Spirit's Chosen (44 page)

“Meaning me, I suppose?” Ryu narrowed his eyes. “Your arrogance is incredible. If the fugitives I’m after didn’t belong to your clan, you wouldn’t be here now, trying to frighten me into letting them go.”

Daimu spoke: “I am here too, Lord Ryu, and I am not Matsu.”

Ryu’s scowl became a sneer. “We
all
know why you’re here.” He jerked his chin at me. “You want me to let the slaves escape because that’s what
she
demands. The Matsu girl’s a pretty thing—I can’t deny that—but pretty enough to turn you into her tame puppy? You bark when she tells you to bark and if you’re a
good
dog, you can beg for her favors.”

“Master Daimu and Lady Himiko are—are not—You are wrong about them, Lord Ryu!” Flustered and red in the face, Rinji came to our defense. “She is a great shaman, a healer who has proved her skills time and again, including under your own roof! Master Daimu recognizes this and respects it. That’s the only bond between them, I swear it!”

“She must be a wonderful shaman,” Ryu remarked, eyeing Rinji coldly. “She has the power to lead young men around by the nose and fill their mouths with lies. What will she make you say next, Rinji? That the spirits will destroy
me if I don’t let her clanfolk escape? By my father’s blood, I wish this clan had never needed any leadership but a chieftain’s! You shamans use the gods like an old woman uses tales of ghosts and monsters, to scare little children into obedience!”

“Lord Ryu, be careful what you say.” Daimu was somber. “You are the one whose word commands this clan. You will not be the only one to suffer for your insolence to the spirits.”

“Don’t you mean for my insolence to you?” Ryu smirked. He glanced back at his men. “Move them aside. We’re losing time.”

The men made no move to heed his order. They stood bunched together, nervously whispering among themselves. Ryu fumed, but before he could unleash his rage on his hesitant warriors, one of them spoke up: “Master Daimu, we have never known you to lie, or to use your work as our shaman to enrich yourself. If you will swear that the slaves’ escape is really the will of the spirits, we’ll believe you.”

Daimu lowered his eyes in order to cast another surreptitious look at me, then simply said: “It is true.”

“
What
is true?” Ryu countered. He strode up to the warrior who had spoken for the others in the tracking party, raised his fist, and laid him out with a single backhanded blow. Looming over the unconscious man, he shouted: “This clan was
nothing
until I came to rule it! I led you on a path of conquest that fills our storehouses with rice and spares you from a thousand different kinds of back-bending toil! Your children are always well fed, you sleep secure, and even the lowborn among you command at least one slave.
That
is the truth, and it stands all around you, plain to be seen. Ask that Matsu girl if her clan ever lived so well!”

“Ask me if my people ever sacrificed the living to appease the dead,” I said calmly. “Then ask yourselves why the gods allowed my kin to get away so easily. Have you ever known a single one of your captives to escape this village until now?”

My question gave rise to fresh muttering among the Ookami. Daimu hastened to encourage more: “The spirits have not spoken to me directly about what has happened here, but I say they have sent us clear signs to indicate their desires. I know my uncle was a gentle man who never took a human life while he was alive. Why would he want to do so now that he is dead? The slaves who were to die are all Matsu, Lady Himiko’s clanfolk. One of them is even her second mother! What does it mean, my people, that the gods did nothing to prevent their escape? What message—what
warning
does this send to all of us about the spirits’ wishes?”

Daimu’s words were fuel piled on the fire. The murmurs grew louder and more intense until at last they flared into cries of distress that even Ryu’s bullying and threats could not smother:

“Lady Himiko is a powerful shaman—Master Daimu says so! She was a slave among us, but the gods set her free. It’s proof they love her!”

“The escaped Matsu slaves were her kin, that’s why the spirits made them vanish from our village!”

“But what about Oni’s ghost? He was promised a sacrifice. He’ll haunt us all!”

“You heard Master Daimu: his uncle would never have wanted human blood shed at his burial.”

“Do
you
speak for the spirits now? Are you willing to stake our lives on what will happen if we fail to appease an angry ghost?”

“Appease a ghost at the cost of angering the gods? Are you insane?”

