The Flood Dragon's Sacrifice Read online

  Sakami shook her head. “There’s no message. I swear it.” She could feel sweat dampening her face and underarms. Could they tell she was lying?

  “Then we’ll just have to search you.” The shinobi came closer, until the keen blade glittered right in front of her eyes. Slowly he reached out and pressed the tip to the neck of her tunic. The sharp point of the blade grazed her skin beneath.

  Help me. She prayed silently to someone, anyone, although she knew that she was alone and in the ungentle hands of the enemy. Please don’t let it end here. I have to get to Lord Kaito…

  Somewhere inside was a growing sense of rage that she had let herself be caught so easily. Her self-esteem was hurt. She had been so full of herself, so proud to be chosen to carry out this mission – and she had walked straight into the Kites’ hands.

  The blade began to slash downward, cutting through the fabric. Sakami closed her eyes, waiting for the humiliation and inevitable defilement to come. She was helpless.

  A sharp, unearthly bark rang out.

  Next moment, a young fox came hurtling through the undergrowth, moving so swiftly that he lit the path like a shooting flame. The stranglehold on her loosened.

  “Look out!” she cried, sensing that her captors had tensed, ready to fend him off. In the same moment, the fox leapt, sharp teeth bared, and she heard the snarl issuing from the back of his throat.

  A hail of fine metal fragments filled the air as one of the Kites spat a mouthful of deadly needles at the fox.

  Sakami gasped. The leaping fox did not flinch but, needles bouncing off his coat like hail, hurled himself in his attacker’s midriff. The knife dropped. Winded, the Kite staggered and dropped to his knees. In an instant, the fox was on him, jaws widening to clamp about his throat. The man’s eyes widened in fear as he toppled back, thrashing about and grabbing at the fox’s body to try to pull him off.

  “Help me!” he screamed above the fox’s vicious snarling.

  Sakami watched, frozen; she could see several of the needles glinting silver in amongst the russet fur on the creature’s back. He was hurt yet he continued to savage her attacker, heedless of his wounds. She could see the knife lying near her foot where the Kite had dropped it when the fox attacked.

  Blood began to spurt from the Kite’s throat and his screams degenerated into a horrible gurgling. His companion threw Sakami down and ripped off his tunic, flinging it over the fox’s head.

  “Honou?” Sakami cried. The Kite seized hold of the struggling bundle, dragging the fox off its prey, and hurled it to the ground with such force that the russet body bounced. The fox let out a shrill yelp and then lay still.

  “No,” Sakami whispered.

  The Kite was too busy with his injured companion to pay her any more attention. He had unwrapped the black cloth from around his own face and was using it to staunch and bind the man’s torn throat. Unmasked, he looked a little less menacing, his brows drawn together in a frown of concentration as he worked.

  Taking advantage of his distraction, she crawled along the stony path toward where the fox lay, his pointed muzzle poking out from the folds of material. One bright eye fixed fiercely on her and the bushy white-tipped tail thumped feebly, like that of a dog greeting its owner.

  “Honou, it is you.” Fighting back tears, she laid one hand close to his nostrils so that he could recognize her scent before she pushed back the folds of cloth. “You were so brave.” He was panting shallowly, his pink tongue lolling out of one side of his mouth. Yet though she had feared he would lash out blindly at any human who approached, he made a feeble attempt to lick her hand.

  “What are you, a witch?” The first Kite turned and began to lurch toward her, his exposed face twisted in an expression of such naked hatred that she had to look away fast, or the last shreds of her remaining courage would disappear. “Or are you a kitsune, a cursed fox-woman? Whichever, it doesn’t matter, because you’ll die here with your familiar.”

  Sakami wanted to run, but her legs were trembling so much that she couldn’t stand. And she couldn’t leave Honou lying injured and defenseless.

  The message. The message to Lord Kaito must get through. The future of the clan depended on her. She seized the knife. “Don’t come any closer.” She had to defend the both of them. What am I doing? Her sweaty hands shook as she gripped the hilt. I know how to use a knife to gut and fillet a fish, or chop leeks. But I’ve never harmed another person in my life. I can’t do this.

