Part 14 (2/2)

A heron flew near them then, all long beak and wings.

”See, our luck improves already,” Ume said. A heron in flight was a good omen.

There was a thump. For a moment Yajiro thought they were aground or had struck a floating log. Then two arms came over the bows, followed by a mop of black hair and a cheeky grin. ”Good day, Captain! Permission to come aboard!” Not waiting for a reply, the boy threw his leg across the gunwale and tumbled into the boat like a sack of millet.

”Tsuru!” said Yajiro ”Where did you come from?”

Tsuru sat up in the bottom of the boat amid the mess of lines, smiling happily. ”Knew you'd need me, sir. Swam after you,, all the way from Nakasu-ichi. No, really what I did was run along the bank. Been following a while, now. Market's no place for me, sir. Need to see the world!”

”You'll see little enough of it with us...”

Yajiro's voice trailed away. Ume was staring at Tsuru, eyes rapt. A small bubble of saliva collected at the corner of her mouth, threatening to slip onto her chin. Guilt and greed swam in her eyes.

Then she smiled, all suns.h.i.+ne and cheer. ”Where's your mother, scamp?”

”Did as the Captain telled me, ma'am. Went to the priest, but he weren't holy enough to bring my ma out of the ground. No, I'd say she's just comfortable where she is!” He grinned.

”The ground?” said Yajiro ”Told you I'd lost her, sir. Thought you'd understood.”

”I suppose not,” said Yajiro, his eyes still on Ume ”Can I steer her, Captain? Work my pa.s.sage?”

”We're in a hurry,” Yajiro began, but Ume interrupted. ”Where would the harm be, Yajiro-san? It would give you a rest. I'll give the boy his wages.”

”Wait. Tsuru-kun, why did it take you so long to catch us?”

”Hungry, sir. Hadn't eaten for a day. Spent your coin on a meal, blessing you with every mouthful. After that, I couldn't run so fast. And then I had to wait so's I'd not miss you in the fog. But I knew you'd not set me ash.o.r.e, sir. Fine trader like yourself, just setting up in business, knew you'd need some help.” The boy looked around the boat with interest, apparently only now noticing the lack of cargo. ”What will you be selling then, sir?”

”Little boys,” said Yajiro. ”I buy them and feed their bodies to the witches in the hills.”

Ume turned her head away in disgust, but Tsuru cackled appreciatively. ”A ready wit, sir. I like that in a master.”

”I'm not your master,” he said curtly.

Ume's eyes swiveled back to stare at Tsuru, sitting in the boat barely an arms-length away from her. Yajiro knew now the boy was in danger.

”Come here, scamp,” he said. ”Quickly, now.”

”Sir!” the boy exclaimed in delight, and was on his feet in a moment, walking down the boat. He stumbled and caught himself on the mast, and Yajiro saw Ume lean forward, one hand reaching out to the boy while the other sought out the sack at her feet.

Yajiro released the rudder and jumped forward. The sail flapped. ”Don't touch him!” He knocked her arm down.

He saw a flash of steel out of the corner of his eye, and the sail fell away from the mast and tumbled over them both. The boat rocked as Yajiro flailed his hands to free himself.

Ume pulled the sail off his shoulders. The boat lurched again and there was a loud splash.

Tsuru had cut the main halyard with a knife and then jumped overboard. He was swimming strongly away, out into the river. The sh.o.r.e was half a mile distant.

”Yajiro.” The old woman was pointing upstream over his shoulder. ”It seems the little snipe already has a master, and one we know well.”

Five hundred feet away and bearing down rapidly was the trader boat Yajiro had been racing down the river as a point of honor. It was now close enough for them to see the weasel from the market at Nakasu-ichi at the helm, and two accomplices kneeling in the bows.

”G.o.ds!” Yajiro struggled to get the oars out from under the useless sail and into the rowlocks. His first instinct had been to jump overboard and swim for it, and he felt a swift flush of shame. Yes, save himself and leave an old woman to the wolves, that would have been fine of him, and good sukuse to carry to the next life.

Perhaps they were both supposed to die here. Maybe by accepting his fate in this life he would rise in stature in the next.

Or maybe he would come back as a beetle because of his spinelessness.

One thing, at least, was clear. The urchin was part of the dock gang. The glint of gold had brought the river rats after them. Unable to overhaul Yajiro on the river, the gang had dropped the urchin ash.o.r.e to run ahead and slow them down. Now he and Ume were at their mercy.

”Yajiro, Yajiro,” Ume was digging into the sack at her feet. ”Be calm. This is perfect.”

”Perfect?” he shouted. ”We're about to be murdered by pirates! Perfect?”

She slapped him. ”Shut up. Listen.”

The other boat had sailed past and was reaching the end of its tack, preparing to come about. They would catch up with Yajiro's boat on their next reach. He saw one of the hard-faced accomplices lean over the transom and pluck a bedraggled small boy out of the water.

Ume's eyes shone. ”They want the box, Yajiro-san. We shall give it to them. I told you that the box contains my soul, and so it does. If you had opened the box, my soul would have reached out and gained power over the body you wear, casting your soul into an empty sh.e.l.l, this old woman's body. We would have traded the skin and bones we wear. You would have died old and feeble, and I would have lived on, appearing to all the world as you do now.”

The pirates were coming back.

”I could not do it. You did not deserve such a fate. This low-born pirate is another matter. It will be a service to j.a.pan to take his body and place a kindlier mind within it. I will order the other cut-throats away and they will obey me, thinking me their leader. You will be saved.”

The other boat bore down on them. One of the men at the bows drew a knife. Tsuru took over the rudder, and the weasel came forward to join his friends.

Yajiro finally understood. ”In the market, you wanted to be robbed.”

”Of course.”

There was no more time to think. Yajiro stretched an oar across the water to fend them off, but a pirate knocked it out of his hands and it tumbled into the river. The boy expertly turned the nose of his craft so it lay alongside.

The boat quaked as the weasel came aboard, and Yajiro s.n.a.t.c.hed at the gunwale to stop himself from falling. The thief crouched in the boat, his eyes eager. If he was a small man, the curved knife and the cold, steady look in his eyes made him a giant. His two grinning accomplices held the boats together. Clearly they had no doubts that their leader could take care of this alone.

Fear sc.r.a.ped at Yajiro's heart with a blunt blade, and he could not move. The G.o.ds hid below the water, or behind the trees on the land. There were no other boats within a mile.

If Ume was afraid, she did not show it. Indeed, Yajiro had never seen her look so alert. Life crackled in her eyes, although she kept them downcast as befitted a woman at the mercy of a man. She said, ”Good sir, I ask your mercy for my friend and for myself. My meager possessions are at your disposal, but Heaven will smile upon you for your benevolence if we are spared.”

”Shut your mouth, crone,” said the weasel. ”Yield up your sack, and keep your prattling G.o.ds to yourself.”

Ume upended the bag. The herbal root, a few strips of dried meat, some unclean pieces of cloth, and the s.h.i.+ny golden box tumbled out. ”You will see I have little enough, sir, for all your efforts to catch me.”

She pushed the box across the bottom of the boat with her foot until it was within the thief's reach. He picked it up, his cautious rat's eyes never leaving them. ”If there's jewels within, maybe I'll not cut your throats,” he said.

Ume smiled tightly. ”Be rea.s.sured, kind sir. The box contains that which I value the most in all the world. Yet I'm sure that it will find a good home with you.”

Yajiro transfixed in the stern, clutching the useless rudder in his hands as they floated downstream in the current, finally found his tongue. ”Don't open it. Don't open the box.”

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