by Zoe Marriott
“What – what was—?” she gasped, making no effort to move.
Then Shinobu popped up through the grass in a sort of wave of soil that broke under him and then rolled over, flattening out to smooth green as if it had never been there. He crouched alertly, his eyes darting from me to Rachel. “Are you both unharmed?”
Rachel shrugged.
I nodded limply. “What about you?”
He took a deep breath, moved his shoulders experimentally, and nodded back. His hair had tumbled down out of its plait, and he had a dirty smudge on his cheek.
“Hikaru did tell us last time that it could’ve been worse…” I muttered.
“My ears are burning,” a familiar voice called out dryly. “I hope you’re saying nice things about me.”
A glossy, copper-coated fox with a bright white blaze on his chest and a white-tipped tail was approaching us. His eyes – a vivid, unforgettable green that I’d never seen on any human, but which somehow looked perfectly natural on him, even like this – glinted at me.
Hikaru in his fox form.
I managed a smile for him. “We were just wondering if you’d managed to get out of those white leather trousers on your own, or if you needed help. And a shoehorn.”
“He is probably still wearing them, under the fur,” Shinobu said, dead-pan.
Hikaru let out a hoarse barking noise. Fox laughter. I took the opportunity to heave myself to my knees and look around properly. We were in a tunnel. Not surprising, as the entire Kingdom of the Kitsune was underground – the Underground actually. It occupied the space scooped out by London’s Tube lines and stations. But this place was vastly different to the soggy, shadowy chambers we’d passed through last time.
The walls and ceiling that curved around us were made of massive swathes of vivid purple-and-white flowers. The blossoms looked a little bit like wisteria, but the petals were much bigger and more deeply coloured. They stirred gently as I watched. Silvery white light shone around and through them. The tunnel extended as far as my eye could follow, both in front of and behind us. It felt like being inside the giant stone in Jack’s prized amethyst thumb ring.
“Where are we?” I asked.
“A place I’m pretty sure no other humans have been allowed to visit,” Hikaru said, sitting down with his front paws placed neatly together. “This is the entrance to His Majesty’s palace. It took a butt-load of hard work to get you here, and we don’t have all day. Jack needs to hurry up and get her sweet self through that rupture.”
My breath caught and suddenly, stupidly, my eyes prickled with tears. I realized that some part of me had been waiting for Jack to appear here too. Since we’d become friends, Jack had been a part of every adventure, every mess I got into, either one step ahead of me or one step behind. She was always there.
I blinked rapidly as I glanced at Rachel. Her face was stony. Clearly it was up to me to break the news. I took a deep breath. “Jack’s not coming.”
Hikaru’s ears and whiskers drooped. His unrequited crush on my best friend was still burning bright. “Why?” he blurted out. “I mean – is she busy or something?”
Rachel’s eyes narrowed. She opened her mouth.
I jumped in hastily. “Jack’s sick. That’s partly why we need your help.”
Hikaru’s head jerked up, his jaws gaping open to reveal sharp fangs. It was the first time I’d ever seen him speechless. Then he was on his paws, tail lashing the air behind him. Tiny sparks of white lightning crackled up and down the thick brush of copper fur. “Please tell me it’s just some stupid human disease. Something she ate – or – or – a headache or something, right?”
I shook my head wordlessly.
“She has the taint of the Shikome?”
“Taint?” Rachel repeated, as if the word offended her.
“A Shikome attacked her,” I said slowly. “She’s in the hospital.”
A bolt of lightning crackled out of his tail and disappeared into the flowers overhead. Thunder rumbled through the tunnel, and the purple flowers shivered.
“Come on,” he said urgently. “The king is waiting for you.”
CHAPTER 9
BLITZ SPIRIT FOX
Rachel, Shinobu and I trotted after Hikaru through the corridor of flowers. An imperceptible breeze stirred the petals around us; I heard silvery bells chiming in the distance and high, sweet voices singing songs without words. The flowers had a pleasant, vanilla-ish scent. Beneath that there was another smell, a strong, salty odour a bit like the beach at low tide. The strange light rippled and ebbed through the walls of the corridor as if we were under water.
