They followed the road, keeping well hidden behind the trees and foliage that flanked it. From a distance, their peasant attire might have fooled suspicious eyes but, up close, they were still foreigners.
At the suburbs of Yosa, they left the safety of the trees. Using side streets to avoid contact, they followed the main road into town. The farther they traveled, the busier it got. Merchants, farmers, peasants, and monks hurried through the streets. Children played at the roadside, chasing fireflies and disassembling their kites after a day’s play.
Ghost tipped his straw hat to hide his face, but that didn’t stop a stray dog from becoming suspicious. It followed them between two houses, snarling. Kate turned around and growled, baring her teeth. The dog whimpered and scuttled off with its tail between its legs.
“Remind me never to have an argument with you,” said Cormac.
Kate laughed and continued walking.
Through open doors, they saw families on straw mats, eating with chopsticks, their sandals lined up neatly outside. Glowing paper lanterns bobbed in the evening breeze.
As they traveled deeper into the city, the surroundings became more commercial. They passed stalls selling noodles, fish, and pickled vegetables. A troupe of actors performed to a spellbound audience. People queued up to visit a temple. Blue-robed monks with baskets on their heads played flutes and collected alms from passersby.
The buildings became grander. Instead of ladders they had stairs, and they had shuttered windows and tiled roofs, often with carved dolphins at their upturned ends. Behind high gates, the light from stone lanterns gave them glimpses of carp-filled ponds and manicured gardens. And all the time, Yosa Castle towered over them, a giant of stone and wood with glowing eyes.
Turning down a new street, Ghost froze and quickly retreated. Peering around the corner, he pointed out a man wearing breeches, wooden clogs, and a kimono. In his belt he carried two swords: one short and daggerlike, the other long and slightly curved. The top of his head was shaved, and the hair at the back and sides was oiled and in a knot on top. Like a Kat! People bowed as he marched past.
“Samurai,” whispered Kate.
There was a sudden shifting of the people’s attention. Music, laughter, and hawking ceased, and everybody, including the samurai, looked in the same direction. Something was approaching from the direction the friends had just come from and, as it got closer, the streets cleared and fell silent. People knelt along the roadside and bowed their heads to the ground.
From under the brim of his hat, Ghost blinked rapidly as he watched a heavily armed cavalcade march into town. With long bows and spears, the samurai foot soldiers flanked the cavalry, who rode on stallions with bright tassels decorating their bridles. The riders wore burnished breastplates, steel arm protectors, and iron helmets. Ghost noticed that the flagpoles attached to their backs bore Empire banners.
Kate pulled his sleeve. “Get down!”
Ghost dropped to his knees, and the three prostrated themselves before the passing samurai. Peeking out from under his hat, Ghost caught a glimpse of what the soldiers were escorting into town. The horses surrounded a palanquin carried by four men in loincloths. The curtains were open, and inside sat a man Ghost recognized from TV—President Goda.
But how can that be possible?
He wore a scarlet robe, and in his hands, openly displayed to anyone brave or foolish enough to look, was a sword. The Moon Sword!
It was only when the procession drew alongside him that Ghost saw the other passenger. Lady Kiko sat dressed in a pale green kimono, with her hair piled on top of her head and held in place using silver pins. She was more beautiful than she’d ever been as Ami. Her porcelain skin glowed in the sunlight and her eyes shone. She smiled triumphantly, scanning the crowd as she passed by.
Ghost pressed his face into the dirt. He held his breath, waiting for her voice to invade his thoughts, waiting for her to paralyze him with pain. His arms started shaking uncontrollably and he drew them into his sides, hoping his straw hat would hide them. Cold sweat oozed from every pore in his body. All he wanted to do was run, but he knew he shouldn’t move, couldn’t move. He stayed absolutely still until he felt someone shaking him.
“You can get up now, Ghost.” It was Cormac’s voice.
Ghost lifted his head.
Cormac was crouched down beside him. “It’s OK. They’re gone.”
