Chapter 7

Nara, Japan

“They’re ready, Ri. It’s time.”

Ri marked her place in the History of Diabutsu-den, the Greatest Temple and placed it back on the shelf that made one wall of her windowed aerie. There was not one thing more she could glean from the book. She’d read the key section a dozen times this day to have it clear in her head.

Ri studied the street below. The last of the hunting cadres were headed in for the night. Now it was time for Tancho Cadre to once more break the unwritten rules of Nara and strike on the verge of darkness.

She slung the harness with her fighting pipe across her back and tapped her forearms together to make sure both knives were in place. She rose in a single fluid motion and slid out through the small gap between bookcase and wall.

Ninka awaited her there, also dressed lightly in black. With a barely tolerant silence between them they trotted down the two flights of stairs to inspect the assembled hunters. Six of them were lined up by the bolthole, Tinnai herself held the chain of the sacrificial. Her arm had never healed properly from the laceration the night they’d taken the bookstore. It made her a poor hunter, but she was the best guard any cadre could want. And she still led, though she made no comment when Ri had begun taking command of the hunters.

Ri shrugged it off. Ninka might be an elder, but she didn’t read the histories. She didn’t understand the possibilities.

Ninka had lined them up with the weakest just one before her rearguard position. Koukou was young to hunt. Ri glanced at Ninka. With the slightest tilt of her head the eldest hunter reminded Ri that she had been little older when she’d led the attack on the bookstore. Ninka had wisdom, Ri could use that, if the girl would let her.

Ri nodded to acknowledge the choice and moved to the bolthole, grabbing an empty backpack as she passed the pile.

Tinnai eased the chain and Ri pushed the sacrificial to one side. The Zenbu had lost their winter viciousness with the warmth of the spring, this sacrificial had survived nearly a month. They’d actually taken to feeding him on occasion.

As soon as she was clear she broke into a fast trot. The others ran to form the line behind her. At the end of the street she turned toward the Kintetsu-Nara Rail Station. She had made a deal with Kintetsu’s chief hunter Kara, no interference. A deal Ninka had despised as weakness because she didn’t understand the power of an ally, no matter how untrustworthy. But every now and then Ri liked to remind Kara of the fighting force she’d face if she broke the pact.

Without a glance she knew the cadre was in perfect formation, all in black, weapons sheathed but instantly available, the deadly Tancho Cranes. Watch out, Kintetsu, stay clear. She raced the cadre directly toward their weak fortifications. She could practically hear Kara’s pounding heart shouting that the pact was over and her cadre was about to be smashed from the face of the world.

At the last moment she swung wide of their blocked entrance. They didn’t even have a sacrificial. The Zenbu would not be pleased and it would cost the Kintetsu soon. But the hunters raced on. There was nothing that Kara guarded that Tancho would care about. It would be a waste of effort and perhaps lives to launch such a tempting attack, but Kintetsu was not the enemy. At least not today.

Two blocks farther she turned east and slowed. Mad Dog Cadre was very protective of their territory. That was why she’d chosen dusk to attack. Mad Dog would have retreated into their bank vault for the evening, and the Zenbu would not be yet walking the streets.

It was hard to credit the pictures that showed the streets of Nara crowded with the flitters that were now little more than scattered, rusting wrecks and shattered plastoid. She led the hunters wide around several of the larger hulks that Mad Dog sometimes used as a daytime lookout, but the flitters were abandoned now.

Five blocks later she called a halt and listened. Koukou whispered a question and was instantly hushed by Ninka. She turned her head trying to find even echoes of sounds. Ninka’s quiet steps padded up beside her. Ri wanted to start off again to avoid Ninka’s concern, but that was not the practice of a good leader.

Using the battle-signs she’d taught the whole cadre, Ninka asked in a none too humble way, “Where are we going? That is Diabutsu-den Cadre over the hill. They are the most dangerous.”

