After what seemed like an age they broke through the tree line and saw before them the shadow of a mountain’s peak, silhouetted against a sky tinged with the faintest hint of dawn. Finn and Arthur both felt light-headed, the thin air and their exhaustion combining to create a woozy, drowsy feeling as if they had stayed too long in a very hot bath. It was strange to feel so comfortable at the tail end of such a long ordeal, and it was in this state that they followed the trail around a buttress of rock and first caught sight of the temple they were headed for, perched on a wide ledge above the trail.
Like all the others they had seen this was an elegant wooden building, though unlike the others this had clearly been dragged bit by bit up the side of the mountain. There was nothing imposing about it, but the elegant, swooping curve of the roof, the large, perfectly spaced wooden pillars that supported it and the muted reds and greens with which it was painted were so pleasing to the eye that even Arthur, not normally one to appreciate the style of a building, was clearly impressed.
The five of them continued along the last stretch of the trail that led to a wide flight of steps in front of the temple and as they approached they heard the chanting of deep, bass voices that reverberated solemnly inside.
“Monks,” Finn whispered. “They get up early.”
As they mounted the steps they were met by a shaven-headed man draped in a long, yellow robe. Ryu explained that he was seeking shelter for his young companions and that he wished to speak with the abbot. The monk smiled and bowed to each of them in turn. Finn and Arthur were getting used to bowing, and responded in kind before the monk led them through the temple gate to a large, raised trough of water. Watching closely to see what the others did and following their example, the boys took some of the water into their mouths and spat it out again at their feet, before rubbing water across their foreheads. These unknown rituals complete, the man led them silently past rows of chanting monks, across a small courtyard and to a room with several sleeping mats rolled up on the floor.
“Sleep,” he said kindly. “You have had a long journey. When you wake we will talk.”
For the first time since the adventure had begun, the boys felt safe and judging by the slumped shoulders of Mayuko and Tatsushi they felt the same. Each of them unrolled a mat, collapsed onto it and pulled a blanket over themselves.
Only Ryu gave any indication that he could resist the urge to sleep. Finn yawned and was already closing his eyes as Tatsushi asked the question that had been on all their minds.
“Who is the ally that you hoped we might find in the monastery?”
Ryu looked at him and smiled. “You will succeed even without his help Tatsushi. But he would be the perfect guide. Some call him the vanishing one.”
“Akira!” Tatsushi exclaimed, and both Finn and Arthur felt a surge of excitement at the thought that they might meet the vanishing samurai from Tatsushi’s story.
“I will say no more. For now you must sleep. You are safe, Mayuko is safe, your friends are safe and you have all done very well. Tomorrow begins tomorrow.”
Even the thought of the vanishing samurai was not enough to keep them awake. Their aching limbs relaxed for the first time in an age, and in seconds the four young adventurers were asleep.
CHAPTER 7
Finn woke slowly. The room was hot, and through its small window he could see that the sun was high in the sky. He sat up and stretched, aching in every part of his body, as he looked around the room. Ryu was missing, but the other three lay sleeping. It felt as though his body weighed twice as much as it had the day before, and with some considerable effort Finn rose and wandered through the drapes that hung in place of a door and out into the courtyard.
The monk who had welcomed them in at dawn sat cross-legged under the shade of a parasol.
“Do you feel rested?” he asked gently, looking up as Finn approached him.
Finn nodded half-heartedly and the man laughed.
“You will soon feel better,” he said. “Ryu has been telling me about your adventures. You have all been very brave.” Finn yawned, and the monk turned back to face the open space of the courtyard, watching as a monkey scampered across the ground.
“You are friends of William Blade, I understand,” said the monk quietly, still watching the monkey. “And again the Kurodas try to seize what is not theirs to take. These truly are strange times.”
“Did you know him as well?” Finn asked, suddenly wary.
