Dendera (22 page)

As Kayu Saitoh thought upon these things, she suddenly realized that Masari Shiina might hate the Village more than anyone else. She had lost her eye in the Mountain-Barring to which she had had only a tangential connection. Taking that into account, Masari Shiina had earned the right to attack the Village more than any other, yet as the chief of Dendera and the head of the Doves, why she focused her efforts on Dendera’s reconstruction was a mystery to Kayu Saitoh. Trying to imagine the new chief’s feelings toward the Village only made her a little confused.

Before she knew it, she was asking the question aloud.

“Why do you think Masari Shiina won’t attack the Village?”

Warming herself in the heat of the hearth, Nokobi Hidaka replied, “How should I know? Like I said, other people are different from me.”

“So Masari Shiina has her own personal motivations. I wonder what Hono Ishizuka thinks about that.”

“Again, only she knows. But Hawk or Dove, hate for the Village is the one thing we all share equally. All that differs is the path of the revenge; the direction of the fury. Listen, Kayu, that aspiration or whatever it is you’re looking for—it might be in revenge or fury after all.”

Kayu Saitoh turned her gaze to the silent, sitting Shigi Yamamoto and thought,
If that’s the case, then even this one has an aspiration.
But the woman remained unresponsive.

Exhausted from all her thinking, Kayu Saitoh sighed. “I had no idea finding my own aspiration—finding my own way of thinking—would take so much effort … even after seventy years of living.”

“I know what you’re saying. Everyone else acts as they please, and you act as you please too. It can be a shock.”

“A shock … You’re right. I’ve been in constant shock since I came to Dendera.”

“You learned you’re not some tree or some rock. That would unsettle anyone. Now, how about we put some more wood in that fire. We’re not trees or rocks—if we don’t keep warm, we’ll die.”

Nokobi Hidaka went to fetch some firewood from the pile on the dirt floor at the hut’s entrance.

As Kayu Saitoh listened to the raindrops hitting the roof, a penitent resolve came to her, albeit indistinctly. If she had to force this feeling into words, it would have been this: for each individual to fulfill her personal aspiration, she either needed to draw in others to her cause or go it alone. In addition, under Masari Shiina’s leadership, Dendera’s currents had strengthened even further. Instead of constantly raising her objections to each and every constraint placed upon her—including the larger constraint that was Dendera, and the smaller ones that were the other women—Kayu Saitoh needed to establish her own aspiration. For the first time, she saw objectively the distance between herself and Dendera, and herself and the other women. This of course didn’t immediately change anything, but she was content in feeling that she had progressed beyond pouring all her energy into negativity.

That sort of resolve—or any kind of newfound direction in life—meant nothing to Redback, being a creature of the wild. She kicked at the earth with her four legs, propelling her giant body forward. But if she was to continue on, she needed meat, and for that, she returned to land where the Two-Legs dwelled.

“You’ve come,” Masari Shiina said, her voice unperturbed. “You’ve come, you damn bear.”

Because Masari Shiina assumed the brown bear would attack again and had assigned women to watch duty, she had been able to respond even when the attack came at night. When the word came from Usuma Tsutsumi, who was one of the lookouts, the chief promptly assembled all of the women inside the manor. Kayu Saitoh and Nokobi Hidaka had even brought Shigi Yamamoto inside. The nervous women filled the space of the ground floor room and, amid their own collective stench, awaited Masari Shiina’s next announcement. As the scar on her head throbbed, Kayu Saitoh tried to detect the presence of the bear she knew must be near, but the sound of the pouring rain blotted out all else.

Masari Shiina stood before the women, affixing them in place with the stare of her single eye. She spoke.

“According to a report from one of our watch, the bear has entered Dendera and is roaming near the burial grounds. But you have no need to fear. This is not the Dendera of Mei Mitsuya’s time. We have a trap. Unfortunately, in this rain, we can’t cage the bear inside and burn it alive, but we have more than one way of using the trap. We will barricade ourselves inside, and it will be our impregnable fortress. Do not worry. Do not fear. Do not be ruled by panic, for it is panic that invites death. If we keep our nerve, victory will be ours. No one else will die. That is all.”

The women began to move.

