Spirit's Chosen (27 page)

Kaya was a hunter from the tips of the fingers that drew a taut bowstring to the soles of the feet that could track game stealthily across mountain meadows, through forests, and up mountain paths. As a hunter she knew the virtue of silence and soft speech. A loud noise on the trail could startle your quarry into flight or catch the ear of a beast you did
not
want to face. I think this must have been the only reason why she did not blurt “Are you out of your
mind
?” the instant I told her to make her escape from the Ookami village.

She saved that for later. Meanwhile, she acted as though I hadn’t said anything extraordinary. Her sole reaction was a noncommittal grunt before turning away and beginning to breathe deeply much too soon.

Faker
, I thought fondly.
You’ll have plenty to say about this tomorrow
. And that turned out to be true.

Morning found a sleepy-headed household. Tami’s son behaved like all healthy infants, waking up many times
during the night. We all took turns helping the new mother as much as possible. Tami was the only one who could feed him, but the rest of us could clean him up when he needed it, or stroke his back to help him digest a bellyful of milk. It was a good thing that we were so many under one roof: it allowed Tami to get as much healing sleep as possible and also meant no one blamed me for not doing a fair share that first night. When the baby’s strident yowls could not rouse me, everyone presumed I was exhausted from helping his birth, not lost in a vision of the spirit world.

Despite her grogginess, Kaya’s mind stayed sharp enough for her to pounce on me when I announced that I would bring everyone’s breakfast.

“And
I’ll
go with you for water!” she declared. I raised no objection. There was much that we needed to say, and few opportunities to say it without fear of extra ears. As we walked toward the well, she looked at me and asked, “So, did I
dream
what you told me last night or are you simply insane?”

“I told you to escape this place tonight,” I said calmly. “You might want to put it off a day or two, but you shouldn’t wait much longer than that. You might lose your nerve.”

“Himiko, are you
hearing
yourself?” Kaya’s eyes darted warily from side to side. There were many people awake and doing their morning chores. The way to the well was busy; so was the cookhouse path. She slowed her pace to maintain our distance from crowds. “How can you talk about running away? Even if we do succeed, what do you think Ryu will do to your family when he finds out?”

“
We
are not going anywhere, Kaya,” I said. “Only you.”

She stopped in her tracks. I had to take her by the elbow and urge her along. “People are staring,” I murmured. “Keep walking before they start wondering what’s wrong with you.”

“What’s wrong with me?” Kaya whispered back fiercely. “Better to ask what’s laid a nest of crazy eggs in your head!”

“There’s nothing crazy about this,” I said, my voice firm. “I’ve thought it all through and you’re going to
listen
to what I have to say. You
have
to escape, Kaya. You have to do it, because you can and I can’t. The forest is your second home. You can find food and water and a way back that
won’t
make you cross paths with any of the villages subject to the Ookami.”

“So can you.” Kaya sounded deeply distressed. “Give me time to find a way to do it so no one’s punished for our escape. I
will
! We came here together and we’ll leave together. I’m not leaving my sister behind.”

I took a long breath. “Kaya, if I weren’t here, would you try to get away?”

“Try?” she repeated with a wry grin. “I’d have eaten one of their awful dinners and been gone before breakfast!”

“So you
could
do it? Could you run off, elude the wolves, return to my village and then to your own before harvest time comes?”

“Yes, of course. I’ve noticed that there are some places along the village wall where people have dumped broken jars and other trash. I could get to the top of one of those rubbish heaps and climb the rest of the way over the palisade, easy as shinnying up a tree. And it would be no problem leaving our house after sundown. The night Tami’s pains began I went to the well and back unchallenged.
There weren’t more than two or three Ookami about and not one of them questioned me. I guess they saw the water pot in my hands. But that doesn’t mean I’m going to—”

“Yes, you are,” I said. “You must. You have to go back to my people and let them know what’s become of me. I told them I’d be back with Noboru by harvest time, remember? His return would have cured Mama’s madness, I’m convinced of that, but now …”

“The sentence against her will be carried out if she can’t be healed,” Kaya said gently. “Himiko, I don’t see what good it will do for your mother’s case if I return to your people alone and empty-handed.”

