The Twilight War

by Simon Higgins

  Snowhawk’s mouth fell open. She pictured Groundspider dropping his bokken, clutching his chest. Now it all made sense. ‘How … how did you know it’s in me?’

  ‘I saw a flash of it during a childhood training exercise,’ Sensei recalled. ‘You became angry at a sparring partner, and there was a … subtle effect.’ She leaned closer, reading Snowhawk’s face. ‘Ah! I see … it’s happened since, hasn’t it? Just think, if we hone that skill in you, as only we can, who knows … you could be the new Kagero.’ She grinned slyly. ‘Though not even she can paralyse a foe in quite that way.’

  ‘I know nothing of this training.’ Snowhawk looked away. ‘You’re making it up.’

  Sensei grinned. ‘You know that I’m not. And why would you have heard about it? Glance Paralysis is such a fearsome skill we keep knowledge of it veiled, even from our own people. Only our leaders, trainers and the clan’s elite are aware of its existence.’ She sighed. ‘Just recently, our one remaining agent blessed with the ability … was slain.’

  ‘Oh, now I see,’ Snowhawk sneered. ‘I’m just the convenient replacement.’

  ‘Believe me, child,’ Sensei prodded Snowhawk in the arm, making her flinch. ‘There’s nothing convenient about you. Knowing you, I doubt you’ll even take the deal.’

  Snowhawk glanced at her sideways. ‘What happens if I don’t?’

  ‘Then before we punish you, we’ll make you divulge all you learned while part of the Grey Light Order. That way you can be useful to your real clan one last time.’

  ‘I’ll never cooperate. In any way!’ Snowhawk growled. ‘I won’t even consider your stupid deal! And as for what I know, do your worst, you’ll get nothing.’

  ‘Oh really?’ Sensei nodded her head towards the box back on the table. ‘My methods are subtle, elegant and effective. You also wouldn’t know about what we call “forced memory tapping”. It’s achieved with narcotic incense, acupuncture and a certain form of induced hypnosis that’s quite different from your own.’

  ‘Yeah, well, none of that stuff will work on me,’ Snowhawk said bravely. ‘I grew up surrounded by – and learning – Fuma mind tricks, remember?’

  Her nemesis yawned. ‘Which didn’t stop our sleeper code working. Bad news for you, girl: it won’t stop me prising open your memory, either. In a while, you’ll sing.’

  Fear tore through Snowhawk. Sensei seemed too confident to be wrong.

  ‘Just let me go!’ she said forcefully, trying not to sound desperate. ‘Let me buy my freedom from the clan, the way Kagero did. Give me a huge task, one that nobody else wants … a suicide mission! And if I pull it off, let me leave, let me have a new life.’

  Her interrogator stood. ‘Nothing like that will happen. Take the deal or pay for betraying the clan. Only with my help could you ever hope to rival Kagero-san. Could you slay a warrior like Kaiho Shundai of Edo? Strike grand bargains with princes – as she did? I think not. That dream, little hawk, is simply out of your league.’ Her eyes narrowed with scheming. ‘Unless you come to your senses … and choose to come home.’

  ‘Never! We’re done. I won’t turn or talk, so kill me now, like you did your top agent, Chikuma, for failing to slay Moonshadow on the White Nun’s mountain!’

  Sensei threw back her head and laughed. ‘Where are you getting these facts? By the gods, I hope what you’re going to tell me proves more accurate than that!’

  Snowhawk inclined her head. ‘Chikuma is alive?’

  ‘Yes! True, we generally kill those who betray or fail us, but Chikuma-san also has a rare, special gift as you know: the power to invade dreams. Rather than waste it, we exiled him, sent him to a foreign posting, where he must prove himself all over again in a harsh, alien land.’ She smiled menacingly. ‘But don’t you expect the same kind of pity!’

  Thinking fast, Snowhawk pulled a distressed face and readied her own shinobi power. ‘Look,’ she sighed, sounding overwhelmed. ‘If you show me mercy, I will tell you a Grey Light Order secret. Their biggest one.’ She peered around her interrogator. ‘But I don’t want your henchmen to hear me. Lean closer, so I can keep this to a whisper …’

  With a twinkle in her eyes, Sensei nodded once, then crouched down.

  Snowhawk drew a soft breath. The kunoichi leaned closer. Their eyes met.

