Page 20 of Shadow of the Fox

With a growl and a flash of fangs, the oni clenched its fist, crushing the demon inside. Blood shot from its nose and mouth and ran from its ears, before it dissolved into coils of reddish-black smoke that writhed away on the wind.

If Suki could have cringed at the display of violence and blood, she would have, but Lady Satomi only looked amused. “Oh, do let me guess,” she said as the oni opened its fist, letting the last of the smoke dissipate. Blood stained his claws and fingertips, but he didn’t seem to notice. “In all your murdering and killing and reveling, you let someone slip away through your big stupid fingers. And now they have the scroll.”

The oni lowered his arm. “There was...a girl,” he rumbled, sounding reluctant and annoyed at the same time. “The amanjaku chased her into the forest, but she managed to escape.” He paused, his face darkening even as his eyes narrowed and his voice dropped to a low, terrifying growl. “With the help of the Kage demonslayer.”

The Kage demonslayer?Suki didn’t know that name, but the crowd of small demons went quiet and still, as if the very word terrified them. She wondered what kind of person could scare a horde of maniacal hell-demons, and if it was someone she would ever want to encounter.

“Well,” Lady Satomi said, after a moment of brittle silence. Her voice could have frozen the lake in the emperor’s garden and sliced all the fish in half with its edge. “This presents a problem, doesn’t it? Tell me, Yaburama, if this girl is with the Kage demonslayer, whom I imagine Hanshou also sent after the scroll, how are we going to aquire it without losing an entire village’s worth of demons?”

The oni bared its fangs. “I’ll take care of him.”

“No. You’ve done quite enough.”

The oni snarled, looming over the woman. But Lady Satomi actually turned away from him and gazed at the scattering of crows on the walls and in the dead trees overhead.

“Hear me!” she called, raising one hand, and the feathered creatures stirred, ruffling wings and raising their heads, gazing down with beady eyes. “Find them, my karasu!” Satomi ordered. “The girl and the Kage demonslayer. Be my eyes, seeing where I cannot, and show me what I am dealing with. Go!”

The crows took wing with a cacophony of harsh cries, spiraling into the air and disappearing into the dark. Lady Satomi watched them go, a dark swarm flying into the roiling clouds, before turning back to the heaving, growling oni.

“A temper tantrum is not becoming, Yaburama,” she commented, and opened her parasol as drops of rain began to fall. “You had your chance and failed. If the girl and the demonslayer are traveling close to towns, an oni dropping in with a mob of amanjaku is not going to go unnoticed, and I would like to keep the headaches to a minimum until I have the scroll in my hands. There are others I can call upon to take care of this.” She pondered a moment, twirling the parasol in her hands. “Kazekira and her disgusting familiars still owe me a favor,” she mused. “And they won’t draw the eye of every soul in the area. Yes, I think that will work.”

She glanced at the oni, and her voice became sweet and crooning. “There now, Yaburama, the problem has been dealt with. You just stay here, like a good dog, until I have need of you again.”

For a moment, Suki thought the oni might spring forward and tear the head from Satomi’s slim white neck. But then, he let out a snort and stepped back. “Fool mortal. You underestimate the Kage demonslayer. He may look human, but he is a worse monster than I am. Remember this when you need my protection from his sword.”

Satomi raised a perfectly arched brow. “I’ll keep that in mind.”

She turned and strolled away, back toward the castle doors, parasol bobbing behind her. At the steps, however, she paused and looked directly at the place where Suki was hiding, a small smile crossing her lips. Chilled, the soul that had been Suki winked out of sight, becoming invisible. By the time she gathered the courage to peek out again, the woman was gone.

10

The Road to the Capital

We were being followed.

“Tatsumi-san?” Yumeko turned, as I paused in the middle of the trail and turned to stare at the trees behind us. “What are you looking for? Is something there?”

I didn’t answer. Around us, large ancient pines grew close together, branches stretching over the path and mottling the trail with shade. Cicadas buzzed, their droning song pulsing through the trees, and a lone hawk soared overhead, its shadow gliding briefly over the trail. The air was cool, smelling of sap and pine needles, and except for the hum of insects, everything was quiet. But I could sense something wasn’t right, like a dark spot in the corner of my vision, keeping just out of reach.

