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  I consoled myself with the pragmatism of my decision. It was just as well Faith had shown her volatile temperament now, as opposed to later, when she was alone with Shiromainu Nipa. Not that I believed Taishi would have allowed Shiromainu to bed her. But if he had, this was for the best that I went instead of her.

  No sooner had Faith and I stepped into the cave, then Shiromainu bowed to us. My brother followed suit a second later. I paused, unaccustomed to such a gesture on my behalf.

  “Your decision?” Shiromainu Nipa asked.

  “If you will permit me the honor to serve as your wife in tsuma no koukan, I will take my sister-in-law’s place.” I bowed low and kept my eyes on the dirt floor.

  Shiromainu grunted with approval.

  “And in exchange for a member of my household, what do you offer to us in return?” Taishi asked.

  “I have no family members to offer you in exchange for your sister. My first wife and daughters died at the hands of the gaijin, and my second wife at the hands of the Tatsujin tribe. My third wife died in childbirth. My brother’s heir is male, and I have no females in my own household to offer you.” He paused, sucking on his teeth.

  One of the warriors behind him shuffled forward and bowed. At first I thought the immense figure with the thick mustache was a man. The warrior spoke in a gravelly voice that was so deep it could have passed for male as well. “I offer myself in service to my nipa.” It took me a moment to notice the swelling of breasts under her fur manto. As she leaned forward, her face was lost in a messy mane of black hair.

  My eyes widened when she lifted her head. The black mustache was a tattoo above her upper lip. Her nose was flat and smashed, her small eyes a little too far apart to be considered beautiful, and she looked to be a head taller than my brother. From her size and thick limbs I had dismissed her as a man. And this was the woman who Shiromainu offered my brother? I didn’t know if this was an insult or a jest. I wouldn’t want her if I were a man.

  Taishi bowed deeply. “You honor me with your offer.”

  The Tanukijin chuckled. My cheeks reddened in shame for him. Now my brother had a second geari wife.

  Chapter Six

  It is the right of our manifest destiny to overspread and to possess the whole of the galaxy which Providence has given us for the great experiment of rediscovered spaceflight.

  ―John L. O’Sullivan, New York Space Station journalist, 1845

  I was blindfolded during the journey to the Tanukijin palace so that the route and location of their home remained secret. Even so, I used my other senses to try to find where I was. The crackle of twigs and dead branches sending up the perfume of charred wood named the nearest plateau where the starships had burned a forest. The roar of water meant we neared a large river.

  Unlike my own people, the Chiramantepjin, the Tanukijin rode the giant blue chiramanteps our tribe was named for. It was an irony that didn’t escape my notice since the Chiramantepjin were now so ill-equipped we no longer possessed any of our own animals. We rode two astride each beast. I sat in front of Shiromainu Nipa, uncomfortably aware of his arm around me as we swayed under the chiramantep’s gait. I ran my fingers through the chiramantep’s course fur, idly passing the time by stroking the animal. And worrying. I was very good at that past time.

  What would happen if I didn’t please Shiromainu? After two weeks of tsuma no koukan, would he come back and insist Faith exchange memories with him anyway? I didn’t see how I could succeed at convincing him when he wanted to see inside Faith’s mind and I wasn’t Faith. Perhaps he would simply use me as an excuse for not assimilating our tribe into his.

  We had been traveling for an hour when the air turned putrid and a rumble like thunder echoed from a distance. The chiramanteps growled and became agitated. The beast we rode ducked his head down, causing me to pitch forward. I grabbed onto his neck as he clawed at the earth. The shudder of the ground radiated through his body and into my bones. I knew those tremors well.

  Shiromainu fought to gain control over his beast.

  My heart thudded frantically. I wanted to run for cover. “Gaijin are coming.” I said. I reached for my blindfold, but Shiromainu pushed my hand away.

  “How does she know?” one of the warriors asked.

  I could hear the anger in another man’s voice. “She must be peeking, so she can see the way to our secret palace and tell that gaijin in her tribe.”

