Valley of Shields

by Duncan Lay

  ‘Well, Sumiko’s killers smashed up two of them, so it shouldn’t be too hard to find which it is.’ Sendatsu led the way with a confidence he did not feel. The closer they came, the more he wanted to walk away. He had promised to see his children, after all. They would nearly be asleep, probably sitting up waiting for him. And a visit to his father’s villa would be the perfect explanation for his absence from camp as well. He slowed and almost turned around, before Gaibun pushed him on.

  ‘We can’t turn back now. There’ll be a priest of Aroaril coming to look at him soon. The services will end within the next turn of the hourglass and then it’ll be too late to explain his death as anything other than a murder.’

  Sendatsu gritted his teeth and walked on. They could hear a faint snoring coming from one of the bedrooms down the hall and Gaibun signalled to it, unnecessarily. They both wrinkled their noses — it was obvious Hanto had not bathed since returning.

  ‘Wait here, unless I call for you,’ Sendatsu whispered. He felt it would somehow be better if nobody saw what he was about to do.

  ‘And what if he wakes? I’ll be right there with you. I wouldn’t leave you at a time like this.’

  Sendatsu wanted to argue more but feared that, if he did, he would lose the will to go through with this. He strode forwards and into the simple guest room, where Hanto slumbered on a bed. In here, his smell, a mixture of sweat, leaves and urine, seemed to overwhelm the senses.

  ‘How are you going to do this?’ Gaibun hissed.

  Sendatsu did not answer; instead he picked up a cushion from the couch and strode forwards, pressing it down onto Hanto’s face in one move, putting all his strength, his disgust at such an act and his self-loathing into the downward pressure. He hoped with all his heart that Hanto would never wake up, and just slip away without a murmur.

  But the Council Guard woke up violently, thrashing his arms and trying to flip his body up.

  ‘I thought he was almost dead anyway,’ Sendatsu said, his hands slick with horrified sweat, as he pressed down. Hanto’s feet came up and cracked into Sendatsu’s back and shoulder with enough force to push him off the bed, while Hanto rolled away and to his feet, breathing harshly.

  ‘You bastard!’ he shouted. ‘Don’t even have the guts to face me with a sword in hand?’

  ‘I’d love to,’ Sendatsu said grimly. ‘It was thanks to you that I spent two moons without seeing my children, hunted like an animal!’

  ‘Then face me — prove you are half the man your father is!’

  Sendatsu put down the cushion. ‘You will die,’ he promised. ‘But you don’t deserve an honourable death.’

  ‘All because I did my duty?’ Hanto circled around the bed cautiously, moving towards the door, but Gaibun loomed in the doorway, and his sword leaped into his hand.

  ‘You will die so that elves and Velsh will not fight,’ Gaibun told him.

  Hanto released a short bark of laughter. ‘Is that the reason? Why do you care about the gaijin?’

  Sendatsu jumped over the bed, backing Hanto into a corner.

  ‘You can try to kill me, boy, but even if you succeed, the truth will come out. Gaijin don’t deserve magic — it belongs to the elves. They are thieves and will pay for it.’

  Sendatsu had had enough and moved in. Hanto rammed his hand at Sendatsu’s eyes, the fingernails crusted with dirt. But exhaustion had slowed him and Sendatsu grabbed his wrist, turning the arm easily, then striking Hanto under the ribs, punching into his liver and kidneys, so he shook with pain.

  Hanto swung with his other arm and tried to break free but Sendatsu used his armlock to control the Council Guard, defusing his blow and then striking back, driving stiffened fingers into Hanto’s throat. Hanto fell back against the wall, choking and gasping helplessly and Sendatsu flipped him across and onto the bed, before grabbing another cushion and slamming it over Hanto’s face once more. The Council Guard struggled desperately, clawing at Sendatsu’s arms, but this time Sendatsu ignored his weakening fight, pushing down until the arms fell limply and there was no movement.

  When he finally straightened up, gasping, it felt as though he had left a part of himself behind, burned away in that sweating, grim murder.

  ‘Is it done?’ Gaibun asked nervously.

