Chapter 8
Cold Winds
Inuyasha felt like he'd had the breath knocked out of him. Kikyo is related to this half-demon? he thought, staring at Namida in astonishment.
"Kikyo is… your granddaughter?" Kagome asked carefully.
"Answer me! Who dared to desecrate her grave!" growled Namida. An icy wind had begun to blow through the room, chilling them to the bone.
"An ogre called Urasue came to Kikyo's village and took her bones and earth from her grave," answered Miroku, "and later kidnapped Kagome to steal her soul and place it in this… doll that would do her bidding. But Kikyo's original personality was too strong and she retained an independent identity, killing the ogress." He kept his voice level and neutral, trying to calm Namida. The demonic aura surrounding the hanyou had begun to pulse more strongly and he feared the possibility of its eruption.
"But it has been destroyed."
Miroku blinked. "Milady?"
"This creation… you destroyed it, correct?" Namida repeated.
The monk hesitated.
"No, we didn't," answered Sango. "She fell from a cliff when Kagome broke free of Urasue's spell and we thought Kikyo had perished, but then we ran into her again."
"And you did not kill this thing?" Namida growled.
"No!" said Inuyasha, glaring at Namida's back. "Why should we kill Kikyo?"
"It's an abomination!" hissed Akaaka.
Inuyasha leapt to his feet, drawing the Tetsusaiga. "Kikyo is NOT an abomination!" he snarled.
The fox hanyou was also on her feet, hand gripping her tai-chi sword. "Anything dead that is brought back to life is an abomination and should be destroyed!"
"NO!" Inuyasha roared, raising the Tetsusaiga.
"SIT!"
Inuyasha slammed into the floor.
Kagome looked at the red-haired girl. "You aren't helping matters, Akaaka," she said, her voice tight. "Please stop."
Akaaka sneered. "You think I'm going to obey you, little human girl-child? I have no beads that bind me to your will."
Namida abruptly turned, and everyone at the table tensed, human and hanyou alike. But the woman simply stepped to the window and looked out, resting her hands on the window sill. Her white hair obscured her face as she looked out. For a long moment, she was silent, and then let out her breath in a long, deep sigh.
"So," said Namida quietly, "my last descendent is one of the undead. Heh." She bowed her head in silence once more.
"Milady..." Nodoka whispered, "What shall we do?" The young water hanyou was trying to appear calm, but there was a wildness in her violet eyes, a wildness born of fear.
"Kill it!" snarled Akaaka. "Kill it before it comes again!"
Inuyasha pull himself to his feet. "Again? You mean you've seen her? Where?"
The half-demons glanced at each other, as if unwilling to reveal any more. Then Namida spoke.
"For the past several weeks," she said, "I have sensed a presence lurking along our borders. Many of the alarm-spells have been triggered, but whenever I go to investigate, I find nothing. No tracks, no marks, nothing but a faint scent, and even that is unclear."
"But your shields have repelled it, right?" asked Miroku.
Namida paused. "Some of the spells that were triggered are deeper in past the outer shield spells."
"So whatever it is can break your shields," said Sango grimly.
"No, it does not break the shields," the woman replied, still in a calm expressionless voice. "It passes through them as if they did not exist."
Kagome stared. She could see, even from her short while at Seidou that the hanyou relied heavily on those shields to slow down and weaken any invaders. For someone to pass through the barriers… that was a serious threat to the security of Seidou.
"And how do you know it was Kikyo?" Inuyasha demanded angrily. "You said yourself that you found no signs and only a faint scent. So how do you know it's her?"
"Because she did this!" Akaaka shouted, reaching to Rosuto and tearing his robe from his right shoulder.
"No, Akaaka!" cried Rosuto,trying to pull the sleeve back on, but it was too late.
"Oh my God…" whispered Kagome, putting a hand to her face.
There, in the middle of his shoulder, was a gaping wound. The flesh was seared and charred black, as if with fire, and the edges of it were raw and red. Blood oozed in a slow trickle, congealing, but never closing the injury.
Rosuto winced as he tried to redo the bandage that Akaaka had torn off. "That wasn't necessary, Akaaka," he said quietly.
"It was!" the fox-girl replied in a harsh voice. "They had to see what that undead witch did to you!"
"Rosuto," Kagome asked slowly. "Did… did you see Kikyo? Was she the one who hurt you?"
The dog hanyou looked away. "I was scouting the middle barriers alone about three weeks ago," he answered. "We had seen a few alarm-spells tripped and were trying to catch the culprit. I had picked up a faint scent and was trying to trace it when a feeling of foreboding overcame me, like someone was watching me. As I started to turn around, I smelt something flying towards me and tried dodging. An arrow, burning with blue flames, sunk into my shoulder. If I'd been a hair slower, it would have pierced my heart, and if I'd been a yokai, its sacred fires would have killed me. I fled with the arrow burning deeper into me, and as I ran, I saw a black-haired woman dressed in red and white, with a bow in her hand and ice-cold eyes."
