World's Edge Read online

  Moriko was lost in thought.

  “What are you thinking about?”

  She looked up at him. “Do you think the Azarian hunters are just nightblades?”

  Ryuu shrugged. “I’ve never considered it. They might be. There have to be more nightblades out there. Orochi said as much. I don’t see any reason why they wouldn’t be down in Azaria as well.”

  The idea tumbled around in Ryuu’s brain. He could see it happening. Orochi hadn’t come from Azaria, but if there was one enclave of nightblades, it stood to reason there would be more. It was both a comforting and disturbing thought. Ryuu liked that he and Moriko weren’t alone in the world, but if there were others out there with enough strength to be a threat, he and Moriko weren’t as safe as he had imagined. Again, Ryuu felt like there was too much he didn’t know.

  Moriko seemed to be reading his thoughts. “Are you thinking about the island?”

  He was. Perhaps they wouldn’t have the answers he was looking for, but if there was a small enclave of nightblades in existence, they had to know more about the world than he did. But the idea of going to the island intimidated him. He had grown up knowing he was unique, the strongest warrior. But on the island, he’d be just another nightblade to them, and one that hadn’t been trained properly. What if there was some sort of test he didn’t know how to pass? Neither he nor Moriko had been trained formally. Ryuu’s education had been closer, but was still the equivalent of being schooled at home instead of at a school. More than anything, he didn’t want to fail Shigeru’s memory.

  When they set up camp that night they weren’t any closer to answers. If anything, they only created more questions. But as Ryuu struggled to rest and calm his mind, he couldn’t help but acknowledge that he felt like he had to travel to the island. It was a gut feeling, but one he was learning to trust more and more every day.

  Akira summoned them to his tent well after the sun had fallen. Their tents were close enough together that Ryuu could sense the happenings in Akira’s tent, and he had little doubt Akira was in conference with his generals late into the night. Only after they departed did a messenger come and usher the nightblades into Akira’s tent.

  The Lord of the Southern Kingdom looked like he had aged ten cycles since they had seen him the day before. Ryuu knew Akira was a man who was as hard as steel, but he was a good man, and Ryuu had let him live because he believed Akira cared about his people and their fate. He was driven by more than just power. Ryuu was convinced of it the moment he saw Akira, worn down and dispirited.

  “How bad is it?”

  Akira rolled his shoulders back and tried to release tension in his neck. “I don’t know. Tanak has split his armies apart and they march quickly across the land. They are only hitting major cities and forts. His men are moving much faster than I would have expected. They will have control of a significant portion of the kingdom before we can even mount an effective counter-offensive.”

  Akira paused and rubbed his eyes with his fingers. “But honestly, that’s only one part of what I’m worried about. I’m just as concerned about what happened to you. Something strange happened down in the Three Sisters this season.”

  The two nightblades sat down as Akira told his story. He filled them in on the barren lands to the south of the Three Sisters. He spoke of the scout’s unbelievable report and his unpopular decision to leave the First to guard the pass. When he finished, Ryuu thought Akira looked like all the air had been let out of him.

  A heavy silence hung in the tent. Ryuu didn’t know what to make of Akira’s story. It seemed unbelievable. There had been war in the pass as long as he’d been alive. But it was such an unbelievable story, it was hard to accept it as a lie. Perhaps he was telling the truth.

  Akira found some of his inner steel and straightened up. “I can’t believe it is a coincidence the strange events at the Three Sisters happened at the same time you were attacked. There is something afoot in Azaria and in our kingdoms, but I don’t know what it is. It worries me more than Tanak. He is a dangerous opponent, but one I understand. I fear what I don’t understand, the attack I can’t see coming.” He looked up at Ryuu, and Ryuu knew Akira wasn’t just referring to the Azarians.

  Neither Ryuu nor Moriko could speak. Neither had expected Akira would believe their story to be as important as he did.

  Ryuu could see Akira was working up the courage to say something. Both he and Moriko waited. He respected Akira, but he didn’t see any reason to make his work easier for him.

