“It’s no use,” said one of the yokai who sat down on the ground.
“Don’t sit down, we have to keep moving,” Shin said nudging the yokai, but he refused to move, then his companion joined him as well, laying down on the roof.
The song was growing stronger. Though she shouldn’t, she turned around. The tree was right behind her as if they hadn’t moved at all. Staring at it, her eyes began growing heavy. What was the point in even trying? The forest was home. It would welcome them into its arms.
“Akane, stay with me,” Shin growled.
The few yokai who’d been following them had laid down and no amount of shaking would wake them. The rooftop disappeared and they were back in the courtyard. She was so sleepy. She wanted to join the others in their sleep. Grass had started to absorb the walls and vines crept up over her body as she laid down. Shin pawed at the vines, attempting to pull them off her, but they only wrapped around his body as well.
Shin roared with frustration and Akane closed her eyes. It felt like a few seconds when she heard a new song, a powerful song that seemed to echo through her and shook her entire body. It woke her with a start, and then she saw Hikaru running toward them, his eyes glowing green with power.
The grass receded, repelled by his song. Rin, just behind Hikaru, helped Shin and then Akane to their feet. As they stood vines fell away from their bodies. The other yokai were gone, nothing but lumps of grass.
“Looks like we came just in time,” Rin said, looking around at the vines which were pulling everything toward the tree.
“Are you hurt?” Shin asked Akane, scanning her up and down.
“I’m fine,” she said, shaking away the fog from her mind. That had been too close for comfort.
He pressed his head against her forehead, sighing in relief.
“We’ll need to hurry. Hikaru can’t hold this forever.” Rin looked toward her husband whose arms were shaking.
Shin nodded his head before running toward the edge of the palace as they’d been before, but this time they were able to make progress. The gap between the palace and forest seemed enormous, but before they had to decide how to cross, Hikaru’s song created a bridge of vines for them. They ran to the other side.
Just as they touched the forest floor, a loud crash echoed through the forest. Birds squawked in protest as they flew away. The echo of the explosion rippled through the forest as the walls of Akio’s palace bent inward toward the tree. When all the dust settled, all that remained was a massive tree growing out of the rubble, its white flowers glistening in shafts of sunlight.
“Everything has returned to how it’s meant to be,” the dragon said. She hadn’t even noticed him standing there. He must have gone to find the priestess while they were escaping.
Shin looked at Akane, then back at the palace. Overhead a full moon rose. It was hard to believe almost a month had passed by. With everything that had happened, she’d nearly forgotten the kamigakari ceremony. A pool of dread settled at the bottom of her stomach.
“Tomoe! She was taken by the head priestess. We have to get to her before the ceremony.”
She pulled away from Shin as if she’d run there alone. He grabbed her wrist to stop her from going.
“You’re not going to do this alone. We’ll do it together,” he said.
He was right of course, if the head priestess had been pretending to be the kami all this time, she was going to need all the help she could get.
26
The day Mei had died replayed in Akane’s head over and over. The head priestess had compelled her to kill her. For centuries, Akane thought herself chosen by the divine. Instead she’d been a guard dog for a malicious body thief. After explaining what she’d learned in Akio’s palace, Rin and Hikaru had confirmed they’d encountered this body thief themselves. How had she not seen what the head priestess was from the start? Looking back now, she could see how different the girl who’d become the head priestess was from the woman she knew. The signs had been there all along, but she’d been blinded by her own beliefs and never realized.
Shin must have sensed her dark thoughts because he put his arm around her shoulder. “We’re here now. We’ll save her, don’t worry.” She leaned against him for a moment, taking comfort from his presence.
They stood outside the temple gates. A barrier shimmered around the perimeter of the shrine grounds. This was nothing new. During the ceremony, the priestess put their collective power together to protect the shrine from outsiders who could harm the kamigakari during her most vulnerable moment. Akane felt the prickle on her skin, the call of the kami, or that’s what she’d always thought it was. But in truth, this was the head priestess’ hidden power.
“We need to get through the barrier,” Hikaru said as he examined it.
“Do you think together we can break it?” The flame priestess, Suzume, asked him.
Hikaru studied the shimmering exterior before nodding slowly. The two clasped hands and started to sing, their voices melding together until it was one resonating note. She glowing red and him glowing green, their combined power melding together, growing stronger together. The barrier around the temple started to wobble and shake.
“Go now,” Shin instructed. Akane, bolted for the barrier as a gap opened up, Shin right on her heels.
The dragon and Rin were a few feet behind him when a competing song rose up from the depths of the temple. It clashed against Suzume and Hikaru’s song. The discord of notes was a high-pitched screech that twisted inside Akane’s skull. She stopped in her tracks to put her hands against her ears.
But just as quickly as it had risen, the sound faded, turning to a distant buzz. They searched for the source and discovered the barrier had closed once more. They were trapped inside. And outside the song was preventing Hikaru and Suzume from singing. The others were all kneeling on the ground and clutching their skulls.
