Echoes of a Shattered Age (26 page)

With a final pat on the shoulder, the strider left to join the others. Kenyatta continued gazing out at the open planes, but his sight was inward. The strider’s words were true, but it did little to lessen the burden of guilt that he carried.

“How is she,” Shinobu asked once he had joined the others.

“Her temperature is no longer rising,” Kita answered. “Now is the time to hope that it lessens.”

Shinobu looked at the sleeping woman. Even in her fragile state, she was beautiful. A dangerous beauty, the strider thought. Yes, even though the ninja seemed to be resting more peacefully now, she still looked deadly, as if she could spring to life at any moment, her wild sword firmly gripped in her hand.

“The balm is almost ready,” Kenjiro stated.

After a few more moments, the samurai removed the small pot from the fire and waited for it to cool. The shadows of the plants and trees were beginning to lean toward the east as dusk approached, and with it, came the gentle caress of the evening breeze. The grass and trees and surrounding hills glowed under the brightness of the orange sky as the sun made its final descent to the western horizon.

Kenjiro began gently applying the balm to his sister’s face, then moved on to her arms.

“How much of this must you apply?” Kita asked.

“All except that which she must drink, “Kenjiro answered with a strained voice. “It must be applied over every inch of her body.”

Both their faces coloring, Kita and Shinobu shared a look, then stood.

“We should keep watch for any danger,” Shinobu said stiffly. “We’ll go collect some firewood. If you need help with anything, call for us.” Without looking up, the samurai nodded and continued to apply the ointment.

“Do you think our mission is done?” Shinobu asked as they walked.

“Hardly,” Kita replied. “There is a lot more to this, trust me. Stay on guard and expect anything.” Their arms laden with dry branches and twigs, Shinobu glanced back toward the camp at the shadowy figure of Kenjiro redressing his sister.

“I think we can go back now,” he said.

“Give him a few minutes or until he calls us,” Kita responded.

Shinobu nodded and they placed their burdens in piles and walked a bit further from camp.

“How’s Kenyatta?” Kita asked.

“Feeling totally responsible and extremely guilty,” came the response. “I feel that there is more to your friend’s guilt than just this recent occurrence.”

“There is, but that’s his story to tell,” Kita answered. “
If
he tells it.” Night had fallen when they returned, and to everyone’s relief, Akemi’s temperature had lessened considerably. The color had also begun to return to her skin, as she slept peacefully in front of the campfire.

“I was able to suppress the effects for now, but in time the demon fire will spark again with more strength.” The worried look on the samurai’s face was worrying. “There is nothing else I can do to help her now.”

“What then?” Kita asked. Kenyatta had returned to the camp while they were gone, and listened while he prepared the meal.

“We must get her to the tower,” Kenjiro said, a glimmer of hope entering his eyes for the first time since the battle. “If we can get her there in time, perhaps they can help.”

“How far are we from there?” Kita asked.

“Don’t know,” the samurai answered. There was a long stretch of silence as everyone considered the next course.

“I need to think,” Kenjiro said, standing. He looked over Akemi once more, then disappeared into the night.

* * *

Akemi stirred to the sound of soft conversation. They had wrapped her in a blanket and laid her a bit away from the fire. She opened her eyes and rolled to face the voices. She felt tired, as if she had won some internal battle, but her foe lay in wait for her to weaken.

“Brother,”
she whispered. She barely heard her own words, but as soon as she’d spoken them, Kenjiro was at her side.

“I was wondering when you would decide to join us again,” he teased.

Akemi smiled. For her brother to attempt a joke meant he was more than a little concerned. “I needed a rest,” she responded with a weak smile.

Without a word, Kenjiro stood and left, then returned a moment later with a bit of meat and some rice. “Eat. I mixed some of the medicine in this before its composition changed into the balm.”

Akemi took the wooden bowl. She hadn’t realized how hungry she was until that first bite, and she devoured the contents quickly. She could feel her strength seeping back into her body.

“Careful you don’t bite off a finger, little sister,” Kenjiro teased, frowning.

“Not bad,” she said, surprised that her brother knew how to cook anything.

“I did not prepare it,” he said with a chuckle.

Akemi shrugged and continued to eat. In mid-bite, she stopped and regarded him. “Balm,” she asked, her voice going flat as comprehension dawned. Kenjiro nodded, his face coloring. “You used the kokoya herbal remedy?” Akemi asked, feeling heat rising in her cheeks. “Where did you find the leaves? You brought none.”

“Luckily I found some not far from here,” he answered.

Akemi took another bite, not wanting to ask the next question. “And when and where exactly did you apply the
whole body
remedy, brother?”

