A woman was hanging from her wrists, tied to a frame she'd had erected from wood taken from the village. A stone was tied to her feet, keeping her from lifted her legs at all and putting all the more weight on her arms. Her body was covered in whip marks, and Lady Satsujin was getting ready to make more.
"Shima," she said. "Where have you been?"
"I have been securing the prisoner requested by Her Majesty, Lady Oni."
"Ha! 'Securing'. I can smell her cunt on you. Did you make her cry?"
"No, Lady Oni."
"Too bad. Come over here, try this one."
Before he could excuse himself, two soldiers came running up to him.
"Captain Shima, we've taken a prisoner. He says that he has something we want, and wants to make a deal."
What a fool. Lady Satsujin would make a deal with him, certainly, but she would break it the instant she had whatever she wanted from it.
"Bring him here."
Captain Shima waited while Lady Satsujin gave her prisoner another round of lashing. When the man arrived Shima saw little to be impressed with. He was a typical Dunnie, one of their fighters, a bunch that had already proven lacking.
"Make it fast," he said, doubting that he really had much to offer.
"My name is Gugi," he said, as if anyone cared. "I'm here to trade- my village for a valuable prisoner."
Shima followed his eyes to the woman hanging from the frame. There was obvious anger in them, but he kept it to himself.
"This better get more interesting than that, fast, or I'll throw you off the side of this rock," said the Lady Oni.
"Lord Akio," said the man, abruptly capturing both her and Shima's true attention.
"He's in our camp right now. I'll tell you how you can get to him, but in exchange I want you to leave this desert, and leave my people unharmed with it."
"You're asking for a lot," said Lady Satsujin. "I was really looking forward to killing all of you."
"I know how valuable this man is to you. He's been telling us of all the battles you've fought. This village is nothing to you- not compared to him."
"He's right," said Shima. The Queen cared nothing for this dust trap, one way or the other. It would be a good deal even if they were going to bother honoring it.
"Where is he?" he asked.
"Not so fast. I want your word first. Also, I want something else. There's a woman with him named Miyoshi. Her friends want to sneak inside of your Queen's palace to steal something. You can take them too, but I want Miyoshi for myself. Put them in your dungeon and keep them as hostages, and tell her that you'll let her go, but only if she stays here. Tell her that you're giving her to me to watch over, and that you'll hurt her friends if she doesn't obey."
He was a fool, no doubt about it, expecting so much when they had his people in their hands. His plans for making this woman his wife- well, she better not have much of a mind of her own, or she'd find ways to make him regret it.
"Let's talk details," said Lady Satsujin.
Captain Shima would have to put up a show of negotiating, of course, but he already knew what this young warrior would be getting in the end. The only question was how much The Lady Oni decided to twist the knife in his back.
Yumi watched the sun inch slowly toward the horizon. They'd spent all day trying to prepare the Dunnies for their fight tomorrow. Now there was only one piece left, and they were out in the rockiest part of the desert trying to get it. In the canyon below them was a cave- the lair of Igrowl.
"Okay," said Taiko. "Once he comes out, we'll drop the harness on top of him. I can cast a spell on it right then to make it grab him and warp around his body."
"But then how are you going to get into the harness's riding position?" asked Yumi.
She hated having to ask that. It should be her jumping down to climb on the harness, but right now she would be too weak to hold on. She didn't even have a reason to be there- they'd only brought her along so that she wouldn't feel left out, and perhaps to keep an eye on Akio. He had been brought with them because they didn't trust him alone with the Dunnies.
"That's what this line will be for. We'll anchor it here and keep the other end tied to the harness. That way, I can slide down it and it'll take me right there.
"Then what?" asked Akio. "Are you just going to hope that if you stay on the creature long enough it'll start taking commands from you?"
"The harness is designed to urge him in one direction or the other based on how she pulls the reigns," said Miyoshi. "And we know where some of his favorite food is. If she can get him over that way, he'll learn to obey his rider."
