by Duncan Lay
Sumiko put her arm around his shoulder, guided him to an oak tree a few paces away and opened a gateway to Vales.
‘Avenge your humiliation,’ she told him, then pushed him into the gateway.
Sumiko waited until Gaibun was gone, then smiled. Manipulating warriors was so easy. Tell him a little truth amid the lies, use a little magic to help him believe it and then supply an extra witness. The result did not matter. Whichever one died was a problem removed. She walked back into his tent.
‘Mistress, can I go now? You promised not to hurt me again if I said what you wanted,’ Omi said softly.
Sumiko walked up to the trembling Omi and reached out, not with the magic this time but with her own hands and grabbed the girl around the throat. It was over swiftly. Omi tried to struggle but Sumiko used a little magic on her to keep her quiet and then dropped her to the ground when she went limp.
Breathing heavily, she reached down and tore apart the dead girl’s kimono. She was sure everyone would get the idea when they found her the next morning. Gaibun vanished into the night, the bruised, naked body of his murdered household maid lying on the ground inside his tent; even if Gaibun returned — with or without Sendatsu’s head — he would be in no position to trouble her. Now she was free to go after Asami without fear Gaibun would come looking for her when he heard his wife and unborn child had been killed. It had been easier than she expected. It seemed paying attention to Asami’s inane conversation over the years had been worth it.
She checked outside the tent carefully before slipping out and using a combination of a little magic and the shadows to flit carefully away towards Jaken’s tent. The Elder Elf had begged for her presence and, after her night’s work was done, she felt able to deal with him.
‘Are you ready?’ Caelin asked them.
Harald put down his sharpening stone. ‘I don’t see why it is always us who gets these jobs,’ he sighed.
‘Captain Edmund asked for us specially. He thinks we might bring him luck,’ Caelin said mildly.
‘My gran used to keep a rabbit’s foot around her neck. She thought that brought her luck. Why don’t you offer him one of those?’ Ruttyn suggested.
‘And what if he says he wants to take our left hands and wear them as a lucky necklace or something?’ Harald nudged him.
‘He’s the chosen heir of the king, not some barbarian from the Skilly Isles,’ Caelin snorted.
‘That’s right. He’d want both our hands in that case.’ Ruttyn tried to smile but it was a weak thing.
Caelin sighed. ‘I know what it must seem like. We were the first through the elven barrier, the only ones to go in with both Captain Wulf and Captain Edmund. Now they are asking us to go into Dokuzen and grab enough hostages so the elves do what we want. We will be surrounded by angry elves and could all end up dangling by our balls in their town square.’
‘Well, when you put it like that, it doesn’t sound so bad,’ Harald said.
‘If it works, there won’t be any more fighting. We will have won. We all went through the battle at Dokuzen and none of us want to go through that again. We can spare not just our mates but our families and country all that.’
‘Or we could die horribly, screaming for our mothers,’ Ruttyn said flatly.
‘I’d be screaming for the wife’s mother,’ Harald told him.
‘I thought you hated her?’
‘Exactly. If I’m going to die horribly, I want to see her going through the same thing.’
Caelin shook his head ruefully. ‘If you can still make jests like that, then you’re ready for Dokuzen!’
‘Papa, why are you sad? The Velsh are listening to you now,’ Mai said, draping an arm across his shoulder.
‘I am not sad!’ Sendatsu protested, lifting his head up from his rice bowl.
‘Please, Papa. Anyone can see you are missing Asami. You should send her a message.’
‘Mai, nothing I can say will do any good. Now please, eat your dinner.’
‘You told me you don’t know everything. So you don’t know she will ignore you if you talk to her,’ Mai said.
‘You listen too carefully,’ Sendatsu said ruefully. ‘Maybe I need to put some carrots in your ears sometimes!’
‘I put carrots in my ears!’ Cheijun announced, taking thin slices of carrot and trying. Sendatsu plucked them out of his son’s fingers before they got into his ears and dropped them back into the bowl.
‘You should still try again,’ Mai said.
Sendatsu pushed his rice bowl away. ‘What did I do to deserve you?’ he asked with a smile.
