Takeo's Chronicles, page 87
Heads turned to see a massive, red figure filling the passageway.
“Fancy speech,” Borota said, grinning wide. “It all makes sense now. A ronin is a samurai set free.”
Takeo scowled and turned to the others. “That’s enough training for one day. Go on and spread the gossip. I know you’re all eager to do so.”
The samurai troops were quick to obey, leaping up and bowing low to their commander before scampering off into the shadows of the fort. Kuniko issued some heartfelt words of thanks, but a hunger pain struck Takeo at the same time, and he missed most of it. Once they’d all gone, Takeo walked to the wall at a slow pace to store his practice sword for another time.
“It’s been a long time since you wanted to talk,” Takeo said.
Borota stepped out of the shadows, revealing his hideous form to the world. He was using his kanabo to scratch his back.
“Who said I wanted to talk?” Borota asked.
“You haven’t spoken to me for days,” Takeo said. “And as far as I can tell, you won’t speak to anyone but me at all. It’s as if you aren’t here to fight or help Lady Zhenzhen, but instead just to watch me. So, whenever you open your mouth and issue a word, I know that it’s because you want to talk, and to specifically talk to me.”
Borota laughed, though Takeo couldn’t remember saying anything funny. The oni took his kanabo off his back and held it at the ready, the claws on his hands digging into the wood. As Takeo leaned back against the stone wall, the oni’s form filled the room, and the creature took a few practice swings through the air. The void shuttered from the force, rumbling at the immortal’s power.
“I think I have you figured out, Takeo Karaoshi,” Borota said. “It took some time, but it’s all coming together now.”
“Congratulations,” Takeo replied flatly. “We’ll raise a toast in your honor.”
“It’s your sword, isn’t it?”
Takeo’s heart skipped. Borota grinned.
“Oh, don’t look so surprised, little ronin,” the oni continued. “You should know that your secret wouldn't stay hidden for long. You're too powerful not to draw attention, but most seem to think the power lies within you. We did, too, after we heard you killed Lady Xuan all on your own. However, I knew there was something unnatural in it. Rumors abound of a deal with a jinni, but you don't look like you've sacrificed anything. Clearly, the power doesn't lie within you, and I’ve figured it out. I’m certain.”
Takeo forced down the rising bile in his throat with a swallow. The oni was right. Takeo knew that it was only a matter of time before someone realized his sword was enchanted. The upper echelon of the Nguyen family already knew, but he had hoped it would take time for word to travel. He hoped to already be well-established in the Hanu army, with some weight to throw around.
“You know, if you had asked, I could have just told you,” Takeo said.
“No, no,” Borota replied, taking another practice swing through the air. “I think not. I think you want people to believe it's just you, for as long as possible. An illusion of insurmountable power. It was a good idea.”
“Is this the part where you tell me the jig is up? That my secret is out, and everyone will know I’m a fraud?”
“You’re not a fraud, Takeo Karaoshi,” Borota said, unperturbed. “I fought you before you had these powers. I’m well aware that you are a lot like me. If someone were to take away my kanabo, they wouldn’t make me any less deadly. They’d just piss me off.”
“I’m glad you see that,” Takeo said. “I’d hate to have to teach you another lesson.”
The oni grinned, adding to that look of insanity which plagued his kind. What with the wild black hair and long, white horns on his head, Borota captured an unhinged look of something wicked and bored, which has a terrible combination for any peace-loving creature.
“You should watch your back,” Borota said. “I saw you down there, fighting the Katsu army. Your sword doesn’t grant its wielder additional eyes.”
“Noted,” Takeo replied. “Any other words of wisdom? Perhaps something not so obvious that an akki could have thought of it?”
Borota grunted and laid his kanabo back over his shoulders, and then draped his heavy arms over the wood. He looked about the stone room as if he’d forgotten something in it, but then remembered the thing was elsewhere and turned toward the hallway. He glanced over his shoulder to meet Takeo's gaze. Neither flinched, and the oni left.
Takeo shook his head and sighed.
