Arthur agreed, and after sending the horses on their way they were soon back with the others and taking their first nervous steps towards Castle Kuruyama.
JAPANESE CASTLES
The Japanese really love their castles. At one time there were over 5,000 of them dotted around the country, many of them perched high up in the mountains. A castle can be anything from a small wooden fortress to a major defended palace but of course they all have one thing in common. They are there so that the people inside them can defeat whoever might try to attack.
The classic Japanese castle, is built on a mound or hill with a stone base and a series of wooden towers or keeps above. Just like European castles, they are full of cunning ways to kill whoever is trying to get in. Some of the cleverest are:
• Arranging long wooden spikes in the moat.
• Pouring hot sand out of windows onto your attackers.
• Shooting arrows through slits in the walls that are so narrow you will never get hit yourself.
• Trapdoors in the floor that open up onto lethal drops if you don’t know where you’re walking.
• Hanging tree trunks from beams so that you can drop them on your attackers’ heads.
• The nightingale floor makes it impossible to walk across the floor inside a castle tower without making a noise. Iron nails in the floorboards and joists are positioned so that they rub together and chirp like a bird whenever someone stands on that part of the floor. Like an alarm, but much easier on the ear!
All this said it is actually quite unusual for an army to attack a castle and try to gain entry in Japan. Mostly castles are strongholds in which Lords could rule, safely out of reach of everyone else. Their biggest threats come from assassins rather than armies, and castle builders thought up lots of defences against assassins too.
CHAPTER 9
A sliver of moon provided just enough light for each member of the group to follow the person in front of them, and Akira led the way along an easy path that followed the riverbank. Ahead they could still make out the swoop of the castle’s many roofs, and to its right they could see the lights of the village. When they were about a mile away Akira led them away from the river to avoid any unwanted encounters closer to the castle, and they skirted around in a wide arc to the left, picking their way more carefully along the banks that framed a patchwork of watery rice fields. It was slow work, and by the time they had put the castle between themselves and the village Finn and Arthur were both panting and sweating, despite the level ground. They still had a mile to go as they had been circling the castle, and Akira allowed them a few moments’ rest as he went over his plan one last time and provided some final details.
“As we draw near the castle we will meet the river again – it forms the moat on this side and there are no guard posts. From the moment we cross the river we proceed in total silence. You should imagine at all times that you are right outside an open window to a room full of armed men who want to kill you. Not even your breathing should be heard. I will climb each stage first then lower a rope and each of you will follow in turn. When we are on top of the final roof I will lead you to the hatch and there you will wait, on the roof, until I return.
“Two more things,” he went on. “First, should anything happen to me and I do not return you should know that the top level of the castle has a nightingale floor.”
“What does that mean?” asked Arthur.
“The floorboards are laid with nails that rub against one another to squeak when you walk on them,” said Finn. “It makes it very difficult to creep up on anyone.”
Akira nodded at Finn and continued, “The second thing is even more important. Arthur, Finn, Mayuko, you must watch Tatsushi carefully. If it appears that he is going to be consumed by anger then you must make sure that it is not he who kills Kuroda. Even if he succeeds, if he kills in anger then nothing good will come of this as you will win little support afterwards. Mayuko, boys, will you ensure that Kuroda is not killed in anger?”
Three voices replied that they would.
“Then it is time,” said Akira, leading them forward once more.
* * *
Twenty minutes later they were crouched nervously at the foot of the castle as Akira uncoiled a length of rope and showed them how to sling their swords across their backs in a way that would leave them free to climb. They had not seen any guards, nor had they been seen – Akira’s plan so far had been flawless and his followers trusted him completely, but staring up at the looming castle above with its overhanging roofs and smooth walls sent a shiver of fear through Finn’s body. The climb itself looked terrifying, and the idea of the brutal warlord awaiting them at the top was more terrifying still.
Akira tucked his monk’s robes up around his legs, squeezed each of the group’s arms in turn, and began the first stage of his stealthy ascent. He moved smoothly and silently up the slope of the castle’s stone base, pausing for a moment when he reached the foot of the first vertical white wall. He had started at a corner of the sloping base, and the corner ridge formed by the stones had seemed easy enough to ascend. But the vertical white walls looked unclimbable. Akira stood at the bottom of the sheer walls and inched away from the corner, first one way then the other, listening carefully for any sounds of disturbance within. He reached up and put his hands one above the other in one of the tiny arrow slits that punctuated the smoothness of the walls, and then began walking his feet up until he was hanging in a crouching position, then placed a toe in the arrow slit and walked his hands up to the top of the slit. The first roof was at least five feet above his head as he stared up and began to bounce up and down on his toe-hold, before launching into an explosive leap. He shot up the wall, his body now fully extended, and caught hold of the upturned lip of the first roof. His feet swung out into space, then silently connected with the wall once more and he was able to scramble up and onto the roof. Moments later the rope snaked down the wall until the end grazed the stones a short way above Mayuko’s head.
