Spirit's Chosen (24 page)

“Wonderful,” she said dryly, regarding Kaya and me. “As if we weren’t crowded enough already. Where do you two come from?”

“Maybe the wolves marched off to another war while we were working,” one of the older women said, snickering. “A very
brief
war, if they’re back in a day’s time.”

“A very
small
war, if they couldn’t bring back any more plunder than these.” The pregnant girl waved a hand at us.

“You rattlejaws! Are your heads filled with pebbles?” the old woman shouted. “Try shutting your mouths and opening your ears, for a change. Didn’t you hear the talk that’s everywhere out there?” She gestured at the doorway. “Remember the uproar at dawn when they found their chieftain stretched out cold as a fish?”

“He should have stayed that way,” one of the other women muttered.

The old one ignored her. “And remember all the tumult when he came to and started yelling for his men to grab their weapons and go haring off into the mountains
after the fellow who’d done that to him? Well, they found him, they killed him, and they brought these two back as trophies. All hail the ‘brave’ wolf chieftain, who needs a whole war party at his back to murder just one poor, childish outcast!”

“
Shhh!
Don’t talk like that about Lord Ryu. You’ll get a beating.”

The old woman was undeterred by the warning. “Good. Maybe I’ll die from it. I’ve lived too long already.”

“This isn’t living,” the pregnant girl said somberly. She squatted next to Kaya and began removing the bindings on her hands. “How long have they had you in here, stranger?” she asked in a more caring tone.

“Since morning.” Kaya rubbed feeling back into her freed wrists while the girl turned to undoing my bonds.

“And you just sat here, tied up like pigs for slaughter? You didn’t even
try
to release yourselves?” She was incredulous. “What are you, a pair of princesses who expect someone else to do everything for you?”

I gave a snort of laughter. Kaya echoed it. Before long, we were holding our sides as we roared with the absurdity of it all. When we paused to breathe again, we told our new companions our names, our clans, and all that had brought us to this point.

“And just to set your minds at ease, we didn’t wait for someone to help us do
everything
,” Kaya concluded, pointing at a reeking pottery vessel in one corner of the house.

The pregnant girl pinched her nose shut. “Phew. Thanks for the reminder. Whose turn is it to empty that thing?”

“Mine, if you’ll tell me where to do it,” I said.

“No, better let one of us take care of it this time. If you try to find the right spot now, with evening coming on, you might not be able to see where you need to go and take a tumble into the ditch.”

One of the three middle-aged women volunteered for the unsavory chore. I watched her walk out of the house without a single word of challenge from our guards. When I questioned this, the old one said, “Why should they care about her comings and goings? It was pretty obvious where she was headed.”

“But what’s to stop her from dumping that pot in the ditch and running off?”

“Ha! How about starvation? A woman alone in the mountains hasn’t got a chance. Do we look like we know how to find food out there, or even the path home?”

“That’s why we don’t usually have guards at our doorway,” another motherly lady spoke up. “If we ran away, where would we go? We know it and the Ookami know it.”

“Fear makes a better tether than rope and a better wall than wood,” Kaya said under her breath.

“What about the men?” I asked. “
Their
lodgings must be guarded.”

The pregnant girl shook her head. “The ones who aren’t too young or too old to make a run for it have other bonds holding them here. Our masters had a reason for never taking a strong male slave without taking his family too.”

More ropes, more walls
, I thought.
The wolves are cunning
.

“The only reason those guards are here is on account of you, my ladies,” the old woman said. “I don’t know what Lord Ryu has in store for you or when he will choose to do
it, but while you are here, you are part of our household and we will look after you as well as we can. You must be hungry. Soon it will be time to eat. If the guards permit it, you can come with me to the cookhouse to bring back the evening meal for everyone else. That way, you’ll know where to get your food.”

“Thank you,” I said sincerely. “But please, don’t call us ‘my ladies.’ How can there be any differences between us here?”

