Masaru didn’t look convinced. "I'm afraid my conscience dictates otherwise. Empress Tomoyo must be alerted at once. However, the last thing I want is for Setsuna to fall in disfavor. Everything you've told me makes me suspect she isn't acting entirely of her own will. The sister I know wouldn't take such risks, especially ones that threaten the lives of the people under her rule."
Hayate thought the same, although the suggestion chilled him. "Please, at least try to arrive there first. You'll treat her more fairly than anyone else. It will look better if things are resolved by the time Empress Tomoyo’s agents arrive in Yukimura."
"That sounds sensible," Kotone said. "Do you want to go yourself, Masaru, or would you like me to go in your place?"
"I'll go, Kotone.” A look of determination hardened Masaru’s face, and Hayate felt a little more confident. "Setsuna is my sister. If she and our daughter are in trouble, I want to sort it out."
"I humbly request to accompany you," Hayate said. "This is my responsibility. I've let things alone for too long already."
Masaru nodded. "Of course. We will host you and Kaze for tonight, and I'll gather my most trusted samurai together. We will leave for Yukimura as soon as the preparations have been made."
Chapter Nineteen
THE NEXT MORNING DAWNED pink and rosy. Kaede woke in stages, clinging to the warm blanket of sleep as long as possible. For once, she had enjoyed dreams instead of nightmares, and she wanted to savor them a little longer. It had felt so real—Imari's lips on hers, Imari's hand running all over her body, Imari's warmth.
She blinked, clearing the blur from her eyes to see Imari's face rested a few centimeters away from hers. Her eyes were still shut, and the only covering she had was the thin blanket pooled around her lovely hips.
Kaede sucked in a shocked breath. It wasn't a dream after all. Did all of it really happen? She peeled her own side of the sheet down, and her face caught fire. She was naked too, and a visible mark curved along her left breast where Imari had gotten a little too enthusiastic while sucking.
Slowly, a smile spread over her face. Part of her still couldn't quite believe this had really happened, but she didn't have any regrets. Far from it—sharing herself with Imari had been one of the most beautiful experiences of her life.
Growing up, Kaede had often worried about her first time. She had feared no one would want her, or that they would want her for all the wrong reasons. But when she and Imari had come together, she hadn't been afraid. Imari had made her feel treasured. Cared for. Loved.
Her heart swelled, and she reached down on impulse, smoothing some of Imari's hair away from her forehead. Imari stirred, and her lashes fluttered against her cheeks until, at last, her eyes opened. A sleepy smile spread across her face, and she reached out, looping an arm around Kaede's waist. "Let's not get up yet," she murmured, snuggling in closer. "I don't want to leave this bed."
"We have to eventually," Kaede said, although she didn't want to leave either. "We've been locked in here since yesterday afternoon. We're going to need food."
Imari's stomach growled, as if to prove her point. Both laughed, and Imari tucked her face into the crook of Kaede's shoulder. "Oh, fine," she muttered, punctuating the words with a kiss.
Kaede's heart spiked at the feel of Imari's warm lips against her pulse point, but she steadfastly ignored it. If they were going to repeat yesterday's magic, she needed something to eat, or at least some water. Her lips were dry and her muscles felt shaky and weak.
"Breakfast first," Kaede said, stroking the back of Imari's head and gently prying her away before she could start a trail of fresh kisses. "I have a feeling we're going to need our strength."
Imari's eyes glittered. "Well, if you put it like that."
The two of them untangled from the comfortable knot and left the futon, searching for their clothes. They helped each other dress, trading kisses and caresses as they made themselves presentable. It took twice as long, but they couldn't resist. Kaede admired Imari's smooth back and beautiful hips all over again as she fastened the sashes and knots of Imari's kimono, and Imari's fingers grazed her arms and sides in a suggestive way. Pressure swelled between Kaede’s legs.
"You're going to make me get hard again," Kaede warned, although she did nothing to remove Imari's wandering hand. Normally, the subject would have been at least a little uncomfortable to discuss, but for once, Kaede wasn't bothered by the reaction. Feeling Imari's hand glide over her skin had made her feel even more at home in it. When Imari looked at her with such love and desire, she forgot all her worries.
