Shike by Robert J. Shea (the reading list txt) 📕

is Muratomo territory, and I am their ally. We are the only true warriors in the land, living and dying by the sword. We’re not effem inate courtiers like the Takashi. How typically Takashi for your father to send you this way with no more escort than a monk armed with a sewing needle. Armed monks are fit only to clean fish. I’ll kick this monk into the sea where he belongs, and then I’ll take charge of you, little lady.”

Jebu said, “If you force me to fight, one of us will die. Perhaps both of us. Perhaps others, too.”

“Either kill him or be killed yourself,” Taniko said. “That’s what my father hired you for. Don’t sit there and argue.”

“I’m obliged by the rule of my Order to warn him.”

The samurai laughed, threw out his chest and squared his shoulders, his armour creaking and rattling. “Warn me? Warn me? I am Nakane Ikeno, son of Nakane Ikenori, who put down the Abe in the land of Oshu and slew Abe Sadato, their champion. I am the grandson of Nakane Ikezane, who fought against Takashi Masakado, captured him and sent his rebellious head back to Heian Kyo. I am the great-grandson of-”

Jebu, sitting easily in his saddle with his reins loose and his fists on his hips, interrupted. “You are an ape and the son of an ape and the grandson of an ape. As for me, I am nothing. I have no family name. My father was an unknown in the Sunrise Land. I have done nothing. I come from nowhere and I go nowhere.” Jebu touched the Zinja emblem on his chest. Ikeno’s eyes flickered to the blue and white circle of silk and widened slightly. Jebu went on, “I want nothing and I fear nothing. If you kill me you will have accomplished nothing, and no one will care. Let us pass.”

“Am I supposed to be terrified because you’re a Zinja, boy? The Zinja are cowards who kill by stealth. And you’re a coward, or you’d challenge me like a man. Why should I give way before someone who calls himself nothing?”

“Air is nothing. Yet a windstorm can destroy a city. Stand aside, ape.” Even as he spoke, Jebu repeated to himself the sayings that quieted his mind and filled his body with the power of the Self. Rely on nothing under heaven. You will not do the fighting. The Self will do the fighting.

Ikeno bellowed, “You dare call me an ape and insult my ancestors? I’ll see you die a shameful death. You will not be burned or buried. Your body will lie above ground to be eaten by dogs, and your bones will be bleached in the rain and the sun.”

“The lickspittles of the Muratomo can kill only unarmed porters.” Now Jebu was deliberately goading Ikeno.

Ikeno’s long, heavy sword flashed out of its scabbard with a hiss, and he spurred his horse. Jebu remained where he was until Ikeno was upon him. Then, as Ikeno’s sword came around, he threw himself flat on Hollyhock’s back, hugging the horse’s neck, and the samurai sword whistled through the air above him. Jebu heard the screams as Ikeno’s horse hurtled on towards the remaining porter and the three women, who all turned their horses and fled from him. Ikeno was far down the narrow path, still waving his sword over his head, before he could stop his horse, turn around and come back for a second try at Jebu.

Jebu glanced at Ikeno’s three tsuibushi. They stood open-mouthed and staring, showing no interest in joining the fight.

With a rattle of hooves Ikeno was on him again. Jebu jerked his horse to one side and Ikeno thundered harmlessly past, the sword slashing through empty air. I told you I was nothing, thought Jebu.

Cursing, Ikeno jumped down from his horse and threw the reins to one of the tsuibushi. He ran at Jebu, reaching with leather-gloved hand to pull him down from the saddle. Without any prompting from Jebu, Hollyhock reared back on his hind legs, and Ikeno had to halt his rush and jump back to avoid the flailing front hooves. Jebu felt waves of pleasure rising within him and radiating out to Hollyhock, to Ikeno, to the mountain, to the ocean. They were all part of one stately dance, and time seemed to slow so that he was able to turn his head and look for Taniko. As he expected she was looking at him at the same instant, just as Hollyhock had known exactly when to rear up and check Ike-no’s attack. Taniko’s eyes, wide with awe and fascination, looked straight into Jebu’s, and he saw what Taitaro meant when he said that the eyes are more beautiful than any jewel. And he knew that the Self was looking at the Self. They both turned away at the same moment and he found himself looking into Ikeno’s bloodshot eyes, full of anger and befuddlement. Jebu felt compassion for Ikeno. You do not know who you are, he thought.

He drew the short Zinja sword, which Ikeno had called a sewing needle. It was small indeed, compared to Ikeno’s sword. He swung his leg over the saddle and dropped lightly to the ground. Ikeno gripped his sword with both hands, holding it before him in the samurai attack stance, and took a step towards Jebu.

“I’ll slice that smile off your face and your head from your body, monk.”

Ikeno lifted his great sword over his head to bring it down on Jebu. At that same moment, taking three quick steps towards Ikeno, Jebu drew his own blade back, one-handed, then whipped it around in an arc completed so quickly the sword seemed at one moment to be poised over Jebu’s right shoulder and at the very next to be beside the left. Jebu relaxed, dropping his hands to his sides. He knew he had killed Ikeno.

