The Fox's Quest by Anna Frost Page B

been meditating. But he’d been watching a snail during that “meditation.”
    Aito was also impressively good at ignoring Jien’s existence when his patience came to an end. Akakiba would have snapped and tried to skewer him; Aito merely stopped reacting.
    The game, if it had a name, would be called “try to make Aito show a sign of irritation or anger.” So far, Jien hadn’t won.
    “Aito, I’m bored. Tell me about that incident with the bullies.”
    “Aito, I’m hungry. Are we stopping soon?”
    “Aitoooo, pay attention to me!”
    It wasn’t an especially friendly game to play but it did help him forget about the terrible weather they’d had ever since beginning to climb this mountain. One might have called it “sleet” but he thought “snow-raining” better described it. Snow fell from the sky but melted the second it touched down, turning dirt roads to mud and making narrow passages dangerously slippery.
    Lapsing into silence, Jien fell back on another pastime: Aito-watching. Sometimes the quiet monk would frown, or quirk a smile at thin air, or nod as if listening to someone talking. It was fascinating to watch these signs of human-spirit interaction without ever glimpsing the spirits themselves.
    “Hey, Aito,” he said cautiously. “Can I ask you how spirits attach to humans? I heard women can get familiars by dancing naked in the forest under the full moon but somehow I don’t think that’s how it works.”
    Aito deigned to notice his words, giving a bewildered look. “Where did you hear that?”
    “From a man in a drinking house. Don’t roll your eyes! There’s a great deal of critical information to be gathered in drinking houses.” It was true, too! The best way to find trouble was to drink sake with locals and listen to gossip. Yet people never believed him when he said it was a reliable investigating method.
    Aito returned his attention to the road ahead, as if he’d decided to resume pretending Jien didn’t exist. Long moments went by before he spoke again. “What do you know about spirit lures?”
    “A spirit lure is a child who attracts spirits. They’re usually weak in health and demons tend to try to possess them if they’re not actively protected. I’ve never met a lure but I know Akakiba and Yuki did. The girl child was given a dragon to solve the problem.”
    “If that girl hadn’t been given a dragon’s protection, she might have become like me,” Aito said. “Spirits will fight over a lure until one or several of them establish a bond with the human. In unfortunate cases, an unfriendly spirit will resort to possession in order to ‘win.’ Those are the cases young monks are told about. The fortunate cases go unnoticed.”
    Jien refrained from making a jest about this sudden volubility. Five sentences in a row was more than Aito had said all morning! Instead he kept to the topic at hand. “You’re saying people with familiars are grown up lures who got lucky and bonded with friendly spirits?”
    “Yes.”
    “I see. That must have made for a difficult childhood.”
    “Yes.”
    The urge to pry was strong, but Jien could guess this was a personal matter. Pushing for details likely wouldn’t get him anywhere unless vast quantities of sake were involved. He’d have to be patient to get that story.
    Aito’s next words were, “I discern early signs of disease.”
    “What, where?” Jien frowned at their surroundings, seeing no such signs. The trees were very tree-like, with brown bark and the occasional leaf left on a branch. The ones possessing needles instead of leaves looked smug next to their naked fellows.
    “We’ll start seeing it with our eyes soon.”
    Ah. Aito was cheating again.
    Nobody would expect to meet honest travelers in the mountains at this time of year, and certainly not while this wretched weather continued. So when Aito said, “My familiars detect people ahead,” Jien sat up and paid attention.
    Jien casually shifted his spear from his