The Twelve Kingdoms: Shadow of the Moon Read online

  The vice-principle bit down on the bait. "Ah, yes, indeed. True, your grades have slipped recently."

  "Yes."

  "You of course understand that burning the midnight oil will only prove counterproductive if you can't pay attention in class."

  "I'm sorry."

  "No, no, no, I'm not looking for apologies. Unfortunately, Miss Nakajima, people jump to the wrong conclusions about the most innocent things. They see the color of your hair, and, well, you know...."

  "I was thinking of getting it cut today."

  "Oh?" He nodded in agreement. "It is harsh, I know. But as disagreeable as it might seem at times we're only acting in your best interests."

  "Yes."

  He shook her hand. "Well, that's all. You can leave."

  Youko replied with a perfunctory bow. "Excuse me," she said.

  Behind her a man raised his voice.

  Chapter 4

  He said, "I have found you."

  His presence was accompanied by the faint scent of the ocean. The vice-principal stared in amazement. When Youko glanced over her shoulder the man confirmed, "It is you."

  She guessed he was in his mid-twenties. Everything else about him was breathtaking. He was wearing a long slicker like a cloak about his shoulders. His hair, an astonishingly golden sheen, curtained a marble-like face and reached to his knees.

  She had never seen him before.

  "And who are you?" the vice-principal demanded.

  The stranger ignored him and instead did something even more astonishing. He knelt at Youko's feet and bowed his head low to the ground. "That which was sought has been found."

  "Do you know this person?"

  Youko shook her head. "I don't, I don't."

  While they stood there in confusion the man sprang to his feet. "We must go."

  "Go?"

  "Miss Nakajima, what is this about?"

  "I don't know!"

  Around them, the handful of remaining teachers and office personnel exchanged curious looks. Youko cast a pleading, helpless look at the vice-principal, who drew himself up to his full height. "Young man, you are trespassing on school grounds. I must ask you to leave this minute!"

  The stranger's face was a mask of indifference. He said cooly, no enmity in his voice, "It is none of your concern." He surveyed the office with the same eyes. "Do not interfere, any of you."

  The imperial register of his voice had the immediate effect of leaving them speechless. He turned his gaze on the equally amazed Youko. "I shall explain to you later. But we must leave now."

  "What are . . . ?"

  A voice, close by, interrupted her question.

  "Taiho."

  He lifted his head as if his name had been called. "What is it?" he asked into the thin air. Concern darkened his face.

  From somewhere and nowhere the voice echoed again. "The enemy is at the gates."

  A fierce expression replaced his impassive countenance. Nodding in comprehension he took Youko by the wrist. "Forgive me," he said, "but this place becomes dangerous."

  "Dangerous?"

  "There is no time to explain. They shall arrive any second."

  Youko shrank from him, filled with an inarticulate dread. "Who's they?" she cried.

  She was about to ask again when the disembodied voice said, "They're here."

  The window nearest Youko exploded.

  She closed her eyes, heard a shrieking howl, the fragments of glass raining down around her.

  "What was that!?"

  Youko opened her eyes at the sound of the vice-principal's voice. Everyone in the office crowded to the windows. A cold winter wind rushed in from the broad river just beyond the school grounds. Carried on the breeze was the strong scent of slaughter and the sea.

  Glass littered the floor around her feet. Despite being closest to the window she was untouched.

  "How . . . ?"

  Before she could make any sense of the situation, the stranger addressed her. "It is as I warned. Something wicked this way comes." He took hold of her arm. "Follow me."

  A desperate panic overcame her. Youko struggled but the stranger simply dragged her along. When she tripped and staggered, he slung his arm around her shoulders. The vice-principal stepped in front of them.

  "Are you responsible for this?"

  The timber of the stranger's voice took on a stone cold menace. "You are irrelevant. Stand aside."

  "Not before you explain yourself, buddy. What are you doing with Miss Nakajima, here? This some kind of gang thing?" He shot an accusing look at Youko, "What have you gotten yourself involved in?"

  "I don't know what you're talking about!"

  "And him?" he said, gesturing to the man.

