Soul of the Sword (Shadow of the Fox #2) - Julie Kagawa Page 0,10
the robed stranger at the edge of the firelight. The scent of magic clung to him, stale but powerful, like some highly poisonous mushroom.
“What is the meaning of this, Kage?” Daisuke asked in a cool voice. The noble hadn’t moved from his place against the log, but both hands remained on his sword. “This is Sky Clan territory, and we are mere hours from the Taiyo border. You have no authority here, and no right to set upon us as if we are common bandits. If you cannot produce proper documentation, I must humbly request that you leave.”
The tall man gave a ghastly smile. “I’m afraid I cannot do that, Taiyo-san,” he said, sounding pleased and offended at the same time. “Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Kage Naganori, and I am here at the behest of the daimyo of the Shadow Clan, Lady Hanshou herself.”
Reika straightened. “Naganori?” she echoed.
“Indeed.” The man turned his predatory smile on her, making Chu and Ko, now sitting beside her, growl and bare their teeth. “The little girl is perhaps the wisest of the bunch,” he mused. “Perhaps the rest of you have heard of me?”
“I haven’t,” Okame said. The ronin stalked into the circle, bristling like an angry dog, ready to snap at anything that got too close. “I’m still waiting to see why I should be impressed.”
“Okame-san.” Reika gave the ronin a warning glance. “Kage Naganori is the Shadow Clan’s arch-mage, the head majutsushi of the Kage family.”
“Yes,” agreed Naganori, stark black eyes now glaring at Okame. “But if you desire a show of talent, ronin, I would be happy to indulge your question. Perhaps you would be impressed if I made your shadow dance without you? Or if I commanded the night kami to blind you for the rest of your life?” He raised an open hand. A tiny ball of living blackness hovered over his palm, swirling in the air like ink. “Perhaps a curse of darkness, where all light will forever be snuffed out wherever you go, will be enough to impress?”
“It does not become one of your station to threaten, Naganori-san,” came Master Jiro’s quiet, calming voice from the other side of the firepit. “Nor did you seek us out to place curses on random ronin. Why have you come?”
Naganori sniffed, dropping his arm and the globe of shadow with it. “As I said before,” he continued, “we are on a mission from Lady Hanshou. I apologize for this intrusion, but it was imperative that we reach you before you reached the Taiyo border.” The majutsushi turned and fixed me with his piercing stare. “We have come for the onmyoji. Lady Hanshou has requested her presence.”
“Me?” My blood chilled. I was still wearing the billowy red-and-white onmyoji robes from the night I had performed in front of the emperor. It had been part of a ploy to get us all into the Imperial palace to search for Master Jiro, as peasant girls, ronin and shrine maidens could not simply stroll through the gates unannounced. I was certainly not an onmyoji, a mystical diviner of the future, but that night, I had found myself in front of the Imperial court and the most powerful man in the country, and if I had failed to convince him that I was what I claimed to be, we would all have been executed.
It had taken a little kitsune magic and more than a little luck, but not only had the emperor believed my performance, he had offered to make me his royal onmyoji. I had respectfully declined his offer, but it seemed the story of the onmyoji girl and the emperor’s fortune had spread farther than I’d have liked. I could suddenly feel the scroll beneath my robes, pressed against my ribs, and I twisted my fingers in my lap to keep them from straying toward it. “Why?” I asked Naganori. “What does Lady Hanshou want with me?”
“It is not my place to know. You can ask her that when you get there.”
My heart pounded for a whole different reason. Lady Hanshou was the woman who had sent Tatsumi to the Silent Winds temple to fetch the scroll. Had she figured out that I possessed it? No. If she truly knew that I had it, she wouldn’t have sent the majutsushi to talk with me; I would have gotten a knife to the throat while I slept.
Still, venturing into the territory of Kage, when their daimyo was actively looking for