"One thinks," Kenshin said mildly, scarf about his neck, Kaoru's grocery list tucked into his sleeve and pole with buckets slung over his shoulder, "a Companion must have better things to do than to follow this one about, that you do."
A horse-shaped patch of whiteness detached itself from the blaze of sunlight it'd been trying to hide in. :Nope.:
"Sano." Kenshin kept walking, trying to ignore the chime of silver hooves behind him. It was harder to ignore the odd looks from passers-by; worried and uneasy from Yamato, puzzled - and sometimes, oddly enough, amused - from the Valdemarans in this part of town. "You are making this one obvious."
:And the pink gi doesn't?:
"It's not pink."
:Sure, sure...:
Just one thump, Battousai pleaded. Just one? We know his head can take it.
No, Kenshin thought, once again. I will not harm him simply because he is... annoying.
Though that was a mild way to describe how the Companion's constant presence had grated on his nerves these past few days. In the dojo, in the streets; waking, sleeping, even when he was trying to meditate - Sano was just constantly there. A bright blaze of ki amongst quieter humans; spiritual brightness, like a miko's, that ningen turned toward like flowers seeking sun.
It was sending the youkai side of him into snarling fits.
Tearing firewood apart - not enough. I need to slip him. Just for a little while. I need...
To hunt.
Thought and action blended as he rounded a corner; Kenshin leapt, buckets and all, touching down on a two-story roof.
:Hey! What - where-:
Eyes closed, Kenshin pictured one of the most silent kata he knew; not of Hiten Mitsurugi, but one he'd picked up amongst the Ishin Shishi. Meant for a guard, in the night, who could see nothing yet suspected something was very much there.
Darkness. Silence. Move forward and right into low stance, soundless, blade sheathed; tap the end of the saya against the ground to draw your enemy there. Soundless back, battou-jutsu stance, and strike-
:Yeow!:
Mind still wrapped in shadow, Kenshin fled over the rooftops, buckets gripped so they would not jangle. Sano should be stung, not harmed, by his swift blow of ki; all he wanted was away.
Running. Let me loose. Let me hunt!
...Yes.
He felt the shift in himself; the stretch of claws, the snarl of fangs, the blaze of eyes from violet to pure amber. The setting-aside of muddled human considerations of friend and polite and harmless to the clearer, bloodier view of the youkai. Of the assassin.
Protect your allies. Slay your enemies. Move as you will, where you will - and destroy anything that stands in your way.
It was so much simpler to be Battousai.
But I don't want to hurt anyone...
He stopped for a moment near a tangle of chimneys, thinking that over even as he side-stepped the main drift of smoke. The wanderer had bolted because he didn't want to hurt Sano; because he could feel his youkai blood gnawing at him, and didn't want to risk attacking the spirit-horse if - when - he had to let it run free.
But I don't want to attack him, Battousai realized, surprised. I just wanted some quiet.
Oh, he might have slapped that tender pink nose. Even drawn blood, perhaps. The youkai in him was disciplined, but not patient; and assassins did not like being made obvious.
Yet I don't want to hurt him. I don't really want to hurt anyone.
Amazing. And... odd.
None of mine are hurt. None are in danger. No one expects me to draw a blade in anger.
He'd forgotten the world could be this peaceful.
A quiet smile touched his lips. Battousai set down the buckets, then stretched in the sun like a cat, sunlight flashing off yawning fangs. He was loose, well-fed, unobserved, and under no constraints but to bring back Kaoru's shopping in time to make the evening meal.
A flutter of wings reached his ears, and amber gleamed. And I think dinner tonight will be... dove.
Claws sheathed, he crept after his prey.
Ow. Ow. Ow... Sano shook his ringing head, wincing as a clumsy shopper dropped a pot in a clang of steel. That swift smack of Kenshin's energies against his - yow. Feels like I ended up on the wrong end of Kaoru's bokken.
:Are you all right?: Megumi asked.
:Just sore,: Sano answered sheepishly, moving out of the way of a team of chestnut geldings drawing a cart of cloth bolts. Right now he was doing his best to pass as "horse, ordinary, not worth paying attention to". No matter how much his head hurt. :I think I've pushed it past "Companion, treat with kid gloves", through "odd friendly acquaintance", and into "annoying horse-shaped idiot".:
:You really think irritating him will work?:
:Best plan we've got so far,: Sano shrugged. :Either he'll get used to me and relax his guard the way Yamato do with family, or he'll get ticked as hell and draw his ki all the way so he can thump me a good one.:
:Or he'll bounce blunt steel off your skull again,: Megumi pointed out dryly. :One fight on the riverbank wasn't enough?:
:Hey, I didn't say it was perfect.: But his ears flicked back guiltily. :How's Kaoru holding up?:
:I've managed to siphon off a lot of that... fury, before it dragged us both in.: Megumi's shudder echoed through her Mindspeech. :It makes us both cranky, but we haven't killed Yahiko. Yet. Kenshin's calmed down, though. For now.: Unease rippled through her thoughts.
:He's calmed down?: If Sano'd had eyebrows, he would have raised them. He couldn't read Kenshin's feelings; the ex-hitokiri had too much control to leak anything. Which meant the only window they had into what was going on in Himura's head was the subtle pulse of emotions filtering through Kaoru. Emotions she'd finally agreed to pretend to be clueless about, once they'd explained their evil scheme - ahem, well thought-out and reasonable plan. So far as they could tell, Kenshin had handled his very real fear of being attacked (by his enemies) or disposed of (by his supposed allies) by diligent efforts to look utterly, entirely, ridiculously harmless.
A harmless facade Kaoru could now see through like a pane of stained glass, sensing what that clueless smile hid: a mind as tactically aware as any Weaponsmaster, that could never - quite - stop calculating how to kill.
Though he came close. With the children, surrounded by a quiet garden... he came close.
Still, if Kenshin had any idea Kaoru could feel him as easily as he felt her...
He'd bolt, Sano knew. Probably wouldn't stop until he hit Lake Evendim. If then.
No. Painful as it was for Kaoru, painful as it had to be for Kenshin, they had to pretend the bond wasn't important. Until and unless they could convince the man he was safe, he'd never let someone endanger themselves by loving him.
Gods, if I could only drag him to a MindHealer... :Megumi?:
:Kaoru thinks he's - hunting.:
That jerked Sano to a stop, no matter the crowd. :Hunting? Who? Where?:
:She says, "What, not who, baka". Something about- um. Ugh.: Another ripple. :Apparently, hanyou like to kill their own food.:
If he'd been human, Sano would have screwed up his face, puzzled. :Hanyou?:
:It's a... Gift, I'd guess we'd call it... that shows up in some Yamato.: Megumi's embarrassment touched him. :I've been asked not to talk about it. I know Caryo and Rolan know, they have to, but the Crown wants it kept quiet for now. It's - political.:
Politics. Yuck. Okay, so Kenshin was a hunter, no big deal...
:Sano.: Megumi's mind-voice was uncharacteristically sober. :Are you sure you want him? Really sure? I know you don't feel the Call anymore...:
Sano rolled his eyes. :No, Fox-lady, I'm just following an idiot ex-hitokiri over half of Haven because I don't have anything better to do with my spare time!: He caught his breath. :I don't know what I feel. Those shields of his, that discipline that makes his energies just slip past like shadow... the Call could be ringing in both our heads, and I'd never know.
:But he's my friend.:
Megumi sighed. :Hanyou like to hunt with their claws.:
Blink. Blink.
:Still in one piece?: Megumi asked wryly.
:Not sure,: Sano shot back. :I had this funny dream where you said Kenshin had claws-:
:He does.:
:Wha-? How-?: Damn it, that couldn't be possible! Heck, he'd been punched by the guy; he should know if Kenshin had anything... but... fingernails...
Punched. Meaning Kenshin had his fingers balled up, nails out of sight.
I've seen him grip a sword. Meaning I'm looking at the steel. I've seen him up to his elbows in laundry - his fingers always come up in clothes or suds. I've seen him taking care of kids, or cooking, or any of a hundred other little things. I've never gotten a good look at his hands.
:I don't know how, really,: Megumi admitted. :It's just how some Yamato are born.: Sano felt her shrug. :Gensai says a lot of Edoko don't like hanyou, but at least they know they're not Changechildren. Kenshin found out the hard way people in Rethwellan don't. So he's been very careful when he hunts here. Which is probably why he decided to lose you. Wouldn't want a Companion to see him with his fingers bloody.:
Urk. O...kay. Um. Right. :And this is normal?: Sano couldn't help but ask.
:Kaoru says he might... oh, ugh... make that probably will eat the heart and liver before he brings it back.:
Sano snorted. :Sure, right. And cook it where?:
Silence.
