by Guy Antibes
She grunted and left the yard.
“Won’t see much of her until she’s ready,” Himura said. “She’ll be gone before we rise and will come in after we’re asleep.”
“As long as we stay in contact, I’m confident she’ll return to us. We need her money as much as anything else. I only hope we can stretch what little we have to keep us fed,” Shiro said.
“I saw a smithy on the way in. I noticed lots of work collecting dust and rust on the outside. Perhaps he can use a hand.”
Shiro only really knew how to use magic and farm. “I’ll go back to the merchant and see if anyone needs an expert farmhand. Don’t commit to too much time. I need to become your student.”
Himura laughed. “I haven’t forgotten. Perhaps we can make inquiries before we go to the inn to taste Chika’s delights. As I remember, she is a remarkably good cook for a young woman.”
“She does well on the road.”
~
Himura sat at the small table at the inn. He had taught Shiro how to disguise his sword and he had to perfect it before he showed up at the inn.
“That looks right to me,” Himura said, looking at the more traditional hilt sticking up from the sword on Shiro’s back. “It’s too bad you can’t shove the sword in your sash like everyone else, but there are enough rogues out in the world that wear their sword as you do.”
Shiro grunted. “Overhear anything?”
“Nothing useful. I asked about the blacksmith and he doesn’t show up here very often.”
Both of them eyed the crowd drinking tea. Wine could come after dinner. Shiro saw the merchant arrive and sit at another table.
“There is our merchant friend,” Himura said.
Shiro nodded and rose from his bench, sauntering over. “I’m afraid I’m going to have some time on my hands and wondered if there is some daytime labor to keep me busy.”
“And earn some more rent money for me?” The merchant grinned, showing blackened, twisted teeth. “The land that my new tenants are to work isn’t in very good shape. I’ll pay you to clean the plot up. I’ll inspect your work every few days and pay you what I think your work is worth.”
Shiro put his hand to his chin. He didn’t really trust this man and could see him trying to cheat Shiro out of his pay. “And if you don’t want to pay me anything it would be easy for you to reject my efforts. That doesn’t sound like a suitable arrangement to me.”
The merchant grumbled. “Take it or leave it.” He waved Shiro away. “It’s of no difference to me.”
“I appreciate the opportunity, but I will pass. My thanks for considering my services.” Shiro bowed to the merchant, despite the merchant’s anger, and returned to the table. The man was their landlord, after all.
“He wanted to dictate what he’d pay me.”
Himura winced. “That old man would never show satisfaction of what you did.”
An ancient farmer shuffled up to their table and looked back at the merchant. “You rejected Usho’s offer? You made a wise decision. I have a job for you. My farm needs to be put to bed for the winter. Everything was harvested some time ago in mid-summer except for my wife’s vegetable garden. My son helps me, but he’s gone until the spring to find a new wife.” The old man laughed. “Wore the other one out. I’ll pay you every day for your work and I won’t cheat you. I’ve got a tool shed that needs seeing to. Hope you don’t mind witches, for it’s close by a cottage where four of them live.”
Shiro smiled. “I’d be happy to help. I’m not afraid of witches either.” He winked at the old man.
“Good. I’m the second farm on the road that heads southeast a few hundred paces outside of town. Be there at the crack of dawn. Name is Yori.” He bowed to Shiro. “Bring your friend if you’d like. Make your work shorter.”
“I’m Shiro and this is Himura. Himura’s a smith and if the local smithy won’t hire him I’ll bring him along.”
“Thank you.” Shiro stood and bowed to Yori. The old man smiled and shuffled to his table, drained a cup of wine and proceeded out of the inn. “There we go and the work offer is for the both of us.”
“If we both liked farming, but it appears that there’s only one of us who do. I’ll first take my chances with the smith.”
Chika came out of the kitchen with a bowl of pickled vegetables. She tossed it on the table. “Now what are you going to do?”
“Ready to leave?” Shiro asked.
