A Mortal Song (26 page)

“I don’t really care what they think,” Keiji said. “As long as...” He nudged his glasses up on his nose. “I know I was stupid, and I screwed things up. I lied about what was happening with Tomoya. But I want you to know, everything else, all the other things I said to you—I really meant them.”

My lungs felt suddenly empty. I grasped for something to say, but all that came out was, “Okay.”

He swallowed. “I know everything with us is probably too messed up now, and I’m not as strong or as brave or as whatever as Takeo is, but—”

“Of course you are,” I interrupted, the words startled back into me. “You’re just as brave as him.”

“Right,” Keiji said with a disbelieving laugh.

“I mean it,” I said. “Takeo just is the way he is, the way kami are. His nature tells him how to react. When the people he’s loyal to are threatened, he defends them. It’s not really about bravery.” I remembered with a pang how I’d wished to be Sora the strong, charging into every situation without worries or fear. “Being human, the answers aren’t obvious. You have to choose whether you do the difficult thing or the easy thing. It takes a lot more courage to do the difficult thing you don’t have to do, that scares you, than to just... follow what you automatically know to do. So you’re
more
brave than he is, or Chiyo, really.”

I stopped. Maybe I could have said the same thing about myself.

Keiji’s lips curled slightly upward. “So... you don’t hate me then?”

“Hate you?” The way I’d spoken to him in the keep, the way I’d avoided him afterward. Yes, it could have looked that way. “No,” I said. I’d felt anger, confusion, and hurt, certainly, but not hate. But saying that didn’t seem like enough. “I’m glad you came. It would have been really hard getting out of there without you.”

He was definitely smiling now. I hadn’t seen his usual grin since we’d arrived in Tokyo, and I’d missed it.

Then a shadow crossed his expression. “What your kami friend who escaped said about Omori’s plans... Did you see— Are they really—”

The memory of the young woman’s body shuddering leapt into my mind, and bile rose to the back of my mouth. “They’re doing it,” I said quietly. “I saw— Omori forced one of the kami to put a ghost into a woman they’d kidnapped. It looked like, afterward, the woman’s spirit was just gone.” Smothered by the invader.

“I don’t understand how Tomoya can think it’s right to take someone else’s life,” Keiji said. “I guess Omori has them all convinced... Maybe he’ll think twice now that he’s seen how humans can fight back.”

“I don’t think he’d be that easily swayed,” I said. What
had
Omori made of our escape? I’d been too busy fending off ghosts to notice his reaction.

Maybe he’d already put it out of his mind, focusing on the next steps of his plan. If the dead could become so wrapped up in their last thoughts they hardly noticed anything else, and Omori had already been inclined toward intense concentration, his mindset might be even narrower.

But it had appeared as if there were still something more in him. I’d seen that moment of confusion. If any part of the man he’d been remained, if what Mrs. Kobayashi had said about him were even partly true, I couldn’t imagine he’d have felt at ease with his current methods. Was there some way we could reach that part of him, that was barely more than a glimmer?

I rubbed my face. It wasn’t likely Omori would give us a chance.

Keiji pulled a CD out of a thin binder attached to the flap over his head and inserted it into a slot in the dashboard. “You’re into music, right?” he said. “This band is one of my favorites.”

A rumble of drums rolled from the speakers in a slow but powerful rhythm. One guitar and then another sprinkled the beat with a twisting line of notes. The soft keen of a violin lifted to meet them. Finally, a voice at turns smooth and ragged wound out between the instruments, singing his love for the town he called home. I let my head sink back, breathing in the song.

“I like this,” I said, and Keiji’s smile returned.

“Ah,” he said a few minutes later as the road curved past the first block of glinting high rises. “Back in the big city.”

I peered out the window. Shops and office buildings whipped by. And then, in the window of a travel agency, a poster featuring a vibrant photo of Mt. Fuji.

