by Guy Antibes
After the shock of this revelation, he took the time to gaze at Chika. “I don’t think you can help me.”
“Didn’t you see me in action?”
“I thought it fitting that you would attempt to cook the guard.” Shiro said, wincing at his words.
She laughed anyway and then her face turned grim, “I would have fried them all, if given the chance. My shield nearly broke when the sorcerer stopped my heart. I noticed yours didn’t. Why didn’t you fight back?”
“I don’t know any offensive spells, but I can use the staff and sword.”
“I am best with the staff, as I said.” She smiled and then put her hand on his arm. “Let me come with you.”
“I… I—” Shiro said, unprepared by the offer.
“Certainly you need someone who can cook, heal, throw flames, and wield a nasty staff. I even have my own sword. Not like that,” she looked at Shiro’s blade and made a face. “It looks unwieldy and foreign.” Then she gave him a sly smile until Shiro turned red. Her discussion of ‘swords’ had just turned a little too personal for comfort.
Shiro swallowed hard. He hadn’t talked to a woman in such a way since before he married. But could he really take her? Shiro sensed the responsibility, but brightened. “Will you teach me to use power to heal? I’m somewhat self-taught and perhaps you can help me prepare to rescue Shiuki.”
Chika smiled. Her countenance turned solemn and she nodded her head. “I will not disappoint, Shiro of Koriaki.”
“I certainly hope I won’t,” Shiro said.
~~~
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
~
INSTEAD OF WHITTLING STAFFS, CHIKA SNEAKED OUT of the inn and bought two staffs at the only weapons shop in town along with two fitted leather sheaths. It seemed that the woman had brought along plenty of money when she left her father’s prefecture five years previous.
They took Shiuki’s three horses and left town that night after Chika, in the cook’s guise arranged with the mayor to close the inn down, but not do anything else with it until he received word of Shiuki’s death. The tears in Chika’s eyes remained after she transformed into the visage of a male youth after telling Shiro what she had told the mayor. “It is my sincerest desire to keep that letter from being written.” They used more money to dress as mercenaries, so they could openly carry their arms.
The extra horse held food and camping equipment. They stopped in the morning to boil rice and brew tea. It took some getting used to seeing the cook in the guise of a youth, but then he really didn’t know what she really looked like. The youth looked rather fit.
“I’ve been here before,” Shiro said. “I came from Diakko Island along that path across the road.” He looked at the path, knowing that two dead fishermen rotted in a grave not far from where they stopped. They remained the only two people that he had knowingly put to death. “Have you ever killed anyone before?”
Chika, in the guise of a young man looked up. “A few, including the guard at the inn, of course. I killed three men on my way to the White Chrysanthemum. It isn’t wise for a seemingly defenseless woman to travel by herself in Roppon, armed or not.” She sighed. “Self defense, both times.”
“You said three men.”
“Two attacked me while I slept at the side of the road. They didn’t know I was a woman. They also didn’t know I was armed.” She stared into the flames and shivered in the cool morning air. “I know how to take care of myself, Shiro.”
He left her to her thoughts and fought off the temptation to return to see if the fishermen had ever been discovered. Shiro wouldn’t share his experience unless she specifically asked. He looked back across the road.
“How about you?”
Shiro winced. “I had to take the lives of two fisherman. I had just come up from the beach after I arrived. An hour’s walk to the ocean from here. They decided to rob me. No different from your experience. I used a little magic and the edge of my sword to take care of them. They had families, I’m sure. I regret it.” He looked back across the road again.
“Don’t.” Chika said.
He turned back to her.
“Don’t dwell on it. I learned to forget most of it. I regret it as you do, but your fishermen wouldn’t have done so if they took your life.”
Shiro rubbed his mouth and focused on nothing with his gaze. “I’ve tried, but…” He shook his head. “I don’t want to forget. I don’t want to put it into some perspective. I take responsibility for their deaths.”
“Sure you do,” Chika scoffed, not meaning what she said.
“You’re right. One doesn’t bury bodies and hide them in a grave and then claim responsibility.”
Chika’s gaze at Shiro made him uncomfortable as she continued. “No. But that was a smart move if you want to cover your tracks. You did the right thing.” She stirred the rice pot and threw in some dried fish and vegetables. “It’s just about done.” She stirred the rice again and tasted a few grains. “The killing still bothers me. I’ll admit it. I regret having taken lives, but I did it in self-defense. I’d do the same thing if they attacked again. I’d say we’re much the same.”
Her admission made Shiro laugh. “I’d say we have a few similarities, but in other things we are much different.” He changed his guise to Shiuki’s image and they both laughed. Shiro was glad to have figured out a way to change the subject.
He took out the map case. The innermost map showed the entire Southern Isle. “How valuable is a map set like this?”
“You don’t want to know. There might be fifty sets like that on our island. Shiuki spent years accumulating these.” She looked over Shiro’s shoulder and pointed. “That’s my prefecture.” It wasn’t particularly large, on the eastern edge of the island.
“And where are the Barren Lands?”
