Young Samurai: The Ring of Sky (34 page)

They skirted the edge of the pond towards
the fields. But the samurai on the opposite bank got there first.

‘Which way now?’ Benkei cried as
the two groups of samurai converged on them, closing off all escape routes.

‘Through the rice barn,’ said
Jack. ‘There has to be a back door.’

They dived inside. The barn was surprisingly
empty of rice, yet full of straw.

‘There!’ shouted Akiko, pointing
to a stable door in the rear wall.

Hurrying over, Jack grabbed the handle to
slide it open. But the door had been nailed shut. Jack furiously yanked on the handle.
The door wouldn’t budge.

‘Why aren’t they following us
inside?’ Yori asked, noticing the samurai had formed a semi-circle outside the
main barn doors.

Letting go of the handle, Jack’s palm
came away slick and greasy.

Lamp oil
.

Looking around, Jack now saw the whole barn
was doused in it – the walls, the straw, the floor all glistening with splashes of oil.
Before he could warn his friends, a burning torch was tossed inside the barn. There was
a ferocious
whoosh
as a straw pile caught alight. The blaze spread through the
barn as if it was alive, tendrils of orange-red fire shooting in all directions
across the floor and tongues of flame licking up the walls. More
bundles of straw exploded like blinding fireworks. Jack and his friends shielded their
faces from the sudden and intense heat.

‘We’re going to fry!’
exclaimed Benkei, making for the main door.

Akiko grabbed hold of him.
‘They’ll cut you down as you run out.’

‘Better than burning alive.’

But Benkei stayed with them as Jack began to
furiously kick at the rear door. His whole leg jarred on every impact, the wooden panels
solid and unyielding. He kicked again and again, favouring a side-kick for power. Akiko
joined in the attack, coordinating back-heel strikes with his side-kicks.

The fire now roared all around them, smoke
billowing in the air and choking their lungs. Jack could smell his hair singeing and
feel his skin blistering. The barn was going up like a tinderbox.

Jack clenched his teeth, driving his foot
like a battering ram into the wood. But the door wouldn’t give. Akiko kicked with
all her might. Nothing moved. Still, they kept up the relentless pounding as the roof
turned into a swirling sky of flame.

Benkei and Yori huddled in the middle of the
barn, keeping as far as possible from the burning walls.

Jack was about to give up hope when one of
the door panels splintered. Akiko struck out and it cracked. Then, with a final
side-kick, the panel burst apart.

‘OUT!’ shouted Jack above the
roar of the flames.

He pushed Akiko through the narrow opening
first. Benkei made a mad dash for it and dived through. Jack
urgently
beckoned Yori to go next, his friend almost lost from view amid the choking smoke and
red-hot sparks. A horrendous
crack
made them both look up. Flaming chunks of
wood and burning thatch rained down, forcing Yori to jump out of the way. As whole
sections of the roof fell at Jack’s feet, he had no choice but to dive through the
door for his own life.

Landing on the hard-baked earth, coughing
and spluttering, he immediately looked back inside for any sign of Yori. He spotted a
small shimmering figure in the centre of the inferno. His friend stood motionless, eyes
closed, his hands clasped in prayer.

55
 
 

Jack was in a state of total shock.
He’d lost three of his closest friends in as many minutes. He knelt in the dirt,
head bowed, black smoke and sparks swirling around him.

The barn continued to burn with Yori inside.
And there was nothing he, Akiko or Benkei could do about it. The gap in the door was now
blocked with flaming debris, the fire too fierce for them to enter. And on the other
side, waiting like vultures, stood the band of murderous samurai.

‘I
really
liked Yori,’
croaked Benkei, his bloodshot eyes brimming as he stared glumly at the blaze.

Jack’s grief was beyond tears. His
hurt ran so deep that it was his heart, not his eyes, that wept for Yori. His friend had
always been the still small voice of reason, the rock he’d counted on in the
storms of life. And, now Yori was gone, Jack felt as lost and drifting as a rudderless
ship. Miyuki, Saburo and Yori
all
dead – it was too much for him to cope with.
He understood that the Way of the Warrior was to fight and die in the name of Honour and
Loyalty. But
his
life wasn’t worth such sacrifice. He was no samurai
lord. He was simply trying to get home. And where would this slaughter end? In
the death of Benkei? His beloved Akiko? No sense of loyalty was worth
that high a price.

‘We have to leave,’ said Akiko,
equally traumatized by the tragic turn of events, yet somehow managing to hold her
nerve.

Jack nodded numbly, but still didn’t
move.

‘
Seven times down, eight times
up
,’ she whispered, a tear running down her soot-stained cheek as she
laid a gentle hand upon his shoulder.

The remembrance of Yori’s wise words
from the
Taryu-Jiai
three years before – his lesson in never giving up –
finally spurred Jack into action. He forced himself to his feet and stood beside Akiko.
He noticed her kimono sleeve clinging to her left arm, its green silk now stained an
ominous red. ‘Are you all right?’ he asked.

‘I’ll live,’ she said
wearily. ‘The arrow wound’s just opened up again.’

Concerned for her deteriorating health, Jack
snapped back to the harsh reality of their situation. They
had
to survive, if
only for the memory of their fallen friends. He looked around. No samurai had yet
discovered their escape. The back of the barn met with one of the high thorn boundary
hedges, preventing access to the fields. They could either head to the pond and risk
being spotted, or work their way through the village and flee via the main road towards
Nagasaki. Peering round the corner of the barn, Jack saw that the samurai were still
engrossed in the fire, celebrating their victory.

