Valley of Shields

by Duncan Lay

  ‘Sendatsu — that is too risky. The Council Guards will not be able to break into Jaken’s villa quickly. If he realises what you have done …’ Asami said.

  Huw and Rhiannon, hidden at the very edge of the group, exchanged worried looks. Sendatsu was their guarantee of safety. Without him, what would happen to them?

  ‘Don’t worry about me. Tell us, can you do that with your magic?’

  Asami glanced at Daichi. ‘I can,’ she admitted.

  ‘Then I shall do it. My children are in there — I have to protect them,’ Sendatsu said.

  ‘Surely there has to be a better way,’ Asami said. ‘What if we get Jaken to meet the traitor in the Magic-weavers in the market or something, overhear them then —’

  ‘There is no time,’ Sendatsu said gently. ‘No, it is better this way.’

  ‘You don’t have to do this alone. I’ll stand with you,’ Gaibun offered.

  ‘A good idea. Two swords are better than one,’ Daichi said. ‘It is settled then. Sendatsu will get us the proof we need. Now I have to get some guards — as many as possible, it sounds like.’

  The next turn of the hourglass was frantic, as Council Guards as well as elves from Daichi’s clan were hurriedly summoned. The grounds of Daichi’s villa were more than large enough to hold so many and swiftly there were more than a hundred armed elves ready, with more arriving every moment.

  Sendatsu, Asami and Gaibun waited together, not talking much but taking comfort from each other.

  ‘Nothing will be the same after tonight,’ Gaibun said.

  ‘Good,’ Asami said.

  ‘The only thing is, we won’t break the clan system. That will go on like before,’ Sendatsu pointed out.

  ‘But I shall control the Magic-weavers. I will have the chance to create something special. At last I will be recognised for what I can do, not who my parents are, or which clan I belong to. You two don’t understand, for you are warriors. For elves like me, life is defined by what your father or husband want. I need more than that.’

  ‘What if we all die tonight?’ Gaibun asked.

  ‘I won’t die until I have seen my children,’ Sendatsu said.

  Nobody felt like saying much more for a long time after that.

  Gaibun broke the silence with a smile. ‘You remember when we used to hide in a tree, pretend that we were the only ones in the world?’

  Sendatsu sighed. ‘We can’t hide any more.’

  ‘But we can still stick together. We can only get through the rest of the night together,’ Asami told them.

  A Council Guard came to collect them then. ‘It is time. Lord Daichi needs you.’

  The three of them embraced briefly, then followed the guard.

  13

  For many years the rulers of Nippon were happy to have the Elfarans living there but, as their numbers grew and grew and the magic was still strong, the rulers grew afraid of a magical people led by immortals and drove the Elfarans out.

  Sendatsu’s song

  Huw and Rhiannon were left behind in a small room of Daichi’s huge villa, a pair of Council Guards standing outside, making it clear they were not to go exploring. Food and drink was left for them, as well as a pair of beds, but little else.

  ‘What will happen if Sendatsu is killed?’ Huw asked. ‘Will they hold to the deal to help us? Will we even get out alive?’

  ‘I could have us out of here in a moment,’ Rhiannon assured him. ‘They don’t know about my magic.’

  ‘But what about that magical barrier? Can you do that trick of Asami’s to jump us through the trees?’

  Rhiannon paused. ‘Maybe.’

  Huw flopped down onto one of the beds. ‘I wish we could have gone there, seen what was going on. Not knowing is the worst thing.’

  ‘I thought waiting for the Forlish to attack Patcham was the worst thing I’d experienced. That looks like nothing now.’

  Huw looked at her. ‘So is this the worst —’

  She returned his gaze. ‘Not even close,’ she said coldly.

  Huw sat up. ‘Do you want to talk about it, about your father and how you are feeling?’

  ‘No!’

  ‘I can only imagine what you must be thinking …’

  ‘I don’t think about it any more. That happened to a different person,’ Rhiannon told him. ‘It does not bother me.’

  ‘That cannot be true,’ Huw said gently.

  ‘Enough! I don’t want to talk about this!’

