Christopher Golden - A Winter of Ghosts

Only then did Kara seeYuki-Onna. She had been hidden by the pines above the mouth of the cave but nowshe glided into view, her beautiful face contorted into ugliness by fury and byevil. Her jaws were wide, her teeth bloody, and she screamed in frustration andpointed elongated fingers at him.

"Kara, hide!" MissAritomo said, trying to pull her into the mouth of the cave.

The snow on the ground flowedtogether like crashing waves, freezing into a solid ridge of jagged ice, allrippling across the ground toward Kubo. The old monk seemed to inflate asthough from a deep breath, held out his hands in a meditative pose, and hunghis head. Two feet from where it would have impaled him, the ice ridgeshattered and fell away.

Kara wanted to cheer. As shemoved nearer, she saw others in the snow beyond Kubo. At first she thought theywere more ghosts, but they began to rise from the snow and her heart soared atthe unmistakable sight of Hachiro. She knew him by size alone, by the tilt ofhis head and the way he held himself. Ren and Mr. Yamato and Miho were withhim.

Hachiro's alive! Shecouldn't believe it. She had not allowed herself to believe anything else, butin her secret heart the doubts had started to grow. Her body flooded withrelief and then that was washed away by an overwhelming surge of love thatfilled her so completely that she could barely breathe. It warmed her, burningthe cold from her bones, at least for a few moments.

But then Kubo turned to lookdirectly at her — somehow he had sensed her there — and she saw theurgency and the pain in his eyes. What are you doing just standing here? s hethought. Kubo had made it clear he did not believe he could destroy Yuki-Onnaand Kara had just stood watching.

She spun toward Miss Aritomo."The ritual. We've got to do the ritual."

"How? We don't have Sakuraor Ume!"

Kara heard a cry of pain echoacross the mountainside, and then the storm swept it away. She turned to seeYuki-Onna and Kubo. The witch gripped the old man by the throat, lifting himoff the ground, and whatever mystic rite had protected Kubo from her could notprevent a physical attack. The snow spun around him now, and Kara stared inhorror as the old monk's flesh began to turn blue in the snow woman's grasp.

Kubo was freezing to death.

Miss Aritomo grabbed Kara's armand spun her around again, pointing down the mountain at a group of ghostsmaking their way toward them. They passed through the trees, insubstantial,untouched by the storm. . or at least some of them did.

Kara wiped snow from her eyes. Threeof the figures were not ghosts. She saw Mai and Ume, and then she recognizedthe third.

"Sakura?" she said,jaw dropping in astonishment. "But how — "

"The ritual!" MissAritomo shouted.

Kara glanced at Kubo — sawice crystals and gray, dead patches of frostbite blossoming on his cheeks — and then she ran to meet Sakura and the ghosts.

The ghosts were insubstantial,but Yuki-Onna existed in two worlds at once. She was both tangible andintangible, spirit and storm and flesh, and when the ghosts attacked her, shescreamed and began to beat at them, snap her jaws at them, tear bits of themaway with those shark teeth.

But they had diverted her, andher grip on Kubo broke. He fell to the ground.

The storm faltered, the snowslowing, the wind lessening. . but only for a moment. The Woman in Whitestretched out her arms as though conducting a symphony and suddenly the windcould touch the ghosts as well. . and yet Kara could no longer feel it. Thewind had begun to blow in another place, a world between life and death wherethese spirits had lingered, clinging to the lives they did not want to leavebehind.

"Hurry!" Kara snapped.

But she need not have bothered. Sakuragrabbed Ume by the hand and dragged her toward Kubo, and Kara's mind spun withthe sight. Sakura had been unconscious, even comatose, with major damage to herskull. How she was up and running Kara had no idea. It seemed impossible. Karahad grown used to impossible things, but they were always terrible, and herewas something that was both impossible and wonderful. She had to force herselfto focus on the ritual, on Kubo, instead of on Sakura and Hachiro and Ren, andthe fact that they were all, for the moment, still alive.

Because Kubo was dying. A sweet,funny, venerable old man, this monk, but also a mystical adept, the only onewho could perform the ritual that would break the curse on them.

"Master Kubo!" Karacried as she ran to him and dropped to her knees in the snow.

He looked ancient, now, sicklyand shaking with cold. His eyes were tired and almost opaque, but not blind. Hesaw her, and he glanced around at the others. Mai and Ume hung back, but Sakuracame close, almost gliding herself, a kind of ethereal beauty about her and aserenity in her eyes that seemed so strange in the midst of the rage of thisstorm, with the ghosts trying to restrain Yuki-Onna so close by.

Miss Aritomo ran to Mr. Yamato,the two of them shouting to be heard over the wind, telling Kara and the othersto hurry. Miho and Ren came over to Kubo and dropped to their knees oppositeKara.

Hachiro knelt in the snow besideher. His eyes were haunted, his face gaunt with starvation, and she knew he hadbeen through hell these last three days. But he reached down and took her hand,held it tight, fingers twined with hers, and she saw that the Hachiro she lovedwas still there, deep down inside this tormented boy.

All those who were there whenKyuketsuki had been destroyed and driven from the world, Kara thought. Notjust the cursed — her and Miho and Sakura — but all of them. Hachirowas beside her, but Ume had still not approached.

"Ume, come on!" Karashouted to be heard over the storm.

But the tall, statuesque girl,the former Queen of the Soccer Bitches, only shook her head. She tried to backaway but Mai put an arm around her and urged her forehead. Ume stared at the ghostsand Yuki-Onna, tearing at one another, and she began to cry, her tears freezingon her cheeks.

"Ume, it must be now!" Sakura said.

Kara frowned. It had sounded asthough two voices spoke in unison, two people speaking from one mouth. Was thatjust the storm, some weird echo? Kara studied her face and realized it had ahardness, a grim twist of the mouth, that were nothing like Sakura at all.

And then in an instant, herexpression changed, softening. Even her eyes seemed to lighten with a kindnessand understanding that hadn't been there a moment before. Sakura held out ahand.

"Ume, please," Sakurasaid, and now her voice, and her face, were hers alone.

Yuki-Onna tore free of theghosts and rushed at them. The ghosts howled like the wind — Kara realizedshe had heard them before but they had sounded so far away and now they wereright here with her, closer than ever somehow. The spirits grabbed hold ofYuki-Onna again.

"Little monk, I will haveyour flesh and blood!" the witch screamed, reaching out to slash at theair with her elongated fingers, now icy claws. She could not see Miho, Sakura,Ren, Hachiro, or Kara thanks to the wards Kubo had given them, but Mai wasunprotected, and so were the teachers. . and so was Kubo.

Mr. Yamato and Miss Aritomo ranforward, trying to help the ghosts protect the old monk, reaching forYuki-Onna.

"No!" Kara shouted,but they couldn't hear over the wind.

The witch shot them a singlelook that paralyzed them both. Their masks had not helped them. They had lookedher in the eye and, like the victims of Medusa, paid the price. Seconds moreand she might freeze them solid, ice inside and out, but the ghosts grappledwith her again.

"Ume, please!" Sakurasaid again.

Ume took her hand and togetherthey knelt in the snow by Kubo's head.

"What do we do?" Hachiro asked, gripping Kara's hand tightly.