L5r - scroll 01 - The Scorpion

by Stephen D. Sullivan

  Daiori cried in pain and staggered forward. He turned just in time to see Shoju glide sideways, opening his stance into the welcoming gesture once more.

  "Surrender!" the Scorpion said.

  Daiori's reply was an inarticulate roar. He charged, cutting at the Scorpion's waist.

  Shoju spun away and thrust his sword backward, under his arm, as if he were striking with the butt of a staff. The point of Yashin found its mark.

  The blade pierced Daiori's back between the ribs. It struck deep. The Seppun daimyo gasped and slumped to his knees. Shoju yanked his sword free and turned in time to see his opponent fall face first to the floor.

  The borrowed blade slipped from Daiori's hands. It skidded across the wooden surface, coming to rest against the great doors of the throne room. A low moan escaped Daiori's mouth.

  Shoju sheathed his blade and stepped forward. He knelt and gently turned the dying man over. "You fought well," the Scorpion said.

  "You are the master of lies," Daiori said, blood trickling from his lips. "At least I won't live to see you take the throne."

  Behind his mask, Shoju frowned. "You heard my tale. Can you not see the justice of my cause?"

  "Ambition has blinded you, Scorpion lord. A man as steeped in bloodshed as you would never see another way. You have doomed all of us as surely as you have doomed yourself."

  Shoju stood. "The blood I have shed," he said, "has always been to serve the empire."

  "And whom do you serve now, Master of Secrets?"

  Before Shoju could answer, a fit of coughing seized Daiori. Blood bubbled from his mouth. The dying man fixed his eyes on the Scorpion and said, "Promise you will not slaughter my son."

  The Scorpion nodded. "You were a noble opponent. I will vouchsafe him from the city. He will be taken to a place of safety."

  "Do you swear?" Daiori said, pain washing over his face.

  "I swear."

  "T-tell him his father fought bravely," the Seppun daimyo said, and then he died.

  Shoju looked at the corpse resting at his feet. "I will," he said. He turned to the throne room doors.

  xxxxxxxx

  Inside the throne room, Doji Shizue heard all that had taken place. She knew her time was running out. Try as she might, she could not find the secret panel she knew was hidden in the throne room. Her carefully ordered thoughts had become frantic.

  "Where is it?"

  xxxxxxxx

  Hantei Sotorii stepped outside the gazebo to see what was happening. Lightning flashed all around, and he could hear explosions in the distance.

  "What's going on?" Yumika asked, pulling her kimono around her body and following him out into the rain.

  Sotorii shook his head. "I don't know," he said. His young eyes scanned the garden before him. The river ran nearby, but its serene music was completely smothered by the fury of the storm.

  In a sudden flash of lightning, Sotorii saw something that made his blood run cold. A dark shape rose out of the river just a few yards away. He knew only one word for the shape, a word he'd heard in whispered legends since he was a boy.

  "Ninja!" he gasped.

  The girl shrieked.

  The black-garbed figure noticed the young lovers. He drew his sword and charged.

  Sotorii backed away, pushing the girl before him as he went. The ninja aimed his sword at the Hantei heir's neck. Sotorii ducked.

  Instead of a victim, the blade of the ninjato struck one of the gazebo's pillars and stuck.

  Sotorii and Yumika turned and ran for the castle.

  For a moment, the ninja tried to yank his blade from the wood. Then he reached into a fold of his billowing black costume and pulled forth a shuriken.

  The ninja flicked his wrist. The small, star-shaped dagger flew through the air. One point lodged in the calf of Sotorii.

  The royal heir screamed and fell to the ground. Yumika stopped and looked at the boy, unsure what to do.

  The ninja retrieved his sword and charged once more.

  Yumika took Sotorii's hand and tried to pull him to his feet. As he struggled to rise, Sotorii looked back over his shoulder and saw his death closing in.

  The ninja raised his sword high. The blade never fell.

  Another figure stepped out of the darkness. His blade met the ninja's and parried. With a twist, the larger sword flipped the ninjato from the hands of its master. The ninja's sword flew through the air and landed beside a goldfish pond.

  In a flash of lightning, Sotorii recognized his savior: Seppun Ishikawa.