It had been three days since the girl and I had fled the mountain, away from the destruction of the Silent Winds temple and the amanjaku in the forest. Not much was said during our travels; the girl had been quiet and withdrawn, and I had no desire to engage her in conversation. It was early summer, the days hot and humid, the skies threatening rain at a moment’s notice. We passed villages with thatched huts and terraced fields, where farmers shoved green rice seedlings into calf-deep water. When darkness fell we slept beneath the trees or in abandoned shrines, the nights warm enough for us to be comfortable without blankets, which was fortunate as all my possessions had been lost when my horse fled. Including my travel documents, most of my shinobi gear and my rations for the journey. Thankfully, late summer in Iwagoto meant there were plenty of places to get food in the wild, if you knew where to look. Mushrooms, berries and all manner of sansai—wild plants—were everywhere, and the rivers and streams yielded fish if one knew how to catch them without a line. I’d been trained to live off the land and survive in the wilderness, so we were in no danger of starving, though I was surprised to find the girl knew a fair bit about wild plants, as well. One evening, as I was cleaning the fish I’d caught from the nearby stream, she appeared and dumped an armful of wild persimmons on the ground near the fire. I didn’t care much for sweet things, but the ripe orange fruit contrasted with the blandness of the fish and filled our stomachs well that night.

Throughout our travels, I hadn’t felt the presence of demons, though Hakaimono had been unusually restless, either sensing invisible eyes on us or reacting to our unexpected companion. I had been alone for so long that having another human constantly present was distracting, for both myself and the sword. I ignored the girl as much as possible, trying not to see the tears that sometimes leaked from her eyes, or hear the faint gasps and sniffles when she was curled up, asleep.

This morning, however, she had greeted me with a smile and a cheerfulOhayou gozaimasu, Tatsumi-san, seeming to abandon her dark mood. We’d continued down the road, but this afternoon, I couldn’t shake the feeling of being watched. It had continued to plague me, irritating Hakaimono to no end, until I’d finally halted and searched the trees for our unknown stalker. I was giving away the knowledge that I knew something was out there, but at this moment, I would rather face something that I could fight and kill, instead of worrying about a nameless threat I couldn’t see.

My gaze stopped as I finally pinpointed the source of my unease. In the limbs of a pine tree that stretched over the road, a small, hunched figure gazed down at us, unblinking.

Crows again.I narrowed my eyes, glaring at the bird, which ruffled its feathers but didn’t move from the branch. Crows were everywhere in Iwagoto, from one end of the country to the other. Murders of them clustered on rooftops or in tree branches, fighting for space, their guttural caws scolding as you passed beneath. Sometimes they were seen as ill omens, bringers of misfortune, but for the most part, they were a common, everyday sight, and no one gave the squabbling creatures a second glance.

But every once in a while, especially when I was traveling, a single crow would appear, dogging me. Watching me. Killing the bird did nothing; another would appear soon after, as if to taunt my efforts. Or worse, it would stay just out of sight, irritating Hakaimono until it was ready to lash out at anything that moved. At least now I knew the cause of the uneasiness, and would be ready if my unknown stalker decided to attack.

“Tatsumi-san?”

I turned back to find the girl watching me, her head cocked slightly. She hadn’t noticed the bird in the tree, and I didn’t feel like explaining. Especially since neither of us could do anything about it.

“It’s nothing,” I told her, continuing down the trail again. “Let’s keep moving.”

She nodded, falling into step beside me. I could see her in the corner of my vision, dark hair rippling in the breeze, her gaze on the forest around us. Unlike the past two days, when she’d followed silently at my back, staring dully at the ground. The furoshiki cloth was wrapped around her shoulders; she hadn’t taken it off once, and every night, made sure it was secured tightly to her person. I imagined it contained the last of her meager belongings, and that perhaps she was afraid I would steal them, though I had no interest in the possessions of a peasant girl.

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