He tried to stand, but his legs had turned to jelly.
Cormac pulled him to his feet. “It’s OK.”
Ghost tried to speak, but nothing came out. Maybe Kiko doesn’t know I’m here. Maybe I’m safe. But he couldn’t be sure.
“We know how scary that must have been for you,” said Cormac. “But we have to follow that sword.”
On wobbly legs, Ghost went with Cormac and Kate. Keeping to the alleyways, they followed the procession to Yosa Castle.
A high stone wall and deep moat protected it from intruders. Seven floors of ornate architecture reached into the sky, complete with outhouses, watchtowers, and the main keep. The narrow windows twinkled, and smaller pinpricks of light moved along the walls—sentries carrying torches.
From under the cover of an overhanging roof, they watched the guarded palanquin cross a drawbridge. A huge iron-plated door opened, and behind that a heavy portcullis rose. Ghost thought he saw a second wall and gate inside, but the door closed too fast for him to be certain.
“That was Lord Goda, right?” asked Cormac.
“Or President Goda,” said Kate. “They’re the same person.”
“But how can that be? They live five hundred years apart.”
Kate nodded. “It’s his swords—the butterfly one and the snake eye. They were forged at the same time as the Moon Sword, so they must do the same thing.” She spoke quickly, her eyes shining. “He obviously uses the swords to travel through time. It would explain why the ruler of the Empire has always been called Goda—and why every Goda has been really mysterious. They’re all the same person!”
“And now he has all three swords,” said Ghost. It was the first time he’d spoken since seeing Kiko. Kate and Cormac stared at him.
“Are you all right?” asked Kate.
Ghost nodded. “Remember Makoto said something about the three swords making some terrible weapon?”
“Yeah,” said Cormac. “Goda wanted this third sword so badly he sent his own wife to the future to get it.”
Kate looked confused. “But what sort of weapon could the three swords make? And what’s he going to do with it?”
Cormac’s eyes opened wide. “Back in the map room I read something about an electromagnetic disturbance in sixteenth-century Japan that warped all metals.”
“There was loads of random stuff in the map room,” Kate pointed out.
“But this stuck out,” Cormac insisted. “It happened so soon after the swords were forged. Maybe that was the last time they were all together, before the Black Lotus stole the Moon Sword. Maybe that’s what they can do when they’re combined.”
Kate thought for a moment. “But that’s not such a terrible weapon, is it?” she asked. “I mean, what’s the big deal if a few bits of metal get warped?”
“No big deal in the sixteenth century because there was very little metal. But imagine what it could do to a modern city. Most buildings are built with metal frames. Vehicles are metal. Electronics are metal. Our army’s defenses are metal.”
Kate gasped. “The Empire is about to attack America! New York is a metal city!”
“Another reason to get that sword back,” said Ghost.
The three of them looked up at the castle.
“Well, we know where it is,” said Cormac.
Kate nodded. “All we have to do is get it back.”
Keeping to the shadows, they circled the castle. There was no way in.
“Could you just run up those walls or something?” asked Kate.
Cormac shook his head. “Not with that moat in front.”
&nbs
p; Ghost examined the castle wall through his binoculars. “Get your binocs, Cormac.”
Cormac rummaged in his bag till he found the binoculars in his shōzoku.
“Follow the samurai along the moat,” said Ghost.
Using night vision, Cormac moved the binocs along the wall until he found a samurai patrolling the outside edge of the moat. The samurai crossed a narrow bridge over the water to a small service gate in the wall, then spoke briefly with the guards before being admitted inside.
“I can get in there,” said Ghost.
Kate shook her head. “You’re not going in alone.”
“I got us into this mess. I will get—”
“I don’t care. You’re not going in alone.”
“Yeah,” said Cormac. “We’re a team.”
Ghost held up his hands. “OK. So I go inside and throw a rope over the wall for you guys.”
“Sounds like a plan,” said Cormac.