“On the western side of this mountain range that runs north to south in the middle of the island.”
Shiro squinted at the map and imagined his travels with Boreko. “I think my mentor and I were transported to here.” He touched the center of the desert. We walked mostly south. The little village that we stumbled into was just outside of your prefecture. Then we made our way to Sekkoro.”
“I’ve never heard of anyone coming out of the desert on their own. My path led me along the southern edge. That was dry enough.”
Shiro smiled and created a little storm. “We had an advantage. It was a close enough thing even so.”
“How did you do that?”
“You have your talents, I have mine.” Shiro didn’t know why he showed off in front of the woman, but he couldn’t resist. “Now what towns do we go through on our way to Sekkoro? Are there any White Rose settlements?”
Chika stared at the map. “I don’t think it’s wise to try to contact anyone. If Ashiyo compromised Shiuki, what’s there to say all of the others along the way to Sekkoro haven’t been compromised as well?”
“We should see if that has happened. Perhaps we can find out by asking some questions. We’ve got a week to find out.”
~
Shiro led them to an inn at the third village they passed.
“What do you have to feed two mercenaries heading for Sekkoro?” he said to the serving maid.
“Thick fish stew over rice. Rice wine.” The maid shrugged. It looked like there wouldn’t be a choice.
“Very well, then,” Shiro said. He looked at the maid as she shuffled back to the kitchen.
“She is afraid of us,” Chika said.
“We are armed to the teeth,” Shiro said.
“Always watch what you do with your teeth,” Chika said and making a clicking sound with her own. “It is certain that we won’t find any help from here to Sekkoro.”
Shiro shook his head. “I had hoped, but I trust your judgment.”
The meal wasn’t any better than what they put together on a campfire and were soon back on the road.
~
The two travelers practiced with staffs and swords wheneve
r they could stop and find a protected glade. No one really cared if two mercenaries practiced. Shiro learned that some of her story had to be true since he found Chika to be an average swordsman, but above average with her staff. He needed the practice and it felt good to practice his sword forms in an open area rather than in the stable or in his room.
Chika had also kept up with her practice well enough, but she admitted, when she observed Shiro at practice, that his sword skills were vastly superior. It didn’t matter as Shiro began to teach her how to enhance her swordplay with sips of power. Soon she used magic to improve her ability, but while Shiro sparred with Chika, he used no magic.
“Don’t overdo the enhancement. You might draw the attention of a sorcerer if one is nearby. Just enough to enhance,” Shiro said. “It’s better to keep your power in reserve in case you might need to drop the sword and defend yourself against another with Affinity.”
Chika nodded. “Perhaps I can learn to shoot flames out of my sword.” She pointed her weapon at a bush and it burst into flame. “Oops.” She laughed and covered her mouth as Shiro pulled water out of the air to extinguish the blaze. “I learn a bit too quickly!”
“I’d like to learn how to do that. An element of surprise!” Shiro said.
They spent the rest of their practice until each could control the amount of flame that they threw. He didn’t tell her how little power his sword took. He suspected that the jewel amplified whatever he tried.
With all of Chika’s playfulness, she took her practice seriously. Shiro found himself liking her attitude. He wondered what she really looked like, but she had maintained her youthful male guise the entire time since they left for Sekkoro. It helped him restrain any romantic thoughts even though she still often found ways to twist his words in naughty ways.
~
Sekkoro sat below them surrounding a blue bay. Ships dotted the water and naked masts clustered around the various wharfs. Somewhere below them Shiuki sat in some dungeon. Would she be at the Guild or at the Lord’s castle that poked up from the red and blue tiled roofs below? Shiro well remembered the city’s stuccoed walls.
He pulled out the Sekkoro street diagram. “Here is the guild and the castle is about five hundred paces away. Have you been in this area before?”
“We can’t stay there. The inns are for nobles and merchants. Perhaps we can change our clothing to mimic house guards,” Chika said.
“Disguises?”
“Perhaps. That would be much cheaper,” she said.
“I’ll have to see them first.”
Chika grinned. “You’ll see enough of them before we need to change. We’ll have to find a modest inn.” She sighed. “I’d like a nice clean bed,” she said and then narrowed her eyes at Shiro.
“I’ll not disagree. We need to stay focused from here on out.”
Chika nodded. “We’ll stay focused then.” However her lip still curled in half of a smile.
~
Rooms were nearly full in all of inns they tried and the innkeepers were only selling double or triple occupancy. “Why so full?” Chika said.
“There is unrest in the countryside. The sorcerer’s guild is hiring mercenaries to help them root out renegade sorcerers, male and female. Some of their leaders have been captured and reside in Lord’s castle and at the Guild. Now, I can spare a double, but that’s it.”
“We’ll take the double,” she said.
Shiro stared at her.
“Is that okay with your partner?”
He had to end the conversation before Chika said anything that would make him laugh. He nodded and nearly choked on the cost. Chika just jerked her head to get him to pay. Reluctantly, Shiro paid the innkeeper for three days. “Including meals, I hope.”
