Emperor of the Fireflies

by Sarah Ash

  “You should be more polite to the guardians,” Shun said severely, “or they won’t protect the shrine.”

  “Your big brother talks a lot of nonsense about things he knows nothing about,” Honou muttered.

  But Sakami was distracted. She had sensed a distant presence, one that was familiar and yet somehow alien. It was if a salt breeze had drifted up the mountainside from the sea far below, sharpening all her senses.

  “Someone’s coming this way,” she said.

  Chapter 14

  Sapphire-bodied dragonflies darted above Kai’s head as he made his way up the mountain, following the course of the stream.

  Inari’s ruined shrine; that has to be the place where Hotaru set Kurika free and made him his shikigami. The place where Inari’s sword was shattered into a thousand pieces. And if only I could find a shard or two, I might be able to convince her that there’s still a chance of defeating him.

  Hearing voices in the distance, he stopped, listening.

  Someone’s here.

  He crept closer, taking care to keep well-hidden behind the trees.

  Two – no, three men, clearing the undergrowth from the site of the shrine.

  “Kai?”

  The girl’s voice took him by surprise. He had been so intent on spying on the workers at the shrine that he had not realized he was being watched. He turned and saw Sakami staring at him through the slender stems of young bamboo.

  He tried to speak but the words would not come out.

  Sakami.

  “I – I mean, Lord Kaito.” She corrected herself and bowed, servant to master.

  He wanted so badly to run to her and hug her, to reassure himself that she was still alive, flesh and blood. She’s remembered my name. But does she remember how much she means to me? That we were lovers? Doubt held him back, rooting him to the spot, as his heart drummed too fast, too painfully in his chest.

  He raised one finger to his lips. “Don’t say my name aloud, Sakami.” How could he begin to explain it to her? “I’m a wanted man.”

  “Wanted?” she said, staring curiously at him.

  He found it hard to concentrate on what he had to tell her; the sight of her face had driven everything from his mind except for the fact that they were together again.

  “I’m wanted by the new emperor, Hotaru,” he said. “So you must tell no one that you’ve seen me.”

  “Your eyes,” she said, one hand reaching out as if to touch his face. “What happened to them, Kai? Why are they so blue?”

  He couldn’t help himself. He caught her hand in his own, squeezing it gently.

  “I can’t stay here very long, Sakami,” he said. “The tide will call me back to the sea soon.” He pulled her closer to him and she nestled against him, without protest. “Listen,” he went on, still hardly able to believe that they were reunited, that her head was resting against his chest, “do you remember the night your village burned down? And we all thought it was the work of the Red Kites? The fire was caused by the kami who was imprisoned beneath the mountain: Kurika.”

  “I know.” He felt her shudder. “And he showed up here, just after the flood. He has a seal, like yours, Kai, but black and red, over his heart, like a glowing coal. It burned him when his master summoned him back.”

  “Kurika has a Sacrifice seal?” This was news to Kai. “So Hotaru knows how to bind a shikigami. Is that what he’s planning to do with us too?” He felt a tremor in his left wrist. Glancing down at it, he saw to his frustration that his own seal had begun to gleam brightly.

  Sakami touched the seal. “It’s glowing. What does that mean, Kai?”

  “Sakami? Are you skiving?” Honou’s voice startled them both. “Why are we doing all the work?”

  They sprang apart guiltily as Honou appeared. On seeing Kai, he stopped, jabbing his index finger at him. “What’s he doing here?” Two fire-streaked tails shot up behind him and he gave a low, menacing growl.

  “Honou, your tails are showing.” Sakami said severely. “Put them away.”

  “He’s nothing but trouble,” muttered Honou but the tails dwindled and faded. “He’s not welcome. Tell him to go back to the sea.”

  The Sacrifice seal had begun to pulse so intensely that Kai could not ignore it any longer. What would happen to me if I resisted? If I tried to stay on land? The pulsing was spreading throughout his body in ever-more insistent surges, almost as if the ocean current was flowing through his veins.

  “Sakami,” and he reached out for her hand again, “this is important. Have you found any fragments of old metal lying around the shrine?”

