Prophecy (2 page)

Underneath the man-skin, Kira saw the demon grin as several grim-faced men planted themselves before her, their arms crossed. An angry muttering rose.

“She’s a demon! No human can be that fast. And look at how high she jumped,” a merchant shouted out. “It’s unnatural!”

“No, she’s a
kumiho
! Don’t look into her ugly eyes! That’s how she enslaves you, and then she’ll eat your liver!” someone nearby warned.

Kira never moved, her eyes steady on the shifting face of the demon as he mocked her. So now they thought she was a kumiho, a nine-tailed fox demon. This was a new one. She’d be amused by the insult if their ignorance weren’t so galling. She knew they couldn’t see the demon’s true form. They didn’t know that the demon had feasted on the internal organs of its prey before donning its skin. They only saw a large unarmed man, dressed in the long yellow coat of a scholar, facing off against the most feared person in all of Hansong. Kira had no friends here.

“What’s going on?” An old man parted the crowd by smacking the legs of the spectators with a red cane. Unlike the common folk, he wore a blue vest and a gold medallion over his white clothes, indicating his status as a clan leader. He approached on her right side and bowed.

“Young mistress Kang, I am Master Lee of the Hansong Lee clan. It seems people have forgotten that not only are you the king’s niece, but you are a
saulabi
and the prince’s bodyguard!” Master Lee glared at everyone.

Kira didn’t think anyone cared that she was a saulabi, a soldier of the king’s elite army. Contemplating all the unfriendly faces, Kira wondered what was the greater sin: having yellow eyes or being the sole female warrior? Would she be less of an aberration if she’d been a man?

Master Lee turned to her again. “However, I must ask you to put away your weapon. We cannot allow you to harm an unarmed man,” he said. He gave her an apologetic bow.

Kira kept her eyes trained on the demon as she responded to the old man.

“I’m arresting this man for violations of the king’s law and I’m taking him to the palace prison,” she said.

“On what grounds? It’s all a lie! She just wants to kill me,” the demon protested. “Ask her!”

Master Lee peered at Kira questioningly, but she didn’t respond. She was not a good liar and the truth was that she would behead him the minute they were alone.

Kira shifted her sword to attack position.

The demon rose to his feet. “Ha! See?” He faced the crowd. “Who’s the villain here? I’m no criminal. I am Master Song’s eldest son. Quick, someone run and fetch my father so he can put an end to this.”

The crowd pressed forward restlessly.

Kira leaned closer to the old clan leader. “Master Lee,” she whispered. “This man is not who you think he is. Don’t trust him.”

“She’s a kumiho!” the demon said in a loud, abrasive tone. “She’s brainwashed the royal family into accepting her, but don’t be fooled. Just look at her eyes and you’ll know the truth. People have been disappearing because she’s killed them all, like she wants to kill me now! If you let her take me, who will she come for later? You?” He yanked on the sleeve of a nearby spectator. “Or your son?” The demon pointed at a mother holding her child. “She’ll kill us. Kill us all.”

“Monster!” a vendor yelled from behind his stall. “Go away! We don’t want you here!”

“Murderer! Murderer!” the crowd shouted.

Kira frowned, disgusted at how well the demon played up the crowd’s prejudice.

“My apologies again, young mistress,” Master Lee said, looking uneasy. “Please put away your weapon. We will ask our local magistrate to sort this out.”

Kira cursed her uncle for allowing the citizens to be oblivious to the dangers they faced. If she attacked, the crowd would turn on her. If she dropped her weapon, the demon would attack. Not that she was afraid. A normal human could not take on a demon in hand-to-hand combat. But she’d never been normal.

“Fine,” she said, addressing the demon with a loud sigh. “Make me do this the hard way.”

She slowly lowered her weapon. “You’re just not that bright, are you? I mean, how are you going to escape? Do you really think these people can stop me?” Kira raised an eyebrow. “They’re more scared of me than of you.”

She sheathed her sword and unbuckled her weapons with slow and deliberate care, her eyes never leaving the demon’s ever-shifting face.

