It didn't make sense, there should have been a note or a challenge. Madria did not do subtle intentions. The Steward's eyes sought the horizon where the Grand Torii loomed over the landscape. And the girl's possessed by something, as if her merely being in Golden Hills wasn't bad enough. What are you doing out there Madria? I can't play your games if I don't even know which game you’re playing.
"Shuri. I need you to find this girl for me." The Steward said, still staring off in the distance. "Do not let Shibata capture her."
"As you wish. Shall I have Lady Crane relieve me?" Shuri voice flowed like a silk.
The Steward winced and cursed which ever previous Steward had thought that concubines would double as body guards. "And Madam Xi to protect me from her."
Chapter 29
Gama led the way through the Docking district. Nobody noticed that huge paw prints were appearing besides her own boot prints. Despite the Death Panther's total invisibility people avoided getting in her way more than they bothered to step aside for Yaki. If Guro noticed them walking behind her he gave no sign.
The neighborhood through which they walked did not seem to be a likely place for the Death Panther to stalk beside her. It burst at the seams with the energy of life. Children ran in swarms among cheaply constructed buildings in middling to good repair, wood and mud brick, no stone. Tokens and painted decorations spoke to a Diaspora of tribal people. Buffalo, horses and ravens were common motifs, other animals with affixed over the doors identifying family clans.
Enticing flavors assaulted her nostrils as they passed an old woman frying flat breads in pan of oil hung over a fire pit dug into the road itself. A younger woman eyed Yaki warily as she spooned a thick stew over the bread and handed it out to waiting line of silver haired elders. Hunger gnawed at the edges of Yaki's mind but she saw no street vendors to sate her. Gama strode right past the procession, focused on a home down the street.
"Here we are." He stopped in front of an oddly shaped house. It resembled the conical tents that plains tribes pitched outside on the other side of the river when they came to trade at the front but made of wood. Yet that was a facade, a box like structure grew off the back of it, windowless like a storage shed. Unlike all the other buildings in the neighborhood it shared no walls with its neighbors, rather a lush garden grew all around it in neat rows. The entire structure was painted black and decorated with white glyphs the size of Yaki's hand.
Gama went to knock on the door but it opened before he reached it. A woman loomed in the doorway, filling it width wise. Her wide lips and hawkish nose reminded Yaki of Hawk but in an unflattering way. The look she gave Gama could have killed a small animal. "I told you not to come back," She said.
"Because I didn't die when your uncle said I should of?" Yaki just caught his whispered words. "I'm not here to see you Rainbow. I'm bringing a friend to see your uncle. Is he in?"
"Is he ever not?" Rainbow's stony gaze swept over Yaki and Guro. She snorted as if pronouncing a judgment, then crossed her arms then stepped aside.
Gama entered, gesturing Yaki to follow.
A voice coughed in the dim light of the interior and spoke words Yaki did not know.
Gama answered in the same tongue and gestured at Yaki. As her eyes adjusted the dim light, lit not with crystals but candles! Candles in a wooden structure. Yaki gulped as the door shut behind her. As her eyes adjusted she found and ancient man sitting cross legged on the floor. Wrinkled flesh hanging off bones. Silver rings watched her from sunken eye sockets. The incense laden air did its best to cover the stink of decay. Yaki felt warm fur brush against her legs and heard the floor board creek as invisible paws padded around the edge of the room.
The man's eyes tracked the noise as something fluttered in the rafters. "You... *koff* brought the deathwalker here?"
"Forgive me Passing Night, but we need some medicine." Gama said. "The Shinto priests believe she's tainted."
The candles flickered as one and Passing Night's eyes tracked something invisible to everyone else. "Do not judge me! You are not of my people." A coughing fit seized him, deep and guttural wracks. He covered his mouth in an attempt to contain it.
A raspy caw sounded from the roof followed by hollow thump on the floor. Yaki breathed out a cloud of mist, as her skin began to tingle with cold. The in the shadows and she saw great black wings.
The entire structure shook with the force of a deep growl.
