World's Edge (26 page)

When the names were read, again Moriko's name was in last. She'd have to win the sword competition to even get halfway up the ranks.

It was late afternoon when the sword competition began. Based on her standing at the bottom of the list, Moriko was the first to compete, against the highest ranked Red Hawk so far. She wondered how they were going to run the competition, and was relieved when wooden swords were given to each combatant. Moriko studied hers. It was smaller and lighter than even the wooden practice swords she was used to. She tried a few swings and cuts with it to get a feel for it.

Her opponent was first in the ranks, but not because of his swordsmanship. His archery might have been unmatched, but his strikes were obvious. Moriko parried his blows easily, the light practice sword moving through the air with incredible speed. It was over in two passes, the young man down on the ground with blood pouring from a broken nose. There were hoots and hollers from the crowd at the leading champion being defeated by the outsider woman.

Moriko watched the rest of the first round with interest. She had seen some of their training, but she hadn't seen any combat. After a few matches, it was clear to her the Azarians, even those who weren't hunters, were dangerous opponents. Their youths were as well trained as many Three Kingdoms soldiers, and their adults even more so. She began to understand why the Azarian threat kept Akira awake at night.

In time her turn came again. Half the field had been eliminated. Her second battle was more intense, and she had to rely on her sense to defeat her opponent. He had seen about twenty-five cycles and was a smart fighter. His defense was nearly impenetrable, and it was only when he over-committed to a strike that she was able to beat him.

As the skill level of the fighters rose, so did Moriko's interest in the tournament. Some of the second round fights were incredible.

The last of the second round fights horrified her. It was two young men, both younger than her. The fight had drawn on, and the two youths had resorted to attempting to overpower each other. Their blades were coming together with tremendous force. Moriko feared one would break under the pressure. They clashed and clashed again, and finally, one of the blades broke. To his credit, the boy whose blade broke didn't even hesitate. He spun under the guard of his shocked opponent and made another cut. With a practice sword it would have injured the boy's shoulder, but with the broken, jagged edge it cut through skin near the armpit of the boy.

There wasn't a sound from the audience. The fight was over, one boy's arm hanging limply from his side. He was taken to the dead house. Moriko was in shock. The boy couldn’t have seen more than sixteen cycles. The cut was bad. But with herbs and treatment he had a good chance. There was no need to send him to the dead house. She pushed her away across to Lobsang. "I can try to save the boy."

Lobsang turned and looked at her. "I know what you are trying to do, but the boy must survive on his own. We will close the wound and do our best to keep it clean, but it's his job to live or die. Not yours."

Moriko almost cursed in frustration. It was a meaningless death, if it came to that. The third round started and she was up again, and she took her frustration out on her opponent. As soon as the match started, she snapped and time slowed down. Her strikes were quick, efficient, and brutal. The Red Hawk she faced was down on the ground, unconscious. The crowd was hushed. They had never seen her move so fast. Moriko glared at Lobsang, but he just kept grinning. It seemed nothing got under his skin.

Her turns came more and more quickly as the number of competitors decreased. Her fourth round was against one of the young men she had fought when first entering the camp. He was more cautious this time, but Moriko was still furious, and she snapped and brought him down with a not-too-gentle groin shot.

Her fifth opponent was an older man with reflexes like a cat. Moriko fought him without snapping, her sense enough warning against his blows. The fight took longer than she expected, but it was a good one. The old man’s style was a wonder to behold. It was as though she was watching water with a sword, his moves were so smooth.

Moriko's final match of the day was against Lobsang. She had been watching him fight the entire time, and she realized he hadn't been using all his skill the first time they met. He was an incredible swordsman. He was fast and strong, and his size allowed one to underestimate him easily. He moved with uncommon grace, especially for one so large.

They squared off against each other. Moriko wouldn't allow herself to snap. To sense was natural, she wouldn't be able to avoid that in combat, but she could avoid snapping. It seemed a more fair fight to her.

