Red Samurai

by Tiffiny Hall

  She levitates higher than the samurai, dragging her toes through the blue mist. The samurai follows, yanking the stick out of his forehead. He slashes his sword towards her body. Lecky swerves and blocks it with her knife, but he turns unexpectedly and slices her arm. Lecky screams and drops her dagger. She grasps her shoulder as blood spills through her fingers. The samurai chases her. Lecky has no weapons and she fends him off with her bare hands, punching, head-butting, kicking, scratching. The samurai and his faceless followers attack her with three swords at once, but Elecktra doesn’t give up. She is fighting with a blood-smudged face, hurtling a warrior cry, all while floating with the grace of a ballerina. I am panicking.

  ‘Lecky!’ I scream as one of the armless men stabs her again in the shoulder. The wound makes her fall from the sky and crash into the mud. She crouches, whimpering. I thrash to reach her, but my mud boots are strong.

  The samurai approaches. He draws the red sword, a flame against the green glow of the sickly moon. It’s as if the sword is alive, sensing life and delivering death. The blade flashes neon with hot-blooded heat. Elecktra looks up at the samurai and screams as the sword points at the sky. My heart flattens as the flaming blade descends towards my sister. The faceless men raise their knifed toes as blades crash all around her.

  ‘Lecky!’ I thunder.

  For a moment she disappears beneath the weapons. A heartbeat later and she emerges, blazing into the sky above them as if rockets are attached to her ankles. She flies in front of the samurai and I watch his head snap backwards and jerk the followers off balance. Elecktra lands in the mud, panting through her blonde hair. The samurai’s chin catches the light of the moon as he falls, dragging the armless men with him. They crash to the ground. I strain to see the samurai’s face and notice blood dripping down his throat. Lodged there is a fine silver stick. I squint to see the weapon more closely. It is the last thing I’d think of using to protect myself. Thank goodness Elecktra always carries a nail file.

  ‘You can dig me out now,’ I call to Elecktra, but she doesn’t take her eyes off the slain samurai. She levitates towards him as if something is calling to her, pulling her in. The samurai’s followers are on bended knee, listening for their master. He’s a mess. The cemetery silences. The only sound is my breathing in my white hood. Lecky floats to the ground. The samurai’s red sword is throbbing in his limp hand. The armless men are still.

  ‘Hey, Lecky!’ I call again. But Elecktra is mesmerised by the samurai’s sword, a mosquito into the blue electric light. She bends down and slides the fire sword out of the samurai’s fingers and grasps it tight. It sparks at her touch.

  ‘I’d put that down if I were you,’ I warn her. Elecktra lifts the sword up to the moon. She looks strange; something has come over her. Suddenly blood flames up the blade into the handle, then rinses into Elecktra’s hand. I watch the blood sear up the veins of her vulnerable wrist, into her elbow, pulsate, then move through her arm into her chest, where it spears along her throat and into thick red veins entwining at her temple.

  Lecky turns to me, her face webbed with blood clots. She is unrecognisable. Her hair slowly turns neon red from the roots to the tips. As she lifts the sheets of her eyelashes, they paint red, then her brows dip crimson and finally her irises flame orange.

  Elecktra points the sword at me.

  ‘Um, what are you doing? Lecky, let go of the sword!’ I yell.

  Elecktra holds the sword tighter and levitates towards me in long stalking strides. The sword is still aimed at me.

  ‘Hey!’ I yell. Elecktra is acting totally insane. Liquid fear flushes through my veins. I have to move. Move now. But Lecky isn’t the enemy, is she? She’s my sister. My instincts are screaming though. I’m so confused. The sword seemed to consume her, but that doesn’t make sense. And Mum will kill me if Lecky returns with red hair. We’ve never been allowed to dye our hair.

  ‘Lecky, stop!’ I scream, but her orange eyes seem intent on destroying me. I have no choice. If more warriors show up, I’ll deal with them. I summon the tectonic plates and the earth growls and cracks all around me. The mud concreting my feet splits apart in thick chunks, finally freeing me. My white uniform is brown up to my knees.

  I leap into a tiger stance, just as Lecky reaches me. I put my hands out to stop her, but she begins to thrash her sword. I jump out of the way, but she continues to thrust the sword at me. She attacks from above, her feet dangling around my shoulders. I duck out of her reach, then roll close to the ground. What is she thinking! What is going on?

