Part 2:
"Why restrict me from drawing my sword? How else was I to defend Yuki!" Touya raged to himself as he paced in his bedroom. "Isn't Yuki a citizen, too? Why shouldn't he be worthy of me defending him?"
Touya fumed, pacing more and more. He hated that look Yukito gave him when leaving the chapter house. His gentle friend looked so nervous and was trembling, but he put on a brave face and assured Touya he'd be fine. Yukito did enjoy being around people and was social and well liked, but this business with Lao was a feud Yue had started years ago.
It wasn't fair that Yukito was thrown in the middle of that feud, at least in Touya's opinion. He had to admit he was getting more and more vexed at Yue as he heaped on more blame on the high priest. Why didn't the man go himself and sort out Lady Lao's exorcism? Why did he have to drag Yukito into the middle of a fight that was seventeen years old? It was thoughtless, at best, cruel at worst, in Touya's estimation.
There was a knock at the door. A page said, "Highness, your father requests your presence at dinner."
Touya answered the door. "I thought he was giving a private audience to his high priest."
"His Majesty says that you need to observe this meeting," the young boy explained with a bowed head.
Touya nodded and dismissed the page. He shut the door and started getting cleaned up for dinner. He was glad. Maybe he could get some answers on Yukito's behalf.
Yukito was in his priest's cell; his door was secure. Two other priests had looked in on him and brought him a simple dinner of stew and bread. He was under strict orders from Yue to not leave his cell. He had to obey Yue, because part of his religious vows was obedience to the high priest, and he was inclined to stay indoors, anyway.
He decided to pray for Lady Loa. He went over to his shrine in the corner of his cell and knelt. Before he finished all his preparatory rituals to pray, a voice came to his ears that no one else would hear.
"You didn't protect my children! They're still with that man! Do something to save them!"
He gasped and turned around. Lady Loa's ghost was standing behind him. That shocked him. The wards around the chapter house should have kept her ghost out. She really shouldn't have been able to leave her house in the first place. Her ghost must have a real urgency about her to pursue Yukito.
"I'm trying, Lady Loa! I promise. Right now, they have your husband in jail and he's awaiting trial. King Clow assured me he'll get a trial and..."
"Then why is he walking the streets?" the ghosted raged.
Yukito felt confused. General Loa should still be incarcerated. "That makes no sense. He should be..."
Suddenly, there was a strong breeze that came through his cell and snuffed out the candles at his shrine. Lady Loa gasped and disappeared. Now everything was so dark. His heart thudded painfully when he heard the window open the rest of the way. He bolted for the door, but his hair was grabbed and he was roughly slammed onto his bed.
A large man climbed on top of him and jammed a dirty rag in his mouth. Yukito pushed against him, but it was futile. He could tell the man was a soldier, because he could feel the insignia on the shoulders of his clothes. The man yanked Yukito's hair and twist hard to still him. Yukito froze. The man then leaned down to Yukito's ear and said, "We're going to teach you not to lie."
He realized there were now at least four other men in the room. He heard one of them check the lock on his cell's door. The others moved over to the side of his bed. He heard some rattling and some rustling coming from the other men. Unfortunately, it was a new moon and there was close to no light.
Yukito now had a choice. He could beg these men to leave him alone and promise them he'd lie and recant. He was scared enough to entertain the thought. Or he could stay true to his vows and suffer whatever they were willing to do on General Loa's behalf.
"I'm going to take this gag out. You scream, and you're finished." The man yanked the filthy rag from Yukito's mouth. He now figured out who this man was by his voice; it was Captain Goro. "Now, are you going to keep lying, or am I going to have to cut that tongue out of your mouth?" Yukito was silent. He was in too much shock over the threat by Touya's trainer. Goro gave Yukito's cheek a nick with his knife. "Pay attention," the man hissed in Yukito's ear. "What's it going to be?"
Yukito's vows came to his head. He was to be true to them no matter what. That was part of the faith Yue had taught him, not let things like this change who you were or what you did. Yukito had panic in his stomach, but he knew the thing he must do.
He whispered. "I must tell the truth. I have to tell King Clow's court what Lady Lao's ghost told me. She was murdered, and my vows will not permit me to say otherwise. No matter what you do to me, I cannot waver."
Something cold and sharp was held to his throat by one of the men standing by his bed. Goro's weight shifted, but he still kept Yukito pinned to his bed. Goro's rough hands ripped apart Yukito's thick, outer priest robes. The man had him stripped down to his cotton shift when he rose off the bed and jammed the filthy gag back in his mouth. Two other men quickly chained his wrists.
