---Chapter 12
As they approached the castle, its great gates swung open outwards. A few men dressed in chain armor and wide-brimmed helmets stood inside, holding pikes. These were real people who served Count Dalython, not the servants created with the corrupt power. They stood in the shadows of the gate and did not move when the travelers came in, other than to swing the gates shut behind them. The courtyard was a wide, dirt-floored space with the keep standing up dark and foreboding behind it. Stone walls ringed it on all sides, shadows dancing along them from the bonfire in the center of the space.
The man who stood beside the fire was tall and powerfully built. His face was hidden by the guard of the helmet, which had an odd shade of bright mauve tinting it, like the rest of his armor. Unlike the gate guards’ it was made of steel plates, carefully formed and fit. In his form, the travelers recognized the knight who had flung a bolt of lightening at them last time they were in this dimension. Either that, or someone much the same. Behind him, a post held a flag half-furled above his head, its colors a black field with purple symbols.
He raised one arm to toss aside a crossbow that was held in it, letting it clatter carelessly aside. In the other hand was a stiff-handled mace, the multifaceted head gleaming silver and black in the firelight. Stepping forward, he called out his challenge, “let the best among you come forward to face me single-handed! You may use any weapon that is short-range, held in the hand.”
Leaflow came forward into the fire light and gave a slight bow over his blade, “this is my weapon and I accept your challenge.”
“To the death?”
“That is the only sort of duel I will fight.”
“So be it.”
The next moment they were closing with each other. It had taken so little time that Lenny was almost startled at the first flash of steel in firelight as the Count swung his mace and Leaflow dodged it. It had been a feeler blow and Dalython recovered himself quickly, leaving no space for a counterattack. They began to maneuver, shifting around in the smoky glow of the fire, black and purple against the red light.
As they circled each other, Jackal began to slowly move off to one side, looking for an opening where he could fire upon the armored Power Core without risk of hitting his ally. Which was not easy to find, as they moved about so quickly.
Lenny tried not to look at the gunman, avoiding drawing the attention of the guards. Instead, he tried to focus on the fight going on in the center of the courtyard.
Beside him, Patch was muttering advice under his breath to their champion, “duck now! Nay, nay, don’t let him get on your starboard side. Ah, a good one! But his armor dulled it, man, ye’ll have to strike for the gaps.”
“If’n you know so much about it, why didn’t you take the fight?” Raggsy whispered to him.
“He wanted to more than me. Besides, a pirate is a better brawler than dueler, if ye know what I mean.”
Glancing to the side, Lenny bit his lower lip in frustration. Jackal had been spotted by the guards, who came up on either side of him and seemed to be arguing about something with him. The young man could not hear what they were saying, but he guessed it was about the weapons Jackal carried. There was one plan going down the drain. Now they had to hope that Leaflow was actually the match of the armored warlord, unless Jackal could talk his way free.
“Hey.” Raggsy poked at Patch with his elbow, also noticing what was happening with Jackal. “Let’s go over there and see what’s up.”
“A good plan, matey.”
They sauntered over to the guards, at the same time as a flurry of ringing blows broke out from the contestants. Lenny found his attention painfully divided between groups. The Count was trying to beat Leaflow down, swinging hard at him and pressing forward. The cloaked one was forced to retreat, deflecting what swings he could without getting his blade (or arm) broken by the mace. What he couldn’t knock aside, he dodged.
Meanwhile, Raggsy and Patch had accosted the guards, joining the argument. A moment more and blows began to be exchanged on that side of the court.
Leaflow knocked the mace to the side with a clever swipe, slipping forward to give his opponent a stab between the joint of his knee pad and greaves. He was out of the way before the mace could strike him, though it came very close for a moment. The wound was not deep enough to truly stop Dalython, but the knight stumbled back a step closer to the fire for a moment to recover, giving the cloaked one some breathing room.
One guard was pulled down by Raggsy and was struggling with him for the knife, while the other was being beat by both Jackal and Patch with their fists.
