pity that there was no rice, but that would come towards the end of the meal, if they followed the ancient pattern. The second dish to arrive was Gindara no Saikyo Yaki, grilled black cod marinated in Saikyo Miso sauce. The black cod was moist, but not turned into fish jelly; the Saikyo Miso taste was delicate, just short of being too salty.
If I’m going to die, at least it won’t be with overcooked cod in my stomach, he thought.
Though, as he was night-walking, the contents would just fall to the ground if he disintegrated in Final Death. That made him grin; at least he could count on making a disgusting mess at his sister’s party, even if he failed.
He looked over to Ellen; she was at the lucies’ table, behind the principals but not too far, talking easily to the others-the striking dark-haired woman, the slight blond man and a Latino who looked like he’d stepped from a motorcycle ad but who wore the hakama with surprising ease. One of them made a joke, waving something in his chopsticks.
The sight line isn’t good enough while everyone’s seated, Adrian decided grimly. And Hajime’s between Harvey and Adrienne.
The head table wasn’t sheltered by the roof of the shrine-Harvey’s shooting position above the cave would clear it. But not by enough; he hadn’t allowed for the fact that the seating was so low, cushions on tatami-mats on the ground instead of chairs.
The surge of murderous rage that twisted at his pseudo-gut was so intense that a few of the other Shadowspawn immediately looked his way. He smiled at them and lifted the wooden masu again.
“Kampai!”
Wakatake Onikoroshi this time, a bit sweeter; and after all, gusts of murderous passion weren’t all that uncommon among his breed. A deft servant refilled it, and he cursed her mentally with a smile still on his lips.
This is taking too long! I have to get Harvey a clear shot at her!
The next dish arrived: Akiyasai no Tempura, deep-fried seasonal vegetables in a light crisp batter, with green- tea-infused salt, and Japanese plum-infused salt too.
“Umejio!” his neighbor said with relish. “Really, I’m surprised. The Br?z? has outdone herself! These are Japanese plums in the infusion, I’m sure.”
“If you’re going to do it, you might as well do it right,” Adrian agreed.
His aetheric body was producing a slight sheen of sweat on the forehead. He took a stick of the asparagus; it was meltingly tender yet with a faint hint of crispness, and half-sweet against the salt savor of the plum; it went well with the peppers and maitake mushrooms as well.
Hajime and his wife and Adrienne and Michiko were all laughing together, looking disgustingly contented. He gritted his teeth; there was nothing quite as annoying as someone else carefree and happy when you were trying to throw yourself into combat mode. Dmitri was there too… and night-walking, for some reason.
“Kampai!” Adrienne called to the guests. “Bottoms up!”
Damn you! Adrian thought. Food! Bring me food, or I’ll have to make my escape in python form because wiggling on my belly like a snake will be all I can do!
The rustling silk of the servant’s kimono rescued him; this time it was rough earthenware plates with Maitake to Yuba no Usudaki, mushrooms wrapped in Yuba tofu with special soy, and then diced horse mackerel with green onions to make a tartare in a lettuce cup. The oil in the fish would insulate his stomach.
And damn evolutionary kludges! He wasn’t even really here, but his hindbrain insisted on treating his aetheric form as if it were his birth-body.
More food: sashimi of Scabbard Fish, char-grilled young conger eel, deep-fried breaded fillet of Berkshire pork with katsu sauce, baby sweetfish steamed in an earthenware donabe pot with rice…
Rice at last! Adrian thought, and wielded his chopsticks; he let the Power pick an instant and poured the sake from his wooden box into the pot as well, getting it out of sight. … shiitake mushrooms with burdock root, buttery Monkfish livers, free-range chicken broiled in Hoba leaves, a rice soup of red sea bream, Hirame halibut, crab and shrimp, stewed together…
I’ve got to stop going with the flow, Adrian thought desperately. This place is too goddamned soothing. I can feel the Wreakings making me feel all social and disinclined to make a fuss. I’ve got to make something happen… something that uses the way she’s set it up!
