Soul of the Sword (Shadow of the Fox #2) - Julie Kagawa Page 0,142

dove forward, filling my vision, and the last thing I remembered was falling.

24

CHANGING FATE

Suki

From the edge of the snow-covered peak, Suki watched the huge army crawl slowly up the mountains and felt sick with terror.

“Well,” Lord Seigetsu mused in a somber voice. He stood at the edge of the cliff, arms crossed, observing the dark mass of demons, monstrous yokai and other horrors scaling the peaks of the Dragon Spine. “It seems Genno has decided not to wait for Hakaimono, after all.”

At his feet, Taka shivered, his single eye huge and round as he watched the demons ascend. “That’s the army from my dream,” he whispered. “The one that killed everyone at the temple.”

“Yes,” Seigetsu murmured. “Genno is no fool. His army is following the trail Hakaimono has set. At the rate they are marching, they will reach the Steel Feather temple in a few hours.” He did not appear distressed or surprised, watching the demons like one would a particularly interesting go game. “A sound strategy. With everyone at the temple distracted by the First Oni, no one will be expecting an army to come pouring through the gates. They’ll be taken by surprise and likely slaughtered in the first wave.”

“No,” Suki whispered. She could just make out the sweeping roof of the temple, nearly invisible against a distant mountain peak. The kitsune girl was there, as was Daisuke-sama. “Can…can we not warn them, Seigetsu-sama?” she pleaded, looking up at the silver-haired man, who raised a brow at her. “We could…fly there, and…let them know the army is coming. They could flee…before the demons arrive.”

Lord Seigetsu shook his head. “I cannot,” he told her quietly, making her heart sink. “I am…rather well-known at the temple, Suki-chan. They would not trust anything I had to say. Taka is a yokai—he would be attacked, perhaps killed, before he could give them any warning. The guardians there are rather fanatic about what they protect.” One corner of his lip curled humorlessly, before he sobered again. “I’m afraid our hands are tied in this matter. It is likely everyone in the temple will be killed, just as Taka dreamed.”

“I can warn them, Seigetsu-sama.”

Seigetsu blinked, gazing at Suki in mild surprise. “You, Suki-chan?” he asked, and she nodded vigorously.

“They…they don’t know me,” she went on, stammering a bit as she tried to force the words out, to keep talking. “I’m just a wandering spirit. I can find Daisuke-sama…tell him the demons are coming. They could…flee before the army gets there. They would have a chance then, right?”

Seigetsu tilted his head, regarding her with intense golden eyes. “Perhaps,” he almost whispered. “Certainly, if they had warning, they could be ready for the assault. But are you willing to face an army of monsters and the Master of Demons to save your noble, Suki-chan? Are you not afraid?”

Suki trembled, remembering the night of her own death, the demons, the terrible Yaburama, and the blood witch who had sacrificed her to the monsters. “I am afraid,” she admitted. “But…I want to save Daisuke-sama. And everyone else. I don’t want the demons to kill them all. Please…Lord Seigetsu. I can…warn them. Let me try.”

Seigetsu smiled. “I cannot stop you, Suki-chan,” he said quietly, and raised a billowy sleeve toward the distant temple. “Go, with my blessing.” His eyes glimmered, and the faintest note of triumph entered his voice. “Perhaps it will take a ghost to turn the course of fate this night.”

For some reason, that caused a tremor to run up Suki’s spine, but she didn’t pause to dwell on it. Abandoning her human image, she shivered into a formless ball of luminance, casting Seigetsu and Taka in an eerie, flickering light. For a moment, she hovered there, gathering her courage, watching the mass of demons and yokai swarm against the snow. Then, with a flare of determination, she spiraled upward, above the cliffs, and streaked in the direction of the temple.

25

THE PLANE OF THE SOUL

Yumeko

The night we’d arrived at the Steel Feather temple, the white fox had been waiting for me in my dreams once more.

“You have no idea what to do against Hakaimono, do you?” he’d asked by way of greeting.

I’d bristled, then slumped. “No,” I’d admitted. “Not really.” We—myself, Daisuke, Okame and Reika—had spent several hours with the tengu and the daitengu, trying to come up with a plan to defeat Hakaimono without any of us getting killed. The tengu were skilled mystics and had some amount of magic power that they drew from the