by Julie Kagawa
Lowering the sword, I breathed in the bloody mist and looked at the one remaining human, the majutsushi who had called for my head. He stood at the bottom of the steps, eyes wide as he stared at the limbs and bodies of his men, now scattered around me and dripping down the staircase.
“Well.” I gazed around in mock curiosity, then turned to the human. “Looks like it’s just you and me now.”
“Demon,” the man whispered as I started down the steps. He thrust out a hand, sending a trio of black darts at my face. I swatted them away, and they vanished into wispy tendrils of smoke. Wide-eyed, the majutsushi backed across the courtyard and I followed, easily keeping pace with his frantic, stumbling steps.
“The Kage will not fall to you!” He waved an arm, and a pair of black, hound-shaped shadows emerged from the darkness and flew at me. I split one on Kamigoroshi and crushed the throat of the second in my fist as it lunged, and the shadow beasts writhed away into nothing.
The man continued to scrabble backward. “You cannot win,” he insisted, panting. Sweat poured down his face, dripping to the stones, as he raised both hands in a warding gesture. “No matter what you do, your time in this realm is limited.”
A net of darkness flew from his fingers, arcing toward me. I ripped it from the air and tossed it aside, as the human finally hit the wall of the courtyard. Gasping, able to flee no more, he pressed back into the stones, trembling, as I stopped a pace away. His face paint was streaked with sweat, the black markings blotted and smudged, and the whites of his eyes showed as he glared up at me. Defiant in the face of death.
“My clan will avenge me,” he whispered. “Lady Hanshou knows you have been released, Hakaimono. As long as you walk this realm, the Shadow Clan will not rest. We will purge you from the land, even if we must sacrifice a thousand warriors, shinobi and majutsushi to do it!”
“Lady Hanshou?” I chuckled. “Lady Hanshou set you up as bait, human. She never expected you to win.” The human’s brow furrowed, and I snorted. “Hanshou knows me…We go way back, your daimyo and I. She is well aware that a dozen warriors and one majutsushi isn’t enough to even challenge me. You and your men were a sacrifice to either slow me down, or to test how strong I’ve become. There’s probably a shinobi close by right now, watching us. That’s fine. It can take this message back.”
I raised Kamigoroshi and brought it down, striking the top of the man’s skull and splitting him all the way to the groin. The majutsushi collapsed to his knees, the pieces of his upper body falling to either side, before he crumpled wetly to the ground.
“The Shadow Clan will die,” I said to the air, to the hidden shinobi no doubt listening to my every word, and to the trapped soul inside me, raging at his own helplessness. “For every day I was imprisoned in the sword, I will kill one member of the Kage—man, woman and child—until there is no one left. I will raze their castles and cities to the ground, and soak the earth in so much blood nothing will grow there again. And when I reach Lady Hanshou, we will see if an immortal can continue to exist after I’ve torn the withered heart from its chest and eaten it in front of her.” Sheathing Kamigoroshi, I turned and began walking across the yard toward the temple steps. “Take that back to your daimyo,” I told the empty air. “Tell her she doesn’t have to send anyone after me. I’ll see her soon enough.”
From the corner of my eye, I caught a flicker of movement on the temple roof, a featureless shadow sliding through the darkness. As it disappeared into the night, I smirked and shook my head. Exactly as I’d suspected. The Shadow Clan, for all their secrets and mystery and claims of dancing with the darkness, was fairly predictable.
Although they had found me sooner than I’d thought they would. Even if this group was just a test, an experiment conducted by their ruthless daimyo to see what I could do, more would follow. After centuries of living with the Kage, learning their ways and their secrets with every demonslayer that took up Kamigoroshi, I knew more about the Shadow Clan than anyone save their immortal daimyo.
The problem was, the Shadow Clan knew me, too. A dozen samurai I could deal with. A few hundred became problematic, especially if they sent majutsushi with them. Their newest head mage, a skinny human named Kage Naganori, was an arrogant, insufferable prick but, from what I had seen, powerful. And much as I hated to admit it, Kage Tatsumi was only mortal. His body, though I gave it a bit of the toughness and rapid healing my kind was famous for, was not as durable as an oni’s. All it would take was a sword across his throat, an arrow through his heart, and I would be stuck in Kamigoroshi for another few centuries.
