Dreamlands (5 page)

“Such innocence!” she exclaimed, letting go of his chin.

I laughed again. “He has been sheltered to a certain extent, but I doubt if he considers himself an innocent.” Keno didn’t seem to mind that we were talking about him. The note Tamazusa had sent with my breakfast informed me that Keno had been a prisoner for a number of years, kept captive by an odd organization that hunted our kind, taking care of their machines, as he had said earlier. She didn’t tell me how she had come in contact with the one called Heiseg. I didn’t care, nor did I care about how messily he had died. In my mind, it had been too quick. He had been betraying his own kind. Hypocritical of me to think so, but I had learned loyalty over the intervening centuries.

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26

Tamazusa looked at me thoughtfully. I could see that she thought I was besotted with the boy. I wasn’t; however, he
was
someone I could mold for my own pleasures. Keno could become an entertaining companion with the correct education.

“If I may take my leave of you, my lady?” I asked Tamazusa.

She nodded, and I gestured for Keno to follow me. He froze, wondering what he was supposed to do.

“Bow low again, boy, and follow your master,” Tan’yu hissed.

Keno clumsily did so and scurried after me as I strode out of the gardens.

“And what did Tan’yu-san tell you?” I asked when we were walking toward the practice ground.

“That… that I was just
…
um
…
slightly torn, no need for stitches,” Keno stuttered. “You―I’m just repeating what he told me―you shouldn’t have sex with me for a couple of days.”

“Probably longer than that,” I said, considering the distaste he had shown for intimacy. “But for now, I wish to test your skill level with the sword.”

“It’s been a while,” Keno said, “and I didn’t do a lot of working out before―”

“Do you want to know where you are now?” I asked him.

Keno shook his head. He was afraid to ask, afraid to act like he had a right to such basic information.

I wanted to curse again the ones who had abused him but kept my tone disinterested and calm. I didn’t want to frighten him again. “You are in the Dreamlands,” I said. “The place where
oni
and other magical beings live. I am an
oni
.”

Telling Keno of my true nature might frighten him, but I felt I should be honest with him. The boy wasn’t a fool; he knew this place was different from where he had been.

27

DREAMLANDS

He stopped. “That’s… Heiseg was doing research on that. I… I thought that it was just craziness.”

“As you can see, it is not,” I said.

So that was how my lady knew the fool. The man had meddled in things he didn’t understand, magic and power beyond his ability. It didn’t matter now, because the fool was dead. He deserved his fate, because of the rudeness to my lady and the betrayal of his own people.

I have no doubt, hearing about the damage from Keno, that the man enjoyed hurting those who had been working for him.

“It… it seems like a nice place,” Keno said after a few moments.

He was trailing behind me, uncertain about where he should be. I thought that would be a problem with the boy for a while. It was something those idiots had caused, imprisoning him the way they had.

“I like it,” I said.

I did. I just wished I had the option of leaving.

We arrived at the practice grounds for the samurai. Keno shrunk toward me when he realized the place was full of men. I was sure that was because of where he had been. The others who had been abusing him had been the warriors of that place, from the note my lady had sent me.

I found Okita, the master at arms, and gestured to Keno. “I need to know the level of his skill, Okita-san.” He smiled. “How do you know he had any training?”

“I asked him.”

“You know that if you have been lying, boy, that this is going to hurt,” Okita pointed out to Keno.

Keno nodded. “I know. A couple of years ago, I was decent.

Now… I know that it’s going to hurt afterward. I’m in rotten shape, sensei.”

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28

Okita roared with laughter. Keno’s honestly was refreshing after the posturing he had to deal with from new recruits. “Call me Okita-san,” he said.

“I do not need him to fight for my lady; I am just seeing if he can defend himself,” I told Okita.

“And you will be sparring with him in another manner soon.” Okita cheerfully leered. Keno flushed adorably even as he shivered in fear.

“That,” I said coolly, “is none of your business.” Okita just grinned wider before bowing and walking off to check on the others practicing here.