"That sounds incredibly optimistic to me."
"We don't need great control over him," said Taiko. "We just need to ride him to the battle for the shock factor. If we can get Chiyo on his back, they'll have to attack us while we're riding him to stop her from blasting them."
"Are you ready?" asked Chiyo. "Should I burn the lure?"
Taiko made a series of poses to cast a spell.
"Tsurujin's grip!" she said, enchanting herself. "Okay, go ahead."
Chiyo used her staff to spit fire on the bundle of herbs and scented woods they'd collected. Once the bundle was burning she shoved it off the cliff, sending it to scatter in flaming bits in front of Igrowl's cave. They waited, focused intently while they heard the stirring of the great beast below.
It was almost too late when Akio shouted the alarm.
"Who is that?" he said, the only one of them not staring down into the canyon.
Yumi spun to see a ground of soldiers, uniformed like Jumo described, closing in on them. When they saw that they were spotted they shouted and charged. She lifted her spear and went on guard, ready to fight, no matter how little good she did.
Taiko and Chiyo weren't as fast to react, but when they did it was to much better effect. Yumi heard Chiyo's shout from behind her, and immediately after a bolt of magic shot past her and sent three soldiers flying back.
"Blind them, desert sun!"
The sun, which was behind their backs, grew in brightness, and several of the men faltered in their advance, having to shield their eyes from its blinding light.
Chiyo let loose a series of small, erratically arcing orbs of energy, each one seeking out a solider and knocking him senseless. That's when Yumi saw the men behind them- six of them, each swinging a bola, ready to unleash them. At once all six flew forward, aimed at Chiyo and Taiko.
The soldiers knew who they were targeting. Taiko ducked and rolled, escaping capture, but Chiyo wasn't as agile. One of the bolas collided with her spell, sending both off course. Another missed, going high and sailing into the canyon. The third hit its mark, and Chiyo shrieked as her arms where tangled in the bola's ropes.
Yumi didn't have time to help her. The solider was pushing her back toward the edge of the canyon. None of the other soldiers who were surging forward bothered with her. Normally it would have been a fatal mistake for them, but today this lone swordsman was enough to tie her up for the entire fight.
There weren't many of them left; there had only been twenty or so to begin with, and Chiyo had downed half of them, but without Yumi to keep them away from her and Taiko it was a desperate situation. Miyoshi did her best to throw the harness in their path, but it was heavy and awkward, and only two of the soldiers were caught in it. Taiko made the best of her tsurujin's grip and managed to grapple two soldiers at once, but that still left too many of them unoccupied. Even Akio struck out with his stick, and to his credit he did well enough to draw the attention of two men.
Two men were on Miyoshi now, and despite a well-placed knee to one of their stomachs she was soon on the ground, pinned. Another man reached Chiyo just as she was getting her arms out of the bola. She screamed when he grabbed her from behind and wrestled her away from her staff.
"Taiko! Help!" she called out, a fear in her voice that Yumi understood. Was this how the last fight had been lost- the one that led them to being Akio's slave?
"Get off, you creeps!" yelled Miyoshi, still struggling.
Taiko swung around and tossed the two men. One hit the ground hard, stuffing him. The other stumbled toward the edge of the canyon, and when he fell his weight took him over. He screamed, catching the ledge just before he plummeted to his death. Below him Yumi could hear Igrowl roaring, and the ground shook as he crashed against the canyon wall. Now Taiko was free, and if she could just cast a spell to help Miyoshi fight-
Yumi saw the hanging soldier about to slip. Taiko dived toward him, grabbing his arm before he could fall.
"Taiko! Behind you!" shouted Yumi. The other man she'd been fighting was getting up, and while she tried to save the soldier she'd almost thrown into Igrowl's jaws he closed on her.
"Wait!" said Taiko, "I'm trying to save your-"
The man didn't listen. He kicked Taiko in the stomach, and the other solider's shrieking voice disappeared down into the canyon.
