Page 19 of Shadow of the Fox

I nodded, ignoring the stab of fear that accompanied the feeling of relief. Not that I had any intentions of sneaking away, but I had no doubt he wasn’t making idle threats. With a sigh, the boy finally sheathed his weapon, and the subtle light coming from the blade vanished, plunging us into darkness.

“The capital is a few weeks away on foot,” he stated, calm and businesslike as he stepped back. “My horse fled earlier this evening, so we’ll have to walk, at least until I can find a new one. Are you well enough to travel? Do you have what you need?”

“Yes,” I replied. Being raised in a temple of ascetic monks, I’d never owned much, and the few possessions I’d had were probably cinders and ashes now. I had my sandals, the clothes on my back, a knife and a piece of a scroll of ultimate, wish-granting power, hidden in my furoshiki. That would have to be enough to get by.

“I don’t suppose you have travel papers, do you?” the boy asked.

I blinked. “No. What are travel papers?”

“They’re...” He shook his head. “Never mind,” he murmured, dismissing the matter. “It can’t be helped now. We’ll deal with the problem if it arises.”

“Ano,”I added as the human turned away. “What’s your name?”

He hesitated a moment, then replied in a low, empty voice, “Kage Tatsumi.”

Kage. Kage was the Shadow Clan, a family of secrets and hidden knowledge, according to my studies. It seemed fitting for the dark, cold-eyed boy in front of me. “I’m Yumeko.” I tried to smile, though with his back turned he probably wouldn’t see it. “Thank you, for taking me to the capital, Tatsumi-san. And, you know, saving me from the demons.”

He didn’t give any indication that he’d heard. With a quiet “Let’s go,” he stepped forward and vanished into the shadows like he was part of the night itself. I glanced once more at the sky, at the smoke and embers still rising over the treetops, marking the end of a way of life.

Closing my eyes, I whispered a quick prayer to Jinkei, the Kami of Mercy, and Doroshin, the Kami of Roads, for Godspeed and to guide everyone to their final destination, before I turned and followed Kage Tatsumi into the dark.

PART 2

9

The Lingering Soul

Being a ghost was an exercise in patience.

When Suki was still very young, her mother would tell her ghost stories in the flickering candlelight of home. At the end of the day, while Mura Akihito was in his shop, slaving over his newest masterpiece, Suki would sit on a stool as her mother swept or cooked, and listen to tales of beautiful women betrayed or abandoned by their lovers, who pined away until their bodies died but their yearning lived on. In these stories, it was always the women who died of broken hearts, Suki noticed. Who took their own lives in grief. Or who were brutally murdered and returned for vengeance. Sometimes, immoral women became something terrible and unnatural. A greedy woman might grow another mouth in the back of her head that consumed all the food it could find. An unfaithful woman might discover that, while she slept, her neck elongated to incredible lengths as her head roamed around freely, licking up lamp oil and attacking small animals. In the most wicked cases, the woman’s grief, jealousy or rage would turn her into an oni, a hannya, or even a terrible giant serpent, demons that always met their ends on some great samurai’s sword.

Terrible fates, the soul that had once been Suki mused, floating soundlessly down a narrow castle hallway. Certainly, the women who turned into such monsters were grotesque and to be pitied. But right now, she thought she would much rather be a demon.

A few yards ahead of her, Lady Satomi sauntered down the narrow corridor of the abandoned castle, parasol swaying, unaware of the soul trailing behind her. After the terrible night of her death, Suki had attempted to follow the woman, but had lost her in the twisting halls of the castle. Alone, the ghost that had been Suki had drifted aimlessly from room to hallway to courtyard, bewildered and confused. She’d been certain that, before she became a ghost, she had been a maid at the imperial palace. How she’d come to this dark, abandoned castle was a mystery; the last thing she remembered was delivering a coil of rope to a storehouse in the imperial gardens. But this castle was definitely not the emperor’s golden Palace of the Sun. Everything felt cold, lifeless, abandoned. Even the demons were gone. After feasting on her body, Yaburama and the smaller demons had departed the castle as well, and with no company but the spiders and rats, time had blurred into a bleak, lonely haze.