Mhabrogast spilled through his mind. Sense the possibilities, push here…
It was surprisingly easy; the Wreakings Adrienne had soaked into the field to dampen aggression and soothe suspicious, isolate Shadowspawn natures worked in the same direction. So did his link with Ellen; he could feel it resonating as he pushed delicate lines and needles into the Wreakings sourced from her blood and pain, and he could see her shiver suddenly as if a cold touch had skimmed across her shoulder blades. Their eyes met for an instant as the yuzu-citrus-flavored sherbet was set before each guest in a champagne flute.
Now! “A few words, T?kairin-sama!” he called. So Adrienne has to get up and give a reply.
The man in the scarlet kimono looked over, surprised. Another push, and smiles spread down the table and to the rest; a scatter of applause grew into clapping and calls of: Speech! Speech! “This is my hundredth and tenth birthday,” the silver-haired man said as he stood. “I am nearly eleventy-one today-”
No! Adrian thought.
Hypersensitive, the tendrils of the Power felt the oncoming wave of violence.
No! Not yet! Not until she replies!
Suddenly Adrienne was standing, or half-standing. She crouched on her feet and threw an arm around Hajime.
“Lord Hajime! I sense an attack! Your life is in danger! Dimitri, transform!”
Damn, Adrian thought with grim resignation. Merde. Name of a black dog. My plan has met their plan and the inevitable fuckup has begun. Now to improvise faster…
Aloud: “Amss-aui-ock!”
Change flowed through him, effortless, the unbearable complexity of human thought slipping away into the simple focus of the sabertooth’s incarnate purpose.
Kill.
The guests on either side of him tumbled away, yelling, as the great beast crouched on the discarded tumble of Adrian’s kimono. He felt Hajime decide not to go impalpable-and felt the push behind it, the sudden taste of his sister’s Power, like a razor across the tongue. He screamed and leapt.
Power hummed through the air, twisted at the fabric of existence as dozens of Shadowspawn minds reacted with instinctive fear and rage to the sudden shocking threat. World-lines writhed and tangled.
Hajime snarled and whipped out the curved tanto-dagger that had been hidden in his sash. Then the lined face turned towards the smilodon went rubbery with shock-physical shock, a rippling idiot’s grin as the massive high- velocity.338 sniper round punched into his skull behind the left ear and blasted out most of the front of his head. Almost in the same instant the dying mind lost control of its pseudo-body; to Shadowspawn senses there was a silent scream, as the personality and the others it Carried within dissolved into entropy. A brief glimmer, as if seen from the corner of the eye, and the scarlet kimono and the knife fell to the ground amid the harsh unpleasant smell of stomach contents.
She was holding him, the remote human portion of his mind knew. Holding him in palpable form.
The rest of him was outstretched paws with claws like giant fish-hooks, mouth open a hundred and eighty degrees to bare the ivory daggers for the killing strike.
Adrienne leapt backward herself. That put her in view of the waiting marksman… but just then another form erupted upwards, in the shape of a Ruwenzori gorilla, a giant silverback male. One of its great black hairy-spider hands happened to throw a plate into the air. At precisely the angle needed to deflect the bullet that would have smashed her spine. Fragments of it hummed through the air, and he jinked aside as he landed.
The gorilla threw itself forward and came down with both bent, immensely powerful legs between his shoulder blades. Five hundred pounds of bone and muscle hammered the sabertooth’s belly to the ground, and the gorilla’s bunched fists hit him in the back of the head with all the strength of the tree-thick arms. A fang splintered agonizingly on the rock pavement as his head was driven downwards.
“Alive!” he heard his sister snap. “Alive, Dmitri!”
I am not afraid, Ellen knew, as the ceremonial dinner dissolved in chaos. I may be about to die, but I’m not afraid. For the first time in months.
