Sunstone - Dishonor's Bane (Book 2) (20 page)

Chapter Twenty-Seven

~

S
hiro and Chika, in their guises, visited Yori
before they left the area.

“Ah you’ve returned. The soldiers weren’t very happy yesterday when everyone left. You did a very good job at hiding your direction. They couldn’t discover which way you went. They had a sorcerer with them who interrogated the villagers and no one could tell them anything.” He waved his finger at them. “Don’t tell me where you are going!” He grinned as his wife brought some produce wrapped up in a cloth.

“Something to help you on your way. This won’t go very far in feeding all seven of you, but.”

Shiro put his hand on Yori’s arm. “Don’t worry about us. The women have been taken to a safe place where Udishi’s soldiers will never find them.”

Yori’s wife put her hand to her lips in shock. “Not the desert!”

“I’ll not tell you where.” Shiro laughed. “I wish you well.” Shiro and Chika bowed to them before they left.

“He’s a nice man,” Chika said, looking back at their house in the distance.

“And if his wife were a White Rose society member, he’d soon be a widower.”

“Not to mention what my father would do to me.”

Shiro nodded. That was a place he no longer wanted to go with Chika.

“I wish I had an army of sisters to fight them all,” she said through gnashed teeth.

An army? “Then let’s that be our goal. We’ll create an army of the White Rose. They can protect the valley and strike where women sorcerers are in danger.”

Chika bit her lip in thought and nodded. “I’d like that. I’ll be the captain.”

“Certainly,” Shiro said. “I have every confidence in your fighting skills.”

“And you’ll be our general.”

Shiro coughed. “I’m not a leader!”

“Don’t cut yourself short. Ashiyo didn’t take the women to Tishi’s valley, you did.”

“He makes things happen. He should be the general.”

“No. He’s the one that makes things happen, but you give him the opportunity to do so. You rescued him from the prison,” Chika said, kicking at rock in the road.

“We both did,” Shiro said, but he fought a losing battle. He only hoped it wouldn’t be the war. “I don’t know enough about tactics.”

“You told me you read the histories in the little library at the prison farm.”

“That doesn’t make me a general,” Shiro said. Scholars never led armies by what he had read.

“Why would the writers of a victorious war campaign ever call their general a scholar?” Chika said letting one corner of her mouth curl in a smile.

Shiro shrugged. “We don’t have a library and I’m certainly not going to transport to Diakko Island.

“No, but perhaps Ashiyo might know of a good library that could stand a little pilfering.”

“I must admit the idea intrigues me, but we will have to talk to Ashiyo first. I wouldn’t mind reading a bit more about magic. Perhaps he might know of a book that will tell me more of the Sunstone. It doesn’t seem to do much other than disorient me when I touch it.”

“Won’t hurt to ask, Lord General.”

~

The village of Taiho sat nestled in the little valley. Chika had retreated further back into her shell as they ventured into her father’s domain. She had transported them here after walking a few leagues to the south from Yori’s farm. They wore the youth and the Kinoru disguises

Shiro looked at the fistful of scroll sticks in his hand. “Ryosha. She is a seamstress according to Miroshi.”

“I know that, General. You shouldn’t be so nervous for your first time,” Chika said, pursing her lips.

Well that was a little bit of sunshine on a cloudy day. “Let’s talk to her.”

In half an hour they stood at the door to a laundry. “Seamstress and washerwoman,” Chika said.

“Doesn’t matter. I’m sure our clothes need washing, don’t you?”

Chika pulled her tunic to her nose. “Definitely. I think I have a hole in a sock as well.” She nodded and walked in past the curtain to the open shop.

“Hello?” Shiro said. No one attended the counter. Paper walls kept the customer from seeing the activity within.

“I’m coming, I’m coming!” A short woman, nearly middle aged walked in bobbing her head up and down with little bows.

“We have some clothes that need washing,” Chika said.

Shiro invoked the spell that allowed him to see through disguises and saw an older woman waiting on them. They were in the right place.

Shiro leaned against the counter. “I think we might have a mutual friend. Miroshi and her sisters told me all about you.”

