Beyond the Werefox Whistle
Written by Uehashi Nahoko
Illustrated by Yumiko Shirai
Part 3: Nobi and Sayo
Chapter 5: Doubts
Dairou was burning up. His wound was infected and his mind was addled by fever. He felt a rough sandpaper tongue licking over his wound and flinched, but held himself still. The licking was helping. His wound still hurt, but it felt more like an ordinary cut now and not as much like a mortal wound.
“Nobi, can I come in now?” Sayo asked.
The tongue cleaning Dairou’s wound stopped. A cool breeze passed over his face, soothing his fever. He opened his eyes and saw the same young man as before.
Sayo entered the room, knelt down and squeezed Dairou’s uninjured hand.
♢ Sayo, be careful,♢ Dairou spoke to her mind-to-mind. ♢ That’s a spirit fox.♢
Sayo removed a wet cloth on Dairou’s forehead and soaked it in a bucket of water that was at his bedside. She wrung it out, then placed it back on his forehead. The cool, refreshing fabric felt so wonderful that it made Dairou sigh.
“It’s okay, Dairou. I know that Nobi is a spirit fox,” Sayo said aloud.
The young man folded his arms and gazed down at Dairou with a dispassionate expression.
“Nobi cleaned your wound. You should sleep a little more, and then you’ll feel much better,” Sayo said.
“The poison is neutralized, so you don’t need to worry about that anymore,” Nobi added.
“Poison?” Sayo asked in a low voice.
“I’ve already absorbed most of it. By morning, the fever will be gone,” Nobi said quietly. “I think having him drink some water might be a good idea. It’s too soon for him to eat.”
Sayo nodded. “You’re right. I’ll fetch water.” Sayo left.
“Where are we?” Dairou asked.
“A hut,” Nobi said. “It’s not a residence. No one has been here for some time. I think it’s just a temporary shelter. I found it on my way to you, to the side of a mountain path in a grove of cedar trees. We’re not too far from where I found you, and you haven’t been unconscious for very long. Sayo said that even if the owner of the hut came back while we were here, they wouldn’t eject a sick person.”
While Nobi was talking, Sayo returned. She was holding a cup of water one-handed so that she wouldn’t hurt her cut hand further. Nobi helped her half-lift Dairou so that he could drink without choking or spilling too much.
The cold, sweet water slid down Dairou’s feverish throat. Dairou had never tasted anything so divine.
“Don’t drink it too fast,” Sayo said. “Just drink a little at a time.”
Dairou was greedy for the water, but he listened to Sayo’s advice. A wave of exhaustion passed over him; he closed his eyes as Nobi and Sayo laid him flat.
“Sleep well and get well soon, Dairou,” Sayo said.
Dairou fell into a deep, healing sleep.
***
Dairou awoke late on the following day. Sayo and Nobi weren’t in the hut. Bright sunlight poured in through the sliding door, which was partway open. Dairou tried to rise, but he was still too weak.
As Dairou looked around, he heard the sound of splitting wood. Someone was making firewood outside. He also heard voices; Sayo and Nobi were speaking to one another.
Why is the spirit fox here with Sayo? Dairou wondered. He didn’t sense any hostility from the spirit fox, but he knew that the creature was a sorcerer’s familiar. Spirit foxes were skilled at deceiving people. Had Sayo been tricked by the familiar?
The spirit fox had saved him, which made no sense. He had to have some plan to kill or trap Dairou after this. Dairou didn’t understand this situation at all. The spirit fox on the road—another familiar—had tried to kill him and had nearly succeeded. This other spirit fox wasn’t behaving normally at all.
Is this spirit fox trying to gain my trust so that it can convince me to do something dangerous? Why? What does the spirit fox want?
As Dairou fretted and wondered, Nobi came in from outside carrying a pile of firewood. He noticed that Dairou was awake and put the firewood down on the dirt floor. He sat down next to Dairou and looked him over with a clinical expression.
Dairou reached out and grabbed Nobi’s arm. Nobi’s face contorted in pain. There was a new protective bracelet on the wrist gripping Nobi’s arm. The spirit fox was bound in place, unable to move or harm anyone.
“What are you planning?” Dairou asked.
Nobi glared at Dairou, gritting his teeth.
Sayo appeared at the door. She set an earthenware pot down by the hearth, saw what Dairou was doing and cried out, “Dairou! You’re awake!”
“Sayo, don’t be fooled by this creature. A spirit fox never betrays its master. He saved me because he’s up to something. He wants something from us.”
Sayo was torn. What could she say to make Dairou believe her? She didn’t think that she could convince Dairou by telling him about how she’d saved Nobi when they were younger. Dairou’s experience of spirit foxes was completely different from hers.
Sayo reached out tentatively and touched Dairou’s hand, which was still gripping Nobi’s arm. There was a prickling pain there, like thorns poking her skin. She extricated Nobi’s arm from Dairou’s hand carefully, wincing the entire time. She felt like she should be angry or saddened, but those emotions didn’t come to her. She was too tired of fighting.
Dairou was angry. Sayo could tell that at a glance.
