The Wrath of Silver Wolf (16 page)

TWELVE
Of one
mind

The four candles lay in a diamond around the
scroll of empowerment sutras. Their dancing
light threw misshapen shadows up the walls of the
Grey Light Order's briefing room. Eagle, Heron,
Mantis and Badger sat facing each of the candles
in the seiza position, their folded knees pointing
at the document in the diamond's centre.

'Is everyone ready?' Eagle's eyes flicked around
the group. His three companions nodded. 'Sister
Heron, please tell us exactly what you saw, before
we proceed.'

Heron gave a seated bow. 'This was my dream.
In light of all the White Nun has taught me, I do
humbly call it prescient.' She drew in a breath.
'I saw Moonshadow standing at the top of a tall,
primitive stone tower. Lightning flashed all around
it. A great, colourful serpent climbed after him,
winding itself around the tower on its way up.' She
cleared her throat and spoke softly. 'I apologise for
the scream that woke you all.'

'What of waking riddle-phrases? Did one come
to you?' Eagle's face softened. 'After the scream,
perhaps.'

'Yes, Brother Eagle.' Heron smiled and then
answered formally. 'As I woke, this formed in my
mind:
he will presently taste of future strength, or
drown in his enemy's poison. His is not the choice.
'

'Comments?' Eagle paused. 'Are we all of one
mind in what we make of this?'

'His is not the choice: ours is the choice,'
Mantis said quickly. 'For a change, the riddle-phrase's
meaning seems almost clear. Our actions
here will decide Moon's fate.'

Badger nodded. 'It has a logic of its own, which
I agree implies that
we
must act.'

Heron gestured at the document between
them. 'I thought of this practice at once.'

Three heads turned towards Eagle.

'Then we
are
all of one mind,' he said.
'Anticipating this, I had you, Badger, fetch the
empowerment sutras. As it has been a while since
their last use, let's recall the custom once more.
We will each in turn read a full sutra aloud, one
hundred times, at a contemplative pace, while the
others focus their minds on Moonshadow, far to
the north.' Heron, Mantis and Badger replied as
one with a seated bow. Eagle nodded. 'Whatever
grace or skill from his future he needs to access
now, I pray we can trigger it.' A grim light flecked
his eyes. 'Before
our
strength fails.'

'It will not,' Mantis said defiantly. Heron shook
her head. Badger grunted.

'Dawn is close. I will take the first reading,'
Eagle said confidently. 'We will continue until
sunset.' He watched the others. 'Unless that seems
too great a burden?'

There was a long silence. Eagle smiled proudly,
moved his candle aside and reached for the scroll.

THIRTEEN
Dreams and
thunder

Snowhawk had suggested they swap their
merchant costumes for their night suits until
they had cleared the haunted forest. Moonshadow
was grateful – at last, real freedom of movement
again! His suit was a light blue-grey, hers green-hued.
Both colour schemes were popular choices
for countryside and forest stealth operations.

He had left his hood off but tied down his
pack and mounted his sword as if about to scale a
castle wall or run through a battlefield. Anything
could happen now that they had left the shrine.
At least it wasn't raining and they were covering
ground fast.

Moon's head twitched to one side. What was
that? Approaching thunder cloaked the sound. He
dropped into a crouch on the forest floor, angling
his head. As the ominous muttering in the sky
faded, his mouth fell open.

Leaning heavily on her gnarled walking stick,
the White Nun watched him. Moon's eyes turned
into slits as he listened.

'One man, moving quickly, climbing directly
in our path.' He stood. 'A scout, I would say. Our
other
friends
will be right behind him.'

'I can't feel anyone.' Snowhawk watched the
ridge below them intently. 'You know what that
means.'

'Do not fear
him
,' the White Nun said firmly.
'And that is all we'll say on the matter.' She
indicated a new downhill course with her stick.
Motto flitted from behind her to gallop along it.
'Down that way until we meet the ridge. Then
turn east, through the ruins.'

Thunder rumbled, closer now. Through gaps in
the trees Moon saw the distant peak of a snow-covered
mountain. It rose behind spiky green
hills and sweeping folds in the land. He jumped
as lightning struck the top of a closer hill. Moon
smelled no rain, but greenish, thundery clouds
converged on the mountain, thick with hail,
lightning or both.

