24
The Taste of Bittersweet

Kaoru sat in the shadows several yards from the roaring fire, cradling her son to her as she watched Kenshin and the other Wild Boys stand around their prisoner. Kenshin had shed his shirt and loosed his hair and had shaken it out so that it floated freely around his face and down his back. The flames flickered across his chest and face and off the shine of his hair, giving the whole of him a hellish cast.

As seemed to be always, Kenshin was the smallest of the men he stood with, but he was far more frightening than the others, who didn't seemed to absorb and reflect the flames as he did. Kaoru almost couldn't recognize him, and that frightened her more than anything.

Ataru had been spread-eagled by the fire. Sweat ran freely from him, caused by the nearness of the flames and the gut-wrenching fear that twisted his insides, filling his mouth with the brassy taste of terror.

The Wild Boys sank down on their haunches, regarding their Enemy quietly.

The lawman's mouth went dry as one of the warriors drew a knife from a beaded sheath on his belt. A low murmur of barely-contained excitement rose from the throats of the younger Wild Boys. The fun was about to begin.

Kenshin's face was cold as he took the knife from the warriors hand. "Ataru," he said, his voice hard and low, "how much pain can you bear without weeping?"

Ataru swallowed hard. "What do you mean?"

"The Brothers here mean to cut the flesh from your body an inch at a time." Slowly, Kenshin laid the blade against Ataru's chest. "You know how it is when you cut yourself, how it is when the air hits the wound? Your whole body will feel like that. You'll wish for death, but it will be a long time coming."

"Go to hell," Ataru rasped.

Kenshin shrugged. "Perhaps you're braver than I thought." He nodded. "We'll know for certain soon."

Ataru's whole body went rigid as Kenshin tossed the knife to its owner. In desperation, he twisted his head around, his eyes fixed on Kaoru. I will not scream, he vowed. No matter what they do to me, I will not scream.

Kaoru had laid her son on the ground beside her. She rose to her knees, her hand pressed to her heart as she looked at Ataru, then to Kenshin, still looking demonic in the glow of the flames. Savage, she had heard him called at times, and never did he look more like one than now. He didn't look or sound anything like the same man who had loved her so tenderly.

Just, please, don't give up on me again, he had once said to her.

Kaoru bit her lip and swallowed. If now wasn't a good time to just close her eyes and trust the man she loved, there never would be one.

The Wild Boy with the knife bent forward and she could see his hand moving across Ataru's chest as he made a shallow, square cut and drew away a tiny strip of flesh, no larger than a fingernail.

Fighting the urge to gag, Kaoru turned away.

Kenshin threw a glance in her direction, silently praying that she would just stay where she was and keep quiet. He was playing a dangerous game, and all their lives hung in the balance.

Ataru sucked in a deep breath as the knife-wielding warrior cut into his flesh a second time. The same, shallow, tiny square cut. The pain wasn't very bad, not yet, and much worse than that was the fear that he wouldn't be able to endure this bravely. Somewhere he had read that vengeful Wild People always granted quick deaths to those who impressed them with bravery.

So, was that really all he had to look forward to now? Just a quick death?

"Ataru."

He heard Kenshin's voice as if from far away. With an effort, he drew his gaze from Kaoru and met the Wild Boy's eyes. He was surprised to see they were alone. The other three dragoners had gone.

"What do you want?" Ataru forced the question through trembling lips. He was shivering convulsively now.

"I'm going to offer you a life. Your life in exchange for mine."

"What do you mean?"

"The Brothers have agreed to release you if you'll allow me to return to Iyo with my wife and bother us no more. In addition , you may take the body of our dead Brother and tell your people that it's mine so that no one else will come hunting me."

Ataru stared at Kenshin, unable to speak. Relief went through him like sand held in too tight a grip.

Kenshin mistook his silence for doubt and his face grew hard. "I won't ask you again. I said once I wouldn't spare your life a second time, but I do so now only because my wife thinks highly of you. Whether you live or die makes no difference. I'll return to town with my woman. You will never have her."

"I accept your offer," Ataru said quickly. He blinked up at Kenshin, trying to flick sweat off his eyelashes. "Do you think me a coward?"

Laughter erased the harsh lines from Kenshin's face as he picked up the knife and cut the lawman free. "I think you're a wise man," he allowed. "Wise and brave. And if you're smart as well, you'll leave this place right this very instant before the Brothers change their minds."

"Smart's my middle name," Ataru said. He rubbed at his wrists, hesitating. "I…thanks for your help. Here and back in Iyo."

Kenshin nodded slightly. "I hope someday you find a woman to please you as much as my woman pleases me."

Ataru glanced at Kaoru, who was still standing across from the fire. "I hope so, too," he said softly, and quickly collecting the rest of his gear and the body lying dead in the brush, he rode away from the camp. He would never see Kaoru again.

