L5r - scroll 03 - The Crane (21 page)

"Nothing. The fire crackled. The sentries are fine. You are dreaming again, Mosu-san."

He lifted his head from the thin woolen blanket. "Something else." A sharp crack, the whinny of horses. Mosu reached for his sword and drew it to his side.

Yelling erupted from the edge of the encampment.

Even Mosu's weary companion could not ignore the summons to battle. "Daidoji!" he cursed, leaping to feet bloodied by marches across stone-covered ground.

Men raced among tents that suddenly blazed with fire.

"There!" one shouted.

A Crane samurai leaped ahead of them. He threw something into the fire. A sharp series of crackling pops showered the men with sparks. They howled as the fire burned through clothing and singed flesh. More firecrackers detonated, sending out charcoal, ash, and flame.

Mosu charged relentlessly past flailing Lion, determined not to be turned back by his pain. He spotted the saboteur crossing the encampment. Screaming, Mosu pursued. He raised his sword to slash another Daidoji across the back. The Crane fell, cut in two by the massive stroke.

Mosu shouted, "They are not ghosts!" He cuffed a fallen Ikoma. "They are men, and they can be beaten!"

Screaming Tsuko's name, four more Lion joined Mosu.

The saboteur wove through the camp, leaping over horses and tossing more fireworks into the bonfires. Smoke erupted along with screams of pain and fury—some cut short by death. The man dropped a flaming torch into stacked bundles of rice. The sudden flare showed his dark blue gi.

"Daidoji!" Mosu snarled.

The man turned to run.

Mosu and his men gave chase, screaming for blood. "After him!" Mosu yelled ferociously, holding his father's sword before him as he began his swing.

The Daidoji leapt into the woodlands and turned, reaching for his sword. His smile was as feral as winter.

Suddenly, the ground collapsed beneath Mosu. The screams of his followers echoed in dumbfounded ears. His feet flailed without purchase. A shower of earth and thin balsa wood scattered across his eyes and face.

Then he landed upon the spikes, and knew no more.

xxxxxxxx

"What's happening?" Matsu Suzemeri came out of his tent, girding his sword to his side with an obi of orange and yellow cloth.

"The Daidoji, sir," a nearby guard fell to one knee, his face blackened by soot.

Suzemeri saw fire among the supply tents. His men raced tli rough the night, screaming for their commanders. Flames spread through the dry grass on which they camped.

Striding through the chaos, Suzemeri shouted, "Mosu! Mosu! Where in the twin furnace of Jigoku is that man?"

"My lord, he went to the forest, chasing some of the Daidoji saboteurs."

"Damn him!" he shouted with frustration. "I'll have his head for this!"

Horses screamed as they charged through the encampment. Firecrackers whirled and hissed, tied to their stubby tails. Hooves tore through tents and shattered posts.

"I'll have his head!" the commander repeated.

Another group of samurai fell, clutching their throats as if to remove the Daidoji arrows that had sprouted beneath their chins.

"As you wish, Matsu," a voice shouted from the safety of a

high tree branch. "We've pulled it from the pit for you." Something flew from the saboteur's outstretched hand and rolled across the blazing clearing.

Mosu's head.

At that moment, grass fires reached the strings of powder buried just beneath the ground. The entire plain exploded into flame.

xxxxxxxx

"The nearest troop of Lion are seven days from Sayo Castle," Uji reported, kneeling in the wooden court chamber of the Kakita. "Our troops have gathered the local heimin to transport the rice from those silos farther south."

"Seven days," Ameiko echoed quietly, looking at Doji Kuwanan thoughtfully. Hoturi's brother made no reply. His eyes were dark and lifeless, but beneath their stony facade, intelligence burned. She asked, "Will that be enough time to empty Sayo Castle's reserve?"

"No, Lady." Kuwanan's deep bass voice rumbled through the room. "It would take twice that, or more."

Ameiko sighed, placing her chin on her hand. "So sorry, Kuwanan-san, but seven days is all the time we can give you. Use it wisely."