  I summon a wind tunnel to carry me to the same height as Elecktra. It’s as if she doesn’t recognise me.

  ‘Lecky, it’s me, Roxy? Your sister!’ I call. I click my fingers at her, clap my hands, wave, but there is no response. She won’t snap out of it. Has she been concussed?

  Elecktra flies towards me with the burning sword. She is relentless. For someone who has never held a sword, she’s handling it like a total pro. Or maybe the sword is handling her. Red Elecktra is more hideous than any of the warriors I’ve come up against. Seeing evil in somebody you love is like seeing a snake launch itself from behind a stone — it’s heart stopping. Elecktra has a steely determination, not to test or teach me like the warriors, but to kill! I refuse to attack her and continue to duck and weave to avoid the burning slice of her sword. I glimpse the Circle of Self-defence below — it has returned to its original state of blue swirling smoke — and recall the smirk on the Apache warrior’s face last time I was here. It’s as if he knew something terrible like this was going to happen. Hero knew this was coming too!

  Elecktra is possessed, her strength super human. ‘Lecky!’ I scream.

  She spins and attacks, spins and attacks. This is not what I imagined my next fight to be like. Not with my sister!

  I summon water in two rivers that move like whips at the tips of my fingers. I control the water whips with the palms of my hands, lashing them through the air. Elecktra advances, pointing her flaming sword at me. I aim the water whips at her sword and lasso the burning blade. Elecktra holds on to the sword despite the current of the water. I yank my hands to pull on the water whips, but the sword will not leave her hand and keeps burning. Fire burning in water? This sword is phenomenal!

  I push my hands out into a double knife-hand block with a cat stance. I turn off the water whips and summon a fireball. My hands don’t burn, only tingle. When Lecky swings her sword at me, I send the fireball crashing into her blade. It absorbs the fireball. Water and fire won’t break the spell of her sword. What am I going to do?

  The wind keeps me in the air and moves me out of the way of her attacks, but I can’t keep wind riding forever. Elecktra lands on the ground and I thankfully follow her down. She is furious and spins to strike out. I summon earth to trip her. She falls on her back, but quickly rises into the air again. I summon wind to lift me to her level. I fly my ninja stars towards her, but they splinter off her sword. She continues to chase me, slicing the smoke between us with her blazing weapon. I flash invisible, but Lecky senses my body heat and meets my every move with angry thrashing.

  Lecky always wanted a magic wand and now she’s found one with more power than she can handle. It’s like she’s been hypnotised and nothing I can do will wake her from the trance. I summon fire and ignite the tips of my ninja stars. I throw the flaming blades towards her, but as soon as they clash against Lecky’s sword, they extinguish and fall like coins to the ground. They are no match for her heat. As long as I’m here, she’ll keep trying to kill me. If I fight harder, someone will get hurt — and it could be me. I can’t keep fighting my sister, my own blood. I have to go.

  I quickly retrieve my ninja stars, squeeze my eyes closed and summon the cool blue. I feel the sapphire mist drench my muscles. My mind washes blank and I transport to the front yard of our apartment. I fly on the wind into my room through the open window. I’m too tired and devastated to change out of my muddy uniform. I climb into bed and tuck the blanke
ts up under my chin, shivering. I am the protector. I should have saved Lecky.

  Only ninjas inherit ninja powers and samurai inherit samurai powers. Why did the samurai sword sing to Elecktra? I sit straight up in bed. As long as Elecktra has the samurai sword, she is my enemy.

  TWELVE

  ‘Are you okay?’ Mum asks. I slowly sit up in bed. My hair has dried in clumps from crying myself to sleep. I’m still in my tattered muddy uniform and my sheets are smeared with dirt. My head hurts and the mattress on the roof seems to be spinning.

  ‘What time is it?’ I ask, but the words are paper-thin and slippery in my mouth. I blink as sharp light tunnels into my room and flashes onto the ninja stars abandoned on my desk. The tips are black from when I lit them on fire. I close my eyes and Elecktra’s bloodshot eyes stare back at me. I gasp and flick my eyes open. It wasn’t a dream.

  Mum brushes my hair off my face, then runs it through her fingers. ‘It’s seven-thirty,’ she says. ‘And you have to get ready for school.’

