Young Samurai 06 - The Ring of Fire, page 14
Jack backed slowly away. He didn’t want to see any more. Nor did he wish to wake the bloodthirsty hounds.
Once he was safely round the corner, he dashed to the front entrance and eased the door open. The bandits lay sprawled throughout the room, straw blankets thrown across themselves. Many looked to be comatose from the effects of too much saké; others were fast asleep and snoring loudly. Above, smoke poured through the thick thatch and formed a deadly cloud in the rafters, but the tang of woodsmoke from the still-burning hearth helped mask the fire in the roof. Jack prayed he could get the girls out before any of the bandits stirred.
Moving silently and swiftly, just as he’d been taught by the ninja Grandmaster, Jack weaved between the unconscious bodies to a shoji at the back of the room. Sliding it open a crack, he spied a large cooking area and over to his left a barred door. Beside it squatted a bandit, who gave a great yawn then began to pick at his teeth in boredom.
Although the man was completely off-guard, Jack realized that, before he had a chance to silence him, the bandit could raise the alarm. Ninja stealth wouldn’t help him in this instance. But a simple disguise might work …
Looking around, he found a discarded saké bottle. Then, pulling his straw hat over his face, Jack boldly opened the door and staggered inside. In the gloom of the kitchen, he hoped to fool the guard.
‘Got … any … more?’ Jack slurred, holding up the empty bottle.
Barely looking at him, the guard grumbled, ‘You know we’re not allowed any when on guard duty.’
Stumbling closer, Jack was almost on top of the man before the bandit realized his fatal error. Reaching for his sword, the guard went to shout a warning. But Jack drove forwards and struck him with Fall Down Fist – one of the Sixteen Secret Fists of the ninja, the blow instantly knocked the man out. He dropped to the floor like a sack of cloth.
Raising the wooden bar off its mountings, Jack yanked the door open. The girls cowered in the corner, afraid he might be a bandit. Jack lifted the hat from his face and they now stared in awe. Some were even more terrified by his foreign features, clearly believing him to be a spirit.
‘Follow me!’ he hissed. ‘And be quiet.’
Miya was the first to move and the other girls, overcoming their initial shock, quickly fell in line.
Checking the main hall, Jack discovered it had filled with smoke and the air was rapidly thickening into an impenetrable fog. Although the bandits lay below the line of the noxious grey cloud, a few were beginning to cough and splutter in their sleep.
Jack led the girls through the haze as quickly as he dared. They tried to cover their mouths, but it was impossible not to choke on the foul air. One of the girls started having a coughing fit and Jack urged them to hurry before she woke every bandit in the room. But they were frustratingly slow, petrified of stepping on their captors. Reaching the door, he ushered Miya out.
‘Run for the trees,’ he whispered. ‘And don’t stop!’
Directing the other girls after her, Jack helped each of them out. Then the last girl, overcome by smoke, stumbled and fell on to a sleeping bandit.
The man woke angrily. ‘Watch it!’ he growled.
His eyes blearily focused on the girl and a momentary look of confusion passed across his face at seeing her free. Then he noticed the cloud of smoke filling the bunkhouse.
Throwing the girl off, he jumped to his feet and roared, ‘FIRE! FIRE!’
35
FIRE FIGHT
Chaos reigned as the bandits awoke and scrambled for the door in panic. A few didn’t rise at all, having already succumbed to the toxic fumes. The rest barged one another out of the way in a bid to escape first.
Jack dived back into the bunkhouse to rescue the girl. He forced his way against the tide of bandits, all of whom were more concerned with their own lives than the stranger in their midst. Finding the girl, he yanked her to her feet and shoved her towards the door. She had just got out when Jack was seized from behind.
‘Who the hell are you?’ snarled Nakamura, his scarred face appearing out of the smoke haze.
Without hesitation, Jack spun round, wrapped his arm beneath his assailant’s forearm and drove it upwards in a taijutsu breaking technique. He wrenched hard enough to snap the elbow the opposite way.
But rather than crumple to the floor in agony, Nakamura merely laughed. ‘You’ll have to do better than that!’ he said as he punched Jack in the gut with a hammer-like fist.
