A Mortal Song by Megan Crewe Read Free Book Online Page B

deserve.”
    He whipped aside his hand and jolted upright. I realized what he intended too late. His head brushed the charm I’d held ready, and he snapped out of our world beneath my hands. I stared at the space where he had been, turning his threat over in my head.
    “They’re very devoted,” Takeo said. “Willing to sacrifice themselves for their cause, whatever it is. That will make them harder to fight.”
    The lack of blame in his voice dulled the sting of my mistake. “At least we learned something,” I said, pushing myself to my feet. “This ‘Omori’ he mentioned—that must be the demon, don’t you think? Now we know its name.”
    Takeo nodded. “I haven’t heard of it, but perhaps Sage Rin will have.”
    “And he confirmed that they’re planning something for Obon. When the barriers between this world and the afterworld are thinnest. The ghosts will have more power then.”
    “And there may be even more of them,” Takeo said. “The dead often return to visit on those three nights.” He paused. “These three already had more strength than I would have expected. I thought before that the demon might be lending them power. Now I’m almost certain.”
    A chill trickled through me. “How much power must the demon have, to be able to share it with so many other spirits?”
    “More than any creature I’ve ever faced,” Takeo said grimly.
    “Do you think they meant the true Obon or one of the human dates?” I asked. People observed the holiday at different points throughout the summer.
    “The dead should know the real time as well as any,” Takeo said. “Which leaves us seven days until it begins.”
    “Seven days to stop Omori, then,” I said. “If the mountain can hold that long.”
    And the weather, and the tides, and all the other cycles the trapped kami should have been tending to. I swallowed thickly.
    We knew more than we had just five minutes ago. We knew because of me. Whatever Rin had said, whatever the truth was, I was still strong. But there was also so much more we didn’t know. And we had only a week to prepare to challenge a multitude of ghosts, a demon, and who knew what other creatures they had on their side.

5
    I woke up to an unfamiliar pain. I lay still on the wooden floor in the small shrine where we’d taken shelter, adjusting to the sensation. A series of sharp pinches ran across my stomach, as if it were being jabbed by little scissors like the ones Ayame used to trim my hair. My thoughts drifted back to my last evening on the mountain, the whirlwind of washing and dressing in my rooms, the smell of the feast drifting through the halls...
    My mouth started to water as it had then, and the pain deepened.
    Oh. I was hungry. For the first time in my life, I was truly hungry.
    I sat up, and my hair slipped unhindered over my shoulders. Sometime during the night, Midori had left—to stretch her wings, to explore the shrine grounds. She had a life beyond me, after all. It shouldn’t have mattered to a kami, who could absorb nourishment from the world automatically. But a human—a human who no longer had the energy of the sacred mountain supporting her—
    To think that way, even for an instant, felt like giving up. I would not accept that Sage Rin’s story was true, not yet. I’d spent the last day and a half in nearly constant motion, fought my first real battle, and held back a multitude of fears. Maybe even a kami would feel hungry after that.
    The shrine’s guardian, an immense frog kami, was watching me from the top of the cedar altar. I picked up my birthday flute, running my fingers over the lacquered case before slinging it over my shoulder, and got to my feet. “Thank you for the night’s lodging,” I said, bowing.
    The frog blinked and lowered his head in a slight bob. A wisp of friendly ki brushed over me.
    As I stepped outside, Midori darted down to take her usual spot on my hair. My hunger pangs ceased at once. I plucked a plum from a tree and