But the samurai offered no resistance. He’d gone limp in Jack’s grip.
It wasn’t until the blood ran in rivulets down the curving iron roof that Jack realized why. He’d been fortunate enough to land on the walkway, while the samurai had rolled on to the spikes. With great care, Jack got to his feet and stepped away from the impaled samurai, whose face was fixed in a contortion of agony.
Jack retrieved his katana and was considering his next move, when Dragon Eye rose out of the hatch.
‘Don’t make me kill you, gaijin. Surrender!’
Jack raised his sword in reply.
‘So be it,’ hissed the ninja, flicking the blood from Black Cloud’s blade.
Tightening his grip on the katana, Jack braced himself for a fight to the death. Their last encounter had been an epic struggle. It had taken all his courage, every ounce of strength and mastery of the Two Heavens just to survive. Even then, he’d needed his friends Akiko and Yamato to ultimately defeat Dragon Eye. Yet still they had not been able to kill the ninja.
This time, Jack had only a single sword. And he was alone.
Jack tried to push his doubts aside. They would just get him killed. His swordmaster Sensei Hosokawa had taught him that he must ‘stare death in the face and react without hesitation. No fear. No confusion. No doubt.’ He repeated the mantra in his head, clearing his mind into a warrior’s state of mushin: ‘Expect nothing. Be ready for anything.’
Dragon Eye advanced, squatting low like a crab to counter the pitch and roll of the ship. He held Black Cloud aloft in his right hand, the blade poised like the stinger of a scorpion.
Jack mirrored his stance, but gripped his katana in two hands above his head, the blade’s tip pointed directly at the ninja’s face.
Almost too fast for the eye to see, Dragon Eye flicked his wrist and a shuriken spun towards Jack’s throat. With his mind open to any attack, Jack reacted without hesitation. He cut down with his sword, meeting the throwing star halfway. The shuriken ricocheted off the blade into the turbulent sea. Jack had scarcely recovered from this opening strike, when Black Cloud swooped down from the sky. His arm jarred as their blades clashed. Dragon Eye pressed forward, forcing Jack to retreat.
‘Careful where you step, gaijin,’ taunted Dragon Eye, slicing for Jack’s legs.
Jack leapt over the blade. For a moment, he was suspended above the armoured roof. A moment of panic gripped him as he sought for safe gaps. But, with the agility of a trained ninja, Jack replanted his feet between the spikes.
Dragon Eye cursed and cut for his midriff this time. Jack stepped back out of range, his foot narrowly missing a vicious spike. He thrust with his katana in retaliation, but Dragon Eye deflected the attack and once again slashed for his legs. Jack jumped away. This time his foot scraped down a spike, ripping the skin from his ankle. Crying out in pain, he stumbled to recover his balance. Dragon Eye immediately cut for his head. Jack ducked, only to be kicked in the chest. The force of the blow lifted him off his feet and sent him flying.
As he arched through the air, the image of the impaled samurai flashed before his eyes … but the face of the dead warrior was his own.
In a final bid to save himself, Jack twisted and flung out his limbs as if he were performing a horizontal Butterfly Kick. He landed upon all fours like a cat and, by the skin of his teeth, managed to hold his body above the deadly spikes.
But his fortune was short-lived. Dragon Eye rushed over, seized him by the hair and forced his head towards the deck. A sharpened point thrust directly in line with Jack’s right eye.
‘I’m going to present your head to the Shogun on a spike!’ snarled Dragon Eye.
55
Weak Spot
Jack’s muscles trembled as he strained to keep his head up, the spike now a fraction away from piercing his eyeball. Dragon Eye pushed harder and points of pain erupted along Jack’s chest where the sharpened tips of other spikes were about to puncture his ribs. His arms were close to giving out. Jack gritted his teeth, calling upon all his reserves of strength.
But Dragon Eye was too strong. Jack had nothing left.
Then the pressure was gone, Dragon Eye’s hands no longer gripping him. He heard high-pitched screeching and angry shouts. Scrambling to his feet, Jack turned to see Saru tearing into the ninja’s face and remaining eye. Dragon Eye howled, wrestling to rid himself of the beast. He managed to seize Saru’s tail and fling her off. The monkey twirled helplessly through the air, bouncing once on the roof, before disappearing over the side.
