Prince of the Dancing Gypsies
Chapter 3
They had left Rome before dawn that day, and Inu-yasha and his traveling party had agreed to take the route less traveled by which was a short cut through the woods towards Romania. It was a forgotten road known only to those few who needed it to escape to safer ground, mainly the gypsies that made their way in and out of Italy everyday. It was also a road used for the black market traders, and smugglers that brought their forbidden trades into and out of the land.
Though this party was alone this morning, they had made their way out of Rome quite silently and without notice soon after Inu-yasha's return late that night. It only took them a moment to pack and move on. Ash Wednesday was upon them and the church ruled supreme in Rome that morning and for the next forty days and nights.
The caravan of five carriages moved in a straight organized line, the largest one being pulled by two large Clydesdales with dark brown coats in the front with blinds pulled over the sides of the carriage as aid them in going unnoticed by any eyes that might be watching.
The other four carriages held the rest of the party. Carmella with her magic crystal ball, the oldest woman among them with the power to see into the distant future was in the second of these with her magenta and purple robes draping her from head to toe so that you could only see the grey old wrinkled eyes of an old woman.
Larissa was with her in the back studying her own crystal ball since she was a student of Carmella, along with many of the other girls who kept quiet as they stared out at the road and the other carriages behind them. Some chanted and purified their cards after telling fifty or so fortunes in the last day. Though, the silence of the girls drove Larissa crazy enough, to make her pass through Carmella's quarters. She grinned at the old woman who glared up at her for a moment, since the girl had made her loose her concentration, and then slipped to the front and sat beside Alonzo who had the reins of the two dark steeds that pulled them.
He looked at her and blushed and turned an even darker shade of red when she smiled at him and sat down beside him with pulling her knees to her chest to look at the horses. Alonzo's face was still red when he turned to look back at the road.
"How long before we get back to Romania, Alonzo?" she asked him sweetly.
He struggled to find words. "According to the prince…I think about three weeks if nothing goes wrong."
Larissa frowned as she turned to look at the road. "I was hoping it would be sooner."
Noise started in the back of the wagon and Larissa turned to the side to see what all the commotion was about. She peaked around the bend and saw a white, brown spotted horse ride quickly along side them and slow down once it got along side her and Alonzo. The rider grinned as the white dog behind him jumped off the horse's rump and into Larissa's lap. "Oh, Ranger!" she growled as the happy dog lapped at her face. Annoyed, Larissa shifted over making Alonzo a little stiffer in his seat as the dog panted happily beside the both of them.
Inu-yasha laughed as he stared at Larissa's annoyance, knowing that Alonzo would also secretly in his own way be thanking him later.
"You and you're stupid dog," she hissed.
"At least he and I have something in common," he said.
"Oh, a liking for the ladies, I suppose? It would make sense, seeing as you knocked that wench off her feet last night at the bar before you disappeared on her just as she was starting to warm up to you." she teased.
Alonzo snorted as he tried to suppress his laughter. He cleared his throat as soon as he caught his friend's glare. Larissa only smiled evilly at him.
"She wasn't my type," Inu-yasha said simply holding his head up and turning his nose to the air. "Besides, I had things to take care of." Inu-yasha smiled as he reached into his side pouch and pulled out the large gem he carried within it.
Larissa rolled her eyes. "So you got your stupid rock back from the man's family who stole it from you. What do you think it makes you, the greatest thief on earth now?"
Inu-yasha admired the gem in his leather gloved hand with a smile. "Not really…a master thief is never caught."
Alonzo shot his head to the side, his eyes wide with shock. "You were caught?"
Larissa put her feet down and leaned forward to see him past the panting dog. "Did the mistress see you? One of the family?"
Inu-yasha gripped his prize in his hand and shrugged a shoulder. "A house maid of some sort, just a girl. Met her at the fair yesterday, wanted someone to read her cards."
Alonzo raised a brow in curiosity. "What did her reading say?"
Inu-yasha looked at them not completely sure what to say. "She had no money on her so I couldn't give her a reading."
Larissa scoffed, "Ha! Like that ever stopped you before from reading someone's cards after they left the room. I've seen you! You have nothing to hide from these eyes, Your Highness."
Inu-yasha sneered, "Then why don't you get your crystal ball and look? You're learning from Carmella, aren't you?"
Just then the old woman's hand came out from behind them, and a ring covered old hand with small gems on each one. "I foresee a great trail ahead for the higher blood among us."
The old woman looked at them all, and Larissa looked at her teacher. "What have you seen?"