‘Something very good,’ Mai replied.
A knock on the door stopped Sendatsu’s reply and he opened it carefully, holding back Cheijun’s efforts to attack their visitor with his wooden sword, to reveal Cadel.
‘Huw and Rhiannon need you,’ he said. ‘I’ll watch Mai and Cheijun.’
‘I defeat you!’ Cheijun announced, waving his sword and forcing Sendatsu to jump over the blade.
‘I won’t be long,’ he told them.
‘Remember what I said,’ Mai told him.
Sendatsu hurried over to the meeting hall, wondering what had happened, to see Huw and Rhiannon arguing. Or rather, Huw trying to apologise and Rhiannon ignoring his efforts. It was a sight he had seen before and had no wish to see again; he thought they had fixed things.
‘Now what?’ he said loudly as he strode into the hall, seeing them turn away from each other to face him. ‘I have been training fat, stubborn old men all day and just when I get the chance to spend some time with my children, I am dragged in here again!’
‘We still have not heard anything from Asami. But I think I know why,’ Rhiannon said.
Sendatsu pulled up a chair as Huw shoved the map in his direction, worries about the two of them vanishing in an instant.
‘The Forlish are going no faster, indeed they are slowing down. And they are crossing some of the worst country in Rheged. At this rate they will never get here before the snows arrive.’ Huw slapped at the map. ‘So I decided to see what Dokuzen was doing, and discovered that Jaken has marched with his full strength. At least ten thousand warriors, most of them mounted. They are coming west, straight for Vales.’
Sendatsu, his mouth dry, looked closely at the map, lit poorly as it was by a pair of crude candles. ‘There is something missing,’ he said. ‘There is a piece to this puzzle we are not seeing. If only we could speak to Asami, we might work it out.’
Rhiannon sighed. ‘Asami has ignored every message I sent. But I shall send her another, just in case.’
Sendatsu tapped the table slowly. ‘I know my father would not ask gaijin to help him defeat us. So we know Sumiko is behind this. What does she want?’
‘Well —’ Huw began.
‘I wasn’t looking for an answer, I was thinking aloud,’ Sendatsu told him. ‘She wants power. What did she achieve by breaking up the alliance we had fought to create? She makes herself and the Magic-weavers the heroes of the battle of Dokuzen. She makes humans look bad, so Jaken can never turn to them again and she turns herself into Jaken’s most trusted adviser. So she must have persuaded him to let her go to the Forlish, try to set them up in a trap with us as the bait. Only we know Ward is too clever to walk into a trap. He only sends his most mobile force north, so he’s planning to betray her if it is a trap. Both sides are ready to betray each other.’
‘So do we just sit back and do nothing, let them turn on each other?’ Rhiannon asked.
‘There is something more,’ Sendatsu said in frustration. ‘She knows my father has won the people. They see him as their saviour. They would not turn from him or accept her as Elder Elf. She must have something else planned, an extra double-cross.’
‘What would make them turn from your father?’ Huw pondered.
‘He has styled himself as the protector of Dokuzen, he saved the people from their nightmare sprung to life, a horde of gaijin at the gates. If the Forlish managed to get inside D
okuzen, then the people would turn on him. But he would never make the same mistakes as Daichi …’ Sendatsu trailed off, his eyes on the map.
‘What?’ Huw prompted.
‘The Forlish are moving in the same manner they did when they fooled Daichi, getting his attention in one direction then springing the real trap from another direction. They might be planning the same thing.’
‘But the rest of the Forlish army hasn’t moved from their camp on the border,’ Huw pointed out.
‘But Sumiko has magic. She can open a gateway for them, bring them right into the city,’ Sendatsu said, his mouth suddenly dry.
‘There’s no way she can bring so many across so far. Asami and I brought the dragons into Dokuzen and it nearly killed us,’ Rhiannon said.
‘She doesn’t have to bring them all, just enough to run rampage. Then she claims all humans have magic and she is the only one who can protect the people. They would abandon Jaken and turn to her,’ Sendatsu said.
‘No!’ Rhiannon exclaimed in horror.
