“Stabbed in the stomach so that they bled to death slowly… An act of cruel malice…”

  Sura heaved a weary sigh.

  “Are they being attended to?”

  “Both bodies have been blessed by the priests.” Kuno turned to his friends. “Has your search revealed anything of interest?”

  Chiri flicked an undecided glance towards the river.

  “Nothing specific, Kuno san. But the water elementals are disturbed. They say there was a darkness in the water last night. They kept their distance.”

  Sura stirred listlessly, drawing back her hair.

  “Well, if there’s a monster, it sure as hell hasn’t crossed their barrier. No breaches in the spell perimeter, the guards saw nothing. There’s no sign of anything having crawled ashore.” The fox was puzzled. “Maybe something’s happening upstream. That boat must have drifted from upriver…”

  Sura has cast a dozen minor spells that day, and her thought processes were now muddled. Chiri held Sura’s hand.

  “Kuno san – Sura and I have to rest now. Our spells have wearied us.”

  Kuno gave a nod of understanding.

  “Rest; you have done thorough work.” Kuno rose to his feet. “I will ask amongst the boatmen, and see if anything strange has been happening along the river. There is more to this than meets the eye.”

  Kuno bowed and walked up towards the jetty, where a ferryman was readying his boat. He bowed to the man, and politely made his enquiries.

  Sura sat dejectedly upon the upturned boat and watched the water. Chiri sighed and gathered the lunch boxes. She placed one into Sura’s lap, knowing that food would always cheer up a fox.

  “Here we go lunch. Your aunt has been chivvying the cooks to make ‘decent’ cuisine.” The rat opened her lunch box, and was pleasantly surprised. There were fried garfish, little slices of roast duck wrapped in some sort of pancake, and rice dusted with spice.

  Beside the food was a piece of folded origami and a little slip of paper. Chiri raised one brow, opened the paper and read it out aloud.

  “By the island shore

  A winter branch lies waiting.

  Reaching for the sun.”

  Embarrassed, Chiri looked at Sura and put the poem away. Sura gave a shrug and took hold of her fried garfish.

  “We got the wrong lunch box. This is for Tonbo.”

  Chiri looked down in embarrassment.

  “It is Reiju san’s handwriting.” The rat’s ears fell. “I am sorry, Sura san.”

  Sura sighed again and flopped back onto the boat. Chiri toyed with her food for a while, feeling at a loss.

  “Perhaps we should go back. Tonbo san and Reiju san were inspecting the upper temple.”

  The fox lay back and watched the clouds.

  “No. I will leave them alone together. They deserve some time in peace…”

  Chiri gave a little bow.

  “Sura, please forgive me if I seem to pry… But have you spoken to Tonbo san about any of your thoughts and feelings?”

  Sura could only shrug.

  “What do I gain by bringing confusion to my friends?” The fox looked away. “She loves him. I can see it. I can feel it. Tonbo will have to decide things from his own heart.”

  “You love him, Sura san.”

  “If you love someone, then you must want the things that will make them happy.”

  Chiri nodded softly.

  “You are stronger than I am, Sura my friend.”

  “I am a noble idiot.” Sura gave another sigh. “But in a fox, that is expected…”

  Sura sat up and ate. The box lunch was truly excellent - although Sura far preferred Chiri’s own blend of spiced rice. When the two friends finished their meal they dusted themselves off and walked quietly arm-in-arm back towards the gates.

  The fox children came bouncing through the gates – all in half-human form. Sura picked one up and slung her onto her shoulders, while Chiri helped take the others by the hand. They walked to the gardens within the shrine, where green trees spread a welcome blanket of shade.

  On a rooftop overhead, unnoticed and unseen, a patch of blood shone wet and slick upon ancient tiles…

  Chapter 4

  At the shrine’s inner halls, half a dozen young men were sweeping the floors. Older men prayed before a small altar. Several visitors had arrived at the shrine, and all knelt before the altar and clapped their hands. Some were priests and travellers, making a pilgrimage, while others were swordsmiths. The spirit of the sword ran powerfully through the shrine, and sword makers came to pray before establishing a new forge.

