'Leave him,' Kagero snapped, 'like the wounded. Let our enemies here save Clan Fuma their work!'
With pained, deliberate movements her hand went into her jacket. The shuko-wearing ninja leader did the same. Groundspider held up a fist and his circle of advancing warriors froze. Kagero and the Fuma around her quickly stroked the air, hands flashing.
A chain of smoke bombs went off before them. Each cloud expanded fast, the staggered white eruptions meshing to form a dense, high wall of smoke.
'Down, everyone!' Moonshadow yelled. 'Beware of shuriken!'
He hunched low, supporting Snowhawk, who ground her teeth and cursed.
'Nobody move!' Groundspider called from somewhere beyond the smoke. 'Defence only!'
With a stubborn hiss, the last smoke bomb gave out and the white cloud quickly thinned and broke apart, wisps drifting through the clumps of bamboo. As the final shreds of it lifted, Moon stared at the spot where Kagero and his other enemies had just stood. Nothing. His eyes narrowed. The Fuma must have helped the bounty hunter and Jiro jump away, then run, well beyond the smokescreen. Still clutching Snowhawk, he turned his head. Where were they hiding? They couldn't have gone far, not yet.
Groundspider ran up to him, sheathing his sword. His men did the same.
'What are you doing?' Moon frowned. 'You're not going after them?'
'No. We're to let them go!' Groundspider signalled to his troops. He pulled down his face-binding and chuckled at Moon. 'Don't stay wound up, kid. This really is a rescue mission! We're not to engage them.' His eyes darted to Snowhawk. 'But I see you already have. Snowy doesn't look too well.' He turned and motioned for the battlefield healer among his men to come and deal with Snowhawk.
She looked up at Groundspider with glazed eyes. 'I'm still strong enough to flatten you if you call me Snowy again.'
Groundspider smiled down at her with genuine concern. 'That's a good sign.'
'How did you get here?' Moonshadow asked as the healer eased Snowhawk from his grip, lowering her gently on her side into the pine needles and leaves.
The big agent shrugged. 'We stole a cavalry unit's best horses. They're all tethered downhill. I have a seventh warrior guarding them. Our fast way home!'
Moonshadow gaped. 'You did what? You robbed a daimyo?'
'Oh, don't worry, he's just some minor lord and anyway, he'll blame the Fuma. We made sure one of his experienced guards saw these.' Groundspider tugged at his uniform. 'Pretty good, neh? Badger had these made a year ago after I captured that Fuma spy in Kyoto, you remember, the one who took poison before we could interrogate him?'
'You told me about it,' Moon nodded, 'but I was a no-name, not an agent then.'
'Yeah, well, I guess that just by wearing his clan's only forest suit design, he gave us precious information after all. I was wondering when we'd get a chance to use these. Badger was originally thinking infiltration, but today they also made for a nice ambush!'
Moon could not disguise his amazement. 'And that . . . that was all your idea?'
'Sure.' Groundspider frowned indignantly. 'Why not?'
'That's . . . brilliant,' Moonshadow grinned. 'They tricked us with a false message, but you turned the tables back on them with false Fuma ninja. And laying blame on them while getting such good horses . . .' He laughed, then gave a massive sigh of relief.
Groundspider shoved him, making him wince from many bruises. 'Quit acting so surprised, kid. It's not like I used an Old Country skill. You want to know the truth? Most people just don't use the greatest gift they've been given. So happens that I do, that's all.'
'Which gift is that?' Snowhawk called sceptically from the forest floor.
'Imagination,' the White Nun's voice answered, her tone emphatic.
Beaming, Moonshadow turned around. The sage looked utterly wrung-out. Nonetheless, she had managed to sneak up on them all.
'Am I not right, Brother Groundspider?' The White Nun smiled knowingly. 'Is the answer not imagination?'
The big shinobi bowed low in deference. 'Yes indeed, great sage.'
Moon shook his head, astonished by it all.
Groundspider straightened up and gave him an even harder shove. Moon groaned.
'See, kid? Imagination. Don't you know anything?'
NINETEEN
A fine parade
Katsu sniffed the air as he was escorted through the immaculate garden to the main courtyard of Momoyama Castle.
