He twisted the silk of her robe and lifted her effortlessly into the air.
"Y-you can't kill me yet," Kachiko gasped.
"Oh, can't I?" the evil emperor replied.
Kachiko's voice remained firm and confident, but sweat poured from her brow. "Every creature in Rokugan obeys its fate. Even you are no exception. The Fortunes have decreed that only after the Thunders are assembled can you kill any of us. It is written in the stars."
A wicked smile crept across the boy emperor's sallow face. "Is that so? Perhaps I should rewrite what the stars say then, just as I will leave my mark on the face of Rokugan itself. Rules and prophecy mean nothing to me!" He tightened his grip on her robe, and Kachiko watched in terror as he raised his long, sharp fingernails toward her eyes.
A surprised squeak from the other end of the corridor startled the possessed emperor. Both Hantei and Kachiko turned and saw that Seppun Bake had just entered the corridor through a fusuma panel at the far end. The aging courtier's face went completely white.
"E-excuse, me," he said sheepishly. "I did not mean to intrude. Please, go about your business, Highnesses." He nodded a polite bow, and his carefully cut kimono rusded quietly, like the feathers of a frightened bird.
The emperor's grip relaxed only a moment, but long enough for Kachiko to wriggled free. She sprawled to the floor. "Bake! Help me!"
"Em ... How should I help you, Empress?" Bake asked, twisting his fingers nervously.
Hantei laughed—a cold, wicked laugh that filled the hallway.
Kachiko scrambled to her feet and sped away from her husband. "Idiot!" she shouted angrily at Bake.
Bake looked from the possessed boy to the running woman. Kachiko was coming straight at him. He seemed unable to move. "I-I'd be happy to help, Empress," he stammered. "Just tell me what you need."
"Get out of my way, you fool!" Kachiko snapped.
"W-with pleasure, Empress," Bake said, bowing nervously and stepping aside. "Please, excuse my clumsiness."
Kachiko streaked past him and down the hall. Bake's eyes darted back and forth between the emperor and his wife, his head bobbing like a chicken's. He stroked his balding pate with thin fingers.
The emperor's face grew stern as he turned his burning gaze on the well-dressed toady.
"Sh-should I not have let her pass, Highness?" Bake asked. He bowed very low, trying not to notice the bloodstains on the boy emperor's bony hands.
"... Not have let her pass ..." the evil boy said hollowly. His voice sent a shiver down Bake's spine.
"W-well, she can't have gone far," Bake said. "I'm sure you can catch her. Or I could catch her if you like, Highness." He bowed again. When the emperor didn't respond, he added, "Are you f-feeling well, Otennoo-sama?"
"Very well indeed," the boy said, striding nearer. "I've been ...
speaking with some of my advisors. The . . . conversations have made me feel vastly better."
"Gl-glad to hear it, Highness," Bake said. Not knowing what else to do, he bowed once more. As he rose, Hantei seized him by the throat and lifted him off his feet. The demonic boy's fingers dug into the well-dressed courtier's throat. Bake struggled in the emperor's steely grip.
"You know what, Bake?" Hantei the 39th asked casually.
"Wh-what, Highness?" Bake gasped.
"I never liked you," the emperor said. He squeezed and crushed the squirming courtier's neck. Then he tossed Bake's body to the floor.
Lurking in a secret passage nearby, Kachiko heard Seppun Bake's grizzly death. She had doubled back in a parallel hallway, trusting that the emperor would not think her so bold. She held her breath and hoped he wouldn't smell her fear.
She waited a moment until Hantei's scraping footsteps headed down the corridor in the opposite direction. When the noise of his passage had echoed to nothingness, she opened the secret exit and stepped out. She walked quickly past Bake's body, sparing only a brief glance to make sure he was dead. Despite her peril, she took some small pleasure at the toady's demise.
As she opened a new panel in the opposite wall, a faint sound behind her froze her in her tracks. "Kaaaa-chi-ko-o-o-o ... Where aaaare youuuu?"
The emperor's voice dripped with honeyed poison. He was seeking her within the mazelike secret passages lacing the castle walls.
"I only want to give you a kiiisssssss!"
For a moment, terror gripped the empress's soul. Her bare feet felt as though they had been nailed to the wooden floorboards. Fear clutched at her heart. Despite the prophecies, her husband hadn't given up on killing her yet.