Jack dropped to his knees, gasping. Nakamura then threw him across the room. Jack crashed into a supporting pillar. Before he could rise, Nakamura launched a stomping front kick at his chest. On instinct, Jack managed a double forearm block and rolled away. But Nakamura kept up the attack, snatching a smouldering branch from the hearth and using it to force Jack into the centre of the room.
The bunkhouse roof was now an inferno, flaming sections of thatch raining down on them. Jack knew his chances of surviving were fading by the second. Unless he regained the advantage and escaped, he’d either succumb to the smoke, be burnt alive or killed by Nakamura.
Ducking as the bandit wielded the red-hot branch like a club, Jack went to draw his swords. But he’d barely got his hands to the handles, when his head was wrenched back and a knife held to his throat.
‘Are you the cause of all this, gaijin?’ asked Sayomi, the female bandit’s eyes red with smoke.
Jack didn’t answer. His mind was focused on dealing with the cold steel at his neck.
‘We don’t have time to play games, boy,’ said Nakamura, glancing round at the spreading blaze. ‘Who sent you?’
Nakamura drove the tip of the glowing branch into Jack’s right thigh. Jack cried out as the red-hot wood burnt straight through his kimono and scorched his bare skin.
‘Tell us before we leave you here to burn alive!’ croaked Sayomi.
Jack spluttered in pain, his throat hoarse from the smoke he’d inhaled.
Impatient for an answer, Nakamura reapplied the blazing wood. There was a sizzling sound as it seared into Jack’s flesh. Gritting his teeth against the agony, Jack tried to break from Sayomi’s grip, but she pressed the knife closer to his throat.
Then a ghost-like figure flew out of the smoke. A flash of steel whipped past Jack’s face and Sayomi cried out as the shuriken embedded itself in her arm. Miyuki’s simultaneous flying side-kick struck Nakamura in the chest and sent him hurtling backwards into the hearth. He landed among the glowing embers and screamed as his clothes caught alight and flames leapt up his arms and back.
Seizing the initiative, Jack grabbed Sayomi’s wrist and disarmed her of the knife. Elbowing her in the stomach, he flung her over his shoulder, using seoi nage technique. Sayomi tumbled head first and crash-landed on the floor.
Above, a horrendous cracking alerted them to a rafter breaking free from the roof. Wasting no time, Miyuki took Jack’s hand and guided him through the smoke towards the door. A sharp pain flared in his right leg with every step. Behind, they heard Sayomi cursing them.
As they burst out of the door, Nakamura dashed past wearing a cloak of fire. He didn’t stop until he’d thrown himself into the lake.
The shock of their camp being set ablaze had sent the bandits into complete disarray. Some simply stared at the destruction, while others were violently sick from a combination of smoke and excess saké, and a desperate few were trying to douse the flames with buckets of water. The resulting mayhem covered Jack and Miyuki’s escape. They ran across the open ground, every excruciating step taking them closer to safety. Up ahead, the girl he’d saved was almost to the trees.
‘STOP THEM!’ roared Akuma, who stood enraged before the hellfire of his burning camp.
Jack and Miyuki kept running.
There was a crack of musket fire.
The bullet missed them.
But the girl fell.
‘NO!’ shouted Jack.
Arrow after arrow whistled past in the opposite direction as Hayato tried to hold back the bandits that Akuma had rallied.
Jack levelled with the girl and stopped to help her up. But she was already dead, a thin stream of blood running from her lips on to the crisp white snow.
‘We must keep going!’ said Miyuki, dragging Jack on.
The bandits were closing fast. Hayato picked off another three before Jack and Miyuki entered the treeline. Once within the woods, Hayato led them along the edge of the lake.
‘Neko and Sora have gone ahead with the girls and horses,’ he explained as they fled.
Behind them, they heard the angry shouts of the bandits. Limping as fast as he could, Jack’s only thoughts were of the poor girl who’d been shot so close to freedom. They entered the dogleg of the narrow gorge. As they turned the corner, Jack snatched a final glance back. The bandits’ camp was consumed in fire, the crimson flames reflected in the rippling waters of the lake like lava.
