blossom, you told me you would rest. You should have let the servants take care of our meal." He held her close as he added, "Don't be so stubborn."
"Mou, Syaoran, but I wanted to make it for you," Sakura pouted.
Syaoran sighed. "Such a stubborn little one," he said, as he gently wiped some flour off her nose.
Feimei glanced at the servants, and they all hid grins and giggles behind their hands. None of them knew of the deaths of their companions yet, and mourning would grip the castle if they did. For now, they were pleasantly surprised; none of them were accustomed to seeing Syaoran so sweet with anyone.
He kissed Sakura's nose, oblivious to the people watching them. "All right, don't pout, I'll eat it. But in return promise me you will nap. I don't care if you dream or not but you need rest."
Happily Sakura grabbed a ladle and scooped out some of the stew she'd been making, blew on it, placed it in a tiny bowl, then presented it to Syaoran. One older servant gasped; it was forbidden for someone to feed a royal family member without first tasting it for poison, but Feimei smiled at her and shook her head. Syaoran sipped on the sauce and chewed the meat; the flavor was different from what he was used to, as it was light and meaty . . . ah, tomatoes and a little chili, he realized after a while.
"Delicious," he said wonderingly. "You can cook?"
"Of course!" Sakura swelled with pride. "My otou-san insisted on me and my brother learning how as children after my okaa-san died."
"I feel I will spend the rest of my life being surprised by you," Syaoran smiled, though it was a bit tight. Again Sakura noticed his tension, and placed a hand on his arm.
"Syao . . ." she began, but again was interrupted.
"Perhaps when your brother arrives, he can give us a sample of his cooking as well?" a regal voice which was nonetheless laced with humor, said.
Syaoran, Sakura, Feimei and the servants turned, then bowed; it was Queen Yelan, smiling.
"I smell something good," she said. She came closer to the cauldron, and took the ladle from Syaoran, tasting what was in it, further shocking the servants.
Her eyes widened, and she smiled. "Ah, if this is a sample of how the Kinomotos cook, then maybe we can convince your brother to live here and cook for us," she joked lightly. "I'd give him any of my daughters for this. Well, maybe not Fanren, unless we want him to wage war on us." She smiled, and Sakura laughed.
"Oh no, he would like that, but . . . HOE!" She clapped a hand over her mouth as the others laughed. "My onii-chan is coming here?"
"Yes. Did I forget to tell you that?" Yelan's expression was innocent although Syaoran knew better than to trust it.
"Oh no . . . oh dear . . ." Sakura covered her mouth.
"Don't worry. He is here to legitimize your marriage," Yelan smiled, "and to meet his new in-laws. Queen Sonomi also offered his help in containing the problems here. It seems your chief magician is with him, along with a select squadron of men."
"Yes, they're always together," Sakura nodded, not noticing the amused look that passed between Feimei and her mother as Syaoran rolled his eyes; he knew Sakura meant that Yukito and Touya were lovers. "Yukito-san is amazing!"
"What's he and your brother like?" Feimei asked.
"Oh, he's funny and he can be mean, but he loves me and my father," Sakura said fondly as Syaoran led her to the royal dining area. The family clustered together as Sakura's dish was served, and she told them stories of her brother and of her childhood.
". . . and they tell me that I take after my mother when it comes to seeing things in dreams. My mother, Nadeshiko-san, saw her meeting with my father in a dream." She glanced at Syaoran and smiled.
He forced himself to smile back; among the servants who had been killed was Wei, who had helped raise him. Syaoran had been thinking of the old man, barely tasting his food. He had sworn to keep old Wei safe, but now . . . Damn it! Why hadn't he let Sakura sleep? Was it his fault that she had not seen what would happen in a dream? How could he protect her if she could not see what was happening, and how could he help protect his sister, the crown princess Fanren, if they were blind to danger? He clenched his fists under the table. Had his selfishness doomed the villagers and servants?
Queen Yelan looked at him, knowing immediately something was wrong. He gave her a subtle hand signal. We'll talk about it later. She nodded, and joined as happy chatter resumed around the table.
Nobody noticed how one servant, eyes glassy, absently sprinkled "spice" into Sakura's bowl of custard for dessert, then served it to her. Sakura tasted the food, frowned at the odd metallic taste again—which had not been there while she was cooking earlier—then shook her head. Maybe it was her imagination?
