Hi again. First of all I wanted to tell you this chapter was NOT planned. This story's been as much of a surprise to me as it has to you. But that's the best with being an author (grins).
The chapter turned out very well and an important clue is given here... You'll have to read the chapter to figure it out. Have a great time and don't forget to REVIEW!!
The Battle Princess of Walachia
"Yohim!"
The young woman stretched her back and turned to her mother, the one calling for her.
"Yes, mother?"
"Mil and Ry has run off again. Go look for them. Ye're the only one they have respect for."
Yohim frowned and sighed tiredly, making her look ten years older than she was. Mil and Ry, shorts for Milihocheaw and Rytus, were her young adoptive sons. Mil was twelve and a very protective big brother, but that hardly stopped him from being a cocky brat. Ry was his two years younger brother, and the worse troublemaker to ever walk the earth. The two of them had lost their parents to an illness, so Yohim had taken them under her wings protection and raised them for five years now.
Yohim went to her home and put away her scythe and went to look for her children.
'The best with those two,' she thought as she took off in the direction of a loud noise and raised voices. 'Is that they are so easy to find when they have done something.'
She placed herself just around a corner and waited with her arms crossed. And only seconds later a young boy with cream coloured hair and dark purple eyes rounded the corner with his white haired brother and ran right into her, making both the kids fall back on their butts. Mil's flashing eyes looked up, and immediately the look of harm and hurt pride changed into one of surprise and shame. His brother stood up and was about to run away with a cocky comment over his shoulder when he realized whom they had run into, and his round face immediately fell.
"Let me guess; you were bored?" Yohim said calmly. The children only nodded.
A man in his late forties suddenly turned the corner, making both Mil and Ry hide behind their protector's skirts.
"Yohim, this is the third time this moon! Do something about those children or God help them if I get my hands on them next time they touch my tomato plants."
"I am not their mother, Kohamo. They don't have the same respect for me as they had for her. But if they do touch your plants again I assure you I will not be here to save them again."
That made both Mil and Ry look at each other in fear.
"The best would be to give them a lesson in discipline right away!" the man yelled, and the children hid further behind Yohim's skirts.
"Not all agree with you," Yohim said, her voice daring the man to say against her. She may be a woman, but she was a woman with high authority. Kohamo fell back under her straight glare and mumbled something before he turned and walked away.
Yohim turned and walked back to her home, the children following her like kicked puppies.
"Ma Yoro?" Ry spoke up softly, but the older woman ignored him.
"Are we in trouble?" Mil asked, but Yohim still ignored them.
The boys looked worriedly at each other. If Yohim wanted to she could just leave them on the street, and right now they were really worried they had buried themselves too deep.
They arrived to their home, a small hut just enough for the small family to live in. It had two rooms, one for sleeping in, and one for eating in. Having two rooms were a luxury in their clan.
Yohim went straight for the small shed the entire clan shared and took out her scythe, making the two boys draw back in fear.
"Here," Yohim said and handed the kids one rake each. "Since you can't be still without me around, you simply have to help me on the field."
The boys silently took the rakes and followed their adoptive mother back to the field she had been working on before.
"My, my. You have finally decided to teach them a little discipline," a bright voice said.
Yohim smirked and turned to the one who had talked. "Like you are one to talk, Kaio. I must say I can't remember last time I saw you work."
Kaio, Yohim's cousin and best friend, laughed at the comment, knowing what the other meant. "Four hands work faster than two," she said as she grabbed her scythe and followed Yohim and the kids.
Kaio was four years younger than Yohim and still unmarried, though she certainly didn't lack suitors. Her skin was beautifully tanned and her waist-long, autumn brown hair was straight in difference to other gypsies. Most of them had black, curly hair like Yohim. And her eyes were blue. A beautiful, heaven blue colour every unmarried gypsy girl envied.
"Yohim…" Mil started carefully, but his protector cut him off with a very angry voice.
"If you two troublemakers stay close to me and work as you're supposed to do, I can promise you with Earth and Heaven as witnesses that nothing will harm you."
That was a promise that could not be broken, and the boys knew it. Earth and Heaven always witnessed their daily work and would punish anyone who broke a promise under their guarding eyes. They nodded their heads.
