Nishida tugged back his bowstring and let it go with a distinct twang. The heavy Hosharan-marked arrow cut through the air until it slammed through its quarry into the ground.
"That's my second," Nishida announced proudly. "He's huge! Look!"
An annoyed snort from Roka. "I would've gotten him first if you hadn't elbowed me!"
Taro laughed as Nishida leapt down from his mount to collect the rabbit.
"Why aren't you getting any more, Taro?" Roka demanded.
The Karunic boy shrugged. "No point trying unless I want to get shoved, too, eh?"
"Ha." Nishida pulled himself back up onto his horse with a grunt, rabbit safely in his bag. "We'll let you try with the next one, then. Maybe."
Roka yawned. "Everyone knows you can shoot, Taro. Better than Nishida, too. Better than that rakhai, even, I'll bet."
Taro was glad his mask hid the flush that crept into his cheeks.
"Huh," he muttered for lack of anything better. He did have three rabbits in his sack, after all.
"So, where's your rakhai now, Taro?" Nishida questioned thoughtfully.
Taro shrugged.
He had been a bit worried earlier, when they had entered the forest, but…nothing had happened. No sound, no attack, nothing.
Maybe the rakhai really was just a myth, after all.
Nishida glanced sideways at his friend. "Something bothering you?"
Taro bit his lip.
"Not really," he admitted finally.
Then he jumped as something crashed through the bushes, several feet away from them.
Off the path.
Taro's eyes widened as he held still.
An animal?
But an animal shouldn't have moved like that unless it was scared.
What had scared it?
"Hey, did you hear that?" Roka whisper-cried.
Taro didn't like the tingling feeling running down his spine.
"I think it was another rabbit," he said slowly.
"Obviously–but what scared it?"
Nishida's eyes met Taro's.
So Nishida had come to the same conclusion, too.
Taro took a deep breath. There was no reason to be scared.
"I'm going to go look for it. Hey, hold Hanae for me, will you?"
He handed the reins over to Nishida, who apparently–abruptly–changed his mind about letting Taro have a try at the next rabbit.
"No, you hold my reins. You already shot three–"
The arrow sliced through the foliage almost faster than Taro's eye could follow it.
Hanae jumped back, screaming as Roka shouted. Taro held wildly onto the pommel for balance.
The arrow slammed into the dirt just in front of his horse.
"What was that!" Roka gasped out.
"It's…it's an arrow." His balance regained, Taro leaned forward slightly to look at it.
"Yeah, I can see that!" Nishida hissed, somehow still holding Taro's reins. "Who shot it?"
Taro slipped down from Hanae. Her side trembled underneath his hands.
"It's…" He grasped the arrow, tugging it out of the dirt and turning it over carefully.
"It's homemade."
Nishida's response was more of a whisper than anything else.
"The…the rakhai?"
Taro looked up at him, tilting his head slightly.
"You said you didn't believe in the rakhai."
He forced another breath. His throat was stuck, somewhere.
The rakhai?
Did even Taro believe?
"Yes, but…!"
Nishida shook his head.
"Is…someone shooting at us?" Roka angled his head, as if he could see through all the trees surrounding them.
"What does it look like!" Nishida hissed.
"Do we…do we go back?" the boy went on.
Nishida and Taro stared at him. Then at each other.
Roka's next question was aimed at the sky. Or at the branches that blocked the sky from view.
"Are we supposed to go back?"
Taro bit his lip. Hard.
"I…I think we should."
"Wait." Nishida's eyes were narrow. "If it's the rakhai, then it's only one person. There are three of us."
What was visible of Roka's face, whitened.
"No one escapes the rakhai," he pleaded. "I…"
"It's daylight," Nishida reminded him. "No one has ever been killed during the day unless they were alone."
The arrow fell from Taro's hand as another one hurtled through the branches and dug itself into the ground in front of Nishida's horse.
Taro's face blanched.
But Nishida jerked out an arrow from his quiver and returned the shot.
His arrow screamed through the air until it hit a tree.
Thunk.
"We…"
Roka grabbed Nishida's pommel.
"We're dead!"
Taro stared at Nishida.
"Why the khur did you do that?" he spluttered. "She's shooting at us!"
Nishida smiled wryly.
"She's not the only one with arrows–"
A third arrow tore into his right hand, resting casually on the bowstring. Nishida's face contorted as the other two boys froze and Roka jerked his hand away from Nishida's horse.