Kayu Saitoh and Nokobi Hidaka pulled Shigi Yamamoto outside with them. With the moon shrouded behind heavy clouds, the fire baskets extinguished by the rain, and the women’s torches kept unlit lest the bear see them, the outside was in near total darkness. Kayu Saitoh strained her eyes to see, but she could hardly catch sight of her own body, let alone the bear. What she couldn’t see, she imagined, and several seeds of doubt began to sprout inside her. She wasn’t the only one to be stricken by this affliction, and she heard one of the women let out a terrified moan. Kayu Saitoh responded to the sound with immediate disgust and tasted shame at knowing it had almost been her. She and Nokobi Hidaka were carrying Shigi Yamamoto by the arms, and she firmly pulled Shigi Yamamoto closer. Kayu Saitoh thought that if she gave in to foolish hysteria, she would cause Shigi Yamamoto trouble—possibly even to a fatal degree—so she turned the panic into courage. Even so, with the darkness remaining ever so dark, and the bear’s location remaining a mystery, the women took a considerably long time to reach the trap at the clearing’s edge. But the rain concealed their scent and sound, and they arrived unnoticed by the bear. As the raindrops pelted her, Kayu Saitoh reached out into the darkness with one hand. She felt the wall. She hadn’t seen the completed structure, but she had heard Hono Ishizuka’s description of the plan and was relieved to find that the sturdiness of the wall attested to the women’s capable construction. The door took several women to open and let out a leaden groan as it did.

Once the women were through the doorway and had confirmed by roll call that all had made it inside, Hikari Asami and Ate Amami closed the door with considerable effort. Kayu Saitoh sat Shigi Yamamoto down and, relying on the faint light of the crude hearth set into the center of the space, surveyed the interior. From the walls to the ceiling, layered stacks of logs surrounded the women. Several fist-sized holes had been opened in intervals along the walls, and in each corner was a more-than-ample supply of wooden spears. The nineteen women filled this space, waiting, their shoulders jostling, even their breaths battering against one another. Even under normal conditions, the room would have been hot and stuffy from their body heat alone, but the women were feverish with fright, and a thick, nauseating stench hung in the air. Kayu Saitoh’s throat twitched, sticky, and she felt suffocated.

Soon, she heard the sound of something large stepping in the muddy earth. The noise continued, growing louder than the rain. Kayu Saitoh felt as though her insides were fervently leaping about. She pressed firmly against her stomach, battling the sensation, and listened. The stomping footsteps approached.
The bear.
That sole thought occupied Kayu Saitoh’s mind.
The bear. The bear. The bear. The bear.
She strained her ears to listen, but something soon provided more confirmation than the sound.

She saw something bright red through one of the holes in the wall.

The color stood out even in the gloom, and she knew exactly what it was: the thick red fur that grew from the rear of the bear’s head down its back. Kayu Saitoh’s body went as stiff as a dried-out twig. As blood rushed to her eyes, she looked out through the hole. The red fur, as gorgeous as it was wet, glistened brazenly in the darkness. At the sight of the bear, the women began to drip sweat from their foreheads and under their arms, but one stood watch in steadfast confidence of their victory, and that was Masari Shiina. The chief positioned herself at the wall closest to the bear, opened her right eye wide, looked through the hole, then quietly raised her arm. She was signaling the women to prepare to attack. Kayu Saitoh tilted her head slightly to see the women nearest the chief—Hono Ishizuka, Ate Amami, Hikari Asami, Itsuru Obuchi, Ume Itano, and Tsusa Hiiragi—pick up wooden spears from the pile without making a sound.

Masari Shiina swept her hand down.

The six women thrust their spears through the fist-size holes.

The next instant came a bellowing roar of surprise and pain from the sudden attack. Then a fierce impact and noise assailed the trap and startled the women inside. Hono Ishizuka, Ate Amami, and Ume Itano recoiled, while Hikari Asami, Itsuru Obuchi, and Tsusa Hiiragi’s spears shattered. Outside, the bear raged, battering the walls again and again. A snapping log sent the women’s fear to a new level. The women packed inside the narrow confines clashed shoulders and buttocks and legs as they began to panic.

“Only one log broke,” Masari Shiina said as if nothing had happened. “Keep attacking.”

