CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

THE COPPER BRACELET

Ronin quickly sidestepped the raider as the ax came down just in front of his face. The raider swung it back as Ronin ducked, reaching for the sword on his back. He held off and let Ronin grab his sword before pulling his own. Ronin jerked his chin toward the raider, letting him know he was ready. If he knew who Ronin was, then he knew of his fighting skills and evidently wished to witness them up close.

The raider brought his ax down to meet Ronin’s blade, grabbing a sword from his hip with the other hand. Armed with two weapons, the raider grinned at Ronin, believing he had an advantage. He was wrong. Ronin backed up, put his blade behind his back, and waited for the man to attack. A few more raiders came trickling in from the streets. None of them made a move to help. Instead, they stood aside, watching the fight to see which man would come away with his life.

The raider pushed forward, swinging his ax up beside Ronin’s head. He seamlessly turned away from the ax’s sharp blade and brought his sword around his back to slice off the head of the ax, sending it flying through the square. The raider grunted and threw the handle down. He came at Ronin, who blocked every blow and easily slid around him, like a snake moving through the grass. This was how Ronin always fought, letting his attacker tire themselves out and only striking when necessary. Never lead, never pursue. Be still and let them come to you, his trainer’s voice came bubbling to the surface of his mind. The raider swung and stabbed at Ronin from every angle, turning wildly to keep up with him.

The raider soon grew tired as sweat beaded at his temples, and his breath came out in sharp gasps. He desperately looked out to the faces of his fellow raiders for assistance. A few of them stepped forward and unsheathed their swords before coming at Ronin from behind. They brought their swords down one after the other, Ronin leaning left and right to dodge them. He turned and ducked as a sword sailed over his head and jabbed his own blade forward, finding the softness of a raider’s stomach. The man screamed and fell to the ground, clutching at the gaping hole that stained his shirt black with blood. The hot, copper scent of the blood stung Ronin’s nose as it pooled before his feet.

The other raiders seemed to grow panicked as they watched their friend die. But still, they came to try and take down the lone knight.

He cut through them with little effort until all that stood was him and the first man who attacked him. The raider’s shoulder was bleeding where Ronin had struck him, but he still held his sword out, ready to die fighting.

“Who’s your leader?” Ronin stood before the man and waited patiently for his answer.

The raider laughed and lifted his sword. “You know who,” he said with a smile as he brought it down. Ronin cut his hand from the sword and quickly stuck his blade through the man’s neck and out the back. The raider dropped to his knees, coughing up blood and trying to scream at the pain. Ronin watched him drown in his own blood before wiping his sword on the man’s shirt and putting it back in his scabbard.

The sun was dropping below the sea when Ronin got back to the docks. He left the square with his clothes blood-soaked and with his mind mulling the answer to his question that he already knew. He thought about what he would tell King Mahsu when he returned without having killed the leader. He hoped the Shadows had been successful in their mission to ease the disappointment from his failure. He decided to wait for them to return rather than going back to Kame Island alone.

As night crept over the city, the Shadows emerged from the streets, dropping down from the roofs without making a sound. Akio walked up to Ronin and told him that his Shadows were able to kill or chase many of the raiders from city limits, though he wasn’t confident that they would stay away for very long. He looked over Ronin and noticed the blood on the front of his shirt.

“How many did you kill?” Ronin shrugged his shoulders. He never kept count but guessed that it was around twelve. They kept coming, almost as if they wished to fall upon his sword. As if being slain by him would somehow earn them credit in the afterlife.

The ferry made its way back to Kame Island in the night, Shadows pulling it along with oars as the night was absent of wind. Ronin sat by himself at the back, watching Xanheim disappear behind them. He wondered if he would ever touch the mainland again or if he would die alone on Kame Island. It wasn’t the life he imagined when he was young and still had Yacira.

He remembered building their home in Rahama up on a hill that overlooked the city and the sparkling sea. She’d wanted a quiet life as well, and so Ronin built their house away from the chaos and noise of the city below them. When Yacira told him that he would be a father, he thought his heart might explode with joy. He promised that he’d be a better father to his child than his own had been to him. And he swore never to abandon his family and even considered laying down his sword and renouncing his knighthood to become a farmer.

Yacira was the only thing in the world that mattered to him, and he would do whatever it took to make her happy.

