Traitor's Hope

by Virginia McClain

  “Did I hurt you?”

  Mitsu said nothing.

  “Mitsu-san, did I hurt you?”

  Mitsu hesitated.

  “No...” he began to speak, but Mishi could sense the lie. The kisō that ran through her body shivered, as though a ghost had touched it.

  “How bad is it?” she asked, her body beginning to shake as her eyes frantically searched Mitsu for signs of injury.

  “Not bad,” Taka replied. “I was able to put you to sleep before you could do too much damage.”

  Mishi's eyes snapped to her lifelong friend. She sensed no lie.

  “I already checked him,” Taka continued. “Bruises, perhaps a cracked rib. Nothing that won't heal quickly, especially with my help.”

  Mishi nodded, although she could already feel the emotion making her throat tight. She had hurt Mitsu-san.

  “And you, Taka-chan?” she asked again, her stomach tight with dread.

  Taka held up her wrist. A patch of black and blue that would match the shape of Mishi's hand spread up her forearm. Mishi stared at it, horrified at how much damage she must have done if Taka—Gensokai's greatest healer—hadn't managed to undo the injury before it could bruise.

  “I will be fine too,” Taka said, her voice calm.

  “What have I done?” Mishi felt her stomach turn. She had attacked her friends. She had attacked Taka.

  She had to get away from them. They weren't safe with her. Panic tried to fill her, but she took deep breaths to keep it at bay.

  She couldn't simply ride away from them now, they would only follow her. They were clearly worried about her, and she knew Taka well enough to know she would allow that worry to get her killed. Taka and Mitsu’s horses were just as fast as the mount Mishi had ridden to get here, and Mitsu was an excellent tracker. She wouldn't be able to protect either of them if she tried to run from them now. The city would be safer. There would be more trained warriors to intervene should she turn on them again, and hopefully it wouldn't take long for her to find a chance to escape them.

  Taka knew Mishi too well for her to be able to hide her intentions for very long. Taka would expect her to run. So instead, Mishi swallowed down the bile that had risen in her throat, stood up, and brushed herself off, hoping the move would be unexpected enough to distract both of her companions.

  An apology could never make up for what she had done, so she didn't bother with one.

  “We've made good time,” she said, once more looking at the city that lay below them. “Tsuku-san will be pleased to see us so soon.”

  Taka's eyes widened with shock and lingered on Mishi's face longer than Mishi would have liked, but eventually her friend seemed convinced that Mishi wasn't planning to bolt right away.

  “Indeed,” Taka said. “If things are as dire as her summons made it sound, she should be very glad to have us. We should get to the Rōjū—to the New Council compound as quickly as possible, so that she has time to summon us before the evening meal if she needs to.”

  Mishi didn't like the idea of having to delay her departure from Rōjū City in order to meet with Tsuku-san first; her visions had only become more frequent over the past tenday, and she didn't wish to risk any more time near people she cared about, but she would do as she must. She hoped that Tsuku-san would observe the more formal niceties and allow them one night of rest before summoning them, as that would give her a full night during which to plan and execute her own disappearance, perhaps even after a small bit of sleep. However, if Tsuku-san summoned them immediately, well...she hoped she could make decent progress on a night without sleep.

  After a tenday of hard riding she was exhausted, and she was sure Taka and Mitsu were just as tired, although it was possible her recent convalescence had made the toll harder on her than on her companions. Tsuku-san's summons had come only a few days after they had parted ways from her at the pile of cinders that had, until recently, been the Josankō. The three of them had been halfway to the orphanage that had been Mishi and Taka's childhood home by the time they had received Tsuku-san’s message. Though they had been on their way to sniff out more about Mitsu and Taka's mystery, they had changed plans immediately upon receiving Tsuku-san's missive and ridden as fast as they could without injuring their mounts. She had to hope that her friends' own exhaustion would delay them in their pursuit of her.

  In the meantime, now that they were finally here, they would discover why the leader of the New Council so desperately required their presence.

