Valoren Yazawa wasn't sure if he was pleased or worried.
It would depend on Tadashi's reaction, he supposed.
The decoy heir was missing now. Dead, possibly. In either case, he was no longer in Norema.
It was morning now. Arai Junzo would have reached court sometimes last night.
Perhaps Tadashi was already on his way to Norema.
Valoren Yazawa shifted uneasily in his chair. He would liked to have been on his way back to the old capital of Karun–not to be here when Tadashi arrived.
But there was no point in leaving. Not now.
Now he stood, walking over to the window, just as he had the other day with Arai.
The Karunic metai would likely be in interrogation now. Even if Arai had read the secret message for the King, the rebel spy would have missed its implications.
Frankly, Yazawa considered the case a job well done. Arai was the only one who knew the heir narrative was false.
And now Arai's word had been effectively made void.
Yazawa wondered briefly what today would bring.
Not Tadashi–it was too soon. Most likely not Taro Zayasu.
Quiet, maybe.
Quiet and dominance.
~~~
She was asleep, Taro realized.
His eyelid froze, half-open, half-shut.
He dared not move.
But he could still see her.
She was sitting against the tree, just as she had all right, but now she leaned fully against the trunk. Her eyes were closed, peaceful. Her breathing regular. Her hair slightly mussed by the bark.
She…had fallen asleep?
Taro was suddenly very aware of his own breathing.
He kept it quiet.
Well, if he moved, he would wake her. He knew that much.
And he did not want to wake the rakhai. Not today.
In fact, he had a sinking feeling she'd be distinctly annoyed if she knew he had seen her sleep.
Kishi's forehead twitched.
Taro slammed his eye shut.
He heard the slightest movement against bark. Something very much like a sigh.
Then silence.
He remained still.
Until her voice cut through him.
"I know you're awake."
He re-opened the eye cautiously.
She was standing, eight feet away, by the tree that was apparently her home now.
Watching him.
Taro sat up slowly. He did not yawn. He did not stretch.
Though he wanted to. His back hurt from sleeping on the ground. His neck screamed vengeance. And he was pretty sure his face had been imprinted by the hand he had leaned on–the hand that now refused to wake.
"Are you hungry?" she asked through her mask.
Taro realized she hadn't taken it off.
Not even to sleep.
He glanced down uncertainly at his stomach. Was he?
"I think so," Taro murmured.
She reached into the sack under the bush and pulled out an apple.
Then she launched it at him.
This time he didn't catch it. It thumped into his stomach before he grabbed at it, just in time to keep it off the ground. Taro lost some air and dragged it back in a moment later as he held the apple.
He didn't miss the way she flinched.
Taro stared at the apple for a few seconds before he ventured to take a bite.
"Do you like apples?" he asked carefully a moment later as she continued to stand, her eyes trained on him like an eagle's.
She blinked. Once.
"They're preferable to dirt."
Humor, then.
This was great.
Taro bit into the apple with a loud crunch.
She was still watching him. He ignored that.
"Are you going to eat?" he asked eventually. Maybe a minute later. Maybe longer.
"Hmph," the girl snorted.
Taro decided he didn't care.
He was feeling unreasonably reckless this morning.
He finished the apple. Lifted his hand to toss it into the woods like he had yesterday.
"No," Kishi said–almost reflexively.
His hand froze.
"Huh?"
She said nothing.
Taro threw anyway.
Kishi blinked once.
It was then that he realized her blinking meant something.
He swallowed.
Grabbing another apple, Kishi slipped behind the trunk of her tree.
Taro's eyes widened as he listened.
So. She would eat.
She just wouldn't let him see her face.
Taro tapped one finger lightly against the dirt as he tried to pull himself back together. Then he ran his hands through his hair in an almost obsessive effort to make himself look decent.
What was he, again?
Not a prisoner. Not a friend. Not even an enemy, apparently–
"So, are you going to try to leave?"
She couldn't see him, but Taro still arched up one eyebrow.
"Are you going to stop me?"
"Yes," Kishi returned.
Taro considered.
"Are you just looking for an excuse to kill me?"
She took a moment.
"Maybe."
Taro bit his lip.
He didn't understand. Why…
If she wanted to kill him, why didn't she just do it?