“I believe that Nobi wants to help us, not hurt us,” Sayo said. “I know you have reasons to doubt him, but I have reasons to trust him. I can’t explain them in a way you’ll accept, but I’m asking you to believe me.”
“He’s tricking you, Sayo,” Dairou said. “He’ll betray you in the end.”
Nobi was silent. He rubbed his hands together.
Dairou spoke in a strident voice. “Familiars can never betray their masters, Sayo!”
Sayo looked at Nobi. It was possible that Dairou was right. Maybe Nobi had saved him in order to gain his trust.
Nobi held her gaze. He stood up straight, then spun on his heel and left the hut.
Sayo moved to follow him, but Dairou caught her hand. “Sayo, don’t go.”
“I have to.” Sayo freed herself from Dairou’s hold and chased after Nobi.
But Nobi was gone. Sayo called out to him, but he didn’t return.
***
Nobi transformed into his fox form and sprinted across the fields. He felt abandoned and hopeless—more and more with every step.
Nothing he could do or say would make Dairou believe him. He’d wanted to save Sayo, and he had. Now his life was over. There was no way to save himself from his master’s wrath.
Nobi realized that he’d allowed himself to hope, and that there’d never been any reason to.
He ran.
***
Sayo returned to the hut with a heavy heart. Dairou called her name, but she didn’t turn to him. She stared outside through the partly open sliding door and cupped her injured hand in her uninjured one.
“You might be right,” Sayo said to Dairou without facing him. “Maybe I was being tricked. But what if I wasn’t?”
Sayo told Dairou about meeting Nobi when she was a child. How she’d fled to Morikage Estate, and how Koharumaru had hidden them.
“I thought Nobi was just a fox then. I thought Koharumaru was just a lonely boy who wasn’t allowed to go outside. I never thought we’d all be put in such danger,” Sayo said.
As Dairou listened, he realized that Sayo had been fortunate to catch sight of the spirit fox woman in Yuuji Castle. If Sayo hadn’t noticed her, the spirit fox woman could have kidnapped Koharumaru, who was under the influence of a curse. It was likely that the spirit fox woman would have sneaked Koharumaru into the High King’s castle while under her influence. That would have been disastrous for everyone.
But the spirit fox woman was a sorcerer’s familiar like Nobi. She knew Nobi. Why wasn’t Nobi working with her? If he rebelled against his master, he would die. Bringing Sayo and Dairou together couldn’t possibly serve the sorcerer’s goals. Could it be that, as Sayo had said, the spirit fox was trying to repay his debt to her for saving his life?
“That can’t be true,” Dairou said. “Familiars are absolutely loyal to their masters. Gratitude can extend only so far. No amount of it would make a familiar risk their life.”
Sayo looked up at him. “Dairou, what is a familiar, exactly?”
“Your mother Hanano told me that spirit foxes are magical beasts that are born in the space between worlds. Powerful sorcerers go to this place and steal baby spirit foxes, bringing them back to our world. In exchange for the power to remain in this world, the spirit fox uses its magical powers on behalf of the sorcerer. After that happens, they can never return to the place between worlds.”
“Why?”
“A piece of their spirit is sealed into a werefox whistle by the sorcerer. The sorcerer can use the werefox whistle to call the spirit fox and control their actions. The werefox whistle is what changes a spirit fox into a sorcerer’s familiar.”
“The werefox whistle… If we take it from the sorcerer, will Nobi be saved?” Sayo asked.
“It would probably save him. But Nobi isn’t able to steal his own werefox whistle. Whoever does that will almost certainly die, since they would be cursed by the power that rests inside the whistle.” He shook his head. “Spirit foxes aren’t meant to be controlled by people. It’s offensive, cruel magic, not defensive magic like Ogi. Sorcerers have much to fear from the power of the familiars they bind and employ their own defensive techniques, but these techniques cut their lives short. They empower their familiars and pay for it with years from their lives. That is why there are so few sorcerers in Yuki now, I think. The power of spirit foxes is too great for people to control.”
Sayo digested this information in silence.
“Hanano often said, ‘To see is to be seen. To use is to be used.’ People want to see and make use of tools and creatures, but they don’t want to be seen and used themselves. It’s an unfair state of affairs.”
To see is to be seen… Sayo remembered all the eyes that had tracked her when she’d closed the door to the dark world. She shuddered as her fear of those eyes briefly overcame her again.
“Seeing without being seen and using without being used is the way of the sorcerer,” Dairou said. “If a spirit fox could see the sorcerer as it was being bound as a familiar, the spirit fox would eat the sorcerer alive.”
Sayo rubbed her arms, still shuddering.
“Nobi has seen your face already. You couldn’t bind him to a new familiar contract and save him that way. Besides, we don’t know where he went or what he’ll do. I can’t imagine he’ll do much good for himself or the rest of the world. He’s slipped his leash, but that won’t last. His master will catch up to him eventually.”
Sayo thought about Nobi as a little fox fleeing for his life from hounds across a field of silver grass. She had picked him up; there’d been blood on his little nose. That little fox had grown and saved her from bandits and the attackers at the castle. She smiled to herself.
No matter what Dairou thought, Sayo knew that Nobi hadn’t tried to trick her. Not even once.
Sayo looked out the window as the sun dipped low over the horizon.
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