The Flood Dragon's Sacrifice

by Sarah Ash

  “Good.” Kai picked up the little lantern he had brought in with him and held it above his brother’s head. “See this? I want you to follow the flame as closely as you can.” Slowly he swung the lantern from side to side above the bed, observing Takeru’s reactions. Master Seishi had performed these tests on one of the monks who had fallen when mending the gatehouse roof and knocked himself unconscious. If the patient’s eyes fail to move as a pair and lose focus, then there is some underlying damage to the brain. Kai leaned closer; Takeru’s left pupil was a little larger than the right and he seemed to be having trouble following the moving flame. Not good. Kai set the lantern down beside the bed once more.

  “Well?” Isamu asked tensely.

  “What’s in this poultice?” Kai asked, removing it from Takeru’s temples and sniffing it, hoping to occupy Isamu while he tried to figure out what on earth he could do to help his brother. I have so little experience as a healer. If only I could ask Master Seishi for advice.

  “I’ll go fetch Master Ujiake straight away, my lord.” Isamu seemed to be relieved to be given a task to perform, for he leapt to his feet and hurried away.

  Master Ujiake is still practicing? Kai could hardly believe that the elderly physician who had been serving the family since his grandfather’s time hadn’t retired; he must have been at least eighty years old.

  “Kai-kun.” The slurred voice from the bed made him turn back. Takeru hadn’t called him by that nickname since they were children. “Something’s – not right. Can’t remember.”

  “You fell and hurt your head.” It pained Kai to see the bewilderment in Takeru’s eyes. “It may take a while for your memories to return. Your main task is to recover from your injuries first.” He spoke encouragingly, remembering the many times he had heard Master Seishi calmly reassuring his patients… and the look of relief that had shown in their faces as worried frowns relaxed. “And now that I’m here…”

  The screen slid open and Isamu reappeared.

  “That was quick,” Kai said, surprised.

  “General Tachibana has requested to see you, my lord.”

  “But I haven’t finished tending to my brother yet.”

  “He says it’s urgent.”

  Kai sighed and managed to push himself up to his feet. “Please tell Master Ujiake that I’ll speak with him later,” he said. “Now where can I find the general?”

  ***

  “Take care, Lord Kaito. Don’t stand too close to the parapet.” General Tachibana put a warning hand on Kai’s shoulder to steer him back under the shelter of the steeply pitched roof.

  “So it wasn’t just a lone shinobi we encountered last night; the Kites are so close that they can pick off our sentries?” Kai gazed out over the wooded land beyond the outer castle walls, wondering if, even now, one of the Kites had him in their sights and was preparing to shoot. In the far distance, he could just make out the shimmer of the sea.

  “They keep changing position. As soon as we think we’ve located one of their archers, he disappears before we can – ”

  An arrow whistled over the parapet, embedding its tip in the carved wood of the sloping roof immediately above Tachibana’s head. Kai let out a shout of surprise, stumbling backward.

  “Return fire!” the general ordered as the Crane archers came running up along the battlement. As they raised their bows and sent a hail of arrows out into the green sea of branches, Tachibana turned back to Kai. “Are you all right, my lord?”

  “Just about,” Kai said shakily, wondering how the general could stay so calm under fire. Tachibana reached up and caught hold of the shaft of the arrow, tugging it out of the wood. “Ah; a message.” He unrolled a thin piece of cloth that had been wrapped tightly around the shaft, scanned it briefly, and then handed it to Kai.

  Kai read the blunt inscription written in bold, black brush strokes:

  ‘To Princess Asagao: We have it on good authority that Lord Takeru is too badly injured to lead the defense of the castle. Surrender now, and if Lord Naoki is returned to us unharmed we will deal mercifully with you and your clan. But if you ignore our request, prepare to endure a long and bloody siege. Akatobi no Toshiro.’

  “So that’s how it is.” Kai handed the message back. “Do you think Lord Toshiro has been planning this for a while?”

  The general read through the message a second time. “Who knows? Exiled on that island for the last seven years, he’s had plenty of time to assemble his ships and train his men.”