"Nishida," Taro breathed.
He stepped over to the older boy's horse. "Let me…let me see."
An unwelcome tear streaked down Nishida's face and onto his mask as he reached his hand down to Taro.
Taro's eyes widened in disbelief.
"It…it went through the string."
He glanced back up at his friend.
"Close your eyes."
Nishida did.
And Taro grasped both ends of the arrow and broke it in half.
Nishida screamed, but the halves of the arrow fell free.
Roka screamed too, but Taro ignored him as he pulled off his own mask and wound it around Nishida's hand.
"Ride," he hissed. "Gallop."
"...What?" Nishida gritted.
"Taro!" Roka gasped.
Taro's eyes burned into Nishida's.
"I want the two of you gone, now. Take Hanae."
"She will kill you," Roka moaned.
Taro smiled grimly–though there was no mask to hide his face now.
"I'm Karunic. She doesn't usually kill us."
What was he saying?
What the khur was he saying?
"No." Nishida shook his head as pain tore through him visibly. "We can't leave you here, Taro!"
"Too bad," Taro bit out, "because you don't have a choice."
He slapped the back end of Nishida's horse.
It aimed one kick at Taro–and missed–before it took off down the path, back towards Norema.
Roka was already moving.
"My mom will take care of your hand!" Taro shouted after them.
Then they disappeared around a bend.
He stood still, frozen.
He was…
…alone.
Taro felt every bit of the chills spring back into him.
Or maybe they were doubled now.
Taro drew a deep, shuddering breath as he…waited.
His sword and dagger hung at his side. His bow and quiver were strapped across his back.
But weapons were deadlier than otherwise, now.
His ears ached for sound, but only the murmuring of leaves in the breeze answered them.
Taro took a step backwards.
"You should've gone with them."
The voice was disturbingly young–and irritated.
"Walking isn't fast enough."
If it had been winter, Taro couldn't have felt more frozen than he already did.
His mouth twitched a couple of times before he realized he wasn't just alone–he was exposed.
Suddenly the mask he had despised became a very wanted object.
But it was gone now.
Taro's lips trembled before he could control them.
"Are you…"
The words tasted like ice.
"...going to kill me?"
There was no answer, so he finished the question.
"...Kishi Eishi?"
He was not prepared for the response that hit him like an avalanche.
"Why does everyone know my name these days?"
He said nothing. There was nothing to say.
"You know, running would be faster than walking," the rakhai went on. "Maybe you want to see what I look like. But I think you already know that's a death sentence."
"I…"
Taro swallowed.
"I already know what you look like, though."
Her voice had confirmed it.
Kishi Eishi.
The redhaired girl who came to Norema once every month or so.
They were the same.
Taro's mouth was dry as he waited, wondering why on earth he had said that.
"Taro Zayasu."
A couple of boots appeared beneath a branch. Then the ends of two scabbards.
Then Kishi Eishi dropped down from the tree.
Her face masked. Her hair loose.
And her eyes narrowed.
"This is really kind of annoying, do you know that?"
He wanted desperately to take another step backwards.
Or start running.
Or just drop dead.
But none of those were really an option.
So instead he did nothing.
Kishi's head tilted slightly.
"I like your mom. I…really don't like the idea of killing her son. Even if he's…"
The upper half of her face, at least, scowled.
"...stupidly heroic."
Taro flinched.
"Please don't…"
He didn't know what he wanted to say.
His mother?
He wanted to go back home. To be there, right now.
But now he couldn't.
And death was worse than that.
Except his father's words echoed in his ears.
"It does not belong to this house anymore."
Did…
Did Taro?
His heart stopped when he realized Kishi hadn't moved, either.
"Don't what?" she asked softly.
Taro's vision blurred.
"Don't talk to me," he whispered.
He imagined that she caught her breath.
Or maybe she did.
"So you…" Her voice trailed off.
"You don't even want to try to live?"
"What is the point?" His voice cut through the quiet between them. "I…"
A shudder.
"I am no one."
And suddenly Kishi laughed, her voice cold.
"You're not no one. You're Taro Zayasu. You've got a sister. Maybe two of them. A mother. A father. Friends. Friends you just sacrificed yourself to save."
She straightened slightly.
"No. You're not no one."
"You don't understand," Taro hissed.
"I really am no one."