Beyond the Werefox Whistle
Written by Uehashi Nahoko
Illustrated by Yumiko Shirai
Part 3: Nobi and Sayo
Chapter 1: Spirit Fox Woman
Two bearded guards with forbidding expressions stood at the rear of Lord Harumochi’s castle. Sayo was terrified that they would call her out as a suspicious person and arrest her. She remembered what Suzu had told her to do and repeated it to herself silently.
One of the kitchen maids in the castle was named Takechi. Sayo had a jar full of expensive perfume that she was supposed to pass to her. She went over the details in her mind one more time, then approached the guards.
“Excuse me, is there a Miss Takechi here? I’m here to deliver this expensive perfume and to return the balance of what she paid for it,” Sayo said with much more confidence than she actually felt.
One of the fearsome guards asked her to confirm the name again, then confiscated her jar of perfume and opened it. He took a sniff, then closed the jar again and handed it back to her. “You can go in,” the guard said.
Sayo passed through the gate. She was relieved that Suzu’s plan had worked. According to Suzu, Takechi worked in the castle kitchens. Sayo’s excuse would get her far into the castle before anyone asked too many probing questions.
As Sayo walked, she noticed many different people passing by. A fishmonger carrying his wares headed toward the gate without looking at her. A merchant sat on a lavish rug to her left, selling lacquerware. His customers were kitchen maids from the castle. This place wasn’t quite a market square, but it had much of the feel of one. Peach trees flowered at the corners of the square.
Sayo readjusted the weight of her pack on her back as she kept walking. She had a good excuse to be here, but she couldn’t linger. It would be best to find Takechi in the kitchens as soon as she could. She didn’t know where the kitchens were, of course—she’d never been here before. She followed the smoke she saw, which was rising above the rear wall of the courtyard she stood in.
As Sayo passed through a small gate in the high wall that encircled the heart of the castle, everything went quiet. Walking through the gate made her feel like she was moving through molasses. Her senses were dulled, including her listening gift; suddenly, she couldn’t hear any thoughts or pick up on anyone’s feelings.
And then she was through, and her senses returned to her with an audible pop. The sunlight was brighter now that she was past that sensory dampener.
Right next to the gate, there was a scroll with a black letter painted on it that Sayo couldn’t read. Suzu had told her that the scroll would be near the gate. The script and the letter were foreign. It was likely that Dairou or his father had put that scroll here to help protect the castle. The idea that Dairou was here somewhere calmed Sayo.
Sayo smelled food and smoke and peach blossoms as she continued forward.
A short distance past the gate, Sayo came to a short wooden door that led into the kitchens. Bright yellow forsythia flowers spilled out of window boxes and grew wild around the door.
Two women stood near the door, laughing and talking. As Sayo approached them, they went silent.
“Excuse me, uh, I’m looking for Miss Takechi,” Sayo said.
One woman was a bit shorter and rounder than the other. She raised an eyebrow. “I’m Takechi. Who are you?” She frowned at Sayo.
“Hello. I’m Sayo. Mr. Dairou and Miss Suzu said they knew you. I’m a friend of theirs.”
Takechi’s eyes went wide. She seized Sayo by the elbow and hauled her toward the kitchen door. Before opening the door, she turned to her companion. “I’m sorry about this. See you later.”
The other woman smiled. “Sure. It’s not like we were discussing anything important. Go talk to your visitor.”
Takechi led Sayo by the arm through the kitchen door and into a small room with a floor of packed earth. The cooking smells were even stronger here. There was a polished metal kettle standing upright on the floor near two round cushions.
Takechi loved cooking. She’d come to the castle to work as a kitchen servant when she was twelve years old. She’d married a castle gardener some years before, though they hadn’t been blessed with children yet.
At Takechi’s urging, Sayo took a seat on one of the round cushions. Takechi sat opposite her. Her eyes darted around the room as if she were searching out eavesdroppers. When she was satisfied that they were alone, Takechi said, “You said your name is Sayo? Are you Hanano’s daughter, by chance?” Takechi’s voice was rough and hoarse as if she had a cold.