Deep within, I felt a flicker of a longing that wasn’t mine, the soul of Kage Tatsumi desperately hoping someone would kill him.
So eager to die, Tatsumi? Don’t worry, you’ll get your wish soon enough. But this time, I’m not going back into that cursed sword. This time, when you die, I’ll finally be free.
I raised my head and gazed at the moon climbing slowly over the roof of the temple. The Shadow Clan would die. For trapping me in Kamigoroshi, for arrogantly assuming they could use my power to further their own designs, I would wreak my vengeance upon the entire Kage line. They would experience horror and suffering like they had never known, and in the end, when she was surrounded by the slaughtered remains of her clan, I would personally twist Lady Hanshou’s head from her withered neck and be done with the Kage forever. But there was one thing I had to accomplish, first.
I turned and walked across the courtyard, pebbles crunching under my feet, toward the rotten gate that marked the entrance of the temple. I’d have to hurry. It was a long journey to my destination, leaving Sky Clan territory, through Taiyo lands again, and across the treacherous Dragon Spine Mountains that split Iwagoto in half. Traveling through the Dragon Spine was hazardous even in good weather; all sorts of monsters and yokai roamed those lonely peaks, and though the thought of running into a tsuchigumo or mountain hag didn’t bother me, it was said the kami of the Dragon Spine Mountains were fickle and sometimes demanded sacrifices. Humans traveling those narrow paths were known to vanish into thin air. I didn’t relish the idea of hiking through yokai- and kami-infested mountains, but it would make things difficult for those who pursued me, as well. If any of the Shadow Clan followed me into those jagged, unforgiving peaks, I’d make sure they didn’t come out again.
Beneath the gate, where once-fierce stone guardians now lay cracked and broken on the ground, I paused and gazed back at the slaughter in the courtyard. Kage samurai were scattered in pieces up and down the temple steps, and the split body of the majutsushi lay slumped in the dirt. So easy. I breathed in the scent of death. Humans die so quickly. Like snuffing out a candle.
Tatsumi stirred, his anger brushing against my mind, and I smiled. Don’t worry, demonslayer. You won’t have to watch the complete destruction of the Kage. Once I’m free, I’ll release you from your misery and send your soul on to Jigoku. This is just the beginning.
6
THE PATH OF SHADOWS
Yumeko
We followed Naganori to a small, seemingly forgotten cemetery deep in the forest.
“Well, this just gets better and better,” Okame muttered, as we passed beneath a crumbling stone torii gate at the edge of the graveyard. Headstones jutted out of the forest floor, so worn and covered in moss that it was impossible to read them. Scattered among the graves, eroded by time, I spotted a few statues of Jinkei, the Kami of Mercy and the Lost. An ancient, somber quiet hung in the air, the feel of a place forgotten by the world, unchanged for centuries. I hoped that all the souls buried here had been able to move on.
“Leave it to the Shadow Clan to make things as uncomfortable as possible,” Okame continued, pitching his voice low, so as not to disturb the dead, I supposed. “And here I was hoping for a kago to travel across the empire in comfort and luxury.”
Kago were covered litters carried on foot to their destination. I had seen one in the Imperial city, the gold-trimmed lacquered box making its way down a cr
owded street, an escort of mounted samurai beside it. Sunlight had flashed off the polished wood and golden trim, but all I could think was how tired and hot the four bearers at the corners looked. “But the Kage lands are on the southern edge of the empire, Okame-san,” I whispered. “Wouldn’t that take a dreadfully long time?”
“Weeks,” Daisuke said quietly. His face was serene, but his gaze flicked back and forth, as if he expected ghosts or hungry dead to leap out at us. “Perhaps longer. I was expecting horses, an escort of sorts to the Kage lands. So, why did they bring us here? Why a graveyard in the middle of the night?”
