Hidden within his shroud of darkness, Toshi scaled back up the ridge and followed the hissing sound to the east.
He heard the sounds of movement, of people milling around in the same area. Creeping through the underbrush, he wriggled up behind a large tree and carefully peered around. Four orochi were standing in a circle, hissing in excited tones.
They talked about things he didn't recognize or didn't care about until his legs started to stiffen, and then the subject changed.
"How long until the ritual?"
"Not long."
"And the intruders?"
"Almost all of them accounted for. Still searching for one or two."
"The forest myojin will decide. It wants them all together."
"The princess, too?"
"Definitely. The spirit will insist she die first, you wait and see."
"All of them will die. You wait and see."
"Princess?" Toshi stood and stepped out from behind the tree. "You boys are fascinating, but let's turn back to the princess you mentioned, all right?"
The snakes all peered at the shadowy form, their red pupils shining.
"Outsider," hissed one orochi.
"Thug," hissed the other. "Escaped."
The tallest orochi, the one who had been doing most of the talking, wore a headdress made of wood and bone. "Kill him now," he said.
"Can you worms read this symbol?" Toshi spread his arms wide, displaying the mark on his chest. "Can you even understand what I'm saying?"
Two of the orochi rushed forward, an angry rasping sound their only reply. Their jaws distended as they came, displaying fangs that dripped horrid yellow venom.
"Guess not," Toshi said. Both snakes hit him at the same time, clamping on to his right shoulder and the left side of his ribs.
The reflection kanji on his chest flashed and both orochi recoiled in shock. They coughed and hissed, blood streaming from their lips, as their own venom dissolved their bodies from the inside.
The third snake, a female, shot forward on all six limbs. She feinted at Toshi with her fangs, but she knew enough not to bite.
"Symbol won't last," she said. "It fades, you die."
Toshi shook his head. "I'll be using your hide for a pair of boots before that happens." He extended his hand, which bore the kanji for the second trial of the stone gray hell, ice. A stream of cold white crystals surged from the mark to the orochi's face.
The female snake's breath hitched in mid-hiss, and cold white vapor streamed from her nostrils. She made a small, insignificant cry and then toppled headlong like a tree. When she struck the ground, her body was hard and cold like frozen stone.
Toshi turned to the last orochi, who was slowly backing away.
"I'm guessing that fancy hat means you're important." Toshi held his hand out again, and the last orochi's eyes glazed over as his breath turned white.
Toshi sprang forward, looping the wire filament around the orochi chiefs throat. He sawed the wire through the incapacitated snake-man's tough outer scales. With a brutal jerk, he hauled the orochi off his feet and rammed him face-first into a tree.
Toshi tightened the wire. "Now," he whispered savagely. "We're going to have a talk. I'm going to ask you questions. If I don't like your answers, I'll use your blood to paint this symbol," he opened his palm in front of the orochi chiefs eye, "on every tree for acres in all directions. By morning, you'll all be asleep in the snow, well on your way to dying from the cold." He jerked the wire again. "Savvy?"
"It won't help you," the chief said listlessly. "Great forest spirit is on the way."
Toshi spun the orochi away, snapping the wire out of the snake's throat and spinning him back into the tree. The chief sank to the ground, clutching feebly with his four arms.
"You let me worry about that," Toshi said. He walked deliberately over to one of the fallen orochi, kneeled, and pried open the snake's mouth. After manipulating the dead creature's throat, Toshi squeezed a few drops of yellow venom into his cupped hand.
Careful not to spill, Toshi went back across to the fallen chief and smeared the venom across the orochi's face. He drew and connected a series of curves and lines until the snake's entire face was contained by a ring of kanji symbols.
"You'll tell me now," Toshi said. "That's not a threat, by the way, it's a fact. We'll start small and work our way up," he said. "Where are my weapons?"
The orochi chiefs mouth opened inadvertently, and he struggled to close it again. The harder he worked his jaw, the more the kanji on his face steamed and burned.
"And after that," Toshi said, "you can tell me about the princess. Tall girl, dressed in white? I believe her name is Michiko."