“Oni,” he whispered. “Never in my life did I think I’d be working with an oni.”
Of course, I never thought I’d be working with a rakshasa either. Or a viking, or an ogre. I never thought I’d fall in love with an amazon. I think that’s enough evidence to suggest I have no idea what’s going to happen to me.
But the second he thought that, a long forgotten prophecy drifted back to his mind. It was a warning that a senin on a mountain gave him, and a chill ran down his spine.
Takeo sat down and crossed his legs. He drew his sword and rested the blade across his lap. Where his hand touched the handle, heat flowed into his veins and spread across his body. With it came a confidence that was both wholly unnatural and yet highly addictive. A lust for battle entered his extremities, and he felt a focus that was impossible to obtain outside of combat. He took three deep breaths and then sheathed sword. When he took his hand away, the heat spilled out, yet the feeling lingered. He stole some of it away into his heart and stood.
Then he went to find Gavin.
Chapter 25
Takeo exited the room and paced down the dark hallway. He had every intention of letting the impending silence roll over him, as the fort was so empty that it mocked a ruin in Savara, but that’s not what happened. Instead, his ears picked up the not so subtle sounds of muffled shouting coming through the stone walls. In a flash, all melancholy anticipation was dismissed and every body part came alive. He focus the shouting, discerning its source, and at first thought it was coming from within the fort but then he realized all the yelling was coming from outside.
Takeo’s hand went to his sword, and he dashed down the hallway with inhumane speed. He turned the corner towards the fort’s center and found several other soldiers making a break for the ladders to the roof. They acknowledged him with a curt bow.
“Sir!” they paused before breaking into another sprint, and Takeo ran with them.
“What’s happening?” he demanded.
“A gashadokuro, sir!” one of them shouted, elated. “It’s come for the Katsu army!”
Takeo breathed a sigh of relief but didn’t slow his pace. He climbed the ladders alongside his troops and broke out onto the roof.
Once free of the insulating stone, the uproar was deafening. The entire Katsu army was indeed shouting, cheering, and banging every piece of equipment on all sides of the fort. The sounds was so loud that Takeo had to shout to the nearest soldier just to be heard, asking where the gashadokuro was, but then noticed for himself that his entire small force was gathered on one end of the wall. Takeo ran over, and they made room. He caught sight of golden hair in the sunlight and made for Gavin. To his delight and surprise, he noticed Yeira wasn’t there.
Next, he caught sight of the gashadokuro.
The huge, white skeleton had broken through the Katsu lines a few camps down from Botan’s tent. A massive thing, the gashadokuro was sweeping about the grass, flinging its arms in all directions, and opening its jaws to screech. The sound was immediately droned out though, overpowered by the roar of the entire army. It meandered about, seeming disoriented and in a blind rage. All its power for naught as it swiped at nothing but air.
“Takeo,” Gavin shouted, just barely audible over the noise. “What’s happening?”
“Common army tactic,” Takeo replied, also shouting. “Too much noise confuses it, and they can’t find a victim. Watch how the sound pitches from one side of the army to the other. See the flags?”
Takeo pointed out how each section of the army had a man or woman standing apart from the others, and was holding a large flag aloft, but at different angles. Those furthest from the gashadokuro had their flags raised the highest, while those closest held their flags lowest. Gavin tilted his head to listen, and his eyes demonstrated that he realized those furthest away were also making the most noise.
“It’s a method to draw gashadokuro out,” Takeo explained.
“So are they just going to keep shouting then?” Gavin asked.
Takeo shook his head, scanned the army line, and then pointed to a line of heavily armored infantry emerging from the Katsu army, wielding warhammers.
“Dangerous work,” Takeo shouted. “Under Ichiro's rule, this was corporal punishment.”
The Katsu troops, despite being surrounded by deafening roars, still tiptoed their way over to the gashadokuro and surrounded it. They signaled to each other by hand and then closed slowly, stepping carefully. They were doing great, unfortunately, because the gashadokuro didn’t pick them up. It was still screaming that horrid, high pitch screech as its white claws ripped up the dirt while it flailed mindlessly about.
