47 Ronin by Joan D. Vinge

Author:Joan D. Vinge [Vinge, Joan D.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781466804142
Publisher: Tom Doherty Associates
Published: 2013-11-26T00:00:00+00:00

13

By the time they reached the Buddha Mountain where Oishi had told Chikara to meet him, it was sunset on his fifth day of traveling with Kai.

He had spoken little during their journey, and Kai had said almost nothing, only asking him an occasional monosyllabic question: Where had he been all this time? Where were they bound? Who would be there? And what then—?

He had answered as best he could, finding that it got easier to give explanations the longer they rode together. He was still relieved that Kai felt less compulsion to make conversation than he would have expected if they had been two strangers accidentally traveling the same road, headed toward the same destination … the same destiny. All wanderers were not necessarily lost.

He had asked Kai only one question. He had seen—and experienced—more than enough in his few hours on the Dutch Island to give him all the other answers he needed. But as they rode, Kai would sometimes mumble something inaudible, always staring straight ahead, or down at the ground. When his behavior had irritated Oishi to the point of speech, he had finally asked Kai what he was doing.

Kai had looked over at him as if he’d forgotten someone else was even beside him. “Praying,” he murmured. He looked away again, as if it was nothing.

After that Oishi was sure one of them had gone mad, but he was no longer so certain he knew which one it was.

Although Oishi doubted that Kai had ever ridden a horse before, the halfbreed handled his mount with the same unconscious ease he had shown in taming the castle hounds as a kennel boy … as though he communicated with animals on a level no ordinary human ever could. But then, he was able to see demons, which no ordinary human could, either.…

Oishi felt less certain about what the halfbreed really was than he ever had. And yet, the more often he glanced over at Kai riding on horseback beside him—with his long hair tied back, clad in a kimono and hakama, wearing a sword thrust through his belt ties—the more easily Oishi could have mistaken him for an anonymous ronin. Another anonymous ronin, he corrected himself, as reality jabbed him.

At last they caught sight of lit torches and a small cluster of campfires in the gathering darkness on Buddha Mountain, Oishi’s silent doubt about how his comrades would react to his bringing the halfbreed with him faded, as the thought of being reunited with longtime friends filled him with fresh optimism.

As they closed in on the firelight, he counted the silhouetted figures of twenty men standing in front of the ancient ruined temple that gave the mountain its name. Some of them shouted and waved, but he could tell they were watching him now with mixed anticipation and curiosity, as they realized that he was not traveling alone.

He dismounted, and the men gathered around him, calling his name and their own, reaching out to him like a long-lost brother.

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