The Night Parade (16 page)

It wasn't until her eyes wandered upward in thought that the image hit her.

“Black cords… Do you mean power cords?”

“Whatever the breathers call them, we hate them. That's why there are so few of us left. Those cords cover so much of the land. We have a hard time crossing over, so the few of us who still remain are all separated. Our village is lucky that the mountain has stayed untouched for so long.”

The object spirits were like nothing else Saki had encountered on the Night Parade. Like herself, they shared a connection to the human world. She opened her mouth to ask more, but their conversation was interrupted by the frenzied jumping of the other spirits in the party.

“Look!” called the biwa. “The path to the cave is over here!”

The group collected around a footpath that ran off the main road. The trees in the forest leaned over the path, blocking out the light of the moon. It was a long, dark tunnel to nowhere. The object spirits clustered behind Saki and peered out warily. The dirt on the path had been packed down, but Saki found a few outlines of footprints as long as her arms and as wide as her shoulders.

“We must be cautious,” the prayer beads warned.

“You don't have to tell me twice,” Saki agreed. Any creature heavy enough to leave an impression deep enough to lose a shoe in was not the kind of beast Saki wanted to stumble into unprepared. Or stumble into at all, for that matter.

The object spirits had grown quiet. All jokes were forgotten by the time the three straw sandals volunteered to scout the footpath. Once they returned, unnerved but unharmed, Saki and the others followed them back into the dark.

Branches whipped Saki in the face, and she lifted her knees high to keep from tripping over roots that jutted up from the ground. When she stumbled, the umbrella caught her from behind.

“How long does this go on?” she asked.

“Looks like just a smidge more,” the tanuki said from a few paces ahead. “There's something bright a little ways away. You need some help, sweetheart?”

“No, I'm fine,” she grumbled as another tree branch slapped her across the cheek. They didn't have time to waste nursing all of her scrapes.

She could see the light now too. The path curved to the left, where a handful of moonbeams poked through at the edge of the forest. Saki and the spirits stepped out into a clearing in front of a steep rock face. The entrance to the cave was a good twenty paces away, but the shouts of the ogres came echoing all the way to the edge of the footpath.

Trying to make as little noise as possible, Saki herded the tanuki and the object spirits to a patch of bushes.

“They must be keeping the cotton shroud somewhere in the cave,” the prayer beads explained. “When they go out, they roll a boulder in front of the entrance to keep other spirits out. Otherwise we would have gone to look ourselves back when all of this began.”

Saki nodded. “So we need to sneak in and grab the shroud before they see us.” She paused for a moment and counted the group. “We can't all go. We'll get caught for sure if we're all moving around at once. Someone has to slip inside.”

The object spirits pretended to go mute. Once again, their attention rested on Saki. Even the tanuki looked at her with an expectant gaze. Saki slapped a hand to her forehead and groaned. She should have known better.

“Fine. I'll go. Everyone else wait here.”

The prayer beads hopped toward her. As they jumped, she caught them between her fingers.

“Let me accompany you,” the beads said. “Slip me around your wrist, and I can help you assess the situation.”

At least one of the spirits supported her. As the beads slid over her wrist, they tightened so that they wouldn't fall off. For a string of clackity beads, they made surprisingly little noise as she crawled out from behind the bush.

“Good luck!” called the tanuki.

“We'll be right here!” sang the biwa.

She shushed all their guilty encouragements with a violent gesture to the air.

Saki crept up to the entrance of the cave. Firelight flickered across the walls, and the ogres inside started up a drinking song, stomping their feet against the floor with the beat. They belched and whooped with laughter. Saki crouched low, waiting for a lull in the festivities to make her move.

In the bushes behind her, the tanuki had fled from sight. The object spirits were well hidden in the leaves, all except for the umbrella. Its tip poked out of their hiding place by a full hand's length. All she could do was hope that ogres had poor eyesight.

