Spirit's Chosen (22 page)

The corners of my mouth turned down. “He doesn’t remember. His mother was the only one who called him by it. After she was gone, the wolves mocked him for so long, so mercilessly, that he couldn’t recall a time when he answered to any name but the one they gave him.”

“What was that?”

My hands curled into fists. “Oni.”

* * *

Kaya and Oni made peace between them. It almost took a bad turn when she declared that Lady Badger forgave him, and put on a great show, complete with assorted snorts, growls, huffing, and chuffing. Confused and scared, poor Oni jumped away from her, raising his club in self-defense against the demon badger in girl’s disguise. I had to soothe him and scold Kaya simultaneously, but no real harm was done.

Once Oni understood Kaya’s sense of humor, he was enchanted by it. Her funny stories sent his robust laughter booming out over the Ookami valley as the three of us ate a frugal dinner and watched the sun go down. I tried vainly to make the two of them be more inconspicuous, in case we attracted the unwanted attention of Ryu’s clan.

“Oh, don’t worry about that, Himiko,” he said, still chortling over Kaya’s tale of how Lady Badger punished the five laughing rabbits. “They already know I’m here. If I make noise, that’s nothing new. If they see a fire, they think it’s warming no one but me. They only come to my place when they want to bother me, but they won’t do that now. This is planting time. They have to work all day and then they are so tired they sleep all night and let me be.” He grinned. “I love planting time.”

“I hope they’re so exhausted that they slumber more deeply than the dead,” Kaya said to me. “It will make your task easier to accomplish.”

“It will be a while before I make the attempt. I can do nothing until I discover where Noboru sleeps,” I answered.
“Next I have to plan how to get in and out of the Ookami settlement, and only
then
I can try stealing down there and carrying him off.”

“You won’t be going there alone, remember?” She nudged me with her elbow. “I didn’t walk all this way to miss the best part, when you find your baby brother!”

“You might have to wait up here to see that, Kaya. If I fail, I might be captured. If that happens, I want you to go back to my people and let them know what happened.”

“I will
not
. What kind of friend would I be if I let you face the dragon with no one to guard your back?”

“Kaya …”

“No, no, don’t you give me
that
look! It turns you into an old turtle with a gassy gut. Try to argue with me and I’ll pluck out your tongue and feed it to crows!”

A loud whimper from Oni silenced Kaya before she could add to her joking threats. He had grown more and more agitated while listening to our conversation and now he howled his wretchedness to the stars.

“Why are you fighting with Himiko, Lady Badger? Why are you talking about going down there, to where
they
live, and about being captured? You must not let that happen! You will be their slave, and have to work hard all the time or get beaten. I don’t want them to beat you! I’ll kill them if they try!”

I stood behind Oni, leaned against his back, and put my arms around his hulking shoulders. “Hush, don’t be afraid,” I murmured in his ear. “Kaya and I aren’t really fighting. We’re just disagreeing about something.”

“But she said she was going to take your tongue and—!”

“Kaya says a
lot
of things.” I shot her a
Now see what you started?
look that Oni could not see.

She paid it no heed. “That’s because
Himiko
never listens to enough of what I say. But you don’t need to worry, Oni: no matter how much the two of us argue, we’ll always be friends.” She smirked at me. “Except
some
people have a hard time understanding what real friends are willing to do for each other.”

I drew breath to tell her she was not going to accompany me into the Ookami village to save Noboru, but realized it was precisely what she wanted me to do. Instead I smiled tightly and said, “A real friend would clean up for all of us after dinner, don’t you agree?”

“Why, Himiko, what a lovely offer!” Kaya chirped. “You’re a real friend after all!”

That night, as I waited for sleep to find me, I heard Oni moving restlessly on the heap of leaves that made his bed. I tried to shut my ears to it, wanting to believe this was the way the lonely giant always settled down for the night, but I soon had to accept that his distress was not going to go away unless I did something about it.

I left my bedroll and carefully picked my way around the remaining embers of our fire. “Oni?” I whispered, placing one hand on his back. “Are you all right? Would you feel better if I sang for you again?” I didn’t know if I could recall the lullaby his mother’s spirit had placed on my lips, but I knew other tunes to soothe a frightened child.

