Kinslayer (The Lotus War #2)

Yoshi rolled his eyes. “Are you smoking? Don’t let Jurou fool you, that shit will roll you faster than a Docktown manwhore, girl.”


“Listen to me, Yoshi.” Hana’s eye was wide, liquid. “There’s a room in the Shōgun’s palace. Inside it is a Kagé infiltrator named Michi, who’s planning on rescuing the Lady Aisha before her wedding to Daimyo Hiro. I was supposed to get Akihito to carve an impression of the key so she could escape her room.”

“So?”

“So when the bushi’ kicked in our door, I left the mold behind. But without that key, the whole plan goes to the hells. I have to get back in there. Get another mold somehow. Find someone who can make a cast of it. Or find Akihito and get him to carve one for me.”

Yoshi gave her a sour look, rubbing the pale dusting of whiskers on his cheeks. “We’ve run our mouths about this as far as we’re going to, sister-mine.”

“Yoshi—”

“No!” His fist slammed down on the tabletop, setting the bottles and iron-thrower jumping. “Can you hear yourself? You’re talking about ghosting back into that palace? They know your face, Hana! Figuring you’ll just stroll past the gate dogs with that shy little smile? Dragon and Phoenix and Tiger Lords up there and all?”

He kicked back his chair, sent it spinning across the room, adopting a lilting voice.

“Pardon me, noble Lords, I’ll just flip this rebel bitch her room key and help her steal the First Daughter right under your noses. Oh no, don’t get up, I can see myself away…”

“I can’t just leave her in there, Yoshi.”

“Fuck her!” Yoshi shouted. “Fuck all these people. It’s our business like black is white’s. If this city had half an inkling of what we are, they’d chain us to the Burning Stones and set us on fire. If they had the full reckoning, they’d give us an ending the gods would get queasy on. We don’t owe them shit.”

“Where’s Jurou?” Hana stormed toward the bedroom. “Maybe he can talk some godsdamn sense into you.”

“He’s not in there…” Yoshi said.

“He’s not in here.” Hana’s voice trailed out from the bedroom.

“Mm-hmm.”

Hana walked out into the living area, Daken prowling around her legs. “Where is he?”

“Out.” A shrug. “Getting supplies.”

“You just let him go without telling you where?”

“Girl, you seem a good deal confused about the control I have over that boy.”

… hungry …

Hana hefted Daken onto her shoulder. She petted the tom as he purred like a sky-ship engine, sucking her bottom lip.

… he speaks true. no way for you to return to palace …

I have to try.

… so tired of living . .?

I can’t just leave her in there, Daken.

… bored now …

You’re not really being helpful, you know.

… bored and hungry …

Hana sighed, pressed at the ache building in the bridge of her nose. Yoshi was impossible, just stubborn and pigheaded and stupid and she wanted to grab him and shake him and scream— “Even if you had some way of getting back into the palace, you’re not gonna find Akihito anyways.” Yoshi touched his bandaged ribs and winced. “Not unless you’re looking in Kigen jail. He’s fodder for the Judge.”

“You don’t know that.”

“Think he danced away from the bushi’ on that leg of his? Fooling yourself.”

“Shut up, godsdammit!”

Hana slumped amongst the cushions, rocked back and forth, refusing to let it get on top of her. Refusing to think about what might have happened after they left him alone, what might be happening to him right now. To think of the people she was letting down. To cry. Yoshi took a deep breath, ran one hand over his braids. Crossing the room, he knelt beside her, took her hand in his. Daken leapt into her lap, staring back and forth between them, half tail twitching side to side.

… ear itches …

“Listen, I know you think you’re helping.” Yoshi scratched the tom’s ear nubs without thinking. “You’re doing something important. But these people … they’re not worth risking your skin over. You think they’d do the same for you?”

“You don’t get it…” Her face crumpled and she squeezed her eye shut, holding her breath as her shoulders shook. “You just don’t understand…”

“Life’s bad all over.” He wiped her tears away with gentle hands. “But the sun’s gonna shine and the shadows’ll fall, with or without us. Just the way it rides. We need to look out for ourselves. Nobody else is going to. Let the clans fight their wars. Let the Kagé and the Guild scrap in the streets. It’s none of our business, Hana.”

She said nothing for the longest time, just concentrated on holding back the tears until the urge to shed them died. She reached beneath her tunic, took hold of the little golden amulet hanging around her neck, running her thumb over the stag embossed on its surface. A gift from a mother long gone, a memento of a life long over. And then she ran her nose along her sleeve, sighing as she looked him up and down.

“Your roots are showing.” She nodded to his hair. “You need to dye it again.”

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