Beyond the Werefox Whistle
Written by Uehashi Nahoko
Illustrated by Yumiko Shirai
Part 2: The Cursed One and the Guardian
Chapter 3: Weaving Threads of Light
The seal on Sayo’s memory was broken. So many memories returned to her all at once. She collapsed and spent days wandering in a fever dream. She woke up five days after her collapse feeling empty and hopeless.
Voices had reached Sayo during her sickness, but they’d all sounded far away. She couldn’t remember any words. She felt like she was covered in fresh wounds that ached whenever they were touched. She wanted to stay still and not move until a new layer of skin formed over her injuries. Her pained heart might never heal.
Sayo’s grief over her mother’s death felt fresh. She didn’t want to think about it. She didn’t want to think about anything. After a few days spent recovering, she felt well enough to get up and move around the house. She helped Suzu with household tasks as a distraction, but she still didn’t feel quite like her former self.
Dairou had watched over Sayo during her sickness. One morning, he suggested that she should go riding with him. “Let’s go to Wakasa Fields. The cherry blossoms haven’t bloomed yet, but the fields are beautiful in spring. Suzu will pack you a lunch to take with you.”
Dairou set Sayo on a horse named Kumokage. He mounted a light gray horse named Hayate. Suzu decided to come along, riding double with Ichita on a horse named Tsukikage.
It was a bright and clear day. The wind carried a faint sweet scent of flowers. When the wind shifted direction, smoke from the controlled burning of the village’s fields stung Sayo’s nose. She looked around, trying to see where the smoke was coming from. As she gazed out at a burning field, she remembered her grandmother and the fields close to her hut.
The family home closest to Sayo, including the fields around it, had been abandoned a very long time ago. Sayo hadn’t burned her own small field yet this year; she would have to do that soon.
The sun shone brighter, illuminating the land all around. Distant mountains came into view. Trees blossomed and new grass was growing.
Suzu sang to Ichita in a foreign language. She had a lovely voice. Sayo didn’t recognize the song, but it sounded cheerful. Ichita laughed out loud and tapped the saddle with both hands, keeping the rhythm. Small bells attached to the saddle jingled along with his movements.
The group walked along a riverbank. Ichita splashed in puddles , shaking with laughter as he did. The rice fields were nothing but paths and rich tilled earth at this time of year. Rice planting season was still a long way off. Mt. Oro jutted into the sky to the east of them. Sayo looked up and saw rainbow light streaking through tree branches like the brush strokes of a painting. A blackfly buzzed around her head.
Where are we? Sayo wondered. It seemed like they’d traveled quite a long way. The landscape opened out before her as she rode, flat and green and endless. She squinted so the sun wouldn’t hurt her eyes.
Cherry trees dotted the green field in front of her. She saw more and more of them as she progressed, until the whole field was nothing but cherry trees. The tips of the branches were tinged red. Mt. Oro towered above the trees, spreading clean white mist all around it. Sayo couldn’t even imagine how beautiful this place would be when all the cherry blossoms were in bloom.
“This is Wakasa Fields,” Dairou said. “Take a look around.” He pointed to a place where three clear streams flowing down to Mt. Oro met, turning into one much larger river. Smooth river stones dotted the shore. Sayo guessed that those had been placed by hand because their arrangement looked deliberate.
“The stonework and paths were constructed by Lord Harumochi’s father, Lord Masamochi,” Dairou said. “This river and these streams used to belong to Yuki, not Haruna. He ordered a stone dam to be built and redirect the water away from Yuki lands.”
Sayo frowned. Lord Masamochi had stolen this river, then? She wasn’t sure of the circumstances, but she understood that claiming a water source and refusing to share it would cause resentment. No one could really own a river, could they?
Dairou pointed to another spot. A tall tower was visible, rising between two shorter gates. “What you see over there is Wakasa Fort. Soldiers keep watch day and night to make sure this stone dam is not damaged.”
Suzu shook her head and waggled her finger in a forbidding gesture. “Let’s not ruin a perfectly lovely day with talk of that,” she said. “It’s time for lunch!”
Sayo descended into the fields on Kumokage’s back. Sayo dismounted with Dairou’s help. Kumokage snorted at her in amusement, then trotted off to the river’s edge for a drink. Dairou and Suzu also dismounted. They led Sayo a little upstream from where the three horses were drinking water.
Suzu plunked herself down in a field of flowers: white flowers with petals the size of a grain of rice and small yellow flowers drooping with pollen. She rummaged around in her pack and brought out lunch boxes for everyone.
Sayo opened her lunch box. The rice balls wrapped in bamboo grass smelled delicious. She took a bite and thought that it was perfect: it had just the right amount of salt and a nice texture. Suzu had carried the lunches close to her chest, so most of the food was still warm.
The lunch boxes were more extravagant than any meal the people of Yona Village would ever eat. Grilled mackerel was an expensive ingredient. How had Suzu managed to make so much food when Sayo had only asked her to pack a lunch that morning?
There were no ants, but flies buzzed around them as they ate.