“I would rather call you and your friend ‘my lady’ than call these Ookami dogs ‘my lord,’ ” she replied, holding her head high. “At least
you
deserve the honor. You are chieftains’ daughters and you, Lady Himiko, walk the shaman’s path. My mother raised me to respect the spirits and those who serve them. I will not change now.” She made it plain that it would be no use arguing the matter with her; she was not going to budge.

“Very well, if that is what you want,” I said. “But it will be the only difference between us.”

“Oh, really? Tell that to Tami!” she replied archly, and indicated the mother-to-be in our midst. We all laughed.

The old woman’s intention to take us to the cookhouse came to nothing. When Kaya and I tried to follow her out of the house, our guards ordered us back inside. Even the younger man who had stood between my friend and his churlish comrade spoke curtly to us, barring our path with his spear. We had no choice but to let the other women bring us our dinner. There was not much of it—rice gruel with a few vegetables—and it was indifferently cooked. I felt too disconsolate to eat more than a few mouthfuls.

How long will we be kept here?
I wondered.
Will we never be allowed outside? I would welcome the opportunity to work in the fields, no matter how hard the labor, if it meant being able to see the sky, taste the wind, and feel living earth under my feet!

I cupped my hand to the inconspicuous bulge in my sash. There were still two precious things the Ookami had not found and taken from me: the wand of cherrywood that had once given me such breathtaking hope by bursting into miraculous bloom, and my cherished image of the shining goddess whose arms encompassed the sun.

O my beloved lady, hear me
, I prayed.
Show me the way to cast off this darkness that has dropped black wings over my soul. Bring me light!
I opened my spirit to her presence, desiring a vision where I might again find her and be comforted, but none came.

Our first pair of guards was replaced by a second while we were eating. When we were done, Tami took our dishes back to the cookhouse for cleaning. She returned carrying two thin bedrolls.

“Good thing I thought of this,” she said, smiling as she dropped them at our feet. “We couldn’t have you sleeping on the bare ground.”

“Thank you,” I said. “We lost all of our gear when we were captured. I don’t know if the Ookami men left some of it behind or brought everything with them.”

“Well, I know what I won’t see again,” Kaya groused. “My beautiful bow and arrows, abandoned in the woods like that? It’s a disgrace.”

“They turned their backs on more important things than your bow,” I reminded her gently.

Her brow creased as she recalled our murdered friend. “Not even a handful of earth scattered over him … The gods will repay them for that!” Her indignant shout brought one of our new guards darting in.

“Shut your mouth and go to sleep, or else!” he bawled.

“Or else
what
?” Kaya’s wrath was aroused. Her boundless energy had been penned in for a whole day and wanted some outlet, even a fight she’d lose. “You’ll hit me? I’ve been hit before. Try it, coward, but you’d better get some of your friends to hold me still because otherwise I’ll hit back,
and
kick,
and
bite! Even if you do have the spine to fight me on your own and you win, you’ll still be the one who’ll have to explain to Ryu why you broke
his
prisoner!”

The guard spat at her feet. “I don’t have time to teach manners to a wild brat.” He seized the pregnant girl’s arm and yanked her toward him so suddenly she was too shocked to scream. “And I don’t have to break
you
.”

He was right about that. His ruthless strategy put a stop to Kaya’s defiance as abruptly and totally as if he’d tossed a noose around her neck and pulled it tight. My friend lowered her head, mumbling an apology. Satisfied, the guard released his hostage and returned to his post.

I did not sleep well. Even when I did manage to doze off, my dreams were a jumble of fitful, torturous images that buffeted me with the force of a gale. I woke up exhausted and went through the morning routine with invisible stones tied to my arms and legs. The only thing that snapped me out of my daze temporarily was when I began putting my hair up, only to have Tami tactfully tell me that
slaves were not permitted to dress their hair in the style of free women.

“It’s to set us apart,” she explained. “But frankly, I think it’s because these Ookami sows are afraid we’re so much prettier than they are that we’ll steal their men.” She gave her swollen belly a sour look and added: “They can keep them.”