  Yes! She was within range: unsuspecting, an over-confident fool and, any moment, a sleeping victim. Snowhawk’s stomach turned hot and her heart pounded as she loosed a bolt of invisible energy from her eyes. Enjoy my snare, she thought angrily.

  Sensei blinked, then her eyelids drooped. Snowhawk fired a second bolt of her unseen power. The kunoichi’s eyes almost closed. A third bolt! Head drooping, Sensei lolled forwards and sank into a deeper crouch, crumpled, asleep on the spot.

  Snowhawk scrambled to her feet, ready to take on the guards and escape.

  A muffled, mocking snigger froze her where she stood. Sensei raised her head, grinning and alert. Snowhawk gasped. She sagged back down to the chamber floor, falling against the wall as the heat in her stomach cooled. Her heart plunged into black misery.

  The grinning kunoichi stood again, shaking her head. ‘Young fool!’ she laughed lightly. ‘Think you could use your kunoichi hypnosis on me? I teach it!’ She loomed over Snowhawk with granite eyes. ‘Take my advice, girl. Abandon hope.’

  The cold air stinging his cheeks, Moonshadow watched Rikichi. Balancing on one leg at a time, the freelancer checked his lined tabi, then tied his ashiko over his sandals until each strip of iron and its row of blunt spikes neatly spanned the soles.

  ‘I’m ready.’ He nodded, pointing ahead. ‘Now none of us will slip on the lake. See there? That’s the corner we should cut across.’

  Moonshadow nodded. Sunset was close and they had to keep moving. It had taken a hard, uphill hike along thin, rocky paths to reach this point before nightfall. Of course, the toughest phase was still to come.

  After leaving their own horses with the wood cutter, the team had found hoof prints near the base of the first steep trail. ‘More Fuma cunning,’ Rikichi had said. ‘No wonder they had time to bury their chief back at that shrine. A waiting group of their cronies must have met them on the road with horses – to spirit your agent to Fumayama ahead of the rest. See here? These hoof marks, they didn’t even bother to conceal!’

  At the last sheltering outcrop of rock, Moonshadow and Groundspider had changed into their stealth suits in preparation for breaching the Fuma’s underground world. Rikichi wore his purple-blue night suit, and all three donned hoods, but left their lower faces without scarves so they could more easily hear each other speak. There was no wind, but the air at this altitude was itself freezing, stinging the nostrils with each inhalation. Moonshadow could feel his lips chapping already. At least his body was still warm and they were now prepared for their dash to the back door.

  Ahead, the mighty, jagged triangle that was the rear face of Fumayama filled the sky. A black-and-white monolith of rock and snow, its base was already ringed with cloud, which, according to Rikichi, usually grew thicker as the light gave out. Moonshadow peered at the point their guide had indicated.

  The frozen lake began some fifty paces away, and the corner they would snip was perhaps a hundred paces across. Low cloud hid the huge lake’s distant left bank and most of its centre. A corridor of clear air ran alongside the right bank, above a wide, gleaming finger of frozen water, tinged with blue. It stretched to the base of the mountain, to the edge of a small, snowy plateau. There, Rikichi promised, lay the Fuma base’s back door.

  ‘What a great opportunity.’ The freelance agent spoke fast. ‘Normally you can see the village from here, but the cloud’s hiding it right now.’ He turned quickly to Groundspider, his earnest eyes narrowed. ‘Which means they can’t see us, either.’

  Groundspider nodded sharply. ‘For the plateau, then. Before that cloud parts!’

  The ashiko instantly proved their worth, their spikes biting into the frozen ground and giving them speed and stabili
ty as the three hurried to the lake’s edge. They checked the cloud and, keeping their eyes on the plateau, moved cautiously onto the ice.

  The first third of the crossing went without incident, the lake’s surface barely squeaking under their feet. Then Groundspider ambled forward, taking the lead, his pace accelerating. Suddenly, the white-blue crust beneath his feet started crackling.

  A spiralling web of thin fissures appeared under the big shinobi’s ashiko, expanding like ripples on the surface of a pond. Everyone stopped. Groundspider looked down.

  ‘Move to the left, slowly, stepping lightly,’ Rikichi whispered. Groundspider did. ‘You never know exactly where the thin ice is,’ the guide murmured softly. ‘Don’t ever fall through. The water underneath is so cold you’ll freeze to death in minutes.’

