The First Kaiaru (25 page)

T
he next morning, as they gathered on the platform to set off for the Summer Realm, Iniru shot nasty looks at Turesobei and Kurine. He gave her a brief hello and a weak smile, but that just made her glare more aggressively.

When Kurine tried to talk to her, Iniru growled. “Let’s just do our jobs and get through the day.”

“Okay, if that’s what you want,” Kurine said meekly.

Enashoma pulled Zaiporo aside. “Are you sure you’re well enough?”

“The team needs me, and I didn’t have any problems during my workouts this week.” He smiled confidently. “I’ll be fine.”

She hugged him tight. “Okay, just be careful.”

Turesobei dropped back and whispered, “I’ll assign the hounds to stay close to him the whole time.”

Once they were all assembled and ready to go, Hannya addressed them. “Zyraga was the second strongest Shogakami before he became twisted into Nazyraga. He zealously guarded his territory and was not trusting of anyone—not the other Shogakami and especially not me. You should expect to fight powerful enemies, and a lot of them. You will have one advantage, though. The Summer Realm is abundant with storm kenja.”

“If Nazyraga is there, abort the mission and return immediately,” Lord Gyoroe said. “You will not stand a chance against him. Apprentice, if you have to, hit him with the Keepers’ rod. That should buy you enough time to get away.”

“But if he's actively guarding his heart stone, and we aren't strong enough to fight him, what then?” Turesobei asked. “How do we finish the mission?”

“Then I will train your sister until she is a capable wizard and send her along with you. I can easily keep someone weaker here as collateral. If that takes years, then so be it.”

Turesobei didn’t have years, not if he wanted to get back home in time to save his people from the Gawo Clan. On the other hand, if they had to back out rather than face Nazyraga, the extra years training would give him a lot more time to figure out a way to escape the Nexus without releasing the Blood King.

They traveled through the gate to a hot, primal world covered in dense forests and teeming with life. It was almost identical to the Forest Realm, except that it had a wild and savage quality to it that was hard to define, though Turesobei could feel it in the roiling kenja currents. There were no signs of people or civilization here. He wasn’t entirely sure this was a place in which people could thrive.

Thunder boomed, and Turesobei automatically said, “Stay dry, Hannya. It’s going to be raining here in about half an hour.”

As soon as he had said it, he realized he rather liked the idea of her getting caught in a nasty rainstorm. Even though she had been nothing but helpful, even thoughtful, since she had betrayed them to the Blood King, he hadn’t forgiven her for that. Standing out in a storm was the least she deserved.

Turesobei did not appreciate the irony when he teleported the group straight into a thunderstorm. Although it was almost noon, the clouds overhead were so dark that it might as well have been twilight. The pounding rain, swirled about by howling winds, was so heavy that the waterfall was barely visible. The river was a raging torrent. A lightning bolt arced over them and, with a cracking pop, struck a tree not far away. Thunder shook the earth, and the charged air made the hairs on Turesobei’s arms stand out.

“We should leave and come back later!” Zaiporo shouted.

“That won’t change anything!” Turesobei yelled. He’d been studying the storm’s energy patterns since the moment they had arrived. “This storm is permanent.”

He drew a spell strip and started evoking the Storm Dragon. The spell was barely going to take any energy in this place.

“What if the lightning strikes close by?” Kurine asked. She was cowering, with her shield held over her head. Having only briefly experienced one light rain in the Forest Realm, she had never seen a thunderstorm like this before, much less been outside in one.

“The wards in your armor will protect you,” Lu Bei assured her. “The Blood King gave you extra shielding against that—because of master’s abilities.”

Suddenly, it began to rain so hard their visibility was reduced to twenty paces. Then a wave of hail pelted them. Everyone threw their arms up to shield themselves, except Motekeru. The hail clinked harmlessly off his metal body.

“Something’s coming!” Awasa cried out.

The howling of wolves merged with the howling of the winds, and above them, a cacophony of screeches pierced through a clap of thunder.

Turesobei was about to speak the last words of the evocation spell when, out of nowhere, a creature about three times the size of one of the hounds struck him. He crashed into a boulder. The impact bruised his back, knocked the wind out of his lungs, and jarred the spell strip from his fingertips.