There was a patch of open ground to reach
the nearest alley, but Jack decided this was still the best option. They waited until a
pall of smoke came their way, then Jack, Akiko and
Benkei darted
across. They raced up the alley, Benkei taking the lead. It switched left, passing a
stack of empty
saké
barrels, and ran behind the village inn.

‘There may be more samurai
ahead,’ warned Akiko, pausing to rest. ‘So stay alert.’

Nodding, Benkei slowed his pace. Jack looked
over his shoulder to check if any
ronin
were following. The alley remained
clear. He heard a scuffle and a door slam. When he turned back, Akiko had disappeared
and Benkei was lying on the floor, clasping his bleeding nose.

‘Deh dook her!’ he said,
pointing to a studded door in the wall of the inn.

Jack could barely believe they’d
snatched Akiko so easily. He shoulder-barged the door, grunting in pain as he bounced
off. In a fit of fury, he kicked at the hinges, but the door had been barred shut from
the other side.

‘
Akiko!
’ he cried, but
there was no reply.

Dragging over an empty
saké
barrel,
he clambered on top and reached for the tiled lip of the wall. Pulling himself on to the
tiles, he then stretched out his hand for Benkei. ‘Quickly!’ he urged.

Scrambling over, they landed in a courtyard
garden.

The unexpected peace and tranquillity was in
stark contrast to the chaos of battle and burning buildings. Wooden walkways weaved
between manicured bushes and artfully placed rocks. A large hollowed-out stone rippled
with water, the constant trickle from a bamboo pipe sounding like evening birdsong. At
the centre, surrounded by a thick cushion of green moss, was a cypress tree, its upper
foliage bent over providing welcome shade from the beating sun. And set upon
a flat bed of rock was a
washi
-walled tea house, located in
prime position to enjoy meditative views of the serene garden.

Jack cautiously trod the walkway leading to
the inn’s main building. He kept his eyes peeled for any clue to Akiko’s
whereabouts. Benkei followed the path that circled the cypress tree towards the tea
house.

Jack was the first to spot a fresh drop of
blood on a rock; then another on the boards at his feet.

‘This way,’ he said, increasing
his pace.

Suddenly there was a
whump
and a
crash of branches, as if a bird had been startled. Jack looked round for Benkei, but he
was gone.

Shading his eyes against the sun, he glanced
up. His friend swung helplessly, upside down, from the top of the cypress tree, its
branches no longer bent now that the snare had been triggered. Benkei dangled
unconscious high above the garden.

‘Alone at last!’ declared a
figure, silhouetted within the tea house.

56
 
 

Jack spun towards the tea house, his
katana
unsheathing in the blink of an eye. ‘Where’s
Akiko?’ he demanded.

The
washi
screen drew back to
reveal his rival. ‘All in good time,
gaijin
,’ said Kazuki.

‘No, this ends here and now,’
said Jack, advancing on him.

Kazuki held up his black-gloved hand in
warning and Nobu appeared at his side, cracking his knuckles threateningly. ‘If
you want to see your precious Akiko alive, don’t
dare
take another
step!’

Jack froze where he was, hating the control
his rival wielded over him.

‘I intend to relish this moment to the
full,’ announced Kazuki, taking a sip from a steaming cup of green tea.
‘
Everything
has gone according to plan. I really don’t know why
I didn’t think of this before. It would have saved all that pointless
chasing.’

Jack’s eyes scanned the inn’s
garden. If Kazuki and Nobu were here, then the other members of the Scorpion Gang had to
be too.

‘I realized you’d have to pass
through this village on your
way to Nagasaki,’ explained Kazuki,
revelling in his own cleverness. ‘There’s no other route from Shimabara. All
I had to do was hire a bunch of
ronin
, set a few traps and wait patiently, like
a tiger for its prey. In fact, I’m surprised you made it this far.’

‘You killed my friends!’ Jack
seethed, clenching his
katana
handle so tightly his knuckles turned white.

A fiendish grin lit up Kazuki’s face
as he delighted in Jack’s torment. ‘I promised that I’d destroy you,
gaijin
. That means not only killing
you
but anyone who’s
helped you and in particular those you
love
.’

He sneered at the word, then clicked his
fingers. The inn’s main
shoji
overlooking the garden slid open. Akiko was
on her knees, bound and gagged, a wooden block in front of her. Hiroto stood behind,
wrenching her head back by her hair, a knife held to her throat. The hulking Raiden was
beside them, his formidable
nodachi
sword unsheathed.

Jack glared at Kazuki. ‘You vowed not
to harm Akiko, remember? In return, I saved your life.’

‘That’s true,
gaijin
.’ Kazuki stroked his chin thoughtfully. ‘And I’m a
samurai of my word. That’s why
I
won’t lay a finger on
her.’

He nodded towards Raiden and Hiroto.

‘But I can’t say the same for my
companions.’

Hiroto cut the rope binding Akiko’s
right arm. Seizing her wrist, Raiden forced her hand on to the block and held it firmly
in place with his foot. Despite her obvious pain and discomfort, Akiko’s
expression remained defiant.

‘A hand for a hand – that’s
fair, don’t you think?’ said Kazuki, massaging his black-gloved claw.

‘Stop!’ begged Jack, throwing down
his
katana
. ‘I surrender. I’ll do anything you want. I’ll
even commit
seppuku
. Just leave Akiko alone.’