Scott McGough: Heretic, Betrayers of Kamigawa

Mochi lowered his hands and the glow around him faded. “The Myojin of Night’s Reach? Surely you don’t think your half-hearted attempts at worship have swayed her to your side? I introduced you two, after all.”

“I meant to ask,” Toshi said. “Why did you do that, anyway? She really doesn’t think all that highly of you.”

“We have much in common,” Mochi said. “Night and the moon go hand in hand, after all. To your question: I expected she would chasten you or that you would find some way of usurping her power. Either way, you occupied each other and left me to my designs, which is all I wanted.” He opened his stance and glanced around the room. “That’s all I really wanted from any of you.”

“Still lying,” Toshi said. “Why don’t you tell us the whole truth for once?”

Mochi shrugged. “If I did,” he said, “you wouldn’t even understand it.” The little blue man shook his head sadly. “Enough of this now. You are trying to delay me until the yamabushi get close enough to strike. It won’t help. Even if they appeared here and now, I could escape them. All the same, I no longer wish to continue this conversation.”

He extended his new arm to Michiko. “Come with me, Princess. You can either take my hand or be tossed over my shoulder like a sack of rice.” He smiled, glancing at his own tiny body. “Metaphorically, of course, but the fact remains, we are leaving now.”

“No, Mochi.” Toshi raised his sword again. “I can’t let you do that.”

Exasperated, Mochi said, “Oh, come now. How do you intend to stop me? Will you strike me mute? Make yourself disappear?”

Toshi tilted his sword so that light reflected off it into Mochi’s eyes. Irritated, the little blue man tilted his head out of the way.

“No,” Toshi said. “I have something else in mind.”

Posed as he was, the blood dripping from his forehead splashed down onto the flat of the blade. He had to act quickly now. Perhaps the little spirit had noticed the kanji Toshi had drawn on his sword, how the sharp lines and curves formed the exact same symbol as the one that now gleamed on his forehead, glowing with a soft purple-black glow. The temperature in the room plummeted.

Mochi’s arm, still extended toward Michiko, went rigid. He glanced at his wrist, so recently struck by Toshi’s sword, and saw the thin crust of ice crawling over his flesh. The moon kami’s expression became one of pale horror.

“You cannot-” he started, but the cold murdered the thought before it could cross his lips. Mochi stood on the desktop, a tiny blue statue under a dusty white coating of frost.

Supported by Riko, Sharp-Ear stepped up alongside Toshi. The fox-man glanced up and down the immobile spirit then back at the ochimusha. “What just happened?”

“It happened when I first came in.” Toshi sheathed his sword. “I don’t know how long that will hold,” he said. “I have to move quickly.” He crossed the room, eyeing the shadows by the door. “I’ll be back as soon as I can.”

“But the ogre,” Riko said. “The yamabushi. They have come to kill us all.”

“Unless I’m much mistaken,” Toshi said, “you’ll have much worse than that to deal with before the night is through.” He turned and faced them all, Pearl-Ear, Sharp-Ear, Riko, Michiko, even Hisoka sitting near-catatonic on the floor.

“You have to trust me,” he said.

“I don’t think I can,” Sharp-Ear said. “I’m only speaking for myself, but-”

“No,” Toshi said. “You have to trust me. I’m not giving you a choice. I’m going to leave now, alone. You can’t come with me, and you can’t stop me. I’ll either return with the means to reward him properly-” he gestured at Mochi-“or I’ll come back and get you all out of here.”

Pearl-Ear locked eyes with Toshi. “Why can’t you help us escape now?”

“Because I don’t know if I can. I’m hoping it doesn’t come to that.”

Riko stepped forward. “Take Michiko, then.” The student ignored protests from the kitsune, imploring Toshi with her eyes. “If you leave her here and Mochi revives, he’ll take her. If you leave her here and the ogre finds us, she’ll die. I’d rather have her alive and free, even if that means she’s at your mercy.”

Michiko looked hurt. “I would never abandon you, Riko. I would never abandon any of you.”

Toshi smiled ruefully. “Now this is trust,” he said, “but even I didn’t think you’d take it this far. Remember a few months ago when you all tried to kill me for taking her away?”

“Toshi,” Pearl-Ear said. “Riko may have a point. Better to get Michiko away from here now while we have the chance.”

“I do not wish to leave my friends,” Michiko said.

Toshi spoke to Pearl-Ear. “I have every intention of returning for her,” he said, “as I said.”

“What if you don’t come back at all, despite your good intentions?”

Toshi shrugged. “In that case your situation hasn’t really changed. You’re still stuck here with a very hostile enemy outside. Best of luck.”

“Wait,” Michiko said. She stepped forward and bowed. “Thank you for helping me.”

“You get what you pay for,” Toshi said, somewhat uncomfortably. He stared at the princess, searching for her angle, waiting for the rest of her sentence to end in a question, a plea, or a threat.

When none came, he said, “Well, don’t thank me yet.” He paused. “On second thought, do. I officially accept your thanks, because if I pull this off, you may never forgive me.”

“Where are you going?” Michiko said. “What are you trying to do?”

Toshi shook his head and said, “Just stay here. This room is about as far from Hidetsugu as you can get. Once he sweeps aside the sentries and the archers, he’s going to get serious.”

He looked up at Pearl-Ear. “If he makes it this far, throw Mochi here as far as you can and run as in the opposite direction. There’s a chance Hidetsugu will be so preoccupied he won’t even notice you. It’s not a good chance, but it’s a chance.”

Pearl-Ear nodded. “Will you answer Michiko-hime’s question?”

“Which one? Make it quick-I’m in a rush.”

“What are you trying to do?”

Toshi tossed the hair from his face. “Same as usual. Survive. Profit. Learn something new.” He straightened to his full height. “Maybe grow as a person. I’ve become much more spiritual lately.”

Pearl-Ear nodded. “I can see that,” she said dryly.

“Really?” Sharp-Ear called. “Point it out to me.”

Toshi raised an eyebrow. “When I come back to rescue you all,” he called to Sharp-Ear, “you’re last.”

He turned and walked into the shadows, which seemed to swallow him whole.

General Takeno stood on the tower’s highest balcony, a solid sheet of stone that could bear the weight of fifty men. He had spent the last few days positioning archers in each of the windows, checking the moth riders’ formations, and moving large groups of soldiers around the tower’s interior.

The daimyo remained convinced that his fortress would withstand the great spirit beast’s attack, but Takeno was not convinced. He had watched O-Kagachi shrug aside Yosei as if the white dragon were no more than a stinging fly, and now the monster was at the walls of Eiganjo, dwarfing them with his vast, grasping jaws and his endless crashing coils.

The Great Old Serpent had also acquired another head, somehow, between his battle with Yosei and his arrival at the gates. Takeno had been staring at O-Kagachi throughout the great beast’s approach, but the change had happened so swiftly that there was no transition-the serpent had had three heads, Takeno had blinked, and the serpent had had four.