He will find me, and I will die.
Standing so near Bake, her mind flashed back to another body she'd found in a palace corridor. It was near the end of the Scorpion Coup, when all their plans were falling apart. The
body she'd discovered then had been that of Dairu, her son.
The thought of the boy, barely in his manhood, brought tears to the empress' eyes. She heard her son's gentle voice, felt the soft touch of his hand on hers. Then, another sound arose—a deep, melodious voice—drowning out the eerie calls of the corrupt emperor.
You are the soul of my strength. In the utter darkness, you are my light. I shall never leave you. We will be together until the end of the world.
The voice belonged to her dead husband, Bayushi Shoju. He had spoken the words to her a long time ago, in the silence of their bedchamber at Kyuden Bayushi. Now the castle was gone, and Shoju was gone as well. The end of the world was coming.
Kachiko felt the strength of the Scorpion flow into her weary body. Her resolve firmed, and her feet unstuck themselves from the floor. She darted into the panel and drew it shut behind her. She knew these hidden corridors better than anyone living.
The emperor would not find her, not until she had accomplished what she'd set out to do. After that, he would have to deal with not one Thunder, but seven.
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Junzo's unholy army surged forward. The Unicorn stood their ground, slaying the monsters that tried to break their defensive circle. Kamoko rode with Yokatsu's other bold horsemen, swiftly patrolling the edges of the line. She spared only a quick glance for her friend Tetsuko, who lay insensate amid the Unicorn formation.
Many of Junzo's troops died, but Unicorns began to fall as well. The undead had been weakened, but there were just too many. Kamoko knew her people could hold the pestilent army back for a while but sooner or later, they would succumb.
Crimson fire burned in Junzo's yellow eyes. He laughed madly, and his stringy white hair blew in the rain-swept wind. He pointed at Shinjo Yokatsu and muttered a spell of destruction.
THUNDER STRIKES
Yokatsu drew his bow to shoot the evil shugenja, knowing he would never have time to fire before Junzo completed his awful spell.
A cry arose from the edges of the undead army. Junzo's troops whirled at the sound. Bands of shabby-looking peasants, thousands strong, surged from the crumbling buildings at the plaza's edge. They carried clubs and pitchforks, timbers and rocks, anything that could be used as a weapon. The unruly rebels crashed into the rear of Junzo's troops, breaking the Shadowlands line.
Junzo, stunned by the sudden attack, paused in his spell.
Yokatsu fired.
The Unicorn daimyo's arrow struck Junzo just as the Unicorn army surged into Junzo's surprised troops. The well-aimed barb entered the evil shugenja's throat just above the collarbone. The arrowhead smashed Junzo's voice box and spine, but it did not kill him. His head
lolled sickeningly, but the sorcerer's magic kept him alive.
Junzo gasped, and his yellow eyes grew wide with fear. He tried to finish his incantation, but all that came from his mouth were croaking gasps. Black blood and crimson fire leaked from his wounded neck. He grabbed the reins of his onikage and wheeled the demon steed away from the battle.
Utaku Kamoko thundered through the enemy, slaying dozens with her katana and crushing more under the hooves of her mighty steed.
Yokatsu pul
led his bowstring to his ear and fired twice in rapid succession. His first arrow struck Junzo's demon-horse as it turned away from the fight. The creature staggered, and Yokatsu put his second arrow through the onikage's eye.
The demon steed's head exploded as Yokatsu's bolt smashed out the other side of its skull. The skeletal horse staggered and went down, taking its evil master with it.
Junzo's left leg snapped when the onikage fell on him. His travel bags split open, spilling the sorcerer's evil scrolls into the mud. Junzo pulled himself out from under the beast. His bony hands quickly wove a spell of binding to shore up his wounds. His leg knitted, and his neck set itself to right once more; his shattered throat began to heal. He rose just as the melee parted behind him.
Through the opening in Junzo's diseased troops thundered Kamoko. Her powerful horse galloped across the muddy earth, its breath heaving from its nostrils in great white puffs. The Battle Maiden held her katana high. Lightning flashed overhead, and the blade gleamed white, like the sun come down to earth.
