The Pearl Hunter by Miya T. Beck

Author:Miya T. Beck
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2022-11-23T00:00:00+00:00

10

Kai had to fight the impulse to run out to the courtyard. How had Ren gotten a job as a servant? Did he work in the stable? Did General Takagi know who he was? Then a terrifying thought popped into her head: What if Doi was still in the compound, too? Once the contest ended, she went to the back room and peeked around the blinds at the servant courtyard, hoping to catch sight of Ren. She slid her hand beneath her robes to check the arrow wound below her shoulder, which she’d forgotten about since arriving at the compound. The skin felt rough and bumpy but didn’t hurt. She smiled as a cook waved a large wooden spoon and shouted at the chickens to go lay more eggs, and cringed as a servant carrying a tray dropped food on the ground and, after looking around to make sure nobody was watching, returned it to the bowl. She hoped that dish wasn’t meant for her. Probably the servants had strong opinions about the commoner being treated like a lady.

“Kai, come quickly,” Mama Nene called out. “The general and Yugiri are here to see you.”

Kai returned to the front room. Through the crack in the drapes, she saw General Takagi’s disembodied ear like the inner whorl of a conch shell. Yugiri again sat off to the side with his eyes downcast.

“Good afternoon,” General Takagi said. “What did you think of our contest?”

“How in the world did your men catch the fox?” she asked.

“It tried to trick one of my men by shape-shifting into a beautiful woman,” General Takagi said. “He played along and the other soldiers were able to grab it. After the contest, we checked the dead fox for its pearl but could not find it. So we’ve learned that we will not be able to take all of Dakini’s nine lives in order to get her pearl. We will have to apply other methods.”

Other methods. Threats and torture. Kai couldn’t believe that he was calling this “their” plan when it was only his plan.

“What about the feather cloak?” Kai asked, to change the subject. “How are the repairs coming along? Will it be ready by the time we leave?”

“I have my best seamstress working on it,” he said. “We will set out for Sky Mountain at dawn on the day of the full moon.”

Four more days. Kai was about to ask if maybe they shouldn’t leave sooner when she felt her hems grow taut.

“Look, Yugiri, this is a bold combination,” General Takagi said, his voice playful. “How does the poem go? ‘My mountain door of pine has opened briefly / to see a radiant flower not seen before.’”

Even though he dropped her hems, she felt flustered. She didn’t understand why he was reciting poetry.

“I will go check on the status of the cloak and leave you two young people to get better acquainted,” General Takagi said.

Did that mean Yugiri was coming with them to Sky Mountain? Why would they need to get to know each other? When his father’s footsteps faded, Yugiri cleared his throat.

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