Spirit's Chosen (47 page)

I had not freed the Matsu captives solely because they were my kin. I had done so for
her
sake, to serve the goddess. A mirror that has been once steeped in blood can nevermore shine as brightly. My people were safe because I had given Hiroshi a sleeping potion, by my brother’s hand. I thought that at most he would be shamed for carelessness, and I regretted it, though believed it was a reasonable price to pay for saving Emi
and the family whose little girl could now grow up in safety. But in that moment I saw the truth in a young man’s despairing gaze: I had only exchanged one sacrifice for another.

If that was how it had to be …

I leaped forward and grabbed Rinji by the back of his tunic, pulling him aside before anyone knew what I was doing. He lurched into the guard and both of them stumbled into the group of nobles. By the time they were on their feet again, I was standing in the doorway to Mori’s tomb, feet planted wide, arms spread high, the palms of my hands pressed against the cold doorposts.

“In the name of the spirits, this cannot—
will
not happen!” I shouted. “What is all this reasonless talk of
stealing
a sacrifice that never should have taken place? My people were not snatched away from this village; they
escaped
!”

“Is that so, Lady Himiko?” Ryu’s familiar, despised, taunting smile was back. “The gods had no hand in it? Ah, what a pity: you are not the shaman of shamans after all. You are only an upstart girl sly enough to trick fools into believing in you.”

“Lord Ryu, watch your words when you speak about Lady Himiko’s powers.” Daimu’s voice was low and threatening. “I will swear on my life that she can look into the other world, walk with the spirits, receive their counsel and their warnings, and intercede with them on our behalf. Compared to her, I am a child.”

“A child misled by a pretty face,” Ryu said tartly. “You have my sympathy. I came very near to making a similar error not
too
many years ago. And we are in good company.” He approached the captive guard, jerking Hiroshi’s halter
from Rinji’s hands. “What reward did she give you for turning you back on your duty?”

“My lord, I
told
you what happened.” Hiroshi’s tone was pleading. “Right before dawn on the morning of the escape, two men found me sleeping outside the house where the slaves were kept. When they brought me to you for questioning, they testified that it was so hard to wake me, that at first they thought I was dead. I wanted to explain myself, but I couldn’t; I didn’t know what had come over me. You ordered the men who’d found me to gather the others and told me not to worry about anything more. You were so gracious to me, then! So merciful! Don’t you remember?”

Ryu made a disgusted face. “You expect anyone to believe such tales? This girl stole your brains, not mine!”

“My lord, if I offended, why did you let me go?”

“Because I was going to bring back the fugitives and spare your family the pain of seeing you disgraced. But when I met defiance at the gates of my own village”—he gave Daimu a hard look—“this outcome became inevitable for you.”

The wolf chief looked away from his hapless victim to the waiting people. “He mocked the gods by letting us believe they were the ones who freed the captives. He would have let Oni’s enraged ghost avenge the broken pledge we gave him. He sold his loyalty to our clan for a mere girl’s embrace.” He gestured at me with contempt. “She leaves this village
now
. Drag her away and let the ceremony go on!”

Several large men came out of the crowd and started toward me. They looked ill at ease but determined. It was no trivial thing to lay hands on a shaman, whether or not their chieftain had just reduced me to “a mere girl.”

I drew the image of the goddess from my sash with one hand, my wand with the other. None of the Ookami had seen these signs of my art and authority until now. The men hesitated.

“Lord Ryu, you can order me to leave, but I will be the one to choose when,” I said steadily. “Believe me, I will not go until I have seen Mori’s bones laid to rest and his tomb sealed without this man’s blood spilled in needless sacrifice.”
And I will not leave your accursed village without my brother Noboru’s hand in mine
, I thought, though that would be a different battle.

“Fine. Go or stay, since it looks like my so-called men jump away at the sight of a girl armed with a stick and a stone,” Ryu sneered at the embarrassed Ookami who had failed to remove me. “But when Master Rinji ends these rites, this tomb will hold two sets of bones.”

I let my arms fall to my sides. “Then it will hold mine.”

Under the staring eyes of Ryu’s clanfolk, I recounted all that I had done in order to set the chosen slaves free and send them home.