  I look down at my uniform. How do I begin to explain?

  ‘Lecky was summoned and she fought against a samurai and he had this sword and there were these zombie things and she took …’ My voice trails off into the linen, which I scrunch in my fists and put in my mouth. The words can’t be real. Elecktra must be asleep in her blue satin sheets in the next room, safe as always. The night in the bog was a nasty nightmare.

  I curl up on my side and pull the sheet over my head. I can’t deal with school today. Tears surge past the lump in my throat. I try so hard to be strong, like the White Warrior should be. But when Mum rubs my shoulder, I can’t hold on to the tears any longer. They fall, a broken dam upon my pillow. I sob uncontrollably, thinking about Lecky. I should have summoned the earth earlier to break free of the mud, regardless of the threat of more warriors. I could have stopped her from stealing the sword. It’s all my fault that she’s been possessed. The veins crackling in her beautiful skin, her manicured nails crimson like they’d been smashed with a hammer, her orange eyes preying on my every move. I didn’t want to fight her. Not my sister. I’m meant to protect her. I sob into my muddy sheet as Mum tries to console me.

  ‘Why aren’t you asking questions?’ I manage to get out.

  Mum peels back the sheet so she can see my face. Her eyes are the colour of logs that have been sitting in a fire and her blonde hair shimmers in the morning light against her ivory skin. She is wearing a black satin kimono peppered with silver birds. ‘I’ve been waiting for this moment,’ she says gently.

  I roll over to face her and wipe my hair out of my eyes, then clean my cheeks with the sleeve of my uniform. ‘I don’t get it,’ I say, my throat still thick with tears.

  ‘When you consumed the ancient ninja’s Tiger Scrolls, you summoned every samurai,’ she says. I remember swallowing the final Tiger Scroll and the terror in Mum’s eyes. She sucks in a deep breath. ‘Including your sister.’

  ‘My sister?’ I croak. ‘Elecktra is a samurai?’

  Mum nods slowly, then sweeps her hair behind her ears. ‘Well … unlike you with your birthmark, I had no idea she was powerful enough to inherit the Serpent Sword.’

  ‘The Serpent Sword?’ I suddenly recall Jackson’s samurai legend. The sword of ancient warrior blood slashes through my thoughts. The Serpent Sword couldn’t be the sword he was talking about, could it?

  ‘I was there at the Cemetery of Warriors. Jackson ran over here to tell me that Lecky had been summoned and that you followed her. I arrived as you transported home. I saw Lecky standing in the darkness with the red sword,’ she says.

  ‘I thought only the White Warrior could come and go from the cemetery as they please?’ My thoughts are all tangled up.

  ‘Yes. I used to be the guardian of the cemetery a long time ago,’ Mum says. ‘My job was to stop as many samurai as I could from inheriting power. But I lost the job when I fell pregnant with you.’ She smiles. ‘I learned how to come and go, there’s a trick to it. But it takes years of practice.’

  So Mum was sort of nine to five at the Cemetery of Warriors. Imagine working with those drooling colleagues. What a terrible job. No wonder she’s so lethal. Mum passes me a glass of water and I take an athletic sip, gulping loudly.

  ‘The sword,’ I say between sips, ‘it seemed alive,’ more sips, ‘controlling her somehow.’

  Mum smooths her hands through her hair three times. She does this whenever she is nervous. I swirl the water around while the smoke of silence whirlpools around us. I watch my mother through the glass. I can’t tell if it’s the glass distorting her face, or sadness. I lower the glass and her face still shows a gentle form of agony, the kind you’ve lived with for years. She leans in and her voice lowers. ‘The Serpent Sword infects whoever holds it with bad blood and turns them evil. They transform into the Red Samurai.’

  ‘So Elecktra is the Red Samurai?’

  Mum nods. ‘Maybe the sword chose her because Elecktra is a young untrained samurai.’

  ‘Her powers were so strong,’ I say. ‘There was levitation, she was telekinetic, the sword was on fire.’ I look out the window and clouds have buried the sky. Lanternwood can have four seasons in one day. Rain slathers against the window. ‘And it was as if …’

  Mum finishes my sentence. ‘As if the Red Samurai was an equal match for the White Warrior?’

