by Ryan Kirk
Another ten paces, and one of the arrows finally got her, lodging itself in her calf. Asa screamed in agony and fell, fire burning up her leg. The nightblades were off in the distance, still too far away to help. Another arrow, hastily loosed, drove into the same leg higher up. Asa shrieked again, the agony nearly unbearable.
She had to move. She needed to stay alive. With her good leg, she kicked the ground while she clawed with her arms, moving her body forward as another two arrows embedded themselves in the ground where she had just been, one grazing her good leg.
Crawling wouldn’t be fast enough. She felt one of the riders fall to an arrow launched by a nightblade. She needed only a few more moments.
The riders made their decision. Two of them broke off and started galloping toward their army. The third remained, riding closer to Asa, sacrificing his own life for the killing shot. He drew back the bowstring, and Asa sensed him about to release.
She rolled, wailing as the shafts of the arrows dug into the grass beneath her, tearing deeply at skin and muscle. She could hear the twang of the bowstring as it was released, and an arrow dove deep into her chest, just missing her heart and puncturing a lung. She felt her own lifeblood gurgling as she tried to breathe.
Several arrows struck the rider at once, killing him and knocking him off his horse.
Asa was beyond the point of caring. The blackness that had lurked at the edge of her vision now closed in, and as a group of nightblades clustered around her, she couldn’t tell where their robes began and where her vision ended.
Asa remembered only bits and pieces of the final leg of her journey to Starfall. The nightblades hadn’t come prepared to carry the wounded, so they had picked her up and carried her, a process that was perhaps the most painful she’d ever lived through. Fire was replaced by stabbing needles, and every breath was a physical effort she didn’t want to make.
When the shadow of the wall finally loomed over her, Asa wondered if she was going to die. It would have been pleasant to die in the shade. The day was nice and warm, and sleeping, even forever, had its appeal.
Then a kindly old face was close to hers. Asa couldn’t hear what he was saying, but his eyes were calming. They were the sort of eyes that had seen many cycles of life and had obtained a wisdom few ever did.
Asa thought the man looked familiar, but her mind was wandering and she was having trouble focusing on any one thought.
Then it came to her.
He had been a librarian at the archives in Starfall. He had remained late one night just for her.
A sudden and overwhelming sadness came over her. So much of Starfall was on fire, and many of the papers in the library were irreplaceable. They had the history of the blades in them, and now they were gone, their past erased in an instant.
Then she felt a fresh agony, a surge of energy pouring through her body. Then three sharp, almost blinding pains as the arrows were removed from her calf and chest. She coughed up blood, and there were hands all over her. She saw another white robe and then another. Were three dayblades all trying to save her at the same time?
She must have lost consciousness for a while, but when she came to, she was propped up by a door, just inside a building. Outside she heard a soft thunking sound. She looked out at the road beyond the building, a flaming arrow quivering in the dirt. For a few moments she stared at the arrow, questioning why it was there. Then her memories returned, and she was seized by a momentary panic.
Strong hands held her calmly. “Easy now. You’re as safe as you can be.”
She hadn’t even noticed the man next to her. She jumped slightly. The last person to surprise her that way had been Daisuke, but hiding from the sense was his special skill. Were there others like him?
As Asa’s faculties returned, she realized she’d been so deeply unconscious she had lost touch with her gift. She took a deep breath and focused on reconnecting to the sense. Thankfully, within the space of a few heartbeats, her understanding of the space around her completely changed, the entire world lighting up with life and energy.
The man, the same dayblade from the library, offered her food, which she accepted. Being healed by dayblades was an exhausting experience, both for the dayblades and for the person being healed. As a young trainee, Asa had heard jokes about blades preferring to die rather than suffer through a healing, but she was grateful for every breath she took, even if her body felt as though it would collapse at any time.
She got right to the point in between bites of dried meat. “Where’s Hajimi?”
“He’s at the council hall. He’s been trying to do what he can to keep us safe, but there’s less and less that can be done.”
“I need to go to him.”
The dayblade’s eyes roamed out of the doorway to the roads beyond. He looked like he was going to offer a warning but then thought better of it.
“You know the way?”
Asa nodded. Starfall wasn’t that large as cities went. She remembered the way well enough.
The man stood up and went into the house, coming back with what appeared to be the lid of a pot. “We don’t have much for shields around here, so we’ve been making do with what we can.” He looked at the lid with a hint of remorse. “This is my last one. It’s always been my favorite. It fits my pot well.” With a last, somewhat longing glance, the man handed Asa the makeshift shield. She bowed deeply in thanks for everything he had done.
When she stepped out of the house, several things caught her attention. The first was that on the horizon, storm clouds were building. The second was that Starfall was a living, breathing nightmare.
For a few precious moments, she stood out in the open, mouth slightly agape at the scene before her, trying to understand how so much had changed since she was here last. To see the destruction Katashi had rained down on the city was beyond belief, beyond reason.