  ‘It is finished. The Velsh are safe — for now, at least.’ Sendatsu threw the cushion back onto the couch and walked out, refusing to look at the face of Hanto, dead eyes staring up accusingly. He needed a bath and then he needed to see his children, needed to hold them and prove to himself that he was not evil.

  ‘I’ll wait here then, before going back and telling your father that Hanto is dead.’ Gaibun stepped aside.

  Sendatsu did not reply, walking to the front door. He shut it and shuddered. Was there nothing he would not do now?

  His children were asleep so he rushed to the bathhouse first, sweated and cleaned, then washed and did it all again, trying to get the smell of Hanto out of himself and the feel of death from his skin before he saw Mai and Cheijun.

  ‘Is everything all right?’ Noriko found him scraping a strigil across his arms furiously.

  ‘Of course,’ Sendatsu lied.

  Noriko sighed. ‘It was something for your father, wasn’t it? Many times I have wanted a bath after just hearing about what he has done.’

  Sendatsu said nothing, just scraped harder at his skin. How could he tell his mother that this was nothing to do with his father but all his own doing?

  Noriko gently took the strigil from his hands. ‘That is enough. Go and see your children.’

  Numbly, he wrapped a robe around himself and went to wake up his children.

  ‘Papa!’ Mai and Cheijun fell upon him, rubbing sleep from their eyes, and refused to let him go. Every hug from them, every kiss, seemed to do more to wash the stain from him than all his work in the bathhouse.

  ‘We waited as long as we could, then Grandmother said we must sleep,’ Mai explained.

  Sendatsu held them close, the smell of them, warm and soothing, wiping away the stench of Hanto, the scent of death that had stayed in his nostrils.

  ‘Are all the gaijin dead?’ Cheijun demanded.

  ‘Not yet. Tomorrow we fight them,’ Sendatsu said gently.

  ‘Come back to us. Don’t leave us,’ Mai begged.

  ‘I promise. No matter what happens, I shall be back,’ Sendatsu vowed.

  ‘Stay here,’ Cheijun insisted.

  Sendatsu knew he should get back. But what he had done to Hanto still made his skin crawl. He stretched out on the bed and felt Mai and Cheijun cuddle up, one to each side. He kissed the top of their heads and hoped he would not dream of Hanto’s face. But sleep would not come. Instead he lay there, feeling the tears trickle down his cheeks, wondering if he had done the right thing. Forget about the shade of Hanto forgiving him — would his children ever forgive him?

  32

  The barrier that protected the Elfarans began to break down and one of them came out from their city of lies, himself a liar, yet searching for the truth.

  Huw’s song

  It had been a nervous night for Caelin, Harald and Ruttyn. After driving off the elven patrol, they had been part of a huge push forwards just before dawn, seeking to find where the elves were setting up their defences.

  ‘You know, it would have been easier to be killed quickly,’ Ruttyn observed. ‘Every time we survive something, they just give us a more dangerous job to do. If we had died horribly, we would have had a much easier time of it.’

  ‘Don’t worry, there’s still time for a gruesome death,’ Harald assured him.

  ‘Ssh!’ Caelin waved them down and crept forwards, until he could see what lay ahead.

  ‘What is it, sarge?’ Ruttyn whispered.

  ‘The elven city. Or at least the part of it they want to defend. Come on, everyone fall back.’

  They reported to Captain Edmund, who immediately went forwards in the dawn light, surrounded by a company of men.

  ‘This
is dangerous, sir. Every tree could be hiding an elf and we are one arrow away from losing you,’ Caelin told him.

  ‘But I must see where I am fighting, the ground we face and the defences the elves have mustered. I cannot lead us to victory otherwise.’ Edmund smiled.

  No elves tried to loose arrows at him as he reached the treeline, where Caelin pointed out where the defenders waited. Edmund kept low, having scouted enemy positions for years, and ignored the nervous looks from his guards.

  The ground opened up after the trees ended, with just a stream running past to break it up. Behind a stone wall, which seemed both too low and short to be a city boundary, a crude road ran over a ridge. Further on, the smoke of many fires was rising, which told Edmund that Dokuzen waited just beyond the rise.

