Chapter 6: The Unlucky Bride

It took four oni men to carry Ibuki to his room.

They laid him on the bedding, and the cook went down the mountain for the physician.

Suzuna sat by his head and wiped his mouth.

Fumika knelt on his other side because she didn't know where else to go.

His hand lay on the quilt, long and pale.

The red line round his wrist looked darker than it had that morning.

"Has he been like this before?" she asked.

"Not this bad. Not since he was twenty-five." Suzuna rubbed her eyes. "Go to bed, Fumika. I'll sit."

"You've been up since dawn."

"So have you."

"Then we'll both sit," Fumika said.

Suzuna looked at her a long moment, then handed her the cloth.

Some time after midnight Suzuna fell asleep sitting up against the wall.

An old oni maid came in with fresh water. She was bent and white-haired, her horns worn down to stubs.

She knelt and changed the cloth on his forehead without a word.

Then she looked at Fumika.

"You're the Hinase girl," she said.

"I'm his wife."

"So was the other one."

The maid wrung out the cloth. "I came to this house at twelve. I served her sixty years. She was a good woman."

"I'm glad."

"My grandmother had a saying."

The old maid didn't look at Fumika now.

"Hinase brides bring the sickness. The old lord was strong as a bull, she said, before the old lady came."

The water dripped back into the bowl.

"I'm not saying it's true. I'm saying the kitchen says it."

"Thank you for telling me," Fumika said.

The maid bowed and went out.

Fumika sat there in the lamplight with the cloth in her hands and looked at Ibuki.

She didn't believe in luck.

But she couldn't sit beside him and wait to find out if the maid was right.

Near dawn his eyes opened.

They were gold and clear and they found her at once.

"You're still here," he said.

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