Night settles into the hollow.
A fox spirit noses through the parted branches at the cave mouth and slips inside. Sayaka follows, her demon mask brushing the vines. She raises a hand. Behind her, the Black Husk Soldiers halt and crouch among the trees.
Water drips down the cave wall, skirting a patch of dry straw. Within a ring of stones, the fire has gone cold. The fox circles the ashes, nose to the ground.
Sayaka releases the catch behind her neck and hangs the mask at her waist. She draws her dagger. Its light passes over the straw and catches a corner of coloured paper.
Crouching, she smooths the coloured paper beneath the dagger’s light. Two characters emerge from the creases: rice crackers. She turns it over.
‘Captain. Here.’
She brings the paper closer to the light. The fox leans towards her hand, nose almost touching a fold. Its tail slowly rises.
‘Yes! Her scent.’
Sayaka turns the dagger towards the entrance. Another fox has returned, its forepaws muddy. It crouches at the edge of the dry ground and shakes its head.
‘Nothing by the stream either. We haven’t finished the paths downhill.’
Boots scrape on loose stones. Sayaka’s masked lieutenant steps past the fox, broad shoulders blocking half the night beyond the entrance. Taller even than Sayaka, the lieutenant speaks through a demon mask that muffles the voice without weakening its steady reach into the cave.
‘One place at a time is slow work. Nearer the imperial capital, there’ll be more checks on the roads. The foxes won’t get through.’
Sayaka lifts her face. Her dagger still lights the paper in her hand.
The lieutenant takes another step and stops beside the charred wood.
‘Keep searching outwards and you’ll reach the village roads. There are people there. Carts and livestock. If there are casualties, the soldiers will follow the trouble back to us. Paper won’t hide a fire.’
Wind creeps along the cave floor, stirring the paper between Sayaka’s fingers. She waits until the lieutenant has finished, tucks the paper into her belt and stands, her hand already reaching for the whistle at her waist. Both foxes remain crouched at her feet.
The lieutenant watches her hand. ‘The one from before—on the village roads too?’
‘Search the village roads.’
The broad shoulders move aside.
‘As you command. I’ll go now.’
Sayaka puts away her dagger and walks to the entrance with the whistle at her lips.
No whistle sounds. The wind still passes through the cave mouth, but a fox jerks its head up, darts past her boots and races downhill. Grass stirs in several places below as the foxes waiting outside spring into motion.
She lowers the whistle, covers her face with the demon mask and fastens the catch.