  Tsunetomo Tonbo had equipped himself in heavy armour, tetsubo in hand and helmet slung at his back. He sat talking with an old priest, who nodded and put a hand upon Tonbo’s iron clad arm, leaning in to emphasise dire news. The old man nodded as he spoke, patted Tonbo’s huge hand, and bowed as the big samurai respectfully bowed then withdrew.

  Kuno approached through the quiet hall. Having waited for Tonbo to finish his conference, he walked forward to meet him.

  Tonbo nodded in greeting, and turned to look back over the tall rooves of the shrine.

  “No breaches to the alarms about the shrine. Nothing has crossed the walls. Even a creature in flight would have been detected.” Tonbo looked back towards the outer walls. “Apart from burrowing, there is no way around the alarm spells. And I have found no tunnels.”

  Kuno stroked carefully at his moustache.

  “Then Reiju san’s fears of an incursion are perhaps misplaced.” The samurai frowned in concern. “Leaving us to wonder what else is going on.”

  “Hmph.” Tonbo had run dry on clues, but he jerked his chin in the direction of the old priest. “He had more information. I asked about other events over the last year. The local eta reported that many bodies were being stolen from their hands before proper burial. The thefts stopped perhaps two months ago.”

  “At the same time that we defeated Lord Akaishin…”

  Kuno turned. He looked off to the south towards the mountains.

  “Lord Akaishin…. Someone was bringing him corpses to use in his army.” Kuno’s face was frozen. The affair with the terrible Lord Akaishin still clouded his heart. “Yes. The timing seems to be correct.”

  Tonbo leaned upon his tetsubo.

  “This is the first link we’ve found. We must tell Chiri and Sura.”

  Kuno agreed. He turned back towards the gardens, halted, then looked back with a puzzled frown.

  “What is wrong with Sura san? She seems strangely listless.” Kuno scratched at his head. “I would have thought seeing Reiju and her fox family would have made her ungovernably energetic.”

  Tonbo felt weighed down by intuitions unformed, but sadly nagging.

  “I cannot say.”

  Reiju and two of her priestesses entered the gardens nearby. Reiju looked up at the hall and saw Tonbo. She waved to him, and broke into a smile.

  Kuno looked at the woman for a moment, then flicked a glance towards Tonbo, but his deductive faculties failed to engage. Kuno shrugged and walked onwards, his mind busily working upon where next to make inquiries.

  There was clearly more happening in this township than met the eye.

  Tired, dispirited, and scented with lingering traces of river mud, Kitsune Sura finally trudged into the household baths.

  Smelling pleasantly of cedar and steam, the bath room echoed to the drip and splash of water. Inside Sura found two attendants present, but no other guests. The entire place was blissfully quiet.

  Sura disrobed, allowing a servant to hang up her clothes. She unbound her long hair, then knelt down to duck through the low door that led into a square, dark room swirling with steam.

  The oldest style of baths, still common in the north, were sweat rooms. The shrine had an old style of bath merged with the new – a steam room that adjoined a room filled with a large, hot bath. Sura sat in the gloom and hung her head, feeling her skin begin to prickle, and then to run with rivulets of sweat.

  She stayed thinking quietly to herself for a long time.

  Sura finally made her way out of the steam room, pausing to blink in the main baths. An attendant hastened over with cool water to drink and guided Sura to a stool that stood on slatted flooring beside the main bathing pool. Sura sat, her skin running with sweat, and mopped at her face with a little towel.

  Naked, Sura was clearly a fascinating sight to the servants. Her skin had darker orange colouration on her back, pale white in front, while her hands and feet were smoky black. Her long tail hung limp and wet from steam. An attendant scooped water from the bathing pool, mixed it with cooler water from an urn, and carefully rinsed the fox’s skin.

  Reiju entered the baths, searching for Sura. She disrobed and quietly motioned to the bath attendants. The servants bowed and moved aside, fading discretely away.

  Reiju sat behind Sura, and quietly took up the water scoop.

  “May I do your back, Sura san?”

  Sura looked at Reiju, and gave a tired little nod of agreement. Reiju poured water across the fox’s skin, and firmly scrubbed her down.

