Safe?
The smoke was rising. Someone coming from the south. A thunder of hooves.
Time, he thought, as a crowd gathered, and the clouds of dust rose on the road.Time moves too quick. If you’re not careful, it slips away.
I thought I would have more.
Only now, it seemed, the gods had other plans. Jobo looked to the window. “Those are not your stewardmother’s men…”
He pulled Sen back. “Go, warn your stewardmother. Tell her it’s as I said. Kiie Taisha is coming. He needs our help. Tell them. Hurry!”
Sen paused. “Who’s Kiie Taisha?”
Sometimes the world won’t let you choose. Sometimes things happen all at once. Sometimes things fall from your hands, and once fallen, you cannot pick them up, can’t put them back together. He hadn’t finished training. He hadn’t had a chance tochoose.
The riders were coming close.
“Go!” said Jobo. “Tell them!”
Too fucking fast. Sen mounted the mare Koroku had made ready andraced toward the city. He whispered in the horse’s ear, wishing he knew her name, and together they thundered up the hill. As the dirt clouded up in mounds, as the pound of a dozen warbreds drew on, like a cascade, he thought,It’s slipping away.
Something terrible has happened.
Ahead, Hakaru and two bannermen called Hori Yataro and Ise Tadanobu rode with the blood-guard, and, in the middle of their protective ring, a man he didn’t know on a stallion black as night.
In armor of pale gold, his old tutor, Yozora Hogen, rode beside them, slumped at the edge of consciousness. Every so often they had to lean and help him keep his place. Three or four arrows stuck out from his breastplate and his arm.
Sen’s voice was lost among the pounding of the hooves, but Hakaru peeled back as his guard rode through the gatehouse, bringing the wounded inside.
“What happened?”
“A skirmish in the woodland sea. Beneath the Scales. They sent messengers for help. Raiders, outside the Oiriguchi, but…”
“What is it?”
Hakaru’s face grew pale, in shock. His voice caught. “Yozora.”
“It’s me! Hoshiakari!” Sen shouted to the guards. “Take me to Ogami’in now!”
Too fucking fast.
One moment he’d been in a golden sunset, holding Rui’s hand, with the leaves of autumn and the chill of winter in the air.
One moment, far from everyone, it didn’t matter who was no’in, who had rank. It didn’t matter where they’d come from, only who they were.
One moment, and the air grew cold. The light changed; they met a god.
One moment, and the world came apart.
He was halfway to the hall when his stewardmother appeared, flanked by guards. “Two days ago,” she said, “our scouts found a messenger in the Scales. They were attacked crossing the border and were being chased. Where is Azamaro?”
“On the field with his hunters,” called Nihira. “I’ve sent a message, but they’ll have seen the fires already.”
Tokuon filled the courtyard with his men. Horseback, torches gleaming.
“Gensei, did you send for them?” Iyo asked. “These riders?”
“No,” Tokuon said. “But my heart tells me I already know what thismessage will say. Lord Kiie is my uncle. And yours, Hoshiakari. Time has come.”
