Soul of the Sword (Shadow of the Fox #2) - Julie Kagawa Page 0,133

been easy. The winds relay to us the goings-on in the mortal world, how dark things are rising with the coming of the Harbinger. It has been this way since the Dragon was first summoned. But you survived, and you have protected the scroll. It is all we could have asked, and for that, you have earned the gratitude of the Steel Feather temple.”

“Arigatou,” I whispered. “I am grateful, and I know Master Isao would be pleased that our piece of the scroll made it to the temple, that it can be protected. But…” I hesitated, not knowing how to tell him.

“But…the fight is not yet over, is it?” the daitengu finished softly.

I glanced up in surprise, and he offered a grim smile.

“He comes,” the old tengu said in a voice that sent shivers up my spine. “For the scroll. For you, and your companions. We have felt his approach on the wind, we smell his taint in the snow flurrying around us. We can sense him on the mountainside, the shadow that stalks the peaks, his footsteps getting ever closer. You know of whom I speak.”

Numbly, I nodded. “Hakaimono.”

“He comes for the scroll,” the daitengu said again, sounding grimly amused. “But he will not take it. We will not let it fall into the hands of whomever sends Hakaimono against us. Even if our foe is the First Oni himself, the warriors of this temple will fight, and we will defend the last pieces of the scroll to our dying breaths. We will perish before we let that monster take the Dragon’s prayer.”

“Ano…” I stammered, making him eye me with a beady black gaze. “Actually, I was hoping that the Steel Feather temple would help us with something…regarding Hakaimono.”

The daitengu raised a very bushy eyebrow. “Help you with the First Oni?” he repeated, and his tone became cautious. “What is it you want to do, fox?”

I took a deep breath.

“Save the demonslayer,” I said, and the other brow shot up to join the first. “Kage Tatsumi has been possessed by Hakaimono,” I went on. “I want to save him, and drive the demon back into Kamigoroshi.”

“Impossible,” the daitengu said, his voice flat. “Do you know how strong Hakaimono is, kitsune? Even now, we know we are going to lose a great many souls when that monster breaches our gates. He is weaker in a human body, but if we do anything less than destroy him, our clan will be slaughtered down to the youngest fledgling. There is no one who can exorcise that demon from the mortal he possesses. You would likely do more harm to the soul itself.”

“We’re not attempting an exorcism,” I told the ancient tengu. “Not in the traditional sense. I’m going to possess Tatsumi myself, and force the spirit of Hakaimono back into the sword from the inside.”

“Kitsune-tsuki?” The daitengu blinked. “That has never been done before,” he mused. “No fox would ever possess a mortal with the spirit of an oni inside him. Especially if that oni is Hakaimono.”

“I would,” I said firmly. “I mean…I will. I’m going to. Possess Tatsumi, and face Hakaimono myself.”

He gave me a long, level stare. I could sense him sizing me up, taking in my stature, and I set my jaw, staring him down. Finally, he shook his head. “Do you know how dangerous it will be?” he asked. “Taking on Hakaimono the Destroyer, at his full strength, inside a mortal soul?”

“I know,” I said, and shivered. “But I have to do it. I have to try. I promised Tatsumi that I would free his soul from Hakaimono, one way or another. He’s waiting for me, and I won’t break my promise. But, to even have a chance, I’ll need your help—everyone’s help. To possess Tatsumi, I’ll need some sort of opening, a distraction, so that Hakaimono won’t kill me as soon as I come in.”

The daitengu was still watching me, his face unreadable. I swallowed hard. “I know I’m asking for a lot…” I began.

“You are,” agreed the other.

“And I know that trying to take Hakaimono alive will be far more dangerous than trying to kill him outright…”

“And result in many more deaths,” added the daitengu.

“But I have to do this,” I said, feeling a lump rise to my throat. “Tatsumi saved my life, and I swore I would free him from Hakaimono. You didn’t see him. He…” I remembered Tatsumi in the dream world, the utter bleakness in his eyes, and words failed me. “I have