Tails High

by Paul Kidd

  Chapter 5

  In the evening, a sullen snowfall drifted slowly from the clouds. Sunset came merely as a darkening of the sky and a slow ebbing of light. The temperature plunged. Only at the springs were paths still bare of snow. Warm rocks and steam melted snowflakes as they fell, spattering the pathways with water.

  Chiri, Tonbo and Kuno trudged into the inn’s common room, beating snowflakes from their clothes. The room was freezing cold, and the lamps had not been lit. Tired from an afternoon spent searching the woods for tracks, they were feeling quite stiff with cold. Kuno dragged off his armour piece by piece, setting the suit aside where the damp silk lacings could slowly dry. He sat himself down at the centre of the room and gazed blankly at the floor.

  Tonbo ranked his heavy armour plates over beside Kuno’s.

  Meanwhile, Chiri busied herself with the lamps. She was in her half rat, half human form – glad for the extra layer of fur. Daitanishi helped her strike a light, and the lanterns were set aglow one by one. Chiri carefully set lamps out in the passage way, hoping to bring some cheer into the house.

  Tonbo lit the brazier, blowing on the little flames until the charcoal finally glowed. He set the kettle on its little frame above the flame, and sat down to hold his hands out towards the fire.

  Little by little, the brazier began to warm the room. Kuno, Chiri and Tonbo sat close about the glow, trying to thaw themselves piece by piece. Daitanishi and Bifuuko rested on the floor beside Chiri’s knees, shuffling close to the brazier and looking grateful for the warmth.

  After a while, the kettle boiled. Chiri poured out the tea – a very decent genmaicha Sura had liberated from the kitchens. The scent of tea was wonderfully welcome.

  After a while, footsteps sounded upon the porch. The old priestess – stiff faced and silent – came into the inn. She led the inn mistress on into the gloom, moving with a steady, measured tread.

  The inn mistress was red-eyed and desolate. The priestess guided her towards her private quarters.

  Sura came in after them – dusted from snout to tail in snow. She was tired, dispirited, and frozen clean through to the bone. The fox threw her boots to one side of the entrance and made her way up the steps towards her friends.

  Chiri arose, her well-wrapped tail curling, and helped Sura doff her wet coat. Snow and melt water had soaked her through, and the fox’s black hands were like ice. Tonbo found the fox a dry robe while she hastily stripped off her wet, frozen clothes.

  Hastily dressed and dried, the fox took a seat by the brazier.

  Chiri threw a quilt around Sura’s shoulders.

  “Sura san – what has happened with Domei?”

  Sura pulled the quilt tight about herself. She felt drained and decidedly tired.

  “We have him laid out in the shrine. I convinced them to at least thaw the ice from around him before we think about graves or burials or cremation.” She felt sad – she had failed the man. “I suppose I half hoped he’d somehow still be alive if we thawed him. But at least this way I can get an actual look at the body – see if there’s any clues… We’ve been melting the ice bit by bit…” Chiri handed her hot tea. “Thank you, my friend.”

  They all sat together about the brazier, sipping much-needed tea. Tonbo stirred at the coals and set the kettle back on over the heat.

  Chiri changed back into her human form, and swept back long, gleaming hair. She quietly took Sura’s cup and filled it again.

  “Did you find the mother of the fourteen year old?”

  Sura blew a breath out past her whiskers and shook her head. “The house was empty, but the fireplace was still hot. They’ve done a runner on us. No one will confess to knowing who lived in the house.”

  Sura changed back into her human form. Keeping an eye on Kuno, she leaned in to murmur quietly in Chiri’s ear.

  “All’s quiet here?”

  “All is quiet.”

  Kuno had brought forward his wicker basket. He took off the lid to reveal several large, sealed bowls.

  “We can hardly expect the hostess to care for us tonight. I arranged for food from the tea house. I have a meal for the inn mistress as well.”

  Chiri nodded. “That was a kind thought, Kuno san.”