Holy crap, maybe we were under water.
Don’t think about it. You don’t want to know.
I asked Hikaru, “Where were you earlier? We shouted for you for ages – I was really worried.”
“And how did you learn that the Foul Women had invaded London?” Shinobu put in.
“How do you think?” Hikaru responded brusquely. “Our scouts encountered them. Hurry up.”
I frowned. “That still doesn’t explain why it took you so long to answer me. Hikaru, what is going on in the Kingdom? Are you in trouble too?”
Before Hikaru could reply, a new voice broke in. “I am the one who should answer that question, sword-bearer.”
The intense power carried in those soft, musical tones made my legs quiver with the desire to fall to my knees. The king.
Hikaru stopped in his tracks and turned to face a section of the flower wall that was shivering and dancing as if someone had turned on a wind machine behind it. He sank down into a prone position, planted his nose in the grass, and rolled one bright eye at us.
I suddenly remembered that there were different rules in the Kitsune Kingdom. I made a hurried “Get down!” gesture at Rachel and then, trying not to feel ridiculous, bowed formally, fixing my eyes on my feet. Shinobu followed Hikaru’s example and knelt, placing his forehead on the backs of his hands, which he pressed flat to the ground. Rachel stood stubbornly for a moment, then grumped under her breath and finally knelt down next to Shinobu. She bowed her head, but didn’t lower it fully. Putting my frustration with and worry for her to one side – had she always been so bloody stubborn? – I focused on the task at hand.
“Your Majesty. Thank you for agreeing to see us.”
“There is no need for such thanks. Not from you. Rise, please.”
Hikaru, Rachel and Shinobu got to their feet, and I slowly straightened up.
It was all I could do to keep my jaw attached to my face. It wanted to hit the floor. Hard.
The thick layers of purple blooms had twisted up into swirls and knots overhead, revealing a gargantuan opening – the size of a double-decker bus – in the side of the tunnel wall. Beyond that was a cavernous chamber, nearly as big as the Kitsune amphitheatre we had visited last time. Its ceiling was clustered with slender, spiralling stalactites that looked exactly like the white horn on a unicorn’s head. Except that these were about twenty feet long. Dozens of blue fox lights danced in among the pale spears of rock. The floor of the cavern was flooded with a glassy expanse of water, so dark and still that it looked black. Smooth white rocks, splashed with vivid yellow, orange and blue lichens, ringed the pool. But the cave, beautiful as it was? Was nothing compared to the king.
The king stood at the edge of the pool, in human form. And that human form, unless I needed glasses … was a she.
Like some of the older Kitsune I’d seen in their human shapes, he – she – looked very young. If I’d seen her – him – in the street, I’d have thought I was looking at someone about the same age as me or maybe younger. Straight hair fell in a coppery waterfall to her shoulders, framing a delicate, heart-shaped face, with a dusting of golden freckles across the nose and cheekbones. She was a little shorter than me and built like a greyhound, with limbs and waist so tiny they looked like an angry stare would snap them. She was wearing a pretty white linen sundress. It had a wide green ribbon tied at the waist. The bow sat at
the small of her back, and just below it, her luxuriant tails – all nine of them – poked out of a carefully shaped hole in the linen. They fanned the air gently.
The dress, which bared not only her thin, freckly shoulders and arms but quite a lot of her chest, made it impossible to believe that the king was cross-dressing for a lark today. She was definitely all woman. I’d have been tempted to believe that I’d misunderstood somehow, and this was another one of the king’s subjects I was meeting – except for those eyes. Acid-green, and glowing with age and power, they were unmistakable. Meeting them was like trying to push an elephant over. After the first second, it took everything you had just to stay upright.
While I tried to work out if I’d somehow imagined everyone calling the king “Grandfather” and referring to her as “he” and “His Majesty”, the king picked her way delicately across the white stones towards us. Green enamel earrings, shaped like apples, swung at her ears. When I glanced down, I saw that her tiny feet were bare, and the toenails were painted a matching shade of pale green.
