20 Chapter 20

(There will be some portrayal of forceful submission here henceforth, which is very unpleasant to some. Please be warned.)

The man then covered her nose and mouth with a cloth exuding with some fragrance which she subsequently breath in. After that Hana lost all sense of time. She did not know if it was hours or days that passed as they still galloped swiftly through the desert when she again became aware of her environment. But she somehow rememberedor was it a dream, herself being repeatedly tossed on the ground then back on a horse, huddled next to a man's broad chest. Everything seems hazy.

She did not know if they were alone or if the band of Sunas to which this man belonged were riding with them, noiseless over the soft ground. What had happened to her guide and her guards? Had they been butchered and left where they fell, or were they, too, being hurried unwillingly into some obscure region of the desert? But for the moment the fate of Akatsuchi and his companions did not trouble her very much; they had not played a very valiant part in the short encounter, and her own situation swamped her mind to the exclusion of everything else.

The sense of fear was growing on her. She scorned and shoot it down. She tried to convince herself it did not exist, but it did exist, torturing her with its strangeness and with the thoughts that it generated. She had anticipated nothing like this. She had never thought of a possibility that would end so, that would induce a situation before which her courage was shuddering into pieces with the horror that was opening up before her—a thing that had always seemed a remote impossibility that could never touch her, from even the knowledge of which her life with Kiba had almost shielded her, but which now loomed near her, forcing its reality upon her till she trembled and great drops of sweat gathered on her forehead.

As the Suna moved her position roughly, she was glad for it freed her head from the stifling folds of his robes and chest and she was able to stretched her stiffed neck. He did not speak—only once when the chestnut shied violently he muttered something under his breath. But her satisfaction was short-lived. A few minutes afterwards his arm tightened round her and he twined a fold of his long cloak round her head, blinding her. And then she understood. The galloping horse was pulled in with almost the same suddenness that had amazed her when she had first seen the Sunas. She felt him draw her close into his arms and slip down on to the ground; there were voices around her—confused, unintelligible; then they died away as she felt him carry her a few paces. He set her down and unwound the covering from her face. The light that shone around her seemed by contrast dazzling. Confused, she clasped her hands over her eyes for a moment and then looked up slowly. She was in a big, lofty tent, brightly lit by two hanging lamps. But she took no heed of her surroundings; her eyes were fixed on the man who had brought her there. He had flung aside the heavy cloak that enveloped him from head to foot and was standing before her, tall and broad-shouldered, dressed in white flowing robes, a waist-cloth embroidered in black and silver wound several times about him, and from the top of which showed a revolver that was thrust into the folds.

Hana's eyes passed over him slowly till they rested on his tanned, clean-shaven face, surmounted by crisp, close-cut brown hair. It was the handsomest and cruellest face that she had ever seen. Her gaze was drawn instinctively to his. He was looking at her with fierce burning eyes that swept her until she felt that the boyish clothes that covered her slender limbs were stripped from her, leaving the beautiful white limbs bare under his passionate stare.

She shrank back, quivering, dragging the lapels of her riding jacket together over her breast with clutching hands, obeying an impulse that she hardly understood.

"Who are you?" she gasped hoarsely.

"I am Chief Sasori of the Red Sand."

Red Sand is the biggest tribe in the northern outskirt of Wind Country.

The name conveyed nothing. She had never heard it before. She had spoken without thinking in Konoha, and in Konoha he replied to her.

"Why have you brought me here?" she asked, fighting down the fear that was growing more terrible every moment.

He repeated her words with a slow smile. "Why have I brought you here? Good God! Are you not woman enough to know?"

She shrank back further, a wave of colour rushing into her face that receded immediately, leaving her whiter than she had been before. Her eyes fell under the kindling flame in his. "I don't know what you mean," she whispered faintly, with shaking lips.

"I think you do." He laughed softly, and his laugh frightened her more than anything he had said. He came towards her, and although she was swaying on her feet, desperately she tried to evade him, but with a quick movement he caught her in his arms.