Ri knew that. Hadn’t she been born in their dungeons? At three, hadn’t she been the little laughing girl who scouted the escape route? At four, hadn’t her own mother died leading the attack that had freed Tinnai, Ninka, and the rest of Tancho? Had she not herself, thrown the torch that destroyed the mighty thatch temple that stories told had stood over the dungeons since before Japan had been Japan?

She signed a quick, “I know what I’m doing.”

Ninka bowed and retreated, but she could feel the mistrust written clear in the narrowed eyes. At fifteen, Ri was not stupid enough to attack the mighty Diabutsu-den. At least not head-on.

She led the cadre across the street and onto the grassy field to the north of the burned-out temple. Each step released a perfume of spring grass that blossomed into the warm air with an intoxicating aroma that made her head spin. If only they could eat grass, but grass soup held no nourishment.

Ri vaulted over a low stone wall and came to a halt in what should be the heart of the Shōsō-in Temple Repository courtyard. But nothing looked like it did in the books. The hunters quickly gathered beside her as she surveyed the dense brambles that ranged to either side. It was so clear in the pictures. She could close her eyes and see it, but when Ri opened them again it was a tangle.

She paced from one end of the brush to the other. Ninka’s steps crackled on old leaves and spring growth as she approached. Ri waved her off to no avail.

“Do you know how close we are to death? Why do you lead us here? The mightiest cadre in Nara is a hundred paces beyond these plants.”

“Shush. I’m thinking.”

“You’re lost. And we’re going to die if we stay. Have you noticed the light? The Zenbu will be hunting by the time we get back, even if we leave now.”

Ri swallowed against a dry throat and tore aside some of the vines. Ninka was right. She tore at another clump, and another.

And there it was. A squat stone pillar. Shoving branches aside, she struggled into the heart of the dark growth and felt around the base of the pillar. A jammed finger, and she’d located what she was after. She pulled forth an old stone lantern that had once sat on the pillar. Now she knew exactly where she was.

She struggled free of the clinging branches and their sickly sweet yellow flowers and ran to the left. She struggled and tore at the heavy vines. Ninka’s knives sang out and sliced and cut until a heavy stone wall was revealed. Ri reached into a dark cleft to the right and there was the lever exactly as promised.

Wrapping her hand firmly about it, she pulled. And it didn’t move. She placed one foot, and then both against the wall and heaved until she thought her heart would burst. She lost her grip and tumbled backwards. Ninka moved in to try and Ri shoved her aside and ignored Ninka’s hiss of anger.

As she reached in, the end of her jammed finger hit the lever and it moved ever so slightly. She leaned into it and it swung away into the recess. A click echoed up from her finger’s nerves.

“Push. Push on the wall.”

The cadre threw themselves against it and the mighty slab swung inward as silently as a moth on the night air. Ri struck a torch and plunged into the darkness. Old statues lined the walls, covered in layer upon layer of dust and old cobwebs.

A dark stairway led down to the right. The book hadn’t mentioned stairs, but it was the only passage out of the room. She led the hunters downward at a run. Belowground, the passage leveled and ran fifty paces toward the temple.

A tall wooden door blocked the end of the passage. Ri passed off the torch to eager hands and dropped a knife out of her arm sheath. Probing the edges revealed no traps that she could detect. With a nod from Ninka, she swung the door toward them.

A wall blocked any farther progress. A loud whimper sounded close behind, and Ri slashed out with her empty hand to silence it. Koukou gasped at the hard blow to her chin and dropped the torch which plunged them all into darkness.

She found the little girl by touch alone and dragged her to her feet.

“Would you have us all killed? Go guard the door.”

Koukou squeaked in protest and Ri hit her again, though not as hard. The girl had to learn discipline. Her feet padded away into the darkness. It was then that Ri noticed pinholes of light shining through the wall blocking the doorway.

She clicked her fingernails together in a rapid cricket-like manner and Ninka was at her side. Ri tapped her right shoulder and positioned her in the doorway before reaching out a hand.

