Dreamlands (25 page)

“Not much,” she admitted. Her English was worse than Keno’s, the accent much thicker, no wonder Tamazusa and Samojirou had translated all her comments for us. “It seems―”

“What the fuck are you doing, Mason?” Murphy snarled.

“She’s a civvie you dragged back here,” I yelled.

“She’s going to be an interesting specimen to examine,” Collins, behind him, said.

“What the fuck are you talking about?” I snarled.

“She isn’t human,” Romejinoff said.

“So?”

That didn’t matter to me right now. Maybe I was losing it because she was cute and innocent-looking, but I doubted it. I was beginning to think that the monsters I was killing for these people had been like us, someone who had fucked up an op and ended up stuck in a place where they didn’t know the language or anything. Except for the fucking FELICITAS IVEY

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Hákarl. I still thought that those things were on the shoot-to-kill-on-sight list. I was starting to rethink that instinct with the Reavers.

Collins was pissed, and McGann was confused. “But―” she started.

“Murphy dragged her ass back here,” I said. “She shouldn’t be here. She’s an innocent bystander. Remember those?” McGann gave me a tired look. She always looked fucking tired, and she was useless. Collins was gloating, and Murphy smiled, smug. I knew it was a losing battle, but I wasn’t giving up.

“Mason-sama, I am your prisoner,” Fuse said. I looked down at her, and she looked scared and tough at the same time as she spoke. “I understand much now. Samojirou-sama was very wise in the way that he treated Sakura-chan.”

“Keno,” I said automatically.

“His family name?” she asked me after a second.

It took me a minute to understand what she was saying.

“Inuzaka.”

She looked shocked, and I couldn’t figure out why. But I went with her when the techs moved in to take her away.

181

DREAMLANDS

MASON

I MADE it my business to be with her when they did the preliminary work up on her. She was stripped, poked and prodded, and made to wear the fucking ugliest jumpsuit in the world. They had brought the largest one they could find, and she had to roll up the arms and legs so she wasn’t tripping over them. Fuse was shaking by the end of it, and I bullied one of the techs into getting her a cup of tea. He gave me grief about it until he realized I was in no mood to take his fucking shit. Fuse wrapped her hands around the mug and huddled on the floor when he came back with it. I had seen a lot more of her than I should have, but I wasn’t going to leave her alone. I thought that me being there made people a lot nicer to her during all this. It stopped them from trying something stupid too.

“Mason-sama…”

“Just Mason,” I corrected. “I’m not a lord. I know about five words of Nip, and that’s one of them.”

“You are being kind to me,” she said softly.

I shrugged. “Keno right about your family going apeshit about you going missing?”

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182

She nodded. “Murphy could not have had a better plan if he were a scholar of Sun Tzu. My family and Tamazusa-sama have been at odds for a long time because of my father. That I disappeared under her protection will anger all of my family, and they will descend there in much fury, being led by my consort. There will be much fighting if this is not controlled in some way.”

“That Yatsufusa guy is your consort,” I said.

She appeared shocked that I knew his name and smiled. “Yes, him. He won my hand in the real world when he brought my father the head of the enemy general, who was an
oni.
”

“That’s a tough act to follow,” I said after a moment of silence.

“I do not understand,” she said.

“What did he do for your first anniversary? Americans celebrate every year that they are married.” I know I sounded stupid, but I was getting her to talk. She also was looking less shocky and lost.

She shrugged gracefully. “We were dead by then, and my sons were scattered to the winds to be reborn.” It took me a minute to understand what she had said. “Fuck, I didn’t mean to….”

She laughed. “Mason, it was a long time ago, and part of why I am in the Dreamlands. I was betrayed by one who had wanted me at one time. He repented and did penance, but I died, as well as my consort. But if I had lived a normal life, I would have never become what I am today.”

“What about Tamazusa?” I asked, remembering how upset she had been when Murphy had asked her why she was in the Dreamlands.

Fuse was embarrassed by the question. “My father betrayed her.

He went back on his promise to her and killed her.”

“No wonder she’s pissed at your father and the rest of your family,” I said.

Fuse looked down at her mug. “I do not wish to talk about it.” 183

DREAMLANDS

I wasn’t going to argue with her, since it didn’t seem to be any of my business, really. I was glad when one of the techs came into the room. Her name was Nina, and she was built like the ship Columbus had sailed, tubby and short. She was old enough to be my mother and an ex of the Women’s Army Corps. Her hair was bluish-white and pulled up in a bun, and she was the best in the blood-drawing business.

“Strip, Kairns,” she ordered. “I want your clothes and ugly ass.”

“Not in front of the lady,” I said, but I took off my shirt and stripped down to my birthday suit when Nina glared. I turned around, at least, so I was just flashing Fuse my ass and not anything else. Nina wasn’t someone you argued with, because she stuck you with needles, and it wasn’t a good idea to piss her off.

“You ashamed that you don’t measure up?” she asked me as she gave a pair of scrubs to wear.

Fuse made an odd noise, and we both looked at her. “I am so sorry,” she cried, blushing. “It is not… I never….”

“I know,” I said gently. “I got a lot of stares when I went to the hot tub thing with Tamazusa’s posse. I didn’t think that you’ve seen a black guy before.”

“Or one with so many bad tats,” Nina said. “The illustrated man, you aren’t.”

Fuse was staring at something, but what, I didn’t know.

“I promise that I’m not a gangster,” I said jokingly. Wolf had mentioned that their gangbangers were the only ones who got tats.

I felt her gently touch my back, down toward the bottom of my spine. She pulled her fingers back as if I had burned her. “That is not a tattoo.”

I shrugged. “A birthmark.”

