L5r - scroll 06 - The Dragon Page 8

  Before the man could finish speaking, her sword was pointed at his throat. Hitomi had murder in her eyes. "Any man who believes I need Toturi's approval may slice open his own belly now. I have no time for traitors."

  Shocked, the men stared numbly at their general. "Hai," one whispered, unwilling to call her bluff.

  "For the Mirumoto, and the Iron Mountain," Hitomi hissed. She turned as she pulled her second sword free of its scabbard and began a silent charge. The others followed.

  Shrouded in mist, the Crab archers had not anticipated an aggressive strike. Blades leapt at them out of the fog. The bows in their hands snapped, sliced in two. Dragon swords continued on to chop heads from shoulders and cut men through the middle. In moments, the Crab archers were decimated.

  Hitomi and her small band stood in the midst of slain foes. Battle sounds rang and echoed through the mist, and Hitomi glimpsed the forms of Crab samurai as they advanced.

  "He is here," Hitomi snarled, pushing a Hida from her blade with a shove of her boot. "Yakamo!" She howled into the sorcerous wind. "Show yourself, son of Kisada!"

  Then she spotted him, bathed in the sickly green light of the fog. Hearing his name, Yakamo turned toward Hitomi, and he peered through the flickering light.

  He was as she remembered; tall, broad, ruggedly handsome, his mustache sweeping down past the line of his stone jaw. Black hair that had once been tied tighdy back beneath his helmet now sprang free, clinging to the sweat on his face and neck. He wore no mempo mask—the son of the Crab Champion needed none—and he stood nearly a head above the men he commanded. Dark eyes flashed as he lifted his tetsubo from the broken remains of one of the Kitsuki. One hand was covered by a steel gauntlet, but the other ... where his left hand had once been, there was now a hideous claw, fashioned of some strange carapace or steel. It moved as if with the power of Yakamo's thoughts. All around him, nearly forty Hida batded staunch Kitsuki troops.

  The Dragon samurai were losing, and Hitomi could hear Yakamo's laughter as he shattered their line.

  It could not be. She had taken his hand at Otosan Uchi. He should have been a cripple—a broken man, one-handed and weak. Hitomi's brow furrowed as she fought to understand.

  The claw snapped through a corpse that stood in Yakamo's way, cutting through the man's spine with little effort. The Crab smiled, a wide, mocking smile, and he stepped over the bodies of the dead to approach her. She had expected a one-handed samurai, capable only of tactics and small defense, but now she faced a monster.

  Hitomi stared toward him, her hand frozen on the hilt of her katana. "You," she screamed. "You will fight me!"

  Yakamo shouted from across the short distance. "I know you, girl," he yelled. "You took my hand."

  "You killed my brother!" Hitomi cried, tears stinging her eyes as she faced this demon of her nightmares. He was larger than she had imagined, with rippling muscles tensing across his bare shoulders.

  "Your brother, the fool. I remember Satsu well, I do. He died too quickly. But you.. ."Yakamo smiled broadly, snapping the tremendous claw together with a thunderous sound. "For taking my hand, girl, you will die slowly."

  Hitomi's men streamed past her, engaging the Crab squadron and holding back their lines. A few of the Kitsuki joined Hitomi's guard, renewing their strength against the Hida. The Mirumoto daimyo did not move, but stood still and waited for Hida Yakamo to come.

  Time ... the time had come ... finally....

  Hitomi struggled to calm her inner voice, but her thoughts were as short as her own breath, whistling out in ragged lines. Far off, she saw Mirumoto Daini and his small guard, standing atop a prominence and staring down at the fight. Daini's eyes were fixed upon her.

  Yakamo was hers. Hitomi gritted her teeth. "Watch all you wish, little brother," she whispered. "Now you will see how a true samurai claims vengeance for the dead."

  As soon as Yakamo was within range of her katana, she struck. The swift song of her first strike screamed into the Crab's claw, ringing as if it had struck pure stone.

  Hida Yakamo laughed as her sword continued in a fierce flurry of blows. He blocked each of them unerringly with his massive arm.

  Niten taught nothing within its ancient scrolls that had prepared Hitomi for this moment. Yakamo continued laughing, watching as she parried his tetsubo and struck again.

