The Wings of Dreams

rescue.”
    “I’m not talking about asking you to ride to the rescue. I’m hiring you to.”
    Gankyuu said with a jesting grin, “Oh? How much? I take half up front, you know. In cash.”
    “How about this?” Rikou tossed him Seisai’s reins. He unfastened the haku’s halter rope from the nearby rock. “Take as your pay the difference in value between a suugu and a haku. I don’t imagine you’d object to that. C’mon.”

Chapter 30
    [4-7]  O bserving the ragtag company moving along at a determined pace and half-listening to Shoutan chatting cheerfully beside her, Shushou nursed troubled thoughts. If they kept going down the road like this, they were bound to join up with Gankyuu and the rest of the caravan.
    And the youma clearly intended to stick with them the whole way.
    Except as long as they were on this road, there wasn’t anything else they could do but keep putting one foot ahead of the other. When and where and how they would hunt down the youma was very much up in the air.
    Though most in their group weren’t armed, a fair number carried weapons. The typical youma had to stop to eat whatever it attacked. At that moment it could be overwhelmed by a massed assault. This youma, however, appeared in a flash, ravaged one or two, and disappeared just as fast. When it was in a mood to eat, it didn’t lounge around but dragged off its victim. It didn’t leave its enemies any openings.
    “What’s on your mind?” Shoutan asked.
    Shushou managed a smile. “Since we can’t very well run away, I’ve been thinking about how to hunt down that youma.”
    “Hunt that thing?”
    “We’ll have to figure out how to get it to stop moving. There doesn’t seem any way to even slow it down.”
    “Yeah,” Shoutan mumbled. He said in a louder voice, “Shushou-sama, look.”
    A black object squatted on the road ahead of them. Despite the smell of blood in the air, the moonlight was bright enough to tell it wasn’t a youma. A horse-drawn wagon in rather wretched condition had been abandoned there.
    “The master’s wagon.”
    “So he finally gave up and left it behind.”
    The irony of the situation hardly escaped her. Kiwa had expressly come this way so as not to lose his precious wagon. When they drew closer, several people emerged from behind it, riders whose mounts had been killed and more servants cast aside by Kiwa.
    “What about Shitsu-san?”
    “He got on one of the horses and rode away.”
    “Oh. What a dutiful lord of the manor. Well, it’s good to see you folks alive.”
    “What should we do?” asked Shoutan.
    “There might be useful supplies left in the wagon. Let’s take a look.”
    They took a break while Shushou searched the bed of the wagon. She said, “The wagon cover and tents might come in handy as camouflage. During the day, the canvas shouldn’t look much different than big rocks.”
    Shoutan nodded. “We could cut them into pieces and hand them out.”
    “Let’s do that. Start with the weak and the injured.”
    “Understood.” He summoned the others. “Hey—!”
    Confirming that Shoutan had relayed these instructions to his companions, Shushou resumed rooting through the supplies.
    “The water barrels are here. A few are still intact. Let’s divvy them up. What’s in these smaller kegs?”
    “Probably sake and oil.”
    “Can’t do better than oil. We can use the alcohol to treat injuries. We need smaller containers, though. Portion it out to people who have something to carry it in.” Shushou moved onto the next item and stopped in surprise. “Silk.”
    Shoutan chuckled. “The master brought it to present to the people on Mt. Hou.”
    “Amazing. He needed this big wagon to carry all this stuff. Well, that’s the mind of a merchant trader for you.”
    They sorted through the dazzling array of exquisite fabrics, flagons and baubles. “Ah, there are some vases here. They look stupidly expensive, but if we cut up this fur coat to use as stoppers, they’ll come in handy.
    “Yep,” Shoutan said with another sardonic smile. His master was indeed a fool, making this girl’s determined good intentions no less curious by comparison.
    “I wonder what this is?”
    A box made of solid oak. The lid was loose. Using one of the trinkets as a lever, she wrenched it open. Seeing what was inside, Shushou suppress a gasp.
    “My word!” What in the world was Kiwa thinking? It was a jewelry box crammed with necklaces and ornate hairpins. “What possible good