by Julie Kagawa
“You must think this all very strange,” he said. “I forget sometimes how new you are to all of this. That only a short while ago, you were a simple human, with a simple human life. And now, you have been thrust into this world of yokai and magic, demons and prophecies. It must be overwhelming.”
Uncomfortable, Suki raised her hands in a helpless manner, but Seigetsu frowned.
“No,” he said, making her stiffen. “Talk to me, hitodama. Speak your words out loud, otherwise you might lose the ability to make noise entirely. You have questions. Ask them, and I will do my best to answer.”
Suki shrank back, withering with the thought of having to speak, then gathered herself in determination. Talk to him, Lord Seigetsu had said. Ask questions. She did have questions, she realized. Too many. Why had she died? What was the scroll Lady Satomi wanted so badly? Who was the Master of Demons? Why was Daisuke-sama traveling with a kitsune, and why did Lord Seigetsu seem so interested in this fox girl? For that matter, Suki thought, why did everyone seem so interested in this fox girl? From Lady Satomi, to the Master of Demons, to the terrible Hakaimono, to Seigetsu-sama himself. Everyone was after this kitsune, and the scroll she possessed. Why?
So many questions, it made her head ache. She felt as if she had only a few tiny pieces of a massive puzzle, that the rest of the pieces had been scattered to the winds, and that only Lord Seigetsu knew what the completed version looked like.
Lord Seigetsu.
She looked up, meeting the luminous golden eyes. She knew, suddenly, what question she wanted to ask.
“Who…who are you?”
Seigetsu-sama chuckled. “I am a simple shogi master,” he answered. “One who has been moving the pieces around the board for a long, long time. Every play has been deliberate. Every piece has been placed and taken with the utmost care.” He glanced at Taka, still sleeping in the corner. “Of course, it helps when one knows his opponent’s moves before they do, but even so, it has been a long, exhausting game. But the final play is in sight, if I can only make it to the end with no mistakes.”
“And…what is the end, Seigetsu-sama?” Suki whispered. “What happens…when the game…is finished?”
Seigetsu’s eyes gleamed, and a slow smile crossed his face. In that moment, Suki saw a flash of raw ambition in his yellow eyes, a hunger that sent a chill through her whole body. But he only said, his voice low and controlled, “I can not ruin the ending, Suki-chan. That would just spoil the surprise, for everyone.”
Suki paused, gathering her thoughts and her courage to ask more questions. It was as if a dam had been opened inside her; suddenly she wanted to know everything. But before she could say another word, the lump in the corner suddenly quivered and gasped. Taka sat bolt upright, shedding blankets, to gaze wildly around the room, his single eye huge with fear.
“Master!”
Immediately, Seigetsu rose and crossed the room to kneel before him, grabbing the yokai by the shoulder as he jerked and panted in short, panicked breaths. “I’m here,” he said, his deep voice firm and soothing at the same time. “It’s me. Calm yourself, Taka.”
Taka shivered, gasping and whimpering, but obediently went still in the grip of his master. Suki floated up, hovering anxiously beside the pair, as Seigetsu’s eyes narrowed. “A nightmare?” he asked quietly, and the yokai nodded, biting his lip. “What did you see?”
“An army of demons,” Taka whispered. “Marching into the mountains. They attacked a temple and killed everyone there. There was so much blood. Nobody survived, not even the fox girl.”
PART 3
23
THE DESTROYER COMES
HAKAIMONO
The temple gates flew open with a crash, and the tremors vibrated from where I was standing, all the way up the mountain. Silhouetted in the frame of the ruined gates, the moonlight casting a long, horned shadow over the stones, I grinned.
Hello, protectors of the Dragon scroll. I’m here. Hope you’re ready for me.
Silence. An empty courtyard, windswept and perfectly maintained, was my greeting as the doors bounced and swayed on their hinges, the boom still reverberating through the air. To my immediate left, a pristine rock garden glimmered in the moonlight, thousands of raked white pebbles forming a rocky sea around a few larger islands. To the right, statues of human warriors led the way to the main hall, making me curl a lip in amusement. I was still covered in dust, my body aching and bruised from that last little challenge. I hoped the sculptor who had created all those guardian statues was dead, because his heart would probably burst from shock when he found nothing remained of his creations but gravel and dust.
