“Does it have a spike on top and a large gate in front of it?”
“Yes.”
“Got it. Now tie the sword outside the window. I’ll climb up and get it.”
“And me?”
There was a brief silence before Kate spoke. “If Savage distracts the guards outside, you can open the door and leave.”
Ghost’s teeth chattered with the cold. “Um, OK. And how do I tell Savage the plan?”
“Hold the comm to his ear.”
Ghost did as she requested.
When Savage ran away, he asked, “What will I do with the comm?”
“Leave it,” said Kate. “Now hurry!”
Ghost hid the comm behind the oil lamp in the corner. Using the scabbard’s belt cords, he tied the sword to a window bar so that it hung on the outside of the castle wall. It would be impossible to see from the ground, and the only thing visible from inside was a leather string.
Ghost crept to the door and listened. All was quiet. He waited, his hand on the door.
Suddenly the guard outside said something, then stepped away from the door. Ghost guessed he’d spotted Savage. He eased the door open a fraction to look out. The guard had taken a step forward to watch the mouse. Savage ran in circles, chasing his tail, then stood up on his back legs and fell over.
Ghost pushed open the door and slipped out, closing it again just before the guard looked behind him. Seeing nobody, he shook his head and turned his attention back to the mouse. The show was over, however, and Savage scuttled off down the corridor. The puzzled guards returned to their posts, and without a sound Ghost stepped past them.
The adrenaline that had carried Ghost in and out of the room had dissipated. His head drooped, his arms hung limp by his sides, and every step was like walking knee-deep in mud.
On the stairs, he couldn’t take the care that he’d taken on the way up, and a loose tread squeaked when he stepped on it. The samurai at the bottom spun around, hands automatically dropping to their swords, but there was nothing to see. Ghost continued past them recklessly. Farther down the corridor he brushed into a passing guard, who also drew his sword, but Ghost trudged onward, barely noticing.
At the next staircase Savage waited for him. Ghost smiled weakly at the mouse before stumbling down after him. As if in a dream, he followed the mouse down two more flights of stairs, clinging to the walls for support. When he stepped into the corridor, his legs buckled beneath him, and he crashed onto the floor. His mind screeched at him to move, but his body had given up. He lay there disabled by cold and exhaustion.
He knew he wouldn’t make it. Even if he did, he’d only ruin Kate’s and Cormac’s chances of escape. Better to end it here. He had retrieved the sword. He had put things right. He could die with honor.
He crawled to the nearest shōji. Careless of who might be behind it, he slid the door open and dragged himself in. He tried to close it again, but his body went limp. Sleep draped itself over him like a heavy blanket.
Sitting on the roof, Kate looked out over Yosa toward the mountainous horizon. The sun was almost up. She still hadn’t heard from Cormac.
A scrabbling noise on the windowsill diverted her attention. It was Savage. In a flurry of squeaks, he told her what had happened. She quickly updated Cormac via her comm.
“I’m going in to get him,” she said.
“Be careful.”
“Have you reached the sword yet?”
“Who do you think I am, Superman?”
“Well, you do have Superman underpants.”
Cormac laughed.
“I gotta go,” said Kate. “Be careful, Superman.”
“You too, Ninja Girl.”
Thinking about going into the castle made Kate nervous. Even with her shōzoku and training, she wasn’t Ninja Girl, or any other superhero. But her friend was in there, and he needed help.
She tightened Ghost’s shōzoku around her waist, slid between the same gap in the iron bars that Ghost had used to enter, and dropped to the floor inside. At the corridor, she slid the shōji open just enough for Savage to dart out to check for samurai. When she heard his squeak, she followed the mouse down the passageway. They raced up the stairs and along another corridor until they came to the partially closed shōji.
Inside, Ghost lay on the floor. Her legs felt suddenly weak, and she held on to the shōji for support. What if he’s dead?
Averting her eyes from his naked body, she closed the shōji and grabbed a rolled-up quilt from against the wall. She placed it over him and knelt beside him. Relieved to hear him breathing, she was about to contact Cormac when she heard footsteps marching down the corridor. They stopped outside the room. The shōji slid open and three samurai warriors stepped inside.
