Nightblade's Honor (ARC)

by Ryan Kirk

  They didn’t do so until the next morning. A bleary-eyed Asa had gotten little sleep, and their news made her stomach twist into knots. Peace existed between Houses Kita and Amari. Hiromi and Mari had met with Katashi two days ago and come up with the strategy to destroy the blades once and for all. However, the blades also reported that Hiromi had taken ill and that most of the orders seemed to be coming from General Kyo.

  Knowing what the two siblings had intended to do, Asa feared the worst. Something had happened to Mari. Now that she had more information, her mind immediately started making connections. It had to be Kyo. She didn’t have a shred of evidence, but she hadn’t trusted him from the moment they met. He had betrayed the siblings somehow, which was why they needed a double for Mari. Kyo was truly in command, even though orders were seemingly coming from Hiromi.

  Rage burned inside Asa. She stomped out to the edge of their camp and watched the second day of the siege. The house troops had no plans to enter the city, content to keep sending fire in to do their work for them. There were no longer waves of arrows but instead a continuous trickle of fire, the archers seemingly aiming for parts of the city at random.

  Koji came and stood next to her. He had come to the same conclusions, she was sure. “What do you want to do?”

  “I want to kill Kyo.”

  “Do you think they’re still alive?”

  That was Asa’s most burning question as well. If Hiromi and Mari had survived whatever occurred, that needed to take priority. But Asa despaired. What were the odds that an enemy would leave a rival lord alive, especially if he already had control of the lord’s army through a proxy?

  She sighed. If there was any chance of Mari being alive, though, she had to try. She’d be somewhere in Katashi’s camp.

  “Do we have uniforms for House Amari?”

  “Yes. We have all the houses. When do you want to leave?”

  Asa studied the field of battle off in the distance. “Not during the day. We’ll want the cover of night this time.”

  Koji frowned. “Do you worry that will be too late?”

  “No. Starfall isn’t going to fall today, no matter how much damage they might cause. And if Mari is alive, I can’t see any reason why that would change soon. Better to have the cover of darkness. We won’t survive a chase like we did yesterday. Our entry and exit need to be unnoticed.”

  Koji stood up and put his hand on her shoulder. “In that case, you should get some rest.”

  Sneaking into encampments was becoming an old trick for Asa. The more she practiced infiltrating supposedly secure locations, the more she realized how easy the task could be with the right training.

  In the cover of dark they broke through Katashi’s outer perimeters with ease. The patrols were scattered far and wide, and while they might have netted those without the sense, Asa and Koji avoided detection.

  As usual, the challenge began as they got deeper into the camp. In the outer ranks, where the soldiers made their beds, no one questioned the duo. They wore the red uniforms of House Amari, and people milled about freely. Asa understood the lack of protection here. Even if they drew their swords and started cutting their way through the soldiers, the overall effect would be limited.

  One drunk man almost blew their cover. Asa sensed him coming but paid him no mind. But when he saw Koji, he seemed to think they were long-lost partners. The intoxicated soldier yelled for all to gather, drawing far too much attention to them for their comfort.

  Asa froze, unsure of what to do. Fortunately, Koji had no such problem. He put the man into a hold, cutting off the air from his throat until he passed out. The man was so drunk he barely resisted, thinking the entire attack was a joke until too late. Koji left the man passed out on the ground. Anyone passing by would smell the wine and draw their own conclusions.

  As they approached the inner ring of tents that marked the shelter of the commanders and lord’s servants, the two paused to consider their approach.

  Koji whispered in her ear, “Do you have any idea where she would be?”

  Asa almost shook her head, but then reconsidered. If she was a lord who had kidnapped a lady, what would she do? She would want to keep the lady close to her own tent. Otherwise there might be questions as to why the lord was wandering so far afield. But not in the lord’s personal tent. If what Asa had seen was any indication, there would be a number of visitors coming through the tent, and unless the abduction was common knowledge, the risk of discovery was too great.

  Such reasoning gave them a direction to go in and narrowed down their choices. She explained her deductions to Koji, who agreed.

  Their objective, then, was the tents that made up the center of the encampment. Asa calmed her breath and extended her sense, preparing to lead the way.

  Eventually a gap in the patrols opened, and Asa and Koji slipped through into the inner rings of tents. Asa hoped that once they got close enough to the center tents, they would be able to just sense Mari. She thought she had spent enough time with the lady to be able to identify her energy in a crowd.

  They took their time working their way through the inner rings of tents. Asa made each move deliberately, tracking the patterns of the patrols as they shuffled around. Exercising her new skills came easier to her the more she practiced. In a space this crowded, she could still only throw out her sense a couple of dozen paces before she was overwhelmed with information, but that was a substantial improvement from before.

  Koji had no problem following her lead. He acted like her shadow, never more than a pace behind, the couple moving almost as one. She supposed he was probably using his sense to know exactly when and where she was going to move.

  Asa sank deeper into the awareness Daisuke had worked so hard to instill in her. Koji, for all his strength, couldn’t throw out his sense as far as hers. In this crowd, so long as they remained incognito, their safety was in her hands.