She quickly forgot as she chattered happily with Syaoran's family, and later, when an embarrassed Syaoran lifted her off her feet and carried her back to their chambers after Queen Yelan told a highly embarrassing story of his childhood, the strange taste was the last thing on her mind.
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Who was that man?
Lao Hu's dark angel guardian had reached The Seijyu, Tomoeda's royal ship. The captain was speaking to a tall, dark-haired man whose being radiated with a quiet power, similar to the dreamseer's. The dark angel Yue was drawn to him, and he could not understand why.
"General Touya, we are three days from Hong Kong," a soldier reported. "We've raised all sails, and the spell cast by Tsukishiro-sama is helping us gather speed."
Touya nodded distractedly. He could feel a dark presence hovering around the ship but he could not trace it. The sense of menace persisted, and so he went to the cabin where Yukito was.
Yukito did not waste words. "You felt it."
Neither did Touya. "I can't identify it. Why are you pale?"
"Something . . . I . . . I am afraid," his voice trailed off in a whisper. "I cannot . . ." How could he tell Touya that he could sense great pain and danger coming towards Sakura, of love twisted and destroyed? And worse . . . Yukito looked down. He could sense his own doom, for some reason.
Sensing Yukito's uncertainty, Touya said quietly, "I will protect you. But you have to give me information I can use."
"It feels like me," Yukito closed his eyes. "I wish I could tell you more but it is a dark magic I have not yet encountered. I do not understand it, though parts of it feel familiar. And there is this feeling I have . . . like I am . . . like something will go wrong."
Touya furrowed his brow. "I don't like that. Perhaps I should challenge it . . ."
"No. We should not waste time. I've had a premonition about Sakura," Yukito insisted. "She is in great danger. It's something about her new husband . . ."
"What? Has he violated her?" Touya's palm thudded on the table.
"No, no. Someone else wants to separate them . . . the images I receive are confusing. Someone wants to destroy her marriage."
"Good."
"No! You don't understand, Touya. Li is her protector, that much is clear. And he truly loves her, believe me. But this other man wants Sakura for selfish ends, and will hurt her if given a chance." Yukito drew breath. "He's the one who wants to force himself on Sakura," he said in a rush. "The aura of evil magic about him prevents me from seeing him well."
Now that could not be abided. Touya gritted his teeth. "If only the little idiot had stayed home instead of chasing after the Princess alone! Consign it to hell!" He flung the cabin doors open and asked his steward, "How many sailors are willing to volunteer for extra pay to row faster? Only those who are fit may volunteer! No one who has already rowed for four hours may volunteer!"
Yukito sighed, and reached within himself for wind magic, directing it towards the sails. Nothing he could say would convince Touya that the threat was not to Sakura's life or body, but to her heart. He knew Touya too well, and the young man who was his best friend and lover would never tolerate any pain dealt to his younger sister.
Touya himself took a place at the oars, surprising his crew. He intended to reach Hong Kong as fast as he could, so that he could deal with this Li Syaoran, the man threatening Sakura, and Sakura herself personally.
And whatever it was that was scaring Yukito—he didn't have to say it, but Touya knew—Touya vowed to destroy it himself.
Far above them the dark Yue could feel something in Yukito. It perturbed the dark angel that he could not reach into Yukito or Touya's souls, could not see what and who they were. His overconfident master had to be warned about them both.
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"Excellent," Lao Hu smiled as he watched his scrying ball; spells had helped him move the Princess Mei Hua faster towards the Li stronghold, and now she would arrive within a day or so. Lao Hu intended to have another village attacked by his dark guardians the next night to force Syaoran to be out of the stronghold when Mei Hua arrived. That way Sakura would encounter Princess Mei Hua all alone—with only Lao Hu present as the token Li male. All the better to meddle with Sakura, then.
He already knew what he would say. Lao Hu planned to comment on the Princess' beauty, and to welcome her graciously, then drop hints of the women Syaoran previously bedded looking like her. He would then conveniently remind the rest of the Lis of the treaty, and of how Syaoran had claimed Sakura as a spoil of war. Then he had arranged for a man who lived near the village he'd destroyed to come and spread the news of the attack—and he intended to question Sakura about why she did not know of the deaths of so many people. Lao Hu intended to do this in front of the entire court, with Syaoran conveniently absent—he'd arranged to have his dark Yue and Cerberus attack another village while wearing the insignia and livery of the Chiang Lins, thus opening an opportunity for the neighboring kingdom to claim responsibility for the magical attacks. That would put pressure on Syaoran to agree to marry the Princess Mei Hua.