The creature bit deep into Turesobei’s left arm, then dragged him out into the river.

A
s soon as Turesobei saw the flaring blue eyes of the creature, he knew what it was: a takagota-kagi, a storm wolf. He punched and thrashed, but the beast wouldn’t let go. Still trying to catch his breath after the impact with the boulder, Turesobei desperately struggled to keep his head above water as the raging current pulled them farther out into the river.

Suddenly, the beast’s skull split open, and hot blood splashed onto his face. The wolf released his arm, and floated away.

Awasa looped her hand through his belt to keep him from tumbling away with the wolf. “Get the dragon out, quick. The others are getting mauled.”

He struggled to his feet in the chest-high water. With the visibility so poor, he couldn’t see his friends, and he only barely heard them fighting over the din of the storm.

She pulled him toward the shore. “Don't worry. I've got you.”

Ignoring the bleeding wound on his left arm, Turesobei drew a new spell strip and began casting. A winged creature, not unlike Storm Dragon Lu Bei in size and appearance, dived at them. It was a takaboru-kagi, a storm drake.

Awasa slashed it across its beak, and it crashed into the river. Another swooped down at them, and Awasa stabbed it in the head. Sparks ran down the blade as Awasa tried to pull Fangthorn free of the creature’s skull. The dead kagi fell into them, knocking them back into the river. Turesobei only barely managed to keep his head above water, so that he could continue casting the spell.

As they struggled back to their feet, a third storm drake attacked Awasa. She ducked her head to the side, avoiding the snap of its beak. However, its sparking talons ripped across her right arm and shoulder. She staggered as it buffeted them with its wings before launching back into the sky.

At the same time, the currents snagged the floating carcass of the dead drake with Fangthorn’s tip still embedded in its skull. Fangthorn slipped out of Awasa’s grasp. She cried out, released Turesobei’s belt, and swam after it.

Another drake dived toward Turesobei, but before its electrified talons could slice into him, he completed his spell. The Storm Dragon billowed out, swallowed that drake whole, and incinerated the one still climbing back up into the sky.

The Storm Dragon had an immediate impact on the weather. The intensity of the lightning, wind, and rain decreased dramatically, and the hail ceased falling altogether. Meanwhile, the Storm Dragon grew larger and stronger than normal.

Turesobei scanned the river, but he didn’t see Awasa or the dead drake. He called out to her, but there was no answer. In this current, they were probably quite far downstream by now. In the short time he’d been in the storm wolf’s grasp, the river’s current had taken him nearly a hundred paces downstream. She was tough, though, and should be okay.

He turned and waded toward the shore, but every slow step required a tremendous amount of effort. His companions were fighting a desperate battle against storm wolves and drakes. He couldn’t tell if anyone had been injured, but everyone was still standing, and that had to be a good sign. The Storm Dragon flashed across and tore through the drakes, freeing Lu Bei to help the others fight the wolves.

A thunderstorm…storm wolves…storm drakes…. A brilliant idea came to him. Using a spell strip, he began methodically casting an altered version of the
spell of compelling obedience
, adjusting it to work on all the storm creatures. Normally, he wouldn’t have had a chance at pulling this off, but he had a lot of practice at commanding the queen of all storm kagi, thanks to the
spell of evoking the Storm Dragon
. And for once, he could use storm kenja even after summoning the dragon, thanks to the raging thunderstorm.

As soon as he trudged up onto dry ground, a whooping cry echoed out of the forest nearby. At least a hundred degadega-kagi—demonic apes with bone-plated chests, clawed hands, and razor-sharp tusks—charged out of the trees from the south and headed straight for him.

Still casting, Turesobei broke into a run, trying to reach his companions before the demon apes could overtake him. Ahead, his friends were hemmed in by the wolves and drakes. Even if they had noticed the degadega-kagi, they wouldn’t be able to break free and help him. For the moment, he was lucky the drakes and wolves weren’t focused on him as well.

Pounding footsteps closed on him. He wasn’t going to make it. He would either get torn apart or have to drop the spell to fight. He reached for his sword and prepared to spin around and face the monsters.

