The Faerie Chronicles of Kenshin & Kaoru: The Princess and the Assassin, a Rurouni Kenshin fanfic by Raberba girl
Chapter 4 - "I can't run away anymore."
Trapped in her own chambers, the human queen fell back against the wall in horror, her hands pressed over her mouth as she stared at the corpses of her guards littering the floor. Their killer stood among them, gazing at her as blood dripped from the sword in his hand. His face was terrifying, with a scarlet cross slashed on one cheek and eyes that glowed a bright, menacing yellow.
"Wh...Why...?" she whimpered.
His voice startled her - it sounded young, but unnaturally deep, and as cold and hard as steel. "Forgive me." He took a step toward her, and she let out a little shriek of terror.
"I have no...personal grudge...against you..." The familiar words were sticking in his throat. At the very least, she deserved some kind of explanation before she died. "I am afraid that you angered the son of the Faerie King."
Her face went white as she realized what he referred to. "I resisted the advances of a stranger, and now I am to die for it?!"
The possibility occurred to him, not for the first time, that Shishio might have had less actual interest in the queen than in setting him up for this moment. He raised his sword as he approached.
'The Faerie King...' Then this assassin was a fae. At once, the queen plunged her hand into a pocket of her skirt, searching for the wards she kept there.
He frowned, but before he could say anything, she had flung a handful of salt in his face. He gasped in pain and shook the salt out of his eyes, as a rosy rash spread across his cheeks. The poison had temporarily dimmed his vision, though not enough to prevent him from completing his mission. He made a move to restrain her, then decided that she had the right to fight for her life, no matter how unsuccessfully.
She had run to her jewelry box, and when she saw him coming for her again, she seized a handful of the thin chains and made a brave charge, pressing the silver to his face. It made no mark upon his flesh.
"Silver will not harm my kind," he told her quietly, and took her wrist in one hand so he could kill her with the other.
Screaming, she struggled wildly and managed to twist out of his reluctant grip. She caught sight of the remains of her supper and lunged for it, snatching up the salt shaker and clawing unsuccessfully to get the cap off, her shaking fingers turned useless from terror.
He briefly closed his eyes and swallowed hard, feeling sick. He couldn't stand this much longer.
A sound finally came to his attention, a wailing that had been going on for quite some time, unnoticed until now. He opened his eyes again to see a little bed across the room, where a tiny girl was curled into a ball with her eyes tightly shut, crying over and over again for her mother. Awakened by the noise, the girl's sobs had become increasingly high-pitched until she was practically shrieking. "Mama! Mama! Mama...!"
The queen saw where he was looking, and her heart seemed to stop with horror. 'Kaoru,' she thought wildly. 'He means to use her as a hostage, to get me to comply-' Already she had flown into action.
As he looked at the little girl, he realized with a sinking certainty that there was no way he could kill this woman. Whatever the consequences, he simply couldn't do it; he would sooner die himself.
That decision had only just crossed his mind when he gasped, and heard the horrible, wet sound of a blade passing through flesh. He stared at the queen, who had seized his hand and thrust the sword it was holding deep into her own body. Their eyes were locked together, horror-filled gold and anguished blue.
"It's done," she gasped with the last of her breath. "So please...please don't hurt her...please, let her live..." Blood bubbled up into her throat and she fell backwards, bearing the sword with her, for his hand was suddenly too weak to hold it.
He gazed down at her, watching her die, and when the light left her eyes, his legs could no longer hold him. He collapsed to the floor, sitting there numbly as the child's cries wailed on and on in his ears.
o.o.o.o.o
Where could he go? To whom could he possibly turn? Any of Shishio's people were out of the question; his grandmother and her court would only pretend to sympathize and then lose interest. There was only...
Tomoe finally became aware of a presence outside her door. She tensed, but whoever it was did not enter, did not knock, did not call out. She would not have been able to sense a human, any Unseelie would have barged in by now, and there was only one Seelie who could possibly have any business with her.
It took her two tries to speak through her suddenly dry throat. "Enter."
