Heretic, Betrayers of Kamigawa

CHAPTER 26

General Takeno stood before Konda in the daimyo’s private chamber. Konda himself had his back to Takeno, fixed as usual on the steaming stone disk at the far side of the room.

Takeno had his hand on his sword and his ear cocked as he listened down the short staircase. Konda had hailed him when he came in, but the daimyo had not yet turned to face his oldest and most trusted retainer. The general had tried to inform Konda about what was developing just outside the tower walls, but the daimyo would hear none of it. His strange eyes never left the disk, and when Takeno spoke Konda only repeated that he had absolute faith in his prize.

So the general stood, waiting for the inevitable. O-Kagachi had torn through Eiganjo’s defenders like a scythe through wheat. If the tower’s magical defenses did not hold, the great Towabara nation would end here, today, on this dusty patch of mist-shrouded ground.

Takeno was sad, tired, and numb. Fighting beside his lord, dying along with Konda would have been enough. Standing forgotten while the daimyo communed with his totem was hardly a noble death for a veteran warrior.

A stupendous boom sounded outside, and the entire tower shuddered. Takeno imagined O-Kagachi prodding and testing the tower the way he had tested the walls of the fortress, with multiple blows from his multiple jaws clamped tight. Another boom, another shudder, and mortar dust rained down from the ceiling.

“My lord,” Takeno said, “the great serpent has come.”

“Let him come,” Konda said without turning. “He will never breach Eiganjo, and he will never claim my prize.”

“He has already broken the outer walls,” Takeno said softly.

Now Konda did turn. His eyes lingered on the statue. “So? It is the tower now that will protect us, the tower that has been engineered for just such an event.”

Takeno swallowed then shook his head. “No, my lord. I don’t think even the architects of Eiganjo imagined a nightmare like this. Most of your kingdom is already in ruins, thanks to the Kami War. The bulk of your citizens are crammed into this tower like arrows in a quiver. If O-Kagachi breaks through, you, your kingdom, and your people will all be at risk.”

Konda narrowed his wandering eyes. “Are you questioning my orders, General?”

“I am, my lord, but with good reason. I have never fully understood what it was we did on that night so many years ago.” He gestured to the stone disk. “I have seen how that has made you powerful, but it has also brought the wrath of the entire kakuriyo down upon us. O-Kagachi is the ultimate expression of that wrath. Is that piece of stone worth all that we have fought for and lost?”

Konda looked troubled. “You disappoint me, General. I thought you, of all people, would remain true no matter what hardships we faced.”

“I am true, my lord, but I am convinced that we will die here-you, I, everyone in the tower. That conviction has loosened my tongue. Unlike you, I am an old man, at the end of my life. Now that I am to die, I crave a boon: Tell me what I am dying for.”

“You are dying for the nation,” Konda said. “Exactly the same as you would expect from any of your riders, from any of the retainers who have sworn to serve us. This-” he waved his hand back at the statue-“is the future of our land. It is power made solid, and it enriches any who understands its nature. It is a piece of the spirit world, that divine spark that crosses the line from immaterial to material. As such, it calls to the kami and myojin, who grow diminished by its absence and seek to reclaim it.

“I say my people, my nation is more deserving of its blessings. We-” he gestured between Takeno and himself-“are more deserving. That is what war has always been about, General: the treasures at stake and who benefits from them. If Godo knew it existed, he would come for it with all of his bandit horde, and we would fight him off. How is the Kami War any different?”

“Godo is but a man, my lord, and the people used to worship the spirits.”

“Now,” Konda said, “they no longer have to. We are above the kami now. We bear the very thing that made them exalted. Now we are exalted, and they must worship us.”

Takeno did not reply. He stared, his face a mask.

Konda sneered. “Go if you wish, General. I will not ask of you what I am not prepared to do myself.” He turned back to the statue. “I will stay. If O-Kagachi tries to touch my prize, I will fight him to the death.” He turned his back and raised his hands to the stone disk. “If you truly believe that I have led us all to our deaths here, you must strike me down. If you have another course to pursue, usurp my position and lead in my place. I have no friends left-not you, not Isamaru, not even my own daughter. Strike now, Takeno, if you think it will save Towabara. I will not resist.”

A terrific blow struck the exterior wall, knocking both men to their knees. More dust fell, along with splinters of wood from the ceiling beams and small chunks of stone.

Takeno rose, crossed the room, and bowed to Konda. “I will never leave you, my lord, never abandon you. It is my oath and my destiny to fight at your side, but it is also my desire.”

