Blade of Retribution

by Lynn Francis

Shinji shook his head and stood. “It can’t be worse than this.”

  Chapter 3

  Abe no Tanetadai knelt in front of the Emperor Go-Toba while the retired emperor Go Shirakawa looked on. Although it was to the new emperor that he paid his respects, it was to the retried one that he listened.

  “We need a forecast on how to proceed. With Antoku in Shikoku it is important that Go-Toba feels secure in his reign. Of course I have told him that he was always the rightful heir to the throne and that Antoku was little more than an attack on our imperial dynasty from that upstart Kiyomori. Of course we want to have the full blessings, the emperor feels a little at unease as he is the first emperor to accept power after an abdication without the imperial regalia.”

  “Of course” Abe no Tanetadai thought to himself although he knew to say them out loud would be his death sentence “because Antoku has not abdicated. They have merely replaced one child emperor with another and while one hides and plans his return the other is at the mercy of Shirakawa’s designs to regain control of Japan. I do not know which one I pity more.”

  None of this would he ever say out loud. Even if of late he had made some rather questionable decisions, he had not slipped into complete idiocy. Rather he kowtowed to the new child emperor before returning to his upright kneeling position before addressing Shirakawa directly.

  “It is not a problem to perform a prosperity ceremony for the new emperor. In fact to go without one would be a grave omission. I was already in the process of having one planned out.” He then turned and bowed again to the emperor. “But given the circumstances it does not hurt to ensure that the Gods are also appeased. They obviously favor you on the throne or else I would have seen it in my castings. And yet it never hurts to pay one’s due respects and to show we take none of their blessings for granted. I will be sure to start the plans for a fortuitous ceremony as well.”

  This obviously please Go Shirakawa who clapped his hands together and thanked the onmyōdō before dismissing him. Abe no Tanetadai kowtowed once again before removing himself from their presence.

  He knew he should be thankful that instead of blaming him for the death of Kiyomori Taira, he blamed Kiyomori himself for refusing to allow Tanetadai his ministrations.

  And yet Abe no Tanetadai could not help but feel that he was less escaping a bad fate and more rushing towards a far more terrible one.

  Chapter 4

  Riku was waiting in the garden for the Tengu to arrive. He felt it’s presence long before he saw it. He wondered to himself how easy prey humans made, unable to sense anything but the most basic and closest of threats.

  The Tengu landed behind him and when Riku turned it went to one knee as he bowed before standing once again. It’s large hooked red nose and beady eyes looked far more birdlike than human and yet asides from the wings the rest of the creature very much resembled a man.

  Riku wondered not for the first time what had occurred to cause these creatures to form. Was it also someone or something’s hate filled plot for revenge?

  Not one for formalities, the creature went straight to the point.

  “We are not happy that you want us to pull back on our activities in the human world. Why should we stop now? Famine stretches throughout the land, even the imperial family feels the pressure of not having enough rice. We could be rulers of Japan. THAT is what Sutoku wanted. To claim his true place, that which was denied to him for years. He was to be ruler of this land and no one allowed him his place, the place given to him be heaven! And now he will claim it in death. THAT is our agreement hanyo.”

  Riku nodded his head as if he accepted everything the Tengu had said before he began to speak himself.

  “It is our agreement and I still hold to my promise. We will rule Japan and the Taira as well as Go-Shirakawa will feel my vengeance. But it is enough now with the ordinary people. I do not want to rule over a land of the dead” Riku replied. “We will focus our attack on those who deserve it and are the true targets of both myself and Sutoku.”

  The Tengu made a low growling sound in the back of it’s throat. “We were to rule together, not as subjects.”

  “You were always to have a special place in the order of things, not to be equal rulers” was Riku’s fast reply.

  The Tengu’s wings twitched but before he could decide to attempt to attack Riku, Riku allowed his fangs to slid out of his gums and he bared them at the Tengu.

  “Try it and I will rip your throat out and drain you. Your power will meld with mine and you will cease to exist for eternity” Riku hissed.

  The Tengu looked conflicted for a moment and Riku smiled leaving his teeth still barred. “Yes” he said as if he could read the Tengu’s thoughts. “Let’s find out if you are stronger than Toudou was. Maybe it was a fluke that he went down. After all, I was a newborn fledgling then. Two years of draining my enemies blood would only make me weaker. Let’s find out Minagawa if you are the one to take me down and rule Japan and the Tengu in my place.”

  Minagawa had a flash of the night Riku had strode into their forest hideout, dropping a dried husk of a corpse that had once been Todou. The feathers had all fallen from his wings and he was little more than grey skin stretched over a skeleton. Few images horrified a Tengu. Toudou’s shell was an image that would not be erased from any of their brains, no matter how much they may have wished it otherwise.

