Mononoke-hime Continuation Fic

Chapter Fourteen

The sound of Yakkuru's hooves on the dirt was little more than a dull thudding as the elk and Ashitaka clung to the shadows, hugging the perimeter of Iron Town's sharp-pointed timber wall as they sneaked to the main gate. Ashitaka had on his red and white mask and his cloak of long straw. It didn't do much to conceal him now, but out on the road they might prove useful. Yakkuru's saddlebags were stuffed with provisions for the journey—dried meat and bread, plus some fruit, cheese, and water. Also two long knives, Ashitaka's bow and quiver, bristling full of arrows. Ashitaka was also wearing San's crystal dagger around his neck. He would not part with it until he could give it back to her, and mend the troubles that had come between them. He had told no one so far, not even Kaya, about him and San. There were already enough problems to worry about.
Presently, he laid his eyes on the wide gate. The gate opened up onto the bridge that spanned the lake. Ashitaka took a deep breath and gently patted Yakkuru's thick neck, quieting the animal. Concealed behind a clump of big-leafed trees, Ashitaka waited for Eboshi's signal.
Five minutes passed, then ten. After fifteen, Ashitaka saw a little orange light floating in the distant darkness. Eboshi's signal. Clenching the red elk's reins tightly, he dismounted and led him through the black shadows over to the light. As soon as he came to it, he could make out Eboshi's dim yet beautiful features.
Eboshi blew out the candle as soon as Ashitaka arrived. The thin trail of silvery smoke wove its way up to the night sky and dissipated. Lowering the hood of her cloak that blended in almost perfectly with the night, Eboshi gave him the instructions.
"You only have a few minutes to get out," she said in a hushed voice. "Normally you wouldn't even have that long, but I've arranged for a treat for the tower guards. Most of them are now too drunk to know their own mother from a horse's backside." She grinned at her own humor, but all Ashitaka could see were her ghostly teeth. "There is no way to open the gate without rousing a dozen men at least to operate the pulleys. But I've seen you manage without before." Once, a year ago, Ashitaka had used his demon-given strength to lift the immense gate with his bare hands, a task that normally took several sweating, heaving men to accomplish. In addition, he'd been shot in the side by one of Eboshi's rifles. The demon power within him was mysterious indeed.
"Here, you'll need these," Eboshi said, distracting his thoughts of the past. She heaped three leather bags the size of a man's head into his arms. From the way they clinked, Ashitaka guessed they contained coins. From the weight, they were probably gold. A fortune, if he was correct.
"What is this for?" he wondered.
"You'll need this when you reach Kyoto. If you reach Kyoto. Hopefully it will be enough to obtain an audience with the emperor. I cannot spare more than that. Don't be careless or it will be stolen by road brigands before you're even halfway there."
"Thank you, Eboshi," Ashitaka replied.
He couldn't see her face very clearly in the night, but he thought she was smiling at him. With sincerity, this time.
"You can thank me by getting to the Emperor and back in one piece," she said. "With some good news, I hope."
"I'll do my best," Ashitaka vowed. Then he added, "Please don't do anything rash or foolish while I'm away." It felt odd, talking to such a powerful, commanding woman that way.
"I won't make any promises," said Eboshi, an edge of tightness to her tone, "but I'll see what I can do." She jerked her head away to stare at the great house on the hill. "I have to go now. Asano may have let me back into my own domain, but he keeps a close eye on my whereabouts. I do not want to be discovered missing." She looked at him with a gravely serious expression on her face and in her voice. "Hurry back to me, Ashitaka. I do not think we will be able to accomplish this without you."
"Until we meet again, then," Ashitaka said. With a brisk nod, Eboshi left him and began making her way back to the luxurious dwelling she shared with the man she detested. Ashitaka wasted no time in watching her go. Quickly scanning the walltop—it would still be empty for a minute more or so—he tied the moneybags onto Yakkuru's saddle and guided the red elk to the gate.
Massive logs of dense timber barred his way, pointed teeth biting the ground. Ashitaka placed his hand on one of them and cleared his mind except for the feeling of its immovable strength. He imagined the strength of the mighty wall flowing into his body, through his hand, down his arm, feeding every muscle, until it was a part of him. With a deep breath, he slowly pressed his full weight against the logs and pushed. Nothing happened. Bracing the wall with both hands, he leaned into it, willing it to move. After a few seconds, he was rewarded with the deep, groaning creak of the timbers budging. Even more power, and he managed to push the sharpened points along the grooves in the earth by about a foot. Now that the gate was in motion, it was easier to open. Directing all his strength into moving the giant wall, Ashitaka heaved it up and over his head and held it there.
"Hurry, Yakkuru," he whispered to the elk. The big-horned animal obediently ducked his head and stepped through the short gap between the heavy gate and the ground. As soon as Yakkuru was through, Ashitaka heard raised voices on the lookouts above him.
"Someone's opening the gate!"
"Impossible!"

"How many men are there?"
"Stop him! Asano's orders!"
Lurching forward, Ashitaka merely dropped the timber gate. it swung back into its original place with a rumbling boom. Without a second thought, he leaped into Yakkuru's saddle and booted the animal in the flank. Yakkuru, eager to be off and running, picked up a steady gallop and sped like an arrow through the night.

