InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Bloodlust: Purity ❯ Moon Roots ( Chapter 14 )

High, crisp laughter radiated in a circle from a tall woman who threw long shadows on all the screens in a long hallway.

“I have driven out the daughter. There will be nothing for the others to do now but leave. You will find the tiger lord, and perhaps others, fleeing from the energies as they are released.”

Quite slowly, and with a thorough relish that spoke of something other than holy, Leiko walked through the room that faced the oncoming twilight, staring down at a long row of assorted weapons. Swords, hammers, pikes, staffs, spears, and even farming tools that could be sharpened were laid out in a straight line. One by one, she lifted each weapon, and drew a line of her blood down the killing edge.

As her blood touched the steel, it spread into a thin layer, and became a glowing nimbus of pale purple light.

“These weapons that I have touched, are now holy. They will aid you in your mission, destroying this demon. When he is dead, there will no longer be need for you to pay the cost of protection, for as miko it is my duty.”

On their knees at the end of the long room, the headmen of three villages kowtowed and stood, staring down at the glowing weaponry. Danger still lingered in the back of their minds; it did not seem wise that they should attempt the killing of such a strong demon.

“Lady miko, we have paid so that we would be protected, because the tiger lord speaks and deals fairly with humans, and does not rain death upon us like others of his kind. While we remain faithful to this alliance, not only are we protected from his anger, but from the wrath of those oni who seek only human blood.”

Her eyebrows lifted, Leiko seemed to grow, becoming taller than the men, towering over them.

“So you pay for protection from a demon in this life; have you accepted the consequences that will come upon you in the next? The temptations offered are great, and of course it would seem wise to make a bargain such as this, merely to save the lives of your villagers. But repentance can be earned by slaying this demon, and the protection of the gods will be upon you afterwards.”

Two of the headmen looked up with brighter eyes, and Leiko shrank back to her normal self, collected as any lady of the court, smiling with an easy grace to reassure the wary.

“The…protections of the gods, you say? That does seem better than any bargain with a demon…”

The third man did not seem so convinced. His face was guarded, and his expression closer to grimness than gratitude.

“Lady, I am unsure of this offer you make. You are miko, and you have saved my village twice from the attacks of demons, but the girl…the girl who is the daughter of Tazura, she is not the same.”

Leiko's lips curved in a quiet smile, meant to be demure but somehow lavish, seductive in a way that was repellent.

“Of course she is not the same. How could she be? I have give her holy power, and now the thoughts of heaven are open to her.”

The unease on the man's face only grew at her words.

“Lady, respectfully, I must decline. No good can come of breaking an honorable alliance, for whatever reason. I am grateful, very grateful for your help, as are all of those who live in my village, but I cannot betray the Lord Kinawai in this way. And nor should you!”

His voice turned sharp as he rounded on his comrades, but they had eyes and ears for nothing but Leiko, and her smile became as sharp as his voice.

“It is good to know where your loyalties lie, headman. Perhaps I should come and speak to your villagers; they have a right to know what protections they are being denied, and by the very one they have trusted to guard their welfare.”

“As they will continue to trust me.”

Without further words, the man bowed, and walked out of the hall. The screen slid shut behind him, and silence descended on the room once more. With the same, sharp smile, Leiko looked down at the two headmen who remained, now kneeling at her feet.

“I trust the two of you have no more concerns?”

In unison they shook their heads, clearly awed by her presence.

“Listen carefully, then, both of you. At separate times which will be of my choosing, you must send out groups of young warriors, those among you who are best trained to carry weapons. To each man you will give a holy weapon, and the knowledge that his soul, even as he quests, is being cleansed. Any demon which they encounter, they should slay, but these enchanted weapons are not meant for any mere oni. Along the river to the North, they will search for Lord Kinawai, and if he is found, he is to be killed.”

A twinned gasp was the only reply she received, and she found it somewhat anticlimactic. If it had not been clear from the beginning what she intended for them to do, surely their friend had made it obvious?

“Are you sure, Lady, that mere human warriors will be able to finish such a one? He is Taiyoukai, Lady, one of the four great lords.”

She lifted a sword from the row at her feet, and as she held the weapon the glow of its blade screamed brightness, so that the men were forced to cower against the ground, hiding their eyes.

“The power I have given these weapons is enough to destroy any demon, no matter how strong. The will of heaven is greater than the desires of evil!”

