Chapter 38 - Visiting Mother
Sesshomaru deliberated carefully on his mother's bridal gift and ultimately decided to stick with long-standing tradition. An exotic live prey never failed to please a bride. He chased down and subdued a young bull ogre who had been feeding on maidens from a remote mountain village renowned for its fine culinary herbs. There was a spicy savor of the herbs and a sweetness of young meat about the ogre's scent that made Sesshomaru's appetite rise as he shouldered the load.
The ogre met Karimaru's approval too. "Excellent selection, Sesshomaru-sama. It would suit the most discriminating of tastes."
Sesshomaru shrugged, then checked the security of the spell binding the ogre. "Very well," he said, "let's get this over with."
Karimaru bowed slightly, then took to the air, leading the way.
The palace of the Sky Dog Clan was located on a cloud-wreathed mountaintop, perched on vast cliffs, accessible only by air. All earthly approaches to the peak were barred by the Forest Dog Clan, vassals to the Sky Dogs who served as the palace guard.
Two brown-brindle dogs, lean and sharp-toothed, rose from the forest covering the mountain flanks as they approached, challenging them. It would appear that Mother had tightened security lately. Sesshomaru wondered what had prompted that. No doubt Mother would inform him when he arrived.
Karimaru barked out a password; the two dogs fell back to form an honor guard. Assuming human shape, one of them called, "Karimaru-sama, you took your time! It may be your throat this time."
"How fares it in the palace?"
"Tense. Her ladyship's schedule advanced unexpectedly. You had better hurry." The two guards eyed Sesshomaru with a certain amount of displeasure for having caused them and their prince so much grief. Sesshomaru growled softly, reminding them they were overstepping their bounds.
Sesshomaru tested the air as he entered the palace. The atmosphere was indeed tense; fear from the servants, frustration, even anger, from the courtiers, and a hint of something else: need, passionate need. Sesshomaru breathed out, his eyes thoughtful as he considered the possibilities. Somewhere in here, a bitch was in heat. He hoped it wasn't Mother.
Servants relieved him of his burden and a soldier of the palace guard escorted him to a courtyard garden within the walls of the palace where he found his mother in a tete-a-tete with another high-ranking bitch. The family resemblance was obvious, despite the other woman's carnelian eyes and steel-gray fur. She also bore a crescent on her forehead and her cheeks were graced with indigo stripes. The calculating gaze with which she assessed him was also very familiar. So. The Lady of the Storm Dogs was indeed visiting. He approached slowly and bowed.
"Madam."
"Sesshomaru." The Lady of the Storm Dogs rose gracefully and bowed back, then turned to Mother and said, "He'll do, Kouri-chan. You know where to find me."
The Lady departed, leaving Sesshomaru facing his mother.
"I'll do for what?"
Mother chose to not answer directly.
"You have been neglecting your Clan duties," she accused.
"I have been studying the way of my sword," he reminded her.
"Yes, of course. That's all very commendable, but it is now time to put your study to the service of the Clan."
"Ah. Is this just a general statement, or did you have something specific in mind?" Sesshomaru had learned to promise nothing until he had the whole story. The hard part was guessing when he did have the whole story.
"The Clan will be facing a challenge soon," Mother replied. "We need to prepare. As heir to the Clan, you must do your part to strengthen our position."
Sesshomaru reviewed carefully all the rumors he had heard recently, considered the restive youkai he had fought lately, and drew a blank. There was nothing he had met that could begin to mount a challenge to a well organized dog clan like the Sky Dogs.
"Are there suggestions of a palace coup in the works?" he asked.
"Don't be ridiculous," she snapped. "Are you aware of what that hanyou bastard of your father's is doing? He's breeding up a pack. You know what that means."
Sesshomaru stared at her incredulously. "InuYasha?! You're worried about a hanyou? He's thrown his lot in with the humans and doesn't really give a damn what the youkai are doing."