The shock troops closed to just a pace outside creature's reach, and one raised an arm. Then he dropped it, they all shouted at once, and charged, swinging their weapons with all their might. Ten hammers fell towards heavy bones thicker than a man’s leg. One cracked a thigh, another smashed open the ribs, another slammed into the knee. Four deflected or missed, two were repulsed as white arms swung, and one wielder took a sharpened set of claws to stomach. He screamed—not that Takeo could hear it, but he knew it happened all the same—and was flung into the air to land crippled several paces away. Yet those strikes that landed proved enough, and the gashadokuro went down on one bony knee. The hammers struck again, shattering arms, elbows, ribs, and the other knee, and the gashadokuro continued to screeching as it fell to the ground. The weapons fell, but the gashadokuro got out one last attack, sweeping a man’s feet out from under him and then grabbed the man by the ankle. He clawed at the dirt as the skeleton dragged him toward its mouth, and he might have been bitten in half had not another shock trooper slammed his club down on the creature’s wrist, shattering its grip. The lucky man scampered away as fast as his fours limbs could carry him while his partners finished the dirty work. They pounded the skeleton into dust, and only then did the shrieking stop.
The army flags fell to the ground, and all was silent again.
“Damn,” Nicholas said from the back of the crowd. “I was really hoping that thing would do some damage.”
“As with most things in life, it’s a combination of skill and luck with gashadokuro,” Takeo replied. “Where they appear, how quickly the army responds, and the soldiers training. It was useful to know they won’t be easily fooled.” Takeo paused and looked around. “Alright, the show is over,” he shouted. “Everyone off the roof, now, before one of Katsu’s men gets the bright idea to count our measly numbers. Go!”
Most responded with curt acknowledgment, casting a lingering gaze at the bone pile in the distance, and then heading for the ladders. A few, such as the rooftop patrol, paused to meet Takeo’s eye with an unspoken question, wondering if they were included. Takeo nodded to them, and they hunkered off towards the ladders. Even Gavin went to obey, though more likely he was just headed for Yeira, when Takeo caught the knight by the shoulder.
“A moment,” Takeo whispered.
“Ah, finally got the courage to talk to me?” Gavin said as everyone cleared off and gave his samurai friend a charming smirk. “And such great timing, too. Oh wait. Was that gashadokuro your doing? I wouldn’t be surprised. That’d be just like you to set up some whole deep, complex plan involving entire armies acting like set pieces. You know, you could have just waited until I went to take a piss and caught me then.”
Takeo sighed. “Unfortunately not. Nicholas has been making a habit of cornering me there, trying to ask the very same questions I’m sure you have for me.”
Gavin blinked and touched a hand to his chest in dainty, mock fashion. “Oh-ho! Questions that I have, eh?”
He laughed and paced off down the roof line as if on guard duty.
Takeo followed, furrowing his eye brows and shaking his head.
“Well, yes. Don’t you have questions? Things to say?”
“Takeo, you never cease to amaze me,” Gavin replied. “Unpredictable and infallible in combat, you always seem to know where my blade is coming from, even before I do. Yet here, in the arena of life, you act like a fresh recruit. Let me guess, between you and Emily, she made the first move. Am I right?”
The samurai balked. “What does that have to do with anything?”
“Nothing,” Gavin replied, chuckling. “Let me help you out here, like she did for you. Shouldn’t you have things to say to me?”
Takeo stopped in his tracks and let the knight continue on down, following the parapet. It took embarrassingly long, and Takeo had to imagine what someone else would do in his position—a normal person. He jogged to catch up with the knight.
“Congratulations,” Takeo answered. “That's what I should have said. Congratulations to the both of you.”
Gavin’s smirk pulled wide into a full grin, and the knight slung an arm over Takeo’s shoulders to shake him roughly. Takeo tensed but took the touch in stride. The knight laughed, let go, and then clapped Takeo on the back.
“Last but not least,” the knight said. “And thank you. Anything else?”
“You’re not angry with me?” Takeo replied, the words tumbling out.