  Youko saw the far more terrifying conclusions drawing together in the vice-principal's eyes: they were in this together. "I don't know him! I swear!"

  She twisted away, jerked her arm free of his grasp. At the same time, from above and beyond them, the voice called again, this time with greater alarm.

  "Taiho!"

  The people in the office glanced at each other, as if to discern the source of the voice.

  The stranger scowled at Youko in obvious frustration. "Must you be so obstinate!" Before Youko could react or reply he dropped to his knees and grasped her feet in supplication. "Your Excellency, I pledge to you my eternal fealty." He spoke quickly, his eyes not wavering from hers. "I ask you to accede."

  "To w-what?"

  "Is not your life precious to you? Say that you accede!"

  Too stunned to coherently consider what he was asking, and overwhelmed by the intensity of his words, Youko found herself nodding despite herself. "I accede," she said.

  What he did next left Youko completely dumbfounded.

  A beat--and a chorus of voices arose in objection. "What's with you two? Are you nuts?"

  Thunderstruck, Youko watched as this man--whom she had never seen before in her life--dropped his head in worship and touched his forehead to the instep of her foot. "What are you..." she started to say, but was cut off mid-sentence.

  Her senses reeled. She felt something coursing through her. Her vision momentarily went black. A low rumble like an earthquake shook the room. The courtyard outside the windows fell into muddy shadows.

  "Nakajima!" the vice-principal shrieked, his face apoplectic with rage. "What in the devil is going on?"

  Chapter 5

  A torrent of water crashed against the building, blew out the remaining windows, swept a wave strewn with icy shards throughout the room. Youko threw her arms up in front of her face. A flurry of tiny darts stung at her head and arms and body.

  Her ears shut themselves to the violence of it all. She heard nothing.

  The sensation of being caught in a whirling sandstorm faded away. She opened her eyes. Glass glittered on every surface. Those who had gathered at the windows now crouched in shock on the floor. The vice-principal was curled up in a ball at her feet.

  Are you all right, she felt compelled to ask, until she saw that his body was studded with brilliant shards. He wasn't all right. The others were struggling to their feet, groaning. Youko had been standing right beside the vice-principal yet there was not a nick or cut on her.

  The vice-principal seized her ankle. "Why?" he groaned.

  "I didn't do anything!"

  The stranger peeled the vice-principal's bloody hand from her leg. He was as uninjured as she. He said, "We must go."

  She shook her head. If she left with him now they would all conclude that they had been in on it together, from the start. But the fear of staying there overcame her. She let him pull her along. The enemy is at the gates. That meant nothing to her. The horror of remaining there amongst the bloodied and wounded frightened her far more.

  They lit from the office and at once came face to face with another teacher. He shouted, "What's going on?" His eyes shifted suspiciously to the stranger.

  Before Youko could respond the stranger gestured towards the office
. "There are injured people in there. They need medical attention." He set off again, Youko in tow. The teacher yelled something at them she didn't understand.

  She said, "Where are we going?" She only wanted to run home as fast as she could. Instead of fleeing down the stairs the stranger headed up. "This way goes to the roof," she gasped.

  "Others will be using the stairs below."

  "But . . . . "

  "Where we go now, hell follows after. Better that we not involve anyone else."

  Then why did you involve me? Youko wanted to scream at him. What enemy? What are you talking about? But she did not have the courage to raise her voice against him.

  He flung open the door at the top of the stairs and half-dragged her out onto the roof. Behind them came the sound of metal ground against rusty metal. A shadow fell across the doorway. Youko forced her eyes up, taking in tawny wings, a gaping mouth beneath a hooked, venom-stained beak.

  A catlike howl burst from the wide maw. Each of the bird's enormous wings was tipped with five talons.

  I know this creature.

  She stood, frozen as if bound hand and foot. With each horrid screech the creature's blood lust poured down upon her.

  In my dreams.

  An inky dusk stained the overcast skies. Through the heavy pleats of the swirling clouds streamed the roiling red glow of the setting sun.