Sayo nodded at her question, then explained why she was in the castle as briefly as she could.
Takechi asked Sayo a few more questions and nodded along to Sayo’s explanations.
According to Suzu, Takechi was Dairou’s relative through his mother. She’d lost her own mother when she was young and had come to live with Dairou’s family until she was twelve and took a job in the castle. Rather than approaching Dairou in the castle directly, Suzu had recommended that Sayo seek him out via Takechi. This was mainly because Dairou could be anywhere in the vast castle, or he could have been sent away by the lord on some errand. If that had happened, Takechi would know.
“Oh, aren’t you a dear! You look so much like your mother, you know,” Takechi said. “Look how you’ve grown!”
“Um, thank you,” Sayo said, cutting in so that she could redirect Takechi’s torrent of words. “I was hoping to find Dairou here this morning. I need to talk to him about Lord Koharumaru.”
“Unfortunately, dear, luck is not with you today. Dairou left for the inn at Aori before you arrived. Koharumaru is to be taken to the High King’s castle. He needs to have some protection as he travels, so Dairou is scouting out the road. He’ll stop at the inn in Aori en route to the High King’s castle, then head back here to report on current travel conditions.”
“How far is Aori from here?” Sayo asked.
“Well, you could reach it on horseback in under a day, but if you set out now and just walked, you won’t get there before nightfall.”
Sayo bit her lip. This was, indeed, bad luck.
“What was your message for Dairou?” Takechi asked. “Why is it so urgent?”
Sayo told Takechi much of what she’d told Suzu about Koharumaru and how they’d used to play together at Morikage Estate when they were younger.
Takechi’s expression darkened much as Suzu’s had. “You were taking terrible risks, child,” she said sternly. “What have you done? By sneaking in and out like that, you’ve ruined the barrier around Morikage Estate! It is just the kind of thing that a foolish child would do. Why didn’t you notice that the barrier had been breached? You’re Hanano’s daughter, after all…”
Takechi shook her head, then sighed. “It’s a large estate, after all, and you didn’t mean to harm the barrier, I know. What a mess! Well, we can’t just let the men go gallivanting around and making the problem worse. What does Suzu expect you to do, child? I will help if I can. I’m an old stalwart here, and many people in the castle will assist me if I ask.”
Sayo didn’t know what to do without Dairou. She’d come here specifically to speak to him, and told Takechi so.
Takechi rubbed her chin, then looked up at Sayo. “Well, there’s nothing for it. You’ll just have to wait until Dairou returns. If you make a big fuss of things now, I fear it will only make the situation worse. But it’ll be all right. You can stay here with me. Just give me a moment.”
“Thank you very much,” Sayo said. She bowed her head.
Takechi excused herself briefly but soon returned. She sat on a cushion near Sayo and said, “Come to think of it, if you have the gift of listening like Hanano did, then there might be something you can do while we wait for Dairou to come back to the castle. I can let you serve Lord Koharumaru his dinner. Let me know if you have that strange feeling again when you see him.”
Sayo nodded. “I think I can do that.”
“I can only hope that you don’t get that strange feeling again,” Takechi said. “I’ve often served Lord Koharumaru his meals, and he always seems bright and cheerful. I was surprised at first—I expected him to be sad and withdrawn after being locked up for so long.”
Sayo nodded again. She wanted to see Koharumaru, but the thought that she’d experience that strange pain and hear that awful buzzing once more scared her. Still, since she had the opportunity, it would be best for her to serve Koharumaru his meal and see what was going on with him for herself. Maybe Takechi was right, and Koharumaru was fine.
***
Takechi had served in the kitchen for a long time and was trusted by the other workers in the castle. She introduced Sayo as one of her relatives who had come to visit and maybe take a job in or near the castle in the near future. With that cover story in place, it was trivially easy for Sayo to join that evening’s workers at their chores.
The castle was home to as many people as a small village; an enormous amount of rice had to be cooked and food prepared just for the castle’s warriors. No matter how many hands there were to cook and serve in the castle, it was never enough.
When Sayo stepped into the main kitchen, she saw a row of large stoves and cooking implements of all kinds laid out on counters.
