Sunlight flooded the valley, as the hosts of enemies broke and ran screaming from us. They had nowhere to go. The great cavalry wedge swept over them like a wave over the sand.
Yasei and his Byakko limped their way toward the house, and Toshiro raised a hand and pushed his helmet back from his face. He stepped up to me and clasped my hand in a warrior’s grip. Cara hugged him.
We turned to watch as the riders mopped up the fleeing enemies. It didn’t take long. They formed up again and stopped a little way up the hill. In the bright sunlight that followed the darkness, their red armor shone like flame. One figure detached itself from the group and rode toward the house, slowly. Yasei, whose Byakko were gathered around him a little way off, let out a low rumble from his throat.
“Who are they?” asked Cara under her breath.
“They look like a masterless company,” Toshiro said. “That blue banner bears no lord’s insignia. I don’t know what it can mean.”
The leader advanced toward us, a tall armored figure with a full-face helmet. As the rider drew up before us, an armored gauntlet reached up to remove the helmet.
It was a woman.
Her oil-black hair tumbled free from her helmet, and she shook her head like a cat coming out of water to free it. She was stunningly beautiful, with high cheekbones, full red lips, and very large, dark eyes. Her tan skin and dark eyes showed that she was one of the people of Yamato. She looked around at us in silence for a moment. Her eyes fell on me, and her gaze ran appraisingly up and down my armor. I reached up and removed my helmet, and her eyes widened in surprise. My fair skin and hair marked me immediately as being not from Yamato. Then she smiled and looked down at Toshiro.
“Well, my old friend,” she said. “What have you been getting involved in?”
Chapter Fourteen
“Lady Kai,” Toshiro said as he bowed his head to her. At the mention of the woman’s name, General Koshu and the mercenaries all muttered among themselves briefly, before they bowed their heads as well.
Cara and I glanced quickly at each other. This woman had certainly changed the course of the battle. I was grateful to her, but for all that, I didn’t feel inclined to bow to her. Cara and I were Saxen; in our land, to bow to another was the lowest form of subjugation. No warrior would do it, even in a situation like this.
“Thank you for your help in the fight,” I said, stepping forward. “You arrived just in the nick of time. Where have you come from? Everyone else here seems to recognize your name, but I’m new to this land.”
A smile pulled at the corner of her sensuous mouth. “That much is clear,” she said, eyeing my armor and my face.
Toshiro came forward and spoke to me. “Lady Kai is leader of the Broken Sword company, an independent warrior group from one of the far northern islands. We... we know each other of old.”
“That we do.” Lady Kai jumped from her horse to the ground in a fluid, graceful motion.
I looked her up and down. She was nearly of a height with me, dressed in light armor of linked red-dyed leather and lacquered plates. It covered her enough to give protection, but still left a lot of skin open to the elements. A sheer expanse of smooth, muscular leg plunged from her hip to her calf-high boots. The top half of her armor covered the front of her breasts, but left their sides and her cleavage very visible.
“If I may,” Toshiro said, “I suggest we go inside with Lady Kai and take some refreshments, and we can explain the situation to her.”
“I think I’ll let you do that, Toshiro,” I said. “You can fill lady Kai in as well as I can, and I guess you two have some catching up to do. I’ll see to things out here.”
Keen as I was to learn more about this mysterious and beautiful samurai woman, I was even more eager to find out what upgrades we could get after our recent battle. I could feel my Renown nearly overflowing, and there was a suggestion of something else which I could not quite put my finger on. By the tension in Cara’s stance and the gleam in her eyes, I could tell that she felt it too.
“Very well,” Toshiro said. “Come and find us at the training court when you’re ready.”
When he had gone, I turned to General Koshu, who bowed low to me and started to stumble through an abject apology.
“Please, General, there’s no need for that,” I said, reaching a hand to his shoulder to raise him up. “You were only following orders, and when you realized your mistake, you made up for your error and joined the right side.”
The General bowed his head to me again, and I caught a glimpse of his grateful expression.
“And that goes for all of you, too,” I continued, turning to the mercenaries. “You did the right thing in the end, and that’s what counts. Now, help to begin clearing up the mess of the battle. It’ll take many days to do, but you should make a start. You’ll want to collect your own dead to begin with.”
I put General Koshu in charge of the mercenaries and left them to get on with it. They were a very different sight from the arrogant warriors they had been earlier. Only 20 of the original 200 remained, and they were a chastened lot.
Once they had left me and begun their task, Yasei came over and stood before me. Now that we were not in battle, I had the chance to look at him more closely. He was magnificently strong, a huge, powerful animal with a thick coat of white fur, striped