Their eyes bright with religious fervor and the promise of holy powers, each man stood and made a willing gift of his service.
”We will do it, Lady! We will find the demon, and destroy him!”

Her smile was thin now, and glittered with teeth.

“Good. Take these weapons, and send your men forth. Whoever succeeds, have him bring me the head of the demon. The man who delivers the killing blow shall have a richer reward even than the rest, and the eyes of heaven will smile upon him.”

 

 

Outside the high wall, Kinawai and Rin stopped to look back. As soon as her feet had crossed the threshold, the wide gates slammed shut, almost catching her heel. The mild blue haze that had shimmered before Kinawai's eyes was now almost a solid shield, thickening the air. A shock rushed down from the topmost tower of stone, and a wave of sound and air spilled out across the ground more quickly than even Kinawai could move away. He had time only to turn, pressing Rin to the ground beneath the cover of his arms, and then they were buffeted by pure power, running down through the grass and into the earth and out across the land.

When the wind had calmed, Kinawai stood, and held out a hand for Rin. His eyes traced the subtle shimmer that still broke the calm of the sky over the fortress behind them, but the solid flicker of blueness had dispersed.

“When your father returns, I will have words with him. How courteous, to leave an honored friend with no course but to turn tail and run!”

Rin looked up at him quickly, but a rueful smile was tugging at his face, and she did not want him to see her looking at him. There was something difficult about talking to him, being with him - he had waded into her spring, her bath, and kissed her! Now she was alone with him, and who knew for how long? If Shippou was not in Miroku and Sango's village, then he could be anywhere, and anywhere would take a long time to search.

Her sigh was silent, and she turned to follow Kinawai across the plain and into the trees. He was moving slow enough for her to be comfortable, as he could not find a trace of Kystra's scent anywhere, and the fading note that might have been Shippou's trail was growing fainter as the moments passed.

“You are certain that your brother will travel to this village, Rin?”

She nodded, her eyes on the ground as she picked her way over twigs and roots.

“There is no other place where he has family, or friends - if he has not gone there, he is wandering in the wilderness. I do not know why he would wander, but perhaps he had a need to speak with the Houshi, and did not feel like telling me.”

Rin did not have to speak for him to know how unusual that would be; he could see in the lines that wove themselves across her forehead, and the darkness that passed over her eyes. Quickly, as though it would keep him from noticing what had already drawn itself on her face, she looked up at him with a bright smile.

“Are we going to the village, then? The miko there is pleasant, and she does not mind youkai. You may make her nervous, however…papa always does.”

He reached down, and took her hand.

“Then you will have to tell her I am not worth fearing, Rin. Such a thing just would not do.”

They started walking, south and east, nowhere near as fast as they could have, but Rin did not complain. Twilight became the soft early dark which is purple, and not black. Rin began to yawn, and then blink, holding back her tiredness with force of will. Kinawai could have laughed, watching the limpness steal through her and her feet drag. When she finally tripped, he caught her, and then swung her up into his arms.

He found her warmth comforting despite himself, and her weight was negligible - youkai strength had sturdy endurance, and even the bones that moved under her glowing flesh seemed light in his hands. Before too long had passed, she slept in his arms. The moon gleamed in a black sky, and showed a pinker flush to her skin than ever bloomed on any demon cheek. It was astonishing how precious her breaths had become, the living rush so close to the surface of her every mortal moment.

Mortal…

Memory returned Kinawai's inspection of sweetness to a disarrayed clamor, all brittle and bitter, full of remonstrance.

I will live and live, while she must die. Even to watch her age - old! The one thing in this world youkai are absolutely denied. Old in spirit, we may become, but never old in flesh.

His mind betrayed him, and in the eyes of his dragging thought Rin's ruddy hair turned grey, and shadows stole the lining of her young, smooth cheek - but no, it was only the first light of the moon. He sped his running down a familiar path.

Above him, the moon began to peek over the tops of the trees, green light more surreal than the living green of the day. It turned a blank eye towards them, glaring down almost white in its cold brightness, and Kinawai felt himself to be rippling through the trees, a tiger in human shape, striped now with shadow, here with light.

