Page 51 of Shadow of the Fox

“Unfortunately, the curse keeps me tied to this world,” the monk continued. “I cannot pass on until it is lifted, and I cannot seem to lift it myself. Or perhaps I can, but I’ve forgotten how.” His shoulders slumped, one ghostly hand lifting to his face. “I’m tired,” he whispered. “So tired of lingering, of being stuck in this tiny village, surrounded by the monsters I brought into this world. I watch the villagers constantly, hoping one of them will gain the courage to try to lift the curse, but they are too fearful to even approach the graveyard. Not that I blame them.” He glanced at the sky, where a faint pink glow could be seen over the treetops. “Dawn is almost here,” he said. “The gaki will vanish for another month, and I will continue to haunt this place.”

Despair flickered. “Can’t you do anything?” I asked.

The ghost shook his head and gave me a sad, resigned look. “You were brave to come here, kitsune,” he said, drawing back. “But you are not from this village, and you cannot lift the curse. If the curse can be lifted at all—”

“Omachi kudasai!”

The shout echoed behind me, high-pitched and frantic. I spun, and saw a figure running full tilt through the cemetery, arms out and hands clutching something in front of him.

“Please wait!” he cried again, as I blinked in surprise.The headman? What’s he doing here?“Please,” the headman called, his voice drawing the attention of every gaki in the cemetery. “Master monk, please hear me out!”

The gaki snarled and bounded after him. Leaping atop a headstone, a gaki tensed to pounce, but an arrow slammed into its back and it tumbled off the stone with a howl. As the headman passed Tatsumi, one of the hungry ghosts turned and lunged at him, claws grasping. Tatsumi’s blade hissed down, severing the gaki in two, but its nails still tore a bloody gash across the man’s neck. He staggered, nearly falling, but regained his footing and came on.

I stepped back as the headman reached us, instantly falling to his face on the ground. “Forgive us, master monk!” he cried, holding up the thing he’d been carrying: a full bowl of rice. “We were wrong, to let you suffer so. We will never again let any traveler starve as you did. Please...” He held the bowl even higher, even as he stayed prostrate in the dirt. “Accept this as a token of our regret. Or, if your vengeance requires it, I will offer my own life for the rest of the village. Turn me into a gaki, drag me to Jigoku, it matters not. Whatever you need to do to pass on and leave us in peace.”

Heart in my throat, I looked at the monk. He gazed down at the headman with a stunned expression. Behind us, the gaki shrieked and howled as they flung themselves at Tatsumi, and the hiss of arrows continued as Okame picked them off one by one, but both the headman and the monk seemed to have forgotten all about them.

Then, the monk smiled, and a single silver tear ran from his eye, writhing into mist as soon as it hit the ground. “That was all I wanted,” he whispered. “One bowl of rice. A single offering of kindness. But even in the face of cruelty, I should not have let my anger consume me so. This has become my punishment, as well.” His expression became peaceful, and he bowed his head. “I think we have all suffered enough.”

The cries of the gaki faded. I looked around the cemetery to see that the hungry ghosts were standing motionless, looking lost. Even those that had been fighting Tatsumi stopped moving, their arms dropping to their sides and their faces lax. As I watched, they shimmered, becoming transparent as they started to fade. A glowing ball of blue-white light rose from each of their bodies, filling the air until the entire cemetery glowed with ethereal luminance. Left behind, the shells of the gaki disappeared, writhing into mist that disappeared on the breeze.

“Arigatou.”I looked back at the monk as he whispered the words. He was fading, too, his ghostly form becoming fainter and fainter as he smiled at me. “Thank you,” he whispered again. “You could not lift the curse on your own, but your courage illuminated the way for those who could. May the Kami bless you, and may you never lose that fire that burns within your soul.”

“Safe travels to you, master monk,” I said. “May your journey to the other side be swift and clear, and may Jinkei light your way so that you will never stumble.”

He bowed to me, and a moment later, became a glowing sphere of light that floated into the air, joining the rest. For a moment, they hovered overhead, almost too bright to look at. Then, as one, they scattered, flying to every corner of the heavens, becoming smaller and smaller until they turned into distant stars and were lost from sight.