The sight broke me out of the music’s reverie. All those tour buses, the tourists wandering the parking lot and the courtyard, climbing to the peak. The tremors hadn’t put that much of a dent in the crowds.

Tomorrow night, the veil between the afterworld and the world of the living would dim, and Omori’s army would have a hoard of unsuspecting bodies right there for the taking.

* * *

K
eiji had
to park the car on a street a few blocks from the shrine. We hurried the rest of the way back, impatient to be continuing to Ise. Despite the torn hem of my shirt fluttering around my waist, the sword slung at my hip, and the dappling of blood surrounding the makeshift bandage on my shoulder, I received only a few brief stares from passers-by. For a couple of minutes, being lost in the city crowd was almost relaxing. No ghosts, no guns, no demons or ogres. The urban bustle wasn’t so bad.

Then we slipped down the shrine’s walkways and darted around the back of the sanctuary building, where we found Ayame pacing by the pond.

“Sora!” she said when she saw me. “You’re all right! Takeo will be so relieved. The poor boy. When he saw the two of you were missing, he was ready to rip the city apart.”

“What?” I said, my heart sinking. “But they went to Ise, didn’t they?”

“My dear, he and Chiyo and that human boy of hers have been searching for you all morning,” Ayame said. “I don’t think they meant to go anywhere until they found you. Chiyo said she thought you had to be all right, because you always looked after yourself just fine, but Takeo wouldn’t hear of leaving.”

Oh no. “
You
must have realized where I was,” I said.

She lowered her eyes, her dainty fingers fidgeting with the sleeve of her robe. “You said I shouldn’t tell Chiyo what I’d told you. If I’d said you’d gone to the mountain, they’d have gone too, wouldn’t they? Without all they need to defeat the demon? I couldn’t be responsible for that.”

She was right—the outcome probably would have been worse if she’d spoken up. But what was Takeo thinking? I’d left that note so he’d know I’d gone of my own accord. Even if he’d worried about my vague explanation, how could he have put finding me ahead of saving Mt. Fuji?

A weight settled in my gut. I’d just said it to Keiji, hadn’t I? Takeo didn’t decide, he just followed his nature. He still felt loyal to me, even if he shouldn’t. Maybe even more loyal than he felt to the mountain itself, since he’d been specifically assigned to watch over me. I’d thought he would put Chiyo, as the real daughter of his rulers, first; I’d thought, when I’d told him we wouldn’t be more than friends, he’d let go.

I should have realized it would take more than that. I knew how unshakable kami nature was. Maybe some part of me had liked feeling he was looking out for me still. Liked knowing I hadn’t lost that one last piece of my old life.

I had to fix this. I wasn’t the one who needed him, not anymore.

“Do you have any idea where they are now?” I asked. “Or any way to find them? We can’t miss the last train to Ise.”

Ayame started to shake her head, and then paused. “I brushed Chiyo’s hair last night before she went to sleep. I think...” She dashed into the building and returned a moment later with a lavender strand of hair pinched between thumb and forefinger. “This will lead me to her as yours led me to you. And Takeo said he’d stay with her.”

“Go,” I said. “Quickly. Mt. Fuji depends on it.”

Her delicate face hardened with resolve. She darted away, fading into her ethereal state as she murmured to the strand of hair.

Trying not to stew over how long it would take Ayame to reach Chiyo, I went to the pond to wash the blood from my shoulder. When only a dull stain remained, I squeezed my shirt sleeve dry and sat down on the platform to prepare ofuda to replace those I’d used on the mountain. I couldn’t stop my feet from tapping restlessly.

“Do you need more salt too?” Keiji asked, bringing out a new bag. A hint of uncertainty had crept into his expression, as if he were afraid the peace we’d made in the car might not extend here.

“Yes, please,” I said, and made myself smile. “Do you want to help with the charms?”

“Whatever I can do,” he said as he sat down beside me. The way he smiled back sent a warm tingle through me, and for that moment my own smile didn’t feel so forced.

