Disclaimer I don't own much. Of course this means Inuyasha and his crew.

Of Fates Unknown

Chapter Twenty Two

"Remarkable!" Tadiz exclaimed as he stared at Inuyasha's healed wound. "A true miracle!"

Kagome nodded as she too stared at it. Yesterday, she had treated a soldier who'd been accidentally shot by one of his mates while they were at arms practice. The man had come back this morning to thank her, and she'd seen that while his wound had healed quite a lot, it hadn't healed as thoroughly as Inuyasha's had. She hoped that Tadiz wouldn't mention that, but she had no sooner thought it than he did.

Inuyasha looked at her questioningly, and she affected a casual shrug. "Perhaps gunshot wounds are more difficult to heal. Or maybe it is because he is a hanyou."

"Not in my experience," Tadiz said. "They tend to be cleaner, and don't have as much torn flesh as would bites do. Besides, even with his hanyou blood, the wound shouldn't have healed to the point of not even a blemish showing this quickly."

Inuyasha continued to stare at her, saying nothing.

"Then I don't have any explanation for it," she said curtly. She not only couldn't explain it, she also didn't want to understand it.

"Since you don't want to appear to be overly busy," Inuyasha said to her, "I would appreciate it if you could spare me some time."

Kagome saw Tadiz trying to conceal a smile at Inuyasha's sardonic tone. He nodded. "Yes, things have definitely become more orderly, thanks to your intervention, Inuyasha."

"What intervention?" Kagome asked, her gaze going from one to the other.

"Lord Inuyasha has told the guards at the gate to allow only a reasonable number of people in each morning."

"Why wasn't I consulted about this?" she demanded, thinking of the stuffing people who apparently turned away.

Inuyasha seemed about to respond to her angry outburst, but Tadiz cut in smoothly. "My dear, you are already working to your limits and beyond- as you yourself have admitted. The guards have been instructed not to turn away anyone who is in danger of dying."

Kagome opened her mouth to protest, but closed it again. Tadiz was right. Sometimes her hands actually ached from the forces that flowed through them.

"What did you want to speak to me about?" She asked Inuyasha impatiently, adopting that imperious tone she seemed to use on no one but him.

"Come along," he said, taking her arm. "I'm hungry, and it seems to me you could use some food. We can talk while we eat."

His gaze traveled over her and she felt herself beginning to flush. She had lost weight, but she hadn't thought it was enough for him to notice. Granted Shippou did, but then again, he noted her eating habits and was with her constantly.

As he led her from the surgery, she wondered again why she always felt so raw and irritated in his presence. In truth, he'd done little to deserve such treatment, and if she wanted to be totally honest about it, he was actually showing remarkable tolerance for a man accustomed to unquestioned obedience.

Of course, it could be easy to display tolerance for a time, while keeping a larger goal in mind.

The room to which he led her was small and rather crowded with a large desk and several chairs. On the walls were huge maps, darkened with age: one showing all the lands of the Rheas, and the other depicting only Inuyasha's own lands. On shelves behind the desk she saw a large collection of carved wooden soldiers and horses. When a servant came in bearing a large try of food, Kagome walked over to examine the collection more closely.

They were remarkably lifelike, down to the smallest detail. They'd obviously been made some time ago, since there were no guns in evidence. Instead, the soldiers carried swords and bows. One of them was fitting an arrow to his bow and the carving was of such high quality that it even appeared to be feathered.

The soldiers all wore uniforms with an emblem of some sort on them, and when she bent to peer at one closely, she gasped. Carved into the soldier's tunic was the symbol of her people- the same intricate sign that appeared on the Val-Ceadda.

"Souta is quite taken with them as well," Inuyasha said. "But he apparently has better manners than his sister, since he hasn't stolen any of them yet."

She ignored his jibe at her thefts. "These are Ceadda?"

"Of course- carved by Ceadda craftsmen."