"I have seen…a cranky old woman if you youngsters don't keep it down out here," the old woman hissed. The currant closed behind them and the three of them sighed as they turned to look at the road.
Inu-yasha snorted as he looked over his shoulder, thinking of the girl he had seen at the fair and last night as he broke into the mansion to steal the diamond. He couldn't help, but see her scared face in his head now as the reading came into his mind. A time of great despair and trails was in her future, and the only thing that could save her was something dealing with what Lovers had symbolized. It usually meant that one would need to base things on the facts not the emotions. It meant love that would not be good for her well being. A love that she would have to let go of or discover not to be real at all.
Yet, how this would save her he did not know. But her face stayed in his head wondering why she had taken his mind all of the sudden at that very moment. He had been cursed to face this now as long as the Gypsy Diamond was in his possession, such is its curse. It was the single object that brought his father to fall in love with his mother, and the very same object that brought about his demise.
Her face would not leave his mind, nor would the pull in his chest. He wondered…would she survive any of this?
"Hello? Inu-yasha? Hello?" a feminine voice came into his thoughts, and he turned to look at Larissa once again.
"You look lost in your thoughts today. More than normal," she said with concern.
"It's nothing," she grumbled.
Alonzo looked at him and then at the road. "Perhaps you should consult your cards tonight and discover what you can do to clear your mind? A meditation perhaps?"
Inu-yasha snored as he looked at the reins in his hand and loosened his grip on them for a moment. "Nothing can cure me of these thoughts…I know that all too well," he said low enough for them not to hear him clearly.
Suddenly, Ranger's hectic panting stopped and his ears perked up. His nose lifted to smell the soft breeze that crossed it, sniffing the scent of something that tickled his mind. The dog began to whine and look to the woods on Alonzo's side. Larissa looked at him, "What's wrong with your dog?"
Inu-yasha turned and watched Ranger as he stood on all fours and barked, making the horse nervous.
"Ranger, quiet," Inu-yasha commanded, but the dog was still uneasy and not a second sooner whined and barked even louder.
"Ranger," Inu-yasha sneered, but the dog continued and this time groaned. The dog finally barked deep enough to scare the horses in the caravan, and all come to a halt and whinnied as they lost their order. Soon others popped their head out of the carriages and looked around.
"What is going on back there?" Andrei yelled as he stood and looked around the front of the head carriage, the two Clydesdales both uneasy as the snorted and groaned, their reins gripped in their master's large fist.
Ranger growled and barked as he jumped over Alonzo and Larissa and ran off into the woods. Inu-yasha watched as his crazed dog run like the wind deep into the woods and turned his horse around.
"Andrei, Alonzo, get this caravan back in order."
Larissa looked at him. "Where are you going?" she called out him as his horse crossed in front of their steeds. "To find out what's gotten to my 'stupid dog'," he mocked.
Ranger's speed of course was never something to take for granted. The dog was always good out running the fast horse they had, which Inu-yasha made a point of making his own since he could at least track the dog or see him from a far distance.
It had only taken a minute or two before Ranger slowed down and looked down into a ditch were a flat stone laid at the bottom. He wined and barked at the object below, trying to get its attention. He wined as he watched it remain motionless.
Ranger paced in worry as the sound of his hooves belonging to his master's horse got louder. He finally clumsily slid is say down the sallow ditch and jumped up on the rock where the motionless body was. He began to whimper as he looked at the face scratched my tree branches and covered in long strands of black hair. He snorted and then proceeded to lick the face before him.
A soft moan escaped her throat, as Kagome saw for a moment a white, happy dog's yipping face, before falling into the same darkness that has taken her before. The last thing she heard was the sound of a horse's hooves and the muffled sound of what might have been the dog's name, along with the cries for help a moment later.
When her mind came out of its darkness again, she heard a woman's voice humming a soft song. Her eyes hurt when she tried to open them and the blur of a single lit candle was the first thing she saw. It took her a moment to true register where she was now, for the last thing she could recall was being in the woods and falling into the freezing cold of night.
She sat up quickly as gasped once she realized she was not in the same place as before. Kagome's eyes wandered the room and she gripped the animal hide blanket around her. "Where am I?" she whispered in fear, and then looked down at where she had been lying not a moment before and at then at her own state. Her clothing was gone, and she was stark naked under the animal hide blanket that was her only source of modesty.
"My clothing…I've been robbed? Pirates? I must have been picked up by men."
Just then a curtain was pulled away and a woman's face appeared. She her graying hair was tied back in a bun with a head band around her head made of purple silk and tied at the side. Her shoulders were bared by her shirt and her skirt came just bellow her knees where three silver anklets chimed as she took a step into the space Kagome was in.
