by H. K. Varian
That made Darren feel a little better, but he still had questions. Questions he couldn’t ask the professor without revealing the secret of the prophecy.
How could a cursed Changer become one of the new First Four? Maybe the prophecy is wrong and I’m not really destined to be a leader. Do Mr. Kimura and the others know about my curse? If they don’t, what will they do when they find out? Maybe Circe will find someone to replace me.
Professor Zwane handed Darren his business card. “If you want to talk more about this or anything else, please don’t worry about bothering me—get in touch any time.”
“Thanks,” Darren said, slipping it into his pocket. He probably would have a lot more questions, but right now, he needed to process what he had learned so far. It was all pretty confusing.
Darren trudged toward the dining hall. He was going to meet Mack for dinner, but all he could think about was the curse. He became increasingly angry with every step he took. This is so not fair, he thought. Mack, Gabriella, and even Fiona have relatives who are Changers. They have someone to talk to about their abilities. They have help while I’m out here on my own.
He thought about how much easier things would have been if Ray had been an impundulu too. He could’ve warned Darren about all the changes that were coming and walked him through them.
Stupid curse! Stupid, stupid curse!
Darren wasn’t watching where he was going and banged right into Mack, who was hanging out in front of the dining hall.
“Hey—” Mack cut himself off when he got a look at Darren’s face. “Everything all right, dude?”
Darren shook his head. “I just found out something I’m . . . not sure I wanted to know,” he answered.
“Something you want to talk about?”
Darren brought Mack up to speed on the Spider’s Curse and how he had somehow slipped through one of the curse’s loopholes to become an impundulu.
“A curse that lasts for generations? That’s seriously messed up,” Mack said. “But at least now you know about it instead of being left in the dark. Lately I’ve been feeling like not knowing is a curse in and of itself.”
“I guess,” Darren said with a shrug. “But there’s a lot more I don’t know—like if I’ll actually be able to break the curse and whether anyone else in my family is a Changer.”
Mack frowned. “See? I hate not knowing things. I’ve been trying to get my grandfather to open up about that mysterious kitsune for months. Every time I ask a question about her, he shuts me down and tells me I’m not ready to hear what he has to say—like I’m a baby. Can you believe it?”
Darren shook his head. “Knowing. Not knowing. I’m not sure it makes a difference either way. Not when we can’t do anything.”
Darren peered into the dining room and wrinkled his nose. Suddenly, he wasn’t hungry anymore, and Mack didn’t look like he was ready for dinner either.
“Want to blow off some steam before we eat?” he asked. “I bet the sports arena is empty right now. We can practice our elemental archery ahead of the games tomorrow.”
“Good idea,” Mack said. “Let’s go.”
Chapter 8
The Memory eater
Mack and Darren stood on one side of the sports arena, taking turns shooting flame and electric arrows at the practice targets on the other side. Mack was right about the place being empty. There was just one other Changer working out, a naga, or snake Changer, who was shooting water arrows at flaming targets across the range in her human form.
Ms. Therian had taught them how to work with enchanted targets, but the ones she used were nothing like the ones at Wyndemere. Mack shot at a target that started to dance the moment his fire arrow came near, adding to his frustration.
“My grandfather treats me like I’m still a little kid,” he said. “He has so many secrets! After everything I’ve done—we’ve done—he doesn’t still trust me with the truth.” Mack’s arrow finally hit the mark, and the target exploded into flames.
Darren shot lightning at another target. This one shrank and then grew and then shrank again until his lightning bolt hit one of the outer rings.
“At least you have someone to talk to,” Darren said as he nocked another lightning arrow. “It’s really hard keeping secrets from Ray. And for the first time in my life, I can’t count on him to help me through this Changer stuff. I’m alone.”