Konda put his hand on the general’s shoulder. “It is a difficult thing, to lead.” Konda pulled Takeno close and embraced him. “Especially when only you can see how treacherous is the path ahead.”

O-Kagachi struck the tower again, and this time Takeno felt the entire building sway like a sapling in a stiff breeze. He and Konda managed to stay on their feet by propping each other up. Miraculously, the stone disk remained fixed on its pedestal, the fetal serpent on its face lifeless and inscrutable.

“I believe the outer wall has given way, my lord.” Takeno retrieved his sword from the floor. “We may have to fight. Have you a weapon?”

Konda waved his concerns aside. “Noble General,” he said, “I have the loyalty of my retainers. I have the love of my people. I have the prize that stirred the entire spirit world to action. I need nothing else.”

“Very good, my lord.”

The tower shuddered once more from another tremendous impact, and the walls around the short staircase collapsed. Beyond the rubble, Takeno could see that other interior walls had crumbled, turning this level of the tower into one great chamber enclosed only by the solid stone and enchantments of the tower’s exterior. Through the dust, Takeno could see a hole in that massive barrier and the night sky beyond the hole.

The exterior wall buckled, exploding inward as if struck by a black powder bomb. Takeno saw a wedge of sharp rock as large as a table slicing through the air toward Konda. Though the daimyo was facing the deadly missile, his eyes had migrated to the far left and right of their sockets, trying to stay fixed on the stone disk.

Takeno sprang forward without hesitation. With his sword held high and his powerful voice echoing across the chamber, he leaped into the path of the soaring stone and slashed at it, splitting a jagged piece from its surface.

The rock plowed into the old soldier’s chest, bearing him violently backward. Takeno’s weight and momentum were sufficient to deflect the great chunk of wall away from Konda. As he sailed past his lord and master, Takeno tried to cough out one last warning, one final word of caution in the hopes it would keep Konda alive for just a little while longer. His lungs were flat and his back was broken. The stone missile drove him out the opposite wall, crashing through the rocks and arcing over the north courtyard below.

His last thoughts were those of a soldier who had done his duty.

Konda whirled as Takeno’s body flew past him, borne on a bier of jagged stone. He was as shocked by the sight of his loyal subordinate’s broken body as he was by the force of the impact against the far wall. There was a deafening crack and an avalanche of stone cascading down to the ground.

Konda turned to his prize. Laboriously he dragged his eyes away from it and scanned the wreckage around him.

There were holes in both sides of the exterior wall. No whole walls stood anywhere on this level of the tower. Takeno was gone. His armies outside had either been defeated or driven off. Below Konda, thousands of people huddled together, praying for death to pass them by.

Something glittered on the far side of the tower, out in the cool night air. Konda took a step toward it, unsure of its size or shape but fascinated by the palpable aura of power that rolled off it like heat from a furnace.

Outside the hole, O-Kagachi’s eye blinked, and the great serpent roared, sending a jet of hot, acrid breath blistering through the chamber. Konda shielded his face with his forearm.

So this is how it ends, he thought. The oldest and most powerful spirit from the kakuriyo come to make war on the oldest and most powerful ruler from the utsushiyo. It would have been unthinkable twenty years ago, a ridiculous concept. But as Konda told Takeno, he had the love of his people, the loyalty of his soldier, and the power of his prize.

With the stone disk in his possession, Konda could be fearless. He alone knew what it represented, how its power could humble even O-Kagachi. It had made him immortal. It had made him invulnerable. Now he would use it to destroy the beast that threatened to undo all he had built.

Konda turned to face the prize. His eyes were drawn straight to it, as always, but he also noticed something on the periphery. The daimyo froze, nearly paralyzed by cold and unimaginable rage.

Someone was standing next to the stone disk’s pedestal. He was an average-looking man, armed with samurai swords and dressed in simple black linen. His dark hair was pulled tight behind his head.

“So,” the warrior said. “This is it. The Taken One.” He placed his hand on the closest edge of the disk and quickly drew back as if stung. “It’s cold,” he said then shrugged. “It’s not that impressive.”

“Take your hand away, sir.” Konda’s voice could not have been more menacing if he’d had a sword to the young man’s throat. For the first time in years, his eyes stopped listing and fixed firmly on the intruder.

Konda noticed Takeno’s sword on the floor and quickly scooped it up. “You will die for this. Draw, if you care to, and defend yourself.”

The young man shook his head. “No, daimyo,” he said. “We will not fight.”

Behind Konda, more of the exterior wall blew inward as O-Kagachi widened the hole. The daimyo felt grit and sharp stones along his back, but he did not wince, and he did not waver.