Gentle golden eyes were raised to meet Kagome's wide brown ones. "She looked almost exactly like you, Kagome," said Rosuto softly. "But when I saw you, I knew that you could not have been the same person. Your eyes were warm and alive and your scent is completely different. But your shared likeness was too uncanny to be coincidence. That's why I asked if you had any sisters."
Kagome felt her blood run cold.
Namida abruptly turned away from the window back towards the table. Her face was still and expressionless like a noi mask, and her eyes were shielded, revealing nothing of the hanyou's inner thoughts or turmoil. Without a word, Namida strode to the stairs leading back to the ground level.
"Wait, where are you going?" Inuyasha said, fearing that the powerful hanyou was going to leave and hunt down Kikyo.
"I am going to use the scrying stone," Namida replied, her voice still calm and emotionless.
"We're coming too," said Kagome, standing.
Namida puased and looked back. A shocked gasp ran around the room.
"You can't do that!" cried Naito.
"Only the Lady is able to handle the scrying stone," said Rosuto. "It is forbidden to all others."
"But we've got to do something!" Kagome answered hotly. "If Kikyo's hunting Inu− I mean, hunting the Shikon Jewel shards, then we've got to know why she came here and how she's able to get through your shields! That's a threat to you and a concern for us. Please," she finished. "Please, we have to do something."
The lady remained silent for a moment, blue eyes weighing Kagome's words, then nodded. "Very well. Come."
Eyes wide, the hanyou children stared in shock as Kagome, Inuyasha, Sango, Miroku, and Shippo followed Namida down the stairs. Kirara, after rubbing her head against Sango's leg, opted to stay with the children, leaping into Nodoka's lap.
Once again, the little group followed Namida, heading towards one corner of the training room. The woman stooped and lifted up a portion of the floor, revealing an open trapdoor and a second flight of stairs. This staircase was narrow and winding, diving deep into the bowls of the mountain and white stones like the ones in the Complex gave off a small amount of light. The temperature continued to drop the deeper they went and Kagome shivered, feeling the weight of the walls slowly closing in. She had never been claustrophobic, but this place was giving her the creeps, like dozens of unfriendly eyes were watching her.
A blue glow began to fill the stairway coming from a source somewhere up ahead. It reminded Kagome of the keibi-stones that Kaze and Tanshin had used to test them in the forest. As they came around a turn in the stairs, Namida bent her head to pass under a law archway into a small cave. The rest of the group followed… and stopped just inside the archway to stare.
"Whoa…" Sango breathed.
"Interesting," Miroku murmured.
"Pretty," said Shippo.
The light was coming from a huge flat slab of stone as tall and wide as a double door embedded upright into the far wall. It looked like it was made of living water… or perhaps the water was contained inside it or even behind it; Kagome couldn't really tell which. The liquid rippled in ever-changing patterns, casting similar light-shadows on the rough-hewn walls of the cave.
"This is the scrying stone," said Namida softly. "I must ask you to keep to the back corners of the room and you must remain absolutely silent. Do you understand?"
Sango, Miroku, Kagome, and Shippo nodded obediently. Inuyasha just crossed his arms and glared defiantly at Namida.
Kagome noticed that Namida's hands were still bleeding and dug around in her pocket for a handkerchief. "Here," she said, stepping forward. "Let me see your hands."
The hanyou woman blinked, looking down at the wounds as if noticing them for the first time. She remained still as Kagome tore the cloth in half and carefully bandaged the gouges.
"Thank you," said Namida softly.
Kagome gave a hesitant smile and stepped back into the corner with Inuyasha. Shippo leapt into the girl's arms, seeking familiar protection as a sense of power began to coalesce in the room.
Namida raised her bandaged arms upward, as if in supplication, her aura pulsing and growing stronger. "Once I begin to scry, you may or may not see images in the stone. Since you are not casting the spell, any images you do see will be blurry at best. Do not be surprised; I will tell you what I see once the scrying is done. But do not make a sound, no matter what you see."
The feeling of power intensified and the water in the stone slab began to swirl and pulse with it. A soft, cool breeze began to blow, gusts intensifying, whipping around the hanyou woman's tall frame, hair swirling around her face and shoulders. All color seemed to be leeched from her face, leaving it bloodless and white of snow. Her eyes began to glow with the same blue color as the scrying stone.
"Kikyo, waga aiji, waga maigo. Hia ware, kaitou ware!" cried Namida, her words pulsating with power. Kikyo, my beloved child, my stray child. Hear me, answer me!
