Bridge of Swords

by Duncan Lay

  Then a table lifted up and flew into the three nearest guards, sending them flying.

  ‘That’s it, Sendatsu, use magic on them as well!’ Sumiko cried.

  Sendatsu paused for a moment, wondering what she was going on about — then realised she was going to help him without seeming to.

  While all eyes focused on Sendatsu he pointed at Asami. She closed her eyes for a heartbeat and a couch lifted up and swept away the pair holding her arms. The guards fell back at the magical assault, thinking it came from Sendatsu when he had nothing to do with it, then Sendatsu waded forwards, sword already moving.

  He was not thinking about his children, he was not thinking about his father; his mind was clear, thinking only of the next threat. He had learned to lose himself in the blade after many hard lessons at his father’s hand.

  His speed was dazzling and, although the Council Guards were chosen for their ability and strength, they could not match him. He used the double-strike style on the first one, tearing great wounds in his chest and belly, then switched to the floating cloud to despatch a second. The floor was sticky with blood, littered with all sorts of wooden toys and rubbish, but he stepped forwards, always in balance, blocked a pair of attackers, got them tangled up in each other’s way and then went under a wild blow, rolling forwards and using the dragon-tail cut to take off a leg below the knee, yet still had the time to parry, regain his feet and take an arm with a massive tiger-claw stroke.

  Around him, the air filled with furniture and flying guards as Sumiko and Asami wielded their magic, while pretending to cower against a wall. A last guard made a break for the door but Mai’s wooden horse flew across the room and struck him in the head, sending him tumbling limply to the floor.

  ‘Is that all?’ Sendatsu was covered in blood, none of it his own.

  They looked around wildly, at the screaming wounded, the silent dead and the merely unconscious.

  ‘Hanto! Where is he?’ Asami cried.

  ‘And the scroll — where is it?’ Sumiko shouted.

  Sendatsu looked around quickly, could see neither — and realised Hanto must have taken it and run out the back. The knowledge of what he had just done slammed into him and he almost fell to the ground and vomited. What had he been thinking? He had not been thinking — thanks to his father’s training he had reacted instinctively, dealing with every threat and offering no mercy. All his life he had trained — never had he drawn his sword for real. Now he had used it, he was horrified by what he had done. Horrified … and yet exultant. He had been unstoppable, triumphant! Part of him wanted to roar that to the skies. But the greater part was shocked and afraid. Now not even his father might be able to get him out of this … and then he remembered Hanto’s words about his orders and wondered what his father had planned. His father already thought him a disappointment. Had he intended to remove Sendatsu and focus his attention on Cheijun?

  The room stank of blood and dead men’s bowels — now Sendatsu could also smell fear. His own.

  ‘Come on, we have to get out of here, before they send more,’ Asami cried.

  ‘Hanto — should we not chase him? He only has one arm he can use …’

  The sound of a galloping horse in the street outside told them it was too late.

  ‘Go to your house. Take Sendatsu, wait for my instructions. We can still find a way out of this,’ Sumiko ordered.

  ‘But surely they will come for us there …’ Asami began.

  ‘I should go to my father, blame it all on Hanto, say he exceeded his orders and sent his men to attack me, forcing me to defend myself,’ Sendatsu interrupted.

  Sumiko bent over and picked up Hanto’s parchment, dropped when Sendatsu had broken his arm.

  ‘It may be too late for that,’ she said as she scanned it.

  ‘Why? What does it say?’ They hurried to her side.

  ‘Bring me the scroll. Let nothing stop you. Use whatever force necessary,’ Sumiko read sadly. ‘I don’t think your father will believe Hanto overstepped his orders.’

  ‘I did not mean this to happen,’ Sendatsu mumbled, trying not to look at the elves bleeding to death where his children had been playing only a few turns of the hourglass ago. ‘What am I going to do? How can I explain this? To kill a Council Guard is a sentence of death!’ he groaned.

  ‘You should clean up while we think,’ Asami suggested.

  Sendatsu hurriedly washed, his mind in a whirl, and changed, naturally strapping on his sword. After a moment he picked up his bow and a bag of arrows, just in case. He splashed water on his face, forced himself to think of a way out of this.

