The roots returned to life, unwinding and sliding back into the ground. Shiro fell, crumpling onto the floor, unmoving. Izanami returned to the edge of Emi’s circle and once again examined her face.
“Amaterasu has shared too much of herself with this vessel,” the Amatsukami murmured. “A dangerous game my cousin plays.”
“What did you do to Shiro?” Emi demanded. She attempted to rise but her legs wouldn’t obey. “Where’s everyone from the shrine? Did you kill them?”
“Kill them?” Koyane echoed in scathing disbelief. “You presume my lady has such little regard for human life? She merely sent them away so she could search for you without interference.”
“S-search for me? But why?” Her gaze darted to Shiro, as lifeless as the bodies of the kami he’d killed. “Why are you doing this? Please, let us go. We’ll leave and never bother you again.”
A laugh rumbled in Koyane’s throat. “You do not understand at all, do you, girl? Let you leave when we have been hunting you for years?”
Izanami turned a cold stare on her vassal. “Do not scorn the child, Koyane. She is but an innocent casualty and undeserving of belittlement.”
The kami snapped his mouth shut and rearranged his face into something like pained sympathy. Emi looked between them, confusion and fear intertwining. They had hunted her? Why did Izanami call her an innocent casualty then?
“Though I regret what I must do,” Izanami murmured, “the demands of duty are clear. Know you are innocent of wrongdoing, Kimura Emi, and that you die today only because of your devotion to your kami.”
The floorboards creaked and split beneath Emi. Crawling roots slid out of the gap and wound around her upper arms, lifting her into the air until her feet barely brushed the floor. She wrenched pointlessly at the roots, her limbs numb and feeble.
Izanami raised a slender hand. Koyane placed an unsheathed knife in her waiting palm, the steel blade shining and the hilt wrapped in braided black cloth.
“I am required to take your life to prevent Amaterasu from descending into this world,” Izanami said as her fingers closed around the hilt. “I take your life with my own hand in respect for your sacrifice. I give you an honorable death.”
Within the unyielding grip of the roots, Emi writhed in panic. Izanami stepped into the circle, motions smooth and composed, unaffected by the magic of her marugata. She turned the knife and light glinted along the blade. Emi struggled futilely as the weapon approached her.
Izanami stepped again, closing the gap between them, and thrust her arm forward. A strange pressure hit her in the gut, shoving the breath out of her lungs.
The knife reappeared, blood gleaming on the steel, as Izanami stepped back. Emi looked down. Blood flowed from the slashed silk of her obi, just below her ribcage. Her vision fractured, the blood turning to sharp lines and angles as though her brain couldn’t comprehend the sight. Her heart pounded, adrenaline rushing through her arteries and escaping her body along with the bright blood. From deep within, pain bloomed, filling her with a terrible pressure, as though the agony were attempting to turn her inside out.
The roots released her arms and she collapsed on top of the glowing lines of the circle. Her hands involuntarily clamped over her stomach, and hot blood squeezed between her fingers.
“An honorable death,” Izanami repeated, handing the knife back to Koyane, “though perhaps it is undeserved. Use this time to reflect upon your life, Kimura Emi, so that you may pass into the next world with a pure, dedicated heart.”
The Amatsukami glanced at Koyane. “Stay with her until she passes, then burn her remains. Do not assist her in death.” She gestured gracefully toward the door and a pair of kami-sohei strode in from outside and stopped beside Shiro. “Take him to the circle.”
“Would it not be prudent to imprison him rather than rebind him?” Koyane asked. “It is now obvious that the onenju can be removed, and if he recovers enough to seek his lord …”
“I will ensure it cannot be removed again so easily,” Izanami replied as the kami picked Shiro up. “Once he is fully bound, it will be safe to kill him.”
Her last words rang in Emi’s ears as the Amatsukami swept out of the room. The kami-sohei followed, dragging Shiro’s limp form, the strange mark still glowing on his chest.
The floorboards pressed against Emi’s cheek as she stared through the doorway at the shattered pieces of the mirror beyond.
Kill him.
