by Jeffrey Cook
Kaida grinned.
They got back to the shrine to find, first, Ishiko and Noriko balanced atop the walls. The two were arguing, no question. But going by the way they were pointing at various spots around the shrine, he was guessing the two of them were disagreeing on strategy, potential avenues of attack, or placements for defenders, rather than anything more fundamental.
Various residents of the shrine and the surrounding town busied themselves moving wood, stone, and religious supplies. Hobie would imagine that, in a normal time, this would be accompanied by a lot more festivities, but now, nearly everyone kept their heads down and focused on work, with Aki handling much of the direction. Once she came down from the wall, Ishiko took over directing the small number of Japanese Self-Defense Force troops.
The pair continued past the outer shrine, until they found Emi and Celeste, along with a few of the priestesses and monks, kneeling in a circle and praying. Nils was nearby, placing his runes on sharpened sticks, to be used for spear walls outside.
Kaida nudged Hobie, leaning in to ask quietly, "Does he have to do that?"
"Enchant the spears I cut for him? Yeah. They're way more effective that way."
"No, the Othertongue. He has to know some other incantations and things, right?"
"Sure, but it's the most effective for what's coming."
"Against daemons?"
Hobie nodded. "The Otherlords were fighting each other for thousands of years before they even knew this dimension existed, right? They know all about kicking each other's asses."
"I guess that makes sense. I think it's kind of making a lot of people uncomfortable, though."
Hobie nodded. "My brother is good at that. But the Otherness never gets its hooks in his head. Nils isn't crazy.” And Hobie would know. “It's solely about efficacy, for him. He can safely break all kinds of eggs to get his omelet. You'll see when the fighting starts."
Nils called them over to collect the spears. "Go check with Noriko and Ishiko to see where they want them."
"If they've figured that out by now," Hobie mumbled. Nils gave him a sharp look, but didn't accompany it with any words. Hobie took that to mean that his brother was worried about just that as well, but thought Hobie should be a little more polite when they were guests.
Thankfully, by the time they got to the pair, they'd settled whatever argument they were having, and seemed to have a plan in order. "You're going to love this," Noriko told Hobie when he approached, in the tone that suggested he actually would, rather than sarcasm.
"Not ideal," Ishiko said, "But we don't have the manpower for ideal. Think you can work with him?" she asked Kaida, gesturing to Hobie.
"I think we'll manage somehow," Kaida said.
"Good, because we're critically short on resources and people. So, we're going to set the traps and wards to make it harder to come from any direction but one and funnel whoever comes towards the main gate—you two are our front line. You don't need to stop everything. Noriko and I will pick off whatever gets through. But we do need you to blunt the charge. Aki will be taking a small group, mostly soldiers and townsfolk with enchanted spears, to try to make sure nothing is sneaking in while we're focused on the gates. That leaves our mystics to provide support, whenever they're not needed for the ritual."
The rest of the day was spent alternating patrols with time spent helping to dig pits and place spears. All evidence suggested that Celeste and Emi were coordinating well, as the pair followed them around, adding protective blessings to each area once the traps and fortifications were set. The only area left entirely open was a narrow approach to the front gates.
A horn blew from atop the walls as they were finishing up one more pit trap.
"We're out of time. Get to positions!" Ishiko yelled from her own post atop the walls. Celeste grabbed Hobie by the shoulder and held her other hand out in that just-barely-not-touching-him way she did, while reciting a brief prayer. He quickly felt some of the fatigue drain from his muscles. She did the same for Kaida, then the two went scrambling for their place at the gates.
Once there, Nils shoved a roughly spherical disc at him. "I made you a shield. It's not much, but..."
Hobie examined the uneven wooden disc, with the two straps of cloth nailed to it. "Well, D+ in wood shop, but I'm guessing A+ in enchanting to Hel and back?" he asked.
Nils looked slightly surprised the critique wasn't more severe. "As close to Hel and back as we had time for."
Hobie nodded, and slipped his arm through the cloth. "Thanks."
