The Jade Lioness

by Christina Courtenay

  ‘You said you wanted me to be your wife. And just in case anything happens, I want us to have this moment to remember. It can’t matter, surely, whether we wait or not? We have made a commitment to each other already, right?’

  He nodded in wordless agreement and turned fully to draw her into his arms. Outside the little cave the night was so cold a frost was settling on every living thing, but inside their cocoon the temperature rose steadily as Kazuo kissed her again. Tentatively at first, as if he was unused to it, then slowly giving in to her questing tongue and joining in the age-old game.

  During another pause for breath he whispered, ‘Temi, I know that you spent some time at Imada’s establishment, and no doubt many unpleasant things happened to you there, but I want you to know that they don’t matter to me. Only the future is important.’

  Temi looked at him and understanding dawned. ‘You think they made me earn my living while I was there?’

  Kazuo looked away. ‘As I said, it doesn’t matter. I can feel that you have some experience of these things, so …’

  ‘No, no, you have it all wrong, my love.’ She cupped his cheeks with her hands and turned him back to face her. ‘It’s true that they taught me much, but I only ever had to watch and learn in theory. I never actually took part. That’s why I found it so hard to contemplate submitting to Tanaka.’

  ‘Honto? Then you were very fortunate. I’ve heard dreadful things of such places.’

  ‘They were just training me so that I would please whoever bought me. Imada was hoping for a large sum for me, although as you know Tanaka drove a hard bargain.’

  ‘Now I understand. And you managed to escape Tanaka before he …?’

  ‘Yes, I told you. So you’ll have to be gentle with me.’

  ‘Perhaps it’s the other way round?’ he teased. ‘Show me what else they taught you and we’ll see.’

  Temi smiled and kissed him again, while letting her hands roam. At first she followed dimly remembered instructions from Nyoko, but as her fingers found the contours of his lean body, they took on a will of their own. She forgot everything except the feel of his skin under her fingertips. She marvelled that anything could be so perfect and couldn’t get enough of touching him. If this did indeed turn out to be their only time together, she was determined to remember every last detail. She’d have this memory to carry with her forever.

  Kazuo allowed her free rein for a while, then took his turn at exploration, calling forth shivers of delight with his feather-light caresses. Somehow their garments were shed until there was nothing but warm skin against skin. His strong hands cradled her softly rounded curves with infinite gentleness at first. Then subtly the pace changed and their mutual caresses became more demanding, urgent, until at last Temperance couldn’t stand it anymore and boldly guided him to her.

  ‘I want you, Kazuo,’ she whispered. ‘I love you.’

  ‘As I love you.’

  Although there was a sharp pain at first, she forgot it the instant he started to move as waves of exquisite sensations began to engulf her. She finally understood that love-making between two people who loved each other could be magical and she was infinitely grateful to have been granted this night with the man she loved.

  ‘How far is it now?’ Temperance asked, as they prepared to continue on their way the following morning, somewhat later than the previous days. They had allowed themselves some extra time in the cave for more love-making, neither one of them able to resist the desire that welled up anew. Consequently the sun was already high in the sky.

  ‘Not much longer. In fact, I think we may be quite close. It might be a good idea if I leave you somewhere safe for a while and go off to scout the layout of the land.’ He caught sight of her expression and hastened to reassure her. ‘It won’t be for long and I’ll be very careful, I promise.’

  ‘Can’t I come with you?’

  ‘I’ll be able to move more quietly on my own, and faster too. Besides, it will be less tiring for the horse.’

  ‘I suppose so.’

  ‘This cave is as good a place as any, really,’ he added. ‘What do you say, shall I leave you here or do you want to look for somewhere else?’

  ‘Let’s see how close to our destination we are first, then you can bring me back here if we can find the way.’

  ‘Very well. Don’t worry, I’ll leave a trail that only I can see.’

  Their plans all came to naught, however, because just as they were ready to leave, they caught the sound of movement nearby. The crack of a twig, snapped in half by a heavy foot, made a bird fly squawking out of a bush and an unnatural silence ensued. It was as if the world was waiting for something to happen, holding its breath, and a feeling of foreboding shimmered down Temi’s back. Kazuo froze and gestured for her to return to the cave. Moving slowly, together they backed towards the safety of the darkness, all the while scanning the edges of the clearing.

