Sisters of the Sword by Maya Snow

head. The paper screens had a small gap between them and for a while I watched ragged clouds drift across the face of the moon.
    It had been only a day since our father and brothers had been taken from us. Our home, too. My sister and I had killed a man—a samurai! And now we were servants in a samurai training school, disguised as boys, under the watchful eye of Master Goku. We were safe, for now, and I offered up a prayer that Mother and Moriyasu would also be kept safe until we could all be together again.
    Just before I slipped into a fitful sleep, I vowed to myself that I would do everything I could to please Master Goku, so that he might teach me the skills of a samurai.
    And once I had become a warrior, my uncle would never be able to hurt my family again.
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    The next morning Hana and I were up before dawn, woken by a harsh knocking on the door frame and Choji’s voice. “Come on, skinny boys!” he cried. “The kitchen chores are waiting.”
    â€œI hardly slept a wink,” I grumbled to Hana as we pulled on our jackets and breeches. “I ache all over from our fight with Master Goku yesterday.”
    â€œAnd from all the serving,” Hana said. “The sleeping mats are so thin. I’d give anything to have mylovely futon bed from home, covered in a pile of soft feather quilts!”
    We hurried to the kitchens, where we found that our first job of the day was to help Ko and Choji serve breakfast to the students and masters. When they had all eaten and hurried away to their lessons, Choji thrust bowls of sweet rice into our hands. “Eat,” he commanded. “And then it will be time to clean the bedchambers.”
    When we had eaten, Ko hurried to clear away the bowls and Choji ordered me to make tea for everyone. I nodded and hurried across the kitchen to hang the large pot over the bright charcoal brazier. Making tea was something I had done for my mother and father many times, and I felt a lilt of happy confidence as I took the lid off a big black teapot.
    â€œHere’s the tea,” Ko said helpfully, lifting a bamboo box down from a high shelf and handing it to me.
    â€œThank you.” I heaped green leaves into the pot, trying to work out how many scoops I would need for everyone. There were ten servants, and Choji, and Hana and me—
    â€œWhat are you doing?” Ko grabbed my wrist. “You’re using far too much tea.” He peered into the pot for a moment and then glanced up at mein astonishment. “Only the Emperor himself could afford to use all that!”
    I froze, panic-stricken.
    â€œI…I…” I swallowed hard, my mind almost a blank. Think, Kimi! “Our last master was quite wealthy,” I stuttered at last.
    â€œWealthy?” Ko said, giving me a strange look. “Your last master must have been the Jito himself. Us ordinary mortals can only afford one scoop of tea.”
    I bit my lip as I realized how different life was here. One scoop, for so many people? I was beginning to understand how privileged Hana and I had been.
    Luckily no one else seemed to have noticed anything, and the rest of the meal passed without incident. Soon Hana and I were on our way to clean the students’ bedchambers, armed with brooms and dusters.
    The first room we were assigned to was Ken-ichi’s. He was still there, rifling through piles of discarded kimonos as he searched for his bokken . When he saw us, he shot us a filthy look and deliberately kicked over a half-full bowl of bean curd soup. The brown liquid seeped across the floor and began to soak into one of the bedsheets.
    â€œClean that up, rice boy,” he snarled. “I want thisroom spotless by the time I get back. If it isn’t, I’ll complain to Master Goku. He saw you throw tea into that student’s lap last night, so he already thinks you’re clumsy. And once I tell him you spilled soup in my room, I guarantee you’ll be out of the