Nightblade's Vengeance (Blades of the Fallen Book 1)

by Ryan Kirk

  Kiyoshi went deep inside himself. The sense, as useful as it was, had limitations. No one was sure exactly how the gift worked, but they knew that it recognized intent. The trick, then, to fool the sense was to try to move without intent. The tactic was as difficult as it sounded, but Kiyoshi and Daisuke had practiced together for cycles. That was how Kiyoshi had surprised Minori earlier, and it was how he would surprise the nightblades outside the door.

  At the last moment, Kiyoshi changed his mind. He dropped his weapons, and as they clattered to the floor, he slid open the door to his room. In a single moment, Kiyoshi took in the entire situation. Asa was down the hall, only a moment away from engaging the two nightblades who had come to her. From the other side, Daisuke was approaching, clearly intending to attack the two blades who remained by the door. Neither of them had any idea Daisuke was near.

  When they saw Daisuke, the two remaining guards at the door almost jumped out of their robes, and a moment too late, they sprang into motion.

  The blades started to draw their swords. Kiyoshi reached out to both warriors. One of them was completely off guard, and Kiyoshi got his hand on the nightblade’s face. In a moment he was inside the blade, just as if he were going to heal him. He could sense the energy flowing through the young man’s mind, and in less than a moment, he followed the related pathway down the nightblade’s spine. He felt the confluence of all the energy converging throughout the body, and when he had it, Kiyoshi twisted.

  The feeling was hard to describe, but he knew what it did. For a few moments, the mind lost its connection with the body and believed its body was paralyzed. The nightblade collapsed, mind and body unable to communicate. As the blade fell, Kiyoshi held on for an extra moment, untwisting the flow of energy. He didn’t want to cause any permanent damage to the blade, but it would take quite some time for the warrior’s mind to recover and align itself with his body again, more than enough time to get away.

  The second blade had stepped back, giving himself the space to dodge Kiyoshi’s grasp. The extra moment of time gave him the ability to draw his sword. It flashed out of its sheath, cutting at Kiyoshi with one smooth motion.

  Kiyoshi sensed the attack and leaned backward, allowing the horizontal slice to pass in front of him. The nightblade, still off guard from Kiyoshi’s initial movement, had drawn with too much force, and his cut crossed Kiyoshi’s entire body. Kiyoshi saw the warrior had realized his mistake. He either could try to stop his blade, or he could try to spin within the tight confines of the hallway and keep his momentum.

  The nightblade stopped his cut, but his sword was off Kiyoshi’s line, and the old man stepped forward. The blade stepped back, trying to keep distance between them, but his back ran against the wall behind him. Kiyoshi moved inside the blade’s guard, his hand outstretched.

  Reacting, the nightblade tried to slash at Kiyoshi, even knowing Kiyoshi was too close to cut. Kiyoshi reached out and grabbed the nightblade’s arm, throwing the guard over his hip. The surprised blade somersaulted over Kiyoshi and landed on his back.

  Throughout the throw, Kiyoshi held on to the nightblade’s wrist and moved his body with a speed he hadn’t used in many cycles, twisting his opponent into a joint lock. The nightblade, effectively immobilized, didn’t know what to do. Kiyoshi didn’t give him a chance. He went inside the blade and repeated the process he had used on the other guard. When he was finished, Kiyoshi dropped the arm, dismayed at the suffering he caused to effect his escape.

  As his awareness expanded again, he saw, far more than he sensed, Daisuke dash past him. His old friend had apparently decided he didn’t need any help, but Asa did. She was fast, but she didn’t have an innate sense of combat. Asa didn’t know how to use all of that speed to her advantage. He should ask Daisuke to train her.

  Asa was fast enough to defend against the two nightblades attacking her, but it was a close battle. If not for her short blade and the confines of the hallway, Kiyoshi was certain she’d be dead.

