Kano E-Book

David Kudler

• Herausgeber: Stillpoint/Atalanta
• Kategorie: Für Kinder und Jugendliche
• Serie: Seasons of the Sword
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2024

Seitenzahl: 341

Beschreibung

Can one girl save a nation?

With Japan's future in the balance, Risuko may recover the Kano clan's honor — or she may destroy it forever

Lord Takeda has sent Risuko, Emi, and Toumi on a mission to the capital. The road is dangerous. The destination is treacherous. Risuko — the girl who just likes to climb — must make a choice that will have repercussions not only for Risuko's life and those of her friends, but possibly for all of Japan.

In this thrilling third book in the Seasons of the Sword, she encounters old friends, new enemies, and a strange boy from a far-off land called Portugal. Through raging battles and deadly court intrigue, Risuko must follow a path narrower and less stable than any pine branch. And the consequences should she fail are sharp and hard as rocks below.

The red-and-white disguise of the kunoichi awaits.

Is Risuko ready?

Seasons of the Sword:

1 - Risuko (Winter)

2 - Bright Eyes (Spring)

3 - Kano (Summer — coming April 30, 2024!)

4 - Autumn — coming soon!

(Young adult historical adventure; Japanese Civil War)

Projected release, April 30, 2024

Leseprobe

Seasons of the Sword#3

加納

Kano

A Kunoichi Tale

David Kudler

Stillpoint/Atalanta

Kano: A Kunoichi Tale

Seasons of the Sword #3

Stillpoint Digital Press

Mill Valley, California, USA

Copyright © 2024 by David Kudler

All right reserved.

This book may not be reproduced in whole or in part, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, or other—without written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer, who may quote brief passages in a review. For more information, contact the publisher at

[email protected]

Cover design by James T. Egan of Bookfly Design

Book design by David Kudler and Stillpoint Digital Press

ISBN:978-1-938808-69-2 (hardcover)

ISBN: 978-1-938808-68-5 (pbk.)

ISBN: 978-1-938808-70-8 (e-book)

1. Japan—History—Period of civil wars, 1480–1603—Fiction. 2. Ninja—Fiction. 3. Conspiracies—Fiction. 4. Determination (Personality trait)—Fiction. 5. Young adult fiction. I. Title.

First edition, April 2024

Version 1.0.0 PublishDrive (rev 14)

SeasonsoftheSword.com

Also by David Kudler

Seasons of the Sword

Risuko • Bright Eyes • Kano

The thrilling conclusion!

MurasakiSeasons of the Sword#4

Kunoichi Companion Tales

Seasons of the Sword Prequels

DeadlyBlossoms:

White Robes, Silk & Service, Waiting for Kuniko, Wild Mushrooms, Ghost, Schools for Gifted Youngsters: Headmistresses' Monthly Dinner

Shining Boy*, Blade*, Little Brother*

* Coming soon

Find out more on SeasonsoftheSword.com

Follow on:

twitter.com/RisukoKunoichi • risuko-chan.tumblr.com

facebook.com/risuko.books • instagram.com/RisukoKunoichi

risuko.livejournal.com • tiktok.com/@kanomurasaki

—

黄金の洞窟で

最も深い青い夜に隠れて

太陽が昇るのを待つ

—

Contents

Map: The Provinces of Japan during

Kano

Characters in

Kano

Kano: A Kunoichi Tale

Prologue - Disgrace

1 - Tiptown

2 - A Reunion

3 - A Burst Dam

4 - Shadows by the River

5 - Midriver Island

6 - The Middle Way

7 - Revolt

8 - Morningsun

9 - Beauty and Strength

10 - The Gold Room

11 - Queen Bee

12 - A Figure in Black

13 - The Scion’s Revenge

14 - Shadows Beneath the Camellias

15 - Hope and Hopelessness

16 - Remembering Your Place

17 – A Battle Plan

18 - Pretender

19 - Blood

20 - Bodyguards

21 – Visitors

22 – Standing on Her Own Two Feet

23 – Tea and Secrets

24 – Priest Hole

25 – Assassin

Epilogue - Unexpected Benefit

Sneak Preview: Autumn Flame

Author Note

Glossary

Place Names

Acknowledgements

About the Author

Landmarks

Cover

Table of Contents

Title Page

Body Matter

Copyright Page

Dedication

Glossary

Imprint

Afterword

Epilogue

Prologue

Characters

Note: In Japan, as through most of East Asia, tradition places the family name before the given name. For example, in Kano Murasaki, Risuko’s proper name, Kano is her family’s name and Murasaki her given name—what English speakers would call her first name.

Historical figures are marked with an asterisk (*).

