A/N: I'm mean...
Golden Sands
Part Nine
Yugi's small form shivered in fear, suspended from the cave wall by burning chains of magic looped around his ankles and his wrists. Bakura's shadowed form stepped up to the boy and held the rusted dagger pointed straight at Yugi's eye.
"No," the man growled as Yugi shut his violet orbs, "You're going to watch this." Yugi whimpered, as his eyes opened against his will, Bakura using his shadow magic to manipulate him. Bakura relished in the younger's fear for a moment. He moved the blade closer; close enough that one hiccup would cause Yugi to lose that eye. The boy bit his lip and continued to whimper, sweat droplets sliding down his soft skin, and tried not to move.
Bakura slowly lowered the blade and rested it on the boy's right cheek. He dragged the dagger down, its rusted blade not succeeding in gashing Yugi's skin open but it did leave a painful scratch in its path. The thief finally moved the rusted point from Yugi's face and pressed it against Yugi's left thumb, pressing it into the tender flesh and drawing a droplet of blood. "This stupid pharaoh went to Hell," he teased, pressing into the thumb more.
Yugi's breath was short and ragged, wide eyes looking up as Bakura moved the blade, slowly, to the next finger and saying tauntingly, "This stupid pharaoh was fed to Ammet (1)." Yugi knew how this child's rhyme went, at least the known version, and was dreading the end.
"B-Bakura... P-please don't..." Yugi attempted to plead with the tomb robber but his pleas fell on deaf ears. The blade dug into his little finger; the next line of the twisted children's rhyme was said. The next finger - the next line.
"And this stupid pharaoh-" Bakura paused on the final line, hovering the blade over the base of Yugi's middle finger, smirking evilly down at his nephew.
"Don-"
"-lost everything." Bakura drew back the blade and struck Yugi's finger with full force. He clamped his free hand over Yugi's mouth as the boy screamed in agony but he didn't stop there. Ever so slowly he began a sawing motion back and forth, back and forth, and slowly severed the limb from Yugi's hand. The rusted blade was almost blunt so it was a long and agonising experience for Yugi. He screamed until his throat was hoarse; hot tears streamed down his face. Blood was running down his arm in small rivulets.
Bakura watched the digit fall and bounce once on the floor before rolling a little and stopping by his bare feet. He grinned cruelly and looked to his nephew who was still screaming in pain. "Shut up!" he snapped in aggravation and grabbed a handful of the boy's hair with one hand and banged his young skull off of the stonewall harshly. Yugi gasped once more and then fainted from the pain, his whole body going limp. Blood continued to flow from the severed limb but Bakura ignored it and left the boy hanging on the wall.
The thief plucked the small digit from the floor of the cave and rolled it over in his hand, licking the blood from the dagger as he did so in a casual manner. He licked his lips free of blood afterward and chuckled, walking away from Yugi, casually tossing the limb onto a table, and clambering back into bed, falling asleep as if nothing had happened.
The cave fell into silence once more, the faint, burning chains holding Yugi to the wall humming being the only sound in the cold Egyptian night.
"I don't want excuses! I want results!" Yami hollered, rising swiftly from his throne. His hard glare fell on the quivering man on his knees before him. "Get your men back out there, Captain, and do not return to me without some useful information!" he spat. His face did not soften until the man had backed out of his sight. As soon as he was alone, Yami collapsed onto his throne, buried his face into his hands and heaved a shuddering sigh.
'Oh, my brother, where are you?' Yami thought miserably, his body shivering slightly as he strained to hold in his emotions. Since the arrival of Bakura's letter, Yami's forces had been out on a search for the missing half-prince. They had searched every building in the city, scoured every street, questioned every citizen, but all to no avail. Nobody in the entire city had any information for their pharaoh.
As day broke, the search had been extended past the city's boundaries to the desert beyond, but Yami knew that without some help it would be easier to find a needle in a haystack than it would be to find Yugi.
"All I need is a sign," Yami whispered, lifting his face from the palms of his hands. He paused to stare at the wetness on his skin and sighed, wiping the tears away. 'A pharaoh can not show weakness,' Yami scolded himself and schooled his features into an expression of thought, even though his inside was being eaten away by worry. His eyes wandered to the golden sands beyond the city as the last of the morning's mists were blown away by the heated winds.
"My Pharaoh," a slick voice broke the silence of the throne room and took Yami's attention. Violet orbs rolled to gaze upon the High Priest, as he stood at the entrance to the room, his upper body bent in a bow to his king.
"Yes, Seth?" Yami straightened his composure. "I pray your search has been more fruitful?"
"Unfortunately," Seth sighed as he approached, "my own search has not yielded any valuable information." He halted before the pharaoh and bowed his head again. "A number of people did recall hearing the sound of a horse's gallop through the streets at the dead of night, but that is all. The soldiers have all ready searched those areas nearby, and-"
" - nothing was found," Yami interjected, shaking his head. He pressed his fingertips to his temple and sighed. "This is getting us nowhere," he growled in agitation.
"I understand that our pharaoh is anxious, but please have faith in the Gods," the priest said, tenderly fingering the Millennium Rod resting in his sash.
"The Gods? Pah! Well they are not being much help right now are they!" Yami snapped venomously, opening his eyes upon hearing Seth inhale sharply. The pharaoh frowned at the man's hardened expression when their sights locked.
"Please, pharaoh, do not question the Gods by losing yourself to your anger." Seth's voice was dead, his eyes narrowed slightly. "If you anger them now, in your time of need, they may turn their backs on you." Yami knew Seth was right. He needed the Gods more than ever now and needed to maintain full faith in them.
