InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Melting a heart of ice ❯ Chapter Six: A tour around the castle ( Chapter 6 )

Chapter Six: A tour around the castle

"Oh damn it!"

Down one of the halls of the castle, a maid had dropped some food and was now glaring at it angrily. She sighed, why did this always happened to her? Why was she always so clumsy? She turned around as she heard someone giggle, and she smiled as she saw it was her mistress, Kagome.

"Oh dear, did I scare you or something?" Kagome smiled at her.

"No, Kagome-sama, you know I'm always that stupid," she replied.

Kagome shook her head. "No, you're not stupid. In fact, you're just like me. Here, let me help you. Sesshoumaru, will you wait a minute?"

The maid's head shot up as she suddenly noticed another person standing behind Kagome. So this was the prisoner? If she should believe the gossip she heard, he was one of the youkai leaders, and Kikyou had captured him. She held in her breath as she saw him. He sure was beautiful. She blushed, and hesitantly nodded at him, but he just kept glaring at her, showing no emotion. Nervous, she kneeled, helping Kagome to pick up what she just dropped, frowning.

She was an elf, and in all the years she lived, there had never been a youkai in this castle before. They wouldn't volunteer to come here, they never managed to get the castle, and normally there were no prisoners. But this wasn't normal.

As she and Kagome cleaned the mess up, Kagome turned to the cold taiyoukai again and she noticed how her mistress smiled at him, and continued to chatter. Then they set off in the castle, and she shook her head at the sight of them.

Kagome's small form was walking next to the tall form of Sesshoumaru, babbling enthusiastically, making gestures with her hands, smiling and in everything the cheery person. The taiyoukai walked right next to her, cold looking, no emotion on his face, silently listening, and walking calm.

An elf and a youkai next to each other.

That was weird.

*

Sesshoumaru kept staring before him, listening to Kagome talking, and in the mean time taking in everything he saw.

He frowned a bit as he thought about the incident with the servant. He never in his entire life saw a higher placed person help a lower servant. If it had been his servant, he would have done something entirely different than helping her as Kagome did…

Shaking the thoughts from his head, he looked carefully around the castle as Kagome told him everything about it. This girl was clever, but apparently she didn't see what a benefit it was for him to get such a close look at the castle.

He could take in every single weakness of it, places where the walls could use some repairing, any

weak places of which an army could take avenge. He registered it all in his head, and it was a lot he could use later.

He didn't know of course that Kagome wasn't entirely stupid. The castle had secret passageways leading into the surrounding mountains, escape routes in case the people living in it were in danger, and she carefully avoided them, so that he wouldn't find out.

Other, she showed him all around the place.

The castle had extremely high and thick walls, almost impossible for an army to take. It had four high towers, one to the north, one to south, one to the west, and one to the east. Kagome's room had been in the southern tower for almost as long as she could remember, so she told him, but the other towers were empty and only used as watch outs for any army.

There was one large courtyard at the front, in which the army usually gathered and were most activity was. There were several smaller ones, and one other that was pretty big, here were the gardens and some hot springs. In the middle of the castle were the rooms of the queen and Kikyou, plus official rooms were they greeted visitors and were other official meetings took place. These rooms and halls were all on the first floor, the rooms of Kikyou were on the second and that of the queen at the third.

The left of the castle had rooms for servant and soldiers, and also the kitchen and other rooms like that. He found the rooms for servants and the space they got to be rather big, but well, there was a whole world of difference between how youkai threaded their servants and how elves thought about the same subject. Kagome told him that her two friends, whom he witnessed earlier, lived in this part of the castle too. He got long listed stories about their live, which didn't really interest him, until he heard how they came to the castle.

So that monk had something to do with Naraku. He worried a bit as he heard Naraku cursed the monk's grandfather. He never knew the youkai could practice magic, and place curses. He always thought him to be rather weak.

And that Sango girl. Her village had been attacked and everyone, except her, was killed. It was an army of youkai, further she didn't know, but he suspected it was Naraku. Naraku had told him once of a village with people who exterminated youkai, and who helped the elves. As he asked what Naraku wanted to do with it, the youkai had laughed evilly and just said that there was already taken care of…

But he didn't tell Kagome that. He only decided to watch Naraku closer in the future. He appeared to be more dangerous than he thought…

They walked all the way to the right of the castle, where usually guests stayed. It had nice, big rooms, and something Sesshoumaru noticed was how almost every room in the castle had wonderful paintings hanging in it, or there were wall paintings. Out of everything spoke that the elves were rich, but it wasn't too excessive. Everything was light and happiness spoke from it. There were no dark places in this castle, like there were no dark places in the hearts and nature of its occupants.

