Dendera by Yuya Sato

Author:Yuya Sato [Sato, Yuya]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781421582153
Publisher: Haikasoru/VIZ Media
Published: 2015-02-16T23:00:00+00:00

2

Night came, but nothing had changed. Several fire baskets cast light upon the storehouse, while the surrounding armed women, beset by a mixture of hunger and coldness and irritation, expectantly awaited a new sign of movement from within. But all in the storehouse remained still; its occupants issued not a single demand and made not a single noise. The women on the outside weren’t merely idle. Hono Ishizuka and several of the others had made several attempts to open negotiations. Eight of the women, headed by Mei Mitsuya, went up the Mountain to chop down a fir tree. They planned on using a log to batter down the door. These two separate approaches—negotiation and attack—proceeded concurrently. All had agreed to leave fire as only the last resort. They absolutely couldn’t lose the precious provisions stored inside.

With Soh Kiriyama and the others holed up inside the storehouse, the rest of the women hadn’t been able to eat. The women of Dendera were chronically malnourished and accustomed to hunger, but robbed of the knowledge of when their next meal would come, the hunger wasn’t so easily endured. The fire baskets illuminated their haggard faces and anxious expressions. On the inside, their empty, aching stomachs churned, sapping their spirits before their physical strength had a chance to wane. Too exhausted to move, the women were halfheartedly watching the motionless storehouse when Hono Ishizuka came to stand in front of Kayu Saitoh. The woman’s face too showed exhaustion.

“Hey, Kayu. You don’t have to keep standing there. Move where some of the fire can reach you. It’ll make you feel a little bit better.”

“Please leave me alone. I’ll move when I want to.”

“I know everyone’s on edge, between the plague and the hunger, but you seem upset about something else. What’s gotten you in such a foul mood?”

“I’m not in a foul mood. I just have the feeling there’s a better way to go about this.”

“A better way … I certainly can’t think of one.” Hono Ishizuka glanced over her shoulder at the storehouse. “They’ve got all of our food. We’re the ones who are imprisoned out here. If this goes on for days, we’ll have to go foraging in the Mountain.”

“What about water? No matter how much food they have, they can’t survive without water.”

“The storehouse holds water reserves for times of emergency. If they’re careful, they can make it last for several days. No matter what else, those three won’t be dying from hunger or thirst.”

Kayu Saitoh thought of something that had been bothering her. “I heard someone saying that the Doves had saved the Hawks during some big famine. What was that about?”

“Oh, that’s nothing important. What you said covers it. We were hit by a famine ten years ago, Dendera ran out of provisions, and five of us died. The Doves shared their food reserves with the Hawks.”

“And I’m sure you got something out of it.”

“Actually, we did.” Hono Ishizuka gave her a quick nod. “After that, the Hawks lost some of their power, and more women joined us Doves.

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