Authors: Jennifer Fallon
‘You are a coward, Renkavana.’
‘Sticks and stones, dude,’ Ren muttered to himself. He looked at Namito, shaking his head. ‘I’m not going to fight you.’
‘Then I will kill you.’
‘Really?’ Ren asked, wondering if it was bravery or complete idiocy to call his bluff. ‘Kill me? And then what?’
My brother and my
Obaasan
would welcome a child of the
Youkai
into the Ikushima
, Aoi had said. They’d thrown Kazusa at him, too. He was banking on Namito wanting him alive more than his honour restored.
‘Wound him, Namito,’ Masuyo called out from the veranda. ‘He can still give us what we need without his limbs.’
Charming
, Ren thought, taking another step back as he watched Namito warily. Would he refuse to attack an unarmed man, or was offering Ren a weapon enough for the forms to be served?
It proved to be the latter.
With a roar, Namito raised his weapon and charged. Ren glanced at the blade on the ground, realised he had no chance of reaching it in time, even if he’d known what to do with it. The best he could do, in the split second between Namito’s attack and losing an arm at the shoulder, was to turn away and try to protect his head.
Ren braced himself, waiting for the pain, wondering if he could manage to somehow zap himself away from here again, as he had when the Tanabe had tried to kill him …
But the pain never came. The air was suddenly filled with an angry screeching, a blur of feathers and cries of shock and alarm. Ren opened his eyes to discover Namito under attack from a huge eagle, furiously flapping its wings. He dropped his
katana
and fled the open courtyard for the shelter of the veranda attached to the main house as the eagle drove him back.
The bird didn’t continue the attack once Namito was disarmed. Instead, it landed in front of Ren, stretched its wings in an awesome show of defiance, and then it morphed into a young woman, naked, magnificent and furious.
‘How dare you!’ she shouted, looking around at the terrified Ikushima. ‘In the name of the
Youkai
I demand you leave my mate alone!’
Namito had found, or been handed, another
katana
. He raised it, prepared to continue his attack now he realised he was facing a
Youkai
rather than a wild bird. He stepped down into the torch-lit yard, his sword at the ready, and began to cautiously move forward. Ren was still breathing hard, his heart pounding at his narrow escape. He had not expected to avoid a fight with Namito by having Trása come to his rescue. He watched her facing down the
Daimyo
and smiled. In this mood, she truly was something to behold.
Trása laughed scornfully at the samurai as if he was a child waving around a bread and butter knife. ‘Are you so foolish,
Daimyo
, that you would attack a
Youkai
and her mate?’
‘
Mate?
’ Ren asked behind her in a low voice. It wasn’t that he was ungrateful for her intervention, but he wasn’t expecting her to claim him like some pre-historic cave girl in a really bad movie. ‘When did I become your
mate
?’
‘Shut up, Rónán,’ she hissed, standing squarely between him and Namito. ‘And just play along.’ She glanced over her shoulder and added tartly, ‘Unless, of course, you’d
like
me to leave, so the nice little samurai man can carry out his plan to cut you into sushi.’
She had a point. Ren glanced at Namito and the sword he was waving about so angrily. ‘On second thoughts, why don’t you
just carry on saving me,’ he agreed and took a step backwards. This girl could morph into a tiger if she chose. Trasa didn’t need his help.
Namito was watching them through narrowed eyes, perhaps weighing up his chances of attacking Trása before she turned him into a toad, or whatever it was she was planning to do. It occurred to Ren at that moment that other than morphing into a variety of avian wildlife, he really didn’t know what Trása was capable of. He knew she was half-
Beansídhe
, but he’d spent most of his time with her in a reality without magic, and Darragh’s memories of her were not in any way related to her magical ability.
‘The Empresses have a bounty on your kind,
Youkai
. Those pointed ears of yours will make an ideal trophy to prove the loyalty of the Ikushima.’
‘I was thinking your balls would make an excellent necklace,’ she shot back. ‘But now I look at you, I think they would make better earrings.’
Don’t insult his manhood!
Ren wanted to shout at her.
You’ll just make things worse.
Namito raised his sword even higher, her slurs bolstering his courage. ‘I will gut you like the vermin you are,
Youkai
.’
Trása glanced over her shoulder at Ren. ‘Time to wane out of here, I think.’
