Journey Through Fire (5 page)

When Daisuke arrived to supervise, I peeled the bandages away from her skin, being careful not to hurt her. A faint sweet aroma rose up from the dirty bandages as they fell in a pile at my feet.

“We will change her bandages every day,” Daisuke said. “Her wounds must be allowed to breathe in order to heal. Otherwise there is the danger of infection.”

Daisuke gently applied cattail pollen to the wounded area. Then I picked up fresh rolls of linen and wrapped them around her charred limb. Daisuke watched me for a moment, then wandered over to peer through the open screen.

“What is it?” I asked, gently pulling the bedsheets back over my sister. I bent and kissed her forehead, before joining Daisuke. I gazed out to see what he was looking at, but could see nothing other than the
inky blue of the night sky. It looked serene. So why did Daisuke seem so unhappy?

“The air. It's…” His voice faded away. I took a deep breath, but all I could smell was the incense of the sick room. Daisuke shook his head. “I don't mean that,” he murmured. “It's something else.” I could see a vein pulse in his temple. Then suddenly he turned from the window and rushed across the room. “Something's wrong; I don't like it. I'm going to find out what it is,” he said. There was a tone in his voice that I had never heard before—alarm.

I grabbed his elbow, turning him around to look at me.

“If there's danger out there, I will go with you,” I said. “I
must
protect my family.”

“No,” Daisuke said, gently pulling away. “It could be dangerous.”

“Please,” I said. “I have fought before. A good fighter needs a friend by his side. Let me come with you—if only for your own sake.”

Daisuke allowed himself a grim smile. “Come on, then,” he said, stepping out into the walkway.

He glanced once at me. Then we both broke into a run.

T
he gravel crunched beneath our feet as we cautiously stepped outside. Above us stood the pagoda, its eaves rising high into the night sky until the curved sides could no longer be seen. The stars twinkled as a cool breeze snaked around my ankles. I shivered. Instinctively I reached a hand to the hilt of my sword, but my fingers closed around empty air. In my haste I had left my sword behind! I looked at Daisuke and saw that he was without weapons, too. So be it. We would have to rely on our wits alone.

Daisuke stood with his head cocked to one side, his eyes searching the monastery grounds. I strained my ears. For an age—nothing. Then came the tiny, dry sound of a twig snapping outside the monastery wall.

“Uncle's men,” I whispered. In my mind, it had to be. Who else would attack a monastery full of warrior monks?

Daisuke shook his head. “Even Hidehira would not dare to bring hostility to our door.” I wasn't so sure. I had faced Uncle before and knew what he was capable of. My heart pounded.

I stepped back behind a maple tree; its drooping, red leaves provided perfect cover. Daisuke understood my thoughts and followed me. Then he pointed toward the monastery walls. I narrowed my eyes and watched carefully.

The shadows of the night began to change and shift. From between the leaves of the maple tree I saw three ebony columns separate, their shapes moving fluidly. The silver light of the moon caught on the folds of the black outfits as the men moved noiselessly.

Ninja!

They were known as the “knives in the dark,” the “black-clad assassins.” They swore allegiance to no master. They had only benefactors—wealthy cowards who sought dishonorable ends to their disputes. Ninja could slip through the night and stop the heart of any foe. And now they were here, scaling the monastery walls.

One by one, they softly dropped down to the ground inside the monastery. I could see that they were each wearing a black shirt tucked into a sash and their heads were wrapped in black cowls that kept
their faces hidden. Silently they returned hooked ropes to their sashes.

Air hissed between my teeth as I drew a shocked breath. Daisuke's eyes had narrowed to slits as he watched their movements. We waited to see what the ninja would do next. Until we understood their plans, we could not contemplate a counterattack.

The ninja moved from building to building. Their feet did not disturb the gravel and I marveled at how three men could move so lightly on their feet.

One of them paused by the side of a building and brought out a tapered cylinder. He kneeled on the ground and held one end of the tube against the wooden wall. Then he placed his ear against the other end. I knew what this was—a listening device! The ninja was trying to spy on conversations inside the monastery. I shook my head in disgust. Where was the honor in such activity? But at least now we knew what the ninja were doing.

They were looking for someone.

Daisuke and I shared a long glance and I nodded. It was a signal to move.

Slowly the two of us crept out from our hiding place. We had to pick our way carefully to avoid the
tetsubishi
that the ninja had scattered behind them. I knew that these were nothing more than the dried seedpods of water chestnuts, but with their sharp
spikes they could be painful underfoot and warn the ninja of our approach.

