Disclaimer: I own nothing, Joss owns all …..

NOTES: Thanks again to all the kind reviewers….you make my day!!! I would not be writing any of this if it weren´t for you!

Sooo this chapter incorporates quite a bit of stuff I needed to squeeze in for later reference ……hope you´ll like it anyway. There´s a bit Inara and Mal fluff and there will be more in the next chapter!

SWORD AND DAGGER

„ It´s a set!" Mal explained as they were all assembled around the kitchen table, staring at the holographic image of their future booty.

" Look at it!" Kaylee exclaimed with a smile, adjusting the mechanism to enhance the image.

" It´s so  pretty ……I don´t think we´ve ever gone to steal anything  so pretty!"

" Pretty?" Wash cut in, looking around the table.

"How can you say that …..I mean…..it´s a really big, long sword. How can something be pretty that you can use to cut off someone´s hand or head or some other body part you don´t wanna part with?"

"Looks kinda old!" Jayne interjected, shrugging his shoulders.

"It´s Japanese." Book told them quietly. The crew looked up in surprise.

"How do you know that, preacher?" Zoë asked, giving him an interested look.

" I´ve seen objects like these before. It is a Japanese Samurai sword……it was considered an antique even back on earth that was. The sword and the dagger do indeed form a set, they belong together."

Simon nodded in assent, his eyes still fixed on the image. "Book is right, I´ve seen swords like these before. A friend of our family collected antiques, he had a sword like this …and an armour too, I think. Do you remember Mei- Mei?"

" So they´re really old which means very valuable, right?" Jayne said with a grin.

" Already startin´ to like this ruddin´ job."

"I think there might be more to it than this, Captain." Book continued, leaning forward to inspect the image more closely. "I might be mistaken, but I believe this set is indeed a special one."

" How so?"

" Well…..most samurai swords were unique, you will not find two that are exactly the same, but if I remember correctly this set is unique in more than one way."

"There´s something etched into the hilts……an inscription and a dragon, one black and one gold." River said, her voice taking on that eerie sound that never failed to raise the hairs on her brother´s neck.

 "I believe it is the legend attached to this set that makes it somewhat famous." Book added.

"See ….not just pretty, but famous too!" Kaylee told Wash with a grin.

" Yeah ….but that might also mean that its current owner might be even more reluctant to part with it." Mal shot Jayne a frowning look, pondering the implications of the information Book

had just imparted to them.

"Harder to steal, you mean?"

"Tell us ´bout the legend, Book. I love a good story!" Kaylee pleaded. The preacher chuckled, crossing his arms.

" Well ……if I remember all the facts correctly the sword and dagger belonged to a very influential family a long, long time ago, back on earth that was. It was passed along from father to son. The last heir to wield the sword was a man named Hiroshi Zylin Tagava, a general who was caught in the middle of a power struggle over supremacy in his country. He was ambushed and killed by his enemies. Their leader took Hiroshi´s sword, but could not find the dagger anywhere on the body because the general had given it to his mistress."

" Knew there´d be romance in this story!" Kaylee said with a smile. Mal arched an eyebrow at her while the preacher sighed apologetically.

" I do not know if the generel´s wife would agree with you, Kaylee. She was pregnant with his first child. The legend goes that Hiroshi gave the dagger to his mistress as a token, a symbol of his loyalty and trust. "

"Couldn´t give her anything else, ha? Havin´a wife and all…." Jayne ground out, his eyes sweeping over River´s back. She was still leaning over the table, inspecting the image closely. Strangely enough this was a gesture he could understand, even appreciate. Simon just looked at the mercenary shaking his head.

 "As a sign of her own devotion the mistress had the same dragons you see on the hilt tattooed on her body." Book continued unperturbed.

River turned to look at Kaylee, in the split second it took her to blink River caught a glimpse of an entirely different image in front of her inner eye:

The long, graceful line of a woman´s neck, jade- green silk sliding down over white skin that  shone in the flickering light of a fire like mother of pearl…….. the smooth expanse of the woman´s back serving as a canopy for a breathtaking picture of vibrant colours:

The tattoo of two dragons entwined in play as they chased after a ball of fire……

River squeezed her eyes together; the flash was gone as fast as it had appeared. She shook her head, half expecting to find everyone staring at her, but nobody seemed to have noticed.

" Well….famous or not, lil´ Kaylee, we took the job so we´re gonna steal it." Malcolm Reynolds said, straightening himself as he gave the preacher an interested look. "I hate to repeat Jayne here, preacher, but one day you will have to tell us how a man like you knows so damn much about …..pretty much anything."

"I seem to have picked up a lot of information on my travels, Captain."

"Well ain´t that shiny?" Mal returned ironically, switching of the gadget that had projected the image of their target. "Wash …..I want you to set a course for Thalia. Kaylee, I´ll need you and River to look at some schematics of that oh so very nifty security system badger´s contact kept gopin´on about.."

