Kuailong knelt beside the stricken demon prince and gently lay her hand on his forehead. Her staff jingled softly as she lay it down beside her to free her other hand to feel over his heart, then explore his wrist for a pulse. "I seem to have arrived just in time," she told Sesshoumaru’s worried friends and family in the low, purring voice Nishi remembered as if the last time he’d heard it had been yesterday, not centuries ago. She would have appeared a simple Chinese Buddhist nun, but for the claws on her hands and her golden, cat-like eyes and sharp little fangs that showed whenever she opened her mouth to speak. She had always seemed to Nishi to be more like a cat than a dragon, but dragon she was, granddaughter of the Great Dragon God of China, himself.
        She sat back and held out her hand to Lord Nishi. "Give me the knife."
        The Great Demon looked at her in confusion for moment. "How did you know--?"
        "I saw it in a vision," she explained brusquely. "It belongs to a god, and was cursed by a goddess. How it came into human hands is what I long to find out, for it has no place among mortals." She wiggled her fingers at him with a sneaky little smile: "Also, I noticed the suspiciously knife-shaped bundle tucked into your belt."
        Lord Nishi shook his head at her ill-timed joke and took the cloth-wrapped knife from his belt and lay it in Kuailong’s palm. She slipped it out of its wrapping and held it to her nose for a sniff. "This is an ancient poison that I never thought to find in this part of the world. It comes from the venom of the Midgard Serpent and causes a slow, torturous death. It traveled a long way to get onto this blade. Of course, applying it to a knife cursed by a goddess of death is overkill. Whoever did this wanted their victim to do more than just die."
        "A goddess of death?" Lord Nishi asked. "Which goddess? I saw a similar knife in one of your father’s books. Is this one from India, as well? Was it cursed by Kali?"
        Kuailong shook her head but instead of answering immediately, she looked around at the others in the room, as if noticing them for the first time. Her eyes alighted upon Lady Shinju last of all, and she reached out to touch the woman’s belly, which was only just beginning to show signs of pregnancy. "Is this your Lady, Nishi?" She asked, then smiled a little. "How lucky: You will have another son."
        That made Nishi and Shinju both smile, but their joy faded when they remembered the plight of Nishi’s first son. "This is Lady Shinju," Lord Nishi introduced her, and she bowed to Kuailong. "Lady, this is Kuailong, daughter of Yazi, son of the Great Dragon of China and my teacher." He gestured to Jigokuyari, who had been watching the dragon woman with great interest from the moment she walked into the room. "This is my vassal, Jigokuyari, Sesshoumaru’s closest friend."
        Jigokuyari bowed to her. "Can you heal Lord Sesshoumaru, My Lady?"
        Kuailong nodded. "I can, but don’t expect a quick or easy recovery. He will be weak and sick for months, at the very least, but he will recover—unless the one who stabbed him is persistent and actually succeeds in killing him." She turned to Lord Nishi with a grim expression: "I will need certain things to create the antidote. Once that has been administered—and it must be administered before the next sunrise—I will need to make certain the goddess won’t decide to enforce her curse. It should only require a few bulls and some gold. I wonder if there are any temples to Erishkigal left in the world…"
        The others shook their heads and shrugged. "I’ve never heard of that goddess," Lord Nishi admitted.
        Kuailong waved a dismissive hand at him. "She was before your time and in another land. Leave it to me. The fact that Sesshoumaru isn’t already dead tells me the goddess has spared his life. I just need to make sure she won’t change her mind." As she reached out to touch Sesshoumaru’s forehead again, she added with a mischievous smirk: "Just don’t seek Shiva’s favor until I’m sure Erishkigal won’t change her mind."
        "Shiva…?" More than one voice asked in puzzlement.
        "One of the greatest gods of India," Lord Nishi filled them in. "Giver of both life and death. But why shouldn’t we seek his favor? What has Shiva to do with this?"
        The dragon held up her hand. "Just trust me for now. I will explain later."
        Lord Nishi’s curiosity ate at him, but he bowed his head and accepted her answer, anyway. "Very well. We don’t call on gods, much less foreign ones, anyway. Tell me what you need, Kuailong, and I will have my vassals to bring it to you immediately."

        Sesshoumaru awoke two days later, just after noon. He saw Jaken first, a blurry figure sitting on his right with a worried look crinkling his brow. When he saw his master’s eyes open, the little toad demon all but wept for joy.
