Spoil of War 14 (Edited to fix spacing problems)
Lifting the Veils
Touya had seen battlefield injuries before but what could he do against a magical injury like Yukito's? His body seemed intact, but the way he was thrashing, jerking, and foaming at the lips, Touya felt a sinking sensation, and a hollow of fear formed somewhere in the region of his stomach. He wanted to scream his fury into the storm but fought his emotions, knowing that losing control would not help at all. He had to at least try to save Yukito!
"Do you have a healer?" he shouted above the noise of the rain at Wang.
Yes, but she is too far, Wang thought. He nonetheless nodded and turned, sprinting towards the stable where their fastest horses were kept. For this man—the brother of the beautiful Lady Sakura Li, the man whom he could sense was a noble and honorable one—he would at least try.
Then they heard it: the sound of mighty wings. Touya's archers took aim, but the dark angel quietly landed next to Touya and a simple hand gesture from him made them lower their bows.
The dark angel looked at Touya, and bowed his head, saying, "Thank you. My name is Yue." Yue touched Yukito's forehead. He then stood up; without looking at Touya, he said, "Why did you not order your men to fire at me?"
"There was no need," Touya said simply. "You . . . you are not a threat."
Yue looked down. "You understand nonhumans like me then. Just like him," and he indicated Yukito. "I told that man not to try and kill you," he said softly, yet Touya could hear every word.
"Who tried to kill Yukito?" Touya demanded, misunderstanding Yue's words.
Yue looked up with dull eyes. "Not him. You, brother of Lady Sakura. He—my master—he did not understand the consequences."
"Who was it?" Touya bellowed. "Who is your master!"
No hesitation; Yue looked up and answered quickly. "Li Lao Hu, cousin to your sister's husband. Lao Hu wants to destroy the Lis, take your sister, and father a new line of Lis on her," Yue said bluntly. "And now that you're here he wanted to kill you and take your power too."
Touya closed his eyes, not replying—how could he hate someone he had never met?
"Do you want him to live?" Yue asked quietly, indicating Yukito.
"Of course." Touya said. "But there is no hope . . ."
A small smile quirked the corners of Yue's mouth. "How can you be Lady Sakura's brother when you do not believe that everything will be all right?"
"But how . . ." Touya made a barely controlled gesture. "How can he live?"
Yue bent down, touching his lips to Yukito's. The junction of their mouths glowed, then he raised his head and turned to Touya.
"Lend me your dagger."
Touya realized what Yue was about to do. "And why should I do that? Why would you want to save someone you do not know?"
Yue stood up to face Touya. "Because I will ask you to swear to kill Lao Hu in return."
"He is your master," Touya said.
"No longer," Yue bit off angrily. "He killed my brother, just like that, like we were nothing. All I want is for him to suffer like we did!"
Touya swore under his breath. Could he trust this Yue? How could this not be a trick? Yet his mind assured him that it was not—and his premonitions were to be trusted.
As if reading his mind, Yue said, "No, I cannot possess him—I am in essence merely concentrated magical energy and I do not truly have a will of my own. Rather, my magical energy will help fix his body. A little rest, and he will be all right." He held out his hand. "Make your promise. Kill Lao Hu and end this."
Seeing Touya's hesitation, he added, "If you do so, you will spare your sister the burden of slaying Lao Hu—because she might do so if Lao Hu harms her husband."
"She would never!" The words were ripped from Touya.
Yue's quiet response was, "And you would not want the death of he who did this?" He indicated Yukito. "Decide now. Either way I will give myself to whoever will destroy Lao Hu."
Yukito suddenly drew in a rattling wheeze of a breath, and Touya froze; it was a death-rattle, one he'd heard many times before. No! Yukito must live!
What did he have to lose? "I promise," Touya said as held out the dagger. Something in him was telling him to trust the dark angel.
Yue accepted the dagger, then bent down. He joined his lips to Yukito's again and plunged the dagger into where his own heart would have been. Light exploded, and Touya and his men threw up their hands to shield themselves from the light; even the sound of the rain was temporarily extinguished. When the light faded, Yue was gone, but Yukito was encased in a strange featherlike cocoon that radiated more light. Soon it faded, and when it did, Yukito lay on the ground, breathing softly and peacefully.
Wang, who had made his way back as soon as he'd seen Yue arrive, said softly, "We have room at the stronghold. Follow me. You and your men can rest there until General Syaoran and Lady Sakura arrive."
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Syaoran had spent the better part of the day hidden away, meditating. He hadn't done so in a long while, something which, he knew, did no credit to his training as a warrior and martial artist. So much was happening, so fast, and it was becoming confusing. It was a wrench not to come back to Sakura, but he needed this time to clear his mind. How, after all, could he protect the woman he loved if he could not think straight?