Goro then chuckled with malice. It was almost as if the man wanted Yukito to struggle for some sport. Yukito gasped in shock as the man's rough hand traveled up his shift, across the smooth skin of his inner, left thigh. It almost sent Yukito into blind hysteria. He'd never been touched there, and it made him feel so vulnerable in ways he'd never imagined before. He thrashed against his fetters, but the man then got a bruising grip on Yukito's thigh.
Once again, Goro yanked Yukito's hair to still him. Yukito froze, Goro moved his hand higher up Yukito's shift. "Listen!" He snarled. "Be a good boy. We're just going to take you someplace where we're going to talk some sense into you. You give us any trouble, though, your soft, pretty skin will get some decorations. Understand?" The man whispered hotly in his ear. Yukito was too afraid to move at all. The man gripped Yukito's thigh tighter, digging his nails in. "Understand?" Goro snarled. Yukito nodded franticly.
Goro let go of Yukito's leg and he was lofted off his bed. The men blindfolded him and carried him out of his cell towards who knew where.
Annoyed. It was what Touya felt as he joined his father and Yue for dinner. He saw the tall, elegant high priest was already seated by his father at the table. Touya took his traditional place at the table and asked his father, "No Sakura?"
"I requested she have dinner in her room."
Touya didn't think his father would let her attend tonight. He just wanted to make sure she and the brat weren't having dinner together in the lower dining hall.
"Touya, you may speak freely tonight and share your thoughts. We need to talk about Yukito and this situation with General Lao," Clow said.
Touya frowned and looked at Yue. The man's alluring face was impassive as he sipped wine. Touya then asked, as politely as he could, in spite his irritation, "Why is it that Yukito was sent into this situation that's been festering for years? Yukito seemed ill prepared."
"Because he'll be inheriting my position a lot sooner than your father and I planned. It would seem..." Touya suddenly took note of Yue's stiff, dour tone, "...I have consumption." Touya stiffened and wanted to run from the table. What was his father thinking dining with Yue! He should be cloistered away somewhere. "My illness is not a contagious variety. I see your white knuckled grip on your chair's arms." Yue shook his head, looking placid. "It's to the point I'll not live out the year. You're father reconfirmed and foresaw everything this evening right before you came."
Touya couldn't believe this beautiful, youthful man carried such a horrible death sentence, but his father's predictions were never wrong. The man let Touya absorb the shock and said, "Yukito doesn't know, but it's why I've been very demanding of him lately. One of the things I've sheltered him from is the conflicted between General Lao and myself."
"He and I don't know why there is a conflict. All I know is that General Loa defended our country with honor when we were attacked by the Western Country Alliance almost twenty years ago."
Yue took another sip of wine and said, "Do you know why the WCA backed down?"
Touya remembered some dusty history lessons about an aggressive stance Kingdom Clow had taken. He shook his head and said, "I only know what I was taught."
Yue said softly, "The truth, aside from the history books, is an atrocity exhibition. General Loa decided to get revenge by conducting several sorties against one of those WCA countries. Rather than fight honorably on the battlefield, he attacked like a thief in the night. He didn't fight on a field, but rather with criminal means.
"He had his own handpicked men that would covertly sneak into enemy villages and attack innocent women and children. I found out about him trying to demoralizing the enemy like that, and I wouldn't stand for it. His men, according to what I heard, made the civilians do very perverse things.
"The WCA backed down because his covert war was very effective. And because he kept his public image clean, Loa became a hero. I found out about his handpicked soldiers' disgusting behavior because a woman from a country in the WCA came to me, pregnant and terrified. She told me about how she'd been raped. They wanted to get her impregnated so she'd be obligated to our country because of her child. I refused to condone his behavior and threatened to expose him because of that girl."
"Why didn't you?" Touya asked, totally focused on the tale.
Yue lowered his head and said, "The girl killed herself after giving birth to a very special baby boy, so I had no other proof. She knew the name of her rapist and told me, but I kept that to myself because the man has no criminal record off the battlefield. I wanted to protect the innocent, baby boy and not let him suffer with the knowledge of how he was conceived. I had no other proof than her word. No others were brave enough to come forward to testify against Loa."
"Father! Why did you let Loa get away with this?" Touya raged, not heeding protocol. He was sick at this story.
Clow looked at him with a serene expression. "The man hid his crimes very well. The handful of men he used to cause trouble committed no crimes since the war. They're all very well connected."