Suddenly he decided he would find out.
He stood up. His cloak fell around him, rumpled and dirty. His sword felt solid by his side. Like it was reminding him he–or it–belonged.
He couldn't tell which.
Taro took one step away from where he had slept, away from the ashes of the night's fire.
Then a scent bit into his senses.
Taro stood still, inhaling deeply.
…Smoke?
Kishi had stopped munching, he realized.
She stepped out from behind the tree, her lower face masked once again. No apple in her hand.
"Do you…"
Her voice trailed away as their eyes met and he knew she had smelled it, too.
Something tremored in her. Taro couldn't tell what.
"Is that…"
He glanced up, even as she did.
The air was slightly thicker than it should have been. Not fog. Not night.
Just the slightest hint of oppressive gray.
Taro caught his breath and jumped back as Kishi reached up and drew one of her blades.
She didn't attack him. She simply…held it in front of her.
He realized she was looking at her reflection.
Her face didn't change. But he saw her hand begin to tremble. Just slightly.
Slowly, Kishi slipped the blade back into its sheath. But she still didn't move.
Taro coughed before the instinct registered.
The air was thickening. Fast.
This wasn't from an ordinary fire. She already knew that.
Hiyashi…was ablaze.
"Kishi," Taro began, then stopped.
She was looking at him now. There was something in her eyes that terrified him.
Fear.
She was afraid.
Taro felt his heart rate slow into inevitability.
"Kishi," he whispered again.
She did not blink.
"Go," she said suddenly.
Taro felt the air freeze in his lungs.
"Are you…"
His mouth was dry.
"Are you going to come?"
She didn't answer. That was how he knew what her answer was.
And it hit him that–he wasn't okay with it.
He set his jaw. Hard.
"I'm not going unless you do."
He didn't know why he said that. It wouldn't mean anything.
Except…
It did.
Because she said nothing.
Taro took one step towards her. Towards the direction of the smoke.
Her entire body tensed.
"Go," she said again.
He stayed where he was. The smoke began to sting his eyes.
The fire was really blazing, then.
"Kishi." His voice was slow. Quiet. "I'm not going."
Stupid, he thought.
Norema. His family. He could go back to them. He didn't have to stay here and burn with a forest and a girl who hated him.
But…
He couldn't leave her, either.
She said nothing for almost a minute.
He coughed again. Harder this time.
Her eyes were watering now, he could see.
Not tears. Smoke.
He could distantly see the first traces of orange, far behind her, through the trees.
"If you go," she whispered, "I will follow."
~~~
Genjo Masahiro didn't like the color of the sky.
He never usually did.
But today's was different.
The horse was uneasy. Hooves scraped on the leaf-covered forest floor as Enatsu snorted.
Genjo turned to his steed.
"What do you think?" he asked softly.
Enatsu's snort curdled into something that was definitely not evocative of optimism.
Genjo half-smiled.
Then he smelt it.
Heaviness. Life.
Smoke.
The thought vaguely crossed Genjo's mind that the fire should be stopped.
Then he realized it couldn't be just a bush ablaze.
No. This was a forest fire.
Veteran though he was, the unspoken words still chilled his bones as he scanned the trees in the direction of the west. In the direction of Hoshara.
What he saw only confirmed his suspicions.
And doubled his fears.
The wind was beginning to blow. Eastward.
The fire would be blowing with it.
Genjo's hands trembled slightly as he loosened Enatsu's reins from the branch where he had tied them. He gathered his belongings in a matter of seconds.
Then he swung himself up into the saddle.
He didn't have to tell the horse to gallop east.
He just had to hang on.
~~~
Tadashi felt the wind in his hair as he rode.
He didn't rush. He didn't need to.
He had nearly reached the forest border already, his group of thirty men behind him.
Now he pulled up short, his gaze taking in the flames that had already swept through the first fringes of the forest and were now beginning to lick the skies above Hiyashi.
Well, if they chose to hurry, they could still make the pass–a mile or so south of the main pass enthroned in flame.
Tadashi decided it would be nice to reach Norema sooner than later.
They would hurry.
He glanced back at his men, gesturing once.
The group locked into motion. Hooves pounded–almost in sync.
A smile carved its way onto Tadashi's face, beneath his mask.
Now it began.