PART 3

20

Blood Magic

Lady Satomi was back.

And, from what Suki could see, she was not happy.

“Useless minions,” she muttered, standing in the center of a small, horrifying room. A single candle flickered on a low table, and a cracked, full-length mirror stood in the corner, reflecting the room’s grisly state. The walls were streaked with old blood, the floor stained with dark, unidentifiable patches. Lady Satomi stood there, stunning in blue robes patterned with cranes and dragonflies, her hair perfectly styled and held in place with ivory combs. She looked supremely out of place in the center of the gruesomeness, except for what she held in her hand. The head of a large crow lay cradled in her palm, dripping blood between her fingers to spatter the edges of her robes. The body of the bird lay in the center of the table, a small knife resting beside it in a pool of blood. Suki could barely look at the still twitching corpse, having had to leave the room when the actual deed was performed. Though being able to go through walls made that easier, at least. Lady Satomi’s eyes were closed, a frown stretching her full lips, as if she was watching something she found distressing. Finally, she let out a huff and opened her eyes.

“Two kamaitachi, one wind witch and a giant demon bear,” she grumbled, tossing the severed head to the table, where it landed beside its cooling body. “And Kazekira still couldn’t manage to kill them and take the scroll piece. Sliced to bits by her own familiars, how disgraceful.” She shook her head, plucked a cloth from the mirror and wiped the blood from her hands. “I suppose that is what I get for relying on outside help. If you want something done right...”

Picking up the knife, she regarded her reflection in the surface. As Suki watched, mystified, the woman lowered the blade to the inside of her arm, then cut a short, straight gash along her skin. Blood welled and bubbled from the cut, and Satomi began chanting in a low, hypnotic voice.

Suki felt the whisper of some terrible power go through the air, and trembled in an effort not to flee the room. On Satomi’s raised arm, the line of blood swelled, congealed and became solid. Dozens of legs wriggled, and the long, segmented body of a centipede emerged from the blood and began crawling up her arm.

Satomi smiled. Reaching down, she plucked the monstrous insect from her skin and held it between two fingernails as it writhed and coiled in her grasp. “Go,” she whispered to it. “Find the demonslayer and the fox. Kill them both, feast on their insides and return to me with the scroll. I will be waiting.”

She tossed the centipede to the floor, where it landed with an audible thump. As soon as it hit the ground, it scuttled across the room on hooked yellow legs, squeezed through a crack in the boards and vanished.

Lowering her arm, ignoring the blood that dripped to the floor, Satomi nodded in satisfaction. “Well, that should take care of it,” she murmured to herself. “The demonslayer has become quite troublesome, but once he is dead, this piece of the scroll will be mine.” She sighed, as if wearied by the amount of work still left to do. “Now, I must write an invitation to the palace, and find someone halfway competant to deliver it to the Hayate shrine. That useless new girl should be able to manage that, at least.”

She glanced down at herself, as if realizing for the first time she and her magnificent robes were covered in blood that stained the silk and was still running down her arm. “Such a messy business,” she sighed. “And trying enough without being spied upon. Are you getting a good look, little spirit, or whoever is haunting this castle? I can feel you watching me, you know. You’re not terribly subtle.”

Suki jolted back, flaring into existence, and Satomi turned to her with a smile.

“There you are. Well, well, still hanging around, Suki-chan?” the woman mocked, as Suki floated there, stunned. Satomi chuckled, shaking her head. “Poor lost lingering soul. Too weak and frightened to even come back as a grudge spirit. How very pathetic. But you are of no importance to me anymore.”

Suki clenched her ghostly fists, wishing she could do something, anything. Even pick up the dead crow’s head and hurl it at the evil woman. Satomi chuckled again, then bent to grab the bloody cloth from the table. “If you wish to haunt me, little soul,” the woman crooned as she wiped her arm clean, “you go right ahead. But if you become annoying, or if you get in my way, I know a few blood priestesses and onmyoji who would be happy to bind your spirit to a wall scroll. Or the mirror. Or perhaps stuff you into a monkey.” Her lips curled even further, showing teeth as she stepped forward. “Would you like to be a monkey, Suki-chan? Personally, I think it would be an improvement, don’t you? Catch!”

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