"Oh?" Imari smirked, stroking down along Kaede's stomach and stopping short of her hipbones. "What if I do this?"
Kaede caught her wrist, halting the path of her fingers before they could wander into more dangerous territory. The ache had returned, but she tried her best to will it away. "In a few minutes," she said, to soften the rejection. "I don't want to run into Takeshi or Kenta while I'm excited."
Imari withdrew, leaning in for a kiss instead. Kaede could tell she had meant for it to be short, but it lingered by mutual agreement and unwillingness to pull away. "As long as you keep to that promise," Imari murmured when they finally broke apart. "So, food?"
Kaede offered Imari her arm, but the invitation wasn't taken. Instead, Imari snuck in a quick, greedy squeeze of her backside before swaying out of the room. Kaede was left gaping, and it took her several seconds to collect herself before she hurried to catch up. "That wasn't nice," she protested as they entered the hall, but she grinned to make sure Imari knew she didn't really mind.
"If you didn't want me to grope you, you shouldn't look so gorgeous," Imari said. She took Kaede's arm at last, and the two of them headed for the kitchens together, taking a path that led around the forge instead of through. As they passed by, they heard the familiar ring of Wen Ling's hammer. Kaede glanced at Imari's face, waiting to see whether it would fall in disappointment, but to her relief, it didn't. She seemed much more cheerful than she had the day before, and her smile showed no signs of wavering.
Their meal was eaten in privacy and silence, although it wasn't an uncomfortable one. Kaede even found that her food tasted better. Her miso soup and steamed rice disappeared in a flash, and she realized that she was just as hungry as Imari, in no small part thanks to the previous evening’s activities. Eventually, though, she and Imari both set down their chopsticks and held hands across the table, simply gazing at each other. Once, Kaede forgot and reached with the wrong one, but Imari didn't mind. "Don't," she murmured, when Kaede realized her mistake and made to pull back. "It's all right. I don't mind."
After a moment of hesitation, Kaede placed her hand on top of Imari's left forearm. She left it there for a minute, stroking the side of Imari's arm through the material of her sleeve. So far, Imari hadn't invited her to touch the old injury. Even through fabric, it was a strangely intimate gesture.
"Does it hurt?" she asked after a while, feeling fairly confident that the question wouldn't ruin Imari's good mood.
Imari shook her head. "Not really. Not anymore. Sometimes I still forget I've lost it, though. I'll try to grab something and…not."
Kaede laughed softly. "At least you have an excuse. I drop things with the two hands I have."
"Could it be because you’re distracted, perhaps?" Imari asked, her smirk returning.
Kaede snorted. "I'm going to have faith that you'll remember the graceful moment when I flipped over your head back in Yin or the way I moved last night instead of…other incidents."
Imari leaned further over the table, her eyes half-lidded. "Oh, I was impressed with the way you moved last night."
The sound of the kitchen door opening broke the moment. Kaede turned in surprise, blushing to the roots of her hair when she saw Rin standing in the doorway. The wolf's tail was stiff, angled up toward the ceiling, and judging from her expression, she wasn't pleased. "Rin, how long were you standing there?"
"Long enough," Rin said in a rumbli
ng voice. "Oh, don't look at me like that, Kaede. I'm not upset you and Imari finally spent the night together. It was a long time coming. Anyway, we have a more urgent concern. You have a visitor outside demanding to speak with you both."
Kaede's eyes widened. No other travelers had come to Hongshan in the two months they had spent there, and Wen Ling had given the impression it was an incredibly rare occurrence. "A visitor? What do you mean?"
"Remember your fox friend, Kyuubi? She's hiding outside the cave's entrance. I caught her scent early this morning on my walk and went to see what she wanted. She says she has news about your family."
At once, Kaede's heart sank. She'd thought nothing in the world could bring down her good mood, but apparently, she’d been wrong. All the guilt she had been struggling to suppress for the past several months came rushing back as she remembered the lie she had been feeding all this time.
"Wait, what? How does Kyuubi even know about my family?"
"She's a fox," Rin said, as if that explained everything.
