Pleasure Slave

 

 By Capitalist

 peacewish@hotmail.com

 

 Chapter 2

 ‘desperate chase’

 

 The sun was dropping behind the trees by the time Touya returned to their cabin that evening, a little later than usual.  Taking care to keep his hands behind his back, Touya nudged open the door with his foot and sidled in.  

 “Saku -”

 The word died on his lips when he entered the dim house.  Dim, cold, and completely empty.  Strange, Sakura should be putting dinner on the table by now.  But not only was his sister nowhere in sight, there wasn’t even a glimmer in the fireplace.  It had obviously been cold since that morning.  

 Touya couldn’t remember the last time he’d come home to an empty house, and the cabin’s silence felt a little uncomfortable.  Since their father’s death Sakura had always taken care to get dinner cooked before his return, and Touya was even later today than usual.  He placed the small strawberry pie and stuffed rabbit doll that were the reason on the countertop and overturned an empty basket to conceal them.  Trust Sakura to lose track of time and be late, on the one day that he’d gone to so much trouble to surprise her.  Touya sighed, but he couldn’t be annoyed.  His little sister had no idea that today was her birthday, and he could already hear her shrieks of delight when he presented his gifts – he’d been looking forward to this day for almost a month.  Of course it wasn’t much, but he’d been paying several coppers to the village baker for days now, to make her favorite dessert.  And Maki hadn’t been difficult at all to enlist; her skill as a seamstress earned her her bread, but her true love was sewing plush animals.  Sakura would adore it.

 He opened the back door to collect some wood and saw their bed linens and hearth rug draped over clotheslines; Sakura must not have been here since midday at least.  Odd.  But he’d make the fire and start something cooking, and by then she’d surely be home.  

 

 --

 

 Broth was starting to bubble over a healthy fire, the twilight outside growing thicker and duskier, and still no sign of Sakura.  Touya shifted the pot away so the liquid wouldn’t boil over and left the cabin, unable to fathom why Sakura would be so late.  The distance to their nearest neighbor was not great and he knocked on the door, feeling a small flush of guilt when the door opened and he saw the family at dinner.  Guilt and envy; he and Sakura should be eating right now too.  So where was she?

 They hadn’t seen her.  He apologized for his intrusion and continued down the path, interrupting several more dinners, and with every shake of the head he felt that knot of worry harden.  

 “No, I haven’t seen her,” Rika said apologetically, her brow creased with concern.  “And I was expecting her hours ago, she promised to bring me a batch of mushrooms by lunchtime.  Payment for the chicken yesterday.”  

 Yes, now he remembered.  And though Sakura could be forgetful about her chores when she wanted, she’d never shirked an obligation to a friend.  This wasn’t like her.  

 Touya thanked the girl and backed away, looking from the glowing lights of the village to the dark forest.  Sakura wouldn’t be among those lights, frivolously wasting time with so many other things to attend to.  She just wouldn’t.  But, she’d never been lost in the forest, neither of them had.  

 Could something have happened?

 That knot twisted and grew a little, and before he realized it Touya’s feet were carrying him back to his own cabin.  It was still empty, and he snatched their only lantern with its precious and expensive oil.  Firelight had always provided enough light to read by and they rarely used it, but the darkness would be absolute under the tree canopy.  He wasn’t really worried about predators, it was rare for wolves to attack humans and prey was plenty in springtime.  But she might have fallen and injured herself somehow, rendered unable to walk back to the village.

 Now that he’d thought about it, he couldn’t understand why he hadn’t sooner.  Lantern lit, he almost ran up the slope and into the woods.

 “Sakura!  Sakura!”  

 Only the peeping of nighttime birds answered, and the rustle of leaves in a gentle breeze.  

 “Sakura!” he yelled as loud as he could, hating the way the placid forest swallowed his voice with no reply.  Mushrooms, was it?  He knew she often gathered them by the creek and he covered the distance in his long quick strides, straining to see beyond the shadows around his circle of light.  Soon he could hear the quiet trickle, and the moonlight reflecting off the water’s surface.  It wasn’t so dark here, with fewer trees, and he scanned the banks hopefully.  Nothing moved, and there was nothing that resembled his sister’s form.  Only roots and tufts of grass and – 

 His light swept over something out of place and he turned back, narrowing his eyes.  A woven basket had been overturned, shredded in places where rodents had gnawed at it, a few mushrooms scattered nearby that hadn’t yet been devoured by forest creatures.  Touya knew that basket like he knew every object in his simple cabin, that was his sister’s collecting basket.

