The Ring of Earth Read online

  As Jack passed the hidden compartment, an idea struck him. However important the contents, his pack would compromise his fighting ability. He dropped it into the hole and slammed the floorboards shut. At least the rutter would be safe until he returned … if he ever did.

  Jack joined Soke and Hanzo in the yard. The first line of samurai had reached the village boundary, weaving along the network of pathways, while some struggled through the flooding paddy fields. A vanguard of ninja rushed to meet them, hoping to give the other villagers time to marshal in the square.

  Soke handed Jack a bundle of weapons.

  ‘Let’s go,’ he ordered, moving with astonishing agility.

  They sprinted along the path and on to the road. Other ninja joined them in their dash to the relative safety of the square. Ahead, Jack saw the second samurai battalion approaching. Only three men wide, due to the deliberately narrow road, the column was having to fight every step of the way as a small party of ninja battled to hold them back. But it would be touch and go whether Hanzo, Soke and Jack made it to the square’s gate before the samurai did.

  Suddenly the column surged forward as the ninja fell beneath the blades of the samurai. It was now an all-out race to reach the wooden gate. Putting on a burst of speed, Jack sprinted up the rise with Soke and Hanzo. Behind them, the pounding of feet and shouts of the samurai pursued them. Risking a glance back, Jack saw a warrior, his sword raised in one hand, about to cut him down.

  Then a flash of silver shot past Jack and struck the samurai in the throat. He let out a guttural cry, stumbled and fell, blood gushing from his mouth. Tenzen, standing by the gate, launched another shuriken to take out the next samurai in line. Jack shot through the entrance, one of the last before the gate was slammed shut and barred.

  The samurai troops began to hammer against the barrier. For the time being it held, but Jack knew they were on borrowed time.

  ‘Thanks for saving me back there,’ he gasped as Tenzen helped bolster the gate with wooden staves.

  ‘You’d have done the same for me,’ Tenzen replied, then in jest added, ‘If you could hit a moving target, that is!’

  ‘Distribute the weapons, Jack,’ instructed Soke, before going to report to Shonin.

  Handing out the few weapons he had, Jack was disheartened to see that barely half the villagers had made it. But he was glad to see Miyuki among the survivors.

  ‘Here,’ said Jack, offering her the shikoro-ken. ‘It’s the ideal weapon for you.’

  Miyuki took it, smiling grimly when she drew the blade. ‘Thanks, but we’ll need more than a Sword of Destruction to get out of this alive.’

  ‘I’ve been in worse situations,’ said Jack, thinking of the Battle of Osaka and his encounter with the Red Devils.

  ‘Are you so sure?’ she replied, looking out across the paddy fields – not with despair, but resignation.

  The fields swarmed with samurai, the rice crops the villagers had been working so hard to harvest now trampled underfoot. Any pockets of resistance were being swiftly crushed. From all directions, daimyo Akechi’s forces closed in upon the central square. At a guess, the ninja were outnumbered ten to one. With such a force, Jack realized daimyo Akechi intended to wipe out the entire village, just as he’d vowed to.

  Jack never imagined he’d find himself on the side of the ninja, fighting against samurai. Perhaps this is one battle I won’t survive, he thought.

  As the samurai gathered for their main assault on the square, Jack spotted the daimyo Akechi on his horse. Dressed in full ceremonial armour, he looked like the warrior in his painting – except he was safely at the rear, letting his troops take the fight to the ninja.

  Inside the square, Shonin was rallying everyone together. The heads of family were taking up their stations to defend the four corners. Mothers with their children were being shepherded inside the farmhouse by Momochi.

  Jack looked down at Hanzo, who stood by his side, silent yet resolute. ‘You should go too,’ he said, hoping against hope that the women and children might be spared.

  Hanzo shook his head. ‘I’m not scared,’ he said, drawing a short sword from his hip. ‘This is what I’ve trained for.’

  Jack couldn’t help but smile. The boy had the heart of a ninja and the samurai courage to match.

  But as Jack prepared to face their enemy, he was terrified the so-called tuition he’d given Hanzo wouldn’t be enough to repel the attack of a fully armed warrior. He could only pray he was wrong.