The woman looked up, alarmed. “I don’t know a Miroshi.” Shiro noticed that she had lost her breath.

Chika looked at Shiro for direction and he nodded. She turned into herself. “We come to warn those of the White Rose. I’m one of you.” She turned back again.

The woman looked outside and closed the door of her establishment. “Come into the back.”

Shiro told them an edited version of what had happened to the west. “As long as you live in Udishi’s domain, you are in the gravest of danger. I can offer you a new life with many of your sisters.”

“Oh, if it were true,” Ryosha said. “We number fifteen in this village. Some of us are married and I don’t think those can leave. My two daughters and I will come with you. I’ve been worried about the new campaign. I have too many friends around here.”

Shiro raised his eyebrows. “How many?”

Ryosha shrugged, “Maybe thirty. Most are in Taiho.”

“We can take in men. Look at me! We are building a community that’s safe for the White Rose Society and not a valley filled with nuns.”

Chika nodded at that. “Certainly not nuns.” She winked at Shiro, who began to blush.

“Certainly not,” he smiled.

“Where is this valley?”

“On North Isle.”

“We have no money or time to travel all the way there.”

“I’m not without talent and neither is Chika, here. We will transport you. You might not be able to take all of your possessions. I haven’t attempted teleporting a house.”

Ryosha squinted. “I see no power within you.”

Shiro smiled and pulled out the marble. “Watch.” He blinded the both of them with the glow.

“I can be ready in a few days. You can stay at the Willow’s End, down by the river. It’s a safe enough place. I’ll want you to repeat what you’ve told me to a few key people, then I’ll spread the word, but not the location.”

“Miroshi said you were a good woman. She brings you honor and you bring her honor,” Shiro said as they rose.

On their way to the inn, Chika punched Shiro in the arm.

“Easy. That’s no way to treat a general,” Shiro said.

“The honor words. Very noble. I am impressed.”

“I’m going to have to figure out a lot of ways to get our hens all the way to the roost.”

“Who are you calling a hen?” Chika said and when she got Shiro to look embarrassed, she laughed it off.

~

“We are growing,” Ashiyo said. “Sixty new recruits and we’re still not out of the eastern prefecture. Very impressive, you two.” He shoveled some rice into this mouth at the campfire. “Going to have to do something about the ambience of our little village.”

Shiro nodded. “I have two requests for you. We need to build homes for these people, but I don’t want to strip the surrounding countryside bare. Winter will come soon enough and we need housing. Could you take a few of the men and teleport them to the South Isle and buy building materials?”

“Good idea!  We can still do some buying around here.”

“As little as possible,” Shiro said. “I have one other request. On your expeditions, I’d like you to find some good books to read. I need to learn more strategy and more magic.”

Ashiyo smiled.

“What?” Shiro said.

“I haven’t been totally honest with you.”

Shiro’s stomach dropped. What new twist would the man surprise him with this time?

“My library in Sekkoro is secure and I can teleport in and out. I’d be happy to move it here.”

“Your library wasn’t particularly impressive, as I recall.”

“Not my public library, but my private library might be termed as more discriminating.”

Shiro shrugged. He’d believe it when he saw the materials. “Then build a library and fill it with your books.” The thought brought a smile to his lips and excitement inside. With more knowledge, Shiro could help ensure the success of their gathering.

“I will.”

The next few days were spent organizing the camp. With the addition of the new members came new skills and Shiro felt that they had a good core to start the town he knew would grow in the valley. The women set up a council. One of the men had been a headman of a village and they asked him to join Miroshi, Ryosha, and Tishi. Ashiyo declined a place on the council and that made Shiro more comfortable about the whole reorganization.

Shiro shunned any leadership position, but they voted to name him their overall leader.

“You don’t get to vote, but you get to veto,” Miroshi said. “You’ve earned it.”

What to do with Chika? He felt that she needed a position of responsibility, but she had to accompany him on their journeys.

They were nearly ready to go to South Isle again. “I want you to think about what you’ll need for your army, Chika,” Shiro said. “We’ll need a militia. Men and women, fighters and sorcerers.”

She blinked. “I didn’t think you were serious.”

“I am. I’m still the General though, Captain.