  “I’m not peeking!” I said with more force than I intended. “I can smell them. Can’t you? Feel the earth tremble. They’re destroying the kamuy of the land and making them angry.” It was more terrascaping, and close enough they could see the ships if he thought I was peeking.

  “I don’t feel anything,” one of the men said.

  “That’s because your senses are deaf,” Shiromainu snapped. “Sumiko-san is correct. There are signs if you’re perceptive enough to pay them any mind.”

  I reached for my blindfold again. “Where are they?”

  Shiromainu took my hand and placed it in the warmth of the thick fur in front of me. He was gentler this time. “We are safe, child,” Shiromainu said. “Their sky beasts destroy the mountains, not this plain. They are far enough away they won’t notice our passage.”

  I wanted to remove my blindfold and see for myself. I was constantly on guard from that point on. Every shudder of the chiramantep set me on edge.

  Sleet rained down on us. Shiromainu wrapped me under his manto cloak. I tried not to think about his sunken cheeks and weathered face, and how I might be sharing his bed that night. In truth, I didn’t know what tsuma no koukan would entail. I wasn’t considered a woman yet, and wasn’t old enough for pillowing. No decent man would bed a girl who hadn’t reached womanhood and earned tattoos on her wrists that showed her maturity. At least, not in my tribe. Shiromainu had been Father’s friend. I wanted to believe he’d been a good man. But what if he’d changed?

  Yet he was now my husband and my new nipa. I had to please him so that my family and tribe would be somewhere safer.

  Shiromainu’s arm shifted as he tugged at the reins of the chiramantep. I pretended it was Faith hugging me to her instead. She had hugged me just before my temporary husband had placed me on the chiramantep. I don’t think she would have released me if Taishi hadn’t pried her arms off me. She cared for me so much she hadn’t wanted to let me go. I wished Taishi could have been less formal for once and hugged me too.

  He’d simple stared forward, face blank and said, “Gambatte kudasai.”

  It meant “give me your best” and “good luck” and “I know you can” all at once. If I was supposed to convince my new nipa to allow all of us to come to his village I was going to need luck.

  “Sumiko-san, are you hungry?” Shiromainu asked.

  I was grateful, since it would be bad manners to ask for food. My temporary husband gave me fish jerky to chew on and water to sip from his animal skin along the way. The jerky tasted sweet and salty, and so much better than any I’d had from our village. With every strip of jerky I finished he asked me if I wanted another.

  I didn’t start to worry until my third piece. What if I was showing poor manners that would make him think everyone in my tribe was as selfish as I was.

  I bowed my head. “Sumimasen. Have I eaten too much? Is there enough for everyone? I don’t want to eat anyone else’s rations.”

  “You can eat as much as you like. There are no rations.” He placed another piece in my hand.

  I didn’t know if there was such a thing as no rationing. Perhaps it was a test. I decided to make that my last piece.

  “Do you remember me, Sumiko-san?” Shiromainu asked. “I knew your parents.”

  I listened for the trick in the question. Tanuki were clever animals and Shiromainu would be the cleverest of Tanukijin.

  I shook my head. I did have a memory of him, but I didn’t want to admit he’d caught me doing something bad. I must have been five when he and my f
ather had caught Shipo and me playing in memory moss. At least, I think that was what had happened. It was so long ago.

  I saw Shipo’s smiling face. My heart ached at those happy days full of sunshine and eating sugar fruits in the jungle to the south. I pushed thoughts of Shipo deep inside, into the chasm where my parents still lived in memories I couldn’t permit myself to linger on too long.

  Shiromainu didn’t say much other than to ask me if I was cold or if I needed to stretch away from the animals. After a few hours, he removed my blindfold and left me behind a cluster of blackened trees. I supposed this was to allow me a chance to relieve myself.

  He gave me plenty of time for privacy before he returned for me and blindfolded me again. He wasn’t unkind, just quiet. I didn’t blame him. I was only thirteen. I was one of the least important people in my tribe, not even worth introducing. Though, it still annoyed me when I thought of my brother’s dismissiveness.