  “Fragments?” She looked bewildered.

  “Like pieces of a broken sword.” Another surge swept through him and he felt himself being tugged away from her. “If you find something – anything – keep it safe until I return.”

  “But why would you want –” Sakami began.

  “Can’t you see you’re upsetting her?” Honou came toward him, a menacing glint in his amber eyes. “She was all right until you appeared. Leave her be, Flood.”

  “I have to go,” Kai said to Sakami, ignoring Honou. “But I’ll come back. I’ll find a way to come back to you.” The pull of the tide was becoming too strong and he turned from her, running toward the stream whose course had led him to the shrine. He heard her calling his name as he fled, but dared not turn around, even though it broke his heart to have to leave her so soon.

  “I’ll be here, Kai! Waiting for you.”

  His body felt as if it was liquefying even as he ran. By the time he reached the stream, he found himself melting into the fast-flowing water, carried downward over boulders toward the sea.

  Help me. . . His consciousness was fracturing, dissolving into the clear rivulets of the stream. And somewhere he though he heard a voice from the darkest side of dreams saying, “The sea always claims back its own.”

  ***

  “Masao. . .”

  Kai heard a voice calling as if from a great way off and slowly awoke to the realization that it was his own. He had unconsciously reached out to the only other person who would understand his distress.

  “What’s wrong?” A distant response reached him. “Are you all right, Kai?”

  Am I all right? Kai almost laughed out loud at the irony of the situation. He felt jangled, the natural harmony between soul and body disturbed and out of tune. “I. . .think so. But I stayed too long on shore. . .and the tide dragged me back.”

  “So that can happen?” Masao sounded intrigued. But then he hadn’t just gone through the gut-churning experience of dissolving into a fast-flowing stream and being reassembled in the sea.

  “It can. . .and it did. I don’t recommend it. But I found her, Masao,” he heard himself saying, the need to share his feelings overriding his natural reticence. “I found Sakami. And she recognized me. She’s helping restore Inari’s shrine on the mountain.”

  There was a short pause, as if Masao was digesting the information. Then he said, “I’m glad for you, Kai. That must be a comfort to know she’s faring well.”

  Kai detected a tinge of wistfulness in his words. Masao is close to that white-haired healer, Yūgiri; perhaps he hasn’t been able to make contact with him since the Sacrifice curse claimed us. . . “Where are you now?”

  “I’ve been following some of my clan back to the mainland.”

  “The mainland? Isn’t that risky?”

  “There was someone I needed to see. . .”

  “Kinkiyo?” Kai felt a sudden surge of hope. “You’ve spoken to the swordsmith?”

  There was another pause and Kai heard Masao sigh.

  “Hotaru has outmaneuvered us again. He’s summoned Kinkiyo to the capital to work for him making iron dragons. It’ll be all but impossible to get near him there without Hotaru detecting us.”

  That was a blow that Kai had not anticipated. This time it was he who fell silent, not knowing what to say.

  “But I’m not going to give up.” Masao’
s voice was fading into the distance. “It just makes me all the more determined to expose Hotaru for the fraud he is. . .”

  “I’m not giving up either,” Kai said, as much to himself as to Masao. But he felt his resolution falter a little, as the tide filled his nostrils with the salty bitterness of the endless sea that had become their prison.

  ***

  “I’m sure I left it on the ledge so the high tide wouldn’t wash it away.” Kai searched the sea cave for the threadbare tunic he and Masao had been wearing at Kurozuro Bay – but in vain. “And there’s so little time to waste onshore. . .”

  Naked, he scanned the shore from the cave entrance, wondering if he could make a run for the cover of the trees without being spotted.

  He had come to realize that, although his mind was convinced that he was hungry, his altered body no longer needed food or drink to sustain it; it must be drawing all the nourishment he needed from Shiomitsu.

  The powerful enchantment of the Sacrifice seal had preserved his mortal body and Masao’s just as they were at the very moment they threw themselves into the sea and merged with the Tide Dragons.

  No need to shave, no need to eat or drink, just the necessity to clothe ourselves on land.

