Masters of Fate, Slaves to Duty

Chapter 7


The night proceeded quickly after that. The doctor convinced Foxx to let him take Kurenai to the palace where he could keep an eye on her and treat her if her condition worsened. He did not mention that her children were there, and able to give her the required blood supply she needed to survive. She was by no means safe yet, and someone needed to stay with her at all times.

As Miki was securing a wagon to use as a transport, members from the British Embassy showed up. They collected both Foxx and Daven, and they wanted to lay claim to Kurenai as Foxx’s wife. But Akihiro assured them that she was still a Japanese citizen and did not fall under their jurisdiction. When they challenged him, Miki stood up and said she was in no condition to answer their questions, that if they needed to see her, she would be secured at the palace.

Foxx leaned over to Miki before he was escorted away, and Miki assured him that she would be safe with them. Foxx and Daven were then piled into a carriage with covered windows and taken away for questioning.

Miki stood next to Akihiro and said, “What will happen to them?”

Akihiro shrugged, “It is unknown at this time. I am not familiar with all of the English laws that they are subject to. Daven will not have any important information to give them. We made certain he knew nothing.

“Depending on his role, Jonathan may be tried for treason. At the very least, he will be deported back to his country for failing in his role as Admiral, and Daven may have to follow if he doesn’t get promoted to fill the gap made by the Admiral’s dismissal.”

Tatsumaki had disappeared before the British troops arrived. Neither Miki nor Akihiro tried to stop him. They watched as he left, and simply started wandering through the streets. Both men knew he would end up somewhere he could drown himself in opium, sake, or women. Miki only wondered what would happen when Yume woke up. Had she recognized the man who held her, the same man that had saved her and Foxx from the clutches of the Chinese camp?

~*~*~

The sun was already high the next day before Yume awoke from her comatose slumber. She sat up and stared across a room she did not recognize. The doors were open to the outside, and the warm spring breeze filled the room with the scent of irises. A small chime tinkled in the doorway.

Her body felt stiff, and as she looked down at her bare arms, she saw a bandage on her left arm and another around her right elbow. Her mind was clouded, but she remembered running in the woods recently. She had gone there for someone, and someone else had been there too.

Looking at her hand, she saw a single gold ring on her finger, and then the memory of the night before came back. She had been struck with an enemy’s arrow, but had the others got out alive?

She tried to rise from the bed, but she couldn’t get her legs beneath her. She had no strength, and her body made the short tumble back to the floor. That’s when she heard footsteps, and the inner doors opened.

“Stop that,” scolded Miki as he came to her side. “You are in no condition to be moving around.”

She let him pick her up and carry her back to the bed. She refused to lie down, so he just tucked the blankets around her and told her stay put while he got the doctor.

Seimei entered from the outside as Miki left. She stayed in the doorway, afraid to come to her mother’s side. Yume watched her, and noticed she also had a bandage around her right elbow.

Seimei saw her looking at it, and a tear slid down her cheek. “They say we saved your life,” she said, sniffing back the cry that wanted to escape.

Yume motioned the girl over. She walked slowly toward her, unsure of what her mother wanted. She had had so little contact with her recently, so she didn’t know what to expect. Arashi had told her she was sick, and that she didn’t want anything to do with them.

When she was close enough, Yume grabbed her good arm and yanked her into her lap. She squeezed the child to her body, and cried in the child’s hair.

“I have missed you so much,” she said over and over.

She rocked back and forth with the child in her arms. Seimei was crying too, and she knew at that moment that Arashi was wrong. They were not unwanted. She loved them as much as their father did.

Seimei put her arms around her fragile mother and said, “Have you seen daddy yet?”

Yume hugged the child closer, remembering the night before. At one point she thought she had seen Tatsumaki’s face above her, holding her close and refusing to let her go.

“No sweetie,” she whispered, wanting to confirm what had happened before she gave the child false hope. “No, I haven’t seen your daddy.”

“Seimei,” said Miki from the doorway. “Can you give us a minute with your mom? The doctor needs to make sure she is all right.”

