Risuko (19 page)

“No!” Emi gasped. “The tree is covered with ice! That would be dangerous.”

“Well,” sneered Mai, “I guess she isn't such a great climber after all.”

Not waiting to hear any more—happy simply to get away from them all, if only for a moment—I leapt at the trunk of the huge hemlock. Though the bark was covered with glistening frost, it was rough and wrinkled, and the crevices were ice-free—perfect for climbing. I scampered up to the first branches in no time at all. Looking back down, I was pleased to see all of the other girls blinking up at me.

Fuyudori's gaze connected with mine, and I knew with pleasure that she was thinking of a much more difficult climb that I had once made.

“Well,” grumbled Mai, whose sneer couldn't quite cover her shock, “what can you see?”

I looked out over the wall. There was nothing but white. The downpour had stopped, and the clouds had lifted enough that I could see feathers of snow lofted from the ground by the soft, chill breeze. But all beyond the wall was blank and white—mountains, valley, sky. It was as if the rest of the world had been wiped away, as if nothing beyond the Full Moon still existed. “Nothing,” I said, hoarsely. “I can't see anything at all.”

“So much for squirrels having sharp eyes,” muttered Mai, and Shino and Toumi laughed.

“Wait!” I called, as a pair of dark shapes began to push up over the invisible line of the ridge. “Riders!”

“You're joking!” laughed Shino again, while Mai said, “Impossible.”

Emi frowned up at me, about to say something, but Fuyudori beat her to it, chirping, “It must be the Lieutenant. He left with Aimaru
-chan
and the Little Brothers this morning to check on the farms in the valley.”

“I don't think so,” I called down. “It's two horses. And they're riding hard.” Even in the white-on-white landscape, and even though the grey chargers seemed to be making no sound, I could see the snow flying as they galloped, the riders leaning forward.

“Flags?” called our
sensei
from the teahouse. I could see the ink stains on her clenched fingers.

I suddenly felt cold. “Um. None. White cloaks?”

Before I had finished speaking, the teacher began to beat a rapid alarm on the small gong at the entrance to the teahouse. “Stay up there, Risuko!” she shouted, and then began to run toward the stables.

Women burst from the great hall and from the Nunnery, some in their
miko
garb, and others in light trousers and jackets.

The two horsemen charged on along the ridge; they were half of the way toward the front gate. I thought I could hear their hooves tearing at the snowy ground, but perhaps it was the sound of the women's feet or my beating heart.

“What is it?” called Mieko.

“Riders!” shouted Fuyudori, who was wringing her hands beneath me.

One of the
kunoichi
sprinted out of the storeroom with two long glaives, one of which she tossed to our Chinese teacher, who caught it smoothly with one hand.

Behind the two white-cloaked riders, a third now appeared, his horse much larger than theirs, charging like a bolt of black lightning. On his helmet he wore a stag's antlers. “Masugu
-san
!” I shouted. “He's chasing them!”

The first two thundered toward the Full Moon, the steam from their nostrils clearly visible now. Were they going to try to jump the wall?

The two spear-bearing women had somehow made their way to the roofs of the guesthouse and of the stable, the long blades of their glaives flashing in the winter morning sun.

“They're splitting!” I called, as one rider veered toward the east wall of the compound while the other flew west.

“Raiders?” barked Lady Chiyome from the front door of the great hall.

“Can't tell!” one woman shouted from the wall. “Can't see any insignia!”

I thought of the men who had captured me and Toumi that morning on the switchbacks. Enemy raiders. Bandits.

The two riders rounded the front corners of the compound at almost exactly the same time.

Where did they mean to go? The woods to either side of the Full Moon were thick and tangled, and behind the compound the ridge quickly gave way to a sheer granite mountain slope.

Masugu was clearly closing on the rider to the west, who I could see was looking for a way through the impassable woods, his head moving left and right even as his horse charged straight ahead.

I heard a sharp slap below me. Fuyudori had her hand to her pale face. “Snap out of it!” Sachi shouted, her expression empty of its usual laughter.