“Himiko …” It was difficult to hear him. Even with so little light, I could see he was sucking on his fist for comfort. “Himiko, why were you and Kaya talking about going down
there, where
they
are? Why won’t you stay here, where it’s safe? Why won’t you stay with me?” He sniffled in the dark. “What did I do wrong?”

When I was small and the world became scary and bewildering, Mama would stroke my back to calm me. That simple, tender gesture could banish more demons than the chants and dances of a hundred shamans. Now it was my turn to work that comforting spell on Oni.

I told him everything. I tried to do it in a way that preserved the truth but would not add to his fears. I explained why Kaya and I had left our clans and come so far, though I spared him the fact that my mother’s sanity and survival were at stake. I ended by offering him the best gift within my power: “And when we have Noboru and go home, I want you to come with us.”

“Me?” One word, yet it held many:
Do you mean that or are you taunting me too? Will I have a home again, or will you abandon me without a second thought? Will you keep your word or, when it’s time for you to leave, will you laugh at me for being stupid enough to believe that anyone could ever want someone like me?

“
Yes
, you,” I said. “We need you. You can protect us on the road back, and when we reach my village, you can live under our roof. You can help with the crops, or you can work with my big brother, Masa, in the blacksmith’s forge. You’ll have good clothes to wear, and you’ll share our food.”

“Are you sure that will be all right?” Oni asked shyly. “I’m not part of your clan.”

“Then I will
make
you a part of it,” I declared. “You will be my kinsman, my new brother, a Matsu.”

“Matsu …” He tasted his future and found joy. “I will be Oni of the Matsu!”

“You will have another name than that. You are no mountain ogre, and when we return I will ask our elder shaman, Master Michio, to ask the spirits for a name that suits you better.” I hesitated. “That is, if you don’t mind the change?”

He sat up and hugged me with surprising gentleness. “Thank you, Himiko! I’ve never been so happy.”

“I hope you will be even happier, Big Brother.”

Two days passed. I spent most of them staring down through the trees, noting the comings and goings of the Ookami. As I’d hoped, they felt so safe from attack that they did not place guards at their gates, but they did have a manned watchtower, probably to scan the surrounding area for signs of wildfires rather than to sound the alarm for invaders approaching.

Their village was larger than any I had known. The palisade of logs surrounding it looked relatively new, and if I strained my eyes I could see what looked like the marks of a smaller, older enclosure within the boundaries of the one now standing. The wolves had prospered on a diet of war and expanded their settlement at the same time they expanded their territory.

Most of their fields were like those of the Inoshishi, terraced up the far side of the valley, though some were set out on flatter terrain. A small river ran between the cultivated lands and the settlement. Inside the palisade, many homes were clustered together in what I thought of as the “old” Ookami village. These were simple pit dwellings. Grander,
more imposing houses stood apart from these, with a comfortable amount of open space separating each from its neighbors. Tall, thick wooden pillars raised them even higher than the homes of my own clan’s aristocrats. What a view they must have had!

There were a few additional structures built in the same elevated style as the nobles’ houses, but these looked more weathered, and lifted their thatched roofs above the “old” settlement. I presumed they were storehouses, though for all I knew, some of the impressive, newer-looking buildings served the same function. The Ookami needed somewhere to stow the food they seized from their subjected clans.

While I studied the wolves in their lair, Kaya and Oni became fast friends. The clearing where we camped was the gentle outcast’s favorite refuge, but it was not his only one. During the years of his exile he had made himself many safe places throughout the dense mountain forests. Though his mind was limited in some ways, in others it was extremely inventive and keen. Condemned by his own clan to live like an animal, he became a very
clever
animal, maintaining countless storage places in hollow logs, between tumbled boulders, and in deep, artfully concealed holes in the ground. Most of them held food, but some hid a few surprises.

“Himiko! Himiko! Look at what Oni gave me!” Kaya came running into the clearing, waving a long piece of rawhide. The big man came trailing after her, rubbing his head and looking both pleased and embarrassed. “Isn’t it
gorgeous
?” she gushed, falling to her knees so I could get a better look at what had sent her spirit soaring.