“Yes, my Lord General. We’ll need weapons.”

Shiro thought of Ashiyo again. The man did know smithy work. If another didn’t accompany a sister, perhaps they could hire or train one. What was he thinking? If he didn’t know himself better, he’d have to admit that he now thought as a leader and that meant keeping a watch on potential problems with possible solutions.

“We need more than innkeepers, which seems to be the ideal profession of your sisters.”

Chika shrugged. “If we create a town, we’ll get people wanting to work here.”

“And we have some very selective council members,” Shiro said.

“We do indeed. They can make a lot of the mundane decisions that are beneath you, my Lord General. We need to concentrate on growing our community. Anything I can do to thwart my father and the Guild.”

~~~

Chapter Twenty-Eight

~

A
fter finding and transporting nearly one hundred people
, Shiro and Chika would have to travel closer to Kyohama, Lord Udishi’s capital city. They sat at an inn, with a fistful of scroll sticks with more names. This time, the names were written with lemon juice. A candle or lamp would activate the writing and then they could read where they needed to look for more sisters.

They had just run into their first village where the sisters had been routed out. Their principal contact had been killed.

“Are you sure you want to continue?” Shiro said. Their exposure to danger had just risen.

Chika sat drinking a cup of wine, staring into the candle flame at their table. “More than ever. If I run into my father, I won’t hesitate to kill him.” Her grim demeanor had returned in full force. “We have to save these women.”

“Even if the Captain of the Army and the Lord General are taken off the field?”

She glared at him. “They can sacrifice along with everyone else.”

“We must keep our wits about us, Chika.”

“I’ve been able to manage for quite a while,” she said.

“But the stakes are higher. People depend on us.”

“On you, Shiro. I’m just a sidekick.”

He didn’t know how to deal with her when she retreated into her black moods. He couldn’t bear having her become the cook again and push him away.

“Very well, sidekick. We will continue on as before. But after tonight, we will spend every night in Tishi’s valley. We’ll tell them where we are going, so if we don’t show up, they can decide if it will be worthwhile to save our miserable skins.”

Chika grunted and nodded. “After tonight, I’m too tired to go there.”

~

“You are Chukio?” Shiro asked a hard looking woman who dyed cloth for a living.

“I am. Will you excuse me for a moment? I have to make sure a batch of cloth isn’t left in the vat too long,” Chukio said.

“Look at her fingers,” Chika said. “No disguise.” Shiro had taught her the way to look through disguises as a way to brighten her attitude. It didn’t work today.

The woman returned. Shiro looked at her hands. They were not laborer hands. No dye stains and not rough from washing and rinsing the fabrics. She wore no disguise. He looked at Chika.

“I’ve got a message from a woman we met a few weeks ago. We told her that we were on our way to Kyohama and asked us to give it to you.” Shiro made a show to find the message on his person. “I must have left it at the inn. We’ll be right back.”

He stepped out of the building and soldiers wearing Udishi colors stood up and down the street. The door slid closed behind Chika and Shiro heard the wooden bar sliding shut.

“That took less time than I thought,” Shiro said.

Chika snorted. “I’m ready.” She twirled her staff and held it ready. An arrow sped down from the roof and landed in her staff.

“No you’re not.” Shiro pulled his sword from his back and his long knife from his sash and laid them on the ground.

She sighed. “I suppose an arrow cushion isn’t quite my look,” she said as she did the same.

Three sorcerers stepped out to their left and intoned a spell that stole their senses from them.

~

A very well dressed older man slapped Shiro awake. “I never expected to see the Sunstone in my prefecture,” he said. “I am Lord Udishi and you have brought my daughter and a priceless artifact to me. It’s a shame that I can’t treat you with the respect such an act might otherwise deserve.”

The man stood taller than Shiro, but didn’t carry as much weight. Shiro squinted at the man and could see that Chika had inherited the same shape of eyes. How did he know Chika was with him? She had worn her disguise.

“You will be reunited with her tonight.”

Shiro grunted. He rose from a sleeping pallet upholstered in silk. The room hardly looked like a dungeon, but he didn’t doubt that it would be warded.

“She is unharmed?”