Buildings lay collapsed, burned to the ground all around. She couldn’t sense many people, but those she could were hiding in the shadows of buildings, moving in quick sprints from hiding place to hiding place. Their caution was well warranted. Arrows were seemingly everywhere, and even a quick glance revealed blades who hadn’t made it to the next shelter, their bodies slowly rotting in the heat of the day.
The sight reminded Asa to take shelter underneath the potlid. She did so just as another wave of arrows plummeted near her. None came close enough to be dangerous, but she tracked the angle of their flight so that she knew the best direction to hold her meager protection.
Off to the side, where the most recent volley had landed, a fire slowly grew across the ruins of what had once been a house.
Asa shook her head, focusing on what she had come here to do. She needed to get as many blades out of Starfall as soon as she could.
She walked quickly, unwilling to run and trip over an arrow, or worse, a body. Her eyes searched the sky, giving her a little warning for when she needed to find shelter. Her potlid quickly collected two arrows, and she silently thanked the kind librarian once again.
Every corner revealed a new horror. No escape from the sights was possible. In one street two young blades had died next to each other holding hands. In another, a half-burned corpse hadn’t quite made it out of a house before flames had collapsed the building. Another nightblade had received a fatal arrow through her chest, still clutching a pail of water.
Even if she closed her eyes, the horror was still inescapable. The air was rank with the smell of burned and rotted flesh. Wails of agony mixed with those of grief. When she tried to shut out the smell and breathe through her mouth, the acrid taste of the smoke overwhelmed her. How could this have happened?
Asa couldn’t help but wonder if for all their strength, the blades had been caught nearly unaware, confident no one would dare attack their sanctuary. The destruction seemed nearly absolute. Once in a while she would sense a group of blades, hiding someplace she couldn’t see. These small groups gave her hope. They had been dealt a blow, but they weren’t d
one for, not yet.
More than anything, Asa wanted to close her eyes. She had never romanticized war, but this was beyond the worst she imagined. This was a massacre. That anyone could come to a place to do this to another befuddled her. She was by no means a pacifist, but there was no honor in this.
When she came to the hall of the council, her hopes were almost dashed completely. The building was a shell of its former glory, one of its walls completely collapsed, the roof sagging in where it hadn’t been burned completely through. The hall was a broken monument to a time that seemed to have already passed.
Before she turned around, she extended her sense, finding a few lives left inside. She approached and stepped inside, checking the quality of the roof before putting her lid down. The hall was filled with light and shadow, bright sunlight streaming through the holes in the ceiling. The shadows, by contrast, were dark and impenetrable.
Asa could sense him, though, the man who was in charge of the blades. Several advisers were clustered around him, but they looked more like a group of elderly citizens cowering from a storm than the leaders of the most powerful people in the world.
Asa strode toward them, grateful her mission was almost at an end.
“Hajimi.”
The man she addressed looked many cycles older than the leader who had promoted her and sent her on her last mission just over a cycle ago. There was still strength in his eyes, but she could see that his spirit had been broken. He held no more hope.
Until he saw her, recognition sparking in his eyes. “Asa?”
There was no time for pleasantries. Every moment more arrows came flying into the city, threatening the lives of the remaining inhabitants.
“You need to abandon Starfall.”
He laughed, a maniacal edge to the sound. “There is no place for us to run to, Asa. Our walls are surrounded by enemies, and everyone seems to have brought enough arrows for several wars. We haven’t the strength to break through.”
“You don’t need to. Lady Mari has seized control of the army from House Kita. She guarantees you safe passage and the promise of negotiations so long as you assist her forces against Katashi.”
Hajimi considered the meaning of her words, testing their authenticity. “So Lady Mari went and took over an army. A step up from the Lady in White.”
Asa had worried she would have to negotiate or do something to convince Hajimi, but no such methods were needed.
“We must prepare the evacuation then,” Hajimi said.
Just then another nightblade found her way into the hall. “Sir! House Amari has launched an attack against the walls. House Kita is also advancing, but they are farther back.”
In a moment, Hajimi stood up straight and regained the fire in his spirit. “We need to buy time for the evacuation. Summon all able nightblades to the main gate. All others will retreat to House Kita’s forces.”
Asa couldn’t imagine fighting again, but the choice wasn’t hers to make.
The streets were strangely quiet, soft raindrops the only sound except for the occasional boom coming from the gates of the city. A handful of archers were on the wall, but most nightblades stayed below, hiding from the occasional arrows that still shot overhead. Katashi’s archers were far better than the blades, so the decision had been made not to hold the walls. On the ground, the nightblades were deadlier, and their purpose wasn’t to defeat the invaders but to hold them back. No point risking lives in a meaningless defense.
The near silence gave Asa a few moments to reflect. Despite the danger, she couldn’t remember a time when she had felt more whole. Fighting to protect her fellow blades, and in turn fighting to protect Mari, calmed her in a way her quest for revenge never did. She never thought she would fight in service of another, but now that she was, she realized she had been wrong.
Was it Koji who had spoken about finding a purpose greater than yourself? She didn’t remember, but the words rang true. When she had been tracking Osamu for all those cycles, she had claimed it was for her family. Now she knew that had been a lie. Her family was dead, part of the Great Cycle and whatever lay beyond the veil of everyone’s final journey. Osamu had been for her, always had been.
