Kuroba Asashin's Arc

Chapter 9 of 44

They had been at the dojo six days when the dust rose in the west. Kuroba stood on the porch and watched the line of it swell above the ridge. Ona came out beside him with her bow. Tish followed and counted under her breath. "Too many," she said. Kuroba pulled his mask up. Word had traveled fast from the desert. Two thousand men, armored, moving in a wedge. Slavers, maybe, or hired blades from farther east. It did not matter. They had come for him. He stepped down onto the stone path and told Ona and Tish to stay on the porch. He drew the odachi. Before he reached the gate, the old grandmaster walked past him. Kenji carried only his walking stick. The lizard did not follow. Kuroba put a hand out. "Stay inside." Kenji did not stop. "My door," he said. "My floor. I will speak first." He walked down the stone path in his sandals and stopped where the roses ended. The wedge halted a hundred paces off. A captain rode forward and called for Kuroba to be handed over. Kenji lifted his stick and pointed it back the way they had come. "Leave now," he said. "You will not be told twice." The captain laughed. He waved his arm and the wedge began to move. Kuroba did not see Kenji step. He heard a sound like a sheet snapping in wind. The front rank folded. The second folded into the first. A wave went through the wedge from the near edge to the far, and men fell in the shape of it. Horses went down without screaming. The dust that had risen in the west settled on bodies. Kenji stood where he had stood. His stick was at his side. He turned and walked back up the stone path. His sandals scraped once on the top step. He crossed the boards to the wall, sat down against it, and closed his eyes. His chin dropped to his chest. Within a breath he was snoring. The sage-maned lizard came out from the hall and curled against his hip. Kuroba lowered the odachi. Ona had not loosed her arrow. Tish sat down hard on the porch. Kuroba looked at the field, then at the old man asleep against the wall, and understood that the legend had not been a legend, and that whatever protection had kept this valley quiet for forty years had just used itself in front of him. He would have to be ready when it slept for good.