Beyond the Werefox Whistle
Written by Uehashi Nahoko
Illustrated by Yumiko Shirai
Part 3: Nobi and Sayo
Chapter 7: Dairou and Nobi
Sayo rode double with Dairou on Hayate. As they rode, Dairou’s breathing became heavier; it was getting more and more difficult for him to maintain his seat. Sayo could feel that he was feverish and guessed that Dairou wouldn’t be able to ride much longer.
Dairou gasped and nearly fell; Sayo caught him. “We have to stop,” she said. She gripped the reins awkwardly, trying to keep Dairou upright at the same time.
Something flashed in the trees to Sayo’s left. Was that Nobi? Was Nobi watching them right now? She wasn’t sure, and being saved by Nobi carried its own risks—for Nobi, and for herself. She was in a hurry. She wanted to save Dairou and herself.
Nobi had returned briefly at the gates, but he hadn’t said a word to her or Dairou, and he’d rushed off just as quickly. That seemed suspicious, didn’t it? What was Nobi doing, and why?
Sayo lost her grip on Dairou’s dead weight; they both spilled off the horse together onto the road. The saddle slipped to the side as Sayo’s foot came out of the stirrups.
There was no heavy thud of impact. Nobi (in his human form) caught Dairou as he fell, and Dairou cushioned Sayo’s fall.
“Jump down, Sayo,” Nobi said. “I’ve got him.”
Sayo lowered herself carefully to the ground as Nobi supported Dairou’s unconscious body.
Nobi straightened and tightened the saddle, then set Dairou back in it. “Get up behind him and keep him from falling,” Nobi said. “I’ll guide the horse.”
Sayo got on Hayate's back behind Dairou and gripped the reins. Nobi walked a little ahead of the horse.
“Thanks,” Sayo said. “For coming back.”
Nobi said nothing in reply. He took a step back and looked around.
Sayo thought that Nobi was going to bolt again and said, “Nobi, will you stay with me? I don’t know how to ride very well.”
Nobi hesitated, but he nodded. He grabbed Hayate by the bit with great care. “Where are we going?” Nobi asked.
Sayo considered that. She was worried about Koharumaru, but Dairou wasn’t hale enough for a long journey and she’d never been to the High King’s castle before. “Umegae Estate,” she said. Dairou needed medical treatment urgently.
Hayate seemed to recognize her words. He walked faster down the path, led by Nobi. Sayo pulled cautiously on the reins to encourage Hayate to go even faster.
***
The moon rose bright over the mountains. A night breeze carried the faint scent of smoke.
Dairou spent most of the journey unconscious. He came to just when Umegae Estate became visible in the distance. “Home,” he muttered.
“Are you all right?” Sayo asked. “You were unconscious for a long time. Are you still feverish?”
Dairou nodded. “But I’ll be all right.”
Nobi stopped moving, and so did Hayate.
“What’s wrong, Nobi?” Sayo asked.
“He can’t get in from here,” Dairou said.
Nobi stalked off into a grove of plum trees.
Before he could go too far, Dairou called out to him. “Wait. I, Dairou, the owner of this estate, invite you inside, spirit fox.”
Sayo raised an eyebrow at Dairou in surprise. Was he trying to trap Nobi inside, or was this a friendly gesture? She couldn’t tell.
Nobi glanced back and forth between Dairou and Sayo, uncertain. When he saw that Sayo was just as confused as he was, he approached Hayate again and stood still.
Slowly, Nobi, Hayate, Dairou and Sayo passed through the gates of Umegae Estate. The plum trees were past their time of blooming, and the branches of the trees were all bare of flowers.
***
Warm spring sunshine shone on Sayo’s knees. It was too early in spring for there to be much greenery yet, but the world was slowly returning to life from the chilling cold of winter.
Nobi walked before her in his spirit fox form. The gloom was filled with a sweet scent that Nobi sniffed quite intently. He stopped in his tracks, then dove into the underbrush.
“What are you doing?” Sayo asked.
Nobi spun to face her. There was a thick stalk of red-veined green grass in his mouth. He slipped it into the basket Sayo held.
“What is this grass?” Sayo asked. “I’ve never seen it before.”
“It’s rare,” Nobi said. “It purges toxins of all kinds. When spirit foxes eat something they shouldn’t, we eat this grass so that what we ate won’t harm us further,” he said calmly. He scented the air again. “Let’s keep looking around.”