  ‘Was it an animal?’ Temi breathed. She couldn’t see anything, so whatever it was had to be hiding. On purpose? ‘Are there bears here? Wolves?’ She hadn’t thought to ask him before as she’d felt so safe in his company.

  Kazuo shook his head, looking grim. ‘We need to leave. Now.’

  But it was already too late. The moment they took one step towards the horse, Tanaka and his men burst into the clearing and surrounded them on all sides.

  ‘I knew we’d catch up with them,’ Tanaka crowed, a grin spreading over his features. ‘Didn’t I tell you? Now kill him, but don’t harm the girl. I have other plans for her.’

  Temperance felt as if she had just swallowed a huge quantity of lead. How could this be? How had Tanaka found them? She’d been so sure that they were safe from him now and the only threat to them would come from the unknown man they were heading towards. For a moment her body refused to move and she gazed around wide-eyed at Tanaka’s men. As if in a dream, she heard Kazuo draw in a hissing breath and swear quietly. They still had their backs towards the mountainside where the opening to the cave gaped, and both instinctively reached for the knives inside their sleeves. As one, they drew them out and Kazuo moved slightly closer towards her as Tanaka’s men advanced.

  ‘No,’ Temperance called out. ‘You’ll have to kill me too. I’m not going with you. Never!’ The men hesitated.

  ‘Don’t be a fool,’ Tanaka snarled, then turned to his men. ‘Well, what are you waiting for? Go to it!’

  Four of his men rushed forward, their swords raised, but they hadn’t counted on fighting more than one man and were therefore taken by surprise when Temperance joined in the fray. Although the knives she and Kazuo carried were puny in comparison to the long katanas of their assailants, they were both quick. By ducking and feinting, they each managed to hurt one of their opponents. Temperance had a feeling that in her case it was pure luck as she was surely no match for a trained warrior, despite the practice sessions with Midori. Fear rose within her and she tasted bile.

  Kazuo was a different matter. He had been born into the same life and no doubt trained from birth. He quickly sank his knife into one man’s sword arm, while grabbing the assailant’s weapon swiftly and turning to fight another man with that. Having shortened the odds thus, he quickly despatched the second attacker.

  Temperance was heartened by this and told herself she wasn’t helpless either. She had been taught to defend herself and she’d show these bastards their task wasn’t as easy as they’d thought. She danced out of reach of one deadly sword coming towards her, and managed to avoid the other by meeting it with her knife. The clang of steel against steel reverberated all the way down her arm to her shoulder. She bit her teeth against the pain, but she had no time to think about it, because the men were advancing once more and had now been joined by several others.

  ‘Here, Temi, catch.’ Kazuo had picked up the sword of the second man he’d killed and threw it to Temperance, hilt first. She caught it deftly and the feel of it in her hand gave her the confidence to go on the attack herself, there
by astonishing the men who were coming towards her. She let out a blood-curdling yell and charged at them, hurting one more.

  The element of surprise only helped her briefly, however, and she soon realised that she couldn’t fight these men. They were simply too good. She stayed out of their reach as much as possible, hiding behind Kazuo who was fighting like one possessed. The battle became a blur of slashing steel, blood and cries of pain or exertion. Temperance could never afterwards quite recall the exact details of what had happened. All she knew was that Kazuo was fighting for their lives and she couldn’t do anything other than help him to the best of her ability. The fact that she was prepared to die rather than surrender to Tanaka kept her from giving in to the pure terror that was coursing through her.

  ‘By all the gods, make short work of him!’ Tanaka yelled, frustration clear in his voice.

  Temperance could see that Kazuo was an excellent swordsman, but in the end the sheer number of their assailants inevitably began to get the better of him. She also noticed that he winced whenever he had to put too much weight onto his bad leg. No matter how hard he fought, there was always someone else to take him on, and Temperance knew that he couldn’t hold out much longer. Her own arm ached from her exertions, her breath was coming out in short bursts, and she was worried that Kazuo simply didn’t have his usual stamina.