“You underestimate yourself, Kaya,” I said with a faint smile. “You will find the words to make the Matsu elders delay the death sentence. You will make Lord Hideki into your ally, your sword, and Mama’s shield. Above all, you will tell everyone that you saw Noboru here, alive and well. And once you have done that, you will go home.”

“First you want me to abandon you and next you want me to abandon your mother?” Kaya sniffed scornfully. “Who do you think you’re talking to?”

“A very loyal Badger.” I touched her arm. “You want to save my mother so badly that you forget your own. She knows that you’re strong, brave, and independent or she never would have let you go adventuring this long. She has faith that you’ll come back, but she isn’t going to wait forever. She’s been informed that you’ll return in the autumn. How will she feel when you don’t? What will she do when she discovers you’ve been enslaved by the Ookami?”

Kaya’s eyes opened wide as she pictured the answer.
“She’ll come after me. She’ll lead our warriors here, against a clan that’s much bigger than ours and much more used to war. If she does … she’ll lose.”

“Now do you understand why you
must
go?” I asked.

No reply came. Perhaps it was because we’d reached the well and there were too many people who might overhear us. All I could do was hope my friend now saw her path clearly.

She did. She was gone the next morning.

When Kaya’s disappearance was discovered, four Ookami warriors stormed into the millet field where I was working and hustled me home, leaving my housemates and the rest of the slaves nearby stunned and speechless. I was flung through the doorway, where I found Ryu waiting. There was no need to wonder why he was there. I gave silent thanksgiving that we were alone. Tami had recovered quickly from childbirth and was doing lighter work in the cookhouse, carrying her baby with her in a sling.

I knelt on the dirt floor and faced the dragon.

“We will find her, you know.” Ryu looked down his nose at me and spoke without the slightest hint of irritation. “If my best hunters haven’t got the ability to track down one fool of a girl within a day, they might as well lay down their spears and choose husbands.”

“May the gods bless their marriages with many children,” I muttered under my breath.

“What did you say?”

“Nothing you’d like to hear.”

He frowned, then forced a chuckle. “This is your doing,
isn’t it? You haven’t got the courage to try running away yourself, so you persuade your feather-brained friend to do it. When she’s caught, you stay safe while she suffers for it.”

“She won’t be caught.”

This time Ryu’s frown stayed. “You are a troublemaker, Himiko. You stir up the muck at the bottom of a clear stream so that no one can drink from it. I’m going to put a stop to that, before you do some real harm.”

“If you’re so afraid of what I can do, you have a sword and I have a throat.” I looked at him directly, steadily. My lips were dry, my heart beating fast. I knew I was taking a dangerous gamble, but I had to keep all of his thoughts of punishment focused on me.

Ryu’s eyebrows went up. “You think you’re
that
important? How funny. I’ll save my sword’s edge for a worthy opponent, not a spoiled child. I’ve made the mistake of giving you too much liberty, but that won’t be difficult to correct.” Without warning, he grabbed me by the shoulder and hauled me outside, through the village, and all the way to the foot of the ladder leading up to the chieftain’s grand house.

“Climb,” he said.

I did as I was told, but behaved as if I were graciously accepting an invitation, not obeying a command. I did not wait for him to join me on the platform at the top of the ladder before I walked through the doorway with my head held high.

“Where do you think you’re going?” Ryu seized me again. This time it hurt. He shifted his grip on my shoulder and gave me a vicious shove forward so that I tripped on the hem of my field-stained dress and sprawled on my face.
When I raised my head from the floorboards, I felt a trickle of wetness trailing down the side of my nose. I touched it and saw blood.

“Oh! You’re hurt!” A young woman rushed to help me sit up. She was very plainly dressed and carried herself so humbly that I believed I was meeting a fellow slave. “Let me get you some water and a bit of cloth for that.” Her broad, sallow face showed sincere concern for my injury.