:Megumi... he is going to cook it first, right?:
:She says, probably not. Hanyou don't catch parasites the way ningen do-: A jolt of surprise. :Oh!:
Sano reached out to Megumi, feeling the hot pulse of satisfaction echoing from Kaoru's bond. Primal, predatory; fierce and gleeful as a gryphon, standing over the snapped neck of its prey.
:Oh Havens. Oh, I think I want to throw up now...:
:Deep breaths,: Sano reminded her. :At least you're just getting some emotional backwash. If they were BeSpeaking each other, we'd probably feel him chewing.:
:You... sadist...: He felt Megumi pull away, mentally gagging.
Oops. Sighing, Sano walked back into the throng. If Kenshin hadn't gone too far, and if he'd made the kill as Kaoru said, and if he was enough in control of himself not to want to appear gruesome in public...
Yeah. There, rinsing hands and face at one of Haven's many public fountains. A small, redheaded figure in magenta gi and off-white hakama, buckets and pole by his side with a trio of gutted feathery bundles on top. :Did you-: Sanosuke hesitated. :Get what you needed?:
Violet eyes slid toward him. Pale cheeks flushed. "Hai."
:I-: Sano took his own advice, and breathed deep. The faint scent of blood didn't help. :I don't understand. Megumi said - you're hanyou?:
Violet widened. Muscles tensed.
:No, wait!: Sano lowered his head, trying to look as harmless and pleading as a warhorse-muscled Companion could. :Please. Kenshin, you're my friend. And if I can deal with humans and gryphons and that fanged fluff-ball of a Firecat Altra... you hunt. You eat what you kill. It's all right.:
"It is... how this one hunts that many find distressing," Kenshin said softly.
:Knife. Claws.: Sano forced a shrug. :Same thing, pretty much.: He couldn't help but project a little unease. :Though it's sure as hells not like any Gift I ever heard of!:
"It is part of our heritage, those such as this one," Kenshin said reluctantly. "Part of the price, for making our peace with a land of such terrible magic. There are instincts within, that rise when one is - emotional. They are not fully human." He shrugged. "We are taught to deal with them."
Gingerly, Sano stepped closer. :You've been like this all your life?:
"...No," Kenshin admitted. "At birth, hanyou are much as other Yamato. Though some of us are obvious. Still, it is not until two that the claws grow, and not until eight, the fangs."
Caught breathing in, Sano coughed. :Fangs?:
For a moment, just a moment, Kenshin's smile parted enough to show a hint of canines. Long. Sharp. And no more human than a mountain cat's.
:Oh,: Sano managed.
Kenshin glanced away, wet his lips. "You should speak to Kaoru-dono. And then Yahiko; he is young, hai, but he was raised knowing of hanyou, where Kaoru-dono's knowledge is less than complete." Humor glinted in violet. "And it will be an excuse to make him read to you. The Tales of Inuyasha; that may be enough to snare a young boy's attention to books, should your demand for the knowledge force him to sit down long enough to start them."
:Glad to help,: Sano promised. :But - how'd you learn to hide it so well?:
"Hide it?" Kenshin smiled ruefully. "Aa, to you, it might well be hidden. But even before this one's... adventures... in Rethwellan, there were many Edoko among the Ishin Shishi. This one had practice being polite among them."
Sano nodded. :Megumi said - Edoko don't like hanyou? Why?:
"Edo is a larger city than Kyoto," Kenshin answered, "and far more peaceful, from the time of the first shogun to now. There are less hanyou within it, less Gifted, and less trust of them."
Huh. Well, given some of the reports on Errold's Grove before the Hawkbrothers settled in nearby, that actually made a sort of sense. People who didn't deal with the Gifted every day tended to start regarding them as weird, and then as "not quite right", and - if you let it go too far - as downright dangerous.
Attitudes that only got worse when you had bunches of people crammed together - and according to everything the Heralds had learned from the Yamato clans, Edo alone easily had a million citizens.
A million people. Gods. I can't imagine what it must be like to have a million of your people in one place!
Though it certainly explained how Yamagata and Shimazu could drop enough thousands of people on Haven to make up a small Imperial Army, and still think they'd only brought a "small" contingent of survivors...
Wait a minute. Adventures? Given the swordsman's usual gift for understatement... Sano fixed the hanyou with a serious blue eye. :Kenshin. Did someone hurt you?:
"There were attempts made. Some persistent. One might have reached Haven months ago, otherwise." Kenshin shrugged, a minimal shift of shoulders.
Sano tried not to let his jaw drop in unhorse-like shock. Months?! Adventures, hells. No wonder the man was so damn jumpy!
"This one found it strange, that the outward signs sparked the most fear among these lands," Kenshin went on. "Those of Yamato, those who choose to raise hanyou, know the true peril lies elsewhere. The fury, the need to hunt... that comes with the waking Gifts, with the change from child to adult. One can be very dangerous, then."
Sano sighed. :Good thing you're past that.:
"Aa. Mostly."
:You're twenty-eight!:
"And how old does this one look, Sano?"
Sano stared at him. Eighteen, maybe nineteen, was his first impulse. It was only the eyes that threw you. Deep eyes, for all their startling color; patient and wary and too bitterly experienced to be young.
"This one is hanyou," Kenshin repeated patiently. "Not ningen. This one has twenty-eight years, hai. But in body, this one is not much older than Kaoru-dono."
Whoa. :How long...?:
"It is difficult to say. Most of us do not die in bed." Kenshin smiled briefly. "A century is common. Two, not unknown."
Sano shook himself. :That has to be magic.:
"Yes," Kenshin said softly, eyes dropping to the cleaned birds. "We are born to what your people find abomination." He bowed, and picked up his burden. "This one has shopping to do. Abayo."
:See you. Later.: Sano watched him go, wide-eyed. His friend. His Chosen. His; he could feel it.
His Chosen, who was and always would be tied to blood.
Oh, gods...
:Sano?: Megumi, hovering at the edge of his mind. :What's wrong?:
Besides everything? Sano picked up his feet, heading for the dojo on his way to Companion's Field. :I need to talk to Rolan.:
:And here I thought you were going to keep pestering Kenshin until it was too dark to see a white cat underfoot.: Her tone was teasing, but he could feel the worry under it.
:No, Fox-lady. I'm not pestering Kenshin any more today.: Not when he had a kid to pepper with questions, and then a Queen's Own Companion to yell at.
Kenshin's hanyou, Sano thought grimly. Hanyou look like Changechildren.
And if anybody's warned the Heralds, I haven't heard about it.
Gods, I hate politics!
Supply lists. Troop movements. Spy reports from half a dozen sources, everything from far-ranging Heralds to traders to King Tremane's own people keeping watch on Hardorn's border with the Empire.
Kerowyn stared at her paperwork, and firmly squashed a desire to throw lit candles at the whole mess. Join the Mercenaries' Guild. Find honor, blood, and glory. Ha.
:What, you didn't get enough of all three?: Sayvel snickered from Companion's Field. :You've got a visitor.:
A four-footed one, from that tone. Perfect excuse to go outside. Freedom!
Freedom that came with an angry, scarred Companion attached, pawing back grass as if it'd jumped up and tried to strangle him for eating it. "Sano?"
The Companion looked at her. Snorted, and turned his attention back to the bared spot of soil. Scraped a few more lines with a casual hoof. Stared at her.
And, with one annoyed swish of a ragged white tail, stalked away.
What the heck? Kerowyn frowned at departing silver hooves, shook her head as she looked to see how much damage the Palace gardeners were going to have to put right-
"Letters," the swordswoman muttered, stalking around to view them as Sano had. Yamato letters; which weren't exactly letters as Valdemar knew them, more like symbols for syllables. Hiragana, she thought Eldan called them. :Got a minute? Someone just scuffed me a puzzle.:
:For you?: her partner said teasingly, evidently just as glad to be distracted from his own set of diplomatic reports as she had been. :Hmm. Not the clearest, but I think it says "Sankon tetsusou".:
:Which means...?:
:Loosely translated? "Iron reaver, soul stealer".: A thoughtful tap of finger against lips filtered through. :Though I think I ran into a gloss in a book of Kyotoko children's stories that said it could also be translated as "Exorcising claws". Which made a lot more sense, given the creature... that was... using them...:
Brow quirked up, Kero waited.
:I'm coming over there.:
Curiosity piqued, she walked and stretched, working out the kinks of a morning spent with too much information. Whatever the problem was, it'd be a change from trying to figure out just how paranoid they had to be about the Eastern Empire, the pirates on Lake Evendim, the barbarians moving in the North, the remnants of Urtho's lab on the Dhorisha Plains, and who knew what other problems the universe might dream up in the next few weeks.
All of which will somehow, someway, end up being Valdemar's problem, Kerowyn thought. Got to be the local religious tolerance. All those gods mucking about making Plans.