“My apologies for the delay,” she said, arriving in front of me. She inclined her head in the smallest possible bow. It was still a huge concession from someone so much older and more powerful than me. A tiny arc of blue electricity fizzled between two of her tails. “My people are unable to enter the mortal realm at this time. I was forced to create a rupture that would bring you through Between safely without a guide – a time-consuming task.”
I cleared my throat. She might look like I could pick her up and toss her across the tunnel with one hand, but she was still a ruthless, extremely dangerous immortal who had nearly caused Jack’s death the last time we came here. Favour or not, I had to get my brain in the game. And stop staring at her boobs!
“Apology accepted, Your Majesty,” I said. My voice sounded a bit shaky – that was nothing new. “But can you tell me why your people can’t enter the mortal realm? Is it to do with the Shikome?”
The king let out a nearly soundless sigh. “Walk with me, sword-bearer. I find movement helps me to think.” She gestured for me to follow her into the cavern.
“Grandmother,” Hikaru began urgently. Oh, now it’s Grandmother. “My friend Jack—”
The king silenced Hikaru with a look that held equal parts sadness and warning. “I heard what was said. Let me speak to Yamato-dono, Grandson. The two of us have much to discuss.”
Hikaru snapped his mouth shut, his expression one of foxy dismay. I sympathized; I wasn’t sure I was looking forward to this private chat too much myself.
Shinobu gave me an encouraging look.
I pulled out a smile for him and Rachel, then followed the king into the cavern. Behind me, the ropes of flowers unravelled with a faint papery whisper, veiling the entrance again.
Her Majesty walked between me and the deep green-black stillness of the pool, her face as enigmatic as the water. One of her hands reached into the pocket of her sundress and then jerked out towards the pool. White crumbs scattered from her palm, hit the pool, and sank without a ripple.
“The Kitsune are immortal,” she said quietly, as if continuing a conversation we’d already begun. “In theory we can live … forever. Time does not touch us, except to bless us with greater wisdom and strength. But in reality, most fox spirits never achieve even their half millennium. Do you know why this is?” Her hand flicked out again. Again, the crumbs sank without a trace.
Great, a test. And I didn’t revise…
No. Wait a second. I know this.
I’d once seen a line of hardened Kitsune warriors go down as if they’d been clothes-lined. The spell which had done it had rolled right off me. Not long afterwards I’d seen them bleed and scream with pain as they did battle with the Nekomata’s army of feral cats. Kitsune were not invulnerable.
“Because,” I said slowly, “you can be killed. Your people are vulnerable to magic and violence, just like mortals.”
“Observant,” she said with dry approval. “And what other things are mortals vulnerable to?”
It took me a second, but then the light bulb flickered to life above my skull. “Disease,” I breathed. “This … taint, Hikaru called it … Kitsune are affected the same as humans? That – that poor girl who came through the portal just before we left here. Was she—?”
The king’s tails lashed behind her. Blue sparks flashed and then faded at their white tips. She came to a halt, staring into the water. Her hand reached into her pocket and flung out towards the dark pool for the third time. This time as the crumbs began to sink, something stirred beneath the surface. I saw slow, sinuous movements – something silver that glinted and flashed in the jellylike depths of the water.
Suddenly a long, supple neck rose up out of the pool, snapping at the air with narrow jaws that bristled with jagged ivory fangs. Opaque white eyes glared blindly. Its feathery tail slapped at the surface, churning it up. The king threw more crumbs. The water-creature writhed and whirled, as graceful as a silk ribbon moving in the wind, dived, then came back up again with a crash of water as a second white head rose beside it. The two creatures – water dragons? – darted and snapped at each other, now entwining, now struggling apart.
“She was only one hundred and four years old,” the king said, dragging my attention away from the duelling serpents. Their noise wasn’t enough to hide the king’s soft voice from my ears – but I was sure that no one outside the cavern would be able to overhear us, even with sharp fox ears. “It was a routine scouting patrol. They were unprepared, unafraid. She had no chance at all.”
