The Assassin's Moon

CHAPTER 12

A hot bath, change of clothes and a dinner of her favourite foods did much to change Kagome's disposition on life. After a cheery dinner with the rest of her sisters, Kagome retreated to her lair. She entered her father's library and pulled out the skewed volume of Caedeus. Kagome straightened the row of books after the passageway slid open. She still wasn't sure how Kouga found the secret panel and figured out the lock. He must have been secretly following her. Mentally shrugging to herself, she walked through the passageway without paying heed to the glowing fungus. Unclasping her locket, she slid it into place and activated the slab.

Kagome skimmed an eye over the mess from the night before. After doing some quick housekeeping, Kagome collapsed into her father's favourite chair behind her desk. Shortly after his passing, she moved his chair down to the lair she had inherited. Even though he was gone for several years now, the chair still retained her father's comforting scent of sandalwood. If she closed her eyes, she could imagine that she was still 10 years old and sitting on his lap with his arms wrapped around her.

Kagome sighed resignedly and opened her eyes. One could only live in dreams and the past for only so long. There was work to be done. Kagome reached behind her and pulled out the stack of letters stashed in the bookshelf. She already knew every word by heart.

Ever since that fateful day when she had been kidnapped, the assassination attempts happened less frequently and ended up stopping all together. Her father easily thwarted each attempt on their lives with the assassins taken the dungeons to be interrogated. Her foster family teased her about being more notorious than Several passed in relative peace but her father insisted that he continue Kagome's education just in case. He had held true to his belief that they would never give up on a marked target. He was right. On the night of the 19th birthday, she was sleeping in her bed when an assassin had crept into her room and slipped a garrote over her head. The only reason that she survived was because she had hand under her pillow where her dagger was hidden. She had struck out blindly and stabbed her assassin in the eye by pure chance. That was the first man she killed.

Kagome had not suffered much through her near brush with death other than shaken nerves and a thin red scar around her neck. She thought that a scar was a small price to pay for escaping with her life. Every time she looked at herself in the mirror, she would be reminded of all the crimes the Western Lands heaped upon her family. The assassination attempt had shaken her father more than herself. It was the first time that an assassin gotten through the special guards that he had especially assigned to Kagome's room at night. He had left the very next day to deal with this matter personally. Kagome became his liaison back at home. They exchanged corresponded through the lesser known channels during this absence. Her father had came home briefly for special occasions such as her birthday and then left shortly after. Each time, Kagome would beg him to stay longer and then he should kiss her on the cheek tenderly and tell her that it would be soon over. Whenever Kagome demanded to know what would be soon over, he would smile mysteriously and leave.

One day, his letters stopped coming. He had promised that he would visit in about a week's time. A week changed into two weeks and two weeks became a month. Kagome worried fretfully and had pounced on one of her father's trusted messengers when she finally saw him. With his face set in sorrow, he handed Kagome her mother's locket. Her father had been ambushed on his way back to the Eastern lands. After taking a sword through the middle, Lord Higurashi forced Piers to leave and deliver the locker to Kagome. It was the last present that Kagome ever gotten from him.

After receiving the locket, Kagome understood that her father had chosen her as his successor. Piers had dropped to a knee and sworn his loyalty. Numbly, Kagome gone to Lykakaides that very night with the news. Lykakides offered her the post and Kagome had accepted. She spent the next few days mourning for her father. When she emerged, she was not the same. A hardened woman had replaced the carefree court lady. What has been lost can never be regained.

Melancholy from her memories, Kagome shuffled through the letters one by one. Even though she already knew the words by heart, she meticulously read through each of the letter, word by word. Kagome had come upon these letters a year after she took over his position. She had accidentally knocked over a cup of water. She jumped up and banged her knee on the desk. A hidden compartment in her father's desk fell out. After cleaning up the water spill, she discovered that the secret compartment had held her father's diary and a collection of letters from the Queen of the Western lands before his banishment and several dated after the incident.

After reading the letters and the diary, Kagome had finally unveiled the complete story of her past. The Queen Kaori had written many love letters to her father. His dark good looks and his aura of mystery had drawn Queen Kaori's eye. She wanted him in her bed. What the queen wanted, she expected to get. When her father refused, Queen Kaori retaliated by destroying the one thing that had separated them.

The latter letters explained the lies that Queen Kaori had told King Inutashio. Queen Kaori's spies had found out that her father killed his father-in-law to save the family name. She went crying to Inutashio with this information and branded him a traitor along with his father-in-law. Kaori wept that Lord Higurashi also tried to force himself on her. She showed him the marks that she inflicted on herself to make her story viable. Inutashio believed her and condemned his best friend and his family to die on the word of a woman.