"Uncle," Rainbow rushed to his side but the old man warded her off with a hand spotted with blood
"Stay back!" He hissed. "Do not get between it and me."
A slow, sawing snarl cut through the air. Followed by a venomous caw. The candles sputtered out, cloaking the entire room in darkness. Yaki froze as the two voices blended into a whirling cacophony of beating wings and the scrape of claws on wood. The struggle rolled back deep into the house, a solid thwack against something solid followed by the sharp sounds of shattering ceramics.
Stillness.
A muffled squawk. A yield?
The candles sputtered back to life and everyone in the room breathed out a held breath. Frost twinkled in the candle light from every surface of the room.
Passing Night coughed once. "There is no one trained to replace me. I cannot go yet."
Fear shined in the old shaman's eyes as he listened to something unheard. Rainbow, crept closer, touching his shoulder. "Uncle?"
He whispered something in that tongue Yaki did not understand. Rainbow bit her lip and rose to fetch a jar decorated with a bright blue and red swirling pattern from the back. With shaking hands, he pulled the wide cork top from its mouth. His lips moved in a prayer and he tossed the contents out on to the floor. Bones, the color off fresh snow scattered across the floor. They stilled quickly, like iron passed over a lodestone. The beak of a raven skull glinted.
"No." The man still wasn't speaking a language she knew, but she got that much. Passing Night hurried to gather the bones, not bothering to cover his mouth as he coughed. Pausing only to spit blood into a cup he cast the bones again.
Five times he cast the bones. Five times coughs wracked his body, growing worse each time.
Yaki's gaze searched out Gama's at one point and found his gaze locked on Rainbow. There was no surprise in his expression nor kindness in his overly large eyes. Mouth pressed in a line. The day on the dueling circle seemed to be a lifetime ago, but she remembered a mention of a girl named Rainbow. She cast accusatory glances back at Gama. If they shared affection once it had ended badly.
At the end of the casting Passing Night leaned against his niece. Talking in low tones as her eyes grew wide and her face lost much of its copper tone. Yaki edged close to Gama. "What is he saying?" She whispered.
Gama responded in a soft voice. "They have to leave. The entire tribe and everyone they can convince to join them. If they do not then Raven will feast on all of their eyes."
Yaki caught the words "Go to-something, Now." From passing night.
Rainbow stood and cast Yaki so baleful a look that she stepped back, hate rimmed with tears. He said something else and she turned that gaze on Gama.
Gama swallowed, took off his glasses and slipped them into a pocket. The Rainbow strode up to him. They stared each other down. She spat a phrase at him.
"Had to be done." Gama said.
Her hand blurred, slapping his face so hard that the sound of the impact reminded Yaki of a cannon shot. Gama staggered against the wall. With another baleful look at Yaki she left the house, slamming the door behind her.
What have I walked into? Yaki wondered as she looked back to Passing Night who stood, coughing into the back of his hand. His skin already fading to gray blue. "I did not intend for this." Yaki said and smiled apologetically.
"It does not matter what you intend. You walk with death at your side. That will always be the result of your actions." His gaze shifted to Gama. "She'll claim you too. You will die in her name."
"Since when does a warrior fear Death
?" Gama said.
"What use a nearly blind warrior who's filled his head with useless numbers?" Passing Night sneered.
If the insult had any barb to it, Gama made no sign, he slipped on his glasses, the outline of Rainbow's hand vivid red on his cheek. "We came here for a medicine Passing Night. We need a means to throw off the Shinto priests."
A coughing fit seize the man again and the moment stretched until it passed. "It told me." He croaked, "Fhaw, traded a moment of clarity for it." He shuffled back into the squarish rear of the house and began pawing through drawers and pouches.
In a few moments he had assembled a small array of powders and unrecognizable animal bits on a sheet of wax paper. He gestured Yaki over, handed her a knife and jabbed his finger at the center of the paper. "Bleed here Deathwalker."
