The Way Of The Dragon (30 page)

Jack bounded down the stairs. He ran through the now deserted tea garden to the inner gate of the bailey, where he found Yamato and the rest of the
Niten Ichi Ryū
students on guard.

‘Where’s your father? Where’s Masamoto?’ demanded Jack, breathless.

‘He’s escorting
daimyo
Takatomi to the keep.’

‘We have to stop him!’ said Jack, pulling Yamato from his post.

‘But our orders are to man the gate,’ he protested.

‘Ninja are in the bailey and may have broken through to the keep,’ explained Jack hurriedly. ‘Our duty is to protect your father and
daimyo
Takatomi. Are you
ashigaru
or samurai? Now come on!’

Grabbing his staff, Yamato sprinted after Jack.

Yamato glanced around the moonlit courtyard as they ran. ‘I can’t see any ninja. How did they evade the wall guards?’

‘The guards are all dead.’

As they approached the
donjon
entrance, samurai armed with spears and swords rushed to confront them.

‘Who goes there?’ challenged the lead guard.

‘Samurai of the
Niten Ichi Ryū
,’ replied Yamato. ‘We must speak with Masamoto-sama.’

‘No one’s to enter.’

‘But this is Masamoto-sama’s son,’ insisted Jack.

‘Our orders are to let
no one
through.’ The guard’s hand went to his sword.

‘But ninja may already be inside!’

‘Impossible. The enemy hasn’t even breached the outer walls.’

‘What’s going on?’ demanded a voice. It was Sensei Hosokawa.

‘Sensei!’ cried Jack, waving frantically to their swordmaster.

‘Let them pass,’ he ordered and the guards reluctantly backed off.

Jack and Yamato ran through the gates and up the steps to Sensei Hosokawa.

‘You have to warn Masamoto-sama. There are -‘

Masamoto descended the second-floor staircase at that very moment.

‘What are you two doing here?’ he demanded. ‘Why are you not at your post?’

‘The attack outside’s a diversion,’ blurted Jack. ‘
Daimyo
Kamakura has hired ninja to assassinate the Council.’

‘Trust Kamakura to resort to such tactics,’ he growled. ‘Sensei Hosokawa, inform all the patrols and have a sentry posted at each window. Double the guard round the Council on the sixth floor and -‘

‘It’s too late for that,’ said Jack. ‘I think they’re already inside.’

‘Are you certain?’ asked Masamoto, his eyes narrowing.

Jack nodded furiously. ‘I saw several ninja and all the guards on the battlement had been killed before the alarm was raised.’

Masamoto didn’t wait to hear any more. ‘Come on!’

He turned and thundered up the stairs. Jack and Yamato hurried after him, while Sensei Hosokawa barked orders to the guards. They raced along the corridor, up another staircase, past patrols of samurai and up to the sixth floor. By the time the two of them caught up with Masamoto, he was already speaking with the head guard.

‘No, Masamoto-sama, all’s quiet,’ replied the samurai. ‘The
daimyo
and his lordship are safely in their rooms. I’ve stationed guards outside each door.’

‘Organize an immediate search. Begin with his lordship Satoshi’s floor.’

The guard bowed and ran off.

‘We’ll start on this level,’ Masamoto said, addressing Jack and Yamato. ‘
Daimyo
Takatomi is our priority.’

They headed down the corridor and bore right. The hallway was dark and shadowy. With all the torches doused, the only light came from the soft glow of candles seeping through the inner paper walls and the pale moonlight that filtered through the slatted windows of the keep. Danger appeared to lurk in every darkened corner. Masamoto led the way.

‘Stay alert,’ he whispered. ‘
Daimyo
Takatomi’s room is down the next corridor.’

As they hurried along the hallway, an alarm bell rang in Jack’s head.
Didn’t the samurai say he’d put guards on every door?

All of sudden Jack slipped on the polished wooden floor and landed with a thump. Masamoto spun round, his two swords at the ready.

‘I told you to stay alert!’ hissed Masamoto, glaring at him.

Not bothering to wait, he ran on, Yamato close on his father’s heels. As Jack scrambled to his feet, his hand touched something sticky and wet. His palm came away slick with blood. He followed the trail, shiny in the moonlight, to a small wooden door. As he undid the latch, out fell the body of a guard, his throat slit open exactly like the sentries on the wall.