Turning towards him she stated emphatically, "My people weren't warriors."

He shrugged. "Well, if they weren't they apparently like to pretend that they were."

She turned away from him and the collection. "Well, of course they had to defend themselves against their enemies."

"Indeed. All wars are about defending oneself from one's enemies."

"You're wrong, Inuyasha. Wars are about conquest- taking what belongs to someone else."

"I think we'd better abandon this topic for now. I wanted to talk to you about Souta."

She turned back to him quickly, "Souta?" she echoed as fear and guilt rushed through her. What had he done? She'd had so little time with him.

He lifted the lids covering the food that had been left for them. "Will you join me?"

"I want to know what Souta had done," she said.

"Your manners grow steadily worse," he remarked mildly. "And it isn't what he's done; rather, it's what he hasn't done."

Begrudgingly, she sat down and accepted the plate he handed her. "I'm sorry. If my manners are lacking, it's because I've been working too hard lately." She didn't bother to add that she was always at her worst around him, since he undoubtedly already knew that.

"Which is why I intervened. And perhaps you should consider playing less at the Sword and Bow."

Shrugging her shoulders she replied, "I've thought about it, but my playing draws crowds, and the Sheppards have been very kind to us."

Shaking his head he countered, "They've also done very well for themselves over the years, so losing some trade isn't likely to leave them starving. Sometimes, I think I should just pay them directly, instead of paying my men so they can just turn over their money to them."

A ghost of a smile played at her lips, thinking that she liked his sense of humor and that others undoubtedly saw far more of it than she did. Then she remembered that he'd asked her here to talk about Souta.

"What hasn't Souta done? I know he's doing well in school. I spoke with his teacher recently. But I don't see much of him. Has he been bother you?"

"Not at all. I like him very much- and his company is considerably more pleasant than that of his sister, I might add."

Snorting Kagome gives him a narrowed glance, "I think we'd better abandon that topic as well, Inuyasha. Tell me what the problem is with Souta."

He crossed his arms and tipped his head, "Abandoned topics have a way of coming up again," he observed. "But as to Souta, it seems that he's been subject to some taunts at school lately."

"What do you mean?"

"As you've probably gathered by now, most of my people- including myself- pay little more than lip service to our priests. But there are those who have very strong religious beliefs, and it seems that the children of some of them have been making remarks to Souta about you."

"About me?"

Inuyasha nodded, "I expect that old, Tomas, the high priest, will be paying me a visit any day, to protest my harboring the 'devil's handmaiden'. That is apparently the name he's given you, since that's what some of the boys have been telling Souta."

Kagome was aghast. "But Souta nor Shippou have said nothing of this to me."

"No, Souta talked to me about it. Shippou probably didn't want to worry you. Souta is at an age when he prefers the company of men. I was about that age myself when I began to turn more to my father then my mother."

"But what can be done about it? I won't have him bullied by the other boys."

"Exactly. He has to learn to defend himself. I'm surprised he hasn't already learned that."

"We were a peaceful race. I tried to make him understand that nothing is resolved by resorting in violence," she said emphatically. "That's what out mother taught both of us."

"What about your father?"

"He died years ago- when Souta was only four."

"So that explains it," Inuyasha said, nodding. "He needs to learn how to defend himself, Kagome- and he want to learn. He asked me to teach him."

She stood up abruptly, "That explains nothing. You will not teach him!"

He continued to stay seated, looking at her passively. "Would you rather have him suffer beatings?"

"Of course not! I expect the teachers to prevent that sort of thing."

Inuyasha sighed and shook his head, "The teachers wisely understand that boys of that age have a need to fight. They continue themselves to making certain that no one is seriously injured."

Kagome was silent as she sat back down and thought about a conversation with one dear old male friend she had grown up with, only days before the Vali invaded. He'd said virtually the same thing and had claimed that Souta was in danger of becoming a sissy-boy.

