The Tiger's Daughter by K. Arsenault Rivera

Author:K. Arsenault Rivera [Rivera, K. Arsenault]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fantasy, Young Adult, Adult, Romance, Science Fiction
ISBN: 9780765392534
Goodreads: 29760778
Publisher: Tor Books
Published: 2017-10-03T00:00:00+00:00

OUR SLEEVES, WET WITH TEARS

I did not spend much time around your mother, and for this I will always feel some regret. O-Shizuru exists in stories as a dark woman, hands forever coated with blood, trailed always by crows. I know these stories cannot hope to capture her essence, just as the stories of my mother fail to capture hers.

But I remember distinctly the way she spoke about her position. Imperial Executioner. Whenever the subject came up, she would scoff. Once, I awoke in the middle of the night, after dreaming a dragon ate my leg, and I saw your mother sitting with a cup in one hand and a bottle in the other. Her gray-streaked hair was all a mess.

“I’m no executioner,” she said. “Yoshimoto calls me that only so he can feel better about himself. I am either his butcher or his last resort.” And here I remember she took a sip of her rice wine, which was always at her side. “Bandits or blackbloods. That’s all I ever fight. He never sends me after nobles, never has me act as anyone’s second. Between the two, Shefali-lun—between things that were once people I liked, and people who turn to robbery to fill their bellies, I’d rather have…”

I never got to hear her answer. Your father emerged not long after that, and with gentle words convinced her that it was time for bed.

I have thought on that moment many times since then. Which is worse—to confront the dead you once knew, or to confront strangers you sympathize with? Whose blood is heavier?

I will tell you:

The worst thing in life is to face your family after you have shamed them. For the moment I spotted my mother’s white felt ger, I knew that if I told her of my condition, I might as well be killing her.

I wished it’d been bandits instead. If bandits approached camp, I’d know precisely what to do: draw my bow and fire until no one remained. If guards caught me, then I would’ve raced them back to the barracks. They would have had no hope of catching me on my good Qorin mare.

But she was my mother. My mother, who hated boats as much as I did, and warned me as a child never to take one. My mother, who abhorred leaving the steppes for any reason, except to see your mother. From what I knew, she had not been to the Wall of Flowers since she traveled with O-Shizuru and the Sixteen Swords. What was initially a mission to clear out invading blackbloods became a lasting warning against confronting them.

Oh, our mothers slew one of the Traitor’s Generals—for this, the entire Empire sang your mother’s praises—but every one of the other Swords died in the effort. Fourteen of the most renowned warriors in Hokkaro, from all walks of life. General Kikomura fought alongside a cobbler from southern Fuyutsuki Province. The youngest daughter of silk merchants, a man with grandchildren about to marry. All that mattered was their swordplay—and look where that got them.

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