On Thin Ice (Prequel to Guild)

Chapter Thirteen: Ten Thousand Slashes

                 Not many immortal things were left in the world, but Dai Kimsura knew that War was one of them. Knew that War was almighty. Holy. Endless. Supreme. A phenomena not even a Kimsura could kill.

And not one they wanted to.

For as long as the Heart-Eater feasted, the Dragon would lounge on the throne. Its powerful tail would coil around the neck of the smaller, more cunning snake. Constrict. Tighten as the elder brother thrashed and beat against the floor, hissing and injecting its poisonous fangs into the floorboards.

No, his father would not end this war.

He wouldn't try- because so long as War raged on, Dai's punishment for the events of the last Black Claw Trial would continue. As long as Outskirts men still fought and died, he would not see home.

Or the girl who made it worthy of that name.

Impress me, the shogun had said months ago, when others had gathered the courage to ask which campaign would be their last. What they'd have to do for a bath, servants, the company of a woman. What they'd have to do to return home to Hikarishi. Impress me, he'd answered, glaring at his heir, his son.

And Dai had tried.

For eighteen months, he'd tried. He'd struggled. He'd fought.

Soon, Dai Kimsura would turn twenty.

If Amihan would let him make it that far.

Dai was a prisoner here, bound by the shackles of fine armour, trapped behind palisade supposed to protect him. Hikarishi's defenses were strong, but accidents always happened in war. Especially when the shogun willed it so.

Especially when the shogun wanted you to suffer.

Especially when the shogun wanted you dead.

Impress me.

Dai's attention slid to his wrist, to the two-toned braid tied around it. A northern talisman he'd found strange, at first. Disturbing. But it had quickly become a treasure more valuable than gold.

A comfort.

A tether.

He didn't know if it was really some spell or simply a token of affection. He didn't care. For him, it served as a reminder that there was still something out there. Something more than the screams of Outskirts men, the smell of gunpowder, mud and smoke and sweat and blood.

It served as a reminder that there was life beyond the war.

And she was waiting for him to return.

The letter smelled like Yuina. Smelled of flowers- better ones than the white and yellow blooms that dotted the tea fields. It was a shame her words tasted bittersweet.

Mistress Naoki had found her beads. Had taken them from the little servant girl she'd entrusted them to. And she had presented them to his mother like a dog to its mistress. Like one of Thien's ugly beasts or one of his sister's cats, the tail of a dead rat pinched between its teeth.

Raia had been going out of her way to make his promised miserable.

And there was nothing- nothing Dai could do about it. Not from here. Here, Dai Kimsura was useless. Utterly useless here in an Isuto province where the very water tasted like grass and sweat and the sun slept as little as he.

Useless.

And it wasn't like his sister could be of much help, either. Not while confined to the Palace of the Snake, carrying the child he hoped for Jia's sake belonged to Osamu.