  Again, the claw bashed her blade away. It did not matter how swift she was, how cunning—the claw stood ever in her way. His return tetsubo blows rained down like lightning strikes. The steel-spiked club tore into the earth beneath her feet as she leapt and spun. Timing and rhythm, timing and ... a perfect strike, but Yakamo's claw parried easily. Hitomi screamed in frustration.

  His tetsubo crashed into her leg, bruising the bone and nearly knocking her from her feet. His claw snapped toward her thigh. Her leg twisted from the pressure of claw and iron. Another ruthless blow, and her helm was crushed, tilting crazily across her eyes. Yanking it from her head and throwing the useless piece of metal to the ground, she turned to face him. Blood trailed from the wound on her scalp, but she did not care.

  "An exceptional weapon, is it not?" Yakamo taunted. "Kuni Yori granted it to me, when you took my hand at Otosan Uchi. I am so glad you came to test it. I have been waiting to see exactly what it can do. I'm told that it burns with fire when it cuts you," he laughed. "I think we shall soon see, little girl."

  Hitomi limped forward, raising her swords once more for another series of strikes. Her leg had almost certainly fractured beneath Yakamo's blow, but it still held. Each feint, each movement was an agony as her twisted leg burned from pain. Quickly, as they circled, Hitomi assessed the wound. Suddenly, she realized her danger. Wounded, she would not survive long behind the Crab lines. At any moment the troops could break free of her guardsmen and come to the aid of their commander. If she was going to do something, it had had to be now.

  "You won't be running away this time, child," he laughed. "Nor will your Dragon clan mates save you. In a moment, they are going to watch you die."

  As he spoke, Hitomi took advantage of the terrain. She leapt onto a large rock that was sunken into the ground. Moving with agile steps up the face of the boulder, she twisted her body through the air, above his guard, her sword ringing against his helm as she leapt upside down toward his throat.

  The sounds of battle stopped. She felt her sword sink bloodily into his flesh.

  Landing heavily, Hitomi staggered forward from her acrobatics, her leg giving way. The fractured bone buckled, and she fell to the ground. Hitomi looked up, sweat stinging her eyes, desperate to see if Yakamo still stood.

  He stood, though the left side of his armor was stained with his own blood. His tetsubo lay upon the ground at his feet, but he did not seem to notice. His human hand reached up to touch the mark that shone redly across his left shoulder.

  "You don't understand, girl," he snarled, looking down first at the slash, and then at the claw. As he did, the maw of the pincers started to close. The claw began to move. The wound seemed to knit together before her eyes.

  "No ..." Hitomi whispered in shock.

  Yakamo grinned, catching her left hand in his human one before she could recover. "It gives me strength greater than any man has known. I am no longer a man. I am something more." He flexed his massive muscles, and the claw snapped together, echoing the ringing sound of steel.

  With a precise motion, he lifted the massive claw to her right hand, catching her katana, handle, and fist within its mighty embrace. She screamed as it touched her, feeling the taint within the monstrous hand. Slowly, like a vice and a lever, Yakamo closed the twin jaws of the claw, piercing her skin and shattering her bone. Fire burst from her wound where the claw tore her flesh. Greenish and foul, the flames burned within her wound, charring her enameled do and scorching her skin. Hitomi screamed in anguish.

  "I should have killed you when you were a child," Yakamo snarled viciously, watching the fire burn. He twisted her limb beneath the terrible strength of his
steel and armored claw, ripping part bone and sinew.

  Hitomi cried out twice more before he finished with her— once when her own hand was severed, and once when she heard the unmistakable sound of the ancestral Dragon sword, the Mirumoto sword of her forefathers, breaking in two.

  The Dragon reserves suddenly crashed through the Crab lines, scattering their samurai like chaff.

  Yakamo looked up and saw his Hida guard being torn apart by the renewed Kitsuki legions. He threw Hitomi to the ground. The Dragon were coming, and soon he would have no place to hide. Faking bravado, Yakamo spat, "Enough of this game. There is a war to be won. A victory that you will never see, girl," he said to the fallen samurai. Backing away from the advancing Mirumoto, Yakamo summoned his Hida guards. "Now that you are broken, your death does not interest me. I will leave you, as you once left me. Your death will come, soon enough." Turning, Yakamo strode toward his men to continue the fight.

  Behind him lay the ruined form of the Mirumoto daimyo, twisted like a paper door in a sudden storm. She had lost too much blood. Hitomi's body lay on the field, blood streaming from her nose and eyes, limbs bent in a mockery of the human form. One hand—the right—was severed completely, lying beside the remnants of a broken katana. Blearily, Hitomi looked across the field.

