Soul of the Sword (Shadow of the Fox #2) - Julie Kagawa Page 0,83

“I am afraid that if I reach out to the eagle, it will savage me and fly away. But I cannot seem to stop myself.” He closed the last few feet between them, trapping Okame against the railing, his gaze intense. “If I am left with scars, then so be it.”

“Are you…sure about this, peacock?” Okame’s voice was husky. His lean body was frozen against the rails, as if fearing that any movement would shatter the dream around them. “I wouldn’t want to ruffle your family’s tail feathers, or bring dishonor to your entire house.”

In answer, Daisuke’s long fingers rose, tracing the side of the ronin’s face. Okame’s breath hitched, and he closed his eyes. For a moment, the noble hovered there, torn between leaning in and drawing away, as the dream itself seemed to hold its breath.

There was an impatient growl behind me, the feeling of being yanked back, though my body didn’t move. The bridge with the two men vanished, whipped away from me like a cloth covering a painting, replaced with another scene entirely. I let out a dismayed bark and turned on the white fox.

“Hey! What happened? Go back, I want to see how this ends.”

“That dreamer is not the reason we are here,” said the white fox calmly, though his tail lashed his flanks in irritation. “The night grows short, little fox, as does our time in Yume-no-Sekai. Do you wish to see your demonslayer before he wakes, or not?”

I pinned back my ears. Tatsumi, I thought guiltily. I’m coming. Don’t disappear on me yet. “I’m sorry,” I told the white fox. “Yes, I’m ready now. Take me to him.”

He nodded and turned away, and we slipped into the ever-changing shadows of the dreamworld.

PART 2

13

PROPHECY FOR A GHOST

Suki

Suki was restless. And not just because she was a ghost.

Lord Seigetsu was meditating again, sitting on his cushion between identical torch stands, next to the pond beneath the sakura trees. Same perfect picture, though Suki had no idea where they were or what was real anymore. Everything surrounding this mysterious, silver-haired man seemed dreamlike and surreal; just this morning, she had been riding in a beautiful carriage that, from what she could tell, flew on the wind. There had been no horses or servants carrying it, and neither Taka nor Lord Seigetsu appeared troubled by the fact that they were soaring among the clouds hundreds of feet in the air, but Suki had been so disturbed she could not hold on to her ghostly human form and spent the majority of the ride as a trembling ball of light in the corner.

When the carriage finally touched down, it was in the same perfectly groomed courtyard as before, though Suki had been too relieved to be on solid ground again to pay much attention to their surroundings. Lord Seigetsu immediately excused himself to meditate, with instructions not to disturb him, and Taka had wandered off to prepare a meal, leaving Suki floating there by herself.

She watched Seigetsu-sama for a few quiet minutes, but he was so very still, like a beautiful statue, or a painting that had been captured not on canvas but in the air itself. Not a breath of wind ruffled his clothes or tossed his long silver hair, as if even the air kami were obeying his wish not to be disturbed. Only his eyes flickered and moved beneath his closed lids, as if he was dreaming or in the throes of a nightmare. Briefly, Suki wondered what a man like Seigetsu-sama dreamed of. If he was a man at all.

“Suki-chan!”

Taka’s voice drew her attention, and she turned to see the little yokai waving to her beneath the trunk of a twisted pine. Drifting over, she saw that Taka had rolled out a bamboo mat and arranged a full tea set and several plates of food atop it. Fried tofu, red azuki beans and a platter of colorful mochi-rice cakes surrounded the lacquered tea tray, filling Suki with a sense of longing. She remembered the sweetness of a mochi ball, the simple pleasure of sipping tea on a cold winter night, feeling warmth seep into her fingers. Things she would never experience again.

“There you are, Suki-chan,” Taka said as she joined him under the pine tree. “I didn’t know if you still ate food, so I made extra just in case. Can you…?” He gave her an expectant look, but Suki smiled sadly and shook her head, making him blink. “Oh, that’s too bad,” he