“Why don’t we show them just what kind of foul piece of excrement you truly are,” she said. She smiled as she tossed her weapons over to Master Lee.

At that moment, the demon charged, powerful fists swinging at her. She dodged, rolled, and blocked blow after blow, then somersaulted backward away from his brutal attack.

He pursued her with punishing punches and kicks. His body seemed to swell in size. Hard-pressed, Kira fought with knee blocks and flying leaps, but he was stronger than she’d expected.

With a rapid-fire twirling jump, the demon planted a vicious mule kick on her chest, sending Kira hurtling into the crowd behind her. Her nambawi flew off her head, leaving her face exposed.

Rough hands pulled her up and shoved her toward the demon. Kira leaped forward, unleashing a series of breakneck kicks so fast that her leg whirled with the speed of a spinning top. The demon grabbed her leg and slammed her to the ground. Before she could catch her breath, he seized her by the neck and lifted her off her feet. He drove his other hand like an eagle’s claw into her diaphragm, seeking to rip out her liver.

Kira slammed her forehead into his face, then jabbed her thumbs into the demon’s eyes. With a howl of pain, he loosened his grip. Kira dropped onto her hands and whipped her leg up and over, smashing her heel onto the top of his head and bringing him to his knees.

She heard Master Lee call her name. He unsheathed her sword and tossed it to her. She snatched it out of the air and swung down in a high arc, decapitating the demon. Black ooze seeped out of the deflating corpse.

“There’s no blood!” a man gasped.

Kira heaved a painful breath. The king would be furious at the public demon slaying.

Master Lee approached her as she cleaned her sword.

“Thank you for giving me my sword,” she said.

The old man snorted. “That boy was never any good at
taekkyon
. The demon gave himself away as soon as he began to fight.” He sighed deeply. “How are we going to explain it to his father?”

“Tell him that this was not his son,” she said.

A young boy pushed his way forward and shoved her nambawi into her hands before running off. Kira pulled on her hat, noting the confusion in the faces of the crowd. There was a palpable difference in the air—a lessening of anger and hate.

Master Lee bowed.

“Thank you, young mistress, for saving us,” he said. Behind him, a sea of heads lowered in unison, shocking her.

She scowled at their hypocrisy. All it took was one demon slaying for their beliefs to be shaken.

But now, for having opened their eyes, Kira would have to face someone she feared more than any demon.

Kira grimaced in pain as she adjusted the collar of her clean
jacket before heading to her father’s office. She pressed lightly against the bandage she’d wrapped around her middle and hoped the ginseng salve she’d slathered on would provide some relief soon. Her unusual strength made her a fast healer, but she still needed a full night’s rest to recover.

One of the queen’s guards ran up to her, his black scale armor clanking in his haste.

“Young mistress Kang, Her Majesty requests your presence at the Fragrant Pavilion immediately,” he panted.

Kira hid her exasperation. “I need to report to the general,” she said.

“Your pardon, young mistress,” the guard said, avoiding her eyes. “The queen says it’s urgent.”

She nodded and followed the young guard. His nervousness was not unusual. She had an uneasy relationship with most of the soldiers of the Hansong army. The only reason they respected her was because of her father, the supreme commander.

Fragrant Pavilion was the queen’s retreat. The two-storied hexagonal building sat on an island in the middle of a lotus pond teeming with brightly colored carp. It got its name from its position at the north end of the palace compound in the shadow of the mountain, where the northeasterly breezes would sweep the fragrances of the seasonal foliage through the building.

Leaving the soldier behind, Kira crossed the elegant wooden bridge that curved over the water to the pavilion. Inside, Kira faltered as she caught the mocking glances and sneers of the queen’s court ladies. It was as if she’d stumbled into a beautiful flower garden filled with poisonous snakes. Kira was good at ignoring them, but still their contempt burned her. At her approach, one by one they flicked open their fans before their faces—a wall as fragile as butterfly wings and yet completely insurmountable.

How she hated them.

