InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Embracing Ice ❯ In the Palm of Her Hand ( Chapter 12 )

WARNING: Graphic scenes ahead. Take Caution. M RATING. Not for the weak of stomach or heart.

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Embracing Ice

Chapter Twelve: In the Palm of Her Hand

Written By: Yabou

Edited By: FireAngel8723

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“Kagome?” Lord Konton gently shook the slumbering woman’s shoulder. “Kagome, are you able to walk?”

Kagome frowned - a very difficult task to achieve through the layers of silk that covered one side of her face. “Yes, I think so. Why?”

He shook his head. “We will speak as we walk. Come. Lady Bishou grows weary.”

“Lady Bishou?” She scrambled out of bed, tugging the belt on her sleeping kimono a little tighter.

“Yes.” She could see the tired lines covering his face in the oil lamp light of the halls. “She is struggling against terrible sickness; even the best of our healers are unable to assist her.” He grabbed one of her hands and quickly made his way through an endless labyrinth of halls and breezeways. “She cries out for you.”

“Me?” A knot formed in her heart. ‘Will my efforts to save her be in vain?’

“Come.” He slid back the shoji screen to reveal his Lady sprawled out on sheets soaked with sweat and blood. Her wounds were covered in bandages, much like her own, but there was a certain yellowing that dampened their centers.

Lord Konton pressed a hand to the small of her back and ushered her into the room. “My Love?” His voice was haggard and weary.

“Ka-Kagome?” The thrashing female youkai moaned.

She stepped to the bedside, ignoring the overpowering scent of disease and infection. “Yes, My Lady?”

She gave a weak laugh. “Think not such thoughts.” Her hand tugged on the young woman’s arm. “There need be no formalities be-between friends.”

Kagome smiled. “Of course not. What’s wrong, Bishou?”

The youkai nodded. “My L-Lord, I believe it best that you leave.”

Lord Konton moved to object, but Kagome raised her hand and shook her head. “Don’t trouble her so. Do as she wishes.”

He paused in thought, but in the end, he exited the room with a curt nod.

Lady Bishou sighed. “Much worries me, Kagome.”

“Worries?”

“My wounds are more serious than I had expected.”

Kagome nodded, knowing she would understand, even behind her closed eyes. “Don’t worry. I can take care of those.”

“I know.” Lady Bishou gave a fatigued smile.

Delicate mortal hands began to unwind the dirtied bandages as she called for the servants. A young youkai female darted her head in the door only to receive orders for hot water, medicinal herbs, and new sheets of a thicker, soft fabric and silk.

Kagome had to hold back the urge to vomit as the removed bandages revealed green and yellow skin that was soaked with infection. Her wounds remained wide and open to the stale air of the room; they showed no signs of closure.

Kagome gagged. They would have to be closed. She called for another servant and gave orders for a knife and a torch.

The first servant returned as soon as the second had left to fetch the needed items. Kagome busied herself with cleaning away the dead skin and dried blood, watching the deeper areas for fear of putting the Lady in more pain than she was already experiencing. She ground the stronger herbs into a heavy salve to cover the injuries after they were sealed.

She finished the smaller wounds on her head, legs, and arms with a surprising speed, but she was thrown into shock when she examined the depth and severity of her stomach wounds. She could see her internal organs pumping away her life, struggling to live.

“Kagome?” The female panted.

“Yes?”

“Solve only what you can.”

She nodded and took the knife from the second servant who had returned during some point of the examination. “This will hurt.” The Lady only nodded and looked away.

Kagome turned to the two servants. “See that Lord Konton is as far away from this room as possible.”

Worrying on her lower lip, she heated the tip of the knife over the flame, watching as the metal changed from the cold silver of steel to the fluorescent red of heat. Her hand shook. She couldn’t afford to mess up. The Lady would easily lose a limb from such a deadly knife. “Stay still.”

The smell of burning flesh reached her nose before she could even register her actions, but she kept a steady hand and made her way over the wounds with an unearthly swiftness. Her mind separated from her body as it showed her the most efficient ways to seal the deadly wounds. She was in awe of the beautiful welts that the knife left behind on the dying flesh.

Her hands glowed pink.

“Lady Kagome?” The second servant whispered.

She shook her head, clearing the daze. “Yes?”

“Her stomach…it is…displaced.”

Kagome noticed the green shades to both of their faces. “I’m sorry. You can go.”

They gave grateful bows and darted out the screen.

Her eyes finally caught sight of what the servant had meant. While all the rest of her wounds were now whelped over from the knife, her stomach wound was far too deep, and some of the entrails had been pushed outward during her violent flailing.

She dipped her hands back into the steaming water and scrubbed them raw, allowing the blood to drip its way down to her elbows before returning to her side. “Lady Bishou?”

The woman didn’t move. ‘Good. She’s sleeping.’

She gently lifted the small organ and moved to place it back inside of the woman only to notice that it moved.

Lady Bishou stirred. “Kagome?”

