Whisper of Blade | ✓ (Crimson #1)

Chapter 33: Lullaby and Goodnight

When they pushed it, the door creaked on its hinges. The hallway smelled of must and spiders spun thick lace webs in the corners. Stairs spiraled up into the gloom with the clatter of pots and muffled voices above. Kumiko landed on the dusty floorboards and scratched at another door.

Kaji handed Minerva the key to unlock his door but it took significant jiggling for it to open. He slipped down from her back, took the box of food from Kodak, and padded into the dim room. Some coals glowed in the fireplace. Minerva's eyes adjusted to the absence of light enough for her to take in her surroundings.

Kaji's home, while clean, could compete with Amarante's hut for bareness. A woman slept on a bundle of bedding in the corner nearest the fire.

"Mama, wake up," Kaji said gently as he knelt by her side. "I've brought you food."

"Shut the door. The light," his mother whispered. She had a cloth over her eyes.

Kodak pushed the door until it clicked and retreated to the far corner of the room.

"Kaji ... who do you have with you?" she asked. The woman reached out with her hand and touched his knee.

"I found some friends. Please eat now, Mama." Kaji grasped her hand in his.

Minerva considered whether they should be given privacy and moved toward the door.

"Stay!" The woman lifted a trembling hand. "Don't leave. I have yet to meet and thank you."

How had she heard? Minerva didn't think she'd made a sound.

"It is an honor to be in your presence, majestic one. I am known as Nariko," Kaji's mother said.

This woman possessed some power. Kaji had told her nothing and Azuki held his illusion of a six-tailed kat. He climbed down from Kodak's shoulder and neared Kaji and Nariko. Unlike Minerva expected, he didn't protest against the use of his true title. "You see much," Azuki said. "You see as we do."

Nariko smiled, though her mouth tensed in a rictus of pain a moment after. "Not exactly."

Too late, Minerva remembered that if Kaji's father had Phoenix Kin affiliations, then his mother could too. Rumors of trading for gifts and power always circulated about such people. It's why they so easily suspected the Pale Viper of dealings with the supernatural ... and they weren't wrong.

Kaji had helped his mother sit up and spooned porridge to her mouth.

The cloth fell from her emaciated face, but she kept her eyes shut. "Please, make yourselves comfortable. I'm afraid I'm a poor hostess and have no tea to offer. Our circumstances have seen fit for us to sell what little we had," she whispered.

"Please don't trouble yourself. We're only too glad to be of some help and comfort to your family." Kodak took a couple steps forward and sat down in the center of the room.

Minerva stayed where she was.

Nariko only swallowed a couple spoonfuls before declining more. She sent Kaji outside to feed the rest to some of the neighborhood's kats with Kumiko and Azuki accompanying him.

She sat with her hands folded on her lap. Every second, Minerva thought the woman would open her eyes and denounce them as her husband's murderers.

"You know who we are," Kodak said, breaking the silence. "How?"

Nariko tilted her head in Minerva's direction. "Her Highness has a very unique heat signature. A core close to burning but cold at the outer edges, as if she does not let what is inside reach the exterior." After so many words, her voice grew scratchy and the effort she put into breathing became visible.