The morning sun was warm on Chihiro's back. She walked carefully over the rough road as the loose cobbles had a tendency to move under her feet. It would not do if she fell, her daughter would not appreciate it and her stomach would like it even less. Chihiro wondered if there would ever be a time when she would not feel sick in the morning. She could not remember what it was like to wake refreshed and hungry for her breakfast.

She thought back to the previous night in an effort to take her mind off her churning stomach. Well, if it was churning, it was not on the fast cycle at least; she could ignore it.

Linca had returned looking grim. She had spoken to Scott and Chihiro in hushed tones, not wishing to wake Rin.

"The place is a dump!" she hissed. "Barely inhabited, those who are there are either slaves who can't leave or spirits too frightened to try and leave. There are lots of guards and they look like they might be a little free with their katanas. Most of the spirits I saw where weak woodland spirits. Little sprites are easy to intimidate."

"They work in the paddy fields outside the citadel during the day," interrupted the Nygel with a snort. "By the look of them, they don't get much of the rice they harvest. Even those who are not slaves might as well be. The guards herd them all out to work and round them all up at sunset and lock them back in the citadel." Linca for once did not glare at the horse for interrupting her.

"Most of them live in hovels by the citadel walls; they don't have access to the centre of the city." She sighed. "The centre looks very plush; there is a small wooden castle with gold leaf on the roof. I saw several well-dressed people wandering around some very nice gardens. My guess is that they are living very well off the people slaving in the fields. They probably export most of what they produce. I saw quite a few carts leaving on the south side of the Citadel. The road is in much better repair there."

Chihiro's heart sank. It did not sound like the kind of place any of them should visit.

Rin had been told in the morning. She had looked confused.

"I don't remember any slaves," she murmured. "I used to go into the market for jewellery once a month. I could not leave the carriage but I saw the townspeople. They looked well-fed and happy. I almost envied them their simple lives..." She squeezed her eyes shut, trying to concentrate.

"Don't force yourself," murmured Scott. "It will come when it is ready"

Rin relaxed and nodded gravely.

"Why don't you ride for a while, mistress?" asked the water horse, startling her out of her musings. "The ground is very uneven if you should fall..."

"I'm fine," murmured Chihiro, rolling her eyes a little. The horse's protectiveness was annoying and it caused stabs of loneliness in her heart because he was reacting as Haku would. If the dragon had had his way she would be at home for the fourteen months of her pregnancy and not attempting a rescue. The Nygel clearly felt the same. "I am pregnant, Snaffu, not ill."

The water horse's ears flattened slightly and his tail swished with irritation.

"You said yourself that you cannot enter the citadel anyway," Chihiro pointed out gently. "Two humans and two spirits travelling together are strange enough... we best keep you out of sight as we get nearer." The horse laid his ears back on his skull and he bared his flat, white, equine teeth and the sharp fangs that terrified lower spirits slipped into view over the herbivore incisors. He was angry.

"Are you ashamed to be seen with the likes of me?" he asked in an accusing snort. Chihiro was in no mood to be intimidated by a flesh-eating, water? horse, however. She stepped forward and firmly ran a hand down his neck.

"Of course not," she said in a crisp tone. "But I don't want you frightening the populous and if anything goes wrong we will need a friend on the outside." The Nygel's ears pricked forward at that and his lips slackened and fell closed. "That's better," sighed Chihiro. "Now, do you think we could get to this place without you acting like a week old foal?"

Abashed, the Nygel trotted forward, swishing his tail. Chihiro contemplated throwing up on him as he passed her but she clamped her jaw shut and took deep breaths. It would all be fine; she was just a little queasy. She fished in her pocket for some candied ginger. She had no idea what she would have done without it, Scott really had thought of everything.

She eyed the tall young man, as she chewed on the strong-tasting root to settle her rebellious stomach. He was walking next to Rin; he was head and shoulders above the tall spirit woman which made Chihiro feel slightly better about only reaching his chest. He was talking to the spirit woman in a low tone; Rin was nodding grimly at his words. Though she could not hear what was being said, Chihiro got the impression that Scott was gently warning Rin not to get her hopes up too high.

Chihiro wondered how they would have managed without his practical advice and quick wit. The short answer was they would not.

Chihiro made to trot after the people ahead of her when something pulled at the hem of her tunic. She looked down thinking she had caught herself on some of the overgrown vegetation that encroached on the road. But when she looked down, Chihiro found herself staring into a pair of large, serious, violet eyes.