Dairou untied one of his leather saddlebags and carried it over to Sayo, Suzu and Ichita.
“Would you like something to drink, Sayo? It’s rice wine that’s fermented with flowers.” Dairou served the rice wine in small individual cups. Sayo’s first sip of the wine tasted unpleasantly of leather, but by her third, she could taste the flowers used in making the wine.
“Brother, just one drink. Sayo is recovering from an illness,” Suzu said.
“I know. It’s too rare to have more than one cup anyway. I’ll save the rest to have later.”
Suzu stretched out her hand and snatched the saddlebag from him. “No, no. At least half of it is mine.”
Sayo felt warm all over after drinking the rice wine—too warm, but not feverish. She hadn’t been so aware of her own body in a long time.
Suzu raised the saddlebag high and gasped. As rice wine fell to the ground in a curve, Suzu caught it in her mouth and gulped it down with great relish.
Dairou gave her a wry smile, then sat down next to Sayo. “The women in my family are all heavy drinkers,” he said conspiratorially.
After a leisurely lunch, Sayo and Suzu went down to the stream to wash the lunch boxes. Dairou picked weeds with little Ichita.
“There are ferns over here!” Dairou called out. “I’ll be taking Ichita a little further. We’ll be back soon!” He led Ichita into a shallow cave. Bracken grew in front of it, along with a few scraggly ferns.
After they finished cleaning up, Sayo and Suzu followed behind Dairou and Ichita at a slow pace. They soon caught up. The cave was much cooler than the open field.
Suzu waved to Dairou when she caught sight of him, but he didn’t wave back. “Dairou? What’s wrong?” she asked.
Dairou turned around and pointed between the trees.
Sayo couldn’t move. She was looking at a dark place—one of the dark places she’d seen in the storehouse. She was standing right in front of one.
Dairou crossed his arms, then shot Sayo a look full of understanding. His gaze shifted to his sister.
“A door to the dark world was open,” Dairou said. “It’s closed now. We only just missed it.” He sounded disgusted and disappointed.
A door to the dark world…
Sayo had thought that the dark world was a gaping black hole, but what she saw in front of her was shadowed and not pitch black. The feeling of wrongness she got when she looked at that spot was what concerned her most. It was like she was looking at a small point in space that was never supposed to exist.
“Well, there’s no point in complaining about it,” Suzu said. “We should probably head back.” She nodded to herself, then spun on her heel and returned to the horses.
“Do you need any help?” Sayo asked Dairou.
“Please hold Ichita. I’ll just be a moment.”
***
Fortunately, Ichita was sleepy after eating. Sayo sat down under a tree with the boy in her lap. He leaned against Sayo and started sucking on his fingers.
Suzu and Dairou came over to Sayo. Suzu had returned from the place where they’d had lunch with her bag. She set her bag on the ground and took out four small incense burners. Dairou picked up the incense burners and set them down near the place where the door to the dark world had opened.
By the time smoke began to rise from the incense burners, Suzu had strapped bells to her wrists and ankles. She put on a ceremonial sash ornamented with many strange objects over her other clothing.
“I’m ready,” Suzu said.
Dairou nodded, closed his eyes and slowed his breathing. He took a deep breath, then chanted a spell loudly. His voice echoed in the cave.
In time with the spell, Suzu tapped the heel of her right foot on the ground. The sound of small bells echoed, ringing out. She opened her hands as if to embrace the sky, and then she danced in circles. The bells around her ankles and wrists jangled with her movements.
Sayo witnessed all of Dairou’s and Suzu’s preparations and spellwork but didn’t quite understand it.
The smoke from the incense burners lightened as it was drawn toward Suzu’s bells. It didn’t look like smoke anymore, but concentrated sunlight. It shone and glittered like a moth’s scales falling from the sky.
Like oil floating on the surface of water, the smoke solidified into a ribbon of light that wound around Suzu’s bells in loose circles.
Sayo felt like she was watching it all in slow motion, as f she were underwater.
Suzu made a gesture as if to fan herself. The band of light around her arms unwound from her and moved toward the door to the dark world. Suzu’s hands danced lightly in the air as if she were stirring it. The glowing ribbon of smoke swirled around her in a loose circle as she moved with it toward the dark place.
Sayo gasped as the dark place lightened. The sense of wrongness she felt emanating from it lessened, though it didn’t fade completely. It was like watching a soap bubbles pop in the air; all she could see for certain was distortion and light.
There was a tingling sensation on Sayo’s forehead that worsened into pain the longer it went on. Suzu’s bells were beautiful and deep-toned; the sound of them ringing shouldn’t hurt her. It felt like someone was poking her in the skull. It also seemed like Suzu was responsible for that sensation, but she couldn’t tell how or why.
Something was off. Sayo couldn’t tell what, but the world she saw around her and her own thoughts were in conflict. She closed her eyes.
Faintly, from far away, Sayo heard a voice. Not Suzu’s or Dairou’s. She didn’t recognize the voice. It was quiet, but firm. A woman’s voice. Sayo gently laid Ichita on the ground and stood up without fully understanding what she was doing. She kicked off her old sandals impatiently, feeling the cool earth and warm grass between her toes.
