Seasons of the Sword

After a century of brutal civil war has torn Japan apart, Lady Mochizuki Chiyome gathers together the most unlikely army imaginable to unite the empire and bring an end to the bloodshed: an army of girls clad in the red and white garb of miko, shrine maidens. Together, these girls work as spies, as bodyguards, as assassins — going where no soldier could go, doing what no soldier could do.

Kano Murasaki, called Risuko, is a young, fatherless girl, more comfortable climbing trees than down on the ground. Yet she finds herself enmeshed in a game where the board is the whole nation of Japan, where the pieces are armies moved by scheming lords, and a single girl couldn't possibly have the power to change the outcome. Or could she?

Lady Mochizuki Chiyome is mired in grief. Recently widowed by Japan's endless civil war, she has become tired of mourning, tired of wearing the white robes that are the traditional Japanese garb of grief. On the road, she encounters two young women who open her eyes to a whole new purpose in life -- and a new way to end Japan's century of bloodshed.

Not all assassins wear black. Some come wearing silk. A young Takeda warrior meets a servant who is much more than she seems. And teaches him what a warrior truly can be. This is the second of six Kunoichi Companion Tales, prequel stories to David Kudler's historical novel Risuko: A Kunoichi Tale.

Though Japan has been devastated by a century of civil war, Risuko just wants to climb trees. Growing up far from the battlefields and court intrigues, the fatherless girl finds herself pulled into a plot that may reunite Japan -- or may destroy it. She is torn from her home and what is left of her family, but finds new friends at a school that may not be what it seems. Magical but historical, Risuko follows her along the first dangerous steps to discovering who she truly is.

Two armies have descended on the Full Moon, and the war that has torn Japan apart for over a century threatens to destroy Lady Chiyome's school for young shrine maidens (and assassins). In this thrilling sequel to Risuko: A Kunoichi Tale, Risuko must face warlords, samurai, angry cooks, a monster in the hills, the truth about her father, a spy among the kunoichi...