T
he Storm Dragon swooped past him and blasted the nearest apes, reducing them to lumps of sizzling flesh. A moment later, Storm Dragon Lu Bei zoomed in and sparked the storm wolves that were separating Turesobei from the others. With some help from a whirling Motekeru, Turesobei darted into the midst his companions.

Now he should be able to finish the spell without interruption.

Kurine wiped blood off her chin and smiled at him. That lifted his spirits, but the only way he could respond to her was with a nod.

Storm wolves continued to stream out of the forest from the west, and a new group of storm drakes flew in from the north. But if his spell worked, they wouldn’t be a problem. Lu Bei, the Storm Dragon, and Motekeru kept the apes off them, but of course, more and more of them charged up from the south.

Using every scrap of storm energy he could reasonably manipulate, and all the internal energy he could spare, Turesobei successfully completed the spell. In response, the storm itself lessened in intensity, improving their visibility.

“Serve me!” he commanded. The storm drakes and the wolves paused and turned. “Attack the ape kagi!”

Every storm wolf and drake within sight wheeled around and charged the ape-kagi. He sagged, and Kurine caught him.

“You okay, my love?”

“Just exhausted. But my spell should give us all a few minutes to rest and come up with a plan.”

“Where’s Awasa?” Motekeru asked, a hint of concern coloring his mechanical voice.

“A storm drake injured her arm, and she lost Fangthorn. She dived in after it. I don't know what happened after that. But as soon as I can catch my breath, I’ll try to locate her.”

“Since there doesn't seem to be a big guardian,” Zaiporo said, “I think you should have the Storm Dragon take out the generators.”

“Good idea,” Turesobei said. “Should we go for the ape generator first, since I can’t control any of them?”

“Can you control
all
of the storm beasts?” Iniru asked.

“Only the ones that were within sight or hearing when the spell activated,” he replied.

“Then you should take out the storm drake generator first,” Zaiporo said. “Without the Storm Dragon or Lu Bei, it’s really hard for us to fight those things.”

“Storm Dragon,” Turesobei commanded, “find the generator for the storm drakes and destroy it.”

She strafed the apes with lightning bolts once more, then wheeled around and rocketed northward.

He noticed Kurine holding her side. Blood was seeping out through a tear in her armor. “Are you okay?”

“I will be,” she grunted.

“Do you need healing?” he asked.

“It can wait.”

“Everyone else okay?”

“Scrapes and bruises for me,” Iniru replied. “A couple of burns. Nothing major.”

“The same,” Zaiporo replied.

“I’m going to try to find Awasa now,” Turesobei said.

Focusing on her, he cast the
spell of locating that which is hidden
…but didn't detect anything. “I can’t find her.”

“Does…does that mean she’s dead?” Kurine asked.

“The spell can detect someone even if they’re dead,” he answered. “Maybe the storm’s causing interference.”

“If she wasn’t able to recover Fangthorn,” Motekeru said, “then she might be a different Awasa than who you searched for.”

“Of course,” Turesobei said. “Between that and the storm, I could easily have missed her.”

He cast the spell again, this time focusing on Ninefold Awasa. He picked up a faint trace. “She’s alive, but unfortunately, she’s Ninefold Awasa again. And, she’s way downstream from us. I sense that she’s angry—very angry—but not in danger.”

The earth trembled below them once…twice…then many more times. To the south, trees began to topple in the forest. Something big was coming toward them.

“That can’t be good,” Zaiporo said.

“I was hoping the thunderstorm overhead was the big guardian here,” Turesobei said.

With a sharp crack, followed by a tremendous boom, something to the north, far beyond the cliff, exploded. Moments later, the Storm Dragon reappeared, taking out a few new drakes along the way.

“Sobei,” Kurine said, “the new storm wolves coming out of the woods don’t look friendly.”

Turesobei sighed. “That’s because they weren’t in range when I cast the
spell of compelling obedience
.”

Zaiporo nocked an arrow. “I guess our rest time is over.”

“Save your arrows for the apes,” Turesobei said.

The ape-kagi were now defeating the storm wolves that he had compelled, and they had even managed to take out some of the drakes.

Turesobei ordered the Storm Dragon to take out the wolf generator, and she immediately veered to the west, blasting wolves along the way. Storm Dragon Lu Bei finished off the wolves she had injured but hadn’t killed.