"The forest for the trees," he whispered to himself. "The smoke without fire. The ground beneath the fog. I shall see through and past them to the truth."
Images of Sakura smiling, laughing, making love to him. Images of his family, of his troop of warriors—men he considered friends—of those who had died beneath his sword . . . he did not fight the whirlwind of thoughts and instead let his mind float, unencumbered by thoughts and feelings. He was a blank slate; he was ether; he was not Sakura's husband or lover, he was not the general of the Li forces, he was not the son of Yelan Li or brother to four sisters. He simply was.
Now the memory pressed upon him, urgent and demanding. He could hear Fei Mei scolding him again, and he let his memory take him there. In unguided meditation, thoughts turned to memories for a reason, and he let the scene wash over him so that he could see it with fresh eyes.
"Whatever happens, do not tell Sakura you foresaw this," Syaoran said quietly as he, Eriol, and Fei Mei began to walk towards the courtyard.
"She needs to know!" Fei Mei hissed." Something is wrong; Mama said she is a very powerful dreamseer, and for me to see something she didn't . . . Syaoran, you must tell her!"
"No, she does not need to know! She will not forgive herself," Syaoran said roughly. "Instead I want to know why she isn't dreaming. Have I . . . Did I . . . pollute her?" he asked urgently. "Am I preventing her from having her dreams?"
"There is a spell I can try to see if someone or something is interfering with her dreams, but it requires her full cooperation," Eriol began.
"No," Syaoran said flatly. "Full cooperation means telling her what you're doing and why. Sakura will not take the news well . . . she already doubts herself because she cannot dream. I don't want her punishing herself. When Fuutie . . . when she did not get her dream in time to save Fuutie, she . . ."
"She will feel worse if you do not say anything! This is not the way to protect your wife!" Fei Mei drew on her cloak, and was helped onto her horse by Syaoran's guards.
"Enough," Syaoran said quietly as he glanced at his warriors. "Fei Mei, I trust you will for once obey me on this." He swung himself up on his own horse—a horse Fuutie had nicknamed Starshine. It seemed so long ago, yet the thought still pained him.
"You need to keep communication lines open with Sakura-chan," Fei Mei argued doggedly. "If you want love to truly blossom between you, you cannot keep secrets of this kind from her!"
She needs to know.
Syaoran almost started; seen from his quiet state, he realized that he was treating Sakura like a spoil of war—a thing to be protected.
Not as a partner. Not as an equal. Not as his wife.
And had he not told himself over and over that if he married, he would not want a shrinking violet or a damsel in distress? Had it not been Sakura's independence, her ability to do things that had made him fall in love to begin with?
She was his ally. She was the dreamseer, but it did not define who she was. And it was she who needed to know what was going on in his head. If he lost her—Syaoran almost cried out—if he lost her trust and love, what then?
But the trance was not through with him. Again he saw himself going to the scenes of the aftermath of each attacked village, seeing the deaths again, seeing the landscapes, ruined and barren . . .
Wait!
He willed his mind to stillness, literally reentering each scene. Magic always leaves a trace—he could almost hear his instructors telling him that again. In his memory, he sat in the ruins of a cottage, and reached for the magic. Since it was a memory, and it was faint, he needed to focus. Syaoran commanded his senses to touch, taste, feel, see, hear. Patiently he stayed in the memory as long as it took for him to get what he needed, what he and Eriol had missed in their anger and emotional responses.
A magical signature, full of hate and malice. Syaoran patiently followed the traces, and soon he found the source. A face so like his own, but darkened and made ugly with cruelty.
You!
But why? Why would he . . .
Abruptly Syaoran was taken back to the first time he presented Sakura at court, but this time he saw the scene from outside his body. He realized that, had he not been so preoccupied with Sakura, so focused on keeping Lao Hu's treacherous attention from her, he would have seen something.
Lao Hu had been goading him. Now Syaoran saw his eyes, glittering and cruel, and his tiny smile when Syaoran had declared Sakura a 'spoil of war.'
Now Syaoran considered what being a spoil of war meant for Sakura. Yes, he'd meant to protect her, but there were complex rules governing the spoil of war principle. And then there were the treaties . . .
I'm a royal. Under some treaties royals cannot marry a spoil of war . . .
Syaoran's eyes blinked open. Finally, he had the last piece of the puzzle. Finally, he understood how he had wronged Sakura by claiming her as a spoil of war, and he was almost overwhelmed by guilt and anger at himself. He knew he needed to make things right!
A small light dancing near him told him Eriol had sent him a message, and he let it deliver its words to him.
Princess Mei Hua of the Lins is here. She has your sword. She is pregnant. Says you're the father. If true, under treaty you must marry her. I know you're not the father! Need to see you immediately.
