Reprisal's Lair

by Lynn Francis

  “No one really wants a Shikigami lose even with a master” he thought to himself, knowing full well that as useful as the spirits were, they were not keen slaves. And so long as the bindings held they would do whatever he bid them to do. But if the binding came lose, they would come to kill him and if they won they would be free to wreck havoc as they saw fit. He hated the very thought of having to summon one.

  And yet he needed to know how much of what Harushia said was true.

  Abe no Tanetadai went about purifying the room and then crossed over to his locked chests and removed from within another smaller chest. Over this he spoke a charm and the box sprung open. Inside were two ropes attached to a bone each. One bone was that of a crow and the other was that of a monkey. He decided to use the crow and prayed again that he would never need the monkey bone. Removing it with reverence he once again closed the box and spoke the reverse charm to shut it again.

  He then set up the area he needed to bond the creature and began the ritual binding spell. A wind began to gather within the room and he spoke louder and louder to be heard over it. When lightening began to flash around him he held the bone high above his head and as he cracked it in two he commanded that the Shikigami Karasu appear before him, bonded to his need, bonded to his desires and bonded to his command.

  A swirl of smoke began to spin up from the floor when a bolt of lightning stroke the middle of it causing the entire room to disappear from sight in a blinding white flash. When Abe no Tanetadai could see again a bird the size of a small child stood where the smoke had appeared.

  “Welcome Karasu” he said. “I need a favour of you”

  “A favor is done of free will, of which I have none” the bird creature replied. “But still I do your bidding. Ask it.”

  Abe no Tanetadai nodded. “I need someone fast, unable to be seen and trustworthy to fly to the domain of Kiromori no Ishikawa and report what you see there. Then you must immediately return to me with the details of if he is planning to attack the capital. If he is I also need to know if he is doing so with the aid of supernatural help.”

  Karasu fixed a baleful eye on the onmyōji before saying “it is done”.

  Abe no Tanetadai opened the window and as the spirit bird flew through it turned invisible to most. Abe no Tanetadai was only able to see it as he knew that it was there and his eyes sought out the slight blurring of reality where the edges of the birds form ended.

  He breathed a sigh of relief, torn between hoping that the risk he had taken in the conjuring had been unnecessary with not wanting to have summoned such a creature for no reason. Either way, he was eager to discover the truth one way or another. The entire country was on edge and this could be what pushed it over into complete chaos.

  Chapter 18

  The crow flew true, direct, and fast. Very fast. Still it did not arrive until evening to the island of Kyushu and it had no sooner settled into a tree to observe Lord Ishikawa’s home before he attempted to enter that he saw a group of samurai leave.

  It followed them to a clearing where a woman and a young man stood with an older man. The power radiating off the woman was strong.

  “No doubt a witch” Karasu thought to himself. “I must be careful, she may have set up perimeters to track those entering.”

  Sure enough, almost as if they were told exactly where to stop, the group of samurai spread out and formed a perfect circle.

  “Thank you” Karasu thought to himself. And he flew down to stand behind the men. He could still see and hear everything, but no linger had to worry about giving himself away.

  Nestled in his vantage point he watched as the woman began chanting before drawing out a dagger in which she used to slice her palm open with.

  Karasu shifted, both intrigued and unsure what to expect. Blood always excited him. So long as it wasn’t his own.

  Riku stood ready for the ceremony. He had no idea what to expect. He could feel his legs tremble under the strain of holding himself up. He hoped no one mistook it for fear. He felt many things at this moment, but fear was not one of them. He was still exhausted from the Tengu attack. His entire body ached and the headache he had upon awakening four days ago had intensified.

  “I just want this to be over. I want to die or I want to be in control. But I am so sick and tired of being a pawn for everyone. For Shinji and the monks who hid me and told me nothing, to Lord Ishikawa who could not deliver on his promises of power and revenge upon those who took Akemi from me. And I am just ready to give up or win. No more fighting to get there.”

  Takiyasha-hime had insisted that they do the ceremony under the full moon and not to waste this one. He had had only four days to recover from the Tengu’s brutal assault on his mind. He had felt it prying in his brain, pushing and grasping, hooking it’s actual claws into his brain matter. At least that is what it had felt like, like the thing had been physically inside his brain and raking it’s claws across his very being, digging deep to find where Sutoku was hiding.

  And Sutoku had tried to respond. In fact right before Riku had passed out he was sure that Sutoku had been behind his mind barrier and the Tengu had been in the process of flinging it open to let him out.

