InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ The Darkangel ❯ Wings of Pure Shadow ( Chapter 1 )

Summary: Darkangels. They are creatures of pure evil and malice. When her mistress is swept away by one to become his bride, Kagome swears to destroy the darkangel. But when she is kidnapped by the darkangel, she can do no other than obey - even though she knows she must kill him. For when he finds his final bride, he will come fully into his sinister powers. Now Kagome must decide whether to kill her darkangel master for his evil deeds or save him. For deep within him is a spark of goodness, a spark that could redeem even his evil.

The Darkangel

By: Renko-chan

Chapter 1

AN: This ficcie is based on a trilogy written by Meredith Ann Pierce. It's a great trilogy and I suggest you guys read it. Well, I'm going to try this story out for about two or three chapters. Afterwards I might not continue it, so tell me if you think it's good or not and I might continue.

Disclaimer: I don't own Inu-Yasha nor do I own The Darkangel books.

Okie...On with the story!

*~*~*~*~*~*

Kagome rested the broad basket against her hit and adjusted her kimono. The steep climb she and her companion have been taking had caused the obi to loosen and flow freely.

"I have to rest," she said faintly, and did not wait for her companion's reply. She sank down on the hard, gray brittle rock of the mountainside and set the empty basket down beside her.

It was cold up on the mountain. The air was too thin to hold any heat, but the sun was warm; it was a bare six hours from setting. Its golden light streamed back at her from the eastern horizon. It was warm on her bare neck and face, warming the rock that she was sitting on.

"Come on," said Renko, digging her toe into Kagome's back. " We still have a long way to go."

Kagome sighed and got up. She followed her companion. Renko was tall and slender, as befitted a person of lineage. After all, she was the daughter of the village syndic and her mother was half-sister to the ruler of the land. She had an aura of self-confidence and arrogance around her that came from living all her life in the largest house in the village.

Kagome was one of the many house servants Renko had. She gazed longingly at her mistress's hair, black as ebony with shiny white streaks that streamed down her long hair. Renko's skin was pale and fair with slight rosiness, emitting a subtle radiance that gleamed even in the darkness. But Kagome was shorter by a head and was still boy-shaped. Her skin was deeper-shaded: a wan rose-tan that even bleaching with could not erase. And her hair, thinner and finer than Renko's, was a silvery black. Pretty in the daylight, or lamplight, but it took on a hideous silverish cast by earthshine.

Kagome sighed and scrambled up the slope after Renko, admiring her long-limbed stride, envying - but hopelessly - the unconscious ease with which the syndic's daughter held her basket slung over back like a cloak. Kagome knew that she would soon begin blooming into maidenhood (as Renko was blooming now); even then, she could never hope to match her mistress's proud grace.

After an hour or so, Kagome said, "We're getting awfully high."

Without turning around, Renko answered, "The summit's not much farther."

"I can't see the village anymore," said Kagome. It was true. The village was completely out of sight.

Renko laughed. It sounded like a beautiful, melodic bell. "What are you afraid of?" she asked, her sapphire eyes smiling. "Darkangels?" She stopped a moment to let Kagome come up beside her. "You really do believe that old cradle tale Kaede-baachan was tell us, don't you?"

Kagome thought back on the strange, half-silly exciting stories the bumbling old nursemaid told them. She had only told them one only a few hours before Kagome and Renko had set out to gather wedding flowers on the steeps.

Renko dropped her basket to the ground. Kagome watched as she hunched her shoulders and screwed up her face in imitation of the old nurse's face.

"The wraiths," she whispered, as if toothless. "The wraiths that roam the mountains, snatching bodies, causing landslides. Believe me..."

She wagged one clawed finger at Kagome. "Believe me, girl; I've seen them. Don't you go up high on those steeps, or you'll regret it...if you live to regret it."

Kagome bit her lip to suppress a smile. Renko always managed to make her laugh helplessly.

"And the vampyres!" Renko railed. "The icari: dozens of black wings and the faces of demons. One look will turn you into stone, and then where'll you run, girl?"

[AN: Darkangels, vampyres, and icari are all the same thing.]

Renko began to stagger, worrying her hands and muttering.

"One will swoop you away to his castle to make you his bride. And you know what the vampyre does with their brides, girl?" Her voice had thinned from a low whisper to a faint, hysterical shriek. Kagome wrapped her arms around her ribs and fought to hold back laughter. "They drink up their souls!" Renko shrilled, then sank to her knees, gasping, "Oh, my heart, my poor heart...," exactly as Kagome had seen her half-senile old nurse do numberless times.