"Kisho," Chihiro breathed. The toddler pulled at her tunic again and a chubby hand beckoned her down to his level. Chihiro crouched down and could not help stroking the child's midnight black hair. It had got longer and it was now standing up all over his head in a series of soft spikes. It was like the finest silk under her hands. "What are you doing here?" asked Chihiro, concern leaking into her voice.

"You must be careful in this place," said the child in a hushed tone. "It's not the place your sister remembers and she is still legally his... You will come to no harm, but her..." The child shook his head. "My brother wants you to come to him without support; he will strike at those close to you and remove them." Chihiro's heart chilled for a moment. She looked to her fellow travellers and back to the child. "My mother had no advice for you so did not come; this meeting, she says, is fated."

Chihiro sighed. In other words as it was not Chihiro herself that was in direct danger the goddess could not intervene.

"Thank you for the warning, Kisho," murmured Chihiro. "But your mother is right, we have to go there." The little boy frowned, shuffled forward and placed his hands on Chihiro's belly.

"You must be careful," he said seriously, "both you and my mate." Chihiro nearly threw up all over the child.

"Mate?" she queried weakly, hoping the child did not mean what she thought he meant.

"Your daughter," said the child as if it was obvious, blinking his violet eyes. "When she grows up she will be my mate." Chihiro continued to stare incredulously at the child.

"Did your mother tell you this?" she whispered.

"No," the child replied with a winning smile, displaying two teeth in his gums. "I decided. I like the way she feels when I talk to her." He rubbed his hands gently up and down Chihiro's stomach. "She's warm and strong, I like her," he announced. Chihiro closed her eyes for a moment and concentrated on not yelling at the child. He was still a baby, even if he could talk; he probably did not understand what he was saying. Her daughter was not even born and she already had admirers. She could guess what Haku would say about all this.

"That will be my daughter's decision, Kisho," said Chihiro as gently as she could. "And she won't be ready for anything like that for years. When you are grown up, you will feel differently." She patted his head again.

"No, I won't," argued the child. "Your daughter will be a half breed; no one will want to bond with her, but I like her as she is. There is no one better for her than me." Chihiro raised an eyebrow. There it was, even in one so young. That spirit arrogance that assumed they were better than those of human breeding. Chihiro stood, getting away from the child's grasping hands. Who knew what he was saying to her poor little girl? She would be jaded and cynical before she was even born. Chihiro rested a hand on her stomach.

"My daughter will choose who is right for her when she is ready, child, not before," snapped Chihiro, emphasising the word 'child' as she spoke. "That may be you but it may be a human or even no one." Chihiro's fingers tightened on her stomach. "For her sake, I hope she chooses better than to join your dysfunctional family, small one," she half growled. With that she turned and left the child standing in the road. When she heard the sob behind her Chihiro's heart melted.

"Auntie is mean!" the child bawled. Chihiro turned back to him, ready to comfort the child. For half a second she saw the gorgeous blue skinned figure of the goddess flash into being beside him, her midnight black hair trailing over the rough stony ground. She was holding her child and stroking his hair, soothing him. She realised Chihiro had seen them. She beamed at Chihiro, apparently unconcerned that she had insulted her child.

Chihiro realised that the goddess was pleased with her. She was fulfilling her role as aunty. She was keeping Kisho humble and making him realise he could not have everything he wanted. The pair faded into nothing, leaving Chihiro staring at the road. She felt a faint tickle of warmth at the back of her mind. Was her daughter laughing at her?

"You and I are going to have a chat as soon as you can talk," Chihiro muttered. "No betrothals before you are past puberty or your father may lock you up for half a century."

"Chihiro!" Rin shouted. "We are leaving you behind!"

"Coming!" Chihiro called back. She shook her head, sighed and tried not to think of the fact that the child of gods had practically demanded she let him "marry" her daughter.

The citadel itself was built of giant old red sandstone blocks. Battlements were mounted on the tops of the walls and there were archers' towers at regular intervals. The walls looked as if they had defended the citadel at regular intervals. They were pitted and scarred; in places had worn so thin they had been replaced by blocks of the local stone which was golden in colour. The end result was an eye-jarring and asymmetrical patchwork quilt effect.

