Valley of Shields

by Duncan Lay

  Daichi signalled to his guards. ‘Should we send someone to stop them?’

  ‘Too far away now. And we risk alerting Jaken’s warriors. We shall be raiding Sumiko’s villa later this night anyway. They will not get far.’

  Daichi nodded. ‘True. Are you in the garden?’

  Asami gestured towards the bush, where several flowers had opened.

  ‘Any moment now,’ she promised.

  ‘Tell me. We can talk safely here.’ Jaken’s voice seemed to echo out of the flowers themselves.

  ‘Aroaril!’ Daichi gasped. ‘Clan leaders — listen to this!’

  ‘What do you want us to tell Daichi?’ Sendatsu asked. ‘Huw and Rhiannon need plenty of rehearsal before they will be ready to appear before the Elder Elf.’

  ‘They need to impress on him what a threat these Forlish are. He has to agree with my suggestion to lead elves outside the barrier for the first time. Once I have defeated the Forlish and begun to bring back slaves and treasure for the elven people, not one clan leader will raise a finger to stop me becoming Elder Elf.’

  ‘But our clan will suffer in the fighting. We will have fewer warriors than the clans loyal to Daichi who will stay here — the Forlish cannot be underestimated.’

  ‘They are merely humans,’ Jaken dismissed. ‘Still, I shall lead only a handful of Tadayoshi elves out there. I shall suggest Daichi send his most favoured clans, weakening him. By the time I have finished, we shall rule an empire and Daichi will be slaving on some fishing boat far to the north. I won’t even kill him after I have removed him from his position. Where would be the fun in that? Far better for him to experience despair every day and know that he was humbled by me.’

  ‘And the Magic-weavers? Will they stop you?’

  Jaken chuckled. ‘The Magic-weavers will not be a problem,’ he said. ‘I guarantee it. I have made sure they will be with us — or at least unable to stop us. You should think about the role you want in the new Dokuzen. With human slaves for everyone, there will be no need for work.’

  Sendatsu marvelled at his father’s words. Normally so careful with what he said, he had just blurted out everything they needed. As long as Asami had it all.

  ‘We don’t need any more,’ Daichi declared. ‘Asami, you can let that go now. Instead get rid of those two guards out the front and we shall attack now.’

  He glanced around at the other six clan leaders, who had all clearly heard Jaken’s words, and they nodded their agreement.

  Asami let the bush close up once more and brought the vine back from the garden — but only as far as the garden beds out the front of the villa. She waited for a moment, building up the magic, then sent the vine soaring out of the ground, where it swept the two guards together, binding them and then ramming them into the stone wall before they even had a chance to cry out. She released the vine and two limp bodies fell to the path outside Jaken’s front door.

  ‘You shall get everything you wanted,’ Daichi promised Asami. ‘You will be the one to bring the Magic-weavers back into society!’

  Council Guards flooded across the street, running silently, swords in hands, four at the centre holding a thick log that they planned to use to smash open the door.

  ‘Who is the traitor in the Magic-weaver ranks?’ Sendatsu asked.

  Jaken smiled. ‘Come now, I have to keep a few secrets.’

  ‘They might have been keeping secrets from you. We were attacked earlier tonight,’ Sendatsu said. ‘They tried to kill us.’

  ‘Obviously they failed,’ Jaken commented, although his face had gone blank, slipping into what Sendatsu remembered as his thinking look.

  ‘We were sure it did not come from you. If you had tried to kill us, you wouldn’t have sent clumsy warriors and esemono.’

  ‘I am pleased you respect me enough for that,’ Jaken said. ‘I see your mind has begun to work as well. The old Sendatsu would never have been capable of such subtlety.’

  Sendatsu did not mention the idea came from Gaibun and Daichi. ‘Their dead bodies lie in Gaibun’s home. But at least one escaped. We might need help in finding them — and discovering why.’

  ‘Indeed,’ Jaken said.

  There was an enormous crash, followed by angry shouts.

  ‘Lord, we are under attack!’ someone bellowed.

  Sendatsu was already backing away from the front of the villa, going instead towards the rear, where he guessed his children would be sleeping.