"Good. Then you can grab those rakes and go to work. And God help you if I turn around and find you have run away again."
"…Yes, Ma Yoro," the boys said lowly, both heads lowered in shame.
"Harsh words, my friend," Kaio whispered to her older cousin.
When they went to bed that night both Mil and Ry were drained. They had stayed very close to Yohim the entire day, afraid of what would happen if they didn't. When their adoptive mother entered the hut they stared up at her, once again noticing how strong and beautiful she was.
Yohim ignored them though. She started making her and her husband's bed. She was still angry with them.
"M-mother."
That made the older woman look over at the pair of very big, teary eyes staring at her. She heaved a heavy sigh before she walked over to the boys and sat down and held them close to her, one on each side. "My dear boys. You are still thinking of today, are you not?"
Both of them nodded, not daring to look up at her.
Yohim sighed again. "You should know by now I have a short temper, so please tell me why you continue to test my patience."
Both boys hid their faces deeper into her chest, not seeing Yohim's pained expression. No one said anything in a long while, but suddenly Yohim jerked as if she had been hit, making the boys look up at her.
"You boys stay here, and do not dare to follow me."
She said it with such angry force the children cringed.
Yohim stepped outside and started to walk the path her husband took each morning, and returned the same way in the evenings.
"What have you done?" she asked in a low voice.
"Are you questioning me, woman?" the clan leader of Yoro, Yohim's husband, asked.
"Why are you covered in the blood of others?" Yohim asked.
"I did bath, and change cloths."
"I smell the blood on you."
The man smirked. He was so beautiful, and even more dangerous. His long, black curly hair was mostly tied back, but since it was so thick most of it fell over his shoulders and in his face. When they married he had been so sweet and shy, but still very courageous and honest. But as the years passed he had lost the sweet innocence Yohim had once fallen in love with. Right then she wondered just where he had started to change.
"My dear, beautiful Yohim," he said lowly and stepped closer to her, his orange eyes glistening in the dark. He reached out and touched her cheek tenderly. "I know your gift to foretell the future hasn't failed you."
Yohim stood still, as frozen. He chuckled as he sensed her fear.
"There is a reason I love you, Yohim. There has always been a reason."
"May it be," his wife hissed and hit his hand away. "But I can no longer find the reason I ever married you."
The sound of a fist hitting a face echoed in the night.
"Don't try it," he hissed.
Yohim's nose was bleeding and the flesh under her left eye was starting to turn red from the hit. "I will," she whispered. "Until the day I find a way to stop what's happening I will."
Mil and Ry looked up as somebody entered the hut, hoping it was Yohim. But to their disappointment it was the clan leader. It was strange really. No one in the entire clan knew of his real name. It was as if it had been erased from everyone's memory. Nowadays the clan members just called him master or Shi.
Shi lay down on his bed and fell asleep right away. The brothers waited for Yohim to return, listening for the safe sound of her light, confident footsteps. They waited until none of them knew how late it was, and slowly they faded into the world of dreams.
At daybreak Mil jerked awake. The clan leader was awakening and went to do his morning rites. The older of the children looked at the bed for Yohim, only to find she wasn't there.
'Did she leave early?' he thought, but almost immediately realized that wasn't the case. Yohim had never come back.
Ry awoke when the clan leader closed the door when he left for wherever he headed during the days.
"Ma Yoro?"
No answer. They looked at each other, worried about what had happened and where Yohim had gone to. She had dared them to follow her when she left, but what if she never came back…
When they were sure Shi was long gone the boys rushed out of the hut in search for their adoptive mother.
"Ma Yoro!" Mil called over the field where she usually worked, but the field was empty.
"Old Jinna, where's Ma Yoro?" Ry asked the clan's healer, who were out collecting herbs.
The old woman looked at them with pain in her fading eyes. "Take over her work on thy fields today," was all she said.
"No!" Ry yelled. "Not until Ma Yoro comes back. We won't work until she's around again!"
"Fools!" the old woman yelled. "Ye're too young! Ye don't understand."
"We'll look for Ma Yoro till we find her!" Ry yelled back.
