Spirit's Chosen (12 page)

I did not contradict him. Leaning forward, I pressed my forehead to the ground. “My lords, as my father’s daughter,
I ask this favor of you all.” I sat back on my heels again. “Let me have one last chance to restore the harmony of the home he died defending. If you will just give me the time I need to fetch what I
must
have in order to perform this healing, I promise that my mother
will
be cured when I return.”

The aged leader of the nobles gave me a searching look, then sighed. “If you can do that, Lady Himiko, you will solve all our problems. As soon as we
know
your mother is restored and no longer a danger to our people, we can find a way to excuse her attack on Takehiko and Lady Yukari. That would certainly please
me
.” He turned to his comrades. “What do you think?” They were eager to agree with him. “And you, Master Michio?”

“Nothing would make me happier.”

“So be it.” He redirected his attention to me. “Lady Himiko, if you fail this time, do you promise to accept
any
verdict concerning your mother’s fate?”

I reached into the fold of my belt where I kept my talisman and held out the lady’s image for all to see. Even in the dimness of Master Michio’s house, the dragon stone in her hands glowed with its own radiance. “You have my word. I swear it by the never-failing light of the sun goddess.”

“And you have our promise too: no harm will come to your mother until you return and attempt one final healing.” The old men joined their voices in an oath made on their lives and the lives of all our people. It was their right as clan elders.

The exchange of solemn promises was accomplished. Master Michio struck one of the sacred bronze bells and
called upon the gods to witness our words. With the formalities completed, the elder who had spoken for all of them let out a huge gust of breath and changed from a fire-spitting flint-face to a benevolently beaming grandfather.

“You will have to see me before you set out to gather those roots or leaves or whatever it is you need for your mama’s medicine,” he said. “My daughter-in-law makes the sturdiest baskets in our clan. I want you to have one. It will bring you luck.”

“Thank you,” I replied, bowing slightly. “I can use both the basket and the luck.”

“How long do you think it will take you to bring back what you need?”

“That depends.…” I folded my hands in my lap. “How far is the road to the Ookami?”

Two days later, without having said a word about my intentions to Kaya or anyone in my family, I woke up before dawn and stole through the village to our shaman’s house.

“Master Michio?” I whispered before entering.

“Come in, my child,” he responded. “I’m just adding the last things to your travel gear.”

“Thank you for that.” I bent my head a little as I slipped through the doorway. “I couldn’t get ready for this trip at home. It will be better this way, with no one in my family knowing about my plans until after I’m—” I raised my eyes and froze in midstep. There on the floor, beside the supplies our shaman was packing in a bag for me, sat Lord Hideki.

“Good morning, Himiko,” he said. “Or should I say ‘Good journey’?”

“The elders told you, didn’t they,” I stated. I was angry. One of the things that I had settled with those old men was
my desire for initial secrecy. I insisted that no one in our village find out where I was going or why until I was already on the road. They gave me their word. They did it with bad grace, but they
did
it. Now this betrayal?

“You will forgive my friends,” Lord Hideki said calmly. “They have not told anyone else about your plan and they broke no promise by telling me. The oath they swore was on behalf of
all
the Matsu elders. Whether you like it or not, that includes me.” He chuckled. “I do wish I had been there when you fooled them into making that promise. When you let them know your actual intentions, did their faces look like this?” He scowled like an
oni
. “Or this?” He opened his eyes so wide that his eyebrows vanished into his hair. “Or was this more like it?” His jaw dropped, making him look so comical that I giggled in spite of myself.

“Amazing,” Master Michio said, laughing along with me. “That is precisely how they all looked, Lord Hideki. You must have been there, but so sly and silent that we failed to notice you.”

“I wish that were so,” he replied. “Hearing about it afterward is not the same. I was informed that my colleagues called you all sorts of unflattering names for your part in what happened. That can only mean you outsmarted them in an argument.”

“The main credit is Himiko’s,” the shaman said graciously. “When she revealed that the ‘medicine’ she was going to bring back was actually little Noboru, they were so shocked that their heads exploded like badly fired pottery. It made quite a mess of my humble house, I can tell you! She picked up the pieces and put them back together,
reminding them that they had already sworn to let her go. I merely swept up the few crumbs of clay she missed.”

“Fine gratitude I got for repairing those old crocks,” I said with a wry smile. “As soon as they recovered, they struck out at me, demanding to know why I was going to free no one except my little brother. What about my other stepmother, Emi, and her son, Sanjirou? What about the rest of our people, enslaved by the Ookami? Was I just going to leave them to their fate? They made me feel ashamed.”

“That was their intention.” Master Michio shifted his shoulders. “Think of it as their way of paying you back for making them feel foolish. You
did
mislead them into giving their oath.”

“You sound as if you don’t approve of the girl’s tactics,” Lord Hideki remarked, stroking his beard. “And yet I heard many bitter descriptions of how you defended her.”

“All I told our revered nobles was that they sounded as if they
expected
that Himiko had the power to free all of our captives. If that were so, why were they wasting time trying to set up her reluctant brother as our chieftain? Why not give the leadership of this clan to someone truly formidable?” He rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. “I think I might have gone a bit too far when I threw myself on the ground at her feet and acclaimed her as princess, shaman, and chieftess of the Matsu.”

“Mmm, perhaps a
bit
.” Lord Hideki grinned.

I ventured to touch the old warrior’s hand. “Thank you for coming here to wish me well,” I said. “I appreciate your goodwill now, especially because I know you wanted—because I know what you felt
had
to be done.”