  Maybe the passing out had cut the connection. He had not bothered to ask Takiyasha-hime. She was in a rush to proceed anyway. So he thought it best to just keep that to himself. Sutoku was not out, he could feel him still. So why bother? Especially since she was so determined to seal him up and move forward against the emperor.

  “Time is of the essence here” she had said. “Both in terms of the Tengu returning but also in our plan. With the massacre of the monks people are scared and angry. We need to move.”

  Lord Ishikawa had felt the same urgency. “We have done nothing when we should have been out there fighting. My men are restless. They want to see the sacrifices their comrades have done in Riku’s name were worth something.”

  And so here he stood, under the full moon, about to start a ceremony that would meld his body with Sutoku, leaving him in charge of his brain. Or that was the plan.

  When Takiyasha-hime began to chant softly he felt a tingling move up his spine His brain felt a pull and his body began to feel squeezed. When she sliced open her hand the ground shifted beneath his feet and he fell to his knees.

  As the thunder crashed down the baby began to howl.

  “I don’t know why your so frantic Sukie” her husband said to her. “Babies cry.”

  “Tan doesn’t. She never cries. Or at least she never did before…..” Sukie couldn’t being herself to reference Tans disappearance. Her husband had told her that the return was a blessing, to show how blessed they were. The entire village now looked at the two of them reverence, still keeping their distance, but no longer whispering that she had turned her back on something great. Her baby has been taken and returned by the dragon king. The family was blessed by the Lord of the Seas. And therefore their town was as well. Her honor had been restored, no longer would anyone question it. Not anytime soon anyway.

  And yet as graceful as she had been, as grateful as she was, she couldn’t help but feel like part of the child was lost to her.

  She still called the baby Akemi to herself but since returning Tan was so different to the baby that fell beneath the waves.

  “It’s only been 24 hours” she chided herself.”Of course she is scared, of course she is not herself. She was lost 3 days beneath the sea. She would be different. Give her time.”

  And yet, despite this being on repeat in her head she couldn’t help but feel in her heart of mother hearts, that this was not something that would ever go away. Her special baby known only to her had shifted into someone else. She had become more of a baby and less of a wonder. The dragon king had done something to her baby, she just didn’t know what.

  And as it began to rain Tan howled louder and Sukie wondered how she would ever console such a baby that had witnessed things she could not even begin to understand.

  Karusu’s eyes w
idened at what he was bearing witness to . He marveled at the ability of the samurai to stay where they were and not run in terror from what they were seeing.

  “What has been happening here that these men can watch this without fleeing?” he asked himself.

  Hopping back two steps she watched as the young samurai in the middle of the circle kicked like a puppet on strings while a black spirit rose half in and half out of his body.

  The witch continued to chant before screaming to the sky that the demon would listen and obey the body so long as the body obeyed it’s thirst for blood.

  And then she jammed her palm into the mouth of the young samurai wrestling with the demon and his eyes snapped open as he drew deeply from her proffered palm.

  The entire mass of shadows were drawn immediately back into the young Samurais body.

  The witches face twisted in pain and then fear.

  “He is going to drain her” Karusu thought, half hoping it and half fearing what would happen if she was not able to bring a ceremony to a close.

  But the witch, with a grimace on her face brought the other hand to the young samurai’s forehead and although Karuso could not hear the words he saw the flash of light before the young samurai dropped her hand and fell backwards.

  Heaving, the witch began to chant again, only this time Karuso knew it was to end.

  He took off to fly back to Abe no Tanetadai, he was sure he had more to learn, but he also knew to stay would be to be discovered and die.

  “Such things allowed one to move with some freedom” he grinned to herself.

  Riku’s eyes opened again, only this time things felt almost right. His body felt strong. Unnaturally and inhumanly so. “This is how I expected to wake up last time” he thought to himself.

  Oh but he yearned for blood. He turned his gaze to Takiyasha-hime, who looked drained of blood already. She turned and pointed at another samurai standing to her side.

  “Him” She said.

  And so Riku stood up and snapped the man’s neck to the side as if he was a little ragdoll a child may have played with.

  He bit deep and as the blood gushed through he felt both immense relief, pleasure and horror.

  And Lord Ishikawa finally felt his revenge, and Sutoku’s, would finally move ahead.

  Baby Tan went completely still. Her little face frozen in a round O of pain.

  “Your eyes have the look of heartbreak from a lifetime of pain” Sukie whispered to her baby, and silently cursed both the dragon king for doing this to her baby and herself for ever having felt the pull of the water that day.