At my back, the icy wind howled up the sheer drop down the mountainside, a mountain I had to climb to reach the temple at the top of the cliff. I noticed a pulley system with a large basket sitting near the gate; they had obviously pulled the basket up in the hopes that it would stop me. Too bad for them, this wasn’t the first mountain I had scaled. I hoped that a cavern full of living statues and a slightly challenging climb up the side of a cliff weren’t the only defenses these protectors had, or I was going to be disappointed.
With Kamigoroshi glowing a baleful purple in my hand, I stepped through the gates into the Steel Feather temple.
Nothing happened. I had been bracing myself for arrows, traps, for a burst of magic as the temple defenses went off. A cold wind howled over the rooftops, but other than a dry leaf skipping across the courtyard, there was no movement or sign of life anywhere.
Which meant that they knew I was here, and I was walking into an ambush.
I sighed. “Well, isn’t this an obvious setup? You know I’m only going to get mad when you spring whatever it is you’re planning,” I called, walking steadily across the courtyard toward the temple steps. Kamigoroshi flickered and pulsed in my hand, casting eerie shadows over the stones. “You could save me some trouble and attack me now, or keep hiding and force me to hunt you down. The outcome will be the same either way.”
No answer. The courtyard was dark and still as I made my way up the stairs and stepped through the doors into the main hall. The floor of this shadowy chamber was polished onyx and jade, with lines of gold threaded through the tile. Large jade pillars marched down either side of the room, and even more statues of humans and tengu lined the walls. If this was a normal temple, the back of the room would be reserved for the gigantic statue of the humans’ Jade Prophet, who was neither kami nor god but simply a mortal who had apparently reached enlightenment. But, as I had guessed earlier, the guardians of the Steel Feather temple were tengu, who believed themselves above mortal enlightenment. Instead of a huge green statue of a meditating woman, a great serpentine dragon had been carved into the wall, head and coils seeming to emerge from the stone. The roaring head hovered over an altar crafted of dark wood and gold, where a long, lacquered case rested on a stand in the very center. But the dais that held it wasn’t empty.
A single human with long white hair stood calmly in front of the altar, a shining length of steel held loosely at his side. His face was covered with a pale oni mask, a grotesque parody of my kin, with a grinning red mouth bristling with fangs and a pair of horns curling from the brow.
I smiled, recognizing the noble from Tatsumi’s memories, realizing that if he was here, she would be, as well.
“Oni no Mikoto,” I drawled, walking forward. “Or should I say Taiyo Daisuke of the Sun Clan? Where are your friends, the ronin archer and that annoying shrine maiden? And the little half-fox?” He didn’t answer, and I chuckled. “Just you, then? Do the tengu here really believe a single human can keep me from taking the Dragon scroll? Or are you trying to recreate our first meeting on the bridge?”
“You will not touch the Dragon scroll, demon.” The human’s voice was cool, unruffled. He took one step forward to meet me and raised his sword in a protective manner. “On my honor, I will protect it, and this temple, with my life.”
I shook my head. “One human warrior cannot stop me,
and the guardians here know that.” With a smirk, I stepped farther into the room, raising Kamigoroshi and my voice. “But very well, I’ll go along with this little farce, if only to get things moving. I do not believe for a moment that we are alone, but if you want your final duel, mortal, then I will happily give you an honorable death when I carve the head from your body.”
Oni no Mikoto hesitated a moment, then calmly stepped off the dais and sank into a high stance, his blade held parallel over his head, the tip pointed toward me. “Then let us dance.”
He lunged, a streak of motion across the wooden floor, coming in very fast for a human. I dodged the first blow, letting the sword miss my head by inches, then lashed out in kind, aiming to split the lean body in half. He spun with impressive grace, avoiding the counterstrike, and came at me again.