Showing no evidence of fear, Mayuko then climbed up to the rope, and from there proceeded to walk her feet up the wall, and her hands up the rope until she was able to take hold of Akira’s outstretched arm and join him on the edge of the first roof. The three boys followed suit and the first stage of the climb was complete. They repeated the process and had begun to settle into a routine by the time they reached the third stage. Although the climb was horribly precarious, Finn found that if he just concentrated on the next few steps it somehow felt possible. He was the last of the group to climb the third stage, and he was half way up the rope when a man’s head emerged from a window a few feet to his right.
Finn froze. The man seemed to be alone. There were no voices coming from the window and he was gazing lazily into the distance. Finn willed the man to go away. His arms, already exhausted from the climbing, were beginning to burn with the strain and his hands were sweating meaning that he had to grip the rope tighter still to avoid slipping. He looked up at the roof above, praying that one of the others would see the predicament he was in. For several agonising seconds that seemed like minutes, nothing happened. Finn tried desperately to think of a way of getting to the man and dealing with him without drawing the attention of anyone else inside, but he couldn’t. Even if he managed to get to the man his hands would be on the rope and he would be completely defenceless. But his hands were going to give out soon and he had to get to safety. Very slowly he began inching his way sideways across the wall, away from the window and around the corner of the castle onto the next wall before lowering himself silently back to the roof below.
Just as his feet touched the roof and his legs took the weight off his hands, Akira’s head appeared over the lip of the roof above. The monk acted without hesitation. He swung himself back down onto the wall, holding his full weight from the roof with one arm. With his free hand he brought his staff down off the roof and jabbed the tip down. It connected with the base of the man’s neck, and the immediate danger
was over. The man slumped forward and lay unconscious, head and shoulders still protruding from the window. Akira untied the climbing rope and climbed down to sit on the window ledge. He looped the rope under the man’s arms, hoisted his unconscious weight out of the window and lowered him slowly to the ground before retrieving the rope.
By the time Akira had climbed back up and reset the rope Finn felt he had just enough strength in his hands to make the climb again and he wasted no time, praying as he climbed that Akira’s skills were as honed as they seemed, and that the man would not wake up too soon. As he reached the next roof and joined the others he slumped down, gasping and trembling. His concerned friends gathered round but Akira shook his head, placed his finger to his lips, and began the next stage of the climb.
Finn could not bring his nerves under control, and although the remaining two stages of the climb were covered without incident, by the time he pulled himself up onto the top roof of the main tower his knees were literally knocking together. Tatsushi held his arm and helped him sit, while Akira tied the rope to two points to create a rail the others could hold on to while he was gone. Leaving Tatsushi and Finn, the monk guided Mayuko and Arthur along the rail and showed them the location of the roof hatch before they regrouped next to Finn.
“One hour,” Akira mouthed. And then he disappeared back over the lip of the roof and was gone, leaving Tatsushi, Mayuko and the boys alone in the night on the roof of Castle Kuruyama. They waited, each lost in their thoughts, none moving or making a sound. None of them could have said how long the monk had been gone when suddenly the roof hatch opened and the first armoured guard climbed up onto the roof, shouted down into the castle and grinned at the would-be assassins.
CHAPTER 10
Tatsushi had his sword drawn before the others had even moved, and he sprinted across the roof towards the guard, parrying the man’s vicious spear-thrust and charging into his chest. The guard stumbled backwards, tripped on the roof hatch and with a terrified shriek, toppled sideways over the edge of the castle. A series of crashing sounds marked his broken fall from roof to roof as Tatsuhi flipped the hatch closed again.
“Finn, your bow!” Tatsuhsi shouted, but Finn was ahead of him. Now that the action had started there was no space for nerves, and Finn already had his bow strung and an arrow notched and ready.
“If that hatch is the only way up onto the roof then we can hold them,” said Arthur with confidence. “They can only climb up one at a time. Finn, shoot anyone who puts their head up. The rest of us need to find another way of getting to Kuroda.”
“Akira!” Tatsushi cried in desperation, and for a few moments they each listened for some sign that the vanishing samurai was coming to their rescue.
And then the door of the hatch opened again. A man shot up through it, slicing a circle in the air with his sword as he did so, before planting his feet on either side of the hatch. Finn’s arrow was lodged in his chest before he could move any further.
“They’re children,” he croaked, and fell back through the roof. Below them they heard the sound of many running feet, urgent, hushed debate, and the chirping of the nightingale floor. Then, total silence.
“What are they doing?” Finn whispered, and then a voice boomed up at them, roaring out the question in a raging crescendo.
“Who sent you?”
“Kenji Kuroda sent us,” Tatsushi called back.
“Liar! I am Kenji Kuroda. Do I send assassins to take my own life?”
“My name is Tatsushi Uchida! You sent me the day your men killed my father. Your men kidnapped my sister. Your men have been going from village to village killing and stealing like a gang of criminals and I challenge you, if you have any honour in your black, diseased blood you will come up here and fight like a true warrior!”
“I am your Lord,” Kuroda shouted back. “I will not dirty my hands fighting a traitor and an assassin.”
