Chapter 31: The Waiting Game

InuYasha made his way to the room he shared with Kagome. Scrolls littered the floor even though Kagome was already in bed, sleeping soundly. The hanyou briefly considered picking them, but thought better of it. He would get to that in the morning. Besides, there were more important things.

He untied the Tetsusaiga from his hip and propped it in the corner near the bed. Kagome also kept her bow and quiver in that corner. He nearly dropped his sword while trying to put it away, feeling very tired all of a sudden.

The last few days were catching up with him. They must be. Though the bed was only a pace away, InuYasha barely made it there before he collapsed. Before he slipped into the balmy darkness of unconsciousness, he knew that something was wrong. He didn't just feel tired. He felt weak.

Encased in Kagome's quiver was an arrow carved with magical symbols. While they slept, it glowed and the hair threaded around its shaft pulsed…

Rin was in the garden, tending to the flowers that she so favored by the light of dawn. The conversation that she'd had with Sesshoumaru weighed heavily on her mind. She was still upset that he had not told her something sooner, but that was his way, she supposed. Out in the garden, the normalcy of pulling weeds and pruning helped her to center herself.

Rin turned when she heard someone approaching. Her hearing was much improved, though she hadn't paused to notice before. Three of her servants headed towards her. As they did, she stood and took off her gloves.

"My Lady? You sent for us?" Hitomi started. Ayiki and Yuki flanked her.

"I did. I have a favor to ask of you all. It is no secret that we are under attack. However, there will be another battle. Soon."

"What is it you require of us, Rin?"

Ayiki glared at Yuki for speaking so informally to their Lady, but Rin did not seem to notice.

"I have three letters," she told them as she reached up her sleeve to retrieve the small scrolls. "These need to be delivered quickly and discreetly. Given the size of the force that is mounting against us, it has become necessary to seek outside help from friends. I'm sure that Sesshoumaru would prefer I use a courier, but I did not want to risk him being noticed. I trust you three implicitly and you three would arouse significantly less suspicion if seen leaving the grounds."

Ayiki bowed slightly. "It will be my honor to serve you, my Lady."

Rin smiled and held out a letter for her. "Thank you, Ayiki. I need you to deliver this to Lord Takachi and Lady Heron of the Phoenix Clan. It is not far and we will need their help immediately. They will be willing to help.

"Hitomi," she called, urging the next girl to take her letter. "This is to be delivered to Sango and Miroku of InuYasha's Forest. You will have the farthest to travel, but I know that you are swift. These are good friends of mine and will also be willing to lend their aid."

"And whose doorstep to I get to grace, Rin?" Yuki asked.

"You will have the most difficult time of it. Though not far, you will have to convince Lord Masako and Lady Fumiko to lend their aid. The letter is for the Lady of the Northern Lands. However, I fear she may not have such an influence over her husband as would be ideal. You will need to stay and convince him if he is resistant. None of you must rest until you have seen your tasks completed. This needs to be done with all haste."

"Yes, my Lady."

Yuki understood the situation and used Rin's title to show her seriousness. She grabbed the scroll, but looked back at Rin when she did not immediately relinquish it.

"Yuki. You must convince them. If we do not have the aid of the rest of the council, I fear that we shall all be lost."

Raziel was started awake by the sound of keys jangling nearby. The sound grew closer until a guard stood before his cell.

"Look alive, prisoner. Our Lord and Master, Sesshoumaru, has summoned you to appear before him.

Raziel quickly hurried to his feet though his joints did protest from the hours he had spent alternately sitting and lying on the hard stone floor. The guard motioned for him to stick his hand near the bars so that his wrists could be bound before he turned the key in the lock and opened the door. Raziel walked out, the guard standing to the side to let the Prince pass by first. HE then led him through a series of dark walkways that, nevertheless, seemed to bring them closer to ground level.

When Sesshoumaru had spoken to his mate earlier that day, she had convinced him that it might be better to call Prince Raziel before him and listen to the message he brought. It was for this reason that he summoned the whelp early in the afternoon of his second day of his imprisonment. Though it had been two days, Sesshoumaru was reluctant to see the feline's face. He waited in the closest thing he had to a throne room as the guard announced him and not so gently shoved him inside.