Yume didn’t want to let her go. She had not held her child in so long, not wanting Jonathan to know about her real connection to them. Miki touched her shoulder, and she placed a kiss on the child’s head before releasing her.

She was alone with Miki and the doctor, who explained what had happened the night before. She had never been poisoned before, and from the lethargy she felt, she knew she was lucky to still walk the earth. Sakiko came in a moment later, and brought her a broth mixed with a variety of herbs that would give her strength. Then the doctor forbade her from leaving the room without help.

When the doctor left, a group of men came in, and Sakiko excused herself. Yume recognized them as officers from the Royal Navy. She had seen them at the house before. Jonathan and Daven were in trouble, but the degree of trouble depended on how she answered their questions. Miki reassured her that this was just procedure, and that the Council felt it in her best interest to answer their questions honestly.

No, she was not aware of any wrong doing by Lieutenant Daven Russell; he had never left her side.

No, she did not know why Admiral Jonathan Foxx was with the Chinese or how he had come to be in their control.

No, she did not know why the Chinese were stationed outside the city walls, or who their target was.

Yes, she was the one who saved him.

No, she did not know the location of the HMS Stronghold.

And the strangest question; No, she was not with child.

The men took notes of all her answers, and excused themselves so she could get more rest. Miki left her a short time later after telling her she needed to sleep. Her body was still recovering, and it would only improve faster if she rested.

But her mind was too awake, busy processing all the things that had happened. Two weeks ago, she was by the Empress’s side, working by day and safe at home at night. Her marriage was anything but a real union between man and woman. She had cast out Jonathan at every chance, refusing his advances and his bed. Instead he entertained at the main house, and left her alone with her books. And when she was alone, her mind went back to its dark place, the place where she longed for release from this life. She had suffered enough over the years. She had barely spent thirty years in this world, and she had experienced more mental and physical pain than most of the country’s accomplished warriors.

And in that self-pity, she drowned. Yet, when her husband (in name only) was in trouble, she could think of nothing but saving him. She had thought he meant nothing to her. Maybe she really did want to pay back her debt to him. Maybe she felt that if the debt was paid, she could somehow get out of this marriage that she didn’t want. She knew she was foolish to think such thoughts. The Emperor would never release her from this obligatory duty.

~*~*~

The room was dark when she opened her eyes again. She was lying on her side, facing the outside. No air was moving this time, but she could see fireflies dancing in the night.

“It’s been a long time,” said a voice from the darkest corner of the room.

Yume sat up and saw only the shadow of a figure, but she knew the voice. “I figured you would come eventually,” she said as she rearranged herself in the bed. “I’m glad. I thought my mind was only letting me imagine what I wanted to see while I was on my death bed.”

She let the blanket fall away, her skin exposed to the night air. She wore only a simple sleeveless robe that had opened at the chest during her troubled nap, revealing a network of scars that converged between her breasts and trailed down her stomach. In a moment of apprehension, she scrambled to cover her flesh from his eyes.

She heard the darkness sigh. “I never thought there would be a day that you would hide yourself from me.”

She blushed, embarrassed by her reaction to him. “I hear it is improper for a married woman to show her skin to any man but her husband.”

The darkness shifted, uncomfortable with the direction of the conversation already. “I was told you were sick.”

“I have survived several trials, a little poison won’t do me in,” she said light-heartedly.

“You know what I mean,” growled the darkness. “Your son says you’re not here anymore. That your soul has already gone ahead, and that it’s just waiting for your body to catch up. You know, he is quite observant and wise for his age.”

She moaned a sigh and turned her sights back to the evening sky. “Like father, like son, so busy worrying about things that are neither your business nor your problems to repair.”

The darkness suddenly stood up, drawing her attention back to the corner. “Your ‘brother’ is coming.”

She reached out to stop him from leaving, but the interior doors opened. Miki stood there with a single candle that scattered the darkness.

“Yume, are you awake at this hour?” he asked, rushing to her side.

She let her arm fall back into her lap, the same one that flowed with her children’s lifeblood.