He didn't have time to get himself properly worked up, and the circumstances, trying to hold a position, instead of rushing enemy ranks to cause chaos, wasn't ideal for it anyway. Even so, the pounding began in his ears, building up steadily, as the rest of the world narrowed to what lay in front of him. He didn't have to wait long before a variety of monstrous beasts emerged into the open ground in front of the shrine. Some of them were technically human, but with their minds long gone. Others were Tainted animals, twisted limbs and reptilian features mixed with their natural forms.
In his peripheral vision, he saw some of the first rank charge onto camouflaged spear walls. Others disappeared into pit traps, while those coming right for him outdistanced those on their flanks. The second and third ranks avoided the traps, moving to follow the narrow path towards the defenders. His first instinct was to rush right back at them, but he remembered his job and held his ground.
Kaida dropped the lead beast with one blow, her chain weapon giving her greater reach.
The odd shield held up to the claws of the first creature to reach him, slightly to Hobie's surprise. He returned the attack, his shield-slam stunning the thing long enough to drive his spear into its chest. He barely got it free in time to ready the spear for the next, letting the mad charge drive the creature onto it. He swung his shield, smashing aside yet another. Kaida swung her chain in a wide arc in front of them, buying them a couple of moments. He took advantage of the time to plant his foot on the fallen creature's body, pulling his spear free.
In the time it took him to free the spear, one of the beasts managed to snap its reptilian jaws onto the haft of the spear. Had it not been for Nils's enchantments, the wood would have splintered. It held, and Hobie drove the edge of his shield into the creature's head. Even with the blow, he had to wrestle with it for a moment to free his weapon again.
As he did, a couple more got past him, one raking his arm with jagged claws as it passed. As he felt the claws break the skin and smelled his own blood on the air, the world narrowed a little more, and the field in front of him took on a reddish tint. He could vaguely hear the shouts and sounds of battle behind him over the pounding in his ears, but that rush of blood sounded more and more like war drums.
He couldn't let the berserkergang take him all the way. He was here for a purpose. He set his feet and held his ground, and that was all he could keep together in his mind.
There was someone with a chain fighting beside him. There was the sound of other fighting behind him. He couldn't really manage to have an opinion about any of that. But the massive tide of twisted flesh and snapping jaws driven headlong towards him had his full attention.
When the next things bearing down on him as a small pack howled, he howled back, shoving his spear into one, knocking another aside with his shield.
He had hurt. He had cried. He had waited to die. But now, Hobart Bjornsson felt alive.
When the first retreat was sounded, his first instinct was to go after the fleeing cultists, the surviving creatures, and their daemonic commander. But a single, cemented thought resonated in his head: Hold your ground at all costs.
Then hands were on his shoulders, and in his ears were a congratulatory “We did it!” and a concerned “Hobie?” His first instinct was to snap. He resisted, realizing it was the girl—Kaida—and Nils, but he still tensed. He noted the usual exertion headache even as the drumming in his ears died down a little.
Despite all o
f the enchantments, his stick-spear had snapped somewhere during the battle. Judging by the blood on it, the remaining stick had held enough enchantment to serve as a club or short-spear—probably both at times. He still tossed it aside. Broken weapons didn’t hold an enchantment very long, usually. To his slight surprise, though, the lumpy, misshapen shield appeared in perfectly good condition. Hel and back was apparently right. He held onto it.
"Everybody okay?" Hobie asked Celeste, as he started to relax and regain some awareness of his surroundings. The blood still pounded within him a little, but blood did that. There was a fist-sized muscle in the chest for that purpose. For now, he just had to know for sure if they really had done right.
"Some minor injuries, but we held."
Ishiko glanced at some of the fallen creatures, and looked beyond the walls at those fleeing. "We held. But this was just the beginning. Those were just some scouts, probing our defenses. They'll be back."
Seeing nervous faces around him, hearing the first worried conversations—and crying—from some townsfolk elsewhere, Hobie tried to have manners. He looked aside and down, angling his face so that no one would see his bright smile. The kind he could remember once waking up with at the start of the holidays.
They'd won something, even just a little. And he couldn't help looking forward to the real thing.
