As another arrow found him, in the back, below his arm.
As they moved in. But she realized the Keishi soldiers were afraid. Seikiyo’s son, Shosei, yelling hoarsely for them to strike. A woman with broad shoulders and beautiful sea-green-and-silver armor lanced toward him.
For a moment, no one moved at all. Yora was surrounded, but they seemed unable to get any closer.
“Kill him!” Shosei screamed.
But the kijin woman paused. Removed her mask.
Yaeko Eiga hesitated, sword in hand.
“Kill him!” Shosei shouted. “What’re you waiting for?”
Yaeko turned to him, as though to speak. But before she could, the surge of the Keishi soldiers broke, and swept around her. Yora, against fifteen men. The fighting began. The screams.
Kai watched as long as she could. Until she knew it was over. Until he kicked his way through the ranks and tried to run. Until another arrow found him, and another.
Until he stumbled.
Until Myorin pulled her away.
Gripped her reins and forced Kai back. “Ride!” she shouted.
Ride. So you can live.
“Kai, now!”
Get out, he’d shouted.Get out.
“Now!”
But Kai kept looking back. She didn’t feel her wounds anymore. She didn’t feel her tears. She felt nothing, nothing but a cavernous, hollow void. She had no thoughts. She watched until the flames grew hot and stung her eyes with smoke. Until she saw his blood in the air.
Until she saw his body fall.
Until Seichi appeared, at the top of the steps. Stood over him, red-faced and shaking, to deliver the final blow.
And Yora was dead.
Seichi lifted his arms. The bannermen cheered.
He kneeled by the body, to take Yora’s sword from where it fell.
Myorin shouted one last time, striking her horse with a palm, and pushed them faster into the darkness. Tears streamed down her face. Her mother taken. Her sister felled. Now her father. Gone. All at the hands of the Keishi.
So, it’s done, Kai thought.We are done.
The last thing she saw was the look on Seichi’s face, when he glanced down, disgust threatening to overwhelm him. Disgust, and also fear: at the carnage, at what he’d done. He had the sword. He took it with him when he left.
Kai’s head swam. A wave of nausea hit her. “Oh,” she said. “Oh…”
“Don’t you fall,” Myorin hissed.
She’s just seen her father die. Kai’s mind turned in slow motion. She couldn’t process what had happened. They were on a small street in the village. Myorin.She just saw her father die and she’s leaving the body to be desecrated by her enemies, she’s fleeing so that we might live and fight again. She’s doing it for me.
“Hurry.” Myorin’s voice was thick with tears. “Hurry.”
They rode from the burning temple, over the low fences and gates and an open meadow beyond, at the base of the hillside.