Motekeru flexed his claws and swished his tail. He stepped toward the approaching unfriendly wolves. “I’ll handle them.”

“Wait,” Turesobei said, “I have a job for you. If Awasa is currently Ninefold Awasa, then that means she didn’t recover Fangthorn. We need that sword.”

“I will gladly go to the river and get it, master, if you are sure you can spare me. However, as much as I want to help Awasa, I’m afraid you’re going to need me against those apes, and maybe even against whatever that thing is that’s knocking down trees and shaking the earth.”

“The current is too strong for any of us,” Turesobei said.

“What about the fetch, master?”

“He’s not himself any longer, so I would have to compel him, and that just feels…wrong. I don’t like the idea of compelling a friend.”

“I respect that, master, but the situation is desperate. And as you said, he’s not currently himself. I think he would understand. Though…in retaliation, he probably will blow raspberries at you afterward. Nothing you can do but suffer through that.”

Despite the few wolves and apes charging them, everyone whipped around to look at Motekeru. They were all stunned.

“Did you just tell a joke?” Kurine asked incredulously.

There was no way to tell for sure, since Motekeru’s bronze head had the same permanent expression carved into it, and since his voice was only capable of a small range of inflection.

Motekeru shrugged. “Your decision, master?”

“I’ll risk the raspberries and make the fetch do it.”

Turesobei once again cast the
spell of locating that which is hidden
. This time he focused it on Fangthorn. “Got it.”

Turesobei cast the
spell of compelling obedience
on Storm Dragon Lu Bei. The fetch zoomed up to Turesobei and hovered a few feet away, staring into his eyes. Thinking of the location of Fangthorn in the river, Turesobei projected his thoughts toward the fetch, hoping the connection they shared would be enough to pass along the information.

“Find the sword, Lu Bei,” Turesobei ordered. “Then deliver it to Awasa.”

A flicker of recognition sparked in the fetch’s eyes, then he sped off toward the river.

Moments later, an explosion in the forest to the west, shook the earth, and flames shot up into the sky, followed by the Storm Dragon. She zoomed in and blasted the mass of apes nearing them. All the friendly storm wolves were gone now, and the few remaining drakes friendly to them battled the leftover enemy drakes.

Turesobei ordered the Storm Dragon to take out the ape-kagi generator, which was spitting out a ridiculous number of the beasts.

She soared southward, strafing the ape-demons as she went. Where the river curved, she stopped following the bank and rose up over the treetops. Suddenly, up from the forest leapt an ape-kagi ten times the size of the others. The ape-kagi-ga tackled the Storm Dragon in midair and pulled her down into the forest. Lightning flashed and thunder boomed as they rolled across the ground, toppling trees.

“By the gods!” Zaiporo yelled. “Did you see the size of that thing?”

“I saw it,” Turesobei said, “but I don’t want to believe it.”

“It’s not as big as the octopus-kagi-ga,” Motekeru said.

Kurine shivered. “Let’s not talk about that.”

“Looks like it’ll be up to us to take out the last generator,” Turesobei said.

“And the Storm Dragon probably needs my help,” Motekeru added.

Zaiporo let out a long sigh. “We’ll have to fight our way through all those apes to get there.”

“Then I had better boost us up with some spells.”

Turesobei drew a strip for the
spell of the strength of three men
and another for the
spell of the intensity of the cornered cat
. Expanding them to affect himself, Kurine, Zaiporo, and Iniru, he cast the spells back-to-back. Panting for breath, he explained what he had done and how long the effects would last.

“So if the cat intensity one increases our reflexes,” Iniru said, “then why haven’t you cast that on us before? We’ve been in some tough scrapes where it would’ve been useful.”

“It takes a lot of energy for me to cast it on all of you. Energy I only have available this time because of the thunderstorm. Also, it has a side-effect. It will drain energy from you as you use it. But I think given the circumstances, it’ll be worth it.”

“Will it make us pass out?” Kurine asked.

“Probably not,” he said, “but afterward you’re going to be far more exhausted than normal.”

Before the next wave of apes reached them, Storm Dragon Lu Bei returned. He hovered before Turesobei, with Fangthorn clutched in his talons.

Turesobei groaned. “You were
supposed
to take it to Awasa.”

