Wicked As You Wish (A Hundred Names for Magic #1) - Rin Chupeco Page 0,89
a long while to be able to use the Yawarakai-te, and I’m the same. Swords from other families will be too cold for me to touch, or too hot or, I dunno, poison me if I’m not from their lineage. You practically can’t make segen like these anymore. Takes too much sacrifice nowadays for anyone to willingly give up.” Ken slid the sword back into the scabbard strapped to his back. “This other sword, though, the Juuchi Yosamu, is a curse that I gotta carry around, because only the people who can use the Yawarakai-te can use the Juuchi safely, so don’t touch it.”
“Why?”
“Remember that dude who went wild on his fellow ICE agents on the way to the sanctuary? The last dude before him to pick up that sword wound up killing seven people. He said it told him to.”
Tala stared at him.
“You’d think that’s enough of a deterrent for others not to seek it out, but somehow it’s not. Weird, huh?”
“And…you’re supposed to carry them both around?”
“The Inoues are immune to whatever malicious thrall the sword casts on people, so we gotta keep it close by. Every now and then we use it to cut down things the Yawarakai-te can’t. But some ancestors have been known to succumb to the curse if they use it too often.”
“The Yawarakai-te looks pretty sharp to me.”
“Really? Watch this.” Nonchalantly, Ken drew out the bright sword again.
“Ken,” Zoe said, “don’t you dare start that up again with—”
The boy stuck his leg out and cheerfully swung the blade at it.
“What are you doing?!” Tala shrieked, but the sword glanced harmlessly off his knee.
“The Yawarakai-te won’t cut any living thing. Well, any living thing that isn’t a nightwalker, but—”
“Couldn’t you have shown me some another way?”
“Sorry, he’s a butthole,” Zoe said sourly. “He’s pulled that stunt on everyone here too.”
They built their shelter underneath a thin copse of trees as night set in. Loki dragged over several large leaves for bedding, while Cole and Ken set up tents for the girls. Zoe took out the cornucopia. “You guys don’t mind me coming up with the menu tonight?”
“Depends on what you’re gonna be bringing out of that,” Ken disagreed.
“Let’s see.” Zoe reached in and came out with a plate of varying cheeses. “Oh, damn,” she said.
“This is not the time for haute cuisine, Zoe.”
“I wasn’t trying to bring up cheeses. I was thinking about sandwiches.”
“Won’t work,” West said cheerfully. “Uncle told me that the cornucopia only produces its user’s favorite food.”
“Would have appreciated learning about this earlier, West.”
“Your favorite food is cheese?” Ken edged closer and then blanched, holding a hand up to his nose. “Your favorite food is stinky cheese?”
“It’s called Époisses de Bourgogne,” Zoe said testily.
“It smells like used diapers!”
“You grew up on a farm. How is this any worse?”
“I didn’t have to eat anything that contributed to barnyard stench until after it’d been properly washed and cooked!”
“It tastes better than it smells! Besides, we can’t let this go to waste. Cheese is cheese.”
“It’s also not very nourishing, and we’re only a day out. Look, give it to me.” Ken dug his hand down into the cornucopia and began rooting around like there were ingredients inside it to find. “You want good food, I’ll show you good food.”
What came out were several stone-sized dark pink lumps, each carefully wrapped in a green leaf. “It’s called mochi,” Ken said proudly, setting the bowl down and displaying the fresh plate with a flourish. “My grandma makes it all the time, and it’s great.”
“Ken,” Zoe said.
“This one’s an Avalonian version, made with green tea and witch’s apples. The leaf is edible too.”
“Ken.”
“It’s gelatinous rice, and it’s soft and chewy, and I had it all the time as a kid. Plus, it fills the stomach pretty quickly, if you eat enough of it.”
“Ken!”
“Yeah?”
“It’s a dessert, isn’t it? A bite-sized dessert.”
A pause. Ken scrutinized his dish. “Well, so maybe there’s not as much here as I was hoping for. We could eat it with our meals. How many servings of food did the count say we can yank out at a time?”
“Only enough for three or four people, I think. But at the rate we’re going, there won’t be any other meals to have. We can only do this thrice a day, remember?”
Ken considered it. Then he looked to Tala. “The food your mum cooked was great. Maybe you should have a try at this.”
“Are you sure?”
“Of course. I wouldn’t mind eating more of that beef in that