Girl Takes Up Her Sword (29 page)
“Is there anyone else you want me to kill?” she cried out as she raised her head, tears streaming down her face. “Or can I come home now?” she asked in a softer voice.
And then Connie was there, folding her into a hug, kissing her face, wiping away the tears and the blood.
“I can’t believe you did it, you amazing, wonderful creature.”
“I don’t feel so wonderful,” she groaned. “I’m kinda running out of relatives. And just look at me… blood seeping out all over.”
“Don’t worry, sweetheart. We’ll get you patched up.”
When Emily finally raised her head to look around, a miscellaneous crowd greeted her, apparently at a loss for what to do next—Theo and Jerry and the rest of the security team, as well as a dozen or so strangers in dark tactical camo. Everyone held their guns at the ready, but no one seemed to know what to aim at anymore.
“Is this situation secure?” she asked.
“Don’t sweat it,” Connie replied. “Theo and I will deal with these guys. Go find your mom and the kids. You know they’ll be worried sick.”
“C’mon guys,” she heard Theo say. “Lower the guns. Your mission is over.”
Off to one side, Emily noticed one of the men she didn’t kill on the path behind the main house, his leg still bound up in the bandage she tied on him. Other men, Walker’s men, crowded around his body, as if he were the dead Hektor at Troy, so terrifying in life, and still daunting even in death. They were curious to try if they could meet his gaze now, but nothing remained to see in those lifeless eyes.
“Who is that girl?” Emily heard a strange voice ask.
“Did she really just do that?” another voice piped up.
“I can’t believe he’s dead, that son of a bitch.”
“Good riddance.”
Emily looked over to Connie, who nodded and pushed through the crowd around the body.
“Show a little respect, guys,” Connie snarled. “That’s her uncle. Most of you are only still alive on her orders. Otherwise I’d have been going for head shots instead of leg wounds.”
“She kept me alive,” the man with the bandaged leg said, casting his eyes around the crowd, “so I’m damn well gonna respect whatever she respects.”
Emily turned and walked slowly back up the hill to the main house, dialing the number on Connie’s cell phone to signal Ethan to bring the family home.
Chapter
32
Kusanagi Goes Home
“You should have shot him,” Connie said. “That’s all I’m saying.”
Theo was still speechless, unable to explain himself, even a week later. Why didn’t he shoot? He could pretend it was because she didn’t want him to. But that wasn’t really an explanation, and he knew it.
“That’s not what I’d call protecting our girl,” Connie continued. “Did she really need to go through all that?”
“I didn’t see you shooting him,” he retorted feebly.
“You know very well I was occupied keeping people from shooting you.”
“Now children,” Emily mock-scolded them. “If you two can’t stop squabbling…”
“You need to hold still,” Dr. Tarleton said. “Do you want another scar? You’re already gonna have a long one on your shoulder.”
“No, thanks, Doc,” Emily said. “I’ve already got enough of those.”
“Then sit still and let me remove these stitches.”
Stone watched the whole operation standing on the bed, peering over Emily’s shoulder. Everything about her body fascinated him, but especially the scars. He wanted to touch the needle when the stitches went in, and now that they were coming out he couldn’t take his eyes off the tweezers. Li Li didn’t want to see any part of the procedure and spent the whole time with her face buried in Emily’s lap.
“Is it always such a circus here?” Dr. Tarleton muttered, preoccupied. “There, that’s the last one.”
She dabbed at the scar with some cream, then stretched a bit of gauze over a couple of gooey spots. When she handed a few pieces of tape to Li Li, her eyes lit up, and Stone clamored for some, too.
“Make it nice and tight,” she said, demonstrating for them.
Emily dutifully held out her arm.
“You didn’t have to face him alone, you know,” Theo offered. “You could have let us help.”
“I wasn’t alone,” Emily said. “You guys did help me.”
“That’s not what I mean.”
Theo wasn’t prepared to think of himself as a helper in that way, to be merely in the service of a teenage girl, leaving the most difficult task to her.
“I know,” she said. “But people like that, they don’t die randomly. He was my uncle, my responsibility. I inherited it from my father, and now it’s finished.”
“Oh, sweetheart,” Yuki said. “Try not to think that way. We need to find a happier vein for ourselves after this long dark spell.”
“I know, Mom. That’s what I was thinking, too. And Michael has a suggestion for us. It’s got to do with those swords,” she said, gesturing to the pair of
katanas
leaning against the wall of her closet.
