Kuroba Asashin's Arc

Chapter 3 of 44

They loaded two wagons at first light and drove east into the hills. The wheels sank in the soft sand and the mules balked at every rise. By midday Kuroba knew the wagons would not carry them far enough. Ona sat on the buckboard beside him, her bow across her knees, counting waterskins under her breath. She said, "We are too slow." Kuroba nodded. He had already heard it. Behind them, low on the flat, a long brown smear had begun to lift from the horizon. Dust. Too much dust for a patrol. Ona shaded her eyes and said, "A thousand. Maybe more." She did not sound afraid. She sounded like someone reading a ledger. He stopped the wagons on a shelf of hard ground where the sand thinned over stone. He told her to get behind the rear wheels and stay there. She did not argue this time either. The riders came in a wide crescent and slowed a hundred paces out. Their banners hung from the slavers' guild. Their front ranks carried crossbows. Kuroba walked forward alone and stopped where the stone met the sand. He pulled his mask higher and spoke loud enough to carry. "Turn around. Go home. I will not ask twice." A captain rode out and laughed. Kuroba said it again. "Turn around." The captain drew his sword. Kuroba waited while the man raised the blade, while the crossbow line leveled, while a thousand men decided. None of them moved back. He drew the long black odachi off his back. The air above the blade tightened and cracked. A thread of white light ran the length of the steel and did not go out. He stepped once, and the step was gone before the sound of it reached the wagons. The crossbow line came apart in a single sweep. The captain's horse stood a moment with no rider. Kuroba moved through the crescent the way wind moves through wheat. Thunder rolled after him, late, chasing what he had already done. When he stopped, he stood at the far end of the field, and the field was quiet. He walked back through it without looking down. He wiped the blade on a torn banner and sheathed it. The white light was gone. His breath was even. Ona came out from behind the wheel with an arrow still on the string and lowered the bow slowly. She looked at him for a long time. Her mouth opened and closed. Finally she said, "I have never seen anything like that." A beat. "I do not want to be your enemy." She looked away, then back. "Teach me." Kuroba said, "At the dojo." He climbed onto the wagon. The wagons were still too slow. But nothing living was following them now.