  The captain of the guard cut at the ninja's midsection, but the lithe figure hopped back, out of harm's way. Ishikawa advanced. The ninja seemed made of darkness itself. When next the samurai lunged, the ninja had already darted away.

  Reappearing from the shadows, the black-garbed assassin reached into the folds of his robes once more.

  "Shuriken! He has shuriken!" Sotorii gasped, holding the wound in his leg.

  Ishikawa's face grew grim, and he assumed a defensive posture.

  The ninja drew out a throwing dart with each hand. Before he could throw them, though, the ninja's whole body suddenly jerked, like a puppet on a string. He slumped to the ground and moved no more.

  Ishikawa glanced sideways to see Kaede standing nearby, concentrating. She let out a long, slow breath and brought her outstretched arms to her bosom, drawing the deadly Void magic back inside herself.

  "Remind me never to get you angry," Ishikawa said to her.

  Kaede ignored him and went to the heir. "Are you all right?" she asked the boy.

  "No, I'm not all right!" Sotorii snapped. "What's going on here? We demand to know!"

  "Your father is dead," Ishikawa said testily. "The Emerald Throne is yours, if you can convince the Scorpion to give it back to you."

  Sotorii staggered as if he had been struck. He sat down abruptly. "Y-you're sure?"

  "I felt it," Kaede said. "I know it. The city is under siege by Scorpion forces."

  "B-but why ... ?" the boy asked. He appeared to be on the verge of tears.

  "Ask the Scorpion your riddles if you like," said Ishikawa. He knelt beside the ninja and pulled off the assassin's black mask. Behind the hood he found a boy, hardly older than the heir. The boy ninja was dead. "You did your job well, Lady Isawa," Ishikawa said.

  "Our job now is to save the heir," Kaede replied. "If we do not escape the castle, he will surely be killed."

  "Desert the castle?" Sotorii asked, the shock still sinking in.

  "You must," Kaede said. "The Scorpion will not rest until you are dead."

  "B-but where will I go?"

  "Your father has many supporters," Ishikawa said. "Even Bayushi Shoju cannot kill them all. First, we must get out of here. Every moment we linger is another moment your life— the life of the empire—is in peril."

  "But they will know I'm not dead!" the boy emperor said. "You said they wouldn't stop coming after me. Where can I hide from the Master of Secrets?"

  "Oh, Sotorii," Miya Yumika cried, throwing her girlish arms around the boy's neck. "We are doomed!"

  Ishikawa nodded and looked grim. "The boy has a point," he said. "So long as he lives, the Scorpion will track him down. I, for one, doubt our ability to protect him."

  "Where are the ones who should have protected my father? Why did our best samurai fail to save him?" Sotorii asked angrily, wiping tears away from his face. He removed Yumika's arms from his shoulders.

  "I assume they are dead, Your Majesty," Ishikawa said. "And we may soon join them."

  "Not necessarily," said Kaede. The excitement had cleared Kachiko's poisons from her mind. "If we could convince the Scorpion that our young Hantei is dead, we could buy ourselves time."

  Ishikawa looked at the corpse of the ninja. "That boy," he said, "that ninja, is nearly the same size as Sotorii. If we were to mutilate the body..."

  "No," Kaede said. "There is a better way." She stepped toward the body and cleared her mind. She let the power of the Void f
ill her once more as she stooped beside the corpse.

  Kaede laid her hands on the face of the dead boy. Gradually, the features flowed and changed until the ninja resembled the heir to the throne. She lingered a few moments more, hiding the effects of the spell and making sure they would not fade.

  Hantei the 39th, Ishikawa, and Yumika stood slack-jawed.

  "Will it fool them, do you think?" Ishikawa asked.

  The Mistress of the Void nodded. "It has a chance, especially amid this chaos. I've made the spell hard to detect, though probably Yogo Junzo could discover it."

  "We'll have to dress the corpse in the heir's clothes," said Ishikawa.

  "M-my clothes?" said Sotorii.

  "Be quick about it!" Ishikawa barked. "The Scorpion won't give us all night." He took off his kimono and handed it to the new emperor.

  Hantei quickly began to undress. Yumika walked tentatively to Kaede.

  "What about me?" she asked. "People saw the heir leave the feasting hall with me."

