The Mage

by Inbali Iserles

  Tao sighed. “I hate this place. Can you feel it sort of … I don’t know, sucking something out of you?” His head drooped. “I’ve never felt so sad.”

  Simmi turned to him. “I can’t stop thinking about Mox.”

  Siffrin lowered his muzzle. “I know just what you mean …”

  Haiki’s eyes tracked between the tree trunks. Pale tendrils rose through the yellow dust. “It’s the White Fox.”

  I didn’t like to admit that I felt the same. A wordless sorrow had crept into my heart. You’ll never find your brother, it whispered. You cannot succeed. The time of the free fox has passed.

  “Isla?” Haiki was staring at me. He must have caught the anguish in my face. “Don’t let it in.”

  It isn’t real.

  We walked through the dark trees. Yellow mushrooms bobbed up from the rotting earth. Their acid tang stung my throat.

  My nose crinkled. I smelled grit and festering dirt. “There’s something up ahead,” I warned.

  Haiki glanced back at me. “We’re nearing the Bottomless Swamp. It used to be part of the Marshlands.”

  My eyes flicked to Siffrin. Wasn’t that his home once? The red-furred fox kept walking, his eyes set forward.

  Haiki continued. “When we enter the swamp, walk slowly. Don’t stop, or you’ll sink. Whatever you do, don’t run.”

  “Can’t we go around it?” asked Simmi.

  “The only other way is through the Narral’s den.” His ears pressed flat. “You can’t imagine a group of foxes more dangerous or better schooled in foxcraft.”

  I tilted my head. “The Elders.” They had spoken through me. We are more dangerous. We are the masters of foxcraft. But the Elders were back at the Rock. Could they really help us so far from their own base of power? The fur rose along my back. “Wouldn’t it be best to run through the swamp? It would be quicker …”

  Haiki swung around to face me. “Don’t run,” he begged. “The more you run or fight, the stronger its grip on your gerra. It will suck you down. The swamp is like the belly of the White Fox. It thirsts for you, for your maa … You must trust me on this, please.”

  “How can I trust you?” The words escaped as a whimper. I thought you were my friend.

  The Elders replied, You don’t have a choice.

  My tail flicked uneasily. My ears pricked up. The crack of a twig, the scuffle of claws. “The Taken! They’ve turned around. They’re coming …” I craned to hear. I could pick up the footfalls of six foxes … seven … eight … I lost count.

  “This way,” said Haiki.

  We padded quickly through the forest until the trees thinned out. The land ahead of us looked unremarkable. Flinty pebbles covered the ground. Gray clouds stretched over the sky. Only the strange whiff of grit betrayed the swamp.

  “Remember,” warned Haiki. “Move slowly but don’t stop. Whatever happens, you mustn’t run.”

  We glanced at each other.

  Crossing the swamp meant breaking cover. “Follow me,” said Haiki. He stepped into the mulch. His forepaws started sinking but he kept moving, carefully pulling out each paw and squelching it down into the earth. His tail hovered behind him. Step by step, he advanced over the swamp.

  Siffrin waded in after him. The mud clung to his paws, but he gritted his teeth and pressed through, his long ears flat against his head.

  Simmi and Tao paused by my side, sniffing the dank mulch.

  Siffrin glanced back at us. “Are you coming?”

  My ears pricked up. The pawsteps of the Taken were drawing closer. “Move,” I hissed. Simmi and Tao stepped out over the swamp together.

  Haiki and Siffrin were the first to reach the far side. I was relieved to see the red fox climb out. He licked his paws urgently, ridding them of the filthy muck.

  As Simmi and Tao padded ahead. I took a first cautious step into the mud. The cold earth grasped at my paws. I felt it seep between the pads. Its touch was acidic, and the stench this close was rank. It singed my skin beneath the fur.

  It was all I could do not to recoil. I trod forward, breathing as slowly as I could, edging my way over the swamp. I followed a short distance behind Simmi and Tao, keeping an eye out for the Taken. I could hear them advancing, their claws scratching against twigs.

  The red-eyed foxes appeared between the trees.

  My heart started thumping.

  Don’t panic! Walk slowly.

  “Get them!” snarled one of the Taken.