At least the girl’s death hadn’t been in vain.
Dashing along the gorge, they’d almost caught up with Sora and the other girls when the bandits appeared behind.
‘You can run, but you won’t escape me!’ Kurochi shouted, raising his loaded musket and taking aim at their backs.
He pulled the trigger. A spark ignited the explosion of gunpowder and a bullet shot towards the fleeing young warriors.
Miyuki dived at Hayato, knocking him to the ground. The bullet ricocheted off the rock face where Hayato had been just moments before.
‘You saved my life!’ he exclaimed as Miyuki rolled off him.
‘Not yet,’ she replied, looking over her shoulder at the advancing bandits.
They scrambled to their feet.
‘We’ll have to make a stand here,’ said Jack, unsheathing his katana. ‘Give Sora and the others a chance to escape.’
The three of them understood the futility of trying to outrun the bandits in their own mountains. This narrow section of the gorge was their best chance of holding them off. Drawing their weapons, they prepared to fight when an ominous rumbling was heard from above.
Everyone looked up.
The gunfire had triggered an avalanche and a colossal wave of snow now thundered into the ravine.
‘RUN!’ shouted Sora, as he urged the girls to safety.
As if the sky had fallen, snow surged down the rock face, threatening to consume all in its path.
Jack, Miyuki and Hayato sprinted for the entrance to the gorge. The bandits fled in the opposite direction.
Miyuki and Hayato pulled ahead of Jack, whose right leg protested against his every stride.
‘Come on, Jack!’ cried Miyuki.
Fighting the pain, Jack lurched forwards just as the avalanche struck the bottom of the gorge.
36
AN ICY GRAVE
Jack felt as if he was cocooned in a white coffin. He could barely breathe beneath the crushing weight of the snow. All sound had been drowned out. Only the rush of his blood and the beat of his heart were still audible.
Had the others made it out alive? He could only pray they had.
He began using his fingers to dig at the snow, but he had no idea which way was up. Completely disorientated, he could be burying himself deeper into the avalanche. He tried to move, but was pinned on all sides. The only good thing about his predicament was that the cold snow numbed the burning sensation in his leg.
After much scraping away, Jack managed to create a small hollow for himself. But no sooner had he done this than the roof collapsed. As the snow engulfed his tiny haven, he started panicking. Gasping for breath, he struggled wildly to free himself from his icy grave. But the snow merely embraced him like an old friend.
Jack tried to calm himself. He had to think straight if he was going to survive. He had no intention of dying here. That wasn’t his fate. He hadn’t got this far on his journey simply to end up a victim of the mountain. He was determined to return home to his sister, Jess, in England.
Jack kept burrowing.
He lost all sense of time, his strength ebbing away as the cold gnawed at his bones. Then his fingers came across something hard. A red handle. His katana! Digging furiously around it, he managed to get a good grip. Hoping to find the surface, he levered his sword upwards with all his might. The razor-sharp blade sliced through the snow. He pushed for freedom …
But met resistance every inch of the way.
He was buried deep. Too deep.
He would die … never to be found.
Despair gripped him. After all his struggles against Dragon Eye, Kazuki and the Shogun, it was to be Mother Nature herself who proved his executioner.
Jack tried to turn his mind to happier thoughts. He pictured Akiko, the time they’d sat together on the slopes of Mount Hiei to wait for hatsuhinode, the first sunrise of the new year, her head resting on his shoulder, her smile as radiant and warming as a new dawn …
He began to drift into unconsciousness, when the snow over his head parted.
‘I’ve found him!’ cried Miyuki, furiously clearing a hole to pull him out.
Hayato and Neko joined her, hands digging on all sides.
Dragged clear, Jack breathed in a lungful of fresh mountain air. Above him, the stars seemed to shine brighter than ever. He looked around. The gorge was completely blocked, a wall of snow and ice rising upwards. He was lucky to have been so near to the gorge entrance when the avalanche had struck.
