33
Aihi
Aihi stumbled off the path, through the foliage, and into the forest covering the edge of the Silent Hills. Branches stung her arms and slapped her legs, but the hurt they caused was nothing compared to the betrayal of her brothers.
She wiped her blurry eyes. She wouldn’t cry, not about this. She would reserve her tears for Torra, for all Lacotl’s victims who deserved her worry. They were her priority. They always had been.
“Aihi!” Suki’s voice echoed in the trees, followed by a similar call from Uriku, two bushi who had followed her from Nagasou.
In the distance, she also heard Masanori and Hidekazu, the pair she wanted nothing more than to avoid. The stink of Lacotl’s corruption festering in the woods was far more welcome than listening to their half-hearted apologies and lo