Junzo's eyes blazed red with hatred; he turned to run.
Kamoko spurred her steed and trampled him into the ground. The horse's iron-shod hooves smashed the magician's hips, his ribs, and his skull.
The body of the most powerful shugenja in Rokugan quivered and shook, flopping in the mud like a beached fish. It refused to give up its unholy animation. Junzo's crushed fingers reached toward the powerful scrolls lying scattered nearby. As his black brains oozed out of his broken head, the sorcerer's whispering voice beseeched Fu Leng for one final boon. He stretched out his bloody hand toward the scrolls. His fingertips brushed their evil, wizened surfaces.
The gnarled fingers stiffened. The shattered body shuddered once and then lay still. Junzo's corrupt form quickly melted into putrid slime. What little remained, the rain dissolved into nothingness.
Kamoko let out a joyous cry. She killed the goblin closest to her and wheeled to look at her clanmates. With the peasants' help, they were already driving the remnants of the Shadowlands army away from the plaza.
The peasants saved us, Kamoko thought. We fought for them during the dark times, and when we needed them, they rallied to our cause. She pulled on the reins, and her horse reared. She raised her sword in salute to Shinjo Yokatsu and cried, "Rokugan!"
Yokatsu and the other Unicorn raised their swords in unison and took up the call. "Rokugan!"
Tetsuko and the wounded Unicorn shugenja rose slowly to their feet. With Junzo dead, the effects of the spell that incapacitated them faded quickly. They, too, shouted. "Rokugan!"
Enmeshed in terrible battle, the peasants also echoed the Unicorn's cry.
Utaku Kamoko smiled.
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Doji Hoturi rode through the melee to Toturi's side. The Black Lion stood amid half a dozen foes, hacking them with Matsu Tsuko's blood-encrusted katana. Hoturi killed the lone samurai separating him from his friend. A smile broke across the Crane's handsome face. "Junzo has fallen, and the Shadowlands forces are breaking," he said. "We can win here!"
"We win nothing unless Fu Leng is destroyed, "Toturi replied. Thunder cracked overhead. "Where are the others?"
Hoturi shrugged and wiped the sweat from his brow. "My scouts report Kamoko and the Unicorn are fighting their way back to us. I haven't seen Tadaka since he battled the Master of
Fire atop the wall. Perhaps he, too, perished in that awful conflagration. As to Hida Yakamo and Mirumoto Hitomi . . . who knows?"
Toturi cursed. His dark eyes scanned the battlefield and soon found the person he sought. "Bring me the Hooded Ronin." Toturi pointed toward the cloaked samurai. "The time has come for us to stand or fall together."
Hoturi bowed slightly. "Hai, Toturi-sama." The Crane's eyes sparkled, and a wry smile curled the corner of his mouth. Hoturi spurred his horse and dived once more into the frenzied mob.
The Hooded Ronin stood amid allied troops, Lions, snakelike Naga, and even a ratling or two. All battled fiercely against Shadowlands undead.
The ronin stove in heads with his long, flute-topped staff. Mud and gore caked his green cloak. Long scratches traced his masculine face, but he paid them no heed.
The Crane daimyo joined the fray, and with his help, the ronin and his allies quickly cleared an area around the hooded wanderer.
"Come with me," Hoturi said. "Toturi thinks the time is now."
The Hooded Ronin smiled grimly. "He is right." He pulled himself into the saddle behind the handsome Crane.
As Hoturi fetched the ronin, Toturi and his samurai pushed the battlefront past a ruined Shintao complex. The temple had been burned and desecrated. The bones of monks littered the courtyard. Only the great torii arch had resisted efforts to destroy it. Its tall, red columns showed burn marks and scars from swords and axes, but they still stood proudly, defiant of Fu Leng's reign.
Toturi met the Crane daimyo and the Hooded Ronin below the torii's lintel. Thunder struck, and the courtyard reverberated with the sound.
"The time has come," Toturi said.
The ronin nodded. "Even now I can feel Fu Leng in my bones. I will summon the Thunders. Help me climb to the top of this torii."
Using Hoturi's horse, all three of them scrambled to the top of the sacred wooden arch. They stood together, side by side as the black rain pelted them.
