Soul of the Sword (Shadow of the Fox #2) - Julie Kagawa Page 0,13

Suki-san?” he asked, startling her with the randomness of the question. His mind worked like that, she’d noticed, bouncing from one thought to the next like an agitated cricket, never settling on one thing for long. She nodded, hoping he would not mention her old mistress, Lady Satomi. Thankfully, the memories of her death, her old life, were becoming scattered and hazy. She had been a maid to the emperor’s concubine, but Lady Satomi turned out to be a blood mage, one who practiced the forbidden magic of Jigoku, and she had killed Suki to summon a demon into the realm. Why Satomi had summoned the oni, Suki wasn’t sure—something about an ancient scroll—but the moment of her death had been violent and terrifying, and something she didn’t care to think about.

She wasn’t entirely sure why her soul continued to exist in the mortal realm. According to the ghost tales her mother used to tell her, souls that lingered did so because something tied them to their former lives. Vengeance was the most common reason, a desire to punish those who had wronged them in life. But Lady Satomi was dead, killed by the very man Suki followed now. If it was revenge she desired, wouldn’t she have moved on?

Suki shivered. She knew she was dead, and that nothing could really hurt her now, but the thought of drifting aimlessly through the world as a spirit was terrifying. She couldn’t go home; her father, Mura Akihito, certainly did not need the ghost of his only child hovering around his shop. Taka was friendly, and Lord Seigetsu had slain the horrible Lady Satomi; following them seemed a better idea than aimlessly wandering the land. At least she wasn’t lonely anymore.

Near the edge of the pond, Seigetsu rose, as fluid and graceful as sunlight over leaves. His ball vanished into his billowing robes so swiftly that Suki might have imagined it was there at all.

“Taka, come. I have need of you.”

“Hai, Seigetsu-sama!” The little yokai practically flung himself across the ground in excitement. Suki hesitated a moment, then drifted after him.

“Yes, Seigetsu-sama.” Taka halted at the feet of his master. His single huge eye gazed up at the man in open adoration. “I am here. What do you want me to do?”

The silver-haired man pointed to the ground. “Here, Taka-chan,” he ordered. “Sit on the pillow, if you would.” Taka instantly did as he asked, plopping himself onto the red cushion and gazing up expectantly. Seigetsu sat down again as well, crossing his legs as he gazed down at the little yokai, the torchlight flickering over his silver hair and Taka’s bald skull. “Now, close your eye,” he ordered. “And be silent.”

The yokai obeyed, closing his eye and pressing his lips together. Seigetsu straightened, and the white globe suddenly appeared in one hand, balanced on three fingers. As Suki watched, fascinated and wary, he reached out with his other hand and touched two elegant fingers to Taka’s forehead.

For a moment, nothing happened. The carp swirled lazily in the pond, torchlight flickered and a wind rustled the branches of the sakura trees, though not a single petal showered the motionless figures below the trunk.

Then, Taka’s small body spasmed, making Suki jump. It jerked again, violent shudders ripping through the yokai’s delicate frame, and his head fell back, fanged mouth gaping. As Suki trembled in sympathy and fear, his eye slid open, completely black and as empty as the void, and she would have gasped in horror if she could.

Seigetsu just smiled. The ball in his hand flickered softly, pulsing with its own inner light, seeming to echo the heartbeat of the yokai in front of it. Seigetsu kept his fingers pressed to Taka’s forehead, his face serene even as Taka twitched and shuddered beneath him.

“Tell me of the fox girl,” he murmured. “Where is she going? Is she in danger? What will happen to her in Kage lands?”

Taka’s mouth opened, a thin, scratchy voice emerging that was so unlike the happy, cheerful yokai that Suki could only stare. “The path is treacherous,” he whispered. “Hands reach out, pull them into the mist. Shadows in the walls, under the floor. Whispers stalk the streets, glowing eyes burn the darkness. A living dead woman has a request.”

Suki couldn’t make sense of any of this, but the silver-haired man nodded. “Nothing terrible so far,” he muttered. “And what of Hakaimono?”

Taka shuddered violently, his small hands twitching at his sides. “Death,” he rasped, and to Suki’s ears,