Prophecy. Part 1

Prophecy.

Ellen Oh.

Dedication.

"Mom, are you dedicating this book to us?"

"Of course."

"Cool! We're gonna be famous!"

To Summer, Skye, and Gracie, my three amazing superstars who always cheered me on.

And to my husband, Sonny, who never let me give up.

1.

People feared Kira.

They called her the Demon Slayer to her face and much worse behind her back. It didn't matter that she was a first cousin to the crown prince or that she'd saved his life from a demon attack. Ten years was long enough for most to forget what really happened and instead to believe the rumors that began soon after.

Even now, standing in the congested marketplace of Hansong, she could see the averted glances and hear the urgent whispering. She wondered which rumors they were spreading this time. The one that said she'd raised a sea serpent from the underworld and planned to sacrifice the prince to it. Or the one that claimed she enchanted everyone with her yellow eyes and hunted for human prey at night.

At least they had one thing right. She was definitely on the hunt.

A ripple in the air appeared far across the square. Kira homed in on it, watching as it welled around the thick-set body of a young man in a long yellow coat walking with a smaller man down a side street. She narrowed her eyes as she took a deep breath, her sensitive nose a.s.saulted by the pungent odor of boiled silkworm larvae, dried cuttlefish, and pickled cabbage mixed with a mult.i.tude of unwashed bodies. There, underneath it all, was the familiar waft of demon stink.

Upon her advance, a human wave surged away from her in a panicked frenzy. The good thing about being a pariah was that she didn't have an issue with crowd control. But for the sneaky little thief who had recognized her, she would have slid through the marketplace, unseen as usual. Instead, he'd shouted out her name and stolen her money purse, sidling through the legs of frightened spectators before she could catch him. The dirty rat.

Kira kept her face impa.s.sive, giving no hint of the hurt she'd become so used to hiding. All seventeen years of her life it had been this way. She adjusted the nambawi on her head, pulling it lower over her brows, shading her eyes. The nambawi was black with a short, sloping brim and fur lining that covered her forehead, ears, and the back of her neck-making her feel inconspicuous.

Usually.

Today she clamped it hard to her head-a s.h.i.+eld of protection, along with the sheathed sword and bow and arrows strapped to her back. She had a job to do.

She sprinted across the marketplace and jerked around a corner, stopping in surprise. She was among the suchae-the untouchables, to whom the servants and slaves of the wealthy brought animals for slaughter and butchering. Her lips tightened. Theirs was a difficult life. They were despised by all for the very work they did. How could she not feel for them? Kira had more in common with these untouchables than with any of the n.o.bles of her own cla.s.s.

At the end of the dark, filthy street, Kira could see the lingering ripple of magic in the air.

She ignored the bows of the suchae and rushed into an alleyway, only to find it empty. Closing her eyes, Kira took a deep breath. Underneath the stench of garbage and sewage, she focused on the undercurrent, her nose targeting the rotten funk of dead things long forgotten. This was what she hunted.

Opening her eyes, she followed the scent to a hidden stairwell and down to a dimly lit cellar filled with barrels of roots and vegetables and the overpowering smell of fermenting bean pastes in ceramic pots. It led her to a dark corner where a large opening was hidden in the wall, behind several rows of barrels.

Kira crawled through and stepped into a narrow pa.s.sageway. She was within the fetid underground tunnels of the city. She knew the tunnel, but not this particular entrance. It worried her that her quarry knew of it, too.

Hansong was one of the largest walled cities on the entire peninsula. Heavily armed soldiers patrolled the perimeter of the city, while shamans protected its walls and gates with demon-repelling magic spells. Kira held a wary respect for shamans. They were keepers of the dead and pract.i.tioners of the dark arts. But sometimes the wards weakened, and demons would enter the city.

It was Kira's job to find them and dispose of them.

