Wind erupted in the courtyard. A rushing gust spiraled out from her and struck the kami. He flew backward, barely staying on his feet. Weapons clashed loudly and voices were shouting and screaming unintelligible words.
The kami righted himself, his upper lip curled in a sneer. “A paltry breeze will not be nearly enough, kamigakari.”
With a flick of his hand, the ground rumbled violently.
The stones beneath Emi’s feet split. She plunged into a crevice in the earth, landing painfully on her knees. Trapped between walls of rock, she flung her hand down. Wind burst to life, hurling her upward as the ground shook. She shot out of the crevice as it slammed closed again with a screech of tearing stone, leaving no more than a thin crack. If she’d been inside the gap, she would have been crushed.
She had to stop him before he brought his considerably greater power to bear. Sticking her hand into her sleeve, she grabbed the ofuda she’d taken from Fujimoto.
The kami bore down on her a second time. Perhaps he still intended to take her alive if possible. She couldn’t give him the chance. With a gasp, she flung herself forward to meet him.
Surprise darted across his features. He thrust his hand out to meet hers, and instead of striking his torso with her ofuda, she connected with the palm of his hand.
“Sotei no shinketsu!” she cried.
Magic rushed through her as a blue glow lit the ofuda. Light shimmered over the kami, but instead of encasing him as it had the kannushi, it rippled wildly. White power snapped out from the kami as he fought the binding with his own ki.
She pressed her hand hard to his, struggling to hold the spell. The wind erupted again, surging through the courtyard and catching all the golden leaves of the cherry trees in the cyclone. They spiraled up into the sky as she strained to force the binding onto him.
In a swirl of violet robes, Ishida appeared beside Emi, seemingly unfazed by the whirlwind around her and the kami.
“Hold him a little longer, Kimura,” he said.
She pushed her hand and ki against the ofuda as heat built in her chest until it felt like her kamigakari mark was on fire. Power scorched her nerves. Focusing on the kami, she bent her will to holding the binding on him as the paper turned black beneath her palm.
Hands grabbed the back of her kimono and yanked her away.
She gasped as her hand left the ofuda. Without her ki to support it, it instantly dissolved into black ash. The kami’s mouth twisted furiously as he stretched his hand toward her.
“Sotei no shinketsu,” Ishida’s deep voice rumbled.
Blinding white light erupted. On the ground around the kami, the lines of a complex marugata glowed with power. The light swept over the kami, encasing him where her ofuda had failed. The kami froze in place, bound by magic of the exorcism circle.
Ishida stood in front of it. Someone had given him a long staff topped with an elaborate gold hoop, and he held it with the butt resting on the edge of the circle he had drawn on the stones around her and the kami. Used to bind and seal the most dangerous of yokai, marugata were far more powerful than ofuda. She hadn’t realized they could bind kami too.
Katsuo stood beside her, having pulled her from the marugata just before Ishida activated it. The kami’s two sohei were disarmed and surrounded by Amaterasu’s purple-clad sohei.
Breathing hard, Emi turned to Ishida. “Do you believe me now?” she asked hoarsely.
Ishida met her stare, his face unreadable.
“Emi, are you okay?” Katsuo murmured beside her.
“Huh?” She started to turn toward him and her knees buckled. He grabbed her as she sagged, her whole body trembling. A strange ringing filled her head as a painful hollowness spread from her chest outward.
As Katsuo supported her and Ishida strode toward her, the buzzing of the courtyard melded with the ringing in her ears, and everything faded into darkness.
Pressing her hands together, Emi bowed her head.
In front of her, the small household shrine for private prayer occupied a nook in the wall, framed by white vases that were filled with fresh flowers every week. The rest of the suite, the largest one among the miko lodgings, was so familiar she could picture it perfectly without opening her eyes.