He became intensely aware of sounds - his breath misting in the air - the quiet swish-slip of Rin's kimono dragging dry leaves behind them - the crunching press of his feet across the ground - the slow throb of heartbeats in counterpoint - the life of the wilderness awakening; he stopped, and stood very still, holding his breath. The moment was gone almost before he had found it, and he felt unsettled, sure that he had missed something but uncertain what it had been - or was.

Rin stirred, flung one arm up over her eyes against the brightness of the moon, and her lips parted with her breath.

The strange transformation that Kinawai had seen at Kouga's awakening overtook her with a breeze that passed them by, and left behind it no scent at all. Under the light of the moon, she shone half-gilded in his hands, and her hair flowed down from her head towards the ground in a burning arc, brighter than the sun. He took a step forward under the tree-shadow, and it was all there, the drowning and the embers of the deep water, unquenchable, flowing in her.

He trembled, feeling in this vision of her a taste of the sight that came dragon-gifted from his mother's line. It had revealed the Lady Kagome to him before her Change, before her Awakening, and now it touched on her adopted daughter and showed him - what?

This was not the silver light of youkai power bound, or the violet miko glow that screamed danger! at all demon kind. It was something unique and golden, an earth-tone that he had only touched in Kouga who Died, the earth magic mastery of the Wolf highborn strong enough in him to see. There was a taste of it also in Kouga who Lived, now that his thoughts touched on these memories all together - but this was a girl, not Wolf Prince or soul-defying Inu.

Still, it did not frighten, only charmed, and explained to him that the calming influence in her scent was its baseness - the low chord of flowers and wet earth that clung to Rin's every moment. Was it the wildness of her, the flowing capability for rage that she had demonstrated in her violent passions? Something. He was sure that it was something that could change everything.

He ran on in silence, only watching her when he could not restrain his eyes any longer, waiting for that change to overtake her again, but the moment was passed and did not return.

In front of them, the moon fell, and then set, and by twos and threes the stars began to fade as a golden glow rose beneath them. Finally, he stopped, turning to look behind him at the pass of the river he had come to run beside, flowing down to meet the marshes in the south.

As he stopped, Rin stirred, pink rosebud mouth opening, rose-blossom breath exhaling, and pearl-shining teeth yawning under gemstone eyes. The eyes shut almost instantly against the nearing light of day - even as Kinawai had watched, the stars had all but disappeared beneath the distant horizon. Rin stretched in his arms, unexpected, and he almost dropped her; feeling lithe muscles shift and focus, incapable of containing her. Swiftly, he shifted so the sun would not shine in her eyes, and spoke to her gently.

“Rin, if you would like to wait a moment, I will put you down.”

She blinked at him owlishly, and he stared down at her with eyes oddly intense until she looked away, discomfited. Her thoughts scrambled from sleep, uncertain of her position though she was quite aware of where she lay.

“Forgive me, Lord Kinawai. I was…fatigued, but that is no excuse. I have burdened you-”

He set her gently on her feet, and stopped her words with a finger on her lips. The intimacy more than the gesture silenced her; he spoke to nothing in particular as he unloaded the haversack frame that held their provisions from his back.

“It was no burden, lady. We need speed, not courtesy, and I was more afraid that you would be uncomfortable than I inconvenienced.”

His smile turned on her from the distance he had chosen to stare into, warm.

“Obviously I need not have feared.”

She was unresponsive to his warmth, her eyes closed in upon themselves and shuttered in a way he was not used to seeing. The child he had known had never had need of such an expression; on the woman he was learning, it did not seem so out of place, but that was disturbing. It was similar to a thing he had seen in Sesshomaru, the locking-away of deep hurts that words would? could? not identify. He searched his memory, feeling through recent encounters with a gut-depth of instinct - and then he knew why her eyes were cold on him.

“Have I wounded you, Rin?”

The shutters opened, and Rin laughed at him, feeling only a little uneasy. She had been wounded by that kiss, she who did not allow anything to hurt her. How did he know where to touch her? How did he read her so well, she who prided herself on reading others? She spoke to daunt him.

“It takes more a single kiss to wound me, Lord.”

“Indeed?”

The question did not break her, but that his eyes laughed was too much. Her eyes burned with the anger that so disturbed Shippou. Her mind went blank, and she ran straight at Kinawai - pointlessly, uselessly, but her body needed to keep pace with her thoughts.