Sakura was still awake; the mark he'd left on the door to her chambers, shared with Syaoran, acted as a way for him to keep tabs on her state. She was tired though, and would sleep soon, opening a way for him to invade her dreams yet again. It was a forbidden privacy-destroying spell, but it was the only way he could open a channel to her so that he could tamper with her dreams. She'd never had cause to doubt them, after all.
The reckless trafficking with dark power was sapping his strength, but he took another draught from the blood potion he had brewed after he had killed the three Li elders in the magical trap he had prepared. It reinvigorated him, and he scoffed at the warnings of a dark end for those who meddled with such power.
"Do you need any help, master?" the black winged tiger, Dark Cerberus, asked.
"No," Lao Hu slashed a hand for emphasis as the tiger approached. It shrank back.
"I have been thinking," the black angel said, and Lao Hu turned, surprised. He had not created the Dark Yue, a being made of the essence of moon magic, to think, let alone independently. He might have to destroy the dark angel soon if it became a problem.
But he asked, nonetheless, "What?"
"Master, if they trace the parentage of the Princess Mei Hua's daughter to you . . ."
"Pah. And who has the magic to do that?" Lao Hu asked scornfully. As an aside, he added, "And the little wench just had to go and bear me a girl. How utterly pointless and useless. Had it been a boy I could have stolen it and drained the infant of its life essence; the father-son relationship would have been an incredible source of power!"
"About the person who might be able to trace your parentage of the Princess' child . . . Perhaps the wielder of magic I told you about earlier, the one that worried me," the dark Yue began.
"Sakura's brother, yes, yes. He will not harm his future brother in law," Lao Hu began to laugh.
"I did not mean him, master," Dark Yue began. But Lao Hu was not hearing him.
"Think about it. How lovely that Syaoran's own attempt to protect Sakura from me has opened a way for me to destroy their marriage! Claiming her as a spoil of war!"
"The treaty," the black tiger said, smiling.
"Indeed. Syaoran claimed her as a spoil of war, which can only be done with girls of common blood. Now he cannot marry a girl of common blood if he is shown to be the father of Princess Mei Hua's child. And I have been oh-so-good, staying here at the stronghold where everyone knows my comings and goings. Am I right, Yue?"
"Yes, master. No one has seen you leave in over a month."
"Now. Only Syaoran has been out with his troops. We are the only two Li males left who will fit Mei Hua's description. And my sniveling brother, that hedge magician Eriol, does not count as a Li. Logic will dictate that, once Queen Yelan sees that she carries Syaoran's sword pendant—and the fool has not noticed the substitute I left in its place!—the Queen will be forced to admit that the child is a Li, and that Syaoran has to be the father. Her story—that ridiculous 'meeting in dreams' Syaoran talks about with Sakura, will prove it!" Lao Hu slammed a fist on the table before him.
"Why did you choose the Princess?" Cerberus asked.
"I knew she was in that prison palace. I keep track of my mother's family. The Chiang Lins still bear a grudge over my weak mother's treatment at the hands of my father, and how she was stolen from them. They will threaten war if Syaoran does not put Sakura aside and marry Mei Hua." He threw his head back and laughed, loudly and cruelly.
"Thank you, Syaoran, for claiming Sakura as a spoil of war! I owe it all to you, you fool! Sakura will come running to me once she learns of your betrayal. She does not know you well enough to trust you," he smirked. "Then I shall father a new race of Lis on her, and take the magical artifact protected in Tomoeda!"
Lao Hu waved his hand and the scene in the scrying ball changed to let him observe the reactions of Princess Mei Hua's family, the Chiang Lins, to the news that she was gone. His scroll, written on royal parchment but unsigned, had also reached them, reporting that she had gone off to pursue the father of her unborn child: a Li whom she had met in dreams.
The Chiang Lins were in turmoil; their only son, Qing Jun, had eaten the poisoned cakes Lao Hu had hypnotized a maid into serving him—the same way he'd hypnotized a servant at the Li stronghold to feed Sakura the dream hallucinogen which allowed him to control her dreams. The boy was dying slowly and in agony, and nothing they did could save him.
Without a male heir, the Chiang Lins would be wide open to a hostile kingdom laying claim to their throne, and unless Mei Hua could be married off to a strong male royal, things seemed very dark for them indeed. All the Chiang Lins had was the threat of dark magic, which they were supposed to wield, and the treaty, which specified that no royal Li or Chiang Lin could marry someone of common blood if there was a reason for a royal marriage. And if Mei Hua was indeed pregnant by a Li, then there was a reason for marriage between her and the culprit Li.
