Back at the house, Cara led the horse to Toshiro’s stables and left him with the groom there. Her face was glowing with the pleasure of riding as she came with us through the house and out back again.
Here, Kai joined us. I greeted her warmly, and she seemed pleased to see both Cara and myself. I couldn’t help remembering Cara’s words, fantasizing about the three of us sharing our bodies and joining our power together. I saw from the twinkle in Cara’s eyes that she was thinking of it too. Kai looked at us both as if she could tell that there was something we were not saying, but she seemed content to let it be for the moment. I felt a stirring in my crotch, but firmly resisted the image of both their mouths slipping back and forth around my cock. There would be time for that later, I felt sure.
We found Toshiro in the practice yard. All was ready for our departure, he told us. Lady Kai, General Koshu, and Toshiro all made it clear that they were still determined to accompany me and Cara to take on Yakuna.
“This is the biggest service we can give to our land,” Toshiro said, and the others nodded solemnly.
The mercenaries, said General Koshu, were committed to helping us as well. Since there were only twenty of them left, they would not be much good as a mercenary band for hire. Their reputation for being undefeated was in tatters.
They wanted to avenge their comrades, who had been tricked by the evil of the Festering.
General Koshu felt that he had to fight the Festering to regain his honor, since he had been tricked also, and Lady Kai assured us that her fifty riders would follow her into the fight as well. Toshiro revealed that ten of his servants, men who had fought with him in the old days, desired to come with us too, and they could provide their own horses from Toshiro’s stables. All in all, Cara and I would lead more than eighty mounted warriors to fight Yakuna.
In a very short time, all was ready. Kai’s riders and the mercenaries broke camp quickly and efficiently. Toshiro led his small band, dressed again in his old black armor. His servants, one or two of whom I recognized, looked very different in their own black samurai armor. They moved like a trained and practiced unit, and they were armed with lances, bows, and swords.
The Byakko submitted to be ridden again by the remaining mercenaries, and Yasei came to me and bowed his back to allow me to mount. Cara rode her new horse, Yokaze, whose black coat gleamed in the sun.
When all were ready, I rode Yasei a little way in front of them all and turned to look down at my small army. The gleaming gold of Kai’s cavalry contrasted with the reds and yellows of the mercenaries, and the clean, white-furred Byakko. In the midst of all, Toshiro’s band were dressed in all black armor on black horses, looking like a cloud of shadow amid the riot of color of the rest of the group.
I stood up in my stirrups and held up my hand. They were already motivated for this mission, but I felt it was worth making a statement to this brave band who had aligned themselves with me. The sun blazed down from the blue sky and gleamed on their armor and their weapons.
I was wearing the armor of Ironside, and I raised an axe up into the air.
“You are with me now!” I cried, and I heard my voice ring and echo off the surrounding cliffs. “You are with me, the Soul Binder! Together we will cleanse this land of the Festering taint, and bring peace to Yamato!”
“Soul Binder! Soul Binder!” they all called in unison, then gave a great cheer as I threw my axe up into the air and caught it again. I glimpsed Cara’s proud smile as I turned Yasei’s head and led the company up the valley and out into the woods beyond.
After we had been going for an hour or so, Toshiro approached me and spoke quietly. We were a little distance away from the others.
“You sense it, don’t you?” he asked me in an undertone. “You sense the Festering, but you don’t feel the crippling fear which it causes in other men. Why is that?”
It was a direct question, and it deserved a direct answer, but I didn’t feel like going too deeply into that just now. I had not even told Cara the full story yet, and she seemed to accept that it was not something I wanted to speak about. I looked at Toshiro for a long moment. In my mind, I saw a splash of bright blood on white silk. An open mouth. Claws. The echo of a long-ago scream.
“My childhood was... bound up with the Festering,” I told him after a moment. “When I was very small, I fought the Festering in my own way. It was an internal battle, and I won. Eventually. Ever since then, it has affected me differently from the way it affects other men. I sense it, but I do not feel the fear of it. I will never fear it again.” The ferocity in my own voice startled me, and Toshiro actually drew back from the expression on my face.
“I’m sorry,” he said. “I didn’t realize how personal it was. I’m glad you don’t fear it. Cara has her potions to give to the mercenaries, my guards, and Kai’s soldiers, but without the potion, we would be crippled by the fear of it. We’re very lucky to have you two as our leaders.”
We rode northeast through wooded foothills, keeping clear of the road. Though we weren’t headed for the town of Otara just yet, we’d judged it best to avoid the possibility of being seen by the Shogun’s scouts. News might have reached him already about the victory at Toshiro’s