Dairou needed medicine. His body was ravaged by spirit fox poison. If Nobi hadn’t cleaned his wound, he would certainly be dead by now.
Sayo followed Nobi, wanting to speak but not sure of what to say. She didn’t know how to express how she felt. She wanted to thank Nobi for saving them again and apologize for doubting him, but the words stuck in her throat.
Birds flew away in a shadowy cloud as Sayo walked under a tree. Nobi bounded to the roots of the tree and pointed to a white flower with his nose. “This flower is good at treating sickness from poisoning,” he said. He uprooted the flower by its thick stem and carried it to Sayo’s basket.
Mud and leaves scattered as Nobi uprooted the flower. A startled white caterpillar fell from a flower petal onto the ground. It curled up in a little ball as if it were frightened and cold.
Nobi settled the caterpillar on a new leaf with a nod of satisfaction.
Sayo looked up. Her eyes met Nobi’s. They kept walking under the spring sunshine along the mountain trail, barely saying a word to one another. Sayo felt like the sunshine was shining from within her as she moved.
***
It had been three days since Sayo, Dairou and Nobi had come to Umegae Estate. Dairou recovered little by little. Spirit fox poison was usually lethal, so it was a miracle that he recovered at all.
Suzu sat at Dairou’s bedside. She got up and went to the window, sliding it open to let in the clean spring air.
Dairou sat up. “Where is Sayo?” he asked.
“Out collecting medicinal herbs with Nobi,” Suzu said.
Dairou looked out at the sky, which was clear aside from a few white brush-painted clouds. “When will they be back?”
“I don’t know. They’ve gone out every day for the past three days. They’ve picked the area around the house clean, but things should be growing back soon. Nobi found a lot of plants to help ease your fever and purge the poison. How do you feel?”
“Damn that fox,” Dairou muttered under his breath. “Sneaking into my home, testing my defenses… what are you planning?”
“Dairou? What’s wrong?” Suzu asked.
“Nobi is a sorcerer’s familiar,” Dairou said. “It’s too dangerous to trust him.”
Suzu offered him a kind smile with a hint of guile in it. “Ever since Hanano’s passing, you’ve protected this land with your magic. You’ve never really trusted anyone since then, have you?”
“My curse is distrust,” Dairou said miserably. He unwrapped his bandaged hand and took in the sight of his healing wound. He remembered that Sayo had said that she’d saved Nobi’s life, and that Nobi was repaying her in kind.
Suzu sighed. “Perhaps I’m not as clever as you, brother, but I know that Nobi isn’t here just because he wants to settle a debt. And he’d never betray Sayo.”
“How do you know?” Dairou raised an eyebrow at his sister.
“It’s obvious,” she said. “You would have known right away if you’d noticed how Nobi looks at Sayo.”
Dairou frowned slightly. “That’s not an explanation.”
“Nobi likes Sayo, you dolt. Like-like. As children growing into adults often do.” She shook her head. “I’m not sure if Nobi knows how he feels, either. I know Sayo is confused. It’s often easier to observe this kind of thing from the outside than it is to experience these feelings.”
“That’s foolish,” Dairou said. “This is a serious matter. Didn’t you warn Sayo how dangerous it would be to befriend a spirit fox, never mind getting romantically entangled with one?”
Suzu gave him an exasperated look. “Telling her to stay away from Nobi is going to have the opposite effect. It seems you’ve forgotten what it’s like to be young, brother.”
Dairou wanted to make a bitter retort, but he thought better of it and snapped his mouth shut.
Suzu inched closer to him, taking in his troubled expression. “You know Lord Harumochi will be a the High King’s castle by now. He has Koharumaru with him. There’s no way for you to catch up to them.”
Dairou’s expression darkened further. “You’re right.” He sighed. “My powers have always been immature. I couldn’t protect Hanano, Lord Harumochi or Koharumaru. I can’t even protect Sayo or myself.”
“Don’t beat yourself up too much,” Suzu said. “You’re hurt enough. I wonder if Hanano knew that distrust would become your curse. I think it would sadden her to see you now.”
“It’s not as if I’m actually cursed,” Dairou said defensively.
“But you do distrust most people. I always wondered what it was that you wanted to do when you were young, before all this grief and peril. Do you remember?” Suzu asked.
Dairou shook his head.
“It’s tragic, how things have worked out. But I think that if Hanano were here, she wouldn’t tell Sayo and Nobi to avoid each other. This is something unique, something new. She would want to observe and test it, to see what happens.”