  The whole situation changed the moment Daisuke reached the fight. The two nightblades, so focused on Asa, didn’t have the slightest chance of noticing the threat behind them. Daisuke didn’t even draw his sword. He came up behind them and slammed the head of one into a wall, knocking him immediately unconscious. The second one, caught by surprise, suffered a shallow cut from Asa, who sensed an opportunity. Daisuke didn’t let her kill the last blade though. He understood what Kiyoshi wanted. He punched the nightblade in the stomach, and as the warrior doubled over, brought his knee up into the blade’s face. The final guard collapsed.

  The fight had taken only a few moments, and Kiyoshi paused to throw out his sense. It didn’t seem as though they had alerted any guards. Even so, the palace was regularly patrolled, and he and his allies had only a little time. When the four nightblades came to, they would be plenty upset and out for blood.

  The three met in the hallway. Asa eyed Kiyoshi with suspicion, but he didn’t have time to worry about her, not now. He embraced Daisuke. His old friend wore a smile.

  “I’m glad to see you alive. I worried Minori was going to kill you.”

  “If he’d had his way, he might have.”

  They separated, and Daisuke looked Kiyoshi over. “That being said, captivity seems to suit you. You’re looking better than you have in a long time.”

  Kiyoshi nodded. Soon he’d have to let Daisuke know what he had decided. “We need to get the king out of here. I’ve built a stretcher.”

  Daisuke tilted his head forward in acknowledgment. “Asa and I can carry him.”

  Kiyoshi shook his head, his eyes trying to say what his voice couldn’t. Daisuke knew Kiyoshi was just as dangerous a fighter as any nightblade, but he couldn’t let Asa know that. “No. We need you to protect us. I’ll help Asa.”

  Daisuke understood. “Move then, old man.”

  Kiyoshi led Asa to his room. He picked up his weapons, which brought another strange look from Asa. Together, they picked up Masaki’s stretcher. Kiyoshi noted how light the king had become.

  Daisuke led them out of the palace the same way he and Asa had come. They didn’t seek out combat, pausing and waiting in shadows and around corners as various guard units patrolled the grounds. The tunnel they used began in the king’s chambers, and Daisuke led them there without a word.

  Just as they entered the chambers, they heard shouts off in the distance. Kiyoshi wasn’t sure if the blades had come to, or if the scene of the combat had been discovered, but it didn’t matter. They locked the king’s door behind them. Thanks to their ancestors’ foresight, the door was thick enough that it would take some time to break down. Kiyoshi led them to the passage. They went through, and Daisuke closed the portal.

  Kiyoshi drew a deep breath of relief. They had plenty of time. It would take the guards quite a while to discover the king’s room was locked, and more time to break the door down, only to find an empty space. By the time the guards discovered the passage, if they even could, they would be long gone.

  The passage was dark and damp, but Daisuke led them through the blackness without problem, putting them out in a house several hundred paces away from the palace walls. Kiyoshi had been disturbed by the presence of life in the house, but when they opened the door, he saw that Daisuke had recruited several of the king’s guard.

  Together, they put the king on a cart, covering him well. They left the house not long after, moving deeper into Haven, searching for a place to hide from the inevitable hunt.

  Chapter 22

  Asa was beginning to doubt her recent decisions. A moon ago the only thought she had held in her mind was finding Osamu and killing him. Now she was sitting in a cemetery with Masaki, who by all accounts was still the legitimate king of the Kingdom. Next to her was Kiyoshi, the man who at one time was considered the most influential blade in the Kingdom, and his right-hand man, the ever-competent Daisuke. If she spent any more time with this group, she’d lose sight of her true goal completely.

  Despite he
r misgivings, she remained. She wasn’t exactly sure why and she couldn’t rationalize her behavior, but for the moment, this seemed the right course of action. She would have her chance to kill Minori, and there was no harm in waiting. At least that was what she told herself.

  The cemetery had been Daisuke’s idea. Asa had to admit his plan was deviously brilliant. Cemeteries were sacred grounds, considered suitable only for funerals and family visitation. The three blades and escaped king were hiding in a shrine in the largest cemetery in Haven, far enough away that another blade would likely be unable to sense them. If nothing else, a few days would pass before blades and Shin’s soldiers even thought about the cemetery, and that gave the group enough time to act.