  The sound of sword on sword and the screams from sword in flesh were already echoing from inside the front of the villa.

  ‘Sendatsu! Gaibun! With me! Watch my back and we shall see off these dogs!’ his father shouted, sword leaping into his hand. He glanced over his shoulder and locked eyes with Sendatsu.

  For a long moment they stared at each other.

  Sendatsu had drawn his sword but now he stopped as the import of his father’s words struck him. Jaken had never once said he thought Sendatsu was worth anything. Now he wanted Sendatsu to stand with him against the attackers. It was still the closest thing to a compliment Sendatsu had ever received. For one crazy moment, even though he had started all this, planned to betray his father, he thought about standing with him.

  Then Gaibun drew his sword and stood by his shoulder.

  While Sendatsu took comfort from his friend’s presence, in the same instant he saw understanding dawn on his father’s face.

  ‘You brought them here?’ Jaken said slowly, disbelievingly.

  Behind him, battling warriors were spilling out into the garden. The Council Guards were flooding forwards, but as each one appeared, Jaken’s warriors took them on, fighting back furiously, giving up ground only reluctantly. The Council Guards did not have the same skill or ferocity but there were far more of them and they used their numbers better in the open ground.

  Sendatsu saw his mother’s carefully tended garden ripped apart by fighting men; brains, intestines and shit staining the paths, blood splattering across the frescoed walls.

  ‘You brought them here!’ Jaken roared and, instead of racing to help his warriors, he ran at Sendatsu and Gaibun.

  Sendatsu held back. He had not come here for a battle, just to see his children. Besides, Jaken’s situation was hopeless — only a handful of his warriors were left, fighting desperately back to back, and soon he would be surrounded.

  But his father did not hesitate, leaping to the attack, sword swinging down in a vicious arc towards Sendatsu’s head.

  Sendatsu reacted a little slowly, raising his sword for the parry — only to realise with horror this was one of his father’s favourite tricks and, sure enough, the sword changed direction in midair, whistling down at his ribs. Sendatsu braced himself for the agony of the impact, even as he screamed in his head for his children — then Gaibun slammed into him, forcing him back and away, taking the force of the blade on his own sword.

  ‘Wake up!’ Gaibun yelled.

  Jaken landed lightly, snarling, and turned on Gaibun with a complex assault that flowed effortlessly from one stroke to another.

  Gaibun defended desperately, his feeble attacks turned back on him in an instant.

  Sendatsu shook off his stupor and charged in to help. But Jaken neatly turned Gaibun, getting them in each other’s way, demonstrating his mastery of the same techniques that Sendatsu had used on the Forlish out in Vales. Whichever way Sendatsu tried to go, Jaken managed to turn Gaibun, so they could not split up and come at him from two sides.

  Then Gaibun, who had been taking the brunt of Jaken’s fury, stepped back into a garden bed, tripped on a large rock and went sprawling, head thumping into a path. Sendatsu jumped forwards to protect his friend — but Jaken was not interested in finishing off Gaibun. Instead he unleashed a new attack on Sendatsu.

  Sendatsu was fit, trained to perfection by the events of the past moon and used to holding off both Forlish in hot blood and several Velsh dragons on the practice field. Besides, his father was an older man now, far closer to fifty s
ummers than forty. But Jaken’s speed and strength astonished him.

  He had to call on all his training and skills to keep his father’s blade out of his flesh.

  Dragging him down was the grim knowledge he had never beaten his father before. It was the one thing that loomed over all he did. And this time his father would not be satisfied with just blood. He wanted Sendatsu’s head.

  He just concentrated on defending himself. His father had to tire soon — he had to ease up! But he did not. In fact, he grew stronger. Sendatsu gasped at the power flowing from his father’s blade and was not sure how much longer he could keep it out.

  Don’t let me die without seeing my children again, he prayed.

  Jaken tested Sendatsu with a series of cuts aiming at the eyes, each one blistering in their speed and aching in their power. Sendatsu’s wrist and shoulder took the impact of his parries and each one sent a shiver through him from top to toe.