For the next two years, Kagome dedicated her life to assassinating the queen. She learned their customs and infiltrated into the castle. After so many years, her hardwork had finally paid off several days ago. Yet, she was not done. Kagome read the last line in her father's diary again.

King Inutashio may have been fooled by his queen but it was still his hand that ordered Akiko's death. For this I will never forgive him.

...

Kagome had showed Tia the love letter Lyn received and Tia accused her of duplicating the letter to keep her apart from Miroku. After much screaming, Tia had stormed into her bedchamber and slammed the door behind her. Lyn and Kagome shrugged and continued on with their life but an idea had already formed in Kagome's mind.

This ambassador appeared to the be the philandering rake of the highest class. Kagome didn't doubt for a minute that dozens if not hundreds of other women have received the exact same letter. A man like him wouldn't be able to keep his hands to himself. He probably used to dealing with irate women. Lord Miroku played with fire and it was about time for him to get burned.

Kagome spent the next month in the castle recuperating from her latest overindulgence and setting her plans in motion. She commissioned masks of every possible sort and ordered new gowns for every occasion. Kagome's post as spymaster offered her a virtually unlimited stipend but for this business, she didn't use any money but her own. She managed the state affairs and left everything in the very capable hands of her second-in-command, Piers. Kagome sparred with Kouga's bodyguards and lovingly cared for all her weapons. She was just in the middle of packing her weapons and poisons when someone knocked on her door. Kagome pushed off her knees and answered the door herself. Ever since the first attempt on her life, Kagome had refused to have a personal maid. Especially because of her position, she knew exactly how easily it was to bribe a servant to talk. Loyalty was cheap. Kagome didn't trust anyone other than Piers not to sell her out. Her foster brothers and sisters were so sheltered that they wouldn't even knew if they told someone something about Kagome that they weren't supposed to. That was why only Lyn and Kouga knew her secret.

Kagome clipped a sheathed dagger at the back of her pants and eased the door open a crack. When she saw the royal livery of a messenger, she opened the door completely.

"Yes?"

"Greetings Lady Kagome." The messenger bowed. "A message for you from Lady Ayame. She invites you to have tea with her at the fourth hour." The messenger said politely.

Kagome sighed. The last thing she wanted to do was to have tea with Kouga's betrothed. The capricious redhead was irrevocably in love with Kouga and prone to fits of jealousy. It did not help matters that Kouga openly declared his love for Kgaome. He had been putting off their betrothal from the cradle for years now. Ayame always liked to subject Kagome to an interrogation every time she returned from a trip. Kagome thought had escaped Ayame's customary summoning when she had not received a message from her for over three weeks. Declining the invitation would not do any good either. Ayame always showed up to interrogate her one way or another. It would be better for Kagome to deal with Ayame now. Just like ripping off a bandage stuck to a wound.

"Tell Lady Ayame that I will be there," Kagome said wearily and closed the door. She walked back into her bedroom to get changed.

...

"Milk or sugar?"

"Both."

Kagome clasped her hands together as she watched Ayame play the part of a perfect hostess and serve them both tea. Kagome accepted her cup with a murmur of thanks.

"So, Kagome. What have you been up to?"

"The same old."

Kagome sipped at her tea. Ayame sipped delicately at her own with the saucer held in her left and the cup carefully balanced between her thumb and forefinger. Kagome stamped out the urge to roll her eyes. Ayame had always been the jealous sort. Daughter of one of the leading lords before the kingdom unified under the rule of King Lykakides, by her own right should have been a princess. The first time Ayame ever laid eyes on Kagome, she had taken an intense dislike to her. During her frequent visits to the castle, Ayame always picked on Kagome and saw her as a rival even when Kagome was a nine year old tomboy dressed in boy clothes. The 10 year old Ayame had already sensed what Kagome only found out eight years ago. Sick of being constantly picked on by what Kagome considered a featherbrained twit, she had decided antagonize Ayame and dress up like the rival Ayame accused of being. For Kouga's birthday. she had been decked out in a pretty dress of pink satin and white lace. She had the satisfaction of seeing Kouga's eyes bulge out and Ayame's narrow in a glare of hatred. Ayame had watched Kagome like a hawk eyeing it's prey after that. What had been mild bullying had flared out into a full out complete war. Kagome has been trying to convince Ayame that she didn't feel anything for Kagome for the next ten years of her life.

"I see you are playing dress up in your men's clothes." Ayame said disdainfully.

"You should try them sometime," Kagome said smoothly. "They are a lot more comfortable. I don't know how you manage to move under all those layers of silk!"