Kenjiro stared at the ground as if the answer would sprout from the ground like the plant he’d used. “They left while I applied it, you need not worry.”

Her cheeks coloring brightly, Akemi opened and looked down her blanket. Sighing in relief that she was clothed, she stood and removed it.

“Where are you going?” Kenjiro asked. “You need rest.”

“I will. But I see our group numbers four, and I wish to find the one who is missing.”

She found Kenyatta at the top of a hill overlooking the planes below, oblivious to the brisk night air. “Your concern is touching,” she said.

“We need the extra person to keep watch for the night,” the islander responded a bit too casually. Akemi smiled and moved beside him, hooking her arm in his.

“You think about the past and let it torment you in the present.”

“What do you mean?” he asked.

“A bit of advice,” she said, ignoring the question. “Learn from the past, but don’t live in it. Misplaced grief and guilt are more dangerous than ten pit demons.”

She turned him to face her, and Kenyatta saw fire in her eyes. Whatever the injuries to her body, her spirit was strong. She wrapped him a long hug and then gave him a playful punch in the chest that made him stumble backward in surprise.

“If you had interfered in my fight, Sekimaru would have found your chest instead of my fist.” With a smile, she leaned in and gave him a long peck on the cheek, then returned to the campsite.

Kenyatta stared after her in disbelief. Finally, with a shake of his head, he followed. Of the many warriors he and Kita had fought alongside and against, none were more unusual. Never had he met a woman with such girlish charm, yet seductive maturity. Even after a flirt with death and an uncertain future, she was able to joke and smile. Determination flared in him, and he found himself smiling.
Nothing will stop us from getting her to the tower in time,
he thought.
Even if I have to carry her halfway across the world myself.

***

Chapter Thirty-One

The fight was endless, the enemy unstoppable. She looked to her right and saw Kenjiro struggling to hold a pit demon at bay as it forced him to his knees. She looked to her left and saw Kenyatta facing another. There was no smile on his face, no joking or taunting remarks. His face was grim and cold with resolution. His movements empty and meaningless, only serving to half-heartedly turn aside his adversary’s attacks. The fire and vigilance in his eyes had given way to hopelessness.

Behind her Kita was in the grip of another pit demon while it held Shinobu in its other hand. Both screamed in fear and agony. The fiend threw its head back and roared, basking in their torment.

She tried to scream, but no sound came. She ran to help but no matter how fast she moved her legs, she came no closer. She heard Kenjiro scream, a sound she had never heard from her brother, and then all was black.

She sat up in a cold sweat, her palms and forehead dripping. For a while she just sat, looking around. The rolling hills of the once grassy landscape now lay torn and withered. The tall proud trees and bright green and blue grass now lay twisted and charred, black with soot and ash. She felt the ground vibrating beneath her and she heard a distant rumbling. She stood and looked in the direction of the sound. Coming toward her was an endless stampede of animals.

Animals not native to the region, from bison to tigers and horses, predators and prey, all running together. The ninja had never seen anything of the sort and it was unsettling. What could make these animals flee together?

Once the stampede had passed, she saw other creatures approaching. They blazed a trail of destruction, twisting and burning, slashing and ripping everything in their path. It was an endless mass of demons varying in size and appearance. Everything they touched, every piece of land underfoot was consumed in death and darkness.

In seconds, the army of fiends was upon her. She reached for Sekimaru but the sword was not to be found, nor were any of her other weapons. There she stood, weaponless and without any resources to stop the dark incursion. Not that she could do much by herself.

With resolution, she stood tall and straight, her legs and palms together. She closed her eyes and concentrated on the power within. Her body began to glow, and soon she would be consumed in a powerful blaze of light, but the twisted monsters would die with her.

The harder she searched for the light within, the more it escaped her. She fell to her knees and opened her eyes, looking at her palms. Her mind and inner light had failed.

“You cannot destroy us, useless animal,” a frightening voice said to her. She looked up to face a rather small fiend. It was no larger than she was, but the malevolence that it exuded was overwhelming. She sat on her knees, paralyzed by fear.

“Because of your failure, your friends and brother have fallen, one by one. We allowed each to watch the other die to the last, and now they continue their existence forever in torment.”

“Liar!” Akemi shouted.

The fiend laughed at her. “What do you know, hairless monkey? Your little mission was over before it started. Your hopeless fight is ended, and you will watch us destroy the tower, and with it, every shred of hope to live in the world of light again.”