“Men and women of the wolf clan, I know that not all of our customs governing life and death are the same as yours. Master Daimu says that he has visited other clans whose people send human beings into the tombs of their chieftains. But one of the slaves your leader picked for death was only ten years old! How could I let you sacrifice a child? And how could you ever ask the gods for mercy with the stain of so much cruelty on your spirits?”

I went on, taking special care to stress that Hiroshi did not have anything to do with the escape, and offered to
demonstrate the effects of the potion that had made him sleep so deeply he seemed to be dead. As I spoke about all that had happened that night, I suddenly realized
why
my kin’s escape had been so easy, and the revelation stole my breath for a moment.

“
Two
guards …,” I murmured. “There should have been two guards to keep watch over the prisoners by night. Two men were posted at that house by day!” My head snapped sharply to meet Ryu’s smug look. “You planned this. Your commands stationed only one nighttime sentry at the door. You picked a well-known idler to stand sentry in the watchtower. He didn’t need any sleeping potion to let my kin slip away under his nose! Why isn’t
he
here, accused of the same false charges as this man?”

Ryu smirked. “What! You enticed
two
of my guards in one night? Impressive!”

I ignored the slur. “You set a baited trap and watched. You waited. You—you
and
the slave-hunters with you—were all fully dressed and ready to set out after the fugitives, even though the alarm sounded well before dawn! You—!”

“—went to a lot of trouble to snare you?” He chuckled. “You were my slave. I could have done anything I liked with you, at any time. I’m sorry I missed the chance.” He sheathed his sword. “Master Rinji, this man is innocent after all. Let him go.”

Daimu’s former apprentice was so eager to fulfill Ryu’s command that in his haste he scraped Hiroshi’s cheek with the coarse rope while yanking the noose off over his head. A pair of the attendant nobles had to help him as he fumbled over the knots binding Hiroshi’s wrists. The people
cheered when the falsely accused prisoner was finally able to stand before them, free.

“Thank you, Lady Himiko!” Hiroshi cried, eyes shining with gratitude. “How can I ever—?”

I wanted to ask him to pardon me for what he had endured to save my kin, but Ryu did not permit it. He moved with the grace and speed of a striking snake, his hands digging hard into my arms as we stood pressed together in the doorway to the tomb.

“Go, Himiko,” he said coldly. “You will not leave this village after all. Here you will stay, under this roof. By your own confession, you stole a promised offering to the spirits, even if only to the spirit of a creature better off dead. Sacrilege is sacrilege. Pay the debt you owe. Go in quietly, and I promise to show you mercy”—he nodded briefly at his sword—“before we seal this tomb.”

“You will not touch her!”
His voice strong with the spirit of the wolf, Daimu seized Ryu from behind and tore him off me. I saw the beast’s fierce soul glowing in his eyes, barely controlled by the man it had possessed.

“Master Daimu, you go too far,” Ryu said, and suddenly
two
wolves faced each other on a battleground laid out before an open tomb. “I am your chieftain. I rule this clan. I gave this girl chance after chance to turn away from her stubborn, rebellious ways, but she rejected every one. She has chosen this fate.”

“This
girl
is still a shaman,” Daimu shot back. “One whose abilities—”

“—make your skills look like a heap of bird droppings,
yes, so you keep saying.” Ryu looked as if he were trying to figure out some unsolvable riddle. “Why, Master Daimu? Why is it so important for you to make this clan believe she is a
great
shaman—no, the
greatest
shaman we shall ever know? What makes you so keen to sacrifice your own reputation in order to build up hers?”

“I only say what is true,” Daimu replied. “I praise Lady Himiko because I have recognized her gifts.” His somber gaze passed over the Ookami. “To ignore what the gods have given us is unwise; to treat the one who embodies those gifts … that is dangerous. I am like you, my lord Ryu: everything I say and do is for the sake of our people.”

“Liar!”
Ryu’s accusation fell like a blow. “You gave up the truth long ago, for
this
.” His fingers clutched my face.

“Let me go,” I said through gritted teeth. I stamped his foot as hard as I could. The wolf chieftain yelped in shock and lost his hold. I ran to Daimu’s side, but that was as far as either of us could go. The Ookami were pressing in all around us. If we could break through the crowd, how far could we run?