“It’s very … nice?” I faltered.

“It’s not ‘nice,’ Himiko, it’s a
bowstring
! Or it’s going to be. You know how hard I’ve been trying to spin a new one from your hair, and how badly that’s been going. Oni saw me working on it, and asked why I was all scowls and growls. Did you know what a good hunter he is? He uses a spear to go after deer and kamoshika, and after he eats the meat, he scrapes off the hides and puts them away until he needs them. Well, when I told him my troubles—why
does
your hair tangle so easily?—he took me to the place he keeps his animal skins and gave me
this
.” She hugged the brown scrap to her heart. “It’s still pliant, and I can make a good bowstring out of it in no time!” She turned to Oni, her bruised face alight with gratitude. “I will be your friend
forever
.”

“You are both my friends.” Oni spoke with unusual formality, like a man taking an oath before the gods. “You’ll see that I can be a good one.”

“Oh, you’re already good enough,” Kaya said lightly. “And once I can use my bow again, I’ll show you what a good friend
I
can be. We’ll have a feast of game to celebrate Noboru’s rescue!” She cocked her head at me and added: “How did it go for you today, Himiko, keeping watch on the wolves? Are we closer to making a move? Were you able to catch sight of him anywhere down there?”

My discouraged expression put an end to her cheerfulness. “I’m too far away. I can see people and I can distinguish children from adults, but I can’t see their faces clearly. I’m going to have to move downslope tomorrow,
stay high enough to be able to look into the village but be close enough to pick Noboru out of the crowd.”

“I don’t like that idea. What if you get
too
close and someone spots you? Remember the watchtower!”

“We’re going to have to deal with that sooner or later,” I reminded her.

“You should let me do it, then. I know how to move through the forest unseen; you don’t.”

“And I know what my little brother looks like. Do you?”

“I will once you describe him to me!” Kaya said, and when I tried to ignore her demand she persisted until I gave in.

When I was done, I said, “There. Now do you think that gives you enough information to let you pick him out from among every other child in the Ookami village?”

“Yes!”
Kaya said so hotly that we both understood she meant,
Um … maybe?

“Listen, let’s compromise. We can
both
go down the mountain tomorrow. You’ll help me move as soundlessly as you do, and I’ll recognize Noboru. Is it a bargain?”

Kaya accepted readily, but Oni looked so disturbed by what had just happened that I asked if he was feeling well.

“I don’t want you to go,” he said. “Not you, not Kaya. She was right: it will be dangerous. Don’t go!”

We assured him that he was worrying over nothing, that Kaya was skilled in woodlore, that we would turn back if we so much as glimpsed the tower watchman turning in our direction. Our encouraging words seemed to comfort
him, and since he raised no further objections, I did not think he needed to say outright that he was content with our plan.

Kaya and I decided we would make an early start the next morning, but when we woke up, we discovered that someone else had made an earlier one. Oni’s shout of triumph split the sweet spring dawn as the big man came striding back into the clearing with his club on one shoulder, and on the other …

“Noboru!”
In the space of a single breath I was out of my bedroll, on my feet, and reaching avidly for my little brother. Oni scarcely had the chance to set him down before I grabbed him and pulled him down into my embrace. “Oh, Noboru, it
is
you! It is!”

Laughter and tears shook me. I hugged him so close that he had to squall his protests straight into my ear to make me let him go. I was still stunned and half deafened when he looked at me with large, awestruck eyes, reconsidered, and flung himself back into my arms.

Kaya watched our reunion in open-mouthed astonishment. “How did you
do
that, Oni?” she asked.
“Magic?”

He chortled gleefully, like a child who knows he will soon be given a new toy as a reward for doing something wonderful.

“It was easy,” he said. “You were sleeping when I left. I went down into the village. I used to go there sometimes, to take things to eat, but I don’t like it, so not too much. No one stops me if they see me. They don’t want to come near me unless they’re with a
lot
of other people.” He shifted the
club on his shoulder and added: “It helps them stay away when they see
this
.”