San floated, as soundless as a hunting owl, through the dimly illuminated halls of the large house on the hill above Iron Town. She knew that this big place that reeked of humans had been Eboshi's den in the past. There were still faint traces of the evil woman's flowery scent on the walls and the blood-red carpet under San's soft deerskin shoes, but there was an even fouler stench predominant on the air. Mingled with the sour stench of sake, there were other smells lingering in San's nose—men. Lots of men. But one her wolf-trained senses were able to pick out above the rest. The scent of a man who was fat and ill-tempered. The stink of a man who wore silk and perfumes and women on his skin. That was the smell she was searching for.
It was enough to make her light-headed and sick.
San wobbled a bit in her crouch. She steadied herself with the fist that was clenched around a razor sharp stone knife and knuckled the floor. She really did feel sick. She took a few slow, deep breaths to clear her head, and in spite of the rolling nausea in her stomach, climbed halfway to her feet.
It had been difficult enough to even get to this place. After leaving her wolf brothers, San had scaled the steep slope up to the gardens at dusk then remained hidden until the lights in the house had gone down. Then, like a wildcat stalking prey, she slunk into the den. A den full of vipers, but she would just have to be careful. Her mind was bent on her prey. The human called Asano. The one who had brought the new invasion to her forest. He had to die. Cut off a viper's head, and the body died as well. San gritted her teeth in anticipation, a low, soft growl welling up in her throat involuntarily.
So far her passage had remained unnoticed, except for a pair of guards who had been standing half asleep by the entrance to the house. San had quickly dealt with them, before they'd even had a chance to cry out. No shout of warning would bridge the gashes in their throats...
As San padded noiselessly around corners and up shallow flights of stairs, she finally came to the place where the sickly-sweet human stench was strongest. It was behind a tall, wide door that was carved all over with spears and arrows. Was it just San's imagination, or was the moonlight streaming through the window behind her making those spears dance? Were the arrows loosed in flight?
San curled up into a tight ball, clutching her knees to her chest tightly, until the dizziness subsided. She couldn't lose her head now. It was too dangerous. The hunt was on! Once the tumultuous sensations passed, San crept on hands and feet to the door and, pushing her domen half- mask further back, pressed an ear against the polished wood. There was no sound on the other side except for heavy breathing. The man was in there, and asleep. Good. She would do it now.
San tried the latch on the door. Remarkably, it was unlocked. She nudged the door open slowly, avoiding any creaks that would give her away to her prey, and peered inside. Across the room she could see a large bed surrounded on all sides by sheer, transparent curtains, glimmering with pale moonlight. San's sharp eyes made out a fat lump under the blankets behind the filmy material. Perfect.
Rising to a stooped position, San held the dagger point-down in her hand. Quickly steal across the floor, foolishly covered with soft rugs so that her feet would not betray a sound, part the thin curtains, silent like a phantom, then plunge the knife into his heart, into the fat human's weak heart.........
She pulled the domen mask back over her eyes and crept forward.
The faint creaking of the door behind her was her only warning, and she froze. Before she could leap around to face the threat from the rear, a low-voiced snarl sounded, and something reached up and grabbed her under her shoulders, restraining her in a tight arm-lock. Another pair of hands wrestled the knife from her grip even as she was stamping on her assailant's feet furiously, growling like an angry badger.
A lamp was lit, filling the room with a bright golden glow. San felt a tremor of anger when a pale young woman in a gauzy robe sat up quickly in the bed. She looked as if she was frightened out of her wits. So that had not been Asano after all. His smell had been so close! And she had been tricked. That detail irritated her more than the fact that she was caught. The arms that trapped San—there was someone hobbling her ankles now, too—wheeled her around to face a stocky man with black hair in a topknot on his head. He was wearing a silk robe of dark crimson, and he absolutely reeked of that human stench she had been tracking. Still writhing in the grasp of her captors, San glared at him with a baleful look in her eyes. Asano. The man with the topknot merely smiled down at her, a bejeweled dagger tapping idly against his palm.
"Well, well, well, what do we have here?" he asked, looking her up and down. "A thief in the night?"
San wrenched her stare away and sunk her teeth into one of the arms pinning her torso. A man cried out, and loosened his hold, but the next moment a fully powered slap sent San's vision spinning again.
When San could look up again without seeing the walls moving, the large man, Asano, was clucking at her like a hawk facing a bold magpie, still tapping that blade against his palm.
"Not an ordinary thief, though. More like a vicious little beast!" He smiled even more broadly, which managed to make his face look even pudgier, and said, "You must be the wolf girl who's been harassing my mills for the past few days. Princess Mononoke, if I'm not mistaken?" He wrenched off her domen mask, casting it aside and peering at her face. "You are a sight more appealing than I initially thought, but quite a thorn in my side, little girl."
San's growl grew to a crescendo.
"Yes, every bit the wild beast." Asano chuckled. He thrust the dagger's point under her chin and tilted her face up to meet his eyes. "But you must learn, my dear, that humans are masters over beasts." He leaned his face closer, and pressed the sharp point of the dagger further into her throat. Not gently, but not yet breaking the skin. "Later, when I have you safely tied down, I will make sure you learn this lesson," he said in a low voice, never taking his eyes off hers. His hot breath on her skin stank. "But right now the hour is late, and I'm quite tired of waiting for would-be assassins." He straightened, and said to the men with him, "Guards, lock her up somewhere for now, and make sure she's guarded. I'll deal with her in the morning."
There was a chorus of "Yes, m'lords," and San was dragged out, still pinned and struggling, growling curses and threats.
"Oh, and make sure you have the headsman's axe sharpened and a block prepared," Asano called after them. "I'll see to taming this beast tomorrow morning, but right afterwards I'll see her executed as a rebel." Then, totally forgetting her, he directed his gaze next to his bedfellow, who looked just as frightened of him as of San. "Now where were we.........?"
The guards all replied with their respects and hauled San, who was kicking and screaming in her rage, out of Asano's sight.