“I didn’t say anything before, but those swords are pretty special,” Theo said. “I’ve read up on samurai swords a bit, and those aren’t just ordinary pieces of metal. The craftsmanship…”
“The black one is a family heirloom,” Yuki said. “I don’t know about the other one.”
“Michael showed them to someone at the Smithsonian,” Emily said, as she drew her sword out. “They dated them to the second half of the sixteenth century, the
Momoyama
period.
“They must be worth a fortune,” Theo said.
“Markings on the blade of the red one,” Emily continued, “suggest it originally belonged to a samurai in Hideyoshi’s service. But the black one—the one you got from your father—apparently that one’s more interesting.”
“What do you mean?” Yuki asked.
“There at the base of the blade,” she said, holding the
katana
up to show her. “You see? It’s a chrysanthemum blossom, you know, the imperial
kamon
.”
“
Kamon
?” Connie said.
“It’s like a coat of arms,” Emily said. “This sword could have belonged to a member of the Emperor’s family. But the puzzle is that the steel in the blade appears to pre-date Go-Yozei’s reign… maybe by ten centuries or more. And the shape of the
kamon
is odd, too. A character at the bottom might refer to Ojin’s reign, more than a thousand years earlier.”
“So it’s a really old sword,” Theo said. “It’s probably even more valuable?”
“More like it’s impossible. Katana-style swords weren’t made until sometime around the fourteenth century.”
“What on earth does that mean?” Theo asked, now deeply confused.
“My grandfather used to say the sword takes the shape of the times,” Yuki remarked cryptically.
“It means my mom and I are going to Japan. We’re going to return them to their true owner.
“And who might that be?” Theo asked.
“Michael is trying to arrange an audience with an official of the Imperial Household,” Emily said.
~~~~~~~
“So why didn’t you shoot him?” Connie asked, once they had the kitchen to themselves.
“I wanted to, let me assure you,” Theo said. “But I was afraid to cross her. You know what I mean, don’t you? She gets that look in her eyes and, well, it’s pretty daunting.”
“I’ve definitely been there before,” she said, a note of commiseration in her voice.
“It’s like she glowers at you and any will you might have had to resist her just melts away.”
“Now you know what I’ve been dealing with for the past year,” she chortled in reply.
“Is she really going to Japan?” he asked.
“Do you really have to ask?”
“I mean, can Michael really get her… what, an audience?”
“Who knows?” Connie replied with a shrug. “With his new position, he’s probably got a lot more influence.”
“CIA Director of Operations, that’s quite a leap, don’t you think?” Theo asked.
“I think they call it the National Clandestine Service now. I never know what to make of those sorts of guys. Michael’s probably an improvement over Burzynski.”
“Good or bad, it all looks the same to the SEALs. The agency cooks up some dubious intel, and then pulls a few strings, and the next you know we’re dropped in to some hell-hole to pull a rabbit from a hat.”
“Yeah, I’ve been there a few times,” Connie said.
“It didn’t look like Emily was pleased to hear the news.”
“After what she’s been through, can you blame her for being wary?”
Just then, a hand reached up from below the counter to take one of the plastic milk cups that had been left there. Theo craned his neck around the corner to see Li Li crouching on the floor. With a cookie in one hand, he coaxed her to come to him, lifting her up onto his lap as soon as she was in reach.
“You know, wherever she is, Stone can’t be far away,” Connie said.
Sure enough, peeking around the doorway, Stone let out a little squawk as soon as he’d been spotted. Connie held out another cookie to lure him in.
“Come on, little one,” she crooned at him. “Here’s your cup, too.”
Deeply suspicious, he crept in to the kitchen, eyeing the treats on offer. He snatched at the cookie and Connie tousled his hair. A noise from the next room set Li Li squirming to climb down from Theo’s lap, and the two of them were off, screaming into the dining room. An instant later, Tati sped through the room, saying nothing to the big people, clearly on the hunt for the two pixies.
“What’s gonna become of those two?” Theo asked. “I mean Burzynski’s kid.”
“No one’s seen Burzynski since the attack on his estate. Andie doesn’t seem to mind having ‘em here, and Michael thinks it’s safer for her here.”
“Is that what he thinks,” Theo grumbled. “He didn’t seem particularly pleased this morning when Emily took Valerie back to Front Royal to look for him.”