‘This is just a guess though — we don’t know this is her plan,’ Huw warned.
‘We have to tell Asami. She is the only one who can confirm it,’ Sendatsu said. ‘We must get through to her. If I am right, then Sumiko will have a plan for her as well. Rhiannon and Asami are the only ones who can stop Sumiko. She has to kill Asami for the plan to succeed.’
‘What is that noise?’ Retsu asked. ‘I have been hearing it for the last turn of an hourglass, at least.’
Asami looked up from her rice bowl and tensed for a moment, before relaxing.
‘It sounds like another bird has arrived with a message,’ she dismissed.
‘A message? From who? How many messages?’
Asami grimaced. ‘My guess would be Sendatsu, sent through his human friend Rhiannon. They have been sending me a message a day for the past quarter-moon.’
‘Well, they seem to have sent you half-a-dozen in the past turn of the hourglass. What are they trying to say?’
‘I have no idea. I have been throwing the earlier ones in the fire as fast as they arrive.’
Retsu put his chopsticks very carefully on his bowl and wiped his mouth on the cotton napkin. ‘Well, perhaps we should read this one …’
‘There is no need. I am sure they are ridiculous,’ Asami said hastily, imagining with horror what Retsu might say if he opened Sendatsu’s message to see flowery declarations of love and apology.
‘Or they might be important. Don’t forget the work they did to help save Dokuzen. Perhaps they have found out something we need to know. They hate Sumiko as much as we do. And if they have been sending so many, it would be foolish not to read at least one.’
Asami grudgingly sent a servant to collect the birds and bring her the messages attached to their legs.
Retsu cleared his throat and pushed his bowl away. ‘Asami, we have spoken little over the years. I have stayed out of my son’s marriage, for many reasons. I know only too well what it is like to be asked to marry someone who does not hold your heart, to see your true love wed another. But I want my son to be happy. I hope, now Sendatsu has declared where his heart is, you two can learn to —’
Asami surged to her feet. ‘What’s that noise?’
‘Another bird?’ Retsu suggested.
‘No.’ Asami waved him down, straining to hear what was happening outside.
‘The guards would let us know if anyone came calling.’
‘Really? Because the noise came from out there.’ Asami walked swiftly out of the reception room.
‘Where are you going?’ Retsu followed her to the doorway.
Asami stepped into her room, returning with a sword in her hand. ‘Just to get this first.’
‘You are worrying needlessly,’ Retsu told her. ‘Those guards are both former Border Patrol warriors. They are skilled and experienced.’
‘Yes, because the Border Patrol did so well against the Forlish,’ Asami muttered.
She walked to the front door then stopped, her nostrils flaring. A moon ago she would have wondered what the smell was, but after the battle of Dokuzen she knew it only too well. The stink of opened bowels and blood.
‘The guards are dead. Get your sword,’ she said, backing away, eyes on the door.
Retsu did not argue, instead darting over to where he had taken off his sword and left it in the wide entrance hall. He joined her on the far side of the door, where they would be hidden when it opened, protected by the solid front wall.
‘Who is it?’ he hissed.
‘No idea. But I would think they are sent by Sumiko. It is too convenient. As soon as she is out of the city —’
She never got to finish her sentence, because the front door blew in, crashing and tumbling across the hall to slam into a fresco on the far wall and bring down scores of tiles in a shower of splinters and pottery.
‘I hate it when they do that,’ Asami muttered, closing her eyes against the dust and debris clattering across the hall.
‘Are you safe?’ Retsu asked roughly.
‘For now. When they come, watch my back,’ Asami told him.
‘Shouldn’t I take the lead?’ Retsu asked indignantly.
A pair of dark-clad figures raced into the hall, swords in hands. Asami sprang to meet them when they paused to take in their surroundings. She slashed down at the back of one’s legs, opening them to the bone and sending him screaming to the ground. The other reacted swiftly, turning and cutting at her head. She blocked smoothly and stepped into a lunge, driving her blade under his ribcage and up into his lungs, dropping him dead to the floor beside his howling companion.
‘You seemed to have that in hand,’ Retsu admitted as he joined her in looking down at the wounded warrior. Even in the dim light of the hallway they could see he was bleeding out.