* * *
THE THREE FRIENDS HID IN a lean-to full of firewood until the town fell quiet. When they finally left their hiding place, the sky was full of stars, the streets were empty, and the lamps in most of the houses were out.
“Watch the flag on the wall,” said Ghost. “I will use it to signal when I am ready.”
He stepped behind a water barrel and undressed. He closed his eyes, cleared his mind, and let himself drift until he felt the freezing wave wash through him. When he was sure he could no longer be seen, he stepped out from behind the barrel and tiptoed over to Cormac and Kate. “Boo!” he said, causing them to stumble backward in fright. It felt good to laugh.
“Very funny!” said Kate.
“You must change too,” said Ghost. “Into your shōzoku, and don’t forget the night mode.”
“Listen, Ghost,” said Cormac. “I just wanted to say … ”
Ghost smiled and headed off toward the castle, not waiting to hear Cormac’s good-bye speech. They’d soon realize he wasn’t there.
He crossed the bridge and approached the wooden gate. Two fat samurai guarded the entrance. Their hairstyles reminded him of Kats’. One held a long pike, and the other, a bow. A quiver of arrows hung on the second samurai’s back.
Ghost squatted on the ground. This had better not take long. He was already exhausted and the invisibility was quickly draining his energy reserves. He looked back toward Cormac and Kate but couldn’t see them.
The guards moved at the sound of the gate being opened from the inside. Ghost sprang to his feet and crept forward. He edged behind one of the guards and waited. The gate opened and a samurai emerged, greeting the guards with a bow.
Ghost quickly slipped through the gate and into a large yard with some trees in one corner. Outside a nearby stable, two samurai cursed and whipped their horses into a stall.
As Ghost had suspected, he wasn’t inside the main building yet. A tall stone wall stood between him and the castle, and along the top of it ran buildings with tiled roofs. He didn’t want to think about how they’d cross it. One wall at a time.
He made his way along the inside of the outer wall to the flagpole. Using the pole and wall, he climbed to the tiles on top. He stood up and peered out into the shadowy streets of Yosa. It was time to give Cormac and Kate the signal. He couldn’t see them and they wouldn’t be able to see him. All they needed to see was the flag.
While Kate dressed behind the same water barrel Ghost had used, Cormac pulled on his own shōzoku and boots. It felt good to be wearing them again. He found the button inside his sleeve and activated the night mode. Immediately the magnetized balls on his suit turned inward to reveal their non-reflective black sides. He was now a shadow.
He picked up the binoculars. With night vision, Yosa Castle glowed a phosphorescent green and white. Scanning along the moat wall, he found the Empire flag fluttering in the breeze.
“I’ll bring Ghost’s bag,” whispered Kate from behind the barrel.
Cormac glanced behind him. “It might give us away. Just take out his shōzoku—maybe tie it around your waist?”
When he looked back through his binocs, he noticed the flag had changed. Instead of fluttering in the wind, it was rolled tightly around the pole. Ghost!
“Time to go,” he whispered, returning the binoculars to his sleeve pocket and removing his rope.
A samurai guard passed by.
“When the guard is gone, we move.” Cormac pulled his cowl on, then fixed his face mask, sealing it at the edges.
He watched Kate do the same. If anything went wrong, this could be the last time he’d see her. He felt like he should say something, but Kate was pointing toward the castle. The guard was gone. There was no time for words. They looked at each other for a brief moment and then ran toward the castle.
Kids moments before, they now became the ninjas of legend, moving like shadows in the night. Cormac’s heart pounded as he waited for the cry of alarm or the arrow that would end their run across the open space to the moat. But neither came, and they reached the water safely.
Cormac looked up to where Ghost should be standing. He took the coil of rope in his right hand, holding on to the end with his left. There would only be time for one shot at this before the patrolling guard returned. He flung the rope toward the flagpole. It sailed across the moat in a perfect arc and would have continued over the wall if it hadn’t been plucked out of the air by invisible hands.
“Carry a rock,” whispered Cormac, pulling one from the bank. “It’ll keep you underwater.”