“Because we of the Shadow Clan know darkness better than most,” Naganori answered, turning to smile at our discomfort. He stopped in the center of the narrow trail and raised both arms as if to embrace the scene around us. “For the other clans, the night is to be feared, a thing to shut out and keep at bay with light and warmth. But the darkness has always favored the Kage, and we have learned that traveling through the shadows is far quicker than traveling in the light.”
“Cryptic,” Okame remarked. “So how are we actually getting there?”
The majutsushi dropped his arms and glared. “It is a complicated ritual that would take too much time to explain to the uninitiated,” he said. “I will simplify it for you. We will be performing a technique called Kage no michi, the Path of Shadows. In its simplest form, we leave this realm by entering the shadows and emerge on the other side of the country in much the same way. We will arrive at our destination much faster than if we had walked, ridden, or were carried in a luxurious kago over land.”
“Then the stories are true,” Daisuke said. “Of Kage shinobi passing through solid walls and getting into spaces that should be impossible to breach, because they can melt into the shadows and emerge on the other side.”
The majutsushi sniffed. “Those are rumors, Taiyo-san, but like many rumors, they hold a kernel of truth. The reality of shadow walking is much grimmer. You see, in certain areas and on certain days, the curtain between the mortal realm and the realm of the dead is very thin. Graveyards, obviously—” he gestured at our surroundings “—temples and battlefields are places where the dead and the living sometimes mingle. The Yurei Matsuri, held every year on the longest night, is a time when our ancestors can cross the veil and step into the mortal realm to visit their living relatives, until the sun rises and they fade back into the world of the dead.
“The Path of Shadows,” Naganori went on as I shivered, “bridges the space between Ningen-kai, the realm of the living, and Meido, the realm of the dead. On certain nights, the curtain parts, but we of the Kage have learned to open it at will, just wide enough to slip between. Using this technique, we can travel hundreds of miles in a few hours, though there must be a Shadow mage present to open the curtain once again. The ritual itself is exhausting, and it will take us a few jumps to get to Kage lands, but we will arrive at Hakumei castle in days, rather than weeks.”
“Amazing,” Daisuke mused, but he sounded concerned as he said it. “I was not aware that the Kage could move so quickly and fluidly across clan borders. It is truly astonishing, if they can move an entire army from one territory to another without being seen.”
The majutsushi gave a raspy chuckle. “I know what you are thinking, Taiyo-san. But you needn’t worry. The Kage do not use this technique often, and never in large numbers. Attempting to walk the Path with the five of you will be a risk in itself.”
“Why?” I wondered.
Naganori gave me a disdainful look. “Because, girl,” he began, “walking the Path of Shadows is dangerous, as you will see in but a moment. Meido will be but a breath away, and the spirits of the dead are very jealous of the living. You might hear a familiar voice, calling out to you. You might see a beloved relative, waving to you in the distance. But beware, the call of the dead will lead you to your doom. If you take a wrong step, if you stray from the path, you will stumble into their world. And once you are in the realm of the dead, it will not let you go.”
The ice in my stomach spread to my whole body, as Naganori fixed us with a piercing glare. “So heed this warning,” he said in a firm voice, “and ignore the pleas of the dead, no matter who you see, no matter what they tell you. It will be hard. Every few years, we lose a majutsushi or a shinobi to the Path. They know the dangers, they are aware of Meido’s call, and yet, they step into the shadows and never come out again.” His black eyes narrowed, and he pointed a twig-thin finger in our direction. “It will happen to you, if you are not vigilant and don’t do exactly as I say. And even then…” He sniffed again and shook his head in resignation, as if the assessment had already been made. “The call of Meido is strong, stronger for the weak willed and undisciplined.” His gaze flickered to Okame and me before shifting away. “I expect to lose at least one of you before we reach the Kage lands.”
He turned away, and Okame made a rude face to his back before bending close to us. “I don’t like this person,” he murmured, earning a snort of approval from Chu. “Did you see the way he looked at us, Yumeko-chan? I think we should all arrive at the Kage lands safe and sound, just to spite him.”