Close to an hour had passed when voices reached us from around the side of the building. I leapt to my feet and ran to meet them.

“You see,” Ayame said when I came around the corner. “She’s here, perfectly safe.”

“I told you,” Chiyo said to Takeo. She slung her arm around Haru’s waist and raised her hand to me with her fingers spread in a victory sign.

As Takeo’s dark eyes found mine, they held nothing but relief. But before I could say anything, his gaze slid to something behind me, and he stormed forward, drawing his sword.

“Takeo—” I started.

“You!” he said, pointing the sword at Keiji, who’d come around to join us. “What did you do to her? Where did you take her?”

The color drained from Keiji’s face. He took a halting step backward, holding up his hands.

“I was
helping
her,” he said.

Takeo made a derisive noise. My chest clenched up. I hadn’t considered how it might look, with both of us gone. Of course Takeo would assume we’d gone together. He must have thought Keiji had forced me to write that note.

“Stop it,” I said, stepping between them. Takeo flinched as the tip of his sword brushed my shirt, and he jerked it back. “Keiji’s telling the truth—he was helping me. And we’re both fine.”

“You’re hurt,” he said.

“I went to the mountain,” I said, as calmly as I could. “Ayame told me that my parents—my human parents—went there looking for me, and the ghosts took them for Omori to use. So I got them out. They’re okay,” I added, glancing at Chiyo.

“The ghosts grabbed Mom and Dad?” she said. “Why didn’t you tell me? I’d have sliced and diced the whole bunch of them.”

“I knew I could get in there without being noticed,” I said. “And you’re not meant to face Omori until you have all three of the sacred treasures. You were supposed to go to Ise this morning.”

Takeo frowned. “We couldn’t leave Tokyo when you—”

“You
could
have,” I said. “You’re kami; you serve Mt. Fuji. I’m human—I have nothing to do with that anymore, not really. You should have been doing what was best for the mountain and all the kami there.”

“Sora,” he protested, and my throat closed up. I could barely remember a time before Takeo had been my best friend, my playmate, and my protector. He would have died for me. I couldn’t even tell him how thankful I was to have had him in my life. But that bond had to be broken now.

I held his gaze, tensing my arms at my sides. “There is nothing more between us,” I said firmly. “Any ties you feel to me, sever them. I am not family, I am not a friend, I’m only a fellow traveler. Until Mt. Fuji is reclaimed, that’s the only way you’ll think of me. Have I said enough?”

For a moment, there was only silence and the pressure of five pairs of eyes, staring at me. I looked only at Takeo. His jaw had tightened and his face darkened, but then he inclined his head. Accepting.

And so the last bit of loyalty he gave to me was to take that loyalty away.

My own eyes felt abruptly hot. I turned. “Now let’s catch the next train to Ise. We can’t risk losing a minute more.”

T
he sun blazed
over us as we approached the courtyard that led to Ise’s massive shrine. Even though it was late in the day, heat rose in thick waves off the streets. Hundreds of people brushed past us and the tourist shops done up with old-fashioned roofs and dark wooden frames, wandered across the courtyard, and ambled along the wooden bridge that arced over a shallow river to the shrine grounds.

“I’ve heard this is one of the most popular shrines in the country,” Keiji said. “Looks like that’s still true.”

“Popular not just with the living, today,” Chiyo said. “There are so many ghosts out there. And people are walking right through them! It’s pretty creepy. Can’t you see them at all?”

I squinted, but I could only make out the faintest glimmers amid the crowd. Anyone not looking for them would have assumed it was only the sun catching on buttons, zippers, purse clasps. The daylight hid the ghosts nearly completely.

“They appear to be using the same strategy as in Nagoya,” Takeo said. “Surrounding the borders of the shrine in large numbers. Larger numbers than before.”

“We just have to reach the bridge, right?” I said. A huge torii shaded this end of the crossway. Once we passed under the gate’s protection, the ghosts shouldn’t be able to follow.

