He didn’t know he was among the local snakes until they broke cover-their natural camouflage was perfect so long as they didn’t move. A native of the swamps, Toshi had an innate distrust of creatures who lived in the clean green. The orochi’s suspicious behavior and slender, flexible bodies made him feel especially isolated and vulnerable. There were no forest monks this far east, and Toshi reckoned he was the only human being in the entire region.
Still, his ribs were healing well despite the forced march. The soratami attacks had given the snakes a reason to capture and interrogate strangers instead of killing them on sight, as the orochi farther west were prone to do. If Sosuke was sharp, Toshi might even be able to get some good information from him regarding the soratami. In exchange, he could tell Sosuke a very interesting tale based on his own experience with the moonfolk.
Toshi began to spot more snakes hidden among the brush. It helped to have so many in plain sight where he could determine their usual sizes, shapes, and colors. He saw fierce snake maidens glaring over their weapons and tiny orochi children slithering silently among the cedar leaves and juniper bushes. Each had four long arms and spindly stork legs that made their movements unsettling and comical no matter whether they walked or slithered.
There didn’t seem to be enough orochi to stand against the soratami armada, but the snakes were experts at concealing their true numbers. Could venom and wooden spears stand up against silver blades and soratami magic? Toshi didn’t intend to linger long enough to find out for himself, but he still wondered.
To his mild surprise, the scout party led him through this heavy concentration of orochi and onward into the thick woods on the other side. Another hour’s hard slog took them to the crest of a stony ridge that was covered in bright green moss. Toshi stepped up to the edge and peered over, gauging the fall to be about twenty feet. Not lethal, but also not a drop he’d take voluntarily.
“How much-” Toshi stopped when he realized all his escorts were gone. They had melted into the forest and left him alone on the ridge.
“So this is the hero who wants to save us all.” The voice came from underneath the lip of the crest. Toshi looked closely at the mossy rock and started when a huge green head separated from the larger mass.
“If you are Sosuke and chief of this tribe, then I am the hero you mention. I have come to talk with you.”
Sosuke rose like a long stream of smoke, sliding up the rock until he was standing upright beside Toshi. He was taller and broader than most of the other snakes, which meant he was only half as wide as Toshi. His body was lean and powerful, and his muscles rippled under his green-brown scales. He held weapons in three of his hands-a sword, a dagger, and a staff-while the fourth toyed with a carved green amulet around his neck. Sosuke wore a glittering headband that marked him as a tribal chief, but it was much simpler than the other ceremonial gear Toshi had seen important orochi wear.
“I am Sosuke, war-chief of the Kashi-tribe orochi.” He pointed at Toshi with his free hand. “What are you doing in Jukai?”
“Passing through,” Toshi said. Since he’d had trouble with orochi and their myojin in the past, he decided not to mention his name. “I am no friend to the soratami and I wish you well in your struggle against them. But I carry a terrible cursed totem that has poisoned my homeland and I do not want to see its bad luck take root here. All I ask is to be left alone to rest and feed my steed before I go on my way. One day is all I need.”
Sosuke shook his head. “We are at war, stranger. I will not let random humans wander freely through our land.”
“Not through,” Toshi said. “Over. My steed is a moth, and we have flown all the way from Kamitaki Falls without ever touching the forest floor.”
“Until now.”
“Until now. And by your leave, once I get back in the saddle, we won’t come down again until we’re beyond the eastern border of the forest.”
Sosuke laughed a cruel, hissing snort. “You say that with such certainty, but even I don’t know where the forest ends.”
“Nevertheless, I intend to find it. If you like, I will return someday and tell you what I saw there.”
“You presume too much. You won’t leave this ridge alive, much less reach the eastern edge of the woods.”
“That is your choice, war-chief. I am alone and woefully overmatched. But please believe me: I am the only one who can dispose of that terrible stone disk I carry.”
“This curse,” Sosuke said, “can it be directed?”
“Against the soratami? Perhaps. But it brings danger to anyone nearby. You could direct it, but not precisely enough to harm them without harming yourselves.”
“Then you have nothing of interest to me.” The orochi bared his fangs in a hard smile. “But you have my thanks for attempting to save us all from this terrible curse. Perhaps I will strap your body to the disk before I launch it at the soratami.”
“Sosuke,” Toshi said sternly, “I do not take my duty lightly. Kill me if you must, but do so with respect.” He thought that might appeal to the pragmatic warrior without overtly fawning. Anything that turned the discussion away from Toshi’s dead body was a good thing.
The war-chief measured Toshi with his hypnotic red eyes. Unmoved by Toshi’s false righteous anger, he simply said, “Done.” Sosuke turned his long neck and hissed over the edge of the crest. In response, a half-dozen orochi warriors crawled over the lip of rock and moved to surround Toshi.
The ochimusha smiled confidently. “Well done, war-chief. I would have been disappointed if your favor could be had for the asking.”
Sosuke held up his free hand, stopping the orochi closing in on Toshi. “You have something else to offer?”
“I do. The soratami have invaded your territory by now, have they not? If you name the spot, I can help you destroy them in large numbers. Your warriors won’t even have to fight.”
“But we want to fight. I was born to lead my brothers into battle, and we all want to feel their pale skin pop under our fangs and taste their blood.”
“Who doesn’t? But you have not seen the full strength of the invading armada. I have. Unless you want soratami warriors on your doorstep for the next ten years, you need to do something drastic. Something that will wipe out a large portion of their army and discourage the rest from ever coming this far east again.”
Sosuke thumped his staff into the mossy rock and spread all four of his arms wide. “You make sense, stranger. But if I have not seen the full might of the soratami, you have not seen the full might of the Kashi-tribe orochi. We have the power of Life’s Web behind us, the most powerful myojin of all. Even now my sister gathers and focuses the power of the forest against the invaders.”
Toshi could have mentioned that he himself had bested Life’s Web with the help of his own myojin, so the forest spirit wasn’t as powerful as Sosuke claimed. Instead, he decided it was time for him to leave. He cleared his mind and prepared to fade away, but a signal cry from the north caused him to pause.
More precisely, Sosuke’s reaction to the signal cry caused Toshi to pause. The war-chief’s color changed from mottled green to bold, almost angry emerald. His red eyes widened and his flickering tongue tripled its pace. “You will see now, stranger, one way or the other. The soratami have come.” He stretched his neck as high as it would go and tasted the air to the north. “Bring him,” he said to the snakes surrounding Toshi. “Let him see how we fight. If he tries to run or warn the enemy, kill him where he stands.”
Strong, sinewy hands clamped around Toshi’s arms and hands. They propelled him along the ridge past Sosuke. Toshi did not resist, but he twisted his neck and called, “Listen to me, war-chief of the Kashi-tribe orochi. In a matter of days, a new threat will come from the sky. If you want to cripple the moonfolk armada, launch the stone disk as you said you would. Drop it into the heart of the soratami command. Then run for your life and don’t look back.”