 And she would never leave it behind.  

 Hot and painful gasps of air ripped from his lungs, for one long terrible moment, as he stood there immobile in the darkness.  Unnoticed, the lantern dropped from his hand and fell with a crack against the creekbed stones, its flame extinguished.  And then he bolted, sprinting frantically back to his village along a path that he didn’t even see in his panic.  

 A hundred unpleasant images flipped through his mind in less than a minute, and then replayed again and again, screaming at him to run faster.  It was already hopeless but he ran anyway, through a blurry darkness that went on forever.  Lights and homes and the village center square whisked past him, until finally he barreled through the door of the Eagle’s Perch.

 It was the only drinking establishment in the village, and Touya himself had sometimes lent a hand in serving the ale.  There weren’t many customers tonight, when he stumbled in, it was still early enough that most men were at the dinner table.  Solom looked up, startled, at his noisy entrance, but he didn’t have time to move before Touya threw himself at the burly entrepreneur and clutched at his shirt.

 “Help!  Get your lantern, get as many men as you can, quick!  We have to go, we have to hurry!”

 In his panic he tried to drag Solom to the door and it was with extremely difficulty that the bigger man pried himself free.  

 “Kinomoto, what’s gotten into you?  Hurry for what?”

 “Sakura!” Touya shouted, as if it was obvious.  “Basket – creek – I found her basket by the creek and she’s gone!  We have to find her, now!”

 Wolves, bears, even one of the rare but dangerous mountain cats – it could have been anything.  But there was still a chance, if they spread out to search for her, a slim but real chance…

 Solom’s expression looked strangely uneasy, and he exchanged a glance with one of his customers.  

 “There was no blood, no sign of attack?”

 “No, nothing, she might still be alive and what are you waiting for?  Quick, quick, we have to go now.”

 Solom still had that strange look in his eyes, and he shifted uncomfortably.  “Kinomoto, I think you should hear what -”

 “There’s no time for talking!”

 “Kinomoto,” one of the other drinkers spoke up, and he whirled around, unable to understand why nobody would get up and help.  “I been hearing some rumors, since last night.  People have been talkin’, saying there’s slave traders up this way.”

 What?

 Touya stared at him without comprehension, and then someone else nodded.  “That’s right, an’ I heard it too.  Men, out looking for young girls to sell in Terriene.  Shifty scoundrels, I reckon.”

 Slave traders – young girls – sell – Terriene.  Finally recognition of the words filtered through and Touya blinked.  He’d heard, only vaguely, of the practice of keeping pleasure slaves in that distant city.  His father spoke of it just once, referred to it as a terrible blight on humanity.  But since Sakura had been in the room at the time, he refrained from going into detail and the subject never came up again.  It was a whole world away, Terriene, and what went on there had no effect on their lives.  Pleasure slaves weren’t something he’d ever spared more than two thoughts for.

 Until now.

 “Was gonna start spreading the word here tonight,” Solom was saying, “just in case.  Ain’t safe for young girls to be walking about and…”  He trailed off when he saw the stricken look in Touya’s eyes.  “I’m sorry, Kinomoto.  But it looks like- like your sister’s gone.”

 The world tipped and he became aware of hands propping him up, guiding him to sit in the nearest chair.  Mumbles of ‘awful thing’ and ‘wicked practice’ swirled around him, without meaning, and then someone tipped a strong liquid into his mouth.  

 “Say something, Kinomoto.”

 Your

 “His face has gone straight white.”

 sister’s

 “Is he breathin’?”

 gone.

 “Best get some smelling salts.”

 No.

 “No!”

 Touya was on his feet again with no recollection of moving, and everyone flinched backward.  

 “Where?” he demanded of no one in particular, and they looked blank.  “Where would they go?”