He stiffened as suddenly a hand was waved before his face, and as he looked down, he saw it was Kagome. "Do you like reading, Sesshoumaru?" Before he could answer, she grasped his hand and all but tugged him with her, back to the middle of the castle, to a pair of big doors.

She turned around and beamed at him. "I almost forgot to show you this. Besides the tower and the gardens, it's one of my favourite places!" She threw the doors open and stated happily "This is our library!"

He sighed mentally, thank Kami they did have books, because to be honest, he would get bored if he had to stay here, and to answer Kagome's question, yes, he liked reading, although he hardly had any time for it normally.

He followed her into the room, which was huge. Along the walls stood bookcases, and there were thousands and thousands of books, documents and maps. It was stunning, and his eyes glided curious along them. But Kagome, being as active as she was, already tugged him further to a table with a few chairs.

"Take a seat!" was all she said before storming off to the walls, and only to come back with her arms full of books. "When you stay here, and you are bored, you can always come here!" she giggled. "It's really interesting!"

He spent the next hour looking at Kagome, who took one book after another, pointing them out to him, telling him stories about how she always sat here when she was a child.

*

In another castle, a youkai soldier was pacing back and forth nervously.

He was nothing but a simple soldier, still young; he never served under Lord Inutaisho, but only under Lord Sesshoumaru. He always feared the taiyoukai, and thought him to be unbreakable, so needles to say, he was shocked at what he saw back at the battle.

Sesshoumaru had been fighting that elven bitch, but then suddenly he had fallen to the ground, screaming and that Kikyou had hit him with an arrow. He had been busy fighting several metres away, and by the time he got there, they already carried his master away.

Apparently, he was the only one who saw it, as the others were to busy watching their back. As Sesshoumaru's toad servant Jaken came asking if anyone saw their master, he had told him his story, but in turn, the toad had only attacked him with his staff, yelling about `how he could tell such ridiculous stories about the great Lord Sesshoumaru'.

He had been very pissed, and had been mocking all afternoon about the fact that nobody believed him, and then that toad had turned up again, telling him Inuyasha, his lord's brother, wanted to speak to him. So now he was scared he would receive another punishment. His Lord was famous for his rudeness and merciless killing, but his brother was famous for his horrible temper, so he didn't know who he would rather talk to.

He looked up as the door opened, and Jaken came walking outside, swinging around his staff as he practically shoved him inside.

In the room, Inuyasha was busy doing the same thing he just did; pacing back and forth. He only paused to order him to sit. A few minutes it was quiet, until suddenly the youngest son of Inutaisho plumbed down on a chair and huffed.

"I heard you saw how Sesshoumaru was captured by elves?"

"Yes, Inuyasha-sama"

The other glared at him. "This is not some stupid fairy tale?"

He swallowed. "No, I saw it with my very eyes! Only nobody believes me!"

Inuyasha growled. "Jaken, get out!"

"But…"

"I said get out!"

The toad glared furiously at Inuyasha before exciting the room. The soldier watched how Inuyasha turned back to look at him, muttering `stupid toad' and let a sigh of relief at the boy's next words.

"I believe you, although it is impossible, but fact is, my brother has gone missing ever since that battle. So I want you to tell what the HELL happened out there!"

*

Kagome was busy talking to Sesshoumaru. She had showed him several books the last hour, and although she could tell he loved reading, he seemed to get a bit bored with her constant talking. Not that you could actually SEE it, as he kept that stupid mask of feigned indifference on his face all the time, but still, there were some things on which you could notice it.

She was already glad he agreed to come with her, and that he didn't do anything stupid while she showed him around. He had been silent most of the time, unnerving her with his cold look while he watched around and walked trough the corridors as if it was his own castle, scaring servants to their death with his glares. He had questioned her about the rooms servant got, and she wondered how he treaded his servants then. He had seemed disgusted with the idea of giving them proper, large rooms inside the castle, so she doubted he would threat them right.

She sighed and stopped talking, as he probably didn't listen anyway and a silence fell. Being Kagome, she couldn't bear it and turned to smile at him. "So, what do you do all day when you are at home?"