        "My Lady! My Lord is awake! I must inform Lord Nishi!" Jaken started to run for the door, then ran back and prostrated himself beside Sesshoumaru. "Oh, Lord Sesshoumaru, it is so good to have you back with us! I was so afraid!" Then he hopped up and dashed out of the room on his errand.
        "Lady?" Sesshoumaru thought blearily. He smelled her and felt her touch at the same time. "Shinju?" He wondered in confusion. That human was caring for him? He tried to sit up but found he could only just barely move.
        Shinju lay a gentle hand on his chest to make him lie still. "Lady Kuailong said you will be very weak for some time, My Lord, and must rest."
        Kuailong?! Kuailong was here?! He tried to ask Shinju where the dragon was but instead had a coughing fit that ended in dry heaves. Shinju once again lay her hand on his chest to calm him. She cooed some soothing words, but Sesshoumaru barely heard her. He didn’t even have the strength to brush her hand away, much as he longed to.
        The door slid open, and Lord Nishi’s scent filled the room. Soon he was kneeling by his son’s futon and clutching his hand with relief. "Sesshoumaru!" He looked across Sesshoumaru at Shinju and asked: "How is he, Lady?" To his son, he said: "Lady Shinju stayed by your side throughout your illness, my son."
        How nice, thought Sesshoumaru sourly. "Kuai—" It was all he could croak out before coughing again.
        Lord Nishi smiled. "Kuailong has gone to placate the goddess who cursed the knife that poisoned you. The poison was not the goddess’ doing, however. I was hoping you might be able to shed some light on the identity of your attacker once you’ve regained your strength."
        Sesshoumaru cleared his throat weakly. "Ya…sha…"
        Lord Nishi narrowed his eyes at him and let go of Sesshoumaru’s hand. "Umeko’s lover? Did you see him?"
        Sesshoumaru nodded, the slightest, feeble dipping of his chin toward his breast. "Spice…"
        "Spice?" Lord Nishi looked puzzled for a moment. "Do you mean he smelled like spice?"
        Nod.
        "My Lord," Lady Shinju spoke up cautiously, "please forgive me, but Lord Sesshoumaru must rest."
        "Leave him be!" Sesshoumaru wanted to say, but even if he had been strong, he wouldn’t have scolded his father’s mate. He didn’t want his father to leave. Anyway, he needed to relieve himself very badly, and he certainly wasn’t going to allow Shinju to help him with that! "Father," he whispered, and Lord Nishi paused just as he was about to reply to his mate. "Please…help me…" he didn’t want to say it aloud in front of a woman, so he tried to point at himself, succeeding only in twitching his hand in the general direction of his hip.
        After a few moments, Lady Shinju blushed and rose. "I will leave the two of you alone, My Lords." She bowed to them and left.
        The blush on her face was the last hint Lord Nishi needed. He turned to Jaken, who crouched in the doorway, ready to open or close it for those more important that himself, and told him to fetch what was needed. "Kuailong should return by this evening," Lord Nishi assured his son while they waited for Jaken to return. "She arrived just in time to identify the poison and create an antidote. She saw your plight in a vision, while she was still in Tibet and flew here with all her might. She promised me when we last parted that she would come to me in my time of greatest need." He sighed and looked away with a distant look in his eyes. "I thought she might come when your mother was slain, but she did not. Or when I went to war with the Yomitora that first time, but no. But she came when it seemed I would lose my firstborn son." He returned his gaze to Sesshoumaru with another long sigh. "I have missed her. She became like a sister to me, those years in China."
        "Sister" wasn’t the impression Sesshoumaru had gotten whenever his father had told him stories about the dragon’s daughter. More like "lover" or at least, "object of desire", for it had always been clear to Sesshoumaru that Lord Nishi had wanted Kuailong very badly. As far as Sesshoumaru was concerned, Kuailong’s timing couldn’t have been worse. Why couldn’t she have returned before his father had met Shinju?
        "Ah! I have good news, Sesshoumaru," Lord Nishi was saying. "Kuailong says you will have a brother."
        Sesshoumaru’s heart sank, but he dared not show any disappointment. A brother. A half-human brother. If Kuailong had had better timing, he might have had a half-dragon brother, which suited Sesshoumaru much better. Ah well, his father was certainly happy about it, so Sesshoumaru forced his lips into a weak smile for Nishi’s sake.
