Page 21 of Shadow of the Fox

“Ne, Tatsumi-san,” she said, looking up from where she had been watching a squirrel on a branch. She did that a lot, I noticed; seemingly fascinated by the smallest things. Like a cat constantly distracted by flitting shadows. “We haven’t found anything to eat today. What are we going to do for food?”

“Chochin Machi is a few miles from here,” I replied. “We’ll resupply when we reach the town.”

She nodded again. “It’ll be nice to eat real food again,” she commented. “Not that I have anything against wild-caught fish and persimmons, but I’m starting to crave a hot rice bowl. And a real bed. Where I don’t wake up with spiders in my clothes. Not that I mind the spiders, but I don’t want to crush them when I roll about.” She cast me a sideways glance. “What about you, Tatsumi-san?”

I shrugged. I had gone days without eating or sleeping, both in the field and in training with my sensei. Sometimes as a punishment, but mainly it was to test my endurance, to see how far I could go before I collapsed. I had been trained to survive on very little; food, sleep and personal comfort were not as important as completing the mission.

The girl let out a long breath and gazed up at the sky, at the sun sinking slowly below the tree line. “Back at the temple, we’d be gathering for the evening meal right now,” she continued softly. “We didn’t have a lot, but we ate together three times a day. Satoshi had a little vegetable garden in the back—he could grow the biggest daikon radishes you’d ever seen.” Her nose wrinkled. “I hated daikon, and we had so much of it. I’d drop pieces through cracks in the temple floor, and then have nightmares of pickled radish monsters hiding under my floorboards, crawling up to force themselves into my mouth as I slept.” She paused, her next words even softer. “I would eat a dozen radishes right now, if it meant I could sit down with everybody one more time.”

I had no answer for that, so I said nothing. She was quiet, then I felt her gaze on me again. “Do you have any family, Tatsumi?”

“No.”

“But...you’re a samurai.” She cocked her head. “You carry a sword, and you have the mon-crest of house Kage on your back. So, that means you must be part of the Shadow Clan, yes?”

I narrowed my eyes. All the great houses had their own mon-crests that showed their lineage and to which family they belonged but, in my experience, none of the peasant folk cared enough to tell them apart. To them, all samurai were the same.

“How do you know that?” I asked her.

Yumeko blinked. “Master Isao taught me about the different clans and houses,” she explained. “He wanted me to know a little of the outside world, in case I ever left the temple. Let’s see if I can remember them all.” Her brow furrowed. “The Hino, Mizu, Tsuchi and Kaze are the four great families of Fire, Water, Earth and Wind,” she recited, “while the Kage, Sora and Tsuki are the minor clans—Shadow, Sky and Moon. Is that correct?”

“You forgot one.”

“Oh, right.” Yumeko nodded. “The Sun Clan is the imperial family, the Taiyo. But most of them stay in the capital, close to the emperor. They almost never leave their territories unless they’re visiting the daimyos of the other clans. Or so Master Isao told me.”

I regarded her seriously. “What do you know about the Kage?”

“That they’re the smallest of the minor families. Their territory borders the Fire Clan’s, and they’ve lost several battles with the Hino, who have been pushing into their lands over the past decade.”

All true. The Fire Clan was the ancient enemy of the Kage; even in times of peace, when the emperor ordered a countrywide truce, the Hino and the Kage were constantly at each other’s throats. The Fire Clan was large and influential, and thought that if a clan wasn’t strong enough to defend their territory, it should be taken by someone who could. Naturally, the Kage disagreed.

But that was common knowledge. Two clans feuding over territory was as ordinary as rain during the wet season, with borders changing so often that even the magistrates were hard-pressed to keep up. “What else?” I asked softly.

“Well, it’s said that the Kage aren’t like other clan samurai. That their warriors use darkness and questionable techniques to their advantage when fighting superior forces. That they can melt into shadows or disappear in a cloud of smoke, and that their daimyo is a mysterious lady who is rumored to be immortal.”

I relaxed. Those were all common rumors, some of them true, but encouraged by the Shadow Clan to keep our foes guessing and off balance. She hadn’t heard anything that the Kage did not approve of, which was good, because the true secrets of the Shadow Clan were not supposed to be known to outsiders; those who discovered too much were usually silenced, quickly and permanently.

Hakaimono approved of this idea, urging me to strike now, to cut her down.You don’t need her, the demon seemed to whisper in my head.One quick blow, and it will be over. There would be no pain. She wouldn’t even realize what had happened until she woke up with her ancestors.

I pushed those thoughts away. I had no orders to kill the girl, nor did I believe that she was a threat to the Shadow Clan. Besides, I had promised to accompany her to the Steel Feather temple, and I needed her help to find the scroll. Unless the clan told me otherwise, that was my first and only priority.

The shadows of the forest were growing long. I could still feel the crow’s eyes on me, but could no longer see it in the branches around us. As the sun dipped lower in the sky, blips of light began to wink in and out of existence, as fireflies drifted through the wood and floated through the air.

“Ne, Tatsumi?” Yumeko asked, holding up a hand so that a firefly perched on her finger, winking green and gold in the twilight. Bringing it close to her face, she watched it curiously, casting her skin in an eerie glow. “The sun is starting to set,” she said, unaware as I paused to gaze at her. “Are we very close to Chochin Machi?”

“Yes.”

She raised her arm, and the insect spiraled off into the forest. “Why is it called Lantern Town?”

We came out of the trees, and the road sloped gently away down a hill, toward a river and a series of docks on the other side. “See for yourself.”

Gazing down the rise, she drew in a slow breath.

Chochin Machi sat on the banks of the Hotaru River, glowing like a torch against the night. It wasn’t a large town like Kin Heigen Toshi, the capital city; it boasted a small castle, a handful of inns, shops and restaurants, and a fishing industry that did a fair job of supporting the town. Though that wasn’t why Chochin Machi was famous, or why it drew pilgrims and travelers from around Iwagoto.

On nearly every street, every corner and business and shrine, hundreds of red paper lanterns cast their soft glow into the darkness, lighting up the town. They hung from rooftops and tree branches, from doorways and awnings and from the helm of every ship floating on the river. The glow of the town could be seen for miles in every direction, and travelers flocked to it like moths to a flame.

“Sugoi,”Yumeko whispered.Amazing.Her eyes were round pools of black, and the lights of the town flickered in their depths. “It’s beautiful. The monks never told me there was anything like this beyond the temple.” She paused, then cocked her head, as if listening for something on the wind. “Are those drums?”

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