by Julie Kagawa
Raising Kamigoroshi, I lunged through the cloud of red, sweeping the blade down at my targets. Yumeko leaped backward with a yelp, but the shrine maiden stepped forward, raising her ofuda, in a foolish bid to intercept me. The blade sliced down, cutting into flesh, and the miko screamed as her arm dropped to the ground, severed at the elbow, bloody fingers still clutching the strip of paper.
An arrow hit me in the back, making me stagger. I turned with a growl and caught sight of the figure standing outside the ring, already nocking another arrow to his bow. He darted behind a pillar, as the tengu who had been chanting at the edge of the circle now drew swords and spears and set upon me with furious cries.
Roaring, I lunged into the midst of the warrior yokai, sword flashing. They split apart like bags of rice, blood and feathers flying through the air. As I stabbed one tengu in the throat, I reached out and snatched his spear as he fell away, tearing it from his grip. Whirling, I cut down another crow warrior and as the yokai fell, hefted the spear and hurled it through the space the falling body had left. The weapon slammed into the annoying ronin archer as he was drawing his bow, hurling him back and pinning him to the column. His mouth gaped, hands clutching at the spear through his middle, before he slumped lifelessly against the wood.
Two down. I grinned, thoroughly enjoying myself now. Spinning back, I whirled and slashed through the final ranks of tengu, carving them into pieces, until only the old daitengu was left. He did not attempt to fight or protect himself as I came in, covered in the blood of his slaughtered clan. He simply stared at me, chin raised, as I brought Kamigoroshi down and split the ancient yokai in half.
Now for the finale.
Straightening, I turned and walked back to the altar, taking a casual swipe at the softly moaning shrine maiden kneeling on the floor as I passed. The blade passed easily through the slender neck, and her head toppled forward, landing with a thump behind her. Headless, the miko slumped to the floor. I looked up, over the field of death and carnage, and met the glazed, terrified eyes of the kitsune, sitting with her back against the altar that held the scroll.
Inside, Tatsumi had gone very still. Perhaps he was gathering his strength for a final, desperate attempt to intervene. Or perhaps he realized there was nothing he could do, and was bracing himself for the inevitable. The kitsune stared at me as I approached, trembling as I stepped over the bodies of her former friends to stand before her. Her eyes were huge, glassy with horror and disbelief. But she still met my gaze steadily, as if searching for the soul trapped within. It was almost endearing, that desperate hope that somehow, even now, she could reach Tatsumi.
Shaking my head, I crouched down so that we were at eye level, seeing my reflection in her yellow fox gaze. “Did you really think this would work?” I asked with a conversational smile. “I’ve slaughtered armies who’ve stood in my way, little fox. I’ve killed entire temples’ worth of priests and holy men who have attempted to exorcise and seal me back in the sword. One half-grown kitsune and her motley collection of misfits isn’t much of a challenge.” Smiling, I leaned in, lowering my voice. “I told you this day would come, didn’t I?” I crooned. “I promised I would kill everyone you cared about, that everyone close to you was going to die, and I always keep my promises. Now, it’s your turn, little fox. I’m afraid you’ve lost this game. I’m going to take the scroll fragments, the Master of Demons is going to summon the Dragon and I will finally be free of this pathetic mortal shell. But this was entertaining, and I’m not completely heartless. Before you die, I’ll let you talk to Tatsumi one last time, if there is anything you want to say to him.” I sat back on my heels, giving her a little room. “So, go ahead. I know he’s listening. Do know that anything you say will haunt him forever, and I will take great pleasure in continuously reminding him of this moment, but this is the last time you’ll ever talk to him, so I wouldn’t waste it.”
The kitsune closed her eyes. “Gomen, Tatsumi,” she whispered. “Forgive me. I tried. I’m sorry we weren’t strong enough to free you.” Her eyes opened, golden and defiant, gazing up at me. “But whatever Hakaimono tells you, this isn’t your fault. I don’t regret meeting you, and if we met again under the same circumstances, I wouldn’t change anything.”
“Very touching,” I remarked. “Are you done?”
She trembled, then took a deep breath, bracing herself. “Yes.”
