Soul of the Sword (Shadow of the Fox #2) - Julie Kagawa Page 0,98

were a goodly ways down the corridor. But the second we made eye contact, the ronin gasped and doubled over, hands on his knees, and I leaned against a shoji screen, bracing myself on the bamboo frame, as laughter echoed up and down the hall.

“Did…you…see him flap?” Okame wheezed. “He looked like a rooster trying to Kabuki dance.”

“Baka!” Reika stepped forward and smacked the ronin upside the head, then turned to glare at me. “I hope you two enjoyed that,” she said. “Because now we’ve made a terrible enemy of a very powerful person in the Shadow Clan. Lord Iesada won’t forgive this embarrassment, even if he never suspects who’s responsible.”

“Ite.” Okame straightened, rubbing his skull, to face the miko. “That’s assuming he wasn’t planning to kill us, anyway,” he retorted. “I haven’t been a samurai in a while, Reika-san, but I know when I’m being threatened.”

Daisuke, watching this whole scene with a bemused smile on his face, shook his head. “Amusing, and disturbing, as this is, I’m afraid the ronin is right, Reika-san. Lord Iesada was our enemy long before he invited us to tea. Should we continue our search for the demonslayer, it is certain we will run into his servants, who will attempt to keep us from our objective.”

“Let them try,” I said, making them all look at me. “Hakaimono is going after the Dragon scroll,” I reminded them. “We can’t let anything stop us. We have to get to the Steel Feather temple before he does.”

“And hope that, once we do, the First Oni doesn’t laugh in our faces, rip us to bloody shreds and take the scroll back to the Master of Demons,” Reika added. “I’m still uncertain as to how we’re going to avoid that, but it seems our path has been decided.” A shadow of uncertainty crossed her face, and she shook her head. “In the past, Hakaimono and the Master of Demons have slaughtered armies and leveled entire cities. We are but five—seven, if you count two shrine guardians—who stand between the First Oni and the most powerful blood mage the country has ever known.”

“Yes,” Daisuke added, and there was a current of excitement beneath his steely resolve. “A small group who stand against insurmountable odds, who give their lives for the glory of the empire? It is what Bushido is built on.” He raised his head, a smile crossing his face as he gazed out a window at the evening sky, his white hair rippling in the breeze. “I for one, welcome the chance to test my skills, to face my enemies with honor and to die with a sword in my hand. Think of the poems they will compose about our noble sacrifice.”

Okame winced. “I’d rather they compose poems about our noble victory.”

“I’ve never been in a poem,” I mused. “Does it have to be very sad? All the poems I’ve read seem to be quite sad. Well, except for a haiku about a tanuki and a farmer’s daughter. I never quite understood that one, and Denga refused to explain it to me.”

“Miss Yumeko?”

I turned to find the older servant woman standing a few yards away, again appearing as silently as a ghost.

“I come with a message from Kage Masao,” she informed us, as formal as ever. “Masao-sama and Naganori-san await you all on the last floor of the castle. The Path of Shadows is ready.”

16

THE FROZEN GARDEN

Suki

There were days when Suki missed being alive. Days that a memory would creep, unbidden, into her heart—a cool spring breeze, the sweetness of a favorite food, the warmth of the sun on her skin—and she would wish, just for a moment, that she was not an intangible ghost.

Today was not one of those days.

“I’m freezing,” Taka complained, hunching his shoulders against the driving snow. The little yokai’s lips had turned a subtle blue, and his teeth chattered as he trailed miserably after Lord Seigetsu, stepping in his master’s footsteps. Ice clung to his sleeves, and the wide-brimmed hat atop his head was covered in snow. “Are we n-nearly there, master?”

“Yes,” Seigetsu replied without looking back. “And the ruler of this wood is listening. If you do not wish to have your lips frozen shut forever, I would be silent.”

Taka immediately snapped his jaw and hunched even further into his straw cloak, making himself very small. And even though Suki couldn’t feel the cold, she shivered anyway. Around them, the shadowy forest stood frozen, tall shaggy pines drooping under the weight of snow