  ‘I am not trying to win you back. But I care for you and hate to see you in pain —’

  ‘Don’t lie to me! You seek to win your way back into my bed. Well, it won’t happen. You think kind words and a comforting shoulder are all I need but you are wrong. I know men now, you see. Thanks to you, Sendatsu and Hector, I have learned all I need to.’

  The coldness in her voice sent shivers up Huw’s spine.

  ‘Then as a friend only,’ he said again, trying to keep the sadness and fear and longing out of his voice. ‘I seek to help you —’

  ‘You seek to help yourself. You want to make yourself feel better about what you did. But I shall not give you the satisfaction,’ she told him.

  ‘But —’

  ‘I don’t want to talk any more. Wake me if they come for us and you need my magic to save you.’

  She turned her back on him and threw herself down onto one of the beds.

  Huw could sense the pain beneath her hard shell. She needed to talk, to release her emotions, to deal with her father’s betrayal — and yes, with his own betrayal. If that destroyed their chances together, then so be it. She needed something — but he had no idea how to get inside the barrier she had put up. It was almost like the barrier around Dokuzen. Like that one, it drew on magic for its strength. But, unlike that one, it seemed to be getting stronger, taking Rhiannon further away from him.

  Huw flopped back on the bed and stared at the ornate ceiling, feeling very alone.

  It was a mixed group that approached the Moratsune family home: Council Guards, clan leaders, the Elder Elf, Asami, Gaibun and Sendatsu. There was little talking as they hurried through darkened streets. Sendatsu could feel his heart beating faster the closer he came to his father’s villa.

  ‘How is this going to work?’ he asked Asami, to try to take his mind off what he had to do.

  ‘I’ve never actually tried it before,’ she admitted. ‘I know it is possible, for Sumiko has shown it to me many times. I shall be standing in a nearby garden and send a vine through the ground, to come up in Jaken’s garden and find its way close to you. It will pick up your voices and send them along its length, bringing the sounds back up to me.’

  Sendatsu smiled briefly. ‘Perhaps I don’t want to know all the details.’

  ‘Keep Gaibun close,’ she suggested. ‘I know how good you are but there are few better than he is.’

  ‘I would feel happier if you were at my side,’ Sendatsu replied.

  ‘I am needed to work the magic outside for Daichi —’

  ‘No, I mean afterwards,’ Sendatsu interrupted.

  Asami shook her head. ‘Years ago I prayed every night to hear you say those words. But you did not. Now, when it is too late, you find them within you.’

  ‘Too late?’

  ‘The clan system will be there tomorrow, just the same as it is today. Marriage is for life. We swear to Aroaril to be together until death do us part. I cannot just walk away from that. The shame of it would kill my parents for a start — and what about Gaibun? He would come looking for you with a sword in his hand. One of you would die. What if you were killed? And, even if you lived, how could you come to my bed covered in the blood of our best friend?’

  ‘We go away. Our people betrayed and murdered all the humans with magic. We can help restore the magic to them. Together we can travel the human lands, giving back what our ancestors took away. It will be a fresh start for everyone.’

  ‘So it will be all about helping the humans, not the two of us
being together?’ she asked sceptically.

  ‘What is wrong with the two going together?’

  ‘And our responsibilities here? They want me to become the leader of the Magic-weavers. This is what I have dreamed of, and what Dokuzen and the people desperately need. Have you forgotten about the barrier fading? I could be all that stands between Dokuzen and destruction!’

  ‘You can still save Dokuzen. Except from the other side. And we would be together. Tell me you don’t want that and I shall stop asking. But you have to look into my eyes when you do.’

  Asami said nothing for a few paces, such a long time that Sendatsu was almost ready to say something else.

  She sighed. ‘It is not so simple. All my life I have wanted something more than what society has offered me. I never wanted to be just a wife and mother, subservient to my husband. Perhaps I spent too much time with you and Gaibun, rather than other girls my age. Now I have the chance to build up the Magic-weavers, create an order that is respected and help my people along the way. If Sumiko was removed, there would be nobody else in Dokuzen able to lead the Magic-weavers. That is a big responsibility and one I cannot walk away from.’