The orochi chief hissed in agony. Toshi merely watched and waited.
Fully armed and dressed, Toshi crept once more through the woods. He left the orochi chief alive but temporarily paralyzed, spitting foam between his fangs. The snake had eventually described a large clearing to the east where the orochi-bito were planning a special ritual to summon their patron kami. There would be guards on the princess, but the other prisoners were thought to be safely stashed in the cedar pen. The chief didn't seem to understand how Toshi had woken so quickly, as the entire party had been dosed with enough venom to keep them unconscious until morning.
Toshi rubbed the hyozan mark on his hand. He knew what had woken him. Let the snakes think he was immune to the venom, however. It would make them more fearful when he returned.
Toshi crawled away from the clearing, which was slowly filling with scores of snakes. There was also a small group of humans, bald, dressed in waist sashes, with the same sort of metal torso piercings Kobo had.
Toshi almost spat in contempt. These budoka monks were working in league with the orochi-bito. They would never have found help here. Hidetsugu's information was tragically out of date.
He stole away and followed the chiefs information to a small hut not far from the ritual clearing. Princess Michiko was inside. There were three orochi lurking outside the small, thatched hut, but Toshi had anointed his weapons with orochi blood and venom in anticipation of this obstacle. Toshi quietly scratched a small kanji into the bark of a willow tree.
He waited until the moon slid behind a cloud, and then he stabbed his jitte into the center of the symbol. In response, three whips of tough willow vine lashed out and tightened around the orochi's throats. They clawed at the nooses and tried to break the vines, but the tree slowly pulled them off the ground and their struggles died away. Toshi strode through the orchard of dead snakes and into the thatch hut.
Inside, he found the tall girl, bound and sleeping on a pile of straw. She was pale and still, but her chest rose and fell in a slow, almost glacial rhythm.
"Princess Michiko," he said. "We haven't been properly introduced. Please come with me."
It was definitely the Daimyo's daughter. He dimly recalled seeing her image on official proclamations, but they didn't do her beauty justice. He never would have recognized her if the orochi hadn't let her identity slip… which raised the question, how did they know?
Toshi hooked his fingers over the vines binding her hands and hauled her up onto his shoulders. Casting spells for the past hour had burned away the last of his post-poisoning lethargy, and he felt as if he could carry the tall girl for quite a while. Fortunately, he knew he wouldn't have to.
He stood, bearing her weight until the concealing shroud began to affect her. When she was as faded and diffuse to the eye as he was, Toshi carried her out of the hut and into the deep woods due south.
He would honor his oath with Kobo, but he would do so carefully. He would pool his available assets and bring as much power as he could muster to bear.
Toshi hiked up a hill, easily balancing Michiko as he went.
He hadn't counted on the Daimyo's daughter being one of his assets, but now that he had her, he intended to make the most of it.
CHAPTER 20
Pearl-Ear woke to the distant sound of an urgent
voice and the unpleasant sensation of being shaken.
"Lady Pearl-Ear! Open your eyes! She's gone! We have to find her!"
Pearl-Ear groaned and pushed the clutching hand from her shoulder. She cracked one eye and saw Choryu kneeling over her as water dripped from the trees overhead.
"Michiko," she said.
"That's right, Michiko. She's not here with you. Where did they take her?"
Pearl-Ear's eyes opened wide. "Orochi-bito," she said. "Is everyone all right?" She struggled to sit up, and Choryu roughly pulled her onto her knees.
"Everyone's alive," he said, "but we're not out of danger. They seem to be preparing a major ritual. I think they plan to sacrifice us to their patron spirit."
"Of course they won't," Pearl-Ear said. "Lady Silk-Eyes sent us here."
"That vision came from a kami, probably the same one that wants to consume her at the orochi ritual."
She blinked, her brain still fuzzy and uncomprehending. "Did you say Michiko is not here?"
"I did, and she isn't. That ochimusha scum is gone, too." He pointed to the withered cedar, now little more than a tower of ash held together by a skin of diseased bark. "That looks like his handiwork to me. He might be dead, though. I found the body of the budoka giant he was with-the orochi had him strung up between two trees."
