Nightblade (6 page)

The decision would impact him beyond just training the boy. It would mean stepping out of the shadows some day. He had avoided the Blademasters for so many cycles by disappearing. He did not hunt for bandits or display his skill in the courts. Every part of his life was structured around the practice of not arousing attention. Adding a second life to that mix complicated matters and left the door open for circumstances beyond his control. Taking on a student who could carry on his legacy could be the very act that killed them both. That fear prevented him from acting decisively. Instead, he continued to watch from afar, giving Ryuu as little direction as possible. If he believed in anything, Shigeru believed in the power of choice.

The choice was too big for him to make by himself and wasn’t really his choice to make at all. Instead he would follow the Path of the Blademasters. The boy would be given his own choice to make. Shigeru would explain everything as clearly as possible and Ryuu would have to decide. It was a lot to ask of one who had only seen five cycles, but it was the only clear path forward. The decision made, Shigeru didn’t hesitate, but brought it up at that evening’s meal.

At supper that night, Shigeru found he was more nervous than he had been in many cycles. Despite the thought put into his decision, he wasn’t sure it was correct. Giving the boy a choice was uncertain and Shigeru found that in the course of the past moon he had developed a certain level of affection for the child. He tried to hide his indecision, but apparently wasn’t succeeding. His young companion was able to pick up on it. Although, Shigeru argued in his own defense, Ryuu wasn’t a typical child.

“Shigeru, what’s wrong?”

Shigeru hesitated. He had rehearsed this moment over and over through the day, but the words no longer seemed right. He struggled to articulate what he wanted to say. Struggled to find the tone he wanted to say it with.

Ryuu looked up from his bowl of noodles. He waited patiently for Shigeru. Shigeru respected that about the boy.

“Ryuu, what do you know about me?” Mentally, Shigeru shook his head. He had wanted to start assertively, to come from a place of power and responsibility. Instead, he had come forward with a question that only indirectly led to what he really wanted to ask. When his own Blademaster had given him this choice, it had seemed much more formal.

The boy looked up. He paused before answering, considering what he had put together. “You’re a nightblade, even if they are supposed to be gone from the Three Kingdoms.”

Shigeru was surprised to feel an unknown weight lift off his shoulders. The boy spoke without a hint of judgment in his voice. It had been almost ten cycles since anyone had known the truth about him. In this land his kind were hunted without end, the public convinced they were the monsters responsible for the collapse of the Kingdom. In time, stories which had held the truth had become legends and propaganda with little regard to historical events. But Ryuu knew and didn’t care. He was the child of farmers though, so perhaps he had never been exposed to the prevailing attitudes. Shigeru hadn’t expected such relief at the revelation of his secret. It solidified his resolve.

“Ryuu, you have the skills to become like me. There is a path forward which I can offer. It is one choice out of many. I will offer them to you today, and if you choose to stay with me, I will offer the same choices twice more. It was the same for me when I was growing up. Everyone has three choices, three chances to walk away.”

Ryuu answered with conviction, “I would like to stay here with you.”

Although Shigeru had expected this, hearing it out loud sent a surge of emotion through him. He checked himself. He had been away from people for far too long. Too much attachment to the boy would cause problems for both of them.

“I understand that, but I want you to understand the choice you will be making. You are young, but the decision must be yours.”

Shigeru took a few heartbeats to pause, collecting his thoughts. “Your first choice is to leave this place,” Ryuu started, but Shigeru held up his hand for silence. “I know you don’t want to leave now, but hear me out. I know people, good families who would love to have a child, or another child. You would be treated as one of theirs and you could live a normal life in relative peace, comfort and prosperity. You could choose your future as you see fit. You would have a last name and status in this world as you grow older.”

“And my other choice?”