  Chiri arose, took hold of a lantern and padded softly off to the inn’s kitchens. She found some plates and bowls, cups and trays, and carried everything back into the common room.

  Sura was being kept back from the cooking arrangements as Tonbo heated water, mixed soup and made hot broth. Chiri set the bowls beside him, and together they laid out hot noodles in soup with rolls of egg, and rice topped with savoury beans. There was enough for the old priestess to eat as well. Chiri set two potions out onto a tray.

  “I will take the food to the inn mistress now, and express our regrets.”

  The rat spirit daintily bore the tray off into the inn, with Bifuuko hovering ahead to light the way. She found the inn mistress’ door, knelt down on the floor outside and knocked.

  The old priestess answered the door – glowering and stiff. Chiri gave a graceful bow.

  The priestess looked down at the rat with no sign of welcome.

  “Shugenja. How may I assist you?”

  “We can offer the inn mistress very little to comfort her in her grief. But my colleagues and I have brought you both a meal.” Chiri sat quietly back. “If she will allow us, we shall do whatever chores are needed to see to the running of her inn.”

  The priestess looked aside.

  “You are noble guests. We cannot ask you to clean an inn.”

  Chiri passed the tray into the room, and bowed again.

  “Please excuse me – but the humblest acts can express the noblest intent.”

  In the room beyond, the inn mistress sat miserably beside a single lantern. She looked up at Chiri in shock and gratitude.

  Before she could speak, the old priestess firmly shut the door in Chiri’s face. Chiri sat back at looked at the door for a while, then arose, walking thoughtfully back to all her friends.

  More lanterns had been lit, and another brazier set aglow. Kuno sat looking tired, listlessly eating his food. Sura handed a bowl of noodles over to Chiri. The rat nodded in gratitude.

  “The inn mistress is grateful. But the priestess is quite set upon her hostility.”

  Tonbo looked up from across his noodle bowl.

  “So what now?”

  Sura wearily served out some rice.

  “We eat. Then I try to thaw out at the baths.” She looked at the dark windows. The evening grew ever more chill. “We can’t go out in the snow at night. But first thing tomorrow, we should start a full search. Get into the village and get some stories out of people. Bugger their sensibilities. We have a shugenja to catch.” She raised her noodle bowl in salute.

  “Happy holidays.”

  Outside the snow slowly fell into a night that glittered with an icy chill.

  An hour later, Kuno had slumped off into an early sleep. He lay wrapped in his quilts, utterly exhausted. Tonbo had armoured himself once again. He walked the rooms of the inn, tetsubo in hand, keeping a diligent guard. From time to time he slid open a door and looked carefully out over the snow, searching for the slightest hint of danger.

  Down at the hot springs, warm ground kept the freezing cold at bay. Stone lanterns had been lit, spreading a little light to glitter out across the steaming waters. A charcoal brazier glowed bright, heating the area used for changing clothes.

  Sura and Chiri sat in the covered section of the baths, where the walls and roof trapped the heat from the waters. They sat naked together, washing one another’s backs while the two elementals kept a careful watch on the area all around them. Chiri’s natagama and Sura’s spear, kodachi, throwing spikes and a pair of pepper eggs were all kept close at hand.

  Chiri scooped hot water carefully over Sura’s back, rinsing her friend’s long orange hair. The rat spirit gave a quiet sigh.

  “The baths have been a godsend.” She looked out
over the clear waters. “The peace is truly welcome.”

  They collected their weapons and moved over to the baths, slipping slowly into the hot water. They lay back, side by side – weapons close at hand – and mused about life, the universe and everything.

  Floating together for a long, quiet while, the pair listened to the splash and spatter of the waterfalls. Snowflakes drifted upwards in the heat above the pool.

  Chiri seemed preoccupied and slightly sad. Sura rolled over and reached out to squeeze her best friend’s hand.

  “So how are you holding up?”

  Chiri gave a rueful little shrug.

  “Well enough.”