"No, he escaped." Pearl-Ear looked up. "I remember his face," she said. "The ochimusha. He was standing over me. It felt like a dream."
"You've been poisoned," Choryu said. "You're lucky to be alive. Why wasn't he affected?"
"Maybe he's a poisoner himself," Pearl-Ear said. "Maybe he's built up a tolerance."
"Or maybe he's working for the orochi. They did attack right after he showed up."
Pearl-Ear rose to her feet, wobbling slightly. "No, that's not right. He fought with us when the snakes came," she said.
"He fought against them at the same time we did. I don't think he even noticed we were there. I think he and the giant were fighting for the right to take Michiko themselves." Choryu turned away. "Now I wish it was the lowlife's body I found."
"Wake the others," Pearl-Ear said. "We're all getting out of here, now. We must find Michiko."
"That's what I've been yelling in your face for the past ten minutes," Choryu groused. He went to Riko and shook her, sternly calling her name.
Pearl-Ear bent at the waist and examined the ground near the withered tree. He had been here. His aura scent was different than before, smokier, more tinged with magic. She realized she had underestimated the sharp-tongued traveler. He was a powerful mage, though she did not yet understand his methods.
Behind her, Choryu had succeeded in waking the rest of the party. They were all stiff and confused, but their heads were clearing. There was no fear on any of their faces as they came to understand their predicament, only anger and determination. Even Sharp-Ear looked enraged, something Pearl-Ear hadn't seen since they both were kits.
"Michiko is missing," Pearl-Ear told them. "The orochi-bito are preparing a kami ritual. We must not be here when it occurs, and we must make sure that Michiko isn't either." "She's not missing," Choryu said. "She's gone. I saw them put her in a hut just over the ridge to the east. I went by there before I came here, and the hut is empty. Someone killed the guards and took her."
"Who, Toshi?" Sharp-Ear craned his neck, stretching the vertebrae. "The ochimusha?"
"Who else?"
"Well, there's you," Sharp-Ear said. "How is it that you weren't captured with us?"
"Choryu came back for us," Riko said. "How dare you-"
"Comes with being a trickster," Sharp-Ear said. "The unfortunate habit of seeking hidden motives and ascribing them to unexplained occurrences." He smiled disarmingly. "I think my vocabulary is returning. So," he spoke to Choryu, "why weren't you captured?"
Choryu simply glared at Sharp-Ear, almost sputtering with rage.
"Well?" Frost-Tail said. The brothers had all been disarmed, but they flexed their fingers menacingly.
"I am a water wizard." Choryu spoke slowly, with as much dignity as he could summon. "I defended myself with magic. When the snakes overwhelmed the group, I conjured a swift stream to carry me away. I stayed out of sight and watched until it was safe to wake you, and then I did. You'd still be in a stuporous sleep, dreaming of clever word games, if not for me."
"I am satisfied Choryu is no coward," Pearl-Ear said.
"As am I," Riko added.
Sharp-Ear nodded. "Fair enough. It's a good thing you were able to remain out of sight, Choryu. It would have been dangerous to act alone.
"Now, if your pride will allow it, wizard: take us to this hut where you last saw Michiko."
*****
Toshi set the princess down on the crest of a gradual incline. There were no trees here and he had a clear view of the cloudy night sky.
From this vantage point he could see the small ring of fires the orochi had lit for their ritual. By now, he reasoned they had discovered his abduction of the princess. Judging by the sounds of an angry snake mob that filtered up through the cedars, they were no longer interested in stealth and were hot for his blood. He had perhaps half an hour before they caught up to him.
Toshi fished in his pack and broke out his good jitte and a small cloth parcel. He undid the string and peeled back the cloth, setting three drab, rectangular objects on the ground. He placed a small vial of bluish-white liquid on top of the soft bricks and wrapped his hand around the jitte, feeling its comfortable heft and testing its balance.
It was the finest weapon he had, forged from an alloy of steel, silver, and magic. Normally, the strength of the spell lay in the kanji he cast, the medium he used, and his own will power. This jitte acted like a mystical filter, clarifying and concentrating his spellwork to its purest and most powerful essence.