‘Wayne?’ Ren asked in confusion. ‘Wayne who?’
Trása glared at him for a moment, as if he’d done something really stupid. ‘You don’t know
how
?’
‘How
what
, for chrissakes?’
‘You don’t know? Shit!’ she said in English, and then she turned to Namito and held up her hand. ‘Stay your hand,
Daimyo
of the Ikushima. You have proved your courage. The
Youkai
honour you and your clan.’
‘
Hey?
’ Ren asked, as Namito lowered his
katana
, looking just as confused as Ren felt.
What the fuck is she playing at?
One
minute Trása was dicing with death, and the next she was trying to play nice.
‘You dare much,
Youkai
, coming into
Shin Bungo
and insulting the Ikushima.’ Namito didn’t sound very certain, but at least he lowered his sword. Nobody watching the exchange from the verandas made a move to interfere.
‘I dare much, because there is much I can offer you,’ Trása announced.
Ren was at a total loss as to what she might be talking about, or why she’d changed her tune so suddenly.
The next thing he knew, Trása was stepping up to Namito, so close she was almost nose-to-nose with him, and speaking in a strange, musical tone. ‘If I may beg your indulgence,
Daimyo
, I wish to speak to my mate in private. You will permit this.’
Namito stared into Trása’s eyes as if he was bewitched, and nodded as he sheathed his
katana
. ‘You may discuss your private matter in Renkavana’s quarters. I await the offer you speak of.’
‘Thank you.’ Trása bowed low to the
Daimyo
and then she turned, took Ren by the arm and all but dragged him across the raked sand to the hut, slamming the sliding door so hard once they were inside, she almost knocked it off its rails.
With a wave of her hand, Trása lit the candle on the table and then turned to Ren and punched him on the shoulder. ‘Why didn’t you tell me?’
‘Ow! Tell you
what
?’
‘That the Undivided are
sídhe
. That you can wane like a
Leipreachán
?’
‘I have no idea what you’re talking about, Trása. Why did you tell them I was your mate?’
‘Because
Youkai
mate for life. They’ll stop asking you to mate with one of them if they think you’re already spoken for.’ She studied him for a moment and then changed her tack.
‘Even if you didn’t know, why didn’t Darragh tell me about the Undivided being
sídhe
?’
‘Probably because — like me — he didn’t know anything about it,’ Ren said as he rubbed his arm, certain some memory of that startling news would be hiding somewhere in his brother’s memories if he’d known about it. ‘What did you do to Namito?’
‘What do you mean?’
‘I mean that Jedi mind-trick you just pulled. That
these-aren’t-the-droids-you’re-looking-for
thing you just did to him.’
‘Oh that … I glamoured him, that’s all.’
‘You can do that? Just make people do what you want?’
‘Yes …’
He stared at her, not sure if what he was feeling was amazement or despair. ‘And you only thought to mention this rather useful trick now?’
‘It’s not as useful as you might imagine,’ she said, rolling her eyes as she put her hands on her hips, which distracted Ren from the discussion, because she still wasn’t wearing a stitch of clothing. ‘It only works if you can get close enough to someone so they’re totally focussed on you. That’s really the first time I’ve had a chance to do it.’
Things had been hectic lately, he had to concede. Still
…
‘By the way, who the hell is Wayne?’
‘Not who,
what
,’ she said, folding her arms crossly. ‘It’s how you escaped the Tanabe, remember?’
‘How did you know about that?’
‘Why didn’t you tell me you could wane?’
‘Waning? Is
that
what you call it?’ The word caused a whole world of interesting information to crowd the forefront of his mind as he realised what it meant. It made sense now. No wonder he hadn’t been able to find any information in Darragh’s memories. He’d been searching for
teleporting
, or
vanishing
, or
disappearing
. None of those words triggered a damn thing.
Waning
was the word he’d been looking for, and suddenly Ren discovered he knew exactly how to do it.
Not that the knowledge did him any good. If he waned out of here Aoi would have to commit
jigai
.
‘Oh, so
now
you remember?’ She shook her head as she noticed the dawning comprehension in his eyes. ‘It would have been a bit more useful if you could have had this epiphany out in the compound just now.’