“Good,” I said, and drove my claws through her chest, feeling bones shatter and snap, to grab her heart. “Then I’ll be taking what’s mine,” I told both stunned onlookers, and yanked my arm back.
Blood erupted from her chest, arcing through the air in a hot stream. The fox girl gave a strangled gasp and fell sideways, striking the temple floor with a thump and a splash of crimson. Her mouth gaped, fingers twitching, before her body stilled and her golden eyes became glazed and unseeing. Blood ran down the steps from the gaping hole in her middle, coating the dais red.
From somewhere inside, there was a soundless cry of rage and horror, of hate stabbing through me like an arrow. One brief moment of pure, beautiful despair before Tatsumi’s will collapsed and he slumped in numb resignation.
Silence fell over the hall. I stood, crushing the organ in my fist, then tossed it casually to the floor. Around me, the tengu and human remains lay on the wooden planks, blood and feathers scattered everywhere. At my feet, the corpse of the kitsune girl bled out on the dais, golden eyes staring at nothing. There was a hollowness in the pit of my stomach that wasn’t mine, a mire of despair and self-loathing, as Tatsumi raged at his own helplessness and mourned his naive little fox girl. The first soul who had ever seen him as more than a weapon. The first person he had allowed himself to care for. His anguish was as beautiful as I had hoped. The demonslayer’s spirit had been truly broken. I had won.
And yet, something didn’t feel right.
Stepping over the corpse of the fox girl, I walked to the altar and snatched the Dragon scroll from its stand. The lacquered case came away easily, no final traps or hidden surprises, and I gazed at the item in my hand, curling a lip.
Such a small thing, that this entire realm loses its mind over. I shook my head. Foolish mortals. You’re never satisfied, and after all this time, you have yet to figure out that the Harbinger’s wish is never granted in the way you expect.
With a snort, I turned away from the altar, clutching my prize in a claw. That’s one piece of the Dragon scroll. Now, to find the last fragment. Where would these old birds be hiding it?
Raising my head, I surveyed the carnage-strewn chamber one more time, brow furrowing as I gazed around at the slaughter. Something still nagged at me, a sense of disquiet I couldn’t shake. What was wrong with this picture?
I breathed in slowly, and suddenly I knew. There was no smell. No scent of death, no sweet aroma of blood on the air, no reek of offal spilling from the bodies. I touched a tongue to the blood staining my claws and tasted nothing but my own sweat and skin. Amusement flickered, but beneath that, I felt the faintest ripple of unease.
Another illusion.
I clenched a fist and felt the Dragon scroll crinkle in my hand. Like paper? Frowning, I glanced down at it.
It was no longer a scroll.
Opening my claws, I stared in disbelief at the bundle of ofuda in my hand, dozens of them, resting in my palm. And each one of the slips of paper bore the words of a binding ritual in stark black ink. As I gaped in shock, the words flared red with power.
“Kuso!” I dropped the bundle like it was on fire, but it was too late. Like a swarm of moths, the ofuda spiraled upward, becoming streamers of light that swarmed around me. I felt the bite of chains once again, what felt like hundreds of links wrapping around me, anchoring me to the ground.
At my feet, the body of the kitsune vanished, fading to nothing in a puff of white smoke. With similar pops, the bodies of the tengu and slaughtered humans disappeared, as well. Beneath my boots, the wooden floor exploded into smoke, the walls, pillars, altar, ceiling, all
turning to mist around me as I stared in shock.
The entire temple was an illusion?
Stunned, I gazed down at the massive binding circle surrounding me, seals upon seals, with me in the very center. As the smoke cleared, I looked up to see the dozen tengu standing around the edge, their voices rising in one unified chant.
Enraged, furious at the elaborate trick, I tried lunging forward, straining against the bonds holding me down. But this circle was huge and enormously powerful, drawing strength from the earth and the chanting of the tengu surrounding it. The longer I had stood inside its borders, the weaker I’d become. This entire ruse was created to keep me within the ring, to distract me as I wasted my time murdering illusions, as the real binding circle sapped my strength and grew more powerful by the second.
