It was only after she had tied his hands, when Mitsu rolled him over and pulled off his mask, that they recognized Inari-san.
~~~
Mishi stared at the unconscious form of Inari-san, trussed up by the fire, and wondered what on earth he was doing following them, when they’d been traveling with him voluntarily only a few days before. Of course, it was possible that he was still working for whatever remained of the Rōjū, or that he’d defected to the sanzoku, but neither of those seemed like reasonable explanations for his presence.
“What do you think he was doing?” she asked Mitsu, who stood beside her with an equally dumbfounded expression on his face.
“You mean, aside from spying on us?” he asked.
“Obviously. He was watching us for a long time, more than just what he would need to ascertain our position and report back. Why should he care what we were doing?”
“Shouldn’t you just ask him that?”
“People are more likely to tell the truth if they think you already know it.”
“But you can sense if he’s lying.”
“As can you.”
“So he has little reason to think lying will work.”
“But silence can be very effective.”
Mitsu was quiet for a moment, and Mishi wondered if he were considering the various ways to force another human to speak. Mishi didn’t think she could stomach any of them, not to mention Kuma-sensei had always insisted that torture didn’t usually work.
“Perhaps an exchange of information, then?” Mitsu suggested at last.
“What could he possibly wish to know that we would be glad to tell him?”
“We could always lie.”
“He’s a Kisōshi as well. He can tell if we’re lying, and as a hishi he’s likely trained specially for it.”
Mitsu stared hard at the man on the ground.
“He was surprisingly easy to catch,” he mused.
“And he made no attempt to bite down on the small capsule of poison most of them keep in their mouths.”
Mitsu’s eyebrows rose at that. Apparently, that was a piece of information he’d been without, until just now.
“How do you—”
“The other hishi, aside from Kusuko, chose that escape when we caught them at Kuma-sensei’s school. Kusuko might have as well, but we’d learned our lesson and taken hers from her mouth while she was unconscious.”
“So, if he was easily caught, and hasn’t tried to kill himself with a capsule of poison…”
“He’s either not a real hishi, or he planned to be caught.”
“Interesting notions, both.”
“Indeed. Shall we sweep his mouth before we wake him, just in case?”
Mitsu nodded, proceeding as asked. They found no capsule of poison. They didn’t have any of the restorative balm that Tenshi had used to wake the hishi they’d interrogated moons ago, so they resorted to a skin of cold water to the face.
Inari sputtered to consciousness.
“Good morning, Inari-san,” Mitsu said, bowing slightly with the water skin still in his hand.
“Would you be so kind as to tell us why you were watching us?” Mishi was striving to keep her voice polite. She thought the incongruity might throw the man, making him more likely to make a mistake.
“Kind of you not to kill me,” was his sole reply.
“Well, we like to keep our options open,” Mitsu replied. “I wouldn’t make any promises about changing our minds, though.”
Inari nodded, as though that was only reasonable, but didn’t say any more.
“What is your purpose here?” Mishi asked, deciding to get straight to the point.
“What is any man’s purpose?” he replied. “Can any of us truly know, until we’re dead?”
Mitsu was clearly working to repress a chuckle, and Mishi was convinced that they made a terrible pair of interrogators.
“You wear the garb of a hishi,” Mishi continued. “Why is that?”
“Quite comfortable, really. Light, breathable, fairly quiet when one is running in the woods.”
“Would you be a hishi then?” Mitsu asked, still struggling not to smile. She wondered if this line of questioning was even worthwhile, since they already knew that he was an associate of Kusuko’s, and they knew for certain that Kusuko was, or at least had been, a hishi.
“It’s possible,” he replied, with a small smile. “I would be most things, if given the opportunity.”
Mishi was angry with herself for liking Inari’s replies, and angry with Inari for evading all of their questions. He wasn’t lying about anything so far, merely dodging questions deftly with word games, and she was learning nothing aside from the fact that the man had a good vocabulary and a solid sense of humor. She wished that he hadn’t been here spying on them. She thought she might enjoy his company under other circumstances.
“Sir, I’d very much like to continue this chat sometime—you are as entertaining as a fool and as wise as an old fox. But I’m afraid we need to be going, and we can’t take you with us. Unless you can prove that you’re no threat to us, somehow, we’ll be forced to kill you and leave your body for the crows. Is there anything you’d like to share with us, to help us make the decision?”
Mishi knew she wasn’t lying—she’d kill the man if he proved to be a threat to any of the people that she loved. But what she didn’t tell him was that it wouldn’t take much to prove to her that he was no threat. She was in no way eager to take his life, especially after he’d helped to save hers once already.
The man’s face paled somewhat, and she wondered if he’d taken the threat to heart, or was merely that talented an actor. To say that she didn’t trust anything about the hishi would have been a gross understatement.
“I was sent to monitor your actions and report back on what I saw. I report to the leader of the hishi, not to the band of sanzoku who attacked you earlier. After all, if I wanted to hand you over to them, I wouldn’t have bothered to help save you from their camp a few days ago, would I? I’ve no interest in giving away your position to them, and by the time I return to my master, you’ll be long gone from this clearing, and I’ll have no idea where you are.”
