InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ The Bearers of the Shards ❯ Through the Mountains and Into the Vipers' Nest ( Chapter 5 )

Author's Note: This chapter is quite a bit darker than the others. I hope you don't mind if I screw around with the canon for a bit. If you do, sorry. I suggest writing a story about Yamisui being devoured by starving weasels with blunt teeth---that might make you feel better. O_O

{#} {#} {#} THE BEARERS OF THE SHARDS {#} {#} {#}

{#} {#} Chapter 5: Through the Mountains and Into the Vipers' Nest {#} {#}

Inuyasha woke in the morning with a raging headache. He pushed himself up onto his hands with a groan, spitting out dirt and swearing under his breath. His recollection of the previous night was vague---he remembered feeling more powerful than he had ever felt before, and then. . .nothing.

His hands flew to his neck, only to find that the cursed prayer beads were back and the shards were gone.

"DAMNIT!" he exclaimed. "DAMNIT DAMNIT DAMNIT DAMNIT---"

"Will you be silent?" Miroku hissed. "We're trying to discuss something here."

Inuyasha rose into a crouch and pointed an accusing finger at his three companions, who were sitting around the campfire drinking tea.

"You're plotting against me again, AREN'T you?" he demanded. "I KNEW it!"

"Oh, no," Kagome said flatly, eyeing him coolly. "There's no need. You're back under control again."

"Feh," Inuyasha grumbled, moving to join them by the fire.

"He's back on a short leash, where he belongs," Shippou whispered to Kagome.

"I HEARD that!" Inuyasha growled, looking like he wanted to smite the Kitsune but was too afraid of Kagome.

"If you're quite done ranting, then maybe you can explain something to us," Miroku cut in. "When you were possessed by the brown powder, you said something about having a score to settle with the Tatesei. You called them murderers."

"Feh," Inuyasha replied, picking up a nearby rock and crushing it into dust. "I said I had a `FUCKING' score to settle with the Tatesei."

This earned him a glare from Kagome, so he added hastily, "On account of that brat pissing me off."

"Oh, no, I think it's more than that," Miroku said, drumming his fingers impatiently upon his knee. "Come on, you've been keeping something to yourself ever since we crossed that chasm with the warding spell."

Kagome shifted over to kneel beside Inuyasha. The hanyou eyed her suspiciously.

"Inuyasha, we know you haven't been following Yaburenumaru's scent since that night three days ago," she told him. "You haven't been looking for tracks. You haven't sniffed the air once. It's like you know exactly where he's going."

Inuyasha scowled, folding his arms. "Well, of COURSE! He TOLD us where he was going."

"He described his kingdom to us," Miroku pointed out, "not how to get to it."

"What a fucking waste of time," Inuyasha said, getting to his feet. "Let's go. We're burning daylight."

He walked a few paces, but no one made any move to follow him.

Miroku and Kagome cast significant looks at one another.

"Kagome-sama," Miroku said.

"Right." Kagome nodded, then turned and shouted, "Sit!"

And Inuyasha, of course, went crashing to the ground. He lay there a moment, splay-legged, then yelled, "HEY, what GIVES?" His voice sounded muffled---his mouth was probably filled with dirt again.

Miroku squatted beside Inuyasha, just out of swiping range, resting his staff across his knees.

"Talk," he ordered.

For a moment Inuyasha just stared at the monk in amazement. Then he pushed himself up with his palms, steely-eyed and scowling.

"What the---?" he exclaimed. "You're going to torture me?"

"'Torture' is such an ugly word," Miroku said mildly. "Let's call it `forceful persuasion,' as in you talk and Kagome will stop shouting `sit.'"

"You're enjoying this too much," Shippou remarked, but he didn't seem to be protesting.

"Stop being so stubborn," Kagome told Inuyasha. "I know you don't like that kid but he needs our help. His people must need our help, because someone in the Tatesei kingdom is trying to keep the rightful ruler from the throne. Anything you can tell us is important."

Inuyasha's expression darkened considerably and Kagome backed away, somewhat daunted by the sight. She had not seen that face on him since the day he met Naraku for the first time, and it frightened her more than she cared to admit to herself.

"Never mind," Kagome told him hastily. "Get up and we'll go." In answer to Miroku's questioning look she added, "Forget it. He doesn't HAVE to tell us anything. Let's go."