  Mirumoto bodies littered the ground like wooden dolls, covered in the blood of their wounds. The Crab drove the Kitsuki back once more. With Yakamo at their side, the Hida were unstoppable.

  With the last of her strength, Hitomi looked at the silhouette on the cliff. "Daini," she whispered through her agony, trying to rise. "Daini, help me...."

  xxxxxxxx

  From high ground, Daini looked down at Hitomi's fight with the son of the Crab Champion, his eyes haunted and afraid. He stood above the main battlefield, watching.

  Daini's legion had been one of the first to charge; badly injured, they had been called back soon after their batde had been won. From then on, Daini had stood above the massive combat, watching the battle unfold. He had seen Hitomi charge into the Crab lines, had seen her throw away her men's lives against ogres and Hida guards, had seen Yakamo find her, seen them exchange blows....

  Even now, Yakamo struck her savagely. Daini watched in silence. His sister fell. The Crab bent over her, clasped her wrist in that horrid claw, and pinched. There was blood, lots of blood. When at last the Hida dropped her to the ground and marched away, Daini turned from the battle.

  "Sir," one of his men called, pointing down at the fallen daimyo. "Hitomi might still be alive ... There is a chance.... She is still moving."

  "We cannot move that far through the Crab lines. It is too dangerous." Daini tried to believe his own words, fighting to sound confident. "Where is your command?" he asked the Kitsuki soldier.

  The man's face paled in shame and anger. "Dead, my lord. All dead, to a man."

  Daini nodded arrogantly. "Yakamo has reinforced their northern perimeter and is using the high wall of that canyon to block any further Dragon advance. We must strike on the south side, as Toturi-san advised. If we try to save Hitomi, we will lose the battle." Forcing sorrow into his words, he said carefully. "There is nothing that can be done. My sister is already lost," Daini said to the soldier. "Let us give her death honor through our valor."

  The soldier bowed understandingly. "Hai, my daimyo. As you command."

  As the man strode to relay his orders, Mirumoto Daini looked down at the faintly struggling form in the ravine below.

  Is she still fighting to live, he asked himself?

  Instead of the elation that he had expected, Daini felt dread creep through his bones.

  I can still help her. The thought came unbidden to his mind. Hitomi is still alive.

  "No. She is dead," he said firmly, willing it to be true. Then without looking again, Mirumoto Daini turned his back on the field.

  xxxxxxxx

  Sukune rested inside the command tent, allowing one of the Agasha healers to tend a minor wrist injury he had suffered that day. Nearby, Togashi Mitsu ate like a hungry wolf from a lacquered bowl, humming to himself softly between scoops of thick noodles.

  Toturi looked over the day's maps. The fighting had not gone well for the allied armies. Grim reports were still coming in. The Crab had struck several mighty blows against their position. More ominously, Yakamo had led a huge contingent of Crab and Shadowlands forces southeast along the foothills of the Spine of the World. Toturi hadn't enough troops to chase them down and simultaneously take back the pass, but he sent mounted Unicorn scouts to dog their heels. It would not do to let Yakamo circle around behind them. The battle had quickly turned grim.

  The tent flap opened. Mirumoto Daini stood there.

  Sukune looked up and motioned for the Agasha healer to move away.

  Daini stepped inside the tent, removing his gilded helmet and bowing politely to the men before him. He approached his surrogate father, general of the Dragon armies.

  With a low nod, Sukune acknowledged his son's respect. Noticing that Daini was alone, he asked, "Where is Hitomi-sama?"

  Daini spoke carefully, as if he had rehearsed the words. "She is dead, my lord, on the field of batde." His voice was weary, laden with grief, and his hand reached unconsciously to stroke his thin mustache.

  Sukune gasped, his face tightening with the sudden news. "Dead? My daughter is dead? You have seen this, Daini? You are certain?"

  "I am, Father," Daini replied. "I witnessed it with my own eyes."

  Sorrowfully, Toturi said, "You have my condolences, Sukune-sama. May her soul find with ease the peace of Jigoku."

  "Oh, Fortunes." Sukune's voice broke with sudden grief. "I feared this day would come. My daughter, why did you not listen to our warnings?" The old man seemed to shrink, and his head lowered with sorrow. "We must have a ceremony for her soul. Her ashes must be sent to the Iron Mountain of the Mirumoto, to be kept with those of her father and brother."