‘Who sent you?’ Asami asked harshly.
The warrior glared up at her, eyes glistening, face covered in dark cloth.
‘We don’t have time for this,’ Retsu said crisply.
‘What do you mean? He won’t die yet,’ Asami said fiercely.
‘No, but we might.’ Retsu took her arm and she looked up to see more figures easing through the doorway, swords in hands.
‘Come on, we need to get out into the garden,’ Asami said, backing away and flicking blood off her sword.
‘Is there a way out there?’
‘No, but there I can use magic better,’ Asami replied.
They turned and ran, their attackers close on their heels — and then they heard screaming and shouting coming from the garden.
10
Our people put such a reliance on honour. Your reputation means everything and you must preserve or improve the standing of your family and your clan. But that is wrong. The foundation of honour on which we thought everything was built has collapsed. We have to find our own way. Forget the past and find your own way, my son. Ignore what I have done and worry about yourself.
‘Asami has not answered us. I don’t know what else to do.’ Rhiannon shrugged.
Sendatsu paced up and down beside the long table. ‘Something is very wrong,’ he said. ‘I can feel it. She might ignore the odd message but not as many as Rhiannon sent.’
‘Or maybe she could.’ Huw yawned. ‘Don’t forget how you all parted. She and Rhiannon screamed at each other and then she kicked you out of her home and said she had chosen Gaibun over you.’
Sendatsu stopped walking. ‘Rhiannon, I need you to send me through an oaken gateway into Asami’s home.’
‘Wait a moment!’ Huw leaned back in his chair. ‘I thought she had ripped your heart out and you wanted nothing more to do with her?’
‘I know,’ Sendatsu agreed. ‘But something feels very wrong. I can’t shake the feeling Sumiko will be trying to kill her — maybe even attacking her now.’
‘And what if she’s not? What if you arrive there and she and Gaibun are merely having a romantic night together?’ Huw pushed.
‘
Then I will apologise and return here,’ Sendatsu said quietly.
‘You said that part of your life was over.’
‘I know,’ Sendatsu mumbled.
‘You said you could not bear to see her again.’
‘I know,’ Sendatsu said loudly.
‘You said you could not stand the thought of her with Gaibun.’
‘I know!’ Sendatsu shouted.
‘So you still have feelings for her, despite everything you said, despite asking us never to mention her name again?’
‘I cannot stop loving her. It’s as much a part of me as breathing.’ Sendatsu sighed.
‘I still think we should give it more time. After all, it has only been a little over a turn of the hourglass since the first bird arrived,’ Huw pointed out.
Sendatsu turned to Rhiannon. ‘Please, send me to her,’ he said. ‘I feel like time is running out.’
Rhiannon pushed back her chair and stood. ‘Why not? It is only a mile’s ride in the cold, after all,’ she grunted. ‘Maybe I should get some of my Magic-weavers to help. Maybe Bevan could practise —’
‘No time for that! Just the two of you — quickly. Asami’s life may depend on it!’ Huw cried.
Rhiannon grimaced but did not argue.
Sendatsu hid a smile. Mentioning Bevan’s name had changed Huw’s attitude instantly.
‘Come on, hurry, the pair of you!’ Huw hustled them both outside and helped Sendatsu saddle a pair of horses. Between Sendatsu’s fears and Huw’s urgings, they were soon riding out to the oak tree.
‘I see you two are getting along well,’ Sendatsu observed as they rode.
‘If you want my help, you won’t mention that again,’ Rhiannon muttered. So they rode in silence until they reached the tree.
‘I’ll send you through first. If you want me or need me to come through, knock the staff, otherwise I’ll shut the gateway and reopen it again in a turn of the hourglass,’ Rhiannon told him.
‘You don’t have an hourglass,’ he pointed out.
‘Well, about one turn. Or until I get too cold and bored.’ Rhiannon smiled.
She closed her eyes and placed one hand on the trunk, using the other to push an oaken staff through the heart of the tree, although it did not come out the other side in Vales — it would be at the gateway in Asami’s garden, Sendatsu knew.