  They bounded toward us, a wall of foxes.

  Don’t run …

  I forced myself to slow down, even as the Taken sprang into the swamp. Even as teeth snapped close to my tail.

  “Tao, stay calm!” begged Simmi.

  I looked ahead to see the young fox batting at the mud with his forepaws. To my horror, he began to sink.

  “Breathe slowly,” I called. Fighting to stay calm myself, I worked my way alongside him. The young fox was already dipping. Simmi was tugging helplessly at his fur as the mud rose up his neck. In a moment he’d be swallowed whole. “Look at me!” I commanded.

  Tao’s terrified eyes met mine. I gazed at him, willing a bolt of maa to pass between us. Then I blinked and Tao gasped. He drew in his breath and lifted his head. Moving slowly now, he raised each foreleg from the mud in turn and managed to hook his paws over the edge of the swamp. Siffrin clamped his jaws over Tao’s scruff and tugged him out as though he was a cub. Simmi scrambled out alongside her brother.

  “Over here, Isla,” said Haiki. He tried to help me out but I shoved him away, slipping backward and losing my footing. The cold grip of the swamp oozed over my tail. Panic jagged through me. I released a slow breath, fighting against it, and heaved myself out of the swamp. But before my tail was clear of the deadly mud, I felt jaws snap at its tip. With a yelp, I tugged it around me and turned back to the swamp. One of the Taken was whiskers away, his forepaws scrabbling as he reached for me. The mud was rising along his flanks. A red-eyed vixen was struggling after him.

  “Don’t let them escape!” barked the vixen.

  The nearest pleached fox started batting his paws. He was nearing the edge of the swamp, but not quite close enough to find purchase.

  “Don’t struggle,” I found myself saying.

  “Isla, we should go,” said Haiki. “Before one of them makes it across, or others cut us off up ahead. This way, hurry!”

  I could hear Haiki bounding between the dead trees, and the shuffle of paws as the others followed.

  Not all the others. “Isla, you can’t help them.” It was Siffrin. Mud clung to his belly and flanks. A splash had caught the brilliant red fur beneath his eye. He ignored it, staring at the Taken in the swamp. His face was stricken. I remembered his shock when one of the Taken had fallen from a roof in the Snarl. “You can’t help them,” he repeated, more to himself.

  “Isla! Siffrin!” barked Haiki up ahead.

  We turned and ran after him. We didn’t stay to watch as the swamp claimed its victims.

  The trees on the far side of the swamp crowded close to one another. Spidery vines drooped down from their leafless branches. Even the faintest contact left an acid tang on our fur.

  Haiki advanced beneath trees. Despite everything, there was still a bounce in his gait. I wondered what he’d been like before—when he was back with his family in the Lowlands. Happy-go-lucky. Something of his old spirit remained in his bobbing tail.

  “How did you get away?” I asked suddenly.

  Haiki turned. Simmi, Tao, and Siffrin paused, watching us.

  The gray’s eyes were wary. “What do you mean?”

  “You were spying for the Mage. What changed?” A ripple of fear ran along my back. My ears pricked up. Even now, were the Taken coming closer? Was this part of a trap?

  Haiki winced. “At malinta, when the Taken stormed the Elder Rock …” He lowered his head, shaking his ears. “I couldn’t stay and watch. I tried to escape but Koch caught up with me. He mocked me. He said that my family were lon
g dead. So I ran. I didn’t know where I was going or what I would do. I just ran.”

  Simmi squealed with rage and charged at him. She pounced on his back, throwing Haiki to the ground. “Coward!” she spat before sinking her teeth into his neck. Haiki recoiled, doing nothing to fight back. “You ran and let the Taken attack. You led us to harm. You didn’t warn us!”

  “I wanted to,” he whimpered. “I came close.”

  Simmi dug her teeth deeper and Haiki yelped.

  “Enough,” said Siffrin. He sprang forward, butting against Simmi and pushing her off Haiki.

  “He deserves it!” snarled Simmi. “He deserves worse!”

  “Maybe,” said Siffrin. “But we need him unharmed. He’s the only one who knows how to find the lair.” He looked Haiki in the eye. “But first, there’s something I don’t understand. If you ran from Koch, why are you back here? Why stay at the edge of the Darklands where you’re bound to get caught?”