8
Again and Again
Inoue Emi
The next things to arrive weren't daemons, but bore bad news nonetheless. As the shrine continued preparing for the foundation-switching and re-consecration, the refugees started to trickle in. The first were from nearby areas, seeking shelter after the daemons, cultists, and beasts ransacked their homes. Then came arrivals from further away, people who'd heard that the shrine had repulsed the attackers.
Apparently, that wasn't the case in most of the locations that had come under attack.
Watching the injured and frightened people filtering in was hard, but Emi tried to hope. Communications with the outside were cut off, but at least so far, they were only seeing the amount of refugees they'd expected, coming in from around Mie Prefecture. They'd done their best to determine likely targets and had people guarding the Imperial family, the three treasures, and as many important shrines as they could. Over a third of the surviving defenders—rallied before and immediately after the attack on the Hikari Tower—had gone to Tokyo, with the Imperial Palace and one of the treasures located there.
Emi was outside the fortifications, reading the land in the hopes of new information, when she heard more people coming. She looked up and found herself meeting the eyes of a haggard figure on the road. She recognized him. He'd been one of the staff carpenters at the Hikari Tower, who'd then been assigned repair work in Tokyo.
His expression rapidly shifted from mostly blank to hopeful, and his footsteps quickened as he approached her. "Emi! So it's true? You held them off here?"
"Yes, but Ishiko is sure it was just a scouting run and enough forces to keep us pinned down here." She took a deep breath, not really wanting to ask, because once she had an answer, it would be even more real than refugees filtering in made it. "Tokyo?"
"The city is in flames."
"The defenders?"
"A few survivors. They're helping to evacuate the Imperial family."
"And the jewel? Or anything about the Grasscutter, on the journey through?"
The man shook his head. "No word, which probably isn't good news."
Emi knew that she must keep a straight face as she nodded in agreement. She had a responsibility. A carpenter should be able to expect an onmyoji of the Storm's Light to not let the frustration get to her. Still, she allowed herself a quietly sighed rhetorical question. “How do they keep sending attackers in these kind of numbers?” First the assault that brought down the tower; now enough to overwhelm so much of that on which they'd pinned their remaining hopes. “Do we know anything about who's leading this?"
This time he nodded. “They say it's the Huntsman.”
"How many people know we repelled the first assault?" she asked, suddenly worried about how they'd tend to floods of refugees, while also trying to build onto their defenses.
"Not many, outside of certain circles. A lot of the Hikari survivors will probably be coming here."
She nodded. They would. And once the capital was secured, the Huntsman would, too. The mirror was too prime a target.
She gathered the Storm's Light and the westerners. And Noriko. "What do you know about the Huntsman?" She directed the question to Nils, as a colleague. It would make the next phrase easier to say. "Your team, we hear, dealt with him recently.”
Nils looked thoughtful, his normal eye turning up, while the yellow eye surround by scales stayed trained on her. She couldn't see the rest of his expression under the silvery mask, with its three filtered, vertical slits and minor runic decoration. "He was a greater daemon. He ended up with a host for a long time, after someone botched a summoning ritual. The possession was even stable enough that he passed himself off as a human for a while: an Indiana-Jones-styled archaeologist and treasure hunter. We exorcised him last year. It was supposed to be a long-term solution.”
Emi grimaced. “Well, it bought you a year. He was spotted running the onslaught on Tokyo.”
“Ugh. Yeah. He must have gotten a get-out-of-banishment-free card when Xharomor started ripping holes in reality."
"So, from last year, what do we need to know?
"Well, he's smart, really good at quickly gathering hordes of creatures, fanatics, and the really dumb among daemon-kind, and one of Xharomor's first choices when he needs something recovered or destroyed."
"What do we need to prepare for?"
"Madness," Nils said. "On one hand, he's perfect for this assignment. Total point-and-shoot. Xharomor gives him a place, a thing, and whether he wants it acquired or smashed, and they're off. No extensive prep time, fancy tactics, or thinking too hard needed."
"And on the other hand?"