"Are you really that stupid, Sesshomaru? I've seen what he can do with Tetsusaiga." Mother's eyes narrowed suspiciously. "And somehow, you've never seen fit to tell me about it. Are you hiding something?" Once a bitch had 'challenge' boiling in her blood, she became paranoid, suspicious of any deviation from absolute loyalty.
Sesshomaru was not sure how he was going to defuse her, but he had to try. Right now, with her suspicions were running away with her, he could well be her first victim. "Mother, I have not made it my task to monitor InuYasha's every move. I don't cross paths with him that often."
"Don't lie. I smelled that little pet girl of yours there."
"The girl is more manageable when she visits her own kind occasionally."
"I see." Mother's eyes became even harder. "And the place you choose to take her just happens to be the household of your lamentable hanyou brother whom you swore you despised. How interesting. You are the heir to the Sky Dog Clan. You need to consider more carefully where your loyalties lie."
Before Mother could bury him deeper in this hole, Sesshomaru decided to change the subject.
"Karimaru suggested I would be wise to bring a bridal gift. May I offer my congratulations?"
Mother's eyes sparkled, amused. "You may, but it's not for me. Your father was matchless; I'll never take another mate." She rose, took Sesshomaru's arm, twined her own around it, binding him to her with a powerful spell. "But come, the bride will be very pleased to see your gift."
Sesshomaru stiffened and tried to extract his arm. "Mother, what are you up to?"
"Making sure the Clan is secure. I, at least, know where my duty lies. You've been very tardy in attending to this so I had to take matters into my own hands."
"Mother..."
"Don't take that tone with me," she said sternly. "You have had more than enough time to see to the succession. If you can't be bothered with anything else, you can at least manage that."
She steered him out of the room. Karimaru and a quartet of his brindle dogs appeared from the corridors and attached themselves to the group, surrounding Sesshomaru and his mother, preventing his escape.
"'Bring a bridal gift', eh?" Sesshomaru thought savagely. He definitely owed Karimaru a private visit when this was over.
The scent of a bitch in heat grew stronger as Mother conducted him through the palace. They stopped before the door of a heavily barred room guarded by three formidable-looking old bitches. Sesshomaru's bridal gift stood quietly beside the door, still bound by his subduing spell. The soldiers surrounding Sesshomaru sniffed the air longingly, quivering with the effort to control themselves.
"Let me out!!" The sound of something being shredded by angry claws came from the room, then the wall shook heavily from a powerful impact.
"Eeayaugh!" Something else slammed into the wall, then the room's occupant howled out her need and fury.
The Lady of the Storm Dogs slipped quickly out of the room, looking ruffled under her air of competence, and joined the other bitches in holding tight the barrier spell. She glanced quickly at Sesshomaru and his gift and muttered, "None too soon. I'm not sure how much longer we can hold her."
In the early stages of a bitch's heat, a match could be formed in a civilized manner, but the longer the bitch went without satisfaction, the more desperate and potentially violent she became. The dog became more excited too, seduced by the enthralling scent of the bitch just when he most needed his wits about him. Tragic things often happened when affairs were left unsettled for too long.
This was common knowledge for all dog youkai, and it ran through Sesshomaru's mind as the potent elixir of the maiden's scent purged any desire he had to leave. He could tell she was young, powerful, and raging at the height of her heat, the surging tide of her needs pushing her near to the desperate edge of insanity. Females did not get any hotter than this, and right now, Sesshomaru was consumed with an equally mad desire to lose himself in her passion and claim her as his own.
Sesshomaru compelled the ogre to enter the door with him. Custom required a gift for the bride, and when she was this far gone, it might well save his life.
Howling, the girl spun around and threw a heavy bench at the door; Sesshomaru barely dodged it and stood facing his snarling, panting, prospective bride.
Under other circumstances, she would have been exquisite. A trim form moved under the rumpled fur-trimmed kimono. The bared teeth marred a delicate face framed by sable, silver tipped hair. The mad, glaring eyes were moonstone gray, the snarling lips a deep rose. Indigo stripes like branching bolts of lightning blazed across her cheeks.