“I know what you mean. That’s the closest thing I’ve seen to an argument between those two.”
~~~~~~~
“No sign of him,” Emily said to her mother that evening. “The house is gone, burned to the ground.”
“What’s she going to do?” Yuki asked.
“I’m taking her back to her place in Arlington tomorrow. They’ve been here long enough. I don’t care what Michael thinks.”
“Are you sure it’s safe?”
“Probably. I mean, who’s left to cause trouble? Besides, if he’s still alive, he won’t try to contact her here.” Emily paused to consider the situation. “I may end up spending the night with her, you know, if she’s too nervous… or Tati, for that matter.”
“Don’t stay too long. We’ve got preparations to make.”
“Talk to Michael while I’m gone. See if you and Andie can smooth things over while I’m gone. We’ll need his help to get all the documents for Li Li and Stone.”
“They’re not coming with us, are they?”
“You don’t really think we could leave ‘em here, do you? After everything that’s happened, how do you think Stone would react?”
“I see your point, but I don’t think Andie will like it. She’s starting to think of them as her kids.”
“I guess they are hers… as much as they’re mine. She’ll have ‘em full-time in the fall. But until then, Stone and I are gonna have some quality time.”
“What about those dreams?” Yuki asked. “Have you discussed them with Sensei?”
“No. These aren’t for him. They’re just between us, okay?”
“What do you think they mean?”
“You know, Mom. It’s always the same. Either I’m going psychotic, or the great
kami
are really trying to talk to me.”
“But you said it’s not the goddess of the sun this time.”
“No. In the dream, a voice from the heart of a great storm repeats that saying from Takuan. You know the one—walking on water is like walking on the ground, and walking on the ground is like walking on water—and then it tells me I can never know friendship… like I really need to hear that again. The voice calls himself
Ame-no-koyane
, and then he shows me a small child, a girl, floating on the wind. When the storm blows over, I am standing in the meadow under a sunny sky.”
“What does it mean?”
“Oh, Mom, I don’t know. Maybe we’ll find out in Japan,” Emily said with a smile as she kissed her mother on the forehead.
Chapter
33
Taking Amaterasu to Kathmandu
Shoichi Yuasa shifted nervously in his chair, uncertain what to do with the two women seated on the other side of his desk.
“It is most irregular,” he said. “Her Imperial Highness, the Crown Princess does not give private audiences.”
Ordinarily that would be the end of the matter. Nothing happens in the Imperial family without the approval of the Imperial Household Agency. Even the Emperor himself,
Tenno Heika
, a figure so august that to speak his name is an affront, even he yields to the functionaries of the Agency in most things. “Why would the Prime Minister intercede on behalf of a
hafu
girl?” he had to ask himself.
“Thank you for seeing us, Yuasa-san,” the girl said. “We do not wish to trouble Her Imperial Highness. We only wish to present the swords as a gift to her daughter, Her Imperial Highness, Princess Toshi.”
“We are, of course, grateful to have such fine antiques as these returned,” he said, running his hand along one of them. “May I ask how they came into your possession?”
“One of them has been in my family for generations, centuries even.”
“And the other one?”
“That one I came across quite recently, when someone stuck it in my side.”
Her statement was shocking all by itself. Yuasa wondered if the girl was dangerous. Of course, he had already taken precautions. But something about her made him curious, though he could hardly say what it was.
“We have been able to determine that one of the swords belonged to the
Momoyama
court. But the other one, the one from your family, we cannot identify it. And if it belongs to your family, as you say, why do you wish to give it up?”
“You know why, I think,” she said, “just as you already have a suspicion about what the sword is.”
“I’m afraid your imagination is playing tricks on you.”
She picked up one of the swords, hefted it for a moment, and handed it to Yuasa.
“You feel it, too, when you hold it, don’t you.”
He had felt it, though he would hardly like to admit it to her, or anyone else for that matter. But this time, when he let her pass it to him and his fingers curled around the handle, the sensation was so much stronger, like an electric shock. The sword seemed to radiate power, more power than made any sense to him, too much power. He put it back down on his desk. If he’d thought decorum permitted, he would have bowed to the sword.
~~~~~~~
Emily bowed low to the Crown Princess, and knelt down to bow to Princess Toshi, who had just turned five the previous week. The little girl wore a simple pink dress with white socks and shiny, black shoes. She shifted one foot behind the other and turned her head aside, embarrassed by all the attention.