 “I reckon Hunter’s Junction and then Clearwater,” someone ventured, “before they get on their way to Terriene.  But Kinomoto, you’ll never find -”

 “Junction,” Touya breathed, all the blurring and swirling in his vision resolving into sharp focus.  Someone had taken his sister away from him.  He would go and get her back.  

 Men he brushed aside like stray tree limbs in his path, not hearing or heeding their pleas to be rational, accept the impossibility of finding Sakura, or to at least wait for daylight.  He escaped the bar and began to run, no short-winded sprint but a run that he knew would take him far.  Hunter’s Junction was a six hours’ walk and he’d only been there twice in his life, both times with his father and years before.  It didn’t matter.  The lonely and rutted road, somber under the moonlight with the dark forest pressing in on either side, didn’t matter either.  He’d run, and he’d keep on running until he found Sakura again.

 

 --

 

 The stars had traveled some distance across the sky by the time Touya collapsed, exhausted, against the well’s brick siding.  He hadn’t been able to run the entire distance, after all, not without even so much as a waterbag by his side.  But at least he’d made it; he hadn’t forgotten the way after all.  

 The town around him was dark and silent, in the middle of the night.  For hours he’d been consumed by the drive to get here, but now what?  If the kidnapper had brought Sakura here, it must have been afternoon at the latest.  What would he do then?  Would he go directly on to Clearwater?  Touya had never been there in his life and knew it was close to a twelve hour’s walk from Hunter’s Junction, and he shuddered at the thought.  No, Sakura couldn’t be gone already.  She had to be here.  She just had to be.

 Touya clung to that thought as his breathing evened out, and dipped the pail into the town well for a well-deserved drink.  

 Drink… The tavern.  If Touya had learned anything from occasionally lending a hand in Solom’s place, it was how news and gossip could flow there faster than the ale.  Find the tavern and he’d surely hear something.  It wasn’t as direct as the frustrated brother would have liked, but it would have to do.  He splashed his face with water and started walking.  

 

 --

 

 The village of Hunter’s Junction was not large, but to a boy raised in an even smaller village it was.  It was also not as compact, and by the time he’d located the large and prosperous looking establishment it was quite dark.  It was too late into the night; they’d all gone to bed.  

 Damn it!  Miserably Touya thumped his fist against the solid wooden door and slumped to the ground.  Sleep was unthinkable, how could he sleep knowing Sakura was so close?  Crying, alone, afraid…  It made his stomach turn.  Wearily he stood again.  If he couldn’t seek any clues among humans, then he’d go to the animals.  A cart or wagon that brought Sakura here might hold some evidence of it – they might even be keeping her there while they stayed in an inn.  He had hours until sunrise, so as long as the town was so quiet he would make use of his privacy.  Freshly determined, he headed to the closest inn’s stables.  

 

 --------------------------------------------

 

 The wan gray light of predawn found Touya unsuccessful and growing more panicky by the minute.  Searching among the stables had yielded nothing, and now townsfolk were starting to move about.  If someone intended to make a trip to Clearwater, morning was surely the most logical time to do it – Sakura might be carried off right under his nose!  With that thought in mind, Touya found the main road where it left the town, the road a passing resident assured him was the only way down the mountain and to Clearwater.  He spent the day watching for any party to travel past, but only a handful of men on horseback did.  No wagon, no cart that could have concealed his little sister.  

 Unbearable anxiety tightened in his stomach as the sun circled overhead, and when it started to drop over the western ridge he almost broke down.  It had more than a day now since he last saw his sister safe and sound, the trail was getting ever colder while he floundered here uselessly.  

 “Sakura,” he choked.  “God, Sakura, I’m so sorry just hang on I’m coming.”  

 He could not break down.  Evening was coming on, he could try his first plan now.  Ignoring the dizzy sensation when he stood up, Touya stumbled back to central square and the tavern.  The Dancing Bear, it was called, and he made his way around to the back entrance.  In spite of the difference in size its construction was just like Solom’s business, and there was already a girl kneeling by the familiar trough and scrubbing plates.  She looked up in surprise and then smiled, dimpling in that way that most of the girls in his home village often did when he was near.  