KENO

I HURT. The master at arms, or whoever Okita was, had me work until I was too sore to move. Not that it was hard right now, because I still felt sore from the monsters and what Heiseg had done to me. Samojirou just watched. I was shaking at the end of the
kata
drill,
and I wondered again if being here was better than Boylston Street.

Okita was tall with long hair pulled back loosely, wearing a dark green kimono and
hakama
. Most of the men who were here were big and scary, like most of the Trouble Consultants at the Trust. Also, some of them looked strange to me, like the maids. It might have been because they lived in the Dreamlands and were demons like Samojirou.

I didn’t know; I’d thought that Heiseg was insane when he wrote about this place. But I was here, and it was so different from Boylston Street.

I was still scared, but Samojirou was being weirdly nice to me. But I also knew this place was a lot more formal. Murphy never expected me to bow to him. In fact, I knew there were a lot of times that he would have been happy if I had just faded away. He didn’t like me. But here 29

DREAMLANDS

there was bowing and manners I hadn’t used for years and rules I didn’t understand.

“The boy has some talent,” Okita said. “But no stamina.”

“I know,” Samojirou said silkily. “And now I think that a soak will do him some good.”

I wanted one. I felt icky. I had stopped hurting for a while and now I was again. Or I was hurting in a different way because of all the exercise. I used to run up and down the corridor outside my room and the stairs for exercise, but I was very willing to admit that I didn’t get a lot.

“Follow me,” Samojirou instructed.

I bowed to Okita and obeyed. I felt like a puppy trailing after a boy or an accessory for the man. What besides
that
did he want from me?

I washed up and settled into the tub with a sigh. I wasn’t surprised to see Samojirou join me. He acted like a man who enjoyed the nice things in life. Right now, for me, the
onsen
was very nice. I knew that soaking in a hot tub of water was something I could become very addicted to. Samojirou hadn’t done more than watch me, which was somewhat scary, but even naked, he didn’t seem interested in more than this. Thankfully the tub was big enough that we weren’t touching each other.

“I think that you should train with Okita-san,” Samojirou said.

“Along with some lessons to rectify your shocking lack of formal etiquette. More lessons to train you to be an amusing companion for me, including calligraphy, the tea ceremony,
ikebana
. I am certain you lack knowledge in those areas.”

I nodded and tried not to feel like a bug. I didn’t know any of those things.

Samojirou smiled. “I have been told that the men of today are shockingly ill-educated, grubbing after money like a merchant. Or like you, fascinated with one thing and neglecting others.” FELICITAS IVEY

30

I didn’t say anything. Samojirou frowned, and I felt my stomach turn over. What had I done to make him angry with me?

“It is allowed for you to answer me,” he chided gently. “You would be a very boring companion if you did not talk to me.”

“I will take any lessons that you choose to give me,” I said quietly. “And… and I did kind of just deal with computers in high school. Math too, but I studied the sciences more than anything else.” What did he want from me? I was his fuck toy, just like the TCs and the techs called me. He didn’t have to be nice to me. Or was he being nice now so he could be bad to me later? I didn’t know what to do, and I hated that. As bad as it was back in Boylston Street, I knew what to expect, what to do. I knew who to avoid and who wouldn’t bother me. Here I didn’t know the rules. I wasn’t too good with people to begin with; how could I understand someone who wasn’t human?

“I think that you will enjoy them,” he said. “I fear, however, that modern science is not something that works in the Dreamlands. Now get out of the tub, dry yourself off, and stretch out on my bed.”

“But….” Tan’yu had said that he shouldn’t! But it didn’t matter; I was Samojirou’s property. I started shaking and couldn’t stop.

Samojirou frowned, confused. “I am not….” He paused, seeing me panic. “A massage, nothing more, since I am in no hurry to taste the joys of your body.”

“Thank you,” I whispered.

My throat felt tight and my mouth dry. Even if he said he didn’t want to do
that
with me, he had scared me. It would be as easy for him to hold me down and hurt me as Heiseg had.

“You do enjoy men in this manner, do you not?” he demanded.

I bowed my head and didn’t say anything. It didn’t matter what I wanted. It never had after the night I was taken from my dorm room.