  Soon they reached the clearing that separated the inner ring of tents from the center circle. Here there were no patrols, just stationary guards protecting their lord. Asa didn’t sense any way to sneak through undetected, so the two backtracked a few paces to reconsider.

  They couldn’t dodge patrols all night. No matter how good Asa was, eventually they would find themselves trapped. They needed to find a location where they could stop and try to use their sense to find Mari, a place where they wouldn’t be discovered. Unfortunately, all the nearby tents were occupied, and a patrol wasn’t far away.

  Asa glanced around, uncertain. Without warning Koji, she silently cut a slit in one of the tents, sliding into the darkness.

  Koji followed, his movement silent. They were in the tent of a unit commander, his soft snores filling the space. Asa whispered to Koji as softly as she could. She would search for Mari. He needed to make sure they were safe. He nodded, and she planted her hands against the earth, searching for the woman who held their hope in her hands.

  Her sense extended, passing by those Asa knew couldn’t be Mari. She explored the heart of the camp, sensing and discarding people one by one. Time had no meaning. But Mari was present, in a tent not far away. Asa tried to focus, but surrounded by people, Mari was at the limit of her range. Asa sensed activity around Mari, but the distance was too great to know exactly what was occurring.

  Koji tapped on Asa’s shoulder, bringing her immediately to the present. She opened her eyes and saw a light dancing outside the slit they had made in the commander’s tent. She cursed. Some alert guard had discovered the cut and was investigating. Her sense came back to her as she focused.

  Koji slid forward, slowly pulling out his knife. Asa glanced back at the commander, a shadow on a bed, still softly snoring. She also drew a knife, just to be prepared.

  The slit opened, and the tent lit up, temporarily blinding Asa. The guard uttered a grunt of surprise when his torch lit Koji’s face. Koji’s arm snaked out and pulled the guard toward him, causing the torch to drop to the ground. The tent started to catch fire,
and the commander woke up to Koji driving his knife into the guard’s heart.

  The commander didn’t even have time to react. Asa spun on her knees and clamped her hand over his mouth, drawing a red line across his neck with her knife. She waited a few precious moments for his life to leave him, then focused on getting out of the fire.

  Koji was already outside, two tents away, crouching in the shadows. The blaze would be both a benefit and a curse. It drew attention away from them but also alerted everyone that something was amiss in the camp.

  Asa swore. They were going to have to move fast.

  Chapter 24

  In the darkness of the chest, Mari lost track of time. As soon as the lid had been sealed, she gave up fighting. No doubt Katashi had planned out the details of her abduction, and there would be little she could do to influence events at this stage. Far better to be as cooperative as possible and lure them into a false feeling of security.

  They hadn’t made cooperation easy. She had been locked in the chest for some time, her legs cramping and her body covered in sweat. Moving was impossible, and Katashi hadn’t bothered to provide any ventilation. At times, she worried she would die from a lack of air.

  Even though there wasn’t a hint of light, Mari knew the chest had to be out in the sun. The walls were warm to the touch, pressed up against them as she was. Her body was contorted at an uncomfortable angle, and as time passed, the agony grew ever more painful.

  Finally the chest was opened, and Mari breathed deeply through her nose. The light was blinding, even though she saw she was in a tent lit only by a handful of candles. She blinked away the tears that formed in her eyes.

  Guards pulled her roughly out of the chest, sending needles of pain up and down her body. They tried to set her down on her feet but she collapsed, her muscles unwilling to respond to even the simplest of commands.

  Mari hoped at least they would remove the gag and give her something to drink. Instead, one of the guards fitted an iron collar to her neck and chained her to the main support of the tent. Then they blew out the candles and left her in the dark.

  Lacking any better options, Mari tried to get some rest. She didn’t know what the future held, so she figured any sleep she could get would be beneficial. She soon found that being restrained and gagged was far from the easiest way to fall asleep, but eventually exhaustion took her.

  She woke up to a man with a torch entering the tent. Groggily she opened her eyes, then came to full awareness when she saw it was Katashi. From the moment the flap of the tent was open, she saw that it was still evening or perhaps early morning. Regardless, she glared at him with all the anger she could muster, hoping perhaps her look would do what swords had not.

  Katashi looked completely unfazed, just as he had during their sham peace negotiations. He still had the look of a manipulator who had thought of everything, a man who had predicted events and enjoyed the fruits of his planning.

  Mari had enough sense not to jerk at her bonds. As much as the release might have been satisfying, it would do her no good. Katashi would never believe that she was demure, but if she could get him to presume she wasn’t an immediate threat, she might have a chance. A knife was still hidden on her thigh.

  He smiled as he knelt in front of her. “Lady Mari, I’m sorry that our meeting has to be under such circumstances. I don’t know if you know this, but I’ve admired you from afar for many cycles.”

  His words confused Mari. He admired her? They hadn’t seen each other since they were both young. That made little sense.

  He clarified. “Of all the lords and ladies in the Kingdom, I’ve always felt that you and I were much the same. You, of course, had the misfortune of being born a lady in a land that gives women no power. I was born the younger brother of a man who had all the makings of a leader with great longevity.”