Kagome burst out laughing. She laughed until she felt breathless and giddy, though the air was too thing for laughing properly or long. While she calmed down, Kagome rest her forehead on her knees. She did not want Renko moving on before she could regain her breath.

Unsmiling now, Kagome thought about Kaede's stories and then shook her head. No, it was not the tales of Kaede that scared her - fat, good-natured Kaede - but Chiyako's. Gaunt, furtive Chiyako, who used to sit at the loom in the workroom a little distance from the others, staring off at nothing, her spare, withered fingers weaving by touch.

Her stories were different from Kaede's. Chiyako spoke of witches, gargoyles, and specters. Horrifying tales of death by drowning. Renko always laughed at them as she did at Kaede's simpleminded fables, but they made Kagome shudder. Chiyako never got muddled in her tales; she spoke as if she knew.

Renko rose and shook off her guise. Pulling a few black strands of hair from her clear-blue eyes, she handed her basket to Kagome. She then nodded for her bondservant to follow as she strode gracefully up the path.

"Cheer up, Kagome-chan," Renko said over her shoulder. "I wouldn't let a vampyre take you."

Kagome shook the frown from her face. "No, it's just that...," she began, starting after her mistress and tripping. Balancing on the steep slope while holding a basket in each hand was proving difficult. She scrambled to her feet, snatching Renko's basket before it could roll away, and hurried up alongside Renko again. "It's just that the sun will be down in a few hours and..."

"Six hours!" said Renko, laughing. "We've plenty of time before nightfall."

"Yes, but what if...?" Kagome almost lost her footing again on the smooth, crumbling rock. Renko pulled her to her feet and dusted some of the dirt off Kagome's kimono. Renko checked Kagome over for any signs of injuries and then continued up the slope. Kagome held onto the baskets. "But what if you of us gets hurt," she continued, "or loses the way?"

"You mean, what if you get hurt, " said Renko, without rancor. "After all, you seem to be the only one stumbling." She laughed and held out her hand. "Here, hand me back my basket."

Kagome handed her mistress her basket. Renko held out her other empty hand. "Hand me your basket."

Kagome stared at Renko for a minute then hugged her basket to herself and shook her head. She was a servant. She couldn't let Renko do all the carrying. Renko shook her head and laughed. "If that's what you want...But by the Pendarlon, if I'd known you'd be so clumsy, I might have come here earlier."

Kagome blushed and looked away. It was true; she was clumsy, beside Renko's deft grace. Her mistress tilted one shoulder in a shrug and glanced at Kagome.

"Don't worry, Kagome-chan. If you twist your ankle or knock yourself silly falling of a ledge, I'll carry you and both the baskets back in less time than it's taking us getting this far."

Kagome felt the color in her cheeks deepen and bit her lip against retort. But it was true. Renko was amazingly strong. She glanced at her mistress, who smiled carelessly back at her. Her mistress never said anything harsh and meant it. Though, she seemingly meant no teasing by what she said. Perhaps, she intended it affectionately. Kagome let her color fade.

"But, Renko-sama..."

"You don't need to worry about the other, either," continued Renko. Her tone was of friendly tolerance. "I won't lose the way. And if you keep by me, you won't either."

"And call me, Renko-chan." corrected Renko, wagging a finger at Kagome. "Hearing 'Renko-sama' is getting on my nerves."

Kagome smiled and shoved her thoughts away; and fell into step behind Renko again. The sun felt warm on Kagome's back, and the shadows, whenever the path ducked behind a boulder or ledge, were cold as icy water.

"Here. Here are some," said Renko, halting so abruptly that Kagome almost ran into her. Kagome eyed the low-spread blossoming shrub at their feet. Renko gazed forward and gestured ahead. "And there are more up the slope."

They were near the pinnacle of the mountain when Kagome could scarcely feel herself breathe. The sky was blacker there, the sun whiter, the Earth bluer, and the stars brighter. When Kagome looked down, she could see the light, luminous haze of atmosphere lying on the foothills, on the plain.

"You pick these," Renko told Kagome. "I'll get the ones farther up."

It was difficult for Kagome to hear her; the air was so thin. She obviously was shouting, but Kagome was only a step away, and had trouble making out the more faintly spoken words. She nodded her reply.

"You brought a flask, didn't you?" asked Renko, taking hold of the empty one she herself wore on a leather string that hung from her neck. Kagome nodded and tapped her own smaller flask hanging from her neck.

"Good, then," said Renko, loudly, as from a great distance. "Stay here, in sight - don't wander off. And don't spill any."

