Soul of the Sword (Shadow of the Fox #2) - Julie Kagawa Page 0,123

the eye could see. “Reika-chan?” I asked, turning to the shrine maiden. “What did Master Jiro say about finding the way to the temple?”

“Seek the place where the mountain kami gather,” Reika answered, “and look to the crows that will point the way.”

I looked up at the mottled gray sky. “I don’t see any crows.” Or any birds, for that matter. Not even the hawks and falcons soared this high.

She sighed. “Well, we’d better find some quickly, before night falls and it gets really cold.”

We searched the area, looking for statues, signs, drawings scratched into the rock, anything that could resemble a crow or any type of feathered creature. But after a couple hours, we had turned up nothing. The shrine remained the only piece of the mountain that was different from everything around it. And beyond the distant peaks, the sun was beginning to set.

I shivered in the rapidly dropping temperature, huddled against the alcove wall to escape the wind. Kami, I thought, as a breeze blew a cloud of snow flurries into the space with me, if you would like to give us a hint right now, we would appreciate it.

“Perhaps,” Daisuke mused, gazing at the shrine with a furrowed brow, “we are looking at this the wrong way. We have been searching for a physical crow, a sign of sorts, to point us to the Steel Feather temple. What if the crow Master Jiro spoke of was metaphorical in nature?”

Okame frowned. “I’m not sure I follow, Daisuke-san.”

I saw Reika’s brow arch at Okame’s statement, a reaction to the ronin calling the noble by his first name, which he had never done before. My face heated and my heartbeat sped up. Fortunately, the attention was on Daisuke as he pondered the situation and the shrine.

“You have heard the expression ‘as the crow flies,’ yes?” the noble asked. “It refers to the straightest line between two points, the fastest route that can be accomplished without swerving or changing direction.” He gestured to the shrine. “We already have one point. What if our ‘crow’ was to fly straight to the Steel Feather temple? Which direction would he take?”

We looked around. “Well, he wouldn’t be able to go north,” Reika said, gazing at the alcove where the shrine sat. “And he couldn’t fly south, either, not with that ridge in the way.”

“East?” Okame suggested. “Personally, I hope not, because that’s an awfully long plunge straight down the mountain. I guess it wouldn’t be a problem if you were a crow.”

“Yes, but look at the peaks,” Daisuke said, nodding to the distant mountaintops. He moved directly in front of the shrine, raising his arm straight out in front of him and closing one eye. “From here, there is no direct path between any of them. You would have to go over or around. So, that leaves…”

I turned. “West,” I said. “Right up that ridge, straight on between those two peaks where the sun is going down. It’s the only path you can take without running into anything.”

“If Taiyo-san is correct,” Reika said. “We are going on theory, after all, but at this point, I fear we have little choice.” She sighed, glancing down at Chu, who stared back solemnly. “Very well. Then let us walk the path the crow flies, and see where it takes us.”

The sun set, and the temperature dropped sharply as we continued up the mountain, following the trail of an invisible crow as it flew overhead. As the light faded, flecks of snow began drifting from the cloudy sky, swirling around us and dancing on the breeze. I huddled into the mino and straw hat Roshi’s wife had provided and found myself longing for a cup of hot tea to wrap my fingers around.

At last, when we had lost the light completely and were all shivering under our mino, the path ended at the bottom of a massive cliff. It rose straight into the air, the snow-shrouded peak hidden by clouds, the base dark in the shadow of the mountain.

“Well,” sighed Okame, gazing up at the obstacle before us. His breath writhed into the air before coiling away into nothing, and his teeth chattered slightly as he spoke. “I’d say this path has come to an end. I never thought I’d see the day, but it looks like you were mistaken, Daisuke-san. Unless the crow flew straight into the side of the mountain.”

Straight into the side of the mountain. I wonder… On impulse, as Reika and Okame began