A dour-looking samurai who never spoke led him across a small wooden bridge that forded the garden's spring-fed stream. Beyond it, Katsu slowed at a stone lantern under a maple tree. He studied the maple's invigorated leaves, green and flushed with life, before skirting a miniature 'sea' of raked sand. Spring was waning, Katsu thought. The first hint of the coming summer's humidity tinged the air. Soon the last wave of spring rains would give way to the typhoon season. Some said there would be earthquakes this year. Upheavals of a manmade kind concerned him far more. What would his volatile, changeable master do on hearing his latest report? Slay him where he stood? Pay up happily? With Silver Wolf, either was possible.
Gesturing edgily, the silent escort led him through a narrow stone corridor. It opened onto a wide, packed-grit courtyard crowded with samurai. Hundreds of them.
Rows of armoured men stood proud and silent, faces full of resolution. Swords curved from their hips, spear-blades rose in neat gleaming lines from their shoulders. War banners fluttered overhead to identify each of Silver Wolf's units. Katsu smelled sweat and ambition even before he saw the warlord in his brilliant red armour, pacing up and down before his troops, a riding crop under one arm.
Silver Wolf stopped before one stocky samurai whose face was badly scarred. The extensive, ugly wounds looked quite old. Fire? Katsu wondered. Clamping a gauntlet on the man's shoulder, Silver Wolf engaged the surrounding ranks of warriors.
'This fellow once saved my life!' he shouted. 'Are each of you as much a man?'
He paced on, chiding a tall spearman for his passive facial expression. 'I want you to terrify my enemies, not lull them into sleep.' Silver Wolf laughed. 'Work on that face!'
Katsu swallowed, intimidated by the atmosphere of warmongering. Military musters, like mock battles, were supposed to be held only with the Shogun's knowledge and blessing. He couldn't imagine Silver Wolf respecting either. The lavish parade so unsettled Katsu, he failed to see his grumpy escort urging him forward.
Just as he noticed the samurai gesturing and scowling, Silver Wolf himself called Katsu's name. Forcing a breezy look onto his face, he paced quickly to his master. Katsu bowed low and received a loose nod in return.
Silver Wolf led him along the front line of samurai. Each warrior they passed watched Katsu closely, openly disdainful of the commoner beside their lord. No sudden moves, he reminded himself: many overzealous veterans slice first, investigate later.
'Inspiring, are they not?' Silver Wolf watched Katsu's face as he put the question to him.
Fortunately, Katsu was ready with an irresistible lie. 'Breathtaking, my master. On seeing them when I first entered, I was deeply moved. The keenness of their devotion to you struck me at once. These magnificent warriors will not fail you, no matter what.'
The warlord nodded slowly. He flashed a crafty smile. 'But some others have?'
Katsu put his hands behind his back to hide his shaking fingers. 'About that,' he drew in a slow breath, 'it is now my unhappy duty to report.'
Silver Wolf's face betrayed no reaction as Katsu summed up the debacle on the mountain of the White Nun. It was, he admitted, a rather sad damage report and not much more. He told of Jiro, injured worse than last time, taking permanent damage to one hand. The supposedly invincible Chikuma and several other Fuma shinobi, defeated, had been abandoned by their own people, presumably now to be hunted and killed for failure. It seemed that executing such sentences doubled as training exercises for the Fuma's more successful agents.
The warlord shook his head at the account of Kagero
's defeat and flight with two wounds. His eyes narrowed as Katsu reluctantly admitted that, to round it all off most miserably, Snowhawk and Moonshadow remained alive and at large.
'Perhaps they are resting now at their GLO base in Edo.' Silver Wolf's voice grew cold with menace. 'Or perhaps they're up on that roof –' he pointed angrily – 'about to hurl a bomb at me!' He watched Katsu sweat and squirm, then threw back his head and laughed. Silver Wolf raised one finger and the whole courtyard of samurai joined in, guffawing along with their master without a clue about what was so funny.
Katsu blinked at the ranks of hardened soldiers, then smiled sheepishly at their warlord. Silver Wolf made a gesture in the air and as one the whole army fell silent.
'That, Katsu,' he said, 'is real power. Years from now, you will tell your children of the awe you felt at seeing it.' He patted his hireling's shoulder amiably. 'Yesterday, I might have been so offended by your news as to have taken your large head. But not today. Not after the letter I just received, which bore an update on what you've told me. An update showing that both my wrath and my money proved well-aimed arrows!'