  ‘I hear what you are saying. But there is a bigger world out there. We can do far more good out there than in Dokuzen.’

  ‘So you say. I have not seen the human lands. I only know what faces us here and it is a challenge I have wanted for so long.’

  ‘Perhaps if you could see the human lands you might think differently.’

  ‘Maybe. Perhaps. I don’t know!’

  Sendatsu walked on in silence, trying to think how to get around this.

  ‘Sendatsu! Walk with me,’ Daichi rumbled from behind them and Sendatsu reluctantly dropped back.

  ‘You should not be walking with another elf’s wife,’ Daichi told him quietly.

  Sendatsu inclined his head, keeping his thoughts on that to himself.

  Gaibun took his place by Asami’s side.

  ‘What were you talking about with Sendatsu?’ he hissed.

  ‘What do you want me to say?’ Asami asked tiredly.

  ‘The truth would be a good start. Was he asking you to become his lover?’

  Asami looked up at her husband, seeing the pain amid the anger on his face, hearing it also in his voice. ‘Yes and no,’ she admitted.

  ‘What was your reply?’

  ‘I said I would not humiliate you as you have me,’ she said. ‘I said I will have other responsibilities with the Magic-weavers. And I said marriage is for life and that I would not have the two of you fighting over me.’

  ‘Why could you not love me, the way you do him?’

  Asami bit her lip at the misery in Gaibun’s voice. ‘Believe me, it was not a matter of choice. I tried to love you. I asked you to give me time. But you were the one to force things.’

  Gaibun said nothing for a long while and she looked again at him.

  ‘I shall give you time now. You are able to make your own decisions, I shall not force you, or hold you to anything,’ he said gently, slowing down so she found herself walking alone.

  Asami did not know how to reply to him. It was the last thing she had expected to hear and it completely wrong-footed her. Gaibun raging and abusing her she could deal with, but when he was reasonable, she was lost.

  ‘Stay in the shadows!’ Daichi rasped and she stopped suddenly, realising they were less than a hundred paces from Jaken’s villa.

  Asami looked around quickly, until she found a bush she could use. All the big villas around this area had small gardens out the front, all immaculate. She murmured to it and a thick vine stretched out of the soil before her, then ducked back below the surface.

  ‘Ready,’ she said.

  Sendatsu looked at the house with its guards out the front and tried to calm his hammering heart. He did not want to do this. But his children were in there and thoughts of them drove away the fear, like the summer sun dissolving the morning mist.

  ‘I am ready.’

  ‘You know, we keep files on all those who might become clan leaders,’ Daichi said conversationally. ‘Nothing I have ever read about you suggested you would do this. I am putting a great deal of trust in you. Don’t let me down.’

  ‘We have an agreement. If we all hold to it, then we get everything we want,’ Sendatsu said stiffly.

  ‘Excellent. As long as we understand each other.’

  Sendatsu nodded, although inside he was churning. Behind his gentle smile and wise eyes, it was easy to forget that Daichi had held Jaken at bay for years, as well as the machinations of every other ambitious clan leader. He was not to be taken lightly. But there was no choice.

  ‘You’ll hear from me,’ he said. ‘When you have enough, don’t wait too long.’ He nodded to Gaibun, then Asami, adjusted his sword in its scabbard and strode around the corner and towards his father’s house, Gaibun at his shoulder.

  The walk down the familiar street took no time and yet forever but Sendatsu took comfort from Gaibun being with him.

  ‘Sure you want to do this, brother?’ he asked softly.

  ‘I’m with you all the way,’ Gaibun promised.

  Sendatsu took a deep breath as he approached the front door, using the thought of his children to keep his feet moving.

  ‘What do you want?’ the guards demanded. Sendatsu did not recognise either of them but that was not unusual — his father used many different guards.

  ‘Tell my father that I am here to see him, and my children,’ he said.

  ‘Run along, the Lord Jaken does not see fools,’ the taller of the two guards dismissed.

  Sendatsu kept walking, making the guards put their hands on their sword hilts.