Their battle began with a flash. Lobsang's strikes were quick, and he came out swinging. Moriko lost ground immediately. She'd gotten used to combat escalating in intensity, but Lobsang meant to end this right away. She blocked and parried and ended up diving away from a cut that got inside her guard. He was fast.

Moriko rolled to her feet, but Lobsang didn't give her any time to recover. Moriko was amazed. Lobsang was nearly as good as the hunters, nearly as good as a nightblade. She met his attack with all her energy, their swords dancing in the evening light. For a man so fast and so strong, he never made a mistake. He was always perfectly balanced, but he had so much mass behind his strikes, they kept forcing Moriko backwards.

Her only advantage was that Lobsang was getting tired. It took energy to move so much bulk around, and he was running out. If she held out long enough, she'd be able to press her own attack. Lobsang knew it too, and redoubled his attacks with a ferocity Moriko could hardly match.

Even knowing where the strikes would be coming from, it was all Moriko could do to keep herself from getting hit. She was fully focused on the battle, her world no larger than the two blades dancing and striking.

Then her sense picked up something she hadn't felt for a long time. Someone else was using the sense. Someone close. Moriko immediately cut herself off from the sense, swearing to herself. She'd been using the sense to fight. Anyone sense-gifted would know who she was. Anyone like a hunter.

Without her sense, Moriko was no match for Lobsang’s skill. She couldn't tell where Lobsang was going to strike, and in three moves he was inside her guard. His blow to her stomach flattened her. Not only was he fast, he was strong. She crumpled to the ground, more worried about a hunter nearby than the pain to her gut.

As she lay on the ground, she felt the tendrils of someone else’s sense. It was a cold presence. They knew who she was, and thanks to Lobsang, moving was going to hurt for a day or two. She never should have agreed to the contest. Being rude was the least of her worries.

A cheer went up from the crowd. They had seen a fine battle, and all were excited. It was a worthwhile end to the Gathering for them. Moriko was swarmed by Red Hawks congratulating her on a great fight. She tried to scan the crowd. There they were, two hunters speaking to Dorjee. One was staring at her with curiosity in his eyes. She could only see them in fits and starts as the crowd crushed around her, but it looked like they were arguing. One was pointing angrily at her. Moriko’s heart sank, but Dorjee stayed calm.

It didn’t take long for the hunters to leave, but Moriko wondered what was in store for her now that the hunters knew where she was.

Chapter 20

The captain of the ship
Destiny
lived for the feel of salt air on his face. Like all the inhabitants of the island, he had been saddened to hear the Three Kingdoms had descended into war, but there was an upside, and that was that he got to sail more often. He glanced west at the sun, about to set on the horizon. Nothing beat a sunset at sea.

Usually there was little need to sail back and forth from the Three Kingdoms. There were goods to be traded and foods to be purchased, but it amounted to only a handful of trips every cycle. But with war, Tenchi wanted goods and foods stockpiled on the island, and he wanted news. So the two ships were at sea much more frequently than usual. Though his crew complained, the captain was happy. Unlike most people he knew, he was only content when the ship was rocking underneath his feet. He had no stomach for dry land.

They were riding low in the water, but he didn’t worry. He prided himself on predicting weather, and he predicted the last leg of the journey would be a calm one. Already they were over halfway to the island. The winds were light, and they weren't making as good as time as he wanted, but they'd be in dock before the sun rose again. Although he’d be glad to see his wife back on the island, he was already looking forward to his next journey.

His attention was distracted by one of the men, Hikaru. The captain had sailed with him a few times. They didn’t always have the same crew, but it ended up being most of the same people working the ships. Most were content to stay on the island. Hikaru had been acting strange on this journey. He was often the clown of the ship, acting silly and having fun, but on this trip, he was serious and pensive. The captain supposed they were all a little on edge. He'd never seen the island as divided as it was now. It was the war, he supposed, making them reconsider their decision to stay on the island.

