Yomenuura Sen tore his voice to shreds. He didn’t so much scream as allow triumph to tear through his throat. It was a triumph that carried itself through the city walls, through the fields, past the heavens. It shook with the consolation of a long trial vanquished. His ears rang. His hands ached. The air simmered with the smell of burning flesh. In his mouth was acrid victory.
The resolve inside him flared.
Sen gathered himself, heaving, yet lighter. No other moment in his twenty-two years defined him as much as this. Despite all odds, he’d retained his life, and even more so, his honor. He’d rid himself of months of grit and desperation. Tsuisaka, his fortified city, was in one piece behind him.
Takasa Aiya was in front of him, leaning on her knees and in worse shape than he. She fought to remain upright, exhausted from too little sleep and from her entanglement with the mythical creature that should have been picking their bones from its teeth this very moment. He was impressed. Her eyes drooped low, her panting ragged. Even so, Sen was enough a spectacle to keep her on her feet. She conjured a gasping voice.
“You’re a Ginju. One of us.”
She’d said it. There was no backtracking now. “I will explain it later.” His voice was hoarse and raw, his vision a little hazy, and time was of the essence.
Aiya lifted a trembling arm to adjust her battered forest-jade armor. Her forearm guard was loose. Her breastplate almost fell to pieces.
“Idiot. How didn’t we see it...”
Flames crackled in the grass. The sun hung low in the sky, lending it a golden hue. Enemy Jodai from West Forgery lay quiet on blackened soil. Dead at his feet.
Hasa was there too, separated into two. Her body was almost as dark as the soil it stuck to, yet her face was drained pale in his hands.
Shouts behind them.
Eastern soldiers and commanders of Agriculture were coming. Armor of dark orange, mixed with specks of dark green. They’d come to defend him. It showed in their faces. Two thousand of his soldiers, marked with grim expressions. Sen had brought them to this point. He’d forced most of them, drafting them from neighboring cities. They fought with their lives despite it. More than that, they fought with their honor, for honor.
He'd torn his province in two, summoned an entire foreign army to his aid, and had taken the title of heir from his sister’s smoldering hands. Sen, the last heir of the Yomenuura clan, had even defied the Empress herself. He felt he should be a rotting limbless corpse, but here he was, still breathing, still hardened for battle.
Victory was not his just yet.
“Lord Sen, are you injured?”
Yko, general of Agriculture, and Darumo Gheki, Sen’s right hand man, skidded to a stop in front of him on horses, checking him up and down. The remaining Ginju, others like himself, came mounted beside them: Koji of River, and Risako and Totane of Agriculture. Their third counterpart, one named Johori, had fallen in battle. Renna, a Ginju of Rain, had taken part in that. Yet here she stood in light-purple armor with the rest. Behind them was the sea of two thousand men, still ready to fight.
“I’m uninjured, general. Quickly, tell me the status of our troops.”
Yko looked to Aiya behind him, then at the fires surrounding them with a perplexed expression.
Wiping away sweat under a domed helm adorned with small, jagged horns, the mark of a military commander of Forgery, General Gheki responded, “Twenty-three hundred men reduced to two thousand fifty, my lord. Thanks to the Ginju here, we were able to avoid more serious casualties.”
The fact they had any men left at all was incredible. They’d come face to face with the Empress, all while being pitifully outmatched by enemy numbers. Now, they gathered with well over two thousand Jodai to make their next move.
Risako looked down at his feet. “That’s…Hasa.” She gave a reserved scowl at the bloodied head gripped at Sen’s side, then at her broiled body below. “Does that mean we’ve finally won?”
“The battle isn’t over yet.” Sen went to Aiya’s side and placed a hand on her shoulder. She straightened. They locked eyes. “Can you go on?”
Aiya gave a firm nod, her features solidified.
He faced the crowd of men behind him. Scarred, battered, bleeding men. Disturbed men. Will I push my men to their brink before my enemy?