Residents of Mochizuki:

Risuko—Proper name: Kano Murasaki. Called “Squirrel,” “Bright Eyes,” and “Mouse.” Junior initiate

Mochizuki Chiyome*—Mistress of Mochizuki

Yuri Mieko—Lady Chiyome’s maid. Kunoichi teacher; miko dance master

Monogami Kuniko—Lady Chiyome’s maid. Kunochi. (Dead)

Tarugu Toumi—Called “Falcon.” Junior initiate

Hanichi Emi—Called “Smiley.” Junior initiate

Aimaru—Called “Moon-cake” and “Moon Face.” Servant

Little Brothers—Servants.

Mai—Called “Foxy.” Former senior initiate. (Dead)

Shino—Senior initiate

Kee Sun—Cook (Korean)

Sachi—called “Flower” Kunoichi espionage teacher; miko music master

Hoshi—called “Horsey” Kunoichi sword teacher; miko calligraphy master

Mitsuke—Kunoichi strength and archery teacher; miko etiquette teacher

Rin—Kunoichi garrote teacher

Fuyudori—called “Ghostie-girlie” Former senior initiate (Dead)

Residents of the Takeda Townhouse (Capital):

sake Fūto—Masugu’s brother-in-law; Yaeko’s husband and chatelain of Takeda townhouse

Yamamoto Yaeko—Masugu’s second older sister; Fūto’s wife and chatelaine of the Takeda townhouse

Chinatsu—maid; friend of Emi

Junko—maid; friend of Emi

Yoshi—maid; friend of Emi

Residents & Visitors of the Oda Townhouse (Capital):

Oda Nabunaga*—Most powerful lord (daimyo) of Japan, controlling the capital (Kyōto) and the military government headed by the warlord (shōgun). Lord of the Oda clan of Rising Tail (Owari) Province. Allied with the Takeda and the Matsudaira.

Oda Hachihime—Lord Oda’s youngest sister

Uesugi Kenshin*— Lord of the Uesugi clan of Crossover (Echigo) Province

Akita Chikasue—Lord of the Akita clan of Wingtip (Dewa) Province

Father Francisco—Jesuit priest (Portuguese)

João Afonso Alves de Sousa de Mandrágora—Jesuit novice; called “Jolalo” (Portuguese)

Aodh Og O’Shea—Jesuit novice; called “Eyogoshei” (Irish)

Middle Pass Province:

Brother Gyohiro—Buddhist monk, head of Ikkō-ikki

Michi—Young girl

Kyoko—Young girl

Uesugi Soldiers in Dark Letter Province:

Zashiki—Storeroom guard

Joshi—Armory guard

Hirata—Gate guard; called “Vole”

Risuko’s Family:

Okā-san—Risuko’s mother. Proper name: Kano Chojo.

Usako—Risuko’s sister. Proper name: Kano Daini.

Otō-san—Risuko’s late father. Former samurai, turned scribe. Proper name: Kano Kazuo (believed dead)

Takeda Clan:

Takeda Shingen*—Lord of the Takeda clan of Worth (Kai) Province. Called “The Mountain” and “The Tiger of Kai.” Allied with the Oda and the Matsudaira

Captain Baba Nobufusa

Hara Masatane*—Takeda captain

Takeda Masugu—Takeda lieutenant

Tamagata—Captain of Highfield garrison

Takeda Himari—Masugu’s youngest sister

Baba Nobuhiro—Captain Baba’s youngest son

Major Historical Figures (mentioned but not appearing):

Matsudaira Motoyasu* — Lord of the Matsudaira clan of Three Rivers (Mikawa) Province. Allied with the Oda and the Takeda

Imagawa Ujizane*—Head of the Imagawa clan, former lord of Serenity (Tōtōmi) Province

Hōjō Ujimasa*—Lord of the Hōjō clan of Armory (Musashi) Province

Ashikaga Yoshiaka*—Hereditary warlord (shōgun) of Japan. For all intents and purposes Oda Nobunaga’s puppet since Oda-sama took control of the capital.

Kano

Prologue - Disgrace

My name is Kano Murasaki, but everyone calls me Risuko. Squirrel.

My family, the Kano clan, is in disgrace because my father and two other samurai refused Lord Oda Nobunaga’s order to kill a group of Imagawa children and two young hostages—Tokugawa Tokimatsu and Takeda Masugu. Masugu-san.

Hanichi Emi and Tarugu Toumi’s fathers, two samurai who served my father, committed ritual suicide rather than live in disgrace.

Father took our whole family to Serenity Province and became a poor scribe. We lived in exile for too long.

And so, Emi and Toumi grew up as orphans in the capital, while I survived on a diet of rice and scavenged bird eggs. But I was loved and left with nothing to do but what I enjoyed most. Climbing trees.

Eventually, Lady Chiyome found Emi, Toumi, and me, and brought us together. She took us to her school for shrine maidens, the Full Moon. She told us that, though she wouldn’t reveal it at the time, there was a reason that she had brought us there.

But it wasn’t only to learn to play music and dance in honor of the old gods.