  ‘I am Tadayoshi Moratsune Sendatsu, son of Lord Jaken and second only to him in the Test of swords,’ Sendatsu spat. ‘Draw your blade and I will cut off your legs, then force you to crawl before my father, whose punishment for attacking his son will make mine seem merciful.’

  The guards glanced at each other in mingled shock and fear.

  ‘Open the door and let me in before someone sees us! Now, or it will be only your heads that stand outside this door tomorrow night!’

  ‘I’ll take you to the Lord Jaken,’ the taller of the pair said in a shaken voice.

  ‘A wise idea.’

  ‘Who is your companion?’

  ‘Tadayoshi Yakatome Gaibun,’ Gaibun replied. ‘Captain in the Border Patrol.’

  The other guard bowed as they followed the taller one inside and Sendatsu took that as no more than his due, where once he would have cringed.

  As expected, the guard led them to his father’s office and knocked on the door gently.

  ‘What is it?’ Jaken demanded from inside.

  ‘Lord Jaken, your son is here, with Captain Gaibun,’ the guard said nervously, glancing at Sendatsu.

  ‘What?’

  ‘I could not wait until dawn, Father,’ Sendatsu called.

  A moment later the door opened and his father slipped out, keeping the door almost closed and then shutting it behind him.

  ‘Sendatsu! A welcome surprise.’ He offered a brief smile. ‘Come, let us talk outside.’ He gestured towards the rear of the villa. ‘Jengo, make sure my other guest leaves as soon as we have gone,’ he told the guard quietly.

  ‘Your will, lord.’

  Sendatsu and Gaibun exchanged glances but Jaken did not appear to be referring to Gaibun, so they followed Jaken through the villa and out into the garden. Sendatsu breathed a sigh of relief. He knew only too well how much his father enjoyed holding all his meetings in his office, where he was comfortable and his guests discomfited. He had been unsure how to get his father to leave that security and go into the garden but he had not needed to come up with an elaborate reason. Better yet, his father seemed distracted. His face was somewhat flushed and his clothes were not in their normal impeccable state. Had he been with a woman? Sendatsu wondered. He had long suspected his father had at least one mistress around D
okuzen.

  ‘I might have guessed you would be unable to wait to see your children. They are still asleep, of course, although I would expect them to be up at the crack of dawn. They usually are, waking your mother too,’ Jaken said conversationally.

  Behind him, around the corner, Sendatsu heard the guard Jengo asking the mysterious guest to follow him out.

  ‘Who were you seeing?’

  ‘Nobody of importance,’ Jaken said. ‘We can go back to my study shortly.’

  ‘I would prefer fresh air. It has been too long since I looked on a garden of Dokuzen,’ Sendatsu said hastily.

  ‘So I imagine. Tell me, is there another reason why you have come here so early — and without your tame gaijin?’

  ‘I wish you would not say that, Father. They are not gaijin,’ Sendatsu said irritably.

  ‘If they are able to help me achieve my aims, then I will call them whatever they want.’ Jaken waved his hand airily.

  Sendatsu cursed himself. They were not quite in the garden yet and there was no way Asami would have got that. He would have to try harder but wait a little. The problem was he had no idea how Asami’s vine would find him, nor what it would look like. Inside, he was panicking, imagining he might unwittingly step on it or something — but the sight of a small toy among the plants, obviously left there by Mai or Cheijun, calmed him.

  ‘You are right though,’ he said, walking out into the centre of the garden, near where planting beds overflowed with blooms. ‘I did have a reason for coming here.’

  ‘Tell me,’ his father invited. ‘We can talk safely here.’

  Sendatsu had to restrain a smile. I hope you are hearing this, Asami, he thought.

  ‘Who is that?’ Daichi hissed as a hooded figure walked out of Jaken’s villa and received the bows of the guards silently.

  ‘I have no idea, nor can I see. Perhaps they will walk this way,’ Asami said. ‘Perhaps it is Jaken’s traitor — the Magic-weaver he is seeing.’

  ‘Aroaril grant that they come this way,’ Daichi breathed.

  But the figure turned in the opposite direction and walked away briskly.