Takeo nodded, but he looked solemn. In Tokyo, he’d found a few other kami who were capable and willing to join us, even obtained swords for those with hands and taught them a few basic moves, but we were still vastly outnumbered. We didn’t even have Ayame’s support, as she’d been so exhausted after her escape yesterday and tracking down Chiyo today that she’d stayed behind.

“It’s a good thing this place will be closing soon,” Chiyo remarked. “I wouldn’t like to try to fight all those ghosts with so many people in the way.”

The ghosts weren’t bothering anyone now, only waiting for Chiyo to appear. The possibilities that had been stirred up by my conversation with Mrs. Kobayashi itched at me.

“The ghosts could have more planned that we can’t see,” I said. “I want to take a look around. I don’t think they’ll worry about one more human.”

Takeo bowed his head. “Retreat immediately if they show any hostility.”

“Do you want—” Keiji started.

I quickly shook my head. “I’ll be less likely to catch their attention alone.”

I skirted the edges of the courtyard, my stomach knotting as I realized just how many of those glints I was catching from the corners of my eyes. In the packed parking lot, they danced amid the reflections on the car windows. But none stopped me as I trod past the stretch of trees along the river bank and stepped beneath the torii.

The moment I crossed under the gate, my heart leapt. I peered along the bridge’s pale length toward the forested grounds on the opposite bank. Maybe I could just stroll on over there myself...

Something moved within the thick vegetation along the river. A body too tall and hunched to be a person. I caught only a glimpse, but it was enough to chill me.

It wasn’t only the ghosts we had to worry about today. The shrine’s protections mustn’t have been enough to keep out ogres… and whatever other creatures Omori might have summoned to his cause as word of his invasion of Mt. Fuji spread. Even if I could have convinced the shrine kami to give me the mirror if I headed in there alone, I doubted I’d make it to their sanctuary alive.

The crush of tourists on the bridge was already thinning, all of them heading back to the courtyard as closing time approached. I walked a little farther and peered down the river. On our side, glints of ghostlight showed all along the tree-lined bank. They didn’t want to give us the chance to take an alternate route. Not far down from the bridge, a strip of wide, flat stones made nearly as easy a path across the river.

I considered that for a moment, and then I made my way back to my companions.

“If there are other creatures lurking in the shrine, we’ll deal with them there,” Takeo said after I’d shared my observations. “Our first concern is getting past the ghosts.”

“Sora had a cool idea yesterday,” Chiyo said, nudging me. “It’s me Omori really wants to stop. So if the ghosts think I’m already captured, they won’t stick around.”

“They’re not going to believe us just telling them that,” Haru said.

“I’m sure they’ve been warned not to listen to me again,” Keiji said. His forehead furrowed. “Could a kami pretend to be a ghost, and tell them?”

“We couldn’t make our legs disappear completely to imitate their appearance,” Takeo said, but Keiji’s suggestion had sparked an inspiration of my own.

“But a kami could pretend to be another kami,” I said. “Maybe we can’t convince them that Chiyo is already captured, but what if we convinced them she’s somewhere she’s not? All they’ll be looking for is a young woman kami holding a sword. Pushing all your ki to the surface of your skin and into the sword, any of you could give the impression of being that powerful. If they think Chiyo is trying to cross the river at a different spot, they may leave the bridge... not unguarded, but less so.”

Takeo glanced to the side, where our ethereal kami companions must be standing. “Sumire says she will help in any way she can,” he said.

I hesitated as an uneasy realization struck me. We were going to send a substitute into harm’s way in Chiyo’s place—again. “She could be hurt,” I said. “Badly. If she and most of the other kami make a run for that path of stones as if they’re trying to sneak across there, the ghosts will attack her with all the strength they have.”

