Spirit's Princess (42 page)

Good luck was with me: I didn’t need to resort to a second plan. When I asked Mama for permission to go
along on the harvest outing, she said yes, then cast an anxious glance in Father’s direction.

“It
is
all right, isn’t it, my dear?” she asked him timidly. “There’ll be so many young people there, including some of … some of her new friends.”

“Let her go, by all means,” Father said mildly. “It’s good for her to spend more time with young people, especially some of Aki’s fellow hunters. They’re all fine lads—not that she needs me to tell her that.” He smiled at me. The last time he’d done that had been before he caught me dancing for Yama’s spirit. “I’ve heard that she’s been taking a healthy interest in two or three of them. Maybe this little excursion will help her make up her mind.”

“Father!”
I exclaimed, sounding as mortified as I could. “Why are you talking about me as if I weren’t standing right here? And what do you mean about making up my mind?”

“Forgive me, Daughter,” he said with surprising benevolence. “I only meant that until our people allow women to have husbands the way men can have wives, you’re going to have to make a choice among your suitors.”

Yukari laughed. “Stop it, you’re making the poor child feel awkward!”

“Yes, you don’t want her to be too self-conscious tomorrow,” Emi put in. “The boldest girls always get the best husbands. I should know!” She winked at Father. I turned away with a little yelp of embarrassment that I didn’t really feel and hid my face in my hands so that my parents couldn’t see that I wasn’t blushing.

And so it was decided, as far as my family was concerned:
I’d go out with the group, I’d use the time to flirt and be courted, I’d come home with my future husband, and I’d settle down to a normal life, with plenty of babies to take my mind off the foolish notion of becoming our clan’s shaman.

The next morning, I kissed everyone good-bye and hurried away to join the group of young people massing by the village gates. None of the girls were glad to see me, particularly Suzu, but Aki’s friends welcomed me enthusiastically and began jostling one another aside for the privilege of carrying my basket.

“You’ll have to wait until we go home,” I told them. “My mothers filled it with lots of good things, and I don’t want anyone filching any treats until it’s time to eat.”

“ ‘Good things to eat’? I’ll bet!” Suzu muttered to one of the other girls. She pitched her mocking voice just loud enough to be sure I’d hear her. “So that’s what they’re calling husband bait in Himiko’s house!”

I could have ignored her, but this was Suzu, still trying to bully me after so many years. If I didn’t make her pull in her fangs, she’d try her venom on other girls.

“Here, Suzu, why don’t
you
use what’s in the basket?” I said sweetly, though I made no move to hand it to her. “The whole clan knows you’ve tried every other way to catch yourself a husband. Maybe you should switch to offering the boys something
good
. At least my mothers’ cooking doesn’t turn any stomachs.”

“And at least
I
don’t try to summon up the dead!” she shrieked, fists balled at her sides. Everyone gasped. Many people darted glances back and forth between us. I couldn’t
tell if they feared or hoped to see Suzu and me go for each other’s eyes.

I had more important things to accomplish than entertain our audience with a battle. With a slight smile, I replied, “No, you don’t, Suzu. It’s a shaman’s skill. You wouldn’t know how.” I placed my free hand on the arm of the nearest young man and let him escort me farther into the forest, leaving Suzu to seethe in her own bitterness.

It was easier than I expected to slip off from the group. I thought that having so many of Aki’s friends interested in impressing me would make it difficult, but their interest worked in my favor. The other girls were already resentful and suspicious of me, and that made them keen to “steal” my suitors. They used every trick they could think of to tug the young men’s attention their way. They twittered and fluttered and pouted and posed. They begged for help doing the simplest things and wailed plaintively over countless small injuries. Every bruise became a broken bone, every scratch and splinter put their lives in danger. It was the most amusing thing I’d ever seen. If I hadn’t wanted to get away so badly, I would have stayed to watch their antics.

Suzu’s performance was the best of the lot. She let out a shrill squeal as she took a deliberate fall, then turned it into a scream of utter terror. “Snake!
Snake!
” she cried, pointing wildly at the base of a tree.