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Not long after, they were moving again. The land had begun to slope upward, which made traveling more difficult for Kagome, whose cough had worsened considerably. She had not brought her bike on this trip in the hopes that Inuyasha would carry her because she felt sick. Kagome didn't want to ask him to now---she felt guilty about trying to force his secrets out of him. In her head she had thought of it as a joke when discussing it with Miroku, and maybe even when she made him `sit' the first time, but something about all of this ran very deep with him. She did not feel like this was something she should meddle with so lightly.

Not unless he chose to let her.

After a time they crested the hill and Kagome stopped short, taking in the view. Inuyasha stopped short as well---right on her heels. His stumbling weight almost pushed her down the other side, but he caught her around the waist.

"Inuyasha!" she cried, teetering for a moment until he tightened his grip to steady her.

"What the hell'd you stop for?" he demanded.

"Well, you shouldn't have been walking so close!" she retorted.

Miroku and Shippou came up the hill behind them. The monk took one glance at them and looked as if he wished he had thought of that one first.

"Hey, Kagome, why'd you stop?" Shippou wanted to know.

Inuyasha let go of her waist and stepped back hurriedly, flustered. Kagome didn't seem to notice---she was busy fishing a map out of her backpack.

"Hey, according to this there should be a lake just over these mountains, in the valley beyond them," she informed them once she'd found it. "We just have to go through them, and then we'll reach the lake Yaburenumaru described."

Inuyasha's expression darkened now at every mention of the boy's name, and it was in utter silence that he led them all down the slope to the river below. In order to cross it they were forced to emerge from the sheltering trees and into the pouring rain. The water was wide, waist deep and ice-cold, and when Shippou stuck a paw in he grimaced and backed away. Kagome----who had been determined to leave Inuyasha alone until his mood improved---suddenly found herself caught up in his arms without warning before he plunged headlong into the river.

"Kyaa!" she cried, startled.

"Shut up or I'll drop you," Inuyasha warned.

She obeyed, leaning her head wearily against his chest to avoid looking at the rushing water just inches below her. Fortunately this impaired her view of his face, which underwent a curious metamorphosis from irritation to surprise to embarrassment to something much softer.

Miroku followed close behind, carrying Shippou, who was clinging to his neck so tightly it was likely to leave a mark.

The crossing went quickly and without mishap, save for the fact that they were all drenched to the skin by the time they had reached the trees on the other side. Grateful as she was for the ride, Kagome felt that she had gotten just as wet without setting foot in the river. They started back up the slope on the other side---a much more difficult endeavor because this was a foothill leading into a valley between the mountains. After the first time Kagome tripped on a tree root, Inuyasha insisted upon carrying her on his back, which she accepted without protest. She was very tired, and grateful that he was not angry with her.

The passage between the two mountains was much narrower as they progressed further in, and the trees had an increasingly bent look to them. Miroku said that it was from the wind through the pass, but to Kagome the tree limbs appeared inexplicably tortured and grotesque---twisted by forces other than nature. When she voiced these sentiments the monk seemed concerned.

"Do you sense anything unusual?" he inquired, brushing a hand over the wood of a low-hanging branch.

"There is kehai here," Kagome admitted. "But it's faint. . .like it was broken or something."

"It WAS broken," Inuyasha said, from somewhere ahead on the trail.

They hurried to join him and see what it was he was looking at.

Across the way, between two twisted trees, there stretched a great web of ropes, two stories tall. Onto various places in the ropes were tied the bones and skulls of Youkai. Inuyasha sniffed at the air.

"The Tatesei brat passed through here during the night, as a human," he said, sounding puzzled. "He wouldn't have needed to FORCE his way through. . ."

Though the holes in the web were large enough for a small, slight boy to pass through, the ropes at levels lower than one story had been slashed asunder.

"A trap?" Kagome murmured, echoing Inuyasha's confusion.

"A warding," Miroku corrected her. "This way is guarded by the spirits of the dead Youkai whose bones hang here."

Kagome approached it, peering curiously at the bones. Some of the skulls were very small, no larger than the size of a human infant's head.

"How horrible," she said softly. "Was this meant to keep humans from entering the valley?"

"It was meant to keep demons out," Inuyasha said unexpectedly, still staring at the web with intense dislike. "The Tatesei sorcerers trapped the souls of dead Youkai in these bones and turned them to their own devices. This warding. . .was meant for demons. I can feel it."