He raised his brows at her. "Why would you care?"

"Dunno, I just wondered."

"Well, what does someone when he is a Lord and has lands to control?"

"Yeah, I know, you have to rule your lands, but besides that… Don't try to tell me you sit in your study all day! Even my mother doesn't do that!"

He didn't answer her, and she frowned. "Really, you just rule? No free time to do what you like?"

He shrugged. "I train my soldiers and practice with my weapons…"

"Now that's a start!" she cheered. "Although it still has something to do with your duties. Really, it's no wonder you are all serious and stuff. You should have some fun once in a while! Was your father always that busy too?"

No answer. "And your mother then? Is she back at your castle? I mean, when your father was just as busy as you seem to be, I think you would spend rather much time with your mother."

"My mother is dead."

"Ow… I'm sorry…"

A silence fell as she stared at the side of his face. So he had lost both his parents already… How awful. Then she thought of Kaede's words that morning.

~Flashback~

Kaede sighed. "I guess you want to help him?" Kagome nodded. "Than just tell the truth, and someday he will see you don't lie. But don't press it, or he'll just get angry again. But why should you even bother, he is a prisoner, he will leave soon enough…"

"I don't care. I think there is something why he is so cold…"

"Maybe something from his past… Just follow your instinct child, Kami knows you have a sixth sense for how to cheer people up and help them. I'm sure you'll get to him"

~End Flashback~

Maybe this was the thing that made him so cold. Kaede thought it would be something from the past; so maybe it was his mother's death. But she would follow Kaede's advice, she wouldn't press it, she would wait patiently, maybe he would tell her once. Or else he would be gone already; after all, he was just a prisoner. He would leave someday…

`He's a fortress,' Kagome decided. `He's one of those big castles, with high walls around them and it is impossible to take them in battle. He has thrown up all kind of walls around him, around his heart, around his emotions. But were Kikyou is a master in battle and in taking castles, I am a master in gaining peoples trust and helping them. And I want to help him…' she glanced up at him again. `Yes, I will help him, I will take that fortress, bring down its walls until he trusts me completely…'

Determinated to do something else after bringing up that rather painful subject, and ending the silence there now was, her gaze drifted of to her bow and arrows, which she cared with her all the time. Suddenly, she got an idea. "Hey Sesshoumaru, shall we go outside? I planned on practising somewhat with my bow, and maybe you can show me some of your weapons?"

He looked coldly at her, and she couldn't see what he thought of the idea, so afraid he wouldn't agree with her, she gave him one of her puppy looks. He frowned, but in the end he nodded, and immediately, she jumped, grasped her bow and arrows, and without even bothering to put all the books back, she stormed out of the library, followed by Sesshoumaru, who of course, was walking much slower.

She stormed all the halls down; until she came at the same small door she excited this morning, and stormed off in the gardens, making sure Sesshoumaru still followed her. She led him to the back of the gardens, were there was some empty space without flowers and trees and a view targets were placed against the wall of the castle. This was where she always practiced, and sometimes Kikyou too.

Smiling at Sesshoumaru who stood to the side, she took an arrow and prepared to shoot it. "I am a pretty good archer you know. Kikyou and I always used to practice here when we were little. She was always better than I am, but now, we are even."

She paused a moment, and released the arrow. She cheered as it struck the target exactly in the middle and spun round to Sesshoumaru. "See, I'm pretty good."

"One arrow does not prove that," he replied flatly.

She huffed and glared at him. Why was he so humourless? "Fine," she sighed, taking another arrow and releasing that one too. It split the first one in two before embedding itself in the middle of the target.

"So, does that prove something?" she said with triumph. Sesshoumaru just gazed at her, and her expression saddened. "Hey, you are no fun. Why can't you just talk a bit?"

No answer.

She sighed again, and then focused on the two swords at his side. "Why don't you give a demonstration?"

"Why should I?"

"Please, for me?" she shot him another puppy look, but he still didn't answer, and she already thought he would refuse until he drew one of the swords and held it out before him. She wanted to say something, but he gave her a look that said `talk and you'll regret it' so she shut up.

He just stood there with the sword held up, and she frowned. Why didn't he do anything? Then, the sword began to glow and crackle with power; it was as if it was lightning. She watch in awe as he made one swift move with the sword, and a wave of light burst from it, heading towards the target on which she shot her arrows previously.