It was, an odd-colored thing in the shape of a weird flower. I remember getting a slice there, and it healed without a scar when I had been scared that my fucking spine was cut. No one wanted to do any FELICITAS IVEY

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work over it for some reason. I never showed it off, but I had never really hidden it, either.

“And Samojirou-sama saw you in the
onsen
?” she asked.

“I saw him too, so we’re about even,” I said after figuring out that an
onsen
was the hot tub thing we had been in every morning. “No biggie. Lots of people seen me naked.”

“Most of them ran screaming because he’s butt ugly,” Nina said.

She snapped a tube around my arm and drew all the vials that she wanted. Stick went in on the first try. Gave her some cheek scrapings and stepped into the john to give her the other thing she wanted. When I stepped out, Nina was chatting with Fuse like they were old friends.

“Mason isn’t a bad kid,” she was telling her.

“She’s married,” I said about Fuse. “And a nice girl, which is why I’m sticking like glue to her.”

Nina nodded. “I’ll tell Eppie to take her in. Whatever you are, honey, you aren’t a monster.”

“Eppie?” I asked.

“Elizabeth Peabody-Stewart Adams,” Nina said. “We were in the Women’s Air Corps together, flew a lot of taxi runs in World War II.”

“I can’t see her being an Eppie,” I said. I was tired, and my plan had been to get my squad to watch her. But I didn’t know how long I was going to be able to keep that up or if my squad would go along with it.

“Her initials were EPS then, so Eppie,” Nina said. “She had lied about her age and learned to fly a f’ing plane when she wasn’t old enough to learn to drive. She’ll tell Collins and the rest where to go.”

“Thanks, Nina,” I said. “How’s Keno?”

Nina shook her head. “Not good.”

185

DREAMLANDS

SAMOJIROU

ONE minute the outsiders where here, and then they were gone, the air stinking of magic and violence. I wouldn’t be upset, except for the fact that Keno and Fuse were also missing. I had seen Murphy standing near Fuse before it happened. The garden looked like a windstorm had been through it, and all the flowers were dead.

“Keno!” I screamed.

Tamazusa was swearing, and her loss of composure shocked me.

Her hair fell down her back in tangles, and her kimono was in disarray.

“They dared!”

The Reavers and her samurai descended on the garden running and searched the area for the outsiders.

“The enemy is gone,” Tamazusa snapped. “They gated out of here. I will find out what they did even if I have to chase them endlessly through the worlds!”

“Sakura-chan and Fuse-hime were stolen by them,” I snarled. “I will kill them! He is mine!”

“I would have sworn that the outsiders had no knowledge of who he was. Who she is,” Tamazusa said.

“Never underestimate the power of spite and greed, my lady,” I said. “I am thinking that this was merely a target of opportunity and luck. Those buffoons could not plan, from what I could tell by observing them.”

Tamazusa snarled. “Then they have luck that
tengu
envy.”

“I cannot go after him,” I said. I knew what I sounded like, raw and needy. I was showing her a weakness she could never understand.

“I am trapped.”

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Her eyes softened, apparently understanding, even if she had never shown such a weakness. “I will recover your blossom,” she promised. “But I will need help. The princess’s sons. Find them for me and bring them here. Tell them the truth.”

“All of it?” I asked.

She nodded. “That their mother was stolen from my protection, and that we seek her and the avatar of their brother Keno.” I bowed and started on my search for the
Hakkenshi
.

THE first one I went to was Inusuka Shino. He would be able to rally the others, and I could trust him not to kill me on sight, like Inue Shinbee or Inuyama Dousetsu might if we weren’t in a public place.

Inue was an angry child, and I had done Inuyama a grave disservice centuries ago when I killed his half-sister Hamaji. The illusions I had spun had killed her, even if it had been Inuyama who had done the deed. He had hated me for that ever since. That Keno had managed to banish me instead of letting him kill me hadn’t helped when we met again in the Dreamlands.

I was not surprised that Inusuka kept me waiting in one of the lesser gardens. He and Inukawa Sousuke lived together with Hamaji.

While many speculated on the nature of their relation, I simply didn’t care. I studied the plum blossoms with a growing sense of panic and rage. I didn’t know how long I was out there before Inusuka came to me, trailed by Inukawa.

“What are you doing here?” Inusuka asked suspiciously.

“And where is that delightful blossom of yours?” Inukawa added.

I turned to them, hiding my clenched fists behind my back. “That is part of the matter that I need to talk to you about.” 187

DREAMLANDS

Both men froze. They knew it had to have been something serious that brought me to them but had hoped I had some other reason for walking into their power.

“Your lady mother decided to visit me to see what I would tell her about Sakura-chan and to apologize for the insults of your brother Inue-sama. There was an incident at a gathering that we both were attending,” I said. “At the same time, there were outsiders who were also enjoying my lady’s hospitality.”

“Outsiders?” Inusuka asked quietly. Too softly, and the look in his eyes was deadly. “From the living world?”

“Those that hunt our kind managed to gate into my lady’s territories,” I said. “Rude and ignorant, they did not realize that their weapons would be useless here. They claimed to be simple explorers, but that was a falsehood. My lady sheltered them because she did not want one of her rivals to. While not treating them as honored guests, she treated them with more respect than they deserved. And then they betrayed her!”

“What happened?” Inusuka demanded.

“I fear that they managed to gate out of my lady’s control,” I said.

“And they were not alone.”

“With our mother!” Inukawa howled.

“And Sakura-chan,” I hissed. “They were the ones who abused him before. They were the reason that he was so shy.” I didn’t tell them that he was their brother. The look of horror on their faces that Fuse had been taken to the real world was enough. I didn’t know what horrors they were imagining, but I could tell them that their nightmares were far short of what might be happening to her.

“My lady can gate into the place that they are most likely holding your mother,” I said. “She will go with you, and I can help gather your brothers and your father for this.”