Plans which must have only gotten more complicated with the Yamato settling in these past two years. The Guard had already had to break up one scuffle between a few bow-carrying miko and local priests of the Sunlord. Evidently the Yamato had a sun goddess; the Lady of the Mirror, sister of their Lord of Storm. And some of her more stiff-necked followers were not at all amused by hearing the sun referred to as he.
Idiots. Damn good archers, though.
Eldan came into view at a fast walk, flipping through a volume three handspans' tall and half that wide. "Here."
Ink-strokes of hiragana, framing a shockingly bloody image. A white-haired Yamato swordsman leapt across the page, dressed in red, blade sheathed by his side as he tore apart a gigantic centipede with clawed hands.
Kero whistled. :A Changechild?:
"The inu-hanyou Inuyasha, defeating a centipede youkai," Eldan explained, drawing her attention toward the pricked ears visible in white hair; ears as cute and enticing to the fingers as those of the brave, curl-tailed, thick-furred dogs Yamato called Shiba Inu.
And you don't want us using Mindspeech, Kero realized. Why?
"Supposedly these are stories of the wild adventures he and his companions had - oh, about four centuries ago," Eldan went on. "If he ever really existed. Which Sozen Michiko, the nice Kyotoko lady who sold me this book, implied he didn't. After all, everyone in Valdemar knows Changechildren are vicious, murdering beasts; not human at all. Certainly not human enough to fall in love with not one, but two miko, and marry the one who lived after the quest was over."
"Everyone in Valdemar is magic-paranoid," Kerowyn grumbled. "Probably vicious, yes; but not all of them are. Doesn't surprise me Nyara doesn't always tell people what she used to be... you're wearing a look, Eldan. I'm not sure I like it." She glanced down at scuffed ground again, listened to the suspicious silence in her head where a certain horse-shaped troublemaker ought to be offering sarcastic comments. "No, I'm definitely sure I don't like it." Wait. Think about this. "Everyone in Valdemar, hmm?"
"Yamato love fiction," Eldan pointed out. "They've got volumes of stories of heroes, and demons, and birds that talk..."
"You know as well as I do that Hawkbrother birds do talk," Kero pointed out.
Eldan raised an eyebrow. "And how many people in Valdemar know that?"
No, I don't like this at all. "Changechildren as heroes, hmm?"
"Or villains," Eldan nodded. "Or just people - though they usually seem to be considered as noble as samurai."
Kerowyn connected samurai, and Sanosuke, and liked the look on Eldan's face even less. "But I've seen Himura. He may not look like your average Yamato-"
"I doubt you've noticed," Eldan noted, "Yamagata can pull off cool better than half our Council. But a lot of Yamato flinch when someone doesn't have dark hair."
Kerowyn tapped her fingers on her belt. "They're nervous around gaijin."
"That's what I thought. Only Ratha says Sanosuke went to see Rolan before he came here." Eldan shifted his grip on the book. "He won't say what happened, but given Sano didn't BeSpeak you..."
"Rolan shut him up," Kero said bluntly. Adding track down Talia to her list of Things to Do. The Queen's Own had to be in this up to the top of her cute curly head. And if she didn't tell me, and didn't tell Eldan... oh gods, politics. Kill you faster than arrows. The Herald-Captain did some swift mental calculation. "When's Lord Yamagata due into Haven?"
"Within the week," Eldan said dryly.
"And then will you managing not-horses be willing to talk?" Kerowyn groused.
:Oh, I think the situation will speak for itself,: Sayvel snickered. :Caryo says Selenay's looking forward to pinning some samurai ears back.: A mental shrug. :But go on. I like the pretty pictures.:
Kero growled. "What else?"
"Sano's attacker." Eldan flipped pages. "It's not in this book, but Michiko knew what I was talking about. A chuugumo is a kind of evil spider-youkai. Loosely translated, demon."
Yamato call Change-spiders demons? Kerowyn smirked at her own surprise. Forgetting Karsites called Heralds Demon-riders, are you? And they're the ones who really did summon demons.
Eldan stopped flipping, and nodded. "Inuyasha met something like it, called spider-heads."
Yuck. Kerowyn grimaced at the swarm of furred legs; she had nothing against spiders, but anything that had distorted human heads for bodies couldn't be good. The whole image reeked of menace. Gray threads of webbing were inked across the page, spinning out to ensnare the red-clad hanyou and a cute little redheaded kid with blue mage-fire around his hands. "Huh. And Kenshin said he'd never seen another human with red hair."
"He didn't." Eldan smiled wryly. "Take a closer look."
A cute little redhead with fox ears in his hair, brilliant green eyes, kit-sized fangs, and a golden foxtail. "Another Changechild?"
"Probably. But the story calls him something else." Eldan shrugged. "A kitsune. A... good fox demon. If that's possible." He gave her a narrow look. "Can demons be good? We've mostly dealt with the demons out of Karse; usually Abyssal Plane elementals, and not too bright, according to Sejanes. Youkai seem to be a lot smarter. And some of them can look like humans. Of course, that's probably because the Yamato are lumping Change-Beasts and Changechildren together, but... didn't you say your grandmother met a demon that could do that?"
"She did. Almost died from it, both her and Tarma. It wasn't just teeth, claws, and hunger; it could cast spells of its own. And it could think. Very messy. Thank the gods most mages aren't damn-fool idiots enough to summon those up." Kero shuddered; Warrl had passed along some very explicit images of just what Thalhkarsh had been capable of. Her grandmother trapped in another's body, Tarma's link to the Star-Eyed broken... brr. "As for whether a thing like that could ever change... don't know. That one ended up warded into a temple. Never heard what happened to it afterward. The high priest seemed to think it ought to get the chance to try, though." She frowned at the picture, looking past the familiar red outfit and sword. Black hair? "Eldan, if this is Inuyasha, why does he look human?"
"According to the stories, hanyou aren't always magical," her partner said simply. "Some nights, their enchanted blood just ebbs, and they can pass for human." He shrugged. "Which was one of the reasons I thought these were just stories. After all, what kind of a magical creature would lose its powers just because of the time of the month?"
"Ask Darkwind about Elspeth sometime," Kerowyn said dryly. "She doesn't lose her power, but it can sure as death go haywire." She shot a glance toward Companion's Field, even though Sayvel was well out of sight. "None of which tells us why Sano wanted us to look at this."
:Ask me again in a week,: Sayvel said smugly.
"We'd have an easier job of keeping Yamagata from losing face if we knew now," Eldan pointed out.
:Eldan-love, I can't.: All the humor vanished from Sayvel's tone. :This goes all the way up. The Yamato have a whole set of traditions, even laws, for dealing with... what I can't talk to you about yet. And their clan leadership has kept them from telling us about any of it. Selenay has to talk to Yamagata face to face, as ruler of this land to one of her daimyo. Anything less will slight his honor and make him dig in his heels. And then a lot of innocent people could get hurt.:
"A week," Kero said flatly.
:My word on it.:
"You're sure we can wait that long."
:Given that we went two years without hearing so much as a whisper of it, and still wouldn't know if Himura hadn't shown up-: Sayvel's attention jerked away. :Oh, hellfires! Megumi, you young idiot!:
"The Hishimanji Guren gang," Kaoru said breathlessly, hand still stinging a little from knocking out two gang members with her bokken. Megumi was out of easy sight beside the storage shed, giving her an eye outside the sealed dojo. Keep calm, keep calm... Healer Gensai took the children out to fly kites, they shouldn't be back anytime soon. But there's too many for us to take on, even with Megumi. The Guard will be here soon, all we have to do is keep everybody from getting hurt until then. "Now I get it."
"Who?" Yahiko burst out, glaring at her two former students. Hira-chan and Sato-kun weren't helping matters, both dodging the former pickpocket's glare as Hira-chan nursed his injured arm.
"A band of delinquents," she explained, remembering Chief Tostig's sketch of the flame-embroidered kimonos, the fur-trimmed short jackets. Odd uniforms, currently filling her courtyard with too many foes to count. Not all Yamato, either; apparently the gang's leader had picked up more than his share of Valdemaran and other followers. "Sort of like an army reserve for criminals."
"Yakuza?" he pounced.
"More dangerous. They've got less to lose." Kaoru grimaced. "Why does this have to happen while Kenshin's gone?"
"Gone?" Yahiko goggled at her. "Where'd he go?"
Funny what the mind fixed on when your heart was beating like a runaway horse. "I sent him shopping for rice, salt, miso, soy sauce..."
"Do you have to get them all at once?"
Sato gathered his nerve to look at her. "What should we do, Kaoru-san?"
"What do you mean, 'we'?" Yahiko puffed out a disgusted breath. "You're the ones who started this!"
"Yahiko-" Kaoru began.
The ten-year-old gave her a look he might have used on Suzume when she grabbed after something bright and glittery and all too sharp. "You don't really believe their story, do you?"
About running into a bunch of drunks hassling innocent people, dealing with them, and their friends showing up for revenge? With that odor of alcohol on every breath? No. But she'd hoped to give them a chance to tell the real story without having to invoke Truth Spell.