The chains around me grew even heavier, tightening around my limbs and squeezing the breath from my lungs. Clenching my jaw, I planted my feet and braced myself, determined not to kneel, not to be forced to the ground. I would not submit. The tengu could chant until their throats shriveled and the voices left their bodies, but I would not be beaten. And I would kill any who got close enough to try to end my life.
As the last of the smoke faded away, the ring parted, and a familiar face appeared at the edge of the circle. Alive. Unharmed. Minus a gaping hole where her heart should be. Her gaze met mine over the binding circle, and she stepped forward.
I smiled as she drew closer. “That…was an inspiring ruse, fox girl,” I said, gathering my strength to lunge when the time was right. “I’m almost impressed. I didn’t think you had the power for that sort of elaborate deception, but you are kitsune, after all. So, now the question becomes…are you cold-blooded enough to kill me?”
Her jaw clenched as she drew close, a shadow of both fury and anguish crossing her face, and I chuckled. “Can you do it?” I murmured. “Drive your knife into my heart and send me back into the sword, knowing your precious Tatsumi will die and his soul will go to whatever afterlife awaits?”
The kitsune shook her head, and her eyes gleamed as she looked up. “No, Hakaimono,” she whispered, stopping just a lunge away. “I’m not going to kill Tatsumi, but I am going to send you back into the sword. On my life, you will return to Kamigoroshi, even if I must destroy my own soul in the process.”
I snarled and lashed out, fighting the chains to sink one claw into the loose fabric of her robes. At the same time, the kitsune lunged forward, startling me, and grabbed my face with both hands. Her lips parted, mouth gaping wide, as a glowing mist shaped vaguely like a fox emerged between her teeth and hovered before me. With a jolt, I realized what she was doing and tried shoving her body away, but the fox-shaped mist dove forward, filling my vision, and the last thing I remembered was falling.
24
CHANGING FATE
Suki
From the edge of the snow-covered peak, Suki watched the huge army crawl slowly up the mountains and felt sick with terror.
“Well,” Lord Seigetsu mused in a somber voice. He stood at the edge of the cliff, arms crossed, observing the dark mass of demons, monstrous yokai and other horrors scaling the peaks of the Dragon Spine. “It seems Genno has decided not to wait for Hakaimono, after all.”
At his feet, Taka shivered, his single eye huge and round as he watched the demons ascend. “That’s the army from my dream,” he whispered. “The one that killed everyone at the temple.”
“Yes,” Seigetsu murmured. “Genno is no fool. His army is following the trail Hakaimono has set. At the rate they are marching, they will reach the Steel Feather temple in a few hours.” He did not appear distressed or surprised, watching the demons like one would a particularly interesting go game. “A sound strategy. With everyone at the temple distracted by the First Oni, no one will be expecting an army to come pouring through the gates. They’ll be taken by surprise and likely slaughtered in the first wave.”
“No,” Suki whispered. She could just make out the sweeping roof of the temple, nearly invisible against a distant mountain peak. The kitsune girl was there, as was Daisuke-sama. “Can…can we not warn them, Seigetsu-sama?” she pleaded, looking up at the silver-haired man, who raised a brow at her. “We could…fly there, and…let them know the army is coming. They could flee…before the demons arrive.”
Lord Seigetsu shook his head. “I cannot,” he told her quietly, making her heart sink. “I am…rather well-known at the temple, Suki-chan. They would not trust anything I had to say. Taka is a yokai—he would be attacked, perhaps killed, before he could give them any warning. The guardians there are rather fanatic about what they protect.” One corner of his lip curled humorlessly, before he sobered again. “I’m afraid our hands are tied in this matter. It is likely everyone in the temple will be killed, just as Taka dreamed.”
“I can warn them, Seigetsu-sama.”
Seigetsu blinked, gazing at Suki in mild surprise. “You, Suki-chan?” he asked, and she nodded vigorously.
“They…they don’t know me,” she went on, stammering a bit as she tried to force the words out, to keep talking. “I’m just a wandering spirit. I can find Daisuke-sama…tell him the demons are coming. They could…flee before the army gets there. They would have a chance then, right?”
