by Ryan Kirk
Tanak wondered why Renzo had come to him. The nightblade’s respect for Akira and Sen was apparent, but he was here with Tanak. Tanak knew Renzo was trying to keep him from underestimating his opponents, but when he spoke of the other lords he held a hint of reverence in his voice that never seemed to be present when he spoke to Tanak.
But Renzo had never led him astray, and his plans aligned with Tanak’s. Tanak wasn’t foolish enough to trust blindly, but he held Renzo in respect.
“What do you think Akira will do?”
Renzo shook his head. “I do not know. The question boils down to his decision about the Three Sisters. Certainly he will be concerned about the lack of an attack this spring. He won’t know what to do. If he holds back an army or two to defend the pass you should be able to defeat him. He has a strong army, but not strong enough to fight a war on two fronts. Your victory is assured.”
Tanak nodded his agreement. There were many pieces in motion. There was no telling how Akira would react. The other wild card was Sen. Tanak hadn’t dared approach him with his plan. Sen was known for his caution, but if Akira was threatened on two fronts, it might be too much of an opportunity for even Sen to pass up. Additionally, Sen must know that if Tanak was successful, the Western Kingdom would be too strong for the Northern Kingdom to resist. Tanak suspected Sen would sit and wait to see how events unfolded.
Tanak knew one fact for sure. The Three Kingdoms would never be the same. They had existed in an uneasy truce for hundreds of cycles, but change was coming, and Tanak was leading it.
Tanak dismissed Renzo and collapsed onto his bed with a smile on his face. Soon, he would be king. A title the Three Kingdoms hadn’t seen for a thousand cycles. And it all started with destroying Akira’s kingdom.
4
The sun rose on a beautiful morning. The black of evening gave way to the oranges of the burning sun, dissipating the fog that hung like a blanket over the ground. Ryuu was already up, meditating on the shadow he had encountered almost a half-moon ago. Since that night they had been vigilant, but the shadow hadn’t returned. The fact that they hadn’t sensed anyone again was more troublesome to him than the initial contact. Was their opponent evading their sense, or had he disappeared like the morning fog? Ryuu was convinced the shadow had been tracking him, but why had he come, and why had he disappeared? Having an enemy in front of you was one thing. A mystery was another.
Moriko had sensed the person as well, but she didn’t have any answers either.
Ryuu stood up from his meditation. There weren’t any answers for him. He had imagined thousands of possibilities, but none of them seemed more realistic or probable than any other. For all the strength he possessed, he was still frustrated by what he didn’t know. There were days, many days, where he wished Shigeru was still alive. There was still so much more to learn. His adopted father had been taken from him too early. Even now he couldn’t control all his abilities.
Ryuu walked back to the hut where Moriko was up and busy. He frowned. The morning was early yet. She usually slept for another watch or two. He slid the door open to reveal Moriko packing a small sack with some food. She looked up at him and tossed him a fishing spear. “It’s a beautiful day,” she said, “and it’s about time we got out of the hut for a while.”
Ryuu grinned. It sounded perfect. Somehow she always knew what he needed. Her understanding of him was deep. Getting out would distract him from the problems lingering in his mind and keep him focused on the present.
They set off for the stream that ran near the hut. Ryuu held the spear loosely in his hand. Fishing with the sense didn’t seem fair. When he focused he knew not just where the fish was, but where it would be. In one attempt he caught a trout as long as his forearm. It would feed both of them. He gave a quick thanks to the fish as it joined the Great Cycle, nourishing them just as one day they would nourish the planet with their own bodies. Ryuu packed the fish in the sack and they kept hiking.
He let Moriko take the lead. In the time they had spent here she had learned the woods just as well as he knew them, if not better. She had a natural affinity for the forest and was never happier than when she was walking peacefully among the trees. Their pace was slow, and Ryuu felt the tension lift from his shoulders. He opened up his sense and everything pressed more sharply against his mind. The bird calls rang crisply through the cool late morning. Ryuu smiled. In another life this was how he had trained with Shigeru. The woods were teeming with life, and for those gifted with the sense it was almost too much to take in. Ryuu couldn’t extend his senses too far, but what he could sense was beautiful.