“Aye, aye!” replied Tsusa Hiiragi, who seemed to have found her bravery. The woman lifted another spear and jabbed it through one of the holes. The bear roared again. Pushing past anyone in her way, Kayu Saitoh ran to the wall. From directly on the other side came the sound and shocks of the beast’s powerful forelegs trying to break through, but no matter how giant the creature, destroying a log wall wouldn’t be easy.

Kayu Saitoh picked up a spear and thrust it through one of the holes.

It didn’t go very deep, but she felt the wooden tip dig into something. She pulled back her spear and thrust it again. This time, she felt more of an effect, and exhilaration overcame her.

“I’ve pierced it!” Kayu Saitoh shouted. “I’ve pierced it! Damn, we can kill this thing!”

Her words ignited the women’s fighting spirit, and Ate Amami, Hikari Asami, and Itsuru Obuchi readied their spears and plunged them through the holes. Their attacks were met with more howls and cries.

Then, suddenly, Kayu Saitoh felt nothing on the other end of her spear.

Gone were the cries, and gone was the sound of walls being battered.

She pulled back her spear and looked through the hole, but the outside was completely still. All she heard was the sound of the rain, and all she saw was darkness.

Tsusa Hiiragi snorted and looked out through one of the holes. “The bear ran away, did it?”

“Don’t go outside,” Masari Shiina commanded.

Time crawled. The women had looked outside all four of the walls and saw no bear, but with the rain and the darkness, they might have only missed it, and there was the possibility that the creature had only feigned its escape and was hiding somewhere nearby. From inside, the women had no way of finding out. All they could do was wait, quiet and still, until they could be sure. The wait was stifling. The women were more nervous now than before the bear had come, but more lifeless at the same time. All they did was wait. Kayu Saitoh wiped sweat from her face and watched through the hole as if she were a part of the wall itself, but she learned nothing save for the smell of the rain. She put her ear to the wall, but the downpour blocked out any other sound. Soon, some women gave in to fatigue and stale air and slumped down, miserable. When the hearth’s fire died out, darkness and cold added to their suffering. Kayu Saitoh was not exempt, and when she stared out through the hole in the wall and saw nothing, she could no longer tell if it was because of the darkness or if she had gone blind. She put her hand to the wall to steady her wavering body. She needed to breathe deeply of the outside air or she would throw up all of the unpleasantness inside her.

But she withstood this intense urge, and at some point, she noticed that light was coming to the outside. The rain hadn’t stopped, but the bear was nowhere in sight. Women at other holes announced that they didn’t see the bear either. After looking out every hole, Masari Shiina finally allowed them out. They opened the door, and refreshing, cold air blew in, but the women remained cautious and carefully stuck out their necks. Once they were sure the bear was gone, they tumbled outside like a shabby avalanche. Tsusa Hiiragi vomited the moment she leaped out the door. As Kayu Saitoh staggered outside, she turned back to look at the trap. Several cracks ran through the logs. Hikari Asami ran a hand along one of the cracks and whispered, as if to herself, that the walls needed reinforcing.

To Masari Shiina, Kotei Hoshii said amicably, “Incredible. You’re incredible. The bear gave up and retreated.”

“Yeah, that’s right,” Hono Ishizuka agreed. “It’s marvelous. Masari really is our chief. A real tactician.”

“We didn’t kill it,” Masari Shiina said, her demeanor and expression unchanged. She turned to face the other women, who were savoring the lingering taste of victory. “The bear left, but it’s only temporary. It will attack Dendera again, and soon. The only place we can survive is in Dendera. We must defend it with our lives. Next time, we must destroy the creature by fire. We mustn’t let down our guards. We mustn’t be careless. Those of you who have been assigned guard duty, return to your posts at once. That is all.”

Her orders were harsh, but the women felt satisfied after their great achievement. For the first time, they sensed victory over the bear was possible, and the feeling was intoxicating. Kayu Saitoh smiled, and the rain washed away her oily sweat.

They could win.

They could conquer.

The women’s body heat and good spirits rose into the air and melded into the delicate predawn fog that enveloped Dendera.

When the fog came and blocked her view, Redback turned from watching the Two-Legs from the base of the mountain. Stab wounds covered her front legs and chest, but with her giant body, they were merely tiny things.

Still, Redback snorted.

The Two-Legs acted differently than they ever had before, and this frightened her.