Poised between the Crane and the Lion, the Hooded Ronin lifted his staff high. The wind made the flute on the end of the walking stick howl like a legion of demons. "To me, Thunders!" the Hooded Ronin cried. His voice boomed over the city, louder than the peals of thunder that accompanied his words. "Shinsei's descendant summons you now! Your time has come! The battle will not be won within this devastated city, but at the Emerald Throne itself!"
The ronin's summons still echoed as he, Toturi, and Doji Hoturi climbed down from the torii. They took position beneath the great arch to await the others.
Instantly, Togashi Yokuni appeared beside them. All traces of blood and grime were gone from him. His golden armor gleamed in the dim light of the cloud-shrouded afternoon. The black rain seemed not to touch him. Though I am not a Thunder, 1 still have unfinished business with Fu Leng.
Toturi nodded. "Have you seen Hitomi, Great One?"
She is approaching even now. And she does not come alone. He turned his golden eyes toward the battlefront.
Mirumoto Hitomi emerged from the crowd. Her golden armor gleamed, though not so brightly as that of her lord; black blood covered her from head to toe. Her face was set in a stern mask.
Beside her walked Hida Yakamo. He, too, was battered, bloody, and out of breath. Like Hitomi, he looked ready to fight one last battle.
"It seems they decided not to kill each other after all," Hoturi whispered to Toturi.
The Lion nodded. As Yakamo joined them beneath the massive Shintao gate, Toturi asked, "Did you slay the demon with your name?"
"It is dead," Yakamo replied.
"J killed it," Hitomi said proudly.
The Lion and the Crane glanced at each other, but neither said anything further.
Kamoko rode up, the hooves of her horse shaking the muddy ground. She dismounted and bowed slightly to the others. They did the same.
"Utaku Kamoko of the Unicorn stands with you," she said. Glancing at the Hooded Ronin, she added, "You called, and I came."
The ronin bowed to her. "I knew you would," he said good-naturedly.
"I would expect nothing less from Shinsei's descendant," Kamoko said, smiling.
"How do your troops fare?" Toturi asked.
"Junzo lies dead, crushed beneath the hooves of my steed," she replied. "Without him, his army is like a headless snake; their thrashing may be dangerous, but they will not live for long. Shinjo Yokatsu will make sure of that."
Toturi folded his arms over his broad chest. "Good."
"I see only five of us," Hitomi said impatiently. "With the one inside the palace, that only makes six. Where is Tadaka?"
"I am here," said a weak, gra
velly voice.
All eyes turned to see Isawa Tadaka shamble up the temple's steps. He looked thin and frail, and Toku supported his left elbow as he walked. The Master of Earth leaned heavily against his young companion. His clothes hung in charred tatters. Only the swords at his hip and the bow slung on his back seemed untouched by the inferno. Terrible green scars, like an evil road map, ran across Tadaka's scorched body. His skin was covered with open sores. He coughed, and his lungs rattled.
"He'll be no use to us like this," Yakamo said.
"Don't be too sure," Tadaka hissed. "I have enough magic left in me for one final task. Perhaps, two—if I must fight you, Crab." He glanced back the way he had come and saw a fleeting white shadow dash across the parapets. "Then," he said, sighing, "I can rest."
The Hooded Ronin stepped forward and gave his flute-topped staff to the Master of Earth.
Tadaka accepted it gratefully, not bothering with the formality of refusing a gift three times. "I am ready."
"Me, too," piped Toku.
The Lion turned his dark eyes on the young samurai. "This is not for you," Toturi said quietly to his friend. "Your destiny lies elsewhere. You cannot come with us."
Toku hung his head a moment and looked at his sandals. Then he lifted his face, and his eyes brightened. "I'll free the city for you before you return," he said enthusiastically.
Hitomi and Yakamo laughed, but the Lion merely nodded. "Yosh. See that you do."
Drawing his sword, Toku bowed low, and then scurried off to the battlefront. "For Tsuko! For Toturi! For Rokugan!"
At a command from Toturi, the allied forces pushed forward, clearing the way to the walls of the imperial palace.
Yokuni, the Hooded Ronin, and the six Thunders walked grimly between the battle lines. As they did, the rear gate to the castle swung silently open. Inside stood Empress Kachiko.
L5r - scroll 07 - The Lion Page 21