Because the Full Moon is also a school for what Lady Chiyome calls a special kind of woman—kunoichi.

Bodyguards.

Spies.

Assassins.

We are not fully trained kunoichi yet.

But Lady Chiyome has revealed the reason she sought us out.

She and Lord Takeda have ordered us to go to the capital with our teacher, Mieko- sei. Takeda-sama told us to avenge our fathers’ disgrace. And although he did not say so, we know that he expects us to assassinate the man who destroyed our families’ honor. Lord Oda.

And now we know why Chiyome-sama brought us to the Full Moon.

The last time that I saw Otō-san, my father had been summoned by Lord Imagawa. His last words to me were, “Do no harm, Murasaki. No harm.”

Now I wonder, how am I to restore our honor if I am to do no harm?

I do not wish to kill.

Lord Oda has done more than strip the Kano family of its honor, its samurai rank. Because of him, Father is dead. Mother was forced to sell me. Sister Usako has grown up a wild animal in a poor village rather than a powerful warrior’s daughter.

Mieko-sensei, Emi, Toumi, our friend Aimaru, and I are traveling through the mountains of Dark Letter on the way to the capital—through territory that, like the rest of Japan, has weathered a century of war and revolt—to kill Oda-sama. The most powerful man in the land.

I would still rather climb trees.

My name is Kano Murasaki. But most people call me Risuko. Squirrel.

1 - Tiptown

“Lady Hōjō,” sighed the Uesugi captain, “I can’t let you and your party through without an escort. There’s trouble on the other side of the province. We’ve already had to send half of the garrison west. I can’t spare any men to protect you.”

Mieko gave him her most disgusted Lady Chiyome glare. “Ruffian.” She turned to me and Toumi, kneeling to her left in the captain’s office. “What will Masugu-sama think if we don’t arrive in the capital on time?”

I put my hand on her knee like the supportive lady’s maid that I supposedly was. “I’m sure the shōgun will understand if his cousin, your intended, has to change the wedding date.”

When Toumi gave a dismissive snort and muttered, “Sure he will,” Mieko covered her face with her hands and began wailing.

I handed her a silk handkerchief marked with the orange, three-triangle mon of her supposed clan.

The Uesugi commander ground his teeth, clearly not used to managing high-strung noble brides… or cunning kunoichi. “My lady…” He closed his eyes. “Can I get you something, my lady?”

This was the cue we had been waiting for. “Please,” I simpered, “if this humble servant might fetch her ladyship some wine, that may calm our mistress’s nerves.”

“Yes, yes,” grumbled the captain. “The stores are immediately across the courtyard, to the right of the main gate.”

As I bowed, Mieko sniffled, “Oh, you go with her, Toumi. She’s always getting lost.”

“Yes, my lady,” said Toumi in a more than passably respectful manner. Really, if you didn’t know her, you might almost have thought she was so sweet.

—

Toumi and I scurried into the courtyard of the Tiptown garrison. It was quiet. Eerily so, since we knew that they were about to be attacked. The soldiers looked anything but alert.

Emi and Aimaru stepped around a ragged line of marching pikemen to get to us. Like us, their clothes were marked with the Hōjō emblem. In fact, it was simply embroidered over the blank, white disk that marked us as servants of the Full Moon. Emi said, “Is, um, our mistress all right?”

I expected Toumi to make a joke, but she kept up her respectful maid facade, and so I answered, “Mieko-sama is very upset. The captain suggested that we fetch her some sake.”

Aimaru nodded solemnly as he and Emi finally got close enough to whisper, “I’d like to see Mieko-san acting very upset.”

“It’s definitely weird,” Toumi granted with a shrug.

Feeling that time was tight, I whispered, “Armory?”

Emi answered, “To the left of the gate. Opposite the storeroom. One sentry at each door.”

My heart thrashed like a sparrow trying to escape a drying net.

Mieko had talked us through all of this while riding from the Highfield garrison across enemy lines to Tiptown. I forced the sparrow down my throat and back into my chest. “So, we get the wine. Then I’ll deal with the gunpowder. Toumi, you keep an eye on the door. Emi, you bring Mieko-sen— Mieko-sama… the sake. And Aimaru…”

Aimaru smiled and finished the thought. “Get the horses ready. Just in case.”

They all nodded together.

Emi, Toumi, and Aimaru had all grown up in the capital. In the streets. All three of them had done things in order to survive—risky, illegal things.

I had climbed Lord Imagawa’s castle near our village. But I had done it out of boredom. And while I would have been beaten if I’d been caught—or worse—I knew I wouldn’t be caught.

Who expected a little girl to climb up the walls of a castle?

But this? Walking into a room full of weapons in the middle of an armed fort that we knew was about to face an attack, even if the Uesugi didn’t?

“Come on, Murasaki,” said Emi, taking my hand and leading me and Toumi across the courtyard. Aimaru split off from us and sauntered out the gate toward the horses we had picked up in Highfield.

