Free The Heavenward Path by Kara Dalkey

gently, I was bump-bump-bumped along the ground until we stopped.
        I stood, rubbing those places where I surely was bruised. "That was unkind," I said, glaring at Kuroihane.
        "Unkind? Us? Let us see who is most unkind. There." He pointed with the tip of his wing toward the nearest thatched hut. "There is where poor Goranu lies, breathing his last with burning prayers."
        I brushed the dirt off my kimonos. "I will see him for myself before I will believe you."
        "Go and look then, heartless creature. We will not stop you."
        I tossed my head as if I did not care and walked straight to the hut. At the curtained doorway, I heard a strange croaking from inside, and I hesitated, my hand on the curtain. They were sacred words, but the pain in that voice! My courage nearly failed me. The tengu who had carried me here were right behind me, preventing me from turning back.
        "Go on."
        "What are you afraid of?"
        "Afraid of the truth?"
        "Afraid of seeing what you have done?"
        I growled at them, "I have met the Dragon King, Ryujin, and I have met your Esteemed Ancestor Susano-wo, and I have met the Lord of Death himself. What have I to fear?" I pulled open the curtain and stepped up into the hut.
        There was a smell of burnt hair and feathers in the air. Goranu lay sprawled, in mostly human form, in a corner of the tiny hut. He clasped the sutra copy I had made against his chest. It was he making the croaking noise, trying to say the Lotus Sutra. All my feelings of self-pity melted away as I crept closer to him.
        Ai! He was a horrible sight. His lips were blackened, cracked, and bleeding, as were his fingers. His half-shut eyes were red and oozing. What feathers remained on his body were scorched.
        "Oh, Goranu," I whispered, "do you understand now why I would not teach you the sutras?"
        He did not seem to hear me or know I was there. Gently, I took the scroll out of his hands and laid it aside. At this, Goranu stopped his croaking chant. "Awk, what thief is it who steals the holy words?" he rasped.
        "It is me, your friend, Mitsuko," I said, taking his hands carefully in mine. "Please do not die, Goranu."
        "I… must continue," he whispered. "I must… be reborn… a mortal."
        "No, that is unworthy," I said, fighting back tears. "One learns the sutras to gain enlightenment, to escape the Wheel of Rebirth, not so that you may choose what creature to be in the next life."
        He reached up with one burnt and blistered finger and touched my cheek. "I want… to be… with you." He laid his head upon my lap.
        "I am here," I whispered, gently taking his hands in mine.
        And then I could no longer stop myself, and I wept. Because I held his hands, I could not cover my eyes with my sleeves to soak up my tears, which flowed freely onto Goranu's fingers and dripped onto his face. I do not know how long I knelt beside him that way.
        After a while, however, I heard the other tengu behind me, saying, "Well, will you look at that!"
        "Amazing!"
        "I didn't know she could do that."
        "Maybe we should have brought her sooner."
        I blinked my eyes and peered around, trying to see what they were talking about. Then I looked down. Goranu's hands were healing where my tears had dripped onto them. I wiped my eyes with the edge of my sleeve and dabbed Goranu's lips and eyelids with it. These, too, began to heal. And I remembered a time two years ago when Goranu had burnt his feet while rescuing me from the Temple of Kiyomizudera. I had wept over his feet and bandaged them, and then was amazed at how quickly he had healed.
        "Tears of maidenly pity," said Kuroihane behind me. "No wonder. Such tenderness has great healing power for us."
        "Why?" I turned and looked at the raven-headed creature. "Why should my tears matter?"
        "Heh. No doubt it was a jest on