  I glared at Haiki. “Why are you here?”

  Haiki’s ears pointed out at the sides. “Because I felt terrible for what I’d done. I wanted to help make it better.” He dropped his muzzle and added. “And I had nowhere else to go.”

  Sympathy fluttered at my fur. “This isn’t part of a trap?”

  “No,” said Haiki. “I won’t forsake you. Not this time—never again.” He dropped his head. “I thought of hiding away forever. But the yellow mushrooms were everywhere, more and more of them every day. And I realized that it doesn’t matter if you choose not to fight. Sometimes you don’t have a choice. Because … because foxes like the Mage don’t care what you want to do.” He looked up. His eyes were wide. “I started walking the border of the Darklands, waiting for my chance.”

  Siffrin frowned. “Your chance for what?”

  “To do something right,” said Haiki quietly.

  Tao stared at him. “So the Mage doesn’t know you’re here.”

  “I’m sure he does by now,” said Siffrin ominously.

  “Probably …” Haiki’s tail crept to his flank. “But I’m not working for him. Not anymore.”

  I flexed my paw. If that was true, the gray was taking a huge risk.

  “There’s nothing left for me,” said Haiki quietly. “My home is gone, my family are dead. I’ve let everyone down …”

  My ears twisted restlessly, forward and back, forward and back, like Métis. Had I heard something? My tail shot up. “The Taken are near.”

  “Quickly,” said Haiki. “Through Petris Wood. It isn’t much further to the weeping tree.”

  “What’s the Petris Wood?” asked Tao.

  Haiki hesitated. “The trees are ancient, frozen by time into marbled stone.”

  Siffrin tensed. “I’ve heard about petris trees. They’re older than the earliest settlement of furless. They were here before the White Fox first claimed its stake on our world. It is said that shadows from the past stick between their branches like flies in a web. There are tales of visions, apparitions.”

  Haiki dipped his head in acknowledgment. “I’ve passed between the petris trees untouched, but enchantments don’t seem to affect me.” He cocked his head. “If you see anything strange, just remember it isn’t real.”

  My ears flipped back. “What sort of visions?”

  “I don’t really know,” said Haiki.

  I wanted to hear more, but there wasn’t time. I could just catch the pawsteps of the Taken. They had picked up our scent.

  The ground lurched downhill as we sprang forward. The grainy earth scattered beneath our paws. It seized my nostrils, sharp with decay. Fear coursed through me and I looked around. Was it too late to escape the Deep Forest?

  I pictured Pirie playing in the wildway. Remembered how we’d chase each other. How he’d slimmer—though I had no name for it then. How I’d karak.

  There was no way back.

  Darkness still hung over us, from branches and latticing vines, but as we bounded downhill I could make out great gray objects. The petris trees came into view, standing as rigid as rocks. Closer up, I could see blue veins running through their dark trunks.

  The fur was sharp down my back. I felt it instantly—there was something strange about this place. A few paces ahead, I saw Siffrin draw to a halt, his tail puffed up. Simmi and Tao exchanged wary glances.

  “I think we should go another way,” whimpered Tao.

  Haiki was already striding between the trees. “It’s too late for that.”

  The yellow dust was drifting toward us. I could hear the cackle of the Taken.

  I stepped between the petris trees.

  Their branches were jagged and broken. It was stale between their ancient trunks. Airless. I drew in my breath.

  I sniffed and looked up. Gray clouds shifted overhead. The others had disappeared. I was alone.

  “Siffrin?” I called. A fox was moving up ahead. I could see the outline of his body. “Haiki?” I said more warily.

  A shiver of gray light. A silver-and-gold dappled brush. My voice cracked. “Greatma?” But the fox was too small to be an adult. “Pirie … ?”

  He peered at me from around the trunk of a blue-veined petris tree. His eyes were two globes of light. Then he darted away, into darkness.

  “Pirie, wait!” I started to run. I could hear him zigzagging between the trees. My footfall followed his. Each paw instinctively fell where his pads had left an imprint in the soil. My breath came in gasps. Long grass tugged at my legs and I glanced back to catch a flick of my mottled tail.

  Pirie’s tail.

