Koyasan Read Free Page B

to run away a few times, almost losing Koyasan at one stage when she darted through a hole in a thick bush that Koyasan couldn’t fit through.
    Because of the arguing and delays, the walk back took longer than Koyasan had planned, and it was nearly sunset by the time they came to the place by the stream from which they’d set out hours earlier. Everyone had gone back to the village. Koyasan could see lights twinkling through the trees and she could smell lots of wonderful food. She’d been worrying about the time, not sure they’d make it home before dark, but when she saw the lights, she relaxed.
    “Gravy,” Maiko said, as they drew level with the bridge. She tugged hard on Koyasan’s arm and began singing, “Gravy! Gravy! Gravy!”
    Koyasan knew Maiko didn’t really want to go into the graveyard. It was late, she was tired and there were no other children there for her to play with. She was only doing this to annoy Koyasan.
    “Go on then!” Koyasan yelled, losing her temper again. She released Maiko and pushed her away. “Go to the graveyard if you want. I won’t stop you.”
    Maiko blinked up at her older sister. She hadn’t expected this and wasn’t sure what to do. Koyasan laughed at her hesitancy and began to tease her. “Maiko’s afraid of the graveyard! Fraidy rat, fraidy rat, fraid as a rat who can smell a fat cat!”
    Maiko’s face darkened. “You the fraidy!” she snarled, then turned and stomped across the bridge.
    Koyasan’s smile faded when Maiko reached the far side of the bridge and stepped off. It wasn’t night yet, but it was close to it, and the stronger spirits might be able to tolerate weak evening light like this.
    “Come back!” Koyasan called. “Let’s go home. I’m hungry.”
    Maiko heard the fear in Koyasan’s voice. She grinned and stuck her tongue out. “Come get me!”
    “Don’t be stupid,” Koyasan growled. “Come back quick, before the sun goes all the way down.”
    “Wanna play,” Maiko insisted.
    “You can’t,” Koyasan said. “Everybody’s gone home. There’s nobody there except you... and the evil spirits.”
    Maiko’s wicked smile disappeared when Koyasan said that. She glanced around nervously, noticing the shadows and eerie emptiness for the first time. The tombs and headstones, which looked crumbling and harmless in the day, now took on a much darker and more threatening appearance. Koyasan saw Maiko make up her mind to return. She took one step forward, back on to the bridge...
    ...then stopped when someone laughed. It was a child’s laugh and it came from within the cover of trees near the base of the hill.
    Maiko’s face lit up again and she smirked at Koyasan. “Play in gravy!” she crowed.
    “No!” Koyasan gasped. “You don’t know who that is. It might not even be...”
    But Maiko had already spun around and was racing away from the bridge, hurrying towards the spot where the laughter had come from. Koyasan yelled after her, calling her back, but Maiko ignored her and, seconds later, vanished from sight into the forest of trees, where the roots of the giant trunks mixed with the urns and ashes of the dead.

THE WAIT
     
    Koyasan was cold, and not just because the sun had set. It was twenty or thirty minutes since Maiko had entered the forest which grew above the remains of the ancient dead and there’d been no sign or sound of her since. Koyasan had called her name several times, but there hadn’t been an answer, not even an echo — the dead swallowed echoes out here.
    The shadows of night were swiftly stretching across the world, claiming the graveyard and the village. The sun had dipped completely out of sight and soon it would be night proper. Koyasan was safe where she stood, protected from the evil graveyard spirits by the stream. But Maiko wasn’t. She was in the midst of them, on the hill, maybe lost in the forest. And if the spirits hadn’t risen from their slumber and found her yet, they would soon.
    “I shouldn’t