His mouth went dry. After that nightmare
about the Kappa, green-tinged light bothered
him. He blew out a long breath, remembering the
equally fearful Rokurokubi dream attack. There
was a good chance he'd be avoiding ships from
now on. Moon set his teeth. What would the next
mind-assault take from him, burden him with –?

He stopped himself.
Do not fear him
. The sage
was right. This game had to end.

'Find me,' Moonshadow whispered. 'I know
you
can sense
me
. Come on . . .'

Striding ahead of Moonshadow and Snowhawk
with surprising vigour, the White Nun followed
her dog downhill, nimbly sidestepping rocks and
logs as she wove through the forest to the plateau.
Moon's forehead creased as he watched her. Such
agility!

By the time Moon reached the ruins with
Snowhawk at his side, Motto had stretched out
in the shade of a low, crumbling stone wall.
Nearby the White Nun sat on a curved, mossy log
in the shade of a long, high hedge of black-green
bamboo. She was hunched forward, head resting
on her stick.

'Let them climb awhile, pass us by.' The sage
gestured at scattered flat stones. 'Sit, save your
strength. You may yet need it.' She looked away,
smiling secretively.

Moonshadow scouted the ruins. So this was
once a small castle. Whoever had destroyed it had
done a very thorough job; not one wall had been
left intact.

He walked to the crumbling, gap-toothed
remains of the outermost wall, once the little
fortress's battlements. It was perched on the edge
of the plateau. Peering over, Moon caught sight
of the haunted forest, almost directly below them.
He shuddered.

Pacing back among the drizzled lines of rock,
stands of bamboo and haphazard forest growth
where the others rested, Moon sidestepped a rusty,
fragmenting helmet. In it was a skull. Moonshadow
shivered and looked up. The overcast green sky
seemed to be darkening quickly. Was the air
growing colder, or was it the scent of death that
chilled his veins?

It was Snowhawk's turn to be a mind-reader.
'This is a most creepy place, even by day.' She
indicated a black-and-white tangle in a patch of
grass between two stones. 'There's a pile of charred
bones right there.'

Moon noticed more signs of a fire-projectile
attack. Broken arrows. Boulders and cut stones
that were also blackened. Rusting spearheads with
cubed charcoal trails behind them. There were
even burnt scraps of armour, some riddled with
punctures.

The White Nun covered her face with her
hands. 'They have a right to be bitter, the spirits in
this place.' She looked up, red eyes tearful. 'None
were shown the slightest mercy. Not lord, babe nor
dog.' Motto stiffened and huffed.

Snowhawk approached the sage. 'You brought
us here for a reason, didn't you?'

'Clever child.' The White Nun brushed her
eyes with a knuckle. 'Your kind avoids the pages of
history, yet in shadow writes them. So remember
this place. It was the handiwork of a certain young
lord . . . named Silver Wolf.'

Moonshadow's hands balled into fists. 'He did
this
?'

'Oh yes. And simply to settle a personal matter.
I wonder how many died, jumped or, as it ended,
were pushed? All over an insult that had passed
between two men.'

'But this is far from his domain,' Snowhawk
looked around. 'How could he –'

'With the former Shogun's permission.'
The sage shrugged. 'A legal feud. He wiped
out the noble family, their castle and servants,
their samurai, then, his precious
honour
not
yet satisfied, he let his men loot the fiefdom's
two villages that lie to the south. They took
everything, triggering the famine, and soon the
abandonments began, the very old, the very
young . . .'

'That man's evil stench is everywhere.' Moon
hocked and spat. 'In
his
honour!'

There was a loud roar of thunder overhead and
seconds later, a blinding flash as lightning struck
a tree thirty paces uphill from the ruins. The White
Nun stood up. Motto ran to her feet. Another bolt
of lightning streaked down into the forest, ten
paces closer.

As the second flash's glare faded, Moonshadow
squinted uphill. A maple sapling had been set
on fire. Movement drew his eye. He flinched.
Snowhawk grunted a curse.

Twenty strides to the left of the burning tree
stood a line of figures.