Upstairs, she walked into a large, spacious room containing only one oversized lacquered cabinet and a few low-sitting tables. The floor was padded with a thick rush mat and covered with satin floor cushions of vivid purples, pinks, and yellows.

Queen Ja-young’s sumptuous silk red-and-gold
hanbok
pooled around her on the heated floor. Her ebony hair, which reached nearly to her heels, was tied up in an elaborate hairstyle. Kira’s mother, Lady Kang Yuwa, sat next to the queen, a lovely vision in a gold-patterned blue hanbok.

The queen eyed Kira and frowned.

“Kira, when are you going to wear that beautiful pink hanbok I gave you?” the queen asked.

Kira knelt on the floor and bowed deeply, hiding her irritation. She’d just killed two demon-possessed humans seeking to assassinate the king. Clothes were the last thing in the world she should have to worry about.

Queen Ja-young sighed as Lady Kang took Kira’s hand tightly between her own. Kira felt a rush of affection for her gentle mother. Even though Lady Kang was the queen’s older sister, her calm, generous personality and her lack of jealousy made her the queen’s number-one confidant. Politics and ambition kept the queen from trusting anyone. And Kira knew from experience just how shallow and mean-spirited the court ladies could be. Queen Ja-young depended on her older sister for counsel and companionship.

“I’m sure Kira had no chance to change; after all, you did request that she come immediately,” Lady Kang said.

The queen snorted. “Well, at least she is obedient. I asked Taejo to join us, and he refused my request, to return to his sword training,” she said. “He is growing so quickly. How I wish I’d had a daughter.”

Queen Ja-young picked up a roll of red silk and unfolded an intricate scene of embroidered gold-and-silver cranes flying over a mountain lake.

Kira patted her mother’s hand, noticing how frail she looked. “Mother, are you well?” she asked.

“Don’t worry, child, I am fine,” her mother reassured her.

“Your mother has not been well since your birth,” the queen said. “You were such a big baby!”

“Such a beautiful baby,” Lady Kang said.

“I remember when the shaman said your mother’s tiger dream meant that she was carrying the greatest warrior of all of the Seven Kingdoms. And then when you were born, your father laughed so hard I thought he’d have a seizure!” The queen giggled. “How can a girl be a warrior? But look at you now. The first female warrior of the saulabi.”

Kira suppressed a sigh. The queen loved to tell this story. But her version didn’t quite match up with Kira’s own recollections. Her aunt conveniently ignored how much the king despised Kira for being different.

“I take full responsibility for your warrior status, since it was at my urging that your father trained you to be the prince’s bodyguard,” the queen said. “That’s why it is up to me to see to your future.”

Kira glanced uneasily at her mother.

“It is time to consider a betrothal for you,” the queen said.

There was a moment of shocked silence.

“I’m not sure that’s a good idea, my queen,” Kira replied.

“Kira needs time to consider the idea of marriage first,” Lady Kang said.

“She doesn’t want to get married, that’s the problem,” the queen retorted. “She runs around the entire kingdom, fighting like a man!”

“Isn’t that what you wanted of me?” Kira burst out. “To protect my cousin from harm?”

“Yes, but Hansong has been safe for so many years. There’s been no demon presence since that terrible incident ten years ago.”

Kira pressed her lips tight, swallowing the words of denial. This was what happened when you hid the truth—a false sense of security. She wanted to show her aunt the wounds on her body.

“Until now,” her aunt continued in a gentler voice, “all of us have believed it would be impossible to find you a husband, especially given your … differences.”

“Until now?” Kira asked sharply.

Her mother released Kira’s hand and turned to face her. “Lord Shin Bo Hyun has asked for your hand in marriage.”

Kira couldn’t believe her ears. Shin Bo Hyun was a young noble, an officer of the Hansong army, and a nephew to the highest-ranking cabinet member. She pictured him in her mind. Handsome, but not in the soft and pasty court way. His rugged face was sun-browned, and his hooded eyes always looked as if he was laughing at a private joke. He was a particular favorite of the court ladies, who loved to moon over him and try to catch his attention in the most ridiculous ways. But not Kira.