 “Good evening, sir.  What can I do for you?”

 “I’m looking for the owner.  Where can I find him?”  

 She nodded her head to the doorway behind her.  “He’s in the kitchen, sir.  But hadn’t you best be goin’ through the front?”

 Touya ignored her and strode inside, where a rotund older man stood debating with a woman by the butcher’s block.  

 “Here then, who are you?”

 “Someone looking for work,” Touya stated simply.  “I need a job.”

 The businessman gaped.  “And you think you can get one just walkin’ in to my kitchen, eh?  Get out!”

 Touya didn’t move.  “Just for tonight.  And you don’t have to pay me.”

 That took the older man by surprise, and he exchanged glances with his cook.  “And I suppose you want to be paid in beer?  I don’t have time to waste on you -”

 “I don’t want your ale either.  I just want to work here tonight.”

 The owner looked absolutely bewildered, but Touya could almost hear the coins clinking in his thoughts.  “Er, I suppose you could help with the dishes -”

 “No, I have to work in there.”  He nodded to the doorway, through which he could hear the noisy chatter of patrons.  “I’ll serve your customers, pull your beer, whatever you like.  But I have to be in there.”  He spoke more calmly than he felt, his tone firm and even.  On the inside he was fretting as the man hesitated, knowing this was his only chance.  Touya had not a copper on him, so to scout the tavern as a customer was impossible.  “If you’re not satisfied after an hour you can throw me out,” he added.  “Please.”

 A few men were shouting for service now, the man looked torn.  He probably wanted to question Touya, but there wasn’t time for that just now.  After another minute shrug to the woman who was probably his wife, he nodded.  

 “Fine, then.  Put an apron over those clothes, for goodness sake.  And I’ll be watching you.”

 Touya’s shoulders slumped in relief.  He was in.  Now he only had to find his prey.

 

 --

 

 What did a slave trader look like?  Touya scanned the room furtively as he filled glasses, unsure what to look for.  Would they travel in groups or alone, be quiet or rowdy?  Automatically he topped off the pints with an expert’s touch, allowing the ale to foam frothy just over the rim, and he caught the owner nodding in approval.  Those nights working for Solom were well spent after all.

 “Hallo, who are you?” he was questioned by more than one regular as the evening progressed.  “Did Rufus hire someone new?”

 “Just passing through,” was the explanation he gave.  “I’m headed to Clearwater soon, I hope, do you know of any others going that way?”

 The answers weren’t very promising.  A cousin or a friend might be riding that way soon, but the merchants all came in wagons to Hunter’s Junction, not the other way around.  As much as he dared Touya engaged the drinkers in conversation, probing the lives of the other men in the room, becoming less subtle as the evening wore on.  Tonight could not end like the fruitless day had, he had to make some sort of progress!  

 Swallowing his bitter frustration, Touya ferried a few dishes of stew from the kitchen to the tables when ordered.  This was his last idea… if it didn’t work then he didn’t know which way to turn.  

 “Here then, you scoundrel,” Rufus was lecturing at the bar when he returned, “not tonight.  I’ve had enough of your promises to pay!”  

 “Not so fast, old man,” the muscular customer said haughtily, “I’ve got your cash all right.  Now give me a pint of the best.”  Casually he dropped three gold coins on the bar and Rufus’ eyes popped open wide.  

 “And where did a good-for-nothing like you come about some gold?  Don’t tell me you’ve taken to honest work?”

 “Eh, it was nothing.  You might say I found it walking about in the countryside.”  Touya almost dropped the glass of ale in his hand and held himself rigidly still, heart thudding in his ears.  

 “Sounds to me like you stole it.”

 “Here now, it weren’t nothing like that.  I was paid for some labor in the countryside yesterday, that’s all.”

 Rufus hmphed slightly, but his hand closed over the coins anyway.  When he’d gone Touya placed the pint on the counter, then went to work wiping a cloth over the wooden surface.  

 “Beautiful weather we’ve been having,” he said conversationally as the man took a swig.  He lowered the glass and nodded, smacking his lips with enjoyment.  “Must be real nice further up, huh?”

