The Open Road Page 34
Realm of Shadows, open wide!”
Sura sliced down with her spear. With a wild flash, the gateway opened – a great slash cut into the mortal realm. Beyond it lay a yawning gulf of thick, impenetrable darkness.
Sura immediately stepped through the gate. Her spear glimmered in the gloom beyond. Sano Moko immediately stepped through behind her, covering the fox with her naginata.
Kuno and Chiri came next, with Chiri helpfully tying the silken guide line to her belt. Kimiko waved her fellow villagers forward, taking up the line and pushing through the rift and on into the dark.
The Kumo moved with determination. Men rolled the heavy brandy barrels forward, while women bore armloads of tools and weapons. They carried every pot of lamp oil they could find.
Tonbo brought up the rear. He kept watch until the very last villager had passed through, then took up the end of the guide line. He looked about the village one last time and stepped through into the dark, cold Realm of Shadows.
The gate slammed shut behind him, sealing the mortals away inside the dark.
The Realm of Shadow warped and twisted at the senses. Inside the gateway, the blackness somehow seemed to have depth and texture. Shapes loomed in the dark – nightmarish reflections of the village houses. Twisted things of bone and ash stood where trees and flowers grew in the world outside.
The ground blurred, as though made of mist, and the jet-black spaces nearby rippled and shifted with slow, malicious movement.
Sura walked slowly forward through the shadow realm, towards a vile, hideous forest. She concentrated, holding aloft her spear and leaving a single narrow trail of light behind her.
Where the light fell, there was briefly a space of life and colour. Sura moved onward, robes drifting about her. The fox’s long red hair with its brilliant white tips glimmered in the gloom.
Sano Moko fearfully tried to protect Sura from behind. The female samurai turned, trying to face down every looming ripple – every quiver of motion in the dark. Weird flickers of energy traced along the edges of her armour, snapping and crackling, flickering at the edges of the eye.
Kuno and Chiri followed behind Moko, carefully placing fu papers on either side of the trail. Kimiko walked between them, keeping the baby sheltered against her breast. Behind them, the long procession of Kumo villagers moved slowly forward, rolling brandy barrels across the weird, velvety footing. Lanterns spread only the tiniest shimmers of light.
The air carried weird, half remembered scents – like things found in old forgotten rooms. The air seemed sharp – not cold, but even so, it sizzled at the lungs. Chiri wrinkled her nose, long whiskers quivering. The fur at the back of her neck stood all on end.
Tonbo brought up the rear, impassive and unmoved: a behemoth clad in lacquered iron. But at the front of the march, Sura strode onward with face set and back straight, power coursing out through her body and into her spear, making a path through the darkness for those who came behind. She moved steadily, passing by the twisted nightmares that were the shadows of forest trees, threading a pathway beneath terrible shapes and looming, clutching shadows.
“Tao forges through all boundaries. Tao is sharper than a knife.
The path I make is through illusion. The path I make cuts through the night…”
The fox repeated the prayer – quietly, forcefully. She whispered it over and over, her concentration utterly focussed upon making a path for her companions.
Something moved out in the darkness.
A long, flat shape slithered in the mist. It had sucker feet, and a head like an insect with dagger-toothed tiger jaws. The thing paused – raising a crest upon its head. A palpable wave of icy cold stole out into the gloom.
The being shimmered, and somehow seemed to fade.
There was another – purple-black, with four huge eyes like jewels. Larger than the other, it rose from the darkness like a warped, twisted nightmare. Beside it, a patch of land flowed like shards of broken blades.
Something suddenly leapt forward from the blackness near Sano Moko, snapping huge, frog-like jaws. The creature circled, vanishing in the ground mist – somehow sinking into the ground and circling to the far side of the path. Moko tracked the creature with her naginata blade, sensing the monster was about to charge.
“Sura san!”
Kuno lay a hand upon Sano Moko, quieting her. He kept his eyes upon the path, his expression calm and stern.
“Do not break her concentration, Sano san.” The man turned back to see that the Kumo villagers were looking about themselves with wide, frightened eyes.