Before the monk had time to reply Ryu emerged from the temple across the courtyard, deep in conversation with another monk, and as the two men approached Ryu caught Finn’s eye and pursed his lips.
“We need to press on,” he said curtly and entered the room where the others slept. Finn looked at the two monks but their faces gave nothing away. He was beginning to realise that the medieval Japanese did not express their emotions as readily as people back home and he felt strangely awkward all of a sudden. He was relieved when the others emerged from the room, yawning and blinking in the bright mountain sunlight.
“I have spoken with the abbot and he has offered us much that will help,” said Ryu, following the group out of the room. “Provisions and horses also.”
“And Akira?” Arthur enquired. The monk standing beside Ryu shook his head.
“We do not know anyone by that name,” he said. Then, nodding at the friendly monk under the parasol he continued, “but we can offer you a guide to help you across the pass and down into the valley where you will find Castle Kuruyama.” Curiosity flickered at the back of Finn’s mind and then vanished.
“You are very kind sir,” said Ryu, bowing as the others tried to hide their disappointment that they would not be travelling with the great vanishing warrior. “If we succeed in our endeavours we will see to it that your monastery receives a reward.”
“We seek no reward. If Kuroda can be stopped then that is reward enough.”
Ryu bowed again, then set about herding the others back into the room where they gathered their belongings and weapons and then followed Ryu back through the temple and out onto the steps that lead down to the trail. Their friendly monk came with them, carrying a long staff and a sack full of food.
“What is your name, sir?” Tatsushi asked the monk as they each mounted one of the six horses that were waiting for them.
“I have no name,” came the reply. “I renounced it when I joined the monastery.” Again Finn felt a flicker of curiosity but before he could explore it Ryu was barking out instructions again.
“We follow the monk and we do not stop until we are through the pass and back down below the tree line. Now that the Kurodas know they are meeting with some resistance we do not have long before they unleash their fury on the villages.”
They bowed to the abbot who stood at the temple gate and then set off along the mountain trail. To Finn and Arthur the ride was horribly uncomfortable. The horses walked or trotted along the trail, shaking them like bags of bones on top of thinly quilted saddles that offered little comfort. Looking ahead Finn saw how much better their Japanese friends were as riders. The monk in particular was impressive. With his long staff in one hand, reins in the other, and his back perfectly straight he seemed almost as though he were leading some graceful royal procession.
The scenery was beautiful too. A sweep of scree tumbled down the side of the mountain to the left before being swallowed up by the trees they had climbed through, while beyond the forest the ocean glittered in the sunlight. Before long the view was lost. They had reached the pass and were crossing a ridge in between two peaks, the trail snaking out in front of them down the other side of the mountain and into a deep valley, bordered on either side by long spurs of rock.
They reached the tree line after a couple more uncomfortable hours, and heaving sighs of relief Finn and Arthur slid off their mounts to join the others sitting on the trunk of a fallen tree. They were just beginning to enjoy some much-needed refreshment when Ryu sat bolt upright. His eyes rolled up in
his head and he fell forward to reveal the shaft of an arrow thrusting up from his back.
With cries of mixed rage and anguish, Tatsushi and Mayuko leapt up as more arrows hissed through the air.
“On your horses and back up the trail,” said the monk calmly but firmly, and they followed his instructions, leaping into their saddles and hunching down behind their horses’ heads. Arthur was in the lead, and as he reached a huge boulder he took cover behind it and dismounted once more before scrambling up the side of the boulder to peer over the top, with Finn not far behind him.
The monk had not moved. He stood calmly by the fallen tree as three menacing men on horseback circled him. With a sick feeling Finn recognised the man who had kidnapped Mayuko. His first thought was for Tatsushi. What would he do if he recognised the man? Looking back down to the bottom of the boulder he saw Tatsushi and Mayuko still mounted and with anger flashing in their eyes as they prepared to charge back down the trail.
