Emperor of the Eight Islands: Book 1 in the Tale of Shikanoko (The Tale of Shikanoko series) by Lian Hearn Read Free Book Online

best bowmen came forward, eager to compete and win the lord’s favor, but it was obviously an evil creature with supernatural powers, for their eyes were dazzled by the sun and their arrows clattered uselessly on the tiles. It was hard to perceive clearly: one moment it seemed dense and black, the next Kiyoyori thought he saw golden eyes like a monkey’s above the needle-sharp beak. Its tail was long and sinuous like a snake and its legs were striped with gold, reflecting its eyes. It mocked them in a voice that was close to human, but inhuman, filling their souls with dread.
    “Go to Master Sesshin,” Kiyoyori instructed one of his pages. “Ask him what this creature means. Is it a sign that I must spare Akuzenji’s life?”
    He had spoken quietly, but the woman heard him.
    “Do not send for the master,” she said. “The bird has nothing to do with Akuzenji. Let Shikanoko kill it now at once.”
    Her voice thrilled him. He made a sign that she should approach him. “Who is Shikanoko?”
    The woman walked toward him, then turned and called, “Shikanoko!”
    Oh that she would call me like that! She will! She will!
    “It was he who shot your decoy,” she said to Kiyoyori.
    “He would have killed me! I should put a bow in his hands now?”
    “He spared your horse,” she said gravely. “He is a good marksman.”
    “I suppose I cannot argue with that,” Kiyoyori said, elation sweeping through him at her proximity.
    The boy came forward, a young man on the cusp of adulthood. Fairly tall, thin, brown-skinned, he moved, despite his cramped limbs, with spare grace, like an animal. Kiyoyori studied him with narrowed eyes. He did not look like a bandit. He was surely a warrior’s son; perhaps he had been kidnapped. If he could kill the bird he would be spared and Kiyoyori would find out who he was and restore him to his family or take him into his service. If he failed he would die along with the rest of them, which would serve him right for keeping such bad company.
    “Give him his bow and arrows,” he ordered.
    He could tell his men did not like this command, nor did they relish the likelihood of being shown up by a stripling. There was a short delay while the bow and quiver were located among the piles of weapons that had been taken from the bandits and then they waited for Shikanoko to restring the bow. The bird called gratingly all the while, swinging its head from side to side and peering down with golden eyes, seeming to laugh in greater derision as Shikanoko drew the bow back, squinting against the sun. He lowered it as if the mocking intimidated him.
    He will die tonight , Kiyoyori vowed.
    Shikanoko whispered in the woman’s ear.
    “Something else was taken from him,” she said to Kiyoyori. “It must be returned to him before he can shoot. A seven-layered brocade bag containing a mask.”
    “Find it,” Kiyoyori commanded, barely able to control his impatience.
    One of his men produced the bag a little shamefacedly.
    The boy received it without speaking, his demeanor relaxing noticeably as he felt the contents of the bag.
    “Tell him to show me what’s inside,” Kiyoyori said to the woman. He liked the idea of speaking through her as though the boy were a barbarian who needed an interpreter, as though he bound both of them closer to him by this means.
    She said, “Show the lord.”
    Shikanoko drew out the mask and held it in both hands toward Kiyoyori, who gasped without meaning to at the almost living power of the face, the dark lashes over the eye sockets, the reddish lips and tongue. He saw the brainpan from which it had been formed and was conscious suddenly of his own skull, so hard yet so fragile. The mask seemed to float between woman and boy like an infant. He realized they had both taken part in its creation and jealousy flooded through him. The woman’s eyes met his and he knew it was for this that Akuzenji had wanted his head, to turn it into a magic object of power.
    He gestured upward