“Keep your eyes on the path. Ignore the shadows! They cannot harm you unless you pay them heed!”
Something the size of a bull suddenly crashed against the faint barrier between the magical papers. A shock of power drove the creature back, writhing and clawing at its face. Chiri flinched, away, but kept laying down fu papers one by one. She had only enough to place one paper every twenty paces.
Other things – beetle-faced with long slashing claws – flung themselves against the barrier. A violent shock blasted into the creatures, hurtling them back. But the monsters came back again and again. Each time they attacked, the barrier of light faded a little. Sura drew a deep breath and forced more power up and out of herself, slowly bringing light back into the shields.
She walked onwards through a strange field of jet-black and purple flowers…
At the rear of the column, more monsters appeared, keeping pace with the villagers. Great, sinuous things – some small, some huge – they lunged and snapped, suddenly charging in towards the villagers.
One man staggered backwards in terror. He turned and fled, trying to shove his way past the other Kumo, fighting to race back towards the vanished gate. Tonbo caught the man by his shoulder, holding him in place. He leaned in to growl into the villager’s ear.
“Stay.” Tonbo patted the man’s back. “Remember your bone marrow.”
The man stumbled back onto the proper path. Tonbo walked with him, plodding onward, apparently unconcerned by the monsters of the shadow realm.
The procession moved doggedly forward. The Kumo marched, rolling barrels, trying to keep their eyes on the path. Tonbo nodded, pleased with their determination.
Quite suddenly, the monsters were gone. The darkness was oddly still – and horribly silent.
Something suddenly drifted beside Kimiko at the head of the column. It was the woman from the bridge back in the rainstorm. She reached imploringly towards Kimiko, her eyes filled with tears.
“Sister! Sister – it is I! Sakura!” The apparition looked at the baby in joy and awe. “Oh, let me hold it! Let me touch my child!”
Kimiko stared at the image of her sister, fascinated and horrified.
“Sakura chan?
“He’s alive! My baby is alive!” The other woman’s voice broke with desperation. “Please – I have to hold him! Please!”
Kimiko wavered. Chiri looked up at her. Despite feeling terribly tired and drained, she laid a gentle hand upon Kimiko’s arm.
“Kimiko san – no matter how it seems, that is not your sister.”
Kimiko softly wept.
“I know, Chiri san.” She looked away from the image of her sister.
“I am sorry…”
At the far end of the march, another creature shimmered into being beside Tonbo. It was Reiju, the priestess from the Sword Shrine. Tonbo simply flicked the creature a dire, ill-humoured glare.
“Don’t even think about it.”
Reiju vanished. A serpent creature slunk off into the darkness, sadly chastened.
Progress was slow, and Sura struggled. Two hundred paces became five hundred, then six… They forged a path through the shadow forest, moving onward through turgid darkness.
At the front of the column, Sura staggered. She visibly straightened herself, shaking with effort. Sano Moko hastened to take hold of her. Sura pushed free with a brief shake of her head. She kept on walking, never once ceas
ing her chant to maintain the barrier.
Chiri turned to Kimiko.
“She is almost spent. Kimiko san – is it much further to the gorge?”
“A hundred yards perhaps. It is so hard to tell.”
Kuno nodded. He looked back along the column and shouted back to Tonbo. His voice was muffled and almost swallowed in the gloom.
“Tonbo – we have to break through!”
Tonbo lifted his tetsubo, letting the fire elemental gleam. Chiri drew her natagama – both of which shimmered with flame. Kuno moved up behind Sura, and spoke clearly into her ear.
“Sura san! Make the gate!”
The fox nodded. She bowed her shoulders, quite exhausted. She slowly stood straight, summoning strength. Power surged and flickered, then flashed into brilliant life. The fox slashed her spear through the air, making a Tao symbol shimmer in the dark. An instant later, she slashed down with her blade.
“Tao force, Tao mind!
From darkness back to mortal home!
Let the portal shine!”
The portal flashed open, and the light of dawn came streaming through into the Realm of Shadow. Sano Moko and Kuno immediately leapt through the gateway. Chiri seized Sura as the fox staggered. She propelled her friend through the gateway, and yelled back to the villagers.
