Shadow of The Fox (Shadow of the Fox #1) - Julie Kagawa Page 0,38
We operated in darkness, performing tasks that would make an honorable samurai cringe in horror and revulsion. But the girl didn’t know that.
She continued to watch me, her head and back pressed to the trunk, chin raised to escape the lethal blade against her throat. I kept a tight hold on the sword, both in my hand and in my mind, for Hakaimono was goading me to kill this insubordinate peasant nobody. “You can kill me now,” she said, “but then you’ll never find what you’re looking for.” I narrowed my eyes, and she shivered under my gaze, seeming to lose courage, before taking a deep breath and staring at me again. “I have...a proposal for you,” she announced. “So please listen before you decide to cut off my head. The demons will come after me. Once they figure out the scroll isn’t here, they’ll hunt me down. Right now, the scroll is on its way to another temple, a hidden temple, far away. I need to get to that temple, to warn the monks of the demon attack. I promised my mentor I would.”
“But you don’t know where it is,” I pointed out.
“N-no,” she admitted. “I don’t. But Master Isao told me the name of the person who does. A priest who lives in Kin Heigen Toshi. He knows the location of the hidden temple, and can tell me where to go. But I don’t think I can get there alone. I can’t fight a horde of demons by myself.” She appraised me, and I realized where this was going. “But...you kill demons, quite well, it seems. If you..e with me, protect me on the journey, then...” She trailed off, but the implication hung in the air between us, impossible to miss.
Then she’ll take me to the scroll.
I considered. The clan wouldn’t be pleased. As the Kage demonslayer and the bearer of Kamigoroshi, I wasn’t supposed to have prolonged contact with anyone outside of the Shadow Clan. The reasons for this were twofold. The Kage were a family of secrets. Our shinobi were the best in the land and possessed talents unknown to the rest of the world. We were close to the shadows, and the kami-touched among us reflected that, speaking the language of darkness and the unknown. The Shadow Clan held their secrets close and would happily kill any outsider who discovered too much. A peasant girl traveling with the Kage demonslayer would raise concerns.
But the other more pressing reason was me. I was highly discouraged from interacting with outsiders because of the danger I represented, the risk that I could lose myself to the demon in the sword. Emotion was especially dangerous, because Hakaimono used it as a gateway into the soul. Rage, fear, uncertainty; the stronger the feeling, the closer the demon came to overwhelming its host. I’d been warned, numerous times, that if Hakaimono fully took control, there was no going back. I would become a monster, and they would have no choice but to kill me.
But I was on a mission for the daimyo of the Shadow Clan, Lady Hanshou herself. I’d been sworn to retrieve the scroll and was expected to obey, even if it cost me my life and the lives of those around me. Failure was not an option.
“So,” the girl ventured. “Do we have an agreement?”
8
Two Souls for the Road
The stranger was silent, considering. We stood very close, and I could see every detail of his face—the high cheekbones, the full lips, the scar down his forehead and across the bridge of his nose. But his eyes... They were a luminous purple, the deep, brilliant shade of an iris flower, and yet, gazing into them caused a chill to spread across my neck and creep down my back. They were blank, revealing no emotion; showing no compassion, empathy or understanding. No hint of a soul beneath. I had never been truly afraid of another person until now; despite even Denga-san’s threats, rages and numerous punishments, I’d known in my heart that the monks of the Silent Winds temple would never hurt me. But this boy... He might be young, with the face of an angel, but there was no mistaking the truth in his eyes. He was a killer.
And yet, this soulless killer might be my best chance to reach the Steel Feather temple alive. The thought made my heart pound wildly, but after watching him slaughter the amanjaku, seeing how easily he cut them down, an idea