They would have to continue on alone. They headed toward the shrine building. Outside every priestess of the temple, from acolyte to the highest-ranking priestess, knelt in lines, the more experience at the front, the less so toward the back. Each one was eerily still as they sang together. The air prickled with power that rose the small hairs at the back of her neck. Shin examined them with a tilt of his head.
He waved his hands in front of one of their faces, but the girl did not even blink.
“They’re all like this,” Shin said, standing up to face Akane.
“They’re in a trance.”
There was a stone in her stomach.
The doors to the shrine were closed, but when she grabbed hold of them they opened with ease. Tomoe was alone when she entered, seated before the altar, adorned like a bride on her wedding day. Decorative pins dangled from her coiffed hair. Bells on the end of the pins jingled faintly in the wind. For a moment, Akane was once more transported back to that horrible day. Mei’s screams and the stench of smoke filled her nostrils. Shin reached out and squeezed her hand. Tomoe chanted along with the priestesses outside. She did not so much as lift her head as Akane approached.
Akane ran over to Tomoe, shaking her shoulders. “Tomoe, wake up.”
The girl’s blank eyes stared forward, transfixed on the altar in front of her. Smoke curled off the altar in lazy tendrils.
“Tomoe, come on, we have to get you out of here,” Akane pleaded as she tried to drag her to her feet, but she felt like she weighed five hundred pounds.
“She will not be going anywhere,” the head priestess said from behind them.
Akane spun around to face her, but with a flick of the head priestess’ hand the door slammed shut, trapping her and Shin inside.
“What have you done to her?” Akane demanded.
The woman threw her head back and laughed. Her face was twisted, cruel, and there was a scar along her cheek, in the shape of a crescent moon that Akane had never noticed before.
“You surprised me, Akane, I never thought you strong enough to escape Akio. Though I suppose you ha
d help.” She looked at Shin who bared his teeth at her.
“Let Tomoe go, or I’ll tear your throat out,” she growled.
“You cannot stop me. I made you. I control you,” the head priestess replied.
Akane transformed once more and rushed toward the head priestess but she merely held up her hand and Akane was frozen in place.
“It is too late; the ceremony has already begun. I have waited far too long for this moment to delay further. Obey me, and I will spare you.”
“Then it was you. You made me kill Mei.”
“Ah, her. I was close before with Mei, not perfect, but good enough. Until she discovered the truth, I had no choice but to eliminate her, and you were so willing to believe it was the kami’s will.” She smirked.
Summoned by her words, Akane’s mind was filled with visions of Mei’s death, fire and pain. Agony. Blood. So much blood. She fell onto the ground, trapped in her nightmares that would not end. Akane whimpered in pain.
“You don’t control me.” Shin growled as he lunged for the head priestess, but she caught him with an invisible hand in midair and dangled him above the ground.
“You should have taken my offer,” she said before tossing him across the room where he slammed into the wall and fell into a lump on the ground.
The head priestess sang and it turned to screams in Akane’s ears, Mei’s screams pleading for her life as Akane took it from her. Everything was darkness, blood and fire.
“Kill him,” the head priestess commanded, standing above Akane.
Akane stopped in place and growled as she tried to fight the impulse, while also pushing back the visions that threatened to overwhelm her. Shin was stunned, not moving. Akane stalked closer to him, fighting each step that brought her closer to him. Not again. She couldn’t do it again.
Shin cracked open a golden eye and looked up at her in a daze. “Akane?”
“Get away,” she growled between clenched teeth.
The head priestess’ voice was urging inside her head. Demanding, invoking her animal nature, forcing her to do its bidding. Despite her warnings, Shin crept closer to her, his hand outstretched. She swiped at him, clawing his face, drawing blood.
The scent of blood was driving her mad, and coupled with the head priestess’ command she couldn’t control herself. She had to destroy him. She pounced on him, knocking Shin to the ground, now in full wolf form. She bared her teeth at him. But he wasn’t long pinned beneath her. He transformed into a wolf and knocked her backward. They circled one another for a few moments. She snarled and lunged for him again but he dodged her and then went for her throat. Shin pinned her to the ground, only for a moment. She wriggled out from beneath him and caught him by the throat.
“You can fight it. Don’t let her control you,” he growled.
His golden eyes were trained on her. He did not struggle against her. One clamp of her jaws and she could end his life there. She blinked at him. Her memory was foggy. The last thing she remembered was someone calling out to her. The more she tried to think about it, the faster it slipped through her fingers.
“Finish him,” the head priestess urged. And then she felt that pressure inside her skull.
But it was competing with her animal instincts, her logic, her reason, who she was. She wouldn’t kill Shin. She knew who the real enemy was.
She forced Shin to the ground. “Play along,” she whispered.
Shin lay on the ground, eyes closed and not moving. Akane turned to face the head priestess.
“Perhaps you’re not as useless as I thought.”
Akane stood before Shin, to block him from the head priestess’ view. The old woman turned back to Tomoe where she stood on the altar, the incense rising up around her and haloing her head in smoke. She began to sing, the incantation that Akane once thought brought the kami into an earthly body. Very slowly as to not alert the head priestess, Akane crept closer.