:Chosen, get away from the doors!:
The blast knocked them backwards even as she pulled Yahiko away; shards of wood clattering to the polished floor, the sharp scent of blasting powder puffing smoke into the air. "What - was-"
"A wooden cannon!" Yahiko looked sick, eyes fixed on the smoking tube of shaped oak in her courtyard. Thugs gathered around its sides, pouring more powder into wood, ramming home a clay ball that prickled like magic in her ki sense. "How can anybody have a thing like that?"
A wooden what? Wait - cannon. That was in 'Tousan's books. Some kind of Chi'in weapon?
"Walls are nothing to Hishimanji!" Hachisuka's coarse laughter rang in Kaoru's ears. "Come on out, or I'll demolish this crappy little dojo!"
:Kaoru, you can't!:
:I won't, Megumi,: Kaoru promised. :But stay clear of it! I remember its name, not how it works.: Bokken in hand, she met his sneer with narrowed eyes. "This isn't Yamato, we don't settle personal arguments with swords, I am Herald Kaoru Kamiya, and the Guard will be here any minute!" She gestured over her shoulder. "If you have a quarrel with them, take it up in court!"
"Herald?" Hachisuka's sneer spread wider. He snapped his fingers at his men. "Kill the horse."
Kaoru froze. She didn't know how a cannon worked, what its range was, what it might do-
"That doesn't sound very friendly."
And she could breathe again, gazing past the ranks of angry punks to the small swordsman stepping soundlessly through her front gate, bucket-laden pole held casually over his left shoulder. "Kenshin!"
"Perhaps the two in the back have been up to no good, but still, did you have to resort to a cannon?" Kenshin set the buckets down, matter of fact as if he'd found unexpected guests raiding a bento box. "Now let's calm down and work this out."
"And who the hell are you?" Hachisuka snapped.
One of his brighter underlings held out placating hands, sweating. "Master Hachisuka, this is bad. This guy is... is..."
His voice dropped; Kaoru cast wide her Mindspeech to catch what she could not hear.
"Remember the rurouni who went through the Yakuza by himself? I think it's him." A pulse of fear. "That red... that's not hair dye!"
"Coward!" Hachisuka waved a fist at the men manning the cannon. "You gonna let yourself be scared by one rurouni? Fire!"
Dimly Kaoru registered Yahiko's gasp, her former students' screams, Megumi's neigh of rage as the Companion trampled distracted thugs between herself and her Chosen. :Kenshin!:
His face was cast down, bangs hiding eyes in shadow. Something brushed the edge of her Mindspeech, like a tickle of silk. Be calm, Kaoru-dono.
A thunderclap of sulfurous smoke-
Eyes flashed open, steel-blue. The sakabatou sang free, sharp side turned to slash a flying ball of clay-
Clay split, two halves sailing through the air to blast holes in her courtyard on either side of the rurouni.
Silence.
Yahiko was panting next to her, clinging to her hakama as they both realized Kenshin was alive, alive...
And from those narrowed, steel-blue eyes, very ticked off.
Thugs' teeth chattered with fear.
"It is pointless to hesitate," Kenshin wrapped one hand about his saya, claws glinting and obvious, "when using this sakabatou against non-human objects." Bangs fell forward once more, shielding that deadly gaze. "Once again, stop this foolishness."
Whistles split the air, and the Guard's blue uniforms poured past the rurouni, grabbing anyone Megumi hadn't yet stomped on.
Kenshin stepped aside, sword sheathed, eyes wide and violet once more. "My, my... so much happens when this one is away."
A cannon. Sejanes rushed through the thronged streets, pausing only to state his name and business to the head of the Guards keeping onlookers away from the Kamiya Dojo's gate. A Chi'in cannon. Forty little gods, I never thought to see one of those again!
Or rather, the ex-Imperial admitted to himself, he'd hoped to never see one of those hellish creations again. Thank the gods, most outside that vicious empire recognized that Adepts were safer than weapons touched with salamander's fire.
Most, except for desperate Yamato, Sejanes thought darkly, pushing the gate open just enough to slip through. The air was still thick with the acrid scent of blasting powder, and every magical sense an Adept claimed shuddered at the raw hunger embodied in flames. Both sides of the Revolution were using them before we left... Karal. I've got to get Karal over here. We need someone touched by the gods to disarm the damned thing, and he's the best one in Valdemar for that. Hells - do we even have anyone who can take it apart without blowing their own heads off-?
He stopped almost in one of the courtyard craters, staring at what had been a wooden muzzle. Now it was a nest of neatly-slashed wooden pieces, a fist-sized bundle of white-wrapped, carved stone cupped in their midst.
The focus talisman, Sejanes realized, sensing faint emanations of dark elemental fire through insulating silk. "Thank the gods," he breathed, turning his gaze on the blue uniform that had stalked through the perimeter next to him. "How on earth did your people know what to do, Chief?"
Tostig shrugged, embarrassed. "It wasn't us, Instructor Sejanes. Himura warned us off. He said there was a risk of fire." The Guard Chief paused. "And given Himura-san's usual talent for understatement..."
"I've seen those things take out a city block if they're mishandled," Sejanes confirmed. "Though I'm surprised anyone who'd know that would leave what's left of it unguarded, even under your watchful eye."
"I did not."
The cool voice peeled the years away; he was no longer a peaceful instructor, one of many Adepts handling the mage-school of Valdemar, but Imperial Adept Sejanes, running with Tremane through the bloody alleys of Kyoto as the Shogunate's men fell behind them...
Red hair, Sejanes saw, dimly registering the mad scramble of Guards backwards as lightning danced in his hands. Short. Skinny as a woman. An aura subtle as wind over running water. And the cross-shaped scar.
Battousai the Manslayer.
But the gi... the gi was a bright, cheerful red, not the somber horizon-blue of a Choshu uniform. This young man bore one sword, not two; hair not in the high topknot of a ronin, but low ponytail of a wanderer.
And the eyes... the eyes were gentle. Violet. No match to the burning amber that haunted his nightmares.
Amber he'd caught one heart-stopping glimpse of through Herald Kamiya's vision. Gods! Why didn't I see it before?
Because it was from her vision, Sejanes realized, cursing himself for a blind fool. Damn Mind Gifts... it's like getting herb-knowledge from a dyheli. They munch a diretongue leaf, and all they see are pretty lights; bite into it yourself, and they'll be burying you in the morning. You don't see what's there, you see what they see. And she was afraid of Jin-e, not Himura.
But now the scent of blasting powder hung thick and bitter in the air, so like those dark Kyoto nights, and there was no mistaking the man.
It's him. I don't know how, or why - but it's him.
Sejanes swallowed dryly. Dismissed the lightning, smoothing out the flow of his power. "Excuse me, Himura-san." He nodded toward the ruined cannon. "That thing's blast leaves a distinctive scent. It seems to have brought back bad memories."
"Any who have been on the field with fire drug are haunted by it." Kenshin inclined his head. "No harm was meant, or done."
Huo yao, Sejanes recognized, not konasenkou. Fire drug, not lightning powder. The Chi'in name for blasting powder, that only a Yamato who'd learned of it from military forces would use. And that not-quite-a-bow of head; the grace of a samurai to an equal under another lord's authority.
It is him. Only years of practice in court situations let Sejanes hide a grimace. Sweet gods, Herald-Captain, I thought you'd just found a hitokiri!
"No harm?" Tostig sputtered, glaring at Sejanes. "Collegium instructor or not, the threat of deadly force is still a threat even if it isn't drawn steel-"
"Tostig-san." Kenshin smiled. "No harm was done. Instructor Sejanes only mistook this one for someone else, that he did."
Deliberately, Sejanes looked away from the redheaded threat, narrowing his gaze at the ruined cannon. "Chief, if you don't mind... as a magical item of unknown provenance, this does fall under the authority of the Mages' Collegium. I'd like to discuss how to dispose of this monstrosity with Himura here." Without listening ears, his tone implied.
Tostig switched his gaze between them, hmphed. "I'll get Herald Kamiya."
"Kaoru-dono is more than busy enough, giving testimony on those who threatened her Companion," Kenshin pointed out. "Really, Tostig-san, this one will be fine."
"Chief!" one of the under-officers called. "One of these gentlemen is claiming he's a Rethwellan noble."
"Terrific," Tostig growled. "Keep him there! We'll have to send for the Captain. And more Heralds..."
Sejanes watched the Guard walk off, nape of his neck still prickling at the thought of just what was beside him. "He has no idea you don't need his protection, does he?"
"This one hopes he never has need to learn otherwise." Choshu's most deadly hitokiri shrugged. "Sejanes-san. This is Haven, not Kyoto. The war is over, that it is. This one is only a rurouni, resting under Kaoru-dono's protection, who never wishes to take a life again."