Ryuu had become so lost in thought he almost ran into Moriko as she slowed to a stop. She naturally suppressed her aura. Most days it wasn’t too much trouble. Ryuu was so attuned to her it was almost impossible for her to hide from him. But lost in thought, open to all the life in the woods, he had lost her for a few moments. He laughed at his awkwardness.
Moriko brought them to a small, secluded clearing where the trees opened up, allowing a soft bed of grass to grow in the sunlight. Ryuu lay down, stretching out as far as he could. Without a word Moriko lay down next to him on her side, her head on his outstretched arm. They lay like that for a while, and Ryuu drifted in and out of sleep. He didn’t care. Life was perfect.
The afternoon wore on, and eventually Ryuu figured they should get their meal started. They had been here before and had cleared a small space for a fire. Ryuu went into the woods and collected fallen wood. He returned to the clearing where Moriko arranged and lit a fire. Moriko had been teaching herself how to cook over the past two cycles and had gotten better. Ryuu was still more experienced, but he knew better than to complain when someone cooked him food. She rubbed herbs on the fish and let it roast over the fire. When it came off it was perfect, and both of them dug eagerly into their food.
After dinner they sat and talked, and after their food had settled, they trained for a while. They wore their steel, but they hadn’t brought wooden swords to practice with, so it was all hand-to-hand combat.
As they trained, Ryuu couldn’t help but think about how much stronger Moriko had become. When they first met, Moriko had been near death. She had healed, but her combat training was nowhere near as complete as Ryuu’s had been. She was a fast learner, faster perhaps than him. As they traded blows, Ryuu realized he only had the slimmest of edges on her.
She committed to a strike she shouldn’t have, putting too much force into a blow that never landed. Ryuu was behind her and had her in a hold she couldn’t break or throw. He laughed, a combat high washing over him, and he kissed her on the neck. Moriko moaned softly with pleasure. She turned around as he loosened his grasp and her lips met his eagerly. With a quick motion, Ryuu disrobed her and admired her beauty. Her dark hair seemed to glimmer in the early evening sunlight. He ran his hands over the scars that covered her body, marveling both at her mental and physical strength.
Then his robes were off and they were in the grass. Moriko was a quiet and reserved woman, but her passions came out when they lay together. She pushed him down and let herself down on top of him. Ryuu opened up his sense and was lost as the two of them joined together as one.
Afterward they sat in the clearing watching the sun go down below the trees. They used their robes as blankets as it got cooler. Ryuu was moments away from drifting into peaceful oblivion when he felt it again. He cursed. The shadow was back.
Ryuu was on his feet in a moment, Moriko following his lead a heartbeat behind. He wrapped his robe around him and checked the sword at his hip. There was no point in trying to run. If Ryuu was right, the shadow could sense them already. He would stand and fight.
The shadow reached the edge of the clearing and stopped. Ryuu waited patiently, standing his ground. He had all night, and he could sense the shadow’s presence high in the trees overlooking the clearing. Ryuu and Moriko were in the most defensible position around. He held his stance, still as the night air.
Ryuu w
asn’t expecting the shadow to split in two. He doubted his senses for a moment, but there was no time for doubt. Where there had been one shadow, now there were two, moving in opposite directions around the clearing. Ryuu turned to face one as Moriko tracked the other, turning them back to back.
Ryuu barely had time to wonder. His sense had always been precise. But somehow, he struggled to sense these shadows.
The shadows didn’t give him time to puzzle out the solution. They broke from the trees simultaneously, one shadow moving straight for Moriko, the other moving for Ryuu. Within a few paces he could see the outline of a shadow and the glint of a blade in the starlight, but he couldn’t make out the distinct form of a human. It had the approximate dimensions of a man, but its edges were blurry. There was nothing his mind could process as an arm or a leg. He shook his head, trying to clear the mist from his vision. He squinted and nothing changed.