        Jaken returned, then, ending the conversation.

        Kuailong relieved Shinju of babysitting duties when she returned from making offerings to Erishkigal. Sesshoumaru was sleeping again, so she propped her staff in a corner. As she went to his side, a shimmer of light on jade caught her eye. When she saw the dragon statuette she’d given to Nishi so long ago, she had to smile. "Sentimental pup," she chuckled quietly and went to pick it up off of the little wooden chest. "I wonder what tales your father told you about me," she asked the slumbering demon prince with a soft smile, her mind returning to the days she and Nishi trained together under her father. The demon dog had made no secret of his feelings for her, but she had always put him off, reminding him of her determination to become a wandering seeker of enlightenment. "I want to remain pure," she’d told him time and again. Still, they’d formed a strong bond in those years and had parted the best of friends. He had returned to Japan and found a mate, while she had shaved her head and taken up the life of a wandering nun. His age showed, she thought sadly as she put the statuette down and went to sit beside Sesshoumaru. Had so many centuries passed? The time was to her a long stream of temples and empty countryside, since she preferred solitude—especially to the company of mortals, since she found their mortality so difficult to deal with. No sooner would she meet one, then it seemed it grew old, withered up and died. Frustrating. So she walked alone, only enduring mortal company in the form of others of the Cloth in the various temples she visited.
        "You are a handsome creature," she murmured to Sesshoumaru and gently pushed a lock of hair from his face. "I thought you were a girl when I first saw you, you’re so pretty. You must look like your mother, since I see little of Nishi in your face. I suppose she was very beautiful."
        "Very…" Sesshoumaru whispered, and opened his eyes. "Lady Kuailong?"
        She smiled, not startled at all. "Yes. This is a pleasure, Sesshoumaru, though I wish we could have met under better circumstances. Do you feel strong enough to tell me about the person who stuck the god’s knife in you?"
        He cleared his throat and nodded. "His name…is Yasha. Human. Smells like…strange spice. Dark…hair…skin. Not…Japanese. Sorcerer…powerful. Couldn’t smell…he cast a spell…"
        "He cast a smell to block your sense of smell?" Kuailong asked, and he nodded. "Smart thing to do when dealing with a dog demon, I’m sure you’ll agree. So he was dark and smelled like a strange spice. Are you positive he was human?"
        Nod. "No…demon smell…"
        "Are you sure he was called ‘Yasha’, not ‘Yaksha’, perhaps?"
        Sesshoumaru closed his eyes and remembered the times he’d heard Umeko say her lover’s name. No, there was no mistaking it: He was called Yasha. "Yasha…not Yaksha…"
        She nodded thoughtfully. "Dark skinned? Black, brown, tan…?"
        "Brown," he replied, then added: "Moves…fast. Strong, for a…human."
        Another slow nod. "I once knew of a sorcerer called Yaksha. He had been born human, but it is said that he tricked a god into granting him immortality. Where might I find this…Yasha?"
        "Yomitora," Sesshoumaru whispered. "Jigo knows the place."
        "Jigo?" She raised an eyebrow, then nodded knowingly. "Ah. Jigokuyari. Your friend. I think he likes me already, so I’m sure it will be a very easy task to convince him to take me to where this Yasha is." She winked at Sesshoumaru with a jaunty smile, but her eyes glinted hard and cold. Whoever Yaksha was, Sesshoumaru wondered what else Kuailong knew about him that it could put that kind of a look in a dragon’s eyes.
        Kuailong smiled at him again and lay her hand on his arm. "Are you hungry or thirsty?"
        "Thirsty."
        "You should eat a little, as well," she told him and got up to summon Jaken. "I will send for water and soup. Those should go down alright…and stay down, which is most important."
        Sesshoumaru nodded, but he’d used up too much of his precious strength telling her about Yasha, so he closed his eyes to rest until his supper came. How long would he be weak like this, he wonder as he drifted off to sleep. It was infuriating not to be able to move or do things for himself. He was a demon! Why was he taking so long to heal? What kind of poison could do this to him? He fell asleep with that thought in his mind and dreamed of a giant, venomous snake, that gnawed upon the roots of a great tree.

Chapter Ten