Kiku stood and stared for a while. Slowly, she started to nod, and the gesture grew stronger until she was shaking her purple-black hair vigorously up and down.
“All right. I know there’s a lot you’re not telling me, but that’s just you. Even so, you make a compelling case. It will be nice to be free of certain … entanglements for a change.” Kiku pressed her palms together and bowed slightly. “You win, Toshi. Let’s go.”
“You won’t regret it.” Toshi was careful not to let the relief show on his face. He needed Kiku’s power, even without her masters’ curse enhancing it. He hoped convincing Marrow-Gnawer would be easier, because even though the ratman was far less useful in a fight, he was ultimately as important to the job as Kiku or even Toshi himself.
Kiku straightened up and took a step closer to Toshi. She trailed a finger up his throat and touched his lips.
“Do you remember last night?” she cooed. “Every thing we did, every sound we made, every sensation we felt?”
Toshi nodded, enthusiastically earnest for the first time in a long time. “Every second, Kiku.”
She chucked him gently under the chin. “Good,” she said. “Because it’s never going to happen again.”
The mahotsukai turned and wafted into the dwelling. Toshi waited until she was completely out of sight, then blew a long, thin stream of relief between his pursed lips.
So far, so good, he thought.
They found Marrow-Gnawer in the western quadrant of Takenuma. The nezumi-bito ratfolk were everywhere in the swamp, but most of them made their homes as far from human society as they could. They were generally vicious and filthy creatures, but they were tough and cunning and could follow orders. Marrow was a leader among his people due to his size, his smarts, and his long history of working with humans. There was no job too dirty for a nezumi, but Marrow brought a bit of competence and common sense to his criminal endeavors.
As Kiku and Toshi approached the huge nest Marrow’s people had excavated into the side of a hill, they noticed hundreds of yellow pinpricks staring at them. Fiery rat eyes shined from the brush, from behind trees, from holes in the ground. Usually, a crowded nezumi den would be a noisy, chattering mess, but despite so many ratfolk being nearby, the hillside was eerily silent.
Marrow emerged from the nest and motioned for Toshi and Kiku to stop. They waited as the ratman dropped to all fours and scurried toward them.
He was big for a nezumi, almost four and a half feet tall, and he was armed with a rusting but viciously sharp short sword. His rough-woven clothes were caked with grime and threadbare, but he had covered his chest with a piece of someone else’s shield and fashioned a leather harness into crude protective headgear.
Marrow stopped a few feet away and tentatively sniffed the air. Satisfied, he rose and offered a cringing little bow. “Fellow reckoners,” he said, “it’s not safe here.”
Toshi looked around. “Soratami?”
Marrow shook his head. “Kami,” he said. “The spirits have been very restless for the past few days. We’ve got nowhere else to go, so we’re digging in until things settle down.”
Toshi pulled back his sleeve and showed Marrow the false hyozan mark there. “We’ve got reckoner business, oath-brother. The nest will have to manage without you for a little while longer.”
Marrow glanced back at the yellow eyes watching him from the tunnel entrance. His voice suddenly rose, echoing off the hillside. “I can’t possibly leave now, oath-brother,” he declared. “As the pack elder, my place is here.” Marrow’s voice dropped to a whisper. “I’m in,” he hissed. “Take me with you.”
Toshi cocked his head, confused.
“No, don’t argue.” Marrow’s voice rang out loud and clear. “My people need me.” Whispering again, he said, “Come on, Toshi. Get me out of here. We’re crammed in there six-deep, and I don’t know how much longer I can take it.”
Toshi opened his mouth, but before he could say anything, Marrow bawled, “All right, then. An oath is an oath.” He winked at the ochimusha.
A concerned chattering began to rise inside the hill. The other nezumi didn’t seem happy about their new elder leaving them to fend for themselves.
“Do you need to get anything?” Toshi muttered. “Maybe you should say goodbye, soften the blow a bit. They seem upset.”
Marrow-Gnawer stared at Toshi for a long moment, and the ochimusha could almost see the thoughts assembling in the nezumi’s brain. When everything fit, the little brute’s eyes snapped open and he flashed a devilish grin.
“Good idea, oath-brother. Soften the blow.” He turned to Kiku and his smile widened. “That’s why he’s in charge.” Marrow turned back to the nest, where the most anxious of his fellows was just starting to emerge from the tunnel entrance. They blinked in the evening gloom and waited expectantly for him to speak.
“You’re on your own,” Marrow called happily. “Goodbye.” He waved, his tail swishing in the grass behind him. He stopped, tightened his belt, and turned to Toshi. “All done. Let’s go.”
As their new leader walked away without looking back, the hidden nezumi began to wail. Toshi stood uncomfortably for a moment in the growing chorus of mournful groans and gnashing teeth. He turned to Kiku and shrugged.
“That was easier than I expected,” he said.
Kiku had always hated working with the ratfolk. She spoke through a fine silk handkerchief she was holding over her mouth and nose to blunt the stench wafting from the hillside. “Quite. Very easy. In fact, extremely easy.” She sniffed. “Almost worth the effort.”
“True.” Toshi started after Marrow. “I still feel like I got off light. I didn’t even have to kiss him to get him on board.
“Don’t hit me,” he said without turning. “We’re still oath-bound.” Toshi tried not to smirk as he walked away from the rats’ nest. He could almost hear Kiku’s rage mounting. “And don’t take it out on the nezumi, either.”
Marrow stood waiting just out of sight of the hill. Toshi stopped on the path just before he himself would have dropped out of sight and looked back. Kiku was still seething outside the tunnel entrance, so Toshi waved for her to catch up.
Instead, the mahotsukai said something sharp to the rats in the tunnel and beckoned them closer. Still speaking through her handkerchief, Kiku gestured with her free hand until the rats nodded enthusiastically. Then she reached into her purse and tossed a few silver coins onto the ground. As the nezumi scrambled for the cash, Kiku turned and marched toward Toshi.
Toshi smiled, but Kiku stormed past him without speaking. Still grinning, he fell in behind her and kept pace as she went down the path.
“I hope you didn’t hire them to kill me after the oath is broken,” he called. “You’d still have to answer for it.”
“I did no such thing.” Kiku did not turn. She strode past Marrow without acknowledging him and continued on her way.
“So what was the cash for? Charity?”
“I told them how to spell your name. I gave them more than they could earn in a year.” The mahotsukai stopped, planted her hands on her hips, and tossed her hair from her eyes. “And in exchange, they’re going to write your name at the bottom of every nezumi latrine, chamber-pot, and cesspool in the area. Just in case we don’t survive this, oath-brother, I wanted to make sure that I left a fitting tribute to you behind.” She smiled coldly, her eyes daring Toshi to respond.
After a moment’s consideration, Toshi said, “Hmm. Okay, that is a good one.” He raised his hands. “I surrender, mahotsukai. For now.”
Kiku rolled her eyes and turned back down the path. Once she was clear, Marrow sniggered and pointed at Toshi.
“Let’s move, oath-brother,” Toshi said. “I’ll explain what we’re up to on the way.”