  “But what went wrong at Tenryu Bay?”

  “The way Kakumyo tells it, the hostage exchange was going according to plan when your brother and his retainers arrived. Then there was a tremendous explosion. Your brother was thrown by his horse and the Kites retreated.”

  “An explosion?” Kai looked at the general in alarm. Tachibana was a man of few words, self-contained and reserved, unlike the irascible Kakumyo. “What caused it?”

  “A new weapon that spits fire. I’d heard tales of such a monstrous invention before, but I never dreamed it would be used against us. What martial skill – or honor – can there possibly be in firing indiscriminately on an enemy?”

  “So they fired on us. Did they just use the Tide Jewels as a pretext to lure us into an ambush?” The explanation somehow didn’t feel right. “And what about Lord Naoki? Did they plan to create a diversion and seize him in the confusion?”

  The general gave a little shrug of the shoulders. “They used the weapon again down at the beach. Commander Iekane was killed, and others in his detachment were injured.”

  Kai was out of his depth, drowning in this floodtide of bad news. Were the Kites planning to bombard the castle with their new fire-spitting weapon? “Lord Toshiro has never forgiven us,” he said softly. “I fear that he won’t rest until he sees our stronghold destroyed in flames.”

  “Never forget that it was Lord Toshiro who attacked us that night.” General Tachibana’s calm, measured voice had become as keen-edged as a freshly honed katana blade. “I was with your father, my lord. The fire that destroyed his castle was not of our making. He is the one responsible for his clan’s banishment. And the fact that we have his son here will, I trust, make him reluctant to attack our castle directly.”

  “Lord Naoki is still here?” Kai had imagined that Kakumyo had sent his prisoner back to the monastery after the exchange went wrong.

  “We have him securely locked up in the dungeons. Even if they break in, there’s no way their shinobi could find him.”

  “In the dungeons?” To treat Naoki as a criminal, not a hostage, was a dishonorable act and would reflect badly on the clan’s reputation when the news came to the emperor’s ears – as, inevitably, it would. “We must move him straight away.”

  Tachibana gave him a quizzical look. “But why should we show him any kindness? Don’t forget, my lord, that it was he who stole the sacred jewels and started this whole sorry business. The Kites declared war on us – and now they must accept the consequences.”

  Yet if we don’t try to seek reconciliation, the old hatreds will never be resolved and more people will die.

  Kai bit back the protest. Tachibana was his mother’s creature; he could hear her cold logic behind every word. The general would merely dismiss his ideas as the idealistic fantasies of an inexperienced young man, educated by monks and unused to the harsh realities of the world outside the monastery.

  And then he had a sudden desperate inspiration. “How about I strike you a deal, General? I’ll put on my brother’s armor and confuse the hell out of the Kites – although I’ll need some help getting on his horse. In exchange, you agree to grant Lord Naoki the treatment befitting a hostage of his high rank.”

  Tachibana did not instantly respond – and then, to Kai’s surprise, he let out a dry laugh. “You may resemble your late father in looks, my lord, but you’ve inherited your mother’s skill in driving a hard bargain.”

  ***

  As the dungeon guards unlocked the door to Na
oki’s cell, Kai felt a breath of cold, tainted air that reeked of stale human waste and damp. In the far corner he could just make out Naoki sitting hunched below a high grille that let in a meager glimmer of daylight.

  “It stinks. And it’s damp. Who gave the order for Lord Naoki to be kept down here?”

  “Captain Kakumyo,” answered one guard. “He said nowhere else was secure enough.”

  “Bring light.”

  “Yes, my lord.” One fetched a lantern while the other held the heavy door open.

  “Now leave us; I’ll interrogate the hostage myself.”

  “But my lord – ”

  “He’s securely chained to the wall. What harm can he do to me?”

  The two men looked uncertainly at each other.

  “Call for us, my lord, if we’re needed. We’ll be right outside the door.”

  Kai knew he was taking a risk in sending the guards away; Naoki had powerful Shadow skills and he had none. But he wanted to try to convince the Kite that he would do everything he could to ensure he was treated as a noble-born hostage.

