Beyond the Werefox Whistle
Written by Uehashi Nahoko
Illustrated by Yumiko Shirai
Part 4: Breaking the Curse
Chapter 5: Werefox Whistle
Sayo entered the world between worlds and found Nobi lying on the ground in his spirit fox form. Being in this place was uncomfortable to her, but she forgot about that because Nobi was seriously hurt.
When Sayo touched Nobi’s back, his eyes opened. He was in spirit fox form. He shook himself, trying to transform.
“Don’t do that, Nobi,” Sayo said. “Save your strength.”
Nobi still attempted to transform into his human shape. He wanted to talk to Sayo as a human would. But he would always be a spirit fox—nothing could change that. He had so little power left that he couldn’t transform.
Sayo lifted Nobi up gently. She sat against the base of a tree and hugged him to her chest, crying.
♢ Don’t cry, ♢ Nobi thought to her. He was too weak to speak. ♢ Koharumaru will be okay. I promise. ♢
Sayo stilled. “That… that was what you were doing?” she asked. “Saving Koharumaru?”
If Nobi hadn’t jumped between Moritada and Koharumaru, Moritada would have cut down Koharumaru easily. Nobi had injured Koharumaru a little bit—just enough to get him out of the fight—and then he’d allowed Harumochi to cut him open. He’d pinned the blame for it all on Moritada.
“Thank you, Nobi.” Tears streamed down Sayo’s cheeks. “I’m so sorry. Koharumaru is important, but so are you. You should never have risked your life to save him, or me. Why did you do that?”
♢ Please don’t cry, ♢ Nobi thought to her again. ♢ I knew I didn’t have much longer to live, anyway. My master was going to catch up to me soon. I wanted my life to mean something. ♢ Nobi chuckled in mind-speech. ♢ My master saw me, you know. He was shocked. I felt it. He had no idea what I was doing. ♢
Sayo laughed with Nobi because she might never get another chance. She loved Nobi. She really, truly did. She didn’t even notice how heavy and exhausted she felt here, in this world between worlds.
“Is there a way to save you?” Sayo asked. She had closed the door to the dark world—a scar in the world. Could Nobi’s wounds be healed like that?
Sayo placed one hand carefully over Nobi’s slashed stomach. She closed her eyes and imagined her own life moving out of her body and into Nobi. Her hands felt warm, but she didn’t open her eyes to look at them.
Nobi didn’t heal. Of course not. Sayo wasn’t a sorceress. She didn’t know how to do this.
God, Sayo prayed desperately, if there is a god of this land, please save Nobi. I’ll give you anything you want. I’ll do anything. Just save him.
No gods made themselves known. The land remained quiet and still.
Sayo held Nobi for what felt like a long time before she heard footsteps in the distance. There was a man standing over her in a dark cloak. His face was obscured by mud. At first she thought she’d succeeded in summoning some kind of forest god, but then she noticed Tamao in her human form standing behind the man.
“Master,” Tamao said, “here is Nobi.” She’d tracked Nobi’s scent to find him here.
Sayo took a breath and nearly choked on the smell of incense. She guessed that the sorcerer was using it to conceal his true scent, so that his familiars wouldn’t be able to find him.
“Well done, Nobi,” the sorcerer said.
Sayo clutched Nobi protectively to her chest.
“You led me to the girl,” the sorcerer said. “You deserve some praise for that, Nobi.” He came closer, towering over Sayo. “I see. You’re Hanano’s daughter; that much is obvious. That makes us distant cousins. Did you know that?” he asked.
Sayo blinked and refused to look at him.
“So you didn’t know,” the sorcerer said. “Not surprising. You were young when your mother died. She probably didn’t get a chance to tell you about your family. Do you know how sorcerers became sorcerers? We didn’t start out this way. Long ago, our family worshiped the forest gods by serving the spirit foxes of this realm. Spirit foxes are the messengers of the forest gods, you see. But times changed, and human lords required more power. Our family fractured. Many bound spirit foxes in service to themselves and their lords to increase their power in our world.” He spoke as a teacher would, calm and patient. “Not many sorcerers are born. The talent is rare, even when it runs in families. After sorcerers bound spirit foxes as familiars, sorcerer births became even more rare.”
The sorcerer smiled down at Sayo, but it wasn’t a pleasant smile. “Look into my eyes. You can see the power swirling there, while we stay in this world. You see that I am weakened.”
“Then why are you still a sorcerer?” Sayo asked. “Why not give it up?”
“I have always been a sorcerer,” the man said. “I never had another choice.”
“No choice?” Sayo asked. “None?”
“Sorcerers are born to be what they are,” he said. “I have no other family—no wife, no children. Lord Moritada has been like my younger brother since childhood. I serve him because there is no other way of life open to me. I use my power to its fullest extent so that Lord Moritada’s wishes can be fulfilled.”