  I can’t bear to watch him die!

  The words reverberated around her mind and, thinking furiously, she came to a decision and suddenly shouted at the top of her voice, ‘Stop! Wait!’ To her surprise, everyone obeyed, and she launched into speech before she could change her mind. ‘I will agree to give myself up to Lord Tanaka, if you let my husband go first. If not, I’ll kill myself here and now.’ As if to prove that she meant every word, she put the small knife into her right hand and positioned the lethal blade of it against her heart.

  Tanaka frowned and stared at her. ‘Your betrothed, you mean? You want me to let the foreigner go?’ He shrugged and glanced at someone behind him. ‘He can go any time he wants. He’s not my prisoner. In fact, I’d be happy to be rid of him.’

  Temperance blinked and realised for the first time that on top of a scraggy horse behind Tanaka sat a very dishevelled Pieter Haag, scowling at everyone. He must have arrived later than the others and in the heat of the moment she hadn’t noticed. She shook her head in exasperation at his tenacity. Was she never to be free of him?

  ‘No, not him. I wouldn’t marry that disgusting toad. This,’ she pointed at Kazuo, ‘is my husband. We were married five days ago by a monk.’ She had no idea if monks performed such rites here, but it was the only thing she could come up with on the spur of the moment. It seemed important to her that if she was to die, she would do it as Kazuo’s wife. If not in actual fact, then at least with everyone believing it.

  ‘I’m not letting him go,’ Tanaka snarled. ‘He’s a thief and probably more besides. Kill him.’

  ‘Then I die too. Is that what you want?’ Temperance cried, feeling more desperate for each moment that passed.

  Tanaka’s men hesitated, looking from her to their master and back again.

  ‘She won’t do it,’ Tanaka stated confidently.

  ‘I wouldn’t be too sure if I were you,’ Kazuo put in. ‘But I won’t let her. If anyone comes so much as a step nearer, I will kill us both.’ He looked Temperance in the eyes as if for the last time. ‘Remember what I said, Temi-chan? Our souls will be together for eternity.’

  She nodded, believing him now. Taking a deep breath, she leaned over to give him a hard kiss and whispered. ‘Do it, my love, for Tanaka is right. I don’t have the courage to kill myself.’

  Kazuo nodded and raised his sword.

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Temperance closed her eyes and swallowed hard, hoping that death would come swiftly. Before Kazuo had time to do anything, however, a new voice suddenly rang out in the clearing. ‘Halt! What is happening here?’

  Temperance’s eyes flew open and she saw at least twenty men, all dressed in identical black outfits with a clan motif embroidered on each shoulder, appear from behind the trees like wraiths. They moved silently and with deadly intent in their eyes. Their leader was mounted on a black horse and rode forward to face Tanaka. Temperance found her legs paralysed with fear once more and all she could do was stand and stare at them as they came closer. To her surprise they hardly glanced at her and Kazuo. Instead they seemed intent on Tanaka and his men.

  ‘Who are you? What do you want here? This is private land.’ The leader spoke in clipped tones.

  ‘I am Lord Tanaka and these are my men. We are in the process of apprehending two fugitives, one a thief and the other a concubine who belongs to me.’

  ‘Well, you can’t do that here. You’re trespassing. Anyone found in this forest is to be apprehended by us. Now leave or we will be forced to attack you.’

  ‘How dare you? Do you know my rank?’ Tanaka’s voice rose an octave, his patience obviously at an end and his choler almost at boiling point judging by his complexion. ‘This woman belongs to me and I’m taking her back. There’s an end to it.’

  ‘She doesn’t belong to him at all. She is this man’s betrothed.’ Haag’s interpreter piped up, having been prodded by his employer. ‘Lord Tanaka is refusing to return her to him.’

  ‘For the last time, I am not!’ Temperance shouted, anger making her forget her own fear temporarily. ‘This is my husband.’ She indicated Kazuo, who nodded agreement.

