InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Bloodlust: Purity ❯ On A Pale Edge ( Chapter 24 )

Chapter 24

On A Pale Edge

 

"You are certain she will get well; you are certain?"

Sesshomaru questioned Teza with imperious disregard for her power; as it was, she was too awed by his presence and the presence of so many youkai to consider even a complaint.

“As much as I can be. She is a strong young woman, and it does not appear to be a serious illness. As long as she takes care of herself -”

“Kinawai! You are responsible, do you understand? Talk to this miko and find out what Rin needs.”

Kinawai looked up sharply, but he accepted this designation of responsibility without a word; he only nodded, slowly, and then resumed his silent staring into the flickering fire.

“Sesshomaru, you shouldn't worry so much. I've never seen Rin sick before, all these years! When I was human, I was sick much more often. So don't worry.”

Kagome pulled on his arm gently, and he relaxed almost invisibly.

“I am going to get water for Sango's bath. She shouldn't be in the spring in her condition, and she needs help to wash her hair properly. Miroku, will you heat some towels for us?”

“I can do that. Anything else you need, Kagome -”

She saw the smile growing on his face and covered a smile of her own.

“Miroku! You never change - no! I mean it, we don't need anything else. Kouga!”

From his own corner where he had been sitting as silent and unresponsive as Kinawai, Kouga jumped.

“Yes, mother!”

“Keep an eye on Miroku - you make sure he stays right here. Sit on him if he tries to leave this room!”

“Yes, mother.”

Relieved of Sesshomaru's questions, Teza continued to administer her various herbal potions to Rin, who grimaced but swallowed them. Her protests were stifled by Teza's fixed glare; her eyes looked half-mad under her flyaway hair, and Rin drank with wide eyes herself, wondering who this person could be. A miko was supposed to be stiff and serious and dangerous - except for mother.

Slowly the herbs began to take effect, and she drifted to sleep on narcotic wave; Sesshomaru stood then, and his eyes picked out Shippou and Kinawai, drawing them away from their places.

“You two, come with me now.”

He stalked out the door with swift, silent footsteps. Shippou and Kinawai exchanged glances, and then Shippou shrugged, grinned.

“Something you have to say, too, Kinawai? Or are you in for more -”
“I am not in the mood, Shippou!”

Kinawai swept out the door after Sesshomaru, and left a surprised kitsune staring after him through the shadows that were leaking across the threshold. After a moment, he shook himself and ran out after his father and Kinawai, but his thoughts, already whirling, turned themselves up to high speed.

 

*What is going on around here? Kinawai and Rin - it does not surprise me but I didn't think it would happen so quickly. Kouga - he has always been...odd, but lately its been much, much worse - and that wolf, Murasaki! Or...whoever she is. If she can be trusted, which she says she can't.*

 

Shippou rubbed at his face with his hands, and followed the track of scents up towards the edge of the forest, and then over the crunching old leaves and the swish of this year's growth.

“That's far enough, Shippou. I only wanted us to be far enough in that I would hear your mother coming before she could hear us.”

“But-”

“You gave me the impression there was something you wanted to say. Now is the time.”

Shippou nodded; his eyes moved sideways through the darkness and found Kinawai leaning against a tree.

“What about you, Kinawai?”

“Yes. There are things I have to say, but I don't know -"

“Things about Leiko?”

Kinawai started forward, one hand reaching for Shippou's collar, and then stopped himself.

“Leiko? What do you know about that name, Shippou - where did you hear that?”

“The wolf - or - Murasaki. That - girl.”

“She's a strange one, that is true.”

Sesshomaru looked back and forth between them, confused and angry at his confusion. Both of them knew something that he did not know, and he had expected to share with them his own discomforting news - Akira, the deaths in Mori, the rumors... a miko. But that the two of them might have both come across the same information -

Not again. Not again!

“I have seen this Murasaki you are talking about; she looks like a wolf to me. What is your uncertainty, Shippou?”

“Uncertainty?”
“You said `the wolf- or -”. What is she, if she isn't a wolf?”
Shippou shook his head, and the slips of moonlight that gathered their way through the leaf-canopy illuminated the worry and frustration on his face.

“I don't know! She was telling me stories -”

“Stories!”

“I know! I know, but listen - father, her stories - after a while, they didn't sound like tales any more. There is too much feeling in them too much...too much strangeness. Her voice...”

He shook his head again.
“But that isn't the point. She was telling me stories about this...Leiko. Akasuki Leiko, she calls her, and she says....she says that she is not wolf, not what she seems. She says that she is meant to serve Leiko...to kill us.”

“Shippou! You did not kill her where she stood? You let her go into the house where your mother and sister -”
“Father! She cannot - she could not - she will not hurt anyone! I asked her - you should have seen her face! Exactly what she has been told to do...I don't know. She wouldn't tell me anything but what I've told you.”

