7
Half An Escape

There were few of Kenshin's movements that didn't cause waves of pain rippling down his back as he attacked the damp earth of the hill with his shovel. His back was still covered with half-healed scabs and welts, which hadn't been helped by that bare-fisted beating Kamishi had doled out the night before. Kenshin didn't exactly see the honor in pasting a man whose hands were shackled behind his back, but Kamishi didn't employ honor much in his everyday life.

The redhead tried to keep up the pace, keeping his bruised face down, trying to avoid the whip. He wasn't any more afraid of it than before, but he had to try to avoid getting hurt any more before he could heal some.

Slowly his shovel ate away at the part of the hillside that spilled across the road, each shovelful of dirt undercutting the hill. He had cut into nearly ten feet when he encountered a large rock.

He risked a moment to stop working, staring at the rock thoughtfully. An idea, full of risks and the probability of getting killed formed around the rock. He shrugged to himself. It was…about time he escaped anyway. Escape, one way or another.

He tossed the shovel aside and put his shoulder against the boulder, the muscles in his arms and back straining with the great effort.

He squeezed his eyes shut. However much he loved his people, Kenshin had never actually wished to be a dragon before. But now would have been a good time for their strength. Or perhaps simply the great human strength of Master Hiko. Better than what Kenshin had on even on his best day.

Still, perhaps the long months of continuous labor were paying off in ways he hadn't realized as he felt the rock begin to slide. Throwing newfound energy into it, he strained for all he was worth, and the rock was dislodged, cascading down the hillside in a barrage of dirt, completely blocking the road and momentarily separating him from the road boss and the other prisoners.

There wasn't time to curse the chains that would hobble his stride as he began to run. He could hear Kamishi shouting. It would only be a matter of minutes before the road boss, unfettered and on horseback, would be in pursuit.

He grunted when a sudden weight smashed into his right shoulder, heard the report of the rifle as blood spurted from the wound. He had been expecting this nearly the entire time, though, and didn't let it break his stride as he ran, eyes darting everywhere, searching for something that could be used to his advantage.

Hoofbeats were closing in on him, so he changed directions and plunged down a rocky, bush-covered slope. He slid down the hill, crashing through shrubs until he came to a rest against the side of a rotting deadfall. Clawing at the hollow log, he pulled himself up and crawled inside, then lay still, panting.

He could hear Kamishi cursing loudly from the top of the hill. But the hill was covered with brush, so the road boss couldn't see more than a few feet in front of him.

Of course, he would still come down to look. Kenshin watched him through the log, eyes following Kamishi's progress. He was bent low as he moved, and Kenshin saw that he was tracking him by the droplets of blood from his wound.

Gritting his teeth, Kenshin waited until Kamishi got close to his log, almost just passing it before the Wild Boy slithered out and hurled himself at the road boss. The two men went tumbling down the hill, but Kamishi, bigger and heavier, was on top when they came to a halt.

The road boss's hands were around Kenshin's neck. Kenshin struggled, but he was too tired, too wounded, and too impeded by the chains to buck Kamishi off. Blackness was creeping up on him just as one of his hands closed on a rock. Summoning all the strength he had left, Kenshin swung the rock, smashing it into Kamishi's head.

His death was surprisingly quiet, just a soft grunt and the gentle whooshing noise of him falling away, coming to rest limply on the ground, part of his weight still on Kenshin.

Kenshin lay where he was for several minutes, breathing hard. His back felt like it was on fire. He shoved Kamishi off and reached around to touch it, fingers coming back sticky with blood. His shoulder, too, was bleeding. Sapping his strength. Making him light-headed.

Sitting up carefully, he grasped a handful of dirt and pressed it over the wound in his shoulder, then quickly searched the corpse's pockets until he found the key to his shackles.

Free for the first time in what felt like a century, Kenshin did something he had not been able to do in a long time. In spite of the pain in his back, he spread his arms wide, stretching. It had been so long since he was able to expand his chest muscles in this way, and just as long since he had been able to walk to the full extent of his stride.

He was free now, and if he got moving, he would stay that way.

Drawing a deep breath, he stood up. The world reeled out of focus for a few moments, but he was able to stay conscious. Later he might surrender to the pain, but for now he had to keep moving. It would only be a matter of time before Shutaro would see that Kamishi wasn't coming back.

On his hands and knees, he climbed laboriously to the top of the hill again. He had hoped to find Kamishi's horse, but the animal had apparently wandered back to camp, which would alert the other road boss that something was amiss much sooner than Kenshin had hoped.

