Ranger's Apprentice 10: The Emperor of Nihon-Ja (34 page)

More than a little taken aback, Alyss studied the determined stance of the small figure before her. Alyss was an honest person and she was forced to admit that Evanlyn had an excellent point. Alyss had spent the past few months, and some considerable time before that, acting suspiciously towards her, distrusting her and jealously resenting any time she spent with Will. Yet she realised that Evanlyn, if she chose to, could feel exactly the same way about her relationship with Horace.

But she didn’t. She accepted it.

And suddenly Alyss felt very small when she remembered the sarcasm and the taunts and the bruised knuckles that had characterised their relationship. Evanlyn had behaved well, she thought. It was she who had behaved badly, who had been petty and distrustful. This was a noble and courageous girl, she realised. She hadn’t hesitated to risk her life when Alyss was in danger. She had acted quickly and resourcefully.

She had offered her friendship and Alyss, as she always had in the past, had rebuffed her.

‘I’m sorry,’ she said meekly. ‘I never thought of it that way.’ She felt ashamed and for a few seconds she couldn’t meet Evanlyn’s eyes. But then she heard the unmistakable smile in the smaller girl’s voice.

‘Well, thank goodness we got that out of the way. After all, our future husbands are best friends. It’d be damn awkward if we continued to hate each other.’

‘I never hated you,’ Alyss protested, but she saw Evanlyn’s eyebrow raise in a familiar expression.

‘Oh really?’ the princess said.

Alyss shrugged awkwardly. ‘Well…maybe a bit. But I’m over that now.’ She looked up at Evanlyn and they smiled at each other. There was a new warmth in their smiles and Alyss realised that this was a friendship that would last for her lifetime.

‘Are you really going to marry Horace?’ she asked, intrigued. Evanlyn nodded.

‘I’ll be needing a bridesmaid,’ she said. ‘A tall one. That way, I’ll look more petite and feminine.’

Halt clapped his hand on the shoulder of the exhausted scout.

‘Thanks, my friend,’ he said. ‘Now go and get some food, then rest. You’ve served your Emperor well.’

‘
Hai
, Halto-san!’ the travel-stained young Kikori replied. He had spent a nerve-racking four days avoiding Arisaka’s army to bring his report to Ran-Koshi. He bowed to the command group, then again, more deeply, to the Emperor. Then he turned and left. Halt waited until he was gone.

‘I think that seals it,’ he said. ‘We’ll have to force Arisaka’s hand before his reinforcements get here.’

‘Now we know why he’s waited,’ Horace said thoughtfully. The valley leading to Ran-Koshi had been clear for several days, the last of the snow having melted away. Each day they had expected Arisaka to attack and each day he had failed to do so. Now the reason for his delay was obvious. General Yamada, an unexpected ally, was marching to his aid with a force of three hundred Senshi.

According to the report they had just received, the extra troops could arrive within a matter of days.

Shigeru shook his head sadly. ‘I had hoped that Yamada would at least remain neutral. I never thought he would believe the lies that Arisaka has been spreading about me.’

Through the winter, Atsu’s network of spies had brought in reports of an extensive disinformation campaign generated by Arisaka and his allies to win over the uncommitted clans. According to these reports, Shigeru had abandoned the throne and fled the country. Arisaka was claiming to have trapped a rebel force that was using Shigeru’s name and an impostor who resembled the Emperor, in an attempt to seize the throne.

‘The bigger the lie, the easier it is to sell,’ Halt said sympathetically. ‘People tend to believe that a preposterous story must be true – precisely because it is so unlikely.’

‘But surely, once Yamada and his men see Shigeru, they’ll know the story’s false?’ Will said.

Halt shook his head. ‘How many of Yamada’s men would know you by sight?’ he asked the Emperor.

Shigeru pursed his lips. ‘Very few. Even Yamada would need to see me at close quarters to recognise me.’

‘And by the time he had the chance to do so, you’d be dead. You can be sure Arisaka would see to that,’ Halt replied. ‘But, if we can break Arisaka’s force before Yamada arrives, you’d have the chance to prove you are the Emperor.’

‘Arisaka has at least five hundred men,’ Will pointed out. ‘They’ll outnumber us by more than two to one.’

