The Fox's Quest

by Anna Frost

  They left early in the day, for the clan house was isolated in the mountains and they would have to travel far before they could spend nights indoors again. They rode horses suitable for their pretend station of poor but proud nobility and were escorted by four fellow shinobi pretending to be hired mercenaries. The four were like ruffians, with clothes gaping open to reveal scarred chests, swords carried over the shoulder in a less-than-aristocratic manner, and loud personalities.

  Mamoru didn’t know these men’s names and wouldn’t have asked anyway, to preserve their cover. It was possible their usual assignment was to be a roaming group of mercenaries who took jobs in places where information of a sensitive nature might be gathered.

  Usagi surveyed their escort. “Well done. We’ll look quite desperate to have hired such bodyguards. Any bandits we may meet will be wary of engaging men who look as cruel as themselves.”

  As soon as they hit the road, the questions began.

  Hey, hey, what’s that bird’s name?

  The demon kept their shared body’s eyes upon the bird so Mamoru might have a good look. Its orange face and neck gave away its species. That’s a robin, Mamoru said.

  Look, this tree is white instead of brown. Is it sick?

  This species has natural white bark. Haven’t you seen trees before?

  I couldn’t see colors before, not like you do. I like them.

  At their first meal stop, they were given nothing but plain rice to eat. This was not a shock to Mamoru, but the demon felt differently.

  What do you mean we didn’t pack any dessert?!

  Chapter Eight

  Akakiba

  Akakiba didn’t usually find it trying to spend time on the road. But neither did he usually have to carry a distasteful, energy-stealing sword along.

  The thing raised his hackles like nothing else. He watched it constantly, as though it might come to life and leap on him. He kept it wrapped up and hidden in a pack when they were on the move, but left it away from them and their horses at night.

  “How are you feeling?” he asked when they set up camp in the evening.

  “Hm?” Yuki blinked at him. “Oh, I’m saddle sore, but otherwise fine.” He rubbed his behind as if to demonstrate exactly how saddle sore he was. “You set a hard pace. Shouldn’t we slow down?”

  “You saw what proximity did to those trees. I worry about our health and the horses’.”

  Yuki grimaced. “You have a point, but so does my behind.”

  They hadn’t seen the Sanae impersonator lately, although they’d once or twice caught glimpses of red ahead. It was in the spirit’s interest to keep its distance from the sword, but Akakiba missed its random visits. It, at the very least, listened when he spoke instead of staring at nothing while having a private conversation with somebody else.

  A further week of travel greatly shortened the distance between themselves and Nara, the city where they would find the temple to which Jien and Aito belonged. If neither of them were present at the time, Akakiba planned to speak with the highest ranked monk available. He would have been embarrassed to admit aloud he didn’t know who the temple’s abbot was or whether the man was likely to agree to meet with visitors.

  They were glad to sight the city. The horses found new energy and trotted the rest of the way, hoping for the proper care, food, and rest to be found in a stable.

  Akakiba felt much the same, if one substituted “stable” for “inn.” Luxuriating in a hot bath would be most welcome.

  Regretfully, the matter of the sword must come first. They had, the previous night, washed their clothes in a stream and thereafter dried them over the fire, so they didn’t look or smell quite as ragged as they felt when they presented themselves at the Great Eastern Temple’s gate.

  “Jien and Aito, you say? I think they’re still in,” one of the guards said. “Do you need help locating them? We can—”

  The second guard, staring at his bonded dragon bumping nose with a much larger dragon, spoke over his colleague. “Is that a great dragon?” The small dragon, though fully grown, was hardly bigger than a man’s arm; Yuki’s dragon was over twice as long and much bulkier. This kind of baffled reaction had been getting annoyingly frequent in the last few months.

  “What else could I be?” Drac inquired.

  The guard, resorting to the default response to an awkward situation, bowed deep. “Excuse my rudeness!”

  Jien saved them from further delay by suddenly appearing, waving wildly. “Hey, Aki! Yuki! We’ve been expecting you. This way!”

  The moment they were beyond the guards’ hearing, Yuki asked Jien the obvious question. “Did Sanae tell you we were coming?”

  “Yes. She about frightened me to death, appearing out of nowhere! I took her for a ghost at first and Aito thought I was an idiot.”

  That last sentence was as unexpected as a thunderclap from a clear sky. Aito didn’t think the lookalike was a ghost? Jien might have been fooled, but a man like Aito, who possessed familiars, couldn’t possibly be tricked by a spirit.

  But if it wasn’t a ghost, then… then…

  He was saved from thinking about it by Jien’s continuing babbling.

  “She had time to explain about—” Jien flapped a hand about in search of words “—everything, about death and not death. Very interesting. She said you’d found a special sword you wanted to bring here. It didn’t take long for us to realize it’s the same sword we’ve been looking for!”

  Akakiba halted mid-stride. “You’ve been looking for this sword? You know what it is, then?”

  “Aito will tell you. Stables first.”

  Jien led the way to the stables, where dozens of horses were kept, whether war-trained beasts or swift-footed ones ready to bear off messengers. A few empty stalls near the entrance looked little used, possibly meant to accommodate visitors like them. They surrendered their mounts to be unsaddled, rubbed down, and fed.