'I count
nine
,' Snowhawk said quickly, hurrying
to his side. Moon glanced at her. She had already –
soundlessly – drawn her blade. He nodded grimly.
No more running.

The line of figures strode forward, moving
downhill in unison. One limped.

Moon studied them as they advanced. Six were
definitely men, hooded, armed with back-mounted
straight swords. One wore a compact shinobi
bow and a quiver of arrows. None looked familiar,
but all six wore matching forest camouflage suits.
He recognised the two-tone maple leaf pattern at
once.

No wonder Snowhawk had cursed. The design
was Clan Fuma's.

The tallest, strongest looking ninja among
them also wore a shuko, an iron climbing claw,
over his left hand.

Always a hard combination to fight, Moonshadow
thought with a frown: curved claw-blades
in one hand, a shinobi sword in the other. He'd be
a problem.

Moon glanced to the right of the six Fuma
ninja. Jiro grinned back at him, hands already
gliding into his jacket. Beside the limping gangster
walked a young, beautiful woman in a kimono,
fanning herself and gazing at Snowhawk with
watchful intelligence.

'That's her,' Snowhawk whispered fearfully.
'Ignore the face. That's Kagero.'

At the end of the line walked a young man.
His look was distinctive: make-up, fashionable
hair worn long but untied, eye-catching clothes.
Moonshadow had seen him before. Recently. But
where? He wore only a dagger. The youth broke
into a remote smile. Yes, Moonshadow nodded,
now I remember you.

The market in that first town. The stranger
with the bold stare.

'I am Chikuma.' The young man paced directly
for Moon, who instantly felt an odd pressure
building in his head. 'I come to grant your wish.'

At least now Moon knew his enemy. He set his
jaw. 'And I am –'

'Moonshadow of the Grey Light.' Chikuma
rubbed his hands together as he approached. 'And
shortly, my thirty-fifth kill. What do you think of
that?'

'I think,' Moon sneered, 'you talk too much.'

Abruptly everything went black. It had
happened: he was blind. Moon felt himself freeze
with terror on the spot. He heard fresh thunder,
followed by the
snicks
of swords being drawn. Then
his hearing also faded.

Snowhawk bounded up onto a rock, her head
quickly turning back and forth.

Was this what it looked like? Moonshadow
obviously couldn't hear her now. She called his
name again, but he was unresponsive, motionless,
staring off into the distance. Chikuma was
the same, a mirror to Moon in stance and
expression.

Were the two already battling each other in a
dreamscape only they could see?

'Remember,' Snowhawk muttered as if Moon
could hear her, 'like in real life.'

The White Nun hurried to Moon's side. She
stamped her gnarled stick forcefully. 'Protect his
body,' the sage said quickly, 'he fights his most dire
battle.'

Motto sprang in front of the White Nun and
Moonshadow in a menacing stance, blue eyes on
the enemy ninja.

Hoisting her blade, Snowhawk pointed it at
Kagero. 'I've decided to take your advice!' she
shouted.

Kagero, still in youthful disguise, bowed
politely. 'Why thank you. A wise decision.' The
bounty hunter already held an open fan. Now
she produced the other from inside her kimono,
flicking it open as she drew it.

'I'll treasure your words,' Snowhawk sneered.
'The last advice you'll ever give!'

'Oh, don't be like that.' Kagero advanced on
her. 'We're so much alike.' She raised the fans,
adopting an angular, warlike stance. 'People always
used to say
I
was beautiful and bad-tempered.
Sounds a lot like you, neh?'

Jiro held up a bo-shuriken in each hand, edging
closer with limping half-steps.

The ninja wearing a
shuko
as his gauntlet
pointed with it. 'Don't forget: we take the girl
deserter and the old woman
alive
.' Five suited
Fuma agents quickly encircled Snowhawk's rock.
Their clawed leader cast an uneasy look at
Chikuma.

Like Moon, the youth remained frozen, face
blank, eyes perhaps watching events taking place
in some other world. The White Nun stood at
Moonshadow's side, clutching her stick with
her head down, as if praying. Snowhawk briefly
considered trying to launch an attack on Chikuma,
but decided the risk to Moon was simply too great.
The Fuma agents would close in, try to stop her.
In the process, Moon would either be wounded by
them or jolted out of the dream – blind.