Tiger Honor by Yoon Ha Lee

Author:Yoon Ha Lee [Lee, Yoon Ha]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Disney Book Group
Published: 2021-02-15T00:00:00+00:00

I lost my voice for a second as I surveyed the cargo bay, counting and calculating furiously. How many people had Uncle Hwan snuck aboard? And where had they come from? I hadn’t heard of any mass defections from his original ship, the Pale Lightning, but then again, that was the sort of thing that the Space Forces would have kept quiet.

A rustling noise interrupted my count. A small figure stepped out from shadows I hadn’t even seen. They were wrapped in layers of silk. The golden embroidery on their clothes should have made them easy to see. Instead, I hadn’t so much as smelled them.

Now that I was aware of their presence, though, My nose tickled with the unsettling sensation of magic. Crouched by the figure’s side was a shaggy tan dog. Its ears pricked as it came forward to sniff at me and Uncle Hwan.

“This is Shaman Sena, my partner,” Hwan said. “She can stop the gumiho.” He inclined his head to her.

The dog barked imperiously.

“And Shield, of course,” Hwan added, gesturing at the dog. “A Sapsali. He has powers against evil spirits and ghosts.”

The dog’s tongue lolled out in a grin.

I bowed deeply to Sena. My previous encounters with shamans had been glancing at best. My parents had sequestered me in my room on the yearly occasions when the Matriarch invited them over to banish unlucky influences, and Aunt Sooni had tried to distract me with board games. I’d peered curiously from the window as the shamans chanted and danced and spoke for the ancestors, but I’d come to the conclusion that I didn’t want to mess with people who crossed over so easily into the realm of the dead.

Great-Uncle Myung had reinforced my decision by telling me that a shaman wouldn’t hesitate to turn my stripes green if I annoyed them. The threat had impressed me so much that I had never dared try to talk to one before. I was half tempted to turn tiger right now and check the color of my stripes, just in case.

“Who is the youngling?” Sena asked. Her voice was cold and raspy. I could smell her displeasure.

“Cadet Sebin,” Hwan said. “My kin. They will be assisting me.”

“If you insist,” Sena said.

Shield, less easily mollified, growled at me. I wasn’t usually afraid of smaller creatures, but this wasn’t merely a dog—it was a shaman’s dog. And as a Sapsali, it had magic of its own.

“It’s time,” Hwan said crisply, gesturing at the barrels.

Sena nodded.

Time for what? I almost asked.

The answer revealed itself soon enough. About half the barrels split open, as though they were monstrous eggs. The image was more apt than I realized, for the barrels transformed into metal carapaces armoring the enormous humanoid figures within. Soon I was confronted by a unit of some forty-odd soldiers of a type I had never seen before.

“These are your allies, Captain?” I asked in a hushed voice.

“Mercenaries outcast from the Sun Clans,” Hwan confirmed. “They have joined their destinies with mine in exchange for a place on this ship.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.