She sat down and picked out some vegetables and let them slide down her throat. “No. I’m not sure yet. Give me more time. The innkeeper won’t. I’ve got another two hours work, yet. Enjoy.” She coughed and hurried back to the kitchen.
Shiro plucked up a few vegetables. “I think she’s just about ready and it’s only been a day.” He put the vegetables in his mouth and felt the fires of the hells explode in his mouth. He spit out the vegetables and grabbed the tea, pouring it down his throat.
“Shiro! That’s hot tea.”
“Believe me, it’s cooling off my mouth!” His breath increased and his face broke out in a sweat. “She’s not ready yet. Whew!”
~
The smell of dirt gave Shiro bittersweet memories. He looked over the farmland and surveyed his task. Yori hadn’t neglected his field too badly. A dike had broken down in a far corner, inundating a portion of the farmer’s field. That would be good physical work. If Shiro became too tired, he could levitate the soil, but he really didn’t think he’d have to unless Chika had a sudden change in heart and they’d have to leave suddenly.
He smiled as he remembered her silently coming into the house the previous night and chuckling herself to sleep. She refused to respond to his words. Just as well. Let her have her fun. He hoped that the opportunity to pay her back would come. Shiro could be patient.
Yori walked up to him. “Let me show you the toolshed.”
Shiro followed the old man through the fallow rows to a large hut. Yori opened the double doors.
“You’re a wealthy farmer,” Shiro said looking at all of the steel tools. Most farmers used wooden field implements.
“Oh, I haven’t done too badly, but as I aged, I bought the tools to make the work easier. Look, a metal plow.”
Indeed in a corner sat a plow with a rusted iron blade. “I’ve heard of these, but I’ve never seen one.”
“My son can till my fields in less than a week. It’s cheaper to hire a horse and use this than it is to hire men to use wooden plows to get it done in twice the time.”
“I don’t doubt it.” Shiro found a pitchfork, a few shovels and hoes and other implements he’d never seen. “Where did you find the patterns?”
Yori laughed. “Did you know they used these on Ayrtani? My son’s father-in-law is a scholar. He has copies of ancient books. Such implements are common in Besseti. The northerners have more metal than we do.” Yori sighed. “If only the Ropponi were less set in their ways.” He shook his head.
“We always will be. It’s who we are.”
“Bureaucrats and Sorcerers. They don’t care for the common people.” Yori spit on the ground. “But you’re right, it’s our damned culture. It hasn’t changed one bit in hundreds of years. Few farmers would agree to use these. I’ve had more than a few of my closest friends think of these as the tools of demons.” He laughed. “Productive demons. Some of these are bent and have very rounded edges. See what you can do about sharpening them. I have some stones that do a mediocre job, but mediocre is better than dull.”
Shiro laughed. “I’ll see what I can do. Don’t worry about me. I wish I had some of these demon tools when I farmed my own land. The other farmers would be jealous.” Indeed they were when Shiro unwittingly used dose of his power to grow better crops. If he had metal tools, they would have stormed his farmhouse with envious anger.
The pair walked out of the farmhouse. Shiro saw a cottage nestled in the woods on a little rise that overlooked the farm. “Witches?”
Yori waved at the house with his hand. �
�They might be witches, but they are nice ladies who buy my produce at the best prices. Before you go, I want you to work in my wife’s vegetable patch. She still has some plantings going.”
“I’ll start on these,” Shiro said. It was past time that Himura would have shown up had the smith rejected his offer of work.
Shiro walked back into the tool hut and picked up a spade. He used his talent on the edge and left a shiny sharp track as he ran his finger along the surface. Then he thought of tightening the grain of the metal and when he finished the surface looked nearly shiny and hard.
He took the shovel down to the broken down dike area and used it to move the dirt. It bit into the soil effortlessly. After a quarter turn of the hour, he heard a crack and picked up the shovel. It had broken in to two pieces, right at the boundary of his magic work. Evidently Shiro didn’t know enough about metal. Perhaps making the metal denser didn’t necessarily make it stronger. He’d have to talk to Himura and see if he could fix it somehow.
