Page 2 of Night of the Dragon

Was I Kage Tatsumi, or Hakaimono? I didn’t feel like either of them, though I knew I had irrevocably changed. When this body had been possessed by Hakaimono, the oni’s spirit had completely suppressed the human soul, keeping it trapped and unable to do anything. Until Yumeko had arrived, using fox magic of her own to possess the demonslayer and face the oni from within. She had found Tatsumi’s soul, freed it, and together, they had attempted to drive Hakaimono back into the sword. Though the First Oni had proved to be far stronger than either of them realized.

However, before a victor could be determined, Genno had appeared, an army of demons behind him, intent on taking the scroll. He’d betrayed Hakaimono, running him through with Kamigoroshi, and left him to die on the field of battle. To save us both, the souls of Kage Tatsumi and Hakaimono had merged, allowing Hakaimono to use his full power to heal the body and keep it alive. Impossibly, it had worked, and I had been able to kill most of Genno’s army before they could slaughter everyone. But in my weakened state, the temple had been destroyed, and Genno had left with all three pieces of the Dragon scroll in his possession.

The Master of Demons had everything he needed to summon the Great Kami Dragon and make the wish that would herald the end of the empire. We had to find Genno and stop him from using the scroll, but it was going to be a long, treacherous journey, and some of us might not survive. Even without the concern that my demon half could emerge at any time and tear my companions apart.

“Tatsumi?”

I looked up. Yumeko had broken from the rest of the group and now stood before me with the firelight against her back, casting her in a faint orange glow. She still wore the elegant red-and-white onmyoji robes from the night she had performed for the emperor, though the billowy sleeves were tattered now, her long hair was unkempt, and dirt stained her face and hands. She did not look like a revered diviner of the future. She looked like a peasant girl wearing a costume, except for the tall, black-tipped fox ears poking out of her hair, and the bushy, white-tipped tail behind her. I knew her fox features were invisible to most humans, but ever since the night she had invaded my soul, they were always visible to me. A reminder that Yumeko was kitsune, a yokai. She wasn’t completely human.

But then again, neither was I.

“May I sit with you, Tatsumi?” she asked in a soft voice, large eyes glowing a subtle gold in the flickering shadows. I nodded, and she carefully picked her way across the stones to sit beside me, that bushy orange tail brushing my leg as she settled against the cave wall. Odd that the contact didn’t make me shy away like it used to.

“How are you feeling?” she asked.

“I’m alive,” I told her in an equally quiet voice. “That’s about all I can say for certain.” She stared at me, her gaze searching, questioning, and I felt my lip curl in a faint, bitter smile. “I know what you’re asking, Yumeko. And I can’t answer. I feel...different. Strange. As if...” I tried to find the words to explain the impossible. “As if there’s a hidden rage inside me, this...savagery that needs only the barest push to come out.”

Yumeko blinked, looking thoughtful. “Like when Hakaimono was living in your head?” she asked. “You were always fighting him for control—is this the same?”

“No.” I shook my head. “We were always separate, two individual souls fighting each other for control of one body. If...if I am still Tatsumi, I feel as if Hakaimono is part of me now. That his viciousness and bloodlust could come out at any time. And, if I am Hakaimono, I feel that Tatsumi has infected me with his human thoughts, fears and emotions.” I raised a hand before my face; it looked human enough, but I remembered the deadly talons that had curled from my fingertips the night I fought Genno’s army. “Maybe it’s best if I take my leave,” I muttered. “If I am part demon, none of you will ever be safe.”

I shot Yumeko a sideways glance to see if any of this frightened her, but her golden fox eyes seemed only sympathetic. “No,” she said bluntly, making me blink at her. “Don’t go, Tatsumi... Hakaimono...whoever you are. You promised you would help us find the Master of Demons. We need you.”

“And what if I’m not Tatsumi?” I asked, turning to face her. “What if I am Hakaimono? How do you know whose soul is stronger, or if Kage Tatsumi even survived the merging of human and demon? Even I don’t know the answer to that.”

She continued to gaze at me without fear. Watching her, I felt a jolt of shock as light fingers came to rest on my arm, sending a ripple of heat coiling through my insides. Yumeko smiled faintly, though there was a sadness in her eyes as she gazed at me, a glimmer of longing that I didn’t understand, but that caused my heart to give a strange little stutter.

“I trust you,” Yumeko said very quietly. “Even if you’re not the same, I saw your soul that night. I know you won’t betray us.”

