Destiny's Child (Kitsune series Book 3) (37 page)

I spun to see the crow sitting balanced on a pile of rock. 
When did he come back?

Fenn sighed and followed it up with a low growl.  “Dad’s right, for once.  You have enough problems on Earth without drawing more from other dimensions.”

Tukka agree.

I think you’ve got to do something about this after all
, Argent said.

I looked into the back shadows of my mind. 
What do you think, guys?

Does helping mean I get to eat something?
my shadow self asked. 
I am very, very hungry.

Taliesina
’s golden eyes were bright stars. 
You wanted to build a reputation so others would leave you alone, but I can see where being too formidable can be even more trouble.

On her furry back, Motherella fanned moth wings and waved frond-like antennae that looked like feather dusters. 
The real question we need to ask is: “What’s in it for us?”

I smiled. 
Yeah, there’s something to that
.  Out loud, I said, “What is in it for me.  You want me to put myself on the line; the decent thing is to pay me for it.”

Inari’s eyes widened in shock.  “Why, goodness alone ought to compel you to—”

“Aaaannnnkkkk!” I said.  “Wrong answer.”

Fenn’s eyes were amber coals.  He smiled; vicious, dark humor in his face.  “So, Inari, what are you offering?”

She fell silent.  Her eyes stared into infinity as she perused her options.  At last a tiny twist of her lips heralded a solution.  “There is a demonic stain on your back.  Its wrongness calls like a dying scream.”

“Tell me about,” I said.

“Take care of this matter for me,” Inari said, “and I will tell you how such marks may be easily removed, by one such as yourself.”

In the back shadows of my mind, Taliesina’s ears perked up.  Her sleepy eyes flared open. 
A solution to Wocky?  Take the deal
.

Motherella sat on Taliesina’s back, antennae bobbing.  Her compound eyes whirled a happy yellow-green. 
Take the deal
.

The darkness they occupied stirred. 
Take the deal
.

I looked Inari dead in the eye.  “I’ll take the deal.”

THIRTY-SEVEN

Strike the world, strike a coin.

Every hero’s worth the cost.

The Shadow Fox bargained well

for something found to be lost.

                                           
           —Ballad of the Shadow Fox

                                     
         Tukka

Inari raised her hands.  A flash of light blurred her, and us.  The light-play cleared and I saw she’d somehow taken us back to the arena.  It had suffered much in my absence.  The stench of death spoiled the air.  The walls were cracked.  The sand under me was soured, the white replaced with rusty brown as if the scraped-over blood of past combats had become a creeping mold with a will to conquer.  An influx of Hysane worked steadily, hauling dead bodies away.  They dealt with their grief by throwing me murderous glances, but none of the earth dragons raised the ground against me.  Maybe they couldn’t anymore with the heart of their land contaminated. 

Tukka moved closer, Fenn balanced on his back.  Neither one looked happy.  The Trickster remained in bird form, his red-eyed Raven incarnation squatting on Fenn’s shoulder, preening without a care.

Must be nice to be an idiot
, I thought.

“Wait here,” Inari said.  “I will speak to the Hysane.  If they want their world back the way it was, they will give us what we need.”  She strolled across the sand, a white fox crowding her on either side.  The wall shifted as she reached it, forming an incline, then a stairway up into the stands.  She at least could still manipulate the earth.  That showed the difference in power between dragons and a self-styled goddess.

I looked at the back of Argent’s head, an easy task since I was still riding him.  “So, fox, you’re done with her, huh?”

Totally
.

“Then why are you still here?  What’s in it for you?”

I’ll figure something out.

“Grace,” Fenn’s voice was a low rumble of concern, “this is not a good idea.  I know you need to power-up in order to face the monster ghost, but you don’t know what the Hysane energy may do to you.  They aren’t human.  Their life-force could be bad for you.”

Tukka not like either
, he said. 

“None of us here are human,” I reminded them.  “Fenn, it’s no different from the time you let me drain you so I could free Shaun from the miko’s control.”

“I didn’t like
that
either.”

“I have to do this.  I need to get free of Wocky.  Who knows when the next chance will come?” 

“Still don’t like it,” Fenn muttered.

I looked up as the sunlight dimmed.  Yellow-brown clouds were piling higher ads I watched.  Bluish jags of lightening flashed, webbing the sky.  The poison in the world was spreading.  The planet might still have days, maybe weeks, but the longer the problem went on, the more damage would occur, and the harder it would be to tear the monster ghost loose from the planet’s soul.

I dropped my gaze to Inari.  She was surrounded by Hysane.  They knelt before her, paying strict attention to her words.  I wondered if they thought her an avatar of their world—and if so, why she looked human.  Whatever, their thoughts, I had a feeling the dragons would go along with my plan. 

Sure enough, moments later she headed back with an entourage of earth dragons.  Their scaled faces were tight with anger, but they smelled of fear.  I think they knew that if I couldn’t fix their world for them, they wouldn’t be able to carry on as they always had.  In fact, they might even have to find another world.

Inari had them form a line, while sending runners out to bring in even more of the surviving Hysane.

I slid off Argent to face them, and Fenn came around to stand behind me—literally having my back.  “You’re not kissing them, are you?” he asked.

When I’d taken energy from Fenn, that’s how I’d done it.  I was definitely changing my methodology here. 
I draw the line at lip-locks with lizards
.