She leaned forward to catch a glimpse of the cave's layout. Three ogres lazed around the fire, holding jugs of rice wine in their gnarled hands. The blue ogre had the largest jug of wine, the yellow ogre was the fattest, and the green ogre had a balding head. They pounded their bellies with their hands and pounded the floor with their feet for music. The ground trembled like an earthquake and rattled Saki's teeth.

Behind the blue ogre was a rock wide enough for Saki to crouch behind. The ogre leaned against it like a chair, but she could cover the distance in a few seconds if she kept low along the wall.

The green ogre sneezed and let loose a trail of snot. The yellow ogre bashed the green one on the head as all three of them devolved into uproarious laughter. As their eyes were closed in fits of belly laughs, Saki seized her chance. She dashed out to the rock, stopped in its shadow, and stood very still as she waited for her heartbeat to slow down. None of them had spotted her.

A tug on her wrist from the prayer beads made her look up. The beads pointed with a battered tassel toward a pile of huge iron clubs. Four of them were stacked messily in the corner, and around the handle of one in the middle was a wriggling piece of cloth pinned together with a giant thorn. The cotton shroud looked dirty but not beyond rescue.

Saki considered her next move. The clubs were in the farthest corner of the cave. Even with their drinking and their mindless games, the ogres would certainly notice if she went over and started to tug at their weapons. She would need a plan.

The green ogre picked his nose, and the fat yellow ogre tried to lick up a bit of rice wine that he'd spilled on his chest. The blue ogre seemed to be nodding off. He snapped opened his eyes and took another swig of his drink, only to droop again a few seconds later.

Saki grinned and cupped a hand over her wrist to whisper to the prayer beads.

“I think I've figured out how to distract them, but we'll need to get help from the biwa.”

“Understood,” said the beads. “Relay the instructions to me and then throw me across the gap. I'll tell the biwa what to do.”

“Won't that hurt you?”

“I don't have flesh to feel the pain. Do not worry about me.”

Saki kept her whispers short and low. While the ogres were preoccupied with a belching contest, Saki slid the beads off her wrist and tossed them over to the mouth of the cave. The prayer beads landed in a patch of soft grass. After a few beats, the beads slinked across the ground into the bushes.

There was nothing left to do but sit and wait until the biwa came to her aid.

The ogres were chugging entire jugs of the rice wine when a soft piece of music filtered through the air. With only three notes, the biwa's song was simple, but effective. The tempo was slow, and the pitch was clear. Before long, the ogres were exchanging yawns. The yellow ogre blinked to stay awake while the blue ogre gave in and curled himself into a mountainous ball on the ground.

Saki tiptoed out from her hiding place. She rolled her feet from heel to toe in order to keep her footsteps as quiet as possible. When she came to the clubs, she knelt down and reached for the cotton shroud. The ogres had lodged a thorn through the layers of cotton around the handle. She yanked the thorn up, down, and sideways to dislodge it, but the obstruction refused to budge. Rolling back her shoulders, Saki leaned in closer to get both hands on the club.

The ogres had started to snore. The biwa's lullaby stopped, but the music had done its job. With both hands, she pulled at the thorn until it popped free of the club handle. The sudden release sent her flying onto her back.

She bit her lip to keep from crying out, then sat up slowly. The shroud had unfurled itself from the club handle and began to shake out its wrinkles. Saki offered her hand so that they could escape together, but the shroud froze just short of her fingers. It began to tremble as the tips of its tail pointed over Saki's shoulder. A shadow fell over them both.

Saki looked up to see a red ogre's face staring down at her. His teeth were sharp and bright white. His lips slowly twisted into a hideous grin. In one hand, he clutched the biwa spirit by the neck. As Saki took a terrified step back, he let out a mighty roar.

The other ogres in the cave stirred out of their slumber, rubbed their eyes, and scratched themselves. The red ogre began to laugh.

“Look here,” he grunted, his voice as thick and as deep as the darkest cavern. “Found tasty bite.”