Kate did the same and Cormac passed her the rope. Together, they slid into the moat.
The cold hit Cormac as soon as he entered, but his shōzoku acted like a wetsuit, keeping his body warm. The rocks kept them at the bottom, and the shōzoku supplied a steady flow of oxygen to their masks. It was pitch-dark, but following the rope, they made it to the stone wall at the other side. As soon as they reached it, there was a tug on the rope—a signal it was safe to go. Kate dropped her rock and began to climb.
After a few seconds had passed, Cormac let go of his rock and floated upward. When his head broke the surface, he looked up and saw Kate climbing to the top of the wall.
He placed his feet on the wall and pulled himself up the rope. The rubber toes of his boots clung to the stone, and in seconds he lay beside Kate on the capping tiles. She pulled off her face mask and frowned.
Instead of being inside the castle, they were in an outer courtyard. The fortress lay behind another wall. The buildings on top made it twice as high as the moat wall. Four samurai guarded a closed wooden door.
“We do the same again for the next wall?” said the voice of Ghost.
Cormac turned his binocs back to the inner wall. “No, I have a better idea.”
Kate watched Cormac slide down the flagpole into the yard and follow the inside of the moat wall toward the castle. The guards were too busy talking to notice the figure in black running straight up the wall and onto the rooftops.
“You go first,” said the invisible Ghost.
Kate slid down the pole. Hugging the wall for cover, she traced Cormac’s route. She heard the guards talking, but also animal voices. As she crept forward, the animals’ conversation got louder and louder until they were right beside her. In a stable, two horses complained about the way their masters treated them. Kate’s heart ached. It took a lot to make horses complain.
She soothed them with gentle whispers through the stable door. The animals immediately relaxed, and one of them poked his head out to investigate. Kate stroked its muzzle, and the horse snorted with pleasure.
“What are you doing?” murmured Ghost.
Automatically, Kate turned around, but of course Ghost wasn’t visible. He nudged her, urging her forward. She continued along the wall, only glancing behind once to see that she was still being closely observed by the two horses.
They were almost at the far wall when a noise that sounded like Ghost stumbling came from behind her. She froze, as did the guards’ conversation.
They looked in the direction of the sound, hands on sword hilts.
Heart pounding, she remained absolutely motionless, as she’d been trained to do. To her horror, she saw two of the gate guards begin to walk in her direction. She knew Ghost was behind her, invisible, but she was trapped, with nowhere to hide and nowhere to run.
The guards kept coming, their faces pale and alert in the moonlight. They couldn’t see her yet, but in seconds they’d be beside her. Even her shōzoku wouldn’t save her. They kept coming, and just as they were upon her, a raucous clamor arose from the stables. The horses neighed wildly and kicked the doors. The guards cursed and headed toward the crazed animals, away from Kate.
She closed her eyes and released her breath.
The guards shouted. Kate looked over her shoulder and stiffened at the sight of the horses being beaten with sticks. Tears filled her eyes, but she had to make the most of the diversion. She hurried toward the wall, where Cormac had secured a rope for them to climb.
She grabbed the rope and, using her rubber boots to grip the wall, climbed up past a window protected by iron bars. Below her, the noise from the stables faded away. She clambered onto the roof tiles and crawled to the ridge, to where Cormac was waiting. Panting, she lay on her back and looked up at the sky. Thousands of stars pinpricked the night. Under different circumstances, she would have thought them pretty.
Puffing and panting, the invisible Ghost joined them. Kate gazed down into the main castle courtyard, which was lit by torches and patrolled by samurai guards. All around its edge, buildings were linked together by paths, streams, walls, arches, and opulent gardens, but it was to the castle keep, or donjon, that her eyes were irresistibly drawn.
Sitting on a sloping foundation of stone, seven stories of plastered walls and curving roofs rose into the sky. Lights burned in its narrow windows, and silhouetted sentinels kept watch. The main entrance lay below—a large wooden door reinforced with iron and guarded by samurai.
The Black Lotus Page 12
