Chapter 2
1890 Words
2
I froze and whipped my head to my left. By the light of the lit torches I saw that three men stood before the renewed gate that led into the garden. They all wore loose black robes, and each of them held a small dagger in their hands. Their feet were covered by open-topped sandals made of wood, and sticking out of the backs of their robes were bushy fox tails of varying colors of brown and gray. They also had pointed ears atop their heads. I would have clapped in glee if they hadn’t had a murderous look in their eyes.
“We are very sorry for the intrusion-” Sage began as he stepped toward them.
One of the men shot forward and pushed the blade of a dagger against my grandfather’s throat. He leaned forward and I heard him whisper a few cutting words. “Move without my permission and you will never move again.” He glanced over his shoulder and nodded at his companions. They hurried forward and surrounded us.
“What’s going on here?” Caius questioned our captors. “Where the avyss did all this come from?”
“Quiet, or it will be the last word you speak!” the leader ordered him. He grabbed my grandfather’s arm and twisted it around, pulling my grandfather in a half circle as well so his back was against the stranger’s chest. “You will come with us.”
Sage caught our eyes and slightly nodded. Caius relaxed his tense stance, but the frown on his lips was deep. Bee was slightly pale and her eyes were glued to the dagger against my grandfather’s throat. The men bound our hands with rope before they led us around the right side of the building and through another gate to the back of the luxurious home. A half dozen extensions had been added to the building that stretched to the back wall of the enclosure. A woman of about thirty stood on the deck and watched our passing with curiosity. She wore a soft but simple kimono and her black hair was done up in a bun. A black, fluffy tail twitched against her back. As we marched onward I watched her out of the corner of my eyes as she scurried into the house.
The men took us to the doors of the largest block and one of the men rapped on the screen doors. The doors opened and an imperiously tall, heavy-set fox man stood in the doorway. He also wore a loose-fitting robe, but unlike the drab colors around us his sported a myriad of colors like a tie-dye shirt. His defining feature was his bald head that was rounded by a tuft of hair.
He furrowed his brow at us before he looked to the leader of the group who still held my grandfather. “Was is the meaning of this, captain?”
“My Lord, we found these trespassers in My Lady’s personal garden,” the leader explained as he pushed Sage forward.
My grandfather stumbled up to the wooden planks that made up the wrap-around porch and caught himself on the railing that led up the steps to the door. Sage bowed his head to the fox man. “Our sincerest apologies, sir. We thought this place to be abandoned.”
The man scoffed. “That is a terrible lie, even as far as the average lie go. What made you think this place was abandoned?”
“Well, the darkness blinded us, you see,” Sage explained.
The man shook his head. “I do not see, but I will speak further with you inside. Captain, bring them in here.”
Our shoes were removed, and we were led through the doors and into a simple room with another pair of screen doors on the left-hand wall. There were square cushions on the floor and a short table stood beside the largest of the mats. The interior walls were covered in simple drawings of landscape, mostly of waterfalls. A quill pen with an ink bowl sat close to a small pile of papers atop the table, and some of them were yellowed with age.
The man took a seat on the mat beside the table while we were pushed down onto our knees on the cushions before him. Our captors backed up to kneel in front of the closed doors. He grasped a long, thin pipe from the table and inhaled deeply. A thin line of smoke escaped from between his lips as he studied us with his sharp gaze.
“You have rather unusual attire,” he mused as he nodded at our clothing. “Where do you come from?”
“First, if I may, My Lord,” Sage pleaded as he bowed his head. “But what is the year?”
The man’s ears perked up and he arched an eyebrow. “The year?”
Sage swept his arm over us. “My companions and I are out of our reckoning with the season, much less the year. What might it be?”
“The year, in the reckoning of the Festival of Gad, is 1405,” he told us.
“You’re joking,” Caius blurted out.
The man studied him with his sharp eyes. “Why do you say that?”
“He means to say that we are surprised to have been away from a calendar so long that we have missed a Festival of Gad several times over,” Sage spoke up as he gave all of us a look of warning.
The man leaned back and smiled at us. “You are terrible liars, and I’m afraid I must insist on the truth. How did you enter the compound, much less My Lady’s garden, without being seen by any of our very alert guards?”
“I fear that is an answer we cannot give for we ourselves do not know it,” Sage told him.
The man shook his head. “That will not do. Mysteries are for the terrible novels our young people are apt to read. For we who oversee the lives of so many, we must have answers.”