“What can be done? The ceremony is tomorrow. Master Rinji had so much trouble getting the spirits to name a day that it must be the
only
time we can bury Oni if we want to avoid his curse!”

“Can’t we bury clay figures with him, the way we always did in the past?”

“Not always. My grandmother remembers a time when chieftains were buried with their slaves. And I hear that other clans still do that.”

“Lord Ryu
promised
Oni’s spirit that living servants would escort him to the other world.”

“But Master Daimu said—!”

“It was a promise to the dead! It must be honored. Something must be done.”

“Yes, but nothing that will harm any of Lady Himiko’s kin! Lord Ryu should pick other slaves to substitute for the ones that the gods carried away.”

Soon all of the Ookami were clamoring for Ryu to turn back from the gateway and deal with the disrupted arrangements for Mori’s burial. His own men joined their voices to the protests. Even the warrior he’d felled got up again to dare a second blow. The proud young chieftain became a cornered wolf at the hands of his own people.

My pulse was beating rapidly as a dragonfly’s wings. It was not enough that I’d succeeded in sparing my clanfolk such an awful, needless death: no other slaves must be allowed to die in their place. I moved closer to Daimu, thinking frantically of what more we could say to prevent this.
O gods, be merciful!

The answer to my prayer did not come from the spirits, but from Ryu’s own lips.
“Enough!”
he shouted, flinging his arms wide and casting aside his bow. “When did the wolves become possessed by the ghosts of whimpering old women? Your mindless talk has turned a simple slaves’ escape into a miracle sent by the gods. If I let you jabber on any longer, you’ll all be claiming you saw the Matsu fly over the palisade on the backs of eagles!” He spat on the ground. “Very well. You can have it your way: no slaves will die tomorrow when we bury Oni’s bones, and if that angers him, I swear I will do everything in my power to assuage his ghost.” He glared at them all and added: “I am ashamed to call myself your chieftain.”

“Lord Ryu, you are unfair to your people,” I said.

“What is that to you, Matsu?” he demanded, whirling back to face me. “Their welfare is
my
responsibility. I must protect them, lead them, and face the consequences when they refuse to follow the best path. You can poison their lives and walk away without a care.
You
are the favorite child of the gods. But tell me this, O great one: if you are so mighty that we must not lay one finger on you or your kin, why were you an Ookami slave until
I
set you free?”

“I never claimed to be anything except a servant of the spirits,” I replied evenly. “But not even the greatest shaman
in the world can account for why and how the gods choose to reveal their will to mortals.”

“Bah! That’s just a fancy way of saying that people like you and Daimu and Rinji who claim to speak for the gods are only speaking for yourselves!”

Rinji placed himself between his chieftain and me. “My lord, please forgive me, but … you are wrong. Lady Himiko is sincere. She has never once abused her skills as a shaman. She makes no distinction between Matsu and Ookami and members of any other clan when she performs her healings. Her father and so many of her clan are dead, because of us, and yet your wife and son live, thanks to her. She could have let them perish, as payment for her losses, and claimed it was the will of the gods. She did not. Lord Ryu, I beg you—”

“No more!” The wolf chieftain seized his chosen shaman by the neck of his tunic and twisted the fabric tight, yanking him close. “I
showed
this girl my gratitude for saving my son. I gave her and her brother the chance to live among us as free members of our clan, with all the rights freeborn Ookami enjoy. She threw that gift back in my face!”

Helpless in Ryu’s grasp, Rinji rolled his eyes in panic but still managed to reply: “She is loyal to her own clan, my lord. That is understandable.”

“Understand this: I also offered her a marriage of such honor and prestige that other girls would
beg
for the opportunity!”

“You—you mean you asked her to be your junior wife?” Rinji was trembling.

Ryu’s face turned bright red. He had to be remembering
our first encounter, when I was repulsed by the haughty, insolent spirit behind the handsome mask. I had scorned him then in a way he would never forget or forgive. He would not give me a chance to do so again.

“I am not fool enough to embrace the daughters of my conquered enemies,” Ryu said stiffly. “I told her she could marry
you
.” He shook the young shaman once and let him drop. Gazing at Rinji with cold disdain, he concluded: “She preferred to remain a slave.” He strode back toward his house as the people in his path scrambled aside.