“I’m sorry,” she said, smiling up at him. “It was just a bad dream.”

~*~*~

Two days later, Tatsumaki had to get back to Yoshi-wara. He had tried to slip in and see her again, but she was under constant surveillance now. Miki had told him that the Chinese soldiers had broke camp, but they had not moved on. The villages appeared to be vacant, but that didn’t mean that they weren’t somewhere else along the city’s borders or even within the city itself.

Daven had been cleared of any charges. However, Foxx was due to ship back to his country the following day. He was not held at fault for losing the ship. He exclaimed that the men had kidnapped him, and taken the ship and its crew hostage. Foxx claimed that they threatened his wife if he did not cooperate with them, and help them get into the city. Now he was just a shameful burden, and to appease the Japanese government, the ambassadors agreed to send Foxx back to Britain. He would be stripped of his rank, and tried for sedition.

It was unclear if Yume, a.k.a. Kurenai, would have to accompany him. Even though she was in her home country, she was considered a citizen of Britain because she was married to one of the Queen’s soldiers.

And with that thought, Tatsumaki wandered the red-light district, searching for the best place to strip himself of his memories and his feelings, leaving him just a flesh and blood man with no ties to this world.

In his haste, he found a hole-in-the-wall place where two women blocked the door. They smiled and motioned for him to enter. Someone bumped him from behind, spinning him around. He heard someone grumble an apology before he moved on.

When Tatsu turned around, he saw the back of Jonathan Foxx walking down the street. His uniform was dirty and rumpled. His hair was messed up, and he stumbled down the street as if he was drunk.

For some unknown reason, Tatsu set off after him. He stayed far enough behind so the man wouldn’t know he was there. He felt slightly responsible for him, and wanted to make sure he didn’t hurt himself before he got home.

The street was getting darker as they reached a different section of the district. A scantily clad woman approached Foxx, rubbing her hands along his body as she whispered something in his ear. Foxx grabbed her hand and yanked her into a nearby alleyway. Tatsu crept along the side of the building until he could hear the woman giggling.

“My, aren’t you just the barbarian…” she said before he could hear kissing.

Tatsu could hear fabric tearing away before both of them moaned. He peeked around the corner to see the woman wrapping her legs around his waist. Foxx was stroking himself hard before she let herself fall onto his shaft. She cooed, and without warning, Foxx slammed her back against the wall, knocking the breath from the woman.

“What are you doing?” she managed to say between her coughs.

Foxx slapped her across the face, and then covered her mouth with his hand. He thrust up into her again with such force that Tatsu could see drops of blood dot the ground as he tore at her insides. Her eyes looked to the street, and then locked onto to Tatsu. Her eyes glistened over with unshed tears as they silently pleaded for help.

Foxx jerked her face back, forcing her to look at him. He grabbed her right leg from his waist and pulled it up higher so it draped over his shoulder. The position spread her wider and she screamed under his hand as he tore her body apart before Tatsu’s eyes.

~*~*~

“So, you haven’t seen him tonight?” Kurenai asked as she threw clothes into three separate trunks that littered her room.

The annulment papers had been delivered that morning. Because they had never consummated the marriage, nor had she conceived a child, the British officials had allowed their marriage to be dissolved. She was a free woman, no longer bound by her brother’s decree or the temple’s rites.

Miki had dropped her off that afternoon to collect her things. She was going to move in with him and help take care of Sakiko. Her sickness had worsened in recent days, and she could serve as a temporary midwife since she already had experience with childbirth.

He had offered to stay with her, but Daven met them at the gate and said he was there if she needed any help. Daven was with her now as she decided what to take and what she could leave behind.

“No, he left quietly before you got here. I think he was too ashamed to look you in the face.”

Even through her selfish happiness at this turn of events, she didn’t wish this on Jonathan. He was a good man, a strong leader, and above all, a great friend. She had spent more than two years with him, long enough to realize that had they met under different circumstances, she could have been very happy with him.

