Risuko (9 page)

As soon as he was gone, we started to try to get loose. I was desperately trying to scramble up the bark behind me to take the pressure off, but the more I struggled the tighter the cord was. My hands and wrists were on fire; I could feel blood dribbling down my arms.

I looked at Toumi, who was crying, for which I didn't blame her at all. Blinking at me, she tried to shove the gag out of her mouth. When that failed, she howled in frustration, but began lifting up with her chin and looking upward, as if she were trying to tell me to climb.

Climb? Climb what?
I looked up; the branch wasn't that far overhead, but there was no way to climb to it—

Toumi kicked me, then lifted her chin again, first up, and then to the side. When I didn't respond, she growled and did it again.
CLIMB ME!

Ah!
I threw my legs around her waist as if she were herself a small pine and shimmied up. Immediately, the pressure on my wrists lessened, and I almost passed out from the relief, sliding back down so that cords began to bite back into my flesh.

Toumi growled, waking me to my purpose again, and, using my legs and—once I'd worked my way up just a bit—grabbing on to the cord itself, I climbed until the cord looped around my wrists fell away and I dropped to the ground.

The relief was so intense that for a second I couldn't stand, but Toumi started kicking dirt on me. I yanked the gag from my mouth. “I'll untie it from the other end. I can't cut it from—”

She shook her head emphatically, screaming through the rag stuffed in her mouth, then threw her legs up over my shoulders. Realizing what she was trying to do, I did my best to lift her until at last she was able to work her wrists free—releasing Toumi's full weight onto me. I collapsed to the ground beneath her.

We rolled apart, gasping for breath and shaking the blood and feeling back into our hands.

A shadow blocked the sun shining on my sweat-slick face, and I gasped, sure that the bandit had come back to kill us in spite of the ringleader Tanaka's orders.

“Well done, Risuko
-chan
, Toumi
-chan
,” said a warm, hushed voice.

Mieko
-san
stood above us, her dagger in her hand, a twig in her hair the only other sign that the situation was at all unusual.

“But... but...!” spluttered Toumi. “I saw you riding away with the others!”

“Did you?” Mieko smiled mildly. “Come, girls. We must hurry.”

“The man,” I gasped, standing and brushing myself off. “The one who tied us up—”

“—is not likely to bother us.”

“Really?” asked Toumi, eyes fierce, staring at Mieko's knife.

“I cut loose the horses,” said Mieko, pursing her lips. “When I last saw him, he was trying to chase them down, and that should take some time.”

“Oh,” muttered Toumi.

“But we need to warn the others. They'll have just started back this way from the switchback. If we can warn them...” Mieko frowned. “But I don't want to risk exposing you to these bandits, or...” Her eyes swept around the clearing, ending on the cedar to which we'd been tied. Her eyes narrowed and she walked toward the tree, plucking the arrow that had nearly pierced my arm from the bark. She turned. “Risuko,” she said, her voice suddenly low, “do you think it would be quicker for you to scurry through this bramble, or to climb over the top?”

I blinked. “Um. Through the canopy?”

She nodded and pointed to the right of the tree. “Go. Now. That way. Warn Masugu and the rest that there's an ambush.”

Not waiting for another word, I sprinted to the edge of the clearing and clambered to the matted top of the juniper. Glancing back, I saw Mieko hauling Toumi into hiding in the brush.

The juniper branches were thick and springy. As I burst up through the top layer, I could hear the muted sound of our company. They had just turned at the switchback; squinting, I could just make out Masugu's tall stallion, where I should have been riding.

I set out at a sprint, running along one bouncy juniper limb, crossing to the next where they crossed. The branches were so thickly overlapping that, while the going was slower than it would have been on open ground, I was moving much faster than I would have through the underbrush below, and with a much clearer sense of where I was going. I zigged and zagged along the treetops for a few heartbeats...

When I heard a clatter behind me.

Glancing back I saw no one. I ran along a few more steps.

Another clatter. I turned around again. Nothing.

Then, from out of the trees downhill on the opposite side of the road, I saw a grey speck lancing toward me. Not pausing to think, I ducked.