“Why would the leader of the hishi be interested in us?” Mishi asked, though she thought she might have a guess.
“You keep interesting company,” the man said, before leaning back against the tree on which they’d propped him, and closing his eyes for a moment.
Mishi wondered if he meant Taka or Kusuko, perhaps both. Which would be of more interest to the leader of the hishi: a healer so effective she could turn the tide of a war, or one of his former—possibly former, she reminded herself—hishi?
“Come now, tell us something useful so we don’t have to kill you,” Mishi said.
“Define useful,” Inari-san said.
“Something we don’t already know,” Mitsu replied.
“You have your mother’s eyes.” Inari smiled as he spoke, though his eyes looked more sad than amused.
Mitsu glared at the man.
“Very funny.”
“Not a joke, Yoshida Mitsuanagumi-san.”
Now Inari’s face was entirely serious.
Mishi glanced at Mitsu, seeing that his face had gone from a forced glare to sincere astonishment.
“How did you learn my name?” he asked.
Inari’s smile faded, and his eyes grew sad.
“I met your mother once, very briefly. Your father, too.”
Mitsu opened his mouth to reply, but no words came out. Mishi wanted to ask how Inari had known Mitsu’s full name, if he’d never met him until a few days ago and had only met his parents briefly long ago, but she thought it was Mitsu’s place to ask, rather than hers.
Finally, Mitsu found his voice.
“Why would you tell me this?”
Inari smiled once more.
“It’s a pleasure to see that you and your sister have found each other.”
Mishi now began to wonder how much of her personal history Taka had shared with Kusuko. Had the young “former” spy already passed that information on to this man? If so, why was he bringing it up now?
“He’s been traveling with Taka-san and Kusuko-san,” she reminded Mitsu, whose face was darkening from astonishment to something more sinister. “He could easily have gotten information from them, or listened in to private conversations.”
Mitsu nodded, but his expression didn’t clear.
“Good. You shouldn’t trust me. My master is one who would take advantage of the information. But I hope you’ll believe me when I say that I’m very glad to see that you’ve found each other. Everyone should have some kind of family.”
Mishi wondered what other mysteries this man would reveal, if they kept him around long enough. Perhaps that was his only goal, to make them think he was worth keeping.
“What else can you tell me?” Mitsu asked, when he finally regained his voice. “About my parents…”
“Only that they were good people. And that they didn’t deserve to die.” Inari sighed, before continuing, “But then, most people don’t, when it comes down to it, and yet everyone gets there eventually.”
Mishi watched Mitsu’s face closely as he listened to the hishi, and considered stepping forward to restrain him as he moved to grab Inari-san’s grey tunic.
“Did you kill them?” he asked, when he was nose to nose with the older man.
Inari shook his head, sadly.
“I did not. But I didn’t stop it either, so I may as well have.”
Mitsu’s fists clenched in the folds of the man’s clothes, and Mishi reached out to stay his arms. She had never seen Mitsu enraged before—although he’d been something close to it when they’d found Mizu and Tsuchi’s village laid to waste—but now she could see the anger burning behind his eyes, causing his hands to shake with restrained violence. Finally, after a long moment, he dropped Inari to the ground.
Mitsu walked away from the small clearing, and Mishi let him go.
“Strange way to make yourself seem valuable,” Mishi said, crouching in front of Inari, who said nothing but only watched Mitsu walk away.
“Did you really know his mother?” she asked.
Inari-san met her eyes.
“I wouldn’t say I knew her, but I did meet her once, briefly.”
“And you’re sure that he and Taka are siblings?” she asked, because neither Taka nor Mitsu had been certain of it, despite their suspicions.
Inari nodded.
“Of that, I am now certain.”
“I would imagine that however you came to know that is information that Mitsu and Taka would find worthwhile,” Mishi admitted. “Now, if you can just convince me that you don’t mean us any harm, I’ll untie you.”
Before Inari had a chance to speak again, Mitsu came running back to their camp, with Riyōshi still clinging to the leather brace on his forearm.
“One of the bands of sanzoku appears to be heading for a walled town less than a day’s travel from here,” he announced. “Now is our best chance to stop them.”
In the dim light of the izakaya’s kitchen, Kusuko looked at the tiny rolled parchment that she’d carefully collected from the empty sake cup. She inhaled the warm air, filled with the scent of cooked rice, warm sake, and steaming vegetables, and ran the information through her mind again and again.
The practical thing to do was to let it all play out without her interference. The sanzoku were in place, the Rōjū had their plan in motion, and she certainly shouldn’t interfere. Mamushi-san would be furious with her if she interfered. And what did she care anyway? Taka was safe. The children that Taka seemed to care so much about were also safe. Surely that was enough. Mishi and Mitsu meant nothing to her, even if this hifu respected them as both adversaries and allies. And Inari-san…well, she knew how resourceful he was, and she didn’t think Mamushi-san intended for him to die, so perhaps she would see him again.
