InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Bloodlust: Purity ❯ By the Swiftest Way ( Chapter 12 )

Chapter 12

By the Swiftest Way

 

Shippou awoke later than usual, and looked out to find the sky beyond his windows clouded over. While he yawned, tousling his hair even more with a careless hand and gathering clothes for the day, his thoughts wandered back through the night, skipping dreams to press on the realness that had wakened him and brought him to such a late start.

Shippou, your father and I are going to find what is causing all this trouble. Where there is trouble, there is a cause - and where there is a cause, there is usually a person…

The smile on Kagome's face had been unusually feral - but there was a widening breath of panic in the back of her eyes, that he had not seen there since the old days, when every dawn was a danger. He had thought even while she spoke to question it, the return of that fear, but she had stopped him with a growl, and the reach of her eyes had grown sharper than blades.

Kystra is in your care now, Shippou. Rin cannot stay here, it has been too long for her and she is running outside now. If she returns, tell her it is me that asks for her help, not you - there is too much to do here for you alone.

He had laughed at her - he remembered that, even though he had been almost asleep, and he had told her not to worry, that he was not needed. The dragons took care of the castle. They had always done so, when Sesshomaru left on walkabout, and Shippou had deduced how much of their care was ordered and how much of it was done with careful routine long before.

When he stopped yawning, he had found his way halfway down the hall, and at the end of it the door through which he had expected to check on Kystra stood open, creaking slowly shut. His sister stood at the edge of the railing that overlooked the wide hall to the main door, and her fingers groped through the empty air.

He slowed, and walked toward her with cautious, silent steps.

“Kystra?”

She ignored him - her fingers still reached, aimless in the empty air.

 

Shh…you are only sleeping. Do you remember me? Do you remember my call? You are younger than the desires of my heart, but I have seen you when the stars fade. The very name of your soul is stolen - give yourself to me! You cannot? I am coming, coming to you, beautiful girl! When you hear the sound of my voice will you remember it? The mirror holds you, and yet it is not our mirror that has pulled you out of yourself. Who is the maker of your mistrust, the fastener of your chains? Perhaps if I watch closely enough, you will let yourself free…

 

“Kystra, what are you looking for?”

The wide blue of her eyes reached out and touched him, frightening in their unnatural purity, and she spoke almost whimsically, looking right through him.

“He calls me `beautiful girl'. You speak with a voice I know, but it is not his voice. When he comes, he will free me, but the shards will fly and fly and fly, until again they strike me, and I am not.”

She turned, moving as though the air was water, but her feet did not stumble down stairs or corridors that she knew. Shippou thought that despite this, her eyes did not see.

“Where are you going?”
Even if she spoke in ugly riddles, there was dark sense in them and it was better than silence. He could not think who she was speaking to - she said she knew the sound of his voice, but she had no name for him, and somewhere there was someone who called her beautiful girl.

 

No wonder father went on walkabout. And mama went with him…

 

It had been a long time since he thought of Kagome as mama, but it had been nearly as long since she had left him behind and run out into danger. Did she think he was still a kit, without the means to protect himself?

 

She said to protect Kystra. She does not want us all in danger. We cannot leave the castle empty - as long as Kystra remains here, we are all kept safe.

 

Abruptly, he remembered that he was not alone with his sister, not even while Rin was gone. Kinawai was still with them, Kinawai whose scent spoke of trouble and desire. A snort of laughter broke out of his throat, but Kystra did not even turn to look. Of all their troubles, those were the least, but it would not seem so to Kinawai. Perhaps he was the one to send to find Rin - she would not hide from him, and it would be amusing to watch the Tiger Lord squirm. Assuredly he would be uncomfortable, and just as assuredly he would not be able to refuse such a request.

The smile that ran over his face was wicked in its depth, and with a last, hopeless glance at Kystra, he turned back the way he had come, and sought Kinawai.

 

After all, Kystra is not in any new danger- and what is the use? She has not answered my last question, but after all… where could she go?

”Kinawai! Hey, Kinawai!”

With dread in every moment of the movement, Kinawai stopped and turned to face Shippou's call. How could he sound so full of mischief, when there were so many dangers gathering?

 

Perhaps it is all in my head. Perhaps I am only expecting this because last time…

 

With the softest growl he could manage, he shook his head, trying to clear it.

 

Telling me not to peek! If he says something like that again, I'll shake him until his organs rattle!

 

“I need your help, Kinawai. Kystra is wandering around without senses or sense, and Rin decided that this morning would be a good time to return to her solitary trees. Can you find her, and ask her to come back?”

