Young Samurai: The Ring of Wind (10 page)

Miyuki raced along the deck to where their canvas bag was hidden. She pulled it clear and began to hand out weapons to Saburo, Yori and Jack. The captain was in too much of a panic to wonder why his pilgrim passengers carried samurai and ninja swords. He was furiously waggling the rudder in a fraught attempt to propel the
Golden Tiger
away from the sea dragon’s lair.

On deck it was raining fire. Jack unsheathed his
katana
and in one clean sweep sliced through the first of the halyards tethering the burning sail. Miyuki hacked with her
ninjat
ō
along the other side.

‘Clear the deck!’ warned Jack as he severed the last of the rigging.

Like a dying phoenix, the mainsail tumbled from the sky. Sparks flew like fireflies and there was a great crackle and splutter as the canvas extinguished in the sea …

But half still lay across the deck, burning fiercely.

Yori thrust at the blazing canvas with his
shakuj
ō
, trying to push it over the side. Rushing to his aid, Saburo and two of the crew grabbed the last remaining lengths of bamboo and shoved with all their might. The sail slipped over the guardrail and the roar of flames died. Darkness engulfed them once again and an eerie silence descended – all that could be heard was the lapping of the waves against the hull.

‘Where’s the sea dragon?’ asked Saburo, breathless, staring into the black recesses of the cave.

Their eyes adjusting to the night, Jack and Miyuki scanned the waters surrounding them. Off their port bow, a great shadow loomed.

In the chaos and confusion, the Wind Demons had caught up.

Their vessel drew alongside the
Golden Tiger
, its deck towering over them. Without warning, several sections of the gunwales fell away and smashed on top of the
Golden Tiger
’s guardrail. Great iron spikes bit into the deck, holding the
Golden Tiger
fast. An instant later, black shadows swarmed across the bridges to board the crippled cargo ship.

A crewmember screamed as the steel tip of a blade burst through his chest. Blood spewing from his mouth, he collapsed to the deck, dead. Behind, a ninja crouched, his sword slick with the man’s entrails.

Jack stood frozen with fear. He was reliving the nightmare of that fateful night four years ago, when ninja pirates had attacked the
Alexandria
and slaughtered the entire crew. The heart-rending moment when his father had been brutally murdered by Dragon Eye. Once again Jack felt like the powerless boy he’d been – the one who’d been unable to prevent his father’s death. Then he reminded himself that he was no longer that defenceless boy. He was a trained samurai
and
a ninja. Breaking his paralysis, he launched himself at the enemy, swords raised, and cried, ‘REPEL BOARDERS!’

The Wind Demons, dressed head-to-foot in black, were impossible to see – just the moon-silver glint of their blades visible. Jack jumped aside as a sword scythed for his neck. He deflected the attack with his
wakizashi
, simultaneously thrusting with his
katana
. But the ninja pirate effortlessly evaded it as if he were no more than a leaf in the breeze. His blade circled round for another killing strike on Jack.

Yori leapt to Jack’s rescue. He drove the iron tip of his
shakuj
ō
into the ninja pirate’s back. The force of the blow stunned the invader, sending his slash wide. At the same time, Jack side-kicked his attacker with all his strength. The ninja pirate slammed into the guardrail. With another shove from Yori’s
shakuj
ō
, he toppled over the side into the watery depths below.

But more Wind Demons instantly replaced their fallen comrade.

Saburo, still with bamboo pole in hand, wielded it like a massive
b
ō
staff. He swept the deck in front of him, keeping the Wind Demons at bay. Meanwhile, Miyuki was perched upon the starboard rail, fending off two vicious ninja pirates. She injured one with her
ninjat
ō
, then kicked the second Wind Demon in the face. But she was fighting a losing battle as other pirates joined the attack.

Too far away to help, Jack spotted one of the severed pieces of rigging lying across the deck. It was still fixed to its cleat at the other end. Sheathing his
wakizashi
, he snatched up the rope and yanked hard. As the line pulled taut, it snagged the legs of the Wind Demons, toppling them like skittles.