  “I would like to ask the two of you to go down to Azaria and investigate what is happening.”

  “You have no right!” Ryuu startled at Moriko’s outburst.

  Akira was also startled. “I know. But I need to think about my people, and I can’t fight a war on two fronts and win. My men are good, but we aren’t prepared for this. I need you two to find out the truth. I’ll have you carry messages to Toro, a trusted general of mine who is down in the pass. He’ll support you in any way necessary.”

  Ryuu stood up. He could sense more than see Moriko’s anger. “We’ll need to talk it over. We will let you know.”

  Akira glanced from one of them to the other and he understood. “Please, let me know as soon as you decide. I’ll leave a messenger outside your tent.”

  Different emotions tore at Ryuu when the sun came up the next day. His efforts at meditation were laughable and his forms were a joke. Try as he might, he couldn’t focus. He believed they were doing the right thing, but it tore him up inside. He asked himself for the hundredth time if he was making the right decision. There was a part of him which spoke loudly, a part that had shouted at him over and over last night. It told him he didn’t owe the Southern Kingdom anything. He should live as he please, returning to hiding with Moriko.

  But there was another part of him, quiet and insistent, that rebuffed all attempts at selfishness. It was Shigeru’s voice, pleading with him to use his power well. He was gifted with abilities that few people had. It would be a horrible waste if he didn’t use them to help those who needed it.

  Moriko did not share his sentiments. She felt strongly that they didn’t owe anything to anyone. She enjoyed their time together and was just as willing to stick a sword through Akira as listen to him. Even though they fought, Ryuu saw that Moriko recognized the same truth he had. If they tried to resume their life together, they would fail. The world was crashing around them and there wasn’t any place to hide from the incoming storm.

  It was tempting to go back to the hut and hide. More than tempting. It was all he wanted to do. But it was wrong. He had tried to describe his feelings to Moriko last night, but he had failed. He was much better with a sword than with words. It was only an instinct, but an instinct so strong it overwhelmed him. Moriko knew it too, she was just more resistant to the idea of returning to the world again. They were warriors and war was coming for them whether they desired it or not.

  Moriko argued he was letting his emotions get the best of him. He was a fool to be taken in by Akira, a man who just two cycles ago had taken away almost everything Ryuu had loved and cared for. Moriko couldn’t shake her distrust completely, even after meeting him.

  They had gone back and forth through the entire night. Both of them were uncertain, and their uncertainty made them volatile. Both of them wanted to run and hide, but neither of them could.

  The moon had almost run the full length of the sky when their argument sputtered to a halt. A silence descended upon their tent as they both processed the consequences of their actions.

  Ryuu looked up at Moriko. “Are we sure about this?”

  Moriko shook her head. “No, but I don’t see any other way.”

  Ryuu didn’t either. His mind raced for alternatives, but there weren’t any. They were going in different directions. They both hated the decision, but there was nothing else to be done. They had never argued the way they had last night.

  Moriko would head to the south and through the Three Sisters. S
he would carry out Akira’s request, even though she detested it. If they had been attacked by Azarians, they had to find out why. It may have been Akira’s request, but they needed the information even more than he did. If they were targets, they needed to know who had ordered their deaths. If they didn’t find answers, they’d never know peace. It had taken time, but Moriko had relented. She would find out what was happening and see if there was a solution. Ryuu wasn’t happy about her going alone. She had almost died at the hands of a hunter and she was heading straight into the belly of the beast. He wanted to be with her to protect her, but he had his own mission.

  Ryuu was going to the island Orochi and Shigeru had come from. It wasn’t his first choice, but he felt he had to. If there was any place he could learn more, it was there. He didn’t know what he would find. Shigeru had only spoken of it once, and Orochi had done nothing more than give him directions. He suspected he would find a small village, a small enclave of nightblades who knew more than Shigeru had. If Ryuu was going to face more hunters, he knew he would have to be stronger. It was the only solid lead they had. Perhaps they’d have information on the Azarians too. Whatever knowledge was there, both Ryuu and Moriko felt it couldn’t wait any longer.