  ‘I have decided what to do,’ he announced as he strode back into the room. ‘I shall throw myself on my father’s mercy, do whatever he wants, even if it means spending my days threatening fishermen and farmers, bullying officials to bring him more power and wealth …’

  ‘You can’t do that,’ Asami said firmly. ‘It would destroy you.’

  ‘It is the only way,’ he insisted, then realised they were alone. ‘Where is Sumiko?’

  ‘She had to leave — it was too risky for her to be seen with you. The Magic-weavers must be protected. Come, we have to get you away from here. They will be back here any time. We should go to my house.’

  ‘Why have you not joined Sumiko and left?’

  ‘Because there are some things that are more important.’ She grabbed his arm and hustled him out of the door and down to the next corner.

  ‘I need to send a message to my father,’ he began, but she pulled him into a doorway.

  ‘That’ll have to wait — look!’

  He peered out to see a force of Border Patrol and Council Guards galloping towards his villa — swords in hands.

  ‘I don’t think they will listen to reason. We have to get away. Sumiko will help us. She told me she has a plan. We’ll get to my house and wait for her instructions.’

  ‘But I thought you said they’d look for me there?’

  ‘We must trust my sensei. Now hurry, for Aroaril’s sake!’

  They raced through the streets, keeping to the shadows and forced to dodge the armed elves riding around. Anyone the guards saw was immediately questioned and even beaten.

  ‘They look like they are ready to strike first and ask questions afterwards,’ Asami muttered as they crept behind bushes, watching a trio of guards screaming at a young elf.

  Sendatsu said nothing but there was still one ray of hope among the fear. His father could sort out anything. He just had to pay his father’s price.

  Finally they reached Asami’s house.

  ‘Where is Gaibun?’

  ‘He has probably been summoned, along with other Border Patrol.’ Asami opened the door and waved him inside.

  ‘Curse it! He would be the best one to take a message to my father. That is the only way out of this mess,’ Sendatsu decided.

  ‘Well, sit down and write your message, while I try and find Gaibun.’

  Sendatsu grabbed parchment and pen but found time to smile at her.

  ‘Asami, thank you. I can’t tell you how much it means to have you here at this time.’

  ‘I thought you would be angry with me — if I had not brought Sumiko to your house then none of this would have happened.’ She smiled.

  Sendatsu sighed. ‘The fault was not yours. I agreed to give you the scroll if my father refused to act on it. And then my father gave Hanto outrageous orders — and he exceeded even those. There are many people to blame but you are not one of them.’

  For a moment it looked as though she would say something more, then she ducked out of Gaibun’s office, leaving Sendatsu to stare at the blank parchment and wonder what he could say to his father. It was hard to talk to him at the best of times — and this was certainly not the best of times.

  Then Asami burst back through the door.

  ‘Gaibun is here!’

  ‘I haven’t written my message yet …’

  ‘He’s at the head of a hundred soldi
ers — including that Hanto!’

  Sendatsu surged to his feet but before he could reach her side, someone beat on the front door.

  ‘Sendatsu! It is Gaibun! Open up!’

  Sendatsu’s childhood friend, and Asami’s husband, was a tall elf with a burning gaze and a long moustache. Like Sendatsu, he had powerful arms and chest, a legacy of so much work with the bow but, with his extra height, he seemed to carry it better. Normally he was smiling but his face was grim, his eyes sad as he embraced Sendatsu.

  ‘My friend, I told them I was coming to persuade you to surrender without more bloodshed. But I am here to tell you to flee,’ he said urgently.

  ‘Flee? What do you mean?’

  ‘Your father received your message …’

  ‘I haven’t sent him my message yet!’

  Gaibun looked taken aback. ‘He received something that drove him mad. I have never seen him like that. He was raving that you threatened not just him but Dokuzen when you declared you would reveal your secrets if taken to trial.’

  ‘What?’ Sendatsu spat. The right to trial was only available to elves of noble birth, of course. The lower classes had to accept whatever justice the Council was prepared to give. But elves such as Sendatsu could have their case heard before the full Council, with anyone able to go along to watch.