We danced like this across the floor for a few minutes, dodging, parrying, avoiding our opponent’s blade and responding in turn. Oni no Mikoto was quite skilled, I could admit that. I had encountered several master swordsmen in my long years in the mortal realm, and this Taiyo was among the best.
However, he was still only human. And I never agreed to play by the rules.
The Taiyo slashed at me again, a precise, rather vicious blow meant to sever the head from my body. I twisted to dodge it while bringing Kamigoroshi up to parry, and the screech of metal on metal raced up my arm. At the same time, I released my grip on the sword with one hand, clenched it into a fist and swung it at the human’s head. It struck him in the temple, lifting him off his feet and hurling him into a pillar with a muffled crack. The human collapsed to the base of the column, leaving a smear of blood on the wood, and struggled weakly to right himself.
Smiling, I strolled forward, stopping a few feet away to watch the human push himself to his knees. Blood covered the side of his face, staining his white hair, and a pointed shard of bone peeked through his right sleeve, indicating a broken arm.
“Oh, sorry, mortal,” I mocked, grinning as he raised his head and glared up at me. “Was that not allowed? I forgot to mention I don’t play by your human rules.”
“Demon.” The Taiyo gritted his teeth…and pushed himself to his feet, clutching the sword in his one good hand. His broken limb dangled awkwardly, but he raised the blade and braced himself, glaring at me in defiance. “At least give me the honor of dying on my feet.”
I smiled. “As you wish.”
Kamigoroshi flashed, a glint of steel in the darkness, and the human’s head toppled from his shoulders, hitting the floor with a thump and rolling behind a pillar. The headless corpse swayed in place for the briefest of moments, before it, too, collapsed and leaked blood all over the wooden planks.
I yawned. “Well, that was slightly amusing. Predictable, but amusing. Is that the only obstacle you’re going to throw at me, then? One human with a sword?” No answer from the seemingly empty shadows around me, and I sighed. “All right,” I muttered, turning and walking toward the now unguarded altar. “Then I’ll be taking the scroll and leaving now. Feel free to stop me if you—”
As soon as I set foot on the dais, there was an eruption of smoke at my feet, and the floor tiles under my feet changed. I looked down to see a glowing ring of power, surrounded by sigils and runes that I recognized instantly.
A binding circle.
With multiple eruptions of smoke throughout the room, the statues disappeared, writhing into nothingness as the illusions dissolved. Solemn, scowling tengu emerged from the dissolving mist, their expressions grimly determined as they surrounded me outside the circle. Multiple voices rose into the air, as they began chanting the words to bind a demon and send it back to Jigoku.
Despite the trap, I felt a savage grin cross my face. She was close. I didn’t see her, but the telltale signs of kitsune illusion magic couldn’t be more obvious. The statues and the floor all had the stink of fox magic, though I had to admit, she was getting more powerful with her illusions, to be able to control so many at once.
Your little fox girl is here, Tatsumi. I hope you’ll enjoy the show when I find her.
“Hakaimono!”
The shrine maiden stepped forward, a snarling komainu beside her, and brandished an ofuda at me. On her other side, red-faced and with a nose like a broom handle, stood the daitengu of the temple, both claws wrapped around a staff, holding it before him like a shield. He started chanting, as did the circle of tengu around me, their voices rising in unison to echo off the pillars. At my feet, the binding circle flared red.
“You are not welcome here, demon,” the shrine maiden called, as the strip of paper in her hand began to glow, illuminating the holy words scrawled across it. “And you will never take the scroll fragment from this sacred place—even if we must seal you away for a thousand years, you will never get your evil claws on the Dragon’s prayer.”
She hurled the ofuda at me, where it flew straight as an arrow, crackling with spiritual energy. The chanting of the tengu grew louder, and the strip of paper blazed white as it sped toward me.
I slashed the ofuda from the air, Kamigoroshi flaring with power as the blade struck the paper and sliced it in two. As the strips fluttered harmlessly to the ground, I raised my head and smiled at the miko, showing all my fangs.