“Meals, but any wine you consume is extra.” He swiped the coins off of the counter and eyed the swords at their waists. “No weapons in the common room.”
Having used up most of their food supplies, they separated out their travel gear in the stables and lugged the rest of their belongings up the stairs.
Shiro looked at the paper walls, listening to the muffled sounds of the occupant next door. “We will have to watch what we say. Remember you are a youth, not a woman.” Chika pouted and moved side to side in a very feminine manner. Uncomfortably feminine. Shiro glared. “I know what you’re trying to do,” he said.
“As long as you don’t attack me in the night, I will behave properly,” she said with her voice low.
“Now,” Shiro said with a louder voice. “I’m hungry and the inn will provide us meals. Let’s go downstairs.”
“We will have to find a way of hiding our weapons,” Chika said.
Shiro looked around the room and then he turned his head towards the ceiling. “I’ll lift you up and have you scout the attic.” He lifted Chika and realized that the disguise didn’t truly change her woman’s body. He felt himself blush. “Sorry.”
She just giggled, soundlessly and lifted the thin wooden panel and looked around. The roof didn’t provide much room on the outside edge. She lifted herself on her elbows. “Give the swords to me. I doubt if our staffs will be particularly attractive to thieves.”
Shiro passed them up. “I agree.” He exercised more care as he helped her down. “Now, I really am hungry.” He put his mouth close to her ear. “Lifting you up gave me quite an appetite.”
Chika looked shocked. “Appetite for what?”
She made him blush again. Shiro just smiled and shook his head in silence all the way down to the common room. He just couldn’t be infuriated the way she manipulated his every statement.
They sat down.
“Chicken skewers or fish soup,” the serving girl said.
Shiro raised his eyebrows at Chika, giving her the choice. “Chicken skewers for me and fish soup for him. Rice and some pickled vegetables,” she said.
“Cost you extra for the vegetables,” the girl said.
“Do it,” Chika said.
He waited for the girl to leave. “Pickled vegetables?”
“I miss them. I made the best…” she casually looked around, “up north.”
“Look around for likely guard models,” Shiro said. “While you are munching on your vegetables. I shudder to think what they will cost us down here.”
“Don’t worry, guards aren’t too expensive.” Chika said, furrowing her brows. “You are too dour.”
“I meant the pickled vegetables!” Shiro said before he realized she had just made fun of him. “We’ve been traveling for more than a week and suddenly I’m too straight-backed for your taste?” She made him angry, this time.
“Taste?” she said and grinned.
Shiro sighed. Must she make his every word a joke? How did a Lord’s daughter develop such a mind? He shook his head in disgust and turned to look at the inn. He’d never given the place much of an examination. It looked much like the inn in Koriaki where he sold his produce. It was a little bigger and a little dirtier in the common area, although he had to admit their room was clean and well ordered.
They had descended a bit early, so the inn would likely fill up as they ate. He looked at the inn and turned back. He found Chika staring at him. “What?” he said.
“Will anyone recognize you? You haven’t taken a disguise and here you are displaying your face to all who wish to look upon you.”
Shiro laughed. “I’m too rigid? No one knows my face. I spent two days in Sekkoro last year. Most of that time I kept myself confined to a certain personage’s house and one night spent, undoubtedly unconscious, by the wharves. I doubt if anyone would remember my face.”
Chika’s face look displeased. “I’d feel better if you assumed a disguise.”
“After we eat. Will that be acceptable?” Shiro complained.
She looked angry, but then Shiro groaned as a smile took over her face. “Dour. See? I imitate your manner and you immediately get irritated. I can bear up under your dourness better than you.”
“So y
ou prefer to be under rather than over?” Shiro said, smiling.
Chika closed her eyes and tried to keep from laughing out loud. “Point taken.”
“No.”
She groaned again. “I can see what you are up against.”
“Only if you look in a mirror,” Shiro said. “I’ll stop.” He pursed his lips and ran his tongue across his front teeth.
“Perhaps you aren’t so dour after all.”
“Focused,” Shiro said. “I’m focused on our mission.” He looked her in the eye with the ghost of a smile on his face.
“I understand.”
“Good. Now let’s eat,” Shiro said as the serving girl brought food to their table.
~
The next morning, Shiro wore the image of Kinoru as they walked through the streets of Sekkoro. Chika spotted two palace guards.
Shiro walked up to them. “Is the Lord hiring guards? My friend and I are seeking employment.”
The taller of the two looked them over. “Are you any good?”
“Yes,” Chika said immediately.
The man shrugged and lifted his chin towards Shiro. “Is the lad right?”
“Mostly. He’s adequate with a sword and pretty good with a staff. We picked up each other coming south from Rumoto. I’ve been around.”
“We don’t want bandits,” the shorter guard said.
“Is there a way to show you what we can do?”
The taller guard pulled a short scroll stick from a pocket inside his tunic. “Take this up to the rear of the Palace first thing tomorrow morning. There’s a small door there for riff-raff like you or me.” He laughed. “Our weapons master can test you. Try your hardest or it will go ill with me.” His companion laughed with him as they continued on.