Arthur already had his bow strung and Finn scrambled to do the same. For the second time they both took aim at Kuroda’s men, but just as they were about to shoot something extraordinary happened before their eyes. The monk looked straight at the boys and held their gaze. Then in a flash of impossibly quick motion he crouched down, grabbed the end of his staff and drove the other end up in the air to connect with one of the horsemen’s faces. Never once looking away from the boys he gave two more swift thrusts and all three men toppled to the ground.
It was the most explosive, skilful display of close combat that either of them had ever seen, and they lowered their bows, both of them trembling with shock. Judging by the look on Mayuko and Tatsushi’s faces they were equally taken aback while the monk, still gazing up calmly, beckoned them down the trail.
THE WAY OF THE WARRIOR
Bushido, or the way of the warrior, was the code of honour by which samurai were supposed to live. A bit like chivalry for knights in Europe, the idea was that this code would encourage these highly trained warriors to behave with nobility and fairness. Needless to say, it didn’t always work out that way. Here are some of the things that samurai were expected to show:
COURAGE
This is so you set a good example to the rest of the population (or so you will win battles when your Lord needs you to).
FRUGALITY
Living simply and not getting too comfortable so that you can focus on strengthening your character (or so that you never get above yourself and try to steal land or wealth from your Lord).
CHARITY
This is so you don’t act with cruelty to the peasants beneath you (and so the peasants don’t get too annoyed and start a revolution).
LOYALTY
Because it’s good to be loyal, and it’s especially good for your Lord if you are loyal as this prevents you from trying to overthrow him.
HONOUR
Because if your reputation really matters to you then your Lord can easily bring you down by finding some way to disgrace you.
Clearly those are all admirable qualities. Maybe the way of the warrior really was just about being the best person you could be, not just about Japanese rulers trying to control everything. You decide!
CHAPTER 8
“We should kill them where they lie,” Tatsushi snarled, standing over the unconscious bodies of the Kuroda men with his sword raised. The group had clambered back down to join the monk.
“We should not,” replied the monk quietly.
“You have to say that, you’re a monk. But they killed my father, they took Mayuko, they tried to kill us and now they have killed Ryu.” Tears rolled down Tatsushi’s cheeks at this latest, cruel loss.
“Tatsushi,” Finn began tentatively. “We should only kill them if it will help us achieve what we are here for.”
“And are we not in part here for revenge?” Tatsushi implored, though he lowered his sword.
“You may desire revenge but you must never act on it,” said the monk. “If you do then you are little better than these men, and you will certainly fail to bring down Kenji Kuroda. I know better than most what lies ahead and you should believe me when I say you cannot succeed in such a dangerous venture unless your mind is free to focus perfectly.”
Finn frowned.
“What do you mean you know what lies ahead?”
“I know what it is to fight. And I know Castle Kuruyama. The abbot chose me as your guide for good reason.”
“But these men…” Tatsushi choked on the words and the monk held up his hand.
“Remember why you are here. A great many people will suffer if you do not succeed in stopping Kuroda. Anything else, be it curiosity, anger, pain, hate, pride – anything else is a distraction. Your father must have taught you that. We have very little time now before Kuroda will strike properly at the villages and we must hurry. These men here will not wake until tomorrow – I have some knowledge of these things.”
“Some knowledge,” Finn snorted, “The way you brought those men down – I’ve never seen such skill!”
“Finn’s right.” Tatsushi was staring hard at the monk. “I have never seen anything like it either. I’ve only ever heard of one living man who had truly mastered the art of combat. But you couldn’t be him… You’re not… not…”
“Akira?” Mayuko finished.
“I have no name,” replied the monk. “And we have no time.” He lifted Ryu’s body and carefully draped it across the back of one of the horses, tying it down. “The horse will find his way back to the monastery,” he explained.