  He ran across the damp sand, making for the sheltered place high up the beach where the fishermen dragged their boats at high tide to mend their nets and sort the day’s catch.

  In the lee of the rocks to the west of the cliffs on which the castle stood, Kai found three of the little boats, sails furled; two holed and in need of repairs. The ashes of a fire still exuded a faint heat and a pile of empty oyster shells told him the fishermen had recently enjoyed a meal of fresh shellfish,

  In desperation, Kai clambered into the one water-tight boat and was about to take down the salt-stiffened sail cloth and wrap it around himself when he spotted an old sack folded up inside. He tugged it out and held it up to examine it; coarsely woven and slightly damp, it had probably been used by the fishermen to help waterproof the bottom of the boat. And before that, to store vegetables or rice until a hole had developed.

  “A hole,” Kai muttered, “just big enough for me to push my head through. . .” He took up one of the oyster shells and began to saw at the rough weave until he worked a couple more holes big enough to stick his arms through. It made his skin itch and with every step he took, the lingering smell of rotten fish grew more pungent but precious time was passing and he was determined to find Sakami again.

  But as he climbed the mountain path toward the shrine, he found himself thinking that even the strictest monk would think twice before mortifying his flesh with such a garment. It was hard enough going barefoot on the rough mountain path, stubbing his toes on stones and dry pine cones.

  And then his heart quickened as he heard Sakami’s voice calling out to Honou. He reached the clearing and saw the two of them painstakingly cleaning the guardian shrine statues. Sakami must have sensed him for she dropped the cloth and ran to greet him.

  “Welcome back, Kai!” And then she broke off, lifting her hand to her mouth, stifling sudden giggles. “What on earth are you wearing? An old rice sack?”

  Kai felt his face flaming as he looked down at the rough tunic and made a small, helpless gesture. “There was nothing else. I couldn’t come ashore naked.”

  “Ah, I understand. It’s just like when I change back from my fox form.” She came closer. “I shouldn’t have laughed. I had to learn how to make mortals believe I was wearing clothes.”

  “But those look real enough.” Kai reached out, unable to resist touching the sleeve of her white jacket. “They feel real.”

  “That’s because they are,” she said. “But there are times when Honou and I need to make a swift change. You can learn how to do it too. Can’t he, Honou?”

  Honou gave a grumpy shrug and muttered something under his breath.

  “What was that?” she said sharply.

  “I said he’s a Tide Dragon and they’re probably too stupid to learn.” Honou said, amber eyes narrowed in resentment.

  “You have to learn to concentrate your spirit energy in one intense burst.” She placed two fingertips in her the centre of her forehead to demonstrate. “Here.” She closed her eyes and, before Kai’s astonished eyes, twirled around to reveal herself wearing a pale mint-green summer yukata, with a trailing pattern of purple paulonia flowers.

  “Now you.” She pressed her fingertips in between Kai’s temples.

  Kai, the image of Sakami’s transformation imprinted on his mind, looked down and found that he was wearing the same flowery robe in green and purple.

  “That girly pattern really suits you, Flood!” Honou fell to the ground, rolling around on the grass, helpless with laughter.

  Kai, embarrassed, pressed two fingers to his forehead and tried again, forcing himself to imagine Master Seishi’s austere monk’s robes. It took three more tries to get it right, by which time Honou had become bored and wandered off to amuse himself chasing dragonflies and the first warning in his Sacrifice seal had begun to pulse.

  “I’ll teach Masao,” he told Sakami as he hurried away. “And don’t forget to look for fragments of shattered metal around the shrine. Get Honou to help.”

  ***

  Kai looked down at himself, checking that the transformation-illusion Sakami taught him had worked – and saw that he was “wearing” the plain loose jacket and wide divided trousers of a monastery acolyte; the clothes he had worn every day before the sea claimed him.

  He nodded to himself in satisfaction. This outfit made him feel comfortable and more like his old self. Although it had taken him long enough to master the skill, practicing alone on the shore where no one could see him until he was pleased with the results.