I glanced that way. Nothing was there—nothing but opportunity. “Snake!” I shrieked, and ran. Behind me I heard the other girls panicking wildly, the rasp of knives being drawn, and the young hunters grimly demanding, “Where is it? Where’s the snake? Do
you
see it?” I didn’t
look back until the forest’s stillness swallowed the last trace of their voices.

How long would it be before they began to look for me? Not
too
soon, surely. I could imagine several things that would delay a search. First, Suzu and the other girls would cling to their new heroes, lavishing flattery on them for having driven off the nonexistent serpent. It would take time for the young men to stop basking in all that praise and notice I was missing. Even then, they might not begin to seek me right away. One of the girls would make a
sensible
suggestion: that instead of scattering and risking more people going astray, everyone should stay put and wait for me to find my own way back to the group.

When at last my suitors decided that they’d played wait-and-see long enough, the early dusk of autumn would be falling and the other girls would whimper that they were cold, they were tired, they were frightened, they wanted to go
home
! Perhaps someone persuasive would even say, “I’ll bet that’s what
she
did: returned to the village. She’s not a child; she knows her way through the forest, and we’re not that far from home. We should go back and look for her there.” And because that sounded so reasonable, everyone would agree to it and leave.

Was
that what would happen? I didn’t know; I could only hope. Meanwhile, I’d use whatever time I had to put as much distance between me and my clan as possible. They might not come after me right away, but they would come.

And they’d come by the wrong road. As I moved higher up the mountain, I took satisfaction in knowing I’d given myself the gift of time.
“What was the Todomatsu village like? How many days did it take you to reach it? How did you find your way there? Did they welcome you even though you were strangers?”
I’d asked those questions so many times of so many people that someone would remember. While Father raged and Mama wept because they realized I hadn’t gone missing but had run off rather than live someone else’s life, at least one of Aki’s friends would recall my eager inquiries about Michio’s former home. What else could it all mean except that I was heading there?

But I wasn’t taking that path to find my freedom. Like a hunted fox, I’d laid down a false trail to mislead my pursuers. I wasn’t seeking refuge in an unknown land among strangers. I was going back to friends.

I was going back to find the Shika.

“Himiko?” Kaya stood in the gateway to her village, staring as if I were a ghost. Her face was very pale and much thinner than I remembered it. She was breathing hard, nearly panting. The Shikas’ tower watchman who’d seen me approaching from a distance hadn’t recognized me. He’d shouted, “There’s a stranger on the road! Looks like a girl from here!” My friend must have heard him and come running. Did she know it had to be me, or did she only hope it? Whatever the case, she was badly out of breath for her effort.

“It’s me, Kaya!” I called back, waving. My feet were sore, but I was so elated that it hardly mattered. I’d reached my goal, and my spirit was alive with joy.

She came forward to welcome me. I was surprised to see my normally lively friend walking so slowly and sedately.
What could have changed her? But there was no change in the warmth of the hug she gave me when we met.

“It’s so good to see you again!” She smiled broadly, then tilted her head sideways to peer over my shoulder. “Where’s Aki? Did you take off running and leave him behind?”

“I did leave him behind,” I said. “But not the way you think.” Seeing her perplexed look, I added, “I can’t live there anymore, Kaya. I can’t bear it. I need new air to breathe or I’ll choke to death. Please, let me stay.”

My friend put one arm around my shoulders. “As long as you like.”

While Kaya brought me through the village, she asked about my trip through the mountains. “You look a lot better than the first time you tried to make that journey on your own,” she said with a spark of her old humor.

“I’m a little older, I know the road, and it’s autumn,” I replied. “You’d be surprised what a difference that makes. I had a basket of food to start with, but even after it was empty, I found lots of good things to eat along the way.”

“You’re lucky nothing ate
you
.” We both giggled. Then Kaya looked serious again. “I missed you, Himiko. Aki came here many times, but where were you?”

“Didn’t he tell you?” I asked. She only shrugged, so I related everything that had happened to keep me a prisoner among my own clanfolk.

“So that was it.” Kaya blew out a long breath. “All Aki said was ‘Family troubles.’ ”

“He was probably too ashamed of the way Father was behaving to want to talk about it,” I said.

“Or else he didn’t want to waste time answering a lot of questions,” Kaya suggested. “Whenever he comes here, he’s always in a rush to see Hoshi. The rest of us are lucky if he says hello.”