No one said anything for some time. Rin sighed in exasperation.

"Well if neither of you are going to say something, I will. What was it you came here to tell us, Prince Raziel?"

The Jaguar demon scoffed. "You had your chance."

One of the guards hit him behind his knees. With his hands bound, he went sprawling onto his face.

"You have only my wife to thank for being led out of my dungeons." He lifted her hand to his lips and kissed it in a rare display of affection.

"Were it up to me, I would have let you rot there. Now, you will show her the respect she has shown you, or you will never see the light of day again."

"We would be quite grateful, if you would say what you came to say," Rin chimed in, ignoring her mate's cross look.

Raziel looked up at the both of them with anger in his eyes. But when his gaze fixed on Lady Rin, it softened. She had a kind face and there was pleading in her eyes.

"The last I overheard, they were going to assemble in seven days, then march on these lands. It took me a full day to reach you here and I spent the last two days in your dungeons," he spat, his gaze sliding to Sesshoumaru.

"That is all that I know."

Rin watched the two of them closely, rubbing her stomach as the twins moved. She was not completely convinced of Raziel's trustworthiness, so she wanted to make sure.

"Do you have children, Raziel?"

"No. I don't."

"Well, these are my first. And I would do nearly anything to protect them. That is why I want to give you the opportunity to fight for us. With us."

It was all he could do not to laugh in her face. But the promise of sugar fist over there pummeling him kept him from it.

"And what do I get in return?"

Rin looked at Sesshoumaru, but for the moment he was content to let her handle the situation. "We have nothing to give you that you do not already have. Except, perhaps, our gratitude."

"I think I will pass. I have no desire to be yet another casualty bringing our clan closer to the brink of extinction, my Lady."

Raziel spread a heavy dose of loathing and sarcasm over the room with the way he said her title. Rin wrinkled her nose at him. He had failed her test. Sesshoumaru waved his hand in dismissal and the guard that had escorted him up there hauled him to his feet and dragged him back below ground.

"Four days," Rin murmured as she worried her bottom lip. It was not a lot of time.

Sesshoumaru remained seated as he caressed her knuckles. "Yes."

When Kagome woke up, she was a little upset to find InuYasha taking up more than his fair share of the bed. He was damn near sprawled over her as well. She reached to brush his hair out of her face and stopped abruptly. It was pitch black. Just to be sure, she searched for his ears. The top of his head was smooth. All she found were rounded human lobes on the sides of his head. His claws were also missing.

All of her frantic touching made him come awake slowly. He looked at her with coffee brown eyes instead of his usual honeyed gaze.

"K-Kagome?"

InuYasha was not fully awake, but he was getting there quickly. He remembered how weak he had felt—how weak he still felt. Where his whitish blue hair had been before there was only a curtain of ebony. He thought it might have been the new moon, but a quick glance at the window told him that it was already day.

"What happened to me?"

Kagome looked at him in a way that left no question of who was responsible.

"Kagome? What did you do?"

She inched away from him marginally, then bounded out of bed as he grabbed for her.

"I can explain?"

"Well, you better do it before I get my hands around your neck!"

He lunged at her, but in his human form his movements were slow and sloppy. She dodged him easily and picked up the scroll she had used the night before. Then she went to the corner and pulled the rune arrow from the quiver

"I was just trying to make my magic stronger. The scroll said that I should use a symbol of my magic as a focus. I just used a piece of your hair to see if it would work."

She tried to pull the thread of his hair free of the arrow, but it held firm. When she tried to force it, her own energy shocked her fingers. "Ouch!"

"Undo it," He told her, deathly calm. "Now."

Kagome dropped to her knees and frantically looked through the scrolls still on the floor. She only looked at him when she noticed the tears of frustration falling onto the scrolls and making the ink bleed.

"I don't know how."

Sesshoumaru sat at the head of his table with a look of cool indifference. However, he was deep in thought. Rin had a sudden craving for sushi so their cook had made her a veritable feast of it.

Souten and Shippo were the first ones to arrive for lunch. Everyone had been asked to be present in order to discuss recent developments. It was for that reason that everyone, except Sesshoumaru of course, ate their meal and tried to make polite conversation while they waited for Kagome and InuYasha to show up. Thirty minutes later, they had all eaten their fill. Neither Kagome nor InuYasha had yet to make an appearance.