Her eyes flicked over Sesshomaru and she licked her lips, viewing him more as prey than a prospective mate. Sesshomaru lifted the spell that bound the ogre. The ogre started awake and roared out a challenge to the youkai confronting him.
In a heartbeat, the girl surged into the form of a great silver-frosted black dog and lunged at the hapless ogre, tearing out his throat before he could blink. She ripped open his belly and bolted down the liver, then snarled possessively over her prize when Sesshomaru approached, also as a dog.
He dropped to a submissive posture and crept closer, alert for any sudden moves. The young bitch was so lost in her bloodlust she no longer knew what would save her. She drew back her ears, growling, then lunged for Sesshomaru's throat.
Sesshomaru rolled with the impact, tumbling them across the floor in a tangle of legs and tails. He was on top when they crashed into the far wall, and he held her pinned until he had provided for her needs and exhausted her passion from madness to lucidity.
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The Storm Dogs had a well-deserved reputation for ferocity, and Inazuma-hime was no exception.
"I have never been so humiliated in my life," she raged, pacing up and down the room in front of the door. "My mother drags me here, locks me up, shoves a dog I've never even seen before through the door and expects me to be pleased with my brilliant match. I am going to kill her."
It wasn't the most flattering assessment of the situation, but Sesshomaru shared her opinion. He, too, wanted to kill something. Karimaru was currently at the top of his list.
Inazuma-hime stopped her restless pacing and jabbed a finger at Sesshomaru's chest. "Do you know what infuriates me most about this? Those damned bitches are going to get their precious litter!"
"Are they?" he asked blandly. One dirty trick deserved another; the Ladies had more than earned some retribution.
That gave her pause. "What do you mean?"
Sesshomaru may have been maneuvered into this, but he had never met a more suitable bitch for an ambitious dog. Fiery, fierce and cunning, she was everything he could hope for. He pulled her close, ran his hands through the luxuriant fur of her kimono and breathed very softly in her ear, "Can you think of a better place to hide a pack than right under their noses?"
Her silvery-gray eyes widened, then became speculative as she thought quickly. That was always the trick, wasn't it - keeping the litter hidden until it had grown to a strong, trained pack that could back a challenge. This was a very novel approach.
"It won't be easy," Sesshomaru continued. "It will have to look like I abandoned you. They'll think they have you completely under their influence."
Inazuma-hime may have inherited her father's looks and ferocity, but she also possessed her mother's cunning character; she knew well how to dissemble. And her mate was going to let her run things her way, without interference. She liked this better and better. She pulled his head closer and whispered in his ear, "Leave it to me."
They heard the catch on the door release. Inazuma-hime caught Sesshomaru's eye and quirked an eyebrow. He saw one last, fleeting glimpse of his ferocious mate, then she dissolved into a simpering, blushing bride who clung, beaming, to his arm as they left the room.
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Sesshomaru hated being fawned over. He thought Inazuma-hime was laying it on a bit thick at the bonding feast. She poked another choice tidbit at him, her eyes laughing at his discomfort while she pouted over his reaction. Couldn't she retain even a vestige of dignity?
He glanced at their two mothers, who were ostensibly making the rounds accepting congratulations. They were watching the proceedings at the bridal table with eagle eyes, monitoring the reactions of their two pups now that their senses had returned. His irritation was working right into Inazuma-hime's show. The image of a dutiful, eager wife trying to please a cold, unresponsive mate played out before them.
It was time for the next act, creating a scene where it appeared like he was dumping Inazuma-hime on his mother to dispose of as she wished. He rose from the table and approached his mother.
"Enjoying your little charade?" he asked.
"What are you talking about?" she asked, frowning.
"I'm talking about this sham of a match you've put together. You must realize that bitch is entirely unacceptable."