Only a rurouni. Only a masterless killer, with the strength to take an Adept down. "I never knew just how we managed to get away that night," Sejanes said quietly. "I saw you move." Saw steel and crimson flash once more in memory, guards falling like bloody leaves. "If you'd wanted us dead, I'm not sure I could have stopped you."
"Your Eastern Empire had decided to remain neutral, not aiding either side." The friendly cheer had faded from Himura's voice, leaving it cool and clear as a mountain stream. "Your troops had withdrawn from our ports. All that remained were diplomats such as you and Tremane-san, and you were leaving."
Sejanes laughed once, without humor. "We weren't your targets."
"Aa."
The Adept's lip curled in black amusement. "And I told Captain Kerowyn you were just a swordsman."
"One would... prefer you let that impression remain, Sejanes-san."
Sejanes shot the smaller man a dark look. "She already knows you're hitokiri."
"Hai. But she does not know this one was once-" Himura's lips tightened. "This one has listened to Kaoru-dono's tales of this land's history, that I have. If Valdemar, who prides itself on its Heralds, and its honor, would send she who was their own Heir to assassinate another land's king..."
"Ancar was declared Oathbreaker," Sejanes said carefully.
"As were many in Yamato." Red bangs hid those speaking eyes. "This one was once a blade in Katsura's hand. But he is dead, and the war is over, and we lost, Sejanes-san. And now there is only the making of a new life, here, among strangers." A subtle shift of red silk; the afterthought of a shrug. "There is a garden to tend. Young ones to look after. This one wishes nothing more."
Sejanes nodded slowly. "I see."
Oddly enough, he thought he did see. Tremane, too, hated the ways of the assassin.
And my boy wasn't half as good at it as Battousai, Sejanes thought bluntly. He's right, curse it. The Hitokiri Battousai; he's a living weapon, much as any cold-drake ever was. If any monarch knew what they had in their grasp-
Selenay might be able to refrain from using him. A Monarch who was also a Herald - might. Valdemar preferred to defend its borders and live in peace, handling internal problems with patient negotiation, Truth Spell, and an honest will that everyone should come out of a dispute better off.
Which was hard enough for me to believe, and I'd been studying everything I could find on this land for months before we dealt with it, Sejanes thought practically. No, I can't blame him for hiding. "I suggest a compromise."
"I am listening."
"I will tell Captain Kerowyn what I saw," Sejanes stated. "She deserves to know. And you deserve to have her know, in case something goes horribly wrong and you need to use those skills we both know you have." He nodded toward what was left of the cannon. "As you did today."
Red still shaded violet. "I have yet to hear a compromise."
"I will only say what I saw, Himura-san," the elderly ex-Imperial said carefully. "After all, rumors, however dark, are only rumors." He paused. "And you're not the only one who's had to start over from a bloody past."
Himura inclined his head, bangs falling away from a quiet smile. "One hopes your student is faring well, that I do."
You may choose to look innocent, but you're still keeping up to date on who's who and what powers you might have to cross, Sejanes thought. I am duly warned. And, oddly, comforted. Valdemarans might find the Yamato as alien as the Shin'a'in, but he'd visited those wild isles enough to begin to unravel the puzzle.
And just as with those horse-nomads, you have to start with the proverbs. In this case - the best swords stay in their sheaths.
It was polite to be armed. It was more polite to gently, subtly, display the fact that you were armed, to avoid needless confrontations. Such behavior showed you were a person of honor, one whose face could not lightly be damaged.
Which tends to cut down on the duels. The ex-Imperial smiled, determined to reply in kind. "Fending off marriage proposals. At his age." Sejanes rolled his eyes. "I have to admit, one of the first things that crossed my mind when I'd heard your people dropped in on us was hiring a geisha for him. Tremane may like to live barracks-practical, but sooner or later he's going to need people who can breathe court intrigue like fish do water." He spread his hands. "But Hardorn's a long way from here, and I know your people like to stick to their own. Not to mention it'd probably scandalize the nobility of every kingdom from here to the Dhorisha Plains..."
"One does wonder what would happen should shunga appear in common society," Kenshin said wryly.
"The Kaled'a'in kestra'chern would love them," Sejanes predicted. "The noble houses would probably have a collective stroke." He let his voice rise to a dowager's scandalized gasp. "It's just not done!"
Kenshin smiled, a subtle tension easing out of his frame. Let his glance rest on bundled silk. "Do you know how to properly remove the danger from that? One has dealt with them before, in emergencies, but the method is - unfortunate to the surroundings."
"I would imagine," Sejanes said, after a moment's breathless shock. He's not a mage. He's not a priest. And that thing is pure, crystallized elemental Fire. "If I might ask - how?"
Kenshin's shoulders lifted slightly. "One reads its ki to find the flaw, the seam where magic has sealed on itself to wrap this world around the shard of another. Then one strikes, and lets the Fires burn themselves away."
Sejanes choked. "And fry you in the process!"
Kenshin shook his head. "This one Fetches, that I do. So long as one holds the flames away, and keeps bringing in cool air from above to breathe, one can endure." A sidelong glance. "But this one cannot both protect myself and others, that I cannot. Not in such a fragile place as Haven."
"I was planning to use the workroom over in the Mages' Collegium," Sejanes replied. "With the Sun-Priest Karal's assistance. He's dealt with powers of other Planes before. I'd also like to have one of your miko or houshi along; preferably one with battlefield experience. It's been years since I've seen Chi'in weaponry." The Adept folded his arms, glaring at the offending weapon. "And no offense, Himura-san, but I'll be unspeakably blunt and say seeing one now, in your people's hands, makes me very, very uneasy."
"For the miko - ask Gensai-isha and Kaoru-dono," Kenshin answered. "They have been in Haven far longer than this one, they will know who to ask. As for your unease, Sejanes-san..." Violet narrowed, glinting an odd, steely blue. "There were no cannon in the Jump with Choshu. I would have sensed them."
I don't doubt it. "Satsuma, then?"
Kenshin sighed softly. "When a clan's ninja and hitokiri are fewer, and of... lesser skill... the leaders of a clan will find other ways to make themselves as dangerous as their allies."
And Choshu had held the service of the most dangerous hitokiri of all. Of course Satsuma would rise to the challenge. Face, Sejanes thought darkly. "Queen Selenay will want to know how a street gang had this weapon."
"That," Kenshin said bluntly, "is for those such as you and your Queen's Heralds to discover. Or anyone who has been in Haven longer than this one, with more time to track the paths of obligation and thievery."
Reasonable enough, the mage admitted to himself. After all, if what Herald-Captain Kerowyn had passed along was accurate, and Himura had only entered Haven for the first time a few weeks ago...
Sejanes froze, implications crashing down like a Yamato tsunami. "Does Lord Yamagata have any idea where you are?"
A heartbeat's silence. "It is likely Yamagata-san believes this one perished in the Jump," Himura said carefully. "Many did, of both clans, when the weave of our passage through the other world was rent. I patched it, but I - fell. It was only luck that managed to grip another weakness and fling me through to this world again." A wry, faint smile. "One cannot appreciate how lovely the Pelagirs are, to a man who has thought he would never see earthly perils again."
Fell, Sejanes thought. In the Ethereal Plane. It'd take more than luck to get a man out of that. Even an Adept.
Curiosity has killed more Adepts than all the dark mages combined, Sejanes reminded himself. Still... I'll never get a better chance to Look. Blinking slowly, he invoked Mage Sight.
Himura wasn't there.
Illusion, betrayal - no! Think, you idiot. Yamato. Subtlety. Look again, and wait.
And there it was. A whisper in the energies where a human's life-force should be, subtle as raindrops in a stream.
Incredible. Sejanes extended a tendril of his own magic, tracing near, but not into, that flicker of disturbance. Hawkbrothers can make themselves appear as part of the forest - which means you can find them, if you know to look for trees where no trees should be. Himura's wind and water and one thin thread of fire...
In the physical world, he felt the hitokiri watching him with narrowed eyes.
Focusing his attention on two levels at once, Sejanes rubbed his palms gently together, slowly pulling them apart in a glimmer of blue mage-light. Held the shimmering sphere a moment longer, then blew on it as if puffing on dandelion seeds.
The light bobbed on his breath, floating like a soap bubble as it wafted near red silk. Circled flame-bright hair, tracing an eddy in the magic around Himura too faint for even Mage Sight to sense. Hesitated.
And settled into Kenshin's upraised palm, limning cupped fingers in bright azure.
Sejanes frowned. "You don't have Mage-Gift." You can't. You can't possibly. He'd felt the magic in Yamato blaze as the very earth convulsed. A trained mage could survive it, if they were careful and lucky and never, never tried to tap a ley line once the ground started to give way. A child - no. Impossible.
"I do not," Himura agreed. "But energy is energy, Sejanes-san." Fingers cupped, he closed both hands about the little light. Shut his eyes, drifting into the meditative contemplation Sejanes had seen at a tea ceremony.