  He looked at the wall carefully, noting the banner featuring a crude red dragon that rose behind it. Defenders seemed thick along the wall, which would be an interesting obstacle. With siege engines and time to spare, he would not have given it a second glance. But he did not have engines nor time here and would have to use force, rather than guile. At first glance it made sense to simply go around the wall but Edmund noted the two camps of elves on either end of the wall.

  ‘Sir. They might see us,’ Caelin murmured.

  ‘I have seen enough,’ Edmund whispered, squirming back on his stomach before rising and hurrying to the camp, much to the relief of those around him.

  ‘Summon the officers. I know how to defeat them,’ he declared.

  Every time Sendatsu closed his eyes he saw Hanto lying lifeless on the bed — but this time his eyes were at first closed, only to snap open as Sendatsu stepped away, blazing with a lust for revenge for his murder. Finally he could take it no more. He slipped out of bed, leaving Mai and Cheijun sleeping. He kissed them one more time, watched them until he stepped out of the room, and picked up his sword. He did not feel ready for a desperate battle with thousands of ruthless Forlish. But they were waiting for him, nonetheless.

  Huw and Rhiannon sat together against one of the tombs of the elven forefathers. It was not a cold night but he had his arm around her shoulders anyway. She marvelled that she could not only allow it, but enjoy it.

  ‘Have you seen the faces of these forefathers?’ Huw asked.

  ‘No.’ Rhiannon snorted.

  ‘They don’t look like elves. Yes, they have the ears and their cheekbones seem strange — but they look more like we do. I wonder why the rest of the elves have not realised that.’

  ‘Perhaps they have but have been persuaded it was natural?’

  ‘Yes but —’

  ‘Huw, now is not the time to talk about our lost history,’ she told him.

  ‘Sorry.’ He kissed her ear. ‘What did you want to talk about?’

  Rhiannon paused. ‘I have missed you,’ she admitted finally.

  Huw breathed again. ‘And I you —’ he began before she shushed him.

  ‘I have not forgotten what happened to me, how you lied to me. But I found myself doing something similar to Asami — and it turned out badly. So while I cannot pretend it never happened, I understand it better. And I feel you have learned a lesson, that I can trust you again. I think we should make a new beginning.’

  Huw struggled to get the words out past the lump in his throat. ‘Nothing would make me happier,’ he finally said.

  She leaned in and kissed him, long and lingering.

  ‘I wish there were not so many people around,’ he said thickly.

  ‘What did I say about a beginning only?’

  ‘Then let us sit here and talk,’ he said.

  ‘I would like that.’

  Gaibun found Asami sitting alone.

  ‘Go away, I do not want to talk to you,’ she told him.

  ‘Is that any way for a wife to treat her husband?’

  Asami controlled her temper with the greatest of difficulty. ‘I could say the same thing to you, for a hundred things over the last few years.’

  ‘Agreed. I am sorry. That was a foolish thing to say. I just wanted to see how you were.’

  ‘I am fine. Now leave me.’

  ‘If I could believe that, then I would leave. But you are not fine.’

  Asami just glared at him.

  ‘Please, talk to me. I have had a difficult night already and cannot sleep. I would not like to see you suffer the same way as I.’

  ‘And how was your night difficult?’ she snapped.

  Gaibun looked away for a moment. ‘Hanto returned, bearing with him the news that humans can do magic and your friend Rhiannon is as powerful as any elf.’

  ‘What? If Jaken finds out, then the alliance is doomed!’

  ‘I know. So Sendatsu and I took care of it.’

  ‘Took care of it?’ she repeated in horror. ‘What did you do?’

  ‘Sendatsu killed Hanto. I told him not to but he would not listen, he forced me to help him. Held Hanto down and smothered him, so it would look as though he merely died in his sleep.’

  Bile rose up her throat. ‘How could he do such a thing? Murder someone as they slept?’

  ‘He was a man possessed. Said he had to protect Rhiannon, no matter the cost.’

  Asami held up her hand. ‘He wanted to protect Rhiannon?’

  ‘That was what he said.’

  Asami’s first reaction was anger that he could do that for his human lover — then she thought again. She had seen Huw and Rhiannon sitting together earlier, cuddled close in the firelight, and remembered the many talks they had enjoyed about both Huw and Sendatsu. Never had Rhiannon sounded like she felt anything for Sendatsu. And the way Rhiannon had given away the truth so quickly said those other words were not lies. How could someone lie so well and then so badly? Asami stared at Gaibun, a terrible suspicion rising within her.