  I nod. I feel tears drown my tonsils again and swallow quickly.

  Mum whispers, ‘We shouldn’t even be talking about this. Too dangerous.’ She drops her chin and folds her gaze into the palms of her hands.

  ‘But Mum, I have to know. I have to help Lecky,’ I say. I’ll do whatever it takes to have my sister back to normal, whatever normal means these days.

  Mum slowly looks up and brushes her hair behind her ears again. ‘The only way you can help is to get the sword out of her hand.’ She pinches me gently. ‘And only the White Warrior is powerful enough to take on the sword and release its trance.’

  ‘So if I get the sword off Lecky, she’ll be a normal ninja?’ I ask, crossing my stiff legs on the bed. Mum turns away from me. I look at her lovely familiar face — the beauty spot on her chin, the elegant arch of her eyebrows, the freckles on the peaks of her cheekbones — and wonder what secrets she is guarding. I wish she would tell me everything. She’s always been so hard to read, so closed off, an unopened locket. I know little about her past. Mum looks down at her hands and her kimono slides off one shoulder. Something’s wrong. I stare at her shoulder: the soft grooves of muscle from years of training, a battle scar the size of a flower bud, no freckles. She has never told me about her scar or much about her training, even when she knew I was in ninja training myself. She has not been involved at all. It’s as if she’s scared to admit that I’m a ninja now. I’m sure she would be an even better instructor than old Sabomin.

  ‘Lecky will always be a samurai,’ she finally chokes. ‘No matter what we do.’ She turns her face towards me. Tears coil in her eyes. ‘Because her father is samurai,’ she whispers.

  ‘My dad was a samurai?’ I squeak.

  Mum shakes her head. ‘Your father was a ninja. Someone I wish to forget.’

  My thoughts explode like firecrackers. ‘What, we have different dads?’ I ask, begging her with my eyes for more information. I know I’m only young, but she’s got to give me something. All my life my father has been a mystery.

  Mum drags in a deep breath. ‘Okay, Roxy, you deserve to know,’ she says, then swallows hard, but a long silence follows. I put my hand on her bare shoulder and she turns to me. ‘I had a, well,’ she stumbles. ‘I had a misguided romance.’

  My mouth drops open and Mum gently pushes up my chin. As if she can read my mind, she answers my question. ‘Yes, with a samurai.’

  ‘But it’s against the Warrior Peace Code to mix blood,’ I blurt out.

  ‘I know,’ she says. ‘But we were in love. When I found out I was pregnant, I couldn’t bear to give up the child. I knew the consequences.
There was a fifty per cent chance he or she would be a ninja.’

  ‘And a fifty per cent chance he or she would be a samurai,’ I say.

  ‘With mixed clan blood, there’s no telling until the child begins training which clan the child will belong to. But I always had a feeling about Elecktra …’ The rain against the glass streaks shadow across her cheeks.

  There’s a jackhammer drilling on my brain. My forehead is hot. Lecky has always been different, but I never imagined it was because we were half-sisters.

  ‘Mum, are there more of us with amazing powers? What if they want to kill me too? Does Art know? Where are my grandparents? How do a ninja and samurai live under one roof without killing each other?’ The questions fly like arrows out of my mouth and I feel them pierce Mum’s heart. My breathing quickens and I begin to feel carsick, like I did when my ninja powers were first coming in. My head sways and Mum helps me to lie back down. She rests her hands on my chest and places her chin on top.

  ‘Art knows everything,’ she says calmly. ‘But I don’t know the answers to your other questions.’ I can’t tell if she’s speaking the truth or trying to calm me down.

  ‘Mum, you have to tell me why Lecky and I have powers,’ I plead.

  ‘I really can’t tell you,’ she answers quickly.

  ‘Well, do our fathers know why?’

  Mum is quiet, then eventually says, ‘Look, everything I’ve told you is for your ears only. If the Emishi ninja clan finds out, they’ll kill us.’

  ‘But it wasn’t your f-fault,’ I stutter. The word ‘kill’ echoes into the cave of silence between us. I can’t believe this stuff actually happens. I promise Mum that I won’t tell anyone about Lecky’s father, but I know it’s only a matter of time before someone finds out. Elecktra isn’t exactly modest when it comes to her samurai powers.