I Am Who? - Book 2

Chapter 15 - Guests?

My heart stalled for a moment as all my thoughts fled my mind at the words. The Ninth? What was that? And what did it mean to be their guests? With all the arrows pointed at us, I hardly felt very welcome, and I wasn't so naïve as to believe they were here for a pleasant afternoon of chatting over a cup of tea. I looked from Kotaro to Ayan for answers, but their eyes were glued to the cliffside above.

"I am Bohai, and I will be leading you to your host." The man on the cliff said, smiling down at us endearingly like a father with his small children. "We can do this one of two ways: you can either surrender yourselves into our gracious care without any useless struggling, or we can...teach you to find our company more pleasant. The choice is yours."

"How polite of you." Ayan snorted, obviously already recovered from his initial shock at the intruders' sudden appearance.

"And we'd like to remain that way, so if you wouldn't mind disarming yourselves." Bohai deftly ignored Ayan's sarcasm.

"Of course, and would you like us to kill ourselves for you as well?" Ayan flashed a smile, his voice dripping with mock pleasantry.

I sucked in a sharp breath at his brazenness, and his mention of death worried me, too. Of course, I hadn't expected something nice from the bow-bearing warriors, but from the sounds of it, Bohai didn't seem to want to kill us...yet. Whatever our fate, Ayan obviously intended to face it with his usual impudence and a smile.

"I said you were guests of the Ninth—not our captives." Bohai tsked, shaking his head. "You should learn to listen better, Ayan."

Ayan stiffened momentarily at Bohai's mention of his name before quickly recovering. "Isn't that nice?" He put a hand on his heart as if he were touched by the words. "You know, all those arrows pointed at us must have confused my mental capacities. How could I even imagine you posed a threat to us?"

Bohai grunted, and at the sound, the warriors on the cliff relaxed their bows. Scoffing quietly, Bohai climbed the rest of the way down the cliffside. Evidently, they hadn't expected such cheek, and once he was on the ground, he lifted his hands, raising a brow.

"Feel better?" He cooed.

"Infinitely." Ayan smiled. "It's almost like we're one, big, happy family."

"Isn't that nice." Bohai smiled. "Lei!" He shouted suddenly. "Help them disarm themselves." He flashed a doting smile in Ayan's direction.

A few men climbed down the cliff face at the words. Disappearing into the tents and thoroughly searching the camp, they rounded up all of Kotaro's men, surrounding us again. With cool precision, they began to strip the men of their armor and weapons, leaving them completely indefensible.

"Stay still, girlie." David's voice was barely above a whisper behind me. "I don't think they mean to kill us just yet."

His voice was slightly hoarse, and I realized that he must be exhausted from overexertion. I heard him slump to the ground with a soft grunt, and I shifted protectively in front of him as if I could do something if they wanted to harm him, my eyes glued on the warriors around us. At this rate, they would have us neatly captured, and we would be forced to do whatever they wanted.

I looked at Ayan and Kotaro, but there was nothing in their posture to give me any clues as to how we planned to proceed. In fact, they were just standing there while their men were being unarmed. Then, one of the warriors approached Ayan, reaching out to unbuckle his sword, but Ayan slapped his hands away. Covering himself with his muscled arms, he took a step back.

"I'm shy." He said, batting his eyelashes like a flirtatious farmgirl. "But I can undress myself." He winked.

The other man stepped back, a startled look on his face. His eyes darted to Bohai who gave him a hint of a nod in response. Kotaro and Ayan exchanged a meaningful glance before dropping their swords. As if it were the most natural thing in the world, they moved slightly, positioning themselves between me and the warriors as if they were attempting to keep our captors from knowing of my existence.