Lenny was just about to make his way over to them, in case they needed another man to help, when something happened in the duel that centered his attention there. Both opponents had been on their guard, Leaflow slowly advancing with blade upraised. Dalython waited for him, mace held on his shoulder with one hand. The other hand was reaching warily down towards his knee as if to feel the injury there.
“The knife!” Jax shouted suddenly, beginning to run towards the duelists. Lenny blinked and saw that the knight wore a pair of knives at his side, one of which he grasped unexpectedly and tore out of its sheath. The next moment he flicked it forward with an expert throw. It spun once and lodged in the cloaked one’s sword arm just below the wrist, making him loose his guard to clutch at the wound. A split second later Jax launched himself at the armored knight and slammed into him with his full weight, sending him crashing to the ground with the boy on top.
“Cheater!” Jax yelled at the top of his voice, apparently forgetting what they had been about to do themselves. With both his hands he began to wrest the helmet off of the struggling Count.
Lenny ran towards them, while Amber drew Soleeryn’s bottle of medicine from her coat pocket and hurried towards their injured champion.
As Lenny dashed up to Jax, the dimension traveler ripped the helmet from Dalython’s head. Underneath was a terrible, blunt face like that of an animal, creased with lines of purple and set with magenta eyes. Dalython howled and tried to swing his mace at Jax, but Lenny had already jumped forward and stood on the haft of the weapon so that it was weighted down. Before he could say anything or do anything further, Jax was throwing the helmet aside and tearing the second knife from the monstrous Count’s sheath.
At that moment an aura of brilliant light burst outwards from the Count, violent purple in color. It hit Lenny like a shock wave and flung him back so that he landed with a solid thump on the ground at a few yard’s distance. The light enveloped both Jax and Dalython so that they could not be seen in the startling iridescence. There was a wild cry from inside of it which sounded like it came from Jax, followed closely by a noise like a skewer sliding into punk-wood.
Lenny scrambled painfully to his feet, feeling bruised all over. The light was fading from around the forms of the Count and traveler, showing the former laid out sprawled and limp, while Jax’s hair was standing up even straighter than usual and he was panting hard, looking down at his hands in surprise.
The world blurred...and the corruption was gone.
Dalython’s face did not change except for to lose the purple lines and the evil glow to his eyes. His armor lost its glow but stayed intact. Protruding from his throat was the second dagger, it’s handle looking charred and red.
“Are you alright?” Lenny held out his hand towards Jax. Jax did not take it, holding out his fingers so that it could be seen that there were deeply burnt lines running across them where he had been holding the blade.
“It burnt me.” Jax’s eyes were wide with pain and shock. “That light made me feel like I was on fire all over.”
He blinked slowly, adding after a minute, “but it’s fading now, except for on my hands. I just couldn’t stand to see the Count cheating like that. Is Leaflow alright?”
They turned around sharply saw Leaflow and Amber walk up, the cloaked one calmly sheathing his sword.
“Of course. Soleeryn’s potion works quite well, with surprising swiftness. There is nothing at all wrong with my arm now, except for a rather embarrassing hole in the sleeve. It looks like you could use a little of the potion yourself.”
The three men on the edge of the courtyard had also dealt with their problems, leaving a group of guards laying behind dead or unconscious. Looking up, they saw the sky clear of any taint.
Lenny rubbed his hands in his eyes, shoulders slumping. “What a night. I could use some rest. Two Power Cores defeated in a single day and the same number of friends lost...where will it all end?”
“At EX-2’s doorstep,” Jax told him, giving one last disgusted look at the Count as he stood up and hopped away from him. He turned and held out his hands towards Amber. “Potion, please?”
The girl quickly uncorked the vial to drip a few drops on the angry red and black lines across his fingers and palm. A moment later, the skin had returned to a more normal hue and Jax let out a sigh of relief. “Much better.”