‘They’ll outnumber us four to one if we wait for Yamada to arrive,’ Halt pointed out. ‘And this way, we can choose our own battleground.’ He turned to where Jito, the former headman of Riverside Village, was standing – a few paces away from the others. Jito was still a little in awe of being so close to the Emperor but he’d earned his place in these councils. Halt had put him in charge of logistics and organising defences. ‘Jito, are the hedgehogs ready?’

Jito nodded in confirmation. ‘Yes, Halto-san. We have fifty of them. I’ve had them taken down Mikeru’s Pass and they’re ready to be assembled and placed in position.’

Those Kikori who weren’t training as fighters had been busy during the previous months, constructing defensive measures and equipment. The hedgehogs, portable obstructions designed by Halt that could be assembled quickly on the battlefield, were one example of their work.

‘Then deploy them tonight where we decided – between the rocks and the drop-off on our left flank.’

‘Yes, Halto-san. It will take four to five hours to assemble them and place them in position.’

‘We need them in place by first light. Set your own timetable but make sure they’re in place when we need them.’

‘Yes, Halto-san.’ Jito bowed to the Emperor and turned to leave the tent.

Horace stepped forward to study the map Halt had prepared. ‘You plan to engage Arisaka on the same ground where we fought the first battle.’

Halt nodded in confirmation. ‘Our right flank will be secured by the bluff. The rocks were good enough on the left flank when we weren’t outnumbered, but we’ll need more this time. The hedgehogs will extend the protection to this shallow cliff. That way, both flanks are secure.’

Selethen rubbed his chin thoughtfully as he looked at the chart. ‘Relatively secure,’ he corrected. ‘They’ll still get through the hedgehogs, given time,’ he said and Halt glanced up at him.

‘True. So I’ll put Mikeru’s dart-throwers on the left flank. They can stay hidden among the rocks, then hit the Senshi while they’re forcing their way through the defences. The reserve
goju
can take care of any that make it through. And Moka’s men can take a hand if they’re needed.’

Moka, head of Shigeru’s Senshi bodyguard, frowned as the foreigners discussed these dispositions.

‘Halto-san,’ he asked, ‘why don’t we simply advance down the valley below the palisade? We could choose a spot where the valley walls protect both our flanks.’

‘If we do that,’ Halt explained, ‘there’s no incentive for Arisaka to attack. He’ll know we could simply retreat back up the valley to the palisade. If we go out onto the plain here, he’ll see we have no real line of retreat.’

‘Other than Mikeru’s Pass,’ Will put in and Halt glanced at him.

‘True. But Arisaka doesn’t know about that. He’ll see this as his chance to defeat us once and for all.’

‘If the worst comes to the worst, we’d never make it back up that pass in a hurry. It’s too narrow. Our men would be jammed up at the entrance,’ Horace said.

‘It’s a risk,’ Halt said. ‘But I think we have to roll the dice and take it.’

The Emperor wore a worried expression on his face. He looked at Horace, then back to Halt.

‘Halto-san, you’re saying that in order to make Arisaka attack us, we have to place ourselves in this dangerous, exposed position?’

Halt met his gaze levelly. ‘That’s right, your excellency. There are always risks in battle. It’s a dangerous business. The trick is to take the right ones.’

‘How do you know which are the right ones?’ Shigeru asked.

Halt glanced at his two younger companions. They grinned and answered in chorus, ‘You wait and see if you win.’

Shigeru nodded. ‘I suppose I should have known that.’

Halt smiled grimly at Will and Horace. They knew, as well as he did, that they were taking a huge chance. But the only way to win battles, when you were seriously outnumbered, was to take chances.

‘Have your
gojus
ready to move out two hours before dawn,’ he ordered. ‘We’ll jump off from the palisade gate and march down the main valley. It’ll be safer and quicker than moving down Mikeru’s Pass. And besides, we need to keep that clear for Jito’s people.’

After the others had left, Halt stayed behind with Shigeru. The Emperor sat, waiting expectantly. He knew Halt wanted to talk to him and he had a shrewd idea what he wanted to talk about.

‘Your highness,’ Halt began, ‘there is one alternative we haven’t discussed…’

He paused, searching for the right way to broach the subject. But Shigeru was ahead of him.

‘Halto-san, you’re going to suggest that I might make my escape from here alone, correct?’

Halt was taken aback that the Emperor had read his thoughts so easily. But he recovered quickly.