The man looked insulted. “Would I harm my own daughter?”

“I thought…”

“She hates me,” he held up his hand to forestall any comment, “I know, I know. We had some harsh words when she left. I admit. But she is my only issue. A daughter and a witch. Not the noblest of combinations. We will talk of it later.” Udishi barked out an unpleasant laugh. “Don’t attempt to escape. These walls are warded. You might find yourself in worse trouble should you try to break them. There are more appropriate clothes over there in that trunk. Please clean yourself and be prepared at sundown.” He walked out of the room without further comment.

Shiro walked up to the paper-panel window and touched it. He felt a shock that left his fingers numb. Teleporting out might not work. He didn’t dare take the risk.

Pacing back and forth, Shiro felt like a tiger in a cage. He vowed not to use his magic, yet… The shield spell came easily in the room and evidently did not affect the wards. He touched the wall and felt the barest tingling as if the wood had been covered with velvet, a much better result than his numb hand. He poked his finger in the waxed paper that covered the windows. His success made him smile. Shiro might not be able to use a blast of magic to leave his cage, but nothing would prevent him from merely using his muscles to break the window and walk out, not using magic at all.

Now that Shiro felt more in control, he washed the travel soil that still covered his body and walked over to the trunk. Every article of clothing in the trunk exceeded the quality of any article of clothing he had ever worn in his life. What would be suitable for a mage? He settled on black breeches, black socks and a gray silk tunic printed with a black shell pattern and a darker gray over-robe. Finding a thin rope of yellow silk, he tied back his hair into a long ponytail rather than struggling to make the kind of topknot that the nobility wore. He found a matching yellow sash and tied it around his waist—a fitting outfit for the bearer of the Sunstone.

Shiro wondered if he would ever get his sword back. He spent much of the day practicing his sword forms without his sword using stiff hands instead of blades. If Udishi caught a whiff of his sweat, so what? The thought brought a smile to Shiro’s face, but then he discarded the thought as inappropriate. He had to find a way to extricate them both from their captivity.

The light of the sun had left the window and Shiro prepared himself to be marched to dinner, a likely discussion of Lord Udishi’s harangues at women with Affinity. The door slid open and a man in the costume of a noble walked into the room.

“I am Tiriasho, Lord Udishi’s chamberlain. If you will follow me.”

Shiro stayed where he was. “I’ll not leave this room with the wards in place. My fingers are still numb.”

Tiriasho threw his head back and laughed. It seemed like an overreaction to Shiro. “Of course.” The man snapped his fingers and a scarlet-robed sorcerer stood outside the room and uttered a spell, too low for him to hear the words.

Shiro tapped the doorframe lightly with his little finger and nodded. “Thank you.”

“Follow me,” Tiriasho said, not looking as happy as he had just been.

They walked wordlessly. The sorcerer seemed to drag along behind. The man in red must be his true guard. Shiro looked over their path through Udishi’s compound. They were kept indoors and he would imagine that the entire corridor had been warded. He regretted not being close enough to have heard the deactivation spell. For once, he wished he could have stayed a bit longer at the Guildhouse to learn about wards. Apprentices only were taught the effects of them by trial and error.

Finally they reached a set of double sliding doors. An audience room, at least. Tiriasho dropped to his knees and glared at Shiro, who stood above both men. “Kneel!” Tiriasho said in a harsh whisper.

Shiro lifted an eyebrow and did so. He would not satisfy this man to appear afraid, but he did kneel. Antagonizing Lord Udishi would only make his escape more difficult.

The door opened and Shiro saw the back of a woman. Her hair had been ornately dressed. Spangles and jeweled hairpins held up the elaborate hairdo. She wore a formal silk costume. She had to be Chika, but the woman held her head bowed as Shiro entered.

Udishi smiled and beckoned Shiro to sit by him. Shiro had to struggle to get past the wards at the door. They stirred up his mind and made it foggy. He had to get down on all fours until his mind cleared.

“Tiriasho, on the other side of me. Sorcerer, stay outside my door and enter if I call.”