He stuck his hands into the pockets of his coat, trying to blink away the image of magenta light from his eyes.
“Hey.” Raggsy joined them, the other two coming up behind him. “I didn’t get ta’ beat up the Power Core at all. You kids get all the fun. Ah, well, me an’ the other two fellas made sure that the guards won’t bother as for awhile.”
“You didn’t miss out on anything good, Raggsy,” Jax told him, “being fried by pure energy is no fun.”
“Heh, having somethin’ fried sounds good. What say we have a bit of a feast when we get back to the ship?”
Everyone had been heading towards the edge of the courtyard together. They exited the almost-abandoned castle through the doors, which opened easily, never noticing the eyes which watched them from a high window of the keep. But whoever was inside was too afraid to come out after seeing what had happened to the Count.
Back in the airship, they had to wait for the hourglass to empty its sands back into the blue side and the Di-jump to finish cooling. Some of the crew ate, while others rested or simply sat and dreamed. No one noticed the small shape which scuttled out of the keep to kneel beside Dalython. Reaching out trembling hands, the boy closed the dead man’s eyes. Then he began to unfasten the Count’s armor and slowly put it on himself. It was too big and rattled together, but he did not care.
One day, he would be the lord of Skrimbok castle himself.
---
The emperor of the Shinlang empire sat on a gilded chair in the close confines of a secret room, deep underground. It was not below his palace. This room was built in an underground fortress beneath the little village of Ci’tanmo. It was a hiding place for the emperor and some of his court officials, who had come there fleeing the evil corruption which had been eating into his land. The old palace was now almost entirely under the corruption’s sway, as was much of the lands between it and the city of Li’tanwa.
Takai Onmeru sat in his chair with slumped shoulders, gazing down at his hands sadly. They had taken the reins of the empire from his father and built it even further into a prosperous, economically sound world. But this corruption, controlled by one of his trusted lords turned traitor, was destroying everything he had worked for. The people were being tormented, their farms wrecked and animals slaughtered by the strange phantom samurai of the enemy. Takai felt like he was losing everything. And throughout it all, one of his favorite servants had been missing. One that had never failed him before.
“Celestial majesty.” The sharp voice of his chamberlain came from the door of the secret chamber. “There is one who comes to see you. He...he says that it is urgent. And...you might want to see him.”
The chamberlain’s voice had an unusual tremble to it. Never before had the emperor heard him stumble or hesitate in his words, except for the one time a live peacock had got loose in the emperor’s wardrobe.
“Send him in,” Takai sighed and turned his chair about, nodding a fraction at the guards which stood on either side of the door. They were to stay alert, but not harm the newcomer unless their emperor gave the order.
The chamberlain departed from the open doorway and a lithe figure took his place. He hurried in and bowed before the emperor, a drawn katana held in one hand.
The emperor started and sat forward in his chair, then rose to his feet as he recognized the face of the kneeling newcomer. “Shinto’dansei!”
“My master.” The Shinobi raised his eyes a little, but not to meet his ruler’s gaze. “I have returned.”
Turning almost furiously to the guards, the emperor slashed a hand at them. “Go! Stay outside the room until I call. And shut the door behind you!”
Once they had filed out, he rested once again in the chair, eyes fixed on his visitor. “You may arise. Shinto’dansei, where have you been? I have had great need of my greatest warrior and Shinobi. But no one knew where you had gone after leaving word that you were examining into the strange vehicle in the forest by Li’tanwa. Even the other Shinobi, Tetso and Fukari, could not find you.”
The one who called himself Dansei stood and sheathed his blade in a leather tube hanging on his back. He was dressed differently than when he had left, in strange clothes that consisted of a patterned, red top and pale colored trousers. But that did not surprise Takai Onmeru. The Shinobi often returned in various disguises. It was his long silence and failure to report that were a matter of surprise to the emperor.