Or before the first stroke of a duel...
Blue light glimmered, shifting through violet to crimson to faint, perfect pink-
And a breeze blew over them both, wafting blooms of pure light from Himura's hands to his.
Cherry blossoms. Sejanes caught a handful, marveling at the perfect imperfections of petals sketched in mage-light. Here was a bloom with the slightest of bites from a hungry caterpillar; there, another with curved petals flattened as if by rain. All lingering just a heartbeat, dissolving like snowflakes on skin.
"A small shift of ki," Himura said, shrugging as if it were no great matter. "Onmitsu are fond of such for distractions. One has seen them often, that I have."
The Adept stared at him. "But that is magic."
"That is shaping energy, Sejanes-san." The hitokiri gave him a look, very like a Healer who'd caught a young idiot fighter with a shattered knee trying to crawl out of bed. "One would hope a mage of your skill would know one does not always need Mage-Gift for that." Himura's face brightened. "Excuse this one, but someone must explain to Gensai-isha's granddaughters why there are holes in the courtyard."
A whisper of wind, and he was gone.
Sejanes let out a long, slow breath, willing his heart to stop racing. Waved to the nearest Guardsman, and pointed toward the remnants of the cannon. "I need," he said precisely, "a very big box."
And then, Sejanes thought darkly, regarding his still-trembling hands, I need a very stiff drink.
:He's going to get drunk,: Altra sniffed, shifting against Karal's knee.
I doubt it. Sejanes used to be Imperial Army, Sun-Priest Karal thought, seated on a chair stolen from the mage's desk. He scratched under the Firecat's chin as Sejanes swallowed pale, fiery liquid without a pause. I imagine he can still drink like a trooper.
:He's afraid.: The mastiff-sized Firecat leaned into his strokes, fluffy red tail building up static from his partner's dark wool robes. :He'd better stay sober long enough to tell us why.: The cat kept blue eyes at least half-slitted, letting his partner borrow his sight to read his companion's expressions.
Not that Kerowyn's was hard to read as she leaned against the wall, obviously missing Eldan's presence. But Sejanes had specifically asked for them, not Kerowyn's semi-official diplomatic partner. "I take it you're not disarming that hell-stone tonight," the Herald-Captain said dryly.
"It's under lock, key, and Ward," Sejanes said firmly, barely a trace of slur in his words as the older mage leaned back in his padded chair. "And given that we want to study it rather than simply destroy it, I'd rather Herald Elspeth and Darkwind were here when we do take it on. Wrestling with elemental Fire is no job for an unprepared Adept, much less mages as flammable as gryphons. And no offense to Quenten, but neither of us is as young as we used to be."
"This wouldn't have anything to do with the fact that you're trembling like a leaf, would it?" Karal blinked blindly at the Adept, catching the man's start through Altra's sight.
Kerowyn grimaced, face all but shouting I wouldn't have said that-
"Oh yes," Sejanes said gravely. "Magic responds to emotion, after all, and until I've put some distance between myself and certain... very bad memories... I wouldn't trust myself to light a candle without a match."
Kero scowled. "You've been around blasting powder before."
"True." Sejanes poured another half-glass, not spilling a drop. "But it's been quite some time since I've been around Battousai."
"Battousai?" Karal asked, puzzled.
"Himura's alias. Warrior name, I think the Yamato call it." Kero straightened. "You've met him?"
"Met. Hmm." Sejanes took a sip. "Ran screaming away from, would be more accurate."
Kerowyn's brow wrinkled as if she wanted to jump in and pound answers out of the man; instead, she pressed her lips together and nodded at Karal.
Thanks. I think. The young priest flashed a smile at his former weapons instructor, then turned a sober look on Sejanes. "Tell me."
"I hate to say it was a dark and stormy night... but in truth, it was." Sejanes turned the cup around in his hands. "About twelve years ago, now... the Yamato's civil war calmed down for a time after the Ikeda Inn incident, but every Forescrying spell the Empire had done afterward pointed to growing, unstoppable tumult. Still, Imperials look to the long view, or used to; Emperor Charliss determined that rather than waste time and resources trying to pit one side against the other, it would be best to just withdraw for a few years, then reestablish relations with whoever won. Tremane and I were in the process of doing that, walking back from the docks after seeing another ship off, when..."
Karal gave the mage a few breaths to compose himself. "Go on," he said softly.
"Ballads talk about a rain of blood." Sejanes stared into the distance. "This was the first time I'd actually seen it. Blood drizzling down the tiled roofs, mingling with the rain pouring over us. You could smell it, taste it...
"The Shogun's guards - one of those unavoidable 'courtesy' escorts, you know how it is to be a foreign diplomat - tried to get us out of there. But Tremane and I... well, we were, quite frankly, curious. Shocked, yes, but curious. Most of the fighting hadn't taken place near the foreign sector. We wanted to know what Yamato were capable of when they weren't being diplomatic. And after all, we were an Imperial Adept and a Master! What did we have to fear from native swordsmen with only primitive magic?"
:You know what they say about pride and falls,: Altra said privately.
I think he knows that, Karal answered wryly.
:Now.: The Firecat flicked an ear, amused as only a cat could be, seeing a predator suddenly turned prey.
"We tried to summon light," the mage went on. "Nothing worked. It was if someone had laid a hand on every ley line in reach, bidding it silent. Finally Tremane dug into his personal power and summoned a mage-light - just as lightning flashed, enough to see the bodies on those rooftops. The Shogun's ninja." Sejanes drew a sharp breath. "Captain, if you would be so kind as to turn that Mindspeech of yours to our advantage... I think you should see this. I think you should - all of you - see this." He looked hard at Karal and Altra. "It won't be pretty."
Kerowyn frowned. "If you're sure..."
Karal swallowed. "All right."
The room vanished, blurred away by Sejanes' memory.
Rain. Shifting and fluid as the subtle aura their Sight almost, almost couldn't sense was there, quiet and steady as a sea breeze over the rooftops. Warm and wet and tanged with copper as light flashed off a blade arcing impossibly high-
And red blazed down, a flow of soaked topknot like bloody rain, as a slight figure in Choshu-blue dropped out of the storm-torn sky. Trailing faint blue light, his katana cleft a guard in two from shoulder to hip, whirled to slash the throats of two more before his feet even touched the ground.
Even a war-trained mage needs a moment to react...
And in that moment six men were dead, the ley lines were still unreachable, and half the guards left were surging forward while the rest were dragging the Imperial diplomats away, running like fury-
Tremane's words were lost in thunder and battle-cries, but their gist was plain; get somewhere defensible, get clear of this odd kink in local magic, get away from the shuddering terror on their trail.
For terror it was. Power crackled against their senses. Blood and flame and determination focussed in burning amber eyes, swamping any thought of attack, or defense, or anything beyond the sheer, raw need to run away. The predator racing through lives toward them knew no mercy, and no pity, and would not stop until every last one of its foes was dead...
Kerowyn's power released him, and Karal shuddered in his chair.
"And that," Sejanes said into the silence, "Was my first, and until today last, encounter with the Demon of Kyoto. Hitokiri Battousai."
"Demon?" Kerowyn asked levelly.
"So-called. Kyoto no youkai. Kuroken no Choshu. Nogitsune." The mage shrugged slightly. "Kyoto's demon. Choshu's black blade. Evil fox-demon of the fields. Not that I ever saw a demon kill with steel."
That was for sure. Karal gulped in a breath. "But you were - afraid."
"Terrified. Oh, yes." Sejanes stared into his cup. "It was weeks before either of us could sleep without a light burning."
"Fear projection?" Kerowyn asked neutrally.
"We're trained to deal with that," Sejanes said, just as level. "Certain assassins in the Empire still used dyrstaffs when we left. Simple magically projected fear would not have worked. No; from what I felt, from what those Kyotoko I asked told me, what hit us was something far more... primal."
"You were that scared of him and you asked questions?" Karal blurted.
"It's what I do, young man." Sejanes' wry smile took the sting from the words. "I'd seen something remarkable. Impossible. Something that could change every assumption the Empire had about Yamato and its people. Of course I asked questions! While we were packing every last essential and Imperial dependent to clear out on the next possible ship to Chi'in," he added wryly. "Longest month of my life."
Kerowyn leaned back, eyes half-shut and waiting. "So what did you find out?"
"Enough to make sleep rare and precious." Sejanes sighed. "You have no idea what's landed in your lap, Captain. Battousai's not a hitokiri. He is the hitokiri. The shield of the Ishin Shishi. Katsura's right hand. The Shogunate's nightmare. Their swordsmen couldn't touch him. Their priests couldn't curse him. Their spies couldn't find him - and onmitsu are good, Captain; good as any Herald-spy." He shook his head. "The Ishin Shishi would strike. The Shinsengumi would chase them. And one man - only one - would step between them. Survivors said the last you saw were eyes like flame, and the last you heard was a challenge: Go back the way you came, or die."
