The 9th Fortress

'Let'sss go…' he hissed, and after Kat's forceful prodding, we three gathered on-board the rickety raft.

'I do not like this!' said Eddinray. 'On the record let that be known!'

The watching lot at the harbour looked afraid for us as the ferryman lowered his oar into the soup, and pushed us into a dead calm.

22. The Death of Kendo Katamuro

The ferryman, it seemed, had all eternity to spare, and he would take it pushing his raft through this mist, steaming like broth over the lake. Unsurprisingly, Eddinray was most talkative, his tales enthralling Harmony most of all. Who could forget his duel with three great knights who — to their cost — were not so great after all; or who hasn't read about his infamous rescue of the nun from the burning church? The gallant Eddinray saving both nun and church from the fire.

'I wish I was as fearless as you Godwin,” said Harmony. 'But why aren't you in Heaven for such lofty deeds?'

Sitting back at the stern, the knight paused in pompous reflection. 'I have long accepted that damnation is the price we heroes must pay. And as for being fearless, I will be candid with you madam, some men are born into the world with certain parts missing, be it manners, compassion, an arm or a leg and so on. Well I was born…with no fear.'

'Oh my…' said Harmony.

'Indeed,” he continued. 'And it will be my duty and pleasure to shield you from everything this hell has to offer. Witness the dent in my helmet,” he pointed it out, and the angel brightly bobbled her head. 'Flung off the back of a flying horse whilst escaping the Leviathan itself! A mere spit of my adventures! A mere spit!'

'How then did you come to perish?” she asked. “Oh, do forgive my curiosity, that was most forward. Besides, you don't have to tell, I'll wager it was something terribly courageous!'

Eddinray took her hand and with a grin said, 'The fashion of my premature death is one of considerable chivalry, which I cannot deny. Alas, I will spare you the particulars, for to hear those gruesome details would only strike terror into your soul. I shall say only this,” he whispered, leaning forward, “one knight's sword against fifty…is a nasty, futile business.' Eddinray then took a self-congratulatory breath of stinky air. 'Are those wings a burden to you?' he asked. 'They do appear exceedingly heavy, I must say.'

'Light as a feather,” she replied, smiling. 'Would you…care to have one?'

'One of your feathers?' he gulped, flustered, shy even. 'Wouldn't that…harm you?'

'Not at all, and I only ask because angel feathers bring good fortune, can even be used to create certain spells, hence the wizard's interest in me. So I ask again, would you care for one?'

Eddinray sat upright and shuffled his backside toward her. 'I would love one of your feathers, Harmony Valour.'

Harmony Valour was therefore only too pleased to pinch one from her back and pass the lucky charm to Eddinray. He grazed it under his nose, closed his eyes then inhaled the flowery scent of a far off Heaven.

'Peaches,” he said, placing it inside his chest plate and over his own heart. 'I am nude,' he suddenly added, with a slant smirk; 'under this armor. I am nude.'

Unsure of the remark, Harmony turned unfavourably from him, and scrunching up his face, an embarrassed Eddinray bit down on his tongue.

During this, I gazed at our contemplative leader at the bow of the raft. Refusing to rest his legs or eyes, Kat was our watchman, de-constructing a fat layer of cloud we would soon enter. The ferryman also studied Kat like a crouching lion in the thicket, drooling over a wildebeest. 'There wasss an inquiry about you Kat,” he said, lurking over his oar. 'Many hundredsss of years ago I ferried across one…A man very keen to meet you.'

We rest perked up our ears, but Kat remained unmoved. 'He was alssso a sssamurai,” added the ferryman. 'Jussst like you.'

Kat was listening, but few could tell. 'That'sss right,' the ferryman tittered; 'the black sssamurai! He isss looking for you Kat, and he will find you…'

Kat held a stoic squint ahead, recalling a memory — his last.

***

1568.

A cyclone uprooted trees, upended homes and destroyed the livelihood and lives of the people. Here, in this poverty stricken feudal village is where eighty warriors, distinguishable only by armors red and black, clashed.

Kendo Katamuro appeared to float over mud and all else as he cut through the black clan, turning grey puddles a shade bloody. Wild yet still in control, Kat decapitated one young man, and then cut a horse at the shins to throw the rider onto his neck. No enemy caught him with a graze, my north star was all consuming, a force even more destructive than the cyclone.

Wisely then, most of the opposition avoided Kat to settle their swords on more feasible opponents; but not the black samurai, not him. He stopped his own murderous rampage to spy Kat through the falling bodies and drizzle. Kat sensed the burn of his enemy's eye, and faced him down with the blood of other men soaking his beard through. These killers had a past, a great rivalry that intensified with every passing year. Both clans pondered a possible fight and argued repeatedly over the victor, but they could only speculate, for the interests of these two men never came into direct conflict, their paths never once crossed — until now.

Kat armed the smaller wakizashi in his free hand, and the black samurai duplicated the action. Then the two warriors, leaders of men defending their Lords, charged through the fury of fighters to smash their blades together. Four swords blurred in a spray of energy and water. Steel appeared to glow after each impact and in their hearts; both knew they had met their match this day.

The pace stunned samurai onlookers, who called a temporary truce to watch the duel. For all their awe- inspiring skill however, these Gods of the sword were still human, and the end, one of them weakened first.

Kat spewed out hot blood as his opponent's wakizashi pierced through his stomach. The shocked audience gasped, but an exhale later, the black samurai took Kat's katana deep into the ribcage. Blood streamed down their mouths and noses, and Kat howled in agony as his opponent turned the steel around in his guts.

Refusing to go alone into darkness, a grimacing Kat stabbed his short sword several times into his foe's neck, lavishing his own face in spurting blood. Together, these two dinosaurs then clunked to their knees, and light fading from the eyes, they slunk their foreheads to touch, then toppled to a splash…

***

All tightly sprung, we drifted through a red shroud, catching sight of what appeared to be an upturned whale floating dead over the water. The ferryman kept his distance from the object, which with closer observation revealed, not a whale, but a U-boat with still propellers, beached and rotting here on the shallow tar. Submariners waited at the prominent periscope, frantically waving their caps and coats at us.

'I cannot hear what they're saying?' said Eddinray.

'I don't want to know,” replied Harmony, as our ferry sailed on.

***

Floating trouble free for at least an hour, an abrupt thud made all but our navigator stumble forward. The raft bobbled against greasy boulders and beyond that was a horizon of flat, blindingly orange sand.

'This is not the stop,' said Kat, with a bad taste in his mouth. He snatched the ferryman's cloak and yanked the bony man at him. 'You have led us astray! This is not the way!'

'You wanted to cross the lake,” the skeleton replied. 'Hell changes with the seasonsss. No sssoul can map thisss land — not even the Kat'sss.'

Our samurai glared daggers into that face, but seeing only ambiguous bone, Kat relinquished the ferryman's robe then moved cautiously off the raft. We followed, and once free of us, the ferryman pushed his oar off boulders and hissed on his way backwards. 'The Kat,” he said, vanishing little by little into a scarlet dream. 'I eagerly await newsss of your downfall. I await…good newsss.'

Kat flipped him the middle finger as the morbid ferryman disappeared, off to spread the word.

'Can't see a thing,” I said, feeling my feet on daunting new ground. 'Kat? You think we're okay?'

Already crouched to one knee, the samurai collected a handful of sand. I expected to be waiting at this