The light blinded her momentarily, but as she looked again, the target was gone, blown up. She had heard about these swords. Elves always wore normal swords, nothing out of the ordinary, but she heard stories about the swords youkai used. They seemed to be very powerful, magical swords that could kill various people with one swipe.

She never witnessed it, only heard Kikyou tell about them, but now she saw it for real. From what Kikyou told her, Sesshoumaru's sword could do much more than that, so maybe he could have blown up quit some more targets, but she was glad he didn't. Where did she have to shoot on then?

"Wow," she stammered. "That was amazing Sesshoumaru!" She pointed to the other sword. "And that one? Does it have the same effect? Why are you even carrying around two swords, when you can only use one at the time?"

"That," he stated. "Is none of your concern."

"Ow…" she pouted a bit, it really was a shame he wouldn't show her the sword. Then her stomach began rumbling. "My, I think it is rather late. Let's go and get some food. While you stay here, you can always take dinner with us. That is with me, Kikyou and mother."

He nodded at her and together they walked back inside.

*

Sesshoumaru was sitting next to Kagome as he quietly ate his food. All the time he remained silent, only sometimes saying something to her mother as she asked him something, or sending Kikyou angry glares.

But for most of the time he kept studying Kagome.

He thought she was some amazing creature. One time, this morning, she had been all sad and had cried, but then suddenly she was all happy again as she led him trough the castle, and all the time she just kept talking and talking and talking…

He got a bit annoyed with it, but it was not that unpleasant. It was just like she said, maybe he should get some fun someday. All he did at home was working and ruling his lands, worrying about all kind of problems, even thinking about it at night. He never really relaxed, until today.

He had enjoyed himself with just walking around the castle with Kagome, then sitting in the library, and although she just kept on coming up with new books, at least he wasn't sitting in his study at home, talking to other youkai, breaking his head over something.

He almost grinned as he recalled her reaction at his little demonstration with Toukijin earlier. Really, it had meant nothing, he could do much more with the sword, but she had been impressed none the less.

He glanced up as Lady Aglaia began talking again. "Lord Sesshoumaru, I will have to talk to my daughters and my advisor. We will decide on what to do with you, what we will demand on any negotiations and how long you will have to stay here. So please, would you be so kind to leave us for now?"

He saw how Kagome looked a bit worried suddenly, but he stood and nodded. "Very well. I will go back to my room."

Without looking back, he left the room.

*

As soon as Sesshoumaru left, Miroku entered the room from another door and sat down next to Kagome.

The monk looked up at Lady Aglaia and smiled. "So my Lady, you needed my advice?"

"Yes Miroku. And also I need you Kagome, and Kikyou. We will have to decide together on what to do now."

Kagome frowned. "You want to negotiate with the youkai?"

"Yes"

"And what will you ask of them?"

"I don't know yet. Now, has anyone suggestions?"

Kikyou stood and began pacing. "They have a lot of prisoners from our side, both elves and humans. I would say, we demand that they release them, not only any prisoners Lord Sesshoumaru has, but also prisoners from Lord Naraku and Lord Kouga."

Kagome swallowed as she recalled something Sesshoumaru said to her about `killing prisoner within twenty four hours'. Should she tell them? "Eh mother, I… Well Sesshoumaru told me something…"

"Just say it Kagome," Kikyou said.

"He said he usually killed prisoners within twenty four hours…"

Both Miroku and her mother paled, and Kikyou became red with anger. "That bastard!"

Miroku coughed. "I still think it was a good idea from Kikyou. We all know it would end rather badly with our friends if they got captured, so this is no big surprise. We will just demand that they release every prisoner they have. If Sesshoumaru has none, than Kouga and Naraku will have some."

Lady Aglaia nodded. "That's settled then. Something else? I wouldn't think of money, I mean, what would we win with that? We have enough of it…"

"A truce…" Kikyou whispered. Then she continued somewhat louder. "That's it! A truce! I still have some soldiers I need to train, our army can take a break, so why not? We will simply hold Lord Sesshoumaru here until all prisoners are returned and as long as he is here, they will have to swear they won't attack us. There will be no fights until he is released. I want it to be two months the least, that's all the time I need to stabilise our army."

"Yes, I think that's a good idea darling," Lady Aglaia nodded at Kikyou and then turned to Miroku. "Write a letter to the younger brother of Lord Sesshoumaru. Tell him we have his brother, and write down the conditions we just summed up. Tell him we will send him another letter with a date and a meeting place so that we can negotiate. I will expect a list of every missing elf and human, and he will have to make a list of his prisoners and those of the other lords. I want to make sure every single person returns safely."

