He glanced behind them when some leaves rustled, then stilled. "Let us hope that continues."
"No. I can be as sneaky as a fox. They will never catch us."
He tilted his head back and laughed, tapping her once on her elegant nose. "Yes, yes you can, you fierce Nari woman. No fox can sneak up on you."
Her expression faded into concern. "Has anyone suspected what we're doing, do you think? My father would be furious if he found out."
"Not that I have seen or heard, no, and I will keep an ear out if I can."
The wrinkles in her face smoothed out. "Good. For a while I thought my brother suspected, but . . ." She trailed away, glancing behind them. When she pulled out of her thoughts, she smiled. "We are safe, I believe."
"Your brother would be angry?"
"On behalf of my father, yes."
He leaned down, closing the distance between them until she put a hand on his chest. "Wait."
He stopped a breath away. His brow furrowed. "What is it?"
She reached into a small pocket at the side of her dress, extracting something that glinted. She kept it hidden against her palm, studying his curious gaze with a teasing grin, before opening her fingers one by one.
Inside her hand lay a silver pendant in the shape of a flattened tear drop. She peeled it open. Inside, an emerald was flanked by one sparkling, single diamond.
"If you open it, there is a surprise inside."
"It opens?"
She lifted her palm, and he accepted the pendant from her. He pried open the edges, and found a silky lock of her hair inside. Her name was inscribed on the inside of the pendant. The shaky, jagged appearance of the letters meant she had done it herself – no doubt, in the depths of night so no one would know.
Rakesh touched her name with the tip of his finger, and felt a surge of protectiveness for her that nearly overwhelmed him. He studied the pendant, gently closed it, and pressed a hand to her face.
"It's beautiful. Just like you."
It’s yours. You will always carry me with you now."
She grabbed the pendant and slipped the necklace over his head. The pendant dangled just over his heart. He tucked it under his shirt and pressed his palm to it for a moment. "Always."
She slipped into his arms again, her head tilted back. Rakesh tightened his hold on her, memorizing the way her body fit against his. The way her hair fell in long, gentle strands down her back, fluttering over her shoulders in the wind.
Rakesh lowered his face to hers. The warm kiss of her breath caressed his cheek. "I will always love you," he whispered.
Her lips brushed his just as a heavy hand clamped down on his shoulder. Rakesh felt her breath hitch, heard a cry emerge from her throat as he was torn away.
He whipped around, ducking a punch.
"Azuma!" she screamed. "NO!"
Rakesh quelled the urge to fight back as he stared into the livid eyes of her older brother.
"You betray our family!" Azuma raged.
Rakesh held up his hands. "I want no violence, Azuma."
Ren rushed between them, holding her arms out. "Leave him alone, Azuma. I love him. I love him more than anything."
Azuma grabbed her arm, shoving her behind him. Rakesh stepped forward with a growl.
"If you harm her," he muttered, pointing one finger at Azuma, "you will deal with me then."
"No, Rakesh. From here on out, you will be dealing with far worse things than me."
White lights broke across Rakesh's vision when Azuma's fist met his face. Pain reverberated through his skull, sending him into blackness.
Rakesh awoke to the sound of chanting. The words of an ancient language filled his ears with strange litanies.
He was on his back, surrounded by four men in black robes and hoods too deep to reveal their faces. Metal chains held him tight to a gritty rock face, which ground into his back. Fear and pain rippled through Rakesh. He tried to scream, but his throat did not allow it. He had no energy to fight, no voice with which to call out.
An old man in a wheelchair sat next to the altar, studying him. Rakesh felt the old man's stare upon him from where he lay. A toothy grin arose on the wrinkled face as the elder called out words in the same ancient tongue.
For every sentence the old man spoke, the four men answered. The litanies changed, at once singsong and terrifying at the same time.
"We have a strong life essence here," the elder croaked out, his feeble voice still strong enough to be heard through all the chants. "What a good thing for us! The dark lands of The Nothingness provide all that we need!"
A strange sensation entered Rakesh's mind. His very body seemed to swirl in the air for a moment, drifting on an unseen cloud. His fingers turned numb.
The paralyzing feeling rippled up his arm, creeping through his elbow, to his bicep, to his shoulder. He couldn't feel his toes, his ankle. Then, his knee.
Slowly, one limb at a time, his body became numb, dead.
His head felt lighter. Free. Was he floating now? Did the heavy chains still weigh him down? He struggled to keep his eyes open… No, too much work.
Rakesh's head lolled to the side of his neck. Then an intense pain shot through his body all the way from his toes to his shoulders. His legs twitched. His body spasmed. He groaned from somewhere deep in his throat.
The liturgical chants increased in energy and volume. Rakesh attempted to open his eyes to see the wizened old man once more, but all he saw through his barely parted lashes was a smoky, strange cloud hovering in the air above him.
Blood.
Blood flowed from the cloud, gathering in streams that parted ways and slipped into the men surrounding him.
The old man cackled with glee. The chanting calmed.
Everything was fuzzy…so distant.
Then a heavy hand grabbed Rakesh's wrist, prying his fingers open. With the last of the life left in him, Rakesh jerked his wrist away. The pendant fell, dropping to the ground and opening with a clink. A single lock of bright red hair slipped to the ground, and the three letters inscribed inside were revealed to all who cared look.
REN.
Rakesh closed his eyes, his head turning to the side. One final whisper slipped from his lips.
"Ren . . . "
Ren
Ren peered out her bedroom window in the Imperial Palace and focused her eyes on the rooftops in the Sunsan nation.
This. This was her new home. With her parents dead and the world as she knew it having fallen apart, for sure she'd never return to her homeland.
She had to make a new life here without a husband, and without parents – with only her siblings to love her.
All around Ren, sunlight poured in through the windows and warmed up her body. Yet she remained lost in thoughts of her mother lying dead on that stone slab.
Her mind then moved to the body of Isao, and how it had been so disfigured.
She reflected on the fact that the bodies of hundreds of her people were now set in shallow, mass graves because there were too many to bury individually.
How would she ever reign successfully?
She knew nothing about the Empire as a whole. She did not know how to run it, or what to say when she tried. She didn’t even know who many of those in the Hiwan clan were!
Rumors would spread about her inability to fill the void left by Sheng Saemon. Did she even care what they said?
No.
She only cared about him. Rakesh. Him whom she could never have…particularly not now.
What would he think of this? How would she feel if he was here and wrapping his arms around her?
She had started to long for Rakesh in unexpected ways. Fitfully. Desperately. Tinged with an aura of deep need that no amount of time seemed to lessen or erase.
A loud noise from the courtyard below arrested her attention. She jerked out of her reverie – her memories of Rakesh’s soft touch and loving hands – to look.
Three soldiers were forcibly dragging a man into the courtyard. She leaned forward and narrowed her gaze. The man was Nobu Ameya. A lump rose in her throat. The traitor.
"You can't do this!" the Ameyan suddenly screamed. "You can't do this!"