He was still smiling, but his eyes were sad. “So you do understand my reasons for speaking so … coldly at your mother’s judgment. That is good. I would not want my chieftain’s daughter to go on believing me to be a monster. I will pray every day for your success and safe return. When you take back your little brother, may the spirits give you stealth, strength, and swiftness. May they cast dust in the eyes of the Ookami and make the very earth rise up to trip their feet!”

“My lord, I’m grateful for your prayers, but there is another thing I would appreciate even more: look after Mama while I’m gone. She will be living with Masa, closely watched. It must be so for her own safety and for Takehiko’s sake, but please do what you can so that she doesn’t feel like an imprisoned criminal. She’s going to find out about my departure, so when that happens, reassure her that I’ll be all right and that I
will
come home. Will you do this?”

“With all my heart.” He pressed my hand and let it go. “And more: I did not come here this morning just to wish you well, Himiko. I came to give you two parting gifts.” He took a knife from his belt and handed it to me with both hands. Even in the twilight of Master Michio’s house I could see the glitter of its keen edges. “My father gave this to me when he declared I had reached manhood. He claimed that the blade captured a guardian spirit who favored our family from the days when we first came to this land. I would like that spirit to watch over you now.”

I was humbled by such a generous gift. “Lord Hideki, I can find no words good enough to thank you for this,” I said, a catch in my throat.

“Himiko—Lady Himiko, I should say—you gave me a far greater gift than this.” His eyes were touched with tears. “You let me hear
her
voice again, my sweet Haru’s voice. I always thought I would go to my grave alone, but when her spirit spoke in front of so many witnesses, I saw that she had never wandered far from me since the day she died. You restored the only real joy my heart ever knew”—he smiled faintly—“even if she did return just to give me a good scolding.”

“Lord Hideki, I don’t know what I did to make your wife’s spirit speak through me that day,” I admitted. “I never summoned her, but if—when I return, I will try to call her back for you once more.” I mirrored his smile. “Maybe this time she’ll have kinder words for you.”

“Perhaps.” He stood up and grunted as he rubbed a touch of stiffness out of his lower back. “To be young again … When I was your age, there were no such things as mountains. I climbed them as easily as if they were flat fields of millet. Pick up your pack, Lady Himiko. It’s time you and I set out on this journey.”

My brows bunched together in surprise. “My lord?”

He laughed at my bewilderment. “Don’t worry, my dear, I am not coming with you for very far. I am only going to put your feet on the right road.” He seized the bag of supplies Master Michio had prepared and ducked out of the doorway, saying, “Make your good-byes and meet me in the old watchtower’s shadow.”

Still baffled by the old warrior’s words, I appealed to my teacher for help. “Master Michio, what’s he talking about?”

Our shaman was amused. I never knew I could be
so entertaining just by not knowing what was going on. “Didn’t you hear what he said about his youth, Himiko? He and I were talking about it before you arrived. He was quite the adventurous lad, always exploring, always wandering farther and farther from home, always coming back with marvelous tales about the places he’d been, the monsters he’d conquered, the other clans he’d encountered.”

“Others clans … like the Ookami?” Master Michio nodded. “Ah, so he knows the way there!”

“And he will describe it to you so clearly that you will swear you can see every pebble on the path. Following his directions will make it much easier for you to find the Ookami than … than …” He paused and cocked his head. “By the way, how
were
you planning to reach their village?”

I blushed. “I was going to rely on information from the other elders.”

“How long ago did they travel there?”

“They didn’t. All they knew came from things they overheard the wolf people say during their occupation of our village, and each elder had a different tale to tell me. The only things they all agreed on were that the Ookami live in a mountain settlement, that I would have to walk toward the setting sun to reach it, and that I would find other clans along the way.”

Master Michio scratched his cheek. “That’s not much to go on.”

“I know, but it was all I had until Lord Hideki came to my aid.” I sighed. “I shouldn’t keep him waiting. Master Michio, I—”

My teacher hugged me before I could say anything
more. “Now I know what it is like to bid farewell to the daughter of your heart. I will miss you, Himiko. May the gods go with you and guide your footsteps.” He took a step back, holding me at arm’s length by the shoulders, and added: “And next time you need directions to somewhere far away, perhaps you should ask the spirits which way to go. It might be more help than asking our elders.” With a final, quick hug, he let me be on my way.

I found Lord Hideki waiting for me at the appointed place. He had a very small bag cupped in one hand. “A little something for the road,” he said, giving it to me.

I thought I felt smooth, shifting grains inside. “My lord, what is this?”

“A ration of rice from my household. Don’t look at me with such alarm, child! I’m not going to starve for lack of so little, and you will be very glad to have it. Now let’s be on our way.”

We walked out of the village together, crossing our ruined moat, heading through the still-unplanted rice paddies. The rising sun behind us sent our shadows stretching out toward a distant stand of pine trees and the mist-veiled mountains beyond. I said a silent prayer that my strength would be equal to the journey ahead. Though the leg I’d broken in childhood had healed imperfectly and sometimes pained me when I overburdened it, it gave me no trouble when I walked along the steep paths and through the dense forests on the way to the Shika clan. Unfortunately that had no bearing on my present situation. According to Lord Hideki, the trip now facing me was many times as long.

“I gave my word to the elders that I would be back with Noboru before harvest season,” I told him, worried. “Will that be enough time?”

“Don’t fret, Lady Himiko. I have no way of knowing how long it will take you to rescue your little brother, but your travels should not take much more than a dozen days in each direction.”