  As the lantern glow warmed the bare, rock-hewn cell, he saw Naoki turn his face away from the light. His shoulders began to shake convulsively. At first Kai thought he was crying – and then he realized that the movement was caused by another emotion altogether; Naoki was laughing. And this silent laughter was much more disturbing than if Naoki had broken down in front of him.

  “Naoki – ”

  “Lord Kaito,” said Naoki, raising his head, “to what do I owe the pleasure of this visit?” His eyes glittered feverishly in the flickering light. “I must apologize for my lack of hospitality; I could offer you some stale water – ”

  “Stop it, Naoki.”

  “There’s nowhere to sit except the mattress but there’re already far too many little creatures crawling around in the straw.”

  “Naoki!”

  The febrile glitter in Naoki’s eyes hardened. “Don’t say my name so familiarly. I’m not one of your subordinates.”

  His words stung. But Kai was not ready to give up. “I thought that things were different between the two of us. I – ”

  “Because we’re Tide Dragon Sacrifices?” Naoki let out a grunt of derision. “But I’m your hostage, my lord. Your prisoner. That certainly makes things ‘different’ between us.”

  Kai stifled a sigh; Naoki was right. “I can only apologize that you’ve been kept here in the darkness like a common criminal. I’ll do everything I can to ensure that you’re more comfortably confined.” Wasn’t that what usually happened in a hostage situation when the prisoner was of noble birth? He’d heard of such cases in the last clan wars in his great-grandfathers’ time, when high-born children had been imprisoned and exchanged like priceless treasures.

  “Common criminal – but isn’t that exactly what I am? I broke into the shrine and stole the Tide Jewels. Shouldn’t the abbot have sent me to the capital city to be executed for committing a crime against the emperor?” For the first time Kai saw a glimmer of genuine hatred in Naoki’s eyes.

  “Why did you do it?” Kai said bluntly. “When you knew the stakes were so high?”

  “I was bored. If you’d spent the last seven years cooling your heels on Akatobi Island, you might well have done the same.”

  Kai was not convinced by the nonchalant reply. “Someone put you up to it,” he said. “Someone helped you. A powerful onmyōji. What did he offer you in return for the jewels?”

  “I have no idea what you’re talking about.” Naoki gazed back at him, unblinking, defiant. “Why would I, the heir to the Akatobi clan, do some magician’s dirty work?”

  “That’s just what I’ve been asking myself.” Kai knew it might have been wiser to leave these thoughts unsaid, but he pressed on. “What could an onmyōji offer you that would be an incentive? A more powerful Shadow skill?”

  A little shrug that made the fetters clank. Naoki gave a dry laugh. “What indeed?”

  This was going nowhere. Kai felt a sudden sense of hopelessness overwhelm him. Was this the real Naoki, embittered by seven years of shame and exile? He turned to leave.

  “You weren’t there,” Naoki said in the silence. “How could you possibly imagine what it’s like to be caught up in a raging inferno? To know your own mother is trapped on the other side of a wall of fire? To see your brother run back to try to rescue her – only to die in agony as the roof beams come crashing down?”

  Kai remained silent. What could he say? He had never experienced anything as terrifying as being trapped in a burning building.

  “Your father could have saved us. But he chose not to. Why was that, Lord Kaito?”

  Naoki’s outburst had begun to stir memories of the fire-riven night that Kai had tried to forget. He didn’t want to be forced to remember. “Why?” he said carefully. “Because he’d made a sacred vow to the emperor to protect the Tide Jewels.”

  “That’s not the way I heard it. Black Crane shinobi started the fire. Your father deserved to die.”

  There was something so darkly twisted about Naoki’s words that Kai turned back.

  “And how do I know? Because I was told by a Crane clansman who was there.”

  “And I suppose that was when you decided to steal the jewels? Didn’t it strike you as a little odd that this man suddenly made up his mind – after seven years – to tell you the truth?” Kai rounded on him. “What was his name? Where’d he been all that time? Why didn’t he come forward before?”