  A faint noise came over the sound of the springs. Sura and Chiri immediately snatched their weapons, only to see a silhouette on the steps leading down towards them.

  It was the inn mistress, dressed in a bath robe and carrying a lantern. She was hollow-eyed, moving with painful, grief-stricken slowness.

  The woman caught sight of Sura and Chiri and came to a halt. She gave a bow, and immediately prepared to leave.

  “Please excuse me. I will come back another time.”

  Chiri bowed her head, gesturing quietly to the water.

  “No no. Please share our bath. We will not disturb you unless you wish it.”

  The inn mistress hesitated, then nodded her head in a bow. She moved over to one side and quietly disrobed. The woman poured water over herself, moving slowly, as though having to think carefully to perform even the simplest of actions. She moved over to the bath itself and silently descended into the water, then sat by herself in the darkness.

  She tried to be stoic, but tears finally began. She wiped her face, hands shaking. Sura came quietly over through the water, and placed a cup of goblin wine close beside the inn mistress.

  The woman could not meet Sura’s gaze. She took the cup in hand, and stared hollowly down into the baths. She slowly turned the cup around and around in her hand.

  “Thank you, priestess.”

  Sura sat herself quietly in the water nearby. “We fed the monkeys.”

  “Thank you, priestess. Thank you, shugenja.” The inn mistress hung her head. “I had forgotten the basic decency of animal spirits. Forgive me if I have wronged you.”

  Sura nodded gently towards the wine cup.

  “Here. Goblin wine. Interesting stuff.”

  The inn mistress drank. Sura came forward and gently poured her out another cup.

  “You must not blame yourself.”

  The inn mistress set her shoulders straight. Her voice rang with bitterness.

  “I have nothing to be ashamed of. I did what I thought was right.”

  The words seemed to hang in the air. Off across the bathing pool, the waterfalls sparkled.

  Chiri came forward and gave a respectful bow.

  “Please excuse me – but if anyone else is in danger, then you must help us. For the sake of your son’s memory, we humbly ask that you assist us.”

  The inn mistress bowed her head, then clearly made a decision. She kept her eyes upon the water, hissing words out in an intense whisper full of fear.

  “You must do something! Swiftly! While your two men still live!”

  “No!”

  The old priestess stood on the steps from the inn. She strode to the edge of the baths. Her voice snapped out through the cold.

  “Silence! Keep silent!”

  The inn mistress turned to the old priestess, wrung with pain.

  “Priestess – these are monster hunters! They must be told!”

  The old priestess moved forward in rage.

  “There is no monster!”

  The old woman smashed her staff straight down at Sura’s head. The fox ducked into the water, and the staff splashed just overhead. But the old priestess jammed the weapon downwards like a spear, catching Sura painfully on the shoulder.

  Sura seized the end of the staff, exploding up out of the water. The old priestess wrenched the weapon back, staggering away as she pulled the staff out of Sura’s grasp.

  The old priestess swept back her staff, the air thrumming as she whipped it downwards again at the fox.

  Sura dodged back, the staff cracking into the stone rim of the bath beside her. She seized her pepper egg from beside the bath and hurtled it straight at the old woman’s head. The priestess shielded herself with an arm, and the egg struck and ricocheted aside; in her haste, Sura had grabbed a hard-boiled egg by mistake. But the hard blow bought Sura time to surge up out of the water and seize her spear.

  The old priestess instantly flung a hand out towards the nearest brazier.

  “Spirits of the raging flame!

  I summon thee in duty’s name!”

  Fire elementals exploded up out of the coals, hissing in rage. They gathered to leap at Sura, when suddenly a natagama came blurring through the air. It slammed blade-first into a wooden pillar beside the old priestess’ head, halting her before she could unleash the elementals into battle.

  Naked, dripping wet and with her pink eyes cold, Nezumi Chiri stood with her second natagama poised ready to throw. Water elementals rose out of the baths behind her, seething and dripping – ready to fling themselves at the flame elementals.

