Fortune's Fool by Mercedes Lackey Page A

leaving no sign that a struggle had taken place except for the condition of the two that remained. The red-haired woman dropped the fan on her clothing again, and pushed her hair back from her face with both hands.
    Only then did Katya notice the furry, pointed ears poking up from her ally’s hair…. and the bushy, red-furred, white-tipped tail that had been half-concealed by the long fall of the red hair down her back.
    Before she could wonder if she had merely exchanged one demon for another, the fox-woman knelt on the floor, rummaged through her clothing, and came up with an elaborately carved box. With shaking hands, she pried it open and shook something small out. Stumbling to the side of the warlord, who still stood like a statue, she pressed the object—a small, glowing stone, much like the larger one that Katya still held—to his forehead. Katya bit back an exclamation as the stone in her hand suddenly came to life, flaring with light and power that turned it from blue-black to white in an instant. There was a brief flash, and then the warlord blinked.
    With a sob of relief, the fox-woman flung herself into his arms. “She almost had you!” she sobbed. “She almost took your spirit! It was in the stone!”
    “Shh, my brave one, my dancing warrior,” he soothed, stroking her hair, then her ears. “It is over. You saved me. You and—”
    Then he looked over the fox-woman’s head and seemed to see Katya for the first time.
    “Tamiko-san,” he said carefully. “Who is this foreign devil sitting on the floor of my house?”
    Katya cleared her throat. “You might not believe this, most honorable Prince,” she said carefully. “But I am the seventh daughter of the King of the Sea….”
     
    Tamiko resumed her garments, the garb of the courtesan of a prince, and with them the illusion that made her seem like any other mortal. Her hair changed from red to black as well; the warlord watched all this with a calm that told Katya he had seen this particular transformation not once, but many times before. Katya found this reassuring, since it seemed to her that this meant there were no secrets between the warlord and his nonhuman companion. For her part, Katya resumed her own illusion, then Tamiko fetched robes to clothe her. Only then were servants summoned, food and tea brought, and full explanations on Katya’s part made. She was content to wait to hear just what it was that Tamiko was, how she had come to be with the shogun, and why she had defended him.
    Through it all, the warlord listened, silently, courteously, only asking an occasional question. Finally, when Katya was done, he nodded.
    “I believe you, Princess,” he said gravely. “I would have believed you anyway, even had you not aided Tamiko in saving my life.” He chuckled. “My family is prone to attracting the attention of the Spirit Realms. My great-grandfather was rewarded with this very palace and our lands and titles as a reward for his demon-slaying. My father was notable for laying ghosts to rest. All but one, that is. That one he returned to her slumbering body, broke the spell that held her, and wedded her. And me—” He smiled at Tamiko. “I seem to have won the heart of a kitsune.”
    Tamiko blushed, and politely hid her smile behind her hand. It was hard to believe that this shy and delicate creature had been the dancing warrior not so long ago. “I came to make mischief in the house of the son of a ghost,” she murmured. “I stayed because instead of mischief, I found my love.”
    “So I believe you, Sea Princess,” the shogun continued. “Tamiko has said that without your aid, she would not have been able to overcome the witch. For that…there are no words adequate to express my thanks.”
    “What was she doing, this witch?” Katya asked. “All that I know is she was leaving a string of men who were her puppets behind her.”
    Tamiko sighed. “She was stealing their spirits, putting one of her tame demons in its