“The gods preserve us, Chizu, is there no end to your stupidity?” Ryu roared at the young woman so ferociously that she threw one arm across her face as though expecting a blow. “It’s bad enough that you’ve turned the brat into your pet, but do you intend to treat every slave I give you like an honored guest? Bah. This is what I get for thinking you could learn. My mother was right: a stone was never born to sing.”

“I’m—I’m sorry, my lord husband,” Chizu replied, still shielding her eyes from his contemptuous stare. “I didn’t know. I thought—”

“You
can’t
think. Why do you try?” He snorted. “This girl is Himiko of the Matsu clan. Get her a new dress and make sure she bathes before she puts it on.”

“Yes, my lord husband.” Chizu’s protective arm slowly lowered. “Thank you very much. She will be a great help to me.”

“A help to
you
? Do you think I brought her here as a gift for
you
?”

“No, my lord husband.” The young woman’s head drooped. “I was mistaken. Now I see how pretty she is—much prettier than I. I hope she will make you very happy.”

I sucked in my breath loudly in disgust, but not loudly enough to be heard over Ryu’s disdainful laugh. “It’s a good thing that Mother runs this house and not you. A chunk of firewood has more common sense than you! This creature is conceited enough already. Why would I want to add to her arrogance by making her my woman? She doesn’t
begin
to deserve that honor.” He fixed Chizu with a cold look that as good as added:
Neither do you
.

His timid wife flinched and asked for his forgiveness. Ryu did not bother to acknowledge her apology. “Once you’ve gotten her bathed and dressed, she will be strictly in my mother’s charge. If you want the girl to help you with some task that’s too overwhelming for you, tell Mother and she will approve it, or not. You will have only one remaining duty concerning Himiko: she is not to be allowed the company of anyone who is not an Ookami.
Anyone
. Can you handle that without making a mess of it?”

Chizu touched her brow to the floor before answering: “I’ll try my best, my lord husband.”

“That’s what I’m afraid of.”

I didn’t know which sickened me more: Ryu’s spiteful disrespect for his wife or Chizu’s spineless deference to her mean-souled mate.

The wolf chieftain left the house to tend to other business. Chizu tried to speak harshly to me, the way she presumed Ryu would approve, but she was not born to be a petty tyrant.
Please
and
thank you
and
if you wouldn’t mind
cropped up in every other sentence as she took me to the river for my bath and back again to don a dress that didn’t reek of sweat, soil, and fertilizer.

The interior of Ryu’s house was different from my father’s. It was newer and much larger, though it was difficult to see exactly how large it was unless you viewed it from the outside. Inside, a series of artfully woven and dyed cloths hung between slender poles, dividing the big space into many smaller ones. Chizu took great pains to point out which ones were the family’s private sleeping rooms and to let me know that I was never to set foot in them uninvited.

“Oh, and this is the little boy’s place,” she added, showing me a tiny curtained-off area between the room she shared with Ryu and the one his mother occupied. “You’d probably better stay out of this one too.”

Just then there was a clamor from outside. We peered around the curtains and saw my brother Noboru come running into the house, his back laden with kindling wood. A bird-boned woman with fog-colored hair came huffing and puffing after him, though she was not
too
breathless to stop her constant stream of talk.

“—disgraceful, the way those useless lumps lost a trail that a blind pig could follow! They’d have found her soon enough if
someone
I could mention told them that failure gets rewarded with a whipping, but nobody listens to me.”

Noboru dropped his bundle of sticks and brought her some water. “I listen to you, Auntie,” he said earnestly.

“Hmph. Well, you’re better than nothing. And if you
do
listen to me, why can’t you remember not to call me ‘Auntie’ when we’re under this roof?”

“I’m sorry, Aun—Lady Sato.”

“Good boy.” She patted his head.

“Um … I think you might want to go into your room now, Himiko,” Chizu whispered. “Please?”

I yearned to call my little brother’s name, but held back. We were now under the same roof, and that would have to be enough for me, at least temporarily. Being able to find Noboru instantly would be a great advantage if—no,
when!
—we made our own escape. But if I broke Ryu’s rule about speaking with none but the Ookami, he might separate us, and he certainly would make Chizu suffer for it. I could not risk so much to gain so little.