Beautiful tatami mats covered the spacious floors and several stunning, painted scrolls accented the wood-paneled walls. A low, rectangular table, surrounded by plush cushions, filled the center of the space. In a semi-enclosed second room, a large, full-size bed waited—a significant upgrade from the usual futon mattresses stored in the closet during the day. It was one of the few nontraditional elements in the room. Wall-to-wall closets with carved wooden doors faced the bedroom.
She turned her attention inward, hoping to feel Amaterasu’s presence within her. After a couple minutes, hot pain flickered through her kamigakari mark. She held her breath and waited but, as before, the brief pain was all she felt.
She lifted her head, completing her prayer with a final bow. Rising to her feet, she paced the length of her room and back again.
After battling the kami, she’d collapsed in a dead faint. She’d woken as groggy and weak as she’d felt after Koyane had stolen most of her ki. Yumei had warned her she would need significant recovery time before she could wield Amaterasu’s power again; the Amatsukami’s possession of her had weakened her body and ki. For the same reason, she was not yet able to free Shiro from the onenju.
Channeling Amaterasu’s power in the courtyard had not only exhausted her, but her vastly diminished supply of Amaterasu’s ki had also weakened her connection with her kami to the point where she couldn’t even feel Amaterasu’s presence.
Fortunately, she didn’t need any divine power for the time being. The kami was sealed and wouldn’t be leaving the shrine any time soon. She didn’t know exactly what Ishida had done with the kami, or his kannushi and sohei, and she hadn’t asked. Until she left Shion, they couldn’t be allowed to pass on her whereabouts to Izanami.
And Ishida was not risking another attempt on her life. He’d tripled the guard around the shrine and increased its magical protections as well. Though he’d assured her she was as safe as she could be under the circumstances, he still insisted she stay within the walled complex where they could best protect her.
The small silver lining of the kami’s unreserved attempt to kill her was that it had firmly reversed Ishida’s stance on her version of events. When she’d again reiterated Amaterasu’s command that she find and free the Kunitsukami, he’d finally initiated a careful search for clues among Izanami shrines and servants.
Still pacing the room, she wrung her hands. It was now the fourth day since her return to Shion, and Ishida had no information for her yet. The delay chafed her, shortening her patience and increasing the hunted feeling that dogged her every step. She’d met with him the previous two days to see what he had learned, but he had nothing to share. He’d assured her it would take some time to contact all the kannushi and in turn have them discreetly question the members of their shrines. Patience, he had said.
Patience was difficult when the days were slipping away too quickly. It was already the nineteenth of November and the solstice was on the twenty-first of December. Less than five weeks were left to find and free the Kunitsukami. Less than five weeks until her life ended.
She shook her head, banishing the last thought. She had accepted her fate. Her only concern now was completing the crucial task Amaterasu had given her before the solstice.
Drifting to a stop in the middle of her room, she toyed with the idea of pestering Ishida again. She had nothing else to do. For four days she had remained inside the miko lodgings, where she would be safest from further attack. Four days of pacing her bedroom, pacing the halls, pacing the inner garden in the center of the building. Several miko, no doubt at Ishida’s urging, had offered to include her in activities—assisting with training, observing a new class practicing their kagura dances, drawing ofuda and other talismans.
She
hadn’t accepted any of the invitations. Not only was she too consumed by worries and frustrations to give any of those tasks her attention, but she also couldn’t bring herself to partake in anything that resembled her routine as a miko. Memories were already haunting her … memories of Hana. In every inch of this building, of this shrine, she could see the ghosts of their friendship. Until now, she had never been at Shion without Hana at her side. Their friendship had begun on Emi’s first day here as a frightened eight-year-old, and mere days after Hana’s death, Emi had left Shion permanently. Each reminder of Hana and her absence cut at her heart.
She rubbed two fingers over her forehead, massaging a burgeoning headache. It would have been nice to speak with Katsuo, to share her worries and frustrations, but she hadn’t seen him since the day they arrived. Every time she’d asked about him, she’d been informed he was in some sort of training. She couldn’t help her disappointment that he hadn’t come to check on her.