She had a point, but he didn’t feel he deserved to be spoken to like that by someone wearing nothing but her birthday suit. ‘You do realise you’re not wearing any clothes, don’t you?’
Trása let out an exasperated sigh and snatched up the blanket from the futon. She wrapped it around herself impatiently and tied it off. ‘Better?’
‘Thank you,’ he said, and then shook his head. ‘And I didn’t say anything out in the compound because I didn’t know what it was called. Oh, and I can’t go anywhere. Aoi took an oath. If I try to leave here she has to kill herself.’
‘Well, here’s hoping she doesn’t make too much mess when she falls on her sword,’ Trása said with a complete lack of sympathy. ‘Let’s go.’
‘No,’ he insisted, shaking his head. ‘I’m not going to be responsible for killing someone.’
‘You’re
not
responsible,’ she said. ‘Did you make her take an oath?’
‘Of course not.’
‘Then she’s not your problem.’
‘Besides,’ another rather cranky and impatient voice interjected behind him, ‘these be the Empresses’ minions and they be the people that killed all of our people. Who cares if one dies?’
Ren spun around to find the strangest sight behind him. Standing there was a tiny, ginger-haired ninja, no taller than his
knee, with a pointy ginger goatee and a belt full of tiny weapons made from ebony and
airgead sídhe
. Ren turned to Trása. ‘What is that?’
‘A
Leipreachán
,’ she said. ‘What do you think it is?’
‘It’s like no
Leipreachán
I’ve seen before.’
‘And you’ve seen so many of them, haven’t you? This is Toyoda Mulrayn. I think he’s Plunkett’s
eileféin
.’
‘Toyoda? Seriously?’
Trása ignored the question. ‘Toyoda, this is Rónán. In my reality, believe it or not, he’s one of the Futagano Kizuna.’
‘The Futagano Kizuna be
Youkai
in your realm too then?’ he asked, stepping a little closer to examine Ren with a critical eye.
‘I’m not
Youkai
,’ Ren said. He turned back to Trása, starting to get a little annoyed by this. ‘Why the sudden insistence that I’m one of you?’
‘Because ye are,’ Toyoda said. ‘Can we go now?’
‘I told you, I’m not leaving.’
Trása threw her hands up. ‘Do you
know
why they want you here, Rónán?’
Ren felt himself blushing unexpectedly. ‘I was kinda getting an idea about that when you arrived. I knocked back Aoi, and “every nubile female in the compound” thank you very much. They even offered me a girl. A kid!’
The
Leipreachán
didn’t seem surprised. ‘The Ikushima want children from ye because they have no family member in the
Konketsu
,’ Toyoda told him. ‘They be hoping ye will give them a magically gifted child, before they run ye through and offer ye head to the Empresses as proof they be loyal. ’Twould raise their family’s social standing considerably.’
But Trása smiled, inexplicably. ‘You rejected Aoi?’
‘Of course I did. What do you take me for?’
‘She’s very pretty.’
‘She’s a lunatic. Like everyone else around here. Have you found out how to open a rift yet?’
‘Ye need a folding spell,’ Toyoda answered for her.
‘Great, where do we get one?’
‘Ye don’t just
get
one,’ the little ninja-
Leipreachán
said. ‘Ye learn it. It takes years and years of study to master the folding magic. Only the most dedicated and highly trained
mahou tsukaino sensei
can open rifts.’
‘So we need one of these
mahou tsukaino sensei
who can fold the spell and we’re good, yeah?’
‘Tell him the rest of it, Toyoda,’ Trása said with a heavy sigh. She’d obviously been told the bad news already, by her expression.
‘Even if ye know the spell, regular
washi
paper won’t do,’ Toyoda explained. ‘It needs
gampi
paper for ye to fold the spell to open a rift between realms.’
‘Where do we get
gampi
paper from then?’ Ren asked.
‘That’s the catch,’ Trása explained. ‘These Empresses everyone talks about? They are the daughters of the last Undivided. They took over this realm, banished or killed their father and uncle — there’s something of a debate going on between the lesser
Youkai
about which it was. Then they killed all the pure
Youkai
, by driving them through rifts into magic-less worlds, and kept the mixed-blood
Konketsu
to wield the limited amount of magic they allow them … and then … they destroyed all the
gampi
bushes except those in the Imperial Palace.’