But this evening, Lady Satomi had returned, striding through the halls of the abandoned castle as if she did so every night. Stunned, Suki trailed behind her, keeping out of sight while she pondered what to do.

Her first thought, of course, was vengeance. To haunt Satomi relentlessly until she went mad from guilt. But, unlike the ghost stories her mother used to tell, where the spirits could curse and even physically harm their victims, Suki’s interactions with the world were limited. She had no body; her insubstantial form passed through everything she touched. If she thought about it, she could manifest as a ghostly version of her old self, but if she lost focus, she would revert to a glowing ball of light. Speaking was difficult and required effort to remember how, and even then, her voice came out faint and breathy. In the stories, some yurei were powerful onryo, grudge spirits whose rage and hate manifested into devastating and sometimes fatal curses, but Suki had no idea how to do that. And even if she did show herself to her murderer, Lady Satomi didn’t seem the type to be distressed about the ghost of her former maid.

So she followed her, trailing the woman soundlessly through the empty halls, until Satomi pushed open the front doors and stepped into the courtyard again.

It was full of demons. Suki froze in midair, trembling, before darting behind a dead bush to peer through the branches. Amanjaku skittered over the stones, snarling and waving crude weapons at each other. In the center, the terrible form of Yaburama towered over the mob, casting them in his shadow.

Lady Satomi strode through the mob, ignoring the demons who hissed and cackled at her, face serene as she walked toward the oni. From Suki’s perspective, as she hovered behind a chunk of broken wall, Yaburama seemed to be in a bad mood, baring his teeth at any amanjaku who got too close. As Satomi approached, a green amanjaku darted out of her way, and the oni gave it a savage kick that booted it over the wall. Lady Satomi watched as the demon went sailing away, a bemused look on her face, before looking at Yaburama.

“Well, I could say something about your temper, but at least you’re on time tonight.” The woman sniffed, then gave an amanjaku that had been edging too close to her robes a warning look. “But, sadly, time is waning, and I have much to do. If you would kindly give me the scroll, Yaburama, we can end this unpleasant association, and you can go back to doing...whatever it is you demons do until you’re summoned. So...” She held out a slender white hand. “The Dragon scroll, if you would?”

The oni let out a growl. “I don’t have it.”

“What?” Lady Satomi dropped her arm, eyes narrowing. “Do excuse me, Yaburama, but thisisthe sole reason you were summoned from Jigoku, yes? Why I sent you to that temple of ki-using fanatics, because I thought, surely an oni like Yaburama would have no trouble with a bunch of bald old men. What do you mean you don’t have the scroll?”

“The scroll wasn’t at the temple, human.” The oni glowered down at her. “I killed every monk there, including the master, and tore the temple apart looking for it. There was no scroll.”

“And you’re certain you killedeveryone?” Satomi’s voice was calm; she could have been asking a maid if she’d looked everywhere for a favorite teacup, not casually discussing the slaughter of an entire temple of monks. “No acolyte snuck out the back and managed to escape? No monk harnessed their ki to a trio of sparrows and flew over the wall?”

“No,” growled the oni. “I killed everyone. There were no survivors.”

At this, a pair of smaller demons near the oni’s feet began jumping up and down, chattering in raspy, high-pitched voices. Suki couldn’t understand what they were saying, but Yaburama spun around, looking murderous, and grabbed for them. One demon yelped in alarm and fled into the crowd, but the other wasn’t fast enough and was snatched up in the oni’s huge claw. It wailed as the monster lifted it off the ground, waving its arms and babbling, until it was at face level. The oni rumbled at it in a guttural, ominous voice, and the demon squeaked an answer, still squirming helplessly in its grip.

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