Several men in gray business suits, functionaries of the Imperial Household Agency, supervised the audience, as well as two men in elaborate kimonos, who formed a sort of honor guard, wearing swords and very forbidding expressions. Emily showed no interest in the functionaries, but paid very formal respects to each samurai.
“It is good to meet people who still believe in the old stories,” the Crown Princess said to Yuki, who was perhaps a bit overawed by the whole experience.
“Your Highness, I’ve only learned how to believe some things by watching my daughter.”
“I have had a similar experience with my daughter. But please, tell me, Kagami-san, how your daughter comes to have such an unusual name, so different from your own.”
“Yes, Ma’am. I imagine Yuasa-san has told Your Highness about my father. When my daughter was born, we thought it might be safer for her not to be called Kagami.”
“I see. But where did the name you gave her come from? It is quite unusual.”
“It is the family name of my maternal grandmother, Ma’am. But we don’t know where it came from.”
“Yuasa-san,” the Crown Princess said, summoning him to her side. “I understand you commissioned a study of the family.”
Emily’s ears pricked up at hearing this. Perhaps he discovered something new.
“We traced the maternal line back to a samurai in the service of Hideyoshi,” Yuasa reported. “He was called Minamoto Nobu, probably because he was a retainer of one of the
Ogimachi Genji
families, though which one is not clear. At the beginning of the Tokugawa shogunate, a number of the
daimyos
were destroyed in internecine warfare, including his. We think Nobu’s descendants fled, and a few eventually settled in the lake district near Kosai. It seems likely that some of them took the name Tenno around this time. As far as we can determine, your daughter is the last person to bear this name in your family.”
“Thank you, Yuasa-san,” Emily said, “for taking this trouble on our behalf.”
“It was no trouble,” he replied. “We are at the service of the Imperial family in all things.”
While they were speaking, Princess Toshi had wandered over to the rack used to display the swords Emily was presenting to the Imperial Household. She ran her fingers along each one. The Crown Princess noticed her daughter’s interest.
“Yuasa-san tells us you are proficient with the
katana
,” she said to Emily. “I’m sure my daughter would be very pleased to see a demonstration.”
Yuasa’s consternation at this proposal was apparent. Emily saw the expression on her mother’s face and looked for a diplomatic way to refuse.
“You honor me with this request, Ma’am, but I am afraid my skill would disappoint you. Perhaps one of your honor guard would be so kind as to oblige us.”
With evident approval of her discretion, Yuasa nodded to one of the samurai standing by the wall. His staff brought chairs for the Crown Princess and Princess Toshi. Emily and Yuki knelt nearby on the floor. Yuasa and the others stood behind them to watch.
“Kano-san is an acknowledged master of
kendo
and
iaido
,” he announced.
Kano stepped to the display rack and picked up the more ornate of the two swords, the one Walker had stabbed Emily with that day at Burzynski’s house. He held it horizontally in both hands and bowed to the Crown Princess.
“Please forgive my impertinence, Kano-san,” Emily said, standing and reaching for the other sword, the one her father had given her. A commotion stirred to life among the staff, who were unprepared for Emily’s intrusion. “Would you use this one instead?” She held it out to him, and bowed her head.
Kano took the sword from her hand, bowing in return, and she knelt back down. The staff looked perplexed, wondering if they should intervene, until the Crown Princess smiled at Emily.
After removing his own swords and sliding Emily’s into his sash, Kano knelt down in front of the group and bowed deeply, touching his head to the floor. In a single, simple motion of startling suddenness, after shifting his hips slightly to free his right leg, he surged to his feet, drawing the sword in an upward arc and bringing it straight down in front of him. “This is clearly who I should be studying with,” Emily thought, as she nodded in approval.
Several moves followed, each one crisp and sharp—he brought the blade around, slashing upwards, thrusting forward, then spinning into a diagonal stroke, the blade whistling the whole way, moving so quickly it was difficult for the eye to follow. The sequence was as beautiful as it would be deadly, though perhaps only Emily could truly appreciate this aspect of his performance.
And then, just as suddenly, Kano stopped, as if frozen, the sword held out horizontally in front of him, his face contorted in an expression of awe and perplexity. He dropped to his knees, eyes fixed on Emily, and placed the sword in front of him.
