Emperor of the Eight Islands: Book 1 in the Tale of Shikanoko (The Tale of Shikanoko series) Read Online Free PDF Page B

me; I don’t have to pay him.”
    “He is going to demand a high price from you. He has taken a fancy to your skull.”
    Kiyoyori laughed. The idea that a bandit would dare to attack him, the Kuromori lord, amused him. “Give me my whip and I’ll be on my way.”
    “Well, if you must ignore my warning, take extra men and be on your guard. Or tonight your head will be in a pot, the flesh boiling from it, and before the next moon your brother will be back in Matsutani and your children will be dead.”
    “Is my brother plotting with Akuzenji? Is that what you are trying to tell me?”
    “ Plotting is not perhaps quite the right word. Akuzenji has no personal enmity toward you. He simply wants the skull of a great man. He is an undiscerning fellow. He boasts of every exploit before and after its achievement. He may never have seen you, but he knows you to be great because your fame spreads more widely every year. Your brother is an opportunist. He prays for your death before your son is grown so he may take back what he believes you stole from him.”
    “Akuzenji seeks the skull of a great man? For some kind of dark magic?”
    “I believe so,” the old man said.
    “I should offer him yours!”
    “Certainly my skull would be extremely powerful, as would all parts of me. Luckily for me, Akuzenji does not know of my existence, nor does anyone else. That is why, Lord Kiyoyori, it is in my interests to keep you alive.”
    “How do you know these things? Who are you?”
    “Don’t you wonder why you never thought to ask me before?”
    “You have always been around ever since I was born,” Kiyoyori said slowly. “You were part of the household like an old chest or a tree in the garden.” He could have said, like a dog , but he realized the dogs died one after the other, at their allotted time, but the old man had lived on and on.
    “Kuromori became my home when your grandfather was lord. We were friends. He arranged I should stay on after his death throughout your father’s time. The place suited me, and Matsutani is even better; it’s perfect for my studies and research. In return I have been able to perform certain rituals that have ensured the safety and prosperity of your domain.”
    “And I thought it was all due to my hard work and good management!”
    “You have played your part. I would not have wasted my efforts on an inferior person. Spells can go only so far.”
    Kiyoyori said nothing for a few moments. Outside a kite was mewing, the wind soughed in the pine trees, a horse neighed impatiently from the stables.
    Sesshin said, “You say you cannot afford to guard the North Mountain Road, but if you removed Akuzenji and his bandits the merchants would pay you for their safe passage.”
    “Akuzenji is as cunning and elusive as a wolf,” Kiyoyori replied, “but if he can be enticed by my skull I may take him by surprise.”
    “Wear armor under your hunting robe,” Sesshin said. “And send someone as a decoy on your horse: Tachiyama no Enryo, for example.”
    “Enryo? Why do you name him?”
    “He sends messages occasionally to your brother in Minatogura.”
    “Does he, now?” There was another short silence. “His wife is a great favorite of my wife. They have been friends since childhood.” Was Tama also in touch with his brother, her first husband? Kiyoyori could feel fury building within him.

 
    4
    SHIKANOKO
    Shika, as the bandits called him, was neither happy nor unhappy in the service of the King of the Mountain, in the high fastness that was Akuzenji’s base. From time to time he wondered if this was to be the rest of his life or if he should return to Kumayama and confront his uncle. On the whole it seemed better to let everyone in his old life believe him to be dead.
    He felt he was waiting every day to see what would happen to him. Akuzenji called himself King of the Mountain, just as pirates styled themselves Kings of the Sea, but in the eyes of most they were still pirates and