  He laughed, a derisive rasping sound at the back of his throat, as he advanced. “What harm can you do to me, little witch? Your familiar is done for. He can’t help you now.”

  She could not bear to hear him say those words. She could not bear to think that Honou had given his life for hers. She reared up, placing herself in front of the fox and brandishing the knife.

  A burst of dazzling light seared the glade. Sakami blinked, waiting for the thunder to follow, wondering where the storm had come from on such a fine afternoon.

  “How dare you attack my servant.” A white-robed woman had appeared on the mountain path.

  Sakami felt a shiver run through her body at the sound of the woman’s voice. Was she a nun? As she walked toward them, it seemed as if she exuded a faint radiance…although it could just have been the light sifting through the branches.

  The Kite shinobi had frozen, staring fixedly at the woman as she passed him, as if he was unable to move. Or had she made time stop?

  “Put down your weapon,” said the woman. Her voice was calm and low, yet there was no mistaking the tone of command. The knife dropped from his hands onto the path with a dull clang. The woman knelt beside Honou and laid her hands gently on his shuddering body.

  “Can you save him?” blurted out Sakami. “Please?”

  “This young one has a spark of life left in him. I may yet be in time…”

  As Sakami watched, helpless, Honou’s desperate panting slowed. She dug her nails into her palms, willing him to rally. The white-robed woman’s pale hands moved slowly across the fox’s blood-stained fur, from his flared nostrils to the snowy tip of his tail.

  “H – Honou came to my rescue,” Sakami said, trying to hold back the sobs that threatened to burst through. “He was so brave.”

  “Honou,” said the woman, with a throb in her voice that sent a thrill through Sakami’s body. Honou raised his head and stared into her face, as though in recognition. “Honou, wake up. Show me your true self.”

  It was a call like no other Sakami had ever heard and it awakened something sleeping within her, something feral and untamed. Honou was stirring too, as if the woman’s command was too strong to ignore. His body began to tremble and writhe.

  “What’s happening to him?” Sakami, frightened, took a step back, but the woman stayed kneeling beside him, seemingly untroubled by this violent reaction.

  “It’s always like this the first time,” she said. “He’ll learn to do it faster soon enough.”

  And before Sakami’s astonished eyes the fox’s body began to change; his limbs lengthened, his fur melted away, revealing tanned skin beneath, and his face altered, like a reflection glimpsed in the rippling stream. Where the fox had lain, a youth crouched, naked, with wild, gold-brown eyes and russet hair marked with a single white streak in the centre of his forehead.

  “H - Honou?” whispered Sakami hoarsely.

  The white-robed woman was smiling at him. She stroked his red hair and tipped his face up to hers.

  “You’re a good-looking boy,” she said, “but you can’t go among mortals unclothed.” She took off her veil and wrapped it around him. Another convulsive ripple passed through the air and suddenly the fox-boy was dressed in a white tunic and hakama, just like the clothes worn by Lord Takeru’s pageboys.

  Am I dreaming? Sakami rubbed her eyes. Did the Kites knock me unconscious and make me hallucinate all this?

  “And what is your name?” asked the woman, turning toward her.

  “Sakami, my lady.
” The woman’s face was so beautiful that Sakami was dazzled; Princess Asagao’s painted features would look gaudily unnatural if compared to this natural radiance.

  “Sakami, you were born here, on my mountain. You cared for one of my beloved children, the one you named Honou. As a reward, I’m offering you my protection. But you must agree to dedicate yourself to me, body and soul.”

  “To you, my lady?” Sakami said warily. My mountain. And then she knew. The goddess of the burned shrine had answered her prayer for help. She dropped to her knees and bowed till her forehead touched the ground. “Lady Inari. Forgive me. I – I didn’t realize.”

  “I smell war. Clan war. And that can only harm the land and my creatures that live here, as it has done countless times before.” Lady Inari touched her shoulder lightly, making her look up into her face. “Work with me, Sakami, to bring peace to the mountain.”

  “How can I help?” Sakami heard herself ask as if from far away. All she could see was the unearthly light radiating from the goddess’s eyes.