"That makes sense," Miroku said thoughtfully. "'Tatesei' means `spirit shield.' This warding is a shield of spirits." He paused, looking as if he wanted to ask the hanyou something, but then thought better of it and closed his mouth.

"Come on, let's get out of the rain," Inuyasha ordered. "We can go through---it's broken now and it can't hurt us." His tone was undeniably bitter.

As they passed beneath the web Kagome's gaze was continually drawn to the bones hanging overhead, clacking and twisting forlornly in the breeze. Where the web had not been destroyed the Youkai spirits remained, and their sadness pierced her gut with a thin, keen pain.

"Shouldn't we break the rest of the warding?" she asked plaintively, clutching her arms and shuddering convulsively. "They won't be free unless we do."

Inuyasha glanced back at her, and Kagome saw the spirits' sorrow mirrored in his eyes.

"When we return, maybe," he told her quietly. "But some of the spell still remains---and Naraku is following us."

"WHAT?!" Shippou cried, digging his claws into Miroku's robes. "WHY DIDN'T YOU SAY SO BEFORE?"

"Ow!" Miroku yelled, frantically trying to pry the Kitsune off of him. "Have a care! You could draw blood with those things!"

Inuyasha shrugged. The warding was now behind them, and Kagome was not sorry to take her leave of it.

"He's not close enough to attack us," Inuyasha explained. "I only smell him faintly. The bastard's probably waiting until we get the boy's jewel shard to steal ours. But even broken the warding may be strong enough to slow him down. He may sense it and turn back long before he realizes it's torn."

`If we're lucky,' Kagome thought darkly.

They pressed on through the pass and found two more webs, each as mangled as the first. By nightfall the rain had let up for a while, and they arrived at a place where the pass dipped downward into the valley on the other side. They made camp near the edge among a cluster of boulders, where Miroku enlisted Shippou's help to build a crude shelter of branches lashed together with vine. The monk was raising the roof to a level where it would rest across two boulders when he noticed that Inuyasha had gone off by himself.

"Kagome," he whispered, nudging her gently with his foot. "He's brooding again. Go to him."

"And just what am I supposed to do?" she asked wearily.

Miroku shrugged and winked at her. "You're a woman. You figure it out."

Kagome rose and headed for the brooding hanyou, occasionally casting suspicious glances Miroku's way. Even when he gave good advice he managed to make it sound twisted.

Inuyasha was standing on the edge of the slope, gazing down upon the valley below.

"Hey," Kagome said tentatively, coming to stand beside him. "You should join us---or at least get out of the rain."

When he didn't reply, she followed his gaze beyond the forests below and the vast fields of rice to the walled city that rose at the center. Even by starlight she could see the city's palace, with its pillars gleaming ivory. She could see the temples rising from the low mists, pagodas curved upward like scimitar blades. It was beautiful, and somehow cruel at the same time---a city of warriors and soul-trappers.

"It's hard to believe that people who could build such a beautiful kingdom would enslave the souls of the dead to guard it," Kagome remarked thoughtfully.

Still Inuyasha did not answer, but the set of his jaw was grim. Kagome glanced at him a bit nervously before continuing.

"But it reminds me of something we learned in history," she told him. "The Egyptians built great cities and pyramids---huge triangles reaching to the skies. And they used slaves to do it all. Lots of slaves died from overwork, and some were even sacrificed so that their spirits would guard these places. Soldiers who lived to defend the king were often killed to defend him in death."

A cool wind whistled through the pass, ruffling their hair and clothing.

"The Youkai that once defended this place were betrayed like that," Inuyasha said quietly. "The Tatesei sorcerers are called the `Council of the Wise.'" There was bitter sarcasm in the way he emphasized the title. "They are the ones who did it. Those bones. . .those webs. . .were their handiwork."

"Youkai once defended the Tatesei?" Kagome asked, turning to him in surprise. "Why would Youkai care about people who hated them so much?"

Inuyasha took a very deep breath.

"This was the territory claimed by one of the Greater Youkai and his kin. He believed it was the duty of the strong to protect the weak, so he came to the Tatesei when they were just a small village and offered his service. At the time they were under attack by all sorts of men and demons who wanted the valley for themselves. So naturally they agreed. And he protected them for many, many years."

"And then what happened?" Kagome asked. "You said they betrayed the Youkai."

Inuyasha's face darkened, and Kagome couldn't help being a little nervous. But he went on.