As if it was a signal for release, the door burst open at once. Before it had even banged back against the wall, Battousai had crossed the room, fallen at her feet, and was sobbing into her lap as if his heart had broken. He kept seeing the queen's face, distorted by the pangs of death as she begged for the life of her child. He kept feeling her hands gripping his, the sensation of the sword he held driving through her body against his will...
When he desperately pushed those fresh, blood-soaked memories away, older ones rose up like ghosts from the ashes of his childhood. He saw a world of flames as the palace, his home, was burned during the attack. He saw his father cut down by the enemy. He saw his mother and three sisters rushing to protect him, each slashed to death as they screamed for mercy. He felt the hand of their murderer in his hair, dragging him away...
It was a long time before Battousai was able to escape the past, and when he finally regained awareness of Tomoe's warmth, the silence of her room, he realized that the hands in his hair were now hers. Her fingers stroked slowly, soothingly, and he knelt there gaining comfort from her touch for quite some time before he realized what he was doing.
"What happened?" she asked quietly when she saw that his weeping had stopped.
He tensed, then suddenly pushed himself to his feet and backed away. "Tomoe, I'm sorry. I had no right to come here. My deepest apologies for disturbing you." He was just turning to go when she seized his arm and slapped him across the face.
"Don't you dare," she hissed. "Don't you dare come here to get what you need from me, and then abandon me again like the selfish beast you are!" Then she burst into tears.
He stared at her in shock for a moment, then slowly put his arms around her. She was right - it had not even occurred to him that, just as she had been his only solace in this dark hour, she must have seen him as the only spark of light in her otherwise hopeless world. He held her tighter and admitted to himself that it was too late. He couldn't leave her now, even to protect her. "Forgive me," he whispered. Then, because he couldn't help it, "You would be loath to let these hands touch you, if you knew what they have done."
"The same could be said for my own," she murmured. "Yet you already knew that, and you hold me anyway..." She looked up at him. "Battousai-"
"Kenshin," he corrected firmly. "Himura Kenshin. And..." He took a deep breath. "There is another name. Shinta."
She stared at him in open shock, nearly overwhelmed by the gift of trust he had placed in her. Among the fae, names could be used for spells, and therefore were closely guarded; to know a person's true name...
"Kenshin," she whispered.
"I'm yours," he told her. "I don't know how I can be with you, but I can't run away anymore."
Tomoe was quiet for a minute. Then she said, "No. I think running is an excellent idea." She smiled at little at his confused look. "Only this time, you will run away with me."
His eyes widened slightly when he realized what she was suggesting. Thoughtfully, he asked, "Do you think Shishio would notice a simple man and wife, living as peasants in the human realm?"
"Such a plan is not without hope. However...I must insist that this married couple be complete with a child as well."
He blushed a little. "I think it's a bit early for-"
"Enishi," she said quietly, and his expression went serious. "I am sorry, Kenshin, but...my father and my younger brother are all that I love in this place. My father does well here, but Enishi...my heart aches to see him growing up among such people."
"We will take him with us," Battousai said gravely. "Tomorrow night, Tomoe - I will come for you."
To be continued...
Author's Notes: In folklore, salt is a fae-bane. I suppose Kenshin's cooks don't serve him anything containing it, though, being over half human, it wouldn't bother him as much as it would a pure-blood fae.
Originally, I meant for Kenshin & Kaoru to never find out the truth of her mother's death, because I knew it was going to make The Sleeping Prince really long and complicated, and I was too lazy to see it through. However, skenshingumi made an invaluable contribution to the series when she expressed dissatisfaction with this, and due to her suggestion, I found a way to have Kenshin & Kaoru find out the truth after all. As a result, The Sleeping Prince took a darker turn and, as I knew it would, got really long and complicated. However, I think that it is a much better story now, and Kenshin & Kaoru's relationship is stronger than ever after what they went through. (Besides, now we have Immortality to brighten up the bittersweet ending of The Sleeping Prince.)