Seigetsu tilted his head, regarding her with intense golden eyes. “Perhaps,” he almost whispered. “Certainly, if they had warning, they could be ready for the assault. But are you willing to face an army of monsters and the Master of Demons to save your noble, Suki-chan? Are you not afraid?”
Suki trembled, remembering the night of her own death, the demons, the terrible Yaburama, and the blood witch who had sacrificed her to the monsters. “I am afraid,” she admitted. “But…I want to save Daisuke-sama. And everyone else. I don’t want the demons to kill them all. Please…Lord Seigetsu. I can…warn them. Let me try.”
Seigetsu smiled. “I cannot stop you, Suki-chan,” he said quietly, and raised a billowy sleeve toward the distant temple. “Go, with my blessing.” His eyes glimmered, and the faintest note of triumph entered his voice. “Perhaps it will take a ghost to turn the course of fate this night.”
For some reason, that caused a tremor to run up Suki’s spine, but she didn’t pause to dwell on it. Abandoning her human image, she shivered into a formless ball of luminance, casting Seigetsu and Taka in an eerie, flickering light. For a moment, she hovered there, gathering her courage, watching the mass of demons and yokai swarm against the snow. Then, with a flare of determination, she spiraled upward, above the cliffs, and streaked in the direction of the temple.
25
THE PLANE OF THE SOUL
Yumeko
The night we’d arrived at the Steel Feather temple, the white fox had been waiting for me in my dreams once more.
“You have no idea what to do against Hakaimono, do you?” he’d asked by way of greeting.
I’d bristled, then slumped. “No,” I’d admitted. “Not really.” We—myself, Daisuke, Okame and Reika—had spent several hours with the tengu and the daitengu, trying to come up with a plan to defeat Hakaimono without any of us getting killed. The tengu were skilled mystics and had some amount of magic power that they drew from the mountain itself, but not enough to hold Hakaimono for any length of time.
The white fox sighed. “To be young and naive again,” he said, shaking his pale muzzle. “You have what you need to defeat Hakaimono, little fox. You are just not thinking like a kitsune. We are not humans, charging our enemies head-on like angry bulls. Doing battle with a fox is like trying to catch a reflection in a pond. We are shadows upon shadows, weaving our own worlds, our own realities. Entangling our enemies so thoroughly, they have no idea what is real and what is not. Nothing we present or reveal is the truth.” He waved his tail thoughtfully. “But you cannot underestimate this opponent,” he warned. “Hakaimono will not be fooled by simple pranks. It will take all your talent, all your fox magic, and every ounce of cunning and trickery you have, to defeat him.”
&nbs
p; “I’m not that strong,” I whispered. “My illusions are simple things. I have no idea what I can do against Hakaimono.”
“Do you really believe that, after all you have done? After you fooled an emperor, and drove the assassins of the Shadow Clan mad with fear?”
“Men,” I agreed with a nod. “Not oni. Not demonslayers. I’ll be facing Hakaimono and Tatsumi. Neither of them is going to be afraid of anything I can do.”
“I see.” The white fox gave his tail an irritated twitch. “If that is what you truly believe, then I will give you the strength you need to emerge victorious.”
His mouth opened, muzzle gaping wide, and a glowing sphere of blue-white luminance emerged from his throat and floated toward me. As it drew close, I could see the ghostly flames flickering around a small white ball about the size of a human fist. It circled over my head, glowing softly from within, then drifted down until it touched the very tip of my muzzle. Cool flames tickled my nose, and I sneezed. As I did, I felt something small and round fly into my jaws and shoot down my throat, burning my tongue where it passed. I coughed and gagged, feeling like I was choking on a peach pit, but the foreign object ignored my attempts to retch it up and settled in my stomach, lighting my insides with what felt like icy flames.
I coughed once more and looked up. The white fox was watching me with an unamused look on his narrow face.
“That is my hoshi no tama,” he told me. “My star ball. It contains a small amount of my power. With it, you will have the magical prowess of a dozen kitsune, perhaps more.” He gave a grim smile as I gaped at him, stunned and reeling. Who was he, to have so much power? “It is very dear to me,” the white fox went on, “and I would like it back when you are done. But for now, you will have the strength you need to challenge even Hakaimono, if you can stop thinking like a human and start scheming like a fox.”