  Then Jaken really went to work. Facing his father in the garden was horribly like the training sessions of his past and Sendatsu struggled to empty his mind of those memories, not to mention thoughts of his children. Thinking slowed his reactions slightly and he had no hope of turning defence into attack — and little enough hope of survival.

  Jaken slashed downwards, then whipped his sword across at groin level, up into a gutting stroke and then back at neck level, all four movements happening in the blink of an eye. Sendatsu’s sword rang loudly as he blocked hastily.

  But his father gave him no respite. Jaken stepped to his left then jumped back to his right, sword sweeping down at Sendatsu’s ankles. With no time to bring his sword down, Sendatsu jumped high, feeling the wind as the razor-sharp blade whistled beneath him. Almost before he had landed, Jaken had turned full circle to build momentum and sent his sword at Sendatsu’s neck.

  Already off balance, Sendatsu needed both hands on the hilt to withstand the power of the blow, which forced him back a pace anyway. He stepped left to avoid a lunge, blocked a side-stroke at his ribs and ducked swiftly to keep his head attached to his shoulders.

  He tried a thrust of his own but it was brushed aside and he had to bring his sword down to protect his thigh as Jaken advanced, sword now swinging in a pattern: down at Sendatsu’s head, across from his left shoulder to right hip, back up from left hip to right shoulder and then back down at his head.

  Sendatsu parried each one, gasping with the effort, knowing the death blow would arrive when Jaken changed the pattern, but the blows were arriving so fast that he could do nothing but block them.

  He saw something flicker behind his father’s eyes and ignored a blow at his head, instead moving his sword down towards his heart — and catching the death strike an inch before it impaled him.

  Jaken paused for but a moment before lunging twice more, forcing Sendatsu to skip aside. Sendatsu wanted to look around, see if Gaibun was going to get up and help, or if the Council Guards would surround and stop Jaken. But Jaken did not give him the chance, switching to the zigzag pattern, forcing Sendatsu to block left and right — and then he grunted as his father locked their swords together.

  He looked into his father’s furious eyes — and felt like a child again, knowing the inevitable result of this. Around and around the swords spun, scraping and bristling, as Jaken tried to force Sendatsu’s sword aside and open the way for the death blow.

  Sendatsu used all his strength but his father’s power was unstoppable. The circles were getting slightly bigger with each revolution and the end was near. Once more and he would be unable to hold on. He had almost resigned himself to death — and then he glanced over his father’s shoulder to see his mother at a doorway, staring horrified at how her garden had turned into a battlefield. Holding her hands were Mai and Cheijun.

  Sendatsu bore down on his father’s sword again, holding him for another revolution.

  ‘Lord Jaken! Lower your sword if you want to live!’

  Daichi’s voice snapped Jaken’s head up but he did not step back or lower his sword and Sendatsu had to find something deep within to hold on for yet one more turn.

  ‘Hold!’ Asami’s voice echoed across the blood-drenched garden, and the bushes on either side of Jaken exploded into life, grabbing and pinning him, his sword falling to the ground. Sendatsu staggered back, his wrists and arms aching, his legs trembling with how close he had come to death.

  ‘Excellent!’ Daichi approved. ‘No glorious death for you, Lord Jaken!’

  Jaken thrashed but the plants held him immobile. Sendatsu glanced up, breathing harshly — and was reminded of a deadly snake held in a trap.

  Then he forgot all about his father as familiar voices rang out.

  ‘Papa!’

  Sendatsu dropped his sword and raced to where his mother stood, shocked, holding his children’s hands. As soon as they saw him approach, they wrenched free of her and raced towards him.

  He could barely see them through his tears as he fell to his knees and hugged them close, kissing their cheeks, their heads, whatever he could get close to, while tiny hands held him and tears ran down their faces and mingled with his. He felt as though his heart was being slowly put back into its rightful place as sobs burst out of his chest, the tears of a man driven to the very edge.

  14

  Humans who prayed to Aroaril were killed and the Elfarans began to tell us we had to pray to the sun instead, that Aroaril was only for them and would punish any of us who dared speak to Him. They were the ones doing the killing, not Aroaril.