Tiriasho walked on his knees to his place leaving Shiro behind. He didn’t know if he should stand and walk or move as Tiriasho did. After the briefest of moments, he bowed deeply to Udishi and walked to his place, a bit unsteadily, and sat down. Then he noticed Chika. Her face had been powdered white with high, thin painted eyebrows and ruby red lips, but one eye had swollen shut and her lower lip appeared all puffed up. She looked up at him with red eyes, rimmed with tears, streaking the face powder.

Shiro balled his hands into fists and breathed slowly. He glanced at Udishi, who had the Sunstone sword in his sash. A new sharkskin-wrapped hilt poked out of a new sheath that had a cutout to show off the Sunstone in the blade. Udishi brought him here to gloat. He couldn’t fathom why the lord had lied to him about not touching his daughter. Shiro never did generate much hate for his fellow man, but Udishi instantly became a man he would love to throttle. Guildmaster Yushidon and Roniki had never brought out such anger and revulsion. Were all nobles as cruel as this man?

Beating his own daughter and loving it. What a monster!  He glared at Chika, who had returned to staring down into her lap.

“No magic to attack me?” Udishi said. His mocking tone grated and Shiro looked towards the door. It had been closed, but he could see the faint silhouette of the sorcerer through the paper panes.

If he’d been caught on his own, Shiro would be able to use what little offensive spells he knew to take care of Udishi and Tiriasho. “If I practice magic in this room, I’ll be disabled. I touched the wall in my room and my hand is just awakening from its numbness.” He shook his right hand slowly, although he had his full strength.

Udishi laughed and then with a combination of smugness and arrogance, he said,  “Of course. You might even die!” He laughed again. Tiriasho smiled, but didn’t quite look as comfortable as his lord.

Chika suddenly looked up and threw flames at her father. Lord Udishi cried out and began to burn. Tiriasho began to pull out his long knife. He didn’t have a sword.

Shiro leaned over and pulled the entire sheath out of Udishi’s sash, drew the sword, silently and quickly, dispatching Tiriasho. He had been looking closely at Udishi and assumed his image, while flames engulfed Chika’s father.

“That bitch!” he yelled. “Sorcerer!  Get in here!”

The door opened and sorcerer entered the room. Hopefully, the man would think he saw Lord Udishi standing with Shiro burning and Tiriasho bleeding on the floor. Shiro silenced the Sorcerer with his power before he could bring up a defense.

“Get up, Chika!” Shiro whispered. She barely nodded and looked as detached as when he had entered.

He pulled her to her feet and cut her bonds, and then he half dragged her out the door as more guards converged on the room.

“The captured sorcerer managed to take my sword and overcome Tiriasho. Then the two of them fought with flames. I’m taking this thing out of here. She can’t even act the part of a loyal daughter anymore.”

“What are we to do?” a guard said.

Shiro glared at the man. “Put out the fires and clean up the place, of course!” He hoped his angry voice would cover up the difference. Chika swayed on her feet. The wards that protected the Lord’s audience room must have scrambled her brain.

How could he escape if Chika wouldn’t even help?   He passed a maid. “I no longer want to look at her as my daughter. She needs to be put into her old clothes before I finish what I started. Take her to her quarters.”

The woman looked at Lord Udishi in fear and immediately went down to her knees, touching her forehead to the wooden floor. She rose and Shiro shoved Chika into her arms. The woman staggered with her barely-responsive burden down the corridor. He followed at a distance until the woman slid open a door. He waited for a few minutes, looking to pace angrily. While he did so, no one dared speak to him.

He charged in to Chika’s room. The woman was tying on Chika’s sandals.

“Where are her weapons?”

The maid’s eyes grew round with fear. “I do not know, my lord!”

He couldn’t wait to search. They wouldn’t be in her room. “Stay here until you are summoned.” Shiro said as he took Chika out into the courtyard. She hardly resisted, but if he acted angry, perhaps no one stop them.

Horses whinnied and Shiro headed towards them and found the stables.

“You!” He pointed at a stablehand, who immediately dropped to his knees. “Saddle two horses. I’m taking her out of here for the last time.”

Another stablehand arrived and in moments, the two had mounts ready. Shiro commanded them to put Chika into the saddle. She listlessly took the reins in her hands.