Shadows on the Moon (34 page)

“More illusions,” I muttered.

“I find it amusing that the guards have not realized how easily a girl who wished to blend in could simply wash her face.”

A little while later Yorimoto-san appeared in the alcove.

“Yue-san, I wonder if you would like to take a turn around the room with me? I am intrigued by what your sister tells me of your ambitions and would like to discuss them with you further.”

I cast a look at Akira, whose expression was carefully blank. She nodded to let me know that she would keep her eye on me, and I turned back to Yorimoto-san, giving him one of Kano Yue’s rare smiles.

“Thank you. I would be honored.”

I stood, aware that dozens of pairs of eyes flew to me with the movement. Yorimoto-san seemed aware of it, too. He drew me away from the crowded center of the room to walk next to the wall, and I found that screens and flower arrangements had been cunningly placed to shield the room’s outskirts. I felt suddenly isolated, and though a few moments before, the noise had been wearing on me, I now found the relative quiet just as oppressive.

Calm down,
I told myself.
There is no point in panicking before anything even happens.

“I assume,” Yorimoto-san began, “that your object in wishing to attend the Shadow Ball is to win Tsuki no Ouji-sama’s favor?”

“Yes, Yorimoto-san,” I said quietly, keeping my face downturned. I watched the tips of my
z
ri
peek out from under my kimono and then vanish, peek and then vanish, as I walked.

“You want me to help you achieve this goal?”

“If it pleases you.”

He made a restless movement. “Why do you think I should help you?”

“I do not think that you should, Yorimoto-san. I merely hope that you will.”

Yorimoto-san laughed, a sound of surprise. “I begin to see the resemblance between you and your sister. You both duel with your words — but where her tongue pierces, yours turns the blade aside without cutting, does it not?”

I did not reply. I already had the feeling that I had stumbled somewhere and was frantically trying to work out where it was. I kept myself calm by regulating my steps so that a perfectly even distance remained between us and his longer strides did not force me to skip to catch up.

“A woman who does not chatter,” he said after a moment. “I believe there is a saying that such a woman has a price beyond rubies.”

“It is commonly held that a virtuous woman has a price beyond rubies,” I said. “But, of course, that would depend entirely on your taste in women.”

“How unexpected. Mysterious, serious Kano Yue has a sense of humor. I wonder how many men know that?”

He came to a halt, forcing me to stop, too, and face him. My eyes were still downcast, but I peered carefully at our surroundings. He had positioned us behind a tall arrangement of spiky black branches, which had hundreds of tiny bluish-purple flowers fastened to them with threads. The arrangement was large enough to conceal us from any but the most determined of searchers. I spared the verbena flowers a wry look. The significance of their traditional meaning was not lost on me. Verbena meant cooperation.

Yorimoto-san placed his hand on the screen door next to me — which I assumed led to the gardens — and leaned forward. “How many men have known you, beautiful girl?”

“None,” I said flatly.

My brusqueness obviously took him by surprise. “None?”

“No. And I intend to keep it that way. I wish to be the Shadow Bride, Yorimoto-san, and my virginity is a precious offering on the altar of that hope. I will not surrender it to anyone other than Tsuki no Ouji-sama.”

He stared at me in openmouthed shock. I watched him from beneath my lashes, fearing I had been too bold, too blunt. Then he nodded. “I salute your honesty and good sense.”

I had just begun to sigh with relief when he added, “Now that I understand you a little better, perhaps you would like to step into the garden with me and discuss these matters more privately?”

He smoothly slid back the screen on which his hand rested, letting in a gush of night-scented air that felt icy on my cheeks, making me aware of how overheated I had become in the stale atmosphere of the room. I would have breathed the fresh air in gratefully, had I not been gripped with irritation and defiance. I had not known what I would do before; now I did. I had no intention of going anywhere with this man.

“No,” I said. “I am, of course, delighted to have been asked, but I do not believe that leaving this room with you would be at all helpful to my goal.”

He clicked his tongue mockingly. “Perhaps your sister has not explained the rules of this game thoroughly?”

“My sister plays by her own rules. So do I.”

I intensified the beauty of my weaving, heightening the soft glow of my skin, deepening the rose color of my lips, the dark luster of my eyes. I lifted the terrible beauty of that face and looked him full in the eyes for the first time.

“I will be Shadow Bride, Yorimoto-san. If you help me on that path, I will remember, and be grateful. But if you do not help me, I will also remember. My memory is very, very long.”

Before I could press my point further, there was a commotion behind me in the room. I looked over my shoulder and gasped aloud.

It was Otieno.

Otieno was standing near the two
gijo
at the entrance. His father was with him, too, along with all the rest of the group from Athazie that I knew. There were also several men I had never seen before, including one wearing a gold circlet around his forehead. He was the tallest of all the men there, and his hair was mostly white and startlingly pale against his skin. It was hard to make out clearly at this distance, but I thought that his face was much more heavily tattooed than any of the others. Was this the man Otieno’s father had called their ruler?

“Ah, the Athazies,” Yorimoto-san said, interrupting my thoughts. “Their timing is exquisite.”

His arm clamped around my waist from behind. My breath left me in a surprised huff, and I stumbled back into him as he took a step out of the open screen door. Before I could struggle, we were on the veranda and he was slapping the screen shut behind us.

