Bao wrapped the hound’s corpse in a woven straw bed given to him by one of the villagers. Then he secured it with a rope on top of Nami’s horse.
“Wait, why are you—”
“You will go back to Masu’s grove and recover. Have Yachi bury her.” Bao interjected sternly. Then he added, “We will go after Makaskas.”
Nami looked around for the face she had seen with Bao not long ago. At first Nami had mistaken the scruffy woman for a vagrant but there was something more to her than meets the eye. She was not ordinary. She shared a similar spiritual presence like Nami. Perhaps she was another avolar.
“Bao, the fox spirits are powerful,” Nami warned. “Its magic is cunning and lethal. Makaskas barely survived one of its spells.”
“Do not fret, Nami,” Bao said. “Whatever tricks the fox spirits have up their sleeves are nothing compared to the true power our exorcist wields.”
“Exorcist?” Nami repeated and just in time, the woman Nami had seen before pulled up right next to them on a silver horse. She looked proud, mounted on a steed that was overdressed with a fine saddle and neat, silk cloths. Her hand carried a bark of dried meat, mouth furiously chewing.
“The wolf captain brought salted meat,” the exorcist said, “Hard as rocks but tasty all the same.”
That was the exorcist? Nami thought to herself.
Bao took the reins of Nami’s horse and pulled them away from the exorcist.
“Go, Nami,” Bao whispered. He looked behind him from time to time, as though he did not want the exorcist to hear whatever he was saying. “Right now, I’m trying to earn her trust. I’m in the mid of convincing her to join our cause. She is reluctant and fickle but it’s clear that her eyes could see what is right and what is not. She just needs the proper guidance. Whatever questions you have, I promise to answer when we get back. For now, you must recover.”
Nami took a deep breath, looking at Bao with mild uncertainty. She usually parted with the last statement but now, she merely whipped the rein of the horse and galloped to the forest, disappearing past the winter fog.
Bao returned to Liang’s side.
“So that was the avolar we were supposed to rescue?” Liang asked. “She looks rescued to me albeit slightly scathed.”
“Makaskas is in trouble now,” Bao said.
“One after another.” Liang sighed and grabbed another piece of salted meat from the leather satchel that hung on the previous wolf-captain’s horse.
Bao snatched a piece and chewed on it with ease. “Pork. Week’s old. Hard enough to knock Yachi’s remaining teeth off.”
“Then we best not save him a single piece,” Liang said. “As for your comrade who took your avolar’s place in trouble, how are we going to approach his situation? Do we even know of his situation?”
Bao nodded to disagree. “It’s clear that Makaskas remained inside the castle to retrieve the children. We’ll head there and assist him in fighting the fox spirits.”
“As we speak, your companion could be hexed by that nine tailed fox like your avolar a day ago.” Liang paused to swallow. “Or it could be that he’s already dead. I vote for the latter so this mission is futile.”
Bao sighed heavily and pressed a palm against his forehead. “Faithless,” he whispered to himself and gazed up to the glutton of an exorcist. “If he was hexed, then we are going to retrieve him. If he was killed, then we are going to retrieve his body. Either way.” Bao pointed at the looming castle on top of the hill. “We are not leaving this place without Makaskas.”
“I just said this mission is futile if he’s dead. I never said we aren’t going to pursue him,” Liang said, “Enough of this. Onward.” She steered the horse forward and began cantering toward the castle steps.
Bao mounted his horse and followed closely behind as they ascended the eroding stairs of Akako’s previous monarch. Upon arriving at the castle doors, they dismounted and tethered their horses just before the collapsed door. Liang took the drawstring bag containing the salted meat and strapped it around her harness tautly.
Carefully, they made their way to the moonlit halls where the aftermath of a battle was still imminent.
“Do you smell it?” Bao asked. “The aroma of wax and incense. It’s easy to tell apart foxfire and any other fire. ”
Liang snuffed the air, surprised to have caught no other than the winter chill that made the tunnel of her nose ache. “I do not,” she said, “But I do see remnants of fire.” She pointed to a doorway that lead to a throne room with a slab of stone singed black.
“Makaskas fought well,” Bao remarked.
“For an ongoing battle, it’s awfully quiet.” Liang paced to the throne room and stopped right before the slab of rock to closely observe the ashen areas. “Are you sure your ally is still alive?”
“Makaskas is strong.”
“But not invulnerable,” Liang added. “Remember, both of you are mortal now.”
“I hadn’t forgotten.” Bao paused. The battle of Long Zhou flashed inside his mind. “I am well reminded from time to time.”
Liang scaled the entire throne room, looking for more evidences of the previous battle that occurred but she found no other than the marks on the stone slab.
“The battle ended here…” she told herself then looked at her leopard companion. “It’s possible your friend still hasn’t found the children. He’s still searching for them.”