‘I can’t believe you found me!’ Jack exclaimed, scanning the vast mounds of snow that surrounded him.
Hayato helped him to his feet and Miyuki handed him his katana.
‘If it wasn’t for the tip of your sword poking out, we never would,’ explained Miyuki. ‘Neko’s got good eyesight!’
Turning to Neko, Jack signed thank you, but this seemed so inadequate for saving his life. On an impulse, he embraced her as a friend. Neko smiled shyly at the unexpected affection and gave a humble bow in response.
The four of them carefully headed over to where the rescued girls and horses waited.
‘At least the avalanche has stopped Akuma,’ said Jack.
‘I’m afraid not,’ replied Sora. ‘My daughter says there’s another way out of the valley. It’ll take him an extra day or so. But Black Moon will come.’
‘Then we’d best get moving,’ said Hayato, mounting his horse.
Jack clambered on to his, relieved to take the strain off his injured leg.
‘Akuma may well come,’ said Jack to Sora, before glancing at Miya and the rest of the girls. ‘But we’re returning with good news too.’
The villagers wept with joy upon seeing their daughters alive – a miracle beyond their wildest dreams. Even Sora’s usual hangdog expression vanished, replaced by one of pure rapture at the sight of Miya running into her mother’s arms. That alone was enough to convince Jack all their efforts so far had been worthwhile.
Junichi greeted them with the deepest of bows. ‘If only all samurai and ninja were as courageous as you, then there wouldn’t be devils like Akuma!’
Yoshi tottered out of the farmhouse, his old eyes brimming with tears.
‘I never thought I’d see the day,’ he croaked. ‘You’ve given life back to our village!’
While the families were reunited and the daughters from neighbouring villages welcomed with equal affection, Jack hobbled over to Sora’s farmhouse with Miyuki, Hayato and Neko. They were all exhausted from the night’s escape and Jack was now in serious pain from his wound.
Yori, Saburo and Yuudai were waiting to greet them.
‘What happened to you?’ asked Yori, his face etched with concern at Jack’s woeful state.
‘Apart from being beaten, burnt and buried alive?’ Jack joked. ‘We dealt our first blow against Akuma.’
‘That’s something worth celebrating!’ said Yuudai, clearly relieved to see them back safe and sound, if a little battle-worn. ‘Let’s get you inside and fed and rested.’
He opened the door for them to enter, when they heard a great wailing.
‘Where’s Suki?’ cried a despondent mother, searching the faces of the girls. ‘Where’s my Suki?’
The woman was becoming more and more frantic. Sora hurried over and spoke softly to her. For a moment, she just stared at him in disbelief. Then burst into floods of tears. Sora tried to comfort the woman, but she shrugged him off and strode over to Jack and the others.
‘M-m-my Suki was shot … by Akuma?’ she asked, her voice trembling with grief.
Jack now had a name for the poor girl. ‘Yes. One of his men, Kurochi, did it.’
‘I know you tried to save her,’ she said, her sorrow turning to anger. ‘But promise me, you’ll set my daughter’s soul at peace! Promise me, you’ll put an end to Akuma!’
Jack held the mother’s gaze and felt the torment in her broken heart. He could see in her features her own daughter’s face and remembered the girl, not much older than himself, sprawled in the bloodstained snow. Nodding, Jack gave his sworn promise as the memory of the girl’s senseless slaughter hardened his resolve to stop Akuma’s reign of terror … whatever it took.
37
HEALING
While the village emotionally healed itself, Miyuki set to work healing Jack’s wound. Crushing up herbs she’d taken from a winter garden and mixing them with a fine powder she carried in a small container on her obi, Miyuki cooked up a thick green paste. She applied this to Jack’s blistered skin as he lay on his bed in Sora’s farmhouse.
Jack cried out, ‘Ow, that stings!’
‘Still the big samurai baby, I see,’ she teased, covering the rest of the wound.
Biting his lower lip against the pain, Jack asked, ‘How bad is it?’
Miyuki examined the injury, then replied gravely, ‘You could lose the leg.’
Jack swallowed in shock, his face going pale at the thought.
