by Duncan Lay
‘I only wanted one thing from Dokuzen, and she is still there,’ he growled, then pointed them to seats. ‘After all we did, all we risked — I cannot sit back and watch Sumiko rule through my father. I tried to talk to him about her but he will not listen. It is as if he is bewitched.’
‘Who knows what hold she has on him,’ Huw agreed. ‘But I am surprised you left Dokuzen over it.’
Sendatsu grunted. ‘I have had enough of sitting back. I shall do whatever needs to be done to make things right.’
‘And I shall kill all gaijin!’ Cheijun announced, running into the room.
‘Hello, Mai and Cheijun,’ Rhiannon greeted them, while Huw offered a sickly smile, still not sure how to talk to children.
‘So, are you two together and happy yet?’ Mai asked, looking from Huw to Rhiannon and back again. ‘Or are you still not taking my advice?’
Huw stared at Sendatsu, who grinned and shrugged. ‘She sees things others cannot,’ he said. ‘I listen to her as much as I can.’
‘That’s nice,’ Huw said awkwardly, glancing at Rhiannon. ‘We are not together and —’
‘Perhaps we should just talk about tomorrow,’ Rhiannon interrupted smoothly.
Huw nodded with relief. ‘We had already sent dragons out to search for Velsh who dreamed of dragons as children. The first of these, from nearby villages, have already begun arriving. Perhaps you should start testing them first.’
‘Don’t you want me to speak to the headmen again?’ Sendatsu half smiled.
Huw sighed. ‘I know what you are thinking, that we shall waste time in talk when we should be preparing for an Elfaran invasion. But we are not like your people. I am not like your father. I will not give orders and demand people do only what I want. We are a free people and we must agree on things.’
‘Of course.’ Sendatsu nodded. ‘But you need to agree to clear out the eastern side of the country and move everyone west and north, like you planned to do when the Forlish threatened. We have to use the terrain against the Elfarans. If they can bring you to battle, they will slaughter you. Their arrogance is their weakness. Pick them off a few at a time, fight magic with magic and soon Jaken’s old enemies will be suggesting a winter campaign is a waste of time. Don’t forget that Ward still sits in Cridianton, wanting to get his hands on Dokuzen. If we keep them away from Dokuzen for long enough, they will fear an attack from behind and think of returning home. We cannot hope to defeat a united Dokuzen, so we must splinter them apart.’
‘Should we not go further?’ Rhiannon asked. ‘Why don’t we send a message to Ward, suggesting he attack Dokuzen again?’
‘Apart from him laughing at the idea of us and the Elfarans fighting, the children he killed in Rheged would never forgive me for talking to their murderer,’ Huw spat.
‘The children of those who will die when the Elfarans march west will never forgive you for not doing everything to save them,’ Sendatsu pointed out.
Huw laughed scornfully. ‘You saw those headmen in there. My place hangs by a thread. The failure to win an elven alliance and losing so many of our dragons in Dokuzen was bad enough. If I then turn around and suggest an alliance with Ward, they will know I have gone mad.’
‘But it may be our only choice,’ Rhiannon said softly.
‘I cannot believe that.’ Huw shook his head.
‘The enemy of my enemy is my friend.’ Rhiannon shrugged. ‘Ward still has a powerful army. He will be able to make the Elfarans stop and think.’
‘He is a friend to nobody. He won’t lift a finger to help us,’ Huw argued.
‘You should at least try,’ Rhiannon said.
Sendatsu sat back and watched the warring emotions on Huw’s face with interest. If he had been making those suggestions, then Huw would have rejected them instantly. But, from Rhiannon, the words went deeper.
Then Huw sighed. ‘I cannot do it. Ward’s men killed my father. I cannot forgive them for that.’
‘Not even to save lives?’
‘I do not believe Ward is our only hope. Finding magic is still our best chance,’ Huw said stubbornly.
‘You need to do anything and everything,’ Sendatsu warned.
‘Then find us some magic, and we shall talk again,’ Huw said.