There was a glint as a thin blade struck out from the amorphous attacker. Ryuu dove out of the way, seeing it at the last moment. He rolled to his feet, his sword drawn. He focused on his sense, pushing aside the use of his vision. The shift shocked his mind.
His assailant didn’t turn to follow him. By diving out of the way, Ryuu had left Moriko’s back undefended. His opponent saw the opening and was going for it. Ryuu opened his mouth to scream a warning, but he knew it was too late. She couldn’t react in time, and there was no way he could recover the ground quickly enough to prevent a killing blow. His stomach sank with the knowledge Moriko would die, just like Takako.
The world snapped, and Ryuu launched himself at his original assailant. Everything was in focus. Moriko was having the same trouble Ryuu had, barely able to deflect her own assailant’s blade away from a killing strike. The thin blade was cutting through her arm the moment Ryuu returned to the fight.
It didn’t seem possible, but Ryuu made it just in time. He reached his own blade out to flick away the blade of his assailant, whose position in space had become as clear as day. But Ryuu was caught off guard again. His opponent sensed his attack and shifted. Ryuu had over-committed in his desperation, and the thin blade flicked at him as he sailed in front of his attacker. He felt the blade slice cleanly through his thigh, although he felt no pain. He analyzed his wound dispassionately as he came to a stop. The cut had been close to his artery. If his opponent had been a moment faster Ryuu would be bleeding to death.
This time his assailant paid full attention to him. The thin blade sliced through the air with incredible speed. His attacker’s blade was a little shorter and so thin. It moved faster than Ryuu could bring his blade to bear. But every move was clear to Ryuu. With his reality snapped, he blocked or parried every strike, but he couldn’t find an opening to make a counterattack. His assailant was faster even than Orochi had been.
There was a slight pause and Ryuu caught a quick breath. His opponent seemed uncertain, deciding upon his next moves. They were fighting to a draw. Ryuu remained calm. If he lost his focus, he knew he wouldn’t be a match for the stranger. His attacker strode forward, and Ryuu swore his attacker grew additional arms and blades. He had never seen attacks come so fast.
Panicked, Ryuu stepped backwards, desperately blocking each strike. Finally he pushed his attacker back a pace or two, giving him just a moment to think. Ryuu redoubled his focus, and the battle resumed. Ryuu wanted to sense how Moriko was doing, but he didn’t have a moment to spare. He feared the worst. He was fighting at the best of his ability to a draw. Moriko would be in trouble.
Ryuu lost track of how long their combat lasted. It seemed like forever, but he knew his sense of time when he snapped wasn’t the same. His opponent was too fast and Ryuu couldn’t get inside his defenses. But Ryuu was quick enough not to be killed either. They passed each other over and over again, moving as fast as thought.
It was just a sliver of a moment, but Ryuu noticed it. His attacker had become more and more violent, striking with increased strength. Ryuu deflected one strike, and it left the shadow off balance. Ryuu seized the moment and drove forward. His attacker blocked the strike, but Ryuu pushed his weight forward, pushing the shadow further off balance. In the moment his assailant tried to regain his balance, Ryuu struck with incredible speed, cutting several of his major blood vessels. His attacker dropped, but Ryuu didn’t even pause.
Ryuu sprinted towards Moriko. She was on the defensive and Ryuu could tell she had been cut several times. It was only a matter of time before she made a fatal mistake. Ryuu broke in on the fight, and as soon as he arrived Moriko attacked with the last of her strength. It was decided, but still it took time. If it was possible, Moriko’s opponent was even stronger and faster than Ryuu’s had been. But with the two remaining nightblades in the Three Kingdoms fighting together, the tide turned. Together they swung, sliced and stabbed until Moriko’s assailant fell bloody to the ground. The moment he did, Ryuu sensed the danger behind him.
He turned as the throwing knife came flying at his neck. He caught it with the side of his blade and whipped it away as his original attacker collapsed. Ryuu realized he must have used the very last of his strength to make the throw.
There was a moment of silence as Ryuu and Moriko surveyed the ground around them. Ryuu threw out his sense, but there were no more shadows. They were alone again in the clearing. Ryuu turned to Moriko just as she collapsed to the ground, blood all around her.