Dairou felt like Suzu had just struck him in the chest. He gasped. Hanano had chosen to have a child with a man who’d been under a curse. He had never understood why, but Suzu might have just given him part of the answer.
Dairou dropped his injured hand to his knee, then struggled to his feet. Suzu moved to support him so that he wouldn’t fall.
“Suzu, I want to go to the storehouse,” he said. “Help me get there, please.”
***
Sayo and Nobi were returning from their gathering just as Dairou entered the storeroom. Suzu waved to them. “Oh! You found a lot today. Thank you.” She accepted Sayo’s basket into her hands. “Nobi, my brother asked you to join him in the storeroom when you returned.”
Nobi gave Suzu a suspicious look. “Why?”
Suzu shrugged.
Nobi shook himself, then started walking toward the storehouse.
Sayo moved to follow, but Suzu called her back.
“Dairou wanted to talk to Nobi alone first,” Suzu said. “Don’t worry. You can talk to him later. Dairou won’t hurt him. Besides, there’s something I want to give you. Follow me.”
Sayo wiped mud off her sandals, then climbed up on the veranda. She followed Suzu into the house, glancing in the direction that Nobi had gone before shutting the door.
***
Nobi walked into the storehouse and found Dairou sitting on the ground with his back leaning against a support beam. He raised his head. His face was pale and his eyes were deeply shadowed.
“Before I say anything else, I think I should thank you for your help,” Dairou said. “So, thank you, Nobi.” The words were difficult for him to say, but he managed to say them clearly enough.
Nobi gave him no reply aside from a slight frown and a tentative nod.
“What are your plans for Sayo? Why do you remain here?” Dairou asked.
“I will protect her,” Nobi said. “At least, I’ll do that until my master kills me.”
Dairou looked straight into Nobi’s eyes. “Can you defy your master’s will?”
Nobi’s eyes narrowed. “Well, I have been, so I assume that means I can. At least until he catches up to me.”
“Do you know your master’s mind?” Dairou asked. “Do you know why he cursed Koharumaru, or what kind of curse it is?”
“You’re asking me?” Nobi’s face clouded over. He was used to keeping secrets for his master. Revealing his master’s plans felt wrong and cold and alien, like frozen fingers tickling his spine. “My master has cursed Koharumaru,” Nobi said, gritting his teeth as if every word hurt to utter. “It is not a curse that is designed to be fatal, at least not immediately. It will not take effect until Koharumaru is presented to the High King.”
“How powerful is this curse?”
“I don’t know.”
Light flashed in Dairou’s eyes—anxiety, or anger.
“Kageya was given the task of posing as you and accompanying Lord Harumochi and Koharumaru to the castle, not I. I know little else,” Nobi said.
Dairou stared at Nobi for a moment that stretched. Then Dairou nodded. “I believe you, Nobi. Please protect Sayo as best you can.”
Nobi nodded.
“I need to ask Sayo for a favor,” Dairou said. “I am certain she will do what I ask, but she will be in danger.”
“I understand,” Nobi said. “I’ll keep her safe.”
“Good.”
Nobi gave Dairou a sidelong glance. “So you really believe me this time?”
Dairou offered him a faint smile. “I must believe you now. I have no other choice. If you’re lying now, then there’s no chance for us to save Lord Harumochi and Koharumaru.” He gestured expansively around the storehouse. “I have just removed the protective barrier between Haruna and the lands of the High King.”
Nobi’s eyes widened in surprise.
“Yes,” Dairou said. “That means you can accompany Sayo to the High King’s castle. You must enter the world between worlds and travel there. There isn’t much time.”
“Sayo is human,” Nobi said. “She can’t enter the world between worlds.”
Dairou shook his head. “She can. Her mother could, and she inherited that power.”
***
Suzu knelt in a dimly lit room and removed a box from a shelf. She lifted the lid of the box and set it aside. The smell of mothballs washed over the room as Suzu removed a sash tied with crimson string from some folded yellow paper at the bottom of the box.
“This was your mother’s,” Suzu said. “She gave it to me. Now I’m giving it to you.”
Sayo accepted the delicate sash with both hands.
“She wore it every day when she was pregnant with you,” Suzu said. “This sash protects the spirit within it.”
Sayo rubbed the sash against her cheek. It was very soft and smelled like the mothballs, but also like something else. The sweet smell she couldn’t identify lingered beneath the mothball scent.
