L5r - scroll 06 - The Dragon Read online

  "Mara!" The knot would hold him no longer. Daini landed in the water beneath the tremendous stalactite. Throwing off the ropes, he pushed through the mystical white flames, somehow knowing they could not hurt him anymore. He knelt beside her, fingers exploring the wound, emerald blood pouring over his hand as he tried to stanch its flow.

  "The Mara has interrupted the Pah'ra," the Shahadet rumbled from his chair.

  Suddenly Daini could understand every word. Some small piece of the Akasha moved within him, realized, teaching him their language.

  "No, Shahadet," Daini said gravely in their language. "My Sehalai protected me from the attack of this one." Pointing at the Balash, Daini made a dismissive gesture with his hand.

  "This one," the Balash hissed, "saw that the supplicant was attempting to free himself from the Pah'ra and fight the Akasha. This one was performing the duty of the Sehalai, when the Greensnake would have failed and given mercy. This is not a Greensnake ceremony, with their peaceful ways and their weakness. This is the test of the Asp."

  The Shahadet closed his eyes, and Daini knew that he was communing with the Akasha. "Let the Daini take her into the River of the Sky. The Akasha will decide her fate. When it is done with her, we will follow you, Mirumoto-daini, our brother, into the war against the Foul. Our place is with you."

  Daini lifted Mara's limp body into his arms.

  Her tail faded into beautiful, shapely legs, and her amber eyes opened. She lightly placed her arms around his shoulders. "If I am to die, huu-man," she whispered hoarsely into his ear, "1 will die in your arms and be content."

  The other Asp watched as their new brother carried the little Greensnake through the flames of the Pah'ra, to the basin of the River of the Sky.

  The future had been changed forever. The Akasha touched a new mind. Soon, the naga would understand these huu-mans and their war. They would again fight the Foul—but this time, they would not fight alone.

  "Mara, you must not love me. It is not to be." Daini stepped through the white flames, his arms tight around her lithe form.

  "You are wrong, Daini, for I have known this day would come for a thousand years. When my people slept the sleep of a thousand years, we were not allowed to dream. But I dreamed, samurai. I dreamed of cities that had not been built, and of people that were not yet born." Her eyes dulled with pain, but she watched him serenely, at peace with the world. "I dreamed of you."

  Green blood stained his hands as he stepped into the basin. Icy waters closed around his legs. This time, there was nothing in the water to threaten him, no clutching hands trying to drag him under the waves. From the water, he sensed only a great sadness, with a strength and depth he had never known existed.

  "You bring us new life, Daini. For a thousand years, we have slept."

  Standing on the shore of the Great Mind, he suddenly felt very lost and alone. He could not understand their Akasha. It was beyond him. Yet she was one with a thousand souls in a great ocean.

  Another step into the water, and it closed around his torso. "Live, Mara." He inhaled the scent of her hair.

  "Your coming was known to us, Daini, and the time of our Great Sleep has ended. Is this why I should live?" Her fingers, weakened by loss of blood, trailed across his chin. "No, not for them. For you. You have awakened me, Mirumoto-daini, beyond anything I could have imagined. I have been your Sehalai. I have seen your soul, and I am yours."

  Two more steps, and he would be in the center of the basin, beneath the great stalactite. The ropes still hung from his perch on the stone, trailing without ripples in the cool blue water.

  He whispered, "Your people have given back a part of myself I did not know I had lost." His heart ached for her pain. "You have done so much for me...."

  "But you cannot love me?" she asked softly.

  "I..." Turn your back, Daini, his inner voice whispered. You have done your duty here. Turn your back on her, and return to your people, where you belong. "Live, Mara," he repeated again, the tears stinging his eyes, tears of joy and sorrow.

  "Live ... for what reason? The River of the Sky demands a purpose for its boons. It will not let me go unless I have some strength that is greater than death—some purpose yet to fulfill." Softly, her mouth brushed against the hollow of his neck. "Shall I live for my people, Daini?"

  The waves of the Akasha washed over him as he sank into the River of the Sky. Water, cold and clear, swelled around his shoulders and bathed Mara's quiet face.

