Noir

Chapter 23 - The Journey

The next morning, we awoke early and departed quickly for the next checkpoint. I had Eunji held tightly in my arms as we rode slowly through the forest. I felt much safer with my husband and a company of three soldiers protecting us, but I still could not relax. Any rustle of the trees, any peasant that we passed, was a soldier, someone out to kill us. I was terrified of the suspense of waiting, and it only worsened when we reached the little port town.

"Luhan and Chen, wait here with them," Zitao instructed. "I'm going to find Yifan, and you're all going to have to change your clothes. Get rid of any evidence that you come from any sort of priviledge." He was right, I realized. Among the commoners, we would all profoundly stick out. We would have to wear disguises from now on, and could never be ourselves again. Our lives as peasantry began now.

Yixing took my hand from the ground, and I looked up at him with a tender smile. "How are you feeling?" He asked, massaging the top of my hand with his thumb.

"Tired," I sighed, not going to lie to him with a simple, 'fine'. "Afraid. I can't relax."

"No one will allow you to be harmed," Yixing said solidly. "You know that, don't you?"

"It isn't me I am afraid for," I said softly, and he was quiet after this, staring at the ground.

"It will work," He promised. "It must."

There was a rustling of trees, and we all became on guard once more. Zitao and Yifan stepped through the trees, carrying bundles of clothing, and I sighed with relief. Luhan took Eunji from my arms, and Yixing helped me dismount. "My Lord," Yifan bowed before Yixing, a smile warming his face before turning to me. "My Lady."

"Wu Yifan," I smiled, and as I drew closer, I noticed a scar, a thin, white line narrowly missing his right eye. It began at his temple and extended nearly to his jaw, and I tried my hardest not to stare at it. Where was it from? Who gave it to him? "We cannot thank you enough for your role in this."

"It was the least that I could do," He said humbly, turning his face to hide the scar from my view. I wondered if he had noticed me staring, and instantly felt bad. "I could not leave a mother and child to fend for themselves."

"Take these and change," Huang Zitao handed me a bundle of brown clothing, and I saw it was a very plain peasant's dress. "You look too conspicuous now, Milady."

"Alright," I looked around and searched for a private place to change as the other men changed right out in the open. Yixing approached me, fastening a tunic in similar color to mine.

"Over here," He directed me, spreading out his old tunic as a sort of sheet to cover me.

"Thanks," I said gratefully, crouching down and changing out of sight of the others. Yixing chivalrously kept his gaze straight ahead, even though he didn't have to, and I didn't mind. Once I was dressed, I fussed with my clothing, uncomfortable. This was easily the most homely and hideous thing that I had ever worn, but I forced myself to remember that thousands of others dressed like this. I was not a lady anymore.

"Is this correct?" I asked, smoothing out the skirt, and Yixing nodded, smiling, and then breaking into a grin, bursting into laughter. It was a foreign sound coming from him, and I was stunned at first, forgetting that he was capable of this.

"What?" I chuckled, and he continued to laugh. "Do I look that bad?"

"You're too conspicuous!" He copied Zitao, bending down and finding something amongst the dirt. "You don't look the least bit like a peasant. You're too clean!"

"Who says a commoner can't be pretty?" I retorted, a mischevious smile creeping up my cheeks.

"You're too pretty to be common." Yixing stood up, and in his hands, I saw a fistful of dirt.