Mother drew herself up and stared down her nose at him, miffed. "How can you say that? She comes from the very finest bloodlines."
"Indeed? Then perhaps those bloodlines might be becoming a bit - er - rarified. I mean, really! Look at her!" Sesshomaru pointed at his bride across the room, who hung, quivering, on his every word. "If she groveled any more, we'd all be seeing her belly. I thought you'd at least have the sense to find a respectable bitch."
"Sesshomaru!" Mother snapped, aghast. "She comes very highly recommended. I've known her mother for ages. You can't be serious."
The Lady of the Storm Dogs glared at Sesshomaru and ominously growled, "Kouri, do something about him."
Sesshomaru glared back at her, then turned to his mother. "If you want that little excuse of a bitch that badly, you may have her. I'm not having anything further to do with this travesty." He turned and strode from the room while the two mothers snarled at each other.
Out of the room and right into the company of Karimaru, who just "happened" to be passing by in the corridor on palace business. Sesshomaru grabbed him by the throat and slammed him against the wall.
"So you thought you could get away with pulling a stunt like this, did you? You couldn't be bothered to tell me I was the one getting matched?" Sesshomaru bared his claws and let the venom rise.
Karimaru swallowed hard, eyeing the glistening tips of Sesshomaru's talons. "My orders were to get you to the palace. We both know you would have refused had you known the truth. We also both know the Lady is not someone to cross."
"Neither am I," Sesshomaru reminded Karimaru.
"I fear my Lady's consequences more," Karimaru replied, snapping a sudden slash across Sesshomaru's face, then slamming his other fist into his gut. Sesshomaru dropped him and he bolted down the corridor and out the main entrance, Sesshomaru hot on his tail.
Karimaru transformed to a brindle dog as he left the building and took to the air, stretching out into a full run. Karimaru tried to lose Sesshomaru in the clouds, changing directions suddenly and even daring the turbulence of a building thunderhead in his bid to escape. Sesshomaru refused to be shaken, so Karimaru broke sharply to the right and plunged into a steep dive, bursting out of the cloud and skimming the treetops in a a low, swift flight to the East. When Sesshomaru overtook him, Karimaru dropped into the trees, dodging smoothly between the trunks as only the Forest Dogs could.
Frustrated, Sesshomaru rose back over the treetops and tracked him from there, looking for a clearing large enough to drop into for the takedown. Karimaru knew his woodcraft too well for that and wove a sinuous, unpredictable path between the trees, skirting the edge of the mountains then plunging through a narrow defile into a small hidden valley.
A surge of panic ran through Sesshomaru as he realized where they were: in InuYasha's valley, where he had left Rin. He accelerated, trying to cut Karimaru off.
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"All right, she's asleep," Kagome said softly, laying Noriko down for a nap, then picking up her bow and quiver for a round of archery practice with Shippo.
Rustling sounds still came from Shippo's room as he rooted around for items he could use to provide moving targets for practice. Finally he emerged, carrying a bumpy, bulging sack filled with who knew what. They tiptoed to the door and paused to look, smiling discretely, at InuYasha, before moving out to the meadow to start practice.
InuYasha was sitting on the porch stoically enduring another blatant act of father abuse perpetrated by his beloved elder daughter.
Toushi had been digging through her mother's belongings (without permission) and had unearthed a marvelous treasure, a box full of hair ornaments. There were clips, ribbons, pins, bows, combs; she had never seen anything so wonderful.
Kagome had consented to put one clip in Toushi's unruly hair, but that was not enough. Toushi wanted to try them all. She wrestled with the bobs in front to the mirror, but between the difficulties of working backwards from her reflection and the uncooperative nature of her fluffy hair, she had soon given up.
Tsuchiya had taken one look at her studying him with a bow in her hand and had immediately bolted to the top of the nearest tree. Shippo refused flatly to have anything clipped to his tail. Mama was too busy and Rin-chan was in the village getting eggs and vegetables for dinner. Then she saw her father returning from a patrol of the forest.