Ikeno stood silent and motionless, the long, gleaming blade raised to shoulder height, still tightly gripped in his gloved hands. The anger in the samurai’s face faded, became horror, then agony. The mouth fell open. The eyelids fluttered. The sword fell from the hands with a clang, and the hands dropped limply. The whole body began to lean forward, falling from the feet. A thin ring of bright red appeared around the dirty brown neck.

Then, suddenly, the head separated from the shoulders and fell to the dirt and stones of the path. Blood fountained up, hissing, from the stump of the neck. The body stood like a pillar for a moment longer, then collapsed with a crash of steel and leather on top of the severed head.

The three tsuibushi dropped their naginatas, screamed and ran. Unhurriedly, Jebu strode back to Hollyhock, took his small bow from its saddle mount, nocked an arrow with a willow leaf head and fired. One of Ikeno’s men fell with the arrow between his shoulder blades. Jebu dropped a second man with another willow-leaf arrow. The third man turned at the edge of the pine forest, fell to his knees and raised his hands in supplication.

Jebu took a coil of hempen rope from his saddlebag and strode up the hill to where the trembling man knelt.

“Please don’t kill me, shik��,” the man quavered. He was cross-eyed, and Jebu couldn’t hold either eye with his own. What would Taitaro say about these jewels?

“Come over here.” Jebu motioned towards a big maple. When he stood under the tree, he cut off a length of rope with his sword and tied the man’s hands behind him.

Taniko rode over to them, her horse’s hooves thudding softly on the mossy hillside. “What are you going to do to him?”

“Cut his head off.”

The man screamed and fell to his knees again. “Oh, no, shik��, don’t kill poor Moko. I have five children. I meant you no harm. Ikeno made me come with him. Moko’s no soldier. He’s just a poor carpenter.”

“A cross-eyed carpenter?” said Taniko. “I’d like to see what sort of houses you put up.”

Moko tried to grin. His two upper front teeth were missing. There was a rare beauty in his ugliness, Jebu thought. In the space of a minute he had gone from thinking of this man as just another enemy tsuibushi to seeing him as a likeable person. I’d really rather not have to kill him at all, Jebu thought.

“I’d surprise you, my lady,” Moko said. “I’m a good carpenter. Please ask this great shik�� to have mercy on me. Compassionate lady, you wouldn’t want my six children to starve.”

“Do spare him, Jebu. He’s harmless.”

“Harmless? He’ll be back tonight with a gang of cut-throats.” Good, she’s on Moko’s side, too, he thought. I’ll let her talk me out of it.

“No, I won’t, shik��. Lord Nakane Ikeno was the only real fighter around here. That’s why he was the oryoshi. He forced the rest of us to follow him. None of us men would go out to fight if he hadn’t threatened to kill us. I promise you, nobody will come to avenge Lord Ikeno, may his soul inhabit a nightsoil jar-begging your pardon, compassionate lady.”

“Jebu, I’m going to be married. I don’t want the memories of my wedding marred by an act of cruelty.”

“I thought you considered your marriage to the prince a cruelty in itself,” Jebi said dryly.

“You are impertinent, monk. I do not want this man’s ghost haunting me.”

“Why should he haunt you? You will not do him any harm.”

“You are my escort. Therefore I am responsible for what you do.”

“I am impressed by your sensitivity, my lady. To spare you any pain, I shall spare this man’s life.” He turned to the kneeling carpenter. “All right. You may live. But you must transport Lady Taniko’s baggage to Heian Kyo, replacing the porter that samurai murdered. If you run away, I’ll track you down and kill you.”

His hands still bound, Moko threw himself flat on his face at Jebu’s feet. “Thank you, shik��, thank you. I’ll go anywhere you say. To China, if need be.”

Taniko said, “What about your five children? Or is it six? Surely they would starve if you went to China.”

Moko raised his head and gave Taniko a gap-toothed, cross-eyed grin. “No children, my lady. I’m so ugly no woman would have me. So, no children. A man like me, a mere carpenter of no honour, will say anything to save his life.”

Jebu kept his face severe as he cut Moko’s hands free with his sword. This man was going to be a blessing from the kami. A man who could be amusing in the face of death was bound to be a better travelling companion than any of the members of the Shima party had so far proved to be.

Thanking Taniko and Jebu many times over, Moko ran off to join the surviving porter and the maids.

“I hope your kindness doesn’t bring trouble down on us later on,” Jebu said to Taniko.

Jebu was so tall and Taniko so tiny that even though he was on foot and she on horseback, their eyes met almost on a level. She smiled at him for the first time.

“You are a remarkable fighter, Jebu. I’ve never seen anything like the way you killed that Muratomo lout. When you were fighting him your eyes met mine and I felt something-I cannot describe it. Perhaps some day I will be able to express it in a poem. For now, I want to apologize for my rude words to you. I didn’t want you to spoil my new appreciation of you by killing a helpless man.”

Jebu was pleased, but he kept up the pose of the stern warrior. “An egg is helpless, but it may hatch a deadly serpent.”