In a deft leap along the guardrail, Miyuki joined Jack by his side.

‘Thanks for that,’ she breathed, flicking blood from her blade.

‘Don’t thank me yet,’ replied Jack as more ninja pirates stormed the
Golden Tiger
.

The remaining crewmember on the main deck fled for the stern. Out of the darkness, a hooked knife on a chain flashed through the air and struck him in the back. A second later, he was jerked off his feet and dragged screaming across the deck into the seething mass of Wind Demons. His agonized cries were cut short as a sword severed his head from his neck.

‘Fall back!’ ordered Jack to his friends.

Keeping a protective line, they retreated to the stern’s upper deck. Behind them, the captain and his two surviving crew cowered beside the tiller. Their expressions were a combination of terror at the Wind Demons and awe at the battling pilgrims. The four young warriors valiantly held off the invaders. Jack disarmed one ninja pirate, knocked another unconscious and threw a third over the side. But the sheer weight of numbers was overwhelming. An evil hiss emanated from the Wind Demons’ masked mouths as they closed in for the kill.

Realizing this would be their last stand, Jack and his friends formed a tight circle and prepared to defend each other to the bitter end. But the Wind Demons halted a sword’s length away.

‘Having second thoughts, are you?’ growled Saburo, discarding his pole and unsheathing his
katana
in a final display of samurai courage.

On the upper deck of the pirate ship a Wind Demon appeared. Unmasked, he wore a dragon-horned helmet bearing the emblem of a black spider.

In a voice as deep as the ocean, the pirate captain ordered, ‘Take them … alive!’

Shark Bait

The watery light of dawn coloured a cloudless sky as the pirate ship sailed south. Jack and his friends were imprisoned on its main deck, held like animals in a bamboo cage with nine other unfortunate captives. The captain of the
Golden Tiger
crouched alone in the corner, looking dejected and grief-stricken. His ship, deemed unworthy for salvage by the pirate captain, had been ransacked of its cargo, then set adrift.

The other prisoners were a mix of Japanese sailors and Korean slaves. Emaciated and with haunted expressions, they regarded the new arrivals warily. All stared at the strange blond-haired, blue-eyed boy in the pilgrim’s outfit and whispered words of a ‘white demon’ and a ‘
gaijin
devil’.

Jack ignored them, preferring instead to concentrate on devising an escape plan. The previous night’s stand-off with the Wind Demons had ended when a large net had been thrown over them. Entangled by the webbing, Jack and his friends had quickly been subdued and disarmed. There was shock at discovering Jack’s foreign identity, but the pirate captain had issued orders to cage them all, announcing that he would deal with the rebellious young pilgrims and unexpected
gaijin
in the morning. But, with the sun rising, they were fast running out of time and still no closer to escape. The cage was solidly built, with a pirate guard posted at the locked gate. All their weapons and belongings, even Miyuki’s hidden ninja utility belt, had been confiscated and they’d had no food, water or sleep for the entire night.

‘Even if we got out of this cage,’ whispered Miyuki, her fingers blistered from where she’d tried and failed to loosen the bars’ bindings, ‘there must be at least seventy ninja pirates on-board. Without our weapons, we’d be cut to ribbons.’

‘We only need to reach the side,’ replied Jack under his breath.

‘What then?’ asked Yori, his face exhausted and drawn. ‘We’re in the
middle
of the Seto Sea.’

‘We time our escape as the ship passes an island … and swim for it.’

‘Jack, we don’t have the luxury of waiting for an island,’ said Miyuki. ‘The Wind Demons intend to kill us.’

‘Or else make us slaves,’ added Yori, glancing round at the haggard and hollow-eyed men in dirty loincloths.

Jack realized his friends were right. And jumping ship was a death sentence in itself. They wouldn’t survive long in open water – dying either from hypothermia, drowning, or a shark attack.

‘There is
some
good news,’ said Saburo.

Jack and the others turned to him expectantly.

