The Night Parade (20 page)

Still clutching the branch, Saki clawed her way back to her feet.

The path was steep. Every muscle in her body was on fire, and she felt no closer to the spirit world than before. If she stopped, the wave would overwhelm her, and that would be the end of everything. But the path couldn't go on forever. When it ended, there would be no place left to run.

Saki looked back and saw the black tendrils reaching toward her. One of them brushed against her arm, and a chill sunk into her bones. The ageless voice of the infection shrieked with rage and greed.

IT IS MINE. IT WILL ALL BE MINE.

In an instant, the earth dropped out from under her. She hurtled forward, wheeling in the air. A flash of stars, the moon through the trees, the sickening thump as her body hit the ground.

There was pain, then darkness, then nothing at all.

She was warm.

“You have come,” a clear voice said. “I knew you would make it.”

Saki sat on the floor of a grand reception room. The walls were white, trimmed in green and gold. The silver spirit knelt in front of her, her eyes gleaming.

“Where am I?” Saki asked.

The silver spirit rose to her feet and offered Saki her hand. “This is the Palace of Souls.”

“I was running in the woods.” There was no door behind her, no gate or road. “I tried to find the secret path, but…”

“You found it,” the silver spirit said, though her voice was not happy. She nodded to the branch in Saki's hand. “You came from the grove.”

As Saki held the rotten tree wood, miniature tendrils, like black worms, poked out from the bark. Saki dropped the branch on the floor, but the tendrils were too weak to do anything but flail.

“This small fragment cannot hurt you,” the silver spirit told her. She handed Saki a light square of silk. “Here, use this.”

Saki didn't reach for the silk right away. She looked back up at the spirit. “The darkness chased me. It was with me on the path. I didn't…I didn't mess up again, did I? By bringing it this close?”

“It could not follow you. Not this part of you.” A flicker of concern passed on the silver spirit's face. “But we must hurry. Take what you've brought and come with me.”

Saki picked up the branch with the square of silk, and the silver spirit led her to the only door in the room. It opened to a long hall. No lamps or candles burned to lead the way, but the pale walls shone with a light all their own, like the soft glow of the moon.

Saki caught the silver spirit by the sleeve of her kimono. “Last night, I was on the bridge in front of the gate. I lost my friends in the darkness. Please, do you know how I can find them?”

“I am very sorry, but I have not left this place since you were last expelled from our world.”

“Then take me out now!” Saki pleaded. “I have to save them!”

The silver spirit stopped by another doorway along the hall. She raised her hand and showed Saki the edges of the door frame. A dark stain seeped through the gaps between the walls.

“Do you see the marks on these doors? Each door leads to a different part of the spirit world. The wrath of the infection has blocked them all.”

Anger flashed in Saki's eyes. Her grip on the rotten branch tightened until the wood bent and splintered. She had come so close, without any guide, only to be trapped.

“They sacrificed themselves for me, but I can't do anything to help them?” Saki beat a fist on the delicate walls where the rot had seeped in. “This isn't fair!”

The silver spirit placed a hand on Saki's shoulder, not a touch of comfort, but a gesture of resolute strength.

“You found the Path of the Gods on your own, at great risk to yourself. There may still be something we can do. Do not throw away all hope, for everything is not lost. The Palace of Souls and the Midlight Prince still hold.”

“Then take me to him,” Saki said. “If he holds the power in this world, he must be able to do something.”

The silver spirit stepped back. “This way. Follow me to the end of the hall.”

The stains around the door frames lightened, and the walls shone brighter. By the time Saki and the silver spirit came to the final set of doors, a cool, clean scent drifted through the air.

The doors at the end of the hall were carved to resemble a ripple running across the water. They were not lavish but had a quiet grace. As Saki and the silver spirit approached, the doors opened on their own.

They came into a spacious room with a low ceiling. Folding screens painted with scenes of the Night Parade were the only decorations set out on the floor. On top of a cushion in the center of the room sat a boy only a few years older than Saki. He was dressed in an old gray kimono that drooped on his slight frame.

With the rotten branch in hand, Saki stepped forward. “I'm looking for the Midlight Prince.”

