The Name of the Blade
Language: English
Pages: 368
ISBN: 0763669571
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
Ancient Japanese gods and monsters are unleashed on modern-day London in this first book of an epic trilogy from acclaimed fantasy writer Zoë Marriott.
When Mio sneaks the family’s katana — a priceless ancestral sword —from her parents’ attic, she just wants to spice up a costume. But the katana is much more than a dusty antique. Awakening the power within the sword unleashes a terrible, ancient evil onto the streets of unsuspecting London. But it also releases Shinobu, a fearless warrior boy, from the depths of time. He helps to protect Mio — and steals her heart. With creatures straight out of Japanese myths stalking her and her friends, Mio realizes that if she cannot keep the sword safe and learn to control its legendary powers, she will lose not only her own life . . . but the love of a lifetime.
ways. Or is it the other way round?” To my surprise, Araki answered, dropping back to walk beside us. “No — you are correct. It is our world that echoes yours. The planes lie directly on top of each other, like, uh . . .” “Like the layers in a sandwich,” Hikaru put in helpfully. “I suppose that is an adequate analogy. Now, imagine that I take, say, a pen, and I press it up into the bottom layer of bread. The filling of the sandwich and the top layer of bread would be forced into a new shape by
beautiful. Mine. For a long, breathless moment I held him between my hands as shivers of excitement tightened my skin. Then, shaky and tense, I drew the saya from the blade. The cutting edge was shining silver, almost too bright to look at. Long flame-shaped ripples marked the many folds in the metal, shading up to deep black on the mune, or blunt edge. Both sides of the katana were marked by a long groove. People called it the bloodletting groove, but its purpose was to make the sword both
Nekomata and rid London of its foulness, and you will have erased any debt incurred for the loan of my people in this battle.” He hesitated, then gave a foxy shrug. “I also send with you my most beloved grandchild, against my will, I might add. I’ve tried to talk him out of going, but, short of confining him to his den, I don’t think I can. He’s as brave and pigheaded as his mother ever was. He’ll put himself in danger just to prove he’s strong enough to handle it. And so I ask you to take care
voice crooned in my head. I forced myself to speak up, pushing the unsettling memory away. “These protections. They didn’t seem to get to me. Jack, what about you?” She nodded. “Didn’t feel a thing.” “I was also unaffected,” Shinobu said. “So then, the trap is like the mirror image of the one that caught us when we passed into the spirit realm,” I said, working it out as I went. “It’s keyed to react to magical creatures but not humans. Which makes sense, since . . . well, humans are the
couldn’t even imagine what she must have been through in the time that the monster had her all to itself. She had excellent reasons to want us all to stick together. But Jack was biting her lip, clearly torn. I was torn, too. I wanted out of here. Even more than that, I wanted — needed — to know what had happened to the Kitsune army who had risked their lives to help us. “I’ll —” Shinobu began. A deep, rumbling groan of metal cut him off. The loading door was being winched up, dust and dirt