“My Lord, for I see you are held in high esteem among those of the household,” Sage complimented as he once more bowed his head. “We are merely travelers from a far-off land in search of answers ourselves, and we beg of you to have mercy on us.”
A soft pair of feet padded across the floor outside the room and the screen doors to our left slid open. A beautiful woman about my age stood on the threshold. She had long white hair that matched her bushy white tail, and her ears looked as soft as silk. Her long kimono matched her fur color and trailed behind her in elegant folds. She hid her hands in her long sleeves, but I caught a glimpse of long, sharp nails.
“My Lady!” the man exclaimed as he jumped to his feet. The guards at our back leaned forward and pressed their foreheads against the floor in subservience. “What are you doing here?”
She grasped one of the doors and her curious gaze never left us as she replied. “I was informed that several people were being taken to you, and wished to know for what reason they were detained.”
“For your safety, My Lady,” the man insisted as he hurried over to her. “They were found in your private garden.”
Her eyebrows shot up, but the corners of her mouth twitched upward. “Truly? And how did they come to be there?”
“They have not explained their arrival, only that they are travelers from a far-off land, My Lady,” he told her.
“We had no intention of trespassing, My Lady,” Sage spoke up. “Only the beauty of the gardens enticed us so that we could not resist.”
She smiled down at us. “A great praise that one would risk entering the gardens of the fox lord to smell even a single rose.”
“They still have not explained how they entered undetected,” the man persisted.
“We slipped over the wall without touching a single inch of wood,” Caius revealed.
“Slipped over how?” her ladyship asked us.
“With a little help from these,” Caius revealed as his bony wings burst out of his back. The guards jerked back and tightened their grip on their weapons.
The fox woman’s mouth parted in a gleeful smile and her eyes widened. “What magnificent wings! What sort of dragon might you be to have them?”
“A grayscale, My Lady,” Caius told her.
The tall man stepped up to the fox woman and lowered his voice to a whisper. “My Lady, it would be better if I questioned them.”
“But why question them at all?” she countered as she gestured to Caius. “A man capable of changing into a dragon would have broken free of his bindings long ago, and yet he has not.”
“Your Ladyship shows us great favor by trusting us whom she does not know,” Sage complimented her.
“You have not the faces of scoundrels, but the bearing of well-traveled adventurers of whom my father often spoke,” she explained.
“My Lady, in these dark times will you truly trust the words of ones whom you do not know and who were found trespassing upon your very doorstep?” the man persisted.
She turned to him and smiled. “I admire your loyalty and concern, Lord Mori, but here I believe there is no need.”
“What if we proved ourselves?” I spoke up.
All eyes fell on me, and the lord arched an eyebrow. “Prove yourselves how?”
I shrugged. “We’re not bad at solving problems, even ones that cause ‘dark times.’ Maybe we could help with yours.”
Her ladyship’s face fell a little and she sighed. “Were it possible, but I believe I am asking too much when I inquire whether any of you are masters of the magical arts.”
A sly smile slipped onto Sage’s face. “I might have enough knowledge in that area to be of some assistance.”
Her eyes widened and her adviser stiffened. “Truly? You are a learned man, one who is called a sage?”
Sage bowed his head. “I am, My Lady. They call me Storm Sage because of my strength with the elements of the storm.”
A dark shadow passed over her brow. “It is not such an element which troubles us, but I fear there is a storm brewing. I would be grateful if you would travel to a well not far from here and inspect the bindings. I will have one of my servants lead you there.”
“How do we know that you are a sage and not merely one who boasts of having the skills?” the lord challenged my grandfather.
Sage smiled and opened one of his trapped hands. Fire burst from his palms and burned his ropes to ashes. He drew his hands in front of him and held them close together to form a circle. A miniature storm erupted in the space between his palms. Black clouds swirled and lightning shot from one palm to the other.
The foxes gaped at the little trick before he clapped his hands together and extinguished the tempest. “I hope that proves my credentials.”
Her ladyship nodded her head. “Completely.”
“My Lady, this is too much to entrust to strangers!” Lord Mori protested.
She smiled up at him. “Then before they leave we must better know them. My quarters are better suited for such jovial talk, and I will tell you all I know about the well so that your inspection will be less likely to be fruitless. Guards, unbind them.”
“No need for me,” Caius spoke up as he pulled his bound hands apart. The rope snapped like string cheese and fell to the ground.
Her ladyship covered her mouth with her sleeve to hide her amusement. “Then if you would follow me.”
- Writer
