Chapter 10: Tangerines in the Bath

Ibuki Nanase ate four bowls of soup and cried through most of them.

"I wrote to you every month, Master," she said, wiping her nose on her sleeve. "Twelve letters. You never answered."

"I did not open them," Shiori said.

"I know. The rice-seller told me. He said you put them in a box."

Shiori's ears turned red.

"I will read them tomorrow."

"You'd better." Ibuki sniffed and pointed her chopsticks at Tomoe. "And you. Who are you? Why is my master's kitchen warm?"

"I'm the cook," said Tomoe.

"You're a miracle worker," said Ibuki.

"She's been alone up here a whole year."

She wiped her eyes.

"I thought the Council had killed her, they sent her away so fast."

Tomoe glanced at Shiori.

Shiori stared into her bowl.

"They shouldn't have," Ibuki said fiercely.

"Six years of the north border, the Wolf Pass, the Grey Flood, and the Council voted to dump her like a bad debt."

She slapped the floor.

"I stood at the gate that day, Master, with my whole squad, and I wouldn't open it for the vote."

"You should not have done that," Shiori said.

"I'd do it again."

Shiori said nothing.

Tomoe watched the muscle jump in her jaw.

She filed it away, to look at later, and passed Ibuki another rice ball.

They put her in the guest room, which was the one room with a roof that held.

At midnight Ibuki was snoring, and Shiori sat at the edge of the futon with her feet on the cold boards.

"You're quiet," Tomoe said.

"She is loud, and I am not used to it."

"She loves you."

"I know." Shiori rubbed her face. "I did not deserve it."

Tomoe waited, and Shiori did not say anything else.

"Come on," Tomoe said, and took her hand. "Not in here. The wall is paper and she snores."

The bath house was the one warm thing on the mountain.

It stood across the yard under a roof of cedar planks.

A stove heated the deep wooden tub, and steam rose from the water into the falling snow.

Tomoe set a lantern and a bowl of tangerines on the bench and slid into the water.

Shiori followed her in, closed the door and set the bar.

The lantern light moved on her long body as she undid her robe, and Tomoe watched every inch of it come bare.

She slid into the water beside her, and the whole tub rose and sloshed.

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