Kinawai only reacted, grabbed her hands and held her away, her struggle futile in strength a hundred times greater than her own. She almost snarled in her fury, the closest thing he had ever seen on a human face, and she pushed in, bending and twisting against his hands until her eyes were a moment away, glowing coals, bluer than fire. Her breath smelled like apples and woman, hot on his skin, and his spirit contracted, blowing outwards in waves.

The moment ticked, and he dropped her arms and took her face in his hands with a growl that rumbled deep enough to silence words of protest already writhing up to her lips. He stared straight into her angry, roaring eyes, and kissed her.

He saw the anger go out like a fire a flood has quenched. His body groaned and pulled her closer, opened her red apple lips to his tongue, and her mouth was all woman. Her eyes drifted shut, but it was not pulling away - he could feel her little fingers flowing along his shoulders and up his neck, wrapping themselves in his hair. He closed his eyes, gave in - told himself that as long as his eyes were closed, time could not pass, he did not have to stop, she could not move.

The moment did not last forever - Rin pulled away from his mouth with a gasp, panting, and her head fell onto his chest as he straightened, and she sank back onto her heels. He hadn't even noticed she was on tiptoe, but her arms were still reaching, fingers twined in his hair, and his hand fell finally from her cheek and crushed her against his body with a moan that was thick with pain.

“Why, why does it have to be you that does this to me? Any youkai, any youkai, anyone but you!”

Rin was stung, hurting from words. Kinawai's kiss had surprised her, opened her far too much. He did not let her go, and there was agony in his green eyes- *my green eyes* ­- so she could only throw halfhearted words at him.

“So, even the great Kinawai cannot forgive that I am lacking the primacy of your Blood.”

He knew at once what she understood from his words, and how wrong she was. She was so young! His heart ached.

“Don't you see, Rin? No matter what I do, take you or leave you, I will feel for you- and you will die! You are mortal, and you will die.”

A knife that had always been part of the beating of her heart twisted, and she hated herself with the buried longing she had always ignored, hated herself for the pain she had woken in the green that haunted her so.

“Sorry, sorry, sorry, I'm sorry, sorry, Rin's sorry, I am, Rin's…”

She slid from his pale hands, and sobbed all the way to her knees. Kinawai's thoughts unfocused momentarily, hearing her say it - `Rin's sorry, I am' - not since Sesshomaru had brought Kagome to be her mother had the girl spoken as though forgetting who she was, except to tease her father with the unforgettable past. Kinawai stared, uncomfortable, aware that he had caused this but uncertain of how to help her.

He crouched and reached for her cheek, and she flinched away before sinking full bodied against him in a storm of tears. He nuzzled the softness and scent of her hair, something he had never had opportunity to do, and it seemed to comfort her, quiet her, but she still clung.

By the time she quieted, Kinawai had fallen into the between-doze of exhausted slumber, the place before sleep where movement is impossible - even in a dream. His arms had gone limp around her, one draped over her shoulder and down her back, the other tingling her waist with claws on the end of an encircling arm.

With a careful lean, Rin twisted out of his hands with only one claws worth of notice.

Dawn had finished its work on the sky, but streaks of pink lingered like wave-crests of foam between the clouds, the eyelash imprint of a molten goddess. Blinking slush out of her thoughts, she stood at the edge of the water and looked down into the tumult. Kinawai had stopped them at the confluence of two rivers, and a raging series of rapids covering a long stretch of the river below them, which actually flowed from the north, the greater river of which the other was only an offspring. Rin knew this place well.

A little more than two miles east from where they stood, a collection of ever-present, muggy vent pools sent up pillars of reeking mineral steam that were visible for miles on cool nights. The wind billowed up around her, blowing from the south and carrying the scent of those mineral springs. The added heaviness in the air beckoned with the promise of heated relief for muscles that suffered the torment of her mind.

The water that flowed past her feet carried no such promise, swirling whirlpools of ice-white foam continually birthed, faded, and resurrected, churning hidden silts and rocks under a façade of nature's clean disorder.

Rin felt the sudden touch of vertigo, though she did not stand at any great height. The bank of the river curved out of sight as she looked to the left, leading to the great cliffs that separated the majority of the southlands from the Dividing Sea; here, the red soil rose only six feet or so above the water, barely the height of a man. Heartless desire seized hold of her, watching the water run and run, forcing its convulsions into the smooth and curving path of the river, and she knew that if she chose to dive into that running she would never surface.