The arrow hissed over my head like an angry snake.

I dropped down into the juniper.

I heard another arrow thud into a branch just ahead of me.

Crouching just below the top layer of branches, I tried to think. I needed to warn Masugu
-san
and the rest of the party. But I was too far away to shout, and if I tried to climb above the canopy again, the archers would be looking for me. I could try to make my way back on the ground, but the going would be slow, and—not going straight downhill, as I had before getting caught earlier—I would have a hard time keeping my sense of direction.

I could just hear the clatter of our party's hooves on the stony road, and knew that they would be in the bandits' range soon. Still, I had to be closer to Masugu and the rest than the bandits were. If only I could scout out a direct—

I gasped, stunned that it had taken me so long to remember. Placing my hands in front of my mouth—holding on to the branch with my knees, I let out three owl hoots—not caring what kind of owl this time, just making sure that they were as loud as I could make them.

I listened. The hoof beats continued.

Hoo! Hoo! Hooooo!

I thought I heard Masugu's voice, but it sounded as if the horses were still clopping toward the bandits' trap.

I breathed deep, squeezed hard with my knees, and hooted louder than any owl could have.

I heard the lieutenant's voice again, shouting this time. “Attack! We're under attack! Form up!”

Then there was yelling and shouting, and the clash of swords, and horses and men screaming, just as there had been at the Mt. Fuji Inn.

Only this time, I had absolutely no intention of sticking my head out where it might get shot.

T
he battle, if that's what it was, didn't last very long.

Quickly, the sound diminished to almost nothing. There was still some shouting, but it was growing more and more distant.

I snuck carefully out of my hiding place and made my way downhill toward where I knew the road must be.

It was not quite the scene of carnage that had met us that morning when we had first met Masugu
-san
and his soldiers. There were three dead men I assumed were part of the bandit gang. They'd been piled by the side of the road. There was also one dead horse, and one of the lancers was growling in pain as one of his comrades pulled an arrow through his thigh.

Most of the rest of the Takeda soldiers were missing. Aside from the wounded man and his nurse, only Masugu was there. Lady Chiyome and Mieko were talking with him. Mieko held an arrow in her hand.

The Little Brothers stood guard while Aimaru, Emi, and Toumi were holding the horses. All three looked as if they were waiting for another attack.

“Ah, there's the little rodent!” said Chiyome
-sama
. “Come here, Risuko.”

Uncertain, I slid down the bank to the road and walked, trembling, to my mistress. “Yes, Chiyome
-sama
?”

“Mieko here tells me that you're the one we have to thank for warning us before those ruffians attacked.” The old woman squinted at me. “Is this true?”

Her expression made me feel very much as though I had done something wrong—though I had been feeling, as I thought about it, rather proud of myself. “Y-yes my lady. Mieko
-san
told me to.”

She peered at me some more, smirked at first Mieko, and then Masugu, and walked toward where the Little Brothers were guarding her palanquin.

Blinking, I looked up at Masugu
-san
and Mieko
-san
. The lieutenant smiled at me. “Good job, Murasaki
-san
. I was just telling Lady Chiyome and Mieko that if they'd let you go, I'd find a job for you in the scouts today.”

My cheeks burned at the compliment.

“And I was telling the lieutenant,” said Mieko brightly—almost too brightly—“that you are very badly needed where you are going, and so that he would have to find his scout somewhere else.”

“Um. Thank you,” I said to both of them.
Badly needed?

“Mieko,” said Masugu
-san
, and seemed about to say something more, but didn't speak.

Mieko lifted her chin. “Masugu?”

After looking back and forth between them for an awkward moment, I was just about to excuse myself when Mieko sighed and held up the arrow for Masugu to look at. “Did you notice the fletching?” She ran a finger over the feathers, which were from a snowy owl—white, with brown spots.

He frowned. “You think this was an enemy raiding party? It's awfully far from their territory.”

“I think,” said Mieko with an impatient sigh, “that they probably weren't bandits.”

