Sisters of Heart and Snow Read Online Free PDF

abdomen? She could be half blind, or dead.
    A strangled cry erupted from somewhere in the distance, sending white egrets flapping skyward in a giant cloud. Tomoe stood. What had made that noise?
    The sound had come from her. Rage, pure and hot, floated in her center. She let the sensation guide her, move her limbs.
    Those boys had better run.
    From across the field, she saw the whites of their eyes. The boys took off like rocks out of a slingshot, across the meadow. She chased.
    Yoshinaka dropped the branch into the tall grass. Tomoe bent and picked it up without stopping. The boys had made it across the field to the northern pinewoods, disappearing up the hill. She searched for footprints. All their lives, Father had taught them how to look for animal and human tracks. How to cover their own. If the boys were smart, they would have been careful.
    She brushed her hair out of her eyes and sniffed the air. That distinctive unwashed boy scent of mud and dogs and mashed grass presented itself, and she pushed her way farther into the forest. It went abruptly dark, the evergreen trees interlocking above her head. Here and there were still patches of snow, untouched by sun. She shivered. Her feet were bare. Tomoe kept moving. Those boys would be cold, dressed as they were in light kimonos. She fought back an urge to call them, tell them it was all right. She had spent her whole life wiping their faces clean. She could not mother them anymore.
    At last, through a copse of thick short pine trees ahead, she heard voices.
    â€œDid you hear that?” Yoshinaka said suddenly. He was chewing.
    â€œIt was a bird. She’ll never find us here,” her brother said.
    â€œRight. She’s only a dumb girl.” Yoshinaka chewed some more, smacking his lips.
    Tomoe’s hand combed the dirt through the pine needles until her fingers closed around a rock. She threw it, her arm parallel to the ground, so it skipped across the boys’ toes as it would skip across a pond.
    â€œAi!”
Yoshinaka was first up. Kanehira followed. Their toes pointed away from her. “What was that?”
    Tomoe rolled out from under the trees, jumping upright. The boys had their backs to her. Without pause, Tomoe swung the branch low, knocking their legs out from under them. They collapsed, breath gone, turtles on their backs.
    Immediately she put her foot on Yoshinaka’s chest. He grimaced. His eyes were the rich brown-red color of azuki beans, ringed with thick lashes, and she felt a momentary surge of pity. She wanted to let him up, but something stopped her.
    â€œOh, hello. Did you think you were hiding?” She turned her attention to Yoshinaka’s hand, still gripping the food. Dried persimmon. She pried open his fingers and took the fruit. “Mmm. At least you didn’t drop your treat to fight me off. Food shouldn’t be more important than your life.”
    â€œLet him up!” Kanehira, her scrawny younger brother, tugged at her free arm, knocking her off balance. He tugged on her arm again; she tugged back hard, then shoved him with her other arm. He tumbled backward.
    â€œYou are both idiots.” They blanched—Tomoe had never dared call them an idiot before. A girl could get beaten for that. Tomoe didn’t care anymore.
Let my father come for me
, she thought defiantly.
I am right.
    She casually ate another bite of persimmon, the stickiness all over her hand now.
After all I do for you
, she added in her head. Getting their meals, scrubbing their clothes, making sure they didn’t perish. She was only a year older than they. She did not want them to see how much it hurt her. She would not be weak. “Never call me Taira.” She ground her foot down.
    â€œTomoe.” Rough fingers closed around her ankle.
    â€œEspecially you, Yoshinaka,” she added reproachfully. His chest rose and fell under her foot, but she kept her gaze on Kanehira, who sat farther off, pouting.
    Now, as Tomoe