Old Jinna raised her hand to slap the stubborn boy, but a stronger hand stopped her.
"That's enough."
Old Jinna looked up into Kaio's ice blue eyes, and cringed. Kaio may still be young, but she was much stronger than she looked like and lacked all sense of respect towards the old people's ways of teaching children to know their place.
"Kaio, Ma Yoro…"
Mil was silenced by the older girl's icy glare.
"Go back to what you were doing, Old Jinna. I will take care of her children for now."
Old Jinna walked away as fast as her old legs would carry her, eager to get away from the ice eyed girl.
"Where's Ma Yoro?" Mil asked stubbornly.
"Take a rake and help me on the fields."
"Not until…"
"Yohim isn't here," Kaio hissed, tears forming in her eyes, scaring the two boys. "Just… take the rakes and help me work. Please."
It wasn't often Kaio said please, but today she looked really upset and wouldn't look the boys in the eyes when she talked.
Slowly, hesitating, Mil and Ry did what they were told.
That night, after Kaio had told them to go home, Mil and Ry followed Yohim's cousin. They were surprised to see her walk into the healer's tent, and even more surprised to see old Jinna hurry out of it and walk away while talking to herself.
Mil decided to go straight in and ask Kaio what was going on. If Kaio had been sick or hurt, old Jinna wouldn't have run off. The old hag was a bitch, but she never refused to help anybody. Ry held onto his older brother's shirt and followed him into the gloom of the tent.
Kaio looked up at them with surprise, and then in anger.
"Go away," she hissed.
Too late. The brothers had already seen what Kaio and old Jinna had tried to hide from them. On a mattress of dry hay lay Yohim, bruised and swollen. Kaio had been changing bandages when the kids came so her face and body was exposed, as well as the many bruises on them.
"Ma Yoro," Ry whispered.
Yohim must have heard him, for she opened her one fresh eye and looked at them.
"You shouldn't have come," she whispered. "I didn't want you to see me like this."
Mil's eyes suddenly widened. "It was him," he said weakly. "The clan leader hurt you."
Yohim sighed painfully and Kaio immediately started bandaging her wounds again.
"I wish you could have stayed out of this," Yohim said. "Then you would've been saved so much fear. I know you fear my husband enough already. And truth to be told, so do I."
"I can't believe that guy," Kaio said lowly. "What in heaven and earth's name made him such a jerk? He who used to be so sweet. I used to envy you, Yohim, for having such a perfect man for a husband."
Yohim didn't say anything in a while and the brothers sat down near their adoptive mother, without being in the way of Kaio's tending hands.
"I can't bear his children," Yohim said when Kaio was done. "I think that was a great disappointment for him. But he said there is a reason he loves me, that there always will be a reason. And I'm afraid to know what that reason is."
"But isn't it a good thing?" Ry asked carefully. "To have a reason to love?"
Yohim drew a shaking breath. "Love is unreasonable. You can't decide who to love, like you can't decide who is your brother or sister, or even who are your parents. Someone once told me… that our lives are filled with choices. But at the same time there are so many things we can't rule. We can't choose what to feel about the people around us, like we can't choose when to fall ill or get into an accident. To have a reason of love… my husband has something in mind that involves me… and it is not for good."
Silence ruled for a long time, until old Jinna suddenly entered the tent with a jar in her arms. "Here ye go," she said and carelessly dropped it in Kaio's arms. "If ye're so eager to do my work, then do it."
"You should be careful when you go to town next time, Jinna," Yohim said softly. "Somebody wants to hurt you."
"Be quiet ye little fox. I don't care if ye're that man's wife, ye should know yer place."
"I don't want you to die," Yohim said. But the old woman wouldn't listen. She just snorted and muttered something about giving a real lesson in respect and went out again.
"Does somebody actually want to hurt Jinna?" Mil whispered.
"Old Jinna's way of demanding respect will come back to hunt her. I have tried to warn her for a long time. By this time tomorrow she will regret she never listened."
"Will she die?" Ry whispered fearfully.
"If nobody saves her I'm afraid she will. I must say I can not see if she will die or not."
Mil and Ry looked at each other, but Kaio's eyes suddenly lit up in realization.