“My master, I have traveled not only on this world, but to other dimensions off if it, in your service,” Dansei told him quietly, “beyond this ring of planets, to places with strange people and customs. I traveled in the vehicle I sent word of, which happened to be part of a dimension traveling device. The people in it...they are not our enemies. They are on the same mission as you have sent me on, to discover the source of this evil and defeat it. I have learned much on my way. But before I report, I must ask you a question.”
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
The emperor raised his eyebrows at his words, but only said, “you may ask.”
“Where is the Lord Kai?”
Takai Onmeru sighed again, “he has escaped. If we could find him now...but you have seen what his troops have done. We are constantly at war with him, and losing.”
Dansei nodded slowly, “these dimension travelers will soon be coming, looking for him. If you give them aid, they are sure to find him and defeat him. It is my advice that this be done. And then...”
“Yes, my Shinobi?”
“I have one more piece of advice.” Dansei took a deep breath and met his gaze. “You must put me under immediate arrest. In the strictest security. And if it seems that I am acting strangely or might escape, you must have me destroyed.”
---
After having gained a little rest and refreshment, the dimension travelers had to decide what world to enter next. It did not take them long to see that Dansei’s world would be the best choice. Not only was it near Soleeryn’s, but the younger members decided that it was their duty to tell the emperor which Dansei had worked for, that he was not coming back.
“He didn’t say much about it, but you could tell that he was devoted to this emperor,” Jax said as he fiddled with the Di-jump in the bright morning sun of the cleansed world, “so the emperor must value him, at least a little.”
“But we should defeat the Power Core there, first,” Lenny suggested, “before finding the emperor and trying to explain a little of what has happened. That way we won’t be under attack the whole time.”
This was agreed to unanimously and the crew began to prepare for the shift. It went off smoothly, the world shimmering and falling into place with a light patter of rain and the smell of moist earth all around them. Once he had blinked his eyes clear, Lenny saw that they were hovering over a rice paddy, the pale green sprouts poking up through a field of brown water. The whole thing rippled and dimpled gently as a soft rain fell on it from an overcast sky. On the edge of the paddy stood a thatch-roofed house and barn, surrounded by light wooden fencing. It would have been a serene landscape except for the cruel details.
In front of the barn a heap of carcasses lay moldering together, some animal and some...Lenny looked quickly away. Some had walked on two feet and worked that farm together before ending up where they were now.
The house and barn were both run through with streaks of purple and the grass was almost all that color. The rice did not seem to have picked it up as quickly, though the water was swirled with purple shades like oil. Somewhere in the distance a bonfire burned, black smoke rising towards the tainted sky. And above them, here and there in the clouds, could be seen great rents in reality.
“This is terrible.” Amber turned away from the farmstead and covered her eyes with her arm. “What has been happening here?”
“That,” Jackal returned grimly, pointing towards the far edge of the paddy. They could just make out a group of figures marching by it, dressed in purple armor and carrying flags of the same hue. The group quickly disappeared into a cluster of trees in the distance, but it had been enough to warn them what was happening in this country. It was being overrun by the Power Core’s troops.
Jax gulped loudly, putting a hand to his throat. “Why don’t you take us a little higher, Amber? We don’t want any trouble with that sort. Where is the compass pointing, Len?”
Lenny took the compass from his pocket and held it on the flat of his hand, letting the needle settle out before raising an arm to indicate the direction. “That way.”
It was towards the column of black smoke across the rice field. The airship went into motion gracefully, engine noises rising in pitch. The balloon held them aloft as they glided across the muddy water and up into the air above an open field. That gave way to low ridges of land, all sparkling amethyst with the rain.
Amber was careful to avoid running in to any of the smears floating above the land, though they passed near one and watched it slide by on the starboard side. It was larger than the rent in reality they had inspected before, with dangling, slowly moving tentacles of light reaching out from it.
“It does have a palace in the center,” Lenny murmured as it slid away behind them. “I’m sure of it. If they all do, why?”