She sighed. It had been even longer since she’d seen Shiro. She’d been concerned he would come bursting into the shrine upon realizing a kami battle had taken place in the courtyard, but perhaps he hadn’t come close enough to notice. The Shion Shrine was not a safe place for a yokai, especially with everyone on high alert.
She should let him know what was happening; he was probably going crazy waiting for her. Nodding to herself, she headed for the door. The halls were quiet, most miko out and about attending to their various duties. Lost in thought, she walked through the familiar corridors until a murmur of conversation caught her attention.
“But it can’t be true.”
The miko’s voice drifted from a partially open door at the end of the hall. Emi slowed her steps, surprised by the girl’s vehement denial.
“Why would she lie, though?” another miko countered.
“Miko Nanako isn’t exactly friendly most of the time.”
At Nanako’s name, Emi stepped closer to the door and peered curiously through the crack. Four teenaged miko sat in a circle, their hands busy braiding shimenawa ropes while they talked.
“Being unfriendly and being a liar are two different things,” one of the girls said firmly. “Besides, it’s hardly a crazy story compared to what happened in the courtyard.”
Another girl huffed unhappily. “I wish I’d been there.”
“No, you don’t. It was terrifying.” The girl’s hands paused on the rope. “I’d never seen a kami before. I’m not sure I even really believed … but he was real. And when he made the ground open up and swallow Kimura, I thought she was dead for sure.”
“But why would a kami want to kill our kamigakari?”
“Miko Nanako said Izanami has betrayed the other Amatsukami.”
Silence fell over the girls.
“I always thought the kamigakari got to become immortal and live forever,” one girl mumbled. “Or at least live until Amaterasu needed to ascend again, which could be centuries.”
“Tsukiyomi has been using the same kamigakari for a long time and I heard he still looks, like, twenty or something.”
“What’ll Kimura do? She didn’t know she would die.”
“She’s going to do it anyway,” the one who’d witnessed the fight in the courtyard said as though it were the most obvious thing in the world. “How could she do anything else? If she backed out now … that would be so shameful.”
“But she didn’t know when she was chosen. If it were me, I would run away.”
“Me too.”
“Same here.”
“She won’t run and neither would I,” the girl replied. “Did you see what she did in the courtyard? She might die on the solstice, but how could she betray Amaterasu by backing out now? Amaterasu needs her and she knows it.”
The other girls murmured in reluctant agreement and Emi forced herself back into motion. Sickness churned in her stomach.
If it were me, I would run away.
Hearing other girls say with such certainty that, in the face of death, they would abandon their duty shook Emi. Was there something wrong with her that she hadn’t reacted like that? The one miko had understood. Backing out wasn’t just shameful; it was unforgivably selfish.
She hurried to the main doors of the hall and onto the front steps. The courtyard was empty except for a few kannushi near the hall of purification and a trio of sohei lingering near the doors of the miko lodgings—additional security for the kamigakari, no doubt. Clouds gathered in the sky and the crisp, cold air smelled of coming snow.
Glancing across the courtyard, she considered where she was most likely to find Shiro. He might have come and gone at will from the Shirayuri Shrine, but entering Shion was a danger he wouldn’t lightly undertake. The torii could potentially reject him, but even if it didn’t, the grounds were covered in purifying ofuda and shimenawa ropes, plus a fair few binding marugata circles and, of course, the many skilled kannushi and sohei who would detect a nearby yokai presence.
The eastern edge of the grounds was the most heavily forested and the safest place for him to hide. Descending the steps, she considered how to discreetly find him once she was outside the grounds.
“My lady?” The three sohei rushed to join her. “May we ask where you’re going?”
She tipped her head toward the gate leading out of the courtyard. “I need to step outside the shrine grounds for a moment.”
They exchanged an alarmed look. “Guji Ishida indicated that you were to remain here.”
“It’s necessary,” she assured them. “Don’t worry, you may accompany me. It will only take a few minutes.”