King Bao Chiang Lin, her father, smiled. "That useless girl may be of use after all." He outlined plans to his advisers for forcibly marrying Mei Hua off.
"There are two Li males, my lord," one adviser said.
"Which one is set to inherit the Li kingdom?"
"The general and sorcerer, Li Syaoran. The other, Li Lao Hu, is a man of ill repute."
Lao Hu bristled, and made a mental note to have the adviser killed later.
"Li Syaoran? But didn't he marry some time ago?" Kang asked.
"Ah but my lord," another adviser said silkily, "he married a girl he claimed as a spoil of war."
"But was he the one who impregnated Mei Hua then?"
"We do not know, my lord. But if the Tracing of the Blood reveals the father to be other than a Li…"
"That scroll. Let me see it again," King Bao demanded.
The scroll Lao Hu had left on the king's throne was brought forth and quickly scanned, declared as a magical document, and above suspicion.
"Ahh," the king sighed in satisfaction. "The Sakura girl he married, he claimed her as a spoil of war. Under the treaty he must put her and all other mistresses aside to marry my daughter, or we wage war."
"It might hurt us, my lord," one adviser cautioned.
King Bao smirked. "They will not risk bloodshed. And as for which Li male impregnated my daughter, who cares?"
Lao Hu pumped one fist in triumph. His plan was working.
"Prepare an envoy, a large escort of warriors for me, and our magicians. The Lis will marry this young man Syaoran, the heir to their kingdom, to my daughter. That scroll guarantees that tragedies will continue to befall the Lis until they marry that prince off to her." The king slowly smiled. "I guess keeping that worthless girl was a good move, after all."
"My lord, you trust the source of this scroll?" one cautious adviser asked.
"Do you look a gift horse in the mouth?" the king demanded.
"But my lord, the Princess may not want to marry the wrong Li. What if it were the other male who fathered the child?"
A fist shot out, and the adviser toppled backwards. "The scroll came to me in a dream, and when I awoke, it was next to me. Who else uses gold thread in scrolls but royals? Fool! Magic brought this to me."
"But sir," another adviser said, "for us to accept the claim of killing innocent people . . . "
"The Lis must fear us and our magic!" King Bao roared. "Otherwise they will refuse to marry Prince Syaoran to my useless daughter! Now send a fast messenger pigeon with the threat of death east of the Li stronghold tonight!"
King Bao's advisers scurried away to obey, but not without fear and reservation in their hearts. He was making a mistake, of that they were sure, but who among them had the courage to tell their lord that?
Lao Hu laughed again. Perfect. And now . . . it was time to send Sakura a false dream.
End of Chapter 10
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From me to my readers: Hi. It's been a long time, and I feel like it's been a lifetime. So much has happened; I think I will go crazy if I don't write, but because I am holding down two jobs now, it's not easy to find time to write. I've changed jobs, moved (yet again) and ended a problematic relationship, so please forgive me if it takes a month or so to update. But I will finish both stories (this and "Accidental Playboy"). One story at a time though. Thanks for understanding, and I would appreciate any feedback (constructive criticism is very welcome, especially since this is unbeta'd and I didn't want to bother anyone for now but if you still want to offer beta support, please let me know?). Thank you and I hope you guys stay with me till this ends (which won't take more than 6 chapters). I'll be responding to previous reviews in a while.
Chapter 11 now contains the two scenes previewed last chapter. Here's another scene:
"NO!" Sakura screamed and sat up in bed, gasping. She was alone; Syaoran had left—she had a vague memory of him kissing her forehead tenderly at some point—and early evening had darkened the sky. Tears spattered her cheeks, and the ache in her heart from the terrible images in her dream . . . Syaoran looking at her as the life left his eyes, whispering, "I love you, Sakura," . . . his beautiful body broken and bloody, all because he had refused to give her up. The image haunted her.
"I can't . . . He can't . . ." Sakura gasped, sobbing. She could not let him die. She could not even think of a world in which Syaoran did not exist.
And to her horror, she realized that she loved him, after all. She almost laughed; it was a little too late, wasn't it, to tell him that she loved him? And . . . Syaoran was waiting for her to say those words. But if she did, she would consign him to his doom.
He cannot know that I love him. I can't let him die!