How he loved her.
Yoshi reached into the Kenning, searching for the legion of flea-ridden vermin crawling her nethers like lice. He sensed them all around, sleek and hungry, their shapes more comforting than an army of thunder tigers. Crawling the gutters, fighting in the filth, chewing on the bones of the dead. Harder than the iron the little soldier boys hid themselves inside. Harder than the walls these men built to cower behind. The city’s eyes, her brood, her very blood, flowing along her alleys and seeing and knowing and feeling everything.
All her secrets.
All her sins.
He closed his eyes, breathed the stink. His voice echoed in their minds.
Old Yoshi is home, little friends.
His smile gleamed like broken glass.
And he’s brought the Nine Hells with him.
25
HARBINGER
Enough waiting.
Enough thinking, debating, doubting. Enough wondering if this was the right way, if he should think of another. Enough images of an old man who’d trusted him with his everything, now probably heaving his last breaths in some lightless cell.
This road was paved with blood. Kin knew that before he first put his foot upon it. That he’d soon be wading knee-, waist-, neck-deep. Trying not to drown. But there was no room for doubt in this arena. His voice couldn’t quaver, his hands couldn’t shake. Too many had given up too much for him to get this far. To stumble now …
Kin shook his head, voice low. Four shadows gathered in a subsidiary exhaust shaft, whispering beneath cycling vents and engine’s thunder.
“We’re three days from Kitsune-jō.” Sweat stung his eyes, and he longed to tear off his helmet and paw it away. “We need to speak with the other rebels. Tell them our plan.”
“I’m trying,” said brother Bo. “Every spare moment I get at the comm-station I’m trawling the Yama frequencies. But First House are jamming the rebel mechabacii. Radio is the only way they’ll hear us, and I can’t speak openly up there.”
“We need to talk to them, godsdammit. Didn’t you plan for this?”
“We didn’t know Chapterhouse Yama was going to be destroyed, Kin-san. When we were assigned to Earthcrusher, the rebels in Yama were still hidden.”
“Don’t fret, Kin-san,” Shinji said. “I’ve converted one of the engine room comm-stations to receive outside transmissions. We just need to jack it into the bridge aerial relay and we can transmit and receive as we like.”
“And I’m doing that tonight,” Bo whispered. “You just worry about yourself. Unless I missed a meeting, nobody put you in charge of us.”
“Peace, brother,” Shinji warned.
“Maseo and I have rigged the engines,” Kin said, keeping his voice even. “There’s a grenade cluster hidden inside the primary venting shaft.”
Bo nodded. “Good. When the battle for Kitsune-jō begins, you blow the primary cooling system and seal off the engine room. Then set the RPMs to redline. Shinji cuts access from bridge control so Commander Rei can’t override, and the combustion chambers will overheat in a few minutes. That’ll set the chi to boiling and blow Earthcrusher sky-high.”
“How much time will we have to get out?” Shinji asked.
“Plenty for us upstairs. For Kin and Maseo, it’ll be closer.”
“Well, we tried to kill you once already, Kin-san.” Shinji laughed. “Once more won’t hurt, I suppose.”
“Nobody else is dying.” Kin looked back and forth between the three rebels. “Enough people have ended already because of this war. Nobody else dies in this story, agreed?”
“Hai,” the rogue Guildsmen nodded, bloody eyes aglow.
“Bo, be careful setting up that comms intercept tonight. Commander Rei is Kensai’s man, and Kensai was no fool. He wouldn’t have let a fool pilot his masterpiece either.”
“Could be worse,” Shinji said grimly. “We could be dealing with Kensai himself. That old bastard is sharp as knives. Can you imagine trying to pull this off under his nose?”
Kin shook his head. “Kensai is still in a coma. The explosion almost killed him. Far as I know, they don’t think he’ll ever awaken.”
“Kensai isn’t our concern,” Bo said. “Keep your eyes open and head down. When the Earthcrusher blows, it’s going to take anything inside a kilometer with it. We can decimate the Tora infantry before the battle begins. We can win this war. But we must focus. We cannot fail.”
Nods around the circle. Clasped hands, brass grinding brass. The shadows parted, heavy footfalls fading into the sea of engine noise as they drifted away, leaving Kin alone. Thinking of an old man who’d trusted him with his everything. Thinking of pale skin and long black hair like a ribbon of midnight, surrounded by Iishi perfume. Putting her arms around his neck, standing on tiptoes, eyelids fluttering closed.
“Kiss me,” she’d breathed.
He closed his eyes. Hung his head. His whisper drifting in the air on crippled wings.
“Yukiko…”
*