The head priestess was focused on her incantation and did not notice her straight away. A bright aura was floating around Tomoe’s body, a shimmering light. The head priestess raised up her hands, and in another second and it would be too late to save Tomoe.
Akane jumped toward the head priestess, intent to tear out her throat. Before she could reach her, the head priestess pivoted. Her hand held out in a stop motion, Akane froze in midair. The witch started to sing, her voice rising. Darkness poured out around her like thick black sludge. With a flick of her wrist, Akane was brought crashing to the ground. It flattened Akane to the ground, and the witch smirked in triumph.
“Did you really think you could defeat me?” She cackled.
A roar pierced through the priestess’ song. The door burst apart in shards of paper and wood. Rin, in kitsune form, entered, her multiple flaming tails whipping around her.
The witch’s eyes were wide with shock. “You—” she pointed at her.
“This is for Shin.” Rin replied and opened her mouth. A blast of fire shot out and slammed into the witch, sending her flying backward into the altar, which tipped over.
The witch climbed up, blood running from a wound on her head.
“The two of you are not enough, I have gathered the power of priestesses for millennia. I am unstoppable—” Before she could finish her sentence, the roof started to shake and tremble. She looked up just as the roof was torn from the eaves, and the dragon in serpentine form hovered above them. A beam broken by the removal of the roof fell toward the head priestess.
Akane caught Tomoe by the collar, dragging her away, just in time to avoid the falling beam. She stood over the girl as debris rained down on her back and she cried out.
As the dust settled, Tomoe blinked and the glassy-eyed look in her eyes disappeared.
“Akane? What’s going on?” she asked, looking around at the wreckage around them.
She sat up and pulled the girl into a fierce embrace. The dust settled and the group was left standing in the midst of the rubble. Shin rushed over to them.
“Are you hurt?” he asked.
She shook her head, and searched the wreckage. The priestesses outside were waking and looking around in confusion.
Tomoe screamed and pointed to their right. Lying under a pile of rubble was the broken body of the head priestess smashed beneath the fallen beam. Tomoe covered her mouth and then turned away from the destruction. Akane held her to her chest.
“It’s over. Don’t worry,” Akane said, petting her head.
A disembodied laugh came from the wreckage. The beams slid back and the head priestess rose up. Her body was a torn mess of injuries. Her head was broken and lopsided.
“As I said, I am not so easily defeated.”
Akane put herself between Tomoe and the head priestess. She rose up into the air, the black energy curling around her.
An arrow zoomed through the air, striking the head priestess in the heart. It glowed with green spiritual energy, which spread across the black, eating it away. A few feet away Hikaru lowered his weapon.
“Her power is weakened. If we can kill her physical body, she cannot return.”
The head priestess came crashing once more to the ground. She stood, her head lolling to one side, her arms dangling uselessly at her side. Rin and the dragon rushed toward her, but her song propelled them backward.
Behind her Shin crept closer, but the witch picked up a piece of jagged wood and sent it flying, striking him hard in the shoulder and he fell to the ground.
“Shin,” Akane cried out, before running toward the witch. Inside, her wolf howled, and Akane let go of all control of her wolf, giving into it. The power rolled through her, bursting out of her in an immense rush.
The witch turned toward her, just as Akane launched herself onto her, pinning her to the ground. Her eyes were wide as Akane’s jaws clamped down around her throat, ending her life in a spray of blood. The last sounds she made were a strangled scream as Akane tore her apart.
27
Akane walked out into the early
morning air. The brisk fall air felt good on her flushed skin. She tilted her head back to stare at the moon. What happened now? The temple was in shambles. The head priestess was dead. The kami was a fake. Most of these women had nowhere else they could go. This was home to them.
Tomoe had been resting in her room since the incident, and Akane had been too afraid to face her. She should have seen this from the beginning, should have known how dangerous the head priestess was and protected her from it. She’d almost died because of her.
Without realizing it, her feet had guided her back to the site of the former shrine. Nothing remained but a pile of rubble. The scent of blood still lingered on the air. Akane wrapped her arms tightly around her chest. She hated to kill, even someone as vile as the head priestess. Her death would be another mark upon Akane’s heart. But if she’d been given the chance she would have done it again. If only she’d listened to Mei all those years ago, they could have run away together. But then the head priestess would have just as likely continued on as she was doing, and Akane never would have met Shin.
Orange and golden light rose up over the horizon. The sound of murmured voices approached from behind. Akane turned to see all of the priestesses filing toward the wreckage. They passed her by with hardly a glance, going to piles of broken wood and stone, gathering them up. Carrying them away.
“What are you doing?” Akane asked them.
Tohru stopped, her brows pulled together. “We’re cleaning up.”
“But why bother, the kami was a fake.” Akane gestured toward the remains of the temple.
“We talked about it. Some of us wanted to leave. But Tomoe convinced us all to stay.”
“Tomoe did?” Akane asked, scanning the crowd. She hadn’t even noticed her mixed in with the other priestesses, but she was struggling to carry a boulder away.
Akane rushed over, she took the boulder from Tomoe’s hands.
Okami: A Little Red Riding Hood Retelling Page 19