Soul of the Sword (Shadow of the Fox #2) - Julie Kagawa Page 0,135

looked faintly haggard. Seigetsu must have noticed her staring, for one brow arched in her direction, and he raised his head.

“You must think this all very strange,” he said. “I forget sometimes how new you are to all of this. That only a short while ago, you were a simple human, with a simple human life. And now, you have been thrust into this world of yokai and magic, demons and prophecies. It must be overwhelming.”

Uncomfortable, Suki raised her hands in a helpless manner, but Seigetsu frowned.

“No,” he said, making her stiffen. “Talk to me, hitodama. Speak your words out loud, otherwise you might lose the ability to make noise entirely. You have questions. Ask them, and I will do my best to answer.”

Suki shrank back, withering with the thought of having to speak, then gathered herself in determination. Talk to him, Lord Seigetsu had said. Ask questions. She did have questions, she realized. Too many. Why had she died? What was the scroll Lady Satomi wanted so badly? Who was the Master of Demons? Why was Daisuke-sama traveling with a kitsune, and why did Lord Seigetsu seem so interested in this fox girl? For that matter, Suki thought, why did everyone seem so interested in this fox girl? From Lady Satomi, to the Master of Demons, to the terrible Hakaimono, to Seigetsu-sama himself. Everyone was after this kitsune, and the scroll she possessed. Why?

So many questions, it made her head ache. She felt as if she had only a few tiny pieces of a massive puzzle, that the rest of the pieces had been scattered to the winds, and that only Lord Seigetsu knew what the completed version looked like.

Lord Seigetsu.

She looked up, meeting the luminous golden eyes. She knew, suddenly, what question she wanted to ask.

“Who…who are you?”

Seigetsu-sama chuckled. “I am a simple shogi master,” he answered. “One who has been moving the pieces around the board for a long, long time. Every play has been deliberate. Every piece has been placed and taken with the utmost care.” He glanced at Taka, still sleeping in the corner. “Of course, it helps when one knows his opponent’s moves before they do, but even so, it has been a long, exhausting game. But the final play is in sight, if I can only make it to the end with no mistakes.”

“And…what is the end, Seigetsu-sama?” Suki whispered. “What happens…when the game…is finished?”

Seigetsu’s eyes gleamed, and a slow smile crossed his face. In that moment, Suki saw a flash of raw ambition in his yellow eyes, a hunger that sent a chill through her whole body. But he only said, his voice low and controlled, “I can not ruin the ending, Suki-chan. That would just spoil the surprise, for everyone.”

Suki paused, gathering her thoughts and her courage to ask more questions. It was as if a dam had been opened inside her; suddenly she wanted to know everything. But before she could say another word, the lump in the corner suddenly quivered and gasped. Taka sat bolt upright, shedding blankets, to gaze wildly around the room, his single eye huge with fear.

“Master!”

Immediately, Seigetsu rose and crossed the room to kneel before him, grabbing the yokai by the shoulder as he jerked and panted in short, panicked breaths. “I’m here,” he said, his deep voice firm and soothing at the same time. “It’s me. Calm yourself, Taka.”

Taka shivered, gasping and whimpering, but obediently went still in the grip of his master. Suki floated up, hovering anxiously beside the pair, as Seigetsu’s eyes narrowed. “A nightmare?” he asked quietly, and the yokai nodded, biting his lip. “What did you see?”

“An army of demons,” Taka whispered. “Marching into the mountains. They attacked a temple and killed everyone there. There was so much blood. Nobody survived, not even the fox girl.”

PART 3

23

THE DESTROYER COMES

HAKAIMONO

The temple gates flew open with a crash, and the tremors vibrated from where I was standing, all the way up the mountain. Silhouetted in the frame of the ruined gates, the moonlight casting a long, horned shadow over the stones, I grinned.

Hello, protectors of the Dragon scroll. I’m here. Hope you’re ready for me.

Silence. An empty courtyard, windswept and perfectly maintained, was my greeting as the doors bounced and swayed on their hinges, the boom still reverberating through the air. To my immediate left, a pristine rock garden glimmered in the moonlight, thousands of raked white pebbles forming a rocky sea around a few larger islands. To the right, statues of