33—Smoke and StoneFor the second time that day I was running across the courtyard toward the great hall. This time, however, I was not stumbling after Lady Chiyome.
To whom, I realized, Kee Sun had fed the same soup.
Could Kee Sun be the kitsune?
I stopped, mid-sprint, panting in the dark, winter evening. No, I thought. He’s crazy, but if he’d wanted to poison us, the Full Moon’s cook could have done it any time. And, as Lady Chiyome had said about Mieko-san, he’d have done it without making a mess of it.
I ran the rest of the way to the kitchen; I had no hope that the cook wouldn’t already have served Chiyome-sama and the Little Brothers. When I burst into the outside door to the kitchen, he was just where I expected him to be: sitting at the work table, with two lidded bowls of soup
