Gloria Oliver (6 page)

“Your illness should dissipate once the sun rises,” she said. “The waves of the sea do not affect us as much when we are under water.”

He sighed, hoping with any luck it would be soon. “Does the ship travel while underwater?”

“Yes, a little. Though nowhere near as far as when we are above.”

“How does it do that?” he asked. “Stay underwater, I mean.”

The geisha was silent a moment before responding. “We don’t really know. It just does. Many things about our new existence just are. We have no explanation.”

He nodded, knowing many things about spirits made little sense. “Why don’t you stay above during the daylight, too, then?” he asked. “Wouldn’t it get you where you are going sooner?”

Miko picked up his soiled clothes and rose to her feet. “You’re a curious one, aren’t you?” She started toward the door. “Let me take these from here so they won’t smell up the room.”

The geisha stood in the doorway and glanced back at him. He stayed silent, not pointing out her obvious evasion of his question.

“You’re in need of other things as well,” she said. “Before I return, I’ll see what I can find for you.”

He then saw her tilt her head toward him; and for some reason he was sure, beneath her mask, she was smiling.

“There are so many things I’ve forgotten,” she said. “You’ve brought back many memories to me, Toshi-kun.”

Not understanding what she meant, he watched her as she silently left and closed the door behind her.

Wondering how long she would be gone, he rose from the floor and shuffled over to pour another half-cup of tea.

The geisha was gone for a long time. He’d just begun to doubt she would return when he heard a muffled call from beyond his closed door. Surprised, he got up and rushed to open it.

He stepped back as Miko fell through the doorway. Without thinking, he reached out to steady her. His hands didn’t sink through her kimono as he might have expected, but found what felt like a solid body underneath. Trying to hide his amazement, he scurried back as Miko stooped to set her burden down.

“It took a little doing, but I’ve been able to find a futon and a couple more blankets for you. I did take the liberty of bringing some games and a few other things as well.”

His surprise at her solidity was replaced with gratitude as he stared at the thick futons she spread on the floor. Flipping off his sandals, he stepped onto them, eager for the warmth and protection they would grant him. “Thank you, Miko-san. This is wonderful!”

“Well, I only thought if you have to be seasick, you might as well do it while being as comfortable as you can.” Miko left the room then, but returned almost immediately with a number of packages.

He paid her little attention, wallowing in the heat he could feel gathering about him as he added the new blankets to the one already about him.

“I must apologize we did nothing about this earlier. While we had thought of some of your other needs, it has been some time since we’ve had to consider the warmth or coldness of our surroundings.”

As she spoke, Miko stepped to sit behind him. Without asking, she began working on his tangled and disheveled hair.

“Miko-san, if I might ask?” he said shyly. “How long have you and the others, well, been as you are now?”

“How long have we been dead, Toshi-kun? You can say it. We’ve all had a long time to learn to deal with the fact.” He felt his dark hair tumble to his shoulders as Miko released it. She combed it as she answered his question. “Our bad fortune befell us over eight years ago.”

He tried to glance back at her, his face covered with astonished disbelief. Miko gently turned his head until he was facing forward again.

“So long, Miko-san? And you still haven’t completed your journey?”

“We’ve tried and tried, but fate has not been with us. The same lack of knowledge that impeded us in life still works on us in death—and there have been other things. But it wasn’t until recently that a new way opened itself to us, a way to actually find the place we seek.” She hesitated for a moment. “You’re very important to us, Toshi-kun. With you, we hope to do as we must.”

A chill made its way down his spine. It was wrong that they should depend on him, that they might continue to roam the seas for years to come, perhaps eternity, if he couldn’t guide them to where they needed to go. He was just a peasant, a slave, a tool for his master. Such responsibility was never meant to fall on someone like him.

He remained silent as Miko finished combing his hair and then tied it up again. After getting him more tea, she suggested they play some games. Wanting a distraction from both his thoughts and his nausea, he agreed.