Ayame's eyes flashed. She had caught Kagome's subtly inserted innuendo suggesting that she was fat.

"We women manage."

Kagome put down her tea and reached for a biscuit. Digs at her sexuality never bothered her. Lyn even joked for Kagome to court Ayame to get Ayame off her case. Kagome had dryly replied that she might actually be successful and then have an ardent Ayame in love with her. That would open another can of worms. Kagome was comfortable with who she was. Could the same be said of Ayame? Kagome bit into her biscuit and almost moaned from the buttery taste of the biscuit melting in her mouth.

"What is this? It's wonderful."

Ayame smiled gloatingly.

"It's called shortbread. It's a secret recipe from my home province."

"Could your cook be bribed to share it with Piers?"

"Doubtful. Cook guards her recipes jealously." Ayame sniffed.

Kagome snickered inwardly. What Ayame didn't know was that more than half her household was on Kagome's payroll. They were expensive but Kagome convinced herself that it was for Kouga's safety that she had eyes watching Ayame and not because of a silly childhood feud. Kagome smirked into her teacup, that coveted recipe was as good as hers.

"What are you smiling about? Please do share."

"I'm just thinking about the present I am going to get Kouga for his birthday." Kagome lied fluently.

She had the pleasure of watching Ayame turn red. Kagome felt sorry for the woman for her devotion to Kagome but antagonizing her was too much fun to pass up. Ayame would have to work much harder to conceal her emotions if she was to be Kouga's queen. Kagome noticed Ayame's white knuckled grip on her dress.

"And what are you planning to get him?" Ayame gritted out between clenched teeth.

"Oh. Nothing special."

Kagome popped another one of those heavenly biscuits into her mouth. She melted and reached for another. Ayame childishly grabbed the tray out of her reach.

"No more until you tell me." Ayame demanded

Kagome sat back nonchalantly and wiped her fingers on a napkin.

"Oh, my dear Ayame. I was about to share it with you anyways." Kagome mocked her. "But I don't know anymore since you're being so mean about it."

Kagome felt so evil when Ayame flushed a deep red that bordered into purple. Baiting Ayame had always made her feel good. Risa had always berated her for stooping to such petty antics. Kagome had listened to it all and immediately resumed to "baiting the wolf." Every time she wandered too close to pushing Ayame too far, her father's warning came forth in her mind. Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

Deciding to put Ayame out of her misery, Kagome answered her truthfully, "I haven't given a thought to it."

"Well, you should!" Burst out Ayame. "His birthday is only a month away. I got the best present for him!" Ayame said superiorly and clapped her hand over her mouth.

"I see." Kagome said dryly. "I won't even be here for his birthday."

"But it's his 25th birthday!" Ayame said aghast.

"Birthdays happen every year. I don't even know what is the fuss. Why would people celebrate that they are a year older and closer to dying?"

"It sounds like you're afraid of dying, Kagome."

"No. It's easy to die. It is living that scares me." Kagome stood up. "Thank you for the tea. I must get back to packing." Kagome bowed to her. "Have a good day."

She could Ayame's eyes boring in her as she left. Kagome was aware that she left Ayame with even more questions than before. Mentally shrugging, she headed back to her rooms.

...

"What do you have to report?" Sesshoumaru's voice cut across the room.

"Nothing at all, Your Highness." The lizard demon on front of him said with a quaver in his voice. "It was as if he vanished into thin air."

"How do you know that the assassin was a male?"

"It couldn't been a woman." The lizard squeaked. "There is no way that a woman could have overpowered Her late Majesty."

"You're useless."

Sesshoumaru flicked his fingers and his green energy whip flashed through the room. With deadly precision, he took the head off the lizard demon.

"Jaken." He called.

His retainer sidestepped over the rapidly cooling body and bowed to his lord.

"Yes, Lord Sesshoumaru?"

"Change the rug."

"Yes, my lord."

Jaken stuck his head out the door and barked orders at some passing servants. The body was taken away and another rug.

"Anything else, my lord?"

Sesshoumaru waved him out the door. His retainer bowed once more and closed the door firmly behind him. More than a month later and there has been absolutely no new information. Who ever had done it was a professional. There was absolutely no scent left behind to track. It was as if the assassin vanished into thin air. Each of the men he had sent out to follow up on leads gave him dead ends. Their incompetence was taxing. They had all insisted that it was a man that must have done it. Yet all the clues lead to his mother's lady-in-waiting. No man would have used poison and then executed his mother in such a manner. His mother's murder was one of revenge. Sesshoumaru curled his fingers around the handkerchief that had taken up permanent residence in his pocket. Nightshade the court gossips had called the assassin. Sesshoumaru had his own name for her. Belladonna...

...