Part of the crowd surged after him. The Ookami were left confused and scared by all that they had just witnessed. They would not rest easy until they knew their leader’s rage had faded. Of those that remained behind, many looked to Daimu for reassurance that his uncle’s ghost would be content without a human sacrifice, or at least would not punish the whole wolf clan for interring him unattended. Some stared at me, as though they expected me to burst into prophecy or perform some astonishing feat of magic on the spot. I saw more than one hand close around a protective amulet worn as a necklace.

I left it to Daimu to soothe his people’s worries. I was concerned about Rinji. The unhappy young man had not moved from the spot where Ryu dropped him. I fell to my knees before him and asked, “Are you hurt?”

“Is it true, Himiko?” He had never looked so woebegone since I’d met him. “Did Lord Ryu want you to marry me and you … refused?”

“I had to say no, Rinji,” I said. “Ryu was going to
give
me to you the way he would give his mother a necklace or reward
one of his warriors with a new spear. He was going to use you the same way, as a token of his gratitude toward me. I could not let him treat you that way. You deserve better. So do I.”

“Ah.” Rinji forced a smile. “Thank you, Himiko. For a while, I was afraid that you rejected Ryu’s offer because you hated the very thought of having me for a husband.”

“What silly talk! I care for you very much and I cannot thank you enough for your help this morning, standing up to Ryu. My dear friend, you are a hero to me.” I pressed my cheek to his.

“Himiko …”

“Lady Himiko! Lady Himiko!”
The little maid who served Lady Sato came running up to us, distraught. “I have a message for you; terrible news!”

“What’s the matter?” I asked.

She shook her head. “I can’t talk about it where everyone can hear. My master, Lord Ryu, said I must tell you alone.”

“What reason could he have for that?”

“I don’t know.” The girl’s face was streaked with tears.
“I don’t know!”

I seized her by the wrist and led her away behind one of the nearby houses, where we could speak privately. Rinji tried to tag along, but I sent him back. “You heard what she said, Rinji. This is more of Ryu’s high-handed way of doing things. If she doesn’t obey his whims, someone will report it. This village is too full of idle tongues that would be glad to get this girl in trouble and please their lord by tale-bearing.”

“Isn’t there anything I can do?” he asked plaintively.

“Yes. She’s already attracted too much attention and
curiosity. Stand watch and make sure no one intrudes while she and I talk.”

“What if they won’t heed me?”

“You are the shaman of the wolf shrine! Or you will be, once it’s built. Let your people know that they had better
not
ignore you!”

He trailed off reluctantly. As soon as he was out of sight and earshot, I held the girl by her shoulders and demanded, “Now speak: what’s the bad news? Is something wrong with Lady Chizu?” I would not add
Or the baby?
for fear of attracting the notice of malevolent spirits.

“No, it’s nothing like that.” She clenched her fists. “It’s not
fair
. He can do anything he wants, because he’s the chieftain, but this just isn’t
right
!” She stamped her foot in frustration.

“Will you
please
tell me what—?”

“Oh, Lady Himiko, you’re banished! Lord Ryu is sending you away. He says you have no more business staying here. You’re not one of us, you’re no longer a slave, and he—he”—she choked a little as words and furious sobs fought to be heard—“he says he’s tired of wasting food and shelter and patience on a filthy
mamushi
. How can he call you something so vile? You’re not the one who’s like a poisonous serpent; he is!”

“Hush.” I motioned for her to be silent. It was for her own protection, even though no one was near enough to hear her say something unforgivable about her master. If she fell into the habit of speaking like a free person, one day she might forget herself in Ryu’s presence. He still owned
her. Even her opinions were enslaved to him. “What more did he say?”

She wiped her eyes and nose on the back of one hand and sniffled. “He ordered me to tell you that you can stay until after the burial of Master Daimu’s uncle. After that, as soon as the tomb is sealed, you have to leave. And—and you can’t take any food or water with you on the journey. He said—he said that the spirits will surely provide everything that—that ‘their darling’ needs.” She looked at me, wretched and apologetic. “That’s what he told me to say. I didn’t have to—I could have pretended to forget—but I’m so used to doing everything he commands!”