They played word games. Then, when his nausea proved too distracting, Miko told him stories new and old. He was amazed by some of the ones she chose to tell, for they were quite recent. Though Miko and the others on the ship were all spirits, were they still somehow keeping in touch with those who were living? Even after all this time? He wasn’t sure if he would do that if he were undead. He didn’t know if he could handle how it would make him feel.

Some time later, he looked up in puzzlement after having added the next two lines to the poem they’d been making for the past half-hour. Something had changed, but he couldn’t name what. After a moment, he realized he felt better.

Miko added her verses, which left him with a dead end to produce a new verse. He didn’t notice he’d lost, still embroiled in trying to figure out what had changed around him.

“That was a good game, Toshi-san. I think you’re taking to it well. If you prove diligent, I might just let you win a game or two.”

He totally missed her playful dare. “Is something different, Miko-san?”

“Different?” Miko stared at him, lifting her head as she tried to figure out what he meant. “Oh, dawn is upon us. The ship has gone underwater.”

As she said it, he realized it was true. The change he felt was the lack of swaying by the vessel.

“Now that the ship is more steady, perhaps you would consider eating before going to sleep?” Miko asked.

He nodded.

“I must go attend Asaka-sama now,” she added. “I will wake you once night is close to falling on us again.” Miko rose as Toshi glanced with distaste at the food still waiting for him across the room. “When you’ve finished with your duties tonight, we can play some more games, if you like.”

“I would very much, Miko-san.”

She bowed to him, bid him good night and then left.

He looked at the food sitting across the room again and grimaced. After several minutes, he forced himself to get up and head toward it.

“Toshi-kun. Toshi-kun. Wake up. If you don’t hurry, you’ll have no free time before Asaka-sama comes for you. Toshi-kun!”

Barely able to open his eyes, he tried to focus his vision as his body was almost violently rocked back and forth. “Mi—Miko-san?”

“Yes, who else?” she said, her voice sounding annoyed and worried at the same time. “I’ve never had such trouble rousing anyone in my life. Now come on. Asaka-sama will be coming for you soon. You’ll want to be ready.”

With her help, he managed to sit up, yawning all the way. He tried to rub the sleep out of his eyes, even as his numbed mind tried to come awake.

“Did you always give your master this much trouble? I bet he had to take a stick to you just to get you up.” Miko’s tone was light.

His eyes felt heavy even as he tried to comprehend what Miko was talking about. “Did I do something wrong?”

“No, you only just about exhausted my patience is all, sleepyhead,” she told him, shaking her head.

“You have to be presentable and ready by the time Asaka-sama comes for you. He waits for no man, you know, and right now you’re a long way from presentable.”

He didn’t see Miko go to the small table as his eyes closed on their own. He jerked them open, disoriented, as she placed a cup of barely steaming tea in his hands.

“Come on, drink,” she said. “It should help wake you. I’ll help you undress as soon as you’ve finished with it. Though it won’t be as relaxing as a good tub, I’ve brought you some water with which you can clean yourself.” She began digging him out of his cocoon of blankets.

“Take a stick to me?” He saw Miko snap her head up to stare at him. After a moment, her gentle laugh rose softly to his ears.

“You’re not all here this evening, are you?” She laughed as he stared at her blankly. “I had asked you if your old master was in the habit of taking a stick to you to wake you up in the morning. Now, drink your tea.”

Staring at her in a half-daze, he brought the teacup to his lips. As the contents trickled down his throat and warmed his stomach, his mind started to clear. “Master Shun never beat me with a stick. Not to wake me up, anyway.”

Miko cast him a questioning glance as she dug him out of his blankets.

“I’ve never had any trouble waking up.” He yawned in between some of the words. “I always awoke as soon as Master Shun opened my door. He liked it that way. He didn’t believe in wasting time.” He drank more of his tea.

As soon as he had finished, Miko took his cup away and bid him to please finish getting undressed.

“There’s a washcloth for you in one of the buckets. Your towel and clean clothes are by the door.”

