Gene turned and entered the kitchen. Heat and the smell of food washed over him. He stopped and frowned, disconcerted.
A cook stood busily making something before a roaring oven. The air was thick with the smell of pork fat and spices. Another cook staggered along, his arms full of smoked meat and sausages. A boy who seemed to be a kitchen assistant was washing a tremendous quantity of vegetables and leaving them to drain in baskets. A stranger might have thought a large banquet was about to begin.
But empty dishes lay in a heap on the floor. One man was just finishing grilled goose wings on a large plate, dusting them with salt and pepper. It was Nana, a small girl with loose golden hair.
Watching Nana eat was, in one sense, mortifying. Like a young lady demonstrating table manners, she ate without getting a single drop of sauce on her lips or dropping a single crumb. Yet she was consuming an enormous quantity at an astonishing speed. Nor did she eat only the best parts and leave the rest. Whatever was put before her, she finished cleanly. The sight of Nana putting the end of a goose-wing bone, which she had sucked clean, into her mouth and crunching it thoroughly was at once bewildering and a little frightening.
Rosa was kneeling on the floor before her, looking into Nana’s eyes.
“That’s enough. Stop. You’ve had enough now.”
She stressed every word. Nana looked into Rosa’s eyes, frowned at last, and finally stopped eating. Just then, a cook offered her a freshly made plate of fried sardines. Nana glanced at Rosa, uncertain whether to take it. Rosa accepted it for her and said, “Get up slowly. Don’t drop it. There.”
When Nana stood on the footstool, Rosa indicated the door leading farther into the mansion with her chin. Nana did as she was told. Gene was about to point out that they were going in entirely the wrong direction, away from the back door.
“That way…”
Rosa looked back, gave a quick shake of her head, and motioned for him to follow. In the end, Gene followed the sisters into the mansion. It was unexpectedly dark and quiet inside.
“Why did we come out this way?” he asked.
“The boy washing vegetables was watching the back door. It would be awkward if he woke up.”
“Woke up?”
“I mean, came to his senses. Surely you don’t think they were all watching us with their eyes open in their right minds?”
“You mean they were hypnotized?”
“Something like that. Now, let’s hurry out.”
Just as the three ran toward the main entrance, someone rushed in and came to an abrupt halt at the sight of them. So did they. It was someone they knew.
“Oh, I wondered where you’d gone. So here you all are.”
Antonia. Armed soldiers poured in after her. There appeared to be about ten. They wore full uniforms despite its not being wartime, and even their bearing differed from that of the guards searching the garden a little earlier. Gene looked amused.
“I thought wearing a uniform to fight was forbidden except in wartime.”
“For a word like ‘forbidden’ to come out of your mouth, you must have been thoroughly frightened. What a sorry showing for the ShadowHawk.”
Antonia sneered, but Gene merely gave an unconcerned smile. He had no reason to be embarrassed by a chilling reputation that had followed him because of a nickname he had never asked for. Beside him, Rosa spoke.
“There must be a reason. Treason, for instance?”
Antonia looked briefly flustered and began to say something. Gene did not wait. He walked toward the soldiers and drew his sword. They looked distinctly tense but did not run. As he confronted the first, the others rushed out to surround him in a circle. Gene was just taking his stance when Rosa spoke softly.
“Eonunuk, Dajemore.”
At once, the soldiers staring at Gene began rubbing their eyes, tears streaming down their faces. Slipping past men who could no longer see properly was easy. As soon as they were outside, Gene turned to Rosa.
“You know how to use magic?”
“It’s a trifling spell.”
“Didn’t look that way to me.”
“They’ll be fine in a few minutes. If it had worked properly, they’d all have fallen asleep.”
Rosa pointed at a tree in the corner of the garden, the one they had chosen as their meeting place with Tahyang. After a few steps, she glanced at Gene.
“Does showing off and letting yourself get surrounded do you any good?”
“I had a plan of my own, you know.”
“Did you? And what about now?”
Gene had just seen soldiers running in from both sides. He took the whistle from around his neck and put it between his lips. A peculiar birdlike cry rang out. At the same moment, a great shadow leaped over the wall ahead of them. Huka. The soldiers were so startled that half sank to the ground. Then Huka, upright on his haunches, growled in a voice that seemed to rise from beneath the earth, and the rest began to tremble too.
Rosa was tense as well, but forced herself to sound indifferent.
“More useful than a person.”
Gene grinned.
“I assume that person is me?”
“Well, I wouldn’t insist that it isn’t…”
Rosa fell silent when Huka suddenly started and looked back. Gene looked down to see what had happened and stared in disbelief. Nana had hold of Huka’s tail.
“What are you doing?”
Nana looked up at Gene and, curling the end of the tail into a ring and stroking it, said, “Fluffy.”
Gene checked an incredulous laugh. Instead, he jerked his chin toward her as he spoke to Rosa.
“Have her let go, will you? It’s dangerous.”
“Animals don’t matter.”
“What are you talking about?”
“She’s fine with animals. Nana, I mean.”
“That isn’t an animal. He’s a wild beast.”
There was no time to argue further. A rope came flying over the wall. Gene caught its end and handed it to Rosa.