“You don’t need to go near the stove. The smell of smoke will get in your hair and you’ll get dirty, and that means you won’t be able to serve dinner to the nobles,” Takechi explained. “Please help me prepare the vegetables over there.”
Sayo did as she was told. A building sense of anticipation bubbled up within her as she worked. She was going to see Koharumaru again! She forgot her nervousness and let herself be excited.
As the sun set, Sayo prepared herself for the dinner service. Dinner at the castle was served much earlier than in Yona Village. Sayo was given a short garment with rolled-back sleeves and told to change. Her hair was combed. Takechi and several of the maids looked her over and made adjustments to her attire until they were satisfied.
Group meals required no special service, but meals for nobles came on their own personal trays that were intricately carved and lacquered over. Some of the other kitchen maids helped Sayo pile the tray for Koharumaru with bowls of tea and soup and dishes for the evening meal. One girl showed her how to hold the tray so that nothing would spill when she walked.
As she walked along with the maids, Sayo felt her heart beating faster and faster. She couldn’t possibly spill anything; that would ruin the evening. The more she thought about not tripping, the more her hands shook.
Sayo took a breath and exhaled quietly, telling herself to calm down.
Soon, Sayo and the maids reached an interior room of the castle. Two painted sliding doors were shut tight in front of them. Sayo smelled the incense that Dairou often used through the door.
The head kitchen maid called out and opened the sliding door. Sayo stepped into the room following the other maids. Her head ached immediately, though there was no buzzing, at least not yet. She guessed that there was a protective barrier inside this room.
Sayo bowed deeply, imitating the other maids, and then stepped forward with the meal tray presented at eye level.
Koharumaru wasn’t alone. Five warriors sat to each side of him, all sitting upright with their heads bowed. Harumochi and Koharumaru sat close together on a raised dais in the center of the room.
Harumochi whispered something to Koharumaru, then looked up. He recognized Sayo, of course, but didn’t say anything. After taking one first long surprised look, Harumochi deliberately didn’t look her way.
Sayo was suddenly self-conscious. This wasn’t a safe place, for all that it didn’t feel dangerous. Suzu had warned her that enemy sorcerers used hakage as spies. Suzu and Dairou had reason to believe that there were hakage inside the castle. Sayo tried to make herself small and inconspicuous as she stepped forward with the tray.
“Very well, father,” Koharumaru said in response to a whispered comment from Harumochi. His voice had dropped; Sayo scarcely recognized it.
Sayo served the meal without incident and stepped back until she was right before the sliding door. She observed Koharumaru surreptitiously as he ate and talked to Harumochi. Koharumaru nodded and seemed at ease, but after a short while, he looked up at her and met her eyes.
The painful buzzing Sayo had heard before returned all at once. Goosebumps stood up on her arms.
Why doesn’t anyone else notice it? Can’t they hear it? Sayo thought. The buzzing was such a horrible sound.
Koharumaru frowned slightly. Sayo was familiar to him, but he couldn’t quite place her. She was standing too far away for him to recognize her easily.
Sayo was supposed to clear the table, but she didn’t think she could. She wanted to return to the main kitchen and ask Takechi to relieve her of duty for the evening. She hid her face, then slipped out of the sliding door.
By herself in the hallway, Sayo’s anxiety overcame her. She swallowed heavily; her mouth was so dry. She walked down the hallway quickly to burn off nervous energy and nearly ran into a pretty maid carrying a lovely silk dress.
Sayo just barely avoided colliding with the maid and turned away. There was an odd scent in the air—not incense and not anything she recognized, but it caught her attention nonetheless. At first she considered that the pretty maid was wearing some kind of exotic perfume or makeup, but she wasn’t sure that just perfume would make her head ache so much. Her brow furrowed.
The pretty maid’s eyes went wide. She looked terrified for a moment—and then murderous. Sayo shuddered at the rage she sensed coming off the maid.
Sayo ran. She thought the pretty maid would chase her, but she didn’t. Sayo sprinted all the way to the main kitchen and didn’t look back.
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