“I’m sorry,” I whispered. The words felt plastic and meaningless, but they were all I had.
She went on as if I hadn’t spoken. “So long as the Foul Women fly outside their rightful realm, no human can recover from their taint. Only with their banishment will the spread of the plague be halted and reversed. But for a Kitsune, there is never any hope of recovery at all. My people have no defence against the illness that Izanami’s Handmaidens spread. Once tainted, death is almost instant.”
For people that could hope to live for thousands of years, how terrifying would it be to face an illness that wiped you out, just like that? An illness that none of your magic or your wisdom could fight?
“I must protect my people,” she went on, a hint of steel in her voice. “Even with my strongest calls, some of those who were in the mortal realm when the Shikome appeared have not returned. I do not know how many of them are already lost to us forever – but I will lose no more. Not one more. I will hold this kingdom together.”
There was the Blitz spirit, all right. I wanted to say that I was sorry again, but the implications of what she was saying were sinking in, and they made me feel cold and numb.
We were on our own.
The Kitsune were trapped here in the spirit realm. There would be no help from them this time around. No fearless fox army to march with us against the unknown numbers of Foul Women swarming on London. No sardonic Hiro or competent Araki to back us up. No Hikaru. If we intended to fight the Shikome, we’d be doing it by ourselves. Involuntarily my fingers tightened on the katana’s sheath. The sword’s energy pulsed irregularly in my grip, warm but ragged, like a panicked heartbeat.
I can do this. I can still do this. I defeated the Nekomata alone in the end. I can do what needs to be done. I swallowed a couple of times, trying to get some saliva back into my dry, sticky mouth.
“But they can be banished? You said… Can the Shikome be destroyed or sent back to Yomi?”
The king nodded, her gaze on the antics of the white water-creatures.
“How?”
She looked me in the face. “I was younger than Hikaru is now the last time that my people encountered the Foul Women, in the old country. We lost my father to them, and countless other friends and relations, before they were finally banished from the mortal realm. I was too small and too distressed to truly understand what was happening then. But I do know that we Kitsune had nothing to do with
our own salvation. A greater force – some even whispered that it was a divine force – intervened and returned the Foul Women to the Underworld. As to how it was done … I do not know.”
It was like the roundhouse kick to the gut that finishes you off. I took an unsteady step back, my breath whistling out between my teeth.
What do we do now? What are we supposed to do? How am I going to fix this?
I wanted to scream and stomp and kick and hit out at anything or anyone close enough to touch. I kept myself still with an effort that made me tremble. I’d been threatened with the king’s lightning bolts before – I didn’t want to repeat the experience.
As I stood there, my body singing with tension, she turned fully away from the pool for the first time. Behind her right shoulder, I saw the white serpents drifting on the dark surface of the water. They were braided around each other with their sharp muzzles touching. But what she said next made my gaze snap back to her face. “Do not despair. I think I know a way for you to find the knowledge you seek, sword-bearer.”
“Then please tell me,” I begged.
“You must realize by now that the blade you carry is more than a mere weapon. Whatever its true nature and wherever it came from, it has powers that I have never seen before. Such powers may be strong enough to banish the Shikome, if anything can.”
I looked down at the katana, my eyes absently following the black-and-gold patterns that I knew by heart as my mind whirred with the king’s words. Ever since I had called the sword’s true name, seen its column of light pierce the sky, watched universes blow out and die in that light’s shadow, I had known the sword was more than just a weapon.
It was The Weapon.
But even if I could somehow hunt down and kill every Shikome that had invaded London, the way I had the Nekomata, that wouldn’t stop Izanami from sending more. It wouldn’t banish the illness that the monsters spread with their infected feathers. And I had no idea how to summon or control whatever other powers the sword might have, the ones that might allow me to truly banish the creatures or help the people they had infected. It wasn’t like I could ask the katana; it wanted to be in the driving seat, not put me there.