  ‘Great, more good news,’ Groundspider whispered back as he tightened his long stride. ‘Say, why are we whispering?’

  Rikichi thumbed in the direction of the village, keeping his voice low. ‘We can’t see their huts, but that doesn’t mean they’re not close by. Look, I know a lot about these people. It’s my job. They send out small patrols to circle the mountain, usually three or five archers at a time. Thanks to the area’s landslides, fast-moving snowstorms and freak collapses of lake ice, they sometimes lose entire patrols.’

  ‘What’s this got to do with us?’ Groundspider said, forgetting to whisper.

  ‘Shh!’ Rikichi held a finger to his lips. Groundspider winced apologetically. ‘If we encounter a patrol, can take them by surprise and dispose of them, the villagers may think an accident of nature did it. Even if they do realise the truth, it could take them some time – and by then we can be in, out and gone. But not if they hear us first.’

  Moonshadow groaned. ‘They already have.’ He pointed. The others turned, following his gaze. Just off to the left of their intended path, the cloud in the centre of the lake had receded around a line of five bowmen. Two of them wore rice-straw cloaks, the others great jackets made from varying strips of fur: fox, bear and snow monkey.

  A tall, fur-clad hunter at the end of the line of men grunted, then patted the bow string that crossed his chest.

  ‘Oh no,’ Rikichi muttered. ‘That was an attack signal. Unsling your bows!’

  The line of peasant archers smoothly unslung their own bows as one, nocked their first arrow in perfect synchrony and drew.

  ‘Evade, evade!’ Groundspider barked as a volley of arrows whooshed into the air.

  Moonshadow, quiver in one hand, bow in the other, dived into a shoulder-roll across the ice, immediately sliding out of control and gliding much further than intended. He looked back as he dug in one ashiko and came to a jarring halt. The ice behind him crackled as three black arrows slammed into it, forming a near-perfect line in his wake. The crust around him was thick, so no cracks formed, but still he gasped with alarm. These archers were incredibly accurate!

  ‘To the right!’ Rikichi shouted, looking up from the arrow sticking between his feet. He brandished his bow. ‘Get out of their range, then reply with our bows!’

  ‘I like the sound of that.’ Groundspider scowled at the arrow that had landed a handspan from his foot. ‘Let’s go!’

  The three turned and dashed across the squeaking ice, Groundspider almost slipping several times as they ran for the visible bank of the lake. Clicks and crackles told Moonshadow that another wave of arrows had landed, nearly clipping their heels. These peasants were fast reloaders, too!

  ‘We have the advantage with our ashiko,’ Rikichi panted. ‘They use traditional reed snowshoes, so we’re faster, more agile on the ice.’

  As they neared the bank of the frozen lake, Moonshadow looked back. ‘Oi!’ He caught his comrade’s attention. ‘They’re approaching the spot where Groundspider cracked the ice!’

  ‘Shoot back then, now!’ Rikichi snapped, raising his bow, nocking an arrow. ‘Allow for the extra-heavy head, aim each side of them. Crack that thin ice wide open!’

  They formed a skirmish line. Each of the trio dropped to one knee to make themselves a smaller target. Taking careful aim, they let fly back at the hunters.

  Rikichi’s arrow landed a few paces to the right of the tall leader. Moonshadow cursed as both his arrow and Groundspider’s whistled past the foes, off into the distance.

  ‘I need a few tries to adjust,’ he grumbled. ‘The pull is misleading.’

  Rikichi’s tense words gave him no comfort. ‘Adjust fast! They’re firing again!’

  A wave of black arrows rose moaning into the air, fell, then slammed – in an almost perfect line – into the ice at their feet. They were out of range, but not by much.

  The hunters looked to their leader, who nodded for them to move forward.

  ‘Their minds are on us, not that ice,’ Groundspider said. ‘Quick, fire again!’

  The mission team launched their second volley. This time Rikichi felled one of the hunters. ‘Good,’ he chuckled. ‘That should put some real weight on their patch of ice!’

  Groundspider’s arrow slammed into the frozen crust ten paces from the nearest enemy. ‘I’m getting the hang of this bow,’ he announced. ‘Everyone, shoot again, quick!’

  Moonshadow’s second arrow, to his great delight, had also landed close. As he hastily nocked his third, an ominous cracking sound came from the stressed ice around the remaining hunters. Nonetheless, they stubbornly advanced.