  44

  THE VILLAGE SQUARE

  To Jack’s surprise and relief, the samurai’s initial offensive was repelled. The village square, built as it was upon a bank and with one side buffered by the pond, was proving to be an effective stronghold. Ninja armed with bows shot arrows into the samurai horde, picking off those who attempted to scale the steep bank. Any warrior managing to do so was confronted by the impenetrable thorn hedge, while samurai reaching the inner fence found themselves skewered by spears and naginata.

  The supreme confidence of Akechi’s troops was then dealt another blow.

  Jack was helping defend the eastern corner, when Hanzo called out, ‘Look! They’re fighting among themselves.’

  Jack was stunned to see he was right. A company of samurai was in utter disarray, blood flowing as they slaughtered one another for no apparent reason.

  Tenzen laughed, though his eyes betrayed a deeper sorrow.

  ‘That will be my uncle, Ishibe, and his men,’ he said with pride. ‘They’ve been hiding out in the storehouse, disguised in samurai armour.’

  Jack now understood. A Ring of Wind tactic. A ninja’s presence should be like the wind – always felt but never seen. It was a suicide mission. By infiltrating and killing the samurai from within their own ranks, Ishibe and his men had turned the samurai upon themselves. Not knowing who was friend or foe, each soldier now fought for his own life.

  Chaos reigned and it sent ripples of mistrust among the other companies. But the commanders rallied their troops and enforced order upon them. The infighting petered out, the imposters exposed. Only one remained alive. He was dragged to the front of the column for all to see.

  ‘Ishibe,’ breathed Tenzen.

  A samurai soldier forced the ninja to his knees. Then the commanding officer approached, withdrew his katana and cut off Ishibe’s head.

  ‘NO!’ cried Tenzen.

  Jack grabbed hold of Tenzen’s arm, fearing his friend was about to leap the fence to wreak revenge.

  The officer picked up Ishibe’s severed head by the hair and held it aloft. Pointing his sword at the villagers in the square, he shouted, ‘THIS IS THE FATE OF ALL NINJA!’

  ‘And yours too!’ screamed Tenzen as his shuriken struck the commander in the face a second later.

  Blood gushing from his eyesocket, the commander bawled, ‘ATTACK! ATTACK!’

  The samurai, rattling their swords, gave a deafening battle cry, and in one unstoppable wave stormed the barricades. The wooden gate disintegrated under the force of the assault. As the troops poured into the square, Jack now withdrew both his swords. If there was ever a time he needed the Two Heavens, this was it.

  ‘Stay by my side,’ Jack told Hanzo.

  ‘Are we going to die, tengu?’ he asked, his voice wavering.

  Jack didn’t want to lie to Hanzo, but neither did he want him to give up hope. ‘Tengu can’t die, remember!’

  Hanzo looked up at Jack, his tender years all too visible in his terrified face. ‘But I’m not a tengu.’

  ‘Well, I am. And I’m going to protect you with my life.’

  The first samurai through the gate were slain immediately. But for every one killed, two more appeared. The ninja were driven back. Reinforcements rushed to their aid. Soke swung his cane and chain with devastating results. Despite his years, his lethal skills dealt death to any samurai who approached.

  A group of soldiers broke through, charging towards Miyuki, Jack and Hanzo. Raising their swords, Jack and Miyuki
prepared to defend themselves. But before the enemy had got within reach, five blades flicked through the air. They struck within the space of a single breath.

  Ikki goken.

  The five samurai collapsed to the ground, screaming in agony.

  Tenzen held out his hand to Hanzo. ‘More!’

  Hanzo hastily passed him another five throwing stars from his bag.

  The screaming samurai were put out of their misery by ninja with spears. But these kills were small victories in a battle the shinobi could only lose. It was immediately apparent to Jack that, forced to fight on samurai terms, the ninja were outskilled in the sword and outnumbered in men. Only their sheer bravery and determination held back the inevitable slaughter.

  Shonin fought alongside his men, splatters of blood staining his kimono. His bodyguards fell one by one under the swords of the samurai, but he wouldn’t yield.

  The fighting spread throughout the square, the cries of battle now joined by the screams of the wounded and dying. A unit of samurai carved their way through the ninja defence. In its midst was their commanding officer, his face dripping with blood, his eye a gruesome hole. The unit purposefully fought its way over to Tenzen.

  ‘You take my eye, I take your head!’ the commanding officer declared, swinging his sword.

  Tenzen threw a pointed shuriken, but the samurai was ready for him this time. Deflecting the spike with his blade, he drove forward with his katana.