Kagome nodded. Renko slung her basket over one shoulder and went on up the last, steepest steps to the top. Kagome watched her easy, surefooted ascent. Her mistress's free hand rested lightly on a rock or boulder from time to time to help her balance. Kagome wished she was born so long-limbed, so self-sure - so beautiful. Kagome set her basket down and knelt beside the horn scrub; and began gathering the flowers.

There, hornflowers grew on a tiny, gray-silver bush, which lived only on the highest steeps where the air was rare and perilously thin. Not the slightest breeze could disturb them. Each branch of the bush was covered with tiny, trumpet-shaped flowers; yellowish white, translucent as frost. Each trump was filled with a tiny drop of pale golden liquor, sweeter than ginger and richer than rum.

Kagome pulled one blossom ever so gently from its twig. The trick was to gather them one by one, painstakingly, so that not a drop was spilled in either the picking or the pouring from flower to wineskin. Kagome dropped the first, emptied trump into the mesh basket beside her and reached slowly for another blossom, and then another and another. Her motions became mechanical. Her back began to ache and her leg felt stiff, but Kagome ignored the pains and continued gathering.

A marriage was to take place in the village at sundown. Renko, as eldest cousin to the bride, was pledged to bring the bridal cup of hornbloom nectar and garlands of the weddings trumps. But these could be harvested only a few hours before the marriage since the liquor and the flowers spoiled quickly.

It seemed to Kagome as she poured the contents of another flower into the flask that the humming of the tiny swifts around her had grown rather louder and shrill. She tossed the empty flower into the basket and ignored the sound to concentrate on her gathering of flowers. She started to imagine the preparations in the village; the decking of the streets with banners of white gauze, the excitement in the air...

It occurred to Kagome, then, that the sound she was hearing was not the whine of the swifts, but a voice. Renko-sama is calling me, she thought as she pulled a blossom away from its stalk. The pitch of the voice changed abruptly and intensified. Kagome brought the hornbloom to the rim of the flask. No, not calling anymore, she realized suddenly, but screaming.

Kagome dropped the flower and felt its droplet spill hot as tallow; it burned her hand. She looked up the slope where Renko was. The basket of wedding trumps lay overturned at Renko's feet. Her young mistress was standing mute now, looking up at the sky.

Then Kagome saw wings, very near - great wings descending. A creature with more wings than she could count, all black and beating fiercely. She felt a faint breeze against her cheek from all the fury of those terrible wings for the air was too thin to carry more than a feeble gust.

The wings were jet black, as black as Renko's hair - no, blacker for they were dull and unoiled. They gave off no shine in the light or gleam to the eye. They drank up the light and diminished it; they were wings of pure shadow.

It seemed to Kagome, as she watched that storm of darkness descend, that she discerned the figure of a man in the middle. A man dressed in some red attire, a man of air complexion - but the wings beat with such rapidity against the near-empty air that she could not make out his face.

The figure reached the mountaintop and alighted, but his feet hardly touched the ground. Before him, Renko cried out in terror. Though Kagome knelt only eight feet away from her, the sound was distant, as though it had traveled for miles. He held out his arms to Renko, abruptly, as in command. Renko backed away. The darkangel stepped towards her. Kagome could only see the vague shimmer of his garment amid the dark fury of the still-beating wings.

Renko whirled and began to run down the slope toward Kagome. She had not taken two steps before the vampyre had swooped and caught her. Kagome heard Renko's piercing cry. The icarus' speed and Renko's weight bore them forward and down. His powerful wings thrashed the air. Renko thrashed her arms around, tearing at the vampyre, struggling to pull away from his grasp.

Kagome bolted to her feet - too fast. Her legs, still stiff from long sitting, could not support her. The vampyre swooped overhead, so close that Kagome could have reached to touch him.

The world swayed and fell as Kagome threw up her arms to ward off the cold, fleeting shade of those horrible wings. Her knees buckled. She felt her knees skid from under her. She saw Renko still struggling in the darkangel's arms, but could no longer hear her screams.

Kagome felt her elbow hit the ground and then her shoulder, as a dozen sharp, hard, rolling pebbled dug in her flesh. The ground was in motion beneath her, slipping, and sliding. The icarus was already far away, a dark blot in the sky. She glimpsed the shadow of his dozen wings, which were very small against the sky.

"Renko-sama! Renko-sama!" Kagome started to cry; then her head struck the ground with a sickening jolt. The back of her skull went numb. All the sky was white stars for a moment. Her scalp felt wet and warm. Then suddenly the brightness dimmed.

"Renko-chan," she heard herself breathe, barely once, just before all the light in the world went out.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Kagome licked her lips and burned tongue on the sweetness of horn liquor. She was lying on hard, sloping land. Jagged pebbles pressed into her back, hurting her. She could feel the goatskin flask on her chest and the warmth on her cheek and throat where it had splashed out, spilling. She was lying on the slope. All this she knew without opening her eyes.