“Miss Suzu… thank you.” Sayo was near tears.
Suzu stroked Sayo’s hair gently. “It’s all right to cry sometimes, Sayo. It’s all right to feel what you’re feeling, whatever it is. Some people might say your feelings are silly or stupid, but that’s not what feelings are.” Suzu was starting to understand why Hanano had chosen to have a child with a cursed man. She must have known that the man’s curse would affect her child, but she’d chosen to have Sayo anyway. That was the power of feelings. “Your mother chose to have you even though your father was cursed because of how she felt.”
Sayo shuddered. She thought she knew who her father was now.
Suzu grabbed Sayo’s shoulder. “Your mother wanted to protect you no matter what. Put this sash on and do not take it off.”
Tears streamed down Sayo’s face as she nodded.
***
Dairou made his request to Sayo shortly after Sayo put on her mother’s sash. Sayo asked for time to think. She didn’t want to force Nobi to fight his fellow spirit foxes. Going to the High King’s castle would be very dangerous.
Sayo walked in the garden, thinking about the future. She felt like she was caught in a web of other people’s hopes and desires; she didn’t truly understand her own.
Nobi was also in the garden, though he gave her plenty of room.
Sayo came closer to Nobi and said, “Thank you for everything you’ve done.” At least she’d managed to say that much of what she felt. “You risked getting hurt or killed so many times… But I still doubted you, and I haven’t had a chance to apologize.” She felt warm all over and clenched her fists. “I thought Dairou could help you, but he couldn’t. You can’t go back to the other spirit foxes…” Sayo faltered. She was crying and couldn’t speak.
“Sayo,” Nobi said. “It’s all right. I’ll go with you to the High King’s castle.”
Nobi was determined, and some of that determination steadied her. The overwhelming pressure she felt to speak relented. She was crying, but she also felt better. Nobi would protect her. He’d always protected her.
***
After Sayo made her decision, there was no time to waste. Sayo discussed the finer points of the plan with Dairou as she got ready for travel. Nobi got ready quickly and was waiting for her. Suzu, Dairou and Ichita saw them off.
The setting sun painted Umegae Estate red as Nobi and Sayo began their journey.
“I’ll carry you,” Nobi said. “We’ll go through the gap between worlds together. Hang on tight.”
Sayo nodded, then climbed up on Nobi’s back. As she rested her cheek against the nape of his neck, she smelled sunshine. She remembered that Nobi had smelled like that before, when they’d fled Yuuji Castle together. Sunshine warmed her from within as she clung to him.
Nobi ran like a wildfire through the fields around Umegae Estate. Between two steps, the clear ground and the spring sunshine vanished, replaced by hazy blue light from above and a cluttered forest floor. Sayo felt like they’d just jumped underwater and caught her breath.
Nobi could run faster in the world between worlds. He picked up the pace, bounding from step to step and arcing through the air faster than a bird could fly.
“Are you all right, Sayo?” Nobi asked as he continued his mad sprint across the landscape.
Overwhelmed by sensation and strangeness, it took Sayo a few moments to answer. “I’m fine,” she said. “Keep going!”
She wasn’t fine, but she couldn’t tell Nobi that. She felt like the forest was glaring at her through a thousand invisible eyes. Darkness clung to the leaves of the trees and the underbrush, making her feel uneasy.
Underbrush gave way to thick, tall grass that even Nobi struggled to run through.
“In my fox form, I could change to foxfire and fly over this,” Nobi said, “but this is the best I can do. Be patient; we’ll be through the grass soon.”
Sayo closed her eyes and rested her ear on Nobi’s back. “I’m fine. Really. I promise that I’ll tell you if I’m hurt. Just keep running.”
Nobi nodded and continued his heroic struggle through the grassland.
Breathing in this place wasn’t comfortable for Sayo. She had to take shallow breaths and focus on her surroundings so that she wouldn’t get dizzy.
Nobi wasn’t breathing hard at all. He seemed relaxed and at ease.
This is Nobi’s home, Sayo thought. No wonder he was more comfortable being here than she was.
Dew from the grass and a gathering mist made Nobi’s back wet. He smelled more like a fox when he was wet: more like fur and claws than sunshine. Nobi looked like a human while he was carrying her, but his true form was that of a spirit fox.
Nobi and I are different species from different worlds, Sayo thought. The thought made her sad. She kept her eyes tightly closed so that she wouldn’t see the dark world all around her.
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