‘No one harms Saru and lives!’ shrieked Tatsumaki, her expression one of thunderous fury as she charged towards the ninja, flanked by four Wind Demons.
Dragon Eye took one look at the fearsome Pirate Queen and leapt from the Koketsu’s roof on to the seki-bune’s deck. He pointed Black Cloud at Jack. ‘I’ll be back for you, gaijin,’ he promised.
Then before any of them could give chase, he jumped on to a piece of passing wreckage. Jack watched the ninja float away and disappear among the carnage of battling ships.
‘And I’ll be after you,’ vowed Tatsumaki, a tear streaking the black powder around her eyes.
Jack felt a lump in his throat as he tried to console the Pirate Queen. ‘Saru was a brave monkey. She saved my life.’
‘Just be sure you kill the ninja next time!’ she replied, staring wretchedly in the direction Saru had been tossed.
Then a small red face bobbed up from the roof edge. Having checked the coast was clear, Saru scampered between the spikes and leapt into Tatsumaki’s arms.
‘Saru! My little Wind Demon!’ exclaimed the Pirate Queen, rubbing her head affectionately. ‘I knew you were tougher than any ninja.’
Relieved Saru was alive, Jack glanced towards the other Wind Demons, who were all bloody and bruised.
‘Is Li Ling OK?’ asked Jack.
One of the pirates nodded. ‘She’s helping clear the deck of samurai scum.’
‘So you’ve beaten them?’
‘Not yet,’ replied Tatsumaki, gravely scanning the floating battlefield. ‘There’s plenty more where they came from.’
The Seto Sea was awash with burning boats and sinking ships. Bodies, dead or dying, floated past like shoals of fish. Vessels still seaworthy locked horns, their crews firing point-blank at one another before boarding and fighting hand-to-hand. Despite their superior cannon, the Wind Demons were being decimated by daimyo Mori’s larger and more organized force. Sea Samurai swarmed over the pirate ships, slaughtering the crews and seizing the vessels. Jack reckoned that the pirates must have lost nearly half their fleet.
Amid the devastation the Nihon Maru pressed forward, laying down suppressive fire, protected behind a defensive ring of seki-bune. Signal flags and the blare of horagai issued from its keep, directing the Sea Samurai’s formations and attack manoeuvres. Any weaknesses in the Wind Demons’ defences were quickly spotted and exploited. The tide of battle was rapidly turning against the pirates.
But Tatsumaki remained defiant and undaunted. ‘Ten sailors wisely led will beat a hundred without a head,’ she declared. ‘We must sink their command ship.’
The Koketsu shook, its beams almost rattled loose by the impact. Oarsmen clung on determinedly to their oars. Gunners fought to stay standing as their cannon almost broke free from their chains. Li Ling went flying but Jack somehow kept his feet.
‘RETREAT AND TURN!’ bellowed Tatsumaki above the cacophony of musket shots raining down upon the iron roof and the blasts of cannon from the defending seki-bune ships.
The Koketsu was rocked by a direct hit to its port side. The crack and crunch of wood as a cannonball ploughed through the deck was followed by the screams of injured pirates.
‘Put that fire out!’ cried a gunner to his men, as flames licked the inner walls of the gun deck and spread towards their explosive charges.
Jack wondered just how much more damage the Koketsu could sustain. The wooden gunwales were being blown to smithereens, the roof po
unded to scrap metal by close-range cannon each time they charged the Nihon Maru. And so many oars had been blasted to splintered stumps that they’d already lost two rowing units. Soon the ship would be no more than a floating coffin.
Through a gaping hole in the Koketsu’s side Jack could see Captain Kurogumo’s Black Spider and Captain Wanizame’s Great White embroiled in a furious battle with the Sea Samurai. Their mission was to keep the defending seki-bune at bay, while the Koketsu and Captain Kujira’s Killer Whale attempted to sink the Nihon Maru.
Tatsumaki had rallied their best remaining ships for the task. But they’d been met with overwhelming resistance. Trapped within the heart of daimyo Mori’s armada, enemy fire came from all directions. The Wind Demons had so far lost three of their ships in the attack and more were on the brink of defeat. The pirates were simply being obliterated … and all for nothing.
The Nihon Maru remained stubbornly afloat, its hull immune to the pirates’ bombardment. Even Captain Kujira’s Crouching Tiger had failed to make an impact.
‘FIRE!’ ordered Tatsumaki with an almost desperate cry.
