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Tamahome--for that was my rescuer's name--wiped the last sticky grains of rice from his chin with his shirtsleeve just as I set my chopsticks down on the table. I hadn't said thank you for dinner, either--what a curious relationship was evolving here! We were both saved from having to invent some meaningless conversation by the sounds of a crowd cheering, ever louder, outside. Tamahome grabbed my wrist and pulled me up. "Hey! That's the procession for the emperor!"
"It is?" I didn't mean to blather like an idiot, sometimes those things just come out. So I followed him outside, into the throng of people congregating there in a noisy mob along the street.
"Emperor Saihitei," Tamahome breathed. I had a feeling the dreamy look that melted his face back into a teenager's was more admiration than crush, no matter how silly he looked. "What I wouldn't give for just one of the jewels on his crown...."
"Go up and ask him for one," I teased him dryly, bouncing up onto my tiptoes in a vain attempt to see over the people in front of me. Somehow, no matter where I go, everybody else is taller than me.
But then, when I could see...?
There was a girl running toward the Emperor's palanquin. She was fourteen or fifteen, perhaps, brown hair in buns on the side of her head, wearing a very modern brown Japanese school uniform.
She was one of the girls I'd seen playing around in my library that morning.
"Hey--I know that girl!" I don't remember saying it, but I certainly heard it leave my mouth, the same as I still don't know what possessed me to run toward her. Because she was from my world too, maybe? It hardly matters. I ran, pushing through the crowd in front of me to stop just at the edge of them on the street. The girl saw me, too, and recognition flashed through her brain before she launched herself toward me. And then everybody yelled at once.
"Oh! Help!!" --That was the girl.
"What the hell do you think you're doing?" --One gruff voice that belonged to one of the emperor's guards.
"Look out!" --That was me, watching in slow motion as the guards ran toward her. And me.
"Akane!!" --That was Tamahome, scrambling toward us too. He grabbed me, the guard raised his sword over his head to hack at the girl, who squealed and backed up into us. Then all three of us went down in a heap, saved from the blade only by the single spoken word from the palanquin:
"Stop!"
And abruptly, everything did. It was like a single animation cel held in freeze-frame; the huddled trio of Tamahome and me and the girl, the guard with his sword raised high over his head, the circle of other guards just about to surround us. Even the crowd was deathly quiet.
Was that a good sign?
Then the contingent of soldiers moved again, forming a circle around us with their weapons pointed. The girl ducked her head into my shoulder, and Tamahoma tightened his grip on my arm. And then--
Whatever happened next, I missed. I was too busy seeing red. Not metaphorically--still I was more curious than angry, and though I was a little frightened, most of this was still too unreal to truly alarm me. No, this red was a vague, misty light that filled the air, suffused me, swirled around me and drowned out everything around me. I felt like I were being lifted, carried high up into the air by some unseen arms. I couldn't see past the light, or tangibly feel it even when it touched me. It wasn't warm, or particularly bright. And I thought I heard the rustle of wings as it began to fade.
And fade it finally did, returning me to a scene that hadn't changed much since it had arrived. What had changed was the look of shock and anger on the faces of the guards, and the fear on Tamahome's and the girl's.
"The light! " They were all uttering variations on that phrase, and the noise level was rising again. And just as before, it took a word from the colourful palanquin to calm it.
"Bring the three of them to the castle," it commanded--firmly, gently, and only loud enough to be heard if one wasn't screaming about red lights. The guards obeyed, and we found ourselves being pulled to our feet and marched along with them.
I couldn't say for sure, but things were probably looking a bit worse.
Go on to Part 4
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