  The next stop was the dormitories, a large building spacious enough to house a hundred monks. Yuki’s dragon made a beeline for a nearby pond while the rest of them went inside. Ascending to the second floor, where the spacing of the doors indicated the rooms were bigger than those on the first floor, they found Aito beckoning to them from an open doorway.

  A steaming pot of tea and a plate of rice balls wrapped in seaweed waited for them inside.

  “I apologize for the plain snack,” Aito said. “There wasn’t time to obtain better. Tea?”

  They took the proffered cups but hardly took two sips before polite chitchat made way to the matter at hand. The strange sword was unwrapped and presented for inspection.

  Aito recoiled when the blade was uncovered and, with a visible effort, shifted forward again to flick the blanket back over it. “So much energy,” he said. “Where did it get it?”

  “The forest around it was dead for miles around,” Yuki said. “Nothing lived there.”

  “We were told as much but I had doubts. I didn’t believe it possible the sword could draw energy from something it wasn’t actively in contact with. Seeing its huge reserves, I’ve no choice but to believe.” Aito produced a map from a corner of the room where several scrolls were piled near a writing table. He unrolled it carefully. “Show me where you found it.”

  Yuki studied the map before putting his finger down. “About here.”

  “That’s the middle of nowhere,” Jien said. “Aito, is there something special about that place?”

  Aito’s brows drew down. “I don’t know.”

  Unable to contribute, Akakiba drank tea and daydreamed about a hot bath. It was a safe topic to dwell upon, safer than trying to untangle his feelings about the spirit who might or might not be his sister.

  “I know what it is!” a creaky voice proclaimed as the door was thrown open. “It’s an ene
rgy sink!” The old monk looked nowhere as frail as his voice sounded, his body wiry and his step springy as he came inside.

  “Teacher,” Aito said sharply, “it’s not polite to spy on people with your familiar.”

  “Feh. It’s the only way I can learn what’s happening around here. Everybody thinks I’m too senile to help. But I’m not, see? I know what’s in that place!” The old man turned to Akakiba. “It was in a valley; isn’t that what you said?”

  “Ah, yes.”

  The old man nodded vigorously. “I studied energy sinks when I was young and I visited that place because of it. You said it was dead and lifeless; when I was there, it was a lush forest the likes of which you’d never seen. The greens were so bright it hurt the eye, the animals were strong and healthy beyond reason and merely being there made you feel intoxicated with pure life.” He paused to clear his throat noisily. “A cup of tea, perhaps?”

  “Of course.” Aito poured a cup for the old man. “This is my teacher, Toshishiro. You may have gathered he has a familiar spirit of his own and uses it unwisely.”

  “Terrible,” Toshishiro said at the now empty cup. “You could never brew tea properly, boy. Now, where was I? Yes, energy sinks. They occur here and there, places where spiritual energy gathers over the centuries until it’s like a lake drowning the local vegetation and animal life. Planting a sword like this in there…” He shook his head, either impressed or appalled.

  “So the sword soaked in the spare energy,” Aito speculated. “But the life there had adapted to the abundance of spiritual energy, and without it, couldn’t survive.”

  “Now you understand. Even if the surrounding forest died, spiritual energy would keep gravitating there and would keep being absorbed by the sword. I shudder to think how much energy it has already absorbed over the years its been missing. I’m glad it’s back in our hands. It must be contained.”

  “We have a problem,” Jien said. Heedless of the danger, he’d taken the sword out of the blanket to squint at the glyphs. “The workmanship is amazing, but look at the blade.”

  The monks crowded to stare at the naked steel.

  “Oh dear,” Toshishiro said.

  “What is it?” Akakiba prompted when the silence stretched. He didn’t feel inclined to get close enough to the bare blade to see what they’d noticed. He’d be happiest if he never, ever saw this evil thing again.

  “Oh, I didn’t explain that part, did I?” Jien grimaced. “The sword we’re looking for is hundreds of years old. This is an amazing forgery, but it’s far too new to be mistaken for the original.”

  Akakiba’s heart sank. “You’re saying there’s more of these horrors out there.”

  “Well, yes.”

  Chapter Nine

  Sanae

  The pulse of stolen energy disappeared from Sanae’s perception, which she took to mean the cursed sword had been neutralized.

  She popped in the room where she sensed her brother. Ah, much better. What did you do?

  “Containment,” Jien said, indicating a wooden chest covered with carved glyphs. “But don’t be too happy. There’s probably others like it.”

  What? Why do you think that? After Jien finished explaining what she’d missed, her mood bordered on cranky. We have to find those things, she growled. They’re hurting our clan.

  Akakiba gave her a look and she gave him one right back. He could say all the silly things he wanted about her being an impostor, but she was still a child of the Fox clan.

  The old monk named Toshishiro—who’d hardly blinked at her arrival—produced a map marked with the location of known energy sinks. It was a detailed map that showed the truth of their long and narrow country; it was not a single land but a collection of islands close together in the sea.