“You’re going to have to do better than that, amateur,” I growled, seeing the color drain from her face. “I’m not some weak amanjaku you can seal away with a wave of your ofuda. Dozens of priests and blood mages before you have tried to bind me, and I’ve decorated the binding circles with their insides.” I glanced around me, at the ring of chanting tengu and raised my sword. “I’ve always wondered if crow tastes like chicken. Guess it’s my lucky night.”
Unexpectedly, the shrine maiden gave a grim smile. “Not this night, Hakaimono,” she said. “You will not take one step farther. Your rampage ends here, and you will never lay eyes upon the scroll.”
She raised a billowy sleeve, as if giving a signal. I felt the danger behind me and spun, just as an arrow streaked from the rafters overhead and hit me in the chest.
Snarling, I staggered back, seeing the shaft buried below my collarbone, and reached up to tear it away. The archer, whomever he was, had missed my heart, and that mistake would cost him greatly.
But then, I saw the familiar slip of paper shoved halfway down the shaft, flaring to life as soon as the arrow touched my skin, and growled a curse.
The ofuda burst into streams of light, rising up and spinning around me like a frantic swarm of eels. With a flash, they became glowing chains that wrapped around my arms and legs, anchoring me to the stones. I roared, my voice booming through the rafters, as I sank to my knees, feeling the chains tighten around me. The chanting of the tengu rose, filling the air with power, feeding the magic of the circle and pouring strength into the seal.
I struggled a moment, then gazed up at the shrine maiden, forcing a smirk. “Oh, well-done, human,” I mocked. “I stand corrected. But your seal will hold only for as long as you and your bird friends concentrate. You won’t be able to keep this up forever.”
Her gaze hardened. “It doesn’t have to be forever. Only long enough for this.”
There was a ripple of movement beside me, and she stepped into the open with a billow of red and white. Her ears and tail were clearly visible, and her eyes glowed a subtle gold in the shadows of the hall. She looked different than the terrified kitsune we had left at Satomi’s castle. This Yumeko seemed…harder, older, clearly not the naive little half-yokai who smiled at ghosts and was innocent to the ways of evil. Her golden eyes held a sadness that hadn’t been there before.
Deep inside, I felt a flutter of emotion as the fox girl stepped into the light, a stirring of both fear and cautious relief from the soul within. And I smiled, savoring those tentative feelings of hope, both from Tatsumi, and in the eyes of the kitsune in front of me. They thought they had a chance.
“Hakaimono,” the fox girl said, stopping just outside the binding circle. She appeared calm, but her t
ail twitched a nervous, agitated rhythm behind her robes. “I will ask this of you only once. Release Tatsumi and return to the sword. We don’t want to have to kill you.”
Meeting the girl’s luminous gaze, I started to laugh.
“Oh, naive little half-fox,” I chuckled, as the tengu around me stiffened, even as they continued to chant. “You have no idea what you’re asking. Or what you’re attempting to do.” I shook my head and smiled at the kitsune, furtively testing the strength of the chains as I met her gaze. “You see, I knew you were here somewhere. This cunning little trap had the stench of fox magic all over it. I’ve been wanting to see you again, Yumeko-chan. So has Tatsumi.” I chuckled, even as the soul inside me surged up, stronger than I had ever felt before. “I wanted you to come out and play, little fox,” I continued, as Tatsumi raged at me, desperate and furious. “I didn’t want you skulking back in the shadows, looking on while the rest of your friends screamed and died. Foxes aren’t the only ones who can play tricks. And now that you’ve finally come out of hiding, the real fun can begin.”
She paled, her black-tipped ears flattening against her skull. Behind her, the shrine maiden pulled out another ofuda, and the chanting of the tengu grew louder, more insistent. I could feel the chains tightening around me, burning as they dug into my skin, and bared my fangs.
Watch carefully, Tatsumi. Take a good look at your precious kitsune’s face, for this is the last time you’ll see her alive.
With a roar, I surged up, shattering the chains that held me, and the binding scattered to the wind.
Instantly, the komainu lunged at me with a snarl, jaws gaping wide to tear off my face. I stepped back, raised Kamigoroshi and impaled the lunging dog through the throat. With a ringing howl, the komainu dissolved into a swirl of crimson-and-gold mist and disappeared.