“You can stay here and I will take you on as my apprentice.” Once again Shigeru had to hold up his hand before Ryuu could commit. “You must understand what that means. I myself am masterless, hunted and an outcast both from the people of this land and my own people. I have no last name, nor would you. Life would not proceed as it has this past moon. Training will be difficult. You will wake up early and train mentally and physically all day. There are no breaks and no second chances. You will be cut and you will bleed. I will not abuse you, but neither will I take it easy on you. You succeed or fail on your own terms, and you may die. If you do succeed in the training, you will be hunted and hated for the rest of your life.”

“You also need to know this. The nightblades are hated within the Southern Kingdom and throughout all three Kingdoms. Perhaps someday that will change, but it will not happen for many cycles, if at all. If you follow me, you will never have a normal life, a life with friends and family who care for you.”

“Finally, there is one other truth that I believe in. Nightblades have always lived by the sword, and throughout history, we have died by the sword. It is very likely that you will die young, cut down by one stronger than you. Or by thirty scared of what you may become. Regardless, very few of us die peacefully in our sleep.”

Shigeru gave the boy credit. He didn’t jump to one decision or another. He sat in silence and thought. Although the boy didn’t know what he was doing, Shigeru could sense the battle of emotions running though his mind. For a moment, Shigeru thought that he might have overdone it and he might have lost the best chance at a pupil he’d ever had.

His fears proved ungrounded.

“I will stay here and train with you.”

Shigeru did not reply, but instead offered a bow that went halfway to the ground. The boy bowed all the way to the ground, forehead against the wooden floor of the hut.

The rest of the meal was eaten in uncharacteristic silence. Shigeru had half-expected a fresh barrage of questions regarding training and what was to come next, but none came. Ryuu sat pondering his future, and Shigeru could see on his face that the journey was one that was part over-hopeful imagination, part sadness, and part anger. Shigeru was pleased. He didn’t want to train a boy who believed that swordsmanship was only fun and games. It was a hard way of life and an easy way to die.

It was the way of the sword. It was the way of death.

When the meal was finished Shigeru urged the boy to go to bed, even though Ryuu couldn’t contain his excitement. His fears had been overwhelmed by his dreams of training. He only got the boy to sleep by repeating, “It will be the hardest thing you have ever done in your life. You will need your sleep.”

When Ryuu was awoken in the morning he found that Shigeru had not exaggerated. As the child of a farmer he was used to waking up with the sun, but the sun wasn’t even up yet. He was still bleary-eyed from sleep when Shigeru pushed him out of the hut. Ryuu watched as Shigeru lashed two wooden swords to his back in addition to the steel swords which were his constant companions. Together they took off at a trot. For Ryuu, who was only five and much shorter than Shigeru, the trot felt a lot more like a sprint.

Shigeru made it into a game, teasing and prodding Ryuu to try to catch him. As Ryuu’s body started to wake up he fell in love with the game. Even though he was quickly exhausted, he found that he was always willing to sprint just one more time with the belief that
this
would be the time it worked,
this
would be the time he caught Shigeru. When the game was over Ryuu found they had left behind any terrain he recognized as familiar. His legs agreed. He could feel them wobbling with the effort it had taken him to come this far.

They were still in the old woods in a clearing that was only twenty paces wide at any point. Given the chance to observe his surroundings, Ryuu imagined the clearing as a fort in the woods. The woods they had traveled through had been dense, even thicker than the considerable growth around Shigeru’s hut. For a boy of the plains to be enclosed by the majestic trees of the old woods was novel. It excited his imagination.

Forgetting how exhausted he was, Ryuu ran around the clearing, trying to find the best vantage point for spying on the outside world. No matter where he looked, he couldn’t see more than a couple of paces in any direction. Even the hint of a footpath they had followed into the clearing twisted in such a manner that it didn’t provide a view out of the clearing.

“How did you find this spot?” Ryuu asked, admiration in his voice.

Shigeru did not reply, and Ryuu saw he had taken the wooden swords off his back. A surge of energy and excitement ran through him. Today he would learn how to be a swordsman like Shigeru.