Their eyes met, soft aging green eyes met hazel, bluish brown. Kagome relaxed a little when she saw the woman before her. "Ah, you've awakened! The ladies and I were beginning to worry that you would not awake for another tree days."
Kagome didn't say a word as she tried her best to still calm herself from the shock of her surroundings.
"You must be hungry, no?"
Kagome looked at the kind soft faced woman and nodded slowly as she pulled the animal hide around her more and her knees to her chest.
The woman smiled sweetly and left for only a moment before she slipped away for a moment through another opening on the other side of the room, to the outdoors.
There was a soft commotion right before the woman returned with a wooden bowl of stew and a gold cup filled with goat's milk. "Here, child," she said as she handed the food to her slowly. Kagome took them slowly at first, and cautiously tasted the soup's beef broth before spooning it greedily into her mouth. The milk dribbled down her chin a little and so did the broth which she wiped off with the back of her hand and arm.
She finished the bowl until it was clean and held it out to her caretaker. "More? Please? I have not eaten since the last day I can remember. My meal wasn't large either."
The woman took the bowl from her with a frown, and smiled sweetly as she nodded. "What is your name, child?"
Kagome finished her goat's milk and handed the cup over to her. "Kagome," she said as she tried to catch her breath from eating so fast.
The woman's face seemed to glow in the soft candle light, like this woman was her angel. "Eldonza is mine. Have no fear, Kagome, you among friends here."
She left again only to return with more food, and this time with bread.
Kagome looked around once again as she picked at her bread. "Where am I?"
Eldonza hummed as she began to sew her needle though a piece of cloth. "You are in the woods, where you were found just the same. Only you are some ways away from where our master's dog found you."
Kagome looked at her wide eyed. "A dog?"
Eldonza nodded, "You were found in a ditch with a cut in your leg and with burses and scratches on your face and arms. Your clothing is a mess, so you will have to have new ones made for you which the ladies are putting together for you on the other side of this tent."
Kagome thought for a moment about what she had told her a moment before, and then shook it off. 'It couldn't be…my luck can't be that bad.'
Eldonza slowly came over to her. "I'm just going to look over your injuries."
She lifted the blanket looking over her leg and then covering it up looked at her face and arms. When she had turned to look at her back Kagome hid it from her. "No, don't do anymore with those injuries."
Eldonza looked at her perplexed and then her face showed concern and wonder. "Those injuries…are not from the forest are they?"
Kagome did not answer and put the food down on the ground before wrapping her body in the animal hide. "They're the mark I have to bare for a crime I did not commit."
Eldonza looked at her still perplexed. "Do you know who did this to you?"
Kagome swallowed hard and gripped the animal hide around her breasts as the feeling of memories of pain and sadness came back to her.
"One of you…one of your kind tried to steal something from my mistress's home. She found me instead and scarred my back. I was to be put to death in the morning for a crime I did not do."
Eldonza's eyes filled with sadness and she lowered her head apologetically, "I ask that you find peace and forgiveness then for this."
Kagome's eyes turned cold. "I was left alone to face this. Abandoned…I will not find peace until I get my life back and my father fulfils his promise to me. I need to find a way back, but I must also clear my name of this. Otherwise I can never go home."
Eldonza looked at her as the young woman before her turned cold and full of sadness and anger. "Life under your mistress's whip is a place you wish to be rather than free from what pain she put on you?"
Kagome looked at her, understanding what she had said, but at the same time feeling trapped. "I've known no other life."
Eldonza's smile warmed the room once again; bringing comfort to Kagome's feeling loss. "The fool is one who is presented with many paths to take. The path taken is up to the fool, but only one path can lead to true enlightenment."
Kagome felt lost in what this woman was trying to tell her.
She laughed, "Perhaps during your time here I shall teach you the cards. If you wish to hide from whoever is hunting you, you should at least look like you are not the one they seek, no?"
Eldonza rose to her feet and went to the other side of the tent where the ladies giggled and gossiped. "Enough of this, what evil are you all whispering?"
The girls looked up trying to suppress their laughter. "Some of us have though that the young lord may be fond of this girl," one whispered.
"No girl that the master has found has ever been brought back to our camps. Usually, he has left them at the house of another to be aided."
Eldonza wrinkled her nose, "Humph, there are no houses safe for that around here for that matter, and to say such things about the prince is not allowed."
"But Lady Eldonza, he is coming of age and soon she will want to find a bride."