I must die! I must die and die and die…dying every day until at last my flesh heaves a claustrophobic breath and gives in. I could die, and then he would not live in pain.

She knew she would not really do it, was not ready to succumb to the distanceless void just yet, but the temptation and the arousal of such thoughts in her most secret self were more dizzying than the touch of vertigo that had rocked her. She stepped back, one step and then another, another and another, until she had backed right into the copse that grew up the hill beyond the river.

She pressed her back against a tree, feeling the warm influence of the living bole in age wrinkled bark, ridges against her skin like so many comforting hands. She forced the heels of her palms against her eyes, until purple sparks burst in her vision and a glowing orange flame had spread to cover the inside of her eyelids.

Calmer, she lay a hand on her stomach, which rumbled impertinently, the body's demands continuing despite desperate thoughts and challenging measures. Rin was surrounded by forest; it was a simple matter to collect enough deadwood and set flint to tinder. The spark quickened, ate up the dry brush of dead grasses and leapt with heated tongues until a bright bush of flame danced before her eyes. She worked silently and quickly, trimming two strong, forked twigs to equal lengths and planting them on opposite sides of her little fire.

Her fingers and toes warmed swiftly, chilled by the dawn and the licking dew that had soaked her slippers and the hem of her robe. She rummaged in the pack Kinawai had carried, and found the meat her father had sent with them, a gift from his most recent hunt. Gradually the sound and scent of a sizzling haunch of wild boar rose from her spit, and she sat by staring into the flames, occasionally laving the meat with spice oils, making sure the tart apple slices that pierced the meat stayed there and did not fall and blacken in the embers of the fire.

Did she worry so much because she had never once considered that she might love? All her tender feelings were reserved for her family, for the father who had saved her and the mother who had saved them both. The awakening fire of woman that rode in her veins she had spent in the hunt - more difficult for her than her demon kin, but more rewarding for that- and in her dreams, clandestine and only half-remembered until green eyes had filled everything and overflowed.

Wounded flesh, herbs, the wisdom of the healer - these had been her life, the saving grace of her mortal soul; the gift of Eldest, who seemed to know that she was seeking desperately for a fulfillment beyond the laughing games of flowers. Now, with the shocking clarity of some immortal music, Rin was consumed with love.

She remembered clearly the sequence of events, the moments that had strung themselves into the graceless, onrushing change. Dreams of green eyes had come from the memory of one foggy kiss, the touch of dragging claws that now was nearly erased in her memory by the second kiss, blazing much brighter than her fire. The first kiss was not hers to define, not knowing what had caused it and having no explanation but the mystifying words Kinawai had given her.

I saw you, in the moonlight, at the ceremony. I saw you in the shadows. There was sun in your hair and fire in your eyes. This is only fair - an equal exchange.

The words still had no meaning for her, contradicting themselves in odd places, and despite the clear and elegant procession of moments, she felt as though her head was spinning. Everything was moving too fast! Changes and feelings rushed together in her brain, threatening to explode. She felt the pressures that had broken free in the tears she shed building themselves tall inside her, and her cheeks burned with the memory.

Even her father had not seen her that distressed, not in years, not since the day she remembered dying. The pain had haunted her, and then disappeared as suddenly as it had come, taking with it more and more of her recollections of her other life.

Hot on the heels of her embarrassment came scornful disregard- despite feelings and torment, what did it really matter if Kinawai saw her disturbed? He would know it even without seeing. He said he felt for her, and the taste of despair freshened itself on her tongue. Feelings and their torment didn't really matter.

Rin closed her eyes against the finality of her own fragile judgment, and then stood with a shaking breath as Kinawai's nose twitched in the corner of her vision, aroused from his doze by the rich smell of roasted bear. A grin hovered on her lips despite herself, and she turned her spit one last time, avoiding the flare of yellow flames that licked up at the dripping juices and crackling grease. She watched Kinawai stretch, preening like a cat in the leaf dappled sunlight, and her thoughts crystallized.

I am not like mother. This flesh is mine, and nothing will change it - he must know that, even if his heart hopes.

She lifted her eyes, watching a slice of green open wider under Kinawai's heavy lids, and her grin smoothed into an aching smile.

I cannot help but give him this life of mine, if he will take it…no matter how short it might be.