When we got to the storeroom, a thoroughly bored guard greeted us.

“This where the wine’s kept?” asked Toumi.

When the guard just stared at her, I said in my meekest servant-girl voice, “Pardon, sir, but the captain and our lady have commanded us humble servants to bring them sake. If the wine is stored here, may we enter?”

He rolled his eyes and stepped aside.

The storeroom was huge—and a huge mess. Kee Sun would not have approved. Rats scurried past as we walked haphazardly through stacked bags of rice and barley toward the back, where sealed jars of sake lay in a pile next to what looked like Uesugi battle flags mixed with winter jackets.

“How can they keep track of anything?” murmured Emi, her habitual frown deepening.

“Don’t care,” grunted Toumi, grabbing two jars of sake. “And they won’t either after the Takeda kick them out.” She handed one jar to Emi and the other to me. Then she grinned. “Think I’ll take another of these, since it won’t do them any good.”

“Toumi!” Emi and I gasped.

She rolled her eyes at us. “Not for me, baka. You’ll see.”

Emi’s frown now deepened into a scowl, and I’m sure my expression wasn’t sunny either. However, we needed to keep moving. Before our absence was noted or I lost my nerve.

As we came back out of the stores, Toumi nodded to the bored soldier and showed him the wine jar. “Thanks. Our bosses will be really happy.” Then she flicked her head toward the guard in front of the armory, “Hey, what’s the name of your friend over there?”

He stared at her again, then gave a grunt and said, “Joshi. Why?”

Toumi shot him a grin and sloshed her wine. “’Cause I’d like to be happy too, and I thought you and your buddy might want to join me.”

He gave a gruff laugh. “Are you old enough to be drinking wine?”

“Old enough to want to!” answered Toumi with a grin that didn’t look right on her face.

“Toumi!” Emi’s voice was disapproving, and I think she was only partially acting.

“Oh, come on. You two get to go into where Lady Mieko and the captain are having their party. I get to sit out here. Can’t blame me for taking my chances. Come on.” She winked at us and, as we walked away, said to the bored guard over her shoulder, “Be right back!”

“Are you sure this is a good idea?” I whispered.

“Hey, I’m not stupid,” Toumi whispered back. “Not gonna actually swallow any of it. It’s just like those endless drinking games Sachi-sensei made us play with water, right? And it’s the best way of getting you into the armory, Mouse.”

“All right,” I conceded.

“Be careful,” Emi added.

“Sure. I might almost think you care,” she said with a grin that was more like her—knife-sharp and dangerous.

“We do,” I answered.

Rather than answer me, Toumi called to the guard in front of the armory, “Hey, Joshi-san!” When the guard blinked at her, she gave her sake jar a wet shake. “Your pal at the storerooms was planning on showing me some drinking games. Said you might like to join us.”

He tried to look stern but licked his lips. “Zashiki said that?”

“Yup. Said you knew some fun ones.”

“Oh, sure.” He smiled, and I realized that he didn’t look a day older than Aimaru. With a laugh, he abandoned his post and joined Toumi crossing the courtyard toward the much-less-bored-looking Zashiki.

I was about to point out that Toumi was actually frighteningly good when Emi whispered, “No one’s looking. Go in.”

And so, before I could think about it, I moved my wine jar to my left hand, slid open the door to the armory, and sneaked through.

Emi slid the door behind me, no doubt heading off to deliver the remaining jar of wine to Mieko-sensei. I was alone in a room full of instruments of death and destruction.

The armory at the Full Moon was just a corner of the storeroom that held a dozen long-bladed glaives, a half-dozen swords, a handful of bows, stacks of arrows, some helmets, and a few suits of armor. Plenty to defend Lady Chiyome’s school for shrine maidens—and assassins.

The Tiptown garrison’s armory was intended to supply a small army and defend the western half of Dark Letter froma Takeda invasion.

Where the food and goods in the storeroom had been piled haphazardly, here the soldiers’ equipment was arranged with the precision of a scribe’s tools. Neat stacks of long katanas, short wakizashis, and even shorter daggers—all sheathed, deadly still. Pikes and glaives, long and short bows, bushels of arrows, mounds of neatly piled armor parts—helmets, gauntlets, chest plates, bracers for the arms, pauldrons for the shoulders, sabatons for the feet, greaves for the legs, and what not.

And at the very back corner, on wooden pegs all the way to the high ceiling, perhaps forty muskets, and below them, the things that made those strange looking contraptions of metal and wood lethal. Boxes that I knew must contain bullets and thirty or so sealed ceramic canisters marked 火薬. Gunpowder.

Captain Yamagata, the Takeda commander of the garrison at Highfield, had simply told us to neutralize the Uesugi guns. He hadn’t cared how.

