Young Samurai: The Ring of Wind (31 page)

He’d not actually seen him land … or had any real proof of his death.

Perhaps Dragon Eye had landed upon a lower roof? Or used a grappling rope to halt his descent? Maybe a
sakura
tree had broken his fall? Whatever had happened, there was no denying the fact that his nemesis was back and very much alive.

As Jack returned the ninja’s cold pitiless stare, he felt the old wounds open up again. His heart bled with sorrows he’d once thought healed, or at least subdued. Grief for his dead father flooded through him in a fresh wave of loss. Visions of Dragon Eye thrusting the blade into his father’s chest flashed before his eyes and he began to sob. All his struggles to overcome the ninja had been in vain. Justice had never been carried out. His father was dead, he and his sister orphaned, while his murderer
still
lived. Yamato, his friend and brother-in-arms, had sacrificed himself to save Jack and Akiko. Now it appeared Yamato had died for nothing …

Jack was struck by a startling revelation.
If Dragon Eye had survived, then so too might Yamato!

A burst of unimaginable hope filled his heart. Even now, Yamato could be reunited with his father Masamoto, or roaming Japan searching for him. Jack tried to calm himself and temper his expectations. He knew the odds were stacked against such a possibility – otherwise Akiko, Yori or Saburo would surely have got word of their friend’s survival. But there was still a slim chance and Jack wasn’t willing to give up on his newfound hope. He used it to ignite a renewed determination to survive.

Jack had no idea how he could escape. Tied to a mast, guarded by samurai and watched by Dragon Eye, the situation was hopeless. He couldn’t depend upon his friends to save him this time; they were relying upon
him
to free them. Still, he had no intention of letting them down.

A realization slowly dawned on Jack. He’d been warned of Dragon Eye’s return – not once but twice.

First, the warrior spirit of Taira Masamori, the Great Pirate Queller – or whoever the man was – had given him a lesson in the Ring of Wind ‘
for when an old enemy returns anew
’. Jack recalled the unyielding oak on the cliff top that had lost its fight against the wind, and the flexible feather that had survived.

And, second, the Wind Witch had foreseen: ‘
Pain will nourish your courage when the dragon returns …
’

It was so obvious now. Both had tried to prepare him for this encounter with Dragon Eye.

Jack decided to follow their advice. He would ‘
go where the wind blows
’, letting the memory of his father burn like a fire within him.

Flying Fan

The Sea Samurai ship was still in sight of the barren island when there was a commotion on deck.

‘What’s the problem?’ demanded Dragon Eye.

‘One of my lookouts saw something,’ replied the ship’s captain, peering astern into the darkness.

‘What
exactly
?’ said Dragon Eye, impatient for details.

‘I don’t know. It looks like –’ Suddenly a blinding blast of hellfire lit up the night sky. ‘– A SEA DRAGON!’ screamed the captain as he dived to the deck.

The ball of flame rocketed towards the ship. Dragon Eye took cover just as the stern bulwark exploded into lethal shards of blazing timber. A samurai too close to the rail was engulfed. Screaming and flailing his arms, the burning man toppled over the side.

Held captive, Jack could only watch as the fire-breathing monster surged closer. It spat out another flaming ball. This time the rudder was hit. The ship lurched. The captain desperately tried to regain control, but there was little he could do. All steerage was lost.

‘Port side, fire your cannon!’ ordered Dragon Eye as the creature charged headlong at the disabled ship.

From below came the hurried sounds of priming. A loaded cannon was hauled into firing position and a few moments later an almighty boom rocked the deck. The shot whizzed through the air and, more by luck than fine judgement, struck the dragon first time. But the cannonball just bounced off the armoured back of the beast.

Unharmed and undeterred, the dragon continued to hurtle towards them at terrifying speed.

‘BRACE YOURSELVES!’ snarled Dragon Eye, a second before the beast rammed into the port side. The bone-shattering impact sent samurai flying across the deck. Dragon Eye alone, as surefooted as a cat, kept his feet – as did Jack, but only because he was tied to the mast.

Jack now found himself staring into the jaws of death: tendrils of smoke rose from the dragon’s throat, the gaping mouth of the beast large enough to swallow him whole. Two rows of jagged teeth threatened to rip the flesh from his body.

But the dragon held off, its fiery eyes staring unblinking at him. Then Jack watched in astonishment as Wind Demons, clad in black, clambered across the armoured back of the beast and swarmed on to the samurai ship’s deck.

The crew, stunned by the dragon’s surprise attack, were slow to react to this new threat, and some were slaughtered where they stood.

‘THEY’RE JUST PIRATES!’ bawled Dragon Eye, his
ninjat
ō
already at work.

The Sea Samurai snapped out of their shock and began to fight off the invaders. Weapons flashed through the night and the two sides clashed in a ferocious battle.

Leading the Wind Demons, a whirling dervish in black and red robes cut a path through the samurai crew. True to her name, Tatsumaki was a tornado of destruction as she wielded a formidable
naginata
. The curving blade atop the long pole sliced in arcs, felling Sea Samurai left, right and centre.

Jack was awed by the ferocious skill of the Pirate Queen as she spearheaded an attack towards the main mast.

Realizing her intention, Dragon Eye yelled, ‘KILL the
gaijin
!’

A samurai broke off and headed for Jack. Struggling against his bonds, Jack tried to free an arm to fight back. But he was bound tighter than a hangman’s noose. The samurai grinned as he raised his sword to hack the head off his defenceless victim. Jack writhed in desperation to avoid the lethal blade, knowing Tatsumaki could never reach him in time.

