The Way of the Fox (17 page)

The investigation was underway, and there was
careful, meticulous work to be done…

The castle gardens were filled with trees and shrubs,
fragrant bushes, and a great many beautiful iris flowers. The stream fed a great, broad muddy pond, well planted with lilies and water plantains. Red wooden bridges arced from the bank to a grassy island, and then on to the far shore. The wives of upper ranking samurai were enjoying outdoor poetry readings, or walking their little sleeve dogs. Some of the samurai guards, armed and armoured, watched from a distance as yesterday’s viewing pavilion was re-organised into an enclosure in which the noble lords could wine and dine. The skies were clearing, and it was a beautiful day.

Sura – a long low cunning flash of orange,
slipped stealthily from bush to bush along the central gardens. The white rat – rather more visible and far, far smaller – lacked Sura’s speed, and she was breathlessly trying to keep up. She scampered madly through the leaves, anxiously twitching her tail.

A broad ring of shady willow trees surrounded a clearing filled with little flowers. The two animal spirits halted in a clump of
blossoms, and Chiri peered anxiously out between the stems.

“
Why are we in animal form?”

“Stealth! In case we were being watched!
” Sura waved her fluffy tail. “You see – as animals, we can infiltrate. Move silently. Blend flawlessly into the background…”

The rat blinked her pink eyes. “
I am pure white, and you are orange.”

“
Exactly
the colours they
won’t
be looking for!” The fox moved onwards through the flowers. “Will you relax already! This is a foolproof spying technique!”

Chiri bustl
ed along swiftly at Sura’s side, looking nervously across her shoulder.

“
Sura san! Is this wise? What if there are cats?”

“
Oooh! Cats! You smell cats?” The fox looked eagerly around the trees. “Damn but those are tasty!”

“Sura!”

Chiri was utterly scandalised. It took a moment before she realised that the fox was joking. Somewhat miffed, the rat held her head high.

“Really, Sura san – you are a priestess! Surely you cannot so wantonly eat animal flesh?”

“Wanton?” Sura stopped and laid a paw upon her breast. “I’ll have you know that

I have taken a sacred oath never to harm another living being – unless
it is either tasty or annoying!” The fox trotted onwards, quite at peace with her world. “I’m a Taoist! Look – life is all about the great chain of being. When you find something from a lower tier, you take away its life, peel away its skin, heat it and eat it. Simple!”

The rat followed after Sura, shaking her head in disapproval.

“Sura san, I begin to have grave concerns for your soul…”

“
Shh” The fox peeked through another set of bushes. “Aha! This way! Past the stables.”

They wended their way onward, past wood piles, past
manicured garden beds and through the iris gardens. Finally they came to the grounds used by the Seven Winds training school.

A neat, white plastered wall surrounded the school’s main teaching hall. Up above, a castle tower served the school as its offices. A twisted, knotted tree served as a handy ladder up beside the tower. Sura flowed happily over to the tree, with Chiri clinging close
beside her. The fox climbed silkily up into the branches, with the white rat hard on her heels.

At the crest of the wall, t
hey stopped and peered into the sword school’s yard. A dozen students were facing one another across the yard, making brisk, hard sword cuts in unison. They shouted with each cut, making a wonderful racket.

Sura spied out the best route to the tower window high above. Behind her,
Chiri looked nervously about, starting at every shadow. She flicked her head about, clinging close to Sura. “I am certain I smell dogs!”

“
Will you relax already? Are all rats this nervous?”

“
The live ones are!”

Sura was already making her way higher into the tree. Chiri scuttled after her, clever pink feet gripping unerringly at the bark.

They climbed higher and higher, reaching towards the tower window. Sura led the way out along a narrow branch that bowed alarmingly beneath their weight. She gripped the branch, making her precarious way forward inch by inch. The branch swayed up and down. Both animals held on for dear life – rather alarmed at their perch. But at long last they could peer into the tower through an open window.

Yoshikiyo sat inside the room, coolly and diligently attending to a set of ledgers.
He wrote with the stiff, angry attention of a wronged man. His handwriting was apparently suffering badly.

Outside, on the narrow branch, Sura tried unsuccessfully to read the pages of the ledger. She bobbed the branch, trying to get it to swa
y up to a better height. She hissed a whisper to Chiri.

“What’s that book?
What’s he doing? Is he doing magic?”

“It is an accounts ledger.”
The rat half clambered over Sura, trying to get a better view of the room.
“Shhh! Someone’s coming!”

In the room, a shoji screen door whipped open with angry speed.
The master of the school marched into the room and shook a tight bundle of letters at Yoshikiyo.

“Yoshikiyo!
What are these? Explain yourself!”

Keeping his face stiffly frozen in a
neutral mask, Yoshikiyo bowed.

“
Sensei: they are letters to other fencing schools. I am seeking a position as an instructor.”

The sword master paced, whirling so that his back was to the window.

“How long have you been planning this treachery?”

“
There is no treachery!” Yoshikiyo’s voice dripped with scorn. “I have surpassed Hamada Bunji for months, and you have never acknowledged my skill! I wrote these letters last night. My value to this school was made abundantly clear at the tournament yesterday afternoon!”

A red glint came from
Yoshikiyo’s sleeve. The sword master strode forward and snatched a dark red amulet from the robe. He looked at the bauble in anger.

“The mon of the Raiden clan! They are already wooing you with gifts!”
Knuckles whitening, the sword master glared down at the other man. “You think you can absorb our secret techniques and pass them on to other schools? To hurtle the gems of our wisdom into the laps of mendicants and trash?”

