Wall of Spears (12 page)

Gaibun had abandoned many of the traditional strokes and cuts, instead using his strength to batter and hack at Sendatsu. Not knowing where or how the blows were arriving made defending them trickier. He caught one just an inch from his heart, ducked under another that sliced a hair off the top of his head and rolled away from a third that would have taken his arm.

‘What are you doing?’ he shouted, coming to his feet, anger beginning to replace his shock and surprise.

‘Finishing what I should have done years ago. My father was right. Your family are evil. I have had enough of being second to you. All your life you thought you were better than me. You always thought I was happy being the follower. Always thought Asami was yours, even when she was mine. You had to take everything that made me happy. It was always about you. Well, no more. It ends here!’

Gaibun flew into the attack and this time Sendatsu came to meet him, their swords ringing as they clashed together and then they both turned.

‘You fool! Asami has chosen you,’ Sendatsu spat, feeling the pain of those words.

‘Still you lie. Even when you face death you cannot tell the truth. Just like your father!’

‘I am not my father!’ Sendatsu howled and threw himself at Gaibun.

Back and forth across the clearing they fought. Gaibun’s frenzy of earlier had died and now he returned to a more traditional fighting style.

Sendatsu was holding nothing back, losing himself in the movement of the swords, trying to see Gaibun’s next attack in his former friend’s eyes but they seemed strangely flat.

Gaibun tried to use the zigzag style but Sendatsu blocked and flowed into the overhand waterwheel stroke, aiming at Gaibun’s shoulder. Gaibun pivoted away and swung low, using the wide, flat-bladed cartwheel cut but Sendatsu jumped over the top and tried a tiger-claw that turned into a dragon-tail cut when Gaibun parried smoothly.

Soon the attacks were coming so fast that neither could really tell what they were blocking or using; instead they relied on their training, their instincts and their intimate knowledge of the other to save themselves. Blades flashed for eyes, lunged for stomachs and throats, cut at legs and arms or hacked at chests and heads. Sendatsu only partially blocked one slice, which opened up a thin wound across his collarbone, while a few moments later Gaibun was a touch late with his parry and a red line appeared across his chest.

They could not keep up the pace — nobody could — and they broke apart, circling around, sucking in air frantically.

‘Why now?’ Sendatsu asked, to give himself time. If Rhiannon woke up or a handful of dragons came riding to investigate what was going on, then he had won — and could get some answers out of Gaibun.

‘Because someone told me the truth about you and Asami!’ Gaibun howled and jumped across the gap between them, sword swinging once more for Sendatsu’s head.

Sendatsu spun away and dropped under the reverse cut aimed at his throat, kicking out at Gaibun’s ankles. Gaibun stepped over the kick and stabbed down, forcing Sendatsu to jump back. He slashed furiously at Gaibun’s face, keeping the pressure on, using his speed to drive his friend backwards.

He let Gaibun keep backpedalling and stopped — a moment before Gaibun’s sword arced up, a short blow that would have disembowelled Sendatsu if he had kept advancing.

‘What truth?’

‘That you are together, that you have been lying behind my back and have been plotting to kill me!’

‘Who told you that?’ Sendatsu demanded.

‘Asami is mine. You will never touch her again!’ Gaibun spat, then sprang again.

Sendatsu raced to meet him. Thoughts of dragons coming to his rescue, of Rhiannon waking up, were forgotten.

Across the clearing they battled, slashing, cutting, ducking and spinning. Gaibun’s left arm and right calf were cut, while Sendatsu took a wound along his ribs. Finally they broke apart, gasping for air once more.

‘Why now?’ Sendatsu paced around, eyes fixed on Gaibun. ‘Why not years ago? Why did you not let my father kill me?’

‘Because I didn’t know then that you plotted to kill me so you could be with Asami.’ Gaibun hawked and spat.

‘That is a lie! Who told you that?’

‘And I suppose the fact Asami is pregnant with your child, not mine, is also a lie?’ Gaibun shouted as he attacked.

This time Sendatsu barely moved, the shock of Gaibun’s words bursting in his mind. Asami was pregnant? It could not be his. But why had she not told him — unless it was to protect him from a furious Gaibun …

Slowed by his thoughts, Sendatsu was barely able to keep Gaibun’s blade out of his flesh. His mind felt somehow separate from his body. He felt sick at the thought of Asami carrying Gaibun’s child, of rejecting him for that. Or was it to save him?