Kinawai's eyebrow twitched, and the glance of his eyes suddenly became a glare. If there was a way to pause life so the universe could point its collective finger and laugh at someone, Shippou had just found it.

“You want…me to find Rin. Why is it not you, her brother, who should go to her with this request for help?”

Shippou had not expected questions - laughter was startled out of him, and he pointed behind him at the stairs.

“There is the reason, now. How she does not fall, I have no idea…but she's been wandering around like that all morning, apparently - or at least, that's how she was when I woke up.”

Kinawai watched as Kystra made her slow progress down the stairs. Her fingertips rested not on the banister, but a breath above it, and her bare feet slid across each step and then down, barely breaking contact with the floor. The wide color of her eyes was the first thing to touch Kinawai's gaze, just as it had touched everyone else.

The hallways were dark, but she knew every stone with the touch of her feet, the number of steps in every stairwell and the length of every corridor. Dragons saw her, and bowed, surprised- had they not been told she was ill? Without a word or acknowledgment, she passed them by, and continued on. Floor by floor, room by room, Kystra was searching, and no one but her could have said for whom, or for what.

“Do you see?”

Kinawai stared after the slow pale figure, and then let his eyes fall to meet the worry on Shippou's face.

“Yes. I see.”

The tiger lord turned away, and jogged slowly out the wide front doors, testing the air and following Rin's scent, pressing mental hands against the tumbling blocks of thoughts that threatened to strike him at any moment.

 

 

The long low rooms of the basement floors were empty of anything but steam, drifting from the open baths and down to doorways that were shut by locks, and one by power. It was that door she sought - the flame of energy from its other side pressed against the wood, yearning for her, but her hands could not open it. Her fingers were locked against the handle, pulling, pulling, but nothing came of it.

The door rattled on its hinges - the blue of her eyes became a glow to match that energy, and then faded. She turned away, and began her slow, weaving trek back up the stairs. Out the doorway, and into the courtyard, she was almost at the gate before Shippou found her, and reached out to stop her, a smile in his words.

“Kystra, where are you going? There is nothing out there!”

The blank stare she turned on him was freezing, and burned. Her voice sounded swallowed, darker than before.

“You are not stopping me. The door will not open. I must open the door.”

“What door, Kystra?”

She did not answer him. Without looking at him, she tried to walk, stopping against the pull of his strength but still trying, shaking her arm to free herself.

“Kystra, stop! I can't let you go out there!”

The sudden difference in her attitude was astonishing. He had been holding her, but now she seemed to grow, and she moved her arm like a whip, throwing him free. Shippou hit the ground and rolled, and turned to go back to her, but her eyes had changed again and he was struck by a bolt of fear.

Blue had been consumed and overlaid with purple, and power snarled at him from beneath her glittering lashes.

“I must open the door.”

There was light, a burning, crushing agony, and then darkness flew over Shippou with senseless wings spread wide.

 

 

Kinawai returned from outside with a reluctant Rin, but there was something in him that spoke of warning as soon as he stepped through the doorway. Beside him, he could feel a similar tension building in Rin, but with a difference. The expression on her face when he turned left no doubt in him that she knew exactly what was happening, and yet did not believe it.

“Rin?”

Her left hand crept up and clenched tightly around his wrist. Without actually taking a step, she had moved closer to him, and was pressed tightly against his side. If he looked straight down, he could see the top of her head, and every shiver that crept slowly up her spine and then shattered out into her limbs.

“The servants are all gone.”

Gently, he tried to ease her fingers from around his wrist, but only ended up with them squeezing his hands instead.

“Why are they gone, Rin?”

Confusion had dulled the sparkle from her eyes, and she spoke slowly but without hesitation.

“They always know when the Blood leaves the House, and then they leave as well. Three days was all father could ever give me, when I was small, and that was with all his focus and all his strength. He doesn't know it is needed now - the danger is much closer, but I don't know…how.”

“What is the danger?”

She shuddered.

“Once when I was small, before mother came, we were gone for long days. Without his attention, the barrier wall diminished in strength, and weak youkai entered in, to steal, or to pillage, or perhaps just to destroy. They did not have a chance. The energy, the power…it is like ribbons of death, spearheads of hell. The youkai who were left were not youkai- they were pieces, ashes, dust. Even the smell of death had been taken from them, and despite the destruction, there was not a single drop of blood.”

