Shadow of The Fox (Shadow of the Fox #1) - Julie Kagawa Page 0,39
had formed in my mind—a wild, risky, probably very dangerous idea. The demons would be hunting me once they figured out the scroll was gone. The oni could be hunting me, and much as I wanted to avenge Master Isao and the others, I was no match for that abomination.
I trembled, feeling a huge painful knot in the pit of my stomach. It didn’t seem real, that they were gone. That only this afternoon, I was lighting the candles of the main hall and wishing I was somewhere else. I had never been beyond the forest. I didn’t know where to go, or how to talk to people. My whole life, I’d spoken only to monks, kami and the odd yokai in the woods. I had to take the scroll to the Steel Feather temple; I’d promised Master Isao I would, but I wasn’t sure how to get there, or what I would do if I ran into demons.
But...this human could kill demons. Quite easily, in fact. He might be as dangerous as the monsters themselves. If he were protecting me, any demon, yokai, or murderous human who wanted the scroll would have to deal with him first.
There was just one small problem.
He, too, was after the Dragon’s prayer. Whether he had been sent to retrieve it like the demons, or had come of his own volition, the reason didn’t matter. I could feel the narrow, lacquered case hidden in the furoshiki tied around my shoulder, and my heart pounded. If he discovered I had the scroll, I would be just as dead as the monsters dissolving in the breeze. I was going to have to be very careful, and choose my actions wisely, or my would-be protector would turn on me.
Briefly, I had the sobering thought that Master Isao would not have approved of this sham, of me lying to this boy to get him to accompany me to the Steel Feather temple. Denga would have certainly seen it as more fox trickery and deception. But I wasn’t a warrior; I couldn’t chop things to pieces with a sword, and all I knew of the outside world was what the monks had taught me. My temple was gone, my family had been slaughtered by demons before my eyes and I had been given a near impossible task. Not to mention, there was the notion that I had been left at the Silent Winds temple for this very moment. To somehow protect the scroll from everything that wanted it. I wasn’t certain what to feel about the whole vision thing, but I knew that if I thought about it now, I would bury myself in a deep hole and never come out again. I couldn’t do this alone, and I had no one else to help me. As the old tanuki had said just this evening: I was kitsune, yokai. Not human. This was what I was good at.
I held the stranger’s gaze as he thought about my offer, sensing a desperate struggle within him. Finally, he nodded and stepped back from the tree, taking his terrible sword away from my neck. “All right,” he said. “If this is the only way to get to the scroll, then I will take you to the capital, and then to the Steel Feather temple. But...” His eyes narrowed, cold and icy, and he raised his sword so that the moonlight reflected down the length of steel. “If you deceive me, or try to run, I will kill you. Understand?”
I nodded, ignoring the stab of fear that accompanied the feeling of relief. Not that I had any intentions of sneaking away, but I had no doubt he wasn’t making idle threats. With a sigh, the boy finally sheathed his weapon, and the subtle light coming from the blade vanished, plunging us into darkness.
“The capital is a few weeks away on foot,” he stated, calm and businesslike as he stepped back. “My horse fled earlier this evening, so we’ll have to walk, at least until I can find a new one. Are you well enough to travel? Do you have what you need?”
“Yes,” I replied. Being raised in a temple of ascetic monks, I’d never owned much, and the few possessions I’d had were probably cinders and ashes now. I had my sandals, the clothes on my back, a knife and a piece of a scroll of ultimate, wish-granting power, hidden in my furoshiki. That would have to be enough to get by.