Sayo tried to sense the sorcerer’s thoughts, but he was saying what he was thinking. There was so little warmth or kindness in his heart. The loss of his family—of other sorcerers—had affected him deeply, but that was an old loss, scarred over now.
“Do you want to live, girl?” the sorcerer asked coldly. “You are a nuisance. It would be easy to kill you. But sorcerers are a rare and dying breed.” He extended a hand to her that Sayo didn’t touch. “If you want to live, pluck out a strand of your hair, blow upon it, and then hand it to me.”
Sayo’s heart beat faster. She had to tell the sorcerer no, but the instant she did, he would kill her.
♢ Sayo, no, ♢ Nobi said to her mind-to-mind. ♢ This is what he did to me. You can’t get caught by him. Don’t do it. ♢
Nobi raised his head, then bared his teeth at the sorcerer.
“My, my, so you’re still alive,” the sorcerer said. “I’m impressed.” He removed a small, bright object from his pocket and spun it on top of his palm. Then he shifted his gaze to Sayo. “This is a werefox whistle,” he said. “If you do as I command, I will teach you to use it to bind a spirit fox familiar to your will. With your help, we can pass down the skills of our ancestors to a new generation of sorcerers.”
He paused, then said, “If you refuse, I will crush this werefox whistle and then kill you. Nobi won’t last long even if I don’t crush the whistle. You could save him if you bind him as your familiar. The sorcerer shares part of their life force and power with their servants,” he said. “No one has tried to bind another sorcerer’s familiar before, but I’m willing to let you give it a try if you like.”
The sorcerer glanced back at Tamao. “Well, this turned out to be something of a thorny problem.” He guessed that she had known more about Nobi than she’d told him.
♢ Sayo, throw me at him, ♢ Nobi said to Sayo mind-to-mind. ♢ I’ll use my last strength to tear him to pieces and end him. ♢
Sayo shook her head. Nobi wasn’t strong enough to defeat the sorcerer. He wouldn’t have been able to defeat the sorcerer even if he weren’t injured. Sayo wasn’t strong enough, either, but she understood how Nobi felt. She wanted to strike down the sorcerer, too, even if she had to do it unarmed.
Freeing her hands from Nobi’s fur slowly, Sayo looked up at the sorcerer. One hand brushed her mother’s protective sash, which she was carrying in one pocket. The sash had partly spilled out of the pocket.
Sayo tore the sash out of her pocket and wrapped it tightly around both Nobi and herself. She stumbled up to one knee and looked the sorcerer in the eyes.
“What are you doing, foolish girl?” the sorcerer asked. “I suppose you want to die, then.” He extended one hand toward her. The hand that held the werefox whistle curled into a fist.
Sayo found it difficult to breathe—like she was underwater—but she didn’t die. Her mother’s sash protected her soul as well as Nobi’s.
“An interesting protective spell,” the sorcerer said. “But all spells can be broken. Resistance is pointless, girl.”
Sayo didn’t take her eyes off the sorcerer. She wanted to live. She’d never wanted to live so much in all her life. She understood why Nobi had laughed about confusing his master now. Confounding this man was a worthy goal. She raised her hands over her head and felt the sash stretch with her.
The sorcerer sighed. “How tiresome,” he said. “Tamao, eat her so we can be done with this.”
Before Tamao could pounce, Sayo leaped at the sorcerer. The sorcerer dropped the werefox whistle and dragged Sayo closer to him by the throat. Sayo seized his hand around her throat and pried it off her; she fell to the ground and then sprang up again, hands extended like claws toward his face.
Sayo scraped the mud off the sorcerer’s face with her fingernails.
Tamao saw the face of her master for the first time. She jumped, not at Sayo, but at the sorcerer. He fur shone in the dim light of the world between worlds.
Sayo looked away when the sorcerer started screaming.
He didn’t scream for long.
***
Nobi lay in Sayo’s arms. He hadn’t moved in quite a while. Sayo crouched over him, her shadow falling over his body.
When Sayo looked up, Tamao was sitting across from her in spirit fox form, licking the blood off her claws. She nudged the werefox whistle that the sorcerer had dropped into Sayo’s hand.
“He should blow that,” Tamao said. “I don’t know what will happen. He could die. You could die. He could stop being a spirit fox. I don’t know. But he’ll definitely die he does nothing.”
Sayo said nothing. She lifted the werefox whistle carefully to Nobi’s mouth. He took a shuddering breath, and sound came from the whistle.
The world between worlds felt dark and oppressive again. Sayo sought for a way out and saw a small white light in front of her.
She lunged for the light.
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