Sen never knew how he was going to rally his people. At times he felt as weak as they, but it was moments like this when he could most inspire. When his inner resolve could not be put out, he knew he could beckon forth a mountain.
“Our fight isn’t over yet! Listen, honored men of Forgery and Agriculture! This battle, the battle of Tsuisaka, is won. However, times of war are waking from their slumber. The victors of that are yet to be determined. Agriculture will remain an ally as we rebuild Forgery, as we set our sights on retaliation against the Empress for what she’s committed today against our fellow men. An atrocity! But for now, we focus on the enemies directly in front of us-”
He shuddered at the memory of the thrashing dragon, gorging on Jodai men like honeyed twigs. The Empress had not expected them to survive that.
Was it so necessary for you to show up to my mother’s aid? At his most dire moment, the Empress had somehow called forth a dragon against them. While the other Ginju risked their lives to kill it, Hasa chased him down, tragically unaware of his hidden identity. They’d come out on top, but had defied the Empress to do so. The Sorceress of Storms. Their circumstances had changed, and he felt as if he stood at the edge of a wide, unending chasm.
“-for now, we must save Lord Tsugo.”
“Where is Lady Ueko?” asked an officer. “Did she go back to the Hijimata hills?”
“The Empress moved back in the direction of the capital,” Yko said. “She was confident her ‘servant’, as she called it, would devour us all, so much so that she did not consider the rest of the battle worth witnessing.”
“Knowing my mother,” said Sen, “she sent Hasa after me alone, knowing she’d die by my hands, but that I would die in the jaws of that dragon. She likely ran back to declare both her children dead so that the title of High Lady could be hers.”
“If she’s returned to hills, then does that mean Lord Tsugo…could he be-”
“He’s alive.” Totane’s voice was hard, certain. His dark hair, a third the length of Sen’s own, stuck in messy clumps around his ears. Sweat and dirt caked his tawny skin.
“I’d suggest we go see for ourselves, but our numbers wouldn’t exactly even out the odds were we to return with her,” Yko said. A thin line of dried blood ran down his face from under a dent on his winged helmet.
“Twenty-five thousand troops await us,” said a foot soldier, clearly intimidated by the prospect.
“And Tsugo has less than ten thousand,” Sen replied. “Our numbers won’t make much of a difference. We need to learn more about our predicament in order to make the most logical decision.”
Predicament. He told it like it was, made the men realize they were still dancing quite close to death. Their spirits couldn’t go out yet.
“What should we do next?” Gheki was the one to pose the question. Even the Cardinal of the East was at his wit’s end.
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A Forgery Jodai stumbled from the side onto his knees. “Pardon the interruption, my lords! Three of our men spotted one of Lady Hasa’s escaped soldiers and are giving chase as we speak!”
The words moved through Sen like coiling fire. One man, still alive? The heavens have shined mercifully on us for this opportunity. “A single man, you say? In which direction did he flee?”
“He had no choice but to flee to the east, my lord. His demise is certain.”
Sen jerked his gaze from the soldier back to his generals. “This is our chance to ascertain Ueko’s plans and status at the Hijimata hills! This single man must be captured and questioned before anything else! We’ll be on our feet just a little longer. Stay strong. Great men of Forgery, let us bring our wrath down on our enemies for what they’ve put us through.”
Almost frantically, Sen called for two horses, one for him and the other for Aiya. He tried to ignore his brain firing. This was their only chance, and they needed to hurry.
She managed to mount it with some difficulty. Sen flipped the reins and his horse took off to the east. Two thousand fifty men went beside him, giving chase.
*******************
Aiya almost slipped off her horse. Koji galloped beside her, catching her shoulder in the wind. She jolted awake as he pushed her back up. Koji winced. His sister was in a terrible state.
“We’re almost through,” Koji said. “Don’t do more than you need to.”
“Don’t coddle me,” Aiya said weakly, though a slight smile crept on her lips.