  Turn your back, the inner voice whispered once more, but it was fainter, covered by the distant sound of the Akasha's rolling tide.

  Never again.

  As the river eased her wounds and her arms grew strong around his shoulders, he stepped forward one final time and felt the waves close above his head. "No, Mara. Live... for me." Daini's mind called across the wide Akasha until it found her lips, open and glad. Her kiss was light, gentle and tender.

  As he returned the kiss, Daini heard the ocean roar.

  the cornerstones of the world

  The palace was silent. The court of the emperor revolved peacefully. Winds of change blew in gentle, careful gusts, guided by the empress herself. From her place at the side of the empty throne, Kachiko quietly ruled, furthering her own ends.

  Soon, the Crab armies would arrive, as she had planned. They would overthrow the weak Hantei and secure the throne in Kisada's name. When that occurred, the Scorpion would come out of hiding, resume their place among the Great Clans, and keep the imperial power for themselves—all beneath the naive gaze of the Great Bear, their ultimate pawn.

  Poisoning the emperor had been easy. Keeping him weak was child's play. But replacing him with a more fitting pawn and fulfilling Shoju's prophecy and her own revenge . . . these tasks had been difficult. Soon they would be accomplished.

  It had been several months since the travesty at Beiden Pass. The Crab's first failure, thought Kachiko. Their ambition without guidance had nearly cost the clan their lives. Kisada had had to make that mistake before he would take the bait that Kachiko dangled—the Imperial Throne. With that bait, she had proved that even the Great Bear could be tamed.

  Months. It had taken months for him to prepare the perfect assault, and only the long cold winter allowed Kisada's plans to be kept secret, even with Kachiko's careful strategies in the court. When the first thaw of spring had arrived, though, they were ready.

  The attack would not come from the south, through ice-covered Beiden Pass and snowbound Crane lands. It would come, instead, from the east, just before the spring rains had melted the winter snows and allowed the armies of Rokugan to march again. They could not help the emperor.

  The doom of Hantei 39TH would come from the sea.

  Besieging Otosan Uchi was simple. No army had ever attacked the city from the waves of the eastern ocean, not since the gaijin's attack over seven hundred years before. Landing his fleet on undefended shores near the Imperial City, Kisada marched to surround it.

  A nearby Lion army arrived in time to repel the attack, but Kachiko bearded the Lion. She sent an imperial decree commanding that the lion leader, Matsu Tsuko, abandon her troops on the field. In the following battle, the Lion were decimated.

  Kisada surrounded and took the city. Even as he fought his way past Seppun guards, he sent envoys ahead of him, demanding that Emperor Hantei surrender the throne.

  The envoys were refused entrance. For five days, the ailing emperor had forbidden all audience. Even his loyal wife was kept away.

  Tearfully, Kachiko wrote out the demands of the envoys. She added to them her own pleas, begging her husband to consider the Crab's demands.

  "Leave the city," she wrote. "Gain time for a counterattack. Save your life and the life of the child I promise to bear you."

  They were such little lies. Such little tears.

  Yet when she sent the note with the emperor's personal guard, an unexpected reply came back. The emperor agreed to meet with Kisada, refusing Kachiko's carefully phrased pleas.


  It was the first time he had ever refused her anything.

  xxxxxxxx

  The storm outside the palace increased in fury as the Crab approached. It howled in expectant rage until Kachiko thought it must destroy everything in its path. The winds came from the south, reeking of taint and festering decay.

  The people of Otosan Uchi huddled in their small houses, praying to the Fortunes for protection. Lightning shattered the night sky all around the city, carving swaths of smoldering ash in once-green fields. Some bolts struck the wall itself, tearing open great black pits of stone and rubble. Fiery hail fell from the sky, rattling and bouncing along the city's streets. The stones were extinguished only by the pounding rain that followed. Floodwaters swirled ankle-deep through the streets and churned into the swollen river. Market stalls, beasts of burden, and citizens foolish enough to leave their homes were swept away down the waterfall and out to a foaming gray sea. The waters raged against the storm.

  "Is the emperor prepared?" Kachiko whispered to Aramoro.

