Harunaba was now wearing a complete set of armor and sticking to Yoshinaka’s side like a sword.
I will be ready next time!
From inside the command tent at the center of the encampment, Yoshinaka stood, surrounded by generals. Tsubaki was also there, but Yuki still hadn’t returned.
“I want all of Urukawa searched!” Yoshinaka commanded. “Find those assassins. Send half the army if you must.”
His generals bowed in unison. “Hai!”
As they left the warm command tent, braziers crackling in the corners, Harunaba spoke. “I do not like this. My lord, you should leave the city under cover of night.”
“Mmm,” he noised, thoughtfully. “No. These assassins will follow me anywhere I go until this war is over. We must stand here—fight them.”
“General?” Tsubaki addressed him from the side.
“What is it?”
“Yuki has not returned. Let me go out into the city and find her.”
“No,” Harunaba said, feeling a quiet desperation. “Without you, the general has very little defense. I am nothing in the face of these assassins.” Despite this admission, he would gladly give his life for his lord, though the thought brought images of Haruna and the children.
“We may need her,” Yoshinaka said.
Harunaba blinked. “But my lord, daimyō... not if she’s wounded, or dead. She—“
“Enough.” He turned to Tsubaki. “Follow the path we took from the river. If you do not find her there quickly, then return.”
Tsubaki, wearing a kimono and sandals, bowed, his long katana sticking out behind him. “Arigatou gozaimasu.”
*
The King snuck upon them in the dark as they sat about the fire. As usual, Valdek was quiet, while Nama and Horris bickered. Sakura he couldn’t see.
Where is she?
“Is that my kerchief?” Horris asked.
Nama looked at him. “Of course not! Why you would think to own something so fine—and something I would take from you no less, is beyond me, sir. And wrong. What are you—my foppelganger?”
“That’s not a word.”
“It is now.”
“Ah,” Valdek said, looking up past the fire into the dark. “Our king has returned.” There was a definite note of scorn in his tone.
“Come,” Nama said cheerfully. He didn’t bother turning to look. “Sit. Eat. Let us plan.”
“Where’s Sakura?”
Horris looked up and shrugged. “She’s not with you?”
“She’s not here?” Ardamius asked.
“No,” Horris said, shrugging his huge shoulders again. Nama looked up from where he was sitting as he cleaned his sword with his silken kerchief. Valdek narrowed his eyes.
After failing to take down Yoshinaka, they were supposed to regroup back here, as was the plan. The Reconnoiter’s base of operations was located in a meadow in the forested foothills a short hike outside of the city. Between the four men, a lively fire crackled, supplying them with warmth. A pot had been set over the fire where Nama was boiling stew, but Ardamius didn’t care to eat—not now that he had learned Sakura never came back.
If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
How is this possible?
“We were separated,” The King continued. “She went ahead to corral the target, but she never appeared again. I thought maybe she came back here for some reason.”
“Could she have been…?” Nama suggested, trailing off.
“Let’s not consider that yet,” Ardamius said. “I’m going to look for her. One of you should remain here in case she comes back.”
“What about General Yoshinaka?” Nama asked, looking up from his polishing again. His clothes were far too fancy for the stump he was sitting on.
“The army will be here in two more days,” Valdek said. The Jester stood tall. Clearly he wanted to go out and either find The Dancer, or make another play for their target. His reference to the army getting here suggested the former. “How did the general escape you?”
“That’s what I’d like to know,” Nama said.
“Mmm,” Horris, The Muscle, added with a nod. “What happened, boss?”
“And where is your scimitar?” Valdek asked, his eyes going to the empty sheath at The King’s side. Ardamius sighed. He was having trouble caring one whit for Yoshinaka. All he wanted was to find out why Sakura hadn’t come back. Had she been hurt? Killed? Captured?
His arm was throbbing from the wound he had taken, but none of the others seemed to have noticed, or cared. But it was just a scratch.
“I had him,” The King said. “I defeated one of the Taisho Six—Yuki Arinatto. I was about to take down Yoshinaka, but something attacked me.”
“Huh?” Horris said, looking dumb for a moment.
“What do you mean ‘something’?” Nama asked. Valdek made no response, only waited for Ardamius’ explanation.
“I don’t know what it was. Some kind of creature. Maybe human.”
The Fop furrowed his brow. “Maybe?”
“Maybe,” Ardamius repeated. “It had the body of a woman, but its skin, it’s claws—and those glowing eyes.”
“Maybe some kinda magic spell?” Horris asked. He neared the fire and looked into the cook pot, stirred the stew and turned back to Ardamius.
“Could have been,” he said. “But this thing seemed rabid, enraged with the intent to kill me in particular. It tossed me into one of the machiyas above the street like a sack of rice and attacked me.”
He looked at his forearm. The wound was bad, but not dangerous. He needed a bandage, but had been drawn into this conversation as soon as he’d arrived. He moved as the others watched him and got into Sakura’s saddle bags where she kept her bandages and other healing ointments.
“This is strange,” Nama said. “Why would some strange creature attack you”—
“In the middle of the city no less?” Valdek finished for him.
“That’s what I was going to say, Val.”
The Jester smirked. “And I said it for you.”
Nama signed, slammed his blade into its sheath.
“Damn all these bottles,” Ardamius grumbled. “There’s at least a hundred here!”
“Try the yellow one,” Nama said. “Is the stew done, Horris? Unless I’m the one to stay behind to wait for Sakura, I need some food before going back out.”
“Me too,” Horris grumbled. He nodded to The Fop. “It’s ready.”
The King unstopped the yellow ointment. Hopefully it wasn’t the wrong one. There were a lot of bottles here. But the liquid instantly soothed the throbbing in his arm, so there was that.
He turned and looked at the others. “We need information. Perhaps that creature was one of the Taisho Six.”
“Some ability we don’t know,” Horris suggested.
“Exactly.”
“I guess I need to eat then,” Nama said. “Horris, you’re terrible at stealth.”
“I know,” he said, seeming sad about that. “I will stay here.”
Ardamius nodded. “Good,” he said, wrapping the bandage tightly around his forearm. “That leaves Nama and Valdek to do the reconnaissance on Yoshinaka, and I will search for Sakura. I managed to wound that creature with my stiletto, so the salts should lead me to some answers—whether that reveals a Taisho Six member or”—he swallowed, feeling a knot in his stomach—“or of Sakura’s location, we will come into some new information we need now.”
He had amended the last words in his mind.
I can’t bear to think of you dead, lying in some back alley.
“Fine,” Valdek said. “Nama, are you ready? Let’s not waste time.”
“Always on the move with you…”
Valdek chuckled in an odd, cackling sort of way. “Indeed, Fop.”
Nama breathed in deeply. “It’s a title! Don’t you people get it?” He scooped some stew into the wooden bowl he had picked up.
“Oh yes,” Valdek said, regarding Nama up and down. “Yes, of course—you are right.”
Nama brushed the criticism away. “At least I don’t dress like a freak,” he said as he sat his sword against the stump.
“I need a weapon,” Ardamius said.
Horris shrugged. “No more weapons.”
That was the truth. Each member was responsible for his or her own gear. The Reconnoiters wasn’t supplied by the army. They were a group of united, yet independent members.
But The King still had his stiletto. He would figure something out. He had to return to the machiya where that creature had attacked him anyway, to pick up the salt trail. Perhaps he would find his scimitar if he searched for it.
The night was cold and his fingers were somewhat stiff. No matter. The run back into the city would warm him. “I’m heading out,” he declared. “I should be back in a few hours.”
The others nodded. Valdek said, “The same. After Nama finishes his stew.”