  Ryuu wished Moriko could come with him. He could tell she was jealous. Both of them had a relentless desire to get stronger. But he was the logical choice. Moriko’s ability to hide herself from the sense would be invaluable if she was scouting among hunters. They were heading to the opposite edges of the world, and it frightened both of them.

  When there was nothing more to say, they came together with a violence that wasn’t typical for the two of them. Moriko’s quiet was more than skin deep, but their coming together had been more passionate than anything Ryuu had ever experienced. When they had finished, he sat at the edge of their bedroll, Moriko cuddled up against him, feeling emptied and content.

  “Moriko?”

  She murmured at him. She wasn’t quite asleep, but wasn’t fully awake either.

  “I love you.”

  “I love you, too.”

  With that, she was sound asleep.

  The two of them left the camp with little fanfare. Ryuu and Moriko embraced one last time in the tent before stepping outside, but there were no more words to say. The sense was strange in that way. Ryuu couldn’t read Moriko’s mind, no matter what some legends about nightblades claimed, but it didn’t stop him from knowing exactly what she thought. It was the same for her.

  They announced their decision to Akira. He wasn’t pleased. Ryuu did not say where he was going, simply stating there was something else he needed to take care of. Akira gave both of them documents which would allow them to pass anywhere in the Southern Kingdom. He gave other letters to Moriko to pass along to Toro when they met. Ryuu wished Akira well in the defense of the Southern Kingdom. He did not promise aid, despite Akira’s attempts to get him to do so. He trusted Akira, but he wasn’t sure if it was his place to support him in war. It was exactly the sort of behavior which had led to the slaughter of the nightblades in the first place.

  Ryuu and Moriko parted outside the camp. Ryuu kissed her gently and embraced her tightly. After a few moments, she turned and hopped on the horse she had been loaned by Akira. She would need the additional speed. Azaria was a huge kingdom. Scouts had never found its borders. She could have a very long journey in front of her.

  It was some time before Ryuu could turn the other way and begin his own journey. He mounted his horse and took one last glance over his shoulder at Moriko as she rode away, now just a speck in the distance. Seeing her leave brought tears to his eyes, although he refused to let them fall. He hadn’t told her this, but he couldn’t shake the feeling that he would never see her again.

  Chapter 7

  On horseback, the journey only took a few days. Akira’s armies hadn’t made it that far out of the pass, and she moved much faster alone than an army did. She could have covered the ground even faster, but she wasn’t an experienced rider. Horses brought back memories she would rather forget forever. She remembered when Goro, a monk from the monastery where she had been raised, had taken her from her family on horseback. It had been her first time riding. Since then she’d only ridden a handful of times, and never by choice.

  So instead of covering the ground as fast as the horse was able, Moriko was content to let the horse eat up the distance at its own leisurely pace. It was still faster than walking. It gave her time to reflect.

  Moriko was troubled, the frown on her face matching the overcast spring storms that occasionally wandered across the prairie of this part of the Southern Kingdom. With little natural beauty to distract her, her mind flitted quickly from thought to thought, most of them angry.

  She loved Ryuu for his selflessness, but she didn’t understand it either. He had grown up in isolation, away from the society that hunted their kind. It had given him an unrealistic perspective of the world. He tended to believe other people were kind and good. Moriko’s own experience indicated they were scared. Scared of death, scared of hunger, scared of life itself.

  She knew Shigeru had raised Ryuu to fight for something greater than himself. But he had died before Ryuu had found his cause. Listening to Ryuu’s stories, Moriko decided Shigeru had expected Ryuu to bring a change to the land, but hadn’t known how the change would happen. After Shigeru died, it left Ryuu with a vague dream of something greater, but no plan or goal in sight.