Dairou opened his eyes wide. Birds and insects chirped and buzzed, creating a tune that meshed with his spell though it didn’t quite match it. Dairou ceased his chanting and completed his spell.
The sounds of Suzu’s bells and Dairou’s spell faded away. Sayo could hear only the voice. As it became louder, it also became more familiar.
Sayo began to dance, slowly moving her arms and legs to the sound of the voice that flowed through the air like a song. Her dance was not like Suzu’s. It was slow and silent and formless, without set steps. The glow of firefly light shone from her fingertips.
A mist rose around the dark place, reacting to the light shining from Sayo’s fingers. Sayo could see nothing but dim illumination all around her. The voice thrummed in her ears, dictating her steps. The mist seeped into the dark place, saturating cracks in the air that had been invisible before. The mist was light; it brightened the edges of everything it touched.
The light spread out, illuminating every leaf on every tree and every blade of grass. River stones gleamed at her feat. The soil looked reddish in the light. Sayo was casting a spell, but it wasn’t dependent on incense or chants. She was drawing on the life around her.
With her hands and body wreathed in mist, Sayo approached the dark place. She wasn’t thinking about what she was doing. The voice guided her to dance again, moving her body in the correct ways.
By the time she had finished repairing the dark place, Sayo was sweating all over. Her fingers ached more and more the longer the dance went on.
Don’t let yourself touch it. Not even for a moment, the guiding voice told her. It was so familiar, but Sayo couldn’t quite place it.
At first Sayo thought that this was a warning not to touch the dark place, but the voice was actually cautioning her against the mist. The mist swirling around her fingertips sapped power and energy from what it touched. If Sayo touched it, her own vitality would leave her and go into the mist. Sayo herself could draw in energy and power from the life around her as well. If she decided to draw power from the mist, it would vanish. She teetered on the perilous edge between offering power to the mist and keeping herself strong enough to control it.
Sayo heard birds chirping somewhere. Then insects. Then the chittering of small animals. The forest around her felt keenly alive, and she was listening to its combined voice. She felt like the forest’s voice was trying to tell her something.
Don’t let them see… Ah, no, Sayo, don’t look at them… You’ll be seen!
The voice was from a memory. Sayo remembered that she wasn’t supposed to look, but she’d been too curious. She’d opened her eyes.
Standing here in the forest, Sayo opened her eyes wide. There were threads of light wrapped around her entire body. As she took in the sight, those threads transformed into thousands of tiny eyes.
Sayo was being watched. A thousand eyes were staring right at her! Sayo screamed, hugged herself with both arms, and crouched down.
I need to hide. I need to escape these eyes! she thought.
And then the light around her dimmed.
***
Sayo sat huddled around herself in a dim twilight world with the shadows of trees rising around her. At first she thought she was in the same forest as before, but the bark on these trees was rougher and raw to the touch. The dim light around her had a menacing presence. She felt like it could speak to her, but she definitely didn’t want it to.
A hazy mist drifted around her ankles. Sayo slowly rose from her crouched position. She smelled wet earth. Sunlight danced on the back of her hands. In the distance, she saw a huge tree that glowed brighter than everything else.
The branches were on fire, but they weren’t burning.
Foxfire, Sayo thought.1
***
“Sayo!”
***
Sayo blinked. She thought she heard someone calling her.
Sayo raised her eyes. She saw the same tree that she’d seen moments ago, but it looked a little smaller, as if it had died and withered. It wasn’t on fire.
Dairou looked down at her with a disapproving frown.
“What did I do?” Sayo asked.
Dairou leaned down and rested one hand on her shoulder. His hand was trembling slightly. “You startled me,” he said. “I heard you scream, and then you vanished into Awai.”
“I did?”
The place with the foxfire-lit tree was Awai, then?
Sayo wiped her forehead with the back of her hand. It was drenched in sweat. She stared down at her hands as if she’d never seen them before. How had she known how to cast a spell? Why had she moved like that? She felt like the foundation of who she was had been fundamentally altered in the past few minutes. Sayo had thought she’d been standing on solid ground all her life, but in reality she’d been sinking slowly into a swamp that she couldn’t even see. She’d been oblivious to the hazards around her. That had to change.
As Sayo’s anxiety threatened to overwhelm her, she remembered the voice that had guided her. Now that the spell wasn’t guiding her, she recognized the voice as her mother’s. Her mother had taught her all this, a very long time ago. Sayo felt her heart rise to her throat and blinked back tears.
Silence, for a time. Sayo covered her face with her hands and stayed still.
Suzu reached for her first, pulling her into a careful one-armed hug.
Dairou stood where the dark place had been, still frowning. He no longer appeared disapproving. That was probably because the dark place was gone. There was no sign that it had ever even been there.
Dairou turned, then looked at Sayo.
Sayo had managed to heal this dark place because the seal over her early memories was gone. Her talent was the same as her mother’s, and it had strengthened as she’d grown up.
Dairou contemplated silently for some time, standing still. He didn’t say a word.
Translator's Note
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