“It cannot be,” he muttered, pressing his forehead to the floor. “But it so clearly is. How can this be?”
“It is what it is, Kano-san,” Emily whispered. “The sword takes the shape of the times.”
The confusion among Yuasa’s staff was extreme, concerned as they had to be with ceremony and protocol, and puzzling as Kano’s unexpected behavior must have seemed to them.
“Get up, Kano-san,” Yuasa ordered sharply. “This is not the time for sword mysticism.”
“Please pardon me, Yuasa-san. It is not the sword I am paying respect to.”
In the distraction of the moment, no one saw Princess Toshi climb down from her chair. By the time the Crown Princess noticed, she was already sitting in Emily’s lap, her arms thrown around Emily’s neck.
“Princess Toshi,” Yuasa whispered, shocked by the breach of protocol.
“Aiko,” the Crown Princess called out. “Come here, right away.”
Princess Toshi turned to look at her mother, a look of blissful serenity on her face. She turned back to look in Emily’s eyes and said: “Ama.”
“Come, little one,” Emily said, before catching her mistake. “Your Imperial Highness, let’s go find Mommy.”
Yuasa tried to take Princess Toshi, but she shrieked and clung even more tightly to Emily’s neck. When he saw the look in Emily’s eyes, he shrunk back in extreme mortification.
“Come to Mother,” the Crown Princess cooed in her daughter’s ear.
“Ama,” Princess Toshi cried out when she finally released Emily and reached for her mother.
Yuasa’s staff moved to pull Emily away, until the Crown Princess shook her head and shooed them away with a tiny gesture.
“Please forgive me, Your Imperial Highness,” Emily said. “I did not mean to be impertinent.”
“Do not apologize, Tenno-san,” the Crown Princess said, with a bemused smile. “It sounds so strange to say your name. But please, do not apologize for my daughter’s indiscretion. She should know better.”
“It is not her fault, Your Highness,” Yuki said. “I’ve seen it many times before. Children seem to be drawn to my daughter.”
“I wonder what Aiko meant, calling her Ama.”
“Don’t you know, Your Highness?” Yuki asked.
“She thinks she is a daughter of heaven,” she whispered to Yuki. “But can it be true?”
“No, it can’t. But for some reason children sense in her the presence of the Queen of Heaven,
Amaterasu-omikami
.”
“And apparently Kano-san senses it, too,” the Crown Princess mused.
~~~~~~~
“I guess it’s a good thing we didn’t bring the kids with us after all,” Emily said, once they were back in the hotel. “Can you imagine how Stone would have reacted at the audience.”
“He’d have been bored silly by all the ceremony, and he probably would have misbehaved. But they both would have loved the
kendo
demonstration.”
“And when the princess climbed into my lap… I don’t think he’d have cared for that,” Emily snorted.
“You felt something then, didn’t you?” Yuki asked. “What was it?”
“Yeah, I did feel something, but I don’t exactly know how to describe it.”
“She called you Ama, just like Stone. She evidently felt something.”
“When she was clinging to my neck, she seemed so serene, so happy, like she heard the same voices I do, but instead of feeling oppressed by them, she’s at peace. I’d say it felt like she was my sister, if I had a sister.”
“What do you mean, she’s at peace?”
“I don’t know, Mom. But she
really is
the daughter of heaven, and I have no idea what I am.”
“Oh, sweetheart, I don’t know what to say. You are my daughter. Can’t that be enough?”
“It can, Mom. It really can. It’s just that I need to get some relief, you know, from the voices in my heart, from Amaterasu.”
“What are you saying?”
“I’m not coming home with you.”
“No, Chi-chan, no. Don’t leave me again, not so soon.”
“Oh, Mom. Don’t be so dramatic. It won’t be forever. I’ll be back before I have to report to the Naval Academy.”
Yuki paused to take in her daughter’s expression as she said this. There was no point arguing with her, that much was clear.
“Where will you go?”
“I’ve been thinking about this for a long time. If it’s about finding peace inside, you know, like Aiko already has, then I have to meditate differently. I learned how to meditate from Sensei, but just as a way to prepare for battle. Maybe the Buddhists can teach me a better way. I’m going to Nepal, to Kathmandu, to see if the Tibetan monks can help me.”
“But you’re coming back, right?” Yuki asked.
“Yes, Mom. I promise. Two, three months, tops.”
The End