  Tsuku-san's note had been short but unequivocal: Come at once to Rōjū City. Lives are at stake.

  ~~~

  Mishi followed Taka's leather-clad form through the hallways of the Zōkame wing of the New Council complex, and Mitsu trailed behind them. The grassy smell of the tatami, combined with the layout of the rooms and halls, reminded her of the school she had grown up in, but the size of the grounds and buildings, combined with the quality and abundance of the artwork that covered the walls and doors, was greater than any she'd ever seen save in her first visit to Rōjū City—before she'd stolen a scroll and set half of the decorative gardens on fire.

  She briefly wished for a reality in which she had the time and energy to appreciate what she was sure were intricately painted reliefs on almost every door.

  She took a deep breath to keep the thought of this meeting from overwhelming her. She didn't want to bring on any more visions. She had to keep herself together long enough to get away from Taka and Mitsu.

  They hadn't asked to bathe, eat, or take any other form of respite before meeting with Tsuku-san, nor had they been offered the opportunity to do so. That didn't bother Mishi in the least in terms of personal comfort, even if it did make her plans to run away from her friends more complicated, but it made her gut tighten to think that things were serious enough that Tsuku-san wouldn't even offer them that much hospitality before speaking with them.

  Finally, they turned down a hall that led past two large, ornately painted doors guarded by two Eihei. The Eihei simply nodded at them and opened the doors.

  Tsuku-san sat in seiza on a slightly raised platform at the far end of the large receiving room. Whoever she had been speaking to must have just been dismissed, for the kimono clad figure rose and exited even as they entered and approached the dais.

  “Welcome, Taka-san, Mitsu-san, and Ryūko-san. I have been waiting for you.”

  Mishi's shoulder blades twitched at the use of her true name. She had never taken to using it, even after learning it cycles ago, and it bothered her to hear it now. She wondered what purpose Tsuku-san had for its use, as she had never called her that before now.

  “We are sorry for the delay, Zōkame-sama,” Taka said, folding to her knees before the dais and bowing to Tsuku-san. “We came as quickly as our mounts would allow.”

  Mishi noted Taka's formality and followed suit by folding herself next to Taka and bowing accordingly. She saw Mitsu do the same beside her.

  “And the Council would gladly wait that time a hundredfold for such honored guests as you, Taka-san, but we appreciate your alacrity, as we have great need of your assistance.”

  Struck by the formality of Tsuku-san's words—after all, the four of them had been travel companions sleeping on the same roadside little more than a tenday before—Mishi took another good look around the room. At least two of the men standing to the side of the receiving room were dressed as scribes. She didn't see anyone else who looked like a council member, but she wasn't sure what they would look like in the New Council as compared to the Rōjū. Tsuku-san's language alone indicated that this was an official meeting and not a personal one, though. Mishi felt her back muscles tighten. Mishi had expected Tsuku-san to ask for their help, but she hadn't expected the request to come as a formal demand of the New Council. She tried to remind herself that she could still disappear between now and the dawn. The New Council making demands on her wouldn’t change that. She hoped.

  “It is our honor to wait upon the Council,” Tak
a said, with another bow.

  “The Council has three requests,” Tsuku-san said. “One for each of you.”

  Beyond exhaustion, and unwilling to spend any more time and energy on formal wording, Mishi and her companions simply nodded and waited expectantly.

  “Taka-san, you are said to be the greatest healer this realm has seen in an age; your services are greatly needed. There is a rebellion to the north of Rōjū City. After we sent forth troops to assist with the change in government and enforcement of the new laws protecting female Kisōshi and yukisō, groups of Kisōshi still loyal to the Rōjū started fighting them in a few towns north of the capitol. Now these men have joined forces and made it necessary for our own troops to form up as well. There is a small battlefront forming and it is desperately shy of qualified healers. Most of our healers have been dispersed to every city and town in order to help spread the new laws and new training regarding josanpu and the treatment of females with kisō. We cannot afford to recall them all, or even most of them. I need someone I can trust, who can help train people as well as lead the healers who are already there, and that person is you, if you are willing. Are you willing?”

  Mishi had struggled to keep her mouth from sliding open and her jaw from dropping lower and lower as Tsuku-san had explained the situation. She couldn't believe that men were still fighting after all that she and her friends had done at the battle of Rōjū City. Didn't they understand that the Rōjū were finished? The old council had been disbanded and the new laws set and enforced, why were they fighting it? Did they really want a world where young girls were killed simply because they were born with enough power to become Kisōshi, or were they simply terrified of any kind of change?

