He went.
She followed.
But then she shouted to him. The first time she had raised her voice.
She had to–the roaring was growing louder by the minute.
"Not the path!"
Taro glanced back at her, and then he understood. The path would already be burning.
They struck out south, through the underbrush, away from the smoke, away from the trail.
A branch fell, somewhere far behind them. Taro tripped on a rock. Caught himself on a trunk, just in time.
He risked a quick glance back. Kishi was still behind him.
She was moving more quickly now. Her eyes were more alert.
Good. She was back.
Taro didn't know why the thought relieved him.
She still didn't catch up. Maybe the distance between them was intentional.
His face contorted as he kept running, kept jumping, kept trying to gauge the distance.
Yesterday he and his friends had been an hour or so into Hiyashi. Kishi's place hadn't been too far from where she had ambushed them.
If they were lucky, they could make it out of the forest within the hour on foot.
Except Taro didn't know the terrain.
He hoped she did.
His sheath caught on something. Taro bit back the yell of frustration that simmered at his lips.
Kishi was running with two swords, a bow, a quiver, and a pack, he realized.
And much more quietly than he was.
She…
She was really trained, wasn't she.
"Left," Kishi screamed to him.
So she had to scream now.
Taro twisted his head around for an instant.
Smoke billowed–low, condensing. Orange flickered.
He veered left.
Why wasn't she catching up to him? He could hear her coughing–
Taro's boot tugged against something, and this time he didn't catch himself. He slammed face-down into the dirt, his face just barely scraping the bark of a trunk. His shout was cut short by the impact.
He lay there for a moment. Just for a moment.
Then he scrambled to his feet, panting.
His face hurt. The arm he'd fallen on, too.
Kishi had stopped about four feet away. Watching him. Her eyes wide.
They snapped back to normal the instant he was standing.
So. She hadn't tried to help him up.
Taro wondered vaguely why that hurt.
"We're almost there," she called, starting to move again, as he did.
Then he saw it. The river.
The river?
It was still several hundred feet away. Forcing his legs to keep moving, Taro struck out for the banks.
He stopped there. She came up, close–but not close.
"What now?" Taro eyed the waterway. It was maybe twenty feet across. There was a current. There were rocks. He couldn't tell how deep the middle was.
He knew how to swim. Maybe Kishi did, too.
But they were both wearing their swords.
They could still make it, he thought.
Her eyes spoke differently.
Then her hand moved. Pointed.
Along the bank.
"There's a cave," she said. She didn't have to yell, now. "We'll wait there."
Taro pressed his lips together. Hard.
The fire was coming. And it didn't look small.
Wind ruffled his hair. He glanced at his tunic.
Ash.
"Can you…swim?" he asked hesitantly.
Their eyes locked.
"I won't," Kishi said. Said it like it was law.
Taro felt his breath growing louder as his lungs fought for oxygen.
A cave…
He could swim alone. He could leave her here.
She wasn't going to follow him.
But he wouldn't know the way without her.
And she might need him.
No. She couldn't need him. She was the rakhai.
But…
She needed the forest, Taro realized.
He blinked rapidly as his eyes began to sting.
"Come," Kishi snapped, making her way along the bank.
This time it was he who followed.
She stopped shortly after. Stepped up to the very edge of the bank before she sat down and dangled her legs over it.
He caught up as she dropped. Looking down, Taro realized the shoreline was about a ten-foot drop from the bank. And there was a strip of rocky soil there.
He sat on the ledge, like she had. His sheath angled out. His legs swung.
She was on the narrow strip, below, waiting.
Taro glanced back at the forest. At the fire.
And then at the other side of the river.
Well, he'd have to drop to cross–anyway–
Taro swung himself around. His hands groped at the dirt for a hold.
They found none.
He hit the ground below on his feet, but barely. One leg seized. Taro stumbled forward against the "wall" rather than away from it.
He tried to make his heart rate calm. He was fine. He was fine.
She was still watching him.
"Are we going somewhere?" he asked.
It was quiet down here, apart from the river. The air was cleaner. Cooler. Taro breathed it in deeply.