Bao looked around and at the edge of the throne room there was a half opened door. He walked toward it and pushed it all the way through. It lead to a dark hall but its end was marked by light.
“There, another room,” Bao said.
Liang followed behind him. They walked the tunnel-like trail until they arrived at not a room but what seemed to be the castle’s courtyard.
“It looked like a garden,” Liang remarked and did not hesitate to step down on the cobblestones.
Bao remained on his position, observing the barren patio. Where the plants used to thrive was marked by their skeletons. The design of the garden was retained by the shapes traced by stones placed decoratively on its positions. There was a red bridge that connected to the center of the garden where a thick tree lay twisted, ever preserved by the ice around it.
Bao walked through the garden and followed his exorcist past the bridge where she seemed to have stopped in silence. Liang behaved childishly at the first sight of the empty garden, poking at stone sculptures and shaking snow that collected off the branches of bald shrubs. She had suddenly stopped after reaching the tree which piqued the curiosity of the snow leopard.
“Come, Liang, we are yet to find Makaskas,” Bao said.
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Liang was staring emptily at a headstone when Bao arrived. She turned back to him and asked, “Do you know how to read the scripts of Hatsukochi?”
Bao nodded once to agree.
“Will you read what’s written on the grave for me?”
Bao walked beside Liang and read the characters, “Emperor Dai of the Fourth Heavenly Generation.”
At the end of Bao’s diction, the headstone cracked vertically at the center, misaligning the etched characters.
“I thought royals had grandeur tombs,” Liang said in a low tone. Her voice was cold and her face was static. The gravestone cracked horizontally and it crumbled to four uneven blocks. “How pretentious, this one is.” Without another word, Liang turned and marched at the other end of the courtyard.
Bao gazed at the pile of stone wistfully, wondering what grievance the exorcist held against the emperor of Hatsukochi but the matter was beyond his concern. The least he had done was place upright the slab of stone containing the character of Emperor Dai’s first name.
They followed the next door that was open and they were lead to the kitchen. Liang quickly searched the cupboards and barrels but her enthusiasm receded at the second cupboard that was empty.
Adjacent to the kitchen were the quarters of the household. The sliding doors were partly opened, some were forcefully broken. The floorboards were cracked and malformed rodents scurried in at the sight of Liang and Bao. Past it were the barracks and stables. No weapons were left in the area. The forge was emptied, no bar of iron or steel in its places. If Bao and Liang were none the wiser, they would have mistaken this castle to be merely abandoned. It was too clean to be the ruins of battle—no piece of armor left or stray arrows stuck on the walls—yet spoiled enough to hint that something gruesome had occurred.
“It’s no surprise that we’d find this area empty as well,” Liang said. She kicked over a spear rack and it tipped over and fell. Then her eyes caught an orange glow past a fence that separated the barracks from a sheer drop. “Bao, what’s that over there?” she asked.
Bao was examining a coil of rope in the forge when Liang asked him. He went to the fence by Liang’s side and gazed down at Shinsou’s village. The lanterns were hazy in the distance but it was too bright to dismiss. They were at the back of the castle if they could see Shinsou’s village, Bao thought.
“That’s the wolf warden’s domain,” Bao said. “Must be having another festival while the people here are starving.”
“Warden…” Liang repeated. “The warden of Fukamori?” she asked.
Bao explained. “Warden of the whole East. Of course you would find him here in Fukamori. It’s the largest of Hatsukochi’s three domains. The resources in Yofuchi and Kumokage are delivered to his manse directly. That’s how he could sustain yearlong festivals for his people. I should know. Makaskas and I occasionally ambush their transports for supplies. Shinsou barely notices it.”
“I always found comfort in looking at villages from afar.” Liang recalled, “Back at the temple, the room I shared with Yong was at the highest tower. Once a year, Shanjiao—the village beneath us—holds a festival for its deity. The lights would shine so bright that it would pierce the mountain clouds.” Liang paused as if the memory had overtaken her and when she returned, she rested her head on the railing of the fence as though she would sleep looking at the village. “You know it actually looks beautiful. This far away, you can’t tell any different if it’s occupied by humans or not.”
Bao scoffed. “Do not be deceived. It’s not a place where you want to be. Humans are not allowed there unless you are owned.”
“I could sneak in there if I wanted to,” Liang said confidently. “Look down there. There’s a river connecting to the village.” She pointed.
Bao followed the direction of Liang’s finger. “That route is occupied. They built the dungeons by the river for close access to water. It’s heavily guarded.”
“Where does that river lead to?” Liang asked and climbed over the fence. She kept one hand gripped taut on the railing as she bent as far down as she could to try and surmise the flow of the water. “I can’t see if the current leads toward the village or the opposite.”
“Enough of that. Get back here at once,” Bao commanded. “What does it matter where the river leads?”