"You have the gift of seeing the future," she whispered.
"It is… no gift," Yohim breathed and fell asleep.
Mil, Ry and Kaio slept by her side that night, to old Jinna's vexation. She didn't like sharing her tent with healthy people.
The next morning Yohim was up walking again, though both Jinna's and Kaio's protests.
"I will do no good lying around anymore," Yohim said firmly. "I'm only bruised and nothing is broken. So get off my back and get back to work."
Mil and Ry didn't argue. They were more than happy to see Yohim's strong, confident face again, after being so afraid the day before that she was gone. They both worked more than they had to that day out of pure happiness. Yohim smiled and laughed at them and made sure to cook their favourite food for dinner.
After dinner they returned to their work, but suddenly Yohim stopped and looked towards the direction of the road leading to Dracul's castle.
Dracul was the king of Walachia, and an evil one at that. He loved to torture his prisoners and rumours said he dined in his execution garden where bodies hung on poles. Even the executors feared him and that place.
"Ma Yoro?" Ry said, tugging at her skirt.
"What is it?" Kaio asked.
"Travellers," Yohim said and started walking down the road.
The three younger followed her until she stopped. Yohim's long braid moved in the wind and her colourful cloths seemed to dance around her slim body. Kaio caught herself thinking her cousin looked like a strong guardian where she stood.
It took a few minutes before they heard the sound of horses and wagons coming up the road, and once they were in sight it was obvious they were frightened. The horses wanted to flee, but were held back by four strong men who fought to suppress their own fear. The travellers had visited the king Dracul, that much was for sure.
Yohim stepped forward as the horses came closer and help up a hand in greeting. She almost shone with a safe and confident light. The horses stopped and the travellers turned to look at her.
"In the absence of my husband I greet you to this land," Yohim said with clear and steady voice.
Kaio and the children stared as the horses, just by the sound of Yohim's voice, calmed down and stopped awkward and stood still in front of her. Even the travellers seemed to relax slightly in Yohim's presence. A middle-aged man stepped down from the first wagon and walked up to Yohim.
"I greet you, fair lady," he said, rising his hand. "We are travellers from north who seek a place to call a home."
Yohim's brown eyes were steady on the man as she answered. "Then, with a heavy heart, I must ask you to leave. Under Dracul's ruling hand this land is no place for the young ones of yours, or even mine, to grow up."
"Then we hope we can at least stay for one day to rest from a long journey."
The gypsies drew closer to their leader. Ry peeped out from behind Yohim's skirts, Mil grabbed her hand and Kaio laid a hand on her cousin's steady shoulder.
"Stay for one day and one night," Yohim started as she looked upon the other travellers watching them, "and you will lose three women and one man in your company."
The travellers gasped and whispered with each other. Yohim looked her gaze at those four she knew would not be there the next day. All of them were young, and one of the women was pregnant.
"You should leave while you can," Kaio said, her blue eyes determined. "Ma Yoro is never wrong."
"Give us protection," an old woman called. "Give us your protection. We can pay you, but give us your protection."
Yohim's straight face calmly met the woman's demand. It was obvious this old lady was used to be obeyed.
"Travel west and cross the river before sunset," she said. "That is all the protection I can give."
The old woman's eyes flashed with anger. She was old and worn, and she wanted to rest. She was about to start yelling at the younger woman standing in their way when Kaio suddenly stepped in between them.
"Ma Yoro knows this land and how to protect the people. Our men are no soldiers who can protect you from the king or anything else. Listen to her words and you will be protected. Disobey and waste the lives of your family."
Even Yohim was surprised, but smiled in gratitude for her cousin's interruption. Kaio's ice stare and confident voice would be enough to scare a demon into obeying.
One of the younger women stepped up to the gypsies. She had long golden blonde hair and honey brown eyes. "I will follow your suggestion and take my family west, so please take this as a taken of my gratitude for your advice." She held out a silver cross with a sapphire in each edge. "You are meant to bear it," she added lowly.
Yohim nodded and took the cross in her hands. As she did the stones started to shine and the silver gleamed as if made this same morning. Immediately the travellers' stares changed and they whispered together, staring wide-eyed at Yohim, a gypsy woman who had just by touching the cross had made it glow.