Patch had been standing near him and overheard the monologue. “Perhaps that’s EX-2’s palace, matey. Even a machine might start wanting a grand pile to live in once it became king of its world.”
Lenny nodded. It sounded like a plausible theory. Meanwhile, they had come up over a hill near where the column of smoke was rising. Looking down, a valley with an encampment of soldiers in it could be made out, with a large pile of brush that had what looked like old thatching from a disused house burning in it. At first, Lenny thought that they had stumbled upon even more of the Power Core’s minions. But when he saw the standard set up at the head of the valley, red and gold, he noticed that none of the soldiers were wearing purple either. They were the emperor’s men, perhaps, real people from this world.
As they floated over them, the soldiers looked up and began pointing at them, waving their hands or weapons while they shouted. Their words could not be made out from that height and probably would not have been understood if they had. Lenny saw a tall man dressed in armor step out of the tent at the head of the valley when he heard the commotion and stand as if gazing up at the airship.
There was a thrumming sound and a few arrows passed by the front of the airship, one sticking weakly into its prow. Most the soldiers did not appear to be shooting and, in fact, the leader slashed his arm in the air as if warning them not to. But Amber piloted the ship up even higher to avoid the missiles, in case the soldiers did not obey. They soon disappeared into the moist bank of clouds above.
“Whew, those men were quick to count us as enemies,” she remarked, brushing a hand through her hair, which was dark with moisture.
“Can you blame them?” Lenny shrugged. “You’ve seen what’s happening to their land. I wouldn’t trust us either.”
Raggsy retrieved the arrow in the prow as he had the bolt in the last dimension, but there was no message tied to it. Tossing it aside, he asked curiously, “so, ah, Amber, how long can we fly in this airship without refueling? I mean, we’ve been on the move for a couple o’ days now.”
“Well, it wouldn’t fall suddenly out of the sky even if we did run out of fuel, because of the balloon,” she returned, leaving the wheel a moment to check a gauge on one of the engines. She frowned at it, tapped it with a fingernail and returned to her place. “Yes, it is getting low. There is probably no way we’ll find a refilling place here, but perhaps in Jackal’s world...we’ll have to wait and see. For now, we still have a few hour’s powered flight remaining.”
Back at the ship’s wheel, she asked for another reading from the compass. Lenny looked down and saw that it had become darker in color (it had been almost glowing gold on Soleeryn’s world when Dalython was gone) and was pointing a little to the right of their currant heading. He called out directions with another sweep of his arm and the ship turned to meet it.
Not long after that the damp blanket of clouds which surrounded them began to break apart and they found themselves hovering between mountain peaks, overlooking a broad valley on the other side.
“It’s a good thing we weren’t a little ta one side or the other,” Raggsy pointed out, leaning over the starboard rail to look at the craggy peaks. “Mountains don’t move out of the way when they see you comin’.”
When they came out of the pass the sky was clear and they could see a city in the distance, built beside a river. It appeared larger than Li’tanwa, the city they had bought supplies at before, and had a low stone and earth wall running all around the outside of it. But the wall was rife with purple deterioration, the buildings sadly tinted with it. When they had drifted nearer, and lower, they saw purple banners flying from the wall top, as well as from the peaks of a large, swept-roof palace in the center of the city.
Marching outside of the city were platoons of violet-clad warriors, more flags waving, fastened to their backs. As the airship came out of the mist some of the soldiers looked up and spotted it. Instead of waving, shouting or running about, they simply kept marching after a moment. Looking towards the city, Lenny saw platforms with some sort of machine set up on them. They had been devoid of troops a moment before, but now were swarming with them. He frowned and pointed towards them, “what are those? They look like large crossbows on stands.”
“Ballista!” Patch exclaimed, gripping his sword tighter. “Turn back, miss Amber! Turn back as quick as she’ll go. Those machines are giant crossbows and they shoot giant bolts, to boot. Ballista will rip our balloon to shreds and most likely skewer us if we get in range.”