  “I’ll never forgive Ryujin, myself, or that fool Isa, for what we have done to you” she whispered to the baby, who had finally cried to herself to sleep.

  Karuso landed on his masters sill. His test to see if her master would notice her or not was quickly answered. Abe no Tanetadai immediately stood up and although he was still invisible, he crossed over and let him in.

  He enjoyed watching his face drain of color as she told him what happened.

  “Your face looks just like the witches right when I thought she was going to lose control over everything and unleash the blood sucker on us” Karuso exclaimed.

  And Abe no Tanetadai said nothing as he felt reality as he knew it crash in all around him.

  Chapter 19

  Kunitsuna no Fujiwara sat with Kiyomori no Taira. He was wondering how to tell the de facto ruler of Japan that the rebellion of the Minamoto had not been squashed with the death of Prince Mochihito.

  “This isn’t over yet, the burning of the temples in Nara sent a message, but my spies tell me the Minamoto are not giving up. Yoritomo no Minamoto may have been defeated at Ishibashiyama but he has allies throughout the country. This is going deeper than a mere power play for who is to control the emperor. He is finding support.”

  “I know about his support” Kiyomori said. “That is why I burned all of Nara to the ground. To show what happens to those who give such support. I am not being weak on them as they were on me.”

  Both men were quiet for a moment and before the other could speak there was a knock and the shōji slid open a fraction.

  An attendant knelt at the door’s opening and said “It is Abe no Tanetadai with urgent news Lord.”

  “Send him in” Kiymori answered.

  Abe no Tanetadai came in, and Kurasu, visible to no one although Abe no Tanetadai was aware of his presence, came behind him.

  Abe no Tanetadai bowed deeply and remained bowed as he began to speak.

  “My Lord, I have terrible news that pains me greatly to bring to you. Rumors of supernatural disturbances have been coming from Kyushu. In particular from the small domain that belong to Lord Kiyomori Ishikawa. He is not of significance and therefore I have spent some resources on him, but not as many of course as our main concern, that of the Minamoto and their constant attempts of rebellion against the emperor. I fear we can no longer ignore it. They are consulting with a witch and demons.”

  Kiyomori looked at the onmyōji and sighed. “As much as witches and demons distress me, unless you feel they are going to be used as a direct attack with the Minamoto I am not sure why I should care at this moment. What they do on Kyushu can be their concern. Let them stay on that island and be done with it. We have much more pressing concerns.”

  “I have no direct proof that they plan to attack the emperor, but a monk that I trust came to me to pass that very information onto me.”

  Kiyomori scowled. “A MONK!?!?!? A monk wants you to send my precious resources and samurai to Kyushu does he? And I suppose that would suit many of these monks just fine, The fewer here to defend against a fresh Minamoto attack. Maybe this time they would be so audacious as to march straight on the capital itself while my men are off battling yokai.”

  Abe no Tanetadai tried to keep the flush of heat that rushed to his face down.

  “My Lord, I thought very much the exact same thing. And that is why I have sent a Shikigami to spy upon them. They have created a blood thirst monster.”

  Kiyomori waved a dismissive hand.

  “Tanetadai” Kiyomori said and Abe no Tanetadai had to keep the flush from his face at the dismissive use of his first name, “I need to discuss real tactics and strategy for this world against the very real human threat of the Minamoto. Samurai that will attack us and whom my samurai can kill. Demons and witches are your concern. I suggest you do your duty and deal with it. So unless you have a reading on when best to to launch a strike that will decimate the Minamoto for good I would urge you to leave.”

  Struck speechless Abe no Tanetadai finally said “Hai” and then bowed before leaving the room.

  The Shikigami licked his lips at the witnessing of Abe no Tanetada’s deep humiliation, but then became angered that a man that was able to control him could be so humiliated by another.

  “And what kind of powers do you have that you allow him to speak to you that way?” he asked Abe no Tanetadai as he strode back towards his rooms.

  “Kiyomori may be the power behind the throne but he is nothing more than a peasant. His removal will help all of us in the end. But until that day we must listen.”

  Karosu smiled and allowed Abe no Tanetadai to continue striding away.

  He slipped back to the room where Kiyomori no Taira and Kunitsuna no Fujiwara were deep in discussion. Sliding open the door just enough to wiggle in and completely invisible to them, neither man paid the least attention to him as he stood up on the table between. Hopping over to their teacups he sucked in a deep breath and then spewed all his hatred into both cups.