Xander and the Lost Island of Monsters (21 page)

The kappa screams again. He gets down on all fours and heads into the water, diving, disappearing beyond the waterfall.

I run over to Jinx and work the gag out of her mouth.

“The kappa always keep their word, and they love making bargains.” She coughs, her voice hoarse. “How'd you know?”

“I didn't.” I shrug and try to loosen the ties around her wrists, but the knots are too tight. “I just figured anybody who plays with his food that much can't be very hungry.”

“Please hurry.” Jinx grimaces. Blood is seeping out from her wrists under the rope.

I can't get the knots out. I remember the tree with my stuff stashed in it. Maybe there are more things in there—like a knife. “Wait a second.” I run over to it. On the way, I see the octopus netsuke and pick it up.

Inside the tree, just like I'd hoped, there's big pile of junk the kappa probably stole from people. An old orange wool cloak, moth-eaten and scratchy. I toss that aside. A black velvet bag holding something that clacks. I open it up and throw it to the side. Bones. I don't want to know what kind.

My belt, with the netsuke still attached. I buckle that around myself.

“Hurry up!” Jinx yells.

“Hang on.” Something gold peeks out. I reach down. A big, fat cuff bracelet, engraved with intertwining circles. It's not the kind of thing my grandmother would ever wear, but maybe it's gold and it's valuable. You never know. It's not going to do the kappa any good, anyway. I stick it on my own wrist for now.

Finally, I see something that might be a blade, resting against the very back of the tree and partially covered by a ripped pair of pants. Gingerly, I pull out the metallic thing.

It's a sword.

A samurai sword.

The polished steel blade is slightly curved, about three feet long. Diamond-sharp on one side, dull on the other. I heft it up, expecting it to be heavy and bulky, clumsy. But it's much lighter than I thought it would be. The hilt rests as naturally in my hands as a video game controller.

White enameled peaches shine out from the black enameled hilt. Japanese characters gleam on the blade.

I gasp. It's my grandfather's sword.

The sword from the story.

A wave of happiness fountains up from my stomach to my face. The kodama. I earned it. “Thanks, God Tree,” I whisper. I hold the sword over my head.

It whistles as I swing it through the air, cutting Jinx free.

Her eyes grow large. “The Sword of Yumenushi!” She sits up, rubs her reddened wrists. “You really
are
Momotaro.” And now she looks…kind of admiring. Like for the first time she's thinking
Maybe he
is
a hero.

I put the sword in the sand and try to look as heroic as possible. Shoulders back, feet planted. But my legs still feel like they're going to collapse. I hold out a hand to her and she actually takes it, pulling herself up.

“Thanks.” She brushes sand off her knees and smiles up at me. When she smiles, her face changes into something almost human. Kind. When she doesn't smile, her natural expression looks like she's about to shove you off a cliff.

Jinx turns to the tree and shoves at a net full of dried purple fish. “Ugh! Why couldn't he catch a good kind?” Her T-shirt's torn a little. I can see blue-black bruises running down her back, but there don't seem to be any other injuries on her. My back feels fine—she must have had a harder fall than I did.

“Are you all right, Jinx? You look a little beat-up.”

“What are you talking about? I'm better than ever.” She smiles again, but this time her face doesn't transform as much. “Let's get moving.”

“Are you joking? What about Peyton and Inu?” I glare at Jinx, who seems totally oblivious and unconcerned as she scavenges for items we can use. She finds a rather brown banana and, faster than I can blink, peels it and scarfs it down. I glare harder.

She swallows. “Oh, sorry. Did you want some?”

“No.” I stride to the water and look up toward the waterfall. “I want to wait for Peyton and Inu. They'll come over the waterfall, too.” They should have been here a long time ago. We should have stayed in the same boat, stuck together. I can't do this without them. Yes, I managed to trick the kappa, but that was just blind luck. What kind of creatures are Peyton and Inu encountering? Are they all right?

“There are different ways to get here. Peyton can fly, remember? He could even carry Inu for a short distance. He'll find us.” Jinx stands next to me, her hands on her hips. A breeze blows her dread-locked hair into my face and I step away. “Besides, we can't climb back up the waterfall to look for them. We have to hike out.” She turns away from the water and begins walking. “And we have to find shelter before dark.”

Can Peyton carry Inu for more than a minute? I'm not sure. We've both been getting stronger, though, so maybe…He has to. I swallow, watching the waterfall for another few seconds. Jinx, I grudgingly agree, is right.

I find the sword's worn black enamel scabbard in the tree trunk, put the sword in it, and stick it through my belt like I saw my grandfather wearing it in my dream. It's too long, though, and the end drags on the ground. How am I going to carry this?

Jinx shakes her head. “Do you want me to wear that for you? I'm a little taller. And you know, some samurai had people who carried their swords for them.”

I grip my grandfather's sword. Okay, that might seem like a fairly reasonable idea, but a part of me wants to hang on to it. “Um, no thanks. I'll manage.”

“Are you thinking I'll steal it?” Jinx looks straight into my eyes.

“Of course not.” I shrug. Yes, I do kind of think she might steal it.

“Well, I don't want it. Wait a second.” Jinx runs to the tree trunk and rummages until she finds a long leather rope. She crisscrosses it over my shoulders and around my torso, tying it into an expert square knot near my armpit. She loops the scabbard through this, diagonally across my back. “How's that? Try to walk.”