His arms were like iron bars: one still at my waist, the other across my chest, pressing into my breasts painfully. I was pinioned against his front and could not move. His breath was hot and wet against my neck, and I was horribly conscious of his body pressing into mine. I let out a sound of disgust, digging my nails into the arms that held me, scratching as hard as I could through layers of fabric.

“Let go,” I hissed, trying to sound angry instead of frightened.

“After all the trouble I have been to? I think not.”

It was completely dark outside, with not even a lantern lit. The light from the room beyond was nothing more than a dim orange glow that hindered my night vision. It was like being blind.

“If I were you,” he said, sounding calmly amused, “I would be careful not to make too much noise.”

I stamped down — but missed his foot.

He chuckled. “In anticipation of meeting you tonight, I did a little research, and I happen to know that you spend an uncommon amount of time with a certain young foreigner. Now if you kept fussing, and your friend were to come out and catch a glimpse of us, what do you think he would see? You, tenderly held in my arms, in this deserted spot. That kind of situation would make any young man react somewhat impetuously. I suspect that you have been cultivating his acquaintance in order to take advantage of the Athazie’s remarkable cache of gold — and I applaud your pragmatism, my dear — but I feel I should point out that the boy is going home in a few days, taking his gold with him. While I will still be here, and still, I assure you, your most devoted admirer. I do not ask anything of you that would . . . devalue the gift you wish to offer my prince. Not at all. A mere token. How could there be any harm in that? No one could possibly have any objection.”

His arms tightened. I could not fill my lungs to answer him. I could not even scream. All I could do was dig my nails deeper into his flesh and silently struggle.

“I object.”

The screen slid back, and Otieno appeared as a silhouette in the gap. His face was lit for a moment — hard and furious — then the screen banged shut behind him, and his expression was hidden again. But I felt a tingling thrill that made all the small hairs on my body stand up, and I knew that he was using his power somehow.

“I object very much,” he continued. “I think you are probably venomous. Most snakes are.”

Behind me, Yorimoto-san seemed frozen. He had not drawn breath since Otieno began to speak. Not since I had felt that surge of power.

“What makes you even worse than a snake, though, is that you have disgusting, slimy fingers. At the moment, you are touching Yue with them, which, believe me, is a mistake. You are going to take them off her, and they are never going to touch her again. If they do, I will come and find you, and snap each and every one of them right off your hands. Do you understand? Nod if you do.”

I felt Yorimoto-san’s jerky nod.

“Good. Now go.”

The tingly, powerful feeling disappeared, and Yorimoto-san released me so suddenly that I lost my balance again. Otieno caught me. His arms came around me, and I clung to him, so relieved that I only distantly heard Yorimoto-san crashing off the veranda into the darkness, cursing as he stumbled around. The noises faded and disappeared completely as he rounded the corner of the house.

“Are you all right?” Otieno asked, his voice a growl.

“Yes. He did not hurt me.”

I felt him relax. “Thank God. He will never dare to look at you again.”

In an instant, all my relief at being dragged from Yorimoto-san’s arms evaporated. Akira had told me I dared not offend Yorimoto-san if I wanted the invitation. Offend him? Otieno had eviscerated him. The man had fled into his own garden as if demons from the dark of the Moon were after him. He would not forget this. He would not forgive me.

I would never go to the Shadow Ball now.

I wrenched myself away from Otieno so abruptly that I stumbled off the veranda.

“Yue? What are you —?”

I landed on my hands and knees on a gravel path, scrambled to my feet, and began to run. But I did not follow the veranda as Yorimoto-san had. There was no point going back into the house now.

It was too late.

Everything was ruined.

Otieno’s feet landed on the gravel with a crunch as he followed me. “Where are you going?” he called. “What is wrong?”

I could not answer. I went toward the gibbous moon that hung over the garden. It was waxing tonight. Bright. In a week it would be full, and that would be when the Shadow Ball was held.

The Shadow Ball where I would not dance. Where I would not meet the prince. Where I would not finally redeem myself. Not ever.

My eyes had adjusted to the darkness now. I kept them on the moon. Leaving the path behind, I went through flowers that sent up clouds of perfume as I trampled them, and forced my way through bushes that ripped my skirts and sleeves.

“Answer me! Come back!” Otieno shouted.

The moon was tangled in tree branches overhead now. I had stumbled into a little coppice and found myself walking uphill. My breath was wheezing, and my limbs were trembling.

“Yue, come back!”

Driven beyond endurance, I shrieked, “Go away!”

“Do not be stupid!” he shouted back, somewhere nearby. He was not even breathless. “I will not leave you out here alone.”

I came to a halt, and in stopping, I knew that I had come to the end of my strength. I could not take another step. I heard him moving about, not bumbling and thrashing through the trees as I had, but methodically searching. I considered weaving a cloak of shadows around myself but discarded the idea straightaway. He would see through it. I simply had to wait for him to find me.

“Go away,” I said wearily. “Leave me alone. You have ruined everything.”

“What did I ruin?” he asked, directly behind me. “You were so happy to be set free that you nearly threw yourself at me. What could I possibly have ruined?”

I kept my face turned away from him, though it was doubtful he could make out my expression in the shadows. “What were you even doing out there?” I asked, my voice a weary rasp. “What did you do to him to freeze and terrify him like that? Why?”