‘Back here!’ shouted Jack, trying to stifle his shock.

Masamoto and Yamato turned on the spot and saw the corpse hanging out of the storage room. They ran back down the corridor as Jack slid open the unguarded
shoji
to an inner room. A man lay sprawled across the
tatami
-matted floor, a large pool of blood staining the fine rush straw a deep red.

‘
Daimyo
Yukimura!’ exclaimed Masamoto, pushing past Jack.

The
shoji
to the adjoining room was ajar. Masamoto flung it aside, only to discover a second member of the Council spreadeagled across the
tatami
, a garrotte wrapped round his throat.

Hearing a cry for help, the three of them ran back into the hallway and sprinted for
daimyo
Takatomi’s corridor. The two guards that had been posted outside his door lay dead. Masamoto burst in.

Three ninja surrounded
daimyo
Takatomi who lay wounded on the floor, blood pouring from a cut to his sword arm. Emi was by his side, a
tantō
in her hand poised to defend her father to her last breath.

Masamoto charged, cutting down the first ninja with his
katana
before the assassins had time to react. The second ninja made a lunge for
daimyo
Takatomi with his sword, but Masamoto slammed his
wakizashi
on top, deflecting the thrust away from his lord. The ninja retaliated, now attacking Masamoto and driving him through a wall into the next room.

Seizing the opportunity, the third ninja rushed at
daimyo
Takatomi with a
tantō
. Jack was too far away to stop him. But Yamato used the reach of his staff. As the assassin thrust his knife at their
daimyo
, he swiftly brought his
bō
down on to the ninja’s wrist. There was a crack of bone and the
tantō
was knocked from his grasp, barely a blade’s breadth from
daimyo
Takatomi’s startled face.

The ninja’s reactions, though, were lightning fast. He kicked Yamato in the chest, sending him flying backwards. Reaching for the
ninjatō
strapped to his back, the ninja now rushed to impale Yamato on his blade.

Jack leapt to his friend’s defence. At the same moment, Emi buried her knife into the assassin’s leg. The ninja screamed in pain. Outnumbered and injured, he fled through the door.

‘After him!’ ordered Masamoto as he drove his
katana
through his opponent.

Jack pursued the assassin into the corridor. The ninja turned the corner. But when Jack reached the outer hallway, the ninja had disappeared.

‘Where did he go?’ said Yamato, running up behind Jack.

Jack searched the shadows, wary of any recesses where the ninja might be hiding. Yamato then spotted a smear of blood on the window sill. One of the wooden slats to the window was missing. Jack pulled himself up and through the gap. More splashes of blood stained the roof tiles.

‘Do you know how high we are?’ exclaimed Yamato, going pale at the thought of having to follow him.

Jack knew his friend was petrified of heights. ‘Stay here, in case any other ninja try to escape this way.’

Finding his footing on a ledge, Jack stepped out on to the curved roof. The ground was a long way down, an inky-black sea in the darkness. Although he wasn’t afraid of heights, he knew a single mistake could result in a fatal fall.

Further along, the ninja was shuffling towards the crest where the roofs of the sixth and fifth floors met. Keeping his centre of gravity low, Jack crept after him. As the ninja reached the ridge, he spotted Jack following him. This time the assassin chose to fight rather than flee and grabbed a blowpipe from his waistbelt.

Jack realized he had seconds before the ninja would fire. With no other choice, he ran across the tiles and threw himself at the assassin. They collided, forcing the ninja to drop his blowpipe. But the two of them now began to slide down the roof towards the eaves, picking up speed as they got closer and closer. Jack snatched out for anything he could. At the last moment, his fingers found purchase on one of the decorative golden finials and he clung on for all his life.

But the ninja kept going, his broken wrist preventing him getting a grip on anything. He tumbled down the slope and disappeared. There was silence, then a distant thud as a body hit the ground.

Pulling himself back up to the ridge, Jack breathed a sigh of relief. He secretly hoped that had been the ninja who’d killed Takuan.

Suddenly there were shouts from above.

‘Assassin!’

‘Save his lordship!’

Then a loud bang and smoke billowed from the uppermost windows.

A moment later, a black hooded figure emerged on to the roof and ran with cat-like ease along the tiles. Jumping to a lower floor, he zigzagged his way down the roofs of the
donjon
.