  The rat spirit’s voice carried clear and cold.

  “I earnestly request that you reconsider your intentions.” Chiri’s eyes were murderously sharp.

  “Do not in any way underestimate my willingness to kill you to protect my friend…”

  More and more water elementals arose from the baths and snow. Faced with overwhelming force, the old priestess sank back. She let her hands fall, and the fire elementals faded back into the coals. The woman seemed to deflate – her staff falling numbly from her hands.

  The old priestess sat down upon a bench, glaring down at the baths through dark eyes.

  Chiri and Sura dressed and settled grimly on the benches nearby. The inn mistress sat herself beside them – strangely blank and relieved. She stared at the ground, gazing at events long past.

  The inn mistress spoke quietly in the gloom.

  “It began six years ago – a year after Mirusu chan died. Young men began to disappear during the winter. It happened one by one – sometimes weeks would go between disappearances. But always they were gone without a trace.”

  The woman closed her eyes, looking sick and drawn.

  “Later, we heard the music. Something was drawing them away. Away into the mountain peak, where they were never seen again.

  “We know that she controls the snow, the winds and storms. The villagers dare not speak to you, Reibai san, for fear that Mirusu will bring the mountain down and destroy us all!”

  The old priestess looked bitterly away.

  “She is a good girl. She does not mean to do what she does.”

  Sura listened, looking between the two women  utterly aghast.

  “She has killed every young man in the village?”

  The inn mistress hung her head in sorrow.

  “No, Reibai san. Not all. Those whose boys approach manhood take the chance to flee during the summer, when the spring thaws come. She seems to only haunt the snow.” The woman looked off towards the mountain pass. “They flee and never return, abandoning everything.”

  Chiri was filled with sadness.

  “But your own son – why did you not flee?”

  The old priestess looked at the inn mistress in contempt.

  “She owns the spa. With her husband taken, she had to stay. She had to have her son to help her.”

  Sura looked closer at the inn mistress, suddenly understanding exactly what the woman had done.

  “You scarred his face.”

  The inn mistress wept in desolation.

  “May the gods forgive me. But it saved his life!”

  The old priestess sniffed.

  “Greed kept you here. And so he hated you for what you had done.”

  Kitsune Sura turned stern eyes upon the other priestess.

&n
bsp; “No one knows that more than she does! No one punishes her more than she punishes herself!” The fox’s voice seared into the old priestess. “A priest’s first duty is found in compassion. You have lost yourself!”

  Glowering, Sura deliberately took a sip from a cup of buckwheat wine to give herself breathing space. She laid her head back against the wall behind her and carefully measured her breaths.

  The fox turned once again to the old priestess.

  “Describe Mirusu.”

  The old priestess gave a sorrowful sigh.

  “Slim – pure and innocent. Long, lustrous black hair.”

  The fox nodded. “And she plays a flute?”

  “Yes…” The old woman suddenly felt lost and sad. “She played like a goddess. She could make elementals dance and new spring grasses sing…”

  Sura nodded and arose. She walked with Chiri out to the open air. They both stood – armed and deep in thought – slowly musing out across the steam.

  Chiri gave a nod, ordering her thoughts.

  “What do you think, Sura san?”

  The fox turned to look off towards the mountain peak. It was hidden by a drifting haze of snowfall. But even so – she could feel it looming dark and cold up above the forest.

  “I think there’s a glacier a couple of ri away up there. And that’s going to be freezing cold, even during summer...”

  There was something very strange about the monkeys. The creatures had all come crowding in about the edge of the springs, as if taking shelter from something in the dark. All held stock still – utterly terrified – staring up towards the inn.

  Bifuuko and Daitanishi whirred into the air, hovering stiffly – staring out into the night. Chiri put a hand upon Sura, observing the monkeys as they crept slowly back from the inn – all of them wide eyed and jittering with fear.

  They continued to stare back towards the inn – some of them rising high on their back legs, listening.