The tears that stung her eyes were in part for that memory- the last conversation she'd had with her dear friend, and one that had ended with angry accusations on her part. And they were also tears of frustration. She was trying so hard to deal with all the changes in her life; she'd ignored Souta so that he had taken his problems to someone else. And to Inuyasha at that.

Suddenly, Inuyasha reached across the small table and took her hand. She started to pull away, but he merely tightened his grip.

"Kagome," he said in a tone so gently that she immediately lifted her head to stare at him, "do you think that no one can understand what you've been through- or what you're going through now?"

She swallowed hard. She didn't want his understanding, did she? How could she be sure this wasn't some plot on his part to gain her cooperation later when he went to war?

"You can't possibly understand," she replied, even though part of her wanted very much to believe that he could.

He released her hand and she felt the loss of its warmth keenly. His touch produced almost the same sensation as her healing powers: a tingling warmth that emanated from somewhere deep inside her.

"If you mean that I can't understand what it is to lose everything, and then find yourself at the mercy of forces you don't understand- you're right. But whether or not you want to believe it, I too have felt that force. Not the way you have- but I've still felt it.

"And I feel responsible for all this as well. After all, it was I who tricked you into staying here at the keep so you'd have the opportunity to find out if the powers of the Ceadda still exist."

At first, Kagome was so struck by his gentleness that his actually words failed to register. Then she realized tow things: he was admitting that the obelisk had some effect on him as well- and he had also admitted to the treachery she had absolved him of some time ago. She wasn't about to question him regarding that night in the tower, because raising that particular subject was too dangerous.

"You 'tricked' me? What are you saying, Inuyasha?"

"More than I should have," he replied with a rueful smile. "Your wine was drugged, and there was no one threatening your life at that time. Now, however, I think you are in danger."

She sprang from her chair, glaring at him. "How dare you treat me like that? You-"

Kagome stopped abruptly and turned away from him. She was literally shaking with anger- but at least a part of that anger was directed at herself for becoming angry. Hadn't she suspected this all along? And yet she'd agreed to move into the keep for her own purposes.

She was also angry that she could so easily let herself be seduced by his soft words of understanding and by his kindness to Souta, when she should be recognizing it all as a plot to gain her cooperation.

She had moved away from him to stand staring unseeing at the shelves of tiny Ceadda warriors. She wanted to strike out at him- and she wanted him to take her into his arms. It was madness. She had traded her sanity for the power to heal- and perhaps the power to kill.

He came up behind her and curved his clawed hand around the edges of her shoulders. His touch warmed her and stirred the dangerous mixture of her emotions into even more confusion. Then he turned her to face him and cupped her chin, lifting her face until their eyes met.

"I know you're angry with me," he said softly. "And I know that you want to strike out at me. But I also know you won't do it."

"What I did was wrong. But all my life, I've been going up to that tower and thinking about the powers of the Ceadda, and when I realized that you were Ceadda, I had to find a way to keep you here, to see if those powers still existed. Do you know that the obelisk glows all the time know?"

She shook her head. "No one has mentioned it."

"No one knows, I boarded up the windows so it couldn't be seen at night."

"That was probably wise," she agreed. The anger had left her as quickly as it had come-, as it seemed always to do with him. She still didn't doubt that he wanted her to use her powers to aid his war making, but she also believed what he'd said about being fascinated with the legends of the Ceadda. Somehow, caught up in the terribly tangled web of her own emotions, she had failed to see that he too was caught in a snare of conflicting feelings.

"I think you've been repaid for your treachery," she said with a slight smile. "By bringing me here, you might have gotten more that you bargained for. If that priest doesn't come to complain about me, what do you intend to do?"

"Tell him very kindly to mind his own business," he replied with a snort.

Tilting his head slightly she asked, "Will that work?"