Ryuu was exhausted. He had yet to sleep. Too much was at stake. His first priority had been to care for Moriko. He bandaged all her cuts as well as he could with what they had with them out in the clearing. It wasn’t much, but it was enough to put pressure on her deepest cuts. He hesitated but decided to take a few moments to examine the men they had killed.
There had been much to learn. The first and most obvious fact was that they weren’t from the Three Kingdoms. They were taller and more muscular than any man he had ever encountered, even taller than Orochi had been, and their skin was darker than his own. Ryuu was surprised they had been so fast and agile. From the sheer size of them he wouldn’t have guessed it would be possible.
Ryuu stripped their bodies of anything he found interesting. He took one of their blades and samples of their clothing and some of the jewelry they adorned themselves with. Anything that could be used to identify them. Most interesting were their cloaks. Ryuu had never seen cloaks like these before, but he understood their purpose. They looked like they had been torn into tatters, but Ryuu realized the strips of cloth, fur and hide had been sewn together in a deliberate pattern. The tatters prevented opponents from seeing where strikes would come from. It was why he had struggled to distinguish their movements by sight. The cloaks had a tendency to billow and move haphazardly. It was almost impossible to guess where a strike would originate. Ryuu took one. It could be useful.
With loot in hand and Moriko draped carefully over his shoulder, Ryuu walked back to their hut. Combat had been exhausting enough. Every step he took made the cut on his thigh scream in pain. As the sun began to peek over the horizon, Ryuu’s mind was ordering his body to stop, to take a break. His legs, arms and back were screaming at him, and Ryuu cursed the fact they had gone so far on their hike. But fear for Moriko's life kept him going. It wasn't long before he was covered in her blood, and he had to keep repositioning her so she wouldn't slide off his increasingly slick shoulders.
When they arrived at the hut, Ryuu stripped her of all her clothes. He tightly wrapped fresh bandages around her and made her drink water, almost forcing it down her throat. They had a poultice that he rubbed into her deeper cuts. Then came the waiting, the hardest part of all. He sat, nervous and anxious, by her side, unwilling to move in case he was needed. He considered visiting the bodies once again in the daylight, but he didn't dare leave Moriko.
It was evening when she finally opened her eyes. Ryuu made her drink more water and kept her from trying to sit up. She was far too weak, and her cuts hadn't closed yet. It was an effort for her to even speak. Ryuu made stew and served h
er the broth. Then she was asleep again, having said only a few words. Ryuu ate the rest of the stew and struggled against sleep.
In the middle of the night he gave in to exhaustion. He left his senses open, but nothing disturbed their slumber. Ryuu awoke in the morning refreshed, ready for the day. Moriko awoke as well, and Ryuu was excited to see she seemed to be in better condition than the day before. Together, they changed her bandages, Moriko grimacing as they came off caked in blood. She didn’t complain, though. Ryuu examined each of her cuts and was grateful to see they all looked clean. He had been most worried about infection.
They spoke about what had happened. Moriko spoke softly, as if the mention of their attackers might bring them back. "Who were they?"
Ryuu shook his head. "I don't know. They were strong." He paused. "I don't think they were from the Three Kingdoms. They didn't look like anyone I've ever met."
Moriko's dark eyes were curious. "How can that be? Why would anyone outside of the Three Kingdoms want to kill us?"
Ryuu wished he knew the answer to that question. "There are many things I would like to know. Here, look at this."
Ryuu held the sword he had taken in front of Moriko and slowly turned it. He didn't want her trying to sit up and grab it for fear that her wounds might reopen.
The sword was light, but very strong. The craftsmanship and the technique used to forge it had to be different than any practiced in the Three Kingdoms. Most of the blade had been painted black, another reason Ryuu had a hard time seeing it in battle. It was a straight blade, a hand's width shorter than Ryuu's own sword, not curved at all.
"Have you ever seen anything like this?" Moriko had been raised in the monasteries, so in some ways her education was better than Ryuu's.