  ‘Apparently you have threatened to bring down the Council and destroy Dokuzen with some great secret if you are taken to trial,’ Gaibun insisted.

  ‘I would never say that!’

  ‘Well, your father believes you did. And the fact you slaughtered a squad of Council Guards is hardly in your favour. Everyone is screaming for your head and your father has signed orders saying you are to be killed.’

  ‘No! That cannot be true!’

  ‘I have seen it myself. Hanto has been telling everyone how you murdered his men with sword and magic — that you have gone mad and will not stop until every last elf is dead.’

  ‘Gaibun, I need you to take a message to my father, a real message, which will explain everything,’ Sendatsu said urgently.

  Gaibun reached out and grasped his shoulder. ‘Of course I would do that for you, my friend — but I fear it will do nothing. Words will not stop the desire for your head. You need to flee somewhere, let all this die down and then perhaps you can try again.’

  ‘Flee? Where? I don’t know anyone outside Dokuzen! Should I try and hide in some fishing shack up north? I would stand out like a fire in the night. Besides, if I run, they think me guilty. Take a message to my father. That is the only way out of this mess.’

  ‘Of course, brother. I will do anything — but I warn you to be ready to flee. Asami can send you somewhere north, somewhere safe. I ordered my warriors to wait for my return but your father could get here at any moment and send them swarming over the walls.’

  Sendatsu grabbed quill and ink and wrote feverishly, gabbling out a declaration of innocence, a plea to solve this without further bloodshed and a promise to do whatever necessary to make amends.

  ‘I shall take this to your father. But be prepared for warriors to attack if I come out without you,’ Gaibun warned.

  ‘I will take that chance. It is the best one …’

  A noise outside the room made them all turn, made Sendatsu reach for his sword — but it was not a Council Guard.

  ‘No, there is another choice,’ Sumiko announced as she walked in.

  ‘Sensei — how did you get here?’ Asami gasped.

  ‘I opened a gateway through the oak tree in your garden. I have told you, many times, to put a ward of warning around it,’ the Magic-weaver said crisply. ‘Sendatsu, you cannot negotiate from weakness. Go out there and you will be lucky to escape with your life. The best you can hope for is to lose your children to your father.’

  ‘I will not let that happen!’

  ‘You have no choice. Your father will do whatever he wants. But there is a better way. The knowledge in that scroll terrifies him, as it will all of the Council. Use that knowledge to get what you want.’

  ‘But I don’t have the scroll — Hanto took it!’ Sendatsu protested.

  ‘Yes, but we don’t need the scroll. The knowledge within it is just lying out there, ready to be picked up.’

  ‘What?’ Sendatsu’s head was spinning at this.

  ‘The human world. Out there is all you need. The truth about why the elves sealed themselves away into Dokuzen — everything. Get the living proof of what is in that scroll and I swear the Magic-weavers will protect you and give you back the peaceful life with your children that you want,’ Sumiko said with a smile.

  ‘Go into the human world? Are you mad?’ Sendatsu goggled at her. ‘No elf has been through the barrier in three centuries! It would kill me!’

  ‘No — it is but a shadow of what it was. An elf strong in magic can get through it now. Asami’s studies have proved that.’

  Sendatsu knew it was possible to travel great distances, using oak trees, but he had no idea how, nor anything like the magical ability necessary. ‘I don’t have the power!’

  ‘No, but Asami does. She can send you through,’ Sumiko said complacently.

  ‘I can? Are you sure it is safe, sensei? Should we not try it on an animal or something first?’

  ‘I have already done so. It is perfectly safe. And it need not be for long. The alternative is either to flee north into the fishing villages of the coast, or fight here and die.’

  ‘No,’ Sendatsu declared. ‘Gaibun, take that message to my father. That is still the best way …’

  ‘I think you need to flee. Sumiko may be right. Perhaps the human world is the best place for you,’ Gaibun offered.

  ‘Please — the message?’ Sendatsu pleaded.

  Gaibun nodded, embraced Sendatsu one more time. ‘If you do go, then know both Asami and I will be doing everything we can to help you get back home, my brother,’ he whispered.