Mayuko and her brother whispered their goodbye’s to Ryu’s motionless body and then slapped the horse’s flank to send him on his way. The horse trotted up the trail as the four friends and the monk mounted their horses again and began their descent through the thickening forest. They were in the shadow of the mountain again so could not see the sun but judging by the colour of the sky, sunset was approaching as the trail widened out into a rough road and they were able to ride alongside one another. The monk had said they would be in view of the castle by nightfall and sure enough as the road reached the extreme of one of the mountain’s spurs and turned out of the valley into a broad plain, Finn and Arthur were treated to their first sight of Castle Kuruyama.
Smooth, grey stone walls curved forbiddingly out of the ground atop an isolated hill in the middle of a vast plain. The stone walls lead to the brilliant white upper part of the castle which was topped with layer upon layer of curved roof as if no sooner had one roof been completed than another storey had been added, and another roof. The building looked like something from a weird fairy tale – beautiful, fantastical, and utterly impenetrable.
“How do we get inside that?” Arthur breathed.
“And how do we get out alive?” Finn added.
“I know the way,” the monk replied, calmly. “We wait for nightfall and we climb the walls – to the top. That is where Kuroda will be. If we try to enter the castle through any of the windows lower down we will have to fight our way up and he will know we are coming.”
“It doesn’t look possible,” said Tatsushi doubtfully.
“But it is. I have done it before. Many years ago Lord Kuruyama asked me to show him how I would enter the castle if I were his assassin so that he could improve his defences.”
“You really are Akira, aren’t you?” Tatsushi tried to contain his excitement. “You fought alongside my father.”
“And alongside William Blade,” Finn commented.
“And alongside Lord Kuruyama and a great many others,” the monk replied, finally dropping the pretence. “When the war with the Kurodas was over I vowed that I would never again serve as a samurai. I vanished from the world and sought refuge in the mountains. I always knew though that one day my skills would be needed again, and now here we are...”
Akira laid out his plan. They would send the horses back up the mountain and wait for nightfall. The large village that sprawled out to one side of the castle would be carefully watched by Ku
roda’s men, so they would approach the castle from the opposite side. Akira would lead them to the top storey of the castle where they would lie hidden for an hour. During this time Akira would venture into the village and find the many men who he knew would want to avenge Lord Kuruyama’s death and might be persuaded to rise up once Kuroda was dead himself. When he returned they would enter the castle through a hidden opening in the roof designed as an escape hatch, and challenge Kuroda. It was an audacious plan and there seemed to be many things that could thwart them, but the stakes were high and they knew that there was no turning back now that they had already challenged Kuroda’s authority. Akira’s experience and quiet authority, not to mention his status as a living legend was so powerful that following his lead seemed their best chance of success, and nobody disagreed with him. Akira sat down under a tree, motioned to the others to do the same, and handed round some food and water as they settled in to wait for nightfall.
* * *
Not until the plain was in total darkness did Akira signal that it was time to move on, instructing Finn and Arthur to walk the horses a short way back towards the mountain and send them home. As they set off into the darkness Finn was grateful for the rare opportunity to speak with Arthur alone. They had been by Tatsushi’s side almost constantly since their arrival from the ocean, and Finn wanted to agree their strategy.
“Everyone keeps saying that Tatsushi must not look for revenge,” he said in a low voice as they led the horses along the road. “And that’s what Hanzo Uchida’s ghost said back at the museum too.”
Arthur nodded. “But Kuroda does have to be killed because otherwise the village will be destroyed in any case, which is what Hanzo Uchida wanted us to prevent.”
“OK, so there are only two things that matter,” said Finn, tugging at the bridle of a horse that had paused to graze. “Kuroda must die, but Tatsushi must stay in control of his anger. At least Akira seems to agree. He doesn’t seem that keen on killing but we’ve seen what he can do. One of us will kill Kuroda and we just have to trust that Akira can take care of the rest and get us all out alive. Any sign of Tatsushi losing it and we have to step in. Other than that, we’ll just have to see what we find when we get to the castle.”
The Samurai's Assassin Page 4