Eldonza walked over to the opening opposite of the side Kagome was on. She looked back at all the girls. "The prince has no desire to be wed to one woman, all of that is known to all of us. His charm is merely too woo a woman of fortune, have her invite him to her bed, and then take what possessions she has that is of value. It has been is way since the death of his father and the only way he can find to make sure we are all in good health."
Eldonza slipped through the opening and sighed. "Such is the curse of any son of mine."
As she walked through the camp to find more bread for herself and the rest of the young girls, Ranger wobbled up to her. She petted the dog's head as he sat at her side and she found her son sitting on the back of the wagon looking up at the stars. "The stars show trouble. I shouldn't have brought that girl back with me."
Eldonza looked at the dog as Ranger leaned into her side. "You care for her…that's good."
Inu-yasha looked at her. "I found a girl in the woods unconscious, and that makes me suddenly care for her?"
Eldonza looked at him. "She spoke of you…She is the maid who tried to stop you isn't she?"
Inu-yasha gave her no answer, and jumped off the wagon.
"She has been charged with your crime. I suggest she comes with us."
"No, we dump her at the nearest town. I won't have bounty hunters on my tail. I got what I wanted."
Inu-yasha stomped off and then stopped feeling his mother's eyes on him.
"You feel it don't you?" she said. "The guilt of another man's crime?"
Inu-yasha ran his hands through his hair before resting them at his hips.
"Such is the curse of the Gypsy Diamond. It was guilt that led your father to me, guilt that haunted that other man when he killed him, and now guilt curses you until you discover the way to restore this woman's life."
Inu-yasha's eyes met his mother's. "The curse only leads to death."
Ranger nuzzled and licked Eldonza's hand. "Yes…but it can also bring life."
Eldonza slowly made her way back to the tent and sat at Kagome's side. She hummed again as the young girl turned to her side to sleep.
A moment later the tent parted and Inu-yasha stood in the room. Kagome sat up as soon as she heard his voice. "She can stay," she said softly.
She sat up and looked at the man towering over her and their eyes met. Both hearts skipped a beat as they recognized eyes that each had seen twice before, but that was before Kagome's turned cold with hate.
"You," she hissed.
Forgetting her nudeness completely, Kagome spring from her bed and tackled him to the ground outside of the tent. "You bastard! How dare you do this to me, you thief! You monster!"
Her angered cries echoed, catching everyone's attention in the camp as the men began to gather along with a few of the children which were soon pulled away by their mother's or had their eyes shielded.
Inu-yasha finally pinned her to the ground the same way he had the night before. "How dare you?" she hissed.
Inu-yasha panted heavily for a moment before smirking at her. "You really are stubborn. You haven't even realized you just feel out in to a crowd of prying eyes with nothing to cover your modesty."
Kagome's panting stopped and she held her breath as she found herself straddled by the man above her in the nude. With thoughts of what he might be thinking and the sudden awareness of what was around her. She screamed as some men began to laugh.
"Let me go!" she cried.
"Why? And not finished what you've started?" he teased.
Kagome growled and wriggled her hands out of his grasp as he kneeled up between her legs. "Go on, you heard her boys, avert your eyes. There's nothing to see here anyway."
Some men laughed at Inu-yasha's insult as Kagome covered her breasts and tried to cover the red of her self as she curled into a blushing ball in the dirt.
Feeling all the shame she had ever felt in her life, Kagome tried to block out all sounds of laughter in her ears, but since her hands were being used to cover what she needed to hide, she could not.
He had brought shame on her again.
It was then that she felt a blanket wrap around her, a silk one embroidered with beads and colored threads. He kneeled before her looked into her glaring eyes. "Lift your arms so I can wrap this around you. Their eyes have not seen anything."
She glared at him. "Why should I trust you?"
He smirked. "The only one who has truly seen your body is me, and only for a moment in the dirt here where I used my own body to cover yours."
Kagome looked at him and then grabbing the blanket herself she wrapped it around her body. "I hope you enjoyed it, because it will be the only time your eyes will ever see it."
His smirk and slight laugh made her look up at him again once she secured the wrap in a knot. "I have seen the bodies of woman before, some of societies fairest. Do you think yours can stand up to any of that?"
Kagome wasn't sure how to react. Part of her felt hurt and another part of her felt insulted, though she couldn't understand the feeling of disappointment when he did not say that her body was fair. She suddenly felt ugly and tried to hide herself even more from his eyes that seemed to be looking right through her.
Her glare of annoyance was her only response. 'I truly hate you.'
Well that's enough for now.
We'll see what the next chapter brings later on.
Hope this was good. Let me know what you liked and didn't like in this chapter.