“I see that those fools harmed you more than I believed.” Samojirou growled. “I did not believe that you would be willing, not 31

DREAMLANDS

after the abuse. But if you are not a lover of men, I will not force you. I have a very good relationship with my lady, and we have never been intimate.”

“I have been attracted to men more than women,” I said slowly, knowing I had to tell him something. And that was kind of true. “But it is not like I have talked to many people in the last few years.” Samojirou smiled. “That is a good answer! I will not punish you for being honest.”

I didn’t believe him. He frowned again, and I scrambled to follow his orders. I was on his futon soon after with a towel underneath me. I didn’t relax as he started to work on my hands and arms, moving down my body. The oil warmed to my skin and smelled spicy. I didn’t calm down until he started on my feet, when I finally realized he was telling me the truth and wasn’t going to do anything with me. It felt good, and by then I was half asleep. Samojirou had hummed as he worked, which reassured me.

“You can sleep now,” he murmured.

I made some sort of noise, I thought. I was sleepy, and it wasn’t hard to follow that order. I didn’t mind missing lunch to get some rest when I felt this good.

SAMOJIROU

I DIDN’T miss that Keno took a while to relax under my hands. As tempting as it was, I refrained from making his massage more intimate, even though I wanted him. One wrong touch and I knew that all my hard work would be wasted, since he would tense up again. I let him sleep as I went off to arrange for his tutors. I knew he would follow any order I gave him; he was that cowed. I just had to make those orders agreeable so that he would trust me and regain his spirit.

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32

He was still asleep when I came back a few hours later. I smiled at the sight. Tan’yu had warned me that he would sleep a lot for the next few days as his body healed itself. He had also warned me that Keno seemed ignorant of his own body or pleasure, from some of the answers he had gotten to his questions. I wasn’t surprised to hear that.

Yukiko, one of the maids, delivered the midday meal to us. She giggled at the sight of Keno asleep as she set down her tray. I was glad to see it was a cold lunch that would keep. I wasn’t going to wake him up unless I had to.

“You should join him, master,” she whispered. “He looks lonely.” I frowned, and she scurried away with a smile. I shrugged, stripped myself of my kimono, and curled around Keno. He woke up, frightened, but calmed down when all I did was hold him. He smelled wonderful, and I slowly ran my hand though his hair. It was like silk, and I played with it as we lay there.

“Samojirou-sama?” he asked huskily.

“Just resting a bit,” I said. “This is enjoyable to me also. It is not always about sex.”

“Oh.”

He was naked, and I was tempted. However, I knew that he wouldn’t enjoy it, so I resisted the urge to play with him and coax him into pleasure. We just lay there until I heard his stomach growl. I laughed and kissed the top of his head. “Our midday meal is here. Do you want to eat? I have much to tell you, and you have been sleeping for several hours.”

“I’m sorry,” Keno whispered.

“Tan’yu-san warned me that you would be sleeping a lot,” I said.

“He mentioned that, Samojirou-sama.”

“Tan’yu-san scolded me for letting you spar with Okita-san,” I said.

33

DREAMLANDS

He didn’t think he was important enough to tell me that Tan’yu had wanted him to rest since I wanted him to spar. If I had ordered him on a forced march, he would have done so even if he were half dead. I felt him blush at my comment. I thought he had trouble considering anyone scolding me.

“All he talked about was… ah… sex,” Keno murmured. “And that I needed to heal and sleep.”

“He is not angry with you,” I assured him, since he sounded frightened. I was going have to remember to treat him very gently.

“And he had agreed to tutor you on the etiquette of my lady’s court.”

“Thank you, Samojirou-sama,” Keno murmured.

I smiled and kissed the back of his head. “You are not stupid. It is just that the real world does not prize manners the way that we do here.

I fear that we are a bit old-fashioned here. And you do not have to address me as lord when we are alone.”

“Thank you,” he repeated.

“Let us eat, and I will tell you more about the lessons that I have arranged for you,” I said. I liked the way he smelled, and I wanted more than a chaste kiss. I pressed lightly into him, letting him feel my desire for a moment before I rolled away from him, and Keno shivered, but I knew it wasn’t from desire. “I just wanted to show you that I have some self control.”