She didn't answer him for a minute.
Then she sat down, her back against the overhang wall.
Taro blinked.
Hadn't she mentioned a cave?
"Um–" he began.
"We can wait here," Kishi stated.
Then she stood up again. Abruptly. Walked over to the river's edge and glanced back at where they had come from.
He read it from her face. The same conclusion he had come to. Hiyashi was burning.
Taro froze as she turned her head towards him.
"Cut my hair," she said.
That did not improve the freeze.
Taro's mouth opened silently.
She stepped towards him. Three feet. Half the distance.
Then she sat down and loosened her hair, just like she had the other day.
It was long, Taro realized. Very long.
What…
Was she preparing to leave the forest?
Or…what was this?
"I–" Taro started, then stopped.
Was he going to say he didn't want to do it?
But why didn't he?
It had nothing to do with him.
It was practical. It had to be. Kishi had a reason.
But…
Taro felt his mouth go dry.
She looked back at him. Her mask still hid her mouth.
"Well?"
"...How?" Taro asked stupidly.
Her eyes flashed.
"Don't be dumb. I know you have a dagger."
So did Taro's hand. It closed around the hilt before he gave it permission.
He took one step closer and then stopped.
He had not been this close to her before. And he didn't know if that was okay.
"I'm waiting," Kishi called.
Of course she was. She was the rakhai. She probably knew exactly where he was just from the way his breath displaced the air.
Taro knelt behind her. He drew his dagger and glanced at the blade for a moment.
A wave of nausea crashed through him. He didn't know why.
The thought struck him that he could kill the rakhai in one blow, now.
The nausea sublimated into ice.
Was this…a test?
Kishi sighed. The soft sound cut into him.
She was waiting. Still.
Taro realized he was holding his breath.
He lifted the dagger. It was small. Sharp. Sharp enough to cut hair.
Sharp enough to cut something else, too.
But Kishi would know that.
His hand was shaking. Both of them. He tried to steady himself.
His left fingers closed around a handful of hair. All the air still left in Taro's lungs, evaporated.
His grip tightened. Strong.
Then Taro realized something.
"How short do you want it?" he whispered.
She didn't answer. He let go.
"Short," she said finally.
He had to touch her hair again. This time he held it tighter.
Sakue's hair was short, ending just above her shoulders, Taro remembered.
Maybe that was what Kishi wanted.
He held the blade against her hair. Swallowed.
Then he tried to cut.
Rssk. Rssk.
The sound sent chills down his spine. But Kishi didn't move.
The first lock fell. Rather, Taro laid it down.
So long. So much.
So red.
Kishi coughed. Taro grasped the next handful.
He wasn't sure if he was cutting it straight. He had never cut anyone's hair before.
Maybe he was lucky she didn't have a mirror like his mother did.
His breath hitched as she straightened. Slightly. But enough that he jerked the dagger away in panic.
His hand was trembling again.
One more handful.
Why was he so close to her?
He was almost finished. He had to do it.
Taro lifted the dagger again, willing his hand to be still.
Back. Forth. Back. Forth.
The last strands came loose. He pulled away.
She still didn't move.
"It's…finished," Taro whispered thickly, staring in something very much like dismay at the job he had done. If he could even call it a job.
The edges were rough. The third cut seemed almost an inch shorter than the first two.
Worst of all, he could see her neck and the tied ends of the mask she was still wearing.
Her hand came up, her fingers bracing against the rough ends of her hair. For a moment, Taro thought her hand was shaking, too.
He wiped his dagger almost mechanically against his leggings and then slid it into its sheath as he glanced up at the sky.
Ashes. Thicker now.
The river's surface was beginning to paper over.
"Kishi?" he breathed.
She was quiet, he realized. Very quiet. Her hand had come back down.
Suddenly she stood, turning away. Towards the river. A few steps reinstated the distance between them.
"Th…"
She never finished the word. Taro sensed what she had tried to say anyway.
"Where's the cave?" he asked. His eyes were stinging again.
This time she glanced at him. Pointed at the overhang.
"That."
His eyes widened.
"Is that…going to protect us?"