  Kiyoshi was just finishing another round of healing of Masaki. When he came back to himself, Asa couldn’t help but notice how much different he seemed. At one point Kiyoshi looked as though he was killing himself to save the king. Now he looked as though he was giving just enough to keep the king alive.

  Daisuke gave Kiyoshi a few moments to gather himself, but then pressed the question: “What comes next?”

  Kiyoshi didn’t answer right away, and Asa was tempted to repeat the question. But Daisuke simply sat, waiting for his old friend to reply. Asa tried to follow his example.

  When Kiyoshi spoke, Asa was surprised by the lack of certainty in his voice. When they had broken him out of the palace, Asa had imagined he would come out with all the answers. But he was a man no different than any other, and this was no easy situation they found themselves in.

  “I think our best hope is with the other two lords.”

  Daisuke’s face showed his hesitation, and Kiyoshi expanded his idea. “Shin lied about their support. Right now they are both imprisoned within their respective castles. I worry that if Shin’s plan is allowed to run its course, we will see war. The other families will never believe the forgeries sent to them. We’ll have Isamu’s and Juro’s forces at the gates within days. We need to free the lords to stop their families from fighting, but to do that, we need to get them out of the city.”

  Asa raised her hand, an action that felt incredibly childish. “I’m sorry, but no one seems to be asking the most obvious question. There’s three of us by my count, and only two of us are nightblades. How exactly are we supposed to break out the two most heavily guarded men in the city? Daisuke is excellent, but you know Minori’s going to have blades in addition to Shin’s guards. Even the two of us working together would have a hard time, if it’s even possible at all.”

  A look passed between Daisuke and Kiyoshi. Asa wished she had some clue as to what had happened between those two to form such a strong relationship. Daisuke answered her question.

  “It’s worse than that. If we’re going to break them out, we’re going to have to do it at the same time.”

  Asa’s mouth must have been hanging open, because Kiyoshi chuckled at her reaction. He took over Daisuke’s explanation.

  “The moment we break one of the lords out, Minori will understand what happened. In fact, he’s probably already expecting an attempt, because it’s the only reasonable action I can take and Minori understands as much. But if we give him time to react, he’ll throw even more forces in our way. If we’re going to free the lords, their escape needs to occur at the same time.”

  Asa stared in disbelief. “So each of us has to rescue a lord all on our own?”

  “Yes.”

  Asa was glad she was already sitting. If she hadn’t been, she would have fallen over. She had always thought Kiyoshi had an edge of craziness to him, but she had never been so certain he had lost his mind.

  “There’s no way we can pull that off.”

  “Oh, I wouldn’t be so sure.”

  Daisuke looked over at Asa. “If Kiyoshi wants to do something, he usually has a plan. We may not like it, but his strategy will be our best option. The best part of working for him is listening to his plans.”

  Asa looked back and forth at the two men, having a hard time believing they were seriously contemplating this. “Do you know about other secret passages?”

  Kiyoshi shook his head. “I wouldn’t be surprised if they exist, but if they do, I don’t know where they are. Also, I’m sure Shin’s men are on the lookout. I expect Minori has blades all over, trying to flush out any sense-gifted individuals they can.”

  Asa gave up. “Fine. Just tell me what the plan is.”

  It was the middle of the day, and Asa couldn’t believe she was going through with this. She had always considered herself a rational person. Even when she discovered she was sense-gifted, she had looked at the legends of the blades with a healthy dose of skepticism. They made for great stories, sure, but every time she listened to them, she couldn’t help but think they were concocted. Those stories could never happen in real life.

  However, if Kiyoshi’s plan worked, she might have to revise her thoughts. On the one hand, the plan was easy to grasp. The best ones always were. Complexity led to failure, in her own opinion, and this one was almost so simple as to be silly. But if it worked and the story got out, it would become a legend in its own time, although Asa wasn’t sure she wanted to have her name mentioned.

  She took a short glance up into the sky. There wasn’t much point in delaying. Asa took a deep breath to prepare herself and immediately regretted it.

