Soul of the Sword (Shadow of the Fox #2) - Julie Kagawa Page 0,150

finally ended, I stepped into a large chamber, the floors and walls made of worked stone, with heavy wooden beams holding up the ceiling. Torches with sickly purple flames flickered in brackets along the walls and pillars, casting eerie shadows over the rows of cells lining the room. Thick iron bars, rusty and ancient-looking, were set deep into the stone, with no doors or keyhole visible.

A quiet moan drifted out from one of the cells, and my heart clenched.

Tatsumi? Are you here?

Still holding the globe of kitsune-bi, I padded up to the first set of bars and peeked inside.

I gasped. A child sat against the back corner of the cell, his knees drawn to his chest and his arms wrapped around them. I extended my hands through the bars, and the foxfire washed over the face of a young boy with glimmering purple eyes, his dark hair falling into his face.

“Tatsumi?” I called, and the boy raised his head. His tearful, wide-eyed gaze met mine, though he seemed to stare right through me.

“I can’t do it, sensei,” the young Tatsumi whispered. “I’m scared. That voice…it’s always in my head now, always whispering. I can’t shut it out. Master Ichiro, please let me go home.”

Master Ichiro? Tatsumi’s sensei? I thought back to the man with the cold, impassive eyes, imagined him standing motionless over this boy, stone-faced as Tatsumi pleaded and cried, and clenched my jaw. Ichiro-san did care about you, Tatsumi. He could just never show it.

“Stop it,” the young Tatsumi whispered, curling in on himself. “Please, make it go away. I’m scared. I can’t do this anymore.”

And, before my shocked gaze, he flickered and faded away, and I was staring into an empty cell.

Not Tatsumi, I thought in a daze, backing away from the bars. Not the real him, anyway. Perhaps that was a memory he had locked away, an emotion he had suppressed. I remembered something Hakaimono told me, so long ago it seemed, when he had first taken over the demonslayer.

You distract him, make him feel things. Made him question who he is and what he wants, and that’s all the invitation I needed.

And then the final, terrible blow. His last thought tonight, before finally losing himself, was of you.

I shivered. I realized now why Tatsumi had been so cold, why he never spoke much and kept himself apart, aloof from everyone. Why he suppressed all pain, fear, anger and grief. Not because he was a soulless killer, but to keep the oni in his mind at bay. If Hakaimono spoke the truth, and I was the one responsible for the demon’s release from the sword, then I would have to be the one who shoved him back and slammed the door in his face so that he couldn’t ever return to torture us.

But first, before I had to face Hakaimono, I would find Tatsumi and tell him how sorry I was, that I never meant for this to happen. If I failed, and the First Oni was too much for me, after all, then at least Tatsumi would know I had kept my promise. He would know that someone cared enough to try to save him, and not because he was a weapon or a pawn in an endless game. Because I had seen a glimpse of the boy beneath the demonslayer’s icy mask, and that was whom I was trying to rescue.

And then, I had a sudden, sobering realization. If I succeeded here, if I managed to drive Hakaimono back into Kamigoroshi, I would never see that boy again. Not with a thwarted, enraged oni lord poised to seize control of the demonslayer’s heart and soul at the slightest moment of weakness. No doubt Tatsumi would have to be doubly vigilant against the demon’s influence in his mind, which meant he could never let down his guard, with Hakaimono…or with me.

I shook my head, angry with my selfish thoughts. My personal feelings for the Kage demonslayer, whatever they might be, were not important. As long as Tatsumi was free of Hakaimono in the end, I would risk everything to see the demon sealed back in the sword once more.

A tremor went through the ground beneath my feet, a ripple of sheer black anger that seemed to emanate from the very walls. The shadows around me grew long, like grasping talons reaching out, searching for me. Hakaimono was close. I had to keep moving.

I saw flickers of movement within the cells as I continued through the