Sendatsu smiled. ‘We shall do our best — although my best is not as good as Rhiannon’s!’
Huw hesitated for a moment and then held out his hand. ‘Thank you for coming to help us. It means a great deal,’ he said solemnly. ‘I do appreciate that I spent moons trying to make you a hero and now you come here by yourself.’
‘It is strange the way things happen,’ Sendatsu admitted.
‘We are all very different from when we first met,’ Rhiannon remarked.
Sendatsu grinned. ‘Thank Aroaril for that!’
The three of them laughed, drawing strange looks from Mai and Cheijun.
‘Do you need anything?’ Huw asked.
‘Maybe a second bed. I was going to ask Kelyn but he’s going to be busy for a few days …’
‘We’ll find something,’ Huw promised.
‘And we even have a bath. Huw had one built.’ Rhiannon smiled. ‘I am sure he will let you use it. Do you want me to send a message to Asami —’
‘If we are finished, I need to get my children fed and to sleep,’ Sendatsu said brusquely.
He watched them go and welcomed the chance to just be with Mai and Cheijun. With them, he could forget his hurt.
‘Papa, did you have to be mean to the Velsh like that?’ Mai asked.
‘What do you mean?’ Sendatsu spooned rice into bowls and topped it with boiled vegetables. He would need to get some fish tomorrow, amid everything else he was supposed to do.
‘You shouted at everyone, made them scared.’
‘Not me! I wasn’t scared!’ Cheijun declared.
‘That was because I was holding your hand. If I hadn’t, you might have wet your hakama,’ Mai told him.
‘Better to do a poo. Nobody can smell them out here.’ Cheijun threw back his head and laughed.
Sendatsu smiled at their giggling. ‘Sometimes people need to be told what to do. Sometimes they don’t listen.’
‘But they won’t like you. And you want them to like you, don’t you?’
Sendatsu reached out and ran his fingers through her hair, marvelling that she could actually be his. He and his wife, Kayiko, may not have loved each other but they still made lovely children.
‘I have your love. That is enough for me.’ He smiled.
‘And my love!’ Cheijun grabbed him around the waist.
‘See, that’s all I need,’ Sendatsu said, although his mind treacherously jumped to an image of Asami, leaning in close to kiss him.
‘And the Velsh?’
‘I promise I’ll be nicer to them.’ Sendatsu kissed them both. ‘Now, eat your rice or there is no story before bed!’
‘Sarge, how much longer do we have to patrol the border for?’ Ruttyn asked.
‘Only until an angry elven horde comes pouring out of the forest, cuts off our heads and sticks them on poles,’ Caelin replied absently.
‘Oh, well at least we’ve got something to look forward to,’ Harald observed.
Caelin smiled. No matter how grim things became — and they had been pretty bloody this last moon — these two could always make him smile. He reflected on the strange turn in his life. He had been a scout sergeant, happy in his duties and confident he would do whatever his king needed, obeying orders without fear or question. He had expected to die when sent north to scout the barrier around the elven lands — but Ruttyn and Harald had saved him with their foolishness. More than that — they had stayed with him through not one but two invasions of Forland, the battle of Dokuzen and then the flight through the Tregarth forest ahead of an angry mob of elves. If they kept saving his life, then he was delighted to have them around.
The guard duty up on the border was boring but had just enough fear that elves would spring out
of trees or out of the ground and the killing would begin again to keep men alert. Though you had to find a way to pass the time or such thoughts would drive you mad.
‘How come you two joined up? It’s not like you are the usual Forlish soldiers,’ he mused.
‘What are you saying, sarge? I am the epit — the pitolee — the epitomememe of Forlish manhood,’ Harald said proudly.
‘That makes me fear for our country,’ Caelin told him.
‘I joined up because there was never enough to eat at home. The villages down south might be stuffed full of plunder from the wars but, up here, you don’t see much of that. It was hard work, all day and every day, then not much to eat. The army gives me two meals a day,’ Ruttyn said.
