Christopher Golden - A Winter of Ghosts

Sakura fidgeted, glancing aroundas though searching for an escape from this moment. Miho pushed her glasses upon the bridge of her nose and tucked a lock of her long hair behind her ear,retreating into her old shyness, her sympathy for Sakura making her unwillingto push the matter.

At last Sakura looked up atKara, who pleaded with her silently. But they all knew that Sakura would haveto tell it. Too much was at stake for her to refuse The Unsui's request.

Sakura looked at Kubo. "Mysister's name was Akane Murakami," she said. "And she died for a boyshe did not love."

It pained Sakura to tell thestory. When she had finished, she sat in numb silence and listened to theothers unspool the rest of the tale. Kara began with her arrival atMonju-no-Chie school and talked of death shrines and cats and nightmares. Mihotalked about the Noh play they had intended to do in the fall. Mr. Harper andMiss Aritomo told the story of the Hannya that had possessed the art teacherand nearly killed them all. And they all shared the telling of the blizzardthat had killed Sora, with Mr. Yamato explaining the efforts of the police andother searchers to locate the missing boys.

Through all of their words,Sakura only listened. She thought about Akane, and how she had made peace withher sister's death, and a truth began to take shape in her mind, sharpening andclarifying itself with every passing minute. She had come to terms with Akane'sdeath, but would never be able to make peace with the fact that her sister hadbeen murdered. She had let her anger go and given in to her sorrow, but nowthat her parents had finally begun to break out of the spell that grief had putthem under, Sakura's own anger had begun to resurface.

It had been hard enough to standat her sister's funeral and know she would be gone forever, but she had movedon the best she could.

Yet how could she move on whenthe echoes of Akane's death continued to wreak havoc upon her life? All oftheir lives. As she listened to the stories being told, it only drove home evenmore that her sister's murder was the axis upon which all of this death andanguish spun. How could she move on, as long as the curse of Kyuketsuki loomedover her?

The answer was painfullyobvious.

She couldn't.

The voices around the table hadfallen silent. Everyone watched Kubo, the air thick with expectation. Sakurastudied his thick, wiry eyebrows, perhaps the most expressive part of his face.They had dipped into frowns and leaped with smiles throughout the visit thusfar. Now, though, those eyebrows gave no hint as to his mood.

When at last he began slowly tonod, Sakura felt a small flame ignite within her, though it took a moment forher to recognize it as hope — the hope that one day soon they could putall of this behind them. She had become accustomed to being cursed, and evenbegun to accept that they might have to all leave Japan to escape it, and toleave Miyazu City right away to get away from Yuki-Onna. . though she wasn'tsure that would even work.

"Master Kubo?" MissAritomo said, prompting the Unsui.

The old monk looked at her,those bristly eyebrows came to life again, tilting downward in a solemnexpression of contemplation.

"Yes," he said. "Theremay be a way."

"Please, Kubo-san,"Kara's father said quickly. "Tell us."

"In a moment," Kubosaid.

He unfolded himself from thefloor and stood, hurrying to the same door he had used when he had made themtea. Moments later, he shuffled back in and across the tatami mats with onefist closed and the other holding lengths of black twine.

Seating himself once more uponthe pillow, he laid the twine across his lap and opened his clenched fist. Uponhis palm lay four stones of a dull gray hue. They would have been entirelyordinary except for two characteristics that all four shared. Each had a singlehole directly in its center, and each was a perfect circle. They varied insize, but not in the perfection of their roundness.

"These come from the streambeside my home," Kubo said, as he strung the first of them onto a lengthof twine and handed it to Kara's father. "Emperors have been born and diedin the time they have spent there, the water wearing them smooth. The holes Ihave made myself."

They all watched in confusion ashe strung a second and handed it to Miss Aritomo, and then a third, which hegave to Mr. Yamato. The fourth he strung and then tied the ends of the twine tokeep it from falling off.

"I don't understand,"Mr. Harper said.

"Go on," Kubo said,gesturing to Kara. "Tie them around the girls' necks. They are simplecharms, but will help protect them from Yuki-Onna."

"They're rocks!" Sakura found herself saying, and more sharply than was proper. "Whatshould we do, throw them at her when she comes to kill us?"

The Unsui sat up straighter,expression darkening, and suddenly the kindly old man had been replaced by agreat master.

"I have wandered in fleshand spirit for longer than you three girls have breathed the air of this world.There are things in it which, even after all you have seen, you will likelynever understand — a delicate balance between earth and sky, between bodyand mind, between seen and unseen. And the unseen requires faith."

Ashamed, Sakura lowered herhead. "Forgive me, Kubo-sensei."

The old monk smiled. "Ofcourse. Now listen, and behave. The stream made the stones round and smooth,but I put the eyes in them — "

Mr. Yamato tied one aroundSakura's neck and she held it between thumb and finger, realizing that by 'eye'Kubo meant the hole in the center.

"There are old words, oldprayers, that can provide protection, and I have spoken those words over thesestones myself. They are defenses. Wards against evil. Ancient spirits do notsee humans for their faces, but for their essence, and your essence can be hidden behind masks or with the help of certain charms."

Sakura immediately thought ofthe masks they had worn when they had stopped the Hannya, and understood atlast how the masks had helped them. From the look on Miho's face, she saw thather roommate had made the same connection.

"But we can't wear masksall of the time," Kara said. "In school or in the city, for instance."

The Unsui nodded. "Exactly.But with these. ." he gestured to the necklaces. "If Yuki-Onnacomes for you, even if she stands in the same room with you, she will be blindto you. Her terrible gaze will slide away from you, slip off of the stone orthrough its eye. She may know something is there, but she will not see you, andthat will give you time to escape her."

Sakura saw Mr. Harper take Kara'shand and squeeze, obviously relieved and hopeful but also so frightened for hisdaughter. She almost wished her own father were here, but if he had been, sheknew he would never have believed, or understood. This was something she had todo on her own.

"The fourth is for yourfriend Hachiro, when you find him," Kubo said, handing the stone on itsstring to Kara.

Kara lit up. "Then youthink he's alive?"

Kubo nodded once. "He maybe. If so, he may need this."

"But, Master Kubo, thiscannot work forever," Miss Aritomo said. "If Yuki-Onna can't bestopped or driven away, more people will die. Even if we save these girls, thedemon is still on the mountain and it may be a very long winter."

"And Hachiro is still upthere," Kara said quickly, looking around at her friends and then herfather. "But with these. . wards. . we could help look for him andYuki-Onna wouldn't know we were there."

Kubo raised both hands to calmthem. When he had their attention, he poured himself another cup of tea andlifted it to his lips.

"I have not heard any storywhere Yuki-Onna was defeated or banished," he said, before sipping his teaand putting the cup back down. "But this is different from the tales Ihave heard. Such spirits are ancient and faded. They are quiet now, driftinginto the past like smoke rising into the sky. It was not simply the death ofthe woman during the winter's first snow that brought Yuki-Onna here. It wasthe curse that Kyuketsuki placed upon you, the call for vengeance which thatdemon sent out into the spirit world. The power of Kyuketsuki's curse seems tohave helped guide and summon both the Hannya and Yuki-Onna, given them thestrength to manifest. If we can break the curse — "