Kuroba Asashin's Arc

Chapter 34 of 44

Kuroba woke to the sound of horses on the path. Ona was already at the window. Two riders from the palace stood in the yard with a sealed message from Queen Tish. Kuroba took the paper on the porch and read it once. The wardens were moving again. Small parties had been seen at the far edge of the valley, marking trees and pacing off distances. They were measuring the land between the dojo and the black stone palace. Ona read the note over his shoulder. "They want the ground back," she said. "They want it before we plant a flag on it," Kuroba said. He folded the note and set it on the rail. Bobby came down from the wall with his sleeves rolled. Kuroba told him to saddle three horses. They rode the line at midmorning. Kuroba took Bobby and Ona along the old road that ran from the dojo steps to the palace gate. He stopped at the ridge where the valley opened. From here he could see both roofs, the sagging tiles of the temple below and the black spires beyond the pass. Jasmine climbed the porch posts of the near building. Gold caught the sun on the far one. Kuroba got off the horse and cut a strip of bark from a pine with his knife. He wrote on it with charcoal from the saddlebag. Then he walked to the marker the wardens had left and pulled it from the ground. He drove his own stake in its place. Ona read what he had written. Kenjitochi. "Kenji's land," she said. "From this ridge to the palace wall," Kuroba said. "And a bowshot to either side of the road." Bobby looked at the width of it. "That's a lot of ground for one name." "He earned it," Kuroba said. They rode the length of it before dark and set stakes at every warden mark, cut the same word into each one, and left the pulled markers stacked at the ridge for the riders to find. At dusk Kuroba sent the palace riders back with a second note for Queen Tish. It named the ground, named its border, and named its purpose. Any who crossed it armed against the dojo or the palace crossed Kenji's grave. Tish's seal came back at first light, stamped in red over his words. Ona nailed the copy to the front post of the dojo, under the kanji for peace. The land between the two houses now had a name, and the name belonged to a dead man who could not be argued with. Kuroba stood on the steps and looked east down the road. He had drawn a line. The wardens would answer it, or someone worse would.