He paused, listening, sensing, but all he heard was the wind and the crickets. Shutaro wasn't coming yet.

Kamishi's rifle had slid to the bottom of the hill during their scuffle, but Kenshin wouldn't have picked it up even if he had seen it anyway. Even if his training didn't frown upon the projectile weapon, he didn't have time right now to search for it and figure out how to operate it.

Rising to his feet, he crossed the rough-hewn path and started up the opposite hill that led to the place of Kaoru's family. Kaoru had mentioned a lake at the top of the steep slope. His body needed water.

The sun was setting behind the mountains in the distance by the time he reached the top. There he saw the lake, shimmering like liquid silver. Breathing heavily, he made it to the edge of the pool and dropped on to his stomach, burying in face in the water. After a time of alternately drinking and breathing, Kenshin finally moved away from the lake's edge, dragging himself toward a stand of tangled brush and timber. Covering himself with leaves and small branches, he curled up and was asleep the second he closed his eyes.

Kaoru lay on her bed, staring at the ceiling. The clock in the next room chimed eleven times.

A decision would have to be made, and soon. Either she would have to get up and go to meet Kamishi, or choose to call his bluff and stay here, safe in her room.

Kaoru wasn't a fool. Once she agreed to meet Kamishi on the sly, she would be at his mercy. She was almost completely certain that he wouldn't settle for one meeting, or one kiss. If she met him once, he would have the means of blackmailing her again and again.

Her hands twisting in her covers. And then what would happen to Kenshin? If she refused to go, he would be the first to pay the price for her cowardice. It wasn't fair! How could she let him suffer any more at Kamishi's hand when she could do something to prevent it?

When the clock struck the half-hour, she got up, dressed hastily, and quietly left the house.

The night was inky black, moon and stars covered by clouds. Kaoru shivered with apprehension as she led her uncle's big roan gelding out of the barn and climbed onto his bare back.

Trees and shrubs that were familiar during the day now seemed twisted and menacing. Rocks and bushes took on shapes of wild animals. The call of a night bird made her jump.

The cloud cover broke when she reached the lake, casting a silvery glow on the water. At any other time, she might have been enthralled by the beauty of it, but not now. Fear had chased away all comfort.

Her heart was hammering as she rode slowly around the lake. There was no sign of Kamishi. Was she early? Or was he late? Or maybe, please God, maybe he had changed his mind.

She circled the lake a second time and began to wish she had thought to bring a shawl.

She had reigned the gelding to a halt, wondering how long she would be expected to wait when a whispered voice came from nearby.

"Kaoru-dono?"

Eyes wide with surprise, she scanned the darkness. "Kenshin, where are you?"

"Here."

She saw him then, barely visible behind a tangled mass of brush and saplings. She got off her horse quickly, hurrying toward him, her eyes growing all the wider when she saw the blood caked on his shoulder.

"You're hurt!"

Kenshin nodded.

"Is it bad?"

"I don't think so."

"How did you get away?"

"I was lucky."

"Lucky!" She pointed at his shoulder. "You call that lucky?"

He smiled. "I'm still alive," he pointed out.

Kaoru cast an anxious glance over her shoulder. "You can't be here. You've got to go, Kenshin!"

Kenshin nodded. "Soon."

"No, now," she insisted. "Before--"

Kenshin frowned at the urgency in her voice. "Before what?"

Kaoru sighed heavily. She most certainly did not want to tell him that she was meeting Kamishi, didn't want him thinking that she liked the man enough to go sneaking out to see him in the middle of the night, but none of that mattered right now. Nothing mattered but getting Kenshin away from here before the road boss arrived.

"Kamishi's coming here," she said, her head lowered so that the Wild Boy couldn't see her face.

"Why?"

"It doesn't matter why!" she snapped. "You've got to go."

"You came here to meet him?" Kenshin guessed, a slight note of strain in his voice.

Kaoru rubbed her eyes. "Yes. But not for the reason you think. There's no time to explain now. Just hurry away from here."

"Kamishi won't be coming here tonight."

Relief washed through Kaoru, making her knees weak. "You're sure?"

"Very sure."

"Thank God," she said breathlessly. "But they'll be looking for you soon. You've got to at least find a place to hide, Kenshin."

He nodded again, and as she watched his eyes close wearily for a few seconds, an idea came to Kaoru.

They might expect him to run off back into the hills with the other Wild People and dragons, but they wouldn't expect him to double back to civilization, would they?