The other ogres licked their lips and leered at Saki. The shroud tried to slip past the red ogre's guard, but he pinned it to the floor with his foot.

“Where you go, soft white? Found new friend.”

The ogre rattled the biwa and poked at its strings with a thick finger.

“Sing pretty now.”

Too terrified to move, the biwa did nothing. The red ogre's face contorted, and he tossed the biwa to the ground. The yellow ogre picked it up and plucked at the strings, giggling.

The red ogre grinned again and reached for Saki. “We eat now.”

“Wait!” She scrambled to the back of the cave and held a hand up in front of her. “You can't eat me!”

The red ogre stuck out his lip in a pout. “Why no eat?”

“Because,” Saki said. She reached behind her back and pulled a flat marble out from her pocket. The light of the fire glinted off the glass, and specks of light like fireflies danced on the roof of the cave. “You wouldn't want me to use this.”

The ogres jumped back in surprise. As the shock faded, huge grins spread across each of their faces. The yellow ogre gave up bullying the biwa, and the red ogre took a step forward, freeing the cotton shroud. Both of the object spirits wriggled away toward the cave entrance while the ogres were distracted with Saki. So much for loyalty.

Saki tried to keep her voice from shaking as she brandished the marble again. “See? It's very frightening, so you should let me go at once.”

The red ogre grabbed her with one hand. Her feet dangled above the ground as he brought her to his face.

“Not go. Have shiny!”

“Shiny!” the other ogres repeated. Firelight glinted in their eyes.

Saki bit her tongue before she could say one more stupid word. The marbles were very valuable to the spirits, and she'd flaunted one right in their faces. Now the ogres wouldn't let her go until she'd handed over her entire pouch, then they'd probably go right back to the original plan of eating her.

“Put me down! If you don't put me down right now, you'll regret it.”

The red ogre placed her down next to the fire. The cave entrance was too far away to make a run for it, and the height of the flames blocked her view to the outside. All of the ogres had their eyes on Saki's marble, but none of them moved to take it.

“You nice,” said the red ogre. “You help ogre.”

“Uh…” Her mind was blank. The only image in her head was an old story of a boy who'd climbed a beansprout and a giant who'd made bread out of bones. “I'm sorry. What?”

The red ogre shook his head. “You help ogre. You help go to shrine. Give magic water.” The ogre held out his hands and mimed washing them.

Saki's jaw dropped. She remembered the first night on the Pilgrim's Road and the sad, old ogre she'd given one of her marbles so he could pass through the torii gates.

“You knew the ogre from the other night?”

“Yes, know ogre! Uncle ogre. Nice girl help ogre. We like nice girl.”

The other three nodded. Their floppy smiles slowly began to look much less frightening.

“Um, thank you. Your uncle helped me too. I would probably have gotten skewered by those bugs if it weren't for him.”

“Yes, help. Nice girl ogre's friend. Nice friend.”

“You…want to be friends?” Maybe being a friend would mean she wouldn't get eaten.

“Friend! Friend! Be friend?” The red ogre held out his huge hand.

Saki touched the tips of her fingers to his palm. Alone and under threat of being dinner, she had nothing left to lose. “Okay, friends.”

The ogre swept her up into a hug. Saki was afraid she might be crushed, but his arms were so big that he couldn't pull her in too tightly. The ogre spun her around with such force that when he set her back on the ground, Saki swiveled on one foot and lost her balance. The other ogres laughed and stomped their feet in mirth.

When Saki could see straight, she staggered up. “I'm really glad we could be friends, but I can't stay.”

The red ogre shook his head. “Not go. Stay ogre's friend.”

“Look, I'm really sorry, but this is the third night of the Parade and I have to get to the palace at the top of the mountain before dawn.”

The ogres cocked their heads. “Friend go up mountain?” the red ogre asked.

“Yes, I have to go and lift my curse.”

“Ogre come with friend. All go up mountain.”