  Drawing his ninjatō, Tenzen fought for his life.

  Jack and Miyuki rushed to his defence, but the samurai’s escort engaged them in combat, leaving Tenzen to struggle on alone. As Jack clashed with two warriors, through the chaos of battle Hanzo saw Soke surrounded by samurai. A glancing blow from one of his attacker’s swords dug deep into the Grandmaster’s thigh and he dropped to the ground.

  ‘Grandfather!’ cried Hanzo, running to his aid, his sword held high.

  ‘NO!’ shouted Jack. But it was too late. The boy was no longer under his protection.

  In that moment of distraction, Jack was caught across the arm by one of the samurai’s blades. It was only a flesh wound, but it roused his fighting spirit. Side-kicking the first samurai hard in the chest, he simultaneously hobbled the second with a lightning strike to the knee. Jack barged through them, rushing across the square in pursuit of Hanzo. But another samurai, broad as an ox and with a terrifying menpō mask of gold and black serrated teeth, blocked his path.

  ‘The infamous gaijin samurai!’ he grunted in satisfaction. ‘You’re my prize.’

  The samurai wielded a deadly nagamaki, a weapon with a lethal katana-length blade and an extended shaft equally as long.

  Jack barely avoided his thrust and was almost hacked in two by a second sweeping attack. Deflecting the blade, Jack attempted a counter-cut across the man’s chest, but he couldn’t get close enough. The nagamaki’s extra reach kept his swords at bay. Driven backwards by a series of sweeping slices, he stumbled over the dead body of a ninja and fell to the bloodsoaked ground.

  As Jack instinctively rolled to his feet, the samurai seized upon the advantage and thrust for his heart. There was no time for Jack to evade it. But then a jagged-edge sword cleaved through the nagamaki’s shaft and the samurai’s lead hand – severing them both.

  Holding his stump before his eyes, the samurai’s cry of shock was cut short when a ninja’s arrow lodged itself in his throat. The samurai collapsed in a juddering heap at Jack’s feet.

  ‘Come on,’ Miyuki insisted, dragging Jack towards the farmhouse. She too was wounded, blood running down her arm.

  ‘But Hanzo!’ he protested. ‘Soke!’

  Mounting the embankments on all sides, Akechi’s army surged into the square and overwhelmed the remaining ninja. Neither Hanzo nor Soke were anywhere to be seen.

  ‘It’s too late!’ cried Miyuki. She pulled Jack inside the farmhouse, where a handful of ninja were making a last stand. Stumbling down the corridor, Miyuki led Jack into the reception room. As she hurried towards the dais, two samurai – one wearing a red menpō with a hooknose, the other a helmet with two spiked horns – burst through a shoji to their left.

  ‘At last, I’ve caught up with you!’ snarled the horn-headed samurai.

  Jack couldn’t believe it, though he recognized the man’s rat-like moustache and bushy eyebrows. It was the samurai from the inn at Shono.

  ‘You won’t escape me this time, gaijin,’ he growled, raising his katana.

  Jack and Miyuki, side by side, swords in hand, confronted their enemy.

  Miyuki glanced at Jack with grim finality. ‘To the death!’

  45

  FIRE IN THE FARMHOUSE

  The two samurai bore down on them. Without warning, the one wearing the menpō attacked his leader. In a lightning strike, he chopped at his neck with the edge of his hand. The samurai collapsed to the ground, unconscious.

  ‘Fall Down Fist?’ uttered Miyuki, more stunned at the technique than their sudden change of fate.

  Their samurai saviour pulled off his mask to reveal a girl’s face. The long dark hair was hidden by the helmet, but the half-moon eyes, dark as black pearl, and the rose-petal lips were instantly recognizable.

  ‘Akiko!’ cried Jack in astonishment and delight.

  He rushed forwards, embracing her. For that brief moment, the battle receded into the distance and he was back in Toba.

  ‘Forever bound to one another,’ she whispered in his ear, returning his embrace.

  ‘You know this samurai?’ exclaimed Miyuki, her sword still raised.

  ‘This is Akiko,’ said Jack, as if that explained everything. ‘My closest friend.’

  Akiko bowed her head respectfully, though she kept her eyes on Miyuki throughout.

  ‘We don’t have time for formalities,’ responded Miyuki, barely acknowledging Akiko’s bow. ‘We have to get out of here.’