  Reiju washed Sura’s long hair, loving its length and colour. She worked in silence, trying to form the words she wanted to say. Rinsing Sura’s hair one last time, she quietly wrung out the long orange locks.

  Silence stretched. Finally Reiju swallowed.

  “Sura chan… You know that you are my oldest friend…”

  Her hands faltered.

  “If anything I do ever hurts you – please tell me. Let me know.”

  They sat together – Sura’s hide dripping in the echoing silence of the bath house.

  Sura finally looked up. She brushed stray hairs from Reiju’s face, then turned her around. The fox took water from the pool and washed her old friend’s back.

  Sura sighed.

  “You are a Buddhist as well as a shrine priestess. Don’t you people say that desire is pain?”

  “I do not speak of desire.” Reiju’s voice was sad. “I speak of love…”

  Sura held her friend from behind, and rested her face beside Reiju’s head – eternally loyal. Unshakably true.

  The first tail was friendship.

  “I have screwed up your life often enough when I didn’t mean it,” Sura spoke quietly. “I would never screw it up by design.”

  The fox kissed Reiju, and rose to move into a bath.

  Reiju sat alone, head bowed. She finally stood and dried herself with a towel, then dressed quietly.

  Reiju drew an origami fox and a little slip of folded paper from her sleeve. She tucked them quietly away into Sura’s robes.

  “This, I have made for you…”

  Reiju moved slowly away, out into the gardens, leaving Sura alone in the baths.

  The fox hung her head and listened to the soft drip of water from the walls.

  In the rafters overhead, a sleek black shape of smoke peered down, watching all in satisfaction. The dream serpent’s hide rippled with images of Reiju’s desires – her memories of her precious friendship with Sura. The dream serpent sucked upon Reiju’s pain, savouring her confusion like a sweet, pure wine. Full of satisfaction, the serpent flew away, passing silently under the eaves to shadow Reiju as she walked alone out in the gardens.

  Sura suddenly jerked up in the bath – sensing something strange. But her heart was troubled and her mind unclear. She saw nothing, and so sank back into the water, preoccupied with her own strange, painful thoughts.

  Evening came to the island shrine. Lanterns were lit in houses and on porches as the warrior priests changed guard. More priests saw to the spell barrier, praying and bolstering defences. But it was a peaceful night – slightly overcast, with a half-moon soon to rise. The sunset filled the skies with smoky umber light, glimmering with the first few evening stars.

  Tonbo and Kuno sat taking their evening meal in the gardens, talking pleasantly with Aunt Kagone and Kitsune Kikyo. The two fox women were in their human-like forms. Kagone was a handsome and rather authoritative woman with long orange hair tipped in black. Kitsune Kiyo was a pleasant, practical, ever-merry figure with wonderful golden eyes. Her gaze was always half on her children, watching for trouble, but she was also carefree as only a fox could be. Filling in Kuno on life in the distant Kitsune realm – a place of art, of ancient woods, and of inhabitants much given to enjoying life her stories left Kuno laughing.

  Chiri sat beneath a tree with the four fox children. One child, Kira, clearly had the beginnings of a magical talent. Chiri sat with her elementals beside her, trying to show the boy how to reach out into the world and feel the spirits within. She guided him, helping him feel down into the soil at his feet – encouraging and coaxing, while Daitanishi scuttled this way and that to supervise,

  A tiny glimmer of power sparkled beneath the child’s hands. Slowly, timidly, a tiny earth elemental emerged out of the soil. A glittering little thing of quartz, no larger than a beetle, it was an elemental nonetheless! The creature sat glistening in Kira’s hands, peering about at one and all in owlish curiosity. Daitanishi positively beamed. Chiri and the rest of the children applauded in delight, the space beneath the tree shimmering with a gentle haze of magic.

  Tonbo arose and brought a lantern down beside Chiri and the children. He had changed for dinner, and his armour was stacked back in his room, although his tetsubo, sword and dagger never left him. Walking back towards the porch, he saw Reiju standing at the far edge of the gardens alone. Spotting Tonbo, she turned towards the shrine’s bridge. She paused and looked back, clearly hoping Tonbo would follow.