‘I didn’t know — it’s not mine!’ he cried.

‘After all your lies, did you think I would believe you now?’ Gaibun brushed aside Sendatsu’s block and kicked him in the chest, sending him sprawling backwards.

‘Gaibun — look at my eyes! You know I have never been able to lie!’ Sendatsu cried.

But Gaibun was standing over him a moment later, sword at his throat.

‘Sumiko was right, you have been fooling me all these years,’ he hissed.

‘Sumiko? Wait, Gaibun — you are possessed! Stop this, listen to me, I have just returned from saving Asami’s life!’ Sendatsu cried.

‘Too late,’ Gaibun said, then thrust downwards.

‘What do we say to the Council tomorrow?’ Asami asked.

‘You should be doing nothing tomorrow. You have both lost too much blood. All you can do tomorrow is sleep, rest and eat. Plenty of fish and green vegetables, less rice,’ Father Hiroka advised.

‘There are some things too important. We have to bring our attackers before the Council and pin this on Sumiko,’ Retsu said. ‘We do not have time to sit around pouring food down our throats!’

Hiroka stood and sighed. ‘Then you are a pair of fools. I have sealed the wounds but the body needs time to heal itself from trauma. Blood does not just reappear in your body. Do too much tomorrow and you will end up on your backs. Rest and eat well and it will be as if nothing ever happened within a couple of days.’

‘Thank you, father.’ Asami laid a hand on his arm. ‘But you saw what you had to step over when you walked in here. It was a miracle we both survived. If we give Sumiko a couple of days to learn she has failed, next time we shall not be so lucky.’

Hiroka shook his head. ‘I still find it hard to believe that a member of the Council would do such a thing!’

‘She will not be a member of the Council for much longer,’ Retsu said grimly. ‘Not when we bring the two survivors before the Council and have them tell their story. We shall need Archbishop Fushimi to be there. He can determine if they are speaking the truth.’

‘I shall speak to him myself,’ Hiroka promised.

Retsu stretched his leg and stood gingerly.

‘Dawn is breaking,’ he announced. ‘We shall need to get ready for the Council meeting at noon. After that we can rest.’

‘It will be a new dawn for Dokuzen,’ Asami predicted. ‘Finally the truth will come out.’

Sendatsu rolled away, expecting to feel the bite of Gaibun’s sword at any moment and crying out inside for his children. But nothing came.

He flipped onto his back and looked up, to see Gaibun frozen, plants covering him from head to toe, only his face clear, his eyes blazing as he struggled in vain against the magic that bound him.

‘Sendatsu, what in the name of the stars above is going on?’ Rhiannon was on her knees, holding her head in one hand. In her other she was fumbling in her belt pouch, bringing out a honeyed oatcake wrapped in linen and cramming it into her mouth.

Sendatsu grabbed his sword before answering. After all, Rhiannon had just brought them through an oaken gateway, then been hit on the head. Who knew how long her magic would last?

‘Sumiko has got to Gaibun somehow, bewitched him into thinking Asami is pregnant and it is mine, that we plan to trick him and kill him.’ Sendatsu stepped cautiously closer to Gaibun. His erstwhile friend struggled and thrashed but the plants held him firm.

‘She told me the truth! She showed me Asami’s maid, who has helped the two of you put cuckold’s horns on my head for the last few years!’ Gaibun snarled.

‘I have never been with Asami,’ Sendatsu told him, feeling the ache of those words. ‘How could I, when I was never apart from my children. What did we do with them, eh?’

Gaibun paused for a moment in his struggles.

‘We have just returned from your house. We learned Sumiko plotted to kill Asami and arrived just in time to save both Asami and your father. Sumiko wanted them dead.’

‘You lie!’

‘Think, Gaibun! Why would Sumiko help you? What would happen if you learned Asami was dead? Who would you have blamed?’

Gaibun said nothing, only wrestled with his green bonds a little more.

Rhiannon finished her last mouthful and gingerly touched a lump on her head.

‘Give me a hand.’ She waved to Sendatsu, who helped her up. ‘I don’t know whether it was the blow or the magic, but my legs have no strength right now.’

‘Well, sit down, I can handle this,’ Sendatsu said firmly, looking at an enraged Gaibun.

‘Your words are not getting through to him. Sumiko has used magic on him, sent him down a path he was already considering but now he cannot return until I remove that from him,’ Rhiannon said. ‘I just wish he had not hit me first!’