Earlier that day, riding from the Takeda garrison to the Uesugi one, Mieko had asked us how we would do such a thing.

Toumi had answered very simply, “Use a flint. Boom.”

Mieko had actually laughed at that. “True. That would be extremely effective. It would also probably kill whichever of us managed to do it, and would put the Uesugi on high alert, which Yamagata-san and his men would rather we not do, since they are marching only a few hours behind us. Any other ideas?”

Aimaru had suggested stealing them but had admitted with a smile that there was probably too much to take, and someone would certainly see us.

Emi had suggested smashing the jars, but Toumi had pointed out the sound would attract notice, and I added that they still might be able to use some of the powder.

Mieko had nodded in approval, and then said, “Risuko-chan, you grew up near a castle. Did you ever watch the musketeers training?”

I nodded.

I’d loved to spy on them from the pine trees near our village, watching them fire at targets set against the base of the cliff below the castle.

“Did you ever watch them when it was raining?”

I’d frowned as I rocked unsteadily on the back of the Takeda charger. “Yes, once.” I visualized the chaotic scene. “They were practicing when we were hit by a sudden shower. They went scurrying, covering everything with tarps and umbrellas!”

“Yes. I will tell you all a secret about gunpowder. Once it gets wet, it can’t be used ever. Even a teacup’s worth of liquid poured into a canister of gunpowder will turn it into so much dirt.”

“Oh!” I could see what she was suggesting. “So, we get their powder wet, and make it so they can’t use their guns, like Yamagata-san asked, and it doesn’t make any noise!”

Emi jumped in, saying, “And they won’t even know what’s happened until it’s too late.”

I opened my sake jar, and then took the lid off of the first canister of gunpowder. The smell was an odd combination—the bit of the familiar scent of charcoal and a touch of the rotten-egg scent of the hot springs above the Full Moon. I poured what seemed like a teacup of wine in, put the lid back on the canister, shook it a couple of times, and moved to the next canister.

Do no harm. Father’s voice echoed in my ears.

Well, I wasn’t hurting anyone, was I? In fact, I was making it so the musketeers couldn’t hurt anyone. I was also making it so they couldn’t defend themselves. I wasn’t sure whether my father would have approved or not.

I was very conscious of how long it was taking me to sabotage each container of black powder. I tried to be as quick as I could while still being careful, not letting any of the powder spill.

I was putting the lid back on the last canister when I heard the door to the armory slide open.

“You really don’t need to show me! I believe you!” Toumi’s voice, which she was trying to keep as light and jocular as before, had an edge of panic that set off my own fear like a spark to unspoiled gunpowder.

“No, no, no,” said Zashiki, the storeroom guard, sounding like he had taken a dip in a teacup worth of sake himself. “You must see, we have over forty muskets, the Takeda won’t dare attack us here.”

“Tha’s right,” the young guard, Joshi, slurred, “they’d be idiots t’even try!”

Hearing their footsteps, I realized that I had little time to hide, and so, without thinking, I did what I do best. I climbed.

2 - A Reunion

From the rafters above the muskets, I could see Toumi and the two sentries. The soldiers were striding more or less straight toward the guns. Toumi walked behind them, eyes slashing through every corner of the armory.

When she finally remembered to look up and saw me perched high above, I held a hand in front of my mouth. Shhh!

She rolled her eyes, but I could see her shoulders relax. “Nice guns, guys. Very impressive. I feel much safer. Now, can we get back to the sake?”

“Some right here,” said Zashiki, the sentry from the storeroom. He picked up the open jar that I left there in my panic. Then he squinted at the other guard. “What’s that doing there? Joshi, you been sneaking from the stores?”

I couldn’t see his face, but from his posture, I could tell the younger sentry was abashed. “No, Zashiki-san, I swear!”

“Come on, guys,” laughed Toumi. “Let’s bring that with us. We can finish this one too.”

“Who brought this in here, then?” Zashiki asked.

“Probably one of the night shifts,” Joshi mumbled.

“Makes sense,” said Toumi with another laugh, this one sounding more than a bit forced. She began gesturing toward the armory door. “Come on, like I said, let’s…”

A deep bell tolled and kept tolling.

Screams outside the armory, and the sound of running feet.

The two sentries, suddenly sober, strode toward the armory entrance. Zashiki pulled Toumi with them.

“I’m coming, I coming!” she grumbled. “What in the names of all the hells is that racket?”

As they stepped out into the courtyard, Joshi shrugged. “Fire drill, maybe?”

“Not a drill,” said Zashiki, his voice choked. “Think it’s an attack. We gotta get back to our posts.”

As he ran off, Toumi kept the armory sentry’s focus on her. “An attack? What should I do?”

I quickly made my way down to the ground, using the muskets like the rungs of a ladder. I hoped they wouldn’t break. And thankfully they didn’t.