He needed several minutes to compose himself. Syaoran could sense that he was almost too late to make things right—and now Lao Hu had thrown him the kind of problem that perfectly took advantage of the mess he had helped create!
Why had he not noticed that his sword was missing? Now the Princess had it—and since he and Sakura had not had the time to really get to know each other, it would complicate things. Knowing Sakura the way he did, he knew she would not suspect him of infidelity. Instead, she would probably see through to the heart of the problem—she would realize that Syaoran was being set up to die.
And worse, she might have taken matters in her own hands by now, not knowing the key facts, not understanding . . . because he had hidden the truth from her.
Forcing his body up from where he had lain, Syaoran broke into a run, tracing Sakura's presence and following it to where she was.
Please don't let me be too late!
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"That is something to be concerned about, Fei Mei," Yelan Li said calmly. Fei Mei had just told her mother about her earlier argument with her brother Syaoran, and then her terrifying vision of a princess of the Lin family who would bring ruin to Syaoran and Sakura's marriage with her.
"You know my brother. His pride won't let him see how stupid he's being! Ma-ma, you must do something!" Fei Mei pleaded.
"But what?" The sorceress-queen threw up her hands. "We have nothing to show Sakura-chan or Syaoran as proof. We can't set them against a girl who is nothing but an innocent pawn. And you say that girl is about to arrive at the castle, pregnant—and convinced that Syaoran is the father?"
"I cannot see the father," Fei Mei said. "But yes, she thinks Syaoran fathered her child."
Queen Yelan sighed. "There must be a way to show that while a Li fathered her child, it is not Syaoran."
"Do you think Eriol could help us?"
"He's preparing for his own wedding. With much vigor, I might add." Yelan smiled; at least that romance was going well.
"Maybe I should ride out to meet this Princess Mei Hua," Fei Mei said. "Talk to her before she arrives here and . . ."
"And say what?" Yelan asked.
"I don't know but . . ." Whatever Fei Mei was about to say was lost when the doors to their private chambers were flung open with magic. Eriol stood there, looking alarmed; a red handprint was on one of his cheeks.
"Sakura-san . . . something's very wrong," Eriol gasped.
"You might want to close the doors first," Yelan said calmly.
"Oh . . . right." Eriol took a deep breath, closed the doors, then at a slight signal from Yelan, he cast a spell that would keep eavesdroppers from using magical and normal means to listen to them.
Yelan and Fei Mei looked at his cheek, then exchanged glances.
"She's here, Ma-ma, I told you!"
Eriol immediately understood. "You foresaw the Princess' arrival?"
Fei Mei nodded.
Yelan sighed. "How did Sakura-chan react?"
Touching his cheek ruefully, Eriol said, "The wrong way. At first I believed her act but now Sakura-san thinks she must leave Syaoran. And I cannot find her and the Princess Mei Hua. They are somewhere in the castle . . ."
"The trouble with seeing the future is, the more of us look into it, the more muddied the future becomes," Yelan said. "I think we will have to rely on Sakura to make the right decisions."
"But without the knowledge of the truth, how can she?" Fei Mei argued. "She probably thinks that leaving here is the only way to save all of us. The Lins are coming, and they have a powerful hidden ally. They bring the stench of war with them, and . . ."
A knock on the large wooden doors surprised them, and with a gesture they flew open to reveal the Princess Tomoyo.
"I have been reading the Lin-Li treaty," she said softly as she carried a large scroll. "I'm afraid Lao Hu may use Sakura's status as a spoil of war to invalidate Sakura's marriage to Syaoran." Her expression was grim.
"I realize that," said Yelan. "But Syaoran felt he had no other option to protect her, as she had no legal status here."
"There is a way around this. But nobody is going to like it," Tomoyo said slowly.
"Least of all Syaoran," Eriol agreed.
"Then it all depends on Sakura now," Yelan said quietly.
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"Syaoran," whispered Mei Hua. She shrank back as Syaoran strode towards Sakura. He stopped upon hearing his name, and turned to the Princess.
"My apologies," he said quietly. " There is much to explain to you, but now, I need to speak to my wife. Please . . ."
She nodded, and looked at Sakura.
Why is he here? Sakura wondered. How much of our conversation did he overhear?
As if he'd read her mind, Syaoran turned to her. "I heard everything."
"No," Sakura whispered. "No, Syaoran, please . . ." She had not expected him to be there, to be so near . . . "Please, you can't be here . . ." She swallowed hard. If he'd heard everything then he should know why she had to do what she did!
"Apologies, Princess. This is partly my fault," Syaoran said. "Given your condition, you should be resting." He turned to help Mei Hua sit down on the cart seat, then turned back to Sakura.
"It was necessary," Sakura began. "I saw . . . it was terrible, I can't tell you! But I . . ." Why couldn't she explain? Sakura bit back tears, furious at herself for being so emotional.