“You’ve pushed yourself past your limits,” Koji shouted above the thunderous trot of hooves and running soldiers surrounding them. “You won’t be doing us any favors if you pass out. Don’t push any further.” He tried to keep the worry from his voice. The truth was he’d never seen her as bruised and battered as she was now. Fighting the Rain Ginju at the Hijimata hills, traveling through the forest where they’d seen that Kiru up close, and battling the dragon had all taken a toll on her. It had taken a toll on him too, but Aiya had put in her all, fought harder than any of them. She’d brought an end to that beast, and would be running herself into the ground, quite literally, if she didn’t slow down soon.
“We don’t have time for limits,” Aiya retorted. Her voice lacked the fight it had before.
Irritated, Koji took in the sight of her for a long moment, studying her each inhale and exhale; Aiya was still alive. He was grateful for that at least.
General Yko and his elite guard, including the man named Fuda, rode along. Their High Lord, Tabeni Tsugo, was stuck at the Hijimata hills. Tsugo had fooled Ueko into believing he was an ally in order to save Sen. After all, Sen was the final piece of the Republic, and in recruiting him, Tsugo would make his first move against the Empress in a game that surely couldn’t be won.
No, Tsugo’s first real move had been the deposement of their father, High Lord Takasa Arusuke of River province. While supplanting Hebi Owa in his stead as the new High Lord of River, Tsugo had been able to snatch Koji and his siblings, the River Ginju, right from under Owa’s nose. All thanks to their brother Irashida, their sickly genius.
Koji hoped to the heavens that Tabeni Tsugo wouldn’t be taken out so easily. He urged his steed to pick up speed.
“We won’t catch up in time at this rate, our man and his pursuers are too far ahead!” he told Sen. “I’m going to run ahead of you all!”
The Forgery lord was on edge, his movements almost frantic. Even his calm facade was at its limits. “Hurry!” Sen replied.
Koji had no need to be told. He’d already hurled himself from his mount, rolling beside the horses. He rushed forward, careful not to get caught under any feet. Soon he was ahead of their army, the river deity propelling him with superhuman speed. The dry grasslands swished north in the slight breeze. The sky above was golden and white. Grass and dirt upturned at the dash of his feet.
It wasn’t long before he saw them. Three men on horseback, lagging maybe twenty or thirty paces behind a fourth man with a gold helm, a helm that marked him as one of West Forgery. Hasa’s last remaining Jodai.
Three hundred paces away, thought Koji. So this is how it feels to show off, huh, Aiya? I could get used to this.
One of the pursuing men raised both arms, holding up his bow and nocking an arrow.
“Shit!” Koji exclaimed.
He accelerated as much as his feet allowed him, careful to keep steady alignment with his deity, steadily drawing power. The man let go of his arrow, and Koji watched the dark projectile zip past its target. A narrow miss. His entire frame now boiled with tension.
The soldier readied another.
“Don’t shoot!” Koji ordered. He was only twenty paces behind the Forgery Jodai now. “Put away that arrow! That man has to be captured alive!”
The men turned to him. “Lord…our lord from River!”
“Lord Koji!” he informed them, only ten paces behind. He pushed himself, and in a few moments more he and the pursuing Jodai were side by side. All three had forgotten their target, now focused solely on Koji with sheer amazement in their eyes. “Let me take care of it.”
Koji blew past the men, their horses whinnying in shock. The fleeing Jodai turned to see Koji fast approaching. Disbelief crossed his face first, then panic. He kicked wildly at his steed in an attempt to go faster, but it was of no use.
Koji arrived at his side.
“Bastard!” The man snarled, eyes crazed and lips pulled back tight. “What even are you people?”
“Your chosen fate,” Koji said. He was ahead of him now. He picked up more speed, panting, now five or six paces away. He moved over in front of the man’s horse and braced himself for impact. The enemy soldier let out something between a grunt and a screech of terror, his steed giving no indication of fright before the collision. Its full weight crashed into Koji, chest first. Bones cracked as if smashing against a steel wall. The man flew from his mount over Koji and landed in the field a few feet away, tumbling. Koji felt thick wetness on his left side.