The Pirate Queen, realizing this too, pulled her
tessen
from her
obi
. With a flick of her wrist, the iron fan opened and she threw it in Jack’s direction. The
tessen
spun through the air like a single-winged hunting bird. It skimmed in front of the samurai, causing him to falter in his attack. Then the man’s eyes widened in shock. He dropped his sword and clasped his neck. Blood poured through his fingers, the fan’s razor-sharp edge having sliced his throat wide open. Spluttering a final breath, the samurai collapsed at Jack’s feet.

Moments later, he was surrounded by a protective cordon of Wind Demons.

‘Secure the ship!’ commanded Tatsumaki as her pirates laid waste to the remaining Sea Samurai.

A Wind Demon rushed to Jack’s side.

‘I thought you were as good as dead,’ said Li Ling, pulling off her hood.

In a single swipe of her
naginata
, Tatsumaki sliced through the ropes binding Jack.

‘Thanks for coming to my rescue,’ he said, rubbing the circulation back into his arms.

Tatsumaki flashed him a triumphant smile as she retrieved her deadly fan. ‘You’re too precious to let
anyone
take you.’

Jack looked around at the slain samurai. ‘Where’s Dragon Eye?’ he asked.

‘Dokugan Ryu? But you said he was dead,’ replied Tatsumaki, bemused.

Jack gave a despondent shake of his head. ‘I was wrong.’

‘That ninja must have more lives than a cat!’

The Pirate Queen ordered an immediate sweep of the ship. The Wind Demons turned over dead bodies, searched the cabins and hunted below deck. But it was as if Dragon Eye had never existed.

The Koketsu

Jack stood before the sea dragon and laughed at how easily people had been fooled. In the moonlight, the beast had an unsettling lifelike quality. But close up, no longer distracted by the chaos of battle, he saw the creature for what it was – a strange and formidable battleship.

The design was unlike anything he’d ever seen, or could possibly have imagined. Protruding from the bow was the dragon itself, an immense figurehead large enough to contain a gun crew and a Heaven cannon that fired flaming shot. The armoured back of the beast was a curved roof of iron plates with vicious spikes thrusting up. Not only did this ‘dragon skin’ deflect cannonballs but it prevented the enemy from boarding the ship – grappling hooks couldn’t gain purchase and any boarder foolish enough to try would find their feet pierced by the spikes. This iron-clad roof completely enclosed the ship’s overhanging top deck and shielded the crew within. From a defensive point of view, the Wind Demons’ battleship appeared unassailable.

But it was also an attack vessel. On all sides there were gun ports, three to the bow and stern and ten down either side. The dragon’s twenty legs were powerful
yuloh
-style oars, projecting down from the overhanging deck, giving the ship not only speed but manoeuvrability. Its long tail turned out to be the main mast, which had been lowered to protect it during the assault. At the waterline was another carved face, one that Jack recognized. A twisted and scarred protrusion with hooked teeth and blood-red eyes, it was the battering ram that had hulled Captain Arashi’s
atake-bune
.

‘She’s named the
Koketsu
,’ remarked Tatsumaki proudly. ‘It means “Jaws of Death”.’

Jack thought it an apt name for such a fearsome vessel.

‘We captured her from the Korean navy,’ the Pirate Queen continued. ‘Only a handful have ever been built, so the Sea Samurai have never seen one before. That’s why they believe in sea dragons!’

She gave a throaty laugh and climbed on to the ship’s roof.

‘Welcome aboard,’ she said, offering her hand. ‘Let’s talk, while my men finish unloading the samurai ship of its weapons and supplies.’

Stepping up a gangplank, Jack followed the Pirate Queen along a narrow walkway between the rows of iron spikes to a wooden hatch. Clambering inside the belly of the beast, Jack found himself on the main deck. Unusually for a battleship, the deck was shared by both oarsmen and gunners. The twenty Heaven and Earth cannon were divided by twenty teams of hulking oarsmen, each so powerfully built they could have crushed a man’s skull with their bare hands.

‘These men are the pumping heart of the
Koketsu
,’ proclaimed Tatsumaki as her muscular crew bowed their respects. She indicated the two rows of cannon. ‘And these its teeth.’

As they headed for her cabin, Jack was surprised at how orderly and neat everything appeared. The Pirate Queen evidently maintained a disciplined ship. When she opened the door to her quarters, there came a screech of delight and a flash of fur landed on Jack’s shoulder.

‘Saru!’ exclaimed Jack, for once glad to see the little monkey. Saru chattered back in answer, happily preening his hair.

Tatsumaki’s cabin was in stark contrast to the opulence of her citadel. Functional and uncluttered, it housed a lacquered cabinet in one corner, a low table in the centre and a weapons rack down one wall – upon which Tatsumaki now laid her
naginata
. Drawing up a red silk cushion, she sat upon the polished wooden floor behind the table and invited Jack to join her. Jack took his place opposite, Saru still perched on his shoulder, contentedly chewing on a piece of fruit.

‘How did you find me?’ asked Jack.

‘Li Ling raised the alarm, when she discovered you hadn’t returned to the citadel,’ explained Tatsumaki, cleaning the edge of her lethal
tessen
before fanning herself with it. ‘At first, we thought you’d escaped. The skiff was missing. But you were last spotted with Skullface and his gang. And they were missing too. Then it was just a combination of guesswork and luck that we found you. That barren island is the closest to our base. But, if we’d arrived any later, you and that samurai ship would have been long gone.’

There was a knock at the door and Li Ling entered with another female pirate, hefting a small wooden chest.