"Stop that!" yelled Yumi, watching as the man pulled Taiko away from the ledge and twisted her arm behind her back, holding her to the ground.
"What's going on?" growled Akio, still swinging his stick.
Yumi didn't answer him, having to focus all of her attention now on the solider who was about to disarm her.
"Dammit," he said, "Have we lost?"
He may have been blind, but even he couldn't miss that it was Taiko, Miyoshi, and Chyio crying out in defeat while the soldiers were shouting orders to tie them up.
"Just hit one of them!" shouted Yumi, her mind racing to figure out a way to save them.
Akio appeared behind her, one arm wrapping around her waist while his free hand gripped her spear. He pushed it forward with all of the strength Yumi had felt in him before, and the man in front of her screamed as a gash opened up in his side.
To her surprise, he pulled her back, and just as she was thinking that she must be dangerously close to the ledge, she felt her body enter freefall.
They twisted in the air, and Yumi saw that Igrowl was below them, bashing against the canyon wall. The great desert beast, a lizard-like creature that stood two men high with a feathered mane and spine and a tail that had a great mass of bone on the end for smash his enemies.
Yumi didn't have time to ask what Akio thought he was doing. Was it an accident? Death rather than capture? A desperate hope that something soft might be down there?
Her answer came when he forced the spear straight down. Igrowl roared as it sank into his back. Yumi was tossed like rag doll on the impact, but Akio kept his grip on her waist and on the spear. They dangled down the side of the great desert beast while it thrashed around, snapping at them but not flexible enough to reach them.
"What are you, nuts?" she yelled, hoping her voice would carry over the tremendous noise Igrowl was making.
"The battle was lost!" said Akio. "We're escaping."
"They're still up there!"
"And we can't do anything about it," he roared.
Igrowl was carrying them away now, trying to flee from the thing biting into his side. By the time they were shaken loose they must have been a mile from the canyon. Igrowl continued on, limping now and trailing blood.
"You bastard!" said Yumi. "You just left them!"
She swung her fist and hit him in the jaw, but he barely flinched.
"You mean like Taiko left you when I had you beaten? Keep quiet if you can't offer me anything but hysterics. I assure you that I appreciate the gravity of the situation."
She hated him, but he was right. Her friends had been taken captive, but at least she was free to try to do something about it. What that something was going to be, she had no idea.
Taiko screamed in grief, watching as Akio threw himself into the canyon, taking Yumi with him.
"Quiet!" shouted the man holding her to the ground.
Her arm lit up in pain as he twisted it.
"Uyeda, bring that rope over here."
Taiko tried to wrestle him off, but he had her in an expert arm lock, and her enchantment did nothing for her unless she could get a grip on him herself.
Below, in the canyon, Igrowl roared and thrashed madly. The man could twist her arm until it broke, and it would still be the lesser of the pain she was feeling.
Bundles of rope dropped to the ground next to her, a pair of boots just beyond them.
"Hold her still," said her captor, and the other man obeyed, grabbing her forearms and pulling them straight up, away from her back.
Taiko whined as her shoulders felt the strain, but there was nothing she could do. There was no strength in her arms with how they were positioned now, and with the first man sitting on her back she couldn't move the rest of her body either.
He put her hands against each other, twisted around so that the backs touched, and closed his palm around her thumbs to keep them there while he readied his rope. Taiko felt rough, hard strands coil around her wrists, then squeeze as any slack was pulled out of them. She felt the jerk of knots being tied before her arms were mercifully dropped down to her back. It still wasn't very comfortable, but at least she could move them a little.
Taiko had been counting her blessings too soon. The man on top of her wasn't finished; he caught her thumbs and bound them together, tying them to her wrists and destroying any hope she might have had of working them around to a better position.
He lifted her to her knees, letting her look over to see Miyoshi and Chiyo, both being bound as well. Miyoshi was yelling and thrashing wildly, and one of the soldiers holding her had to put her in a choke hold while the other finished tying her up. Chiyo was nearly catatonic, her eyes wide and her hands shaking.