They exchanged another terse look. One of them turned on his heel and took off at a brisk jog toward the hall of purification.
The older one hesitated, strangely wary. “We were instructed to ensure you stay within the complex.”
“I don’t intend to go far.” She turned toward the gate again, but no sooner did she take a step than they both jumped in front of her, blocking her path.
“Our orders are from the Guji, my lady,” the older sohei said stiffly. “Please understand that we must ensure you stay here.”
She hesitated, unsure how to respond. As the kamigakari, she was soundly outranked by the Guji. But as the voice of Amaterasu, she was the greatest authority in the shrine. She drew herself up.
To her surprise, both sohei stepped backward and the younger one grabbed the hilt of his sword. She froze. Were they afraid of her? As her mind spun, the younger sohei’s focus shifted to her left and relief swept over his face. Emi turned.
Ishida approached swiftly with the third sohei half trotting after him, struggling to keep up with the Guji’s long strides.
“Kamigakari Kimura,” he said. “Please come with me.”
Casting a cold look at the three sohei, she followed Ishida as he returned to the hall of purification. He led her directly to his office and knelt on the far side of the table. Emi lowered herself to kneel opposite him.
“Kamigakari Kimura, why did you attempt to leave the grounds?”
“I wanted to see if Shiro or the Tengu was nearby. They’re waiting for information on Izanami so we can act immediately.”
“And you did not consider the danger of leaving the shrine?”
“I—of course, but I was only—”
“Despite our best efforts, we cannot guarantee your safety beyond the torii. Izanami’s servants could be waiting to strike the moment you are exposed.” He folded his hands on the table. “You will not leave the grounds under any circumstances, Kamigakari Kimura. Is that clear?”
“How am I supposed to communicate with Shiro and the Tengu if I can’t leave the grounds?” Her eyes narrowed. “Once we have an idea on where to look for the missing Kunitsukami, I will have to leave. Amaterasu commanded me to find and free them. I can’t do that from within the shrine.”
“Amatsukami have vassals and servants to complete dangerous tasks for them so they may remain safe—as we need them to be. You have brought this t
ask to me, and now you must entrust me to see it through. All who serve at this shrine exist to put our lives before Amaterasu’s—and therefore yours.”
“I will not sit here doing nothing while—”
“You will remain safe within the shrine. Amaterasu gave you this task, and you have given it to me. I will ensure the thorough investigation of whatever leads we uncover, and if we discover imprisoned Kunitsukami, we will deal with it.”
“What does ‘deal with it’ mean?” She struggled to keep her tone even. “Whatever Izanami has done to imprison the Kunitsukami is not something a human can undo. I’ll need to—”
“I will not allow you anywhere near a Kunitsukami. The ceremony is little more than a month away, and Izanami is already hunting you. Even a single step outside the protection of the grounds could be your immediate demise.”
“Freeing the Kunitsukami is more important,” she insisted. “Izanami is doing something that Amaterasu said would destroy the world. That’s more important than my life or Amaterasu’s descension.”
“Until it becomes apparent that the world is in imminent danger, I will not risk you.”
“Amaterasu told me—”
“At this time, there is nothing for you to do that our skilled and accomplished sohei and kannushi cannot do.”
“I won’t be put on the sidelines for this, Guji Ishida.”
The temperature of his stare dropped until it was arctic. “Your safety and survival are my highest priority and I will not allow you to die before the solstice. To that end, I have already made arrangements to move you to a safe, hidden location where neither kami nor yokai can find you.”
She inhaled sharply. Ishida was supposed to help her, not take her task away and lock her up in a hidden location, cut off from everything. “You—you can’t—”
“I will do whatever I must to serve my kami.”
If she attempted to leave against his wishes, Ishida would no doubt use force to stop her, and she had no power to fight with even if she was willing to; her ki was still exhausted from battling the kami. And, on the slim chance she could get past Ishida, every kannushi and sohei at the shrine would put himself between her and escape.