She opened them slowly and saw the star-littered sky above the slight glare of the sun in her eyes. She tried to move and found it hard, very hard. Her head came away sticky from the ground with a soreness that made her feel sick and stupid. She got one elbow under her and propped herself up.

She said, "Renko-sama," and wept, but she was too weak to cry.

Her hand was cold. All her body was warm in the sun, but her left hand was cold. She looked at it presently and saw that the shadow of a boulder down the slope had crept across it. That frightened her. She snatched it from the shadow and sat up and twisted around - too quickly. Her temples pounded; she felt the blood running out of her head, and blotches of darkness wandered across the stars.

The sun was setting. She could see it as her vision cleared. She twisted her head around the other way. The pain increased sharply at the sudden move. She had two hours to get back to the village by nightfall. With the wedding procession about to begin, who would miss one little slave?

She got to her knees and then to her feet. She took a step, stumbled and fell. She got up again and started down the slope. The soreness in her hand was mostly dull, but when she missed her footing and staggered, the pain stabbed. She clung to the rocks of the mountainside. The sun sank lower as she descended the steep and the shadows lengthened. The air grew warmer and thicker; her breathing eased.

The sun had halfway sunk into the Sea of Dust by the time she head the marriage hymns drifting up into the foothills on the soft plains wind. Strange. It seemed strange after the airless, muted steeps she had been on.

The music became louder as she neared the village. She entered the village and quickly passed the houses. She could see the village square ahead. Suddenly she was among the people, who did not seem to notice her but went on with the singing. Their eyes turned towards the half-gone sun. Pushing past the, Kagome gave a cry to make them stop.

The hymn broke off raggedly in mid-verse. The syndic frowned from his place before the bride and groom. The bride in her new-woven shiromuki glanced around. Behind her and the syndic, Kagome saw Renko's mother, a thin-faced aristocrat with hair like night. Old Kaede swayed beside her, nodding off to sleep even as she stood. Kagome started at Kaede and the mother.

"Renko-sama," she gasped, breathless.

The syndic, Renko's father, had been standing in shadow, came forward now into the glare.

"Yes," he said, "Where is she? The ceremony cannot be completed without the bridal cup." He eyed the flask still hanging from Kagome's neck. " Has she sent you ahead with it?"

"She," said Kagome. She could not catch her breath. "No, she...:"

"Well, where is she, then?" demanded the syndic, pursing his fine lips. He gave an exasperated sigh. "How that girl can dawdle!" Turning his back to Kagome, his patience thinned. "Come, out with it, drudge, or I'll have you beaten."

"Gone!" cried Kagome, marveling that even yet, he did not understand. "The icarus," she faltered, "the one with wings..."

The syndic shook his head impatiently. "Are you gaming with me, drudge? Now where's my daughter, you lady? Where Renko?"

Kagome gazed at him and longed to faint. The syndic glared at her and would not listen. The townspeople all stood hushed now, staring. Her head felt light, ached she felt her balance tip. She swayed and staggered. The syndic eyed her with sudden suspicion.

"Have you been tasting those hornflowers, girl?"

Kagome looked at him with dull surprise. "I hit my head," she muttered, putting her hand to the sticky place behind and above her ear.

She felt something in her hair that was soft and stiff. She pulled it free from the mat of blood. It was feather, black, and a cubit long. It had been in her hair the whole time while she had been down the mountain, and she had not known. Realization struck her with the coldness of shadow across the strong light.

She shuddered once, staring at the thing. Her hand snapped open but the feather did not fall. It was stuck to the half-dried ooze on her palm. She shook her hand and still it clung; black and blood-damp. She could not bear to touch it or pull it free with her other hand.

The last ray of the sun winked out like a candle. The square was smothered in shadow. All was night. Kagome could still see the vampyre's feather dimly; a black streak in the dark against the paleness of her flesh. No one moved towards her. No one stirred to help her. She gave a long, low cry of revulsion and despair, and fainted.

>>>End of Chapter 1

AN: Well, that's the first chapter. What do you think?

In case you got confused, I think the hornflower liquor is some sort of alcohol drink or something like that. And if you're wondering what a shiromuku is, it's a wedding kimono. It's longer in length, has long flowing sleeves, and completely white with pretty embroidering; but they're completely white.

Okay, I know it'd look weird with a darkangel that's wearing a red Japanese attire with a dozen black wings, but I couldn't think of anything to change it. So if you have any suggestions, please tell me.

Well, please review and tell me what you think so I know whether I should continue this story or not.