“Get through the gate!” She had to half carry Sura over the threshold. “Run!”
The villagers drove forward and out into the light – barrels, tools and all.
Chapter 6
A deep gorge plunged downward through the forest floor. Huge spider webs criss-crossed the open space, glinting in the thin grey light of dawn. In the trees above, old bird skeletons hung from clotted strands, beaks open in silent, endless screams.
Three adult Dokufu spiders were at the edge of gorge, watching out towards the far edge of the forest. They clacked and clattered over the rocks, questing back and forth, clearing a path that led down over the lip of the gorge.
A gash split open in the fabric of the world behind them. Kuno and Sano Moko leapt through the gate, weapons blazing with flame. The two armoured samurai lunged forward to attack the spiders. Moko’s naginata blade speared clean into one, the monster’s armour shattering beneath the flaming blade. Kuno ran another spider through, twisting his sword and ripping it free. As the third spider leapt across the corpses to attack him, Kuno sliced down in a massive, perfect blow. Splitting its head, he killed the creature with a single cut. The monster writhed, and Kuno heaved against the huge weight of rock and flesh. He toppled the body over, shoving it off and over the edge, crashing the corpse down into the gorge.
Sano Moko ran one of the other spiders through the head, killing it with brutal efficiency. She ran back to look behind the gate, checking for more Dokufu.
Chiri and Sura stumbled through the gate. Sura leaned on her spear, staggering. Chiri pulled her aside as Kimiko and the Kumo villagers began pouring through the gate, blinking in the light. Kuno ushered the villagers forward, clearing the way for those who came stumbling behind.
Chiri led Sura over to a fallen log. The fox collapsed, so shattered with fatigue she could hardly lift her head. At the gate, the last dozen villagers came through – men rolling heavy brandy barrels. Tonbo came through last of all. The gateway shuddered and collapsed behind him, slamming closed with a pulse that rippled through the air.
Tonbo pushed swiftly over to Sura’s side, holding her up, full of concern. He unstoppered his canteen and made her drink cold tea.
“Is she alright?”
Chiri wiped at her own face, feeling tired. “It is exhaustion, Tonbo san. She needs sugar and alcohol.”
“Mmmmph.” Tonbo nodded. He had seen Sura badly drained before – but never to such an extent. He pressed rice balls into Sura and Chiri’s hands, then leaned in to meet Sura’s eye.
“Rest. Kuno and I know what to do.”
The new moon gleamed in the dawn sky. Tonbo and Kuno walked forward to the edge of the gorge and looked down into the gulf below.
Brush and straggling thorns jutted from the sheer rock face of the gorge. At the bottom, a hundred paces below, the ground had been flattened and cleared. Four huge bloodstained posts were set into the ground, each marking a cardinal point in an intricate pattern made from corpses, blood and bones.
The pattern must have been twenty paces across. Blackened blood glittered as the first light of dawn probed down into the deeps.
Tonbo leaned upon his tetsubo and looked back towards the spider village.
“They will be here soon.”
Kuno looked over the terrain. He soon found what he was looking for. Partway around the gorge, a tall outcrop of rock stood higher than the surrounding cliffs. The sides were steep, bare rock, and the top seemed broad and fairly level. The samurai clapped Tonbo on his armoured shoulder, and pointed to the sheer pile of rocks.
“There.”
Sano Moko walked up to the two samurai. She, too, had seen the rocky outcrop. Moko faced her companions and gave a formal bow.
“My eyes are sharp. With your agreement, I will keep watch.”
Kuno and Tonbo gave sharp bows of acknowledgement. The two men turned, and both ran forward to the villagers and set to work.
Axes and brush-cutters were shared out. Long saplings were cut and trimmed to make a rollway up the side of the stone outcrop. Several villagers turned into spider form and swiftly spun a series of tough silk cables. Tonbo and a team of men stood on the broad area atop the outcrop, hauling heavy brandy barrels up from below. While the menfolk rolled barrels, women cut masses of thorns and spiky underbrush, awkwardly dragging the bushes to the top of the outcrop, ringing the place with a thorny wall. Here and there, huge and beautiful green Kumo spiders bound everything in place.