Papa had the prettiest hair in the village; it was long and straight and there was loads of it. She could put everything on Papa and still have hair to spare. And Papa was an easy mark.
Putting on the puppy-eyes and a shy, winsome smile, she approached her father, and InuYasha soon found himself fluttering with bows, silk flowers, hair-clips gaudy with rhinestones and a rainbow of ribbons.
He snapped to the alert, forgetting Toushi and her ribbons completely, as a pair of powerful youkai auras emerged from the canyon at the foot of the valley. Sesshomaru's scent had him on his feet in an instant. What the Hell was going on?
Rin was just topping the stairs from the village with a pair of laden baskets when the foremost of the fast-approaching youkai swooped down and snatched her. Rin screamed and let go of the baskets to beat and claw at the face of her captor. She caught sight of Sesshomaru following close behind and called, "Sesshomaru-sama! Help me!"
Kagome fired an arrow in Karimaru's path, forcing him to change direction. Another quick arrow in his path made him circle back. InuYasha took to the air as Karimaru passed over the house again, joining Sesshomaru in the pursuit.
The first thing Sesshomaru noticed as InuYasha fell in beside him was the sense that InuYasha was tapping a full-blooded youkai's power. He glanced over quickly, fearing the madness that generally accompanied that transition. The eyes that looked back at him, though red and glowing, were still completely sane and aware. Then he saw the ribbons. He blinked and looked harder, forgetting for a moment the urgency of the pursuit.
"I see you've decided to improve on merely brushing your hair," he said dryly.
"Huh?" InuYasha looked utterly perplexed.
"The sparkly butterfly just off your left ear is very fetching."
"Oh, jeez!" InuYasha blushed as he remembered Toushi's project.
"It goes particularly well with the poofy pink bow."
InuYasha turned even redder. "Yeah, well, let's just see what happens when you have a daughter," he grumbled.
"Hmph."
"Not to change the subject, but isn't this the dog you had with you when you brought Rin here? What's going on?"
"Ah, that," Shesshomaru replied, returning his attention to the chase. "Let's just say I have some issues with the way he delivered the message that Mother wanted to see me."
"Oh?"
"He left a few crucial details out."
"Such as?"
"The wedding I was to attend was my own."
"Oh!" InuYasha could see why Sesshomaru was annoyed.
Sesshomaru looked at his brother through narrowed eyes. "How long can you sustain that youki level?"
"I'm not sure, but there are limits," InuYasha admitted.
"I thought as much. Grab on. Let's save what you have for more important matters."
InuYasha grabbed onto his brother's fur and let Sesshomaru tow him through the air.
Karimaru broke to the North, into the wilder region of the mountains rimming the valley, and threaded his way through a narrow, steep canyon roaring with snow-melt.
Sesshomaru and InuYasha continued to track him, although slowed down by the rushing water and swirling mists of the water falls that obscured their vision and washed away the scent trail. They pulled to a halt at the top of the canyon and sniffed around, trying to find the trail.
"Anything?" InuYasha asked, completely baffled and hoping Sesshomaru's more sensitive nose would prevail.
"No." Sesshomaru looked out over the horizon in deep frustration.
"What's he likely to do to her?" InuYasha asked.
"Karimaru? He does not indulge in gratuitous violence. He will, however, use her to buy influence."
"From whom?"
"Me, Mother, perhaps my mate. Karimaru's only interest is protecting the welfare of his Clan and he will court or extort anyone he feels can provide it."
"So now what?" Inuyasha asked.
"Now we wait for him to contact us."
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Author's Note: I will be on vacation for two weeks, August 7-20, 2008 and will not be near a computer during that time. Some of my trip involves some mind-numbing days spent entirely in airports and airplanes, though, so I'm planning to bring my notebooks and scribble happily away to pass that time. I hope to have some good stuff to type in for the next chapter when I get back! Hasta la vista!