The words repeated over and over in her head. Izanami would rebind Shiro with the onenju, then kill him when he was at his weakest. Emi understood why. Powerful yokai had a chance at reviving from Tsuchi if they had enough ki left upon death, but weak yokai couldn’t. By binding Shiro first, Izanami ensured he would never come back.
Her heart fluttered painfully in her chest as she pressed her hands to her stomach, trying to keep her blood inside her. She had to help Shiro. She had to save him. She had led him here, straight into Izanami’s clutches, an Amatsukami he had no hope of fighting.
He would die, and it was her fault.
Chapter 23
“Are you finished dying yet, kamigakari?”
Koyane’s voice seemed to come from a great distance away. She blinked, bringing the room into focus. How long had she been lying on the floor, slowly bleeding to death?
“Izanami is merciful,” he went on, sounding bored. “I would not have been so kind.”
“Killing me is merciful?” Emi choked out, each word scraping against her dry throat.
“Oh, so you are still conscious?” He knelt in front of her, just outside the circle. “Yes, she is merciful. She had no choice but to kill you, yet she gave you a worthy end. Normally, of course, you would pierce your own belly in the ritual death, but she knew that would have been difficult for you.”
“Why did she have to kill me at all?”
“I told you: the kamigakari mark cannot be removed once it is tied to your ki. Your death is the only way to ensure Amaterasu cannot descend and interfere.” He tapped one finger on the floor in a chiding manner. “Izanami seeks only to fulfill her duty, but the soft and misguided Amatsukami of the Wind desires to stop her. Amaterasu even attempted to protect a Kunitsukami! Such treacherous behavior.”
“A Kunitsukami?” she whispered, gathering her wits as her vision slipped in and out of focus.
“Izanami has unhappily eliminated every kamigakari of Amaterasu’s for a century now,” he continued, not sounding unhappy at all. “She regrets taking innocent lives, yet Amaterasu insists on claiming new kamigakari, knowing they will die. Your fate, child, is her doing, not Izanami’s.”
“Izanami was the one …?”
“She had no choice. Her duty demands it.” He sounded smug that his master was so dutiful and self-sacrificing. “Since the day Inari killed Amaterasu, banishing her back to Takamahara, Izanami has ensured that Amaterasu cannot return to the earthly realm to interfere.”
Inari had killed Amaterasu? Upon the death of her host body, Amaterasu’s spirit and power would have returned to Takamahara—the heavenly realm of the kami. And in the subsequent hundred years, Izanami had killed all of Amaterasu’s kamigakari?
A hundred years. Hadn’t Yumei said that Inari had been missing for a hundred years as well?
“It was easy at first,” Koyane mused, oblivious to her racing thoughts. “We needed only to alert local yokai as to the location and appearance of the newest kamigakari, and they would complete the task for us. You, however, we could not find after the failed attack in Shion.”
Shock rippled through her, followed by a surge of rage that burned through the sluggish haze in her mind. She shoved herself halfway off the floor, one hand pressed to her belly and her teeth bared, but then her arm gave out and she hit the floor again, agony spearing her middle.
“The attack in Shion? You arranged that?” she spat breathlessly. Hana’s death. Hana’s death was their fault.
He raised an eyebrow at her vehemence. “You do not appear
to be reflecting well on your shortly ending life, child. You have little time left to give full consideration to your sins.”
Her tiny spurt of strength disappeared and she slumped. A thin rivulet of her blood filled the crack between the floorboards and snaked toward the edge of the glowing circle, where a remnant of fire from Shiro’s attack flickered energetically. Her vision blurred around the edges.
“I have wondered what death is,” Koyane murmured, his voice fading in and out. “I will never know, of course, but—”
The doors behind them blasted inward.
A monstrous bird of shadows and rippling red light burst into the room, its colossal wings slamming into the walls. Time froze as she craned her neck to take in the huge creature, Koyane immobile with shock beside her.
The raven’s head snapped down. It grabbed Koyane in its beak and flung him into the wall.
Sprawled helplessly on the floor, Emi gasped for air, struggling not to lose consciousness as Yumei’s ki assaulted her senses. The raven thrust his head toward her but the circle flared, forcing him back a step. His beak opened and he screeched furiously.