He shrugged, seemingly unconcerned about the whole thing. "It will work because he has no choice. When I was a child, the priests attempted to foment a rebellion against my father, who had even less time for them then I do, who had even less time for them than I do. It didn't work, because the people wouldn't follow them. My father decided to get rid of the whole lot of them, but my mother interceded on their behalf.

"In my case, they know that there's no one to intercede, and they also know that the people are no more likely to follow them now than they were then- perhaps even less so."

Kagome shook her head. "Maybe I should talk to them," she suggested. "If I could make them understand that I'm not trying to come between them and the people and that I'm not the 'devil's handmaiden'-"

He shook his head. "I don't think that would be wise. Tomas is a very unpleasant, sanctimonious old man, and if you took the same dislike to him that you seem to have taken to me-" he chuckled.

"Let's just say that it wouldn't contribute to civic order to have the High Priest sailing out over the wall of the keep."

Kagome laughed. The image he had created was just to irresistible.

Inuyasha smiled, and then reached out to take her hand. "Do you know that's the first time I've heard you really laugh? I like the sound of it."

Once again, he had spoken words that sank deep within her and touched secret feelings that she wasn't sure should be examined. She also knew he was right. Souta had said just the other day that she wasn't "fun" anymore.

"You were right when you said that it's difficult for me to be controlled by forces I don't yet understand. There have been times when I've been angry with you beyond reason- as though it wasn't really me who was angry, but rather something working through me."

"And that night in the tower?" he asked softly. "What were you feeling towards me then, Kagome? Why did you run away?"

"I told you that I didn't always have control over my feelings," she replied, avoiding the question and then quickly changing the subject.

"I suppose that Souta will have to be taught to defend himself, but I intend to keep on telling him that violence is wrong."

Inuyasha sighed slightly knowing of her intent, but refused to release her. "I'll teach him what he needs to know, but he may not have need of those lessons for very long."

"What do you mean?" she asked, fearing that he was about to tell her something else she didn't want to hear.

"Souta is Ceadda, too. Had you forgotten that?"

She had forgotten it. She'd been so wrapped up in her own problems that it had simply never occurred to her that Souta would one day have to face what she herself was now facing.

"When?" she asked fearfully.

"I know nothing more than you do. I've questioned him a few times about whether or not he felt different here, but all he says is that he likes living here. He doesn't seem troubled by your talents, but perhaps that's because he has yet to see them for himself.

Kagome was awash in guilt and terrified to think that her brighter might have to face all this, instead of having a normal childhood.

"I was wrong to have brought us here," she said, more to herself then to Inuyasha, whose presence she had very nearly forgotten.

"You had no choice," he pointed out. "And Souta will have the benefit of your help, so it shouldn't be as bad for him." He paused, gripping her hand a little tighter. "You didn't answer my question about what made you run away from the tower. We seem to make a habit of not finishing our conversations."

Kagome looked up at him hesitantly, "You told me that you felt… something, too."

He nodded lightly, "I did- but the feeling was not new. I felt it the first time I saw you at the tavern." He paused until she raised her eyebrow at him questioningly. Then he lifted her hand to his lips.

"I want you Kagome. Both sides of me have wanted no other woman before or after that first night I saw you. That's why you ran that night."

His lips pressed softly against the sensitive skin of her palm, and then moved slowly to her wrist, were sudden heat sent her blood coursing through her veins with a pounding rhythm that seemed to be roaring in her ears. She wasn't sure if it was her imagination or not but she thought she could feel the smallest hint of his fangs and his ears perked towards her, as if able to hear her heartbeat as well.

Their eyes met and held, and in his she saw a promise of pleasure beyond anything she'd ever known or even imagined. Her body was growing heavy and weak, filling with a hunger that was frightening in its intensity.

Inuyasha lowered her hand slowly, his eyes never leaving hers, as his nostrils flared at the sudden spike of her arousal, making his youkai side demand to be heard. Then just as slowly, he drew her into his arms. His hands glided slowly over her, curving themselves around her curves, heating her flesh.