  “You must stop the Black Cranes and the Red Kites before they bring fire and destruction.”

  “But who will listen to a kitchen girl?” Sakami saw again Princess Asagao’s proud, disdainful expression as she gazed down on her.

  “The one you are going to find has great potential within him for good,” said Lady Inari distantly, “or for evil.”

  “Lord Kaito?”

  “He has already heard a voice calling to him. He will have to be strong, very strong, to resist its lure.”

  Sakami had no idea what Lady Inari was talking about. “A voice? What voice, my lady?”

  “The voice that calls from the depths of the sea.” Lady Inari reached out and let her fingertips trace the contours of Sakami’s face. And though her touch was feather-light, Sakami felt a tingle infusing her skin, penetrating and revitalizing her with fresh energy.

  “Honou will be your guardian. He will defend you if anyone should dare to attack you again. If ever you need help, just call him.”

  Bemused, Sakami stared at the russet-haired boy who stood at Inari’s side. “I don’t want to put him in any more danger.”

  Inari laughed, a gentle sound like the rustling of leaves in the wind. “I have endowed him with fox-fire. I think you’ll find that he’s more than a match for any mortal soldier, Kite or Crane. Besides, like all his kind, he’s crafty and cunning. Isn’t that so, Honou?”

  The boy opened his mouth but only a hoarse rasping sound, like a fox’s bark, came out. Sakami saw the color flood into his cheeks as embarrassment overcame him. Inari laughed again. “Forgive me, child. I have yet to give you human speech.” She took his face in her slender hands and, to Sakami’s astonishment, kissed him on the lips. Honou wriggled, struggling to get away. Just like a boy. Sakami remembered Shun hating to be kissed or hugged at around twelve years of age.

  “Now what do you have to say for yourself?” Inari released him, still laughing.

  “Ugh.” Honou shook his head, still blushing furiously. “Did you have to do that, Lady Inari?” His voice was already low for a boy’s, with just the hint of a break in it.

  “In a month or so, you’ll be longing for me to kiss you again,” Inari said fondly. “Watch him, Sakami. He’ll be a real lady’s man when he’s older, I can tell already. And foxes grow to adulthood so swiftly.”

  “Honou?” Sakami was still sure that she was dreaming. “Can you really speak?”

  “Seems so,” said Honou, with a little shrug.

  “Now you must be on your way,” said Inari, “before other Kites come looking for these two scouts. It may be summer, but the sun is well past its zenith. And the mountain paths can be treacherous at night.”

  “Don’t worry! When night falls, I’ll light the way with fox-fire.”

  “Don’t squander my gift on something so trivial, Honou,” said Inari sharply. “You have to learn how to use it properly, not just play with it like a toy.”

  Honou glared at her, pouting like a naughty child reprimanded by his mother. His expression was so comically endearing that it was all Sakami could do not to burst out laughing.

  Inari walked over to the Kite shinobi, who still stood frozen. She clicked her fingers and Sakami saw him pitch forward onto his face, like a felled pine. His body writhed once and then lay still.

  “And as those Kites were so wasteful as to trample on your rations, here is something in recognition of all the offerings that you and your family left at my shrine.” Inari placed a little package wrapped in leaves in Sakami’s hands. Looking down, Sakami saw it was filled with delicious fresh rice balls.

  “Thank you, dear Lady Inari,” she said, tears of gratitude filling her eyes, clutching the gift to her breast. When she looked up again, the goddess was gone.

  Chapter 13

  A wisp of a breeze brushed Sakami’s cheek as she tagged along behind a group of pilgrims crossing the rice fields on their way to the Tide Dragon monastery. The air smelled different down here on the plain. Salt. Sea salt.

  She was tired and sweating from the afternoon heat. But at the back of her mind nagged the thought that she would have to come this way again – and more slowly, at Lord Kaito’s pace. They would be easily spotted if Kite spies were about; when she shaded her eyes and gazed around her, there was little shelter.

  The white walls of the monastery gleamed in the sunlight; the blue and gold painted roofs of the temple pagoda which housed the sacred Tide Jewels could be seen even from far away. As Sakami drew nearer, she began to feel distinctly nervous. She could see warrior monks guarding the main gate, interrogating everyone who asked to gain entrance.