The boy gave her a soft smile. “That is what they call me.”

Saki was stunned into silence. He had none of the splendor of the silver spirit, and his soft face showed no emotion beyond simple curiosity. His clothes were plain, and his hair, though longer than hers, was tied behind his head without any of the decorations of a lord or samurai. Saki couldn't call him a prince at all.

Her mouth drew into a hard line, and she brandished the tree branch like a sword. “Who do you think you are?”

The boy became confused. “I beg your pardon? I am called—”

“Yeah, the ‘Midlight Prince.' You said that already. But a prince is supposed to take care of people. What have you done to stop this? It was taking over your shrine all this time, and you did nothing.”

The boy did not retreat from her gaze, but his expression was muted. “I have no power over this world. I cannot affect its change.”

“Then what kind of ruler are you?” she shouted. “The spirits said that only you had the power to make things right. Why can't you fix this?”

“In the days long ago, the spirits were correct. My office is not that of a sovereign but of an emissary; I am the channel between your world and the world of the spirits. What energy is gathered at the shrine in the human world can be used here,” he explained. “In the time you walked the Night Parade, have you not seen the connection between the worlds?”

Saki looked down at the one odd straw sandal still left on her foot. The village of object spirits had come directly from her own world, and she had spoken to the spirits of the trees, which never had voices in the daytime. Though many things looked different in the spirit world, it was all a matter of perception. Saki took a deep breath to calm her temper.

“I have. I know they don't always have the same rules, but my world and this one are different parts of the same place.”

“Yes,” said the prince. “The fate of this world is tied to the world of humans. Though your world has little need of us, we have great need of you.”

A thread had been tugged, and the tapestry began to unravel. If the spirit world depended on energy gathered from the humans, there was a reason the prince had no power to wield.

“You use the energy of the prayers from the shrine,” she began. “It's deserted now, and no one comes. If people were around to notice that a tree in the grove had fallen, the infection wouldn't have started in the first place.” Her hopes fell. “So it really is my fault… I even invited the dead tree back for Obon.”

The prince bowed his head. “In death, the essence of the tree that fell in the grove was supposed to be cleansed. But that essence was recalled and brought back into the living world, and from the world of the humans, it came here. Though you must not be so quick to fault yourself. Your actions, however misguided, only hastened an inevitable conclusion. For this world, which lives only through belief, being forgotten is our ultimate death curse. Had you not come, we would have slowly faded until nothing remained. Do not blame yourself for the machinations of fate.”

Saki shook her head. Again, she was helpless. “This is crazy. The dead spirit tried to tell me the same thing: ‘hopeless,' ‘lost cause,' ‘just give up.' What kind of leader are you? You can't just resign yourself to die! Forget fate!” she cried. “I don't want this world to just disappear!”

A light filled the room. Stains on the walls, where the rot had leaked through, were gone in the blink of an eye. The silver spirit smiled, but the light was not hers. Neither did it come from the prince, though his face showed a new vigor. Saki looked all around the room before she realized that the light came from her own chest. After a brief moment, it faded, but the atmosphere between them was changed forever.

“A wish from the heart,” said the silver spirit. “This place has not felt such power for a very long time.”

The prince stood. He was more than a head taller than Saki now. “You are still part of the human world, so perhaps your prayers can help us banish this darkness. Will you lend us your power?”

“You want me to pray? Those words before just sort of…tumbled out of my mouth. I didn't even think about what I was saying.”

“Lend me your hands,” said the prince. “Do not be anxious.”

“But what about burning the branch?”

“Place it between us. You must know by now that a task in this world can be fulfilled in many different ways.”

Saki swallowed her doubts and touched her fingertips to his. They held the branch together, human and spirit united in hope. The black tendrils had retreated from the light from Saki's chest, but the darkness of the dead tree still lurked in the fibers of the wood.

The prince held her gaze.

“If thinking does not help, then do not think.
Feel.
Remember what brought you to this place. Hold those feelings close to your heart, but do not hide them from the rest of the world. Nothing can harm you as long as you believe in the strength you hold within.”

Saki closed her eyes.