IN A RACE AGAINST THE rising sun, Cormac ran vertically up the central keep of Yosa Castle. He launched himself at a large bronze tiger-headed fish that hung out over the corner of the roof. He swung up onto the roof of the third floor. Crouching like a cat on the fish’s back, he surveyed Yosa. The wind tugged at his shōzoku. Through the slit in his cowl, Cormac tried to locate the temple again.
He caught sight of the spire, rising above its surroundings. With superhuman speed, he sprinted across the tiles to the other side of the castle keep. In a split second, he crossed the sloping roof to a stone wall. His momentum took him obliquely over the face of it, skipping narrow windows on his way to the overhanging roof. He dived forward, twisting his body 180 degrees in midair so that he faced the wall he had jumped from. Once he gripped the roof, he propelled himself up onto it.
He landed in a crouch and scanned the wall of the fifth floor until he saw what looked like a black stick hanging from the middle window—the Moon Sword.
In his cowl, he was more like Spider-Man than Superman as he crawled up the sloping tiles of the roof, wary now of archers. The sword’s scabbard banged against the wall as the wind pulled at it. Creeping forward, he reached up and silenced it with both hands. It was truly a thing of beauty, the gold inlay of the moon catching the first rays of morning light.
Cormac stood up to untie the sword and came face-to-face with Lord Goda on the other side of the window.
THE THREE SAMURAI REACHED FOR their swords. Kate dipped into her shuriken purse, pulled out the bundle of blades, and released them at her opponents. They zipped through the air, hitting one samurai in the neck and another in the arm. Before they could draw their swords, the tranquillizer entered their bloodstreams. They wobbled drunkenly before slumping to the floor, unconscious.
The third samurai drew his katana. He flew at Kate with the blade raised. She rolled aside before the weapon sliced down and struck the floor where she’d been kneeling. Still crouching, she drove the sole of her foot into his exposed ribs, pivoting on her supporting heel at the last moment to deliver full force. The samurai fell sideways but quickly rolled upright again.
Kate knew she was no match for him. She staggered back as he approached, a venomous sneer on his face. He swung his sword. Kate stepped back, narrowly avoiding the tip of his katana. She stumbled over one of the unconscious samurai and fell on her back. Her attacker laughed and raised his sword for the deathblow, but something small raced up the man’s body and onto his face. The samurai screamed in pain and dropped his sword, swiping wildly at the mouse clinging to his nose.
Kate seized the opportunity and retrieved a stray shuriken embedded in a wooden post. The samurai flung Savage across the room. With a bloody bite mark on his nose, he reached for his sword, but the spinning shuriken bit into his leg. He gasped and then fell silent. His face contorted into grotesque grimaces before he collapsed to the floor.
Savage raced over to Kate. She picked him up and wiped the samurai blood from his face. “You really will eat anything.”
“Rice I prefer,” he squeaked.
Kate kissed him and placed him in her pocket.
She looked at the four unconscious bodies. How was she going to get Ghost out of there?
LO
RD GODA’S BLOODSHOT EYES MET Cormac’s. For a second, neither moved, and then the shōgun’s face became a mask of anger. He roared and grabbed for the sword.
Cormac cried out with terror and pulled back, but Goda had ahold of the leather cord. He yanked it, but Cormac held tight. In a desperate tug of war, Cormac jerked the scabbard, whipping the leather cord from the man’s hands, sending himself and the sword falling backward down the roof. He tumbled downward, the scabbard smashing tiles as he dug it into them to slow his descent. It was working, but not fast enough. He tumbled over the roof’s edge.
In midair, he righted himself and prepared to land on the next roof. The tiles rushed toward him, and his feet smashed into them in an explosion of splinters, but his bent knees absorbed most of the impact. He rolled forward and onto his feet, the sword still firmly in his hand. His momentum, however, carried him perilously forward, down the roof.