  "You could run back to the hall," Kaede said. "Say you fled when the ninja attacked."

  "But... but that would disgrace my family. Couldn't I go with you?"

  "If you did, people would wonder what had happened to you," Ishikawa said. "It would make our ruse more difficult. We cannot take any chances while traveling with the heir."

  "I could lay a spell on your mind," said Kaede, "erase your memory of what happened after the attack."

  Sotorii had finished removing his robes and dressing in Ishikawa's outer kimono. He handed his old clothes to the captain of the guard. "If the Scorpion sorcerers question her, they will discover your spell."

  "Most likely," Kaede conceded.

  "Then I see no other option," Sotorii said, turning suddenly cold. "Yumika must sacrifice her life for me."

  Ishikawa stopped dressing the ninja's body and glared at the heir. Kaede and Yumika were doing the same.

  "Your Majesty," Kaede said, "surely there is a better way—"

  "You and Ishikawa are prepared to sacrifice your lives for mine," the young Hantei said. "Everyone loyal to me should be willing to do the same. Finding her body next to the body you've made to look like mine will reinforce our story."

  "That's true, but..." Ishikawa began.

  The new emperor turned to Yumika and looked her in the eyes. She began to cry again. "Will you do it, Yumika?" he asked. "Do you love your emperor?"

  "I... I do, but..." she said, tears streaming down her face.

  "Emperor Hantei, don't..." Kaede said, stepping forward.

  Yumika waved her away. "lie! No," she said, wiping back tears. "My young lord is right. I will give myself up for him." She turned to Sotorii and said, "But promise me, Emperor Hantei . . . promise me you will look after my father and sisters."

  "I will," he said.

  "Then, one last thing I ask."

  "Name it."

  "A kiss," Yumika said. "One last time."

  "Granted," said the boy emperor. He took her in his arms, embraced her, and kissed her long upon the lips.

  When they parted, Ishikawa stepped forward. "I will have to use the ninja's sword to do it," he said. Already he had recovered the weapon from where it lay.

  Kaede said, "Ishikawa—"

  "The emperor is right," said the captain of the guard. "Her life may buy us the time we need."

  Isawa Kaede stepped forward and kissed the girl on the cheek. "I'm sorry," the Mistress of the Void said softly.

  "I ... I shall be brave," Yumika said, sniffing back tears. "Come morning, I will be with my mother in paradise."

  Kaede stepped back.

  Ishikawa addressed the girl. "I've run this sword through the body of the ninja, to appear he—that is, the heir—was killed with it," he said. "Thank you for your sacrifice, Yumika-san. I'm sorry it is necessary."

  "Please," the girl said. "Do it swiftly." She held her arms rigidly at her sides, her fists clenched so tightly that her fingers went white.

  "I promise you," said Ishikawa, "there will be no pain." As he said it, he ran the sword cleanly through her heart. He withdrew the weapon.

  Yumika's body slumped softly to the ground. The rain washed over her face, carrying away the trickle of blood that leaked from her mouth.

  "Come!" the young emperor said. "We can waste no more time."

  "We must take the ninja's sword and clothes with us," Ishikawa said, gathering the things, "and hope the rain will erase the traces of our passage."

  "I know a secret way out of the gardens," said Kaede. "Follow me."

  The others trailed after the Mistress of the Void. As she

  went, Kaede couldn't help stealing one last look back at the girl who had died to save the heir to the Emerald Throne.

  XXXXXXXX

  Doji Shizue found the secret panel and slipped through, just as Bayushi Shoju entered the throne room. Shizue sealed the panel tightly behind her, realizing only then that the small chamber had no other exit. She was trapped.

  Her heart pounded so loudly, Shizue feared it would betray her to the Scorpion.

  Beyond a thin panel of wood, the emperor's killer stalked proudly about the throne room.

  xxxxxxxx

  Shoju passed the threshold of the great iron doors and drank in the sight of the throne room. The chamber was beautiful, almost enough to take the Scorpion's breath away.

  Golden sunbursts spangled the high-vaulted ceiling. Each sun was painted in a small coffer on an azure, star-flecked background. Great wooden beams supported the curved ceiling.