Suddenly uneasy, Kinawai looked around with darting eyes, as though the walls might instantly seek to hold and destroy them.

“Then it would be prudent for us to leave. Where is your brother?”

“Shippou? He…I don't know. Yesterday, before father had even left, he said something about Kouga's foolishness, and I did not understand. I do not remember seeing him last night, but why would he have left without saying anything? He was so angry at Kouga for running away…”

The green shine of Kinawai's eyes folded in on itself, and almost went out.

“I am thinking two things, Rin. The first is that I do not believe his anger is intentioned for Kouga's running.”

Her sudden intake of breath turned a few days of rumor into hard suspicion.

“The second is that if he left without a word, he probably expected to be back before anyone noticed. He mentioned nothing to me earlier, when he asked me to find you. Is there a place where he would go?”

Rin's hands unconsciously rubbed up and down her arms, though she was not cold. A few days ago they had been a family, at peace…and now as though it was a race to danger, each one of them was seeking, or was sought.

“There is a place…not too far. It is a human village, where Shippou and mother stayed in the shikon days. Miroku…Miroku and Sango live there now, with their family.”

“The Priest and his woman. I remember them. Do you know the way?”

She nodded firmly, resolve gathering in her eyes.

“I…remember. How could I forget? Father spent so much time watching there, waiting for…something.”

Kinawai's eyes caressed the walls again, probing the stones for danger, and then he looked down to meet her eyes.

“Get what you need for a journey, as quick as you can. I will wait for you, and find the scent of your brother. If he has not gone where you think, it would be foolish to waste our time.”

With barely a nod, she turned and ran from him - and then, just as quickly, she stopped and turned back.

“Kinawai?”

His eyes invited her to continue.

“The power is rising, so the Blood does not remain here - and yet it only did after father left because of Kystra. Where has she gone, Kinawai?”

Kinawai shook his head in silence, remembering the wide blue stare of the afternoon, the floating footsteps and the silent aura of danger that had raised the hair on the back of his neck.

“How could I know that? I do not know how she could have gone anywhere.”

“You saw her?”

“I saw her.”

With a long, shuddering sigh, Rin turned back down the hallway, slower this time, and passed out of his vision. Kinawai turned around and looked back through the open doors, watching a blue haze gather and shimmer in the air over the white guardian wall. It was almost invisible, just a strain of color on the edge of the sky that drew his gaze and held it, strengthening in presence every moment.

 

So, this is the fullness of the power that guards the Western lands. Impossible to defend against and perfectly deadly…it reflects its master.

 

 

 

Mama…I cannot fail you in this. Kouga is already lost, but Kystra…you left her in my care! I should have watched her more closely…

 

Shippou's feet sped over the wide plain and threw him forward between the trees. Kystra's scent was nowhere to be found, and he didn't know how he couldn't have noticed it before - in the castle, in the courtyard, and over the distances that she might have traveled there was nothing.

His arm still ached from the burn of Kystra's power, but he counted himself lucky. He was youkai, and he had survived - perhaps he was stronger than he thought. After all, she was sister, but they did not share blood. She was Kagome's daughter, and that was an inheritance that was worthy of fear.

As he passed through the forest, and came out on top of the long ridge that led down to Inuyasha's forest and the old village that claimed such a prominent place in his memory, a wave of scents that he recognized overwhelmed his nose. He was a moment sorting them, happy with each one that belonged to this place until he encountered the one that didn't.

By the time he had identified it, the one who belonged to the scent was already approaching, alerted by Shippou's own presence. Quickly, he scampered back into the edge of the trees, and waited. It was not long, before a puzzled figure strode up the slope and peered around.

“Kouga!”

With a stiffening of surprise, Kouga turned, and the glittering unease on his face was palely obvious before he formed a strained smile.

“Hello, brother. Are you the one that's been sent to find me?”

Shippou stepped forward, and anger was plain on his features now.

“I sent myself. Mother and father are gone on walkabout, but it was not you that I sought here. Did you think you would be able to convince Miroku not to mention that you had come? He is human, not stupid.”

With a barking growl, Kouga stopped him.

“Walkabout, huh. Did you think you would be able to lure me back that way, kit?”
The color drained from Shippou's face, and the words hit him like a slap. That tone, as much as the scent, was familiar - but they did not match.

“Kouga?”

The name was met only with silence.

“Ahhh…”

The sound from Shippou's lips was a long breath, let out slowly.

“So, it is you…but still Kouga. It has been…a long time.”

 

Poor mama…now I now why you were dark like that.