The young woman bowed to Yohim, a simple, graceful movement. "My name is Jona, one who will be reborn with you."
Yohim immediately knew this young woman was the fortune-teller of this travelling party, one with a gift that ran deeper than hers.
"I will remember your name, young Jona. Now leave, travel fast, and pass the river before sunset."
Jona nodded and her honey brown eyes gleamed with gratitude before she turned back to the still whispering travellers. "Get back into the wagons and head west. If we fail passing the river before sunset there will only be blood left of those to be killed."
When the wagons left Yohim and the others went back to their daily work. But when the evening came a young boy, only a few years older than Mil, came running to Yohim with a frightened expression.
"M-ma Yoro. It's old Jinna."
Yohim hushed at him, making him draw deep breaths so that he could talk clearly. "What is it with old Jinna?" Yohim asked softly, part of her already knowing what he was about to say.
"In the village, she got into a fight… she's dead."
Mil, Ry and Kaio looked at each other, but Yohim sighed deeply. "I tried to warn her, but she refused to listen. And since she had no apprentice… Kaio, I must ask you to take over her work as our clan's healer. At least for now."
Two years passed since that day, and each day Yohim's husband returned home the darkness within him had grown even stronger. Yohim, strong and safe, stood up to him, but thanks to the cross he could never hurt her again. It would explode with light that knocked him out cold, and in the morning he would have forgotten what had happened.
Mil and Ry grew stronger each day. Mil proved to be good with knives and therefore took over much of the cooking. When he thought no one saw though he would practice throwing handmade stone knives at wood targets.
Ry was practicing archery. An art that many of the other gypsies of their own and other clans saw as unnecessary and improper for such a young boy. But try as they may to convince Yohim to teach him a more proper hobby, she just wouldn't listen to them. That she knew all about Mil's knife practice too she never mentioned, but couldn't help but smirk a little when she caught him, without his notice, as he practiced in the woods when he was supposed to bring firewood to the stove. She let both the boys be, for in the faint picture she had of her future, they would both need their skills, so she wouldn't stop them.
And the time when the brothers would be in need of their abilities would come soon.
"You're coming with me to the castle tomorrow," Shi said when he entered the hut one moonless night.
Mil and Ry cringed at the sound of his voice, but Yohim didn't move an inch. "Why is that?" she asked calmly without looking at him.
"I know you already know," Shi almost spat as he passed the three on his way to his bed.
"What about the children?" the gypsy woman asked as she filled a bowl with stew for her husband. "Here's your food."
"They're not our children."
"They are mine."
"Did you give birth to them?"
"You know I didn't."
"Then you can leave them as easy as you took them in. They never belonged in my house anyway."
"Since you're never here you have no right to claim the house as your own. It is mine and their home too, darling."
Shi looked up at his wife with fire in his gaze, but Yohim wouldn't waver. But when the clan leader suddenly sneered she had to suppress the cold shivers running down her spine. "Then take them with you, if they are so important to you."
Yohim just bowed her head slightly, not showing she was afraid, and went to put the boys to bed.
"Ma Yoro," Ry whispered. "Why does he want you to go to Dracul?"
"Hush now. You must sleep now so you can wake up on time tomorrow. I will need you there."
Mil said nothing, but his eyes spoke more than any words. Yohim couldn't stand looking into those deep, purple eyes.
"Please sleep now. I will still be here when you wake up." 'Merciful God, please protect us.' she thought silently. Under her cloths the cross glimmered, hearing her deep wish.
The next morning, just when the east sky was shifting shades from deep blue to grey, pink and gold Yohim shook the brothers awake. It was time to leave.
Ry and Mil held on to Yohim's strong hands as if their lives depended on it. Little did they know they did. Because they were only children and too much was going on for them to understand, and Yohim could hardly tell them. She sure didn't want to take them along, but she had no choice. If she wanted to survive she had to bring them. All she could do in return was to protect them the best she could and hope with all her heart someone would save them.
The castle rose from the earth like a false mountain, big and dark. The sky was covered in heavy, grey clouds that promised rain during the day. To Mil and Ry it looked like a hungry monster just waiting to devour them. Yohim had seen this looming monster too many times to count, and she was more scared of what waited for them inside than the castle's dangerous appearance.
