by Ruby Duvall
“For several weeks actually. We thought we were close when the attacks began, but we felt you move away from us. It was difficult to follow, but…the light showed us the way,” he breathed out, looking as if he were elated to simply be speaking to her.
In the sea of black-haired people, those with lighter hair easily stood out, and she gasped when her eyes landed on Master Takebe and his wife. Next to them was Ikuro, who held one of her children asleep in her arms. Her oldest boy stood almost behind her, his hands tightly gripping his mother’s sleeve. She didn’t see the woman’s husband. All three of the adults looked at her with mild shock and fascination.
“V-Vallen…what do we do now?” she whispered, watching as Rosuke and the young man began to converse. Mai was now talking to one of the young ladies in the crowd.
“We must train to do battle with the Damned One. It is your destiny.” She felt her stomach tighten with anxiety. “But you have me, Shumei. You have Rosuke and Mai. You have all of these people behind you…and more are coming.”
She felt the weight of the world settle on her shoulders, and the words of the Divine One came back to her.
You have one year, Shumei. Use it well.
Your greatest challenge is yet to come.
Chapter Thirty-Two
It turned out that Ikuro’s husband was slain in his valiant efforts to protect his family. The oldest and the youngest children still lived, not including the baby yet to be born, but the rest had unfortunately perished. Master Takebe had lifted his wife into his arms and carried her injured body to the medicine fields, his strength still praised unendingly by the missus. The only other survivor was Ryoushi, the village huntsman, who Shumei later found in the crowd, having hung back to watch the scene play out.
He had led the handful of survivors from the attack on Shumei’s village to safety when the sun rose, and when the large contingent of blackies had come upon them, his tale of Shumei’s and Majo’s sudden departures had intrigued the larger group. The brownies decided to join the ranks of the empress’s followers and had been treated well and kindly.
The night was spent preparing the estate for all who had come, which used up all of the bedrooms and sitting rooms in both the main building and all of the secondary buildings meant for the servants. Shumei knew that they would need to either build more shelter or find another place to call home, for there was no doubt that more would arrive very soon and would need a place to sleep. She sorely wished to stay though.
She had been eager, however exhausted she felt, to talk with all who had come and to start organizing what she would guess was a new dark court, but all of her subjects had insisted that she rest, an opinion wholeheartedly supported by Vallen, who had taken her gently to her room. Somehow, everyone had known where she was sleeping, and by the number of gifts sitting about the room, she wondered if anyone hadn’t brought her a present.
The eastern sky was just beginning to fold back into day when she lay down on the bed. She snuggled into Vallen’s arms, having taken a cleansing bath in the man-made pools sitting in the center of the main building, which pumped in water from the hot springs farther up the closest foothill. The bath had been made even better with a pair of masculine hands and a bar of Kasuian soap. Her skin still tingled from its spicy touch.
“I bet you’re quite tired,” Vallen smiled into her damp hair, holding her closer. She squeezed her arm around his side, enjoying the leanness of his muscles against her skin.
“Why’s that?” she softly mumbled.
“You defeated the champion of your enemy, resurrected the man holding you now who, by the way, is more grateful than you could ever know and you greeted, housed and fed the first two hundred of your massive army, all in one night.”
“I suppose I am tired then, in that case.” She smiled lazily, rubbing her cheek against his chest.
“Then sleep, my love. I shall be here to hold you until we both wake,” he said, sounding as if he needed the sleep as well. She wondered if he was actually excited to sleep again. She inhaled deeply, prepared to settle in and rest herself, and the scent of the spicy Kasuian soap met her senses.
“Vallen?”
“Mm?”
“This is going to be a strange question.” She felt her face go serious and knew just from the tension in his arms that he had felt it too.
“Fifteen years ago, when you were coming here to meet Rosuke, did you…did you come upon anything strange? In this area, I mean.”
He was silent a long while, taking his time to think. When he made a small noise, she realized a memory had come back to him.
“I did, actually. Strange…I had forgotten that incident. A demon was terrorizing this little girl and I took her back to her family after I slew the creature. He must have been breaking the ceasefire, thinking back on it now. Shumei? What’s wrong?” His voice held concern as he tried to see his lover’s face. She was shaking and he heard the telltale noises of weeping.
“Vallen…oh Vallen, I love you so much,” she sobbed, pulling herself up his body so that she could press her face to his shoulder. He held her close, uncertain as to what had changed.
“I love you as well. You know this. Did I say something wrong?” He laughed then. “Or are you impressed by my valor?” he joked, sending soothing strokes down her naked back. She only seemed to choke up even more, and he realized that she was trying to say something clearly enough for him to understand her through her tears.
“That l-little girl,” she said, hiccupping twice, “was m-me.” She felt his hands pause on her back and squeezed her eyes tight as his arms swiftly came around her, crushing her to his chest as if he would pull her into himself.
“Shumei…oh gods,” he whispered into her ear. He pressed kisses to her shoulder and neck, as if verifying that she was still here in front of him. She felt another sob leave her throat and was greatly comforted by his gentle shushes and loving hands, which continued to both hug her and rub circles over her tense muscles.
They fell asleep as such, tangled together and pressed close, their cheeks damp with tears of happiness and relief. The morning sun slowly spilled into their room, lighting upon the dark highlights in their raven-colored hair and bringing a glow to their skin.
And when Shumei dreamed, it was only of Vallen.
About the Author
Ruby Duvall is an avid reader of many genres, but her favorites include fantasy, sci-fi, and suspense. She also loves movies, especially horror movies. Favorites are Aliens, The Shining, and The Ring. When it comes to music, her interests are rather eclectic, but her favorite genre is rock ‘n’ roll.
Ruby has been a fan of Anime for ten years and has seen dozens of series. She is also active outdoors and loves snowboarding. She enjoys making websites and is comfortable using HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.
She has always enjoyed writing essays, and she first started writing fiction as a fan-fiction author for her favorite anime series. Currently living in Tokyo, Ruby teaches English and studies Japanese.
Ruby welcomes comments from readers. You can find her website and email address on her author bio page at www.ellorascave.com.
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