Page 47 of Shadow of the Fox

“I sure hope not.Ite.” He flinched back from her administrations, making her frown. “Damn hungry ghosts. Well, come morning, I know several farmers who are going to die screaming for mercy.”

Yumeko lowered the cloth, her eyes going wide. “Why?”

“Yumeko-chan.” The ronin shook his head in exasperation. “This was a setup if I’ve ever seen one. That headman knew about the gaki, hell, the whole village did. We werebait—they might as well have tied a bell around our necks. I know it, and Kage-san knows it, right, samurai?”

“They were expecting us to die,” I agreed, pressing salve to my own wound. “That’s why they were so eager to have us spend the night. So the gaki would eat us and leave the village alone.”

“Yep.” The ronin gave a grim nod. “Only, now I’m very much alive and a lot angry.” He took the cloth from Yumeko, then stood and sauntered over to my corner, gazing down at me. “So, Kage-san,” he began, “I think a bit of retribution is in order. What say we go kick down the headman’s door, stick his head on a pike for the gaki and burn this whole cursed place to the ground?”

19

Talking to Yurei

He’s not serious. I stared at the ronin, who stood over Tatsumi expectantly. Though Okame wore a grim smile, his eyes were flat and dangerous, promising reprisal.

He was entirely serious.

“Okame-san, you can’t,” I protested. “They’re not even armed. We can’t slaughter these people in their homes.”

“Youmight not be able to.” Okame’s evil smile grew wider, showing those slightly pointed canines. “I, however, don’t take kindly to being fed to gaki, especially by treacherous, lying farmers. At the very least, I think the headman’s house should be razed, and his head stuck on a post at the edge of town, as a warning to other travelers. What d’ya say, Kage?”

Tatsumi wound a cloth strip around his wounded arm and used his teeth to tug it tight. “No.”

“No?” The ronin gaped at him, even as I slumped in relief. “Why the hell not? Aren’t you a samurai? These peasants just tried to kill us.”

“My mission is not to burn down villages.” Tatsumi didn’t look up. “It would be a waste of time. Stay and take your vengeance if you wish, it doesn’t matter to me. Yumeko and I will be leaving this place at dawn.”

The ronin gave a disgusted snort. “Suit yourself,” he muttered. “I suppose that’s poetic justice though—let these peasants get eaten by their own hungry ghosts. I bet in a few years there won’t be a village left at all, just a graveyard full of gaki.”

“But why are there so many gaki around?” I wondered. “Where do they come from? Do they just pop out of the ground, starving and cranky?”

“Gaki are the souls of humans who were greedy in life, whose selfishness caused great harm,” Tatsumi said. “They are being punished for their greed, and will continue to be eternally hungry, until they have suffered enough to move on.”

“But the villagers here were the complete opposite of greedy,” I argued. “You saw them. They were almost frantic to give things away.”

Okame shrugged. “Maybe they’re hoping not to come back as gaki when they’re inevitably eaten. There’s probably a bad joke in there somewhere, but I’m too tired to figure it out.”

I shook my head. “Something is wrong here,” I murmured, walking to the door to stare down the path. “There’s more to this village and the gaki than we’re seeing. And I bet that monk has something to do with it.”

“Monk?” I heard the frown in Okame’s voice. “What monk?”

“The yurei who...never mind. We should talk to the headman,” I said, turning back. Okame looked incredulous, but it was Tatsumi’s gaze I sought, meeting his eyes. “I’m thinking he can tell us what’s going on. We already survived the attack—they’re not going to expect us to go marching back through the village, not when we were supposed to be eaten by gaki. I bet he’ll explain everything now.” Tatsumi didn’t answer, and I frowned at him. “Don’t you want to know what’s going on, Tatsumi? Aren’t you even a little curious?”

“No.”

“Well, I am.”

“I am, too,” Okame announced, to my surprise. “Now that you mention it, I sure would like to have a chat with our friendly headman and ask why he’s feeding travelers to the resident gaki. In fact, I think we should go right now.” He strode to the doorway and peered out, dark eyes searching. “I don’t see any hungry ghosts wandering around,” he muttered. “And if we do run into more, we know they can be killed, or banished or whatever.” He looked back, a challenging smirk crossing his face. “To the headman’s house, then. You coming or not, Kage-san?”

Tatsumi continued to say nothing, his expression blank as he watched us. Finally, he rose gracefully to his feet, slid Kamigoroshi through his belt and glided across the floor. I felt a strange tingle in the pit of my stomach, my heartbeat quickening as he drew close.

“Let’s do this quickly.”

* * *

The villagers watched us as we marched down the path toward the headman’s house. No one had slept tonight, it appeared. Not a soul was in the open, but I saw them peering through the slats in their windows, eyes wide with amazement and fear. Clearly, they hadn’t expected us to survive the gaki attack, and they were wisely staying out of reach. No one challenged us as we strolled through the village, past the headman’s front gate and up the steps to his house. Only now I did I notice that his door was made of heavy, reinforced wood, and that several long gashes had been raked across the surface.

Unsurprisingly, it was barred from the inside. Okame rattled it a couple times before stepping back with a dark smile. “Kage-san?” He glanced at Tatsumi and gestured to the door. “Would you like to do the honors?”

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