No, it was not in her best interest to do anything with the information she’d been given, save to make note of it in her mind and keep heading northwest, toward the Zōkame estate.
She slipped into the narrow alley behind the izakaya, dark, empty. She changed out of the serving kimono she’d “borrowed,” leaving it on the back step, where the next person to empty a slop bucket would be likely to see it.
She followed shadows between the shadows, returning to the inn where she, Taka, and the children had found a room for the night.
She made no sound, as she returned to the palette beside Taka’s sleeping form. Made no noise, as she lay there for a moment, watching the moonlight shine on the young healer’s face, and the quiet rise and fall of her chest.
She should sleep, and in the morning they would continue their trek to the Zōkame estate.
She reached a hand to Taka’s shoulder.
“Taka-san,” she whispered urgently. “Taka-san. We need to leave.”
19th Day, 3rd Moon, Cycle 1 of the New Council
AS MISHI’S FEET pounded through leaves and underbrush, weaving her through the sun-dappled forest, she watched the wall in the distance loom larger, and she pondered Inari-san’s strange behavior that morning.
He had spied on them. That was something she could understand. He was a hishi; his purpose was either to gather information, or to kill.
What she didn’t understand was why, after Mitsu had announced that the sanzoku seemed to be heading for the walled town that now loomed ahead of her, he had seemed to blanch, albeit so briefly that Mishi thought she’d imagined it, and then begged them to let him go.
He had seemed almost frantic, and they hadn’t known what else to do with him anyway. It wasn’t that they trusted him, but they simply didn’t see how he could be any more of a threat to them than the one hundred sanzoku that they were about to try to prevent from demolishing yet another town.
Besides, they had needed to move quickly, in order to reach the town with enough time left to warn them and help them prepare their defenses. Not that they’d told any of those particulars to Inari-san. In fact, they waited until he was well away from them before they discussed their own plan, and especially before they sent Riyōshi off with their request for reinforcements.
Then they had made their way toward the walled town, with the help of Riyōshi’s description and Mitsu’s tracking abilities.
They hoped to have ample time to warn the townspeople before the sanzoku arrived. After all, they were traveling light and there were only two of them, whereas the horde of sanzoku they had run into the previous day were encumbered by their numbers, their heavily laden horses, and their supplies.
As they drew closer to the town and its impressive walls, Mishi’s attention was drawn away from the puzzle of Inari’s behavior, focusing instead on the size of the walled town. From what she could see, the wall looked like it was at least three times the height of a man, perhaps four, and patrolled by a number of guards.
The sight gave Mishi hope, for she didn’t know how long the town would last, walls or no, if they had no soldiers to defend it. She could only hope that the soldiers were well trained, that perhaps a few of them had some amount of kisō, or that, at the very least, they had a few capable archers among their ranks. She didn’t know how long it would take the New Council reinforcements to arrive, and she didn’t think it likely that she could single-handedly fend off over a hundred sanzoku for a matter of days.
She and Mitsu finally reached the gates, which were wide open and unguarded, and she felt a shiver run down her spine when they passed through them. For a reason she couldn’t name, it felt like being swallowed whole.
~~~
As soon as they ran through the gates, Mishi was shouting for the nearest guard, telling him to call the townspeople inside, sound whatever alarm they had, and close the gates.
When the man only stood and looked at her, she added, “Over a hundred sanzoku are headed this way. Do you want your gates open wid
e when they get here?”
That seemed to spur the man to action, and he proceeded to alert his fellow guards. Shouts rang out along the wall, and runners began cutting away from the gate and across the town.
“Who’s in charge here?” she asked the man she had initially warned, once he returned from sounding the alarm.
“Our resident Kisōshi is away, so Namura-san is in charge,” the man answered.
“And where might I find him?”
“Now that the alarm has been raised, he should be heading to the western gate,” the man said.
Mishi thanked the man, and turned to Mitsu. They had entered through the eastern gate.
“Ready for more running?” she asked.
Mitsu smiled.
“Always,” he said.
She was glad that he didn’t tire easily, given what might be coming, but she said no more as they both took off down the main road that headed west.
Aside from the wall that surrounded it, Shikazenji appeared to be a normal town. While it wasn’t overly large, it was quite a bit bigger than the village from which they had rescued Mizu and Tsuchi. They ran down a road that appeared to be large enough for two carts to pass each other, glimpsing at least two guest houses, three izakayas, and all the merchants and rice vendors that one would expect to see in a small city. Mishi was surprised at how long the main road was, and wondered how many people lived here to support so much commerce. Even so, they reached the other side of the town in good time.
There was quite a bit of activity around the western gate, but it wasn’t yet closed.
“I’m looking for Namura-san,” Mishi said to the first guard that she and Mitsu came across.
“On the wall,” replied the guard, with an upward gesture, before continuing on his way.
All the guards seemed occupied now, and Mishi wondered how many there were in the town, and how well trained they might be. She also wondered if the resident Kisōshi would be the only one who might be available to help defend the town, or if any of the guards might be Kisōshi as well.
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