Blinding white light flashed and a blast of magic shot toward Yumei. Writhing shadows leaped off his wings, forming a dark shield. The two powers crashed together and exploded, knocking the raven back out the demolished doorway. Magic tore over Emi and all she could do was press closer to the floor.
“Do you think me so easily defeated, raven?” Koyane crowed, back on his feet and seemingly unharmed.
He strode across the room, blades of light forming in his hands. Framed in the threshold, Yumei spread his great wings and screamed a ferocious cry, shadows spiraling around him.
“This time you’ll fight me?” Koyane said gleefully as a glowing blue orb of power surrounded him. “How long it has been since a worthy opponent tested my strength!”
With a cackling laugh, Koyane shot out of the building after the raven. The ground shook as their powers collided once more.
Inside, dust sifted down from the ceiling. Emi lay in the glowing circle, fighting the darkness creeping along the edges of her vision. At long last, tears escaped her control and slid down her face. Come back, she wanted to scream to Yumei. Come back and free me! But she didn’t even have the strength for that.
The walls shook with the force of the battle outside. All she could do was lie in a pool of her own blood and wait to die. Somewhere, Izanami was rebinding Shiro in the beads, and then she would kill him. Yumei was fighting Koyane. How long until he could get to Shiro? What if he got there too late?
She fought the heaviness of her eyelids, focusing on the flickering flame Shiro had left behind. Somehow it was still burning, unhurriedly eating away at the wooden floorboards. With her cheek resting on the floor, she watched the flames creep toward the edge of the circle. The fire licked at the glowing outer line—and the white light rippled oddly. Emi didn’t move, didn’t even breathe, her eyes locked on the fire as it crawled over the line, leaving a charred black smudge in its wake.
The glowing marugata snuffed out, the circle broken by the tiny flame. The numbness lifted from her, and for a brief moment, she could finally breathe.
Then searing heat hit her chest like a bolt of lightning.
Her mouth opened in a silent scream. She convulsed on the floor, clutching at her chest. Power rushed into her, filling her veins with liquid fire. Her blood-smeared hands scrabbled frantically to pull open her kimono.
The kamigakari mark blazed with bright white power.
“No!” she gasped.
Her skin glowed as heat ripped through her. The mark grew hotter and hotter. Power continued to fill her, crushing and suffocating, as a presence filled her body and pushed into her mind, shoving her aside. A violent draft of air whipped around her in a shimmering whirlwind.
“No!” The word came out in a choked sob. Tears ran down her face. Even though she knew she was dying, even though she knew her life was over anyway, panic and denial obliterated all logic from her mind. “No, it’s too soon!”
You are dying, Emi.
The voice whispered inside her head, sweet and soft and filled with concern.
Power raged through her, too much power. It burned inside her, igniting her flesh and soul. It gathered in her abdomen and fiery spikes of agony pierced her belly. She screamed and curled into a ball, squeezing her middle as she trembled uncontrollably.
The pain in her stomach softened, melding with the rushing, swirling torment of the Amatsukami’s ki tearing her apart from within. Her arms and legs moved of their own accord, pushing her up until she stood on wobbly legs.
“This isn’t your body yet,” Emi wept, fighting her legs as they tried to step forward. “You weren’t supposed to come until the solstice!”
This is but a portion of my power, Amaterasu whispered in her mind. Only enough to save you, to help you. I cannot bridge the distance between us for long, but we may have enough time to save him.
“Save him?” she repeated, her breath catching.
He must not die or all hope will be lost.
Emi drew herself up. “We’ll save him together?”
Together.
Facing the shattered doors, Emi felt Amaterasu’s strength fill her trembling limbs. She half ran, half stumbled to the doors and staggered down the steps.
Across the courtyard, Koyane stood just in front of the torii. An orb of blue power surrounded him and he held a great glowing sword in both hands. A strange ecstasy contorted his beautiful face.
