Soul of the Sword (Shadow of the Fox #2) - Julie Kagawa Page 0,143
mountain itself, but not enough to hold Hakaimono for any length of time.
The white fox sighed. “To be young and naive again,” he said, shaking his pale muzzle. “You have what you need to defeat Hakaimono, little fox. You are just not thinking like a kitsune. We are not humans, charging our enemies head-on like angry bulls. Doing battle with a fox is like trying to catch a reflection in a pond. We are shadows upon shadows, weaving our own worlds, our own realities. Entangling our enemies so thoroughly, they have no idea what is real and what is not. Nothing we present or reveal is the truth.” He waved his tail thoughtfully. “But you cannot underestimate this opponent,” he warned. “Hakaimono will not be fooled by simple pranks. It will take all your talent, all your fox magic, and every ounce of cunning and trickery you have, to defeat him.”
“I’m not that strong,” I whispered. “My illusions are simple things. I have no idea what I can do against Hakaimono.”
“Do you really believe that, after all you have done? After you fooled an emperor, and drove the assassins of the Shadow Clan mad with fear?”
“Men,” I agreed with a nod. “Not oni. Not demonslayers. I’ll be facing Hakaimono and Tatsumi. Neither of them is going to be afraid of anything I can do.”
“I see.” The white fox gave his tail an irritated twitch. “If that is what you truly believe, then I will give you the strength you need to emerge victorious.”
His mouth opened, muzzle gaping wide, and a glowing sphere of blue-white luminance emerged from his throat and floated toward me. As it drew close, I could see the ghostly flames flickering around a small white ball about the size of a human fist. It circled over my head, glowing softly from within, then drifted down until it touched the very tip of my muzzle. Cool flames tickled my nose, and I sneezed. As I did, I felt something small and round fly into my jaws and shoot down my throat, burning my tongue where it passed. I coughed and gagged, feeling like I was choking on a peach pit, but the foreign object ignored my attempts to retch it up and settled in my stomach, lighting my insides with what felt like icy flames.
I coughed once more and looked up. The white fox was watching me with an unamused look on his narrow face.
“That is my hoshi no tama,” he told me. “My star ball. It contains a small amount of my power. With it, you will have the magical prowess of a dozen kitsune, perhaps more.” He gave a grim smile as I gaped at him, stunned and reeling. Who was he, to have so much power? “It is very dear to me,” the white fox went on, “and I would like it back when you are done. But for now, you will have the strength you need to challenge even Hakaimono, if you can stop thinking like a human and start scheming like a fox.”
“Who are you?” I asked, gazing up at him. The question had been asked before, but it seemed even more important now. “Why are you helping me?”
He only gave that mysterious smile and lifted his face to the moon overhead, as if sensing something on the wind. “Hakaimono is close,” he stated, making my stomach writhe in fear and anticipation. “You will have perhaps a day before he arrives, so plan wisely. Remember, Hakaimono will be expecting a trap. He knows that he cannot simply take the Dragon scroll without resistance, that the guardians here will defend the pieces of the scroll with their lives. Hakaimono assumes that he is strong enough to withstand whatever is thrown at him, and he is right. He is too powerful a foe to face head-on. So do what we do best. Dance around him. Make him think he’s won. If you are very clever, you might beat Hakaimono at his own game. If you are not…” The white fox flicked his tail and began to disappear, the moonlight shining through his body as he faded from sight. “You and your friends will die, Genno will use the power of the Dragon’s Wish to plunge Iwagoto into darkness and Kage Tatsumi’s soul will be lost forever. Something to remember, when you face Hakaimono for the final time.”
Silence throbbed in my ears, and I opened my eyes.