The majority of the clothes were packed away, and she wiped the sweat from her forehead. She still was not well, but she was able move around for small amounts of time before she got weary.

Daven was at her side immediately, helping her to sit on one of the trunks. “You should not be doing all this work, Lady Kurenai.”

She waved him off. “I’ll be fine,” she said, looking around the room at the stacks of books. “What will you do with those?”

Daven shrugged. “Why don’t you take some? You shouldn’t forego your studies just because we’re not here anymore.”

“I couldn’t possibly!” she said, shocked at his generosity. “Most of them are yours!”

“Yeah, but I didn’t get the enjoyment from them that you do,” he said, taking her hands in his. “How about this, take your favorites with you. That way you have something to remember us by.”

She smiled at him, and placed a hand to his face. “I couldn’t forget you, not even if I wanted to.”

He backed away from her, and started to make room in another trunk for the books. “Look, I know you weren’t happy here. I could see it on your face when you thought I wasn’t paying attention. But, it’s not all bad memories, is it?”

Before she could answer his question, there was a knock at the door. Akihiro stepped through. “The master has returned home, and he seems to have lost his sense in the bottom of a bottle.”

Daven let out a sigh and muttered to himself, “I was afraid he might do that.”

Akihiro said, “I’ll stay with her.”

Daven looked worried. “Good, because he’s an animal when he’s drunk. I’ll try to distract him. It might be in her best interest if she left soon.”

That concerned Kurenai. She had never seen Jonathan take a drink of anything stronger than tea, and never knew he had such a vice. She had plenty of experience dealing with drunken men, and she knew the best medicine was usually to let them sleep it off.

Kurenai walked to a pile of books, but stopped when she heard shouting outside. Akihiro already had his hand on his knife, ready to take action, when a gunshot rang through the night.

She couldn’t move as she worried about who was on the other end of that shot. Suddenly Jonathan tumbled into her room and fell to the floor. Akihiro cautiously backed away from the man, trying to keep Kurenai close behind him.

“When I give the signal, you run as far as you can and get help,” he said in a low voice.

She nodded in concurrence. Jonathan was struggling to get to his feet, and Akihiro was circling away from him with Kurenai directly behind him. He couldn’t see a pistol in Jonathan’s hands, but he didn’t want to take that risk with her life.

Her back was to the wall, and they were now within reaching distance of Jonathan. They were at the edge of the doorway when Jonathan jumped to his feet, and drove his head up and under Akihiro’s chin. The force from the strike knocked both he and Kurenai backwards against the hard wall.

Akihiro hit the floor as Kurenai struggled to get air back into her lungs. She was still coughing when Jonathan grabbed her by the throat and flung her to the floor.

He looked around the barren room. “Well, I see you couldn’t move out fast enough, my little wife.”

Kurenai looked up at a man she didn’t recognize. Jonathan removed his dirty uniform jacket, flinging it across the room. He untied his cravat and started to toss it into the pile with the jacket, then changed his mind. His hands moved to his belt, tearing at the buckle and yanking it from its loops. As Kurenai watched in horror, she saw blood speckled down his white pants.

Her body was still weak, but fear was a great motivator. She rolled over and started to pull her body across the floor with her arms.

She felt a hand grab her leg and drag her backward. “Where do you think you’re going?”

Looking back at Jonathan, all she saw was madness in his eyes. She tried to talk some reason into him. “Please, Jonathan, you don’t want to do this.”

He crawled over her on his hands and knees. His shirt was unbuttoned, and she could see that large muscular chest that she had never desired to taste. There was a trail of thin, curly hair leading all the way down his stomach and into the waistband of his pants that now seemed tightened over him.

He saw how she looked at him. “Now I see. You couldn’t bother to touch me as your husband, but now you can’t stop looking at me now that we’re separated.”

She shook her head in disagreement. “No, it’s nothing like that Jonathan. Please, let’s just talk about this.”

“Enough!” he yelled in her face. Before she could make another sound, he shoved the cravat in her mouth and tied it around the back of her head.

