“Get it out of the pit.”
They tossed a rope down, Yukiko watching in disgust as the Guildsman crawled twenty feet up into the light. The arms on its back made a skittering, clicking noise as they moved, as if a hive of scuttling insects were housed in each limb. Glowing eyes lent a blood-soaked tinge to its glistening shell. Though the skin looked moist, dirt or dust didn’t cling to it at all.
As the Guildsman reached the pit’s edge, Yukiko realized it was wearing a long, buckle-studded apron, making it difficult to clear the lip of the trap. Isao seized one of its humanoid arms, dragged it out and dumped it without ceremony on the ground. Atsushi leveled his naginata at the thing’s throat. Yukiko stood back, well out of reach of the spider limbs, but the Guildsman made no threatening gestures, merely raised all its arms amidst more of that horrid clicking and slowly rose to its feet. Eyes averted. Shivering. Its mechabacus was silent, implanted over the swell of its …
Gods above.
“It’s a girl.” Yukiko frowned at Kin. “She’s a girl.”
Kin shrugged. “All False-Lifers are.”
“I didn’t think there were any women in the Guild.”
“Where do you think little Guildsmen come from?” A small, embarrassed smile.
Yukiko’s scowl grew darker still, and she gestured toward the False-Lifer’s mechabacus. The device chattered, counting beads clicking back and forth across a surface of relays, heat-sinks and glowing transistors.
“Disable it.”
Kin stepped forward, uncertain, drawing a screwdriver and pliers from his work belt. Looking a little awkward, he placed his hands on the Guildswoman’s chest. It kept its eyes downturned as he loosened a handful of screws. Dozens of insulated wires spilled out as he peeled the faceplate away.
“Um.” He held up the covering. “Can you hold this, please?”
The False-Lifer mutely complied, spider arms shuddering as its real hands cupped the metal. Yukiko felt her stomach turn, swallowing hard, mouth tasting of vomit. Her legs were trembling. Eyes watering. Sparrows called in the distance, the sound closer to screaming than singing. Three monkeys gathered in the trees overhead, roaring and shaking the branches. Heat all around her. Hands in fists.
ARE YOU WELL, SISTER?
I’m fine.
“What’s your name?” Kin said.
“Kin, don’t talk to it,” Yukiko growled.
He glanced over his shoulder. “Isn’t that the point of this exercise?”
Yukiko glared, scraped rain-slicked hair from her eyes. Kin turned back to the False-Lifer, unspooled several leads from its mechabacus, began tinkering in the machine’s guts. He offered an apologetic glance as he touched its breast again.
“What’s your name?” he repeated.
“… My mother’s name was Kei. Gifted to me when she died, as custom bids.”
He paused, looked into featureless glass eyes. “But what’s your name?”
A long silence. Yukiko ground her teeth. She could hear the sounds of a thousand gaijin children, sobbing as they were marched to slaughter inside the greasy yellow innards of the chapterhouses. High-pitched screaming amidst the crackling pyres around the Burning Stones. People like her, people with the Kenning, put to the torch for the sake of the Guild’s ridiculous “Way of Purity.” The False-Lifer’s reply sounded like a nest of spitting vipers.
“Ayane.”
“What chapterhouse are you from?”
“Yama.”
“Fox lands are a long walk from here.” Kin raised an eyebrow and went to work with a pair of wire snips. “How did you make it all the way? False-Lifers can’t fly.”
“I stole aboard a Guild liner in Yama harbor and fired the escape pod.” The spider limbs flexed, a ripple of silver in the air around it. “I flew as far as I could. Then I walked.”
“How did you know our direction?” Kin looked up from the innards, eyes illuminated by a burst of sparks.
“The Guild has known the general location of the Kagé stronghold since they rescued the two of you from the Thunder Child’s ruins. Since then, they have set up triangulation towers around the Iishi. Every time the Kagé transmit a radio signal, they zero closer.”
“If they know that much, why haven’t they massed their fleet to burn this forest down?” Yukiko snapped.
The False-Lifer turned her gaze to the earth, steadfastly refusing to meet Yukiko’s eyes.
“Much of the fleet is still overseeing the retreat in Morcheba. But the Guildsman you spared made it back to Yama with your message, Arashi-no-odoriko. The loss of three heavy ships was enough to give the Upper Blooms pause. The captain you killed was a war hero, you know. Kigen’s Third Bloom. Master of their fleet.”
“So?”
“So they are afraid of you.” It swallowed. “You and your thunder tiger.”