Kaoru and Kenshin didn't have much time to talk that night. The three Wild Boys curled up near the fire and were soon snoring softly. Kaoru was certain she would never be able to sleep after all that had happened, but she had barely closed her eyes when sleep claimed her.

The warriors were gone the following morning, but, even so, Kaoru was strangely ill at ease with her husband. She tended to her son, ate silently with Kenshin a quick breakfast, and then it was time to go.

Kaoru was reaching for the baby when Kenshin caught her by the arm and turned her around to face him.

"What is it?" he asked. "What's troubling you?"

"Troubling me?"

Kenshin didn't ask again. He only waited, eyes soft and expectant. Here he was now, as he was supposed to be…yet…last night…

Kaoru gazed into his eyes, her own looking lost and confused. "I watched you last night and I didn't know you."

Kenshin frowned. "I don't understand."

"I know you wouldn't have used that knife in that way on Ataru."

"No. Not that way."

"I…I know. I know if you were going to kill him, you'd have done it quickly. You wouldn't be so cruel, so…"

"Savage?"

"Yes," she admitted shamefully. Then, "Kenshin…why didn't you kill him?"

"I found a better way."

"Because of me?"

"Yes." Kenshin smiled at her. "The others wanted to kill him quite badly, but I told them I needed him alive, and they finally agreed."

She blinked. "Then that business about skinning him alive was--"

"A farce, yes. Once I had them convinced to let me have him for my own purposes."

"That was cruel, letting Ataru think he was going to die when you knew all along he wasn't."

Kenshin shrugged. "It was the only way I could make him see things my way, and the only way I could remain with you without having to kill him or any others who came after me in his stead." He drew her close and kissed her forehead. "Ataru is alive and well, and the Wild Boy who killed Kamishi is dead as far as the New People's law in concerned. Aren't you pleased?"

Put that way…perhaps it had really all been worth it. "Yes," she said.

Kenshin took Kaoru's face in his hands, his thumbs tracing the line of her cheekbones. "I have often thought that I would return to my people, but I know now that you are my people. I listened to my Brothers talk last night. I heard the bitterness that's infected them, the hopelessness. They're…without purpose. They're seeking the old ways of life, but that's all fading away." He closed his eyes and leaned his forehead against hers. "All those years ago, my master was right. At least in part. The best I could do was to keep the New People off the mountains, and protect whomever was in my sight. But I couldn't stop the New People from coming, no matter how much skill is in the hand that wields my sword. And I never can. And now, I wouldn't if I could. You are of them, and my own son is half of them."

His hands dropped to her shoulders, and he drew her close, savoring the sweet softness of her, the way she fit perfectly against him, her arms coming around him.

"I'm told most of the dragons are thinking of going into crystal sleep," he said, his voice hauntingly sad.

"What is that?"

"They wish to bury themselves deep in the living stone of the Shining Mountains. In a crystal sleep, one thousand years will pass before they next wake. It's their hope to wake up into a better world." His arms tightened a little around her. "If they do this, then there really won't be much reason to keep fighting. The greed of the New People might just taper off for want of the gold in the hills. In time, they'll forget dragons ever existed. A thousand years is a very long time. The world…it will be a much colder place without them. If they sleep, it saddens me that my son will never know them."

They stood together for a long moment, listening to their son gurgle contentedly. And then, Kaoru drew back a little, her eyes seeking his. "Where are we going to go from here?"

"Home," Kenshin said simply.

Her heart skipped a beat. "To Iyo?"

He nodded. "The farm will be our home now. We'll start a new life together, you an I. And our pups."

Pups. Plural.

"Will you truly be happy there?"

"I'm happy wherever you are," he said, the glow of his eyes meaning it. "Iyo is a good place to start."

"Start what?"

"A new kind of fight. I'm not entirely certain how to go about doing what I must do, but I have to do what I can with my short lifespan with the hope that this might be a better world for the dragons of my people when they wake up. Should they decide to sleep."

"Do you think they will? Sleep?"

"They can't bear to see what is happening to their young, and what the fight is doing to the human pups. I've seen what they fear with my own eyes. The New People have treated us like animals or so long, we're starting to become animals. So…I think they will. They believe it's for the best."

He drew her close again and his kiss was long and possessive and filled with promises for the future. Because there was still a future. For them. For everyone. Even, eventually, for the dragons.

"Are you ready to go home?"

"Yes," Kaoru answered softly. Then the sadness lifted a little from her heart when he lifted her to the back of her horse and then picked up Kenji and placed him in her arms.

She watched Kenshin jump effortlessly aboard his own mount, admiring the form of him before he turned a little to look at her, love and a soft kind of peace in his eyes.

Then she touched her heels to her horse's flanks and followed Kenshin home.