  Remember what the general said: Lord Kaito has taken a different name at the monastery, a holy name.

  She waited patiently in the queue as the pilgrims were admitted one by one, until it was her turn.

  She bowed low. Don’t say the wrong name.

  “I have a message for a novice called Kaishin. It’s important,” she whispered, staring at the ground. To her discomfiture she heard a sniggering laugh. Looking up, she saw that the warrior monks were trying – unsuccessfully – to hide their smiles.

  “A pretty girl with a message for Kaishin?”

  “Lucky Kaishin.”

  “It’s urgent,” she said, aware that she was blushing furiously. “Please take me to him.”

  ***

  A young man, his long black hair tied neatly back at the nape of his neck, bent over a pestle and mortar in the pharmacy. Sakami had unconsciously been expecting to see the slender boy she remembered, even though she knew Lord Kaito was now nearly seventeen years old. Could this healer really be he?

  “Excuse me,” she said, suddenly overcome with shyness, “but are you Kaishin?”

  He glanced up. She saw the ghost of the boy she remembered, the same gentle dark eyes gazing curiously at her from a man’s face.

  “Can I help you?” His voice was deep, but warmed with a pleasant, friendly inflection.

  “I – I’ve brought an urgent message for you from your mother. It’s in my sleeve. I’ll need a knife to cut it out.”

  “From my mother?” He stared at her and then his face broke into a frank and disarming smile that made her heart beat faster. “Sakami? Is it really you? You’re not so little now.”

  She nodded. He had not forgotten her. “It’s me.”

  He took up a slender blade from a tray of surgeon’s knives and came toward her. So the passing years had not brought about any improvement in his disability; he still moved with difficulty, a slow, lurching limp. Trying not to stare, she held up her sleeve for him to slit the seam and draw out the folded paper.

  “It’s in code,” she said as he stared at it, scratching his head. “General Tachibana said you would know how to decipher it.”

  He gave a rueful laugh. “It’s been a while since I had to unravel one of these ciphers. It may take me a while. Can I get you some tea?”

  He was her lord and he wa
s offering her tea? Flustered, she stammered out, “B – but I should make tea for you, my lord – ”

  He waved one hand, dismissing her protest. “You must be tired, walking all the way from the castle. Please sit down and rest.” He gestured to a low table in the far corner of the pharmacy.

  “Is it all right for me to be here?” Sakami glanced around warily as she settled herself at the table. She kept expecting one of the monks to appear and order her to leave.

  “The women and children from the village often come for medicine; we’re not a closed community.” He smiled at her in reassurance as he set a tea bowl in front of her and she felt herself blushing again. “Drink this; it’s a special restorative blend that Master Seishi gives to travelers.” He poured a clear, jade-green liquid into her bowl and she sniffed the rising steam, the aromatic scent tickling her nostrils. “I think you’ll find it refreshing.”

  Sakami sipped her tea obediently, stealing little glances at him as he settled down to make sense of Princess Asagao’s letter. But as he deciphered the message, she saw the expression on his face change from puzzlement to dismay…and then to anger.

  “My brother badly injured? The Kites attacking the castle?” He struck his fist on the table. “And all because Kakumyo was determined to make Lord Naoki a hostage. What on earth went wrong?”

  Sakami wasn’t sure if she was supposed to answer. She felt out of her depth, alarmed by the strength of his reaction.

  “Sakami.” Suddenly he was gazing at her so intently that she didn’t know where to look. “Does my mother want me to return so that I can treat Takeru’s injuries? Or is there some other reason behind her request – no, demand – that I go home straight away? For years, she’s ignored me. Why this sudden display of motherly concern?”

  Sakami was at a loss as to how to reply. “I don’t know, my lord.” She gazed fixedly at the dregs of tea at the bottom of her bowl.

  She heard him sigh. “Tell me, how were things at the castle when you left? How close were the Kites?”

  “A fleet of ships was sailing into the bay when I left.”

  “And how was Takeru injured?”