"Here," Kaoru said, leading the roan to him. "Get on. I've got an idea."

Gritting his teeth, he got to his feet, grasped the gelding's mane and pulled himself onto the animal's back. The strain on his shoulder brought a grimace of pain to his face and a fine sheen of sweat to his brow.

He smiled weakly as he took the reins from Kaoru's hand. "I, too, have an idea."

"You'll never get away," Kaoru said. "You're too weak to get very far, and you don't have any food." She felt the tears welling in her eyes even as she tried to crush them away. "And my uncle will beat me until I couldn't stand up if you steal his horse."

Kenshin blinked slowly at her. "Why would your uncle do this to you? He could never know you helped me?"

"Even if he didn't find out, he would take it out on me."

He stared at her another moment, eyes studying her face until he finally said, "What's your idea?"

Kenshin concentrated on holding onto the horse as Kaoru led it along, trying to keep the gelding as steady as possible.

Her idea was to hide him in the loft of the barn. No one else ever went up there except her, she said. She wanted to look after his wound and feed him until he was strong enough to travel again.

It was a mistake and he knew it. But she had been so kind to him, brought him water when he had so badly needed it, offered him her sweet smile and kind words when everyone else had nothing to show him but abuse. He couldn't take the horse if it would cause her even a moment's pain.

Getting him up the ladder to the loft was an ordeal. Weak from blood loss and in much pain, he leaned heavily on her shoulder as they made their way up, but soon the sapphire-eyed angel had him settled on an old quilt she spread over a pile of soft hay. She left for a few minutes, returning with bandages and ointment.

Kenshin felt the tension drain out of him as she spread the healing salve over his bare back and shoulders. Her touch was soft, comforting, more healing to his soul than the salve was healing to his body. In this way, she reminded him of his sister. It had been so long since he had felt soft, concerned, caring touches on his body, hands that wanted to take away his pain.

When she finished, she opened a basket of food and Kenshin smiled at the way she sat quietly by, making certain that he ate everything that she brought for him, insisting, when he asked, that she had already eaten.

"Thank you, Kaoru-dono," he said sincerely. He had said those words many times, but always he meant them. His wounds no longer pained him, and his stomach was completely full for the first time in months. He gazed at Kaoru in warm, sleepy affection, eyelids so heavy. "Thank you…"

Kaoru tenderly watched Kenshin as his eyes slid shut, and his head dropped onto her shoulder. Very, very gently, she placed her hand on the back of his head, her fingers threading through his hair.

She studied his profile, marveling again at how handsome he was. She had been told all her life that his people were wild. Uncivilized, living so hand-in-hand with nature. No written language, no ingenuity with gadgets. That all they practiced was fighting arts and butchery, a savage and godless people.

No one had ever told her they could be beautiful.

Her eyes lingered on his mouth, his lips slightly parted. It was well-shaped, sensual, his mouth. She liked the color of his lips and the fact that the lower one was just slightly larger than the upper one.

She touched the lower lip for the merest fraction of a second, fingertips as light as a snowflake drifting over a windowpane, and then she pressed her fingertips to her own lips. Her cheeks reddened at the impulsive act.

She knew she should go, but she couldn't bring herself to leave him. Sitting there, cradling his head against her shoulder, made her feel very protective. Maternal, almost. She looked at his shoulder and thought of his back and grew angry. He would be left with several scars.

How had he endured so many months on a road gang? Living in chains, whipped daily, mocked and tormented for what he was. It was a cruel, inhuman form of punishment, no matter what the crime.

She sat there watching Kenshin sleep until dawn began to brighten the sky. Regretfully, she eased him onto the quilt and left him and moved to the ladder, looking back to make certain he was hidden from any casual observer.

It was mid-afternoon when Kamishi's partner Shutaro showed up.

"Sorry to bother you, Ma'am," he said with a nod to Aunt Urei, "but one of our prisoners escaped last night. Killed my partner."

Kaoru stared at him, unable to believe her ears. Kenshin had killed Kamishi?

Aunt Urei's hand went to her throat. "You don't think he'll come here, do you?" she demanded.

"No, Ma'am. I think he'll probably run as far away from here as fast as he can get, but if you don't mind, I'd like to look around just to be on the safe side."

"Please do," Aunt Urei invited, stepping aside so the road boss could enter the house.