Takeo tipped his head, listening to the violet kami. “Sumire says it will be worth that sacrifice to see Chiyo reach the mirror and recover Mt. Fuji.” He turned to the rest of us. “We’ll need to send most of the kami with her for the deception to be convincing. If the ghosts don’t fall for the ploy, we’ll be at an even greater disadvantage. You are the only one who has been in Omori’s presence, Sora. How sure are you that this will work?”

I thought of the slight yet immensely powerful man I’d spoken to in the palace audience room. The precision with which he’d targeted the kami guard. His total dismissal of his wife’s spirit.

“He’ll have told the ghosts that only Chiyo matters,” I said. “To ignore every other kami unless they’re in the way of getting to her. To stop at nothing to capture her again. I’m sure of it. And the last thing they’ll want to risk is disappointing him.”

“All right,” Chiyo said with a pump of her fist. “Let’s do this.”

Keiji raised an eyebrow. “Just a thought—maybe we should cover your hair. Someone might notice
that
.”

Chiyo rolled her eyes at him, but she found a stretchy cloth hat in one of the shops and managed to stuff her ponytails into it. Her jeweled necklace was already hidden under her blouse, and her sword in a cloth carry bag Haru had helped her pick out earlier. There was nothing to indicate she was anything but another kami follower.

With evening creeping in, the cars and tourist buses were leaving, and the shops starting to carry in their displays. The glimmers of ghostlight were easier to see now that the sunlight was dimming and there were few people in the courtyard for them to hide among. They were bunched so close together that they formed an eerie glow in the open space. The remaining tourists gave the area confused glances before hurrying off.

“All except the monkey and the oak have gone with Sumire,” Takeo reported to the rest of us. “When we decide to move forward, we should form a ring around Chiyo to help hide her from view. Chiyo, keep your sword concealed and attack only with ofuda, unless you have no other choice.”

We all watched the courtyard as the last human visitors slipped away. The ghostly glow churned and rippled. What if I’d misjudged?

Then all at once the ghostlights surged to the north, where Sumire had headed. Takeo smiled grimly. “They’re calling for help, saying they’ve spotted her.”

As the lights streamed out of the courtyard, more streamed in from farther south. We waited, braced to run. The glowing haze in the courtyard dimmed before my eyes. Chiyo winced as if she’d heard a painful sound my ears couldn’t make out.

“They’ll discover the deception soon,” Takeo said. “We’ve got some advantage—we must use it now.”

We hurried forward, our feet thudding far too loudly over the stone tiles. I gripped several ofuda in one hand and Takeo’s short sword in the other.

Several of the ghostlights converged around us, whipping away again as they brushed against our amulets. My spirits lifted. We didn’t matter at all to them, not when they thought they had Chiyo within their grasp elsewhere.

We were ten feet from the bridge when Takeo flinched. “They know!” he whispered, and sprang forward. Even as the rest of us raced after him, a wave of ghostlights crashed into the courtyard. Chiyo let out a battle cry and drew her sword. Her hat fell off, her lavender hair spilling loose.

The greatest mass of ghosts rushed into the narrowing space between us and the bridge. As Chiyo slashed through them, I kept close to her side, whipping out charms as quickly as I could. Several ghosts turned corporeal around us, weapons ready. I knocked the knife from one’s hand with my sword, caught it, and threw it into the wrist of another corporeal ghost just before he could shoot his gun. The blaze of ghostlights all around us began to blur my vision. Heart pounding, I grabbed another handful of ofuda from my satchel, just in time to banish a ghost who’d lunged at Keiji while he was fending off another. Other than him at my right and Takeo at my left, I didn’t have time to look around to check on the others.

Chiyo grunted, and a rancid droplet struck my cheek. One of the ghosts had tossed a bloody rope into our midst, catching Chiyo’s arm. Before her sword could falter, I chopped through the rope with mine. Chiyo flung it away, her hand wavering and then steadying again. She swept through the last line of ghosts, scattering them into glinting dust, and staggered beneath the gate onto the bridge.

