Shadow of The Fox (Shadow of the Fox #1) - Julie Kagawa Page 0,44

had no interest in the possessions of a peasant girl.

“Ne, Tatsumi-san,” she said, looking up from where she had been watching a squirrel on a branch. She did that a lot, I noticed; seemingly fascinated by the smallest things. Like a cat constantly distracted by flitting shadows. “We haven’t found anything to eat today. What are we going to do for food?”

“Chochin Machi is a few miles from here,” I replied. “We’ll resupply when we reach the town.”

She nodded again. “It’ll be nice to eat real food again,” she commented. “Not that I have anything against wild-caught fish and persimmons, but I’m starting to crave a hot rice bowl. And a real bed. Where I don’t wake up with spiders in my clothes. Not that I mind the spiders, but I don’t want to crush them when I roll about.” She cast me a sideways glance. “What about you, Tatsumi-san?”

I shrugged. I had gone days without eating or sleeping, both in the field and in training with my sensei. Sometimes as a punishment, but mainly it was to test my endurance, to see how far I could go before I collapsed. I had been trained to survive on very little; food, sleep and personal comfort were not as important as completing the mission.

The girl let out a long breath and gazed up at the sky, at the sun sinking slowly below the tree line. “Back at the temple, we’d be gathering for the evening meal right now,” she continued softly. “We didn’t have a lot, but we ate together three times a day. Satoshi had a little vegetable garden in the back—he could grow the biggest daikon radishes you’d ever seen.” Her nose wrinkled. “I hated daikon, and we had so much of it. I’d drop pieces through cracks in the temple floor, and then have nightmares of pickled radish monsters hiding under my floorboards, crawling up to force themselves into my mouth as I slept.” She paused, her next words even softer. “I would eat a dozen radishes right now, if it meant I could sit down with everybody one more time.”

I had no answer for that, so I said nothing. She was quiet, then I felt her gaze on me again. “Do you have any family, Tatsumi?”

“No.”

“But...you’re a samurai.” She cocked her head. “You carry a sword, and you have the mon-crest of house Kage on your back. So, that means you must be part of the Shadow Clan, yes?”

I narrowed my eyes. All the great houses had their own mon-crests that showed their lineage and to which family they belonged but, in my experience, none of the peasant folk cared enough to tell them apart. To them, all samurai were the same.

“How do you know that?” I asked her.

Yumeko blinked. “Master Isao taught me about the different clans and houses,” she explained. “He wanted me to know a little of the outside world, in case I ever left the temple. Let’s see if I can remember them all.” Her brow furrowed. “The Hino, Mizu, Tsuchi and Kaze are the four great families of Fire, Water, Earth and Wind,” she recited, “while the Kage, Sora and Tsuki are the minor clans—Shadow, Sky and Moon. Is that correct?”

“You forgot one.”

“Oh, right.” Yumeko nodded. “The Sun Clan is the imperial family, the Taiyo. But most of them stay in the capital, close to the emperor. They almost never leave their territories unless they’re visiting the daimyos of the other clans. Or so Master Isao told me.”

I regarded her seriously. “What do you know about the Kage?”

“That they’re the smallest of the minor families. Their territory borders the Fire Clan’s, and they’ve lost several battles with the Hino, who have been pushing into their lands over the past decade.”

All true. The Fire Clan was the ancient enemy of the Kage; even in times of peace, when the emperor ordered a countrywide truce, the Hino and the Kage were constantly at each other’s throats. The Fire Clan was large and influential, and thought that if a clan wasn’t strong enough to defend their territory, it should be taken by someone who could. Naturally, the Kage disagreed.

But that was common knowledge. Two clans feuding over territory was as ordinary as rain during the wet season, with borders changing so often that even the magistrates were hard-pressed to keep up. “What else?” I asked softly.

“Well, it’s said that the Kage aren’t like other clan samurai. That their warriors use darkness and questionable techniques to