Kaede's shoulders stiffened. "I'm not sure I want to hear it," she muttered, slumping slightly in her chair. Whatever Kyuubi wanted to tell her—and how Kyuubi had found out who her family was still made no sense to her—Kaede knew it couldn't be good. A hundred awful possibilities raced through her head: Setsuna's experiments could have grown larger and more dangerous, Hayate could have found them at last and was about to drag her home again, or perhaps something had happened to her parents.
She was at once both terrified and strangely angry. Her life had been better these past few months than ever before, but it seemed that the past insisted on interrupting her newfound peace and happiness.
"What are you talking about, Kaede?" Imari set her bowl aside, brushing crumbs from the front of her kimono. "If something's happened to your family, we need to find out what it is. I know you aren't on good terms with them."
"That's putting it lightly," Kaede sighed.
Imari's frown deepened. "This isn't like you. You always help people in need. Don't you want to know if something bad has happened?"
I already know something bad has happened. She realized, though, that she didn't have much of a choice. Imari seemed prepared to go and speak to Kyuubi with or without her. Worse still, Imari didn't know the full story of her departure from Yukimura. Time and time and time again, Kaede had wanted to tell her, but she had never found the courage, not even after they had kissed.
Perhaps she had been embarrassed to reveal that she had been lying for so long, or perhaps she had really wanted to be Iori Kaede instead of Aozora Kaede. Aozora Kaede had caused the deaths of several creatures, both human and yokai, and let her power-hungry aunt take advantage of her. Iori Kaede was a brave adventurer, with a beautiful woman who loved her.
"Maybe I should talk to Kyuubi alone," she suggested, but once more, Imari waved her off.
"Of course not," Imari said, taking her hand. "You don't have to deal with these things alone anymore, Kaede. I want to help. Rin, please go and find Takeshi and Kenta, if you don’t mind. We’ll go outside and meet Kyuubi ourselves."
Kaede's stomach sank like a stone. She tried to stammer an explanation, but there wasn't time. Imari pulled her back through the hall toward the glowing passage that led outside. With each step, Kaede felt as though she were approaching the edge of the mountain itself. She knew she had to say something, anything, but in her panic, she couldn't. A lump of fear had lodged in her throat, and it was all she could do to let Imari drag her outside.
Half of the sun had peeked over the horizon by the time they made it out onto the mountainside. To Kaede's dismay, Kyuubi waited for them behind a boulder nearby, not immediately visible, but not quite hiding either. She was in her fox form, her tails draped elegantly on the ground behind her. Her eyes, however, shifted nervously, and her black nose twitched against the air.
"Kaede, Imari," Kyuubi said, "I'm glad Rin found you. I have urgent news from Aozora."
"What urgent news?" Imari asked before Kaede could say a word.
"It's about your cousin, Hayate," Kyuubi said, speaking to Kaede directly. "He's in Yukimura as we speak, raising an army for a surprise attack on Aozora. He intends to take your parents hostage in order to force you to come home."
Kaede sucked in a painful breath. "What? No, that can't be. I know how badly he wanted to find me, but…" She shook her head, unwilling to believe it. She could understand why Hayate had followed her to the Jade Sea on Setsuna's orders, but taking hostages was a different matter entirely. "You must be mistaken."
"I'm not," Kyuubi insisted. "We foxes have our ways of communicating with each other over long distances. I heard the news from a reliable source in the northern forests. Hayate is gathering an army, and his destination is Taiseito."
"But why?" Imari's eyes narrowed, and her hand drifted toward the hilt of her sword as if preparing to draw it. "Surely the daimyo of Aozora won't allow Hayate's army to invade and take innocent civilians hostage."
Kaede's heart gave a sickening jolt out of rhythm. She opened her mouth, but only pitiful silence came out.
"What do you mean? I'm not mistaken, am I?" Kyuubi turned to Kaede, staring up at her with clever black eyes. "You are Aozora Kaede, aren't you? We spirits do share information."
Imari turned, and the trusting, confused look in her eyes was nearly Kaede's undoing. Imari drew in a soft gasp and stiffened, a wrinkle of hurt appearing in the middle of her brow. "Aozora?" she repeated, shaking her head. "No. You told me your name was Iori."