  The Great Temples were loosely situated in the center of the country, on the bigger islands. Besides the energy sink they had already visited, there were three others marked on the map—one to the southwest, one to the northeast beyond mount Fuji and one so far north it was close to the Great Northern Temple.

  “There must be others,” Toshishiro said, “but I never had the opportunity to investigate beyond this area. We could consult with the other temples but I don’t think it wise to betray our interest in these places.”

  Sanae peered at the map laid on the tatami floor. You boys should split up and visit the two closest ones. I can scout ahead, but I can’t do anything if I find a sword or enemies using one.

  The thought of those weapons in the hands of her clan’s enemies made her shudder. Even a normal un-glyphed sword could wound a fox mortally, but these super powered ones wouldn’t allow even a chance of survival—nor the opportunity to abandon flesh as she had done. She’d have to trust that if it came down to battle, Yuki would keep her idiotic brother alive.

  “We should assume the enemy is based somewhere in the vicinity,” Aito said, indicating the area covered by the map. “They would have tried to keep all the swords close by to avoid unnecessary travel.”

  “We’d best hurry,” Jien said, “If they notice one of the swords is gone, they’ll try to remove the others from their positions.”

  “I will request appropriate supplies,” Aito said. “Be ready to leave after breakfast.” Then, eying his older colleague, “Master Toshishiro shall stay here and keep watch over Saji. If the demon returns, we must know of it.”

  “Oh, I see how it is,” Toshishiro grumbled. “You don’t think an old man can keep up with you young ones, eh? Very well, you disrespectful boy! I will stay.”

  Sanae studied Aito, familiarizing herself with his aura so she might later home in on him as needed. It wouldn’t be difficult: Aito and his familiars together shone exceptionally bright on the other side. Old Toshishiro shone a little, too; she hadn’t failed to notice the spirit twirling invisibly about his head. She had the strange impression the spirit was exuding hostility at her as if it were jealous of its human’s attention. Maybe that one didn’t like sharing.

  Sanae stewed in envy as the five men left for the refectory, but she didn’t torture herself by going along to watch them eat food she couldn’t smell or taste. Instead, she drifted outside and watched a pack of trainees make war on fallen leaves with straw brooms. They worked with such diligence she suspected they’d been told they must finish their task before going to dinner.

  Once, autumn had been full of pleasures for her, among them the abundance of fresh nuts for use in desserts, the pleasant temperature, and the lovely sight of colorful leaves. The last pleasure remained, but only in a limited way. Spirit “eyes” simply weren’t as sensitive to colors as human eyes. Over time, she might even lose the ability to distinguish colors. Depressing thought, that.

  She ghosted through random halls, looking for distractions. A dragon noticed her, turning its scaled head to follow her progress, but it didn’t alert its bonded human. The place felt empty. Besides guards on duty and a handful of monks bedridden by age, everybody appeared to have congregated in the refectory.

  Here and there on the walls were glyphs that glowed softly when she passed them by. She studied them, wondering what they were supposed to do. She faded into the spiritual realm to see if the glyphs resonated there, but they had no presence at all in that world. As she crossed back over, the glyphs flared.

  Ah ha! She tested further, making herself more real, more solid. The glyphs’ glow became brighter and brighter in answer, until—

  Ow!

  She jumped as a shock coursed through her and dispersed into mist by reflex.

  The cursed things were demon wards! Since demons were spirits like any other, their way of keeping demons out was apparently to use glyphs meant to sting any spirit going physical. Normally, it was a demon thing to do.

  But I can do it, too, she mused. I should try again, to confirm.


  The second jolt was no more pleasant. By now the glyphs’ activity had attracted a nearby guard’s attention, forcing her to retreat. She didn’t want to be run through with a glyphed spear; that might kill her.

  Sliding out of the temple’s grounds and into the city, she went in search of a valid reason to test her abilities. In such a large city, there would surely be villains to be found.

  Sad as it was, she was right. Within moments, she had found a pair of tall boys tormenting a shorter one in a shadowy alley. The men and women passing by paid no attention to the scene.

  “Don’t be stupid,” one of the tall boys said. “You can’t come to the temple with us. Broken people can’t become sohei.” He must have been referring to the short boy’s right ankle; it was bent in an odd way and likely caused a limp when he walked.

  The second bully wasn’t quite as tall. That made him the medium one. Medium Boy said, “I’ll become the greatest sohei ever seen and slay demons by the dozen, every day of every year!”

  Tall Boy smacked Medium Boy behind the head. “I’m going to be the greatest. You can be second greatest.”

  “Ow, fine.”

  “Mother says I can do as well as you,” Short Boy shot back, his voice wavering.

  “Is your mother blind? Hasn’t she noticed you’re a stupid cripple?” With a casual push, Tall Boy sent Short Boy crashing to the dirty ground.

  A better opportunity wasn’t likely to present itself. After a quick check to ensure no demon-blade wielding samurai or sohei were in the area, Sanae went to work. She focused her essence as strongly as she could, going further than she’d done before.

  Gasps arose as three pairs of eyes fixed upon her. Okay, she had visibility… Half-way there… Focus harder, harder… Her essence was now as dense as she could make it.

  “Fox spirit,” Short Boy whispered in awe.