Miroku nodded and bowed before hurrying off. Kagome stood too, and bowed at her mother and sister. "If you please excuse me? I will tell Sesshoumaru about this." Then she left.

*

Sesshoumaru stood on the balcony of the southern tower. So they wanted to negotiate… He was curious as to what they would demand from his brother. What would they want so he could go home? He had no idea, but he suspected Kagome to tell him that.

Almost immediately after he thought that, he could hear light footsteps coming his way and he catched her scent. After a few seconds, the door to her room opened and she stepped out onto the balcony.

"I thought I would find you here" she stated before coming to stand next to him.

They remained a few minutes like that, youkai and elf, standing next to each other, gazing into the distance, each one of them thinking about their own problems.

"Kikyou will send a letter to your brother to tell him we captured you," Kagome began. She turned and leaned against the edge of the balcony, looking up at him.

He ignored the inquiring look she gave him. "And?"

"I guess you mean; what are our condition for your brother so that we will release you? Well, he and the other lords will have to make a list of their prisoners, elf and human, and they will have to release them. There will be a truce of at least two months, in which you will have to stay here, if the prisoners didn't return after two months, we will not release you. They will negotiate about it sometimes, I think somewhere in the next few days. We will check their list of prisoners with our list of missing persons. My mothers wants to be sure everyone returns."

"That was it?" he asked. "Nothing more?"

She grinned sheepishly. "No, nothing more. But I can tell you, when I told Kikyou you always killed your prisoners..." she shivered at this. "… she was furious. But I take it the other Lords will have prisoners too."

"Oh they have…" he sighed. "Kouga only has a few, but Naraku…"

Her eyes grew wide and she looked sad again. "Poor guys. I hope they are alright."

He snorted. "With Naraku? That guy is sick. I would be surprised if he would release anyone."

"Well, in that case, you will simply have to stay here!" she smiled at him.

He didn't answer. If Naraku and Kouga refused, he would simply escape. He knew Kagome put up a barrier, but he would somehow get that thing down, who knew, she was so soft, if he got her to pity him, she would maybe even volunteer for letting him go…

But first he would see what would come of those negotiations.

Kagome suddenly yelped and dove past him to something that lay on the balcony. He turned and watched with his brows raised how she picked up the corpse of a little bird. He recognised it to be the one that he killed last night and he frowned as she began to walk away with it. "What are you doing? Trying to heal that thing?"

She stopped and shot him a glare. "I still don't forgive you for this one," she looked a bit sad at bird which she held in her small hands as if it was made of glass. "And in case you didn't notice, it is DEAD and I can only heal those who are still alive. I am going to bury it somewhere on a peaceful place in the gardens. The poor thing…"

Again, he was a bit touched by how sad she looked, and while he watched her walking away, suddenly an idea occurred to him. "Wait!" he called out to her.

She turned and looked quizzically at him. "What is it Sesshoumaru?"

He chuckled. "I thought you wanted to see what my second sword is capable off?"

Her eyes narrowed. "What, so now you decided that piercing your nice little claws trough this poor bird isn't enough? Are you going to blow it up too? No way!"

He sighed and shook his head. "Just lay it down there, I promise I won't blow it up, ok?"

She cocked her head and seemed to think about it for a while, but then she slowly put the little bird down on the floor and backed away. "Just to warn you," she started. "If you do blow it up, I will curse you…"

He rolled his eyes and just drew his second sword, pointing it at the bird. He concentrated on its corpse and soon he saw them. Little creatures crawling all over it. In one swift move, he slashed trough them, and there was a blinding light.

He heard Kagome gasp, but he didn't need to look to know the bird was alive again, and just fine, hopping around and after a while flying off.

"You… the bird… it LIVED…" Kagome stuttered.

"Obvious."

"H-how…"

He turned the sword before him, looking at it. "This is a sword I got from my father, it's called Tenseiga. Where as the other one, Toukijin, is a more evil sword, forged to kill, this one can only heal and resurrected the dead."

He sheathed the sword, and turned to go to bed, leaving a still stunned Kagome, who couldn't believe her eyes.

But just before he entered his room, he could hear her whisper something.

"Thank you Sesshoumaru…"

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