The Demon General Is My Ex's Little Sister novel · Chapter 7 of 24

Chapter 7: The Map Table

Kaede woke to the sound of pages turning.

She did not move.

She lay on her side in the grey light with one arm flung out.

Her eyes opened and took in Rin sitting naked on the end of the cot with the ledger on her knees.

"Rin," Kaede said. "What is that?"

"My draft of the roster."

"The one you copied for the Chancellor?"

"Yes."

Rin turned the ledger around.

The columns ran down the page in her tidy hand.

Household number, head of household, village, class.

"Read me some names," Kaede said.

Rin read them.

"Two-ten, Goro, miller, Shirakawa North. Two-eleven, Ume, widow. Two-twelve, Hanae, weaver, with two sons."

"Hanae's boy lost a leg at the ford last spring." Kaede's voice was very quiet. "Keep going."

"Two-thirteen, Tobei, goatherd."

"The goat that stared at you when you came."

"Yes."

"His name is Biscuit."

Rin kept reading.

Forty names, fifty, sixty.

Kaede knew almost every one.

She named the children, the cows, which old man snored, which girl was sweet on the baker's boy.

She said every name.

When Rin finished the page, Kaede got up.

She walked across the tent in the nude, picked up the heavy war map from the table.

Flung it across the room.

It hit the tent wall and slid down in a heap.

"They're not monsters," Kaede said. "They're my neighbors."

"I know."

"They've been feeding me for two years. They gave me a coat."

"I know."

"And I let them put that word on my banner."

She turned, and her face was dreadful.

"I thought it was only what the court called us."

"I thought it was a slur."

Rin shut the ledger.

She put it on the cot, got up, and walked across the cold floor to Kaede.

"Kaede."

"Don't tell me to calm down."

"I'm not going to."

"Then what..."

"Bend over the table," Rin said.

Kaede stopped.

Her mouth opened and closed.

"Rin, I'm not..."

"You're not thinking."

"That's the problem."

Rin put her palm flat against Kaede's breastbone.

"You've been thinking since the sun came up."

"Bend over."

Kaede looked at her for a long moment, chest heaving.

Then she turned around and set both hands on the table.

The map table was solid oak, waist-high.

Kaede planted her palms on the bare wood, and her back sloped down in a long, strong line.

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