Free Spirit's Chosen by Esther Friesner Page A

plea rose shrill and loud, startling those nearest him. Takehiko took fright and tried to climb from my mother’s lap into Yukari’s arms but Mama enveloped him in her embrace, rocking back and forth until he sat with her calmly again.
    “My brother is right,” I said. “He should not lead us.”
    The old lord tightened his lips. “No one asked for your opinion.”
    “You
never
ask, Lord Hideki,” I responded. “You decide. You direct. You choose and then you force your choices on everyone else. Why not choose to become our chieftain?”
    His shaggy eyebrows came together. “I should slap that insult from your lips, girl. Do you think I am a thief to take what isn’t mine? Your family has ruled the Matsu for as long as any man here can recall. The line of your blood is unbroken, and on my honor as your father’s friend, I will see to it that this remains so!” he roared at me. “The wolves killed this clan’s chieftain and two of his heirs, but as long as one survives, I will not rest until he accepts his obligation to his kin!”
    If he thought he could make me back down with such a ferocious outburst he soon learned I was as stubborn as he. “Did you ever
listen
to Masa’s reasons for refusing to be our chieftain?”
    “Pff! They weren’t reasons; they were excuses. He claims he can’t be our chieftain and our blacksmith too.” He dismissed this with a curt wave of one hand. “His wife’s father was our blacksmith before, and he isn’t too old to take up the job again. Your brother also insists he knows nothing about how to use weapons. We lost the war! Why would our chieftain need to fight for us now? Last of all, he wants us to believe he can’t make others follow him. Ridiculous! Why couldn’t he make others obey him—?”
    “—when they won’t even pay attention to him?” I asked evenly. “
You
don’t.”
    “It’s true,” Masa said, eyes downcast. “I know who I am. I’m a good blacksmith, a good neighbor, and—and I hope I’m a good husband.” He glanced at his wife Fusa, who gave hima loving look and squeezed his arm protectively. “I would not be a good chieftain. I don’t deny that we need one, I’m just saying it shouldn’t be me.”
    “But you are our chieftain’s only living son!” one of the other gray-haired nobles shouted. He should have said “
grown
son,” but was too eager to take Lord Hideki’s side to speak accurately.
    Such a small slip of the tongue shouldn’t have been important. I noticed it, but imagined I was the only one.
    “Only … living … son?”
    The words were slivers of ice melting against my spine. They trembled on the air as my mother rose to her feet, clutching Takehiko close, and stepped toward the man who had spoken. Her eyes glowed with a strange brilliance. She looked like something from another world, a place of eternal night and unending horror. The clan elder was no coward, yet he backed away at her approach. Takehiko squirmed and kicked, whimpering for his mother, but when Yukari tried to take him from Mama’s arms she got a vicious kick that sent her staggering.
    “Keep away from us!” Mama screamed, tightening her grip on the terrified child. “You’re insane! You want to hurt my precious Noboru, but I won’t let you! I’m a good mother; I’ll never let anyone take my baby from me. I will always protect him,
always
! Just because your child is gone, you think you can steal mine? And you!” She made a blood-chilling face at our gathered clan. “She’s turned all of you against us. I know! You think I don’t hear the lies? You call
my
son by
her
son’s name! There’s only one reason I’ve allowed you to get away with such hatefulness,such falsehood: because we know the truth, my precious Noboru and I. Isn’t that right, my love?” She pressed her lips to the top of Takehiko’s head.
    My little brother uttered a half-smothered protest, then jerked his head up. “I’m not Noboru!” he yelled in Mama’s