The guards let them pass, obviously knowing the clan leader of Yoro very well, but their eyes hungrily took in Yohim's well built body, something she fought to ignore with all her might. Mil and Ry was as good as completely hidden in her long skirts.
Yohim's husband led them through seemingly endless dark, moist and echoing corridors that smelled like they hadn't been cleaned in many years. Every here and there mildew covered the walls, spreading such a disgusting smell it made all but Shi hold their breaths.
At last they reached the throne room.
"I have arrived, master Dracul," the clan leader of Yoro said and kneeled in front of the king. Yohim and the boys had their eyes concentrated on the ground, knowing they had no right to talk or move without Dracul's allowance. They heard how the king clicked his tongue in delight.
"A fine woman indeed," the king said. "The finest I have seen this far. Her name?"
"Yohim, master. Yohim Yoro."
"Your wife?"
"Yes, master."
"And her only relative?"
Yohim's eyes widened and her heart skipped a beat as Kaio's image flashed through her mind.
"Yes master," Shi said once again.
The king made a satisfied sound. "Good. Take her in."
Mil and Ry gasped as a side door opened and Kaio was pushed into the room by three guards, all of them two times her size. Kaio's cloths were torn, her hair was messy and her dirty face had bruises on her left cheek and forehead. Though her battled appearance she still struggled against the guards and yelled at them to let her go.
"Kaio!" Ry called, drawing attention to him.
The brunette turned her head and her eyes, filled with hurt pride and anger, immediately brimmed with tears. She fought off the surprised guards and ran straight into Yohim's waiting arms.
"Whose children?" the king asked.
"Mine since my sister's death," Yohim answered before her husband could come up with an answer, and she couldn't care less her outburst could have her killed then and there. Luckily for her right then the king had other plans for her.
"Very well, it does not matter too much anyway. I simply called you here to bless the engagement between me and sweet Kaio.
Yohim's heart froze to ice and almost stopped in pure horror. Give Kaio away to the king? Her husband had planned this? This was why he had told her to come with him?
"Don't!"
Everyone looked at Kaio who desperately clung to her cousin's skirt.
"I beg of you, don't let them take me. I hate this place. I want to go home. Take me back home. Don't go away and leave me here. This is hell. I hate it here. I beg you, Yohim, don't let him take me."
"Noisy woman," Shi hissed and was about to grab Kaio to throw her at the king's feet, but once again Yohim was faster. She lifted Kaio up bridal style and held her close.
"I'm taking my cousin with me back to the village. I refuse to give any kind of blessing if either part is unwilling to the engagement. Therefore I will leave."
"You do not fear death, woman?" the king asked so smoothly even the clan leader shivered to the bone.
"Why should I fear something as natural as death?" Yohim asked calmly, turned and left.
"Kill them," she heard the king order his guards.
Mil reacted first. He took out one of the knives he had made and threw it at the first guard approaching them. The guard looked down at his chest where only the handle was visible. Mil was petrified, but he never saw the man die. Yohim dragged him along as she darted through the throne room into the corridor they had come from.
The brothers were both used runners, so once they realized they had to run for their lives they did. Yohim could only keep up with them because of her much longer legs.
Another guard stepped into view right in front of them with a bow half ready to aim at them, but Yohim had strong legs and was sure to put them to use. She jumped and the man's face collided with her knee, knocking him out cold.
"Ry, the bow!"
The young boy didn't need to be told twice. He grabbed bow and arrows and rushed after his adoptive mother with hell itself in his heels.
"These things coming now are not alive," Yohim gasped to the boys. "Do what you can. Right now I need your protection."
The brothers looked at each other, both a little confused, but at the same time determined to protect the woman whom had protected them since their parents died.
"Here they come. Ry!"
The bow was too long for Ry to go down on his knees to steady himself, but he didn't have the time to either way. He skidded and aimed the bow horizontally, firing it before he actually came to a halt. What happened next surprised them all so greatly they had to stop.
Ry's arrow flew in a flash of light that lit up the entire corridor, and the light itself took down more of the creatures in front of them than the actual arrow.