Cormac knew he couldn’t stop, but perhaps he could control his route. He veered sideways toward the corner of the roof and a large bronze dolphin statue that overlooked the town of Yosa far below. He grabbed its tail, but his body kept moving. His legs shot out over the edge and his arm was jerked into a painful stretch. He flopped onto the dolphin’s back, glad now of all the years he’d spent running over the rooftops of Ballyhook. He checked for the sword and scabbard, and then smiled.
The smile vanished when he heard a clarion call from the top of the keep. The noise was so loud it could only be one thing: an alarm.
GHOST TOO HEARD THE HORN. He stirred, looked up at Kate leaning over him and then underneath the quilt. “You looking at my butt again?” he said groggily.
“More like saving your butt.” Kate stood up and tapped the comm on her shōzoku. “Cormac, can you hear me?”
There was no reply.
She knelt beside one of the unconscious samurai. “That sounded like an alarm. They must have spotted Cormac.”
“Blast!” gasped Ghost, sitting up and staring at the inert bodies strewn around the room. “Are they dead?”
“No,” said Kate. “They’re just unconscious, but for how long I don’t know.” She untied Ghost’s shōzoku from around her waist and threw it over to him.
“No peeping,” said Ghost.
“Shut up and get dressed.” She turned her back on him and tapped the comm on her shōzoku. “Cormac, are you OK?”
“Yes,” he panted. “But they’ve spotted me. We need to get out now.”
As if to prove his point, footsteps rushed down the corridor. Kate quickly closed the shōji just before a troop of samurai ran by.
Ghost zipped up his shōzoku. “How do we get out?”
Cormac jumped down to the next roof and immediately came under fire. From the keep’s narrow windows, archers loosed arrows upon him like rain. He sprinted on as several whistled past his head. He dropped onto the next roof, only to come under attack again. Below in the courtyard, samurai streamed out of buildings and into battle formation. Rows of archers lined up, waiting for him to come into range.
He continued his downward run at superhuman speed, swinging from one roof to the next until he landed back where he’d started, above the first floor.
“I have to leave without you,” he shouted into his comm as he leaped from the central keep. He dropped a hundred feet onto the wall below and landed in an explosion of roof tiles.
As he rolled out he felt a bolt of pain race up his arm, from where his wrist had smashed into the tiles. Switching the sword to his other hand, he raced along the top of the inner wall. A hail of arrows darkened the sky, but Cormac had already disappeared into the outer yard.
He came up running in the direction of the final wall. Samurai warriors had formed a defensive line across the outer yard and now came charging at him, their swords raised and their battle cries filling the air. Cormac sped headlong into the approaching line of blades, which closed in on him from all sides.
They met halfway across the yard, and a dozen samurai swung their katanas just as Cormac launched himself into the air. He heard their blades ring off one another as he sailed cleanly over their heads, ran straight up the outer wall, and disappeared over the top.
KATE TOOK OFF ONE OF the unconscious samurai’s clothes and put them on over her shōzoku. She looked at Ghost, who had done the same. “You look cool.”
“I don’t like cool.” He rubbed his arms. “Warm is better.”
Kate smiled. “Ready?”
“What about our faces? Samurai aren’t dark like me, or female.”
Kate pointed at three suits of leather armor on stands. She guessed they were why the men had come into the room. The helmets wouldn’t completely hide their faces, but they would certainly help.
Outside, the corridor was filled with samurai, all running in the same direction. Kate tightened her helmet, shoved open the shōji, and ran after them. Ghost followed her along the corridor and down a set of stairs.
They joined the troop of men hurrying out of the keep and followed them across a courtyard, through a narrow gate, and into the inner yard of the castle. They continued through the wooden door that they’d seen earlier. The outer yard was filled with soldiers, many of whom were pointing at the top of the exterior wall or gesturing toward the castle keep. The iron portcullis was being raised and orderly divisions were preparing to leave.
“He escaped,” whispered Ghost.
Kate nodded. “Cormac may have escaped, but he isn’t safe yet and neither are we.”