Through the door, Toumi was pleading with Joshi, grasping the pauldron he was trying to straighten on one shoulder. She whined, “Where is my lady, how can I keep her safe?”

“Dunno,” grunted the desperate boy-soldier, pushing her hands away.

As he tried once more to pull the armor back into his shoulder, I slipped out the door behind him and took Toumi’s hand. “Mieko-sama must still be with the captain,” I said. “She must be terrified. We should join her.”

“Well, I’d have joined her in the first place if I thought we’d get wine.” She pulled me across the courtyard, which was surprisingly empty. When we were out of earshot of the sentry, she added, “And if someone hadn’t taken her sweet time spiking the gunpowder! What were you waiting for, Mouse-chan, an invitation from the emperor?”

My heart still fluttering like a hummingbird’s wings, I snapped back, “I was going as quickly as I could! You were supposed to keep—”

“Risuko. Toumi.” Mieko strode toward us with Emi at her heels, not from the direction of the captain’s quarters, but from the tall bank of barracks that housed the off-duty Uesugi soldiers.

“We’ve wedged the doors closed,” Emi whispered as they reached us. “They won’t be getting out without some help.”

When I began to ask a question, Mieko held up her hand. “Let us go find Aimaru and the horses. Quietly and quickly, ladies. The Takeda attack is under way.”

—

We walked demurely toward the gate as an Uesugi samurai sprinted in, screaming for the captain.

“He won’t wake up any time soon,” mumbled Emi.

Quiet as she was, Mieko shot her a stern look.

Emi grimaced an apology, and we strolled through the garrison’s gate.

The sentries on the outside no longer looked bored. They were at full attention. Guarding against armed soldiers trying to enter the fort, not a silk-clad lady and her maids trying to leave.

The silk-clad lady and her maids who had drugged the garrison’s commander, locked a third of the garrison’s soldiers in their quarters, and ruined the garrison’s supply of gunpowder.

A platoon of soldiers ran past us, screaming at the sentries about needing to deploy the muskets.

They too ignored us.

Tiptown’s main square was full of townspeople closing up their shops, of soldiers running here and there like a nest of wasps that’s been kicked. It was no orderly military maneuver.

Across the square stood Aimaru, holding the reins of three black Takeda chargers. They were the only still figures in sight.

Aimaru’s face, which looked uncharacteristically grim, slowly shifted toward his more usual, easy grin as we made our way to him. “Good to see you.” He said it to all of us, but was practically staring at Emi.

“Good to see you too,” answered Emi.

Toumi made a rude noise, and they both began to blush.

A crack of muskets sounded. Not close, but we all looked around. The Takeda attack had in fact begun.

“Should we, um, mount up, Mieko-sama?” I asked.

“No, let us walk. Away from the fighting. We don’t want to be mistaken for the enemy.”

We all agreed. No, we wouldn’t want that.

—

We walked the horses toward the afternoon sun, through narrow streets incongruously bedecked with late-blooming plum trees.

At the far edge of Tiptown, another pair of guards stood at the gate. While they should have been facing out, ready to stop any invaders from the west, they were looking past us, toward the growing sounds of battle to the east. One had close-set eyes like a vole, while the other’s bulged like a frog’s. “What’s happening?” the vole-eyed guard asked us.

“We do not know,” said Mieko. “It started after we left the inn. It is very frightening, is it not?”

We all nodded and agreed.

The two guards looked at each other. Vole-eyes asked, “Should we go help?”

The frog-eyed guard shook his head and answered, “Captain’ll send word if they need us. We should… stay at our post.”

Mieko assured them that it was a wise thing to do and wished them well.

I followed her out the open gate, with Toumi and Emi just behind me. Aimaru brought up the rear, using a spear as a walking stick and leading the string of horses.

“Mieko-san,” I asked as we followed the winding road up the valley, “should we have encouraged them to abandon their posts?”

“Please remember to use the proper honorific,” the teacher said.

“Sorry, Mieko-sama.”

“Thank you. We want to maintain our cover. Now, what do you think—Emi? Toumi? Aimaru?”

Toumi sniffed and shook her head. “Nah. Keeps two soldiers away from the fighting, where they can’t do any good.”

Emi hmmed thoughtfully. “Actually, in this case, I don’t think two soldiers would make any difference one way or another. Of course, we know the attack is all coming from the east. They don’t.”

Aimaru chuckled. “From the east. And inside the fort.”

“True,” agreed Mieko. “Well done, all of you. Risuko,Toumi, tell me, how were you able to complete your mission? What unexpected obstacles and opportunities came up?”

We talked them through our distracting the sentries. Toumi made a point of mentioning that she had been the one to distract them, and of my using thesake to ruin the gunpowder. Of my hiding in the rafters when the guards came to show Toumi the muskets.

“And Mouse-chan forgot to take the wine with her of course,” Toumi sneered.

“I wouldn’t have needed to if you’d kept them away!”

