Kaguta - Or, Ankūro - The Warrior, The Thief and The Killer

40

Thoughts of life and death,
A battle between these states,
Though not yours to choose.
- Rūka.

Saiban had no way of knowing whether it were normal for so few people to move around the palace gardens, the Emperor's palace, itself, resting upon a rise in the distance, but he had expected more. More patrolling guards. More servants. More people of some kind. Yet there were so few, even taking into account the numbers that had trailed behind the war party.

For certain, he had expected guards at the gates of the Princess' residence. Many guards, but there were none. The old woman had moved inside the gates and the foot they had seen disappeared before the gates opened wide to allow the palanquin through. Ankūro closed the gates as soon as they entered and Saiban and Dojūru lowered the palanquin to the ground.

The noblewoman opened the palanquin door, half-way undressed, the Kinishima sword in her hand and she indicated to Saiban and Dojūru to collect their own weapons in silence. She undressed with little modesty, putting on her more masculine, fighting clothes. Saiban needed telling only once. He saw the body of the guard that the old woman had dragged from the gate. Dead without any noticeable injuries and the old woman now crouched beside it, her hands rummaging over the man that had once protected this place. Of other guards, Saiban saw nothing.

"Darts. Poison." The old woman held one of several wooden darts she had found to her nose, sniffing the tip before dropping it to the ground, grimacing. "Died quick."

"Na-oi Sansui." With his sword drawn from its scabbard, Saiban turned in a circle, looking to the roofs of the Princess' quarters. "The Yāttō has used them before."

He remembered Tiluun and the sense of something wrong within her room at the inn in Yarukushuma. He had come to realise, later, why she had acted odd. Now the Yāttō had deployed the mountain dwelling shadow warriors here in the Imperial palace and that did not bode well for their success or the safety of the Princess.

Not as strong as true Sansui, the Na-oi had different methods of fighting. Taking to shadows, or, more usually, at night, killing from distance or from hiding. It was a rare day that a Na-oi Sansui attacked anywhere in broad daylight unless they felt assured of success. The Yāttō had planned it this way and the Na-oi would have met little resistance. To the side, Dojūru stepped up to the walkway that surrounded the building and the double doors that led inside. He tugged at the sliding door and it opened with a smooth movement.

"Look to every shadow. Every corner. The Na-oi can appear from nowhere." Dojūru waited for them all to join him upon the walkway. "Watch the floors, the ceilings. Do not expect a direct attack. Move at random should an attack occur. They will try to anticipate our movements."

About to slip inside, Dojūru stepped back as the old woman strode past. In her hands she held a short sword, her walking stick now tucked into her belt, no longer the image of a decrepit old woman. She moved with confidence and strength, good eye and milky-white blind eye moving constantly. After a few steps, she pointed with one of her swords away to the side.

More bodies. This time there were injuries upon those corpses but, as Saiban edged closer, he could see little blood. As though the cuts and slashes in their bodies were made after they had died. Set in a pile, the guards all held rictus expressions upon their faces, eyes wide open as though they had strained to breathe in their last moments.

"More poison, I suspect. The injuries caused after death. This is all subterfuge." Kō had crouched beside these bodies, checking the same places as the old woman had checked on the guard outside. Once again, a handful of darts were found. "These bodies are still warm. This happened only moments ago. The Princess may yet live."