  The Scorpion bushi nodded silently. The Crab would enter the throne room of jade and gold and meet with Emperor Hantei. Still, the Hantei had not called off his Seppun guards. He would make Kisada pay to gain the throne.

  The sound of tearing shoji screens announced the Crab Champion's approach. One after another, the walls gave way before the Crab daimyo.

  At the base of the stairs to the throne room, Kachiko waited for him. Ten Seppun guardsmen gathered around her, each ready to give his life to protect hers. She allowed herself a tiny smile. How little they knew, these Seppun. They guarded the very viper they thought to destroy.

  The final screen tore, and a huge, dark samurai burst forth from it. Hida Kisada, the Great Bear, had arrived. His son emerged behind him.

  "Invaders!" shouted one of the Seppun.

  "Stand aside," Kachiko ordered in a voice as sharp as honed steel. "Your orders are to guard me, and I do not think the Great Bear came all this way to threaten a poor, neglected woman."

  Kisada nodded shallowly. At his side, Hida Yakamo stood, his face darkened by somber, brooding thoughts. Father and son warily, gripping their tetsubo and eyeing the contingent of Seppun.

  "My lady," Kisada's voice boomed, echoing in the silent halls of the Imperial Palace. "I have arrived to meet with your ... husband."

  "He awaits you, Hida-sama," Kachiko said softly, her voice cultured and gentle. She gestured to the top of the stairs.

  Servants opened the jade doors to the imperial throne room. Beyond lay a hallway of gold and mahogany, and at its end stood the Emerald Throne. Upon it sat a young man in gold and green.

  As they saw the emperor, sitting alone in his opulent throne room, the Crab soldiers grinned. They already counted their victories . . . despite the warnings that flooded the city and pounded the earth to sod.

  On his cracked Emerald Throne, the Hantei awaited them, his body still and quiet. His head was lowered, dark eyes closed.

  Striding up the stairs and into the throne room, the Great Bear raised a steel fist. His son stood beside him, though his other men knelt before the dais.

  "Imperial Hantei," he said, and his voice echoed like thunder. Yet before Kisada could demand the throne be turned over to the Crab, the Hantei lifted a pale white hand.

  Surprised, Kisada said nothing more. The emperor raised his head, his pale eyes softly sliding from one face to the next. "Kachiko," he whispered, and she moved forward.

  "Hai, sama?" she said gently, trying not to let her confusion show. This was not the way he should be acting. He should be cowed, frightened—angered, ranting against Kisada's actions. This cold, composed boy on the throne... this was not the emperor that Kachiko had grown accustomed to seeing.

  "Remove everyone from my chambers," the Hantei said softly." I would be alone with Hida-san and his men."

  "But . .." Her protest died before it was voiced. Kachiko lowered her head to the floor. Within seconds, the rest of the courtiers and guards in the room did the same. Rising, Kachiko strode to the rear of the room, followed by bristling Seppun guards and whispering courtiers.

  As the grand doors closed softly behind them, Kachiko caught the black-eyed gaze of her companion in the shadows.

  Hitomi stood there, silent and unmoving, a statue carved in golden ice—a reminder of their cause.

  Kachiko brooded. Something was wrong, terribly wrong. She could feel it in her bones, in the wind that swept through the palace, growing colder with each passing second.

  Until now, everything had gone as the Lady of Scorpions had planned, each step perfectly placed, each movement precise. Poisoned, the 39th Hantei needed only Kisada's pressure to surrender the throne. If he was still an honorable samurai beneath his wasted flesh and fragile bones, the announcement of his seppuku would shordy follow.

  The empress and her guards waited with the courtiers outside the emperor's throne room, breathlessly waiting for the announcement.

  It had come to this. The empire would never be the same. Nothing could change that. The boy on the throne—her husband, for at least a few moments more—could do nothing to stop it.

  For a moment, Kachiko's lips curved in a delicate blush of anticipation.

  A smile of victory.

  xxxxxxxx

  The palace abruptly trembled at its very foundation.

  The walls of the throne room burst into black flame.

  A terrible laugh shook halls.