"On the other hand, the Huntsman doesn’t have organized ranks of anything. No soldiers, not much in the way of spellcasters. Lots of mindless beasts and madmen, some lesser daemons. But by lots, well, lots."
"So, any chance we can channel them, like last time? If we can narrow their approach, we might be able to mitigate their advantage in numbers," Aki asked.
Nils was clearly thinking hard about that one before answering. "Maybe? They won't have a lot of things that can undo warding—but they might be able to overwhelm them. And, well, not a lot doesn't mean none. We might be able to sort of channel them, or they might just run some expendables over pit traps until they're full. Like I said... expect madness."
"Plus, we let a lot of their scouts survive," Ishiko said.
"We didn't exactly let them," Kaida said.
"Not casting blame. We didn't have the people to hunt them down. They still saw our tactics, and reported back. They'll be prepared for them," Ishiko said.
"But we don't really have time to reinvent the wheel. Pit traps, spear walls, caltrops. They're all kind of classics for a reason," Noriko said. "I'd suggest we use any time we have left to improve and build on to what we have in place now."
"Actually," Hobie said, "I have a recommendation." Almost everyone in the room looked surprised, other than Nils—Emi wasn't entirely adept at reading his altered expressions yet, but thought that might be just a little bit of pride—and Kaida, who just looked curious.
"We could use ideas," Ishiko said, gesturing for him to continue.
"They're only going to have any sense of tactics if the Huntsman is behind them. And he will be behind everything. I say we set a trap. Try to channel them, use the spears, everything. Just what they're expecting. And when they commit, a couple of people ambush him. At worst, it keeps him from guiding their forces for a while. At best, maybe we can take him out. It won't stop them from attacking, but it'll make them more predictable, right?"
Aki frowned. "You're suggesting you a
nd Kaida going, right? This is a powerful daemon we're talking about."
Hobie shook his head emphatically. "Oh, Hel no. I'm way too unstable for that, and they'll notice if we're not at the doors this time. Besides, we're the best chance for holding against the charge.” He looked to his brother. “Don't suppose you can banish him again, so...Noriko?”
As Noriko nodded, Ishiko looked thoughtful. Then she looked to Aki. "Feel comfortable coordinating things behind the lines while she and I try this?"
"Absolutely, if Emi thinks the plan will work."
"I'll... look into it," Emi offered quietly.
Ishiko nodded, then added, "You've talked to the refugees. I haven't had much chance yet. Any word on the Grasscutter?”
“None. Or the jewel,” Emi said.
“Well, of the three treasures, we've still got the one mentioned in the prophecy,” said Noriko.
“What did that prophecy have to do with Amaterasu's mirror, again?” Kaida asked. Ishiko and Aki got uncomfortable, even talking about the prophecy that had led Noriko away, the one for which all of Emi's readings had only been able to confirm the 'if, if, if's.
“One more 'if' prophecy. 'If the Sun sees her mirrored face, then her light shall grow, and that place shall know sanctuary.'" Celeste said.
"So, Amaterasu and the cave, all over again," Kaida said.
"Figuratively speaking," Noriko said. "At least we hope so."
****
Emi was meditating on the small platform in the middle of the reflecting pool when the shikigami informed her about the Creole girl approaching across the southernmost of the four small bridges that led to the viewing platform.
Emi didn't open her eyes when she said, “I appreciate your patience, Celeste. I am preparing for a divination.”
To Celeste's credit, in Emi's opinion, she did her best not to sound startled. “I admit, I don't know much about your practice. From... from what Marshall said, there was a lot of looking at the stars and some charts.”
Emi nodded. “Onmyodo has many different aspects. Some involve studying the land. I've always found the sacred pool one of the best places to start. Its serenity and sanctity are a good beginning for analyzing the destiny of a place. Ishiko will want to know soon what I think of the idea of ambushing the Huntsman." Usually, crossing the small bridges that led out to the wooden platform in the midst of the serene pool helped her focus. She could attune herself to the rhythms of the gentle ripples through the blessed water, the sanctified Earth, and the shrine.