  "No," Togashi Mitsu said suddenly, looking up from his bowl. "She is not dead."

  Daini countered, "She is dead, Togashi-san. Fallen to the Crab, as I had feared. Our warnings were not enough...."

  "She is not dead," Mitsu insisted stubbornly. "You did not see her fall. She could be a prisoner, captive, something."

  "No, Mitsu-san," Daini interjected. "I did see. I watched her being cut down by Hida Yakamo. She did not live through his attack."

  "No. You must be wrong."

  Toturi raised his hand to the tattooed man. "Mitsu-san, Daini has given testimony."

  "But Yokuni-sama would have known—she can't be dead."

  "She is lost to us," Daini said. "There are many who saw her fall against Yakamo, and she has not returned. I know that Hitomi was companion to you, and perhaps friend. Many here will miss her," Daini lied easily. "But I say with honor that she is dead. I saw more than the others did. I watched from the lines of command as she was struck down, and I saw her die at Yakamo's hand. You have my word."

  Togashi Mitsu paused, obviously dumbfounded. To question a samurai's given word was tantamount to personal insult; Daini would demand the right to a duel. The Dragon could not afford another death. "But, my lord Daini-san," Mitsu struggled, "the Tao teaches us that a stone unturned is enlightenment ignored. Should we not send scouts to recover the body?"

  "Not necessary," Daini said. "No doubt the creatures of the Shadowlands have taken the body away." His voice was uncomfortable, and he shifted his weight between his feet.

  "I'm certain, Mitsu-san," Toturi's diplomatic voice came from across the tent, "that Daini's word is unquestioned. This is a time of sorrow and grief. Come, let us leave the family to their memories." The general motioned for his men to move outside. He stared openly at the tattooed ise zumi until Mitsu moved reluctantly to the tent flap.

  "Hitomi has a destiny to fulfill, Daini-san. I pray, when next you meet—-in this life or beyond—that she will forgive you." With that, Mitsu turned and left the tent.

  Toturi followed behind him, brow
furrowed in thought.

  Sukune motioned to the Agasha. With a polite bow, the healer gathered her herbs and departed. Soon the news would be spread across the armies.

  "You saw her die," Sukune demanded after they had gone. His eyes were guarded. Mitsu's outburst had offended him, yes, but more telling was Daini's obvious discomfort.

  The youth looked down, his eyes darkening and his hands clenching into fists. "I saw her die."

  "Look at me, Daini," Sukune said, rising from his seat. He moved dangerously, anger rising in his belly. "Look at me!"

  Daini looked up, then, and Sukune was amazed at the rage and hatred in the young samurai's eyes. "Yes, I saw her, Father," Daini said. "I saw her charge the Crab lines, murdering her men and butchering the Kitsuki with her arrogance. I saw Hitomi call out Yakamo, daring him to fight her. And I watched her die at his hand."

  "You are certain she was dead? How far distant were you— one mile? Two? From the hilltop where you were stationed, you must have had a clear view.

  "I did," Daini said, eyes flashing a challenge. "Do you wish to dispute my word? I am certain that Toturi-sama would arbitrate our duel."

  Sukune's fist clenched.

  Daini reached for his sword-hilt before the old man could move. "Hitomi tried that on me once, Father. I learned my'lessons' from her, and there will be no more."

  "Hitomi is not dead," Sukune whispered. "I see deceit in your face, I see the lie in your eyes. I am your father. You will tell me the truth!" Sukune's fist pounded the table, making the maps and figures dance from the blow.

  "She may as well be dead, Father, and if she is not, she certainly will be before dawn. The creatures of the Shadowlands feast during the night."

  "By Shinsei's Tao, Daini. She is your sister!"

  "You know as well as I do, Father, that she would have seen us both dead. She threatened your life, because I had the audacity to ask a simple question. The Mirumoto were falling apart. Her vengeance and hatred of the Crab nearly destroyed our clan, and would certainly have destroyed us. Can you say that I have done wrong to save their lives?" Daini stepped closer to his father, his face within inches of Sukune. "Can you say I have acted with dishonor, to save my father's life? If you do, Sukune, then by all means question my word. Ask Toturi to arbitrate a duel, and kill me. I won't take back my words, but you may take my life for trying to give you back yours."