"Ry?"
"We have no time to be impressed. We must get out of here," Yohim said and started running again, Kaio still in her arms. The poor girl had been in the castle the whole night. Dracul's guards had come to bring her to him, and she had fought against them the entire night. She was too drained to notice much of what was going on around her. All she actually could do was clinging onto Yohim's safe body with the last of her strength.
Yohim, Mil and Ry ran for their lives trying their best to find a way out. Yohim tried to use her ability of future telling, but she had never really had a hold of how to do it, so it was very limited. Still it helped them avoid the king's worst traps.
"There's a window up ahead with a heap of hey below. We must jump," Yohim gasped. She was out of breath and her heart was beating so hard it hurt against her ribs. The only thing keeping her running was pure adrenaline.
"What window?" Mil yelled as three of them came into view.
"The left one, closest to Ry. Now jump!"
Yohim was out of the window first and fell through the air down two floors. Landing on her back with Kaio on top she felt how at least two ribs broke and how her hard beating heart fell out of rhythm. She heard how Mil and Ry landed somewhere around her, but her vision was blurry form pain and she had a hard time breathing.
"Ma Yoro!"
Yohim knew what she had to do. She couldn't carry Kaio another inch, and the boys had no chance of carrying both her and defend themselves at the same time.
"Kaio, you must run."
The brunette had been as good as unconscious when they jumped out of the window, but now she woke up.
"Yohim?"
"I can't carry you any longer. Mil and Ry can support you, but you must run on your own now. It's not far to the gate anyway."
"Mother?"
"Run for it. I'm coming."
It was very hesitating and with much confirmation from Yohim the three of them left the clan leader's wife to catch her breath. Truth to be told Yohim only wanted them away from her because she was bleeding. She knew since long ago the monsters of Dracul's lived of blood. By leaving her behind Kaio, Mil and Ry wouldn't attract half as much attention.
"I will come," Yohim rasped with what little voice she had left. Now she only had one thing left to defend herself, and now when she had both arms free she could use it.
Yohim took out the cross hanging around her neck and held it like a sword, hoping for dear life it would be enough to protect both herself and those she loved.
Dracul's monsters, in the shade of the now stormy sky, dived at her.
With all the power she possessed Yohim wielded the cross as if it really was a sword, sending a wave of pure energy towards the sky. What had meant to kill her disappeared in the wave, leaving Yohim with a thought of gratitude towards Jona.
But she had no more time to rest. The gypsy woman half-heartedly shook the hay out of her cloths and started running towards the drawbridge.
Dashing through the courtyard she saw Kaio and the boys fighting off some guards. She also noticed the bridge was up, but for the moment she couldn't think as usual. The moves of her arms weren't her own. It was just like some greater power had taken over her tired body and mind.
Kaio and the boys didn't really know what happened. One moment they tried to fight off the king's guards, and the next the men fell like they just fainted. Mil was the first to notice Yohim.
"Ma Yoro! We can't get out!"
"We will get out of here!" Yohim yelled, dashing towards the thick chain keeping the bridge up and used the power of the cross to cut it off.
The heavy drawbridge fell with a deafening boom. "Run for it!"
When the four friends had finally passed the bridge, many guards and monsters in their heels, Yohim suddenly spun around, aiming her gaze at the dark castle.
"I won't allow you to take them," she whispered to the king's eyes she had locked her gaze with.
"Yohim!"
"MOTHER!"
The gypsy used both her hands and aimed her cross towards the sky.
A powerful beam of light, created by Yohim's wish to protect, hit the dark clouds hanging low over the earth, clearing the sky from them and bringing down the bright light of the noon sun. Just like the king had created the storm with the power of the devil, Yohim had cleared the sky with the power of God.
Screams from the monsters filled the air when the sunlight hit them, burning them to ashes. Even the guards ducked under the bright light and retreated back into the darkness of the castle.
Yohim stood still in the sunlight for a moment, sending her heart's gratitude to Jona and to God. But she knew this moment to breathe would only last till nightfall. But right now she needed rest. So Yohim, tired, relieved and wounded fainted right then and there.