‘Well, you know why I joined up. It was either do that or spend the next ten years having the wife’s mother abuse me for being useless, the bitter old cow,’ Harald said.
‘I knew your wife’s mother would be the reason for something.’ Caelin chuckled.
‘Dunholm isn’t too far away. I could duck back there and get her out here for you to see, then you’ll know I’m not joking. If any elf tries something, we could turn her loose on them. Forget magic barriers that pull your legs off, her tongue can rip the skin off a man at ten paces!’
‘A charming picture,’ Caelin murmured.
‘We’ll do our duty when the elves come,’ Ruttyn said, after a moment’s pause.
‘What’s that, lad?’
‘Die. That’s what we’re here for. We failed to take Dokuzen and they’ll be coming for us. After what we saw at Dokuzen, there’s no way we can win. But we’ll still fight,’ Ruttyn said.
‘Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that, eh?’ Caelin said gruffly.
None of them said anything else, but they looked north, to where the Tregarth forest lurked balefully on the horizon, almost out of sight but never out of mind.
5
Magic is a strange thing. I hope you are not cursed by the power of magic within you. It is fun to use a little of it but things are so much simpler with the sword. With a sword you know where you are at all times. With magic, there is always something hidden happening.
Asami put down the book with a shaking hand. This was the third book she had worked on translating but the first to have anything useful. She had begun the task excitedly, thinking she would uncover dramatic revelations that would force Jaken to step back from his plan to rule the humans and accept they were all the same. Her enthusiasm had begun to wane as the second book proved just as dull as the first, a straightforward account of life in Nippon. It was interesting to hear how the Elfarans had found a home there, how they had multiplied over the years, each of the original twelve marrying a score or more times as their wives died through childbirth or plain old age, how their children had shown magic from the first and had all revealed a mixture of features from their Nipponese mothers and also the strange ears of the Elfarans, the result of spending so much time with the dragons. It was curious that the forefathers had been the ones to begin the practice of decreeing who could marry, ensuring that the clans did not become inbred. But apart from that, tales of ordinary life in Nippon were deadly dull and she had to force herself to keep reading and translating.
Then she came to a third book. There was no way to tell which order they should follow and, in this one, events had moved on. The Elfarans had left Nippon and settled here, begun to splinter apart into the group that wanted to live in peace with the people they had found here and the group that called themselves elves and thought themselves superior. This new book was written by the old Tadayoshi Sendatsu, the one whose words from the past had come to light and sent her Sendatsu out into the human world in search of the truth — a search that had uncovered far more than anyone expected. In this book the old Sendatsu explained the fears of the forefathers, who knew that magic was a great circle, just like life. It had to die and be reborn — and it was getting close to its end. The magic had given them incredibly long lives but when it was reborn, that would end — and them with it. The forefathers were desperately afraid they would die before they could finish their work here and bring Velsh, Forlish, Breconian and Elfaran together. Their long lives and the loss of so many loved ones had seen them drift apart from everyday life. To protect themselves, they had shut themselves away — and then realised, too late, what a mistake that was.
Sendatsu wrote sadly about how the forefathers never got the chance to make amends for their mistakes. Just as they had begun repairing the damage, the magic had ended and they had crumbled to dust, gone in an instant. The magic returned the next day but everything had changed — their deaths had put the Elfaran people firmly on the path that led to the betrayal, the barrier and three hundred years of arrogance.
Asami wondered what had happened, when the magic had died and been reborn. Obviously it was working normally now but, without it, surely all life would end? Had it been a simple process, had dragons been involved, or had it been some desperate struggle, with the fate of all life resting on the shoulders of a few? She smiled to herself. That was just foolish thinking.
On she read, about the lies told to humans and to Elfarans alike, of the deceit and trickery. It was all here, everything in the scroll and far more. Then came the truly shocking part — how the older families had begun putting themselves up as better than others. Not only was this against everything the forefathers wanted but it was in complete defiance of sense.