The excitement lasted only as long as it took Shigeru to give Ryuu his first instructions. To Ryuu’s great disappointment, he learned that his sword lessons were not to begin right away. Shigeru stood in front of him performing a series of moves that Ryuu was supposed to follow. Almost a cycle ago Ryuu had seen dancers who had visited his village. To him the moves seemed equivalent. What was the purpose of moving without a sword when you were learning how to fight with a sword?

After what felt like a hundred repetitions Shigeru stood back and had Ryuu perform the actions on his own. After several more repetitions Shigeru attacked in the middle of a repetition. Ryuu was caught completely off guard, but his body had become so focused on repetition it was stuck in a rut. His reaction was to finish the movement Shigeru had taught him. He blocked all of Shigeru’s light punches.

When the surprise of being attacked had worn off, Ryuu realized that Shigeru was teaching him defensive combinations. What at first seemed to be a dance without purpose was instead a new way of showing his body how to move, how to be effective. Once Ryuu had put the pieces together he threw himself into mirroring and learning Shigeru’s movements.

They broke for a quick lunch of berries, dried meat, and rice and then returned to their training. This time Shigeru picked up the wooden swords which had rested so peacefully throughout the morning. The same practice was employed. Shigeru demonstrated a technique. Ryuu copied the technique under Shigeru’s critical eye. The sword tip always had to be in a specific spot. His foot placement was just a little off. Ryuu soon realized that Shigeru’s only expectation was perfection.

Ryuu learned that there was an exact spot where the sword should be at any given time. If the sword was at the correct point everything fell into place. If the sword was positioned well he could block and cut faster, and all swordsmanship seemed to be about speed and accuracy. Over the course of the afternoon his body responded in less and less time. Ryuu mentioned this once after a practice cut.

“There is a movement to all things in this world. Nothing stands still. Even this planet we are on moves, which is why the sun rises and sets every day. What you are feeling is called centering. Memorize the feeling, make it your home. It applies not just to swordsmanship but to life. A centered opponent is a fearsome enemy. Stay centered and stay alive.” Shigeru paused, noticing the puzzled expression on Ryuu’s face. “Don’t worry, after a couple of cycles of hard training, you will understand what I am talking about. But it is good to recognize that some things
feel
right.”

Ryuu simply nodded, lost right after Shigeru began speaking. The planet was moving? That was silly.

Shigeru’s eyes sparkled, and if Ryuu had thought to guess, he would have guessed that Shigeru was laughing at him. But Shigeru’s face betrayed no other emotion and Ryuu was too young to understand his new-found master.

The training went through the day. When they finished, Shigeru again took Ryuu trotting through the woods in a friendly game. When they got back to the hut it was almost dark, and they had just enough time to get a quick meal started before the sun set. Ryuu asked if he could miss the evening meal. He wanted nothing more than to get to bed. His arms and back were sore from swinging the wooden sword, his legs were sore from running, and everything else hurt from the light blows he had taken throughout training.

Shigeru made him eat. Training would be hard every day, but he had to keep his body well conditioned. Ryuu knew Shigeru was right, so he forced food down his throat as well as the tea Shigeru had prepared. As he ate, he realized that the food tasted better than anything he had ever eaten, and he said as much.

“It’s because food has become more important to your body, so your body treats it with more respect now.”

Ryuu shook his head a little. He wondered if Shigeru realized he was speaking to a child who had no idea what he was ever talking about.

The next morning was brutal. Ryuu woke up at dawn as usual, but his body seemed to be several heartbeats behind his mind’s commands. He was sluggish and could almost hear the screams of his limbs as he willed them to motion. There had been hard days helping his father in the field, but never anything like this.

His pain disappeared when he stumbled outside to catch Shigeru in his morning practice. The early morning sunlight glinted off Shigeru’s blade, glinting like a crazed firefly in the daylight. Ryuu couldn’t track the quick motions of the blade, only see the flashes of lightning as the sunlight reflected off the shining sword. Shigeru’s movement was otherworldly, his feet and arms moving in a graceful, deadly, beautiful dance. Ryuu imagined he heard Shigeru’s sword sing.