"So, she tells you she cannot be trusted."

"Yes. That 's why I trust her."

Sesshomaru's tight features, his tight muscles, were not eased by this reassurance.

“Whatever she was ordered to do, she isn't going to do it. I can see that...ask her, you'll see it too. The point is, I would have thought that she was only telling stories, making up tales...until Kinawai said that name, and -”

“I never said a word to you, Shippou!”

Shippou shrugged.

“No, but you've been muttering it under your breath since you showed up.”

Kinawai turned away with a rough growl.

“That doesn`t matter - it was that name that was the reason I wanted to talk to you, Sesshomaru.”

Sesshomaru answered coldly; he still had not completely forgiven Kinawai for the theft of Rin - willing or otherwise.

“So? Then talk.”

From his position in the darkest shadow, leaning against a tree, Kinawai spoke with his eyes closed.
"On our way here, Rin and I were...ambushed. Twice."
Sesshomaru took a quick, deep breath.

"By who?"

There was danger in his voice. His eyes had not missed the neat, tight band of silk around Rin's shoulder; nor had he missed, in first encountering it, the smell of blood in her tangled scent.

"Humans. You need not worry about them - they are dead now. The first group...I think I know the village they are from. Not very long ago, it was destroyed at my order; the first stirrings of this, this...rebellion, was the reason. To challenge my authority -"
He shook his head, grinned a wide, fanged grin.

"No, the first group is not the difficulty, four or five men that provoked my Change, and damned themselves."

It was Shippou's turn to take a deep breath.

"Provoked you? Howd' they manage that? I've been trying to figure out for -"
"They threatened Rin.”

Sesshomaru's eyes opened just the slightest bit more, so they were no longer slits when he looked at Kinawai.

“What about the second group, then?”
“Yes. Seventy, eighty men - maybe as many as a hundred -”
“I found the carnage of that battle, Kinawai.”
“Did you look at the weapons of the fallen, Sesshomaru?”

“The weapons of - you think I have an interest in human weapons, now? Or merely that I've taken up looting bodies?”
There was a faint flicker of sarcasm in his voice, but Kinawai only shook his head.

“They were blessed weapons, Sesshomaru. Holy weapons - but not a miko's power. I know this - I have felt a miko's power before.”

A grim scene flashed between the meeting of their eyes; Kagome - the blood, the fury -

“Yes. But - if it is not a miko's power - "

He shook his head.

"I, too, bear bad tidings. On our way here, Kagome and I stopped at several villages, several dens. Darkness lies over the land, and fear on my people - can you believe it, Kinawai? A demon, afraid of the dark! But in Mori - there was terrible violence in Mori, Kinawai, and they are none of them left alive.”

“Your kin -!”

“Dead. Akira lives, and Histaru - but his other pups, the blood of our line that lived there...dead. All dead.”

As he said it, he felt the weight of his words pressing on him, rolling like lead off his tongue, dropping into the air and striking the ground with the brass ring of a gong inside them.

“They were killed by power, miko power. Kagome could see them, the ashes that were left; I saw nothing, and smelled only death. But if it is not a miko -”

He repeated the words with no more understanding that he had had the first time, but Shippou took a step forward and looked between his father and Kinawai with the horrible expression of someone who knows too much.

“If it is not a miko's power, than the stories she told me were true - true all the way through, and terrible things are coming.”

It was Kinawai who asked the question that was also on Sesshomaru's mind.

“And what - are those terrible things, Shippou? What did this...Murasaki tell you?”

Shippou hunched forward, shoulders bent, arms crossed, looking down at his own feet, and then stood suddenly straight.

“She told me - of Akasuki-Leiko, and how she was barred from the Heavenly Kingdom; how it came to be, that she hated all youkai, and longed for their destruction.”

“The...Heavenly...Kingdom?”

“Akasuki-Leiko is Akasuki-kami. A goddess, do you understand?”

He wanted to cry and laugh even while he was saying it, but he did not think that either of them could understand - not either of them, eyeing each other in disbelief with only the beginnings of horror in their expressions. But Shippou had heard her say it, and he knew; already, before anything happened, he knew. Into his memory, like blue fire, leapt the image of his terrible dream - a cloud, falling from the sky - a cloud, falling into an ocean of screams. He shuddered, tried to toss the feeling away, but it would not go. It clung to him, as faint and deadly as a spider's threads.

 

~=~

 

“Oh - I'm so glad you're here! It's been three weeks since I gave my hair a good washing, and you know I tried to get Miroku to help, but he - gets distracted - and -”

“And then you get `distracted'. I know you, Sango - you like it, or you would never have married him in the first place.”