  Naoki gave him a withering look. “Why do you think? He’d been paid to keep silent.”

  “No.” What could he possibly say to convince Naoki he’d been misled? “My father would never have ordered the fire. How would it have benefited him – or our clan – to do something so dishonorable?”

  “Benefit didn’t come into it. My informant said it was in revenge for the burning of your village.”

  “Sakuranbo village?” Kai remember the desolation he had seen at the top of the mountain, the tumbled, charred stones that were all that remained of Sakami’s home.

  “My clan had nothing to do with that. Yet your father blamed us.”

  “There were survivors who saw shinobi who could fly like birds. He had proof.” Kai realized too late that Naoki had neatly maneuvered him into a defensive position. Nothing he said now would shake the other boy’s conviction that he was in the right.

  “Why would the Kites sack a peasant village?”

  “Maybe they stole something – and started the fires to cover their tracks. There was a shrine to Inari up there.”

  Another dismissive shrug from Naoki. “If Lord Morimitsu wanted revenge for his precious little village, why didn’t he just challenge my father to a duel? Instead of taking such a cowardly revenge on my clan?”

  “My father was no coward,” said Kai quietly. “He did all he could to prevent another clan war.”

  “And look where his plans have ended.”

  Kai had no answer to that; Naoki was obviously in no mood to cooperate.

  “Lord Kaito!” Two of Tachibana’s retainers appeared in full armor. “The general sent us to transfer the prisoner.”

  Kai noticed a look of surprise briefly flicker in Naoki’s eyes before he managed to hide it beneath his habitual air of disinterest.

  “Where are you taking him?”

  “To the guards’ tower; there’s a room at the top that we’ve made secure. Come with us, Lord Naoki.”

  Naoki held up his manacled hands with a weary expression as if to say ‘You’ll have to unchain me first.’

  “Nice try, my lord; we’re under strict instructions from the general to keep you in chains.”

  So Tachibana took me at my word? Kai had expected more resistance from his mother’s right-hand man. He followed as the retainers led Naoki away, unable to help noticing the young Kite stumble. In spite of his bravado, Naoki was still weak enough on his feet to need support.

  Black Crane shinobi started the fire at Akatob
i Castle?

  His father would never have sanctioned such a murderous act. It had to be a lie.

  ***

  What did I expect? A sour little laugh escaped Sakami’s lips as she shredded seaweed with her kitchen knife. ‘Thank you for risking your life to bring my son back. Here’s a full purse as a sign of my appreciation’?

  “What are you giggling to yourself about, Sakami? Why not share the joke with the rest of us? There’s little enough to laugh over here, the way things are going.”

  Sakami had not seen Mai arrive, lugging a big basket of radishes and onions; she silently scolded herself for not being more careful.

  “First you disappear, leaving us with all your chores to do as well as our own.” Mai let the basket drop onto the floor and rubbed the small of her back with both hands. “Then you reappear and come over all secretive, smiling to yourself when you think no one’s looking.” She marched over and thrust her sharp little chin into Sakami’s face. “Where’ve you been?”

  “And what business is that of yours, Mai? There’s no time for idle chatter now when there’re hungry men to be fed. Start chopping those vegetables.” Sakami had never been so glad to hear Yuna’s voice. “And you, Sakami, how are you going to make soup without water?”

  Sakami picked up a bucket and hurried past Yuna. She had still not worked out a suitable alibi to explain her absence. What could she say? If she told the truth none of the other kitchen girls would believe her.

  As she approached the well, she saw that a village woman was there ahead of her. Since the Kites had set up camp on the shore, the local villagers had retreated into the safety of the castle compound.

  “Why didn’t you tell me, Sakami?” The woman raised her head and Sakami blinked, seeing Inari’s radiant face, concealed from the others in the courtyard by her wide straw hat. “The young lord of the Black Cranes has been tainted by the Tide Dragons. They have already begun to alter his heart and his body.”

  “But how?” Sakami didn’t understand.

  “He’s been marked by Prince Shiomitsu. Honou told me.”