  The walls of the hall were made of wood panel and plaster. Painted scenes of natural splendor decorated the walls: stately mountains, winding rivers, crashing waterfalls, twisted trees. These panels covered the solid stone of the castle's foundations. Beauty hadn't compromised security.

  Two wings of the room had been set aside for the emperor's audience. Here the advisors would sit, awaiting their master's pleasure. Currently the smooth wooden floors sat empty.

  On the far side of the room was a low platform, and on the platform sat the Emerald Throne—the only piece of furniture in the room. The throne had a low seat and a high back. It was made entirely of carved jade. Dragons and other mythical beasts twined themselves lovingly over every surface of the imperial chair.

  Shoju walked to the throne and seated himself on it. The great carved seat felt uncomfortable.

  "It is with no great pleasure that I do this," he said to his son and Tetsuo. His lame arm throbbed, and Shoju felt as though the months of planning, the battle, the bloodshed, had drained his very life away.

  "What next, Father?" Dairu asked.

  "What next?" Shoju replied. "What next, indeed?" He seemed more weary than either Dairu or Tetsuo had ever seen him before.

  "Surely next we consolidate our position," Tetsuo said. "Secure the city. Send representatives to the other clans to explain our position."

  "Of course," the Scorpion lord said, glad—not for the first time—that his people could not see his face behind the mask. They would have seen a face plagued by uncertainty and the terrible cost of his actions. Even the song of Yashin had grown softer in his mind. Shoju said a silent prayer and gathered himself.

  "Tetsuo," he said, "see that the palace is secure. Once it is, bring the noble hostages before me. Include at least one representative of each of the six other major clans. Any minute now, Kachiko should have a report on the fighting outside the castle."

  "I am here, my lord," Bayushi Kachiko said, gliding into the throne room as if she owned it. She walked the short distance to the throne and stood at her husband's left elbow.

  "We have secured the outer walls. The inner enchanted wall will soon be completely under control as well," she said. "There is still fighting, especially among our people and the Emerald Guard, but I have no doubt it will be quelled soon. Most of the embassies have already fallen to our forces." Here Kachiko paused and smiled at her husband. "By morning the city will be ours," she said proudly.r />
  A "hurrah!" went up from the small band of Scorpions.

  Shoju quieted them by raising one finger. "We do this out of necessity," he reminded them. "Not for personal gain or aggrandizement. Our plan is necessary for the safety of all Rokugan."

  He looked at Tetsuo, who had lingered in the room to hear Kachiko's report. "Well?" he said.

  Tetsuo bowed and hurried off.

  The Scorpion lord turned to his son. "Find your uncle," he said. "If we don't kill the heir, our plan is undone."

  "Hai!" Dairu said, bowing and turning to go. Before he could leave the chamber, Bayushi Aramoro entered.

  "Great Lord, I have found the heir," Aramoro said. "He is dead."

  Shoju leaned forward on the throne. "You're sure?" he asked.

  "I saw the corpse myself. He was in the garden with a girl. One of our ninja must have taken them by surprise. Their bodies both show the same, telltale cuts."

  "Where is the person who killed them?" Shoju asked.

  "I do not know," Aramoro said. "Likely he or she didn't know who they were. In the dark, the Hantei heir could have been any courtier out for an intimate rendezvous."

  Shoju slumped into the Emerald Throne.

  "Then it is over," he said wearily. "We have won."

  He closed his eyes. The throne felt cold and hard against his back. The seat's ornate carvings dug into his lame shoulder. The fires of exhaustion ran up and down his spine. Images of blood and battle plagued him. That part of Shoju's nightmare, at least, had come true.

  POISON

  Hatsuko looked at the pale face of her lover and wept until she could barely see.

  Toturi was handsome. So handsome, even now—even as he lay still upon their bed in the small cabin Aki had provided for the rendezvous.

  How happy he had been when Hatsuko told him of the place. How thrilled that, perhaps, his dreams were finally coming true.

  They had gone to the cabin immediately when he came to see her. He had marveled at the tiny house's beauty and simplicity, declaring it "perfect." They made love on the plain wooden floor.

  They lingered there in the forest, not far from the spot Toturi had named Hatsuko Falls. It seemed they might stay in that place for all eternity.