“Well -”

Sango was grumbling, but she smiled. It had been a long time since Kagome had come to them. After Kaede had died, the village had changed - not that Teza was not a worthy miko, or that anyone in the village in particular acted differently, yet somehow it seemed that the distance that had been closing, youkai to human, was wider again. The reason struck her suddenly, as she looked at Kagome standing beside her in the bath, and noted with a sort of delirious feeling that she had not changed.

Her own body was beginning to lose its tone, her skin dark from her years of sun, the once-taut muscles responding less quickly, her strength not quite what it had been in their traveling days, or in the days that had come after the Dragon war - she liked to think of them as the taming days. But Kagome's skin was still paler-than-pale, smooth, unblemished, not scarred; there were no wrinkles in her face, not even at the corners of her eyes. Out of habit, she turned so the wide, circular scar on her back was not visible to her friend.

 

*Vanity, I suppose, but - why not?*

 

Beneath her hands, she felt the restless movement of the infant inside her, traced the lines in her skin where he reached out to touch her, an elbow, maybe a knee. She did not question the designation, `he`. From the beginning, when she had first found out that she was pregnant again, she had known she was carrying a son. There was no reason to believe it - her children that lived were all daughters, and the two they had buried, the two they did not speak of, had been daughters too. But she knew, and in her thoughts she had already assembled a list of names - her father's and Miroku's father's, a few that she liked for their meaning and a few that she liked for their sound.

“Kagome, what do you think of Yugiri?”

“Yugiri? Who is that?”
“Not a person! The name, just the name. For this one.”

She patted her belly gently, and Kagome grinned while she lifted Sango's hair and gestured for her to turn around.

“Let me wash it, before the water gets cold. Yugiri, hmm...not bad.”

“That's what I thought too. Well, I have another month - and he will end up just like the girls, named something at the last minute that wasn't even on my mind.”

They laughed, and Kagome took a step backwards.

“Alright, rinse, now.”

Sango ducked under the water and emerged clean and smiling.

“So much better, I can feel it already. The women in the village say you shouldn't bathe in hot water when you're pregnant, you know, but I think I would probably shiver myself into labor otherwise.”

“I think probably you are right. Coming out now?”

“No, not yet. The water is still hot."

Kagome eyed her. It was difficult to know, now, what the right temperature for Sango would be. She had not realized the true fullness of the difference until she had followed Sesshomaru into that black, icy water - the water that had not felt....cold.

"Five minutes, that's it. Anything happens to you, Teza will blame it on me, and that one - she doesn't look like much, but she has a temper!"

Sango grinned, and Kagome leaned back against the edge of the bath.

"So does Kuromi have suitors yet?"
"A few - some of those strangers, too - the ones who have come and built the village-outside-the-village. She still says she wants only Kouga, you know, but -"

"Our Kouga? Ah-ha! You did not tell me that the last time we talked! Oh, that would be the funniest thing, and you know Sesshomaru wouldn't argue if -"
"You're sure about that?"

"I was going to say, if I told him not to."

They shared a quiet laugh at the shared nature of husbands and mates.

"But you know, Sango, Kouga would be very young for a mate, very young - he is only just Awakened -"

Sango was quiet-faced suddenly, and Kagome felt the nervous tension gathering in her belly.

"Your son - Kagome, when he came here, he was -"

"I know. I know, Sango, and it is the most terrible thing. I have been to Eldest - all she gave me were confusing words, more worries. And he - Kouga is only half of it, Sango. My Kystra, she is - she is -"

Kagome shook her head, remembering the strangeness, all of it - that blue color in her eyes, the senseless words, the frail pain of her daughter's presence.

"Something is horribly wrong, Sango, horribly wrong. It is deeper than either of them; something...someone is responsible for both parts of my trouble. I think Sesshomaru knows something but he is just as bad as always and he does not talk. Even right now...".

She shook her head and then tilted it towards the window in the wall to their left.

"They are outside right now, three conspirators against me instead of just two - Sesshomaru, Kinawai - and Shippou. He thinks that he has gone far enough away that I cannot hear him, and he's right...but I know that they're gone and that has collusion written all over it."

"Collusion! A strong word, Kagome."
"I mean it, too. And in my house, my family, that is high treason."

"Kinawai, though-"
"He counts now, didn't you know? Truly, though he was always really family anyway."

"Because of Rin. I see."

At that moment, there was a sound of footsteps and sliding doors, and Sango shivered. Kagome was distracted from the noises at once.

"Sango! See, I knew this would happen! Come on, let me get you out of there before you do shiver yourself into labor."

Sango stood in the water and sloshed towards her friend, and then stopped to make a mocking bow.

"Yes, my lady. At once, my lady."

Kagome crossed her arms and turned her head aside - and then, looking through one eye, she stuck out her tongue.

"Very dignified, my lady."

They dissolved into laughter, and Kagome climbed over the edge of the bath with care, holding Sango's arm.
"You're terrible, Sango. I've missed you."