With a scream, the great raven dove from the sky and struck the orb around the kami with his talons. Black and red power erupted from him, intertwining with Koyane’s blue light until a tornado of spiraling magic swallowed them both.
Where is the circle, Emi?
She tore her eyes away from the battle, struggling to focus, to think. The circle. Izanami had told her vassals to take Shiro to the circle. What circle? Not a circle, but the circle. Where—
An image flashed in her mind: Katsuo catching her elbow as she tripped over stones hidden in the snow—an ancient circle set in the earth, used centuries ago by the kannushi of the shrine. Of course.
She spun and broke into a run, ignoring the pain of the Amatsukami’s power. Her stomach no longer hurt but she didn’t stop to check why. With each step, her will merged more seamlessly with Amaterasu’s vast mind, their thoughts sliding together like puzzle pieces in motion. Ignoring the sounds of wood breaking and stone shattering from Yumei and Koyane’s battle, she ran around the shrine offices into the trees beyond.
Ahead, light erupted, almost blinding her. Through the trees, a column of light shot skyward. Emi swung toward it, increasing her pace further yet.
A kami stepped out from behind a thick oak trunk, raising his bow with a glowing arrow already nocked to fire.
Controlled by Amaterasu, Emi’s hand flew up and hot ki surged through her. A blast of wind struck the kami, hurling him into the oak with impossible force. His skull crunched against the bark and he slumped to the ground.
Taking control again, Emi swerved and grabbed the bow and arrow from the kami’s limp hands. Not daring to stop for more arrows, she charged toward the beacon glowing through the trees. She wheeled around a bush and finally saw what lay ahead.
The kami had cleared the snow and leaves from the center of the round glade, and in the empty space, a circle of worn, flat stones created the outline from which a column of light rose. Inside the stone ring, swirling and interconnecting lines that glowed with the brightness of the sun were etched into the smooth earth.
Within the circle, Shiro hung suspended in the light, head hanging back, arms at his sides, and feet hovering just above the ground. Floating within the column of divine luminance, he almost seemed peaceful, as though he were sleeping in heaven’s embrace.
Izanami stood in front of the circle. As Emi ran toward them, the kami reached into the light and took Shiro’s arm. The onenju glowed red within the shimmering w
hite radiance. Izanami grasped the beads.
Emi slid to a stop, still two dozen paces away in the trees. She fitted the arrow on the bow and drew the string back to her cheek. Her mouth moved, whispering words she didn’t know as magic built within the arrow. White light glowed over it and the wind, rippling with ribbons of white power, swirled around her feet.
Izanami glanced up from Shiro’s arm and looked at her.
Emi released the arrow. Power formed around it as it shot through the air, a missile of lethal Amatsukami ki. Izanami recoiled, her hands coming up too late to stop it.
Just before it struck, a kami jumped from the shadows and threw himself between his master and the arrow. It struck his chest and detonated like a grenade, blasting him apart.
Emi dropped the bow and charged. Her hands extended and power surged again. A shimmering sword of air formed in her hands. She drew it back as she closed in on Izanami and slashed the blade.
Izanami summoned a black katana and the two swords collided. Wind laced with crackling magic blew Emi’s hair back from her face and sent her kimono swirling behind her.
“Amaterasu,” Izanami murmured.
“Izanami.” Gone was Amaterasu’s gentle tone. Ice turned her voice into a razor-edged blade, and her fury burned through Emi. “Traitor!”
“I betray no one,” Izanami replied coolly, light from the marugata flickering over her face. “I only do my duty.”
“You have betrayed us all,” Amaterasu accused with Emi’s lips, pressing her blade of wind into Izanami’s katana. “You tricked Inari and I into destroying each other. You slew my kamigakari year after year. You imprisoned the other Kunitsukami.”
“The Kunitsukami would not allow me to complete my duty. I am compelled to see it through, Amaterasu, regardless of my personal desires.”
“Do not pretend. I know you seek this power for your own gain.”
Izanami’s eyes blazed with anger. “You dare minimize my sacrifice? I would not seek this, but I must. You are too weak and softhearted to see what comes. I am the Amatsukami of the Earth, and I will save it no matter what I must do.”