"The Evil One's plans, oni . . . !" Tadaka said impatiently. "You're a mind slaver—the brains of Fu Leng's dark armies. You know what Junzo and his minions are planning even now. Tell us!"
"Power you have," said the creature, "but none so great as my master." It wriggled its severed limb, and the lost flesh grew back. The monster smiled, fetid slime dripping from its huge jaws.
Tomo's clear eyes narrowed with anger. "Your master is nothing before us!"
"Just because you heal quickly does not mean you are impervious to pain," Uona said, her voice as cold as the winter wind.
"It only means that you can suffer for all eternity," Tsuke added. His eyes blazed with anticipation.
Tadaka stood stiffly. The taint burned across his limbs. He felt amazed that the others couldn't see it. Still, he refused to give in. If he could resist the power of Junzo, he could resist the seductive poison of the taint. That same strength would give him mastery over the oni.
His heart soared at the thought. He knew now that the Phoenix would triumph. No one could stand in their way.
Tadaka's voice rumbled like an avalanche in the distant mountains. "In the end," he said to the demon, "you will reveal everything we desire."
Epilogue
THE WAY OF DARKNESS
The sorcerer uttered a spell, and the bones of the monk before him turned into dust. The man flopped about on the monastery courtyard like an octopus out of water. Then the weight of his own flesh crushed the life out of him.
Junzo's leathery skin pulled back from his teeth in a cruel smile. He enjoyed this part of his revenge immensely. Around him, the screams of the dead and dying echoed off the monastery walls. The blood of monks and priestesses painted the ground, the great torii, and even the roofs of the temple.
Soon the sounds of bones breaking joined the cries of the dying. A hideous slurping followed as Junzo's troops sucked the marrow from the bones of the dead—and some victims who were not so fortunate as to have died yet. The sorcerer rode on his skeletal horse through the blasphemous feast, a priest doling out blessings to grateful petitioners.
A skeletal figure on the back of an onikage rode up to Junzo. The creature's flesh was rotting and burned. It bowed and said, "No scrollsss here massster. Your ordersss?"
""Burn the place, of course," Junzo said, his voice like sand rubbing on wood, "and everyone in it—after you and the troops have had your fun, of course."
The charred specter bowed again and turned his horse away. As he rode through the carnage, his body spontaneously caught fire. He paused briefly to set things alight as he went. The last thing he touched before vanishing from Junzo's sight was the body of a priestess; she had been hung from the great torii by her own hair. Her entrails dangled down past her toes and dusted the ground when the wind stirred them.
A smile cracked Junzo's parchmentlike lips. Some of the Black Scrolls still lay beyond his reach, but his vengeance proceeded apace nonetheless.
Though the dark shugenja coveted the scrolls, they didn't need to be in his possession to do his master's bidding. After all, one stolen scroll had gained him a new ally within the Phoenix. That nicely compensated for his loss.
A refugee peasant came running across the blood-slick courtyard, screaming at the top of his lungs. Junzo watched with pleasure as his bog hounds chased the man down and devoured him alive.
Junzo nodded with gratification. Fragile white hair rustled across his crimson and black kimono as he gazed out across the devastation. Soon, this monastery would be in ruins, but there were more temples to sack, more libraries to burn.
The thought of libraries sent the sorcerer's mind back to Kyuden Isawa and the four Black Scrolls that rested inside the palace's low walls. What, Junzo wondered, had the Elemental Masters been up to since last he looked in on them? It little mattered. They could never muster the power to defeat Junzo's master, the dark god Fu Leng. Even if they were at full strength they could not. Now, without Kaede and with a traitor in their midst, they stood no chance.
Soon Junzo would see the towers of Kyuden Isawa burning. Soon, the great library would be his, or it would be ashes.
The sorcerer smiled a final time, glad he had left one unopened Black Scroll for Tadaka to find.
The demon in a Scorpion's body tugged the reins of his skeletal horse and turned away from the carnage. Guiding his nightmare steed through the fallen gates of the monastery, Yogo Junzo rode off, seeking new targets for his vengeance.
L5r - scroll 04 - The Phoenix Page 25
