The Samurai’s Honor

Himeji, 1577. Sen is the younger daughter of Goami, the region’s most respected swordsmith. While her older sister Haru prepares to marry their father’s apprentice, Sen struggles with jealousy, curiosity and the expectations that will soon govern her own future. When an important samurai visits the workshop to commission a sword, Sen’s determination to learn more about her father’s powerful clients leads her and Haru beyond the limits considered proper for young women of their household.

The sisters witness a murder and realise that the violence is connected to a conspiracy against the visiting samurai. Their knowledge places them in immediate danger, while the strict divisions of rank and gender make it difficult to warn anyone without revealing how they learned the truth. Set a decade before The Samurai’s Heart, the novella shows the event that alters Sen’s family and begins the chain of loyalties, losses and concealed threats that will shape her adult life.