“Yumeko,” called a voice before I could suppress my churning emotions long enough to speak. Near the fire, the shrine maiden was watching us with a grave look on her face, her small orange dog giving me a stony glare from its place at her feet. The miko’s dark eyes glittered with mistrust as they shifted to me. “Kage-san. If you would join us—we’re off the mountain and no longer in danger of the tengu’s retribution. We need to decide where to go from here.”

“Hai, Reika-san.” Yumeko rose and padded to the fire, fox tail swishing under the hem of her robes. I stood slowly and followed, noting the dark looks and suspicious glares from the rest of the party. The shrine maiden and her dog watched me with barely restrained hostility and mistrust, as if I could turn into a demon at any moment and leap at them with fangs bared. Taiyo Daisuke of the Sun Clan sat cross-legged by the fire, hands tucked into his sleeves, his expression carefully hidden behind a veneer of decorum. Beside him, the ronin slouched against his pack, looking as unkempt and disheveled as ever, reddish-brown hair coming loose of its ponytail. They were, I noticed, sitting very close for two men of vastly different statuses. I had known samurai who would not deign to be in the same room as a ronin, much less share a fire with them.

Glancing up, the ronin gave me a rueful smirk and a nod as I crouched beside the flames, and his dark gaze flickered up to something on my brow.

“You have a little...something on your face there, Kage-san,” he said, motioning a finger at his own forehead. I set my jaw, ignoring the obvious reference to the small but blatant horns curling above my eyebrows. Everything else—the claws, the fangs, the glowing eyes—had disappeared, at least temporarily, but the horns remained. A permanent reminder that I was a demon now. If any normal human saw me like this, I would likely be killed on sight.

“Baka.” The shrine maiden stalked up behind the ronin and gave a quick swat to the back of his head. The ronin winced. “This is not the time for jokes. Genno has all three pieces of the Scroll of a Thousand Prayers and is a breath away from summoning the Dragon. We have to stop him, and to do that, we need a plan. Kage...san...” She glanced at me, stumbling over my name. “You said you know where the Master of Demons is headed?”

I nodded. “Tsuki territory,” I said. “The islands of the Moon Clan is where the Dragon was first summoned four thousand years ago. The cliffs of Ryugake, on the northern island of Ushima, is where the ritual will take place.”

“When?” Taiyo-san asked. “How much time do we have until the night of the Wish?”

“Less than you think,” I answered grimly. A quote came to me, though I didn’t know from where. Hakaimono’s memory was long; he had seen the rise and fall of many eras.“On the night of the thousandth year,”I murmured,“before the dragon stars fade from the skies and concede the heavens to the red bird of autumn, the Harbinger of Change can be called upon by one whose heart is pure.”I paused a moment, then snorted. “As in the case of most legends, not all of it is true. Kage Hirotaka and Lady Hanshou were not entirely ‘pure of heart’ when it came to summoning the Dragon. That was probably added in the hopes of keeping greedy or evil humans from seeking out the scrolls.”

Beside me, Yumeko frowned. “What does it mean by ‘dragon stars’ and ‘red bird of autumn’?”

“They are constellations, Yumeko-san,” the noble said, turning to the girl. “Each season has one of the four great holy beasts tied to it. The Kirin represents spring and new life. The Dragon represents summer, for it brings the heavy rains that are essential to the crops. The red bird of autumn is the Phoenix, ready to die and be reborn anew in the spring. And the White Tiger represents winter, patient and deadly as a land covered in snow.”

“So, if what Kage-san says is true,” broke in the shrine maiden, sounding impatient, “and the Night of the Summoning will be held on the last day of summer...” She jerked up, eyes widening. “That is the end of the month!”

“Less time than we thought indeed,” mused the noble, his eyes shadowed. “And Genno already has a head start on us.”

“How are we going to get to the Moon Clan islands?” Yumeko wondered.

“Well, hopefully we’re not going to swim,” the ronin said. “Unless either of you can call up a giant turtle from the sea, I’m guessing we’re going to need some kind of boat.”

“There are ships in Umi Sabishi Mura that make the journey to Tsuki lands,” the Taiyo informed us. “It is a modest village along the coast, but it has quite the impressive harbor. Most of the trade from the Moon Clan islands comes through Umi Sabishi. The problem will not be finding a captain willing to take passengers on to Tsuki lands, but what we will do once we get there.”

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