Free Kinslayer by Jay Kristoff Page A

“But what’s your name?”
    A long silence. Yukiko ground her teeth. She could hear the sounds of a thousand gaijin children, sobbing as they were marched to slaughter inside the greasy yellow innards of the chapterhouses. High-pitched screaming amidst the crackling pyres around the Burning Stones. People like her, people with the Kenning, put to the torch for the sake of the Guild’s ridiculous “Way of Purity.” The False-Lifer’s reply sounded like a nest of spitting vipers.
    “Ayane.”
    “What chapterhouse are you from?”
    “Yama.”
    “Fox lands are a long walk from here.” Kin raised an eyebrow and went to work with a pair of wire snips. “How did you make it all the way? False-Lifers can’t fly.”
    “I stole aboard a Guild liner in Yama harbor and fired the escape pod.” The spider limbs flexed, a ripple of silver in the air around it. “I flew as far as I could. Then I walked.”
    “How did you know our direction?” Kin looked up from the innards, eyes illuminated by a burst of sparks.
    “The Guild has known the general location of the Kagé stronghold since they rescued the two of you from the Thunder Child ’s ruins. Since then, they have set up triangulation towers around the Iishi. Every time the Kagé transmit a radio signal, they zero closer.”
    “If they know that much, why haven’t they massed their fleet to burn this forest down?” Yukiko snapped.
    The False-Lifer turned her gaze to the earth, steadfastly refusing to meet Yukiko’s eyes.
    “Much of the fleet is still overseeing the retreat in Morcheba. But the Guildsman you spared made it back to Yama with your message, Arashi-no-odoriko. The loss of three heavy ships was enough to give the Upper Blooms pause. The captain you killed was a war hero, you know. Kigen’s Third Bloom. Master of their fleet.”
    “So?”
    “So they are afraid of you.” It swallowed. “You and your thunder tiger.”
    Kin was staring at her, the memory of a hundred dead Guildsmen swimming unspoken in his eyes. Yukiko licked her lips, feeling her skin crawl as the False-Lifer’s limbs shivered. She ran one hand along Buruu’s neck, fingers deep in feathers’ warmth.
    I don’t trust her.
    SENSIBLE.
    It’s too good to be true that there would be more like Kin.
    IN ALL HONESTY, THAT PART OF HER TALE IS EASY TO BELIEVE.
    A rebellion inside the Guild? No, they’re just telling us what we want to hear.
    THOSE OF THE GUILD ARE BORN TO IT. NO CHOICE. NO CONTROL. NOT SO HARD TO IMAGINE SOME WOULD RESENT THAT YOKE.
    I don’t believe one of them would just tiptoe out of a chapterhouse and come all this way to find Kin. It’s probably just a survivor from the fleet we burned. Lying to save its skin.
    WE LEFT ONLY ONE ALIVE, YUKIKO. YOU KNOW THAT.
    This doesn’t make any godsdamned sense. It’s lying.
    YOU MEAN “SHE” IS LYING.
    I mean “it.”
    She eyed the False-Lifer up and down, lip curling.
    “Is that why your leaders are backing Hiro? Because they’re too spineless to come here themselves now? They’d rather risk men with wives and children in the battle to bring me down, right? Better to see them die than more of their precious Shatei?”
    “I am from Yama.” All nine of its functional arms rippled, and Yukiko was appalled to recognize the gesture as a shrug. “I do not know the politics of First House, or why the First Bloom bids Shateigashira Kensai to support the Tora boy. But I know seventy percent of our Munitions Sect were requisitioned by Kigen four weeks ago.”
    Yukiko stared blankly.
    “The Munitions Sect build machines that require human control,” Kin offered. “Motor-rickshaw, shreddermen, sky-ship engines and so on. Like I used to.”
    Yukiko narrowed her eyes. “What are they working on?”
    “I do not know, Stormdancer.” Another grotesque, multi-armed shrug.
    “Don’t call her that.” Kin plucked three transistors from the mechabacus. “Her name is Yukiko.”
    The boy snipped a final set of wires, gathered up