  Sendatsu hugged him back, feeling tears prick his eyes at the thought of having such a good friend. Gaibun left, with a nod to Asami, the first time either had acknowledged each other.

  ‘Put your trust in the Magic-weavers. Get us the evidence we need to show the Council is lying to the people and can no longer be trusted to protect Dokuzen, and everything will go back to the way it was,’ Sumiko promised.

  Sendatsu took Asami’s arm and guided her out into the garden.

  ‘What do you think?’ he asked softly.

  Asami looked torn. ‘I do not love Gaibun but I trust his words. If he says your message will not stop those guards outside, then it must be true. But to go into the human world … you’d have to find evidence the Magic-weavers can use to turn the people against the Council. You need to find humans who know what happened three hundred years ago, why the elves sealed themselves away.’

  ‘But, even then, can Sumiko overthrow the Council and give me my life back?’

  ‘Of course. If the people know the barrier is failing and the Council cannot stop it, naturally they will turn to the Magic-weavers to save them. And things will be different with Sumiko in charge. The Magic-weavers are sick of the way the Council rules Dokuzen for the benefit of the nobles, grinding the lower classes down. We would make a better Dokuzen, one where your skills and character are more important than your clan and family. I believe that with all my heart.’

  ‘Can I trust Sumiko to give me my life back?’ he insisted.

  ‘You can trust me,’ Asami promised. ‘Get what we need and I will get you back here, get your children and life back.’

  Sendatsu felt torn. Even if his father intervened and saved him, life would never be the same. He would be working for his father, doing everything he hated and missing his children. Jaken would use them against him every day. The thought was revolting. But to risk everything on going out into the human world … Sendatsu had never liked making decisions and his mind rebelled at the size of this one.

  Unthinking, he reached out and held Asami’s hand, just as he would hold Ma
i’s and Cheijun’s hands when they were upset or scared. The tension was too much to bear.

  ‘Where has Gaibun got to?’ he asked the question that was twisting his insides around.

  Then Gaibun burst into the garden, waving his arms. ‘Sendatsu! Run! They are coming!’ His bellow confirmed Sendatsu’s worst fears.

  It had barely finished echoing around the garden when the first of the guards began dropping over the walls, swords in hands.

  ‘Wait!’ Sendatsu cried, holding up his hands — but arrows flickered close to his head, forcing him to duck. There was nowhere out of here — he was surrounded.

  ‘Asami! Get him away!’ Sumiko called.

  ‘She’s right, you have no choice, you have to go!’ Asami cried, dragging him across to the oak tree in the centre of her garden.

  ‘But how do I get back?’

  ‘The moon. The tree you come out, return there at each phase of the moon and I shall open a gateway at midday and midnight.’ Asami grabbed the oaken staff that Sumiko had left against the tree, closed her eyes and thrust the staff deep into the trunk.

  ‘Is it safe? Are you through?’ Sendatsu worried.

  ‘I am through the barrier!’ she exclaimed, then opened her eyes. ‘It is even weaker than we thought. But you must hurry. Hold onto the staff until you are through.’

  Sendatsu could see the guards closing in and, although he did not want to go, did not know what else could be done.

  ‘Hold!’ Gaibun waved down the archers who had drawn their bows again. ‘My wife is there, he is holding her prisoner! Nobody loose an arrow!’

  ‘Help me get back. Look after my children,’ he pleaded.

  Asami reached up and kissed him, hard, oblivious to her husband just yards away. ‘Come back, for all of us,’ she whispered.

  An arrow flew then, just missing his head. Grabbing the staff, Sendatsu raced into the tree like a man running for his life — and Dokuzen vanished behind him.

  That was how he left Dokuzen. He did not know when he could return but, finally, his tears dried and he stood up. His children were lost to him but crying would not get them back. He knew what he had to do — find out if humans could do magic, discover what had really happened when the elves had withdrawn into Dokuzen. It was his only chance. He did not want to overthrow the Council but, if that was the price of getting them back, he would destroy his father and the other clan leaders and anyone who got in his way.