“Mad though she is, she’s not quite mad enough for that,” Yoshi smirked.
No One pursed her lips, said nothing. After a long search on the radio, she found a scrabbling snatch of low-fidelity static. Eye narrowed with concentration, she adjusted the dial in tiny increments until she latched on to the signal.
The transmission was distorted, awash with faint white noise. Turning the volume down, she leaned close to the speaker. She didn’t recognize the voice—truthfully she hadn’t been with the Kagé long enough for introductions to more than a few members, the one safe house on Kuro Street. Less risk that way. For them and her. None of the local cell even knew each other by name—everyone went by some kind of handle to lessen damage in the event of a capture. When Gray Wolf had asked her what she wanted to be called, she’d considered something romantic—something exotic or dangerous sounding. The name of a hero from some childhood story. But in the end, “No One” seemed to fit best.
She licked at dry lips, listened hard to the tiny voice.
“… curfew still in effect eight weeks after Yoritomo’s death. How long will this government continue to make its citizens prisoners in their own homes? Do they beat children and old women caught after dark without permits for the sake of your safety? Or because their slave state is crumbling? Because their fear of their own people is at last justified?
“Even now the Stormdancer is in council with Kagé leadership, planning their next strike against the murderous regime that has strangled this nation for two centuries. She is the tempest to wash away the dregs of the Kazumitsu Dynasty, and give birth to a shining new…”
The sound of heavy iron boots and screams in the street outside made her flinch, and she turned the volume down to a whisper. Orders to halt in the name of the Daimyo were followed by scuffling and a wet crunch on cobblestones. A sharp cry of pain.
“Might want to turn that off for a bit,” Yoshi said. “Unless you want to invite the bushi’ up here for a drink?”
No One sighed, flipped a small switch and silenced the soundbox. She settled herself on the cushion next to her brother and Daken jumped down into her lap. The girl ran her fingers through the big tom’s smoky fur, across the nubs where his ears used to be, the scars crisscrossing his body. The cat closed his eyes and purred like a motor-rickshaw.
“He stinks of dead rat,” Yoshi scowled.
“Funny that.” She gave the cat an experimental sniff.
“He shit in our bed again last night.”
The girl laughed. “I know.”
Yoshi brandished the iron-thrower. “He does it again, he might find himself divorced of more than ears.”
“Don’t even joke like that.” She scowled daggers, held the cat close to her thin breast. Daken opened his eyes, stared directly at the boy. A low feline growl rumbled in his chest.
“You don’t scare me, friend.” Yoshi waggled the weapon under the tom’s nose.
She made a face. “Little boy with his big toy.”
“Been telling stories about me again, Jurou?” Yoshi raised an eyebrow at the other boy, took another belt of rice wine. No One watched her brother drink, lips pressed shut, radiating faint disapproval. Even with one eye, she could stare down with the best of them, and Yoshi avoided her gaze. Draping Daken over her shoulder, she stood with a sigh.
“I’m going to bed.”
“What?” Jurou cried. “You just got in!”
“I’d rather sleep than watch you two get drunk and slobber over each other.”
“Well, you should go out and find yourself a pretty man.” Jurou waggled his eyebrows. “Slobber over him instead.”
“I’ve already got a man, don’t I, Daken?” She planted a kiss on the cat’s cheek, shuffled toward her room. “Yes, I do, my big brave man.”
“Mreoooowl,” Daken said.
Yoshi stared at her back, a sour look on his face.
“Makes a fellow ponder gouging his eyes out just thinking on it.” He scowled at the cat flopped over his sister’s shoulder, waved the bottle in his direction. “I mean it, you little bastard. You shit our bed again, I’ll feed you to the corpse-rats.”
The big tom blinked once, a broken-glass glint dancing in his eyes. His thoughts were a purr inside the siblings’ heads, the whisper of black velvet on silken sheets.
… would not sleep with your mouth open tonight if i were you …
7
A PALE INFERNO
Whether it’s a reeking pit in the heart of Kigen city, or a comfortable house with barred windows amidst the branches of an ancient sugi tree, a prison is a prison is a prison.
The room was divided down the center, thick bamboo bars separating the jailed from the jailers. Ayane sat against the far wall, her spine curved to accommodate the silver orb affixed between her shoulder blades. The long, thin spider legs sprouting from the bulbous hub were curled up against her back, motionless save for the broken limb trailing on the floor beside her. It had stopped spitting sparks once they’d come in from the rain, but still twitched occasionally, like a gutter-child stricken with palsy.
“I’m sorry.”
Kin stood outside the cell, hands wrapped around the bars. The forest air was cloying, sweat gleaming on his body. Ayane still wore the uwagi he’d given her, though she’d torn a hole in the back to accommodate her extra limbs. Someone had fished out a pair of oversized hakama to cover her legs, grubby and threadbare. Her feet were filthy, toes curling against the floorboards. The rain drummed insistent upon the ceiling.
“You need not apologize, Kin-san.” Ayane smiled despite her grim surroundings. “You cannot blame them for being suspicious. If I were a Kagé who had turned myself over to the Guild, the Inquisition would have arranged far less comfortable accommodations.”
“The Inquisition.” Kin sighed. “I haven’t thought about them in a long time.”
“Do you still dream?” Ayane’s eyes were wide. “Your Awakening, I mean?”
“Every night since I was thirteen.”
Ayane sighed, stared at the floor.
“I hoped … once I unplugged…” She ran a hand over her bare scalp. “It might stop.”
“What do you see?” Kin’s voice was soft as smoke.
She shook her head. “I do not want to talk about that.”
“Your What Will Be can’t be any worse than mine.”
She looked up at him again, and he saw sorrow welling in her eyes.
“There are secrets, and then there are secrets, Kin-san.”
Ayane drew her knees up to her chest and hugged them tight. The delicate limbs at her back unfurled, one pair at a time, folding around her, cocooning her in five-feet lengths of sharpened chrome. The clicking of a hundred wet mandibles filled the air, cutting through the chilled hum of the wind amidst the trees, the paper-dry conversations of falling leaves. The broken limb twitched, illuminating her face with faint bursts of blue-white.
“It feels so strange to be out of my skin.” She rubbed her knees as if savoring the sensation. “And First Bloom help me, the smells. I used to get skinless alone in my habitat, of course, but it was nothing like this…”
“Can you … feel them?” Kin pointed to the spider limbs. “Like your flesh?”
“No.” She shook her head. “But I feel them in my mind.”
“Does the broken one hurt?”
“It is giving me a headache.” A rippling shrug. “But I will have to live with it.”
Kin looked around the tiny cell, the moisture beading on her skin, slick upon the iron padlock. He remembered his own time in here, the agony of his burns with no anesthetic to numb him; fear and uncertainty intensified by physical pain. Empty hours alone, listening to the sound of his own breathing and counting the endless minutes in his head.