The Koketsu rang to the thunder of Heaven and Earth cannon. When the gunsmoke cleared, the Wind Demons gave a despairing groan. Their fourth attempt had achieved little more than the splintering of a few boards.
‘It’s hopeless!’ cursed the head gunner, plunging his knife into the wooden gun carriage. ‘That hull must be reinforced with iron.’
‘We cannot give up,’ said Tatsumaki.
‘What else can we do? We’ve thrown everything we’ve got at this monster.’
‘Try AGAIN on the starboard side,’ she ordered furiously. ‘There has to be a weak spot. A chink in its armour somewhere.’
The weary oarsmen propelled the Koketsu down the seemingly endless length of the Nihon Maru. All the time musket shot, arrows and cannon battered the crumbling pirate ship. Jack took shelter with Li Ling behind a pile of ropes as shards of wood and lethal projectiles tore through the air. Jack realized their chances of survival were almost nil. The Nihon Maru was proving indestructible and another ramming raid would surely see the Koketsu blasted out of the water. If by some miracle they managed to retreat to the protection of Pirate Island, the Sea Samurai would simply surround them. Daimyo Mori would show no quarter to the Wind Demons – he had a personal vendetta to wipe the pirate clans out forever.
With their downfall assured, Jack thought of Yori, Miyuki and Saburo imprisoned in the citadel. Would they be shown any mercy by the Sea Samurai? It seemed unlikely. His friends would either be killed in the fighting or recognized as his accomplices and put to death for treason. Jack cursed himself for letting them ever come on this journey in the first place. He should have insisted that they left him in Tomo Harbour. Now he was powerless to save his loyal friends.
As the Koketsu rounded the Nihon Maru’s bow and took up position for a fifth and no doubt final run, Jack glanced up at the insurmountable sides of the command ship. Hundreds of armed soldiers lined its battlements, primed to launch a devastating salvo at them. Jack noticed that the Nihon Maru was now listing heavily to starboard. For a moment, he thought that she had been holed. But it was just the weight of the soldiers causing her to tilt, daimyo Mori having mustered the majority of his men to one side for maximum firepower.
Seeing this, Jack smiled to himself. He had found the weak spot.
56
Tug-of-War
‘FIRE!’ ordered Jack to the gunmen.
The Koketsu roared with cannon blasts. Jack watched the daejon arrows arc into the smoke-filled sky.
‘For all our sakes, your plan had better work,’ said Tatsumaki.
Jack could only pray that it would. The Pirate Queen had taken some persuasion to stop her ramming raid, but once he’d pointed out the Nihon Maru’s weak spot she’d understood. Hurried adjustments to every cannon followed, the gunners toiling hard as they shifted their weapons into the steepest possible trajectory. Ropes were lashed together and fed out of the portholes before being secured to the Koketsu’s stern. Every Wind Demon, except the gunnery crews, was assigned to the oars. But the most difficult part of the plan was to ensure the daejon arrows hit their target first time.
There would be no second chance.
When the head gunner had been assured of their accuracy, Tatsumaki gave Jack the privilege of issuing the firing order. For a brief moment, Jack had hesitated. He’d questioned himself about aiding the Wind Demons. But with his survival and the fate of his imprisoned friends at stake, he’d realized there was no other option. Between the Sea Samurai and the Wind Demons, the Pirate Queen was the lesser of two evils.
The daejon arrows shot upwards, their tethers trailing out behind them. The Sea Samurai on the battlements ducked as the ten projectiles soared past. They entirely missed the Nihon Maru’s battlements. Jack could just imagine the relief on the samurai’s faces … and the utter shock and bewilderment as the iron-tipped arrows struck the Nihon Maru’s keep. They embedded themselves in the whitewashed walls up to their flights. A unit of samurai rushed to rescue their lord from the keep’s upper tower. But Jack’s plan wasn’t to kill the daimyo.
‘ROW LIKE THE WIND!’ he shouted and threw his weight behind the nearest oar with six other men as the drummer took up the rhythm.
The Koketsu surged away from the Nihon Maru, gaining speed with every oar stroke. Then the ship suddenly jarred to a halt as the ten ropes tied to its stern snapped taut.
‘Keep rowing!’ grunted Jack.
The oarsmen pushed and pulled on the yuloh oars, their muscles bulging, sweat pouring down their backs, as the Koketsu’s timbers creaked and groaned with the strain.