“Girls,” Mieko said before we could bicker further, “you both did well. No battle plan survives the first engagement with the enemy. Improvisation and making the best of the opportunities at hand are an important part of our work.” She stepped off of the road onto a path that led up a hill to one side. A steep trail that looked like it had been made by deer or goats, not people. “Come. We need to change, and perhaps we can find a vantage point to see how the battle is going.”

At the top of the hill, we changed from our fancy silk kimonos into the white tops and red hakama that marked us as miko. For the first time.

As kunoichi.

While we changed, Aimaru stood on the edge of the hilltop, gazing toward the town and the sound of the battle.

We were dressed and undoing the fancy split-peach hair that had taken us so long to do that morning when Emi asked, “Mieko-sama, are we kunoichi now?”

Our teacher had already finished doing her hair up in a simpler style, held in place by daggers disguised as hairpins. Smiling, she helped Toumi, who was struggling with her own, short hair. “You have each completed an independent mission in the field. You have helped perform rituals for the gods. Usually, we would hold a ceremony, but you have certainly earned the red and white that you wear.”

“Whew!” I stared down at my own miko garb. It felt like a costume, not clothing. As if we were putting on our mothers’ robes to play.

“Heh,” Toumi chortled. “Love to see Shino and… Yeah. Shino’s face. Us wearing these before she does.”

Mieko finished Toumi’s hair with the stab of a hairpin. “Both senior initiates had earned these robes—were to get them at this week’s full moon. Shino would be here with us, I am sure, if she were not… in mourning.”

We all nodded and murmured our understanding. Mai’s brutal death just days before had affected us all. Shino, more so, even though they had fought over everything. “I thought they hated each other,” I said as we joined Aimaru, looking down at the battle for Tiptown.

Mieko sighed. “I think that women who have seen as much together as those two are going to have relationships more complicated than simple hate. Or love.”

I frowned and looked to Emi, who shrugged, frowning back. I said, “But some of the partnerships of older women, like Sachi-sensei and Hoshi-sensei, or you and—”

“Yes,” interrupted Mieko, who rarely did so. “All of those partnerships as you call them came from years of being together. Of working together. Of fighting side by side but sometimes also with each other. Of saving each other’s lives. Such a partnership can be stronger than any marriage.”

Smoothing her red-and-white clothes, Emi quoted Chiyome-sama, “A kunoichi is married to her duty, and to death.”

Mieko nodded. “And to her fellow kunoichi. Without each other, you cannot succeed. With each other, you cannot fail.”

Emi, Toumi, and I looked at each other.

“Aimaru,” Mieko continued, her voice lighter, “how is the battle going?”

“A rout, I think.”

Peering down into the town, all I could see in the afternoon sun were flashes of steel and puffs of smoke, followed much later by quiet bangs. Shouting and screaming that was barely audible at that distance. “How can you tell?”

“Well,” he answered, “see where the gate on the other side of the town is?” Toumi and I nodded; he continued, “When we first got up here, the fighting was outside the walls on the other side of town. It’s almost to the garrison walls now.”

“Tell me, Aimaru,” asked Mieko, “how many Takeda troops was Yamagata-san preparing when we left?”

Aimaru’s eyes snapped up to the cloudless sky as he did the calculation. “Four hundred cavalry—a hundred heavy and three hundred light. And twelve hundred infantry—six hundred pikes, three hundred swordsmen, two hundred archers, and a hundred muskets.”

“Very good. And how many Uesugi troops did you see in Tiptown.”

Now he frowned and closed his eyes. “About a hundred and fifty cavalry—half heavy, half light. About two hundred infantry—mostly pikes and swords, plus perhaps thirty or forty archers.” He opened his eyes and looked at Mieko.

“Yes, very good,” she said, and he smiled. A much more natural look on his face. “So around four hundred troops in all. But remember, a third of the garrison was off duty in the barracks.”

“And not getting out anytime soon,” Emi added proudly.

Mieko acknowledged that with a nod and another smile. “Indeed. So, a total of perhaps six hundred soldiers. Remember, the captain told us that he had to send half of his troops to fight an insurrection on the other side of the Uesugi territory.”

Aimaru whistled. “Against almost three times as many Takeda.”

“And the Uesugi commander out of commission!” Toumi said.

I had forgotten that. “Um, Mieko-sama. Did you… you know… eliminate him?”

“No, I merely put him to sleep… with corydalis, as a matter of fact. He’ll wake with nothing worse than a headache. I did consider stronger measures. If it had been the old commander, I might have done, since he was a nasty man, and in any case might have recognized me from previous missions. However, this captain was polite.”

“And stupid,” laughed Toumi. She mimicked me in a simpering little-girl voice, “‘If this humble servant might fetch her ladyship some wine.’ Ha!”

“Well,” Aimaru said, laughing along, “trusting a bunch of pretty girls like you wouldn’t make him stupid. I mean, who’d expect a bunch of trained killers to look like all of you!”

