Kagome came out of the castle with a grave face. Sirius immediately moved to her side.
"What is wrong, Milady?"
"Not here," she whispered, "Let's go to your place. It'll be the quickest."
Without a word Sirius started walking down the cobbled streets. Kagome glanced back once. Yes, the strange boy was there by the side of the castle gate, only now he winked at her. Kagome blinked.
'What the…'
Suddenly his appearance melted away, revealing none other than Shippou!
Kagome smiled warmly at the kitsune, who returned in kind before he motioned her to follow Sirius. Kagome looked back to see that her companion had almost reached the end of the block. She had to run to catch up with him. In a short while they threaded through numerous bylanes and reached the familiar stone house. Anna was waiting at the door. Her face fell on seeing Kagome.
"I didn't know you were bringing company, Sir, I was hoping to get the afternoon off," she started a voluble account of how her sister had suddenly taken ill and needed her immediate attentions.
Sirius stemmed her flow of words and curtly allowed her to leave. Anna immediately ran out of the house and disappeared round the bend.
Kagome stepped into the house with Sirius. Her mind briefly dwelled on the fact that she was alone in a house with him, but presently it drifted to other more important matters.
This time Sirius took her to the inner part of the house, to a room with a big mirror on a wall and something that looked like an irori* in the middle. As with Morgan's room, this room too had a few shelves that contained vials of different colours filled with powder and liquids.
"I'm sorry Inuyasha and Miroku-sama disrupted your plan," Kagome said apologetically as Sirius helped unburden her, and then motioned her to sit on the floor.
"Don't be harsh on your companions, Milady. At last we have the information we were looking for. Now we just need to contact Lady Morgan and I'm sure she will find a way."
Kagome looked at Sirius.
"How are we going to do that? Puss said the only way to reach her castle was over the bridge of stars."
"Actually," Sirius spoke as he picked a vial from the shelf, "There is another."
He took a handful of powder and threw it into the irori, before he joined her on the floor. Suddenly the room became as dark as a rainy afternoon and the flames sparkled and danced vividly, their tongues leaping at the ceiling. White fumes arose from the flames and got into Kagome's eyes till they watered and burned. Sirius threw out his arm protectively, pushing her away from the blaze.
The twisting flames shaped and reshaped themselves until they took the form of an oval mirror. A face materialized in the middle of it. Morgan le Fay looked through the flames at Sirius and Kagome.
"Why are you contacting me in this manner, Sirius?" she blinked haughtily.
"There is a matter of great urgency, Milady," Sirius proceeded to explain the situation with Lancelot and the Queen.
Morgan listened to every word with careful attention. When he finished his report, her face relaxed into an approving smile.
"I must say your rabble has exceeded my expectations, Sirius. Well done. I shall release Safir from my castle immediately – there is no need for the fox to remain with Mordred any longer. The monk and the slayer have one last task each before they are released from their duties later tonight. Then tomorrow you may ask your minion to guide your friends to my castle for their payments."
Sirius bowed his head.
"As you wish, Milady."
Morgan's face disappeared from the flame-mirror. The fire died down gradually. Sunlight laced its way back into the room, causing Kagome to squint her eyes.
A full minute passed before anyone spoke. Then Sirius cleared his throat.
"A successful conclusion to our quest. We must rejoice."
A shallow furrow appeared between Kagome's brows.
"Just wait a second," she said as her frown deepened, "Aren't we forgetting something?"
Sirius looked at her in mild surprise.
"Forgetting? What, Milady?"
Kagome twirled a strand of her hair in a finger. It was a habit of hers to do so when she was thinking deeply.
"Let me piece together the events of this quest. Morgan had news that Mordred was planning to murder King Arthur. She sent you to ancient Greece to bring Helen of Troy, so that Mordred will be busy falling in love with her and put his murderous thoughts out of his mind."
Sirius nodded.
"That is so."
"Your route got compromised, presumably because of my time travel and you ended up in Japan. Then you decided to enlist us for combating Mordred."
"I did not have a definite plan but yes, I thought something along those lines," Sirius agreed, "But then you revealed through your clairvoyance that rather than killing the King, Mordred's plan is to expose the affair between Lancelot and Guinevere and banish Lancelot from the kingdom. So we changed our plan and decided to prevent the fatal tryst from taking place."
"Morgan placed Sango-chan, Miroku-sama and Shippou-chan in the three quarters and between them they managed to ferret out the required information."
"Which we now have conveyed to Lady Morgan and thus our quest is at an end. What puzzles you, Milady?"
"The Dark Lady, for starters," Kagome replied, "You said she is the one controlling Mordred. Why send us on this dicey quest where our success was more a product of accident than any real planning, instead of trying to curb this so-called Dark Lady? Why doesn't anybody invade her tower or attack her? We can lend our powers in the battle…why do you allow those ferocious birds to live on? Why did Zellandine's castle have those cauldrons and bones of children? What did Morgause mean the other day when she asked me if it was my poor child?"
Sirius looked incredulous.
"She said that?"
Kagome nodded.
Sirius opened and closed his mouth several times before replying.
"I agree that these things seem quite mysterious but the important thing is, Lady Morgan has been informed about these and she said she'll look into them. The Dark Lady clearly has magical powers and only Lady Morgan is strong enough to engage with her. That's why she wants us not to meddle into these things. I understand you being curious about the goings on, Milady, but the fact is these have nothing to do with our quest."
"All the same," Kagome rose from the floor as she spoke, "It seems to me like we were being sent on a wild goose chase while the real events are taking place somewhere else. Like we are on the stage and the ropes are being manipulated from behind. Something doesn't quite add up, there was something somebody said that didn't really fit…but I can't remember that now."
Sirius rose as well.
"You mean somebody has lied to you?"
Kagome shook her head unsurely.
"That's the strangest thing of all…I think someone spoke the truth…"
*Irori: A traditional Japanese style sunken hearth