With Sendatsu’s help, she walked over to Gaibun.

‘What do we need to do?’

‘I’m not sure. Asami mentioned this but we never practised it. Sumiko learned it was possible to inflame people’s thoughts and feelings. You cannot put things into people’s minds that do not already exist but you can take a spark of what is already there and turn it into a raging fire. I think she has done that to Gaibun. If we are lucky, I can put that out. He will listen to reason then.’

She closed her eyes and reached out to press her fingers through the grasses holding Gaibun tight, brushing her fingers against his face.

‘Don’t touch me, gaijin!’ Gaibun snarled but she pushed against his forehead and he rocked back, his eyes staring widely at her.

‘Did you do it?’ Sendatsu asked.

Rhiannon wobbled and Sendatsu had to help her stay upright.

‘I think so. Talk to him. Otherwise we’ll have to open a gateway and send him to Asami, for we cannot keep him here.’

Sendatsu helped her sit down and turned back to Gaibun, whose frenzied attempts to escape had died down. He picked up a torch that someone — presumably Gaibun — had rammed into the soft earth around the clearing and held it close to his face. Gaibun looked back at him warily.

‘If Asami is pregnant, the child is yours,’ Sendatsu told him softly.

‘What?’

Sendatsu stepped closer. ‘You always said you could tell when I was lying, that I was no good at it. Here’s the truth. Asami told me to leave Dokuzen without her. She refused to come with me. I didn’t know why but now I see. She knew you would never let her leave with your child. If the baby was mine, do you think for one moment I would have left her behind? That my idea was to somehow kill you in secret? You heard all this from Sumiko, for Aroaril’s sake! She tried to kill us all not once but twice, and she has just sent another pack of killers to get not just Asami but your father as well!’

‘But the maid …’ Gaibun croaked.

‘What happened after she told you the story? Did she return the maid to Dokuzen?’

Gaibun tried to shrug but such a thing was impossible when bound so tight. ‘She sent me through an oaken gateway … I don’t know after that.’

‘Well, we can send you through an oaken gateway right now, show you the wreckage of your home, the bodies of Sumiko’s attackers that we left behind. You can talk to your father and Asami, hear how they nearly died and would now be dead without our help. But I think you will find you are a wanted man in Dokuzen. I think I know where your maid is now — and that is dead in your tent. Sumiko wants you out of the way, knows you would come for her as soon as you learned Asami was dead. This way, she gets rid of Asami, gets rid of me and then gets rid of you.’

Gaibun’s eyes darted from Rhiannon to Sendatsu and back again.

‘It is time for you to decide. Rhiannon will release you in a moment …’

‘I will?’

‘Yes, you will. Gaibun, if you think Sumiko really has your best interests at heart, then we shall face each other with swords one last time. Or we can work together to stop Sumiko.’

He signalled to Rhiannon and hefted his sword. Rhiannon did nothing for a long moment then, when Sendatsu glared at her, she sighed and released the magic.

Gaibun staggered a little as the plants dropped away, gone as if they had never been there. Sendatsu tensed as Gaibun brought his sword up.

‘If you are telling me the truth, why do you threaten me?’ Gaibun asked defiantly.

Sendatsu smiled. ‘True.’ He slammed his sword into the ground and held up his empty hands, stepping away from the hilt. ‘I have no sword. Now, who do you believe?’

For a long moment he held his breath, but relaxed as Gaibun thrust his own sword deep into the ground.

‘I am sorry,’ he said hoarsely. ‘I don’t know what I was thinking … I know Sumiko is our enemy. I had been following her, trying to catch her with Jaken to prove she was plotting something, then found her in my tent and it all became so clear: you were to blame for everything and I was so sure that killing you would make everything better.’

‘Indeed. For Sumiko!’ Rhiannon muttered.

Gaibun fell to his knees. ‘She will pay for this, I promise you. She must have done something to me.’

Rhiannon glanced at Sendatsu, eyebrows raised, but Sendatsu shook his head. He knew those thoughts had been there already, knew it better than she did, but now was not the time to remind Gaibun of it.

‘Sumiko has much to answer for. She tried to kill us all, this night. But we have survived and we shall pay her back.’

Gaibun pushed himself to his feet and held out his arms. ‘Brother, I am so sorry. I would have killed you. It was not me though, I promise. I shall repay this debt!’