Toshi opened the vial and carefully poured the liquid along the length of the jitte's central tine. He crouched and traced three large kanji in the dirt at the top of the hill. When he was through he retrieved the soft, gray bricks from the parcel and stood over the princess, watching the sky.
The wind kicked up while he waited. It raised goosebumps on his wet skin, but the breeze was also moving the rain clouds. Good. That would make the journey easier.
Toshi waited patiently until a flicker of motion caught his eye. Far in the distance, a huge flying shape materialized between the clouds, glowing softly under the reflected light of the crescent moon.
The great moths of Towabara were rare and hard to train, and thus prized among the elite retainers in the Daimyo's service. A capable rider could use a moth to cover an entire day's march in a few hours. An expert could ride the great insects into battle and rain terror down on his enemies at speeds faster than the mightiest horse. The Daimyo's moth riders were the elite warriors of all Kamigawa. There was nowhere they could not go, no enemy they could not best.
The great silver-white moth sailed on, drawing closer. It began to circle Toshi's hilltop, gradually decreasing its altitude until it was making circles around Toshi himself. Then, it gently came to rest on the soil, delicately balanced on its six legs, its shimmering powdered wings rising and falling in the moonlight.
Toshi had encountered this moth after a pitched battle between sanzoku bandits and the Daimyo's forces. Its rider had been shot out of the saddle, and his dead weight dragged the moth itself down to the ground. Its reins became hopelessly tangled in branches of a fallen tree that had been set alight by a flaming arrow. Toshi approached the panicked insect out of curiosity, but he was soon startled to find that the beast was semi-intelligent. It understood its predicament and it wanted him to help.
Toshi had beat back the flames but did not extinguish the fire. Always best to negotiate from a position of strength. The proud beast refused to be bound for life, but Toshi was able to strike a bargain with it. If it agreed to carry him when he called, the moth could do whatever it wanted in the meantime, free from the Daimyo's endless campaigning. Five rides on demand, and
the moth would both survive and regain the freedom of the skies. In the end, it agreed to be bound according to their compact, and he coated his good jitte with the dust from its wings before scratching a kanji onto its back.
The soft bricks were part of the rider's kit, composed of soft vegetable matter that would never spoil. There were eight bricks in the rider's pack when Toshi found the moth. To symbolize their deal, Toshi destroyed all but five before he let it go, keeping these as markers to be exchanged for transport.
The moth made no sound but for the gentle wind stirred by its wings. Toshi approached it now, holding out the parcel of three food bricks out before him with both hands.
"I've got another deal," Toshi said.
The moth's antennae twitched. It was listening.
"I've got three rides left," Toshi said. "And there's two of us here." He pointed back to the unconscious Michiko. "You take her and me together, now, and I will consider your end of the bargain fulfilled." He laid the bricks in front of the moth and stepped back. He pointed to Michiko, then himself.
"Me and her," Toshi said. "Then you're done."
The moth lowered its head and lapped at the first brick with its tubular tongue. It punched through the outer skin and drew in a mouthful of the soggy interior. Then it turned and tasted each of the two remaining bricks.
"So," Toshi said. "We have a deal?"
The moth's legs rose and fell like a wave as it turned its back to Toshi. It lowered its wings almost to the soil and kept them there.
"Done and done," Toshi said. He turned around, lifted Michiko up, and placed her on the moth's back. He climbed on behind her, marveling for perhaps the last time at how such a seemingly delicate creature could carry so much weight so far, so fast, and so high.
It took almost a minute of steady beats before the moth's wings were able to lift both riders off the ground. In the distance, Toshi heard the orochi-bito rabble drawing ever closer. He smiled cruelly and spit towards the sound.
"West," he told his steed. "I'll tell you when to stop."
The moth rose high into their, through the clouds, and then over them. Toshi held the reins tightly in his fists, but he gave the moth plenty of slack. It had never liked to be steered, and with its freedom so close, he imagined it would be even less tolerant.
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