The demon laughed at her. “Once the Drek was destroyed, the gate between our two worlds was forever opened and now we will rule this plane. Our mighty leader comes, and all that you know will perish. And you, will continue your infinite destruction and reconstruction. You have not known agony, primate, but you will.”

The creature laughed again, a horrid, triumphant laugh, then walked on. Every one of the foul creatures in her path walked by her as if she was not there, and there was nothing she could do but watch. Again her mind was bombarded with tormenting words.

“Your brother squirmed and screamed most of all.” Akemi held her head and struggled against the suggestions. “I was the one to destroy him, and at the end of his pitiful life, he begged me to allow him to cease to exist, but in reward for his cowardice, I made him my personal property. Soon I will give him to the master.”

Akemi spun to face a nightmare demon standing behind her. It was tall and black as night with haunting yellow eyes. Although it had no mouth, it projected laughter at her. Then, it suddenly reached out and grabbed her shoulder and shook her violently.

“Akemi!” it shouted at her, laughing. She fought to break its grip, but it was like trying to pry iron from her shoulder. “Akemi!” It screamed again, but this time, it was not laughing; it almost sounded concerned. “AKEMI!”

She awoke and jerked away from the hand that was attached not to a nightmare demon, but her brother. She scanned the area, her eyes rolling around in her head. The others were crouched around her, and Kenyatta stood a bit in the distance, his turn at watch. The dark of night had begun to fade, and the coming of dawn was not far away.

“You were having a bad dream,” Kenjiro said.

“No dream,” she responded while gazing into nowhere. “That was too real to be a dream.” Akemi sat up on her elbows and drew her knees in against her chest. “I think they’ve entered my subconscious. It felt very real, and some of the things they said were obviously untrue, yet I almost believed them. I think there was a bit of the future in the dream though, or maybe a possible future. Perhaps they gave me a bit more information than they intended.”

She closed her eyes for a few heartbeats, then opened them and sighed. “You aren’t going to like this. We have been misled. When one of those things was telepathically taunting me, I caught a glimpse of their plans. That group we destroyed yesterday was not moving in the direction of Takashaniel. They were moving in the opposite direction. Our enemy has effectively distracted us and moved us farther away from our objective.”

Seeing the others crouched around her, Kenyatta had returned to camp. “Has the attack begun already?”

“Not yet, but it will before we can get there.” Akemi afforded them all a hopeful look. “There is still time.”

“And how do we get to this Takashel?” Shinobu asked. “Were you not given mental directions to the horde, but not the tower? And who is this Eel you speak of?”

“It is Takashaniel,” Akemi corrected, “and Iel is the guardian of the sacred tower. For your other question, I received mental images of their destination. The stupid thing inadvertently told me what they were about, and gave me the fastest route. It will not be happy to meet its master, once we send it back to the abyss.”

“We should move now,” Kita said. “We’re a good distance away from our horses, so we should move.”

At her request, Kenjiro reached into his pack and produced a bland-looking whistle and handed it to Akemi. “We are at least two days’ ride from the tower,” she said. “But we do have a bit of luck. Takashaniel lies in a path that will take us close enough to our horses to use this whistle. We will not go to get them, but when the winds carry the sound of this whistle, our two horses will come and yours will hopefully follow. We will run and they will catch us, no time wasted.”

“You expect me to believe that you can blow that whistle,” Shinobu, on the edge of laughter, “and our horses will not only hear from miles and miles away, but come to us?”

Akemi shrugged. “Believe or do not, it matters little. Come, we leave now.”

“And what of our saddles and supplies?” Shinobu asked.

“We leave them, there is no time.”

With a disbelieving sigh, the strider joined the other four warriors in cleaning up the campsite. Once finished, they set out for the Tower of Balance. Despite the labor of their pace, Kenyatta found that he enjoyed the run through the lush landscape of green and yellow hills sprinkled with trees and shrubs and flowers of every kind. They were in the countryside, many leagues outside the city of Kyokoza and headed toward the lands surrounding Tokyo and beyond. He found it revitalizing to see the earth reverting back to its natural state. It was almost as if the End of Technology marked the beginning of the earth’s rehabilitation. Once or twice, he thought he saw figures watching them in the distance. Whomever or whatever they were, they made no move to intercept, but seemed content to track their progress, for whatever reason.

Kita mentally removed himself from the road and thought of home and all that lay ahead. If they did not succeed, there would be no home. And even if they did succeed, what then would become of the Earth? He was also aware of the rapidly changing world and wondered where humanity would fit in.

They passed through a city of decaying buildings and other human structures. It was once thought that concrete and metal could forever withstand any element of nature, but the earth had been given a chance and was recovering with vengeance. The buildings were wind-and-rain beaten, crumbled and disintegrating back to the earth from whence it came. The sight was almost magical when considering the relatively short amount of years following the End of Technology.