  Riku had had fire in his eyes that night and he had challenged them all to take him on. His fangs had been on display much as they were now, but the bloodlust in his eyes had made them all realize that he hoped they would take him on.

  The Tengu realized that unlike that night, Riku was not half mad with the power and desire to kill. Instead he had spent the past 2 years reign it in, cultivating it and learning to call upon it to serve him rather than the other way around. Inwardly he cursed Takiyasha-hime and the day she had contacted Sutoku. She had turned on them and helped Riku become as powerful as he was, using their lord rather than the other way around.

  Instead of saying anything he merely nodded his head before stretching his wings and shooting off towards the sky rather than Riku.

  Chapter 5

  Takiyasha-hime and Kaeru landed outside of the gates that lead to Yoshinaka no Minamoto’s fortress.

  “I would wish you luck but I know you do not need it. And I do not wish those inside luck against you. I am here when you need me again” Kaeru said to his mistress.

  Takiyasha-hime smiled at the giant frog before turning to enter.

  The samurai at the gates had been expecting her, but they had not been expecting her to appear out of thin air riding a giant frog.

  They stood to the side as she entered and announced who she was, and that she would lead herself into the main building.

  Recovering from their shock they fell into place behind her, watching her carefully but not approaching her too closely.

  Once she entered the main building another samurai bid her to wait, having missed her arrival he was far less understanding of why the other men had hung back from her.

  “She is a messenger, and a woman at that” he wondered as he went off to find his Lord.

  He found himself even more perturbed when upon announcing her to his Lord, cursed the man for leaving her waiting and demanded that she brought immediately to him with all the dignity due her.

  Takiyasha-hime for her part merely smiled. Her purpose was no longer clouded nor did these mere mortals cause her to lose face.

  Yoshinaka was aware that Takiyasha-hime was not just a woman, nor just a envoy from Lord Ishikawa. Although he had made the mistake of thinking she was both the first time she had approached him. He regretted his behavior that stemmed from his thinking that the lesser Lord Ishikawa was a fool in thinking he could approach Yoshinaka at all, let alone with a woman envoy.

  “I am honored to see you again princess” Yoshinaka said. “I hope my men did not appear to foolhardy to you. I am sure that your appearance was something of a shock to t
hem.”

  Takiyasha-hime nodded before answering. “I am sure of it too. But really, I would think you would prepare your men a little better. You want to take over the royal throne of Japan. And the loss of Lord Kiyomori Taira, although not one to be taken lightly, is not a guarantee of success.”

  “I agree princess, and I am so sorry that you find me wanting. It was perhaps a lack of foresight, but I did not wish to tell the men beforehand of your powers. I thought a demonstration would be more prudent. Such a thing could be a much more lasting lesson than merely passing on words. I do not want my men to become lazy or complacent in what their eyes see. Nor do I want them to rely too much upon my words. I find it much better for them to experience for themselves that the world is far more than they have come to expect. To trust nothing and always be on guard.”

  Once again Takiyasha-hime nodded her head before sipping her tea. Yoshinaka took this to be acquaintance to what he had said.

  “Speaking of being on our toes, I assume you have come here to speak strategy. As you know my cousin is also making noises and motions to be clan leader. Although not without some advancements, I know that I would be better the leader. And I assume that is also why you are talking to me. Although I would like to be blunt, as I think that is the best way to move forward with this. Have you been in conversation with Morimoto as well?”

  “You may be blunt with me, I have little use for much of the games of court, in fact that is what finds me here.” Takiyasha-hime replied. “I want to tear down those games. I advise you not to play them with me either. And I will not play them with you. I assumed our last encounter would have set you straight on my feelings fo games.”

  Now it was Yoshinaka’s turn to nod at the memory.

  It had been a mere month ago, but he knew it was burned into his brain for the rest of his life.

  He had been riding back with a dozen of his men from leaving his son as a hostage with his cousin when a Tengu had appeared in the sky overhead.

  Such a sight was enough to turn the men’s innards into liquid, but they were all well trained enough to pull their swords and stand their ground. They would die fighting and not running.

  But instead of landing the creature circled above them, staring at them with beady bird like eyes before shooting off again. Not ten minutes later they had encountered the woman who sat before him drinking tea and a young samurai he was to learn was Riku. A ronin, but one of immense power. Yoshinaka would forever curse himself for ever doubting just how much.