He stepped forward, pointing the tip of Takeno’s sword at the intruder. “Who are you?”

The intruder smiled. “I am oath-brother to both ogre and rat. I am the bane of snakes and the shivering cold that baffles moonlight. I have walked the streets of the cloud city and crawled through the mire of Numai.

“I am Toshi Umezawa, sir. I am the man who twice stole your daughter. I have come here now to steal this thing that you value so much.”

Toshi had never seen the daimyo up close-hardly surprising, since a man in his position was obliged to avoid government officials whenever possible. He had thought Konda would be older, more bent and wizened. He also wondered what had happened to the daimyo’s eyes, which seemed to big for his head and somehow vibrated as he glared at Toshi.

When Toshi said the word “steal,” Konda charged. The ochimusha didn’t expect the daimyo to be so fast, but he still had time to slide behind the cover of the stone disk.

The daimyo yelled something incoherent about glory and destiny and the future as he wildly swung his sword. Toshi was far more concerned about the huge face outside that was dismantling the wall brick by brick than he was about the frenzied daimyo.

He had watched Konda and the other old man for a short while, long enough to confirm his long-held suspicion: He didn’t like Konda. Besides the fact that he had started the Kami War and imprisoned his own daughter, the old man was selfish. Clinging to the stone disk at the expense of everything else, keeping it locked away in this dank little chamber-what was the point in ruling the entire spirit world by stealing something if all you were going to do was sit and stare at it? He claimed it was a source of power, but even the akki and the nezumi knew that power unused was power wasted. Maybe no one else could have taken the disk from the spirit world, but Konda was definitely someone who didn’t deserve it.

Toshi realized that Konda was still yelling at him. That proves it, he thought. Truly formidable leaders don’t have to yell to get their point across. Uramon never yelled. Hidetsugu … well, Hidetsugu roared a lot, but he was confident enough to let his actual words convey his threats rather than the volume at which he said them.

“How will you move it, thief?” Konda was raving, still slashing wildly with his sword, pursuing Toshi in an undignified scramble like one child chasing another around a tree. “The prize is mine, mine alone, and I will kill you before I ever let you touch it again.”

Toshi stayed ahead of Konda, circling around the pedestal. What a blowhard, he thought. This is the noble and respected ruler of Eiganjo? Michiko’s father was little more than a cranky old man, a miser who had forgotten the value of treasure and concerned himself only with keeping it from others.

The tower trembled once more, and the great serpent finally worked one of his heads through the hole in the outer wall. Time to finish this. Toshi veered away from the stone disk, moving toward the center of the room. He drew both his swords, watching Konda with one eye and O-Kagachi with the other.

Though old and manic, Konda did not seem to have exerted himself at all during the chase. His eyes rattled around in his skull like marbles in a cup, and his breath blew his thin mustache around, but he was still focused and vibrant.

“Stand and fight, ochimusha. It’s better to die on General Takeno’s sword than to be crushed and consumed by the great serpent.”

Toshi lowered his swords, his face thoughtful. “That’s good advice,” he said. “If I were you, I’d take it.”

The ochimusha called out to his myojin and endured the stinging burn on his arm as he faded from sight.

Konda fairly howled as Toshi disappeared. The daimyo ran to where Toshi had stood, slashing the empty air. Standing nearby, invisible, intangible, Toshi shook his head. How did this loon ever rule Kamigawa?

Too late, Konda realized he was now in direct line of sight with O-Kagachi. The great beast roared, shaking more stones loose from the crumbling tower. Konda, to his credit, stood firm as he called out defiantly.

“Here I am, guardian of two worlds. What you seek is behind me. Come and take it, if you can.” He paused, glancing over his shoulder, displaying his wandering eye. “You, thief, hidden in the shadows. Do your worst. The glory of Eiganjo will last forever.”

Toshi faded in alongside the pedestal. “Maybe,” he called. “Maybe not.” He reached out and placed his palm on the stone disk. As before, some strange force jolted him, shocking him like a frozen piece of metal, but he did not retract his hand.

Staring intently at the shadow of the pedestal, Toshi willed himself to fade once more. He concentrated on his palm and the stone disk beneath it. The great round mass grew transparent, a ghostly image of itself, then it, too, disappeared.

Konda screamed. O-Kagachi plowed through the shattered rooms and walls that had once been the daimyo’s private chambers.

Guiding the stone disk like a child’s balloon, Toshi stepped into the pedestal’s shadow and left the noise and the strife of Eiganjo behind.