Kuno strode amongst the villagers and spiders, helping to haul the heavy loads, chivvying and leading. Kuno women dragged great armloads of firewood from the forest, banking it beneath the thorns. The forest became a hive of industry.
Sano Moko climbed into a tree that looked down into the forest to the west, back towards the forest village. She kept a stern, careful watch on the trees for the slightest sign of movement, but the Dokufu had not yet appeared. The evil spiders were still surrounding the village far back in the woods.
One by one, the barrels were reaching the top of the little rock fortress. Kuno stacked them amongst the boulders where Sura and Chiri sat recovering their energy.
Sura had drunk cold tea and eaten a rice ball, but she felt listless and horribly drained. The opening of two gateways – forging the path through shadow – it had all left her feeling as if she had run a hundred ri. The fox shook her head, trying to clear her thoughts, but clarity was slow in coming. She had a murderous craving for sweets: Sura could have drunk a hive clean of honey and then spat out the bees.
A villager came past Sura, rolling an ornate brandy cask painted with pink cherry flowers. Still trying to shake her head clear of fatigue, Sura blinked and reached out to stop the man, her ears pricking high.
“Wait! What’s that one?”
The villager – a bright young man sweating profusely from his labours – bowed to the fox.
“Honoured priestess! It is sacred black cherry brandy – from the shrine of the Beautiful Island Princess Kami at Izu. It is two hundred years old. It is said to be as delicate and graceful as the Kami’s dance.”
Full of curiosity, Sura took her bowl out of her belt pouch, and drew out a stopper from the barrel. She intercepted a jet of dark black-magenta liquid and filled the bowl.
She sniffed – she drank – and her ears pointed straight to heaven. The fox opened her eyes wide, fur standing on end.
“Oh yah! She’s dancing!” Sura coughed, her voice rasped with surprise. “I just wish she’d wiped her feet…”
It was like being caught in an exploding cherry orchard. The alcohol content was enough to set fur ablaze. The villager tried to roll the barrel away, but Sura leapt up from her seat.
“That’s our reserve. In case of emergency.”
Chiri came over and wearily found a place to sit near the barrel.
“Are you certain we need a reserve cask, Sura san?”
“It’s sacred. Here!”
Sura grabbed her bowl again and popped the bung from the barrel. She passed a brimming bowl to Chiri. The rat sniffed in suspicion. Urged on by Sura, she swallowed. Her eyes bugged almost clean out of her skull.
Chiri coughed, her eyes watering in shock.
“I can see through time…!”
Sura took another swig for herself. She winced, then banged a fist on the side of the barrel.
“Yeah, it has a little bit of kick to it.”
Chiri blinked, seeing light flash before her eyes.
“Grandmother? Is that you?”
A last few loads of thorn brush were being dragged up onto the rocks, when suddenly Sano Moko’s voice shouted out across the gorge.
“Comrades!”
Atop the rocky outcrop, Kuno and Tonbo turned. Sano Moko pointed off towards the west – towards the village.
“We have guests.”
The trees to the west filled with a sound like dry, crackling branches.
The Dokufu were coming. In their hundreds, the giant stone spiders came striding wickedly through the underbrush, while smaller ones sprang from tree to tree. They advanced in an angry wave, hissing and clattering as they came.
The Dokufu from the village marched in fury along a forest path. Thirty in total, they were led by their priestess. They carried the other guests from the village, all wrapped in silk and utterly helpless. The entire mass of Dokufu surged up to the edge of the gorge, then came to a sullen halt.
The tall rock outcrop had been turned into a fortress – ringed with a dense belt of thorn bushes and garrisoned by the Kumo villagers. The spider priestess stood at the far edge of the gorge, her monsters and minions gathered in a mass behind her. She planted herself at the edge of the precipice and glared at the little fortress in hate. Behind her, giant spiders gathered in their hundreds.