 “Suppose it was,” the man agreed, still concentrating on his beer.  He hadn’t said before that he was further up on the mountain but he didn’t seem to notice, nor did he hear Touya’s breath quicken a little.  

 “Lucky you, making so much for a little work.  I’ve done some labor in the country too but I never seem to make more than a few coppers.  I’ll never make it to Clearwater at this rate.”

 The man smirked over the rim of his glass.  “You just got to know the right man to work for, that’s all.”

 “So just what did you do?”  The man narrowed his eyes slightly in suspicion and Touya retreated, taking his glass along the way.  “Oh here, let me fill that up for you.”  Rufus had ceased watching him like a hawk, so there weren’t any witnesses to see Touya wink slyly.  “On the house.”

 His customer perked up right away, and grinned.  It was a thin chance, this man, but better than any other this day.  And so Touya kept plying him with beer as the hours passed, performing his duties but always returning to make sure his glass was topped up.  

 “Not hard work at all,” he slurred, later on in the night.  “Ye just find ‘em and catch ‘em, free for the taking.  And they go for a good price, ‘speshly the young ‘uns.  He finds ‘em and pays me a cut to help catch ‘em.  Everyone wins.”  With difficulty Touya kept his fists at his sides.

 “And then what?”

 Blearily he blinked and waved a hand, shrugging.  “I dunno.  He’s always the one that finds the buyer, he’s the businessman, you know?”

 “Sure.  But you do all the work in the field, right?”

 “Er… I guess.”

 “And all you get is a cut?  Shouldn’t you get half?”  

 A muddled indignation filtered into his eyes once he understood Touya’s words.  “Hey!  That’s right, I am doing all the work.  This ‘un yesterday, she kicked me so hard it bruised.  Little brat.”  

 Touya almost leapt over the bar right then and there, but somehow he kept himself in check.  He’d found the trail at last, but this man obviously didn’t know where Sakura was.  He couldn’t afford to blow it.  

 “So who’s this cheap skifter, then?  Who’s that man robbing you?”  

 “Pierce,” his informant snarled.  “Why, he’s been cheating me all this time!”

 “Bet he’s staying in some posh inn, huh?”

 “That’s right!  He’s got himself the best room at the Turtledove.  I ought to go there right now an’ -”

 “Hold on, mate,” Touya advised, placing a hand on his meaty forearm.  “You’ve had a lot to drink tonight.  If you know where he sleeps, wait until tomorrow morning and surprise him while he’s in bed.  You can’t lose.”

 The customer looked undecided, and Touya tensed apprehensively.  If he was the type that couldn’t see reason when very drunk, he’d have to come up with a new plan rather quickly.  But then the man subsided and nodded.  

 “Tomorrow, then.  Tomorrow, I’m gonna tell that Pierce right where he gets off and that from now, it’s gonna be even down the middle…”

 Touya slipped away as the guy growled into his drink, retreating to the kitchen.  “Rufus, that man at the bar has had about seven or eight, but he won’t pay.  He keeps insisting that I served him on the house, I don’t understand.”

 “I knew it!” the owner declared angrily.  “Back to his old tricks already, the thief!  I’ll take care of him!”

 He swept through the doorway and Touya shed his apron, heading in the opposite direction and to the back door.  He was almost there when the dishwasher intercepted him, holding out a bowl of stew in hopeful offering.

 “Oh, won’t you have a little supper?  Surely you’re hungry after working all night -”

 “Not right now,” he said as kindly as he could manage, quivering with impatience to get his hands on Pierce.  He skirted around her and then paused, looking back over his shoulder.  “Do you know where the Turtledove is?”

 “Yes, it’s up the street and left at the tailor’s shop.  But won’t you please -”

 He left without another glance.

 

 --

 

 Ye just find ‘em and catch ‘em… free for the taking… go for a good price, ‘speshly the young ‘uns… everyone wins… she kicked me so hard it bruised.  Little brat.  Little brat.  Little brat.

 The callous words echoed in Touya’s head as he stood before the closed door of the room the sleepy innkeeper had assured him was Pierce’s.  Could Sakura be on the other side?  Almost trembling with anticipation, Touya knocked.