  Her ire shifted quickly to panic, though, when she realized what Tsuku-san was sure to ask next. If Taka was needed for healing, then surely the fight wasn't going that well. Which meant that Tsuku-san would need more fighters and...Mishi felt her hand begin to shake even as it reached for the katana that was no longer at her waist. She couldn't fight again. She couldn't...

  “Ryūko-san, I am honored to have a kitsune-dan Kisōshi as a guest here in Rōjū City, welcome.”

  Mishi nodded, thrown enough by the use of her rank and true name together to be at least temporarily distracted from her mounting terror. She still wasn't comfortable with the fact that she'd been promoted to kitsune-dan as soon as the New Council had formed and started evaluating Kisōshi. They'd claimed that her part in the battle at Rōjū City had been a very thorough test and demonstration of her abilities, and that they were all agreed she should be ranked far higher than hebi-dan. The debate, apparently, had only been on how high to rank her; some had argued for tora, some for anagumi, or ōkami. Apparently taking her age into account had been the only thing that had kept the ranking as low as kitsune. She had been greatly relieved not to have been promoted further.

  “Though I believe you deserve a much longer time to recover, after fighting so hard for Gensokai only a few moons ago, I fear I must ask you to fight once more.”

  Mishi opened her mouth in order to object then and there, scribes and official requests be damned, but Tsuku-san continued speaking, as though Mishi hadn't made a sound. Mishi swallowed her objection as best she could. She didn't wish to make Tsuku-san lose face, but she was already trembling at the mere thought of having to fight once more. She took deep breaths and clenched and unclenched her fists as she tried to focus on the words that Tsuku-san was saying.

  “The Rōjū zantō are not only attacking our forces north of Rōjū City. They are also attacking small towns and villages throughout the far northern region. There is at least one group, possibly more, of sanzoku who are demolishing any place where they find female Kisōshi alive. As you may guess, there aren't many of these places, and where they exist, the female Kisōshi are infants or, more rarely, young children. Still, they have destroyed three such villages already and they leave no survivors. We cannot know in advance where they will strike without knowing where the female Kisōshi are, and now that word of these attacks has spread a bit through the region, people are even less inclined to reveal that they have a Kisōshi for a daughter than they were under the Rōjū. We're worried people will start drowning their own infants this time, simply to spare the entire village. Fortunately, it is not a common problem, and many people still don't even believe that their daughters can have enough kisō to be Kisōshi anyway, but these sanzoku need to be stopped. They've destroyed three villages already. There are bound to be at least a half dozen more that have girls with kisō within their populations. We must find them before the sanzoku do, and we must protect them.”

  Mishi felt some of the tension leave her shoulders. Perhaps Tsuku-san only intended her to do the task she had set out to accomplish to begin with. Perhaps she would only be asked to seek out newborns with kisō, or the rare girl who had somehow survived the genocide of the Rōjū Council and lived to childhood.

  “I know that you wished to seek out new female Kisōshi anyway, and it pleases me that your mission and the New Council's wishes align so well.”

  Mishi smiled at this and bowed her head slightly. She felt her fists unclench as she realized that she wouldn't be asked to fight after all.

  “In addition, your incredible defensive skills will be invaluable to the second part of your assignment.”

  Mishi tensed again, locking eyes with Tsuku-san. Did the grey-haired woman understand what she was asking?

  “This group of sanzoku cannot be permitted to continue to terrorize our people. They must be stopped at all costs. You alone, of course, cannot stop them, but you can lay the trap that will finally allow us to find them and bring them to justice. If you can either track them down, or lure them to you, and notify our forces with sufficient time, we should be able to ambush them and finally put a stop to them.”

  Mishi saw sorrow in Tsuku-san's eyes as she spoke, and she realized that even if the woman didn't fully understand that Mishi could no longer fight, she at least understood the danger of what she now asked her to do.

  Mishi wanted to do this for Tsuku-san, she wanted to find girls like herself, help them, protect them, but she couldn't fight. She was terrified to hold her katana once more, terrified of what she might do with it, of who she might hurt. What if she injured one of the girls? What if she got lost in a vision and attacked townspeople? Who would stop her?

  She would have to refuse. She didn't want to make Tsuku-san or the New Council lose face, but she simply couldn't do it. She—

  “Ah, Kusuko-san, there you are. Please come in.”

  Mishi turned to see the person Tsuku-san addressed, and felt rage consume her.