"Yes, you are right. I just wish they would send me a sign of some sort. A clue to the whereabouts of... my brother," Yami trailed off. His stomach felt unsettled at that moment and both Millennium Items in the room gave off a sudden burst of light. "Do you feel that?" Yami questioned, pushing himself up to stand. His whole body was reacting to something, something the Items were now sensing. This happened when the Items felt that there was a threat nearby, a magical threat, and their holder's physical and magical senses were heightened past their normal levels. Eyesight became razor sharp, almost hawk-like in quality; smell strengthened, taste improved so much so that the holder could taste the dust in the air, and their mental focus sharpened to improve the holder's powers.
The Items acted the same as adrenalin in the body, save much more powerfully.
"Yes, pharaoh," Seth replied, turning to look around the throne room. "A dark presence approaches us."
Yami sniffed the air and caught the scent of stale magic, the scent of dark powers. He stood tall in front of his throne and searched the area with his improved eyesight, catching the motion of a shadow by one of the windows. "There!" He pointed to the shadowed raven as it spread its wings and flew upward before diving suddenly, aiming itself at Yami. Seth moved swiftly and chanted a banishment spell, the raven halting in its attack and vanishing in a wisp of black smoke.
"It had the same magical pattern as before," Seth voiced as the small package the raven had been carrying fell to the floor. Each magic user had their own personal signature on their magic, like an invisible fingerprint. That could only mean one thing.
"Bakura," Yami snarled. The pharaoh passed the priest out and marched across the marble floor, his Puzzle shining as it produced protective energies around its holder as a precaution. Yami crouched down by the small package and examined it in silence without touching it. It was a simple roll of animal skin smaller than Yami's hand and was tied with a small piece of string. After determining that it held no threat, he picked it up from the floor and stood.
Seth stepped up to Yami and extended a hand to him. "Let me, phar-"
"No! I will do this." Yami took a deep breath and gripped the end of the knot in the string and pulled. The fowl stench of blood and flesh assaulted Yami's heightened senses and he had to turn his head away and cough to clear his airways of the horrid smell. Covering his mouth with his hand, Yami looked back to the cloth as it fell open, exposing what it held within.
Yami gasped, his eyes widening and jaw going slack. "No," he breathed, dropping the cloth and stepping away as the small digit within rolled out onto the polished floor. There was no doubt in his mind that this limb belonged too Yugi; it had his ring on it.
"That... That MONSTER!" Yami screamed, all coherencies in his mind vanishing as it became clouded with rage. "He will pay!" Yami spun on his heels and darted from the throne room, unaware of Seth's calls. He sprinted through the hallways towards his chambers, ignoring the servants and their quizzical stares as he passed.
Upon arriving at his chamber, Yami ran to a far wall, grabbed the rug which hung there and pulled it down with a sharp tug, revealing a hidden door behind, protected by a magical lock. The pharaoh placed his fingers to the lock and muttered a chant. When the lock did not open, Yami cursed and tried again, his words tumbling out in a jumble. After failing a few more times, the young man stopped to calm himself and collect the correct words in his mind before speaking them slowly and clearly. The lock opened on the next try.
Yami stepped into the cold, darkened room and waved his hand, his Puzzle lighting the room brightly. A solid gold stand rested in the middle of the room, the walls covered with shelves full of books. Spell books. Upon the stand rested a large book with a thick leather cover. The book was currently closed but as Yami approached a strong wind whipped around him and whispered words to him. Yami closed his eyes to listen and smiled.
The Gods were speaking with him, advising him.
"Thank you," Yami whispered gratefully to the winds, "and please forgive my doubt." When he opened his eyes once more the book lay opened, the fluttering pages falling to rest as the winds died with a final whisper, 'Forgiven.'
Under the light of his Millennium Puzzle, the pharaoh read the words on the pages before him with a strong, loud voice. As soon as he finished the chant he closed his eyes and relaxed.
"Ah!" Yami gasped in pain and threw his head back, mouth hanging open in a silent cry, his eyes shooting open to stare blindly at the ceiling as the glow from the Puzzle increased and surrounded him.
As Yami's eyes clouded over he could see an image forming before him. The soft wisps of colour swirled in circles before banding together and creating a clear picture for Yami. His unseeing eyes studied the image closely, intently. With a sudden gasp of recognition, the vision vanished and Yami collapsed to his knees, everything falling into darkness as the Puzzle ceased to glow.
"Pharaoh!"
Yami felt arms around his shuddering form and he looked up into icy blue eyes, currently narrowed with worry. A faint smile pulled on Yami's lips as he coughed out, "Seth, I know where Yugi is."
To be continued...
(1) Ammet - (This is my sister's version, which is more accurate than mine I'm sure. She's an Egyptian fanatic! Heehee) Egyptians believed that, if a person lived a sinful life, in death their heart would be weighed against the feather of Ma'at (Justice). If ones heart was evil, it would out-way the feather and be eaten by the Swallowing Monster (Ammet). To Egyptians, their heart was their centre of being, so to have it eaten by the Ammet is the greatest dishonour, insult and fate; it was like everything they ever were was destroyed.
A/N: Oh. My. God! I am SO sorry for taking this long to get this story updated! If you have been reading my profile you'll know why this is taking so long. The hardest part of this chapter to write was to get the part with Yami started. Yugi's piece I knew, but getting it right was torture! I'm still not as happy with it as I was with the original version, but I'll have to make do. It's a bit shorter too... Hope you liked it though!
I will be starting college soon, so story time will be hard to get into (again), but I will NOT let this story die. I will finish it, because I know where it goes, heehee.
Thank you all for being so patient with me! Thank you for reading this too! Please review and tell me your views. Until next time!
Slán slán!
Ashla