‘Yes, sir, I am. It needn’t be a permanent thing. But I have to admit, the odds are against us here. It might be better if you made your way to the coast. Our ship is waiting at an island only a few days away. They could take you on board and –’

‘And turn Arisaka’s lie into the truth,’ Shigeru said.

Halt shrugged uncomfortably. ‘Not exactly. You’d be free to return once things were more settled here. You could even raise some of the southern clans against Arisaka.’

‘And the Kikori?’ Shigeru asked. ‘What would happen to them if I were to abandon them?’

Halt made a dismissive gesture. ‘You’re using emotive terms here. You’re not abandoning them…’

Shigeru snorted derisively. ‘I’m leaving them on the eve of a battle they’re fighting in my name,’ he said. ‘A battle that even you say is a risky one, with no guarantee of success. Wouldn’t that count as abandoning them?’

‘But they’d understand. They’re fighting for you.’ Halt had to keep trying, although he could see he would never convince the Emperor.

‘Which is all the more reason for me to stay,’ Shigeru told him. Then, after a pause, he continued, ‘Tell me, Halto-san, if I were to escape, would you and your friends come with me?’

Halt hesitated. Then he replied, knowing that Shigeru deserved to hear the truth.

‘No, your excellency, we wouldn’t. We’ve trained these men to fight. It’s up to us to stay here and lead them when they do.’

‘Exactly. And I’ve asked these men to fight in my name. It’s up to me to believe in them when they do. So, like you, I have to stay and take my chances.’

There was silence between them for some time. Then, with a barely perceptible lift of his shoulders, Halt capitulated.

‘Well, I suppose we’d just better make sure we win,’ he said.

Shigeru smiled. ‘Which is precisely why I need to be here.’

The four
gojus
slipped through the palisade gate two hours before dawn. With each group of fifty formed up in three files, they set out down the pass.

Discipline was excellent, Halt noted approvingly. Aside from a few muted commands to march, there was no sound other than the jingling of their equipment and the rhythmic tramp of their boots on the rocky ground of the valley below Ran-Koshi. For the time being, at least, the walls of the valley should mask those sounds from the sentries at Arisaka’s camp.

When they reached the mouth of the valley, the leading
goju
– the Bears – wheeled left in response to a hand signal from their leader and doubled round the bluff to their appointed position on the flat plain. The Bears, formed now into two ranks, would cover the left of the Emperor’s battle line, with the obstructions assembled by Jito’s workers protecting their left flank. Selethen’s Hawks came behind them, taking position on the right.

The final two
gojus
– the Sharks and the Wolves – took position behind the others, in a slightly staggered formation that covered the gap between the two leading
gojus
.

Moka, with fifty of Shigeru’s Senshi warriors, formed a mobile reserve behind the
gojus
, ready to react to any breach.

The battle line formed with a minimum of noise and confusion. Each man knew exactly where he was supposed to be and went to his place without hesitation. They were all in place before the first grey fingers of light started to streak the sky in the east. Will, Horace and Selethen moved among the Kikori, telling them quietly to rest and relax, saving their strength for the coming battle. The men sat in their ranks, laying their heavy shields aside. Some of the women, organised by Jito, moved among them with water, pickled rice and smoked fish.

Other members of Jito’s work party were putting the finishing touches to the hedgehogs. Horace strolled over to inspect the devices at closer quarters. You had to hand it to Halt for ingenuity, he thought. First the false wall at the palisade during the first attack, now these.

Each hedgehog was constructed of six sharpened poles, two metres in length. The poles passed through a central rope yoke, with six closely spaced loops to hold them in place. The sharpened poles were thus formed into a shape that resembled three large X’s bound together. They were light and easy to assemble. But once in place, they were difficult to push aside, as the wide-spread feet tended to dig into the ground. In addition, each set of four was linked together by stout poles and chains, making them even more difficult to displace. As a final touch, the array of hedgehogs was draped with rope, looped around the arms and trailing loosely between the individual units. The ropes were festooned with sharp iron hooks, Horace knew. They were small, so not easily seen. But they would snag an attacker’s clothes or equipment and slow him down while he struggled to free himself.

Beyond the lines of hedgehogs was the drop-off – a small cliff some four metres high, which put an extra barrier in the path of a flanking force from the left.

He heard a slight noise behind him and turned to see that Will had joined him, inspecting the defences.

‘All in all, not a bad job,’ Horace said.