The fetch cocked its head to the side and stared at him.

“Did you look for her?” he asked.

The fetch twisted his head the other way.

“Never mind.” Turesobei took the sword. “Thank you.”

Storm Dragon Lu Bei nodded, then spun around and began blasting the nearest apes. Turesobei sheathed his sword and used Fangthorn instead.

Zaiporo had them form a wedge, with Motekeru at the point and the girls on either flank. Zaiporo stayed between them, moving left or right depending on who needed help. It was up to Turesobei and the hounds to protect the rear.

They battled their way to the edge of the forest. But then a fresh wave of ape-kagi crashed against them with howling fury. After that, their progress into the forest slowed to a bloody crawl.

Soon they were completely surrounded by ape-kagi, and Turesobei and the hounds were engulfed in battle as well. The boosting spells he’d used on the others were already halfway done with. They were never going to make it to the generator.

Suddenly, the Storm Dragon broke free and shot upward. But before she could get far above the treetops, the ape-kagi-ga again leapt up and caught her, sinking his clawed hands into her side. Locked together, they crashed back into the forest near Turesobei and his companions. The giant ape pinned the Storm Dragon to the ground and pounded her with its fists. She writhed under him, struggling to break free. When that failed, she fired lightning bolts in a halo around herself.

The ape-kagi-ga screamed, and the smell of burning skin and fur filled the air. But it wouldn’t let go. Worst of all, every wound the Storm Dragon inflicted healed within moments.

“The ga can regenerate,” Turesobei said, along with a string of curses.

“This just keeps getting better and better,” Iniru said as she sliced the head off of an ape-kagi.

Kurine caved in the chest of an ape-kagi and knocked it back into several others. “Sobei, you’re going to have to do something flashy. There’s no way we’ll reach the generator this way.”

“She’s right,” Iniru said. “This isn’t working.”

He couldn’t argue that. So far, he and his friends were only taking minor injuries, but that would stop when the boosting spells gave out. Then someone would get hurt. And once one of them fell….

The thunderstorm continued overhead, acting like a kenja generator and offering a tremendous amount of power—provided he could channel it safely. The problem was that to channel it safely he needed an adequate reserve of internal kenja to control and manipulate that force through his kavaru. And unfortunately, his internal kenja was weak from all the spells he’d already cast. He was now one fire-blast spell away from passing out.

He stabbed an ape in the groin, and a trickle of energy flickered down Fangthorn’s black blade. Of course! Fangthorn took in a bit of energy with every demon kill. He could substitute the energy in the blade for his own. It wasn’t a perfect one-to-one ratio, far from it, but it should be enough.

“I can open a path ahead of us with a rolling fireball, but that might be the last spell I’ll be able to do.”

“Then blast away!” Zaiporo yelled.

“Wait, would it be as powerful as the one you used in Naibane’s realm?” Iniru called out.

“If I take it to the point where I could pass out, then yes.”

“I don’t think that’s going to be enough,” Iniru said.

“Then what should I do?” Turesobei asked.

“Maybe you should teleport us out of here instead,” Zaiporo said.

“I’m not leaving without Awasa,” Turesobei replied.

“We could come back and rescue her.” Iniru diced the arms off an ape-kagi. “We would then only have one generator and the ga to deal with.”

“But who knows how far away she might wander,” Turesobei responded. “And what if the apes hunted her down? We don’t know that they won’t.”

“But if you cast the fireball spell and we can't beat these apes, then you won’t have the strength to teleport us out,” Zaiporo said. “We’d all be dead. I don’t want to leave anyone behind, but there are no guarantees. Awasa knows that. Besides, she’s away from the action, and Ninefold Awasa can certainly take care of herself.”

“You’re forgetting that I’ll have to draw the Storm Dragon back into me in order to cast the teleportation spell,” Turesobei said.

“Master,” Motekeru said, “if we fight a tactical withdrawal, I think we can shield you long enough for that.”

Turesobei considered the option, then came to a conclusion. “I don’t leave people behind. That’s not who I am, and I’m not going to let these missions or the Blood King change that.”

As he said those words, it occurred to him that this was probably the type of sacrifice he didn’t understand, or rather, was
unwilling
to understand.