Breakfast was a tepid repetition of dinner and I ate even less than the night before. While I gazed idly at my congealing portion of rice gruel, I noticed the old woman leaning against the doorframe, talking to our guards. She came back grinning and knelt between Kaya and me.

“You can start singing a happier song, my little birdies,” she told us. “You’re being given room to spread your wings. We are all going out to work in the paddies today. It’s a heavy day’s toil, but—”

“Thank the gods!” Kaya exclaimed. “I was getting worried that the wolf chieftain intended to bury us in this house.”

It was a cheering experience to be let outside. I reveled in the morning light and looked all around as we made our way through the Ookami village. The old woman slipped between Kaya and me so that she could talk to both of us at the same time, identifying every important building and every notable person we passed.

“And would you look at the size of
that
thing?” she demanded, indicating one of the larger structures.

“Is that the chieftain’s house?” I asked.

“Oho, that
would
please him, but it’s not. No, my dear,
that is the Ookami shrine. It’s where their shaman lives, where they worship their ancestors, and where they gather for festivals. And over there’s the well, and there you can see …”

I was not really listening to her. My mind was elsewhere, and my eyes had no time to spare for gawking at buildings when I needed them to be alert for the sight of Noboru, Emi, Sanjirou, or any of my other captive kinfolk. The Ookami settlement was large, but surely I would encounter at least
one
familiar face! And if I didn’t meet any of my clan while still inside the village walls, how could I fail to do so once we reached the fields?

Our group did not walk alone that morning. The pair of sentinels who had been our night watchmen were now replaced by six armed men who formed a vigilant, defensive ring around us. Their leader’s head never stopped moving from side to side, as though the village streets were a breeding ground for demons ready to leap out at us the instant that he let down his guard.

What is he searching for so keenly?
I mused. And then I found out.

We were almost at the settlement gate when the man appeared from behind one of the massive pillars supporting the watchtower. He was shabbily dressed, and his hair was tied back in a plain cascade rather than arranged in loops over his ears. From what I had learned that morning, this was the mark of a slave. He had the worried look and urgent gait of someone frantic to get where he was going. He was so preoccupied by his errand that he did not notice
our approach or heed the lead guard’s first irate command for him to get out of the way and out of sight as well.

A second shout did seize his attention just enough for him to pause and turn toward us. That was how I found myself gazing at the face of one of my brother Masa’s closest friends, a Matsu slave like me. Our eyes met, and he recognized me too.

“Lady Himiko?” Shock, disbelief, and denial warred over him.

I was about to let him know that he had not lost his mind, that he was seeing me here, sharing his bondage, but I did not have the time to do more than open my mouth before the Ookami guards broke ranks and charged. Two took hold of my kinsman, pinning his arms, while the leader roared abuse in his face. He emphasized every rude word and crushing insult with a blow to the man’s face, his chest, his stomach, until the guards immobilizing him were left with a barely conscious deadweight sagging between them. At a terse gesture from their leader, they dropped him and came back to where the remaining three had formed a closer wall around Kaya and me.

“What did he do to earn such a beating?” my friend whispered. I could only shake my head in silence, nauseated and revolted by what we had witnessed. I wanted to run to the fallen man’s side and begin tending his wounds and bruises, but since there was little hope of that, my second desire was to get out of the gates and far enough from the wolves’ den so that I could pretend that I had seen no more than a bad dream.

Those were my two wishes and neither one came true. The leader of our guards pointed at me and snapped, “Take her back to her place and keep her there!” The brawniest of his men took me by the arm and whisked me away. Kaya made a grab for my hand, but was too late. The remainder of the guards moved in to close ranks around her and the other women, herding them out of the village while I was returned to the dark and lonely house.

I was flung through the doorway without explanation and left to myself. The man who had brought me back took sentry duty. I sat in the middle of the floor, hugging my knees and staring out past him at a world that was going on without me.

Why did they attack that poor man?
I cried inside.
What did he do? And—O spirits, help me!—why am
I
being punished too?