It was a pair of very anxious blue eyes that met her brown ones a few hours before sunset. Then the blue depths flashed with mixed emotions, relief and anger among them.
"You stupid, overprotective, lying piece of… woman," Kaio hissed and started to change the bandages covering Yohim's chest. She had been crying the whole day, and had no more water to turn to tears. "The boys are sleeping. They've been watching you all day, refusing to eat, so I knocked them out."
Kaio sniffed, but angrily shook her head so that she could stay angry. After all, it was much easier to be angry than sad. Much easier.
"I am only a human," Yohim said.
"That's right," Kaio accused. "A human. A small human trying to fight powers much greater than I can understand. I can't tell how you managed to clear the sky from clouds and rain, but it was not your doing in the first place. So, as the Yoro clan's healer, I demand you to stay in bed until your ribs have healed."
Yohim sighed and smiled sadly. "If I obey, we will all be dead before sunrise," she mumbled.
"I'm not listening," Kaio said loudly as she crushed herbs to make her cousin a painkiller.
Yohim watched her younger cousin, who worked furiously with herbs and bandages and refused to believe anything Yohim had to say about the future or death.
"It is like a story," Yohim said softly. "Even if you stop listening it won't change the outcome."
"Stop it! I don't want to hear it!"
"Only will can not change what is happening."
"Stop!"
"There is nothing anybody can do to stop the sun from setting."
"Don't say anymore!"
"But only I shall die tonight."
"I TOLD YOU TO STOP!"
Mil and Ry jerked awake from Kaio's furious scream and the sound of a bowl hitting the ground and shattering. They looked up at the brunette who stood, trembling from head to toe, staring at Yohim with tears flowing like rivers down her cheeks.
"I don't want to hear it," Kaio said, her voice small and thin. "I don't want to hear I must live without you." Her voice hardly carried. "I don't want to hear what I already know." Yohim looked at her, but wouldn't waver in her decision. "I don't want to hear you talk so lightly about death." Mil and Ry's eyes widened in horror. "I don't want to hear… that you will die."
Kaio's dam broke and she fell to the ground crying like a small child. Yohim, against her body's painful protests, sat up and crawled over to her, placing her cousin's head in her lap. Kaio just continued to cry loudly. Mil and Ry soon joined them, both of them crying because Kaio did, and because of what she had just said.
"It is my fault this is happening," Yohim said softly, making Kaio's and the boys' wet eyes look up at her. "I was the one who supported my husband when he did not want to go to Dracul for reasons I have forgotten. And I supported him to go visit him again and again. Too late I realized what I did was breaking my husband apart from inside out. He no longer loves me. He hates me. That is why I must face him once again, to pray him to forgive me by ending his suffering. That is what I must do. Because this is happening because of me."
Yohim opened her sad eyes, Yuniko and Yugi along with her.
"I couldn't save him," Yohim's voice whispered. "All I could do in order to save those still alive was to seal them all away. My husband had become Dracul. Dracul had become my husband. But sealing them away took my last stand of life energy. I remember I was crying during the entire battle. My eyes cried in shame for what I was guilty of, my heart cried for someone, anyone, to answer my prayer and save my husband. God answered my prayer by telling me to seal them all away, far away, to a place where my heart would later lead my soul into rebirth."
"What happened to Kaio and the boys?"
Yohim smiled sadly. "When I died my body turned to stone. My wounded soul watched in the morning light how they came to me. Then Jona returned. She told them what I had done. Mil asked her if they could follow me to where I would be reborn. Jona had amazing powers. She used them all, with the help of my blood that was all over the place, to tie their souls to mine which still stood there watching them. She died soon after, and when she did she joined me, a lonely soul unable to go on. She said: I do not want you to be lonely. God does not want you to be lonely, so he sent me to you, to take your hand so you won't be lonely anymore."
"But the second Battle Princess failed as well," Yugi said softly. "She, you, died once again in attempt to end what you started."
"To me it has not yet happened."
Yohim looked up at them. "The seal has not been completely broken. Dracul can not break free. But my husbands feelings are being passed down to the one who since birth loves me most of all. His feelings of betrayal and hatred are being passed to someone most important to you."
Yuniko's eyes widened in pure horror. "Brother."