He nodded. His broad face lowered. "And what about the rice we cannot get out of the keep before the Matsu arrive in enough force to capture Sayo Castle?"

"Burn it, Kuwanan-san."

Uji's swarthy face darkened with anger.

Beside him, Kuwanan bowed curtly, disliking his orders but knowing nothing more could be done. Many Daidoji troops had died during the conflict with Matsu Suzemeri. Kyuden Kakita could spare few more men.

"I received a letter from Yoshi-san today." Ameiko lifted a folded piece of parchment from her sleeve. "He tells me the tournament for the Emerald Champion is finished. The emperor once more has a champion. And that man," her voice lowered dangerously, "is a Crane. Toshimoko-san has become the emperor's hand."

Blotches of color appeared on Uji's cheeks, and his hands clenched.

Kuwanan smiled with pride. His thick face brightened like the sun through clouds.

Ameiko placed the letter on the dais before her knees. After a moment, she stood. "Kuwanan, you should be on your way to Sayo. They will be in need of you."

Kuwanan bowed, took a single stride backward, and turned to pace through the sliding shoji doors. He walked with pride. For him, the news meant honor to the Crane. Flis father's position at the emperor's side remained in the clan most worthy. Even more than Hoturi, Kuwanan could be blind to the deeper machinations.

"Uji, remain." Ameiko stood from the dais and motioned for Uji to follow her. She led him onto the wide stone balcony overlooking the Kakita forests.

Silently, he followed, his mood black.

"You do not approve of the appointment, Uji-san?"

He rested his hands on the stone railing, feeling ivy crush beneath his fingers. "Do you wish my frank opinion, Ameiko-sama?"

"Do you think I would ask you otherwise?" Green eyes leveled sharply, and her fan tapped once on the stone.

Uji nodded, running a hand slowly over his unshaven face. The black kohl he wore to assault the Lion still darkened the shallow slopes beneath his eyes, clinging to his cheekbones in a thin gray smear. There had been no time for bathing—Uji had far too much to do to waste time with fashion. His clothing was clean, his hands washed. It was enough.

Calmly, the Daidoji Daimyo considered his lady's question. "Toshimoko is a brave fighter, if a chaotic one. His valor is unquestioned, and he was certainly the most qualified to win the challenge."

"I want your opinion, Uji-san. Do not repeat the babbling of the court."

"His appointment takes one more Crane away from Crane lands, and gives us an obligation we cannot possibly fulfill. Toshimoko will be alone, and we will be without his assistance when the Lion come. No doubt, the empress has several errands that the great and honorable Hantei must have completed. The Emerald Champion will become her handmaiden." The scorn was thick. Uji's snakelike face contorted in barely controlled anger. "We cannot afford to lose more samurai. To lose one such as Toshimoko...."

"If the Emerald Magistrates could be called, they could be of great use to us," Ameiko noted. "We must pray that the spirit of our ancestor, the First Doji, has watched over us. Perhaps we can turn Toshimoko's victory to our cause."

"The Magistrates are useless. Worse than ronin. It will take more than a Crane with a strong arm to turn them from raiding villages and hiding like dogs."

"It is all the hope we have, Uji-san," Ameiko said unwillingly. She pointed beyond the forest, over the faraway hills of the Kakita provinces. "We have already turned back the Crab, though after their defeat at Beiden Pass and the plague that roams our southern lands, they will no doubt assault our provinces for provision. The ronin army at Beiden Pass cannot keep them back forever, nor can the Unicorn harass them enough to send them home to their Kaiu Wall. They have attacked one of the lesser palaces of the Kakita. Who is to say they will not return and do so again?"

A string of lights illuminated the distant hills, sparkling like stars against the velvet night.

"In seven days," Uji paced the balcony like a caged animal, his footsteps padding against the stone. "The Matsu legions will take Sayo Castle. There is nothing we can do to prevent them. We must allow Kuwanan to do what he can, and then withdraw all of our troops to Kyuden Kakita and prepare to defend ourselves against Tsuko's assault. War will come to us whether we wish it or not, Ameiko. It will come, and we must be prepared."

"Something is about to happen, Uji. Something that could destroy the Crane."

