Twelve Lies I Told Shingen Takeda

Chapter 25: Good Horse

SPLASH

The shock of the cold mountain-fed water was a slap, and I inhaled a mouthful before I had a chance to avoid it. My plunge into the river had pulled us both under, and I frantically kicked back to the surface. Coughing, I tried to orient myself without losing my grip on the boy. At least he wasn't flailing or struggling.

The roar of the rapids blocked out nearly every other sound.

Foam splashed into my eyes, blurring everything.

The broken tree branch whipped past, spinning on top of the water, coming too close to my face, and I automatically pushed it away from my eyes, before I realized... it was buoyant.

I lunged for it. "Grab the branch," I yelled in the boy's ear, hoping that he could hear me. "It floats."

The river took that opportunity to force feed me another serving of water.

Meanwhile the boy nodded and clutched the branch, enabling me to sandwich his body between mine and the limb. I didn't know how much time we would have before it became waterlogged and sank, but it made sense to conserve our energy while we could.

If we could ride the branch into shallower water... or if the current would only toss us toward the riverbank. If... if... if only. Instead, though, the river picked up speed, intensified, thrashing waves, flinging twigs, leaves and even small stones into our faces with stinging accuracy.

The sound of the rapids was a constant tschhhh, interrupted by gurgling clunks during the terrifying moments when the pace of the water dragged us momentarily under the suffocating pressure, before spitting us back above the surface.

Then the churning waves spun us around –

Where once I could see a water-blurred preview of the torrents ahead, now the view was the landscape behind us. There was the boy's father frantically running alongside the river but, his figure was getting smaller and smaller as the current swept us away. On the opposite bank, I thought I saw a rider on a huge red horse, but then the river smacked me in the face with another wave and once again everything in sight dissolved into white foam.

My fingers were becoming numb, but there was no way I was going to let the boy or the branch slip away from me. Mentally, I chanted instructions to myself. Don't let go of the branch.... Don't let go of the boy... keep your mouth closed when you're underwater. The last one was a difficult mantra to follow when all I wanted to do was cough up the water that I'd already swallowed.

Thwack!

The roiling water slammed me into a boulder –

Son of a bi-

The impact travelled all the way through my body - even my intestines rattled.

I clenched my teeth to keep from gasping in pain – the last thing I wanted was another shot of water, and it was more than enough to just hang onto the branch and the kid and try my best to keep us both above water and hope that the river gave us up before we gave ourselves to it.

Then we bumped up against something else, something...not a boulder... softer than a boulder... something alive and warm ... that gave a soft whinny at the moment of contact.

Horse?

A pair of arms reached around my stomach as Shingen hauled me and the boy onto his horse.

Good horse was my semi-coherent thought. Moonlight would never have gone into the river. Thank God Shingen's horse was bigger than the short-legged kisoumas most samurais rode, or he'd never be able to carry all of us. Of course, as soon as I thought that, the chestnut stallion slipped as he tried to find a foothold on the bottom.