The huge doors to the citadel were open but guarded. The two guards were dressed entirely in black, boiled leather armour. They were both boar spirits; ugly, bad tampered looking brutes. The yellow, piggish eyes watched the group suspiciously as they approached. When they reached the gates they stopped and bowed politely. Chihiro was glad the Nygel had left them a few hours ago. She was sure he would have taken exception to how the guards turned their noses up at her.

Chihiro knew humans could smell when they first entered the spirit world but her odour had long since vanished. The guards were just trying to insult her and Scott. Scott did not look as if he cared and Chihiro was not about to ruin things by pulling a "do you know who I am?" routine.

"State your business!" a boar snapped at Rin.

"I wish to see your overlord, I am an old friend of his," said Rin imperiously.

"The overlord is expecting no guests," growled the first boar. "Especially not one who travels with humans."

"They are our retainers," said Linca. She pulled at her tunic as if to straighten it but somehow managed to pull it down to expose the top of her light blue cleavage. "We stole them as children and now they serve us." The second guard grunted but both of the guards' eyes were on the little sprite. Linca fingered a lock of her white hair and gave the guards a smouldering look.

"We were just passing through and thought to pay your overlord a call," Rin said unsteadily, clearly unsettled by the sprite's antics. Linca ran the tip of her tongue over her blue lips and smiled at the guards.

"You know what females are like," she said in a voice that was the auditory equivalent of molten chocolate. "We don't like to plan things; we are too spontaneous for that." She pouted prettily. Chihiro could swear the boars were on the verge of drooling. "Your master will be disappointed if you don't let us in," she wheedled.

"There is a protocol..." the first guard struggled to say. "We can't just..." His eyes widened as Linca stepped forward and rested a hand on his bristly arm.

"Why don't you two lovely boys tell me what I need to know around the corner?" she offered, batting her white eyelash framed eyes at the two hapless males. Chihiro marvelled at the stupidity of the guards as they nodded and gestured for the sprite to walk before them.

Linca threw such a sway into her hips as she walked that Chihiro almost felt motion sick watching her. Scott sighed and rolled his eyes. He looked bored. Rin however was blushing scarlet, her mouth hanging open. The guards disappeared from view with Linca.

"Why, the brazen little hussy!" Rin spluttered. "There was no need for her to go that far!"

"You've got it wrong, Rin," sighed Scott. "Our pygmy temptress has no intention of letting those boars see any more of her than they already have." There was a flash of light and Linca's grinning face peered around the doors.

"Even I have standards, Rin," she announced with a chuckle. "Those bristles would cause friction burns in the most uncomfortable of places and those cold piggy snouts are not nice to kiss."

Rin stared at her. "Was that a concussion spell?" she asked weakly.

"Yep," confirmed the sprite. "They will wake up tomorrow with an almighty headache. But I suggest we press on before they are found." The party rushed past the prone bodies of the boar spirits and entered the winding streets of the lower citadel.

Most of the buildings that surrounded them appeared to have been constructed with no planning. They were made of wood, and in some cases, mud. Most were uninhabited and many streets had an air of abandonment about them. Many had sunken roofs and some had caved in altogether. The streets were unpaved and every time they passed a dwelling that appeared occupied there would be household refuse pilled next to the building.

The sewers were open channels that ran down the street in occupied areas. The smell was indescribable. The mixture of excrement and urine slowly turning rancid in the sun released enough sulphur and ammonia into the air to make the eyes water and the nose run.

It was too much for Chihiro's delicate stomach. She vomited more than once. Linca commented that the puke smell could only be an improvement. Scott tied a handkerchief over his nose and mouth. He was as green as Chihiro was but had managed to keep his breakfast down. Rin and Linca were in no better state; they had sensitive noses. Rin looked around her, her brown eyes not quite believing what she was seeing.

"It was never like this," she murmured. "What has happened?"

"I'd say the fella at the top either does not know of his people's condition, or does not care," mused Linca while trying to unsuccessfully wipe sewerage off her shoes. "I've heard of places like this" she continued. "Yubaba is Good King Wenceslas compared to some of the tyrants out there. Many low spirits are willing to live in squalor if it means they won't be preyed upon by the big carnivore spirits."

"Who is Good King Wenceslas?" asked Rin.

"Never mind," murmured Linca sourly.

"We better head for the place where the rich spirits live," said Scott blandly, his voice slightly muffled by his improvised mask.

"Oh! His lordship is finding the city not to his liking?" teased Linca. Scott gave her a flat look.

