IGMS Issue 9 by IGMS Read Free Book Online Page A

reaching the limit of her body's courage, uttered a tiny sigh, like a child falling asleep, and collapsed to the floor. The
ushi-oni
began to turn toward her, and at that moment the Lord Kuroda lunged forward and struck with all the strength in his old arm. The
tanto
buried itself to the coral-ornamented hilt in the right side of the demon.
    The
ushi-oni
's howl shook the room and seemed to split Junko's head, bringing blood even from his eyes, as well as from his ears and nose. A great scaled paw smashed him down as the creature roared and reeled in its death agony, trampling everything it had not already smashed to splinters, dragging ancient scrolls and brush paintings down from the walls, crushing the Lord Kuroda family shrine underfoot. The
ushi-oni
bellowed unceasingly, the sound slamming from wall back to broken wall, and everyone hearing it bellowed with the same pain, bleeding like Junko and like him holding, not their heads and faces, but their hearts. When the demon fell, and was silent, the sound continued on forever.
    But even forever ends, and there came a time when Junko pulled himself to his feet, and found himself face to face with Minister Morioka, pale as a grubworm, gabbling like an infant, walking as though he had just learned how. Others were in the room now, all shouting, all brandishing weapons, all keeping their distance from the great, still thing on the floor. He saw the Lord Kuroda, far away across the ruins, bending over Lady Hara, carefully and tenderly lifting her to her feet while staring strangely at Junko. Whatever his face, as bloody as Junko's own, revealed, it was neither anger nor outrage, but Junko looked away anyway.
    The
ushi-oni
had not moved since its fall, but its eyes were open, unblinking, darkening. Junko kneeled beside it without speaking. The fanged cow-lips twitched slightly, and a stone whisper reached his ear and no other, shaping two words. "
My nature . . .
"
There were no more words, and no sound in the room.
    Junko said, "She was my wife."
    No one answered him, not until the Lord Kuroda said, "No." Junko realized then that the expression in his master's eyes was one of deepest pity. Lord Kuroda said, "It is not possible. An
ushi-oni
may take on another shape if it wishes, being a demon, but in death it returns to its true being, always. You see that this has not occurred here."
    "No," Junko answered him, "because this
was
Sayuri's natural form. This is what she was, but she did not know it, no more than I. I swear that she did not know." He rose, biting his lower lip hard enough to bring more blood to his mouth, and faced the
daimyo
directly. He said, "This was my doing. All of it. The weasel, the wolf, the bear -- she meant only to help me, and I . . . I did not want to know." He looked around at the shattered room filled with solemn people in nightrobes and armor. "Do you understand? Any of you?"
    The Lord Kuroda's compassionate manner had taken on a shade of puzzlement; but the Lady Hara was nodding her elegant old head. Behind Junko, Minister Morioka had at last found language, though his stammering voice retained none of its normal arrogance. He asked timidly, "How could an
ushi-oni
not know what it was? How could such a monster ever marry a human being?"
    "Perhaps because she fell in love," the Lady Hara said quietly. "Love makes one forget many things."
    "I cannot speak for my wife," Junko replied. "For myself, there are certain things I will remember while I live, which I beg will not be long." He turned his eyes to Minister Morioka. "I wanted her to kill you. I never said it in those words --
never --
but I made very sure she knew that I wanted you out of my way, as she had removed three others. I ask your pardon, and offer my head. There can be no other atonement."
    Then the Minister shrank back without replying, for while he had no objection to the death penalty, he greatly preferred to see it administered by someone else. But the Lord Kuroda asked in