“It should be safe on the other side.”
Rosa took hold of the rope first, climbed swiftly, and looked down over the wall. As expected, Tahyang was waiting. Standing on the wall, which was barely a handspan wide, she lowered the rope and beckoned Nana to climb up. Tahyang smiled.
“Both the rope and my arm will manage, even if you two hang on together.”
“I’m fine. This is safer.”
Gene looked up at Rosa.
“You have an unusual view of safety.”
Just as Nana reached the top of the wall, a growing number of soldiers surrounded Gene and Huka. Gene put a hand on his sword hilt and beckoned them to come at him. The soldiers did not rush him recklessly. They kept their formation and advanced a little at a time.
Gene waited briefly, then suddenly stepped forward and snatched a long spear from one soldier. With a practiced swing, he struck five men in succession in the feet and knees. Even as they fell, they looked astonished, apparently never having imagined that the ShadowHawk could use a spear. Gene then tapped Huka’s neck. The snowlion abruptly crouched and let out a tremendous roar. As expected, the remaining soldiers faltered in panic. Gene threw down the spear and turned to climb the wall.
An arrow flew in.
By the time he heard the sharp sound and turned, it was too late. The arrow grazed Huka’s ear, struck the wall, and fell. Its trajectory might have struck Gene squarely if it had not lost its force. Gene’s expression changed at the sight of blood running from Huka’s ear.
On a terrace of the opposite building, the enemy was nocking another arrow. Drawing his sword, Gene glared at him along its blade. The instant the second arrow came, his sword cut through the air. The arrow fell in two pieces. Gene took out the whistle again and blew twice. Then he patted Huka’s back. Huka bounded over the wall and vanished.
Left alone, Gene turned to the soldiers. He swung his sword through the air twice, making a keen sound. It was one against twenty, but his bearing was assured. Raising one corner of his mouth, he indicated the blade with his eyes.
“This one cuts very well.”
Before the soldiers could assess what that meant, Gene charged. The first two fell back without thinking. They had no time to shake off the fear that had just sprung up in them. Gene struck their right wrists in succession, raised his sword, cut the arms and shoulders of the two on his left, then turned right and stabbed another in the thigh. It was the terrifyingly swift, economical sequence of attacks, predicting his opponents’ movements exactly, that had made Gene’s name. Even in the chaos, each separate movement seemed as deliberate and practiced as an assassin’s.
Those who had never seen it refused to believe the stories. Those who did see it doubted their own eyes. Some insisted that Gene must have arranged the movements of the men he hired and rehearsed with them in advance. Otherwise, they could only say that he judged a situation extraordinarily quickly and was lucky besides. Gene confirmed neither theory. People who enjoyed making up names had even dubbed it the “Shadow Hunt,” after his own nickname. Seeing a Shadow Hunt in person was something to boast of.
Four dropped their swords. The last fell at the same moment Gene slipped out among them. Gene waited just two beats for the survivors to feel fear. Then he leaped in again, felled another three in succession, and turned to knock away another arrow with the back of his sword.
When he counted two more beats, a familiar sound came from the top of the wall behind him: the twang of his friend’s bowstring. Gene grinned and shook his head. The arrow pierced the hand of the archer on the terrace. Four more followed in succession. Screams rose from another terrace, a rooftop, and behind a bush. But the last arrow suddenly dropped as though it had lost its strength. That was at the top of the eastern tower.
Gene frowned. Something had stopped it. Magic, perhaps, but timing a spell so precisely was difficult. More likely, some sort of protective barrier had been set there beforehand. But why put a barrier in such a place? Who was behind it?
He was curious, but there was no time for a closer look. The soldiers had been watching the direction in which the arrows flew. When they turned back to Gene, he was already reaching out with his left hand to catch a rope flying from behind him. Winding it once around his hand, he turned, kicked off a tree, and rose onto the wall. As expected, Tahyang caught him by the shoulder where he stood. But Rosa was still beside him. Gene looked at her profile.
“Why are you still here?”
Without answering, Rosa pointed one hand at the soldiers and spoke.
“Niamo Nushk Orkaus.”
Black smoke streamed from her fingertips. Tracing a strange path, like ink spreading through water, it soon covered everything inside. Rosa dusted off her hands and jumped over the wall. Gene and Tahyang looked briefly at each other.
“Cleaning up afterward?”
“They won’t be able to see for a while.”
“You know what that was?”
Then they jumped down as well. But the moment they landed, they saw something absurd. Gene had told Huka to watch Nana and had been worried the child might be frightened. Frightened? Far from it. There she was, proudly seated on Huka’s back.
Gene’s eyes widened.
“You, how…”
Huka was sitting calmly, without even a sign of dislike. While Gene stood bewildered, Rosa found his horse and brought it over. She mounted first, and Gene had to get on behind her. Tahyang and Nana looked into one another’s eyes for a moment. Neither spoke, but presently Tahyang mounted behind Nana on Huka’s back.
Gene shrugged at his friend.
“It seems to have worked out, but the ending’s rather odd.”
“That is merely our prejudice, my friend.”
Tahyang smiled then, though Gene was the only one who could recognize it. The two beasts, carrying four people, ran down the hill.
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