Kagome starred at the sac in her hands. “What is this-?”

Lady Bishou grabbed her wrist. “Put it down, Kagome.”

“It-,” her eyes widened in surprise when it moved again. “It’s your uterus.”

The youkai tugged on her hand. “The baby is not strong, Kagome.”

Her eyes moved over the massive scarring covering the broken organ. “No,” she turned tearful eyes to her patient upon noticing the immense damage to the fallopian tube. The baby would die.

Her fingers delicately skimmed the surface of the all too weak package. The scarring was so thick, and the skin so fragile. ‘It’s going to die.’ She moved to place the baby back inside of her only to notice how the shell quivered upon touching the youkai’s thick blood. “No.”

The baby shifted again, and she quickly pulled it away from the woman’s body.

Lady Bishou began to cry. “My body is too strong to house such a precious package.”

“I-,” Kagome felt the tears glide down her cheeks. “What do I do?”

Lady Bishou shook her head. “It is not your fault, Kagome.”

“No,” She brushed her skin against the perfectly formed pup. The elongated snout twitched, and it brushed one of its tiny paws against the apparently itchy skin.

“Kagome.” Lady Bishou’s voice became firm. “Put the baby down, Kagome.”

Kagome shook her head, wiping away her tears with her free hand. “I can’t.” She turned her sorrowful eyes toward the door. “I-I can’t let someone die. If I…It’ll die if I put it down. Don’t you see that?”

Lady Bishou nodded. “My body is too strong to house such a being. It is the way…It must be as such.”

Both of her hands grasped the miko’s quivering ones. “Just…Just let me hold my baby, please.”

Kagome felt the bile rising in her throat. She shakily placed the unborn child into its mother’s open hand and turned away, unable to watch its death.

But still, she knew.

The room grew still, and the air weighed heavily against her shoulders. She heard a break in the Lady’s sobs, and she thought that the quiet would cause her death until she heard a loud, moaning wail unleashed from the demon’s mouth.

Her hands grabbed the water bowl, tossing its contents onto the floor before she wretched all of the contents of her own body into the container - her body trembling when the liquid spewing from her mouth became green. She couldn’t bear the thought of turning around to see the dead child laying on its mother’s stomach, lost to a world that could only provide for the strong.

Somewhere in her body, however, the screams of a mourning mother reached her heart, and she felt her hands pushing against the stone floor, lifting her body. She clutched the bowl and walked to the door. Seeing one of the two youkai servants posted outside, she thrust it into her arms and ordered for more hot water in a different bowl and returned to the room.

She picked the knife up off the flame and turned to the woman’s stomach, not daring to look at her chest, where she knew the dead child lay. Lady Bishou’s yowls lowered to a steady, agonizing moan as she felt the searing metal against her ribcage.

Kagome laid the knife down on the table and pulled the new bowl from the servant’s hands, unwilling to meet her questioning gaze. She carefully cleaned all of the wounds and wrapped them in the thick, linen fabric before tying it off in the lighter silk. ‘I can do this. I had no choice. There was nothing that could be done. As long as I don’t look, it’ll be okay. As long as I don’t see the baby, it won’t be real.’

“Lady Kagome?” Lord Konton appeared in the doorway, concern for his wife etched into his every feature.

“My Love,” Lady Bishou beckoned him with open arms.

He rushed to her side only to pause when he noticed the small sack laying between her exposed breasts. “No.” He whispered, turning questioning eyes first to the miko and then to his wife. “You…you were not able to conceive. Where…Whose child is this?”

“Ours.” The female youkai began to cry again. “I am unable to bear, not to conceive, My Love.”

Kagome turned away again. The pain filtering through the demon Lord’s face was more than she could bear.

“My second.” He whispered, gathering the pup off of her chest with the greatest care. “It’s a girl.” Several tears ran down his cheeks. “A baby girl.” He gathered his wife in his arms. “Why did you not speak of this? Did you not See?”

She hid her face in his shoulder. “I Saw, but it was impossible to change, My Love. Please, do not hate me.”

He buried his nose in her hair. “I can never hate you.”

Lady Bishou gathered the child from the palm of his hand and reached for the cleansing bowl at her side, flinching at the pain inflicted by stretching her wounds. Her fingertips brushed the clean water over the child, cleaning her face, stomach, and legs. She let out a small cry as her hands touched the perfectly formed paws. “She was perfect. My perfect second pup.”

Kagome finally stood and left the room, giving the mourning parents time to prepare their child for Death.

“Sesshoumaru,” She gasped, staring into the watery eyes of the young demon standing just outside of the shoji screen. “What are you doing here?”

He shook his head and walked away.

She stared at his back. ‘He was …crying. I can’t let him go like that.’ She quickly ran after his retreating footsteps, her smaller quicker jog echoing down the hallways after him.

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A/N: I know, very very sad. I actually cried when I wrote this, and I never do that. But everything serves a purpose.

- Yabou