"So there is no way to hold them accountable?" Touya asked, feeling frustrated.
"It was seventeen years ago and the victims are citizens of other countries that refuse to come forward. We have to have a solid reason to bring charges. Remember how I told you we must remain neutral? As much as I want to see these men brought to justice, I must follow the laws of our land. If I don't, the citizens will lose their faith in my rule and more lawlessness will rise. Do you see why, Touya?" Clow asked.
"I don't like it, but I understand," Touya said, pondering the situation. As he did, dinner was served and they ate in relative silence. Before dessert was served, Touya asked, "What ever happened to the baby?"
Yue looked baffled for half a minute and smiled. "He lives a very good and peaceful life at the chapter house and has several loved ones."
"Who is he?" Touya asked.
"I'm keeping his identity a secret, even from him. All he knows is that he was left at the chapter house. It's all I wish him to know."
Touya said nothing more. He bit back his frustration at Yue. Whoever the orphan was, he had a right to know. He was going to try to convince Yue to tell the orphan, however, a castle guard burst in and bowed towards King Clow.
"Majesty, General Loa has escaped!"
Touya bolted from his chair. His mind's only thought was checking on Yukito. Clow said, "Touya, be very careful. Bring Yukito here to be looked after until Loa is found."
Touya nodded at his father's instructions and quickly left for the chapter house.
Yukito was finally placed on a cold, stone floor. The blindfold was removed, however they left his hands chained. He looked around and could see a group of older soldiers around a fireplace. Clow Country got very chill at night, so they were trying to get warm. Yukito was shivering, only wearing his shift, his feet bare.
Among the men, he only recognized Lao and Goro. He wanted to spit out the rag still jammed in his mouth, but he thought better of it. Something caught his eyes about the General's back. He noticed there were still wings there, only now they looked larger.
They had a fluffy white glow, but Yuui could sense they had a malevolent, evil purpose, only he couldn't figure it out. He didn't think the others could see what he was seeing. When he had seen it this morning, they just look like an insignia, now they fluttered occasionally.
Lao went over to Yukito and crouched down. He yanked the gag out of Yukito's mouth and sneered, "Now that the royal brat is nowhere around, let's have a talk."
"Please turn yourself in before this gets out of hand. Think of your children," Yukito pleaded. The man backhanded him so hard he landed flat onto the floor. His lips were throbbing and he could taste blood.
"I protected this kingdom before you were born, boy. You'll not take away my years of service."
"But they'll know you escaped from the dungeons and be looking for you. You won't be able to run for very long."
"And who do you think will be leading the search for me? It'll be older soldiers loyal to me." He gave Yukito a look as if he were something contemptible. "By the time we're found, you'll be singing my praises. You'll tell them how Yue forced you to lie about everything you saw this morning."
"I won't," Yukito insisted and then shook his head and admitted, "I can't. I took vows, and part of that is absolute adherences to the truth. I must tell the court what your wife's ghost told me. I won't violate my vows to the church."
The man gave him a deep frown and then said, "You will. A soft little thing like you? It won't take us fifteen minutes to make you go crying to King Clow about what a liar you are."
Yukito steadied his breath and shook his head. He said firmly, "I will always tell the truth."
"Goro, teach him a lesson in respecting his betters that Yue never taught him." The man's cold eyes caused a shiver to run down Yukito's back. He tried to scrambled away and find an escape, but Goro slammed him to the flagstone floor before he could orient himself.
Touya's trainer said, "I'm sorry I have to do this, but you have to know the mistake you're making by lying. You're about to damage an upstanding man's reputation."
"I promise I saw Lady Loa's ghost. She told me what happened."
Goro's head lowered. "Then I'm going to convince you that you saw otherwise."
Touya made it to the chapter house. Two of Yukito's fellow priests let Touya in. He ran down the hallways and found Yukito's cell door firmly locked. "Yukito! Wake up and let me in! Lao has escaped. Wake up Yukito."
He knew Yukito was a hard sleeper, but not like this. He jogged back out of the chapter house and made his way towards Yukito's window. His heart started thudding hard when he saw it was open. He hopped into the window and made his way to the shrine with candles. He lit one and looked around in trepidation.
He froze when he saw Yukito's clothing ripped apart on the bed. He unlocked the door and ordered the other two priest to secure the chapter house. He headed back to the castle not believing Lao would dare take Yukito from the chapter house. King Clow wouldn't be pleased.
To be continued.