Free Spirit's Chosen by Esther Friesner Page B

face. Small as he was, he fought and pushed his way out of her arms and ran to Yukari. My stepmother seized her son and darted to Lord Hideki’s side, seeking protection.
    Mama stared at her empty arms, then collapsed into a wailing huddle of pain and misery. “Demon, demon, give me back my boy! Have mercy, pity me, give him back!” She stretched out her hands to Takehiko. “O my youngest, my dearest, my lastborn treasure, my Noboru, why do you flee me? What has this madwoman done to turn your heart away from your own mother?”
    I threw myself onto my knees beside her and once more tried to bring her back from the depths of renewed delusion. “Mama, you know the truth,” I murmured, hugging her. I had not seen her in such a bad way since the evening of my homecoming. “That’s Takehiko, not Noboru. Noboru is with Emi and Sanjirou, among the Ookami. He isn’t here, but he’s alive. Do you understand me?
Alive
.”
    Her lips were trembling as she looked up at me. “Alive?” she repeated. I could sense nothing but emptiness behind her eyes. She lived, but her spirit was wandering. I had to bring it back.
    “Master Michio!” I called. I didn’t need to say anything more. Our shaman was with me in an instant, his strong arms supporting my mother. I was free to reach into the folds of my sash and take out my wand and talisman.I touched the clay image of the sun goddess to Mama’s brow and tilted my head back, beginning a chant for restoring balance and calm.
    My incantation wove a spell that embraced my mother but also drew me into its rhythmically beating heart. The words and their deep, entrancing melody swirled around us. I could almost see them taking shape, becoming graceful, dancing creatures of mist and music. I felt my mother slump into my lap as Master Michio gently released her from his grasp. Her body moved with the deep, regular breath of peaceful slumber.
    “Everything will be all right, Mama, you’ll see,” I whispered, cradling her limp body. “When spring comes, I’ll find a way to bring Noboru home again, I swear it. I don’t know how, but I’ll try, and with the spirits’ help—”
    “… not fair.” The words were uttered in a low, dangerous growl.
    I blinked. Had she spoken? “Mama?”
    “It’s not fair!”
She punched both fists into my chest, knocking me over backward, and was on her feet before I fully realized that her tranquil slumber was a trick. “Why should
her
son live when mine are gone? Let her know my suffering!” She sprang away so suddenly and so fast that Lord Hideki hardly knew what was happening when she wrenched the firewood cudgel from his hands.
    “You took my son!” she screeched. “I’ll take yours!” She brought the bludgeon down on Takehiko’s head. We heard the sickening crack of bone.
    Yukari screamed.

 
    I scrambled after my mother, but I was too late. Lord Hideki had recovered from the shock of her assault and tore the cudgel from her hands while my stepmother Yukari’s shrieks and sobs echoed through the wintry air. She lay curled up on her side, a ring of helpless, confused onlookers hovering over her, too ignorant to know what to do, too stunned to move away.
    Beside her, miraculously unharmed, my little brother Takehiko stared at his mother’s unnaturally bent right arm, the one she had thrust into the path of the descending club to shield her child.
    Master Michio moved with astonishing speed, his expression grave as he examined the broken bone. I should have run to fetch the supplies he would need to help her, but I could not leave my mother; not now.
    “Kaya …” I only had to speak her name and my friend was there, poised to help me. As briefly and accurately aspossible, I described the things that Master Michio would need and where he kept them. She nodded crisply and was away.
    I wished our clanfolk had behaved half as helpfully. In the wake of this scarcely averted tragedy, only a few of them did anything actually useful. While