The three chasing men rounded the enemy soldier, looking to Koji, then to the maimed horse at his side. Its front legs, and likely ribcage, were broken. A horrible crying noise came from its mouth. Koji removed his sword and opened its neck with a single stroke. It didn’t deserve a slow death.
“It was a good thing you stopped us when you did,” the soldier with the bow remarked, looking down on their captive. He spat at the man below. “I almost had him.”
The man groaned and cursed them.
“Save it for the dungeons,” said Koji.
*************
“Talk. What are my mother’s plans at the Hijimata hills? Did she go straight back to the battlefront?” Sen watched the man, tied up where he lay, hands bound behind him and looking quite uncomfortable. His chest heaved, not of exhaustion, but anger.
The man grinned, though it looked more like the growl of a cornered dog. “Curse you and your children to the final generation! I only talk to the Lady Ueko, and no one else.”
No time to waste. Sen raised a hand and produced smoldering heat from it. “Your opinion means less than an imperial taxman to me. Talk or you will end up a burned corpse like the rest.”
The captive shifted, quickly persuaded by that. Scowling, he turned to face the ground. “Rain troops still occupy the hill with Lady Ueko’s leftover militia. They are keeping Lord Tabeni Tsugo’s army subjugated. Lord Tsugo himself was taken prisoner, but who knows if he’s still breathing now. While the rest of Rain and Forgery troops held position, Lady Ueko, Lady Hasa and about thirty men of Forgery departed for Tsuisaka. My lady informed me we’d rendezvous with the Empress herself here. When the Empress herself arrived, Lady Hasa and I were sent after you, along with our twenty-nine men. Of course, we had no idea you’d be….”
He gazed upon Sen, awestruck.
Sen felt the eyes of everyone around him.
Emboldened, he asked: “Why did the Empress come to mother’s aid in the first place? Why go through the trouble of exterminating me?”
The soldier chuckled. “You know the answer to that as well as I. You were in the way. This needless civil war has gone on far too long. We’ve disrupted the economy of the empire by disrupting our own, and made ourselves roadblocks for imperial troops marching for Tarshan. All because you refused to be a good little pup and die. Her lady was clearly the more established, honorable leader of Forgery, so naturally the Empress took to her.”
“Then it’s as your lordship suspected.” Yko stepped forth. “Lady Ueko left Hasa and this swine here to die while she went back to settle matters with Lord Tsugo and Rain. She’s gone to claim her position as High Lady of Forgery.”
“Well, what are our options?” Risako asked. “We have only a fraction of her forces. Even combined with Agriculture, we’d have less than half the troops Ueko boasts.”
None responded. Sen thought for a second, searching for some solution. He needed to keep a grip on the situation, look for any advantages. He’d slain his rival for the throne, but now he still had to pry it from his mother’s claws.
Finally, he said, “We do have one large advantage. With us are all six Ginju, including myself. Apologies for the badly timed surprise. I was forced to keep that aspect about myself a secret for the sake of the honor duels, so that Ueko’s commanders would engage with me. I was not going to risk it getting out and possibly losing that advantage. Regardless, we have little choice on the matter of whether we will meet her at the hills. Lord Tsugo brought me out of a desperate situation, and it is honorable for me to return the favor.”
“What will we do with her?” Totane gestured in Renna’s direction. He’d said it as if biting off something despicably sour. The last Ginju of Rain stood straight as an arrow in Sen’s direction, ignoring the sudden negative attention around her.
“She comes too,” he told her. “Because she is indebted to us.”
Renna nodded in resignation, though she showed little else.
Sen faced Yko. “Send a message by bird informing my mother that Hasa is still alive, and that we are bringing her back for negotiations concerning Tsugo. We return to Hijimata.”