In the stables beside them, servants hurriedly saddled horses and led them outside to be collected. Kate recognized the two horses that had saved her earlier. They were tied to an iron ring set into the wall. Their ears pricked as she approached.
“I saw how your masters treat you,” she whispered. “Do you want to get out of here?”
Both horses whickered softly in agreement.
“Help us escape, and I promise you’ll never have to come back here.”
She led the two horses toward Ghost.
“Do you know how to ride?” she whispered, climbing into the saddle.
“It’s like a motorbike?” he asked, copying the way she’d stepped into the stirrups.
She shook her head. “Just hold on. The horse knows what to do.”
Kate’s horse cantered toward the main gate. Glancing back, she saw the other horse following, with Ghost holding on for dear life.
CORMAC PLACED THE SWORD ON the bank and crawled out of the moat, flinching as pain shot through his wrist. Behind him, the castle erupted with noise as troops mobilized to pursue him. He had only minutes before thousands of samurai poured into Yosa, combing through every square inch of the city. There was no place to hide. He had to make a run for it.
He raced across the open ground surrounding the castle and into a side street. At the water barrel where he’d stashed the clothes Yoshiro had given him, he considered changing to disguise himself, but then he heard the tramp of feet. He peered around the corner of the building to see a large group of samurai coming his way.
There was no time to change, so he sprinted forward, racing down lanes and weaving a zigzag path through the town. In his wake, the streets filled with samurai, rousing sleeping dogs into a cacophony of noise.
“Where are you?” panted Kate in his earpiece.
“Somewhere in Yosa, being chased by samurai!”
“Do you have the sword?”
“Yes.”
“Get to the main road.”
“Why?”
“Just do it!”
Cormac turned left, startling a sleepy-eyed woman on her veranda. Her mouth fell open as the ninja raced past, sword in hand. When he arrived on the main street, he looked back toward the castle. Two samurai on horseback approached at full gallop. He sprinted away from them, wondering why Kate had directed him into danger.
“Stop running!” she shouted in his earpiece.
“I’m being chased!”
“It’s us, you moron!”
; “What?”
“The two horses, behind you—it’s us!”
Cormac slowed and turned around. As the riders got closer, he recognized Ghost and Kate under their helmets. Not far behind them were more samurai—real ones.
“Ride with Ghost!” shouted Kate. “Sit in front of him so you won’t be seen from behind.”
Cormac climbed up into the saddle in front of Ghost. He was no sooner on than the horse took off at lightning speed.
KATE’S HORSE, ARENO, WAS LATHERED in sweat and foaming at the mouth, but didn’t slow.
“Keep going,” urged Kate into the horse’s ear. “This is as much your escape as mine.”
Areno snorted in reply and pushed forward.
They left Yosa behind and raced through the countryside on the same road they’d followed into the town. The sun was now up, and they met the first of the peddlers pushing their carts toward the town. The locals all knelt and bowed to them as they passed.
After half an hour’s ride, they lost sight of the samurai behind them and Kate began to think that perhaps they hadn’t even been chasing them. After all, nobody seemed to have noticed them as they left the castle. Perhaps nobody had seen them pick up Cormac either. From behind, they had probably just looked like two samurai in search of the thief. She slowed Areno to a trot, to allow him to recuperate. Cormac and Ghost rode up beside her on their horse, Sora.
“You OK, Kate?” Cormac asked, smiling.
“Yeah, you?”
“Fine.”
“Anybody want to ask me?” asked Ghost.
“Sorry, Ghost.” Cormac laughed, turning in his saddle. “How are you?”
“Not good. I am a pain in the butt.”
Cormac and Kate laughed loudly.
“What?” protested Ghost. “It is really painful!”
Kate’s laugh stuck in her throat when she saw what lay ahead of them. Two large gates stretched across the road, with buildings blocking the way on either side. Banners flew from their rooftops, and even from a distance she could tell they were Goda’s. Now she remembered why they’d avoided the road the previous day. This was a samurai checkpoint.
The Black Lotus Page 14