The soldiers were loading the ballista and preparing them to fire by now, the faster ones already aiming for the ship. Amber spun the wheel with a little gasp of fear and slewed it around, while everyone else gripped the rail or frame to steady themselves. Slowly, painfully the ship came around, showing first its broadside to the ballista and then its tail. They had almost come all of the way about when there was a hissing noise and a large bolt went shooting by, barely missing the side of the hull. A second one followed it a moment later and shot across the deck, fraying a line and smashing into the cabin’s side with a thump and cracking of wood.
“Get us out of here!” Jax shouted, covering his head with his hands as if that would save him from the powerful projectiles. Another bolt whizzed by, lower and even further from the target than before. Gradually they pulled away, back into the foothills of the mountains. There, the airship hovered near a rocky cliff in safety.
Amber let out a sigh of relief. “We made it. Does your indicator say that the Power Core is in that city, Lenny?”
Lenny frowned. “I’m not sure...it’s in that direction, but I don’t think that the needle is dark enough yet for us to be that close. I think he would be on the far side of the city, at least, if not even further on.”
“There is plenty of room to skirt the city,” Leaflow pointed out, “we can just go around and see if the compass still points towards it or away.”
This was good sense, so they began the journey around the outer edge of the valley, then across it where it widened out on each side. Green rice paddies, muddy swamps and stretches of purple grass spread out below them, broken here and there by clusters of houses or groups of jungle trees. The dew had faded from the foliage, leaving it muted and dull in color.
The crew became almost bored as they sailed along, everything was so quiet and peaceful below them. They did cross one farmstead that was still occupied, with the farmers looking up in surprise and waving at them as they passed. Not long after that they flew over a river spanned by a bridge which had recently been broken. Across it was a village. As they neared, they could pick out another group of soldiers camped out in front of the village, these ones bearing flags of red and black.
As they began to drift towards the camp, there was movement seen throughout it. Once again, the men waved their hands and pointed at them, surprised by the form of the large, wooden-hulled shape floating in the air. But this time, there were no arrows shot at them. Instead, soldiers scurried towards a campfire on one edge, massing around it. Then a group of them moved out into the open below the airship, with an armored man in the lead. He raised something to his face and they heard, soft and clear, the sound of a trumpet conch being winded. The leader blew it three times, held up his arm and pointed it straight at the balloon.
“Are they going to attack us somehow?” Jax wondered aloud.
“I don’t think so.” Lenny gazed intently down at them. “Slow down please, Amber. I think they’re trying to signal us!”
At the same moment two men came forward bearing large white flags and waved them, one on either side of the armored leader. A third held a branch from a tree, still covered in green leaves, and waved it towards the ship as well.
“They certainly look friendly,” Jackal commented, frowning down at them. “But it could be a trick.”
The airship drifted until it was almost at a stop, hovering high above the ground with the small figures below. Lenny continued to stare at them as they waved their flags and branch, before turning abruptly to Leaflow, “what do you think?”
The cloaked one nodded his head once towards the leader below. “I think that they mean to honor their truce, as long as we cause no trouble. We can at least fly lower and attempt to communicate.”
Amber brought the ship lower, circling it gently down until they were within hailing range of the men below. Then Lenny leaned over the side and called down, “hello!”
The leader bowed where he stood, before answering in a greatly accented dialect, “greetings! We peaceful. Want to talk. Our ruler, the gracious emperor Takai Onmeru, knows of you. We have been waiting, hoping you come!”
Th crew exchanged uneasy glances. How could the emperor know of them, unless he was connected with EX-2? They had not been back to this world, after having accidentally brought Dansei with them the last time.
Lenny checked the indicator needle, but it showed the Power Core to be off towards the city, on their left-hand side.
“Please, we mean peace. Must talk! Dansei has told us of you!”
“Dansei?” Amber blinked, looking startled. “But...he could not have told them much before leaving last time. And he’s dead!”
“Unless their lying to get on our good side.” Jackal shook his head. “I say we just fly on and get about our business.”