Like a peal of summer birdsong, metal met metal. Over the wall to the west, I could just see Masugu's sword crash against the white-cloaked stranger's. The impact seemed to knock the stranger back in his saddle, but he managed to stay on his mount.

“What's happening?” shrieked Fuyudori.

I climbed higher, hoping to see better, dreading what I would see.

Masugu's momentum had carried him past the other horseman. He wheeled his stallion and came at the other man, his
katana
raised high.

A flash of movement to my left drew my eye. The other horseman had rounded the rear of the compound and was charging at Masugu's back.

“Masugu
-san
!” I screamed. “Behind you!”

I looked back to the lieutenant in time to see the opponent he was facing fall from his saddle, a shower of red rain falling with him. Masugu wheeled to meet the second horseman, raising his blood-slick sword defensively.

A long black bolt suddenly erupted from the charging rider's throat, and he was thrown backward from his saddle, a look of shock on his face.

It was Shirogawa, the man who had trussed me and Toumi up from the tree like pigs to be butchered.

Masugu turned his stallion, looked at me, and then at the Full Moon's wall.

We both saw a figure standing atop the storeroom holding a bow taller than she was, leaning forward as if still watching the arrow's flight. It was Mieko, her face as calm as ever.

—

By the time I made my way down, the women had all climbed off the rooftops as well. I could see that they had used the timbers that decorated most of the buildings near the gate to climb, and it occurred to me that, unlike the great hall's, those walls were
meant
to be easy to climb, so that Mochizuki's inhabitants could defend its walls—though not from the rear of the compound. Not that any enemy would ever attack from the sheer granite slopes behind us, nor the dense woods to either side. And I couldn't imagine that old Lord Mochizuki had intended the walls to be defended by a bunch of young women in shrine maidens' garb.

Fuyudori stood alone beneath the tree, her face as pale as her hair. Toumi trailed two older women, gazing with undisguised hunger at the long glaives in the
kunoichis'
hands.

Emi looked at the gate, biting her lower lip.

“I'm sure Aimaru and the Little Brothers are all right,” I whispered.

She shook her head, but before I could ask what she meant, Lady Chiyome burst out of the great hall. “Don't just stand there! Open the gate!”

Mieko sprinted past her mistress, moving more quickly than I had ever seen her do, and the rest of us followed her. It took eight of us to do what the Little Brothers did with so little effort, but we managed to get the gate open just as Lieutenant Masugu led his horse through the tall red
torī
arch.

“Masugu
-san
!” I shouted, and found that Fuyudori had shouted with me.

The lieutenant removed his helmet, his expression grim.

“Who were they? How did you find them? Why were they here?” Fuyudori continued, her voice shrill. “Are you all right?”

“Enemy raiders,” said Lady Chiyome, sweeping Fuyudori aside.

Masugu shook his head and shrugged, his armored shoulders lifting like broken ice in a river. “No. The same feathers on their arrows, but no insignia on the armor or on the horses. And the enemy—cavalry, scouts, even raiders—they always use chestnut mounts, not greys. Though the greys are harder to see in the snow, it's true.” He shrugged, then looked at the circle of women around him. He shook his head again. “Villagers said they'd seen strangers sneaking around. We spotted them as we reached the bottom of the hill. I couldn't think of a good reason for them to be on the road up here, so I called. As soon as I did, well, they ran for it, and then I
knew
they were up to no good. I followed and...” He held up his hands as if to say,
And here we are.

“You fought well, Masugu
-san
,” I said. I said it quietly—not meaning to say it out loud at all—but he heard it.

He smiled grimly. “Not much of a fight. Me on the bigger horse, more heavily armed. And you to watch my back. Thank you for the warning, Murasaki
-san
.”

Feeling the heat rise to my face, I mumbled, “You're welcome.”

His grin warmed, and then he turned to Mieko, who was still holding her bow. “Nice shot, Mieko
-san
.”

