The Wings of Dreams

own her own kijuu, and so was likely to arouse suspicions. She’d had the constable called on her once already and had to make a quick getaway.
    “I’m pretty much running out of options.”
    She’d made it this far by pretending to be a servant whose master had ordered her to deliver a kijuu. Except that putting a twelve-year-old in charge of a kijuu and sending her alone on such a journey wasn’t any more believable.
    To make matters worse, the further south she went, the greater the civil unrest, and the harsher the eyes of the guests. In the last city, she’d skipped the inn and crawled beneath the floorboards of the cemetery shrine. She wasn’t looking forward to another night in a graveyard, and wanted to give Hakuto a good night’s rest too.
    Along with the rack and ruin, public order was worse in the south too. It wasn’t that disasters were choosey about the geography, but that the youma were working their way north. Perhaps sensing the youma presence, Hakuto grew especially agitated when the sun set. The night before, he’d growled from sundown to sunup. That was probably the reason for his pace being off today.
    Shushou could do worse than search for a yaboku to bed down under. She was guaranteed to be safe from harm beneath a yaboku. But she simply didn’t have the constitution to sleep out under cold winter skies like these.
    She could try her usual routine, put on a teary expression and beseech the nicest-looking innkeeper for a room. Or sidle up to a traveler and tell a pack of lies in order to convince him to let her to tag along. Though these strategies had proved equally futile on more than one occasion.
    “What a bother—” Shushou grumbled. When Hakuto answered with a low growl, as if taking her to task, she scratched him beneath his chin. “Sorry. Don’t worry about me,” she said reassuringly. “At the very least, I’m going to find a nice barn for you tonight.”
    But that didn’t reassure Hakuto. He didn’t stop growling as he turned his gaze toward the graveyard.
    “What’s the matter?”
    She wrapped her arms around Hakuto’s neck. A faint sound reached her ears. She tightened her hold. It very closely resembled Hakuto’s growl, the sound made by a species of tiger. Tigers weren’t normally found in Kyou. But youma that resembled tigers were showing up more frequently.
    The growl seemed to be coming from behind the cemetery shrine. Shushou hesitated, deciding whether to try and flee, or try to figure out what it was. Running away was the best option, but for some reason she couldn’t take off without first ascertaining what it was. At this moment, not knowing was the more frightening option.
    She wished to do both and wished to do neither. Frozen there in indecision, she again heard the growl. At the same time, a face peeked out from the corner of the shrine.
    Shushou choked down the cry in her throat, leapt to her feet and started to run away. With her arms still wrapped around Hakuto’s neck, she promptly fell on her face. She picked herself up and looked back at the shrine. And let out a sigh of relief.
    “Oh—!”
    The head was a size larger than Hakuto’s. Though it looked like a tiger, it quickly became apparent that it was not a tiger. She knew from having seen a tiger in a traveling circus that tigers had the same golden brown eyes as Hakuto’s. Plus, the reins made it clear that this was a kijuu.
    Shushou glared at the creature. “You scared me half to death!” She got to her feet and snuck a look behind the shrine. The kijuu made no attempt to flee, only eyed Shushou carefully.
    “But of course. A suugu. ”
    The kijuu behind the cemetery shrine had on a saddle. It lay sprawled on the ground. A tail almost as long as its body reaching out behind it. It raised its head and looked quizzically at Shushou. She peered back into those eyes.
    “Wow, you have pretty eyes.”
    Like a pair of black pearls, but a black all the more intense, as if lit up inside by brilliant points of light. Not even Banko could afford a suugu. Daring and resolute, the fastest of all the kijuu, it was not the kind of animal anyone could easily lay his hands on. She had seen the general of the Imperial Guard leading a procession on one.
    Shushou leaned closer, with a tip of her head asking whether it would mind being petted. Kijuu were wild animals at heart, accustomed only to being handled by their masters. This suugu seemed different. She’d heard they were especially