“I hadn’t thought about it that way,” Mack said. “I guess I’ve sort of taken it for granted, but that’s probably because my grandfather can only talk about some Changer things.” Mack leaped into the air and shot at a target on the floor, watching it explode when his fire arrow pierced it. “I’ve been going crazy these past few months. They tell us about the prophecy, that we’re going to lead the Changer nation, and then nada for—what, three months? What’s that about?” He landed on his feet and then spun around to shoot at a target that had come up behind them. “How can you just tell us that and then walk away?”
Darren agreed. Mack’s frustration was feeding his own. Instead of making themselves feel better, blowing off steam in target practice was just making them both angrier.
“Well, now I’ve got a stupid curse on top of everything else,” Darren said, turning to shoot a lightning arrow at a target that had circled around them. “If someone in my family does have Changer powers, I’ll have to break the curse to find out. And, for real, how am I gonna find the spider who cast a curse on my ancestor thousands of years ago?”
“It’s crazy,” Mack said, shaking his head. “And even if my grandfather could help you, I can practically guarantee he wouldn’t. He’d make you figure it all out on your own—like it’s part of your own special journey. He won’t tell me a thing about that golden kitsune I saw on the battlefield, and I saw her again today.”
The naga who had been practicing with water arrows on the other side of the arena stopped what she was doing and jogged over to them. “Did you say ‘golden kitsune’?” she asked.
Mack and Darren froze for a minute. They hadn’t realized they were talking loud enough for her to hear them. The prophecy was a secret—the First Four had told them to keep it to themselves, for now. Had she heard that, too?
“Sorry—I’m Nicole,” she said. “From New York.”
“I’m Mack, and this is Darren . . . What exactly did you hear?” he asked. “Or should I say, what did you listen in on?”
Nicole stepped back with an angry expression. “I wasn’t listening on purpose,” she said. “It was impossible not to hear you—you were yelling.”
“We’re sorry,” Darren said quickly. “It’s just that we were discussing something private.”
“I only heard the words ‘golden kitsune,’ ” Nicole said, softening a bit. “And I didn’t mean to eavesdrop.” She spun on her heel and started to walk away.
“Wait—do you know anything about a golden kitsune?” Mack asked. “It’s really important. I’m sorry I was a jerk.”
“It’s okay,” Nicole said, coming back. “I was just surprised that you guys didn’t know about her. She’s like the Changers’ boogeyman, half myth, half superscary history.”
Mack took a breath so he wouldn’t sound too impatient and send her away again. “Can you tell us what you know?”
“Well, there’s not all that much to tell. When I was little, my grandmother used to say the Shadow Fox would get me if I wasn’t good. I guess she was real once—a few hundred years ago, she was a kitsune named Sakura, and she had a special ability. She was a memory eater.”
“A memory eater? What’s that?” Mack asked.
“A memory eater can consume whatever memories it wants—suck them right out of your brain! When Sakura did that—ate memories—she also ate Changer powers. They became hers.”
Darren was intrigued. Borrowing powers was something Mack could do. “I thought kitsunes—at least powerful ones—could all borrow other Changers’ powers,” he said.
“Borrow,” Nicole said with a nod. �
��Sakura didn’t borrow. She stole. Apparently, she was able to keep the powers permanently. The Changers she took them from lost both their memories and their Changer gifts . . . forever.”
“And her name was Sakura?” Mack asked.
“That’s what my grandmother told me,” Nicole answered. “In the 1600s, I guess Sakura used her abilities to cause a lot of trouble, at least until the First Four took her down.”
“What kind of trouble?” Darren asked.
“She hunted down the Changers who were on the side of the First Four. She ate their memories and stole their powers until she became really strong. Then she turned a bunch of Changers against the First Four and the Changer nation,” Nicole answered.
Mack was still dumbfounded that a kitsune could be so evil—evil enough to start a rebellion. Changers were supposed to stick together—the First Four had always told them that. “And she was golden? Why was she called ‘the Shadow Fox’?”