Kagome tried to stifle a gasp as the feeling of power reached an almost unbearable level, then rushed into the stone. The strange blue water seemed to part, revealing an image. As Namida had said, it was blurry and indistinct, but Kagome could see that it was the roof of a building from a bird's eye view. The image pulled back, revealing an entire fortress for an instant, perhaps Seidou, before racing off at an incredible speed. Stone, the lake, trees, all flashed by in quick bursts as they raced over the forest. Suddenly, the view tilted and dove, rushing past leaves to a lower level of the forest. Kagome wasn't sure if the ground was actually shrouded in mist, or if that was just from the stone. Something silver flashed past, then another. Another sense of rushing speed and Kagome saw the back of a figure dressed in red and white with flowing black hair. Silver flashes circled around it and a quiver was strapped across its back. Kikyo… Kagome thought. It is her.
Suddenly, the figure paused, as if hearing something, and turned, almost in slow motion, and fired an arrow straight at them. There was a grinding shriek from the scrying stone. An arrow, blazing with sacred fire, shot out of the stone and struck Namida in the shoulder, hurling her back and pinning her against the wall. The woman slumped, still. Kagome caught a glimpse of Kikyo's face with a look of disdain on it before the image in the stone melted away.
"Namida!" cried Kagome, setting Shippo down and racing to the half-demon's side, a look of fear on her face. "Namida!"
The woman did not move.
"Oh no…" whispered Kagome. No, she thought. No, this is just like what happened to Inuyasha… oh God, please no!
A shudder rippled through Namida's frame as she slowly raised her head, and Kagome took an involuntary step back. There was still no expression on the dog hanyou's face, not even of pain. Namida glanced down at the arrow embedded in her flesh, calmly reached up and tore it from her shoulder. A small line of blood trickled down from the wound. She held it in her hand for a moment, watching the blue fires consume it, then closed her hand around the ashes.
Namida's voice was soft, as if she spoke to someone not present. "I accept your challenge, dead one." She turned and headed for the door.
"Milady, wait!" said Sango, eyes worried.
"Where are you going?" asked Miroku.
Namida did not turn around. "To destroy the abomination," she replied.
Inuyasha started to step forward in protest, but a voice made him halt in astonishment.
"No."
Everyone turned to look at Kagome. Even Namida stopped and slowly looked back. "What did you say?" the woman asked, her voice low, eyes smoldering with restrained anger. Inuyasha tensed, wondering if Kagome had pushed their host too far.
Kagome glared back in defiance. "I said no. It's murder. If you just race out there and kill Kikyo without making sure that she's responsible, then you'll be no better than the demons."
Inuyasha stared. He knew Kagome and Kikyo didn't like each other… so why is she defending Kikyo? he wondered.
The hanyou woman and the human girl stood frozen in a strange tableau, locked eye to eye in a silent struggle. Namida blew out her breath in frustration. "As you wish," she said shortly, whirling away. "I only hope that you do not come to regret your decision."
As her footsteps echoed softly on the stairs, the others looked back at Kagome, who appeared slightly dazed and shocked that the angry half-demon had listened to her.
"It seems that your words have a lot of weight with Lady Namida," said Miroku thoughtfully.
"Namida can be really scary," said Shippo, clinging to Kagome's leg. "I thought she was going to spit us on her swords like sushi!"
Sango laid a gentle hand on the younger girl's arm. "Kagome, why did you stop Namida? Even if Kikyo isn't the one breaking through the barriers, she still shot Rosuto, leaving a wound that hasn't healed. Not to mention she just shot Namida. That isn't going to make Namida happy with her."
Kagome looked at Sango. "That may have been Kikyo just now, and if so, she's probably made an enemy in Namida. But what if Kikyo isn't actually breaking the shields and didn't shoot Rosuto?"
"But… Rosuto saw her," said Shippo.
"He saw someone who looked like Kikyo," Kagome corrected. "But we know a demon who can take on the faces and forms of other people."
"Naraku," Inuyasha snarled.
"Exactly," said Kagome. "Demons know that someone is protecting this forest and this mountain, even if they don't know about the hanyou living here. They'll be drawn to this place, searching for power like Sesshomaru. What if there is something here Naraku wants? What better way to sow dissension than by taking the form of a relative?" She shrugged. "It's just a theory, but before Namida does anything, I'd rather be sure if Kikyo was really responsible."
"And if Kikyo is responsible, what then?" Miroku inquired.
"Kikyo wouldn't do this," Inuyasha said stubbornly.
Kagome glanced at Inuyasha before answering the monk's question. "If Kikyo is responsible," she said softly, "then I don't think any power in this world will be able to stop Namida from destroying her."
The chill that followed them up the winding stone stairs had nothing to do with the temperature.