I take a few steps. This is a lot better. The scabbard hits the back of my upper thigh and comes up high across my right shoulder. “Thanks, Jinx.”

She gives me one of her genuine smiles again. “Welcome.”

I can't believe the sword is actually in my possession.
The Sword of Yumenushi.
Is that someone's name? I wait for my mind to provide the answer, but it doesn't oblige. Why can't my brain do what it's supposed to? Or at least be consistent about what it does or doesn't do? “Hey, Jinx, what does
Yumenushi
mean, anyway?”

Jinx is already at the top of a white-blue sand dune bordering the beach. “If you're the real Momotaro, you don't need anyone to tell you.”

I blow out a big breath. Hot and cold, that's Jinx. “Thanks for your help.”

She doesn't even get my sarcasm. “Quit thanking me left and right, and let's get going.” Jinx disappears over the dune.

As I run to catch up with her, the sword taps the back of my thighs. I really need to grow taller soon. Otherwise, though, carrying the sword is not so bad. I would never admit this to the others, but its weight feels as comforting as the blanket I slept with when I was a baby.

I
run as fast as I can up the dune to catch up with Jinx. It's not easy, with my feet sinking into the hot, pale blue sand. And, like I said, hot. “Yeouch, yeouch, yeouch!”

“Down here.” Jinx waits for me on the downslope. “The sand isn't hot on this side.”

“Easy for you to say.” I look enviously at her Converse.

She points. “Come on. We have to cross this desert.”

I raise my head. Yes, this
is
a desert, a wide expanse of blue sand for as far as I can see. Not a plant or animal in sight. The sky seems low, a misty lavender here, with darker violet clouds combed across the horizon. I flex my blistered toes. “Desert. That's just great.” I don't know how much more of this I can take. I mean, the most physical activity I normally get is walking downstairs to get a snack. Muscle fibers I didn't know I had are burning. “Hey, at least there aren't any scorpions in this desert. Right?” My voice squeaks on the last word, and I clear my throat to hide it.

“No, no scorpions. Are you kidding?” Jinx waves her hand dismissively.

“Phew.” I grin. Good news for my bare feet.

“An oni would eat a scorpion in, like, two seconds. Scorpions could never survive here.” She walks the rest of the way down the dune.

Fantastic. I follow her. “And how big did you say this desert is?”

“Pretty small. It's maybe a two-day journey.” Jinx slogs through. With each step she sinks up to her ankle.

I stop short. “Two days?! You call this
small
? It's the biggest desert I've ever seen! There's no end to it.” I wipe sweat off my face. It seems like days since we were in the waterfall. Hasn't Jinx seen every desert survival movie, ever? Eventually we're going to be crawling along on our hands and knees, searching for an oasis. But this time we started at the oasis, so I guess we'll just die of thirst. We have no water with us. And how are we going to meet up with Peyton and Inu? Can Peyton really carry Inu over this entire desert until they find us?

“Or maybe it was seven days,” Jinx says thoughtfully. “I'm not really sure. I don't always pay attention to time when I'm alone.” She shrugs. “Anyway, I know the
general
direction of where we need to go.” Jinx drops into a resting squat and contorts her face in a huge yawn. “Okay, we can stop for one minute. But that's it. Sheesh. I've never known anyone who stops as much as you. Can I have another rice ball?”

I put my hands on my hips. “No, you can't have another rice ball. You don't know where you're going, do you?” My voice shakes. I shouldn't have trusted her to be a guide. She's only in it for the food.

She shrugs. “I know enough. Look how far we've come.”

“Yeah. All the way down a waterfall!”

She stands up and thrusts her finger in my face. It's encrusted with dirt and sand, the nail bitten down to the quick. “That was all you. You made the boat go into the rapids when that bird came around.”

“I was saving us.”

Jinx shakes her head. “Whatever. You panicked.”

“If I hadn't done that, we'd be barbecue meat right now.” I turn around. “I'm going back to the water.”

Calm, Xander.

It's my grandfather's voice. I jump, startled, then go still.

Calm?
I argue with my grandfather in my head.
How can I be calm when it's the blind leading the blind around here?

Now I can only hear the sound of the wind moving across the sand, a soft
shoosh
ing noise.

I take a moment. Calm. Yeah, okay.

Bickering with Jinx isn't going to save my father. Or my friends. Or the world.

I swear I can feel my grandfather patting my back. Nah, I must be imagining that.

Jinx begins moving forward. “If you don't want to follow, just go on back to the pond. There
probably
aren't any more kappa living there. They don't like to share their space. Of course, a new one could always come along. It is a prime location for fishing, and they're pretty lazy when it comes to that stuff.”

I stand there for a moment, then follow her.

After a minute, I figure out that Jinx is right. My feet are okay.

This is one strange desert. The air is much cooler here, more like on a fall day than a hot summer afternoon, maybe because it's getting late. The sand feels pleasantly cool on my toes. I pick up a handful. Cold, like sun hasn't touched it for a week. I close my fingers around it as if I'm squeezing clay. When I do this, some of the sand heats into teeny charcoals. I drop it quickly.

Jinx talks over her shoulder. “After this, we're not far from oni territory at all.”

“I thought this whole place was oni territory. It's all monster island up in here.” I wave my hand around.