“That’s the really spooky thing,” Nicole continued. “My grandmother said that she only appeared golden to the people she was hunting. To everyone else she looked almost like a shadow, with jet-black fur and dark, shadowy flames around her paws. That’s why they called her ‘the Shadow Fox.’ ”
Mack’s eyes widened. If that was true, then he was being hunted—by one of Jiichan’s former students. An evil kitsune who wanted to turn the Changers against the First Four.
Why is she after me? he wondered. I need to find out more about her, quickly.
Maybe Jiichan wasn’t going to tell him what he needed to know, but Mack knew one person who was an expert at uncovering old secrets in even older books—Fiona.
“Uh, thanks, Nicole,” he said, signaling Darren. “We have to go, but we’ll catch you later.”
“No problem,” she said. With that, she lifted her water bow and shot another liquid arrow at a flaming target, putting it out.
“We should find Fiona and Gabriella,” Mack said to Darren. “This could get serious.”
Darren pulled out his phone and sent a group text to the two of them:
Need to meet. Mack’s with me.
A second later, Fiona texted back:
At the library. Meet me here.
Another second after that, Gabriella chimed in:
Finishing up at the arena. On my way.
Fiona sat at a table in the middle of the library, surrounded by books. Mack and Darren joined her, and moments later, Gabriella arrived.
Mack told them about seeing the golden kitsune and following her into the forest. Then Darren filled Fiona and Gabriella in on what they had learned from Nicole.
“It didn’t seem like she was hunting me,” Mack said. “She said she had a message, like she just wanted to talk. But if this kitsune really is hunting me, I need to know why. And I need to know how to protect myself. My grandfather won’t tell me anything.”
“Are you sure there was nothing about her in The Compendium?” Gabriella asked Fiona.
Fiona nodded. “I looked and looked. There was nothing there—unless she’s so secret The Compendium doesn’t want us to know about her. I guess that’s possible.” She looked around the library. “There might be something here. This library is full of enchanted books. One of them has to have some information about Sakura.” Her eyes lit up with excitement when she scanned the shelves, Mack’s problems temporarily forgotten.
“But which one?” Mack asked. “It could take years to find the right book.”
“Not if you know who to ask,” Fiona said with a smile. She walked over to the reference librarian’s desk.
Darren wasn’t surprised that the librarian already knew Fiona by name. He heard his friend ask for books about evil Changers. “For research,” Fiona said a little sheepishly.
“I think I have exactly what you need,” the librarian answered. “Come with me.”
Fiona waved the others to join her, and they followed the librarian deep into the stacks. The librarian pulled a thick old book from a shelf. “Bad Blood: A History of Malevolent Changers,” she said.
Fiona thanked her, and the four Willow Cove Changers sat at a table in the back of the library, where they couldn’t be overheard.
Mack waited impatiently while Fiona searched the index for the words “Sakura,” and “Shadow Fox.” “Is there a section on kitsune?” he asked.
Fiona shook her head. “I think this book is like The Compendium. The words kind of dance on the page. I’m not sure it wants me to read it.”
“Oh, great,” Mack said sarcastically. “The book is going to keep secrets from me too.”
Fiona leafed through the pages and then closed the book with a sigh. “I’m sorry, the words keep moving, and even if they settled down, I think they’re in another language.”
“Maybe there’s another book,” Mack said, scanning the shelf that volume had come from. “I’m getting desperate here.”
“Maybe you have to read it, Mack,” Gabriella began. “Remember when The Compendium only let me read the passage about the Ring of Tezcatlipoca? The information could only be read by those of Aztec blood.”
Fiona handed the book to Mack, and he opened it to a random page. After a minute, the words rearranged themselves, and a title appeared on the top of the page: “The Shadow Fox.”
“Wow,” Fiona whispered, reading over his shoulder. “There’s a whole section on a kitsune named Sakura Hiyamoto.”
“That must be her!” Darren exclaimed, moving to look at the book as Mack read.