The dark tunnels were lit sporadically by the sunlight streaming in from the drainage ditches above. But with her unusual yellow eyes, Kira could see just as well in the dark as in the light. Channeling her senses, she caught the odor trail again and sped off.

Before long, she heard raised voices.

Someone chuckled slyly. "When we reach the palace, the first thing I need is a little snack."

"We don't have time for that! Our mission is to kill the king as quickly as possible." The other voice was deep and menacing.

a.s.sa.s.sins heading for the palace-this was what her father had feared.

Kira pulled out the horn bow strapped to her back and nocked the arrow. There was only one way to kill a human possessed by a demon: sever its head.

But she had to be absolutely sure first.

"What a spoilsport," the sly voice said. "One maiden isn't going to slow us down."

"Be silent!" the menacing voice said. "I have no intention of being the only one who fails my mission. If that happens, I'll cut you up into a million pieces and hide them so you'll never fully re-form again!"

Kira targeted the menacing voice, the one who was in charge, wearing the yellow coat she'd seen earlier. She watched as he grabbed his smaller companion by the neck, shaking him like a rag doll. She saw the s.h.i.+mmering distortion in the air and glimpsed the grotesque, leathery gray scales of a demon rolling under the skin-fangs grimacing against the flesh, as if it were still adjusting to the fit.

"There you are," Kira whispered.

With a steady hand, she pulled the bow taut and aimed carefully. The shot had to be perfect in order to release the demon inside the hollowed-out human sh.e.l.l. Her eyes locked onto her target.

In the split second before impact, the demon straightened. Kira's arrow missed, lodging in the eye of his comrade instead. Cursing, the demon flung his injured partner away and whirled around. His true face flickered with rage as he caught sight of Kira. He turned and fled down the tunnel.

Kira bit back a curse and raced forward. How could she have missed?

She reached the sly-voiced demon just as he pulled the arrow out of his eye. Demons could not be killed, only sent back to the underworld. Kira unsheathed her sword and decapitated him before he could rise. Thick black fluid oozed from his neck, releasing the monster caught within the human form. She ran after her prey, not even sparing a moment to clean the foul gunk off her sword.

The demon's putrid odor left a trail for her to follow. Kira quickly found the remnants of a k.n.o.bby pine door scattered all over the ground. She raced through the doorway and into another pa.s.sage, which opened up into the city streets at the edge of the marketplace.

Kira cursed. Her job was to keep the demon away from the people, not chase it through a crowded market.

The demon shoved past shoppers and crashed into a fruit stand, scattering reddish-orange persimmons helter-skelter. Kira cut through the crowds, ignoring the people screaming at the sight of her drawn sword. She took a giant running leap over a vendor's stall, landing at the feet of the fallen demon.

Her eyes swept through the crowd. Unease pinched at her.

d.a.m.n it! What am I going to do now?

2.

Kira held the sword high and angled at his neck, trying not to show her uncertainty. She'd never had to deal with a demon in public before.

After the first attack on the prince, her uncle, the king, had decided that the citizens of Hansong should be kept ignorant of the demon threat. A pointless and stupid mandate, as far as Kira was concerned. The only thing it did was increase the rumors that surrounded her.

People thought she was the monster behind the mysterious disappearances.

They were right.

But it wasn't what they thought. The people she "killed" were already dead.

"I arrest you in the king's name," Kira said, thinking quickly. She had to get him away from the crowd.

The demon threw a wooden plank at her and began crawling backward.

"Help! She's trying to kill me! Someone stop her! Please help!" He hurled persimmons at her.

Kira's sword slashed through the air, slicing all the fruit open. She heard gasps in the crowd.

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 k.u.miho! 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 s.h.i.+fting face of the demon as he mocked her. So now they thought she was a k.u.miho, 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 s.h.i.+fted 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 k.u.miho!" 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-s.h.i.+fting 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 punis.h.i.+ng 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, unleas.h.i.+ng 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, smas.h.i.+ng 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 s.n.a.t.c.hed 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.