  Huw’s song

  ‘Where have you been? We were so worried. Grandmother would not tell us what happened.’ Mai was the first of the three of them to recover. Cheijun seemed beyond words; he simply clung to Sendatsu as if he never intended to let him go again.

  ‘Nobody has sung us a song. Grandmother tried to read but it wasn’t the same. Grandfather shouted at us whenever we made any noise. And we never had the food we like.’

  ‘No plums!’ Cheijun pulled his head out of Sendatsu’s neck to confirm, before burrowing in once more.

  ‘I’m back now and everything is going to be fine. We are all going to go home and it will all go back to the way it was,’ Sendatsu promised. ‘I will never leave you again. I am so sorry.’

  ‘But where were you?’

  ‘Did the gaijin get you?’ Cheijun sniffled, poking his head out from Sendatsu’s neck like a snail from its shell.

  Sendatsu hugged them close. ‘I was out in the human world. But they are not scary. Some of them are my friends now and you will meet them.’

  ‘I don’t want to meet gaijin!’ Cheijun hid his face again.

  ‘Can we just go home? We missed you so much! Cheijun was very scared. I tried to look after him but it was very hard.’ Mai kissed him on the cheek.

  Sendatsu wiped his eyes on his sleeve.

  ‘I will make it up to you,’ he swore. ‘We shall never be apart again.’

  He could not stop looking at them, brushing their hair, touching their cheeks and faces, as if to reassure himself this was not a dream. He needed to feel, see and smell them. They responded by hugging him, linking small hands around his neck and arm and chest, refusing to let him go. He kissed them both, time and again, unable to get enough of them. He reached into his belt pouch and produced their toys, the ones he had carried around since the day he had been sent into the human world.

  ‘Here. I kept them safe and I sang to them every night, hoping you would hear the words.’ He handed them back, albeit with some difficulty, as Cheijun was holding tight to his arm.

  Now they clutched both Sendatsu and the toys.

  ‘See, it will all be as it was,’ he promised.

  ‘Sendatsu! What is happening? What is going on?’ His mother, Noriko, had been frozen by the seemingly endless series of shocks. Her son had returned; armed warriors were fighting in her house and garden — and her husband was being imprisoned by the Elder Elf himself. But the surprise wore off and she instinctively turned to he
r son.

  ‘Mother, it is a long story.’ Sendatsu looked up from where Cheijun was still trying to squeeze the life out of him.

  ‘What have you done?’ his mother demanded.

  ‘What I had to.’ Sendatsu kissed the top of Mai’s head. Now his children were in his arms, everything he had done this night was more than worth it.

  ‘Sendatsu, we still have work to do. The job is only half done,’ Daichi said sternly.

  Sendatsu slowly turned and stood, his arms full of his children.

  ‘You do not need me any more,’ Sendatsu said simply. ‘All that remains is to surround Sumiko’s villa and force her to surrender.’

  ‘It is not that simple. We do not know how deep the plotting goes. I have more warriors of my own clan arriving all the time but Dokuzen is still balanced on a knife edge. It would be more than a shame for you to have done so much and then fail at this stage.’

  Sendatsu had Cheijun in one arm and Mai in the other, grunting a little with the weight, but it enabled him to at least walk over to where Daichi and the other clan leaders stood around a glaring Jaken. Asami left a dazed Gaibun to hurry across to meet him.

  ‘Mai! Cheijun! I am so pleased you are safe and well!’ Asami said brightly, leaning in to embrace Cheijun, who stiffened and clutched to Sendatsu.

  ‘Don’t forget the book Sumiko has,’ she whispered when her head was almost touching his. ‘We need to get that book to translate the rest of the one you found in the human church.’

  That did not seem as important to Sendatsu now and he was reluctant to give up the idea of simply going home with his children and pretending none of this had happened.

  ‘I demand to know what is going on! The Council will never stand for this, Daichi,’ Jaken spat. ‘An unprovoked attack on a clan leader’s home? You will be gone by the next moon. Release me, resign and save yourself the disgrace of what we both know will happen.’

  ‘Silence!’ Daichi shouted. ‘I heard the words of treachery from your own mouth!’

  Jaken managed to move his head slightly, just enough to see Sendatsu holding his children.