Karal buried his fingers in Altra's fur. "He let them go?"
"If they ran. If they weren't between his people and escape." The mage wove his fingers together. "The last week I was there, one of the guard barracks was completely wiped out. Thirty men dead in less than an hour, five Ishin Shishi prisoners gone - and no sign of anyone but a single swordsman." Sejanes smiled wryly. "Rumor was, those Shinsengumi had gotten their hands on Katsura. Temporarily."
Kerowyn pursed her lips in a silent whistle. "You admire him."
"I would have taken him for the Empire's service in a heartbeat," Sejanes confessed. "That skill, that honor, in Tremane's hands? We could have-" His breath caught.
"Used him, as Katsura did?" Karal said softly.
"Ha." Sejanes' bark of laughter was bitter, and sad. "I knew you'd see it, young man. I knew you, if anyone, would see it."
The young priest's ears burned. "He's living with a Herald," Karal explained, catching Kerowyn's astonished gape through Altra's eyes. "He's taking care of children. You say he's been mixed up with killers and murderers since Kaoru found him, but all he's done is catch them and turn them over to the Guard. He hasn't killed them. He hasn't killed anyone." He felt his flush deepen. "Karse is - well, it's not as hard a land as it used to be, but Alberich and Ulrich told me how it was." Thinking of Ulrich didn't hurt as bad now, but he still had to stop, and breathe. "People who start killing that young usually have something wrong with them. Something twisted in their soul. If he doesn't... then someone made him kill."
"At thirteen, if Kaoru's right about his age-" Sejanes stopped. "What is it?"
"Thirteen." The Captain looked as if she'd bitten into raw crabapples. "You're sure? I thought the age of majority in those Isles was fifteen."
"It is."
Anger glinted in her gaze. "The Yamato call Katsura a hero."
"To Choshu and Satsuma, I'm sure he is," Sejanes acknowledged. "Just as to them, the quiet, polite rurouni who's been looking after your young Herald is the Demon of Kyoto. And Himura is that deadly. The most deadly fighter Choshu had-"
"The most deadly Katsura had," Kerowyn interrupted. "Himura said Katsura released him."
"Good gods, did he?" Sejanes looked aghast. "I'm surprised Choshu didn't kill him for that."
Kerowyn frowned. "He didn't want to be a hitokiri anymore."
"Want has nothing to do with it, Captain. As the Yamato say, a hitokiri is a hitokiri until the day he dies. And when Choshu and Satsuma landed here, in Haven, they believed Battousai was dead." The mage paused. "Which, given what I know of Yamato pride and honor, is likely the only reason the leadership of those clans negotiated rather than fight your Heralds to the death."
:You're twisting my fur,: Altra warned.
Sorry. Karal swallowed dryly, untangling his fingers. The tension singing between Kero and Sejanes was making his stomach churn. "Look, I'm - not a fighter. What aren't you two saying?"
"Lord Yamagata's a war leader," Kero stated.
"A Choshu war leader, at that," Sejanes put in. "Who's about to see his clan's rivals and reluctant allies lose serious face when Selenay's people ask pointed questions about just where that cannon came from. Who may well see a way to put them in his debt, and regain face lost to all of Valdemar by the clans' mishap in the Jump, and rub Satsuma's noses in the mud at the same time."
"You think he'll want Kenshin," Karal realized.
"He'd be a damn fool if he didn't," Kerowyn said bluntly.
"And that's why you wanted to talk to me, isn't it?" Karal kept his face sober, turning toward the mage he could not, himself, see.
"It is," Sejanes said, equally sober. "A few subtle, dropped hints from the ambassador of Karse. Some of my own as a representative of Tremane and Hardorn. Yes, I think the two of us could go far in impressing on Yamagata's people the need for inner stability in Valdemar for the good of the allied kingdoms."
"Hold up there, Instructor." Kerowyn held up a halting hand. "Aren't you taking this a bit too seriously? Scooping up a handy hitokiri's one thing. You can't possibly think Yamagata would use Himura as an excuse for a revolt! Valdemar took his people in. Selenay's given him nothing but honor and fair treatment."
"Yet before all that, their slip with the Jump inflicted on the samurai the mass insult of surrendering rather than dying with honor." Sejanes stood. "There's a moral quandary taught to young samurai in Yamato, Captain. A man has murdered your father. You've pursued the killer for years. During that time, he's shown nothing but honorable behavior to his enemies and allies alike; an honor he shows once more, for you're pursuing him across a harbor in a boat, which is sinking, and he turns his own boat around to rescue you. There's no other hope of surviving. What do you do?"
"Let him rescue me, and give it up as a bad job," Kerowyn said tartly. "Enough's enough."
"And that would earn you a caning, at least," Sejanes wagged a finger at her. "For a samurai, the proper answer is to let yourself be rescued, thank your rescuer with all due politeness - and execute him the first moment you can."
Kerowyn stared at him a long moment. "That's insane."
"Choosing your ruler based on talking horses who are servants of the gods, rather than a council of the great lords and a civil war or two," Sejanes said dryly. "To Yamagata's people, that's insane."
"But he knows what Foresight is. I've met some miko who have it," Karal put in. "Even if he-" Attacked Selenay. Sunlord, please, no! Yet it fit, it fit so terribly well with what he'd learned of that strange, proud people. "He has to know the Heralds could see him coming."
"The Shogunate would have had miko as well," Sejanes replied. "And none of them saw Himura." The mage rested a hand on the back of his chair, squeezed it lightly. "Battousai shaped magic to block off the ley lines. He shaped his own aura to feel like... never mind. Until I have proof otherwise, I have to believe he might be able to counter every Gift your Heralds have."
"But Kenshin wasn't even here when the Jump went wrong!" Karal said desperately.
"That's true. And given that Himura has lived here so peacefully, with a Herald, I would go so far as to say he feels no slight to his honor," Sejanes acknowledged. "That shouldn't change. So long as he's not in Yamagata's service."
Kerowyn was kneading her eyebrows, trying to shake away frustration. "All right. I'm not sure I take your read on them for granted; try it out on Eldan, he's the one who knows how courtiers think. Or don't think. I will take for granted that Yamato are more insane than they let on, and if they get their hands on a hitokiri, they might try something stupid. So. What will Yamagata offer, and how do we match it?"
:It won't be money,: Altra said confidently.
"No. No, it won't." Sejanes sat down again, tapped a finger on the arm of his chair. "Place, Captain. That's what we can't match. Connections, family, clan; to Yamato, those are everything."
A disturbing grin flitted over Kerowyn's face. "Then we have him."
"Herald Kamiya?" Sejanes rubbed the back of his neck. "A pretty face won't be enough to hold him. Even those ronin who served as Imperial mercenaries, and there have been several over the centuries, never stayed. Wife and children or not."
"Trust me," Kerowyn said confidently. "As soon as Megumi and Sano can talk him down enough to realize she feels the same way, he's ours."
"That simplifies things." Sejanes drummed the arm of the chair, thinking. "Herald Kamiya's allegiance is, of course, to Selenay, so Yamagata has no hold there. Myojin Yahiko was Edo samurai of a Shogunate clan, but no one's claimed him, so Kaoru has first rights there as well, as his sensei. The Gensai family are Satsuma, but if Chief Tostig is correct, they're not only Healers, they're Healers who have looked after Kamiya samurai for generations. Yamagata wouldn't dare interfere with that. And a rurouni, himself, is just a wandering swordsman. He has very few clan obligations left so long as he chooses not to take service. And so long as the sensei finds his presence tolerable, it's rude to ask a guest to leave a dojo too strenuously..." Sejanes leaned back in his chair, a quiet smile spreading over his face.
"It sounds like you're saying," Karal said cautiously, "that if he wants to stay away from Yamagata, Kenshin couldn't find a safer place to be than the Kamiya dojo."
"If he wants to. Which it seems he does, given that he as much as admitted to me he's allowing Yamagata to believe he's still missing. Which is very odd, for a samurai; even one who's managed to survive two years among strangers-" Sejanes paled suddenly. "Himura said Katsura released him? How good is his Valdemaran?"
"Fair to middling," Kerowyn noted. "Why? I grant you Kaoru doesn't always use the same words; she said her father was relieved of his obligations so he could come to Valdemar."
"I take it she meant houmen. Set free from his obligations," Sejanes corrected. "I suppose you could translate it as released, but it's not the same thing."
:And just why,: Altra asked archly, :are you looking at me?:
"Yamato don't release a human," Sejanes replied. "They release hawks back to the wild. Village folk from slavery or unclean status to rank as a true human being, after acts of uncommon bravery. Youkai... from vows that bound them to human service."
Kerowyn crossed her arms. "I don't care what they called him. Himura's not a demon."