As we drew closer to Kaya’s home, I heard the sound of loud coughing coming from inside. My friend stretched out one arm to keep me from crossing the threshold right away. “My older brother’s sick,” she said. “You might want to wait out here until I see if there’s anything I need to clean up. It’s a pretty messy illness. I know what I’m talking about: I just recovered from it ten days ago.”

“So that’s why you look so worn out and weak.”

“Hey! I can’t help it.” She gave me a resentful look.

I shook my head. “I didn’t mean to insult you, Kaya. I was worried when I saw you’d gotten so thin, but you’re on the mend, so I’m happy. Why don’t
you
wait and let
me
take care of your brother?” I stooped to enter their house.

“Himiko, it
stinks
in there,” Kaya called after me. “Mother left me in charge today while she went to gather fresh herbs and things for medicine. If she comes back and finds out I made our guest do my nasty work, I’ll be in trouble.”

I looked back and smiled. “No, you won’t; I’ll talk to her. I may be your guest, but I’m a shaman first, like her. She’ll understand. And if she doesn’t, we’ll sic Lady Badger on her!” I dashed inside before my friend could raise a fresh objection.

Kaya’s brother was asleep, his breath harsh and labored. His skin was intensely hot and dry to the touch, and as Kaya
had warned me, there was a dreadful, sour stench filling the house. A row of bowls was laid out beside his bedroll, each holding a thin dusting of a different compound. I raised them to my nose one by one and sniffed. The scents were faint and familiar—blended herbs and ground-up roots that were good for bringing down fevers, soothing coughs, and easing breath. There was also a bowl of cool water with a damp cloth draped over the rim.

“I’ve been wiping his forehead,” Kaya said, kneeling beside me. “It’s all I can do.”

“And I can’t do much more for him unless I can refill these,” I said, gesturing at the empty bowls. “Where does your mother store her medicines?”

“That’s just it: she hasn’t got anything set aside. She used it all.” Kaya made a helpless gesture. “That’s why she’s gone harvesting.”

I frowned. Ikumi didn’t seem like the sort of person who’d fail to provide more than enough healing supplies. Rushing off to gather the ingredients she’d need to heal her own son was not like her at all. “Kaya, what’s been going on here?”

My friend’s pallid face looked terribly tired. “Oh, Himiko, it’s been awful! This sickness, it’s struck nearly every home in our village. Some of the people seem able to throw it off without any effort at all, but others—too many others—can’t stop coughing. They feel like their skin’s on fire, but sometimes it turns icy cold and dank. They cough and shiver, shiver and cough, and they can’t even get a good night’s rest. Mother’s been trying
everything
to help them.
She even performed a daylong purification ritual for the whole village, and another one to drive back any vengeful ghosts that might have brought this sickness down on us.”

I didn’t want to ask a painful question, but I needed to know: “Have many died?”

Kaya nodded. There were tears glimmering in her eyes, and she sniffled. “Mostly old people and … and babies. The little ones get so weak that they can’t nurse, and that makes them even weaker. My sister—Hoshi, not the little one—said she never thought she’d be glad that she and Aki still don’t have any children. She’d rather be childless forever than lose a child she loved.”

“Kaya, your little sister and brother—I don’t see them here. Are they—are they all right?” I braced myself for what she might reply.

“Oh yes, they’re fine.” Her answer made me utter a huge sigh of relief. “When I got sick, Mother sent them to live at Hoshi’s house.”

So my brother’s wife is safe too. Thank the gods for that!
I thought.
And may they also grant that Aki stay away from the Shika village until this sickness has run its course
. Now I had a fresh reason to be happy I’d left a false trail behind me. As one of our best hunters, Aki would be chosen to lead the search party Father would send out on the road to the Todomatsu village.

I did all I could for Kaya’s big brother, making him as clean and comfortable as possible, wiping the heat from his brow and body. When the water grew warm, I left my friend to watch over him while I hurried to the nearest stream. There was a young willow tree there, stripped of leaves by
the season. I remembered one of Yama’s lessons about treating fevers with willow bark and peeled a branch. When I came back to Kaya’s house, I steeped the shredded bark in boiling water and spooned sips of it between her brother’s lips. I didn’t know if it would work, but I had to try.