Inuyasha. She spoke the word to herself, and suddenly it seemed to take on new meaning, to become the single word for all those disturbing, unremembered dreams. She wanted this- and more than this. But still she feared that wanting.

His lips touched her hair, her brow, an ear, a cheek, drawing down to her neck, with feathery touches, until she moved her head seeking his mouth with her own. Soft moans poured forth from them both, to be swallowed up by the other. She threaded her fingers through his thick, silvery hair and arched her hungry body to his, wanting, needing, demanding, as his eagerly answered with its own dominating claim.

There mouths became more insistent as their tongues intertwined in erotic pleasure. His hands cupped her bottom and pressed her against the unmistakable evidence of his need. She groaned in response, burning now beyond all reason. Her entire world had shrunk to this man and this moment.

And then there was a knock at the door and she spun dizzyingly back to the edge of reality to border between her fears and her need. Inuyasha reluctantly lifted his mouth from hers with a muttered curse. Then, just as reluctantly, he let her go and reached out with one long clawed finger to trace her swollen lips.

"Come to me tonight," he said in a low, thick growl, his eyes burning with a golden, amber fire. "Come to my bed, Kagome."

)O(

Review responses:

Han Mei – LOL, then you should love this chapter. But the cliffy is if she will go or not. As to the heat, well look at it this way, her power allows her to feel abnormalities in the body and it shows up to her as heat. When she senses that heat it triggers something in her power to 'fix' what is wrong. Her not being sick before is simply a result of living with a healer at the time. Their mother would know how to take precautions to prevent illness. Back when the Ceadda where in power they would do the same to those who were sick as Kagome is doing.

I am glad you enjoy the story, and thanks for the offer. I do have a beta at the moment, but I need to take a day to type up more of the story. This part here I typed up this morning. (sigh) I caught up quicker with myself then I thought. Good luck with finals. It is one of the main reasons why I am glad I am out of school. LOL!

Josie'n the P.cats – Kouga is not going to be in the story. I just couldn't resist using 'him and his pack' as a major turning point in the story. As his declaration in the manga made Inuyasha actions speak louder then words, here too is the same thing. I think he is more of a 'if you don't realize what you are doing you stand to loose her' sort of thing. Granted she would be more interested in him then say Hojo, I just don't see her as the type of girl to play with both of them that way. (though personally I think she should. :P)

I tried to keep the spirit of the manga and the ability to say, 'yup, that is so them'. But still keep it so that it was still different. (I know, that just made no sense didn't it.) Anyways, I hope I have kept their spirit alive, if nothing else. Even if this is an A.U.

And about moving to florida… Sigh, I wish, but to humid for my liking. Now Texas, between the weather and the horses… that's heaven! LOL!

hana no tenshi – No worries about the reading. Have fun with your trip. I will be on IM a bit later today. Have to clean house after I get done posting this chapter… (sigh) A woman's work is never done. LOL at Tadpole!

crazii grl – Thanks for the review, and glad you love it. I usually try to get two chapters a day done. But this weekend was a bit crazy. I am going to take tomorrow off so I can get ahead again in the story. I caught up to myself, faster then I thought.

Aitu – LOL, at screaming. I bet your going to jump out of your seat with this chapter.. :P Thanks for the sympathy. My family is just such an ordeal at times. Glad they only get together once in a blue moon. Have fun at school today. (cough, yeah, right) And thanks for your review.

Ok, here's the thing. I have to take a day tomorrow to type up more. I have completely caught up to the point where I was typing this out this morning to finish this chapter. I am hopping to get two days ahead between today and tomorrow. I am sorry about this short delay in the story, but I would like to be ahead of the postings so that way early in the morning after sending kids to school, all I have to worry about is replying to reviews before I post the chapter.

I thank you all for you reviews, and hope you do not mind this short delay. It just makes things easier at this end.

Brightest of Blessings,

Lady Banshee 999