On his way back to the hut, a woman waited for him at the edge of Yori’s property.
“You worked in old Yori’s shed?”
Shiro nodded.
“Come with me, please,” the woman said. Shiro didn’t like her unfriendly tone. She walked towards the witches’ cottage and then stopped.
“I’d like to know why a sorcerer is working for my neighbor.”
Shiro pursed his lips and narrowed his eyes as he tried to think of what to say. “I’m on my way to the east and decided to stop in the village for a week or so to rest a bit.”
“Did you pass through Sekkoro?”
“I came through there.”
“I knew some ladies that were visiting the city.”
Shiro broke into a sweat. “And?”
“They burned to death in the dungeons. Does the term White Rose mean anything to you?”
“It does,” Shiro said. “I had a friend that also burned in the dungeon.”
“Her name?”
“Shiuki. She owned the White Chrysanthemum in Rumoto.” He looked at the woman, wondering where this conversation headed.
Her visage softened. “Come in and have some tea. I’d like to introduce you to my sisters.”
Shiro rubbed his lips together. What did he have to lose, other than being burned to a crisp on the spot? Chika could do that to him at any time, but perhaps these ladies might help him get her back on his side. “I’d like that.”
The woman made introductions. “Miroshi, Mako, Ishura and I’m Gorisha.” They all looked tense.
“Shiro of Koriaki?”
One of the women whistled. “You are far from home, young man. Koriaki is on the North Isle, isn’t it?” She looked as if she were nineteen. They all must have worn disguises. He changed from Kinoru to his own form. “I know how to shield myself and disguise myself. Shiuki and another taught me these spells.”
The women relaxed and turned into a gaggle of old ladies.
“I hope you don’t mind talking to a bunch of old crones,” Gorisha said. “I thought you might be the one we’ve heard about.”
An alarm went off in Shiro’s mind like a blast of horns. “I’ve taken pains to remain anonymous.”
“We have our sources, but don’t worry. Two sorcerers saved Ashiyo from the Guild in Sekkoro. There were rumors that they all died in the castle fire, but those were rumors.”
“Let’s have them remain as rumors. Shiuki’s husband is in this very village with me.”
“And the other sorcerer?”
“She’s employed in the village as well,” Shiro said. He hated to give this information to strangers, but if they were to trust him, he’d have to reveal who they were and if Chika refused to carry on, he’d need new allies. Shiro didn’t want it to come to that.
“Daiki’s new cook?”
Shiro nodded.
“A woman? She must be powerful from what we heard.”
“More so than Himura.”
“Ah, you know his name. You speak the truth,” the woman said.
“Do you know him?” Shiro asked.
“I do,” Ishura said. “You must come here for your evening meal.”
“We will,” Shiro said. “I have things to discuss.” He rose. “I must give Yori an honest day’s work. If you will excuse me.” Shiro bowed.
“You have plans?”
“I do and I would like your opinion of them,” Shiro said. “Tonight.”
“After twilight has just passed,” Gorisha said.
~~~~
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
~
HIMURA LOOKED AT THE SHOVEL. “What have you done? Iron will crystallize if you hammer it too hard. Your magic has done the same. That is a handsome edge, but notice where even that has chipped off? All that can be done is melt it down and hammer out a new one.”
“Can you do that?” Shiro said.
His friend glared at him. “The smith has enough work to keep me busy for a month. He makes his money shodding wheels with iron. I’m doing horseshoes and straightening out cheap knives.”
“Then I’ll have to pay for it.”
“I’ll do it, but at the cost of your lesson time. What else happened today?”
“I met four women of the White Rose society. They have a cottage that overlooks Yori’s property. We’re eating our evening meal there tonight.”
“Can we trust them?”
“Yes. I’m sure of it,” Shiro said. “We can tell Chika about them after she comes home.”
“You can. I haven’t worked so hard in years. I suspect I’ll be fast asleep as soon as I lie down.”