But Jax was already leaning over the side, calling, “what did Dansei tell you?”
“That you are defeating the evil things and are our allies!” the leader’s voice was getting strained from yelling, while his companions continued to wave their emblems. “Please, come down! Much to speak of!”
“Is Dansei with you now?” Jax pressed.
“With emperor. Come down!”
Amber shook her head. “He couldn’t be, could he? With the emperor, I mean. He fell off of the ship when the wyvern hit it. How could he have survived or come here?”
“Maybe the emperor’s dead too,” Raggsy suggested with a dismissive shrug of his furry shoulders.
“But if they have word of him, we should hear it,” Jax argued, “come on, stranger things have happened to us! You all know how slippery that Ninja is. Maybe he did get here ahead of us somehow.”
No one could deny that. After a little more discussion, they decided to risk floating lower, but at a distance from the encampment. The armored leader was told of their decision and warned that they would only speak to him if he met them a few miles off, bringing just three men with him. He agreed to this, before making signals to his own soldiers. Looking back as they moved away, Lenny saw two horses being brought up and the leader mounting, with one other person accompanying him.
On a slight hillock about two miles from the camp, they floated down to within a few yards of the earth. Jackal and Patch climbed over first, carrying their weapons at the ready. The rest came next, leaving Leaflow and Raggsy behind to keep guard on the ship.
The ground squished under Lenny’s feet as he hit it, the purple grass smelling damp and rank. The ground crew gathered in a group a hundred feet from the ship, watching a pair of small shapes approach across the plains. The figures grew as they got nearer, becoming the armored leader and his follower, who appeared to be a young man dressed in a red uniform.
They drew their horses up snorting a few yards away, dropping gracefully to the ground. The armored leader could now be seen to be a tall, burly man with a dark mustache, small eyes and a grave expression. His companion was much younger, perhaps the same age as Lenny, with the same inky hair as everyone in this land seemed to have.
The leader bowed once again as he stepped out in front of them, laying his sword on the ground in a sign of peace. The young man was unarmed. But it was he who spoke first, his voice much less accented than the leader’s had been, “we come in peace. There need be no war between your people and ours. Our enemy is common between us, his ways deplorable to both. Do you understand this?”
Lenny took it upon himself to speak first, giving Jax a warning look so that he would not say anything too hastily.
“We hear your words and understand them. You said something about Dansei having told you about us. Is that true?”
“Yes, the Shinobi you call Dansei has told us that you are our allies.” The young man bowed his head, looking a little uncertain how to go on. The leader spoke words to him in a different language, to which he nodded and translated.
“General Kunio wishes me to say: do you mean us harm, though we have come in peace? We have laid aside our weapons, but you have not.”
Lenny hesitated, before replying, “we mean you no harm. But we have been at war with our enemies for days and are wary. That is why we keep our weapons ready.”
There was a little more word changing, before the translator explained, “General Kunio understands this. You may keep them. He wants to know, are you on your way to fight the Lord Kei now?”
“Lord Kei? Who’s that?” Jax asked, unable to keep still, “is he the Power Core?”
There was more talking, before Kunio looked at them with his squinted, dark eyes and nodded once, the translator speaking for him, “he is the one controlling the corrupt powers that eat into our land. We have not been able to come up with him and fight, or else he might be defeated. But his warriors seem to continually grow in number. If you are going to fight him, we have orders to aid you in any way you need. Warriors, supplies and transportation are all at your disposal.”
Amber came forward a little to speak herself, “but what about Dansei? Where is he and can we see him?”
The two soldiers spoke together for a few minutes at a time, the leader gesturing and grunting decisively to his subordinate. The translator nodded to his leader, then shook his head at the travelers. “He is not here. He is with the emperor in a safe place. You are not allowed to see him now, not only by the emperor’s command but by his own request.”
The travelers looked at each other uncertainly. What was the meaning of all the secrecy?