“ ‘Sakura, also known as the Shadow Fox. A former student of Mr. Akira Kimura, First Four, Class A, nine-tailed kitsune. A rare evil kitsune, the Shadow Fox gains power by eating the memories and absorbing the powers of other Changers, leaving them helpless. She was active in the late 1600s, when she formed a rogue band that nearly tore the Changer nation apart. The First Four were able to arrest and imprison her comrades, but Sakura’s ability to eat memories made capturing her a challenge, and she eventually went into hiding. She hasn’t surfaced in many years. Her whereabouts remain unknown.’ ”
The rest of the entry confirmed what Mack had already learned from Nicole—that the Shadow Fox appeared golden only to those who she hunted.
“I can’t believe she was your grandfather’s student,” Fiona said. “What could have made her go so bad?”
“I don’t know,” Mack said. “I’ve been trying to find out from Jiichan ever since Sefu mentioned it, but he won’t tell me.”
“Are you absolutely sure she was golden when you saw her?” Fiona asked.
Mack nodded, his expression fierce. “Which means she’s hunting me, and I’m going to find out why.”
“You can’t!” Gabriella said, throwing Mack an incredulous look. “That’s way too dangerous.”
“If she’s hunting you, and you go after her, you’ll be giving her exactly what she wants,” Darren said. “And we don’t know how her power works. She could knock you out before you even have a chance to fight.”
“You’ll lose your powers,” Fiona added.
“Look, I may never see her again,” Mack said, brushing off their concerns. “It’s been months between sightings. But I’m tired of waiting around for the scraps of information my grandfather is willing to feed me. This kitsune wants something from me—she even said she has a message for me—and I need answers from her.”
“Maybe your grandfather will tell you more now that you’ve seen her again,” Gabriella said.
Mack shook his head. “It’s hopeless. He still thinks of me as a little kid. If I tell him I’ve seen the Shadow Fox again, he might even force us all to go home . . . to cancel the Youngling Games. I can handle this on my own.”
“No, Mack,” Darren said firmly. “You’ve taken some risks before, but this is too much. You know I’m as frustrated with the First Four’s secrets as anyone else, but we’re in over our heads here. You have to promise us you won’t go after her.”
“Or at least . . . if you see her again, t
ake me with you,” Fiona added. “I’m protected from mind control spells because I know the Queen’s Song. I can protect you if things go bad.”
Mack chewed on his lip, deep in thought. We’ve faced much worse threats than this and come out okay. I don’t know why they’re so worried. The Shadow Fox has gotten past all of the First Four’s protections already, so if she really does have a message for me, she’s going to deliver it no matter what. I’d rather face her head on and hear what she has to say; that way I have the upper hand.
But Mack didn’t say any of that out loud. Instead, he smiled up at his friends and agreed. He didn’t want them to worry . . . or to try and stop him.
“Don’t worry. I won’t go after her alone.”
Chapter 9
The Youngling Games
The next day Gabriella spent most of her time hanging out with her new friends and exploring the parts of the Wyndemere campus she hadn’t seen the day before. She also checked out some of her competitors, who were in the arena to train on the agility and enchanted hurdles courses. They were fast, especially one bultungin, but Gabriella knew she was faster. She felt confident about winning. She was so confident, in fact, that she didn’t run through the courses again.
Why let the other Changers know just how fast I am before the race? she thought. I’ll let them see what they’re up against when the starting buzzer goes off.
With just an hour to go before the games’ opening ceremony, she decided to squeeze in one last warm-up run. The gym and the arena were filled with competitors who had had the same idea, so she headed to the lagoon for a solitary run.
She had made it about halfway around the lagoon when she saw a young woman and an older man in a guard’s uniform up ahead on the path. They were obviously having a very heated discussion. Gabriella planned to ignore them and focus on her warm-up, but her ears picked up the words “Shadow Fox,” and she reduced her speed to a slow jog to hear more.
The pair was so intent on their argument that they didn’t even notice Gabriella.