After a few lessons on spells, the pair of them walked in the twilight to the witches’ cottage.
“Ashiyo!” Mako said.
Himura removed his disguise.
“You are Himura,” Ishura said throwing her arms around him.
“I am indeed and you are?” He disengaged and backed away.
“You don’t know me?”
“Should I?” Himura began to sweat.
Why did he look uncomfortable? Shiro thought. He even backed away from the woman.
“You don’t know your own sister?”
“Ishura?”
She stepped away and folded her arms. “This is Ashiyo, not Himura.”
Mako squinted at Himura. “Speak.”
“What do you want me to say?”
“Ashiyo’s voice, definitely.”
Voices! Shiro realized that voices were never disguised. Now that he thought about it, Chika did disguise her voice. Shiro had been using his own in each of his disguises. He wondered how often Chika laughed about it behind his back. He chuckled.
“What’s funny?” Ashiyo/Himura said.
“Nothing. Ishura, what profession was your father?”
“He was a baker.”
“And Ashiyo’s?”
“The best blacksmith of any around Rumoto. He won all of the competitions.”
“You are Ashiyo, then,” Shiro said.
“Caught in my own web of deceit,” Ashiyo said, frowning.
“Then what about Himura?”
“He died. I was attracted to Shiuki as much as he was; yet he won the race to her heart. When he died suddenly, I took his identity when I could around Shiuki. She never knew.”
“She’d know,” Ishura said. “She probably loved both of you and let you continue your deception.”
“Does it matter?” Ashiyo’s eyes began to redden. “I loved her as much as her husband did and grieved for her death as much as he would.”
Shiro thought back to when he met him. “What about the marble? If you reached sorcerer level, why did the marble show so weakly?”
“Do you have it on you?”
Shiro pulled out his coin pouch and pulled it out.
“Piki, Paki, Poki!” The ball glowed faintly in Ashiyo’s hand. “Now watch.” The glow grew until a radiant red flower showed within. “I can adjust my magical shield.” He shrugged. “It’s easy
enough to do.”
“After my incarceration, the Guild seized all of my belongings. I thought it easier not to fake my identity.”
Shiro blinked as the shock of the revelation still roiled in his mind. No one had played him straight. Now he didn’t know what to believe.
“Dinner, my friends,” Gorisha said. “We can talk about this astounding revelation while we eat.
“Great! I’m famished,” Ashiyo said. He had never let go of his Himura disguise. Shiro looked askance at him. “Himura was better looking.” All of the ladies laughed.
Ishura took a sip of tea. “It’s all right. I already thought my brother to be dead, so I only had an instant of…” her eyes watered, “of reunion. I don’t mind that you use his guise at all, Ashiyo. Himura was a handsome man.” She said it with a wistful eye.
“If it bother’s you, let me know,” Ashiyo said. “I last saw you when you were but twelve?”
Ishura giggled nervously. “If that.”
“Well, that’s interesting. Perhaps you two might carry on your reunion in private,” Gorisha said. “Now, Shiro, why are you in our little village?”
“We are passing through, but one of our number needed some time to herself.”
“The woman?”
Shiro nodded. “She also cooked in Shiuki’s establishment. She now cooks at the village inn. We, uh, had a discussion that made her uncomfortable and she is deciding if she wants to continue with Ashiyo,” Shiro looked at his companion now talking with Ishura. The woman giggled again, less nervously. “Uh, with Ashiyo and me. We are concerned about Lord Sekkoro’s interrupted program to eliminate the White Rose Society.”
The women gasped, except for Ishura, who looked up to see what alarmed her sisters. “Elimination. They were to come this way?” Gorisha said.
Shiro nodded. “If the lord hadn’t died, we would have been through here days ago, telling you to flee. Yori called you witches. That would be enough for the lord’s soldiers to eliminate you.” He didn’t want to scare them over dinner, but Shiro had to tell them.
“That is very disturbing news.” Gorisha pulled out a fan and began to wave it in front of her face. “What did you intend?”