We drew closer and I could feel energy pulse through my veins. One of the ninja had disappeared—moving without our noticing. There was no turning back now. We had to continue our approach toward the two ninja that remained, still listening at the walls of the monastery.

Every sense was strung tight and even the sound of my own breathing seemed to crash in my ears. I tried to imagine that I was as sleek as a cat, creeping up on a mouse. Now I was close, close enough to…I raised a hand into the air, ready to give a blow to the back of a ninja's neck.

But someone caught my hand and twisted it behind my back. Pain coursed through my wrist and shoulder and I collapsed to my knees, twisting around to look up into the face of my foe. I saw the glint of a ninja's eye.

“We knew you were watching from behind the maple tree,” he hissed. “Then like lumbering moon bears you crashed toward us.” He dragged me to my feet. I barely had time to raise my arms to shield myself before he lashed out with a single, well-aimed punch. As I staggered backward, he grabbed my left shoulder and deftly swung himself up so that his legs straddled my shoulders. He held himself aloft from
the branches of one of the maple trees as his legs gripped my neck and squeezed tighter and tighter. I couldn't breathe and my hands grasped uselessly at his thighs.

Desperately I twisted my head and sunk my teeth into the flesh of his calf. He cried out in pain and his legs relaxed their grip, but then I felt myself being pulled backward and falling to the ground as he lightly arched his body and cartwheeled away from me.

“Coward!” I called after him. But I knew that no ninja's heart could be bruised by such an insult.

A cry made me scramble back to my feet—just in time to watch Daisuke deliver a swift kick to the face of another ninja. I spotted the third ninja creeping up on my friend, bringing both hands up on either side of Daisuke's head.

“No!” I cried out, and Daisuke swiveled around just in time to avoid the evil touch of the ninja. Instead, he sent out a punch to Daisuke's chest, but Daisuke blocked him with his left arm and immediately countered with a chopping blow to the ninja's head.

Daisuke was fighting two of the ninja. That meant the third…

A fierce kick landed in the small of my back and threw me to the ground. I felt the pressure of the ninja's thumb digging into my kidney as I sprawled
uselessly in the dirt. Needles of pain darted through my body. Doing my best to ignore the agony, I twisted onto my back and pushed a foot into the ninja's stomach, grabbing his arms at the same time to throw him over me. The man landed on the packed earth behind me, his skull cracking against a hard stone. In the dark of the night, I saw the white of his eyes glitter as they rolled back in his head and he collapsed in a heap. But there were still two ninja left.

Daisuke ran over to me and pulled me to my feet, pointing at the monastery wall. Silhouetted against the moon, the two remaining ninja waited for us on top of the wall, having escaped Daisuke.

“Can you still fight?” Daisuke asked me breathlessly.

I didn't answer, but ran ahead of him and leaped into the branches of a tree. I scrambled up high enough until I was able to jump down onto the rough stone of the monastery wall. There was a soft sigh as Daisuke landed on the wall a few hands' breadth behind me.

I didn't look around at him and I couldn't look down. Not because I was scared of the long drop to the ground—because a ninja stood before me. He had scrambled across the top of the wall, moving his hands through the air, practicing the hypnotic art of
kuji-kiri
. I noticed the ink-black mark of a ninja tattoo
on the pale skin of his inner wrist.

I had suffered at the bewitching hands of ninja before, when one of them had paralyzed me during the capture of our friend, Tatsuya. Now the ninja held his hands up before my face and traced his fingers through the air, drawing horizontal and then vertical lines with his fingertips. The movements left me dazed and I heard him muttering an incantation. I could feel my mind going blank and I barely registered the touch of Daisuke's hand on my shoulder trying to shake me back to my senses as he frantically called my name.

I concentrated all my thoughts on to one single, urgent purpose: to break free of the hypnotism this ninja was casting over me.

Stay strong,
I told myself.
Resist
.

With a massive effort I sprang forward. I sent out an open-fisted blow to the ninja's ribs and he crumpled, bending over sharply. I kicked out with my right leg, and the ninja fell into the bushes on the outside of the monastery wall. I peered down, but I could not see him—with a wave of fury, I realized that his black robes blended seamlessly into the night.

Suddenly golden light illuminated the monastery gardens. Warrior monks flooded out of the monastery into the night. I heard Daisuke give a whoop of exultation behind me, and when I looked around I
could see that the ninja he had been fighting was hanging from the wall. The only thing that stopped him plummeting to the ground was Daisuke, who grasped the dangling ninja's wrist. A single drop of sweat hung from Daisuke's chin and then fell onto the ninja. As the warrior monks ran over, their
naginata
staffs held high above their heads, Daisuke released his grip and the ninja fell to the ground. The ninja landed lightly, but the monks were waiting for him.