  The journey to the Tanukijin secret stronghold exhausted me. Not just from the ride, but from my mind running circles and circles around the idea that my first time of real memory exchange was to be with an old man whom I didn’t love. It would be out of duty for my people, not because of passion. It was more honorable, this way, I told myself. My first would be a nipa. Not every woman could boast of that.

  I didn’t convince myself any better than I had Faith. I frowned thinking of her. I already missed her warm arms secure around me. There would be no one here to kiss the top of my head and tell me I was a big helper. If I was lucky, Shiromainu would ignore me like my brother did.

  And yet, if he did, that wouldn’t give me the chance to prove how good of a person Faith was and that my brother would be an asset to Shiromainu.

  I was aware of the animal underneath me traveling downward at an incline. I had to hold on to the harness so I wouldn’t be pitched forward. The sound of water grew louder.

  Shiromainu removed my blindfold. Stables made from stone and wood stood before me. He helped me off the animal and onto a dry patch of earth. I blinked at the gray ebb of dusk creeping into the sky. Looking up, I saw we were in a sort of chasm. Box-like buildings were set into the side of a cliff, hidden and out of view from above. A cloud of mist rose from the buildings and further obscured the top of the chasm. A rocky bank covered in patches of snow stretched down from the buildings toward a river.

  Already I was calculating what it would take to escape. Not to avoid my duty, but if starships came for us, where would I take shelter? How would I get away? Would I go to the stable and steal a chiramantep? No, everyone else would go to the stable. I would follow the river to my family. South? Or north? I was so turned around I didn’t know if I would ever find my family again if it came to that.

  Of course, the whole reason I had volunteered for tsuma no koukan was in the hope that my people would be welcomed to this secret place that no starship had found. Still, it was hard not to forever be planning for danger.

  A resonant gong drew my attention. A man in furs stood at the entrance of the palace, using a stick to hit a dull metal disk that hung from stone pillars. The metal was blue and green with age. He struck it again. Bundled figures came down the steps of the entryway toward us. One of the warriors on his chiramantep next to us dismounted. He raised a hand and called to those receiving us.

  Shiromainu Nipa placed a hand on my back, an informal gesture that surprised me considering I didn’t know him. I started and looked to him.

  He smiled. Few teeth were left in his mouth. “Have your eyes seen enough of our cliff palace from outside, my brave, little bride?”

  I swallowed and nodded. With his hand on my back, he ushered me into the cliff palace and up a flight of stairs into a large, open room. There were so many people everywhere. They were smiling and happy and greeted those who had returned. There was so much chatter and noise. I felt so out of place.

  Shiromainu gave instructions to old women to feed me and make me presentable for the bridal chamber. The grandmothers brought me to a women’s chamber, full of looms and sewing, where women worked by the dying light of the uncovered windows. There were no children or men here. All the women wore black tattooed bands around their wrists. They had all earned the right to be in this room for adult women. I hadn’t.

  The old women scrunched up their noses at me, making no effort to hide their disgust.

  One whispered, none too quietly. “The only thing holding her clothes together is dirt, ne?”

  I looked down at my manto and the furs I wore underneath. The fur was bald in some places. Once it might have been blue, but now it was mostly brown with dirt. Already I felt as though I had failed.

  It was warm like summer in the chamber, though I saw no fire. It was too warm for my cloak, even if it was thin and bald of fur in some places.

  I bowed and kept my eyes on the ground. “May I remove my manto?” I asked, uncertain of their customs. The only thing worse than showing Shiromainu how coarse and uncivilized I was—and bringing on his displeasure—was to show this to the grandmothers.

  The grandmothers exchanged amused glances.

  “Yes, of course, little bride,” one grandmother said with a tanuki-like smile I didn’t trust for a moment. “Make yourself comfortable.”

  The tanuki, the animal this tribe was named after, were known for being tricksters. I knew not to let my guard down.

  I sat on the floor. It was surprisingly warm. “Grandmothers, pardon my question, but are we seated above a room with a fire pit?”

