“Have you something to report to me, scout?” he called out.
“Yes, my lord…something very important.” The man stopped a stone’s toss from the prince and bowed.
Raidan moved closer so he could see the man’s face. “Goddess!” he exclaimed. “You’re alive!”
“Yes, my lord. Very much so,” Ashinji Sakehera said.
Showdown at the Pass
Captain Sakehera! Where have you been all this time?” the prince demanded.
“That is too long a story for right now, your Highness.” Ashinji raked his hands through his tousled hair. “I’ve ridden from Sendai to find you.” From the look of the camp, Ashinji guessed the army stood ready to march.
The prince’s armor clinked as he moved closer. “You came from Sendai? Then my niece must know…”
“Please, my lord, you must listen. I don’t have much time!”
Prince Raidan frowned. “I’m listening,” he said.
Ashinji took a moment to gather his wits and clear the fog of weariness from his mind. It struck him that Raidan might not know of his brother’s death. “Your Highness, the king is dead,” he said.
The prince nodded. “Yes, I know. Lady Sonoe has come to Tono to take charge of the mages, per my wife’s orders. She informed me of my brother’s passing.”
“Where is Sonoe now, your Highness?” Ashinji had already scanned the camp and had detected nothing unusual, but then, the entity controlling Sonoe’s body would shield itself well.
“She rode out with your father a short while ago. Lord Sakehera is to hold off the Soldarans for a time at the valley entrance, and Lady Sonoe offered to help with some diversionary magic. What’s all this about, Captain?” Ashinji could sense the prince’s growing impatience.
“My lord, your wife must have told you something about Jelena’s…about the magic she carried within her, and what the Kirians needed to do about it.” Ashinji spoke quickly now.
“Yes, she did.” Raidan paused, then asked, “What happened? Did the Kirians succeed?”
Ashinji tried to keep his voice from breaking, but he couldn’t. “No my lord. They failed…Jelena is dead.”
Raidan gasped and uttered a soft curse.
“One of their own betrayed them,” Ashinji continued. “Sonoe must have been in league with the enemy all along. At the crucial moment, when Jelena’s death released the magic within her, Sonoe opened a way for the enemy to escape its prison. She had a double betrayal planned. She tried to enslave the spirit by speaking its true name, but it was ready for her.”
Ashinji shuddered at the memory of Sonoe’s hideous demise. “She paid for her betrayal with her life. The thing that came here two days ago is not Sonoe! It only wears Sonoe’s flesh. The Kirians call it the Nameless One, but it’s the undead spirit of your ancestor, the sorcerer king Shiura Onjara. Somehow, Sonoe found out his true name. He…
The prince’s eyes focused inward, as if he were trying to fit pieces of a puzzle together and make sense of it in his mind. “My wife kept a great deal from me, I see,” he murmured. His gaze sharpened with his next words. “I sensed something had changed about Sonoe, but I couldn’t figure out what. At times, when we’re together, a very strange sensation comes over me and once, I accused her of trying to scan my mind without my permission.”
“The spirit’s goal is simple, Highness. It wants to conquer the material world and enslave every living thing,” Ashinji explained. “To accomplish this, it needs an army that can’t be defeated by ordinary means. It also requires the deaths of all living Onjaras. The spirit may have been attempting to weaken you, drain you magically, which is why you felt the way you did.”
“Yes, that could be,” Raidan replied thoughtfully. “But how does the ghost of my dead ancestor plan on raising an army?”
“The magic Jelena carried within her is a key of sorts. The Nameless One has it now, and with it, he can open a gate into another dimension, a place the Kirians call the Void. According to their ancient writings, it’s not a void at all, but rather a terrible place full of creatures so unlike anything in this world, there are no words to describe some of them. These creatures will be bent to his will by the power of the magic contained within the White Griffin.”
“The White Griffin never leaves the hand of the king, and my brother is still in Sendai,” Raidan interrupted. “Unless…”
“Yes, my lord. Sonoe has it, or rather, the Nameless One does,” Ashinji confirmed. “He stole it, and at the same time, he nearly killed my mother and the other Kirians. My lord, he has everything he needs to complete the spell and open the Void.”
High on the ramparts, horns blared-three short blasts followed by one sustained note. Their clarion chorus rolled across the valley and the gathered troops below. The army stood ready to move into position behind the castle.
Raidan ran a hand over his sable hair. “I hope you’re here with a plan to stop this,” he said quietly.
“I’ll need to get close to Sonoe,” Ashinji answered. “When I do…”
“Say no more,” the prince said, raising his hand. “Take a horse and ride to the pass. You’ll find her there, and Sakehera…” the prince called as Ashinji turned to go, “I’m saddened more than you know about Jelena. Her death must count for something. Stop this Nameless One.
Ashinji nodded. “I will, Highness…I mean your Majesty.”
Determination warred with despair within him as Ashinji bent low over the neck of the galloping horse, hurtling through the predawn darkness toward a showdown he knew he dare not lose, but yet felt uncertain he could win.
Prince Raidan’s admonition still rang in his mind.
The Kirians believed he could, else they never would have sent him.
He could feel the horse beginning to tire, but relentlessly, Ashinji drove it forward. He knew he drew close, for he could hear the sounds of battle ahead-steel ringing against steel, shouts of anger, cries of pain. A brilliant flash of blue illuminated the dark mouth of the pass, now squirming with movement that, from this distance, looked like termites swarming from a crack in the earth.
Before he left camp, Ashinji had armed himself with a bow, a quiver of arrows, and a sword, but he doubted if he would get close enough to the fray to need any conventional weapons. He had no armor to protect his body, and no plans to do any non-magical fighting, at least not now.
He felt certain Sonoe and any other mages she had with her would be well back of the line. He planned to dismount at a distance, then move forward on foot, sticking to what cover he found, and trust he could conceal