Now Hikaru was meditating, but he was throwing off a tremendous amount of energy. It was almost blinding to the captain’s sense.

"Hey, Hikaru," the captain called.

Hikaru opened his eyes and the energy dissipated. "Yes?"

"You're releasing a lot of energy!"

Hikaru gave the captain a boyish grin, and for a moment, the captain saw the same man he’d journeyed with before. "Sorry, sir, but I just feel like I need to practice right now, what with everything going on. Do you need me to stop?"

The captain thought for a moment. He respected the sentiment. All of them could use more training.

"No, but if we go fishing, I'll need you to stop. I’m not sure any of us could sense anything right now. I'll let you know if it happens."

"Thanks, captain."

The captain shook his head. It was good to see the younger generation taking their studies seriously. There wasn’t much need for the sense out here on the seas. Sight carried further than the sense for most people here. He scanned the horizon. There were two ships on the horizon, one to the southwest and one to the southeast. The one to the southwest had been with them for a while, but the captain didn't think much of it. They had a long night of sailing ahead of them yet. If he could see the ship's light when they were near the island, he wouldn't dock. The secrecy of the island was paramount, and as captain, it was his responsibility to ensure no one found their small bay. But for now, there were a dozen reasons why the ship would be in sight. He pushed the thought out of his mind.

The captain was inspired by Hikaru's behavior, and in a moment of determination, went down to his cabin and began to meditate. He didn't come up until evening. There wasn't much moon to see by, but the stars were clear and their destination was approaching.

The captain scanned the horizon and wasn't surprised to see it was clear in all directions. There were few ships that sailed this far north, so being observed was rarely a problem. The uninterrupted blackness of the ocean stretched as far as he could see was. They were almost home.

Ryuu’s days seemed to pass by too quickly for him to keep track of. There was a part of him that knew he was spending more time on the island than he had planned, but there was so much to learn, and Tenchi seemed intent on drowning him with knowledge. He no longer trained with nightblades in his age range, and there were few lessons in combat. Tenchi had decided there was little of swordsmanship left for Ryuu to work on.

Instead, most of his days were focused on developing his skill with the sense. He worked with Tenchi or the older nightblades. It was special treatment, but Ryuu didn’t care. He was learning faster than the nightblades who worked together in a group. In the space of a few days, he felt had learned more than he had learned over the course of several cycles with Shigeru.

Ryuu was astounded by how much Shigeru hadn’t known or hadn’t taught him. He didn’t blame his former master. Shigeru would have been too young when he left the island. Ryuu sometimes wondered how strong Shigeru would have become had he had the chance to stay on the island. So much had happened because of Shigeru’s exile.

One afternoon, Ryuu learned the secret he had come to the island to learn. Ryuu went to Tenchi’s, as he always did after lunch. When he entered, both Tenchi and the nightblade who had broken his arm were in the room. Tenchi motioned for him to sit.

“Today you are going to work on a new skill, Ryuu. You will work on aligning your new knowledge of the sense with your combat ability. Your other instructors and I have noted how quickly you seem to pick up new skills, and we believe you are ready for this. Know however, this skill is usually not taught until an individual has seen at least thirty cycles. You may not be able to master it.”

Ryuu nodded. He would learn how he had been beaten, and he thirsted for the knowledge. Finally, he would have the strength he had come to the island for.

“Do you remember what I taught you about dayblades and how they fix bone and illness?”

Ryuu nodded again. He had been over it several times. The idea made sense to him, but the actual ability seemed well beyond his grasp.

“Good. The idea is the same as what you will learn today. A dayblade not only senses the energy which moves through all things, they also manipulate that energy to achieve desired effects, like mending a bone at an accelerated rate. Nightblades, at least some of them, are capable of manipulating the same energy to lend power to their own movements.”

None of this was surprising to Ryuu. He had gathered as much on his own from everything he had learned. What he needed to know was how.