The first dragon-man laid his hands over my outstretched palms.  His eyes were hate-filled and glaring.  His words were hisses.  Since he didn’t have one of those throat translators on, I didn’t know what he was saying. 

Nothing good
, I thought.

From this distance, I could easily make out the fine scales of his face.  He lashed his tail vigorously, forcing the guy behind him to stand well back.  My donor bared fangs, but made no effort to attack.  I had the feeling that whatever happened hereafter, the Legend of the Shadow-Fox was going to be a big thing to these people.  I only hoped it would discourage them from rebuilding of places like this.

My thought reached for him, the way I reached for the veil to the ghost world when I wanted to
cross over
.  With my hands, I tried to feel the crawling tides of his aura.  My eyes widened.  No one else reacted as a glow appeared—a violet haze flecked with dull copper.  “You see that?” I asked Fenn.

“See what?”

“Never mind.”  I looked past the first Hysane donor and felt surprise.  I could see their damaged auras, all the way down the line.  “Let’s do this the easy way,” I called out.  “Everyone grab the tail in front of you and hang on.” 
That should speed things along
.

Inari gave me a nod when they were ready.

I closed my eyes and metaphysically inhaled.  Their aura flowed along the circuit to the dragon-man I touched.  Violet flames danced over our hands.  A kind of dense mist rose from the fire, a bleeding of lifeforce.  I inhaled the aura, blanching at the fierce, electric taste of burnt copper on my tongue.  Like siphoned gas, his aura came, riding inertia, dragging other energies along as well as I’d hoped.  My own orange haze appeared, turning muddy, an almost root beer color.  I’d felt fluctuating spikes pf pleasure when drink Fenn’s lifeforce.  This was more like drinking battery acid with a twist of lime.

I shuddered but held on, letting my charge build.

Seeing my reaction, Fenn wrapped his arms around me from behind.  The golden light of his aura seeped into me, clearing my palette.

“Careful,” I said.  “I could take too much.”

On his shoulder, Raven said, “Not likely.  You have more control than you realize.”

That was news to me.  Still, I enjoyed the warmth of Fenn against me, the strength of his arms made me feel safer—a little—as more and more power came down the line.  The first donor collapsed.  Tukka gently closed his mouth over the dragon-man’s head and picked him up, dragging him away.  Undaunted, the next donor stepped up, restoring the broken connection.  My personal aura was a bonfire now.  By the time the next few volunteers had to be dragged away, Fenn was done in as well.  He staggered back against Argent who lowered him to the ground.  Raven hopped into the air and became a column of darkness that resolved itself into Trickster’s human form.  He picked Fenn up, slung him over a shoulder, and saluted me in farewell.  Fenn protested leaving but was too weak to stop his dad from opening a gate to elsewhere.  For a moment, I smelled sage and hot desert wind.  Then the gate closed, taking them away.

More of the Hysane passed before me, and I felt my thoughts splintering at the edges.  My heart hammered.  My breathing went ragged.  My hands trembled as sweat trickled down my face.  Seeing how I suffered, the donors went to gripping my hands with punishing force, determined to hurt me as much as possible with their energies.  The one currently gripping my hands wore a translator.  As he hissed, words appeared from the device at his throat.  “Burn with our rage, burn with our hate.”

My own anger leaped up in me, clearing my head a little.  “It’s funny how you bastards never think you should have to pay for the pain you dish out to others.  If your people had a moral compass, this wouldn’t be happening.”

The dragon-man tightened his grip, his claw-tips prickling the backs of my hands. 

I glared at him.  “Ease up or die.”

He searched my face to see if I was serious.  Whatever he saw made him loosen his grip.  Adding extra emphases, the Hysane behind him smacked the offender in the back of the head, hissing a comment that went untranslated. 

After my donor collapsed, Tukka booted him off to the sid
e with a great deal of energy.  The Hysane spun across the rusty sand, bouncing, spinning out at last to lie unmoving.  I think the rest of the Hysane got the message; they behaved.

My legs were close to buckling but more and more Hysane were coming, desperate to do anything to save themselves. 

I called to my shadow self:
If you feed on this, can you control yourself and not go crazy?

I can control myself, Mistress.

I hope so. 
I needed my shadow self strong enough to eat the monster ghost, and not get eaten herself. 
If you go down, we all do.  I’m trusting you.
 

I will not fail you.  Us.

Motherella said,
Get me killed and I will never speak to you again!

I think she was totally serious.

Taliesina’s golden eyes closed in my inner shadows as she curled up and lay down. 
Wake me when it’s over—if I’m still alive.

I dumped most of the power I held into the darkness.  My shadows lapped it up, and I felt a release of pressure like an escaping balloon decompressing in flight.  I think my shadow self could have drank endlessly, but we eventually ran out of donors.  I kept the energy of the last two for myself, causing my shadow self to mutter in irritation:
Hey, I was going to eat that
.

Bitch later; we’ve got work to do.
I shot Tukka and Argent a look.  “You guys coming?”

Tukka not miss it for all the carob in the world.

Lead on
, Argent said. 
I’ll try to get you out if you fall in battle.

Inari approached alone.  She’d sent her sacred foxes away and doubtless intended to follow, getting clear while she could.  Everyone’s confidence in me was underwhelming.  Inari placed her hands on my shoulders and stared into my face.  “Should you survive, I will seek you out and reward your efforts on behalf of the natural order.”