  He had been in a foul mood from having to have had to drop off his son to his cousin as hostage for his good behaviour. The tengu had further unnerved him and when he saw the woman and the samurai standing in the path his reaction was one of violence. He called out to them to stand aside immediately or be slayed.

  The samurai had responded merely that “such an action would be unwise, especially given that we only wanted to talk.”

  Having had his pride attacked too many times that day, Yoshinaka had called to his men to strike them down. The young samurai had opened his mouth to reveal fangs and easily caught the samurai who had moved to cut him down sword with his own before he ripped into the man’s neck.

  The woman who had been beautiful a moment before had her face transformed as her mouth morphed into a giant frog one before she opened her mouth and had her tongue shoot out and wrap around Yoshinaka, pulling him off his saddle and dragging him across the ground to rest in front of her, his body becoming paralyzed from the venom in her tongue.

  And the Tengu that had watched them from above suddenly had reappeared, shooting direct down and grabbing one of his men and tore the samurai apart. The other two men were ready to surrender but the blood drinker had moved faster than the eye could follow and tore their armor aside as if it was tissue before he sank his teeth into one after the other.

  The tengu took to the sky again with both parts of the samurai it had torn in half and the samurai that had ripped his men’s neck open had come back, blood dripping from his mouth and said

  “I only wanted to talk.”

  Yoshinaka was no stranger to bloodbaths but the death of those four men had shaken him more than all the others he had seen up to that point.

  And he suddenly had felt like listening.

  He was drawn out of his memories by Takiyasha-hime’s voice,

  She looked Yoshinaka direct in the eyes and said “you do right to be honest with us. We will always be honest with you. But you are in no place to drive a bargain with us.”

  Chapter 6

  “Have you heard?” one of the ami asked Suki.

  “Have I heard what?” she asked.

  “The emperor has taken refuge here on Shikoku!”

  “What!?” she exclaimed.

  “It is true. They have moved into the fortress at Yashima, claiming it now as the imperial home.”

  “Has war truly reached this island then?” Sukie asked as her stomach clenched in fear.

  “It is said we have two emperor’s now, and that Antoku is here for protection” the ami said. Her chest puffed out in pride and Suki wanted to smack her. “He will lead his army to reclaim what is his from here.”

  The ami then looked at Sukie’s face which had rained of all color and then looked at the daughter who huddled near her mother for protection. Protection that the mother was is no position to give and her face softened.

  “Na, and it is a good thing they will lead it from here isn’t it! On our island you do not need to be a good sailor but rather an excellent one! Not anyone can wage war from here! And much more important is that the only thing harder than fighting from here is trying to fight your way in! No, our emperor chose very wisely. After all, doesn’t Dragon God Ryūjin himself create whirlpools here, both to visit us and to keep us protected!”

  The little girl’s hunched shoulders visibly relaxed although she remained with her arms wrapped around her mother’s legs.

  Ignoring Suki’s scowl the woman continued “And here there are more ami’s than anywhere else in Japan? Because we share the sea with that portal direct to Ryūjin We can not ask for any bigger of a blessing! He chooses us and we choose him.”

  She looked direct at Suki and although her tone remained gentle her eyes lost their softness. “The dragon god knows the seas, and he rewards the faithful. I myself stand not just by the emperor the choose, but also I refuse to waiver in that choice. Bravery is the only thing an Ami can count on to get her through her life. And I thank the dragon God that he gave us it.” She nodded at Suki and smiled at her daughter before she turned and walked on down the path towards her home.

  Suki feared that her knees would not be able to hold her up. She took a deep breathe as the toddler at the knees reached up for her hand.

  “Mama, does that mean papa will be here soon too? Now that the emperor is here than he will come too right?” she asked.

  Suki clenched the little hand tightly. “I hope so little one. I really hope so.” She dared not say out loud that even if she did know if he lived or died she could no longer say if fighting for Antoku meant being an honored bound man or a traitor to the one who presently claimed the throne.

  Chapter 7

  “Why should we bother launching an attack to get the imperial regalia back? It makes no sense! It is a waste of time. I would rather fight my cousin and win there than split the attack.”

  Takiyasha-hime felt her body stiffen. “This man never stops pushing” she thought to herself.

  Her voice came out cool but otherwise betrayed none of her inner frustration. “The regalia are powerful symbols among powerful symbols. Symbols have magic within them. Words have power. When you take regalia blessed by the Gods and combine them with the multitude of ceremonies they have gone through binding all of our emperors to the throne you have exceedingly powerful items. In the right hands they would be capable of ensuring the overthrow of whoever was on the throne. We need those if we are to ensure we have a complete overthrow rather th
an a minor coup that is lost within a few months.”