  Moriko didn’t share Ryuu’s outlook or his upbringing. She had grown up in a monastery. She had seen the fear in the eyes of everyone who visited. It had always been clear to her that she wasn’t a part of this society. She had known it from the moment she was torn from the arms of her mother. Moriko didn’t hate or detest the people of the Southern Kingdom. She just didn’t care about them.

  After three days of these reflections, Moriko’s mood was far less than pleasant. The horse made her legs sore in places she wasn’t used to. The foothills leading up to the Three Sisters had been dry and hot, and Moriko wanted nothing more than shade and cool water. Instead, she had to deal with the regiment of soldiers stationed on the Southern Kingdom side of the Three Sisters. They were skittish, even though she knew all the correct passwords and carried letters marked with Akira’s own seal.

  They let her stay at their camp that night. For a single messenger, the Three Sisters would take another full day’s ride. She tossed and turned through the night, upset and unwilling to trust the soldiers who surrounded her. She knew she was attractive, but more importantly, she was a young woman in an army full of young men. Her life was frustrating enough. She didn’t need to kill a soldier who couldn’t control himself.

  When the sun rose and ended an uneventful evening, Moriko was ready. She rode through the pass, some of her anger dissipating as she experienced the beauty of the Three Sisters. She had never been in the mountains before. Tall, jagged and impassable peaks rose thousands of paces into the air on either side of her. As she rode through the pass she could sense the men who were hidden in watch, but she had a hard time seeing them. Without the sense, she wasn’t sure she would have been able to. She understood why controlling the whole pass was of such importance. A small force could hold the entire pass for a full moon if they had to, cycles maybe. Every step forward would cost the lives of dozens or more.

  Moriko came upon the southern outpost of the First just as the sun was starting to touch the horizon. She danced the same dance of doubt with the guards stationed at the gates, even though they had to know she had already passed the scrutiny of their comrades on the north side of the pass. They were nervous, scared of an enemy they couldn’t put a face to.

  Her horse was gently taken from her, but Moriko wasn’t sad to see the beast go. He had been a well-behaved horse, but Moriko was more comfortable on her own two feet. She was led without fanfare to the command tent. Akira had given her some information about Toro, but the man still gave off a powerful first impression.

  He wasn�
�t a tall man, but he seemed incredibly strong for his age. His gray hair seemed to cut like a blade, sharpening his appearance rather than weakening it. He held himself ramrod straight and Moriko saw his hands were calloused from regular handling of his sword. The man was still a warrior, proud and intelligent. Moriko felt respect for him right away.

  He dismissed his guards out of the tent. “They say you bring messages bearing Lord Akira’s seal?”

  Moriko nodded and handed him the two letters. “The first is a general update on the status of the armies. You are to read it at your leisure. The second is about my mission. You are to read it immediately.”

  Toro looked at her, unable to hide his curiosity. Moriko suspected he had never seen a woman carrying swords. Since leaving Akira and Ryuu she had worn her blades openly and had attracted a fair amount of attention. Women were not allowed to carry swords in the Southern Kingdom. Many had lost their hands for less. “Who did you say you are?”

  She gave him a blank look. “I didn’t.”

  Toro frowned and opened the letter. He read it once and then once again, pausing to stare at her between readings. Moriko didn’t know what the letter contained, but it clearly shocked Toro. He turned pale, his skin almost turning the color of his hair. She saw him put the letter down and reach towards his sword. She tensed up, cursing herself. For all her complaints about Ryuu being too trusting, she had let herself be led right into the heart of the most well-trained army in the Southern Kingdom. Akira had betrayed them, separated her and Ryuu with a story they had bought completely. Moriko started searching for the exits.

  “You should be put to death immediately!”

  Moriko heard the fear and anger in Toro’s voice. She had heard that fear before. It was the fear of nightblades, embedded in even the sternest warriors. But Toro made no move to act on his words. His inaction saved his life.

  “Lord Akira should not be using the likes of you.” Toro’s eyes narrowed. “You’re not a nightblade. You’re just a charlatan who has taken the Lord in.”