‘I wouldn’t care to be one of Arisaka’s men tangled up in those hedgehogs,’ Will said. ‘Have you seen Mikeru and his dartmen practising?’

‘I have. They’re frighteningly good, aren’t they? Another one of Halt’s better ideas.’

Will was about to reply when they both heard the sound of distant shouts of alarm, followed by a strident bugle call ringing over the plain. They both looked in the direction of Arisaka’s sprawling camp.

‘Sounds as if someone’s seen us,’ Will said. He gripped Horace’s hand. ‘Good luck, Horace. Take care.’

‘Good luck, Will. See you when we’ve sent Arisaka running.’

‘He won’t run,’ Will answered. ‘But if we can settle with him before Yamada’s army turns up, we’re in with a good chance.’

‘And if we can’t?’ Horace said.

Will met his gaze in silence for a few seconds. ‘I don’t want to think about that,’ he said eventually.

Horace nodded and unconsciously loosened his sword in its scabbard. ‘I wonder where the girls are?’

Will’s expression, already grim, grew a little more so.

‘I’m guessing they didn’t make it. If they’d managed to convince Nimatsu and his people to help us, they should have been here a week ago. I’m afraid we’re on our own.’

Arisaka’s army assembled in their usual loose formation – a large curved front, three or four men deep. They moved steadily across the plain towards the silent, waiting ranks of the four
gojus
. Unlike the Kikori, they didn’t march in step, but simply moved in a loose gaggle. The Senshi preferred to fight as individuals and they moved the same way.

There was one change to their normal deployment. Arisaka had been told of the dangers of the Kikori shield wall and he knew he had to break that rigid formation. Will had surmised that he might use something similar to the Macedon Phalanx – a wedge formation armed with long, heavy lances, designed to smash through an enemy’s line. His guess was a little off target. Arisaka knew nothing about the Phalanx.

But he knew about battering rams.

At intervals along the line were five young tree trunks, trimmed and sharpened, and borne by six warriors each, the men holding onto rope handles spaced along the logs’ six-metre lengths. The sharpened logs, swung underhand at waist height by the long rope handles, would act as battering rams and smash great gaps in the enemy’s defences before the Kikori could come to grips with their attackers. No shield bearer could withstand such a shattering impact. And once the integrity of the shield wall was breached, the Kikori lost their greatest advantage – their ability to fight as a team, with each man supporting and protecting his neighbour.

‘So that’s what he’s got in mind,’ Horace muttered to himself. He watched as the Senshi line advanced, overlapping the Kikori line at either end. As the space available closed down, those outer wings would have to fold back in behind Arisaka’s front ranks. They’d be poised three and four deep behind the rams.

Will was running across the rear of the two leading
gojus
, shouting to attract Horace’s attention.

‘Doorway! Doorway!’ he called and Horace waved in acknowledgement. They’d practised to defend against a wedge of heavy lances. The rams were essentially the same thing, and they had a tactic they could use against them. Will continued to run to pass on the same message to Selethen.

Horace hurried to join his
goju
. He moved quickly behind the second rank, calling to his men.

‘Use the doorway tactic when they get close!’ he called and he saw section leaders in the front rank turn briefly and indicate that they understood.

The advancing Senshi were fifty metres away now, almost within effective javelin range.

‘Second rank, open order!’ Horace yelled and the rear rank responded as one man, stepping back three paces to give themselves throwing room.

‘Javelins ready!’

Twenty-five arms went back, the javelins angled upwards.

‘Aim for the rams!’ Horace ordered. He watched the approaching army, judged they were in range. ‘Throw!’

The javelins hissed away on their arcing flight. Several seconds later, he saw sections of the Senshi line collapse in confusion as the heavy missiles struck home. One of the battering rams crashed to the ground as half its bearers were hit and the others were forced to release their grip on the rope handles. The heavy rolling log caused more confusion among the attacking Senshi. But they reformed and came on. There were still two of the battering rams aimed at the Bear
Goju
.

The nearest ram broke from the Senshi front line as its bearers went from a steady tramp to a run. They lunged forward at the Kikori shield wall, their sudden increase in speed catching Horace by surprise. The heavy, sharpened log swung forward on its rope handles, bludgeoning into the front rank. Three of the Kikori went down and the men on the ram moved quickly to consolidate their position. The second rank had closed up again after throwing their javelins. Now they used their reserve weapons to stab over the heads of the front rank, at the ram and its bearers. The ram swung back, then forward to smash into the shields again. More Kikori went down and the waiting Senshi screamed in triumph as they saw the previously impregnable wall disintegrating. The ram went back again.

