The first sign of something amiss was Shino’s shrill scream, which woke all of us in the initiates’ dormitory and probably everyone else in the valley.
Shino wasn’t given to screaming. Grumbling, growling, snarling, yes. But I’d never heard her cry out like a hawk. Not for any reason.
More to the point, she was almost never the first person in the dormitories to wake.
As Toumi, Emi, and I stumbled toward the front door, there was another scream — Mai this time.
The scene we came upon as we stepped out into the dawn light was an oddly serene one.
Mai and Shino stood swaying like wind-tossed pines on either side of a kneeling figure: Lieutenant Torimasa. His head lolled to one side, and his hands gripped a short sword thrust through his belly. Blood streamed down from the wound over his