  They laughed and shook their heads. “Ei! Our palace is built over hot springs. It’s agreeable for this weather, ne?”

  “Doesn’t she know anything?” one of the women whispered to another.

  Already I had messed up. I had to make a good impression on these people. I represented my tribe. I represented Faith. I needed to show them I wasn’t stupid.

  Young women—or women younger than the grandmothers—worked in the room on weaving, sewing and dying fabric. Some did nothing but sit there and chat. They didn’t look at me, though several glanced my way as I ate. They fed me a soup thick with vegetables and tree snails I happily slurped from their shells. It was so salty and rich it reminded me of the stews from my childhood. I tore into a roasted water lizard next, with wings or fins protruding from it, I couldn’t tell. It was more food than I got most good days, but even so, I couldn’t finish it with the way my stomach churned in nervousness.

  As the sky darkened, the women tied the hide curtains to the windows closed and built a fire in the pit in the corner. Many left, but the grandmothers remained with me. After living an eternity in the cold, this felt like paradise. I was so drowsy I would have liked to sleep, but that would have been impossible with the chatter of the grandmothers all around me.

  A man threw back the hide flap covering the entrance of the chamber, letting a draft in. Women clucked their tongues and pursed their lips, but no one spoke out.

  The young man stared at me, fire burning in his black eyes. “This is the Chiramantepjin bride?”

  He wore his hair in a topknot on his head. Fur pelts covered an attush robe made of plant fibers. His face was smooth with youth, and I guessed him to be close to Faith’s age. He was all angles and muscle, built in the way older girls fawned over. He was good looking if one liked that sort of thing.

  None of the women answered his question. One grandmother said, “Petennouk-san, how kind of you to visit us in the women’s chamber.” From her careful monotone, I knew she wasn’t happy to see him, but chastising him for entering a room where he wasn’t welcome. There was a fine art to saying what one meant without saying it. My brother was good at this. So was every grandmother and grandfather on Aynu-Mosir.

  I averted my eyes so the youth wouldn’t lose face.

  “If anyone should receive a bride, it’s me. I’m of age.” His tone was insolent and whiney. He may have had a man’s face, but spoke like a spoiled child. “Where’s my uncle?�
�

  The grandmother’s smile remained in place. “If Nipa wasn’t in his chambers, perhaps you should ask one of the warriors of his party.”

  He scowled and dropped the noren style door curtain.

  The old women took me to a place they called the onsen next. I didn’t know that word. A large pool made of beautiful black rocks filled the empty stone room. Fingers of steam spiraled up from the water and swirled around me. Green moss covered the walls and ceiling, creating living curtains. It smelled fresh and spicy, a familiar perfume I remembered from my childhood. A sconce on the wall bathed the room in dancing yellow light. I could almost believe I was in the jungle. This place reminded me of my childhood and home. It was so perfect. I wished Faith could have seen it.

  I pointed to the pool. “What is that?”

  “It’s a bath, an onsen,” one of the grandmothers said. “Something you’ve never experienced once in your life by the looks of it.”

  “I have had a bath,” I lied. I suspected the river didn’t count, nor the trickle of streams where we waded when it was warm enough. The way their gazes roved over the dirt on my skin I knew they knew this was a lie as well.

  I was too dirty to get in the water. They scrubbed me with a rag, chatting away as though I weren’t there.

  One poked at my ribs. “There isn’t much meat on her bones, ne?”

  “What was Nipa thinking? She’s just a child. Has he lost his mind?”

  When I dipped a toe into the water, it felt like it would boil me alive.

  “Iya!” I cried out and drew my foot back.

  A stooped woman pushed me closer. “Go on. Get in, child.”

  I made myself get in even though the water was painfully hot. I expected this marriage would be full of suffering. If I lived through this torture of being made into human soup, I would tell Faith everything I had done in her stead and she would kiss me and stroke my hair. My entire tribe would bow to me and thank me for saving them. I played this story over and over to take my mind off the present.