  * * *

  I am Pirie.

  Isla was hiding. I could hear her breath as she crouched on the far side of the fence. I sniffed, reached under the wood with my paw. I could smell her ginger coat, could sense her triumph. I imagined the tilt of her head, the bristle of her whiskers.

  I knew this fox like my shadow.

  I broke through the fence in a shower of wood chips. I drew in my breath and steadied my mind. In an instant, I disappeared from sight. Silently, I was gaining on Isla. My tail twitched in amusement. But a moment later, my heart crashed at my ribs as a bird shrieked overhead. My trick was spoiled and I lost my footing.

  The cawing stopped. I looked up, head cocked. Then it struck me. It must have been Isla.

  She was getting too good at that! I picked up speed, racing toward her.

  “Enough!” she hissed.

  “Not till you beg for mercy!” I pounced on her. “Say it!”

  “Never!” she spat.

  “Say it! Say it or else!”

  “Or else what?”

  “Or else this!” I covered her with long lashes of my tongue. We wrestled and nipped each other, curled up together until Ma, Fa, and Greatma arrived in the wildway. As they left to move the cache, Greatma looked at me. She didn’t say anything—she didn’t have to.

  No more foxcraft. That’s what her dark eyes told me.

  I did my best to look innocent. Foxcraft? Me?

  Isla slipped off deeper into the wildway. I saw her ginger tail floating between the grass stems. Naughty foxling, I thought, my own tail wagging. Well, I couldn’t blame her. I wasn’t going back to our patch either. Not just yet … I padded to the broken fence where I’d run after Isla. I’d promised Greatma, but a little more practice couldn’t hurt. When I was sure I was alone, I closed my eyes. I drew in my breath and my heart beat slow. My mind was silver. A familiar warmth flowed through my paws. I opened my eyes, my jaw falling open. Colors swirled overhead. I’d seen them before, but not like this. Gold through violet and green. Was I really the cause of those beautiful colors? Even the sunset couldn’t rival them.

  I thought of Greatma’s warning.

  You never know who might be watching.

  Guiltily, I released my breath. The colors dissolved, first as rainbows and then into clouds. When they had passed, I felt a change. A deep chill crept over my fur.

  A breeze is rising. It is touched with river and ice.

  The b
itter tang of acid. The shuffle of paws along the fence. The dark shape of foxes, stark against the crimson sunset. Their heads were dropped, their jaws were set. The vixen in the lead was enormous. Her thickset legs strutted toward the fallen branch that led to our patch.

  “The colors of his maa were very close,” snarled the vixen. “His patch must be here. Find the cub!”

  I watched in horror as they poured over the branch and into my patch. Would Ma, Fa, and Greatma be there? What would the foxes do? I turned toward the wildway. I had to warn Isla. But as I hurried through the grass, I couldn’t find her.

  A sharp voice stopped me in my tracks. “There!”

  I spun around. The male who had spoken was only strides away from me. Others stood behind him. Their eyes were red-rimmed and veiny. A strange tang rose off their fur.

  “What do you want?” I murmured.

  The foxes didn’t answer. Instead, their lips peeled back, green froth clinging to their fangs.

  Terror ripped through me. I turned and ran into the night.

  * * *

  I ran blindly, scrambling between the blue-veined trees until they gave way to arching black vines.

  Karka and the Taken came … and it was Pirie’s fault!

  I smacked against something solid. “Careful!” cried Simmi.

  Blinking rapidly, I looked up. Yellow dust was drifting between the trees, hissing toward us. Overhead, the cloudy sky betrayed no murmur of Canista’s Lights. I gulped for breath. “The memory … Pirie’s memory. The Taken arriving at our patch. He ran.” I shook my head. “But I know they caught up with him and brought him here.”

  “I thought of the first time we’d swum in the stream,” said Simmi. “Me, Tao, and Mox. Mox was so small … Dexa and Mips didn’t want him to swim, but he insisted. It was so much fun.” Her tail crept around her flank. “I’d forgotten all about it.”

  Haiki padded toward us. “Are you all right?” He cocked his head. “Did you remember sad things?”

  “You’re lucky it doesn’t affect you,” I said quietly, as Tao burst out between the petris and ran to Simmi.