—

Once Masugu's soldiers had returned from chasing the attackers—one more of the enemy dead, but the rest evaporated into the mountains—and once a bier was lit for the three dead men and the horse, we resumed our descent into the valley.

I did not mind riding in front of Masugu
-san
now.

We made our way through a narrow valley with muddy fields. The farmers came out to their fences and bowed to us as we passed.

We climbed a ridge that lay across the valley like a cat catching the afternoon sun. A low, gated village swelled out of hilltop ahead. Through the
torī
arch and the open gates I could see at least a dozen buildings, whitewashed so that they glowed in the sunlight. The Full Moon.

Mieko and her rider cantered up beside Masugu and me. “Welcome to the Full Moon,” she whispered, smiling.

—

We passed through the huge red arch (and the heavy wooden gate behind it), entering a white gravel courtyard. In front of the largest of the buildings, which looked as big as the Temple of the Sun Buddha in Pineshore, stood a still line of figures: six or seven young women and a single man. The man and the three youngest women were dressed in blue like Emi, Toumi, and me. The older ones were all in the red and white attire of shrine maidens.

The two Little Brothers placed the palanquin on the ground with a quiet crunch, and then sprinted back to close the gate. The two youngest girls ran forward, knelt beside Chiyome
-sama
's sedan, and slid open the door.

As Lady Chiyome stepped out, all of those assembled bowed deeply, touching their heads to the gravel in deepest respect. The old woman slid out of her box and stretched, grumbling.

As we all dismounted, she surveyed her troops, who rose to a kneeling posture. She gave a grunt that sounded almost satisfied, and called out to some of the women in
miko
dress, “Are the baths prepared?”

Two of the women nodded.

Chiyome
-sama
smiled grimly and spoke to the square-faced man in the line. “Kee Sun, see to the wounded boy and get some supper ready. I'm famished. Fuyudori,” she called to the one blue-clad girl who had not opened her door; by her face, I'd have guessed she was at most three years or so my senior, but her hair was as white as a crane's tail. “These three are your new charges: Toumi, Risuko, and Emi. Get them stowed away. I want their training to start immediately.”

With that, she strode forward toward one of the smaller buildings, one with steam rising from it that I took to be the bathhouse. Mieko and the other women seemed to be taking charge of the unloading of the pack horses. The soldiers began leading the warhorses away to an enormous stable just inside the gate.

Masugu
-san
ran from my side, pulling something from beneath his armor—a small cylinder—and whispered something to Lady Chiyome just as she was about to enter the bathhouse. She nodded at him, and then dismissed him with a wave. He walked back to supervise the care of the horses.

He went over to his wounded soldier, who was being helped by the older man in blue, calling, “No poppy juice, remember. I don't trust that stuff.”

The man in blue growled back something that sounded like a confirmation, and led the wounded rider toward the big building.

Masugu nodded and turned.

I was about to ask him what he had been talking to Chiyome
-sama
about when I caught a glimpse of Fuyudori, the older girl who had been ordered to take charge of us. Her gaze had followed mine toward the lieutenant; she had a small, quivering smile. To be honest, it looked more like a grimace of anxiety than a grin.

As I considered her, I realized that this girl looked exactly as I'd always imagined a character in a fable my mother used to tell sister and me—the story of Long-Haired Girl who saves her town, but whose hair turns white in sorrow. Fuyudori was extraordinarily pretty, and the whiteness of her hair made her beauty all the more remarkable. She looked at the three of us, the uncertainty melting from her face, and in a sweet voice said, “Please close your mouths. It's not polite to stare.”

As she led us away from the courtyard, I turned in search of Aimaru. He looked rather lost, following the Little Brothers as they unloaded the pack horses. I waved to him, but he didn't see me.

“M
y name is Fuyudori. I am the oldest of the initiates here, and so you may address me as Fuyudori
-san
or Fuyudori
-senpai
.” We followed her steady stride toward the back of the compound. It was impossible not to watch the white, silken hair flowing behind her as she walked. “As the head initiate, I make sure that you know the rules and obey them. Any infraction is seen as a failure on my part; I do not accept failure easily. But I also like to think that I am here as an adviser and a friend.”