"They grew strong," he said bitterly. "They built that great city down there. Their sorcerers grew in power as well. The `Wise' learned to enslave the souls of the dead to guard their city. They learned all sorts of black magic, too. They did this. . .because despite all he'd done for them the bastards didn't trust him. And they gathered dark forces, waiting for the time when they'd be strong enough to kill him.

"They stopped paying him any sort of tribute. By tribute I mean food---sheep and rice and plums and all that rot. Well, he still insisted on protecting them. But some of his kin began stealing from the humans. And then he did the unthinkable---unthinkable to both sides---he took a human princess to be his wife."

Kagome's mouth fell open---she couldn't help it.

`What he's saying is. . .' she thought.

"Your mother," Kagome whispered, scarcely able to believe her ears. "And the Greater Youkai and his kin---that was your father and his kin. . ." She broke off, unable to think of anything else to say.

"My mother," Inuyasha said quietly, "was a Tatesei princess. She told me all this. They loved each other. My father wanted humans and demons to live in peace. He could've just taken her as his mate, but he wanted the Tatesei to accept the union, so he insisted on having a wedding in the city." He paused, still watching the city below, then went on with a bitter little laugh. "Heh. He had his way. There was a wedding. But afterward, her own family treated her like an embarrassment. She went to live with my father, and his kin didn't like her either. My father was all she had, really.

"And then. . .she had me."

Here he paused, looking unsure of himself for the first time in the telling of his story. He glanced over at Kagome.

"Go on," she told him softly. She was careful to keep the pity out of her expression because she knew it would repulse him.

"Mm." He turned back to face the valley wind. "She wanted to give birth to me in my father's halls, but the Tatesei began acting strangely once they learned she was pregnant. For some reason they were really frightened when they heard their line would mix the demons'. I guess this was because they had come to hate demons. I can't tell you why---they had no reason to, really. The demons were only stealing livestock from them because they'd broken their promise to pay tribute." His frown was puzzled.

"Who knows why people hate each other," Kagome said gently. "Don't waste your time worrying about the reason."

"Heh," was his only reply before he went on. "The Tatesei sorcerers were plotting against him for nearly two centuries. The fact that my mother was about to give birth seemed to be the last straw. They marched on my father's hall. The battle was terrible. At least, it must've been, because my mother would never speak of it. So I'm not exactly sure what happened. But when it was over, my father was dead, and all of his kin. And the Tatesei stole back their princess and her son.

"I don't know why they didn't kill me. They fucking wouldn't have done it because my mother begged them. She begged them to accept her marriage and they wouldn't." At his sides, his hands had clenched into fists. "The `Wise' wanted to kill me, I know. Everyone else teased me or ignored me, but the `Wise' truly hated me. I had a few years with my mother. And then. . .they lost patience. Or something. I don't know what changed then, but it happened overnight. They just came for me, in the middle of the night.

"I don't remember much. My mother gave me some herbs or something to keep me quiet. Things got real hazy. We were running, and the sorcerers were coming after us. We were running through the woods. My mother was getting tired, I knew, but I was only a little runt then, so I couldn't exactly do anything. Then they caught us. . ."

Inuyasha paused, and to Kagome's surprise a shudder passed through him. Yet she dared not lay a hand on him, deep as he was into his memories.

"They caught us," he repeated. "They didn't even want my soul. What a joke. The hanyou's soul isn't worth as much as a demon's or a human's. . ."

He paused again, jaw clenched in anger.

"So they drew a sword and struck a blow. It was meant to pierce my heart. Heh. Even a hanyou won't die if you just wound him. And they wanted to do it and be sure it was done. But when they struck, I moved. Even as a pup I was stronger than they'd figured. And the blade only ran through my side.

"My mother was going mad with terror for me. While they were recovering from their surprise, she seized her chance to break free of the one holding her. She took the knife one carried and killed him. In her frenzy to get to me she didn't even see the sword turned her direction.

"I think I was dying," Inuyasha said, in a way so matter-of-fact that Kagome's chest burned with sorrow. "Now that I'm grown, that kind of wound wouldn't do it---but back then I think it might've. And things got real hazy again. I staggered backward quite a ways from them. From the pain, you know. But just as they wrenched the blade free of her and came after me, everything became lost in a flash of white.

