“Yes, that lack of power seems to be your weakness.”
I shrugged. “It will come. Give it a year, and I’ll be ready to juggle tanks just like you.”
“That’s good to hear. But you’ll have to be careful until then, or you could all too easily be overwhelmed.”
I was going to ask what he meant, but he was already demonstrating. When you don’t have a slow organic brain bogging you down, strength turns into speed incredibly easily. This time he came in twice as fast as he had before, and there was nothing I could do to stop him. I could see exactly where he was going to strike, but no matter how I strained my aching muscles I couldn’t move fast enough to do anything about it.
The tip of his sword poked me hard in chest, perfectly angled to slide between my ribs and into my heart. He deflected my counterattack effortlessly, and then he had my wrist in his hand and his sword at my throat.
“Match,” he said.
“You win,” I agreed.
Maybe I should have been upset at that, but I wasn’t. My heart was pounding. Discord, but that was amazing!
Was he going to kiss me?
He let me go, and sheathed his sword. “An excellent match, Alice. I’d suggest another, but you look like you need a break.”
“Yeah, my metabolic warnings are all screaming at me. I’d better sit down and get a recharge before I pass out. Thanks for the match, Akio. I learned a lot.”
“Join me for breakfast, tomorrow,” he said. “Perhaps we can both learn a bit more.”
Without waiting for an answer, he turned to greet an older man who’d been watching the fight. An instructor, I guess, but I was too stunned to pay much attention to their conversation.
That’s one dangerously sexy guy, Emla commed to me.
Oh, yeah, I agreed.
Are you going to go?
Oh, yeah.
She giggled. You do remember he’s evil, right?
Hey, let me have my illusions here. You never know. Maybe he’ll turn out to be the one honorable man in this snake pit.
If only. But it wasn’t like I could refuse. What do you wear to a private breakfast with a yakuza heir, anyway?
Chapter 22
By the time I got back to my rooms a formal invitation had arrived, and the maids were all atwitter about it. According to them Akio didn’t have visitors like that very often, and the venue was something special.
“A business meeting might be held at lunch, or over tea,” Azalea explained. “While a lover might be invited to dinner, with the expectation of staying the night. Breakfast is intimate without that extra implication.”
“It’s like being declared family,” Iris exclaimed.
“If it were in his own quarters, yes,” Azalea conceded. “But the invitation is for the Hungry Garden.”
Iris and Freesia both paled.
“I take it that’s bad?” I asked.
“Merely dangerous, my lady,” Azalea said. “The Hungry Garden is filled entirely with beautiful but predatory life forms. They’ve been carefully engineered not to attack members of the Himura clan, but any outsider would be dead before they could take two steps.”
Freesia nodded, and clasped her hands earnestly beneath her chin. “Please be careful, my lady. The servants there are part of the garden, and they’ll turn on you in a moment if you lose your scent badge. Everything in that place is full of the most horrible biothreats you can imagine. Poisons, nanoplagues, parasitic spores, hyperacids - they say even soldiers in powered armor wouldn’t survive the garden’s wrath for long. Lord Himura likes to hold meetings there when he’s displeased with people, and when he wants to make an example of someone he makes them hand in their badge.”
“Freesia used to be with the garden liaison team,” Lily said. “She knows what it’s like.”
“I guess they don’t let guards carry heavy weapons there?” Emla asked.
“I’m afraid guards are not allowed in at all,” Azalea corrected. “You may escort her as far as the entrance to the garden, but then you’ll have to wait there with the young lord’s escort. As for the lady, traditional dress is expected.”
“Well, that sucks,” Emla huffed. “Why the heck would he make her go someplace like that? Is this some kind of threat?”
“Not at all. As I said, this is a rare and intimate venue. To meet with Lord Akio alone, for breakfast, in a place of subtle beauty and power… I can only guess that he intends to make you an offer, my lady.”
Iris and Freesia both gasped.
“An offer? What kind of offer?” I asked.
“Lord Akio is expected to take over the lordship one day, my lady. Since he turned sixteen he has been old enough to take personal retainers, and begin to consider engagements. He has made many inquiries over the last several months, but so far he has made no additions to his household.”
“Most of the lords just want a devoted wife, a collection of pretty concubines, and a squad of inugami guards for security,” Iris said. “Not Lord Akio, though. He’s been visiting all the assassin academies and experimental programs, looking over their top students. There’s a rumor he even-”
“We don’t discuss rumors with guests, Iris,” Azalea interrupted sharply. “My apologies, my lady. That was unseemly.”
“It’s alright,” I said. “I wouldn’t get too excited, though. The oyabun’s palace is very pretty, but I’m not eager to spend the rest of my life here.”
“It might not be wise to refuse, my lady,” Azalea said delicately. “It could be taken as an insult, especially if his offer is especially generous.”
I was pretty sure I didn’t want to know what happened to people who insult Lord Akio. I sighed.
“Great. I think I’d better go read up on whatever outsiders are allowed to know about Masu-kai customs. I really don’t want to say the wrong thing in this meeting.”
“Certainly, my lady. I can procure a set of guides meant for young ladies, if that meets with your approval?”
The collection of documents she came up with was a lot longer than the equivalent on Felicity would have been. I ate the whole set right away, of course, but I had to seriously think about what it all meant. Masu-kai society was an intricately crafted caste system, with layers of complicated customs and a million kinds of subtle social signaling going on just beneath the surface. You could start a blood feud just by asking the wrong person to pass the soy sauce, or end it by letting them go through a door before you.
Just the kind of thing I suck at. Great.