Yaki barely felt the blade as she drew it across the tip of her bracelet side pinkie finger and squeezed out several dark red drops of blood on to the paper. With a quill Passing Night used the blood to draw several glyphs on it. Then he mashed the ingredients into the center. Once mixed he folded up the paper into a bundle and placed it in a leather pouch that hung from a thong. "Listen Deathwalker. Finish this yourself. Place a strip of bark from Grandmother Willow around the paper bundle. In a day Koffkoff it will rot and stink. It will work until the rot has run its course. koff On that day your hunters will find you."
Yaki bit back a question, as she took the bundle from a hand where flesh had split open so she could see the white bone of his knuckles. "Thank you."
His rapidly clouding eyes followed her gaze. "It doesn't hurt me. But will hurt Rainbow. Leave."
Nodding Yaki turned from the rapidly rotting man and strode for the door. Gama following in her wake. Guro, who had been waiting outside joined them as Yaki picked a direction and walked. Trying to get away, each step brought the Ka-clank of her heart, as if it had forgotten to beat in the confines of the Shaman's house and now attempted to make up for the lack.
As soon as they were out of sight of the black house Yaki rounded on Gama. "You knew what would happen!"
Gama looked at his feet, "We got what you needed. The accounts are square now." The barest hint of a smirk on the edge of his mouth.
He used me. Yaki realized, The day he found me in the Garden he'd been cast out by Passing Night. The old man had something in there holding off his death and The Death Panther killed it. Strangely the thought made her feel better, not worse. She bumped his shoulder affectionately, "Come on then. Too much to do still to get ready for tomorrow."
That wiped the smirk off his face. He opened his mouth to say something but Guro cut in. "Uh that Rainbow girl is heading directly for us. And I'd say she's only got one color her eyes."
"Deathwalker!" Yaki turned to see Rainbow, she held no weapons but her fists were clenched so tightly that angry veins ran up her arms. "Trying to slip away from the crime like the snake you are!"
Yaki's hand went to her sword, an action mirrored by both Gama and Guro.
"He was dead ten years ago Rainbow!" Gama stepped in front her. "He's back to where he should be. With the All."
"Out of my way. You are Dead to me, a plague carrier who rides in front of Death. I can't believe I nearly married a toadie of this this thing!" She grabbed Gama's shoulder and threw him aside. Guro blade appeared at her throat.
"Not another step." Guro said.
"Fine." With a quick inhalation of breath, she spat directly in Yaki's eye. "I am Rainbow on the Plain and in the name of my father and mother I curse you Deathwalker. I curse you in the name of the White Buffalo for bringing death to his house!"
Yaki wiped the mass of spittle away from her eye, but a stinging, scrabbling gnawed on her eyeball. The force of her curse had power. She tried to retreat but a soft wall of muscle pressed against her legs, preventing her from retreating. What do you want me to do?! What do you want me to say? Yaki prayed in her mind, but the spirit did not answer her. Yaki was left to stare into those burning eyes for a long moment. Gama recovered and slowly withdrew his sword. The bustle of the street stopped around them.
Words came to her. "We came to deliver clarity for a last time. Heed the last prophecy of Passing Night."
The crowd murmured. The words we not for Rainbow, but for them. The questions latched into them, what prophecy? Passing Night died? They would be asked and answered, whatever those bones said would be heard now. The pressure holding Yaki in place disappeared as Rainbow glanced at the people.
Yaki turned her back on Rainbow, raise her chin and stalked down the street. "If I see you again I will kill you Deathwalker! If I learn your name I will write it on a blade for you! May your sickness consume your soul!" Rainbow continue to holler threats until Yaki rounded the corner. Eyes from windows and porches followed like daggers. Her own eye burned like someone had shoved grit under her eyelid.
Yet the mark on her shoulder vibrated with a satisfied purr. At least some one was happy about this.
Chapter 30
A day later and well rested, Yaki perched in a gnarled oak tree. Like many oaks, the tree had been grumpy at first, making twigs snap that were nowhere near her feet and the wind happened to blow in the right direction to move the foliage aside and expose her position. Fortunately, she'd arrived early, her satchel full of food, jerky for her and nuts for the tree's resident birds and squirrels. After the offering to them, the tree's leaves moved to actively enshadow her.