The land began a gradual incline, and soon they came upon a cliff. The five warriors seemed to think as one. No one spoke, and all trusted in each other and moved in sync, leaning left or right on their course like a flock of small birds flying in one direction and then turning abruptly in another.

As they approached the cliff they saw that it ended in a decline. Once they reached the edge they began their descent, half running half sliding while swinging around trees, hopping over rocks and sidestepping bushes. At one point the ground was so soft that it became difficult to maintain control and more than once Akemi found herself stumbling and barely avoiding a tumble to the bottom.

Difficult as the terrain was, Kenjiro watched Akemi with a worried look. She should have been able to handle this cliff with much less difficulty than she was having. The pit demon’s taint must be slowly draining her strength again. He made his way to within a few feet of his sister so as to catch her in case she lost her footing.

Once they reached the bottom of the cliff, they hit the ground running. Akemi glanced over her shoulder at the others and pointed to a patch of woods just to the right of their path. At the pace they held, they would reach it within half an hour. Past the base of the cliff, the land continued to descend and the group maintained a fast pace with greater ease. Finally reaching the woods, they slowed to a jog, allowing their bodies to cool down.

After a few moments, they came upon a creek with a running stream rushing along a path that snaked through the trees. Akemi was the first to reach the stream, and dipped her hands in. She took a sip, then splashed her face. The water was cool and fresh, and leaned her head back and enjoyed the gentle breeze that blew across her wet face.

Kenjiro knelt beside his sister and dipped his hands in the water, washing his own face. After a sip, he dipped his hands in again and drank deeply. The water was sweet and cool, and he felt refreshed.

After everyone had washed their faces and had their fill, Shinobu broke the silence. “I’m modestly familiar with this region. The terrain will be easier for our horses to navigate.…”

“If they weren’t so far away,” Kita added, and the strider choked back a snicker.

“Yes,” Akemi replied, ignoring the jab. “I’m actually quite familiar with this area. We left them that way.” She pointed northeast of their location.

Now Shinobu did laugh. “Might I ask again how they are going to hear this magical whistle of yours?”

“There is nothing magical about my whistle,” Akemi replied patiently. “We are about to pass through a narrow mountainous area where the winds carry sound much farther than normal.”

“It's going to have to carry sound really far,” Shinobu said, shaking his head.

“It is in this pass,” Akemi said, ignoring him, “that the wind will carry our call a distance that would normally be impossible. After we rest here, we will enter the pass. There are multiple paths that snake through the mountain range. One of them is in the general direction our horses should be.”

“If they’re still there,” Kenyatta muttered.

“Our horses know to wait for us,” the ninja replied. “And since horses are herd animals, there is a good chance yours will remain with them.”

The five companions ran off and on for the better part of the day, and the evening was a few hours away. They had traveled more than a score of miles and were on the brink of exhaustion when they decided to rest again. Shinobu reached into a travel pouch and produced a hunk of bread that he divided amongst the companions. Kita drew the remaining pouch of water that they had taken from Takashaniel. They’d hidden the other three in the woods with the horses, but Kita had felt the need to bring one, even at the cost of its inconvenience. Glad he was, that he had decided to bring it along. He still wondered how they had acquired the drink from the tower when they had not physically gone there. The only explanation he could think of was that Taliah must have traveled by portal and brought the pouches with her before the others awoke.

After sharing the bread and a chunk of cheese and some dried seaweed, they sat and talked. After some time, the group had taken a nap after a long protest in vain against Kenyatta remaining awake while the others slept. “Everyone here is capable of waking at the slightest sound,” the ninja had said. “Why keep watch?”

“Exhaustion might slow your reaction,” he’d argued. “Just sleep. I’m fine.”

Akemi saw in his eyes that the islander would not budge on the topic, so she’d relented. After a few hours, Akemi was the first to awaken. She lay on her side, staring at Kenyatta’s back. Although he insisted that he was past it, she could feel the grief and guilt in him.

“How was your nap?” He asked over his shoulder.

“Refreshing,” she replied, rising. She moved beside him and stretched. “You will be able to continue? We have a great distance to run still.”

Kenyatta smiled. “I will be fine. Iel spoke true. The water has a sustaining effect. I feel that I can continue without a problem.” He looked closer into her eyes. They were dark black orbs that seemed to be a gateway to a void of nothingness. “It’s creeping back into you. It won’t be long before it overtakes you again.” He saw the strain on her face and regretted bringing it up.