Master Jiro, nearly forgotten behind us, stepped forward looking grim. “If we are truly going to walk alongside the realm of the dead, we must be careful,” he told us. “The majutsushi spoke true—the spirits of the dead are very jealous of the living. Watch out for each other. Do not let each other step off the path. I fear what we might see or hear while we are in the Shadow world.”
“And that mage certainly isn’t going to help,” Reika muttered, glaring after Naganori. “It wouldn’t surprise me if one of us accidentally ‘tripped’ and stumbled off the path while following him.”
I cocked my head at her. “Does that mean the Path will be very bumpy, or that Naganori-san will not help us if we do?”
She sighed. “No, Yumeko. Just…be careful around the majutsushi. I don’t trust him at all.”
The head majutsushi of the Shadow Clan started chanting. Standing at the base of a large stone marker, Naganori held two fingers to his lips and began a low, droning murmur that raised the hairs on the back of my neck. As we watched, the shadow cast by the narrow gravestone seemed to darken, sucking in light until it resembled a strip of the void itself, lying in the flickering torchlight.
Naganori turned to us, gesturing with a pale white hand. “Quickly now,” he urged. “The way will not remain open for long. Follow me, close your ears to the voices and do not allow your eyes to stray from the path. With any luck, we will be on the other side of Taiyo lands before the night is through.”
He stepped onto the narrow strip of shadow cast by the headstone and seemed to vanish as the darkness swallowed him up.
Okame uttered a soft curse.
Nearly invisible in the shadows, the Kage shinobi watched us, as if fearing we would attempt to flee now that Naganori was gone. I wouldn’t say the thought hadn’t crossed my mind, but I doubted all five of us would get away even if we tried to escape.
I took a deep breath, driving away the fear clinging to my heart. This is for Tatsumi, I reminded myself. I won’t abandon him to Hakaimono. Somehow, I’ll find a way to bring him back.
Setting my jaw, I walked into the narrow strip of shadow, and the world around me faded into darkness.
I shivered and rubbed my arms as I gazed around. It was cold, but not the brisk air of a forest in winter, or the icy chill of a mountain lake. This was a dead, stiff cold, like being buried in the dark, silent earth with the worms, beetles and bones. Around me, there was no breeze, no sound or scent, or any hint of life. It was as if I stood in the center of a narrow, endless hallway, a strip of utter blackness, a path of void winding away into the dark. To my right, I could see the cemetery and Okame, Reika, Daisuke, Master Jiro and the two dogs, but their figures were blurred and faded at the edges. Okame was saying something as he pointed in my direction, but his voice sounded muffled, as if he were underwater, and his gaze passe
d right through me.
To my left was a solid wall of mist and fog. Ragged tendrils drifted over the path, coiling around my ankles like icy fingers. That cold, dead chill seemed to emanate from the fog and whatever lay beyond. As I watched, a section of mist parted, and for just a moment, I could see a face, pale and hollow-eyed, staring at me from the void.
Panic rose, making my heart flutter around my chest like a frightened bird. My pulse became a muffled thump in my ears and seemed to echo for miles, the only spot of life in the darkness.
“Careful.” A voice resounded behind me, and the tall, skeletal form of Naganori seemed to materialize like a wraith. His lips were pressed into a grim line as he stared down at me. “Don’t step off the path, or the spirits of the dead will be on you in a heartbeat. They can hear it, you know.” He pointed at my chest. “Your fear will give you away. If you cannot control your emotions, they will hound you the entire way.” He sighed. “Though I suppose that might be too much to ask, even of one who is an onmyoji. Perhaps a spell would be advantageous. I could always put you to sleep for the journey.”
My skin crawled. “No,” I told the majutsushi, and took a careful step back. “That won’t be necessary.”
His lip curled. “Very well. But my orders are to bring you to Lady Hanshou, alive and unharmed. I care nothing for the others, and neither does anyone else in the Kage.” He loomed over me and lowered his voice. “Their wellbeing is dependent upon your cooperation. Make certain you endeavor to arrive safely in the Kage lands, or your friends could suffer the consequences.”