Run? I would not do that, even if it were possible.
Oh, Noboru! Mama! Kaya, sister of my heart! Will I see any of you again?

Ryu came toward us, one hand falling to the sword at his waist. Daimu stepped in front of me. “Endanger her, and the sky will not be vast enough to hold all the curses that will fall on you. Harm her, and the earth will turn to flames beneath your feet and spit out your bones into eternal darkness. Kill her, and you will live just long enough
to witness every member of your family, every person who shares your blood, every whisper of the Ookami name be drowned in oblivion.”

The wolf chieftain’s face turned white. Daimu’s threats unnerved him, but only for a moment. He showed his people a confident smile and proclaimed, “
This
is the man who claimed that everything he does is for your sake!
This
is how your beloved shaman protects you, by calling on the gods to annihilate us all! Tell the truth, Master Daimu, if you can remember how that’s done: the only reason you defend this girl so fiercely is you intend to make her your bride!”

Ryu did not wait for Daimu to respond. He plunged into the crowd and dragged Rinji into the midst of our confrontation. “Tell the people, Master Rinji! Tell them what you told me. Then let the gods decide who should be accursed for treachery, blasphemy, and sacrilege!”

Rinji lowered his eyes, unwilling to look at Daimu or me while he spoke. “This is the truth that I swear to by my life: Master Daimu and Lady Himiko asked me to marry them. They reasoned that if she became his wife, Lord Ryu could not cast her out of this village. She—I think she has some hidden scheme she wants to use against our chieftain—perhaps against us all—but she needed time to make it happen. She has enchanted Master Daimu so deeply that he would do anything for her.” For an instant he forgot himself and looked up. Our gazes met and he twitched involuntarily, then flushed red from the neck up and hastily concluded: “If I have lied, may I suffer for it.”

Rinji’s revelation shattered the crowd. Cries of protest
and condemnation burst out everywhere. Daimu was visibly shaken, turned against by the man who had been his cherished student and his valued friend. He looked so dazed that I wondered if he could hear his own people shouting for his banishment.

“He betrayed us! He lied about the will of the gods just to save
her
!”

Others came to his defense: “Didn’t you hear what Lady Himiko said? This is all Lord Ryu’s doing, from first to last. He never wanted to honor Master Daimu’s uncle. He
killed
the man! Clay grave attendants were good enough for every Ookami chieftain
I
can remember. Why did Lord Ryu suddenly decide to pay
living
tribute to Oni’s spirit?”

Many agreed with this: “He’s always held a grudge against Master Daimu—anyone with eyes and ears knows about it. Lord Ryu hates having to share his authority with the shaman.”

But there were dissenting voices too: “Who cares if Lord Ryu manipulated everything? We should thank him: it let us see Master Daimu’s true nature! Our shaman doesn’t speak for the gods; he echoes that Matsu girl’s wishes!”

“Speak with respect of ‘that Matsu girl.’ She healed my son’s fever!”

“She saved my daughter’s hand when it was burned in a cookfire!”

“She saved my
life
! I owe her everything!”

“Then why don’t you pay your debt by taking her place in Oni’s tomb?”

Small skirmishes flared up. Sharp words led to hard blows. Ryu did nothing to stop it. Every fresh argument
against Daimu was like honeycomb melting on Ryu’s tongue. He devoured it greedily and looked ravenous for more.

“Why should
any
of our clan walk into the darkness?” one of Ryu’s warriors demanded. “If Lady Himiko hadn’t interfered, Oni’s ghost would be more than content having six Matsu slaves to attend him!”

“Why not?”

“Why not
what
?”

“Why not make that offering, then? There are still plenty of Matsu slaves among us.”

“What a good idea! Satisfy Oni’s ghost without touching the shaman’s girl: perfect!”

“Hey! Hey, everyone, listen to this!” Word of the horrible solution spread among the Ookami. I saw them jostle the nobles in order to grab every slave whose facial tattoos marked them as Matsu. That was bad enough, but then I heard someone exclaim:

“These people breed trouble for us. They’re not worth keeping. Let’s go back to the village and bring them all!” I watched in horror as a group of men set out to fulfill that ghastly plan.