‘Doorway! Doorway!’ Horace yelled, his throat dry and his voice breaking.

This time, as the heavy log swung forward, the Kikori facing it stepped back and to the side, opening a gap in front of it. Without any resistance, the battering ram whipped forward through thin air, throwing the men wielding it off balance. The second line of men opened as well and some of the Kikori grabbed the ram and dragged it through their ranks. As the men on the rope handles staggered through the gap left for them, the deadly stabbing blades of the Kikori went to work. The surviving ram wielders found themselves in the clear behind the second rank, bewildered and isolated. As they realised their predicament, ten men from the front rank of the Shark
Goju
moved forward and quickly surrounded them. Within a few seconds, Arisaka’s men lay still. But, in the more open style of fighting, they had taken a toll. Five Kikori lay dead beside them.

With a shout of rage, the Senshi line surged forward. But the doorway closed as quickly as it had opened and they found themselves facing that formidable line of shields. They cut and slashed ineffectually, denied the space they needed to wield their swords to best effect. The short swords of the Kikori flickered in and out between the shields, wounding, maiming, killing.

The Senshi backed away, moving out of range of the shorter weapons. Now some of them began a more careful attack, lunging at the small gaps between the shields with their longer
katana
. This time, however, forewarned of the Kikori tactic of jamming shields together, they withdrew their blades almost immediately. It was an effective technique. More Kikori fell, their places taken by men from the second rank.

Horace glanced down the line to see what had happened with the second ram. The men wielding it, having seen what happened to their companions, were more circumspect in their attack. They swung the ram in short, savage jabs at the wall. Shields split, men went down. Then the men on the ram drew their unwieldy weapon back and hurled it into the Kikori front line, immediately drawing swords and following it through the gap they had breached.

For a few minutes, they had the situation they wanted – a disjointed Kikori line, which gave them room to use their long swords. They took a dreadful toll on the defenders. Then the second rank joined in, using their javelins to stab at long range, moving forward as a unit to fill the gaps in the front rank. Horace came charging down the line from his vantage point, his sword swinging and thrusting into the Senshi, his shield deflecting their
katana
. His speed, and the power of his sword strokes, took Arisaka’s men by surprise and they began to fall back before his one-man assault. Seeing this, Horace bellowed to his Kikori.

‘Advance! Advance!
Issho-ni! Issho-ni!
’

The Bear
Goju
, discipline and formation restored, began to tramp steadily forward, crowding the enemy, buffeting them, shoving and stabbing. But even in retreat, the Senshi’s
katana
were taking a toll of the advancing
goju
’s ranks.

On the right flank, Selethen’s Hawks were faring a little better. There had been two rams aimed at Selethen’s formation and they were some metres behind the rams attacking Horace’s section of the line. Selethen was able to order the doorway tactic when the first ram came forward. The Kikori peeled aside, letting the ram blunder through, while Selethen’s men stabbed at them with javelins and short swords. Then the line closed again to face the following Senshi.

The second ram never made it to the Hawks’ front line. Four of its six bearers were struck down by a salvo of black-shafted arrows. Halt, standing with Shigeru on a raised vantage point thirty metres to the rear, nodded in satisfaction as he saw the result of his shooting. The remaining two bearers, unable to control the heavy log by themselves, allowed it to fall to the ground. It bounced and rolled, knocking over four of the Senshi who were planning to follow it into the enemy’s ranks.

Seizing on their confusion, Selethen echoed Horace’s order.

‘Forward!
Issho-ni!
’

The Kikori, their fighting blood roused, took up the chant as they moved forward like a tide.

‘Issho-ni! Issho-ni!’

They slammed into the Senshi and the slaughter began. But, like the Senshi facing Horace’s men, these warriors knew better than to allow the Kikori to get too close. They gave ground, all the while stabbing into the gaps and over the tops of the shields. Men died on both sides, although the close quarter fighting suited the Kikori better. Selethen, like Horace, patrolled the line, dashing in where necessary to lend support with his flashing curved blade, using his small hand shield to deflect the thrusts and cuts of the
katana
.