“Yes,” she answered.

In the silence that followed her flat statement, Masugu turned and patted his horse. “Well, I need to get Inazuma here back into his stall and brushed down, don't I, boy? It's been a while since he had a chance to ride hard like that.”

The circle of women parted to let him lead his horse to the stable, looking for all the world as if he had just come back from a vigorous morning's ride, and not from a fight to the death. Not as if he had just killed.

In my mind's eye, I could see the spray of blood as he struck down the first rider.
But they would have killed him,
a voice said in my head—a voice that sounded very much like Lady Chiyome's.
And who warned him, after all?

“Enough gawking at the pretty soldier and his pretty horse,” Chiyome
-sama
's actual voice barked. “Kee Sun and the Little Brothers will dispose of the ruffians later. For now, close the—”

“Chiyome
-sama
,” said Emi, pointing out through the open gate, “pardon your humble servant's interruption, but the Little Brothers and Aimaru are coming.”

We all stared out into the bright, white landscape, where three more figures were in fact cresting the rise. Or rather, two figures, and another who looked like a walking wall.

“But what in the name of the gods are they carrying?” snorted Toumi.

E
ven from a distance, I could see that they were all red-cheeked from the cold and from the climb up from the valley. None of them seemed to be injured, which made me release a breath I hadn't realized that I was holding.

Though the shortest of the three, Aimaro looked twice as wide. As they approached, we could see that he carried a load of open boxes that were hung from a pole across his shoulders. Cages. There were birds inside—chickens.

“Oh, good,” said Sachi, “the morning's entertainment isn't over.”

Some of the older women laughed, the tension leaking from the assembly like water from a punctured tarp.

We stood there in two files as they entered. Aimaru looked to the chickens, who were complaining in their confinement, and then to Emi and to me, as if to say,
Now what?

I shrugged. Emi frowned down at the snow-muffled gravel.

Chiyome
-sama
gave her own mirthless chuckle. “Welcome back, gentlemen! Masugu has gotten rid of the rascals he was chasing, so we know about that. What's the rest of the news from the valley?”

The elder of the Little Brothers nodded deferentially. “We checked with most of the farms here in the center of the valley. All of them survived the blizzard intact, though a few animals wandered off into the snow.”

“Their bodies will probably be found once the spring thaws come,” added the younger Little Brother, “so not too much was lost.”

The elder pursed his lips, and the younger lapsed back into their habitual silence.

Aimaru cleared his throat. “Masugu
-san
rode up as far as where the valley narrows. He said that he heard tell of some fighting down by the garrison.”

Chiyome
-sama
grunted. “There is always fighting down by the garrison.”

“It must be all of those soldiers,” said Mieko. If it had been anyone but she, I'd have sworn it was a joke. The other women chuckled, but they stopped when Chiyome
-
sama
glared at them.

The older Little Brother said, “Masugu
-san
was told that the garrison had caught and killed several more of the band of raiders that we met on the way in.”

After pursing her lips for a moment, Lady Chiyome nodded at the Little Brother, and then walked toward Aimaru. “I like my food fresh,” she said, pointing to the caged chickens, “but I must say, I generally prefer not to eat it live.”

“Er, no, my lady,” answered Aimaru. “The farmer said that he'd been told not to slaughter them.”

“Told?” said Lady Chiyome, voice raised but grinning. Aimaru looked as if he might faint. “What an odd thing to tell the man. Who would do such a thing?”

Again a giggle passed among the women; this time Chiyome did not stop it.

Aimaru gulped. “I... I do not know, my lady.”

I could see Emi across from me, still frowning down at the ground. Her lips were moving silently.

Lady Chiyome gave her dry, rasping chuckle. “Well, I suppose someone will have to slaughter the things. Novices.”

“Yes, Chiyome
-sama
,” we all three said together, far more in concert than we ever managed to be in Sachi
-
sensei
's music lessons.

“Relieve this young gentlemen of his burden and get these chickens ready for Kee Sun.”