  Sitting in front of her was a cart halfway filled with night soil, the waste from humans across town. In the Kingdom, nothing could go to waste, and that included waste. The soil was a valuable and potent fertilizer, and more to the point, few people paid any attention to the farmers who traveled around town collecting it for their fields.

  To make her even more unrecognizable, she had smeared some of the goods over her face and the clothing she had found for the purpose of her disguise. So long as she breathed through her mouth, the stench wasn’t much of a problem, but if she ever made the mistake of breathing through her nose, she paid the price. That stench was exactly what Kiyoshi was counting on. Her only relief was that somewhere in the city, Daisuke was enduring the same indignities.

  She grabbed the handles on the cart and continued toward Lord Juro’s castle. It had been decided that of the two lords, Juro would be the more lightly guarded. Isamu was lord of the lands Haven sat on, and he had far more troops in the area than his counterpart. Asa had wanted to debate the point, but Daisuke was a far superior blade and clearly should take the more difficult rescue.

  Asa approached the servants’ gate at Juro’s castle. It was a much smaller gate and guarded by only two people. One of them, of course, was a nightblade. Asa recognized the robes immediately. She forced herself to move at a casual pace. Their escape plan was all misdirection and a bit of violence. As Asa walked toward the gate, she struggled against her impulse to use the sense. As a nightblade, she was used to using the gift, particularly in situations that felt stressful. But if she used the sense at all, any other blade would notice it, and no disguise in the world could hide her.

  So, she felt blind as she approached the gate, but there was no other way. The gate itself was nothing special, just an extremely thick block of wood that would effectively seal the entrance in case of emergency. Asa was relieved to see that the gate was open and hosted a small amount of traffic. A castle was hard to run, even if you were running it as a prison.

  One of Kiyoshi’s assumptions had been that Shin would try to allow the castles to run as normally as possible. While the lords would be well guarded, Shin’s guards would do everything they could to pretend life was normal. Ultimately, Shin getting the lords on his side would be far preferable to war.

  Asa didn’t know how Kiyoshi planned to get the lords out of the city, but there was only one task to worry about at a time. She slowed and came to a stop as she got to the gate. Taking a cue from having seen Daisuke in action, Asa looked around, trying to gather all the information she could. There wasn’t too much to see. The gate was guarded by one of Shin’s men and one blade. There w
ere guards on the walls, making circuits, keeping a wary eye on the surroundings outside.

  That was one piece of good news. For Kiyoshi’s plan to work, there couldn’t be too many people paying too much attention to what was going on inside the castle walls. So far, everything seemed good for her to go.

  Asa looked from the guard to the nightblade, trying to figure out which one was in charge.

  The guard was trying his best to be professional, but the stench of Asa’s cart was intensely foul. He didn’t ask any questions. There was only one reason Asa would be there, and although he made a cursory inspection of the cart, he didn’t bother getting too close. He also didn’t look too closely at Asa. Kiyoshi had been entirely correct. Smear a little waste on yourself, and you become invisible. The nightblade didn’t even bother with an inspection. He simply took a few steps away. When the guard looked at his fellow sentry, the blade nodded. He didn’t want anything to do with Asa or her goods.

  Asa felt offended. She was only pretending to play the role, but to see the nightblade so dismissive of a citizen going about her work was painful to see. Did they consider themselves to be that much better than others?

  Asa’s mind wandered only for a moment. She needed to stay focused. The guard waved her through, and without a word, she was inside the castle.

  Next on her list of actions was to find the outhouse for Juro’s grounds. According to Kiyoshi and his information, Juro’s castle held two different outhouses. One was for servants, and the other was for the residents and guests of the castle. Fortunately, they were next to each other.

  The next part of the plan was outside of her control and put her at the most risk. Asa needed to wait for Juro to use the restroom, and it needed to happen after the guards changed. The latter part of the problem wasn’t too difficult. Asa had timed her entry to come just before the guards rotated their position. The other part was much harder. Kiyoshi had tried to send a message to the lords, but there was no way to know if the dispatch had been passed on. They couldn’t afford to wait.