Soul of the Sword (Shadow of the Fox #2) - Julie Kagawa Page 0,51
forest. “Shall we go, then? If the Master of Demons is expecting us, we shouldn’t keep him waiting.” I was eager to get to the castle and speak with the human who commanded it, as well as rid myself of my travel companions. It had been a frustratingly slow trek to the Forest of a Thousand Eyes. The hag sisters traveled only at night; they were nocturnal creatures who were uncomfortable in the sun, and they also wanted to avoid being seen by humans. The second reason I could understand: a trio of ogresses and an oni wandering around in broad daylight would cause any humans who saw us to panic. And while the thought of unrestrained slaughter sounded like a lot of fun, I was trying to avoid fevered mobs and armies of grim-faced samurai. It was infuriating, hiding from mortals, but if I’d learned anything over the centuries, it was that if you massacred one town, settlement or army, ever more humans would follow, angry and zealous, determined to bring you down. At least no untainted mortal would venture close to the Forest of a Thousand Eyes, and the sunlight never pierced the cloud of gloom beneath the canopy. We could travel to the castle without fear of encountering humans, although, given the nature of the forest, I doubted the rest of the journey would be uneventful.
Impatient to be off, I started forward, passing the hag sisters, who blinked and gaped after me. “Wait, Lord Hakaimono,” one called. “There is no path to Onikage castle. If you wait but a moment, we can summon a tainted kami to guide us.”
“No need for that.” I gave them a level stare. “I know the way.”
We stepped into the forest, and the mist and shadows closed around us instantly, casting everything in shades of gray and black. I could feel the corrupted heartbeat of this place, like the center of a target, pulsing with dark power. There was no trail, but as I passed through the trees, cutting my way through undergrowth, I saw the gleam of bones beneath a few of their branches, accompanied by the faint stench of old blood and rotting meat. Jubokko were plentiful here—corrupted, malevolent trees that feasted on blood. They haunted old battlefields and heavily tainted areas, places of darkness and mass death, and looked like normal trees until it was too late. Many a traveler had gotten close to a jubokko’s trunk, only to be snatched up by clawed branches, impaled with hollow thorns and drained of all blood and bodily fluids. Birds, time and insects would eat the unfortunate corpse still stuck in the tree, until only the bones were left to fall to the base of the trunk. That and the slight stench of rot were the only indicators of the tree’s deadly nature.
Bones, bleached and white, glimmered in the roots of dozens of trees as we walked by. I glanced up once and noticed the skeleton of an unfortunate horse caught in the boughs of a particularly large jubokko, and this was still just the outskirts of the forest. I kept a careful eye on the branches as we passed beneath them, ready to draw Kamigoroshi at any time. But jubokko trees were twisted and corrupted things, pulsing with the power of Jigoku, and craved the blood of normal creatures. Oni and demons were not on their list of desirable prey, so the hags and I remained unmolested as we passed the thickest parts of the jubokko groves.
“Lord Genno will be most pleased to see you, Hakaimono-sama,” the green hag said again, ducking under a thorn-covered branch. A cluster of bloody feathers buzzing with flies was stuck in a cradle of twigs. Sometimes, even the birds weren’t safe from the blood-sucking jubokko. “Many of his strongest demons and yokai were slain in the battle four hundred years ago, and his entire cabal of blood mages were hunted down and executed. The army is not as strong as it was back then, but we’re growing. Having you on our side this time will increase our odds of victory a thousandfold.”
I nodded. “Is Genno’s plan the same?” I asked. “March against the capital, kill the emperor and take the throne for himself? Once he makes a wish on the Dragon and is less incorporeal, that is.”
“We’re not certain,” admitted the red ogress. “Lord Genno hasn’t spoken of his plans for the empire, but he has said that he is not going to make