Somewhere in the forest, a fox yipped softly, its mournful note echoing against the hills.

A chill ran down Uji's spine at the sound, his usually stoic stance hollowing with unease.

"I feel fear, Uji. A darkness spreads from the north. It touches the hidden places in my heart."

He was silent for a moment. "The Lion march toward Kyuden Kakita. That is what you feel." Whispering, he tried to soothe her strangeness, concerned for the shadow that had suddenly come over her features. "It is the thing we all fear."

Gathering her cloak closely about her, Ameiko did not reply.

shattered moonlight

He came to the empty chambers as he was bid, late in the night, after the moon had hidden his face beneath clouds and darkness. The wooden floor made no sound beneath his careful footsteps. The door slid open softly at his touch. Starlight drifted faintly though the open windows, illuminating the wide room.

"What is left for us, my love?" The silken whisper drifted to his ears. "Now that the war has come, and time has destroyed us both?"

"Nothing has been destroyed, only forgotten," he replied, searching the shadows to find her. Hoturi sighed, brushing aside the gauze that veiled the view of the gardens.

A light rustle of silk caught his attention at the far side of the room. "Am I, too, so easily forgotten?" Kachiko's form separated from the shadow, a moving piece of the darkness, as soft and smooth as water in a lake.

"Never, Lady," he breathed.

"Years ago, Hoturi, you loved me. Before Shoju came— before I was forced to be the wife of the daimyo of the Scorpion, you told me you would give up anything for me. Have you ever wondered what it would have been like," her fingertips slid softly down the thin cords that tied her obi at her waist, "if we had left the empire behind, as we once planned?"

"How young we must have been to think that responsibilities could be so easily lost." Hoturi moved behind her and smelled the scent of lilac and mist. He wanted to touch her as he had once before, but something in her eyes stopped his fingertips a mere inch from her ivory cheek. Without touching, Hoturi traced his fingers along her face, her shoulder, her breast. "We were lucky to have such dreams."

"You never dreamed of me?" Her voice lowered, and her face turned away from the light.

"I did not say that, Kachiko."

The cool winter wind surrounded them, brushing aside a lock of her hair. It slid from the ivory clips that held it, drifting down beneath her shoulder. Kachiko walked across the room. Her scarlet kimono shifted about her. Silk spread down over long, slim legs, silhouetted in the window light. Each step she took called softly to him.

There was no other sound in the palace save the soft chirrup of frogs from the great pond in the garden.

"Hoturi," Kachiko murmured, shifting against the window's glare, "not a day passed that I did not think of you." The truth of her words shone in her luminous eyes.

"And I of you. But I didn't turn you away, soft kami. It was your word that kept me from your side. When 1 came to the palace, Aramoro threatened my life—and said you would not see me again." Pain and sorrow, so long concealed, began at last to surface. "I came to you, as I had come to you a thousand nights since your marriage, and by your choice, I was turned away." Slowly, he made his way to her side. "Why? After four years, Kachiko, you didn't even tell me yourself. You had that ape, that vicious assassin, tell me that"—Hoturi

felt again the bi tter sting of loss—"you didn't wish to see me."

Without answering his question, Kachiko slid a manicured fingernail through a long strand of his hair, pulling it free of the topknot that bound it. "Your clan destroyed my family."

"On the emperor's orders, and more than ten years after you left me."

"Was it so few?" she asked thoughtfully, her voice low. "You are right, I suppose. It seemed like many more."

"Kachiko, tell me." Hoturi suddenly grasped her shoulders, his hands warm through the kimono. Pulling her lightly toward him, he felt the garment fall to one side, baring her shoulder at his touch. "Why did you leave me? Did you stop loving me?" Breathing the scent of her neck, he whispered huskily in her ear. "When did our game end?"

Gasping softly, the lady of the Scorpions twisted her fingers in his hair, drawing him near. Her bare cheek pressed against the warm hollow of his throat. A single tear raced down her cheek, unseen by any save the shadow and the starlight. "It did not end, my love," she murmured, trembling. "I simply changed the rules."