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felt myself sinking into dreams, a host of demons sprang up to jolt me awake. They leered andclashed their tusked jaws, chittering like a cloud of bats as they reminded me over and over of all the appalling things I had faced in the short time since I’d returned.
    I finally decided to give up any hope of real rest and rose to prepare myself for the new day. I sat up and looked around. Bright sunlight was streaming through the door, and the air was crisp and refreshing, and not as cold as the previous night. I took a deep, hungry breath of it, reveling in the familiar smells of my home, my village, my place in the world.
    Still asleep in the bedroll to my right, Kaya snuffled and muttered, then flung herself onto her back with a snore that made me giggle. Mama lay to my left, her hand knotted in the fabric of my bedroll. I took care not to disturb her when I stood up and began the morning chores.
    “Himiko?” Yukari’s sleepy voice called out softly as she rolled over to face me. She had stowed her son in the corner of our house that lay as far as possible from where Mama slept and had passed the night curled protectively around him, a human palisade.
    “Good morning, Yukari,” I said as cheerily as I could, kneeling beside her. “Shall I make our breakfast?”
    “You’d better let me do that,” she said, pushing her way out of the bedroll.
    “Why? You’re making me feel like a stranger. Kaya’s our guest, not me.”
    “It’s not that, dear one. I welcome having you back to help me with the household duties. It’s just that I want to show you the changes we’ve been forced to make since—”
    “Changes?” I recalled the scanty meal Master Michiohad served last night. “Oh. Of course. You don’t want me cooking more food than we can afford.”
    “What a smart young lady.” Yukari smiled sadly. “You’ll learn quickly about the way we do things now, and soon I can spend my days at leisure while you take care of all the housework.” It was good to hear her laugh, even if it sounded halfhearted.
    I leaned closer. “Yukari, I’ve only been able to get bits and pieces of what happened here. Before Mama wakes up, can you tell me everything?”
    She looked confused. “But you said that Master Michio already—”
    “Not about the battle. Tell me what happened
here
, within
these
walls, to
this
household.” I clasped her hands. “To us.”
    Yukari tilted her head back and stared at the beams of our house as though seeking beloved ghosts in the shadows. “When the Ookami first broke through our gates, I was outside on the platform with Takehiko. We weren’t supposed to be there. Before your father went forth to face the enemy, he ordered us to stay inside, out of sight, but Takehiko refused to be pent up. He kept squirming away from me and dashing out the door, time after time. I think he would have scrambled down the ladder and straight into the heart of the battle if I hadn’t caught him and dragged him back. Finally I gave in and said he could watch things from the porch as long as I was with him. Your mother scolded us both, but stayed where she’d been told, indoors with Emi and their little ones.”
    She closed her eyes and her body sagged with a greatweariness. “That was why Takehiko and I were the first to see the moment when our men lost the fight. I pray that my boy didn’t see
too
much of what happened there below, but I know that he must have seen something of the horror: he didn’t resist at all when I swept him up into my arms and held his face against my shoulder. I remember shouting back into the house, ‘They’ve won, the wolf clan’s won, our men are falling! We have to get away! Hurry, hurry, run!’ ” She looked at me again, her pretty face transformed with sorrow. “I don’t know how I managed to race down the ladder while carrying my son. Perhaps the spirits gave me strength. I ducked under the house where we keep the big storage jars and put Takehiko inside an empty