"Stop this," said Taiko. "We don't even know what you- aah!"
Taiko's head was pulled back by her hair, and when her mouth fell open the soldier behind her shoved something hard inside. Takio felt the same rough strands on her tongue that she did on her wrists- it was a large knot, large enough to keep her mouth from completely closing around it. Something pinched her checks, and she felt rope constricting around her head. The solider worked it under her hair and tied it near the base of her skull, holding the knot deep behind her teeth.
One of the soldiers kept her hair locked in his fist to hold her still while the other wrapped rope around her chest. The first couple of loops went under her arms, only coiling around her chest itself, up high near her armpits. Then two more went lower, just under her breasts. After that they encircled her arms, binding them to her chest. The last of their rope went around just her arms, squeezing them together.
Taiko grunted, feeling her shoulders strain as the man worked all of the slack out of the loops until everything was as tight as it could be without asphyxiating her. As it was, she could feel the ropes crushing her a little more every time she inhaled.
More men started to gather around her while she sat on her knees, trying to work her hands loose but finding her arms complete locked in position. Was this how the others had spent the entire time between their defeat at Akio's hands and her rescue? The thought made her shudder.
"Captain Shima," said one of the soldiers, "Lord Akio has escaped, along with one of the women."
Taiko's heart jumped. Escaped? She was sure they'd fallen into the canyon. Even if they survived the fall, they couldn't have possibly dealt with Igrowl. Then again, she didn't hear him anymore.
The man who'd sacrificed his comrade to capture her spoke up, his voice hard and commanding.
"Pick five men and pursue them. Hurry, we don't have much daylight left. Uyeda, how many casualties have we suffered?"
"Six major injuries," said one man. "And Yuuto, of course. The rest may need a bandage or two and some time to get their wits back, but they're still in fighting condition."
"Shameful," said the Captain. "Let's get these three back to Lady Satsujin. If Nori can't track down Akio tonight then hopefully he'll come back to rescue his confederates. We'll capture him then."
"Get up," said one man, shoving her and almo
st knocking her over.
Taiko tried awkwardly to stand, and one of the men yanked her up when she wasn't moving fast enough. Her long march through the desert night began, pushed along by the soldiers. The sand became her enemy more than ever without her arms free to help her balance, and more than once she fell and had to hurry back to her feet before she was pulled up by the hair. Sand found its way into her clothes, and tied up like she was there was no way to get it out. The hard rope knot in her mouth kept her lips from closing, and drool started to leak out and run down her chin. It even dripped onto her chest, slowly soaking her tunic over time.
The only mercy was that they were held up by the injured men, slowing down the pace that was demanded of them and providing with the occasional rest. She wasn't even allowed to commiserate with her friends; whenever they saw her looking in their directions they interrupted, demanding that she keep her head down and stare at the sand in front of her.
Taiko cursed herself. She could have won the battle, if she'd only stopped to help her friends before helping the soldier on the cliff. The one whom even his own captain thought expendable. It couldn't be right to just let him fall, could it? But now what would happen to her friends, prisoners again, for that man's sake?
It wasn't until the sun began to glow over the horizon that Taiko caught a glance of a familiar plateau. Her legs were already exhausted by the time she was forced to climb the path to the top.
The village was a wreck. Taiko didn't see any of the people until she peered inside of the huts, where she saw them packed together behind doors that had been nailed shut. None of the buildings had been burned yet, but Taiko saw the same signs of looting, broken property, and general destruction that she had seen in Umai.
She was hurried into the center of the village, where some of the Dunnie's poor women were hanging upside down from their ankles. They'd clearly been abused, and the culprit was easy to spot.
Standing nearby, with a whip in her hand, was a monstrous woman. She was past six feet tall, and had muscles most men would be jealous of rippling under her green skin. Her hair was thick, but looked stiff like wire, and was bundled behind her head. A horn protruded from her forehead, and under it were set two animalistic eyes that looked down at Taiko.
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