Someone screamed. No. They were all screaming. Several pairs of feet and slippers pummeled Lawrence. Utterly panicked, the fools were stepping on top of him in their haste to get away. “Gah!” he cried out as a barefoot heel landed on his hand.

They probably thought he was one of the attacking samurai.

“He’s not one of them! He’s not one of them!” a woman was screaming a command. It was Sakura, and she wasn’t very loud.

“Get out of the way!”

It was Tomiichi.

The failed mage had known instantly when Sakura called out to him that magic was about to begin, and it had. Now he lay on the floor, a heaping mess of aching muscles. The crowd was beginning to calm down. Fortunately, but Lawrence didn’t much care at the moment.

“Lawrence!” she called in her accent, sounding like, “Ro-rensu.” Her hands rested atop his shoulder and arm. “Lawrence, are you all right?”

He opened his eyes to find her leaning over him, looking into his face with concern. “I’m…”

He almost jerked back at the proximity between them. He stared for a moment, surprised that she had rushed to him. It was quite painful to be trampled by more than one person.

Now he didn’t care.

“I’m quite well, Nakamura-san.”

She blinked, probably realizing she had called him by his name. Twice just then, rather than addressing him more formally. It was probably better that he addressed her more properly, especially now that her family was watching.

With her help, and that of Tomiichi, he sat up, wincing from the pain of being walked all over.

“Let me help you.”

“No,” he said quickly, “don’t use your—“

She didn’t listen.

Instantly he could feel the healing effects of her magic, the tingling sensation, a slight pain seeping through his bones and muscles.

She gasped, taking her hands from his body.

Is it painful for her?

“Are you all right?”

She smiled. “I’m quite well.” She looked up, and Lawrence found what had distracted her. It was Ishi.

He nodded. “Are you well, boy?”

The quiet young lad nodded. “You came for us?”

“Yes, I came for you.” He couldn’t help but feel embarrassed. “Are you all right?”

“You already asked me that, master Lawrence.”

“I did, didn’t I? So… ‘master’?”

Ishi shrugged.

“You young fool,” Lawrence said, getting up off the ground. Sakura was quick to help him. Her parents stepped forward.

“So,” Hitomo said. “You survived a dual with General Muji, the Masked Demon!”

“I got lucky.”

Lawrence looked about, still dumbfounded as the rest of them. They were somewhere else. It looked like a large raised platform for performing festival plays and other celebrations. There were lanterns, but darkened.

“Everyone thought you wouldn’t make it,” Tomiichi said. “Well, everyone except Sakura.”

“Actually,” Ishi said, “she wanted to rescue you, so she thought you were finished as well.”

“Arigatou,” she said, thanking the boy with a subtle roll of her eyes.

“Rescue me?” He couldn’t help but smile. He bowed slightly and smiled at the dancer. “Thank you.”

“Of course.” She said the words almost indifferently. “You were on your way to rescue us, weren’t you?”

“Where are we?” Hitomo asked, looking around.

It was dark outside, but a glow of blue morning sunlight was beginning to make the early morning known as birds were also beginning to chirp.

The group was made up of about forty or so people. Some of them were dancers or drummers from the palace performances, others were noble born, and some were simply just servants. Everyone was fanning out, talking to one another, wondering what to do next. There was a definite air of apprehension and confusion. Some were loud, while others were quiet, simply relieved.

“Anywhere away from where we just were is fine for me,” Tomiichi said.

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.

“And me,” Yukio said. Sakura’s mother held her younger daughter with a protective arm around her shoulder.

One of the other dancers walked to their tiny group. She looked angry, and she gestured with her arms, making her frustration evidentially known. “So where are we now?”

There was another dancer and a drummer. They came forward as well, but neither of them said anything.

“That’s a good question,” Lawrence said. “We should probably get out of the city.”

“I agree,” Hitomo said.

“I still can’t believe Daimyō Sakuraichi is a traitor,” Tomiichi said, rubbing his forehead.

“How do you know that?” Lawrence asked.

“He held us prisoner.”

“Are you certain of this? Perhaps they were protecting you from the enemy?” He didn’t quite believe it himself, but something wasn’t making sense here.

“Who are you people?”

Everyone looked toward the voice. It was an old scowling woman and two young boys awake for what was probably the morning chores.

“Worry not…” Lawrence turned. Found a red-skinned oni with long curving horns on his head. “I simply… brought them here using the artifice of magic. No need to worry.”

“We just escaped,” one of the other dancers said. She seemed shaken at the recent ordeal. Unsurprising.

“It’s all right, Yumi,” Sakura said, going to her side. She smiled at the other woman.

“Do you need to sit, Yumiko?” the other dancer asked. She seemed upset.

The girl nodded and they moved away. Everyone was still shaken, though they seemed to expect that they would be somewhere else, all save for the local townsfolk, who were beginning to gather in small knots. Lawrence could hardly make them out in the early morning light.

Chickens clucked about as a distant rooster made its morning call to arms. Lawrence addressed the oni. “My name is Lawrence Cazwick.” He put out a hand.

The oni looked at him for a moment, then clasped his outstretched arm. “Hiun Yaed. It is… nice to meet you, Lawrence.”

“Do you think you can get us out of the city gates?”