He sat down on her struggling form, and traced a finger down her chin, to her neck, and onward across her chest. When that didn’t instill enough fear in her eyes, he grabbed at her robe and ripped it open, exposing her flesh to his wanton eyes.

He leaned forward and kissed a trail between her breasts. “See what you’ve been missing?” he cooed between kisses before he set his lips on her left breast.

She refused to give into him, so instead of letting out the cry that was building in her chest, she turned her head away from him. There was no denying what he was going to do to her, but she didn’t have to watch it. She had enough memories like this, enough nightmares to last a lifetime.

With one hand he grabbed her face, making her look into his eyes. “Ahh, there’s that defiance I saw the first day we met,” he said as his other hand roamed across her bare stomach. “You thought I had done naughty things to you while you slept naked in my bed.

“This is what I wanted to do on that first day,” he whispered in her ear as his hand burrowed between her nether lips and forced two fingers inside. “Oh, you were so beautiful. I wanted that little warrior woman all for myself.”

She yanked her face out of his grasp as he crammed another finger inside, spreading her virginesque lips wider. It hurt worse because she was dry, and his nails were sharp. She could feel herself tearing at the forced entry.

“Get away from her,” a voice demanded from the doorway.

Both of them looked in the voice’s direction, and she was relieved to see Tatsumaki standing there with a pistol pointed directly at Jonathan.

“You have no business here,” Jonathan said as he ripped his fingers out of her womb.

“I won’t repeat myself,” Tatsu warned, pulling back the hammer on the pistol.

Kurenai’s heart was pounding her chest. Jonathan stood up to face Tatsu, and while he was distracted, she kicked her foot against the back of his knee. Jonathan dropped to the floor, and Tatsu fired one shot. The bullet passed through Jonathan’s shoulder, spraying blood on Kurenai’s naked form. She managed to roll away before Jonathan could fall on her, but not fast enough to retrieve her robe.

She was on her hands and knees when Tatsu reached her. He grabbed the gag from her mouth, and pulled her into a hug. As soon as she breathed in his scent, the flood gates opened. She cried into his chest as she watched Jonathan bleed all over the floor.

When her cries died down to whimpers, Tatsu whispered, “I knew he was mad, but I didn’t think he would go this far.”

Kurenai composed herself. “You knew about the annulment?”

Tatsu shook his head before he surveyed the room. “Not at first,” he paused as he thought about his words. “I saw him in an inappropriate part of town, and I followed him. I watched as he raped a woman in an alleyway. I later talked to Miki, who told me about the papers. I came to see if you needed help.”

She sniffed again before answering. “Well, you were right,” she said, and then a thought struck her. “Daven, did you see him?”

“Yeah, he’s in the courtyard. Looks like he took a bullet in the leg, but he’ll be fine.”

Kurenai was relieved. Using Tatsu for balance, she tried to stand up, but her legs were weak. He caught her before she could fall, and swept her up into his arms. Checking her for wounds, he saw a whole new chain of scars that he hadn’t seen before. There was fresh blood spotting the insides of her legs, just like the prostitute from earlier.

“You’re hurt,” he said, feeling the anger creep into his voice.

“I’ll heal,” she said, placing a hand against his chest.

He didn’t believe her. How could she act like this was something that happened all the time? It looked like they had a lot of catching up to do.

Tatsu set her gently on one of the closed trunks, allowing her to situate herself comfortably before leaving her side. He dug through another trunk and found a dark kimono for her to wear, one that would hide bloodstains. As he helped to dress her, he heard a grunt from behind them.

“Is she all right?” said Daven from the doorway. He had managed to get his leg tied off to staunch the bleeding, and seemed shocked when he saw his commanding officer bleeding on the floor.

Tatsu ignored the question.

“Kurenai?” Daven asked.

“That is no longer her name,” Tatsu growled.

He picked her up her weakened body, and stepped over Akihiro to get to the doorway. Yume looked down at him, but he seemed to be only unconscious.

“Where are you taking her?” Daven asked, moving out of the couple’s way.

“Home.”


TBC....