The mouth of the cave was quiet. Unless the tanuki and the object spirits had cast off their cowardice since she'd left them, none of them were coming to her rescue anytime soon. Saki scratched her head and shifted her feet.

“I don't know…I don't even know where this road is supposed to take me.”

The red ogre wagged his hands with encouragement. “All go together. Not get lost.”

Saki took a deep breath. It was better than wandering around the woods on her own. “Okay. Let's go.”

The ogres celebrated with a series of ground-shaking roars. The red ogre hoisted Saki on his shoulders and spun her around again as he and the others danced through the cave. When the excitement died down and Saki staggered back to her feet, the ogres grabbed their clubs and marched outside. The blue and green ogres rolled the boulder over the entrance to the cave as Saki scanned the clearing for signs of the object spirits.

The bush next to the entrance was empty. With a heavy heart, she followed behind the four ogres, across the clearing to the beginning of the footpath back to the road.

Above them, the leaves in the trees rustled. A split second later, the object spirits tumbled down onto the heads of the ogres, the air thick with made-up battle cries.

The rice pot landed the most effective hit, dropping right over the yellow ogre's head. The three straw sandals took turns slapping the blue ogre's face. He swung his club out in front of him to push the attackers away but only succeeded in hitting the green ogre on the back of the skull.

The red ogre braced himself in front of Saki. He brandished his club and stared down the umbrella, which popped its joints up and down in a frenzy. Near the red ogre's foot, a rock shifted and transformed back into the shape of the tanuki. Before the ogre realized what was going on, the tanuki sank his fangs into the ogre's big red foot. The red ogre unleashed a howl.

“Stop!” Saki jumped out in front of the raging umbrella, her arms splayed wide. “I said stop! Everyone, stop it right now! Stop fighting and listen to me!”

The straw sandals gave the blue ogre one last slap before obeying. The rest of the object spirits drew back and hovered by the edge of the clearing while the ogres nursed their wounds.

Saki took a look at the mess. The sandals, the pot, the umbrella, the cup-and-ball toy…some of the spirits were missing. “Where are the prayer beads?”

The shroud and biwa shifted out of their hiding place among the treetops, with the prayer beads crammed between them. The beads shimmied across the branch and dropped into Saki's hands.

“Were you harmed, Saki? We staged an ambush to rescue you from these monsters. I heard them talk about eating you!”

The red ogre came up behind her. “Friend okay? Friend hurt?”

“Both of you—I'm fine. Nobody's getting eaten. Can we please stop and talk about this?”

“What can we possibly talk about with these creatures?” scoffed the beads. “They kidnapped our fellow spirit. They come to wreak havoc on our village. They can't be reasoned with by any civilized peoples.”

Saki turned to the red ogre and pointed up through the trees at the cotton shroud.

“Why did you take their friend from the village?” she asked, not unkindly.

“Not take soft white. Just borrow. Club hurt ogre hands. Soft white feel nice on ogre hands.” The red ogre grunted at the blue ogre. “Show hands.”

The blue ogre held out his hands, which were blistered and cracked. The skin was swollen, and the ogre yelped when Saki touched it.

“But taking their friend wasn't very nice,” she said. “You can't have fun if one of your friends is gone, can you?”

“No.” The red ogre looked at the ground. “No fun.”

“Right, so you should say you're sorry to the object spirits.”

“Not say sorry!” the ogre shouted. “Not friends!”

“Why not?” Saki pleaded. “They're my friends, and I'm your friend. Why can't we all be friends together?”

The prayer beads turned away. “Please, Saki. This is ridiculous. We're wasting everyone's time.”

Saki held the beads with a hard grip. “Have you ever even tried talking to the ogres before?”

“Well, no, but—”

“Then you just stay here and listen.” Saki bent her head to catch the red ogre's gaze. “Tell me why you won't be friends with the village.”

The red ogre sniffed. Tears welled up in his eyes. “Not nice to ogre. Not friends. Call ogre mean name. Say stupid. Say bad things. Ogre not like.”