"Me too, Kagome - me too."

 

~=~

 

When they were dressed, Sango and Kagome came back out to the main room and found a silent company sitting in front of the fire. Kinawai had retreated to the corner behind Rin again; Sesshomaru was watching the pair of them with bright eyes and just a hint of a lost expression; there was something dark, something hideous lurking in the shadows on his face. She did not see Shippou, but the wolf, Murasaki, was not there either, and she was not surprised by that. Sango crossed the room to sit beside her daughter, her back to the fire, and Kuromi began combing out the wet tangles in her hair.

The thought of the girl made her smile, and then she thought of her son. Kouga, too, was missing, but her nose could trace his direction and the strength of his scent promised that he was not far away.

 

*What is he doing with Miroku?*

 

She shrugged the thought away, and slipped across the room to Sesshomaru's side.

"Hello, mate."

"Kagome."

He bent enough that she could reach him and allowed her to kiss him, run her tongue along his lips.

"You were gone for so long, mate. What were you talking about, all alone without me?"

She is quick!

"All alone? I don't talk about anything all alone, mate -"
"Sesshomaru! You think I don't know that expression on your face? You always try to hide from me -"
"Kagome, now is...not the time."

An angry flicker sparked itself in her eyes.
"Yes, now! Now is the beginning of something, isn't it? Akira's children, your family - our family, all dead, dead, dead."

Her words were half-dirge, half-moan.

"Dust on the walls, black miko dust, and the rumors, the eyes, glittering in the darkness at us with fear in them - did you think I didn't see it?"

All the eyes in the room had focused on the two of them, but Kagome did not notice and Sesshomaru did not care. He had expected this confrontation, but not so soon, not - immediately! Her eyes were wild with the ferocity of her demand, glowing. It had been years since he had seen her like this, all the years since the danger had passed.

“Tell me now!”

 

~=~

 

Sango sat absolutely still, watching them. Sesshomaru had always frightened her, even if she would never admit it. She was taijiya, a demon-slayer, trained to fight and kill youkai wherever they threatened humans - and he was a threat, that was certain. Still, she had feared him - because he was beyond her strength, beyond human strength, maybe beyond any strength -

After all, he died, all those years ago - and he lives.

She had faith in that strength, somehow - an absurd, indirect faith, but faith nonetheless. Yet, in this moment, it was not Sesshomaru she feared, but Kagome - in this moment, not the golden flare of the youkai, the prowling Inu, but the blinding white blast of the miko - and in that, too, the Inu. Strengthened by the miko, feeding on it.

What - is she?

She was dazzled; she was amazed; she was terrified. Then the moment passed, and Kagome shrank into the figure that was now familiar, the demon-woman, bright of eye and white of hair.

“Tell me, Sesshomaru! Don't you remember the last time, what happened - what happened, because we knew nothing until too late?”

It was despair that had shrunken her friend, despair, and the memory of fear. Sango saw this and did not understand. Time did not touch Kagome, so what was there to despair? With time, weren't all things made right?

Or maybe not all things - not the things we leave behind.

She looked at Kagome, and Sesshomaru, too, with a new understanding. For the first time, she felt, if not gratitude, than acceptance of her own mortality. A warm feeling suffused her - and then Sesshomaru spoke, and washed all warmth away.

“You saw death - you saw it, even when I could not. It is coming, Kagome, and it has a name. Akasuki-kami; Akasuki-Leiko. Not a miko, mate. Not a miko.”

Realization bloomed in Kagome like a beautiful, poisonous flower; she heard heartbeats, the creaking floor, the wind outside the house, all with a suddenness she could attribute to nothing specific. It was life, all life, calling to her attention, seeking a response, sharing its awareness of her danger, sharing the danger - she heard, but she did not understand.

“But -but -”

“Ah - ahh...”

The words were Kagome's but the sounds came from Sango, as she stood - a low, sharp gasp. Kagome glanced quickly her way, and then back again, and this time she stared.

“Sango!”

"Mother!"

Kagome and Kuromi's voices rang out in concert. Beneath Sango's hands, down the long white robe she wore to bed, a red stain was spreading, spreading...

“Sango!”

As she wobbled, then teetered, Kagome rushed to her side and lifted her, effortless and gentle.

“Sesshomaru, get Miroku! And Teza, get Teza! I need her - I have never - I don't know what -”

Her eyes begged him but they did not need to; he was already out the door. In less than a minute, he returned with Teza, breathless and confused, and a few moments later he tossed Miroku through the door.

Wild-eyed, disheveled, Miroku flung himself across the house and into Sango's room; Kagome had only just laid her on the bed, and Teza was hovering over her - and the wide, wet stain was brilliant crimson against Sango's creamy silk.

“Merciful Buddha -”

Whiter than Sango, he sank to his knees and began the most fervent prayers of his life.