 He heard a scraping noise, like chair legs over a wooden floor, and then the latch as it was unhitched.  

 “Yeah, wh -”

 Touya didn’t wait for the door to open more than a crack before he shoved his weight against it, slamming the hapless resident on the other side right in the face.  He cried out in pain and fell back against the floor, but didn’t have time to even sit up before Touya was kneeling on his chest.  Other than him the room was heartrendingly empty, and in his disappointment Touya smashed his fist into his jaw.

 “Ah!  Help -”

 Touya covered his mouth with his large hand and slammed the head back into the floor, other fist raised.

 “Where is she?” he demanded, his voice low and hard.  “Where’s my sister?”

 Eyes bewildered and terrified, the man underneath him tried to struggle free.  But Touya regularly wrestled two-hundred pound sows into the mud, and this man wasn’t even close to throwing him off.

 “Tell me!  Where is she, what did you do with her?”  Mercilessly he bent one finger back, releasing his hold on the mouth.  “Scream and I’ll break it.”

 “I don’t understand,” his victim gasped.  “Who are you, what do you want?”

 “I want my sister!  Tell me where you took her!”

 “I don’t know what you’re talking about!”

 Touya glanced up again at the room and nearly vomited at what he saw.  The chair Pierce had presumably been sitting in was next to a small writing desk, upon which rested a glass of wine, a book, and a vase of flowers.  Bright, beautiful sunflowers.  

 “She walked you to the village, she gave you sunflowers.  And you kidnapped her!”  Furiously he struck Pierce again, no longer caring if either of them made too much noise.  “You took away my sister!”

 Pierce cried out again, and Touya heard footsteps.  

 “What’s going on in there?”

 Snarling, Touya threw himself at the door and slammed it shut, throwing the deadbolt across the frame.  He turned around just in time to catch the walking stick Pierce was swinging at his head, stopping it cold in its path, and in his rage threw the man all the way across the room.  Pierce landed in a heap against the wall, nose bleeding, and shrank back when Touya advanced.

 “Please!  I had no choice, I have debts to pay or they’ll kill me -”

 “And my sister’s choice is what?  You stole her away from her home!”  He hauled the man to his feet by his collar and twisted, throwing him with a crash into the room’s large oak dresser.  Pierce crumpled to the floor and covered his head with his arms.

 “Please!” he sobbed.  “Please stop!”

 Someone was banging on the door now, but Touya didn’t hear it.  Black hatred swelled in his chest and he kicked the crying kidnapper as hard as he could.  

 “Did my sister beg?  Did she cry for her brother?  Did you tie her up, hurt her?”  With every question he kicked again, but it wasn’t enough.  All the dark rage that had been building since the night before demanded release, and Pierce had not screamed loud enough yet.  “Did you touch her?”

 “No!” Pierce wheezed.  “No, I never touched her, I swear.  They pay more for virgins -”  Touya’s hand clamped down on his head and he yanked, throwing him by his hair into the bedframe.  Something metallic clinked at the impact and Touya pulled up a corner of the mattress.  A small pouch was hiding there, and jingled musically when he picked it up.

 “There’s eighteen gold coins in there,” Pierce panted, huddling into a ball against the head of the bed.  “It’s yours, take it.”

 Touya’s fist clenched around the drawstrings.  “Is this the money you traded Sakura for?  Was this her price?”

 Pierce nodded and Touya exploded, striking him across the face with the heavy purse.  He was too late, Sakura had already been sold to someone else.  Like an object, traded from one uncaring monster to the next.  

 “Tell me where she is,” Touya said throatily, “and I won’t kill you.”  

 “I sold her to a dealer named Trinlot,” Pierce babbled.  “He lives outside Junction, up the slopes on the eastern side.  I never hurt her -”

 Touya clouted him again, and again, with the gold before Pierce slumped into an unconscious heap.  Hands trembling slightly, Touya backed away.  Part of him still cried out for blood, but he couldn’t afford the time.  Sakura had already passed into someone else’s hands, and now he had to find this Trinlot before it was too late.  He would not fail Sakura.

 

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 Disclaimer: I do not own these characters