" Sure Cap´n , but after that me and River will listen to the rest of Book´s story!" Kaylee told him, crossing her arms under her chest. Her eyes followed Simon´s retreating back as he made his way back to the lab. "Lord knows I can use some romance in my life!" the pretty mechanic mumbled under her breath.

„ You came for he wrong woman." She said, bowing her head in graceful gesture that seemed almost demure. Straight black hair, shining in the sun, flowed over her shoulders down to her waist like a river of darkness. She didn´t flinch from his stare or from the bright sunlight reflected by lacquered armour and drawn swords. She just sat there, on her knees, the very example of poise and female perfection, her pale hands folded in her lap, almost hidden by the wide arms of the kimono. Her expression was calm and composed, not betraying any fear, her face bare of make up…..her skin white and flawless like fresh snow.

" What makes you say that?" The man towering over her was tall, his armour black and his voice had an impatient edge to it making it even more cruel.

"I am the mistress, Lord Yao, not the wife …as you very well know!" she answered simply, her voice was light, pleasant like a warm breeze.

"Whatever you have planned for me will make him angry, but it will have no influence on his judgement, his decisions. My death will not elicit any harsh reactions or irrational behaviour from him. As I said, I am not the wife. I am merely the mistress ……I can be replaced."

The man laughed.

"Many men have envied Hiroshi the attentions of such a talented entertainer such as you I´ve heard. Somehow I think you might be a woman that is hard to replace, Kimiko. And you think he wouldn´t care if I cut off your pretty head?"

" I do not think he would appreciate such a gesture, but in time my lord will find another to tend to his needs. My death will be an acceptable sacrifice in this conflict."

He laughed again. She had not moved an inch, still sat there on her knees in complete immobility, graceful and cold like a statue.

"What makes you think that I will not move on to the wife, once I have finished with the general´s  whore?"

The woman lifted her head just enough to look directly into his eyes. His insult did not seem to have any impact on her.

"I doubt that you would ever come close enough to the lady Kitami to even catch a glimpse of her raven hair or her lily white feet. We both know that."

An evil smile split the man´s face as he sheathed his sword. Reaching behind his back he pulled another elegant blade from its sheath, holding it out to the woman.

"You recognize this?" he asked, his voice low.

She made no sound. She did not move. She was still……not a muscle in her face twitched as she looked at the sword. Her face was a pale, unmoving mask that betrayed no emotion ….even though at that moment the woman´s heart had turned to stone.

" Yes." She answered, her voice never wavering, still as light and pleasant as the breeze.

" Then you understand."

" The only way for you to have my lord´s sword is to have killed him. Since I know you could not have defeated him in combat……..you must have laid a trap"

" Where is the wife?"

" Would you really sink so low, Lord Yao, as to kill a pregnant woman?"

He chuckled, pointing the tip of the sword at her throat.

"If that child were born it could never grow up to become my ally and I cannot allow it to be raised as my enemy, so I will have to kill them both."

" I cannot allow that." The woman whispered. Inside the wide arm of her kimono her fingers caressed the dragon etched into the hilt of the hidden dagger.

River opened her eyes again, drawing a deep breath. The cabin was dark and silent, except for her breathing and the little snoring noises that Jayne sometimes elicited in his sleep. She felt the reassuring warmth and hardness of Jayne´s body spooning against her back.

Carefully she lifted his hand from her thigh and slipped out of bed.

" Shouldn´t you be in bed? I need you and lil´ Kaylee rested and sharp to break down that security system….."

River almost tripped down the stairs as she wandered into the kitchen.

" Captain….." she whispered. "I didn´t see you there."

" Sorry, didn´t mean to scare ya´!" Mal said. He could tell from her frown that she was wondering why he was sitting in the dark kitchen  area all by himself, just as he was wondering why she was wandering the ship when she should be sleeping.

" I …..I wanted a tea. I had a strange dream." She finally said as though she had read his mind. Mal scowled at that thought …..she probably had done just that. He could never tell with the girl, never knew if her instincts where just so darn good or if she was messing around in his head. In her long white nightshift she almost looked like a ghost, standing there in the dark.

" Can´t sleep myself." Mal returned hoping that it would quell any questions about his being there. She nodded, looking at him for a moment.

" A dreamt of the sword and the dagger ……about the story Book told, you know. The legend. The story goes that after the general was murdered, his enemy stabbed the mistress with her own dagger, the dagger Hiroshi had given her. He had hidden his wife where he thought no one would ever look…..with his mistress. She pulled the blade from her own body to defend his wife against the men who had come to kill her."

Mal pursed his lips, trying to get a feel for what she was aiming at. She seemed to hesitate for a while before she spoke again.

"Funny isn´t it?"

Mal arched an eyebrow at her. Unless he had misunderstood the story completely, Malcolm Reynolds could not see anything close to funny about it.

"Don´t think I catch your drift there, River."

 "It´s funny …… the things people do for love…"