"Actually, I was more concerned with catching or some other nasty bug," he said coolly. "Then again, I'm young and reasonably fit so I can probably survive anything this place may give me." He rubbed his chin as if thinking. "I wonder how a pregnant woman would handle a nasty stomach flu?" he said to no one in particular. The spirit women's eyes widened with understanding.

"Stop scaring them, Scott!" Chihiro snapped. She pushed past the tall human and her spirit sisters, determined to prove she was in good health by marching quickly to their destination. The party walked in silence as they headed up a slight incline. The neighbourhood slowly began to change. Wood gave way to mud brick as the primary building material which in turn gave way to stone. The road became gravelled and then paved as it got steeper.

Soon the group were walking up a broad, sunny avenue that had pruned cherry trees lining the pavements. Again, many buildings were empty but there was more activity.

"This is the merchant quarter," murmured Rin. "There was a market here every week."

"Looks fairly dead now," muttered Scott. They had only seen two spirits so far, women in fine kimonos. But they had seen no one at all in the lower city. The spirits had completely ignored the party of dishevelled travellers. Linca had wanted to stop one of them and make the woman greet them. Scott pointed out that they were not supposed to even be within the citadel walls and she dropped the notion.

Eventually they came to a white marble wall with a red lacquered door in it.

"The palace is through there," said Rin in a small voice. Again the door was guarded, this time by what looked like two handsome young men. They wore black robes and appeared to carry no weapons. They had golden eyes that followed the travellers closely as they approached. They had bright blond hair that was cropped quite short but fell naturally into shaggy spikes.

They were almost identical except one was slightly taller making Chihiro think they were related. The only slightly non-human feature they displayed were their nails; long and curved and they came to a very sharp looking point. They reminded Chihiro of Meeka's wicked claws.

"Lion spirits," Linca hissed between her teeth. "If they are mercenaries they will cost a fortune. They almost never leave their prides." One of the spirits yawned as if bored, but Chihiro knew he was just showing off his impressive feline canines.

"State your business, travellers," ordered the slightly taller spirit in a low tone. "We are expecting no guests." Rin stepped forward before anyone could stop her. She drew herself up to her full height, almost as tall as the shorter lion spirit and gave them a look that clearly said they were privileged that she spoke to them.

"Convey a message to your master that Rinako is here to see him," he demanded. The guards looked at each other for a split second, but otherwise they showed no sign of surprise or recognition of Rin. The taller spirit nodded to his companion. The spirit crouched then back flipped gracefully over the ten metre high marble wall. The remaining guard gestured to the door and it slowly opened.

Chihiro gasped at what she saw. Beyond the wall was a garden; a garden that seemed to have gathered everything lush, fragrant and beautiful and cram it into one space. There were stone statures of dragons, overgrown with moss; calm pools of water where frogs sang to each other; weeping willows trailed their green finger like leaves in the water as if trying to touch their own reflections.

There were lawns and terraces, palm trees and cherry trees. There was every type of flower Chihiro could name and many she couldn't. Her eyes swept over hydrangeas, azaleas, jasmine, magnolias, sunflowers and roses; so many colours that they all blurred together. The smell was that of high summer; heady and divine.

The guard bowed to Rin.

"Welcome home, my lady Rinako," he purred softly. "We were not expecting you until tomorrow; we have search parties out looking for you so we could bring you here in comfort." He bowed lower. "Please forgive our rude welcome," Rin said nothing; she was transfixed by the garden. The lion spirit turned and bowed to Chihiro.

"You are welcome too, dragon mate," he said formally.

"How do you know her?" asked Scott sharply. The guard smiled, showing his sharp teeth.

"We were informed that our lady was travelling with the mate of the dragon that runs the witch sisters' bathhouse. As she was the only human female present I assumed that she must be the famous Chihiro."

Scott opened his mouth to tell the spirit that he had not actually answered the question but was interrupted by Rin moving through the door into the garden. She turned just over the threshold and looked back at her family and friend.

"This was my home," she breathed. "You will be welcome here" she announced. She turned again and walked into the garden, clearly intending to be followed. Linca fell into step next to Chihiro.

"Her real name is Rinako?" she murmured in an undertone.

"It would seem so," Chihiro replied. Linca pursed her lips.

"I could have guessed it myself," she muttered under her breath. Chihiro smiled at the sprite even though her heart was heavy with dread. This place Rin had once called home had changed. There was also still no answer as to why Rin had left this place.

Chihiro sighed and followed her sister. All she could do was follow and hope.