“Oh, I should be. I really, really should be. Sometimes I catch myself idly thinking about it, how my one true friend managed to lie to my face for so long, but nothing comes of it. Try as I might, I just can’t work up a grudge against you.”
Gavin’s tone suggested the argument could end there, but Takeo couldn’t believe it. He’d just spent hours, days even, avoiding Gavin and sweating the consequences of this very conversation. He’d built it up so much in his mind that Gavin’s dismissive attitude seemed to cheat Takeo of the beating he’d anticipated. Against his better judgment, Takeo pried.
“You knew all this time?” Takeo said. “How much did Yeira tell you?”
“She didn’t say, and I didn’t ask her,” Gavin replied. “I figured it out on my own, and that’s about as much as I want to think about it. Honestly, Takeo, I don’t want to know any more. All I wanted to hear from her was that our baby was alive and well, and she said that it was. Everything else is in the past.”
“And you’re okay with that? Are you sure?”
“Take a page from the angels’ book, Takeo,” Gavin answered, folding his arms behind his back. “Live and let live. The only direction you can ever move is forward, and sometimes knowing too much can lead you down the wrong path. Ignorance isn’t bliss; it’s survival. I only have one question for you, same as I had for Yeira. Is the child mine?”
Takeo tripped on nothing, and then froze as he tried to recover. The knight stopped and turned, his erect stature making it so that he looked down on Takeo, and the samurai gaped up at him.
“What sort of question is that?” Takeo replied. “Of course it is. Why would you—” He stopped, Gavin’s well placed dead stare finally drilling through Takeo’s thick skull. His eyes narrowed. “Never, Gavin. Never.”
They held the gaze for several heartbeats, both men strong and steady in their stance. It ended when a smirk crept slowly up Gavin’s left cheek.
“Good,” he said. “That’s what I thought, and that’s all I need to know.”
The knight went at ease and continued his leisurely stroll along the roof’s edge. Takeo breathed a sigh of relief and caught up.
“So, does this change anything?” Takeo asked.
“Yeira’s pregnancy?” Gavin shook his head. “Nothing’s changed, at least not immediately. We still have to get out of this situation alive. Though I will be honest, it does make surrendering a more tempting offer.”
“You know that won’t work out for you,” Takeo replied. “You’re a sellsword, not a samurai. They’ll keep us alive for hostage exchange, but you’d be executed so as not to be a threat to the Katsu name again. That’s half the reason I refused surrendering. Yeira, though, she’ll be spared for the child’s sake.”
Gavin laughed. “You shouldn’t have told me that. Now I have a final option.”
“If it comes to that, we’ll just lock her in a cellar,” Takeo replied. “They can storm the fort and put us all to the sword, but they won’t find her until their bloodlust ends. Lord Botan seems like the kind of man who might try and use her pregnancy to justify murdering us all. She will live.”
“Well, that's good to hear. At least I can sleep easy at night.”
“Not me,” Takeo replied. “I still have to get you out of this alive. Your child needs a father.”
Gavin stopped as if punched in the gut. He blinked rapidly and reached out a hand for the wall to steady himself. Upon finding it, he decided to rest his chest on the stone. He whistled over the side.
“A father,” he whispered. “Me? I don’t know the first thing about being a father. I never had one of those. What in the world am I supposed to do?”
Takeo shrugged. “Don’t know. I never had one either.”
“Duncan did,” Gavin said. “He had a great father, actually. And Emily, though I’m not sure if I ever met him. I could ask Nicholas about him.”
They shared a glance, with Takeo raising an eyebrow.
“Yeah, bad idea,” Gavin said.
“Let’s just focus on the task at hand. Getting out of here alive.”
“Any plans yet?”
“Just one so far,” Takeo replied. “Don't starve to death.”
“Well that shouldn’t be too hard,” Gavin said. “We’re still working through those two komainu we killed, and we’ve got the rations we brought with us. With so few of us remaining, so long as we tighten our belts, we should be able to hold out for some time. I was a starving orphan once. I can do it again.”