The blockage was a hanging cloth. She moved left as Ninka moved to the right around the fabric.

A circular room of stone was filled with boxes. A weak lantern light flickered against the ceiling and walls. As Ri raised her head, a wild harridan leapt from behind the boxes with a sharpened piece of wood clutched in her hand and aimed at Ri’s heart.

Ninka’s knife whistled through the air and embedded itself in the woman’s throat moments before Ri’s entered her eye. The gray-haired hag hung still for a moment and then collapsed in a pool of blood.

Ri shuffled to a door along the far side, but there was no sound from the other side. A quick peek revealed a long, dark corridor. She closed it and signaled a guard to place her ear there.

Ninka handed her back her knife as she moved to inspect the guard. The woman had a short ankle chain with a lock that connected her to an iron hoop in the floor. Ri had taken the life of Diabutsu-den’s sacrificial. A privilege that belonged to the Zenbu alone.

The first of the lids creaked back as Ninka inspected the boxes stacked about the room.

“Ri.” The gasp was filled with a vast excitement and disbelief.

All the hunters gathered around and stared down into the box. Cans of food were packed solidly side by side. Each box revealed new wonders. Soups. Tomatoes. Something called Chili. Beans. Corn. Sacks of rice. The variety was endless. She had to shush the girls’ excited whispers.

“Fill your packs. Fast. The night is moving.”

This reminder of the Zenbu sobered them all and they slung the packs free and began stuffing them. There was more here than the entire cadre could have carried in a dozen trips, what would fit in the hunters’ packs would have to be enough.

She finished first and slung the heavy pack across her back. She pulled the pipe free, the weight good in her hands as she relieved the door guard to fill her own pack.

The girls were shaking with the anticipation of carrying home more food than the cadre had eaten in the last two months. By tomorrow, Diabutsu-den Cadre would discover the theft and everything would be gone, or heavily guarded. Did she dare risk another load tonight? No, the Zenbu were unforgiving of those who intruded upon their nightly rule of the streets of Nara.

This load, this one strike and then they’d be gone. Everyone was topping off their sacks, as reluctant as she to leave anything behind. The woman on the floor had stopped bleeding. Two long scars showed down her bare arm and another across her forehead. Who had this woman been to be locked here underground?

Ri noted the length of the leg chain. Not quite enough to reach the boxes. This woman was in sight of an impossible bounty of food, but was so thin that every rib was easily counted. She wasn’t a sacrificial. She was someone that Diabutsu-den hated so much that they starved her, yet kept her in a room filled with food just beyond her reach.

Ninka’s low whistle informed her that they were ready. They reclosed all of the lids, dusted their footprints from the floor and retreated beyond the wall hanging. Ri closed the door.

They trotted out with armloads of food in addition to what was on their backs. That was not good if a fight arose, yet she too had done the same without noticing. It was impossible to pass such bounty without taking, clutching, holding.

When they had climbed the steps, they found Koukou waiting in a dark corner, shivering in the cool evening air, but her eyes alert. Each hunter dumped their armload into the girl’s pack. The hunters were right. Whatever happened out here on the streets, they were the hunters of Tancho Cadre and they kept their problems to themselves. Ri’s armload completed filling Koukou’s pack.

She gave her a quick hug and pulled her into the second position in line. Ri too had once been a young chicken, though thankfully that had not become her name. The Zenbu must have slept in, because no one interfered as they ran for home.

The woman remained stuck in Ri’s mind. Who would the Diabutsu hate so much that they had to torture some old woman? Older than any Ri had ever seen. Old enough to give birth to a child now grown.

The answer hit her like thunder and she stumbled into a wall. Only Koukou’s hand saved her from falling.

Who could they hate more than the woman who had orchestrated the freedom of Tancho Cadre from the evil dungeons of the Diabutsu-den Cadre when Ri had been but a child.

Had Ri just killed her own mother?