Feeling more alert, he waited for the geisha to turn away before stripping down to his loincloth. He put his sandals back on to walk across the glowing floor and hurried over to the waiting buckets. His exposed flesh crawled with goose bumps as the eerie cold radiating in the room caressed him wherever he went. Once he’d found the washcloth, he removed his loincloth and began to wash. While definitely not as enjoyable as a long soak in a tub, the feel of the hot water was luscious.

“Do you think you might like to eat something this evening?” Miko said.

Toshi realized he was hungry, his stomach no longer in the aggravated state it had been yesterday. With a sinking feeling, though, he wondered how long that would last once the ship rose back to the surface.

“I’m not really sure, Miko-san. Maybe just a little?”

“All right.”

He dried off as quickly as he could, the room’s iciness sapping the water’s warmth and leaving him colder than before. In one hurried move, he grabbed his clean clothes and dived to his futon. He dug into his blankets as deeply as he could and then got dressed.

“You need to hurry, Toshi-san,” Miko warned him. “You haven’t much time left.”

Keeping his covers tightly about him, he got up and sat before the room’s small table. He drank the tea Miko served him eagerly. As she proceeded to refill his cup once more, he reached out for one of the rice cakes filling a plate nearby.

Not daring to have more than one, he made it last as long as he could and followed it down with several more cups of tea. Miko was busy for a few minutes fighting to straighten his mussed hair.

Just as his grumbling stomach had almost convinced him perhaps there would be no harm in having a second rice cake, there was a knock at the door. With a trickle of fear, he stood up, knowing there was no way for him to avoid the inevitable. He let his blankets fall down around him as the samurai opened the door.

Holding his breath, he bowed deeply to Asaka. To his surprise, he found the bow returned. Bowing to Miko in farewell, he followed Asaka as he traveled silently up the hall.

As they waited by the outside door, he heard the faint sounds of receding water. Within moments, his stomach sadly reassured him they had, indeed, surfaced once again. Sending a quick prayer of mercy to the water spirits of the area, he followed the samurai out onto the busy deck.

The sky was clearer than the night before, yet the cooler winds still held the scent of threatening rain.

With some relief, he noticed the ship was steadier.

He followed Asaka as he climbed up the ladder, glancing at the skeletons rowing in the front half of the ship. One of them stared back, and he felt a small chill course down his back as the skeleton’s eyes filled with a red light. Toshi remembered him from his first time on board. He felt uneasy.

He looked away from the cold stare and lipless grin and spotted the bent skeleton already coming toward him carrying his tools. Asaka waved him back. The stooped figure bowed and then retreated.

“Sit,” Asaka said. His cruel demon mask stared at Toshi as his armored fleshless arm pointed to the floor next to the rail. Wondering why Asaka just didn’t let him get his job done so he could go back below and escape, Toshi did as he’d been bid.

The glowing cold from the deck seeped through his clothes into his legs and buttocks. He wished for the warmth of his blankets, but knew it wouldn’t be forthcoming. His stomach swished and knotted but not as bad as the night before. His one rice cake lay heavily inside him, making him glad he’d only had time to have the one.

Turning his head, he stared past the rail at the dark water. With a mixed sense of despair and sadness, he looked away. He remembered the things he would have seen if he’d been looking out a window at home. As the darkness settled, the city would have been filled with spurts of activity, most of it from fishermen returning home after a long day as they made their way to the inns for some well-deserved drinks. Mothers would be calling for their children as they closed the houses’ shutters, preparing for bed.

The cries of the oil sellers and food vendors would have filled the air as they tried to make what money they could before curfew forced them off the streets.

The memories lodged a lump in his throat. There was a chance he might never experience those things again. Bitterly, he glanced at the cause of his torment.

Asaka stood on deck, also staring at the dark waters. The glow from the ship reflected off his lacquered armor, making him appear more demonic than usual. Toshi looked away.

He tried for a moment to guess at the samurai’s thoughts. But what would such a hateful spirit think about? Horrible plans, tortures for the living, surely. And he would be part of those thoughts as well.

With a shiver, he made himself stop, not happy with where his imagination was leading him.