And he seemed to understand. "I think I know what you're planning. But this is not the way, Sakura," he said softly. Once Syaoran reached her, he took her into his arms. "I am sorry for what I've done in the name of protecting you," he said as he held her.
"Wh-what?" Why was he apologizing?
"Please forgive me. My mistake—my mistake was not trusting you. As an equal. As my wife, as my love. In protecting you I reduced you to a spoil of war—and I dishonored my vow when we married." He pulled away and looked at her; his brown eyes were gentle, pleading for her to listen. "Leaving me to marry the Princess is not the solution. You don't know everything you need to know. Not yet."
Sakura bit her lip, wondering what to say, but he wasn't through yet. "We need to fight this together. We need to know what the other is doing, always, and we need to face this threat with a plan. Lao Hu plans to kill us all, except for you. You . . . you he wants as his wife," his voice trailed off to a whisper.
Her eyes widened. So he knew!
"How did you figure that out? I saw it in a dream!" Sakura blurted.
Syaoran shook his head ruefully. "The signs were there but we were blind to it." He told her of how he'd finally realized the truth while in a meditative trance. Sakura's eyes widened as Syaoran began to tell her everything she had missed—the tragedies she had not seen, the carnage in the villages, and about the treaty between the Lins and the Lis. How the spoil of war clause he had used to protect her would now be the very clause Lao Hu would use to undo their marriage.
The Princess watched them silently, her own mind racing. Her father had always thought her the fool, never noticing the keen mind she possessed, simply because she was a girl. Something was not right. What was she missing?
How they love each other, she thought wistfully. Syaoran's body was constantly poised protectively towards Sakura, and he held her hand reassuringly as they talked. Sakura seemed a little less demonstrative, but when Mei Hua focused her attention closer, she could see how Sakura's eyes lit up.
She was a fool!Mei Hua thought, frustrated. How could Sakura have tried to leave this man, even to save him? I was right to force her to see her impulsiveness and recklessness!
Had it been she, Mei Hua would never even have thought of leaving a man who adored her that much. Although the nagging feeling that something was wrong refused to leave her, and she tried to figure out why she wasn't responding to Syaoran the way she had before. What was wrong with her? No, it wasn't just the clear love he had for Sakura; Mei Hua already knew that, had in fact chastised Sakura about it. It was Syaoran.
He is not like how he was in my bedchambers . . .
Yes, she realized Sakura had told her the truth—that this was not the man who had been her lover, but seeing Syaoran had made a part of her hope, begging the fates that Sakura was wrong, that this was her Syaoran.
Wrapping her cloak around her to stave off the chill of the setting sun, the Princess settled herself in to observe Syaoran quietly instead. Mei Hua was determined to find her own answers, and she would not be denied.
Syaoran made no attempt to hide what he was telling Sakura, and when he was done telling her everything, he said, "I walked into Lao Hu's trap by claiming you as a spoil of war. These attacks—I did not realize it until now. They were diversions." He turned to the Princess with a sorrowful look on his face.
"As were you, my lady. I am sorry you had to get caught up in all of this, and I . . ." He broke off when he noticed how intently the Princess was looking at him.
His eyes, Mei Hua thought. Something is wrong with his eyes.
Yet his aspect was familiar. Was this not the man who had laid with her, who had given her his seed and whose child she now carried?
I have to know!
"Is something the matter?" Syaoran's eyes were concerned, and he released Sakura, taking a tentative step towards the Princess. "I can call a healer if you feel pain, or . . ."
He was silenced when the Princess came forward, touching his face with her hands. Syaoran didn't even glance at Sakura; he knew she would be watching, and would understand what the Princess was doing.
He feels wrong. He does not have the aura of passion, that wildness at the core.But he has to be the man who was in my bed! a voice in her insisted.
Speaking gently, without removing his face from the Princess' hands, Syaoran began, "I did not father your child. I'm sorry you were deceived in such a monstrous manner, but we will do what we can to help you. I promise it."
His eyes. They were an amber shade, alight with kindness, and Mei Hua blinked. The eyes were wrong.
Every nerve screamed at the Princess: He's the one. He's not the one. He's your Syaoran. He cannot be your Syaoran!
And with no warning, and no apology to Sakura, she tiptoed and caught Syaoran's lips with her own.
End of Chapter 14; continues in Chapter 15.
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Hi!
First, I apologize for being away so long. So much happened at work and in my personal life that I stopped writing for a long while. But like I said before, writing is something I can't live without. I may not be a bestselling writer or anything like that but I love writing. I'll be finishing Spoil of War first, and am reviewing my notes for Accidental Playboy-which I am tempted to rewrite, ugh! I may take some time for another update, but this story has been outlined and will end by Chapter 16. Thank you for sticking around, and I hope you can review and let me know how I'm doing :)