“Kuruyama was my lord,” Tatsushi replied. “You are nothing but a thief and a murderer. As the son of a samurai who served our rightful Lord, in the name of Kuruyama and all who are loyal to him still I claim this castle. I have as much right to call myself Lord as you do.”
There was a long silence. Finn kept an arrow trained on the space above the hatch.
“If he does come up,” Tatsushi whispered, “You let me fight him properly. The only way this can end well is if he accepts the challenge and loses.”
Finn looked over at Mayuko and Arthur, who both nodded.
“Tatsushi Uchida!” Kuroda yelled. “I accept your challenge. But we will fight inside the castle.”
“No!” Tatsushi shouted back. “Your men will kill us as soon as we set one foot inside. Up here, where the odds are even.”
Another silence, then Kuroda’s cruel voice snarled a reply. “On the roof then. It makes no difference where I kill you. Tell me how many you are and I will bring the same number of witnesses.”
“Five,” Tatsushi called back, before realising his mistake. Akira was not with them.
“Very well,” Kuroda growled. “Four of my men are coming up and I will follow.”
A few seconds later the hatch opened again and a murderous-looking man thrust his head and shoulders through the hole. Finn kept his arrow trained on the man as he climbed up.
“Over there,” called Arthur, pointing the man to the far side of the roof. Three more men followed after, each heavily armed but none with weapons drawn.
Still Finn kept his arrow trained on the hatchway, and now Kuroda himself emerged. He was a huge barrel-chested tree trunk of a man and Finn’s heart sank. Kuroda looked up at him and bared his teeth.
“Put the bow down, boy. Where is this Uchida?”
Finn angled his head in Tatsushi’s direction and lowered the bow. Kuroda sprang up onto the roof and turned to face his challenger.
“So your father was Hanzo Uchida,” the huge man spat the name. “He fought with Kuruyama against my father. I will enjoy wiping out his line tonight. Tell me,” he went on with a cruel smile. “Did they give him a good death?” Too late Finn saw the rage flash in Tatsushi’s eyes.
“I will have my revenge!” Tatsushi screamed.
“No Tatsushi!” Mayuko cried, but already Tatsushi was lost in his hate. Kuroda smirked and his sword flashed as he drew it and stepped up onto the top ridge of the roof to face Tatsushi, who was poised at the other end.
“Tatsushi!” someone shouted, and Finn gasped with relief at the unmistakable sound of Akira’s voice. “Remember what is at stake. Your desire for revenge is too strong. You cannot focus. You cannot win the fight.”
Akira stepped up into view from the other side of the roof, pushing up on his staff and standing in front of Tatsushi.
“And who are you?” Kuroda snarled as Akira put his hand on Tatsushi’s sword and lowered it.
“A monk,” he replied. “I have no name.”
“The boy challenged me, monk, and he will pay with his life.”
Akira smiled and bowed to Kuroda. “But as you can see,” he said, “now you are also being challenged by a monk.” Kuroda’s men reached for their swords.
Finn snatched up his bow and took aim. “The first man to draw dies,” he said calmly, and the men stayed where they were.
Kuroda howled, and raising his sword over his head he ran along the ridge towards the monk. Akira planted his feet a short way apart and brought his staff up so that he held it horizontally at chest level, arms thrust forward. Kuroda came to within a few steps of Akira and then leapt up in the air, slashing down as he flew forwards. In one fluid movement Akira crouched, twisted his staff to vertical and thrust powerfully upwards into Kuroda’s chest. The warlord grunted, his eyes wide with shock as he was propelled backwards through the air, and with a final roar of rage, soared over the edge of the roof and down into the darkness below. There was no series of bumps and crashes this time, just a long scream and a few seconds later a dull thud as he hit the ground, far below.
Tatsushi slu
mped to his knees, tears once again streaming down his cheeks as he gazed up at Akira in silent thanks. The monk touched him lightly on the forehead.
“We still have work to do,” he said. “Finn, be sure that those men don’t move while I share the good news with the village.” He climbed back over the edge of the roof from which he had emerged only moments ago and reappeared with a large red lantern, which he proceeded to light and hang from the end of the roof ridge. In its warm red glow Kuroda’s guards looked even more shocked than Finn and Arthur felt. A great cheer could be heard from below, and everyone turned to look down at a swarm of moving lights in the village. It took Finn a few moments to figure out what he was looking at.
“The villagers!” he exclaimed. “They’re coming to the castle.”
“That is correct,” said Akira, turning to Kuroda’s men. “I have a message for you to take to your brothers in arms inside the castle. Your lord is dead. The villagers are armed with a supply of weapons that Lord Kuruyama, in his wisdom, kept hidden in a pit beyond the village. There are over one hundred of them and in five minutes they will be at the castle gates. Soon word will spread and by dawn they will be joined by the men of all the villages that have suffered at Kuroda’s hand. You will be surrounded, and outnumbered, by an army of people whom you have wronged.
“You have one chance, and one chance only, to leave this place with honour and with your lives. That moment is now. I suggest you act quickly.”
The Samurai's Assassin Page 5