So much had happened in so little time. She'd felt the belief slowly settle on her shoulders like snow. That first terror in the graveyard and those will-o'-the-wisp eyes seemed like so long ago now. She'd conquered those fears, pushed herself past what she'd ever imagined she could do. She felt her connection to the spirit world in the deepest part of her being.

The person she'd been when she'd first come to the spirit world was not the same person she was now. She was prepared to take chances that she hadn't allowed herself before. Knowing the secret of the Night Parade made her feel a connection to the village that couldn't compare to anything in the city. She'd met loyal friends because of the spirit world. She'd become the master of her own fate. She'd ridden the wind and stared down the twisted face of death itself.

She couldn't let this place, which had given her so much, be torn apart. She wouldn't surrender the friends who had done so much to help her. Her greatest wish was to see this world survive. Survive and thrive.

Through the fog of her thoughts, Saki opened her eyes. The branch she held with the Midlight Prince glowed with golden light.

Rather than bursting into flames or dissolving into flecks, the wood shifted against her skin. Saki breathed in and remembered the spirits in the sakaki grove. This branch, too, must have been part of a spirit once. How sad and lonely it must have been to be separated from its family… Was that why it clung to this world so desperately?

A sudden and unexpected tear streaked down Saki's cheek. The tear fell from her chin and burst against the golden glow of the branch. The light drew itself inside. When the illumination faded, the bark was supple and new. At the end of the branch, a patch of tiny white flowers bloomed. From life to death to life again.

When Saki lifted her gaze, the room had changed. The walls were set with windows that opened to the night sky. The moon hung so close that she might have reached out and touched it.

The Midlight Prince was also different. The color of his robes appeared like the indigo haze of the sky as the sun rose and set, and his sleeves and collar were embroidered with shining silver thread. Yet despite all of this, his face and his manner remained unchanged.

“You have done more than any of us could have hoped for,” he told her with a smile.

“Will my friends be all right?” Saki asked.

“If you have kept them foremost in your heart, then I am certain that your feelings protected their spirits from danger.”

Saki let go of the prince's hands and fell to her knees on the floor. Relief washed through her body, and she held the blossoming branch to her chest, the weight of the new life both beautiful and frightening.

The prince knelt down to meet her eyes. “You have given much of yourself this night. More than should be asked. Yet I thank you for all that you have done.”

Saki brushed her fingers under her eyes. “I want to go out and see them. My friends. I have to apologize for all of this.”

The prince's mouth dipped into a frown. “You must not stay here any longer than you have. I can return you to your world, but we cannot spare much time.”

Saki shook her head. “No, I want to see them. If the infection is gone, there shouldn't be any danger left.”

“Not to the spirits,” said the prince. “However, you have risked your life to find this place. The Night Parade has ended, and the barrier between the two worlds has returned. If you do not leave now, you will never be able to return to the human world.”

“Just for a minute, please. I promise that I'll—”

The prince placed a hand on her shoulder. “Saki, there is only one way a human reaches the world of the spirits outside of the Night Parade. Your soul passed through the barrier, but your body remains in the human world. The two must not be parted for long.”

Saki looked to the silver spirit to confirm the words. That grave face on their reunion had not been only for the specter of the infection. The silver spirit wore her frown still, urgency in her sharp gaze.

“What does that mean?” Saki asked when the silver spirit reached out to take the blossoming branch. “Am I dead?”

The prince chose his words with great care. “Not yet.”

Saki took a deep breath. “Then please tell them I'm sorry. And thank you. I want them to know that I didn't forget.”

“I will make sure of it.”

Hands trembling, Saki rummaged around in her pocket. She took out the broken charm and ran her thumb over the inscription.

“That is very powerful protection,” said the prince. “Only a great soul would possess the knowledge to make something so potent.”

“This was my grandfather's. He took care of this shrine before he died.”

“Then we are in his debt as much as yours.”

“He really loved this mountain. I think I'm starting to know why. He wanted this charm to keep the things he loved safe. My grandmother gave it to me, but I want to leave it with you.” She took the prince's hand and pressed the charm into his palm. “I have to go soon, far away from this place. I want everyone to still be here if I ever get back.”