  Their innate distrust of one another was immediately apparent. For one brief moment, Jack wondered whether Akiko, as a samurai, had revealed the location of the ninja village to daimyo Akechi. But Jack trusted her implicitly. Besides, Akiko wouldn’t have wanted to risk her little brother’s life in a mass attack upon the village.

  ‘I can take you prisoner,’ Akiko suggested, overlooking Miyuki’s slight. Glancing at Jack, she added, ‘Just like Sensei Kyuzo did at Osaka Castle.’

  Miyuki laughed at the idea. ‘No samurai will ever take me prisoner.’

  ‘And I’m afraid it wouldn’t work,’ said Jack. ‘Daimyo Akechi intends to kill us all. And he definitely wants to kill me.’

  ‘You can’t fight your way past a thousand samurai,’ Akiko argued.

  ‘We don’t need to,’ shot back Miyuki.

  Jack wondered what she had in mind. Escaping disguised as samurai warriors was out of the question. They were trapped in the farmhouse, lacked a second set of armour and, besides, Akechi’s army was on the alert for imposters.

  ‘You trust this samurai?’ Miyuki asked of Jack.

  ‘With my life,’ he replied.

  ‘Then I suppose I’ll have to,’ she said, sheathing her sword. ‘Follow me.’

  Miyuki stepped on to the dais. The sounds of fighting drew nearer. Suddenly a figure staggered into the room.

  ‘Tenzen!’ said Jack with relief, having given him up for dead.

  The ninja was battleworn and bloodstained, a nasty gash on his forehead. Seeing Akiko, he went to throw his last remaining shuriken.

  ‘NO!’ Jack shouted, jumping into his line of sight. ‘She’s with me.’

  Tenzen shot Jack a disbelieving look, but Miyuki gave an affirmative nod and he lowered his hand.

  ‘Where’s Shonin?’ asked Miyuki urgently.

  ‘I don’t know,’ Tenzen replied with dismay. He pressed his hand to his wound. ‘I took the commander’s other eye out and my father took his head. But I lost him after that. The battle was too chaotic.’

  ‘And Soke? Hanzo?’ asked Jack.

  Limping over, Tenzen put a
hand on Jack’s shoulder, both for comfort and support. ‘I’m sorry. I haven’t seen them.’

  ‘We have to go,’ Miyuki urged.

  At that moment, Kajiya the bladesmith ran in. ‘They’ve set fire to the farmhouse!’ he shouted.

  Behind him, Shiro and two other students appeared, Danjo and Kato, panic etched on their faces. Smoke was already billowing from the corridor into the room.

  ‘Good,’ said Miyuki to everyone’s surprise. ‘It will cover our escape.’

  She pushed at the wall panel with the painting of the kingfisher. It pivoted open to reveal a secret corridor. Jack stared open-mouthed, but he didn’t know why he should be surprised. This was a ninja house after all.

  ‘Who’s the samurai?’ Kajiya demanded as Miyuki disappeared down the passageway.

  ‘A friend of Jack’s,’ replied Tenzen, limping after Miyuki. ‘On our side, supposedly.’

  Kaijya stared at Akiko. ‘You picked a fine day to visit,’ he said, ushering her and Jack ahead of him.

  The corridor led through a door into a small hidden room. They crowded in, barely enough space for the eight survivors.

  ‘We’ll be burnt alive in here!’ commented Akiko.

  ‘Out of the way,’ Miyuki ordered, pushing Akiko to one side.

  Bending down, she removed the shoji’s wooden runner and lifted a square section of the corridor’s floor to reveal a secret passageway.

  Now Jack was surprised.

  ‘Go!’ beckoned Miyuki as the sound of flames crackled above them. ‘Kajiya, you lead the way.’

  The bladesmith jumped into the hole, swiftly followed by the other ninja and Tenzen. Miyuki, affecting a bow, stepped aside to allow Akiko down. ‘samurai first.’

  ‘Thank you,’ replied Akiko, equally civil.

  ‘You next, Jack,’ said Miyuki. ‘I’ll protect your back.’

  Jack landed in a narrow passageway that led down and away from the farmhouse. The floor was wooden, but the walls and low ceiling were hard-packed earth and rock, reinforced by beams. He had to crouch and shuffle along. Up ahead, he could just make out the faint light from Kajiya’s candle and the sound of running water. Behind him, it was pitch darkness as Miyuki shut the trapdoor.