I watched from my vantage point on the wall as the warrior monks went to fight. The ninja I had thrown onto the rock had recovered and rushed to his friend's side. Two left to defeat.

The ninja dodged the swinging
naginata
, but one quick monk brought his staff up above his shoulder and then rammed the butt into the face of one of the ninja. Blood spurted from the ninja's nose and he screamed in pain.

The wounded ninja turned on his heel and leaped to scramble up the monastery wall with the help of his hooked rope.
Not so brave now,
I thought. He looked back at the last ninja left in the compound and called: “We came for the boy. Get him!” Then he disappeared into the night.

The last ninja looked around frantically and tried to roll away from the monks, but one brought his staff around in a smooth arc and crashed it into the
ninja's ribs. The ninja collapsed onto the ground. The monk's prayer beads swung from around his neck, catching the light of the moon, as he leaned down and dragged the ninja to his feet, pushing him toward the monastery wall. “Leave this place!” The ninja shook off the monk's grip and climbed the wall after his friend.

“No!” I cried out. I could not believe that the monks were allowing them to escape, not after what we had heard—they had come to find a boy…. They had come for my brother, Moriyasu. “They can't get away!” I shouted, turning around on the wall to face the land outside the monastery. These men had been after my brother's life—I would not allow them to escape with their lives. I leaped down into the dense vegetation.

“Kimi!” Daisuke called after me.

I ignored him and ran through the long grasses, the dry blades stinging my exposed skin. For the sake of my brother, I could not stop running—even when I felt a low branch tear the head scarf from my scalp. “Get back here, cowards!” I called out into the night.

My lungs hurt with the effort of chasing these invisible men. I emerged from the vegetation onto the brink of a hill. The land once ruled by my father spread out below me in the moonlight: beautiful,
dark, and enigmatic. Holding secrets, hiding ninja. They were nowhere to be seen.

A footstep sounded behind me. I didn't look around; I knew the ninja would already be hidden in the forest far below me. A hand reached out to help me and I took hold of it. I could see the long, tapering fingers that had tended to my sister so carefully.

Daisuke.

“Come back, Kimi,” he said. I climbed free of the bracken, allowing the monk's fierce grip to steady me. I stood still and gazed up at Daisuke. His eyes were like liquid.

“They were after Moriyasu,” I said. “Didn't you hear what that ninja said? How can they be allowed to escape with no consequence?”

“It is not our task to deal out consequence,” Daisuke said, turning back to the monastery. “Remember what I said. We all find our true path in time. The ninja have found theirs. It will lead them to everything they deserve. Everyone you care about is safe; that's all that matters.”

“This is not the first time I have fought with ninja,” I confessed. “They have taken a good friend of mine. Coming out of the river and kidnapping him from our boat.”

Daisuke looked surprised. “Kidnapped? I have only heard of ninja killing, not kidnapping—and
then to leave you alive? How did you escape?”

I thought about it. “They were only interested in our friend…Tatsuya.”

Daisuke frowned. “I will see what I can find out about these ninja who keep coming after those close to you.”

As we walked back up the hill to the monastery, Daisuke smiled. “My master will reprimand me for jumping the walls of the monastery. I think it is unprecedented.”

The monks held open the doors for us, and as we approached, Daisuke held a square of blue silk between his fingers.

“This belongs to you,” he said, dropping it into my hand.

“I'd forgotten,” I murmured, as I gazed down at the silk. “I almost felt normal again.”

“I don't think I've ever met a girl less normal,” said Daisuke, his voice warm with teasing. But when I looked up at him, his gaze was earnest.

Together, we walked through the monastery doors. The waiting monks bowed their heads low in respect.

“You have been very brave tonight,” one of them commented to me.

“It is time to rest,” Daisuke said. “You should go to your room.” I turned to the cool walkways of the
monastery. All was quiet and undisturbed inside. I hesitated and looked back. “You won't tell Mother about tonight, will you?” I said, pulling a blade of grass from my trousers. “She wouldn't like me chasing after ninja.”

Daisuke nodded. “Don't worry, Kimi. Your secret is safe with me. If anyone asks, I'll tell them you're a terrible fighter.” I opened my mouth to protest, but then realized I was being teased again.

“Good night, Daisuke,” I said.

“Good night, Kimi,” he called after me.