While they searched inside, Kaoru hurried to the barn, ostensibly to throw some carrot scraps to Uncle Shiji's horse. She was still there when the road boss came with her uncle at his heels, explaining again what he had already explained to Aunt Urei.

Uncle Shiji looked dismally disappointed on hearing about Kamishi's death.

"Could I look around in here?" Shutaro asked.

Depressed, Shiji waved him onward, and Kaoru watched as he walked the length of the barn, peering into each stall, checking behind several bales of hay. His expression turned thoughtful as he saw the ladder to the loft. "What's up there?"

"Some old furniture and a couple of trunks," Uncle Shiji said. "My niece has a hideaway up there."

"Mind if I take a look?"

"I'll look," Kaoru offered. "Please, I don't like for strangers to trample my things."

"Fine." The road boss's hand dropped to the butt of his gun on his right hip. "You just yell if he's up there."

Kaoru nodded, shimmied up the ladder and pretended to look around. Kenshin sat cross-legged on the quilt, and she gave him a reassuring smile, then turned and hurried back down.

"There's nothing up there," she reported truthfully, "except what I put up there."

"I didn't think he'd dare show his face around here, but I to make sure. I imagine he's halfway to the higher lands by now. Or lying dead somewhere on the plains feeding the carrion birds. Either way, they'll find him sooner or later. Sorry to have troubled you all."

The road boss had left the prisoners shackled to a tree, and had to hurry back to them. Uncle Shiji had one last chance to ask about the road, however, and learned that it should be ready before the next snow.

Kaoru was dizzy was relief. And a little touch of excitement. Kenshin was safe, and he was here where she could see him and speak to him every day.

But Kenshin…he had killed someone. He killed Kamishi. She could think of little else as she did her chores that evening.

Late that night while her uncle and aunt slept, she crept into the kitchen to prepare him something to eat. She placed the food in her basket along with fresh bandages.

He killed a man. The thought filled her mind as she made her way through the dark barn and up the ladder to the loft. Kenshin was waiting for her.

She lit a small candle and placed it on the floor, smiling at him uncertainly. He had killed…

"You look much better," she said.

"I feel better, thanks to you."

His words and smile were like liquid sunshine, filing her with warmth. Surely this kind and gentle man couldn't be guilty of murder.

She sat beside him while he ate, content to be near him, and pleased with his appetite. A good appetite meant he'd be strong again soon.

When he finished, Kaoru removed the bandage from his shoulder. To her untrained eye, the wound looked ghastly, but she saw no pus oozing from the wound, no telltale streaks that hinted infection. His back, too, seeming to be healing nicely. He was indeed, as he had said before at the lake, lucky.

She put a fresh bandage over the wound in his arm, then sat back, suddenly shy. She felt differently than she had the night before. Kenshin's scent was so close, the sight of his bare torso blocking everything else from her sight. He was probably cold, she thought, but she was the one who was shivering.

Her mouth was suddenly dry as she lifted her eyes to his face, only to find him gazing down at her, his large plum eyes brimming with an emotion she didn't understand.

"You're trembling, Kaoru-dono," he said quietly. "Are you afraid of me now?"

"No, of course not." Her voice sounded strange in her ears. "Did you kill him?" The words came out of nowhere.

"Yes."

"Why?"

"This time, to save my own life," he said, his voice hard and flat. "He has not been the only one. I've killed many New People, any who have invaded our homes and taken or killed my people." He was quiet for a heartbeat, then the anger left his voice as he said softly, "But I would never hurt you, Kaoru-dono."

"I know," Kaoru murmured. And she did know. She wasn't afraid of him, not now, not ever, but how else to describe these strange feelings? The butterflies in her stomach, her damp palms. Without quite knowing how it came about, she found herself wishing he would kiss her.

Kenshin knew he was staring at her, but he couldn't seem to draw his eyes from her face. Her hair was darker than the night itself, her skin translucent, her lips slightly parted in an oh-so-tempting way. Her eyes were luminous in the flickering light of the candle, innocent, trusting. She was only a child, he reminded himself, a young girl who had risked much to help him.

"You had better go, Kaoru-dono," he whispered thickly. "Before you're missed."

"Yes," she agreed, rising to her feet.

Kenshin felt his breath catch in his throat as she stood before him. The candlelight shone behind her, making the thin, threadbare, white yukata almost transparent, revealing shapely legs, gently rounded hips.

He watched as she left the loft, reminding himself again and again that she was just a child, an innocent young girl clothed in the soft flesh of womanhood, unaware of the ways of men.

Sleep was a long time coming.