Total pages in book: 59
Estimated words: 55059 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 275(@200wpm)___ 220(@250wpm)___ 184(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 55059 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 275(@200wpm)___ 220(@250wpm)___ 184(@300wpm)
“She will be fine,” Itako assured the weeping mother. “You may take her home to rest more comfortably.”
“Thank you.” Both parents cried, taking care in thanking both the seeress and Ryu.
“You have my life. If there’s anything you ever need, let me know,” the father said to them both.
Ryu bowed at him as he took his daughter in his arms before the happily crying family left.
With them gone, Itako wasted no time waving for her to come closer. “Come here, child.”
Eira swallowed hard and somehow managed to slowly move forward. The old, frail woman was clearly blind, but when the withered hand reached out to touch the markings on her face, she didn’t know how true that was.
Itako not only knew she was scarred, but she also hadn’t stumbled trying to find which side of her face was marked, nor her burned hand that she now grabbed.
It was clear she was delighted to finally meet her. “Pretty.”
Eira beamed with relief. “Thank you.”
“That’s it, child,” Itako commented on her smile, confirming she was not as blind as she appeared. “For you no longer need to hide on this island. I see that Ryu has not told you about us …”
Glancing over at Ryu, she wondered what in the world he had forgotten to mention to her this time.
“On this island, we do not see scars as weakness. We see them as proud badges of honor that many men and women here will be envious of.” Itako firmly gripped her hands in hers tighter. “When things break, we do not throw them away. We put them back together and make them”—she now took Ryu’s hand and placed it on top of Eira’s—“stronger.”
A grinning Ryu made Eira certain she had missed something, possibly an inside tale that only the two knew. However, Itako continued.
“Leaving this island would be a mistake, child, for you have yet to finish your metamorphosis. Give it just one more day”—she lifted a frail finger—“for you might be surprised what can change in just another sunrise.”
Even though Eira had no plans of staying after this ordeal, she could agree to just one more night. “All right.”
“Good.” Satisfied she would stay, Itako shooed them away. “Now go. It is naptime.”
They turned to leave the tiny house, but the seeress quickly remembered something.
“Oh, and Ryu … I’ll be seeing you later.”
When they finally left, Eira couldn’t help but ask, “What does Itako mean?”
But he was clearly just as confused as Eira. “Something tells me I’ll find out later.”
25
Wake the Dead
Ryu had taken Eira straight to the palace. There was a tingling of uneasiness that pricked at his mind … That flower had been meant for her, not Jun.
Kasumi Island and his people were peaceful. It was an unmarred place of violence, and it was why they had kept the island secret for an eternity. Rarely, its people left, and even rarer were they banished, like Kenshi had been. Yet Eira had barely escaped death today.
With her now safe, Ryu wasted no time slipping back out to where the old man had given her the flower earlier. The house that was closest to the spot, he was certain belonged to the man, so he didn’t bother to knock. It had been strange to know exactly what he would find before he even opened the door.
With the old man lying cold on the floor with a dried-up flower in his hand, Ryu only had one thought in his mind.
Good riddance.
Ryu found himself at Itako’s later in the night, just like she had said. Of course, he hadn’t known earlier why he would be here, and it wasn’t until Eira had fallen asleep, crying over how their day had gone, that he’d realized what must be done.
Eira felt all alone on a foreign land, but it wasn’t her home that she missed, as it had done nothing but betray her … it was her grandparents.
And as much as Ryu didn’t particularly want them to come over, he knew it needed to be done if Kasumi Island was going to begin to feel like home for her.
Itako sat in her rocking chair next to her empty fireplace, smoking her pipe. She didn’t even bother to wait to hear his voice, knowing exactly who had entered.
“Is he dead?”
“He is,” he confirmed. “But shouldn’t you know?” She was a seeress, after all.
She didn’t miss a beat, having no love lost at the islander’s death. “I speak to the dead, but I cannot speak to the ones where he went.”
Ryu’s skin turned icy at her words.
“Ask your question …” She could sense there was something on his mind, and it was true. He had been wondering something all day.
“How come nothing happened to me and Eira? We both touched the flower.”
“The flower isn’t deadly by touch but by smell,” she answered all knowingly.