Saburo forced a smile. ‘I don’t feel seasick any more!’

Jack shook his head in disbelief. The old Saburo was back! But they weren’t likely to enjoy each other’s company much longer. A group of ninja pirates were heading across the main deck to the cage.

In the light of day the Wind Demons were even more terrifying to behold. Their black
shinobi shozoku
had been exchanged for a motley array of coarsely woven jackets, tied in at the waist with belts. A gruesome range of swords, knives and battleaxes hung from their hips. Some wore random pieces of samurai armour, spoils of war donned as badges of honour. A few paraded silk shawls, apparently having plundered the
Golden Tiger
’s hidden stock of fine silks. Most of the pirates went hatless or else tied a bandanna around their dishevelled manes of black hair. And all the men boasted an unkempt beard or drooping moustache.

But their most distinctive feature was the profusion of tattoos that decorated their bodies. One brawny pirate had a tiger emblazoned across his chest. Another had a pair of swords in the shape of a crucifix on his back. Down the leg of a tall skinny man was a two-headed red snake. Along with their own personal designs, every ninja pirate was branded with a black spider tattoo upon his neck. The man fronting this grisly gang was the most monstrous of the lot. He wore a gold earring, had blackened teeth and a deathly skull tattooed over his entire face.

‘
They’re going to eat us for breakfast!
’ whimpered one of the
Golden Tiger
’s crew, sniffling as he wiped a hand across his nose.

The ninja pirate with the skull face leered in through the bars.

‘Any of you fishermen?’ he asked.

No one answered. Jack noted the slaves and Japanese sailors kept their eyes firmly fixed on the deck and their mouths shut.

‘You see, we need to catch a shark,’ explained Skullface. ‘Help us and we’ll let you go.’

At this promise of freedom, the terrified crewmember of the
Golden Tiger
proclaimed, ‘I’m a fisherman! I’ll help!’

The ninja pirate grinned, his mouth a gaping black hole in his skull tattoo. ‘Excellent.’

He indicated to the guard to open the gate. Jack realized this might be their only chance of escape. If he leapt on the guard, the others could make a break for it. But Miyuki laid a hand on Jack’s arm and silently shook her head. The ninja pirates were diligent, two of them held barbed spears pointed at the gate’s entrance. Anyone who attempted to get out would be skewered like a suckling pig.

The crewman eagerly climbed from the cage and followed the pirates over to the starboard side, where a block and tackle had been rigged. The man gazed at it in bewilderment.

‘The sharks in these waters are really BIG!’ explained Skullface.

Desperate to prove useful, the crewman replied, ‘Then you’ll need squid or … a whole mullet fish to catch one.’

Skullface pulled thoughtfully at his gold earring as he considered the suggestion. Behind him, his gang had begun to snigger.

‘We don’t have a mullet, but …’

Without warning, Skullface struck the crewman across the jaw. The man went sprawling to the deck. Three ninja pirates pinned his arms and legs, while the tiger-tattooed pirate bound the end of a rope to his ankle. A second later they’d hoisted their prisoner into the air. Dazed and confused, the crewman flailed his arms in an attempt to right himself.

‘… we do have you.’

‘He’s a frisky one!’ grunted the pirate with the sword crucifix tattoo.

Skullface pulled out a knife from his belt and slashed its blade across the crewman’s forearm. Blood dripped from the wound on to the deck. ‘That’ll get a feeding frenzy started.’

As the tiger-tattooed pirate swung their live bait over the side, the crewman started begging for his life. ‘PLEASE! I’ve a wife and child at home! DON’T DO IT!’

His shouts drew the attention of the other pirates on deck and they stopped what they were doing to watch. Skullface turned to the tiger-tattooed pirate, apparently having a change of heart. ‘All right … let him go.’

For a brief second, the crewman hung there, breathing out a huge sigh of relief. Then the tiger-tattooed pirate released the rope and the crewman disappeared. There was a splash and all the ninja pirates rushed to the gunwale.