  Obviously angry over the man he had just lost, the lead hunter motioned at the intruders, then growled at his men, urging them to destroy this enemy who was now back in range. The ice beneath him gave off a long crackle, then another. He ignored it.

  ‘Why aren’t they worried about the ice giving way?’ Groundspider said as he started to draw his bow. ‘I am!’

  At his side, Rikichi drew slowly. ‘Too confident.’ He took a breath, aimed and paused. ‘Grown over-familiar with their terrain, a big … mistake!’ He loosed his arrow.

  Moonshadow double-checked his aim this time, so he fired a second or two behind the others. He watched his arrow chase theirs closely in an arc above the ice. Then a different set of airborne blurs drew his attention, and he heard Rikichi grunt in dismay.

  The incoming black missiles hissed as they streaked past the mission team’s arrows.

  ‘Aw.’ Groundspider’s big shoulders sagged. Moonshadow just gaped.

  Both sides had fired at virtually the same time. The hunters’ four arrows were descending for them and, from the angle, looked right on target.

  Snowhawk heard the tiny bell ring again; one clear peal, its pure high voice echoing inside her mind.

  A mind that, though a little vague right now, was still very much hers.

  She opened her eyes and stared at the bell dangling in Sensei’s hand. Snowhawk stretched slowly, taking in the chamber. Once again she was propped against a wall. Her interrogator sat in seiza before her. The same guards flanked the door, but as well as their back-mounted swords, each now also brandished a kusarikama, a sickle with a snaring chain and weight. Nasty weapons, even in the hands of poor fighters. Why had they appeared? Had the base gone to a higher level of alert? Despite her laboured, grinding thoughts, she weighed it all up and smiled. Maybe her rescue was already underway …

  That third stick of foul-smelling incense had burned away now, leaving the uneven ceiling with a wispy layer of smoke and a mound of white ash in the tiny clay pot at her feet. The heated acupuncture needles in the back of her right hand and wrist twitched as nerves under the skin danced to a tune of their own. But she was holding up well.

  The kunoichi she had once known as Sensei had been plying her trade for perhaps an hour now, and though feeling a little blurred and groggy, Snowhawk knew she was in no real danger, at least so far, of being hypnotised. The gods had blessed her with a powerful mind and it was hard to subdue, as her teachers right here, in the heart of Clan Fuma, had told her themselves.

  Her interrogator, like the young guards, wore a scarf over her nose an
d mouth to keep out the incense’s active chemical. It was supposed to make people stupidly compliant. Well, not Snowhawk, who in this very mountain once honed an iron will and the ability to throw others – even exceptional warriors like Moonshadow – into a forced trance. Moonshadow. She half-smiled. He would come and save her.

  ‘Don’t smirk, it’s only just begun!’ Sensei scowled, but there was a shard of grudging respect in her dark eyes. ‘A very strong mind for one so young,’ she conceded, her voice muffled by the scarf, ‘and more stubborn than most men!’

  Snowhawk broke into a silly grin. ‘If you give up now, I’ll leave peacefully.’

  Sensei stood and turned away, her little bell ringing several times. ‘I need tea and the scroll of obedience drug formulas,’ she said, thinking aloud. Then she looked back at Snowhawk. ‘Be warned, girl, if you won’t talk to me, you’ll be turned over to someone far less subtle. Think on this!’ She sneered and strode off, the guards quickly opening the door for her while continuing to stare, unblinking, at their prisoner. Snowhawk saw a shinobi outside the door, a spear resting on his shoulder. He probably had a partner, too.

  She lay against the cold wall, feeling strange and unsure of how much time was passing. Though it hadn’t made her compliant, the invasive incense had heavily sedated her. She lapsed in and out of consciousness for a while, then woke abruptly, feeling physically drained but quite clear-headed. Furtively she scanned the chamber. Voices.

  The guards were whispering, their eyes briefly off her. She resumed a bleary, half-asleep appearance while she strained with her sharp ears to take in their discussion.

  Suddenly a weird animal cry echoed through the tunnels and caverns without, so loud that even the heavy wooden door failed to muffle it. Snowhawk felt her flesh crawl. What was that? It sounded like some great beast, wounded perhaps. The cry echoed again, this time lasting twice as long. Not wounded, she frowned. Trapped. Like me!