Jack glanced through the stern porthole. The Koketsu appeared dead in the water, all forward momentum lost.
‘ROW HARDER!’ he cried above the drummer’s insistent beat.
Like a tug-of-war between David and Goliath, the Koketsu fought against the monumental bulk of the Nihon Maru. But the command ship was immovable.
‘It’s not working!’ said Tatsumaki, glaring at Jack.
‘It will,’ he replied. ‘Just give it a chance!’
But doubts were being raised in his own mind too. However hard the Wind Demons rowed, they were simply not powerful enough to overcome the mighty Nihon Maru. The pirates plunged their oars in again and again. The ropes stretched to their limit. Then two of them snapped. Jack’s plan was fast unravelling.
‘COME ON!’ he roared. ‘FOR YOUR QUEEN!’
A tremendous burst of effort came from the Wind Demons and the Koketsu edged over a wave. Three more ropes broke. Oars dived into the water, propelling the Koketsu onward. Jack stared in desperate hope at the command ship. With its keep being dragged sideways, the deck was now heeling dangerously. The Sea Samurai, finally understanding what was happening, rushed to the port side to counter the perilous slant of the deck. But the Nihon Maru had reached tipping point.
The bigger they are, the harder they fall, thought Jack.
Strong and immense as the Nihon Maru was, he’d realized its design was top-heavy and unstable. The command ship’s superstructure was its Achilles heel. Like a harpooned whale, the Nihon Maru keeled over. A final pull from the Koketsu’s oarsmen sent it crashing into the Seto Sea.
With their command ship down and sinking slowly beneath the waves, the remaining Sea Samurai ships floundered in confusion and panic. Their fighting spirit crushed by their daimyo’s defeat, they turned tail and fled.
The Wind Demons on the Koketsu gave a triumphant battle cry. Their call was echoed by cheers from the Black Spider and the other surviving pirate ships. The battle for Pirate Island had been won.
57
Second Wave
‘The Wind Demons are forever in your debt, Jack,’ declared Tatsumaki. ‘And so am I.’
They stood upon the armoured roof, the Wind Demons hailing their victory as the Koketsu docked at the lagoon jetty. More pirate ships limped in, their crews battleworn but jubilant.
Jack bowed respectfully to the Pirate Queen. ‘You can easily repay that debt.’
Tatsumaki raised an eyebrow. ‘Really?’
‘Release me and my friends.’
She pursed her lips, apparently reluctant.
‘Do you think I should, Saru?’ she asked, turning to the monkey upon her shoulder. Saru bobbed her head enthusiastically and Tatsumaki smiled at Jack. ‘Your request is granted.’
‘Also, hand back my swords and our weapons.’
‘That’s acceptable to me,’ replied Tatsumaki, nodding amiably, ‘though it might be harder to persuade Captain Kurogumo to part with those Shizu swords of yours.’
‘And return my father’s rutter.’
Tatsumaki laughed at his audacity. ‘Next you’ll be asking for a boat!’
‘That had crossed my mind,’ replied Jack.
The Pirate Queen studied him. ‘Are you certain you don’t want to stay here as a Wind Demon? We can protect you from the Shogun. And you’ve proved yourself a fine pirate. I’d even make you captain of your own ship.’
It was Jack who laughed out loud this time. His father would turn in his grave at the thought of his son becoming a pirate. He shook his head. ‘I have to get to Nagasaki. I must return home to my sister.’
Tatsumaki nodded. ‘I suppose we all seek different treasures in life,’ she replied wistfully. ‘I’ll arrange a boat for you.’
‘And the rutter?’ pressed Jack.
The Pirate Queen’s expression became hard as a diamond. ‘I’m afraid that belongs to me.’
‘But we made a blood oath!’ exclaimed Jack, holding up his scarred hand.
‘I only promised to set you free,’ replied Tatsumaki coolly. ‘And that’s exactly what I’ve agreed to do. Think yourself fortunate that you and your friends are escaping with your lives.’
Jack felt cheated and angry. Without his father’s rutter, his whole future and that of his sister Jess were at stake. But, surrounded by armed Wind Demons, he was in no position to argue. And why should he be so surprised by Tatsumaki’s mercenary decision? She was a pirate, after all!
Young Samurai: The Ring of Wind Page 23