Liang ignored Bao and forced her eyes to look past the darkness, hoping to see a shimmer on the river’s surface that would answer her question. But after minutes of squinting her eyes, she gave up and climbed back over the fence.
“I’m just curious,” Liang said, “The river comes from under this mountain where the castle sits yet I did not see any river down there at Akako.”
Bao thought for a while. “It’s a possible exit…” he said. “If the fox spirits knew they were being pursued, they could have escaped to that river from under this mountain.”
“Where would they find that secret exit?”
“Where else but underneath?”
They ran back to the interior of the castle, peeking through doors that might take them to the lower levels. They scrambled relentlessly until they were breathless and rendezvoused at the most recent room they ran into each other.
“I least expected this scenario to happen.” Liang panted. “Can’t you track them with your nose?”
“Nothing to track,” Bao answered. “Can’t you track them with your magic?”
“Familiar occupied.”
“Other form of magic.”
“I don’t know any. Unless the fox spirit uses magic, I cannot know its location. And there’s always the possibility that I would dismiss the feeling as it’s very similar to a hunch.”
Bao opened his mouth to speak but before any words could come out, the ground underneath them grumbled and was shortly followed by an infernal screech.
“What was that?” Liang asked.
Bao’s fur bristled at the familiarity of the sound. He hadn’t heard it for centuries but there was no mistaking it.
“It feels as if it’s underneath us.” Liang pressed her hands against the cold, stone floor. Then she looked around and saw a looming darkness at the edge of the room. Without second thought, she got up and ran toward the doorway but she was stopped by Bao who caught her arm before she could go any further.
“Tell me you’re aware of what made that sound,” Bao said.
Liang could see the uneasiness in Bao’s eyes but she did not know what he meant. “A creature of some sort? Nothing to fear, I hope.”
Bao eased his grip on Liang’s arm before letting go completely. The curious exorcist massaged the area where the snow leopard gripped her too tightly before taking reluctant steps forward, looking back at Bao and at the door alternately as if making sure she was allowed to descend the awaiting steps.
Bao clenched his fists and followed Liang. Together, they made their way in the darkness that lead to the castle’s dungeon. The air was rancid but not by some leftover carcass decaying somewhere in the cells. The whole room was fumigated by trail scent of miasma and the overpowering stench of the water dragon.
The floor beneath them kept vibrating. The loose hinges of the dungeon cells squeaked as the hanging shackles rustled. The roar echoed once more. Liang paced faster while Bao’s steps became heavier. They followed the turquoise glow in the darkness where the source of the disturbance was at its strongest.
The floor dampened as they approached from the occasional splashes that spat out of the crevice. Bao stopped ten feet before the drop while Liang stopped dangerously close to see what was making the noise.
Below, she saw an enraged titanic serpentine. No words could describe Liang’s awe at seeing a dragon.
“Not even our elders have seen one dragon in their lifetime.” Liang was mesmerized. “It existed in our scripts but none of us has ever seen one before.”
“Those are vile creatures, Liang. Take caution.” Bao warned. “It’s supposed to be dormant…along with the rest of its kind.”
Liang barely heard a word from Bao. As she gazed on the water dragon, she noticed that it was attacking something. Liang could not see what. The pool below undulated discordantly that the creature’s target could not surface. A while later, Liang finally saw a figure underneath the water. It arose like a geyser, tens of feet in the air and latched on to the stone wall. It was the nine tailed fox. She was weak and fatigued, barely clinging to the wall.
“I found the nine tailed fox,” Liang said, “But no signs of Makaskas or the children.”
The nine tailed fox conjured a flame with a fisted hand. The fire manifested around her fist but her hand fell limp before she could lash the attack.
“Over here!” Liang yelled.
“What are you doing?” Bao exclaimed but Liang paid him no mind.
The nine tailed fox lifted her head weakly but she was not the only one that caught Liang’s attention. The water dragon gazed up at Liang and bared its teeth, like needles. Then as it was about to spray water from its mouth, an orb of blue flame struck it on the eye. The water dragon was set aback, redirecting the attack to the stone walls. It was strong enough to shake the entire dungeon. Liang almost tipped over the crevice had she not regained her balance.
The nine tailed fox trotted in the air, hands and feet encased in blue fire. Liang reached her hand toward the fox spirit and as soon as they made contact, the nine tailed fox’s weight pulled Liang down.
The vicious dragon coiled underneath the water, creating a maelstrom from its motion and at its center, it unlocked its jaws, waiting for its preys to fall.
As Liang was about to fall, Bao grabbed her leg and they dangled like a chain from the crevice. With ease, Bao pulled them back up and did not stop pulling until they were as far away from the hole as possible. The dungeon walls shook and the stone floors shuddered as the dragon thrashed underneath them.
Bao and Liang exchanged glances, panting. Then their eyes landed on the unconscious nine tailed fox.
“This is not Makaskas,” Liang said.
“No,” Bao replied, “No it’s not.”