  Hitomi glanced back toward the golden doors of the throne room. The floor bounced, and even Kachiko stumbled, clutching Aramoro's swift arm. Hitomi's eyes narrowed. The Scorpion had seemed all too confident, all too eager for this meeting, but now the smile was gone from her pale face.

  The laugh continued beyond mortal breath and with a power that reached the Celestial Heavens.

  The Moon's Hand clenched into a fist, awakening as it listened to a familiar voice. A terrible anger swept through Hitomi's mind.

  Though the laughter held tones of the emperor's smooth tenor, it was rotting with the timbre of evil. The palace trembled once more, shaking on its stone foundations as the very earth heaved. With a shriek of twisting steel and cracking wood, the great doors burst open in a shower of golden splinters. An eerie green light swelled from the throne room, bleeding into the long hallway. Screams came from within the chamber, echoing like the cry of tortured animals.

  Something within the throne room glistened, sending out rays of horrible green light. Smoke rolled along the ground, causing the Seppun to choke and stagger, screaming silently as their hands fell from their swords.

  Avoiding the noxious vapors, Hitomi leapt back, dragging Kachiko with her. Beside her, Aramoro freed his sword and readied his stance. A few others, wary of the smoke, drew their weapons and peered into the chamber of the Emerald Throne.

  The screams continued. Hitomi had heard the calls of the dying on the battlefield, the shouts of agony as a limb was severed from a body. These shrieks were far worse, accompanied by a sound like flesh being peeled from a man's face.

  From the throne room, the light scattered over the smoke, illuminating the still-twisting bodies of Seppun guardsmen.

  Where it touched a fallen body, the skin pulled back from muscle and bone, ripping it away. Then, as Hitomi watched, the bodies began to rise. Shattered bone healed, twisted flesh knitted into rotting sinew and muscle over grinning skulls. Lifting her gaze from the rising dead, Hitomi stared into the throne room.

  Within it, the Hantei stood defiantly before his Emerald Throne. The smoke boiled from his fingertips, tearing the flesh from screaming samurai before him. Hantei held his hands high above his head, his magnificent gold and green robes swirling about him in the storm. On the floor, a great swath of blood stained the rich mahogany. As Hitomi watched, Seppun guards slowly climbed from the floor. The undead bodies in their twisted armor were mockeries of the bold samurai that guarded the emperor. Rictus grins hung from their slack, bloodied faces.

  B
eyond them, the emperor laughed. He threw his arms open to a shattered roof, the rain and wind sweeping through the throne room and racing in bitter blasts down the palace halls. Shoji screens shredded at its passing, and more green smoke poured through the hallways of the Imperial Palace. Seppun guardsmen clutched at their faces, howling for release as the taint tore through their bodies.

  Hitomi's hand moved of its own volition, slicing through the undead samurai that charged toward her. "Kachiko," she growled, "We must go!"

  Beside Hitomi, the empress stared down the long corridor of the throne room, into the eyes of the creature standing before the Emerald Throne. "No ..." she whispered. "It cannot be...."

  "There is no time!" Hitomi grabbed Kachiko's fine wrist, pulling the empress down the once-magnificent hallway.

  Behind them, Aramoro fought against the tide of undead guards. Zombies shuddered forward, lifting their blades with unholy strength and carving the flesh of servants, guards, and courtiers alike. As each new body fell, the light flickered again, touching their faces and twisting them into leering mockeries. Eyes withered, flesh tore, and black blood spilled from the mouths of each corpse as it struggled to rise from the slick floor.

  Screaming courtiers threw themselves at the doors to the outside gardens, only to be cut down by their fellows as more bodies rose from the swirling smoke. The undead legion grew.

  Hitomi and the empress came to a stone wall. They were trapped, caught in the sudden press of zombies. There was no escape.

  "Here!" Aramoro snarled, his swift blade slicing through another monster.

  Hitomi nodded, standing beside him in the stone corridor and driving the creatures back. "We cannot hold them for long."

  Aramoro twisted his blade, pushing one of the creatures back with his arm. Beside him, Hitomi slashed the Shadow-lands madmen, Seppun and Hida together, their bright kimono smeared with blackish blood.