But now she knew how insignificant she was in the way of the world. For all her strength, when her life ended, she would still be just one person among countless. By taking part in Mari’s campaign, she had the chance to become something more, to change the lives of thousands. That, by itself, was worth the cost of her life.
The storm above intensified as the gates finally broke.
Their strategy, such as it was, was only to keep the invaders occupied and distracted. Hajimi was leading the evacuation, and their guiding principle was to get as many people out alive as they could, including the nightblades defending the main gate. They were to fight as long as they could before escaping.
There was one short breath of silence after the gates crashed to the ground, one moment of peace before the final storm overtook them all.
Then the streets filled with soldiers from House Amari, lines of spearmen leading the way. Asa had found a roof with a small shelter from arrows near the gate and hazarded a few peeks over the edge. The blades had assumed the soldiers would lead with a few ranks of spears, so no one stood in front of the advancing army. All of them hid in side alleys or on rooftops like Asa.
After the spears had passed, Asa sensed the first nightblades enter the fray. That was her cue. She drew her swords, thinking one last time about Koji and hoping he was still alive. He would have been a tremendous asset here.
Asa sprinted from her cover and leapt off the roof, crashing into at least four soldiers. The jump hadn’t been high, thankfully, but they all still went down in a pile of limbs and steel. Fortunately Asa was on top of the pile, and she found her feet as the soldiers around her started to react.
If not for Daisuke’s training, she never would have survived. But his obsession with developing one’s gift and his insistence she learn how to fight with two swords saved her life. A hastily aimed cut came down at her head, but her right hand came up to deflect the strike as her left cut at the soldier’s leg, sending him collapsing to the ground.
She kept her sense contained, focusing only on the life within a spear’s reach, but thanks to her training, she was able to keep track of everything happening in that small space. She thrust out her hips as a soldier tried to stab her from the side, allowing the blade to pass behind her as she danced away.
Life became a continuous string of encounters, Asa’s skill keeping her alive.
She deflected one stab to the side, forcing a soldier to drive his sword into his friend.
She slid under the slice of another soldier, her own sword cutting deep across his stomach as she passed.
A spear came at her from one of the front ranks, but Asa spun and cut through the wood. She kicked the falling spearpoint at her assailants, disappointed it didn’t kill anyone but pleased it distracted two soldiers for a moment.
Despite her efforts, numbers were still a problem. There were hundreds of soldiers and only a few dozen nightblades. Her actions were drawing more and more attention, and if she wanted to live, she needed to retreat.
As the soldiers started to converge, Asa went low, staying close to the ground and cutting at legs. The strategy was a final gift from Daisuke, who reminded her that most troops trained only at higher heights. Fighting low to the ground was awkward for most swordsmen. Asa was already smaller than most soldiers, so the strategy was ideal.
She fought toward an alley, hoping it wouldn’t fill up with soldiers before she got there.
Fortune was on her side, and she made it to the alley with only a few shallow cuts for her troubles. Once inside she sheathed her weapons, switching to a full sprint. She cursed as she sensed soldiers nearing the other end of the passage.
Her mind didn’t panic, instead working its way through possibilities. Finding one, she bounced off the crumbling remains of one building onto th
e roof of another. She leapt across an alley, trying to lose any pursuers.
A few streets over, she heard a shout and turned toward it. A slender dayblade was there, surrounded by three men armed with spears. They were advancing steadily, but their backs were to her. She drew her swords and leapt off the roof, cutting down two of the spearmen as she passed them. Keeping her feet, she turned and cut at the remaining soldier, deflecting his long spear and getting inside his guard easily.
As the final soldier fell, the dayblade was still rooted in place, unused to combat. Asa turned and yelled, “Run!” Her shout succeeded in breaking his trance, and he turned and ran toward the gate.
Asa extended her sense, her stomach sinking as she realized how quickly Katashi’s troops were proceeding through the city. Their defense might have slowed the army, but not for long. She was well behind enemy lines, and if she wanted to escape herself, she needed to get moving.
Nearby, she thought she sensed a glimmer of another person with the gift. Like a candle about to go out, the gift seemed to flicker. Moving silently, Asa went toward the blade.
After all that she had seen, she wasn’t sure anything else could break her heart, but the scene in front of her did. A wizened man in white robes was dying, deep cuts through his torso and legs. From the amount of blood surrounding him, Asa was surprised he still lived. He was the blade she had sensed.
Next to him was a young girl who hadn’t seen more than fourteen cycles. She was dressed in the black robes of a nightblade, but her gift was weak, so weak Asa almost didn’t notice it. She approached, using her sense to ensure no one was nearby.
The dayblade smiled weakly. “Thank you for coming,” he coughed. Blood spurted out of his mouth with every syllable.
Asa didn’t know what to say but knelt in front of the man.
“It’s too late for me,” he said, “but this is my granddaughter, Junko, and I’d like you to get her out of here.”