  ‘Why would you tell me that about Sendatsu?’ she demanded.

  ‘You are my wife. I had to tell someone.’ Gaibun shrugged.

  ‘Or you sought to make Sendatsu look bad in my eyes, as you have done several times now,’ she said slowly.

  ‘That was not my intention —’

  Asami held up her hand. ‘Leave me. I need to think and I don’t want to talk to you.’

  ‘But —’

  ‘Go!’ she shouted.

  Gaibun opened his mouth, then shut it again at the expression on her face and walked away, leaving Asami feeling as if she had to talk to Sendatsu. She wanted the truth but was scared what it might bring.

  ‘They have human allies. Somehow there are Velsh waiting there with them — or at least they want us to think there are Velsh there,’ Edmund explained, marking out the elven positions in the dirt. ‘They have a strong central position, held by the Velsh, their flanks secured by two groups of elves, the whole thing protected by a stream. It does not seem very deep but it will slow us up and then we will run into a low stone wall at the centre and wooden stakes to each side.’

  A hulking captain filled the silence. ‘The obvious thing is to attack the flanks, then we can sweep around the back of their central position.’

  ‘It is the obvious thing. But they are not fools. Their flanks are too much of an invitation. They want us to attack there, so we shall strike at the centre first. The wall is no more than chest height and it is defended by Velsh. The elves can fight — we have seen that. They have skill with their strange swords. But the Velsh? They hold no fears. If we take out their centre, then we split their two sides and can push them back as we drive on to the heart of Dokuzen.’

  ‘Let me have the honour of leading the attack,’ the same captain blurted.

  ‘It is agreed.’ Edmund nodded. ‘Captain Osmund’s company shall lead the way. Keep your shields up, for they will have those elven bows. Leave the wounded and keep attacking. Do not stop until the Velsh are destroyed.’

  ‘Sir,’ his aide Orsa asked softly. ‘Would it not be better to send out a bigger attack?’

  Edmund smiled briefly. ‘If this was a normal enemy, then I would say
yes. But these are elves. We do not truly know what they can do. I will not risk everything on one throw of the dice.’

  ‘Where have you been?’ Jaken demanded. ‘They could attack at any moment and I am relying on you to lead the Velsh.’

  ‘With my children. I wanted to see them at least one more time,’ Sendatsu replied sourly, the memory of last night’s work still haunting him.

  Jaken’s face tightened. ‘There will be time after the battle. Hurry. Those humans need you.’

  Sendatsu paused. ‘Has anything happened while I was away?’

  ‘Forlish scouts were seen in the trees, no doubt marking our positions. We have scouts watching them now, seeing when they break camp. And Hanto returned last night, after Aroaril knows how many moons wandering around looking for you.’

  ‘He found me — twice — and tried to kill me both times,’ Sendatsu said before he could stop himself.

  ‘Did he now? Well, you don’t need to worry about him any more. He was exhausted when he arrived and died during the night. Looks like his heart just gave out.’

  ‘I cannot say I am sorry,’ Sendatsu said, burying his real feelings.

  ‘No matter. He had failed me and he was not going to be much use today, I fear.’

  Sendatsu said nothing, letting the silence grow, until he could stand it no more. ‘Was there anything else?’

  Jaken hesitated, then held out his hand. ‘Good luck, my son. Hold the centre. That is the key. Force them onto our flanks and we shall destroy them there.’

  Sendatsu took the proffered hand with a sense of wonder.

  ‘Make me proud. I know you can,’ Jaken said. ‘I see you changing every day now, a new purpose and strength there. There is much of me I see in you now.’

  Sendatsu walked away to rejoin Huw and the Velsh, feeling as if he were in a dream. He had spent so much of his life trying not to be his father, while at the same time seeking his father’s approval. Now every deed that he hated was bringing him closer to his father. Worse — a part of him liked it.

  Asami saw Sendatsu walking over to join Huw and Rhiannon and raced across to intercept him. She felt so full of emotion that she had to let it out, or it would consume her.