He shook his head. “I… may be able to do the Movement one more time… but… I would need to rest for a time. And I would need considerable resources.”

“What kind of resources?”

“Mmm… crystals, I would say…”

“Crystals?” Tomiichi asked.

“Magical crystals,” Lawrence said, answering their curiosity. “They’re used to store and transfer magical energy.”

“Yes,” Hiun said. ”That is… correct.”

“I can get you crystals.”

Everyone turned to regard Ishi.

He stood there like he was asking to deliver a war correspondence, which he had done for Lawrence many times before. “Take me to the place,” he continued, “and I can get some for you, yeah?”

“No,” Lawrence said. “Ignore him.”

“I can do it!”

He can be so persistent sometimes…

He pointed a warning finger at the boy. The last time Lawrence did this, he had to follow through. He did so by leaving Ishi out to sleep in the cold with the soldiers after the boy had accidentally burnt his tent to cinders.

The boy sighed and threw up his arms. He kicking his feet as he walked away. “Now,” Lawrence said, “where were we?”

“You… were asking me if I could get you out of the city?” The way the Hiun said it, with that odd rise of intonation made it sound like not only a question, but a confused one.

“We have to get to the harbor,” Hitomo said.

Tomiichi nodded. “It’s the only safe way out.”

“Are there ships there?” Lawrence asked.

“Yes!” Sakura said. It’s perfect. She pushed a strand of hair behind her ear. She was still wearing her white kimono from last night, and it was covered with dried blood. “We have our own ship! Even if all the others are taken, ours should still be there. Well, its Umo’s… Was Umo’s.”

“Why would it still be there?” Lawrence asked as he noted her sudden change in temperament. This Umo must have meant something to her, he thought. Was that his blood on her?

“Because,” she said, “the ship isn’t in the main harbor. It’s off the peninsula to the west. No one uses it to moor their ships.”

Sakura’s mother stirred, looking doubtful. It was summer, but the early morning was quite chilly. She was holding Yoko close to herself to keep warm as Hitomo put an arm around her.

The towns people certainly didn’t want to help a group of strangers this large. Not when they were already frightened. The main city was visible from where they were in the suburban outskirts atop the foothills. Most of the city was visible, and the harbor beyond, out of sight because of the ridge at the center of the city which came up after a valley, the river cutting in between the two higher landforms.

“If we make for your ship,” Lawrence said, “we should avoid the inner city. That’s where your possible traitor daimyō is—what was his name?”

“Sakuraichi,” Hiun said. “But… he’s not our only concern. And neither is getting to this ship.”

The failed mage nodded, deciding that it was best to assume this Sakuraichi and his Masked Demon were indeed traitors. At least for now.

Tomiichi was surveying the smoke and fires still burning across Yukai City. Most of them were situated near the palace “If only the army were here,” he muttered. “This attack is so precise. It’s hard to grasp. But we have other concerns.

“What other concerns do you mean?”

“Why… the Princess, of course.”

Who?!

He frowned, glanced toward the others. Evidently they were just as surprised and confused as he was. “The Princess?”

Hiun raised a quizzical eyebrow. There was enough light to see that much now, as the horizon was beginning to brighten. The sun would crest it very soon. “…Yes.” He then gestured over to someone.

Lawrence and the others glanced in that direction, but she was too hard for any of them to make out properly in the early morning darkness.

“Why hasn’t anyone said anything yet?” Sakura asked.

“This idea that the Princess has been with us the entire time is preposterous,” Yukio hissed. “Absolutely preposterous.”

“But…” Hiun said, “is… it?”

“Yes!”

“Per…haps she does not want to be… known,” he said stoically. “Perhaps… I have… assisted her.”

“What,” Sakura said, “you mean with… with magic?”

Hiun reached up to caress one of his horns and smiled. “In… deed.”

The dancer seemed elated at the prospect.

The failed mage nodded. “So we make for the other side of the peninsula for this ship. What is she called?”

“The Ikaima Dancing Fan, of course.”

“All right,” Lawrence said. “We make for the peninsula. I suggest we skirt these foothills and pass through the Western Temple,” he pointed. It wasn’t very visible atop the mountain. He felt familiar enough with the structure for it to be a reliable landmark, because he had seen it in a painting on a shop wall.

“I agree,” Tomiichi said. “Crossing through the mountains in the west would take too long. It would certainly be safer, but we do not have the supplies.”

“We could take what we need?” Hitomo suggested quietly to the utter shock of Yukio.

She gaped at his suggestion. “And my husband… a samurai. I will not hear of such things!”

The old man breathed in deeply, then let his breath out nice and slow. It seemed his idea of honor was a little bit different from that of his wife’s.

“Let us skirt the foothills,” Hiun said, not taking an exceedingly long time to get the words out, as he usually did. He seemed determined at the prospect.

“We can rest at the temple if we have to,” Lawrence said.

I need to reveal myself to the Princess, he thought. There’s sure to be a lot of coin in it for whoever rescues her. Her father would be well pleased. A mage come to aid the royal Princess.

“Then we should go now,” Sakura said, turning to glance at the group.

“I agree,” Lawrence said.

“Hmm… yes,” Hiun said. “Indeed. Let us… depart for the temple. Immediately.”