'An update?' Katsu asked through dry lips. An update had saved his life?
Silver Wolf nodded. 'Before dawn today, a black message arrow, a Fuma trademark, landed right here where we stand. The battlement night watch saw no one.'
'What . . . what did it say, lord?' Katsu asked guardedly, his eyes narrow.
'It seems the Fuma want this Snowhawk back quite badly. Who knows why? They also want their defeat on the mountain avenged. I sense they are enraged at having to hunt and slay one of their most special assassins for failure.' He smiled. 'It's perfect! Come, Katsu, you're a detective. Tell me what this all adds up to.'
'Lord . . .' Katsu faltered, too scared to venture a theory. 'I am not really sure –'
'The Fuma, just as I'd hoped, have at last grown angry enough, the way I had to at the upstart Shogun. My plan has worked! Don't you see? I never intended, of course, to complicate my relations with the shadow clans by actually capturing that weird old crone of a sorceress, the White Nun. Hah! That would be political suicide for one who deals with shinobi so regularly these days. And I didn't care whether the Fuma actually re-took their runaway agent, or killed Moonshadow for me just yet. I was never worried about that for a moment! When it comes to feud and vendetta, in truth, my fury has its patient side.'
Katsu watched Silver Wolf produce a folded letter from his belt. Handmade black paper. The words Great Lord Silver Wolf were brushed on it in white ink.
Holding up the message, the warlord laughed self-importantly. His men watched him, eager for their cue, but this time he didn't signal them so they all remained quiet.
'Behold, proof of the value of patience! Clan Fuma, as I prayed, have declared, according to ancient shinobi custom, Twilight War against the Grey Light Order.'
'Twilight War?' Katsu gaped. 'What does that mean?'
'Secret, but total war, with no possibility of truce.' Silver Wolf sniggered. 'Winner takes all. No mercy. No terms of surrender accepted. I like this tradition!'
'Then, not only Moonshadow but all those with him,' Katsu mused, 'will die at the Fuma's hands. You need do no more for now.'
'Exactly,' the warlord's eyes glowed. 'Mark my words, early in this Twilight War, his young head will go chattering into the dust! I have just pitted two great shadow armies against one another, and made the Fuma the instrument of my rage. Once the Grey Light Order falls, who will save the Shogun from us? There will be no lasting age of peace in my Japan. Not while I live. There will be a revival of the old ways, the settling of some scores, then . . . conquest!'
'A golden age, my master,' Katsu said, forcing a smile and hiding his thundering heart.
Silver Wolf turned to his army. 'What is life without war?' The rows of warriors erupted into cheering, each man hoisting his weapon or shaking a gauntleted fist.
TWENTY
The perfect name
Moonshadow crept slowly behind Snowhawk, watching the bobbing pole-lantern in her hands light the start of the next row of shelves. She stopped, winced, rubbed her back.
As they crept deeper into the Grey Light Order's labyrinthine archives, past musty lines of maps, scrolls and flap-books, he realised he felt vulnerable. They were unarmed apart from these lanterns. They wore only plain indigo kimonos, no armour, and this little mission could turn crazy again at any moment, as it already had twice, out in the gardens. He scowled at the fresh monkey bite on his hand. Saru-San would pay for that later.
'Can you see them?' he whispered.
'No,' she spoke without hushing her voice. 'But I can smell them.' Snowhawk rounded on him. 'Before we go on, what really happened to you back on that mountain?'
'I think the White Nun's anointing was accelerated somehow, just for a moment, by what Heron and the others sent me from back here. In the dreamscape it was a golden ribbon, but it was actually strength or understanding . . . I don't know. Under its influence, I too could suddenly link to beasts over a distance. When I tried to do so in the hostile dream, out in the real world I guess I took control of Motto . . . right when I needed him.'
'The White Nun said only a set of unusual circumstances could break or override her link with him, remember?' Snowhawk frowned. 'I'd say you experienced them.'
'Well, I won't experience such power again for years,' he groaned. 'I've tried since our return but I can't repeat it, that long-distance linking. It was there for a flash, like one of those lightning strikes, then gone again.' Moon stretched. 'Why does the White Nun always have to be so mysterious, dropping clues but withholding so much?'