The
instructor put his hand to his sword. But Yoshikiyo remained unmoved – his own sword lay at his side in easy reach. Yoshikiyo locked eyes with the sword master, retaining an inner calm.

“
Sensei! The practice of any skill is a path to enlightenment. There are no secrets on the great path of the Way.”

The sword master was held in place. Finally the man made a
noise of frustration and disgust. He twisted the letters into a knot, as though choking the life out of Yoshikiyo.

“
You will regret this, Yoshikiyo! They will crucify you for Hamada Bunji’s murder, and this school will ensure the magistrate finds you guilty of that crime!”

In this passion, the sword master flung
the letters aside – straight out of the window.

The
letters struck Sura clean in the snout. The branch went one way: Chiri and Sura went another. Feet flailing, they plunged downward.

Sura fell through the tree, slapped by twigs and branches the entire way down. She landed in a bush, bruising her backside and stunned half out of her wits. A cascade of leave
s showered down from above – then letters – and finally the red amulet bounced right off her skull.

“Ow…!”
Sura looked dazedly at the red amulet as it lay in the leaves beside her. “Oh yes – a garnet. Very nice.”

Chiri descended prettily down out of the heights – born by the whirring wings of her air elemental. She landed
upon Sura’s belly.

“A garnet?”

“Yes.” Sura blinked; she was still making a stock take of her limbs. “Looks like it.”

“Not magical, then?”

“Not really – no.”

The rock elemental looked down at Sura and seemed
to shake its head. Sura wagged one black paw, shooing the creature away.

“
What? Minor mishap! Slight bend in the plan. Shoo!”

Chiri jumped down from the fox’s tummy. Letters descended all about them, landing in the bushes and the dirt. As Sura
painfully righted herself, one draped itself over her head

“Letters?”

Chiri sat up, reading an immaculately written letter that had landed in the dirt. “Many letters.” She hopped over to another piece of paper, and then a third. “Sura san – these are all in the same handwriting…”

“Yoshikiyo’s? H
e was a busy boy last night.” Nursing a well-bruised bottom, Sura stumbled forward. She shook a broken twig out of her tail. “Wow – this must have taken hours!”

The fox turned over another letter with her
paw. She dragged two of them side by side, examining both carefully. She nodded her nose.

“
Same paper – same brush…” Including those still caught up in the tree, there must have been a dozen letters – all of them carefully and immaculately written. “Well I guess we can see how he spent his night…”

Chiri looked about herself. She nervously watched the gate to the school.

“Excuse me, Sura san – but are we finished? I feel our position might be difficult to politely explain.”

“
I guess so.” The fox gave a sigh. “Well – I guess we got to learn a little. Looks like Yoshikiyo has a solid alibi… Maybe we should go spy on that Moko woman – or that Hoichi guy!”

“Yes – yes!” The rat nervously chivvied Sura away from the school. “
Let us be gone from here before someone sees!”

There was activity in the school yard: it was high time to be off and away.
Sura peered stealthily about a corner of the wall, and led a swift dash across open ground. She ushered Chiri into cover beside stone lanterns and flower beds. The rat looked yearningly back towards the distant dormitories.

“Should we return to Tonbo san and Kuno san?”

The fox showed no inclination to return. “I say we have some fun!” The fox was revelling in the day. “Ooooh! Stealth! We could totally shadow that sword master guy and see what he’s up to! Maybe he killed Bunji to erase the stain on the school, and wants to frame Yoshikiyo!”

The castle’s ladies were nearby, carrying on with their interminable gossip.
Sura and Chiri threaded off through the garden beds, trying to catch sight of the main gate into the sword school. Chiri kept low, her eyes searching out the safest possibly way ahead, but Sura trolled along with her tail swinging happily behind her.

The rat scuttled into cover behind an iris clump, peering out over the open grass.

“Sura san – are you certain that we have evaded detection?

Sura took the little white rat
under her wing. “Ha! The great sage overcomes all obstacles! You’re with a fox now. I’m drawing you into a life of adventure! You have to embrace the beastie glamour! We’re hot, we’re wild, we’re smart! What could possibly…”

Dogs growled a mere few inches behind them.
Without a pause, Sura snatched Chiri up into her mouth and ran like hell. She dashed out onto the lawns, and a maddened pack of sleeve dogs exploded out of the flower beds behind her.

Sura ran like the wind.
Behind her, the lap dogs were joined by two stray dogs and a hunting hound. The pack came baying hot on Sura’s tail. The fox dodged around a tree, and the hunting dog slammed hard into the trunk, stunning itself. Lap dogs leapt and bounded over the fallen hound.

Chiri looked back in fright.

“Faster! Go faster!”

Flanked by the two flying elementals, Sura dashed through the gardens – racing past guards and gardeners, leaping over bushes as the yapping horde came
sprinting behind. The dogs hit and boiled over each another like an army of gnashing ants, spring boarding over one another and charging at Sura’s tail. The hunting dog staggered back to its feet. Dangling from Sura’s mouth and with the fox’s tongue lolling under her belly, Chiri winced and writhed.

“Ewww! Fox breath!”

“Hey!” Sura’s was panting – and struggling to talk past a wriggling mouthful of wet rat. “Ack! You do not taste like chicken!”

“Faster! Faster faster faster faster!”

Sura shot madly through the castle grounds, leaping, ducking and weaving. Chiri clambered awkwardly up out of Sura’s mouth and onto her back, gripping the fox’s fur. A rampaging sleeve dog burst out of the bushes – Sura hiked up her belly in panic as she ran, and the dog shot beneath her, disappearing into a pile of mulch. The fox ran on, somehow not missing a stride.