  Tanaka began to protest and everyone was suddenly speaking at once until the leader of the black-clad men lost his temper. ‘Enough!’ he bellowed. ‘I don’t care who belongs to whom. You,’ he pointed at Tanaka, ‘will leave this area instantly or we’ll have to kill you and your men, and you,’ he nodded at Haag, ‘can come with us as our prisoner. Foreigners are not allowed in this country. I’m sure the lord of these domains will be very happy to turn you over to the authorities.’ He turned to look at Temperance and Kazuo. ‘As for you two, you’re coming with us as well.’

  ‘We are but travellers, lost in the wilderness,’ Kazuo said, sounding calm, although Temperance could feel a slight tremor run through him when he took one of her hands into his. ‘Please, couldn’t you let us be on our way? We promise to leave the area as fast as we can.’

  ‘No. Your wife, if that’s what she is, looks like a foreigner as well. We cannot let you pass.’

  ‘My wife is not a foreigner. She’s an albino. It’s not against the law, is it?’ His voice was still even, but had a slight edge to it.

  ‘Hmm. Albino, eh? Well, we’ll let our lord decide that for himself.’

  ‘Is it really necessary to trouble him with such a trifling matter?’ Kazuo asked. ‘We’re just passing through. We mean no harm to anyone.’

  ‘I’m sorry, but I have orders to apprehend any strangers, harmless or not. Now are you coming willingly or do we have to coerce you?’

  ‘Very well.’ Kazuo gave Temperance’s hand an imperceptible squeeze and then went to mount their horse, pulling her up behind him.

  Tanaka, who had remained silent during this exchange, suddenly joined the fray once more. ‘They are lying and I’m not leaving without them. The woman is mine, bought and paid for.’ He turned to his men. ‘Attack!’

  Temperance gasped at her former master’s foolhardiness. Following the skirmish with herself and Kazuo, Tanaka was down to only seven men, including himself, and to pit them against twenty seemed the height of idiocy. To her surprise, Haag joined forces with Tanaka. She could only surmise that they had some sort of pact or perhaps fighting on his side seemed more appealing than being apprehended and given over to the Japanese authorities. She watched from behind Kazuo’s left shoulder as the black-clad men made short work of Tanaka’s retainers. As for Haag, he was rendered helpless even faster, with a thrust from a sword followed by a thump on the head, although to Temperance’s surprise, he wasn’t killed.

  When only Tanaka himself and one other man remai
ned, apart from Haag, the villainous lord appeared to come to his senses and instead of continuing, suddenly turned and fled, his retainer hot on his heels. ‘I’ll get her back yet, see if I don’t. You haven’t heard the last of this!’ he shouted over his shoulder before disappearing out of sight.

  ‘Shall we follow them, sir?’ someone asked the leader of the black-clad men, but he shook his head.

  ‘No, let them go. I know who he is and our lord wouldn’t want that man’s blood on his hands unless it’s absolutely necessary. Let’s be off.’

  Silence fell on the clearing, but Temperance’s ears still rang with the sounds of fighting. She leaned her head on Kazuo’s shoulder, wrapping her arms round his waist, and hugged him close. A shiver went through her and she closed her eyes.

  They were still alive, but for how long?

  ‘You’re making a mistake. I have permission to be riding about your country. All I want is my woman. She’s not an albino, that’s nonsense. I can take her off your hands, return her to where she belongs …’

  Haag couldn’t believe he was once again a captive, although this time no one was paying him the slightest attention. He wasn’t even sure they understood him, since his interpreter had stopped translating his words, the coward.

  He’d contemplated hiding behind a large tree trunk during the fight in order to stay unnoticed and to perhaps have an opportunity of snatching Temperance while everyone else was occupied so they could leave together at last. But he had thought his only chance lay in joining forces with Tanaka, who had seemed invincible up until now, so he’d followed his instinct and fought the black-clad men. Unfortunately for him, this turned out to be the wrong choice.

  His head throbbed with pain and he could feel blood running down his torso and arm from a wound to the shoulder. He needed a physician, not being dragged through the countryside to who knew what godforsaken place. ‘Godverdamme,’ he swore, adding a few more choice epithets to help battle the pain shooting through him at regular intervals.

  ‘Where are we going? Who do you work for? Does your master know that foreigners are under the protection of the Shogun?’