Souten cleared her throat. "I suggest that we talk. Someone can fill the other two in later."

Rin glanced at the door and sighed. "You are right."

"So what's up?"

"Sesshoumaru and I have finally talked and there are some things we feel you should know." She proceeded to tell the couple about how she was a half-demon and that there was a prophecy about the children. Then she broached the subject of the battle to come.

"The Jaguar clan was invited to join forces, but declined. Their Prince, Raziel came bearing a message. They plan to attack in four days' time."

Shippo looked around the table at their rag tag bunch. Sesshoumaru, the taiyoukai, was the best they had to rely upon when it came to brute force. Shippo knew that his only strong suit was in illusion and diversion. Though he had learned swordplay, he doubted he could take on more that two or three at a time. Souten was a master tactician, but this came down to a numbers game and he doubted she would even be able to come up with a way out of this one.

"How many are we up against?"

Rin hedged, but came out with the truth. "Hundreds. If not thousands. It all depends on how many warriors the clans submit. I have sent for reinforcements, but we cannot depend that the force we need will arrive in time. Many of them may even leave us to our fate."

A tense silence settled over the room. Rin did not want her friends to get killed trying to protect her on this fool's errand.

"You needn't stay. I don't think I could live with it if something happened to you guys."

Souten scoffed and turned up her pretty nose. "Don't be stupid. You won't live long without us either."

Sesshoumaru took his mate's hand beneath the table, earning her attention.

"Though they may be insignificant weaklings, they will protect you. I have spoken with InuYasha. He has already agreed to stay as well."

The door to the room slid open, revealing a black haired InuYasha and a very upset miko.

"Yeah. About that. I'll stay, but I don't think I will be of much use to anyone."

He sat down and immediately started eating the cold food like his life depended on it. As if no one needed an explanation. The dog boy knew that they would want one so he was keeping his mouth busy. Kagome had gotten them into this mess and she was going to get them out.

The Silkworm Queen was playing with how quickly she could get in and out of her manacles. It barely took her five seconds to get in or out, but over the next few days she was confident that she could cut that time in half. She had long since burnt through them with her poisoned claws, but carefully. She didn't damage them to the point that she could not clasp them back together should the guards come near at some point other than to give her meals or do rounds.

Prince Raziel was sitting in the cell next to her, sulking. Seeing the light of day and having it taken away could surely put that type of melancholy into a body. Not that she cared. The more despondent he became, the better it worked in her favor.

"What are you making all that noise for?" he snapped.

She tsked at him. "My aren't we testy? What happened in the great up above?"

He really was to easy to manipulate. He would never make a good leader for his people.

"I told them when they would be coming. And do you know what they offered me in return? Their gratitude."

He fumed. He had played the only card that he had. He had expected something in return. Gold. Jewels. Their first daughter's hand in marriage. Something tangible.

The Queen let the silence stretch as she weighed her words carefully. Though Raziel had the maturity of a kitten, she knew that he fancied himself a man. Therefore, pity would not be the wisest way to get him to respond favorably to her opportunity. She was going to get out of this dungeon with or without him. The only advantage to taking him with her was having someone else to receive the hostile attention should her plan go awry. She might even be able to use him as a shield. It was for this reason that she took the gamble of telling him her plans. A couple of days ago, his precious honor may have gotten in the way of making the decision the way she wanted. But both she and Sesshoumaru had been wearing on that misplaced emotion.

"I will break out of here when the attack starts. I would like to take you with me. It is an easy choice. You would be on the winning side. The Lord and Lady will be terribly outnumbered. And for your sacrifice, I would offer you more than just my gratitude. I would offer you your every heart's desire. I know this is a lot to think about, so take your time. We have enough of it down here."

It did not even take him sixty seconds to come back with his answer, there was so little inner conflict. "I accept your offer. I will fight by you, my Queen."

Author's Note: I know there are some inconsistencies with Sango and Miroku. I am in the process of writing them out of a select few chapters and editing some typos. Two more chapters to come. MAX. Hope you enjoy. R&R. ^_^