Ryuchi was awake.
The faint sounds of movement outside his cell door had chased his nightmares away. He lay with his back to the door as it opened quietly. A loud shush and the sound of footsteps.
A whispered voice in Chinese. ‘He is asleep.’
‘Replace the water and the food quickly, before he wakes up.’
Footsteps across his cell. The smell of food. A shadow across his bed. An arm reaching to take the empty bowl next to his head.
Should he act now?
The aroma of the food swam into his nose, making his mouth water. He was so hungry.
But his father’s speech came to him. ‘Be a soldier for the emperor. Kill for the emperor. Your life, your body is worthless. You will be remembered, honoured for your sacrifice. The code of the warrior is simple. Die, if necessary, for the emperor.’
He threw back the blanket and in one fluid movement stabbed upwards with the single chopstick gripped tightly in his fist.
As if in slow motion, he saw the young thug’s face. The mouth opening wide, the eyes even wider, the bowl full of rice and eel tumbling from his hand.
The chopstick juddered in his fist as it struck the soft jelly of the man’s eye and then rammed into the skull.
A sharp cry of surprise, followed by a howl of pain. The young thug tumbled backwards, his legs kicking up into the air, the chopstick sticking out of his eye.
Then the blows rained down on Ryuchi’s head. He covered himself, rolling into a compact ball, but the punches and kicks thudded into his body.
At last they ceased, but still the fight continued, someone shouting, ‘Don’t kill him, not yet. We haven’t received orders yet.’
Ryuchi peered through his fingers. The man with the scar was kneeling on his assailant, forcing him to the ground.
‘But he stabbed Ah Ta.’
The young thug was still whimpering in the corner, his hand holding the chopstick sticking out of his eye.
‘Take him to the hospital.’
‘But the boy… ’
‘The boy is not to be killed until we get our orders.’ The man with the scar snarled into the dwarf’s face.
Then he turned back to Ryuchi. ‘That was a stupid thing to do,’ he said.
The studded sole of a boot was heading straight towards Ryuchi’s eyes. It landed square on the side of his temple.
An immense surge of pain through his head, then blackness.
Just blackness.