  Mari didn’t know where Katashi was leading with this, but she paid attention, trying to see if there was some way she could turn his words to her favor.

  “Like me, you discovered a truth that few people understand. Real power doesn’t come just from having command of armies. Power comes from information. With the right information, you can bend a person to your will, make them dance to your song, wouldn’t you agree?”

  Mari agreed that information was important, but she had always thought it was so one could make the best decisions. Manipulating people was a dishonorable, low use of the gift.

  “I see that perhaps you don’t agree. But let me prove it to you. By the time we are done, I will have convinced you to marry me, of your own free will.”

  Mari thought that nothing Katashi could have said would have surprised her, but she was clearly wrong. A proposal, if that’s what this was, was the last thing she would have expected. It couldn’t be real, couldn’t be true.

  Katashi smirked. “This will be entertaining. First, I’m sorry that I had to kill your brother. He seemed a decent lord, but he was interfering with my plan, and I couldn’t allow that.

  “I’m going to tell you a number of my beliefs, and this one is the first. I believe, with my whole heart, the Kingdom is better off without the blades. Now you may think this is because my older brother was killed by them, and perhaps that influences my view a little but not by much. There was no love lost between Shin and me, and I’ve felt this way for some time.

  “The fact is, the blades make us weaker. We’ve relied on them for too long to balance the conflict among the great houses. But they’re just as fallible as we are, and we’ve seen more and more of that in the past few cycles. They are strong, but relying on them makes us weak.”

  Throughout his little speech Katashi’s eyes were always on Mari, and she had the feeling he could read and understand even the slightest twitch of her eye.

  “I see that you agree or at least that you’ve entertained the same thought. That doesn’t surprise me. You’ve always been one of the most intelligent people I’ve known.

  “So the blades must be dealt with. Here we disagree. I know you were eager to see them reintegrate into society, but that was the weakness of kindness on your part. It may work for a while, but people so strong can’t coexist with those much weaker. The bear doesn’t befriend the deer, and the tiger doesn’t keep company with mice. The only solution is to eliminate them and drive them out of our land.

  “Now you can see why I had to kill your brother. I almost had him where I wanted him. Through General Kyo, he was ready to destroy them all. But then you happened by, changing his mind. You were always the wild card, Lady Mari.”

  The only thought running through Mari’s mind was that if she hadn’t convinced Hiromi to try to save the blades, he might still be alive. Had she caused his death, however inadvertently? The idea made her want to vomit into her gag.

  “I will get to the point. Although I do admire you, I am driven by rationality, and I do not care if you live or die. However, my life would be much easier if you remained alive and decided to marry me. Then our houses could officially be joined, and this war would be as good as over. If you wished, you could continue to rule over your house lands as my queen.

  “I know you will be trying to think of alternatives. You are a woman driven by honor, much like your older brother. You care less about what you want and more about what you think is right.” He emphasized the final word like it was some sort of curse.

  “I’ll spare you the work. There are no alternatives. Kyo is in charge of your army now, and if you refuse my offer, he shall claim the lordship of your house, backed by me. No one will oppose him. The blades, for all their strength, are finished. A chain of events has begun that cannot be stopped, not even by me. Either you will die here, with no one being the wiser, or you can rule as my queen and do what good you will for your people. I care not.”

  Mari hated herself, but she believed him.

  Katashi stood up. “Such decisions are not to be made lightly. I know you will want time to think about your future and the fate of your citizenry. Our assa
ult on Starfall begins today. I will come to you when I am able, perhaps in a day or two once the blades are broken. At that time, I will expect an answer. Until then, I will make sure you are fed and given water. But I must be clear: if you do anything that makes the guards suspicious, their orders aren’t to doubt or ask questions. They will kill you immediately. If you say even a single word, they will kill you immediately. Do you understand?”

  She did.

  “Good. Oh, and one last thing,” Katashi said. Mari’s heart sank. She didn’t believe for a moment this was anything but his final blow. “My network of shadows is better than yours. I know who killed your brother. The same nightblade who killed my own, something else we have in common. He is a young nightblade, very strong. His name is Koji.”

  For once, Mari was grateful that she was bound. Her restraints forced her to remain in one place. If not for them, she would have paced and kicked and stabbed at whatever she could.

  Katashi had left without another word, leaving Mari to grapple with the information he had given her. She had no doubt he knew that she knew who Koji was.

  Tears streamed down her face, and she writhed on the ground. She couldn’t remember the last time she had lost control of herself, but rage and sorrow tore through her one after the other, each sensation filling the gap the last one left. She had trusted him! How could he have dared to serve her after what he had done?

  If what Katashi said was true, Koji had set them on this path to war. Koji, who had killed her brother and left his corpse to freeze in the cold autumn air.

  For some time she doubted the revelation. It was yet another trick by Katashi, an attempt to separate her from one of her strongest supporters. That was the real explanation.

  But her heart knew the truth. It explained Koji’s behavior the last time they had been together. That was why he had wanted to distance himself from her. That was why he didn’t want to lead. If anyone found out Mari was the leader of the man who had slain the king, there would have been no hope for her or her movement.