His wife was close to giving birth when Ronin went to the city, searching for the perfect gift for her and their new child. He strolled the streets, whistling a song to himself when something caught the sunlight in his gaze. He walked over to a small table where an older woman was selling jewelry and glass goblets. He found the piece that caught his eye and smiled as he picked up the copper bracelet to inspect it. He smiled at the piece, thinking of Yacira’s eyes, and purchased it before setting out again to find a gift for his child. Not knowing whether it was a boy or girl yet, Ronin settled on an embroidered blanket to swaddle his baby. He spent hours walking through the streets and picking out his wife’s favorite food and a flagon of wine imported from Kame Island. As he walked the path that led him away from the city, he heard his wife screaming.

Ronin dropped the baskets of food and ran to their little house tucked away behind the trees. He burst through the door to find his wife keeled over on the floor, bleeding.

The baby was coming.

He picked her up and set her gently down on the bed then ran outside to fetch a bucket of water. She screamed in pain, and Ronin panicked, wiping her brow, and trying to hum a song to soothe her.

“Ronin…” she pleaded, but he didn’t know what to do. He was a young man still and had never been around a woman giving birth.

“Should I run for help?” he’d asked, worry pouring out with his words. But Yacira only gripped him tighter and told him not to leave her.

He stayed, and for hours his wife labored in agony as the baby tried to make its way down, and Yacira grew paler and weaker every minute. Ronin reached into his pocket and pulled the copper bracelet out and put it around her delicate wrist. She smiled and touched his cheek, a fat tear rolling down her face. He felt her head and quickly pulled away—she was burning from the inside, fever coursing through her body. Ronin felt his heart sink as tears began to fill his eyes.

During the early hours of the morning, Yacira gave one final push as Ronin pulled the baby from her. It was a boy, crying madly in Ronin’s arms as he cut the cord that had filled his child with life for nine months.

“It’s a boy,” he proudly proclaimed. But when he looked back to his wife, she was still. “Yacira?” he said over the crying baby. She didn’t move; her eyes were fixed on the ceiling above. The last bit of life had been pulled from her with their son.

Ronin put the baby down and shook his wife, screaming her name over and over again. Hot tears poured from his eyes and blurred his vision. He looked at his wife, lying in their bed that they once happily shared. Now it was a death bed, consuming Yacira and eating at Ronin’s soul the longer he looked. He didn’t remember screaming, but sometime later, he came out of the fog that lingered in his head, his throat sore, and his eyes burning.

His son lay crying on the ground, still naked and covered in Yacira’s blood. A sudden rage filled Ronin as he looked at the thing that killed his wife--that snuffed out the only light he had. The one good thing he ever had was ripped from his grasp. It wasn’t supposed to be like this, Ronin remembered thinking. The baby’s cries grew louder and more urgent until Ronin couldn’t take it anymore.

He stood up and grabbed his sword, and put it to the baby’s throat, screaming at him to stop. But when he looked back at Yacira, he lowered his blade. He couldn’t kill their son only feet from where his wife lay dead, so he gathered up the baby and carried him into the woods.

His cries echoed through the hillside, making Ronin’s blood boil with anger, until his heart shattered with sorrow. He wiped a tear from his cheek and sniffed back the rest as he came to a clearing in the woods.

Ronin put his son down on the grass and turned away to leave, but a cry came from behind him—only it wasn’t his son. He looked up and saw a pair of horned eagles circling the clearing. Ronin looked at his son one last time before turning his back, leaving him to the animals or the gods, whichever found him first.

He returned to his home to bury his wife, gently removing the bracelet that he’d placed on her wrist only hours before. He tucked it in his chest pocket and dug her grave behind the home he’d built for her. Ronin then said a silent prayer to the Four Gods before going to the city to buy a horse.

Five years passed, with Ronin spending his days roaming the land, never staying in one place for very long. He’d traveled to the western shore to the city of Volantar when someone came looking for him. He was a knight from Godstone who claimed to have been tracking Ronin for over a year. He brought word that King Erwin wished to hire Ronin as a private trainer for his son and heir, Magnus. Ronin refused at first, but the knight wouldn’t leave until he agreed. Ronin had nothing left and so reluctantly agreed to follow the knight back to his kingdom where his first real student awaited him.

As the ferry came to a halt at the docks of Kame Island, Ronin slid back to reality and jumped off, not waiting for the Shadows to unpack. He went straight to his little house on the hillside and made himself some tea. The steam drifted up to his face, cleansing him of bad memories. He reached in the pocket that covered his heart and pulled out the copper bracelet. He’d carried it with him since the day he lost Yacira and had given up their son. Ronin ran his thumb over the smooth metal, feeling a tear escape his eye. It was the only thing he had left of his wife and of the life he’d lived before. Ronin waited patiently for the sun to come up before making his way to King Mashu’s castle to deliver the news of his failure.