'Partly just good, cagey spy-practice, I think. May be it's also part of how she teaches us patience –' Snowhawk eyed him meaningfully – 'which any worthwhile art requires.'
'I hate patience,' Moon grumbled. 'It's . . . it's not natural.'
'Like forgivenes.' She looked at him through her lashes. 'It doesn't come easily, not to me. But it is worthwhile, so I'm working on it. An evil killer and an immortal mystic have been helping me learn how.' Snowhawk saw him smile gently and she half-smiled back. 'Be like the river. Let it all go, and flow on. I can do it. I'm trying!'
'And you'll succeed,' he nodded firmly, 'because you can do patience, but I –'
'Wait!' She held up a hand. 'That way! I can smell them . . . on the move again.'
They slunk down an aisle with great vigilance, as if hunting an armed intruder.
'When we parted on the road home,' Moon- shadow whispered, 'where did Groundspider escort the White Nun to? I saw her whisper to him, then they rode off slowly.' He blinked. 'I couldn't believe it when I first saw her clamber up onto that horse's back. She's just incredible.'
'Incredible or not, Heron told me she was hiding out at some temple with a group of warrior monks she trusts.' Snowhawk inclined her head. 'Why did she insist we bring Motto-San back here? His injuries were half-healed by the time we made it home. He could have gone anywhere with her.'
Moonshadow saw her smile at her own use of the word home. It lifted his heart.
'She told me on the road that she's broken her link with him now,' Moonshadow said solemnly. 'He's not here to be her second set of eyes in Edo.'
'Why then?'
'She told me a new animal guardian was being guided to her. Destiny, of course. She also said we needed Motto-San here.'
Snowhawk put one hand over her heart. 'What could that mean?'
'With someone from another world, who can say? The White Nun seems to want him with me. Within an hour of her telling me that her link with him was broken, he nuzzled my hand for the first time. I think she knows something . . . maybe we're really going to need him.' Moon raised his lantern and peered upwards, sniffing the air. 'Still, I wish she hadn't sent for Heron at once. I know she feels some urgency about Heron's further training now, but . . .'
'Thanking Heron a thousand times didn't feel like enough?' Snowhawk grinned.
'Be qu
iet,' he laughed, 'just help me find this dog before Badger slays us all.'
'I told you.' Snowhawk instantly mimicked Badger's dry, scholarly tone. 'Don't look for the dog. Look for the monkey. The cat is following it, and the dog is trailing the cat. I saw them come in here, in a beast-string, moving just that way.'
Moonshadow sighed. 'If they keep fighting, Motto-San will tear his stitches again.'
'Wait a moment.' Snowhawk prodded his arm. 'The dog is Motto, the monkey is Saru, so when are you going to name the cat?'
'Not you, too!' Moon hung his head, thinking a moment, then said impulsively, 'Fine, from now on, she can be known by what she does. She is the White Nun's Edo banken. So there you are: the cat's name is officially Banken. Ban-ken. A watcher.'
'I like it,' Snowhawk giggled, 'but I can see now that my non-shinobi schooling, whether at cruel hands or not, went further than yours.'
He lowered his lantern, face clouding with suspicion. 'What do you mean?'
Snowhawk wagged a finger. 'I'll tell you only if you promise first not to change your choice. I know how sneaky you can be.' She creased her nose impishly.
Moonshadow hesitated, muttering, then gave her a single, firm nod.
'Banken,' Snowhawk chuckled, 'means watchdog, not watcher.'
Moon turned away, cursing. 'I can't believe I said I liked you,' he muttered.
Snowhawk smirked. 'I can.' She threw back her head and laughed heartily. 'Anyway, I love it! A cat called Watchdog! Only you could have a cat called Watchdog! Perfect!'
'I'm . . . I'm still tired from the road,' he said defensively. 'Tired . . . and preoccupied!'
She saw the look on his face and turned serious at once. 'What's on your mind?'
Moonshadow spoke earnestly. 'It was disturbing, wasn't it, being pursued, town to town, then into the wild? As shinobi, we're not used to that, I guess. It's we who pursue, hunt down objectives, steal or kill and then simply vanish. I think this mission made me realise, for the very first time, why ordinary folk fear us so much . . .' He shrugged.
The Wrath of Silver Wolf Page 17