I had no chance to rejoice. The whirlwind of ghosts contracted even tighter around the rest of us without Chiyo’s sword slicing them away. I tossed ofuda into their midst and grabbed Keiji’s wrist, hauling him toward the bridge. Takeo was just stepping onto it when a row of ghosts turned corporeal around us humans. One jabbed at Haru’s amulet, severing the cord. Three more struck out at Keiji at once. Two charged at me. I stumbled to the side. Haru’s legs wobbled as a ghost reached into his body. Even as he managed to hit her with an ofuda, two more barreled in to take her place. A blade raked across my ribs and my lungs clenched. There were too many of them. We weren’t going to make it.

Then a voice shouted, “Off with you!” and a small, shining figure whirled around us, parting the crowd of ghosts. We dashed under the gate. Takeo and Chiyo caught us and dragged us up the bridge. Keiji was panting, and Haru grimaced as he leaned back against the railing, his cheek red where a ghost had rammed him with a knife hilt. The glowing figure somersaulted after us, landing on the boards with a patter of leather sandals. Rin gave us a satisfied smirk.

“It appears I arrived at a most beneficial time,” the sage said in her dry voice.

Before I could ask how she’d gotten here or where she’d been, Keiji made a startled noise. I followed his gaze back toward the courtyard.

The ghostlights had settled, several corporeal figures standing in their midst, all of them watching us. One near the back of the crowd was walking toward the bridge. He strode right to the edge of the gate, the red streaks in his hair clearly visible even in the fading daylight.

Tomoya.

So it was true. Omori had taught the ghosts how to come back.

“A nice trick,” he said. “I applaud your ingenuity. I don’t think the allies you set us on are enjoying themselves quite so much.”

“Tomo,” Keiji said, his voice a rasp. He swallowed audibly. “You have to stop this!”

“You don’t understand yet, little brother,” Tomoya said. “You will. Once we’ve taken care of these insurgents.” His gaze rested on Chiyo. He smiled his sharp little smile as if he weren’t worried at all, and a fresh chill washed over me.

“
If
you make it through the shrine, we’ll be waiting for you,” he said. “You won’t trick us a second time.”

He drew back into the crowd, his physical form fading. “Tomoya!” Keiji called, but his brother had already vanished. To our sight, at least.

“He has even more of the demon’s power in him than the others,” Takeo said. “I think he is acting like a river, carrying the main flow of energy across the distance before it streams from him to his associates.”

That sounded like Omori’s sort of efficiency. Maybe carrying all that energy had corrupted Tomoya’s mind even faster.

“We should go for the mirror as quickly as possible,” I said. “Before they come up with a plan for our return.”

“Hold on a second,” Chiyo said, peering down at Rin. “Who are
you
, anyway?”

“This is the sage Rin,” Takeo said hurriedly. “The one who foresaw you saving Mt. Fuji.”

“Oh!” Chiyo said, her eyes widening. “We thought the ogres got you,” she told Rin. “They made a real mess of your house in the tree.”

“Hmmm,” Rin said. “What is merely broken can be fixed. The ogres could hold me but not destroy. They all moved here on the demon’s orders, and within the shrine, I had the strength to avoid further holding.” She gave Chiyo a measured look. “You have learned some, but not all I would have liked. But the days for training are past.”

“I can handle this, no problem,” Chiyo said, hefting her sword. “We’ve taken down ogres before.”

“Our enemies multiply,” Rin muttered in her obscure way, but I could guess what she meant. My skin crawled as we marched over the bridge to the shrine grounds.

A second after our feet crunched onto the gravel path, I got my confirmation: a hulking figure with a mane of maroon hair and horns jutting from its cheeks burst from between the trees beside us. Chiyo leapt forward, her sword blazing as it plunged into the ogre’s chest. Three black dog-like creatures sprang over the hedge on the other side of the path, their eyes shining red and their fangs gleaming. They were followed by an immense cat with two snaking tails. A shriek split the air above us, and a pack of body-less heads, streaming dark hair and gnashing their teeth, descended on us.