Each member of a clan had a common thread, could trace their ancestry back to the same forefather, somehow. But the first few families had begun to put themselves above all others, say that they were somehow better because their great-grandmother had married a forefather years earlier than another’s great-grandmother.
‘This is a lie. We are all the same. Some have even begun calling the newer members of their clan esemono, after a Nipponese name for the lowest labourers,’ the old Sendatsu wrote. ‘This practice of claiming there are different ranks among us, that some families are better than others, is hated by the forefathers. Talented Elfarans are being overlooked in favour of fools from the “right” families. After the way we are treating the Velsh and Forlish with magic, this is our worst crime.’
Asami put the book down with shaking hands. Now this would turn Dokuzen upside down. This was the book that Sumiko really wanted to get her hands on. To tell all the lower classes they had as much right to luxury and riches as the nobles would set Dokuzen afire. But what should she do with this knowledge? She had no desire to help Sumiko but neither could she let this go by. She burned with shame at the thought of the Elfarans who worked for her. She had two gardeners, a maid and a pair of cleaners, all of whom only received a small wage each moon. But for an accident of birth, that could have been her, forced to clean up after others, never getting the chance to develop her powers.
She stood abruptly. She could not sit here in this house and let such things go on around her, like the forefathers did, thinking only of themselves. She had to get out and do something.
Jaken had always wanted to be Elder Elf of Dokuzen. In his mind’s eye he had seen himself taking the honour from Daichi, his enemy humbled and forced to acknowledge his brilliance. Instead he had been handed the role by his son. At the time he had rejoiced, thinking Sendatsu had finally grown up and they could rule Dokuzen together. But, just when he saw the son he had always wanted, Sendatsu had defied him and left Dokuzen. It was galling. Luckily he had Sumiko. His mind had been turning more and more to the idea he would put aside his wife Noriko and marry Sumiko. The people would allow it, he felt. As the saviour of Dokuzen and the ‘gaijin slayer’, they would let him do almost anything. Besides, even though Sumiko was past her child-bearing years, perhaps with the magic there was a chance to have another son, one he could be proud of this time.
‘Lord Jaken?’
The guard’s voice broke his reverie and he turned to see Sumiko being ushered into his office.
‘Leave us,’ he commanded.<
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‘Yes, lord.’ The guard bowed low and then shut the door.
Jaken strode across the room and enfolded Sumiko in his arms. ‘Welcome back! I have missed you,’ he told her, his hands slipping down her back.
Sumiko stepped adroitly away. ‘We need to talk first,’ she said sternly.
‘Really? It has been almost a quarter moon since we were together and the guards know never to disturb me.’ He reached for her again.
‘Lord, I am tired from bringing not just myself but everyone else home from the Forlish capital through an oaken gateway. I would not want the magic to droop within you at a critical time …’
‘Of course.’ Jaken masked his horror at such a thing happening as well as his frustration at not being able to release his desires. He had plenty of time to think about this moment as, without her, thinking was all he could do. He moved back to his desk and poured tea for them both. ‘Tell me what happened in Forland.’
She accepted a cup from him and smiled her thanks.
‘The Forlish king agreed to our plan, just as I told you he would.’
‘Truly?’
‘He will lead his army north and crush the Velsh, just as we want.’ Sumiko sipped her tea.
‘No tricks?’
‘No. He could see our argument — that we were negotiating from a position of strength. I gave him a choice: he could win our friendship or earn our enmity. After we crushed his army and sent them running with just a few hundred warriors, he is terrified of what we might do to his country with thousands.’
‘And he was not suspicious?’
Sumiko chuckled throatily, the way that she always did when she released the magic into him and he had to restrain himself from reaching out to her.
‘Of course he was suspicious! It took me days to convince him, which is why I was so long down there. He wants to crush the Velsh, of course — they have defied him and defeated him twice now, apparently. And they possess the coal, iron and tin that he wants. But he is afraid of what we might do if his army is mired in Vales.’