  Reiju walked quietly to the gorge that clove the island in two. The guards at the foot of the bridge bowed to her. She waited for Tonbo, who joined her.

  Together they walked to the centre of the arch. Reiju looked up at the grey clouds overhead. The sun had vanished and the sky had become a deep purple-blue. Stars shimmered as night came over the river.

  Reiju bowed her head. Her face was hidden by her long black hair.

  “It has been wonderful to have you with me again, Tonbo san.” She kept her shoulders bowed. “Where will you go, when you leave the temple, do you think?”

  Tonbo turned to look at the town on the riverbank nearby. The big man leaned upon the railings and nodded off towards the distant lights.

  “Anywhere. Always somewhere different. Always somewhere new.” The man gave a slight smile. “Sura has a gift for finding trouble.”

  “Yes. I suppose she does.”

  Reiju turned quickly to put her head upon Tonbo’s shoulder. She clung to him, utterly distraught.

  “I do not want you to leave, Tonbo san.”

  Tonbo held her, shocked and uncertain. He reached up and quietly stroked her hair.

  Reiju stared into the dark.

  “Tonbo san. I am the senior priestess of the Sword Shrine. It is a post of vast importance. From here, I can reach great heights. It is all that I ever wanted.” Her hands tightened in Tonbo’s robes. “If I were to accept the love of… of a man, I would have to leave my post. The plans I have made since childhood would all be overturned…”

  The woman looked yearningly up at Tonbo.

  “And in my heart, I know that I would do it gladly.”

  Tonbo bowed his head – absolutely torn.

  “If a man truly loved you, he could never ask you to abandon so much…”

  “Perhaps it must not be asked.” Reiju looked up at him. “Perhaps it must be offered, as a pure gift from the heart…”

  Tonbo released her and moved away – turning so she could not see his tears.

  Reiju looked away in an agony of indecision. Tonbo looked off into the dark.

  “Forgive me, Reiju san. I never meant to force such a painful choice upon you.”

  The priestess wept.

  “If I was stronger – I would simply know what to do…”

  Reiju fled across the bridge towards the upper island. Tonbo turned back – but she was already mounting the steps.

  Lost and confused, the samurai slowly walked back across the bridge – past the unwitting guards. He passed back amongst the shrine buildings and trees, burdened with sorrow.

  On a roof above, concealed in darkness, a bloodstain gleamed. Slowly – silently – a black figure wearing a white porcelain mask emerged out of the wet, black stain.

  The sinister figure lay still as Tonbo passed by below. It waited until the samurai had gone, and moved stealthily back and away into the shadows.

  Reiju mounted the long switchback stair to the upper shrine. She walked past the guards at the head of the stairs and on into the building beyond.

  There were more guards, a shugenja and a monk on station inside the cedar hall. She passed these guardians and entered the sacred cave, walking quietly into the gloom.

  The demon slayer sword lay upon the altar, gleaming in the light of four ancient lamps. A young priestess knelt beside the barrier that surrounded the altar, praying diligently, shoring up the magical defences of the shrine. The girl looked up from her vigil as Reiju entered and immediately bowed.

  “Honoured high priestess…”

  “Miko san…” Reiju was bowed down with agitation. “I will take the vigil tonight. You are excused.”

  The other priestess was clearly confused. Nevertheless, she rose from her place, bowed to Reiju and quietly left the cave.

  Reiju was alone with the ancient sword.

  The cave was an empty, echoing place, with walls made dark by ancient lamp smoke. Reiju sank down and tried to compose herself, to still her thoughts. But her mind jittered. Peace would not come. Reiju knelt in place until the silence became too oppressive to bear.

  Time dragged. Finally Reiju got to her feet. Pacing the cave, she flexed both hands – her mind still at war with itself.

  She turned and abruptly left the cave, leaving the sword unattended as she swept out of the hall behind the shugenja and the guards, out into the open air. Entering the shadows outside the hall she stared off into the night, trying to make sense of the storm within her soul.

 

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