Kaede couldn't hold Imari's eyes any longer. She looked away, her face burning with shame. There was a long pause, but not a silent one. Kaede could hear the pounding of her own heart in her ears and the ragged, unsteady noise of Imari's breathing. It was unbearable, and her shoulders sagged lower and lower with the weight of guilt.
At last, Kyuubi said, "Please, accept my apologies. I didn't realize."
Kaede didn't bother listening to the rest of the fox's explanation. Everything Kyuubi said was like the roar of the ocean in her ears. Even though she was staring at her feet, she could picture the look of utter betrayal on Imari's face perfectly.
"So, it's true?" Imari said at last. Unlike Kyuubi's voice, hers was perfectly clear, like the slice of a knife. "You gave me a false name? Your parents are the rulers of Aozora? And you haven’t told me all this time. . ."
Kaede looked up. She was terrified, but Imari deserved to see her face. It was the least she could do. She tried to explain, to tell Imari all about how her old name had felt like a lingering shadow, to apologize for keeping it a secret for so long, but she knew it wouldn't matter. Imari wouldn't understand. That was why she had kept it to herself, because she hadn't wanted the woman she admired and cared for so much to think less of her.
But she does. And now, on top of everything, I've lied to her too.
"Yes," she said, though it took all her strength just to produce a whisper. My given name is Aozora. My parents rule the province."
At first, Imari seemed wounded. She flinched, her lips slightly parted and quivering as if in pain. "You lied to me, Kaede. Why? After last night, I thought…" Her nose wrinkled, and anger glinted in her eyes. "You didn't trust me, did you?"
"No," Kaede blurted out. "I did…I do! I just—"
"Then why? Why did you keep this from me?"
Kaede felt as if she were free-falling from the top of Hongshan itself. She fumbled, grasping for a hold, for the right words, but all she found was empty air. "Because you would have hated me. And I love you."
Imari began to tear up. She sniffed angrily, swiping at her face with her sleeve and blinking rapidly. "That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard. I would never have hated you for being a noble, but to continue lying?" She took a deliberate step back to find more space. "The Kaede I love would never keep things from me like that."
"You don't understand," Kaede said. Her guilt had been replaced with desperation. She could see her happiness slipping right th
rough her fingers, and her first instinct was to cling tighter with all her might.
"You didn't even give me a chance to understand!" Imari snapped. "So, go ahead. Right now. Explain yourself."
Kaede floundered. In any other moment, she could have rattled off at least ten answers, but in the face of Imari's anger, none of them seemed reasonable. "I can't," she said at last, hanging her head. "All I can say is I'm sorry. My family isn't like yours. I wanted to distance myself from them as much as possible. They've hurt me in ways you can't even imagine."
"How would you know? You never let me try." Imari drew in a deep breath and closed her eyes, letting it out slowly through pursed lips. When she opened them again, the few stray tears that had leaked out were gone. "I don't want to talk about this anymore. We'll deal with it later. Right now, we need to figure out a plan to save your family."
"That would be wise," Kyuubi added, cautiously entering the conversation once more. "You don't have a lot of time—"
"I'm not going," Kaede said. Her answer was automatic, but also firm. She couldn't go back. If she did, Setsuna would use her again. Aozora Kaede might have been content to be such a tool, but Iori Kaede wasn't. The least she could do now was try to be the woman Imari had assumed her to be.
That left Imari stunned all over again. "What? What do you mean, you aren't going? They're your parents!”
"This is why I didn't tell you who I was," Kaede said. Despite the guilt she felt, she wouldn't let herself be criticized either, especially for a decision Imari didn't know the first thing about. "Since it's all coming out now, my aunt is the shogun of Yukimura. Before I left, she was using me to bring in all the yokai she could from the forest near our home. She wanted to control them." Her eyes danced with spots, an imprint of black blood scattered across white snow. "She killed them, and she killed her own samurai."
Imari's anger melted away. The ice in her eyes melted down her cheeks like frost rolling from bare branches. She opened her arms, and Kaede wanted nothing more than to fall into them. She had thought the wound was healed, but telling it now, her heart ached and her cheek stung fresh all over again.
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