  ~~~

  Mishi opened her eyes and was supremely grateful that she wasn't wearing her sword.

  Mitsu held one of her wrists and Taka the other, and she was thankful that the visions hadn't chosen that moment to consume her along with the rage, else she was confident that her friends would now be dead, as would the beautiful, tiny, ornately dressed assassin who now stood across from her in front of Tsuku-san and the scribes on the dais.

  “Kusuko-san is on our side now, Ryūko-san.”

  Mishi took a deep breath and reminded herself that what Tsuku-san said was true. Kusuko had fought with them at the battle in Rōjū City at great personal risk. She was no longer the enemy. Mishi knew that, but some part of her consciousness saw the young woman and thought only of the enemy, only of the hishi that had killed Sachi-san and led to the destruction of the only home she had ever known. That part of her had filled her with a rage so encompassing that she had stood up without realizing it and reached for a sword that was no longer there.

  Luckily, Taka and Mitsu had restrained her and kept her from doing worse, and Tsuku-san had interpreted her reaction as a lack of information, or a grudge, and seemed willing to dismiss it at that.

  Mishi bowed to acknowledge the reminder and relaxed her arms to let Mitsu and Taka know that she no longer needed to be restr
ained. She could sense that they were both still close enough to reach her easily and she was reassured by their proximity. She didn't wish to attack Kusuko, or anyone else. If anything, this was simply one more reason she needed to be gone by morning.

  “Now then, I have requested Kusuko-san's presence because I believe she will be critical to this new assignment.”

  Mishi cringed; Tsuku-san couldn't be serious. She wasn't going to send Kusuko with her, was she? Mishi could barely refrain from killing the woman when she walked into a room, so how could Tsuku-san expect her to work with the assassin?

  “Kusuko-san will be accompanying Taka-san on her assignment.”

  Taka followed behind the Eihei who led her to her guest room with unseeing eyes. She wasn't sure what disturbed her more, Mishi's uncontrolled rage and what lay behind it, or the fact that Kusuko was supposed to accompany her on her mission.

  No, that wasn't true. She was far more concerned with Mishi's mental state, but it was a testament to how worried she was for her friend that it overshadowed her alarm at being paired up with the beautiful young assassin.

  She would have to think about that later. For now, she needed to focus on Mishi and what was wrong with her. She thought that the two episodes, the one on the road to Rōjū City and the one when Kusuko first appeared, were different in many ways, but neither of them aligned with the Mishi she knew from childhood. Even more, they didn't align with the Mishi she'd come to know over the moons since they had finally been reunited.

  She looked up and found herself standing dumbly in front of a sliding door, with the Eihei who had led her there looking at her expectantly. She shook her head and slid the door open, vaguely waving off the Eihei when he asked if she needed anything else.

  The room was small and clean, with a fresh pot of tea waiting on a low lying table in the center, and her saddle bags already arranged against the far wall.