This oak sat near the peak of the Empress Way a narrow strip of park built on a terrace directly below the Stool, where the high Houses' manors perched. While still a nice place for a picnic no one came for the view anymore. Once upon a time, it had beheld a glorious view of the field outside the city's walls, now it looked directly down into the smoldering cauldron of the industrial district.
Having the foundry visible would be essential for the scene she imagined with Mitsuo to play out. To let him it be present in his mind for their conversation. If he came. If he didn't she supposed she could prey on the Ryouta's jealousy but trying to stomach his oafishness would be a true battle.
As she waited, she plotted the different ways she could lead him. To dangle more hints or confess with enough truth to disarm him. She chewed on her Torii pendent, idly moving it around her mouth, her palms sweating as if she were moments before an exam with Mistress Mana. Movement through a small breach in the foliage caught her eye.
Mitsuo! And five other persons. They wore wide straw hats on their heads and priest's robes. Although the sun caught the glitter of mail in the v of their robes. Three carried spears with blades of burnished bronze, a crystal the size of Yaki's fist mounted where the blade met the shaft, each of a different color. The two in the rear had a bandoleer of elemental shells looping over their shoulders and Yaki knew would they would have large hand cannons slung over their backs.
Hunters. She thought the word as if it were the blackest curse.
Mitsuo moved in front of them, kicking stone and stomping on any stray twig that fell on this path. Even at this distance, no more the size of her thumb if she held her hand out in front of her Yaki could see the anger nearly steaming off him. Allowing herself a hiss of frustration, Yaki looked back the other way to see two more priests carrying spears. Seven demon hunters. That elderly priest had sent seven highly trained holy men after her! Hot panic pushed out into her body and everything stilled. Her hand clutched at the pouch that hung around her neck. Passing Night's charm rapped in Grandmother Willow's bark. She'd find out if it worked soon enough.
The two parties closed until they were within sight of each other across the peak. Mitsuo was shove toward the peak, "You cannot treat me like this! House Nishamura will have your heads!" he protested. Mitsuo and the leader of the priest stood less than a stone's throw away from Yaki's tree.
"You father is no demon lover, boy." The leader growled with a certain relish that left no doubt that he was enjoying lording over Mitsuo. "Now sit on that bench. And after this is over you can run to your da
ddy and see precisely how much sympathy he gives you."
Mitsuo drew himself up straight and tucked a wisp of heir back behind an ear. He had no sword. "I will remember your name Father."
"You do that." The man made a shooing gesture.
Mitsuo gave the man on additional glare before spinning on his heel and stalked to the bench fist's clenched, arms ram rod straight at his sides. He sat on the overlook bench with an angry huff. It sort of reminded Yaki of Ishe's tantrums when they had been kids, before Mother had beat the concept of fair out of them both.
Yaki looked back at the head priest and found him gone. A fresh wave of Panic seized her as she hunted with her eyes for any snatch of their red robes. Trying to swallow, Yaki found her mouth entirely dried out. It was as if the seven priests had sunken into the very earth. The soft Ka-Clink of her heart suddenly loomed large as she willed herself to not twitch a single muscle. A suffocating silence settled down on her like a woolen blanket on a hot summer day. Moments ticked by, stretching out into individual eternities.
"Here I am! Completely and utterly alone!" Mitsuo called out.
Someone scoffed, a sound so soft that Yaki shouldn't have heard it. Moving with aching slowness Yaki shifted to peer down the tree trunk she clung too. There, crouching at the base of the tree was one of the hunters. His bald head bowed as if in prayer and Yaki could imagine an eye opening in his shiny skin and looking directly at her. They're trying to sense my taint. Yozi, once loosed in the city typically were not subtle things.
How long would they wait? Yaki hadn't been very specific with the time she had told Mitsuo to meet her. Was the priest the outer point edge of their trap. She squinted trying to see through whatever magic cloaked the priest's bright colors but found no more. Her sword might be able to slay the one below her but she might as well simply "shout here I am!" The nearest tree stood ten feet away, she could hope tree to tree like an over grown squirrel but not in silence.
Dragon's Cage Page 15
