“Ninja,” I said flatly. “At least twelve, maybe more. They knew exactly where we’d be.”
Kon’s jaw tightened. “Get the wounded inside. Priests, now! And someone find rooms for the Prince and his companions.”
Hands reached for us, voices called orders, and suddenly we were being swept through the gates into Heiwa’s protective embrace. The last thing I saw before the courtyard swallowed us was Esumi’s face, pale with blood loss but determined.
“Stay with me,” I told him.
“Always,” he replied.
Then the chaos consumed us, and there was nothing to do but surrender to it.
Chapter 14
Haru
“Hold still,” I snapped, my hands shaking as I tried to thread the needle the Shinto priest had given me. The priest had offered to tend to Esumi’s wounds, but something inside me refused to let anyone else patch him up.
“I am holding still. You’re the one trembling like a virgin on her wedding night.”
“I swear to all the gods, if you don’t shut up—”
“You’ll what? Stab me? Someone already did that.” He hissed as I finally managed to press the needle through his skin, drawing the edges of the wound closed. “Though I’ll admit, they had better technique.”
“Gods, I hate you,” I muttered.
“No, you don’t.”
And he was right, damn him.
I could never hate him.
I loved him so much it made my chest ache. His wounds were minor, barely a deep cut, but the sight of his blood on my hands made something primal and terrified claw at my insides.
“The priest offered to do this,” I reminded him through clenched teeth. “I don’t know why I didn’t just let him.”
Esumi winced as the needle dug into his skin. “The priest has twelve other wounded to tend. I’ll survive a few stitches from my beloved prince.”
“Your beloved prince has never done this before.”
“First time for everything.” He managed a smile that didn’t quite reach his eyes.
I wanted to throw something at him. Instead, I focused on the next stitch, trying to ignore how his muscles tensed beneath my fingers, and how his breathing went shallow with each pull of thread through flesh.
We sat in a small room deep in Heiwa’s castle, far from the main halls where Kon’s servants were preparing chambers “appropriate to my station.” I’d refused them all and demanded something simple and private, somewhere I could tend to Esumi without an audience of nobles clucking like restless hens.
“How is Giichi?” Esumi asked, probably trying to distract himself from the pain.
“Stable. The priests say his wound was clean and should heal without complications if it doesn’t go sour.” I tied off another stitch. “He’s already asking when we can continue to Bara.”
“Stubborn old bastard.”
“Takes one to know one.” I grinned and stabbed him again.
“Fair point.”
I worked in silence for a while, the only sounds the whisper of thread and Esumi’s carefully controlled breathing. My mind kept replaying the fight. I could see the arrows, the blood, and the moment I’d watched the blade descending toward Yoshi.I remembered the terror that shot through me as I realized I might not reach him in time.
“You saved his life,” Esumi said, reading my thoughts as always. “That throw was impossible, and you made it anyway.”