"If they think he is, it doesn't matter what we believe, now does it?" Sejanes set his cup down. "And they do think he is, Captain. With good reason. The fear Tremane and I felt, the terror anyone who faced Battousai and lived shook from for weeks afterwards, is primal. Inborn. Written in the very blood of every human being who's ever lived."
:Creatures of the Abyssal Plane have always slipped through to this reality,: Altra agreed. :If humans didn't instinctively fear them, none of you would have lasted this long.:
"He can pretend to be a demon?" Karal shivered. "That must be horrible."
Kerowyn hmphed. "Horrible or not, what does it have to do with Yamagata getting hold of Himura?"
Sejanes sighed, shoulders slumped; for once looking his age. "It means Yamagata won't hesitate to use magical compulsion," he said grimly. "Human samurai can be trusted to hold to the proper order of society; to watch over their inferiors, and obey their superiors as they would the emperor himself. Demons can't. Not without - outside interference."
"He'd use a geas?" Pushing Altra's head off his lap, Karal stood. "There's got to be something we can do!"
"I plan to," Sejanes said, dead sober despite his drained glass. "In the morning. We do have a few days before Yamagata could possibly get here, yes?"
"I've got every Herald on circuit reporting where he is," Kerowyn nodded. "Let me know if you need anything. And I do mean anything. I've been under Need's geas, I know exactly what Himura would be up against."
"Quenten," Sejanes said plainly. "And free permission from Herald Kamiya to place protections around her dojo. But mostly Quenten. It looks as if Himura can work some small magics without Mage-Gift, and the White Winds school knows a lot more about that than I do." He gave Karal a rueful smile. "And a few prayers wouldn't hurt."
:We can do more than a few prayers.: Altra rubbed up against Karal's ankles. :Ready?:
A shock of dislocation, and they were elsewhere, touching down on a cobbled street just outside a wooden gate. :Interesting.: Altra nosed painted wood, whiskers bristling. :I was aiming for the inner courtyard.:
"Storm static?" Karal knocked on the gate. The mage-storms might be over, but sometimes the Ethereal Plane was still rippled enough to make Jumps less than accurate.
:It feels like it, but it isn't. Someone's protected this place.: Altra bared fangs, amused. :Very subtle.:
Which would make sense, Karal thought. After all, if Sejanes thinks Kenshin's here because he's trying to protect himself... and he knows other Yamato can Jump...
"Who's there? Is there an emergency?" A young woman's voice, cheerful despite hints of strain.
"Herald Kamiya? I don't know if you remember me. It's Karal," the young priest called back through the wood. "Captain Kerowyn asked me to visit." Well, sort of.
The gate opened. Altra glanced past the bokken-armed Herald to where a balding elderly Healer was helping a matronly woman with a bandaged face sort her three children out from two little girls and an older boy in swordsman's clothing. :No sign of him.: A glimpse of white moved behind one of the outbuildings, and Altra's red tail lashed. :Ah. There's Megumi. If you'll excuse me, I think I'll go have a little spirit-to-spirit talk.:
"Sun-Priest Karal!" Kaoru took his arm in the position he and the Artificers had worked out as most effective, guiding him over the lintel to the main path. "We were going to be sitting down to eat soon."
He'd mastered a lot of things without his sight, but chopsticks weren't one of them. "I don't think we'll be here that long. Listen-" Quickly, quietly, Karal outlined the situation. "So Altra brought me here," he finished. "I'm not sure exactly what he thinks we can do; the Son of the Sun can lay a geas, but I don't know if I can stop one! Still, if part of what Himura does is magically look like a demon, and if that's how Yamagata would grab him - well, Altra has certain powers over Abyssal Plane entities, so maybe we can... what?"
Kaoru drew in a ragged breath. "Why didn't you tell me?"
She's not talking to me. Karal swallowed dryly.
A soft sigh, not far to his right. "This one did not mean to worry you, Kaoru-dono; that I did not." The faintest of rustles, a long ponytail sliding over silk. "This one has been rurouni almost a decade. Never have there been any who might try to compel this one's blade."
"Until now," Karal pointed out, turning to face the man. Wondering what he looked like now, so many years after Sejanes' terrifying encounter. Not that different, if the mage's unease was anything to go by. Which means he does use magic. A lot.
"One hopes Yamagata-san is not so lacking in courtesy." Something chill moved under the surface of that light humor. "Sessha had... broken a promise, to take service with Katsura. It left this one vulnerable in ways unexpected, that it did. But Katsura's release, freely and with gratitude given, healed that breach." A breath. "And I will not break that vow again."
Forsworn, and with magic that pretends to be a demon's. Karal turned that thought over in his head, hiding a grimace. Sunlord, he would have been vulnerable. "Would it offend you if we tried to protect you? I know your people follow other gods..."
"Sessha is a student of Hiten Mitsurugi, Karal-san." Humor touched Kenshin's voice. "We know there are gods. We try to let them go their own way."
Karal blinked. That's - different. "After this is over, would you mind sitting down to talk?" he said in a rush. "My lady Natoli is an Artificer, and I know they're going to want to pester you to death about that cannon. And I was... sort of tossed into Valdemar myself a few years back." You're not that much older than I am. But you feel like Alberich, even more than Kerowyn. And I miss that.
"Sessha would be honored." The words faded at the end; probably a bow. "If Kaoru-dono trusts you to protect this dojo, and not compel, this one must trust you as well."
The dojo? A deliberate shift of words, he could feel it, after all these years in court. "I was more worried about you. If it is demon energy your people's spells might seek, a simple purification would-" Karal stopped, feeling the slightest breath of air. He's moved away? "What's wrong?"
A Firecat's squall split the night. :Get away from him!:
"Sessha has not touched your Sun-Priest, Hineko-sama."
:You - you-: Hissing, Altra stalked toward them; Karal could feel his friend's fur standing on end. :How dare you!:
"I am here invited, welcome, and bound by the courtesy and tradition of my people. You verge on violating guest-courtesy, Hineko-sama."
A red-furred tail switched. :I am a servant of the Sunlord. You don't think that petty steel can harm me.:
"No one's harming anyone!" Kaoru stepped between Kenshin and the snarling Firecat. "I don't know what you think he's done, but leave him alone!"
:Stay out of this, Herald! Karal and I know how to deal with his kind-:
:If you do,: a new mind-voice broke in, as Megumi's hooves stepped across the courtyard, :Sanosuke will stomp you into a red-and-white throw-rug. If there's still that much left of you. I wouldn't count on it. Himura's a master of Hiten Mitsurugi, and it's meant to deal with "his kind". Works pretty well against our kind, too.: A horsy snort of laughter. :Just ask Sano's sore jaw.:
"A student only, Megumi-dono," Kenshin said quietly. "Not a master."
His kind? Karal blanched as the implications sank home. Altra, what on earth is going on? He's not really a-
:He is.:
And I offered to purify him. Swallowing, Karal stepped blindly to the Firecat's side. "Our protections wouldn't do you any good, would they?"
"The dojo, Kaoru-dono, Yahiko-kun - hai, protect them, if you will." Kenshin's tone was even, matter of fact as a man watching an oncoming avalanche. "But sessha... no, Karal-san. What measures you could take would not be worth the cost."
:Depends on where you're standing,: Altra said laconically. :Ready?:
"Wait a minute!" Kaoru blazed. "What do you mean, not worth it? What's going on?"
:Ask Rolan,: the Firecat said sardonically. :If he'll tell you. If he'll even let you remember you asked, before your Queen learns the truth.: Altra sniffed. :Expecting nobility. Pure hearts. Self-sacrifice. It must be coming back as a horse.:
Karal bowed. "Thank you for your hospitality, Herald Kamiya. I think we'll be going now." Before anything else goes wrong.
A twist of reality, and he was borrowing Altra's sight to head for Sejanes' bottle of fiery liquor. "Karal, what-" the mage started.
Karal shook his head. Poured himself a bare finger of the powerful drink. Sipped, and grimaced, glad that Kerowyn had taken her leave while they were gone. She'd have teased him about his face for months. "You're going to need more help than just Quenten."
"More help?" Sejanes repeated incredulously. "My gods, young man! If you were any paler, the Heralds would be hunting you for boot leather!" He glanced at the Firecat. "What happened?"
:Valdemar claims there is no one true way,: Altra said dryly. :That they're a refuge for any who want to live in peace. That all that matters is a good heart, a will to try, and following the law of the realm.: He settled down as only a cat could, licking frazzled fur back into place. :Now we get to see if they mean it.:
Abayo - "Later", informal goodbye.
Daimyo - "great names", heads of powerful samurai clans.
Shunga - "Spring pictures", erotic illustration.
Onmitsu - spies, ninja.
-isha - healer, doctor.
Hineko-sama - "Lord Firecat".
Altra, of course, knows very well that most Companions are reincarnated Heralds.