  Even so, he had hoped to make his way up to the lonely shrine unobserved. But the drowsy afternoon quiet of the mountain was suddenly disturbed by distant shouts.

  Kai slipped into the shadow of a bamboo thicket to watch – and soon a group of six men appeared, carrying full sacks over their shoulders and grumbling loudly as they made their way down the track.

  “This stuff stinks even worse in the heat,” said one. “Why do we have to collect it?”

  “Because the emperor says so.”

  “And what does the emperor want with a heap of dried bat-shit?”

  “Perhaps it’s for some new beauty treatment. To keep his skin looking fresh and young,” said one of the others with a snigger.

  “Sounds suspicious to me. Still it’s not our place to question our betters, is it?” said the first. “Lord Naoki gives the orders and we obey.”

  Naoki? Kai stared after the men as they staggered on under their loads, realizing that they must be Red Kites. What on earth does any of that mean? Uneasy, with questions badly needing answers, he checked that the track was empty and set off again, hoping that he would not encounter any more of the rival clan.

  As he drew near the ruined village, he heard the rhythmic sound of hammers banging nails into wood. Shun was busy at work with one of the other Crane archers erecting a new torii for the shrine. He caught a pungent whiff of lacquer and saw that Sakami and Honou were painting the torii a brilliant scarlet. Further away, the two guardian kitsune stalked the perimeter in white fox warrior form, elegant and aloof.

  Just as Kai was wondering how to attract Sakami’s attention without revealing his presence to Shun or the others, he saw her suddenly look round, as if she had sensed he was there.

  But if she can sense me, then so can the other kitsune.

  She put down her brush and walked away from the shrine. Understanding that she wanted him to follow, he went after her, heart beating faster, until he caught up with her close to the cave where they had hidden from the yamabushi.

  All the pent-up feelings of loss, loneliness and longing suddenly overwhelmed him. Unable to hold back any longer, he flung his arms around Sakami and kissed her.

  Chapter 15

  “That little dog has really
taken a liking to you,” Reika commented as she went to and fro across the room, carrying Ayaka’s freshly-scented robes.

  “Isn’t he sweet?” Ayaka was rolling a carved wooden ball across the floor for Kuri to chase. “Look how obedient he is.” As if on cue, Kuri picked up the ball in his white teeth and trotted back to her, placing it in her lap. “Who’s a clever boy, then?” She threw the ball again and Kuri rushed after it, leaping up high to catch it. Ayaka applauded delightedly and when he brought it back to her, swept him up in her arms, hugging him. She became aware that Reika was standing watching her critically, arms folded. “What? Can’t I have a little amusement with my adorable pet?”

  Reika shrugged.

  “Look at his cute little face.” Ayaka held him up close, rubbing her nose against his.

  “Cute? His eyes are a strange color. Red.”

  “That’s what makes him so special. Rare. He’s a little dragon dog, aren’t you, sweetheart?” As she set him down, Ayaka was aware of Reika pulling a disapproving face but before Ayaka could remonstrate with her, Kuri suddenly gave a heart-rending howl. Ayaka leapt up, alarmed. “What’s the matter? Have you hurt yourself?” His front paws scrabbled frantically at the collar around his neck and as his claws scratched at the tooled leather, a piteous whimpering issued from his mouth.

  Reika came over to bend over him too as he writhed and whined. “Is the collar too tight?”

  “Or is there a sharp nail in the leather that’s scratching him?” Ayaka tried to feel through the soft tufts of charcoal fur where the collar made contact with the little dog’s neck. “He’s really hot. I hope he isn’t sickening.” The thought that her delightful new pet might be ill alarmed her. “Who knows about dogs in the palace? Should I send for the Master of the Hunt?”

  “I’ve found the catch,” Reika said. “If you can hold Kuri still, I think I can unlatch the collar. . .”

  “There, there, little fellow, we’ll soon have you free,” Ayaka said soothingly, trying to stroke and hold the dragon dog at the same time to calm him. And, to her surprise, he stopped fighting and lay panting in her lap, his pink tongue lolling out of one side of his mouth. “Quick, Reika.”