Emi nodded, smiling her almost-smile. “No one. Which is the whole point.”

For a change, I was the one frowning. I wasn’t a killer. I didn’t want to be a killer. Father’s last words to me echoed in my head. No harm.

And yet here we were, on a mission through a war zone. Heading to the capital to assassinate Oda-sama, responsible for my father’sdeath and disgrace, and for Emi and Toumi’s fathers’ suicides.

Harm. Harm everywhere.

“Now, let us go.” Mieko put a hand on my shoulder and gave me a sad smile, as if she’d read my thoughts. “Refugees and deserters will start flooding the road westward. We want to reach the next village ahead of them.”

—

We made our way back to the road and mounted up. Since Mieko was the only one of us who had any real riding experience, she led the way on one charger, trailing Toumi and me on another horse and Emi and Aimaru on the third.

Toumi being Toumi kept teasing our friends about not getting up to any funny business back there.

Usually, Emi would have been happy to tell Toumi where to put her teasing. That afternoon, however, both she and Aimaru were silent. Stoic. I didn’t need to look back to know that they were blushing. Again.

Soon, the sound of fighting was lost in the trees behind us.

We had just come in sight of the next village as the sun began to disappear behind the mountains further west, when the sound of a galloping horse came pounding toward us from ahead, closing in on us from around the bend in the road.

All five of us immediately went on guard. Behind me, Aimaru dropped the point of his spear as a lance. Toumi and Emi reached for their bows and quivers of arrows and I unsheathed Masugu-san’s short sword, which was tied to the front of the saddle. Mieko-san pulled two throwing knives from her sleeves.

The big, black stallion that galloped around the bend bore no rider. Though the saddle was in place, a pack leaned slightly off-kilter. Its dark flanks were covered in dirt and foam and its eyes were wide and white. Yet when it saw our horses, it slowed and approached us with a whiney. It walked up to Mieko’s mount and began to nuzzle first the other horse, and then our teacher’s leg.

“It’s Inazuma!” I gasped.

And then all of us realized that what stood before was Masugu-san’s horse.

Without the rider.

3 - A Burst Dam

Mieko froze, knives dangling from her fingertips. She stared, not at the horse, but down the road, through the village and out toward the horizon. In every possible direction.

Inazuma continued to nuzzle at her leg.

Mieko blinked and looked down at it. Its muzzle snuffling at her red hakama leg.

“Mieko-sama,” Emi began, “should we…”

The usually calm kunoichi barked, “Hyah!” and spurred her mount with her heels.

It broke into a gallop immediately, the horses we were on following it without choice since they were tethered to hers.

Worried that we’d leave Inazuma behind, I reached for his reins, but I needn’t have bothered. Inazuma loved to run and was immediately galloping alongside Mieko’s charger.

We thundered through the village, startling chickens and dogs and causing more than a few villagers to shout at us.

“Tiptown has fallen!” Emi shouted back. “We’ve barely escaped!”

I was pondering why she’d do that, but Toumi grunted into my ear through gritted teeth, “Makes us look less suspicious.”

That made sense. “Also,” I said, bouncing on the saddle, my fists full of the charger’s mane, “it’ll spread chaos.” The villagers would flee, spreading word of the Takeda invasion. With the other side of the Uesugi territory in revolt, it would make the whole of their area impossible to control.

Toumi grunted again. I thought it might be in agreement, but it might also have been in discomfort. She hated riding way more than even I did.

You’d think that girls who liked taking risk as much as me or Toumi would love being on horseback. The previous autumn, as we’d ridden with Masugu-san’s lancers from Serenity through Swift River and up into Dark Letter to the Full Moon, we’d both discovered, however, that we didn’t love it. We didn’t love it at all.

It was one of the very first things we agreed on, though neither of us would have admitted it.

Masugu-san.

Was he all right?

Was he alive?

Bouncing in front of Toumi, holding on for dear life as we sped like water from a burst dam down the valley road, I stared at Inazuma, who was running easily at Mieko’s side, head forward, tail high.

The stallion seemed uninjured. Though dirty and sweaty, he showed no visible blood or wounds. The pack bounced on his haunches, though the saddle remained tight.

Did something knock Masugu-san to the ground? That would have hurt, but I know the armored cavalry lieutenant would have survived that.

Then again, I knew that Inazuma loved his rider almost as much as Masugu loved his horse. They must have been separated.

As we sped along, I tried to look for the lieutenant in groves, farms, and small villages alike as they flashed by. I didn’t see his open, honest face anywhere. Just astonished animals and terrified villagers.

“Tiptown has fallen!” we called to them as we rode.

We encountered little traffic on the road, except for a few farm carts and two pilgrim monks.

No soldiers. The Takeda would encounter no enemy resistance as they swept through the center of Dark Letter.