"I can't tell you what it was like. Everything just. . .well, went white. And then it faded. I was half-unconscious and half-blinded by it, but all I could think of was getting to her. But as the light faded, I saw that I had run to the edge of a deep gap in the ground. It wasn't there before the light, but it sure as hell was there after it. My mother saw me there, from the other side.

"She tried to call my name, but her mouth was full of blood. And they shoved her. She fell into the chasm. I didn't run away. I wanted to go down to find her. There seemed to be some confusion among the Wise. Someone was killing them, one by one, further back from the chasm.

"But the Wise closest to me were determined to get me. (There were a lot of them---maybe thirty. Thirty, for a woman and her child. . .) They held up a demon's skull---which they had brought with them, I guess---and called forth its soul. They stepped onto it like it was a cloud, or a boat or something. They tried to cross, to get to me.

"But then a great wind arose. A different sort of light appeared. It was kind of blue, and faint, like the ghost-lights we used to see in the hills. It came from the chasm, where my mother had fallen. And the demon's soul flew upward into the sky. Then it disappeared. And the Wise---because it was gone they fell. Then the blue light was gone.

"I looked across the chasm. There was only one of the Wise standing there. Like all of them he wore a white hood low over his face. You didn't look at the Wise, or they killed you and took your soul. But I looked right at him, hating him. And I knew he was looking at me, though I couldn't really see him.

"'DIE!' I screamed, hating him. In my little boy's brain I didn't have words for the kind of hatred I felt then. I do now, but you don't want to hear it and I don't want to say it. And he just looked at me.

"He said, very clearly, `Run, half-breed. I am going to kill you.'

"I hated him, but in my half-blindness I couldn't even find a rock to hurl at him. I had no weapon and no strength. So I reached into my own wound and flung my own blood at him. And it became a weapon. I didn't wait to see if I had killed him. My vision was beginning to darken. So I ran. . ."

Inuyasha's voice trailed off. He frowned down at the sight of the Tatesei city below him, at the curved pagodas and pillars of bone. His was the puzzled expression of someone who has told everything and has nothing left to say, yet remains tormented by the emotions the telling has conjured.

Again, the wind whistled through the pass and into the valley. The rice stalks below flattened and rose like the sea.

"So," Inuyasha said finally, watching it move. "Do you still want to save the boy? And his `unbreakable line'?"

Kagome smiled gently at him. For all the hollowness in his voice there was no hatred on his face now---only remembered sorrow.

"Inuyasha," she said. "They were murderers. You aren't."

Unexpectedly, he turned and rested a hand upon the crook of her elbow.

"Kagome, I'm not as good as you might think," he told her.

Then his hand fell away, and he turned back toward the camp. His voice floated back to her as he walked.

"Then we'll go tomorrow," he said, "into the vipers' nest."

Before she followed him, Kagome stole one last look at the city. She was sure there must be some good people living---people worth saving. That was why this choice was the right one.

`Who knows?' she thought. `The boy---the poor, accursed boy---might be the king they need to restore their honor.'

But Kagome also thought of what Inuyasha had said---that the Tatesei had slain his mighty father---and she could not help but fear what lay ahead.

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73;­­

In the valley below, in the depths of the forest that framed the fields, Yaburenumaru sank to one knee. His head was bowed with weariness.

"Hours yet until daylight," he panted. "And still no sign of the kirin. I fear it has reached the castle already. . ."

From the darkness came the voice, sounding near enough to touch him.

"Forget the kirin," it said smoothly. "Once you do what you have come to do, slaying the beast will be unnecessary. A kirin can't raise the dead. . ."

Yaburenumaru raised his head. The hunter stood behind him.

"Damn that brother of mine," he said viciously. "That weak little child. And they would crown him in my place. The kirin would kneel before him. . ."

"Not. . .if the demon reaches him first," came the answer. There was a peculiar stress on the word `demon.' "That child stole everything from you. Killing him won't be so hard, will it?"

In the darkness, the boy's face contorted with malice.

"No," he whispered.

And then, with his last remaining strength, he pushed himself to his feet and began to stagger toward the city.

{END OF CHAPTER 5}

Well, I warned you. I hope you're not overly annoyed with me for taking Inuyasha's history into my own hands----but I couldn't resist. If you're wondering exactly WHAT happened at the chasm and exactly HOW young Inuyasha managed to escape certain death and exactly WHO the last of the Wise left standing was, well. . . THAT answer, friends, is for another story, at another time. . . (kukuku)