Getting to his feet, Jack drew his
katana
and waited. For once, he had the element of surprise. The ninja certainly wouldn’t be expecting to meet a samurai on the roof.

The assassin rounded the corner of the building. Through the slit in his black hood, a single green eye flared with fury and amazement.

‘A samurai who thinks he’s a ninja!’ hissed Dragon Eye, emitting a callous laugh.

Jack’s sword arm wavered. He hadn’t expected to meet his arch-enemy.

The ninja took a step towards him.

‘Stay where you are!’ ordered Jack, steadying his
katana
.

‘You’ve caught me off-guard,’ admitted Dragon Eye, still approaching. ‘My surprise at your appearance is matched only by my amazement at your continued survival. I trust your friend didn’t take too long to die.’

‘
You
killed Takuan!’

‘I’ve killed countless samurai,’ shot back Dragon Eye. ‘But I don’t stop to ask their names first.’

Jack felt his anger boil over at the ninja’s coldness. ‘But why murder him? What did he mean to you?’

‘Nothing.
You
were the target, but your friend got in the way. You’re the reason he died.’

Jack wrestled with his conscience. Was it his fault again that he’d put his friends’ lives in mortal danger? Surely not. This raid had nothing to do with him. The ninja’s mission was to assassinate the Council and Satoshi.

‘Don’t you work for Father Bobadillo? Why attack the side that pays you?’

‘I work for no one,’ Dragon Eye spat. ‘But I
kill
for anyone who pays.’

A glimpse of steel flashed from the ninja’s hip. On instinct alone, Jack cut down with his sword. It met a
shuriken
head on. The lethal star was deflected off into the night. Dragon Eye ran at him, but Jack brought his blade up, stopping the ninja in his tracks. Jack held the
kissaki
to his throat.

‘Yet again you impress me,
gaijin
,’ said Dragon Eye, seemingly unconcerned at his predicament. ‘A long sword wouldn’t be my choice of weapon on a roof, but you handle it well. Your talents as a samurai are wasted. I could teach you so much more if you were ninja.’

‘Just tell me where the
rutter
is.’

‘I don’t have it. But you know who does. Ask him yourself.’

‘So Father Bobadillo
did
hire you?’

Dragon Eye nodded imperceptibly. ‘Not only to steal the
rutter
, but to kill
you
too.’

Jack felt his blood run cold at having his suspicions confirmed.

‘Some priest he is,’ laughed Dragon Eye. ‘The question is, do you have what it takes to kill
me
?’

Staring into the eye of the assassin, Jack saw no fear, no guilt, no remorse in the man’s soul. This was the very ninja responsible for murdering his father, garrotting him before Jack’s own eyes. For killing the innocent maid Chiro and assassinating Yamato’s brother, Tenno. Dragon Eye had destroyed not only his life, but those of his friends too. All the pain, suffering and loss he’d experienced since being in Japan welled up inside him, threatening to explode in a burst of murderous fury.

This was the moment he’d been training for.

‘
Yes
, I do,’ breathed Jack, pressing the tip of his blade against the ninja’s neck.

‘I don’t believe you,’ goaded Dragon Eye. ‘If you had, you would have done it by now. I told you once before,
never hesitate
!’

Out of nowhere, a ninja materialized from behind and grabbed Jack. He was yanked backwards off his feet and thrown down the other side of the ridge. Losing his grip on the
katana
, the sword clattered down the slope and disappeared over the side.

Jack dug his heels into the tiles, somehow managing to halt his fall. A moment later, the ninja pounced alongside him, landing on the narrow ledge between the wall and roof. Jack scrambled to his feet and threw up his guard. But, stood on the slope, he was at a dangerous disadvantage.

Dragon Eye appeared on the ridge above him. Silhouetted against the full moon, he looked more terrifying than ever. A black ghost in the night.

‘Your time has come,
gaijin
,’ he hissed, the blade of a
tantō
glinting in his hand. ‘You’ve nowhere to run.’

Jack peered over the eaves. It was a long, long way down.

‘Up there!’ came a faint shout.

A volley of arrows hurtled towards them. Jack dived for cover, the steel-tipped arrows clattering against the walls and tiles of the keep. When he looked up again, Dragon Eye had vanished.