  The great, eagle-like bird had a horn in the center of its forehead. It tossed its head, flapped its wings, buffeting them in a foul-smelling wind. As in her paralyzing nightmares Youko could only stare. The bird lifted its body from its perch, floated upwards, beat its wings once again, tucked in its feathers and plummeted towards her. Its scaly extremities reached out for her, the razor-sharp claws unsheathing from its horny feet.

  She had no time to prepare. Her eyes were wide open. Yet she saw nothing. Even when she felt a blow to her shoulders it seemed impossible that the creature's claws could be tearing into her flesh.

  "Hyouki!" The name echoed through the air. A bright red fountain gushed before her eyes.

  My blood.

  Except that somehow she felt no pain. She shut her eyes. See no evil, she told herself. Incomprehensibly, it seemed that death should be more terrifying than this.

  "Hold on!"

  She was taken by the shoulders and roughly shaken. She came to herself, opened her eyes to see the stranger glaring at her. The concrete wall was hard at her back, her left shoulder dug into the cyclone fencing that enclosed the perimeter of the roof.

  "This is not the time to swoon!"

  Youko jumped up in alarm. The collision had tumbled her clear across the roof. An awful cry of torment arose. Sprawled before the doorway the great bird flapped its wings, fanning about it swirling gusts of wind. Its claws dug deep grooves in the concrete as it flung its head back and forth. It could not free itself. A beast had its jaws locked about the bird's neck, a beast resembling a panther wrapped in crimson fur.

  "What . . . what is that?"

  "I warned you of the dangers that awaited us."

  He pulled her away from the fence. Youko found herself staring at the beast and bird entwined in their death struggle, then back at the stranger.

  He said, "Kaiko."

  The form of a woman rose out of the solid surface on which they stood, like a bather rising from a pool. Only the upper half of her body appeared, a body clothed in downy feathers, arms like graceful wings. She held a sword encased in a magnificent scabbard. The hilt of the sword was inlaid with gold and pearl and studded with jewels.

  It struck Youko as little more than a frivolous ornament. The stranger took the sword from the woman and presented it to Youko.

  "What . . . ?"

  "It is yours. You alone may use it."

  "Me?" Her eyes flashed from the sword to the stranger's face. "Why me?"

  He pressed the weapon into her hands, his face emotionless. "I have no taste for the sword . . . "

  "But you said you would help me!"

  " . . . and no talent with it."

  It was heavier than she would have thought. How in the world was she supposed to defend herself with this?

  "What makes you think I do?" she shot back.

  "Will you die like a lamb led to slaughter?"

  "No!"

  "Then use the sword."

  Youko was lost in a chaos of thoughts. She didn't want to die, not here, not like this. But neither did she have any inclination to charge into battle waving this weapon above her head. She possessed neither the strength nor the skill to do anything with it. The voices in her head told her to wield the sword, to not wield the sword, to wield it, to . . . .

  She chose the third option. She threw it.

  The stranger shouted in anger and amazement. "You fool!"

  She had aimed at the bird's head. The sword fell short of the mark, skimming the tip of one wing and falling at its feet.

  "Damnation!" Snapping off a series of clicks with his tongue the man called, "Hyouki!"

  The panther disentangled itself from astride the bird's claws. It stooped, fetched the sword in its mouth and trotted back to Youko. It was clearly unhappy about having to abandon its prey.

  The stranger took the sword. He said to the creature, "Wait here upon my command."

  "As you wish," the creature straightaway replied.

  Patience, the stranger told it shortly. He turned to the feathered woman. "Kaiko."

  The woman bowed.

  At that moment, the great bird lifted itself free, showering them with gravel and concrete. It gyrated into the air. The panther-beast clambered skyward after it. The woman rose clear of the roof, revealing down-covered human legs and a long tail, and attacked as well.

  The stranger said, "Hankyo. Juusaku."

  As had the woman, the heads of two fierce beasts appeared from the deck of the roof. One resembled a large dog, the other a baboon. "Juusaku, Hankyo. I leave her to your care."

  "By your command." They bowed.

  The stranger nodded, turned his back to her, strode towards the fence, and vanished.

  "Wait!" Youko called after him.

  Without asking her yea or nay, the baboon reached out and wrapped her in a tight embrace. The animal ignored her protests, lifted her up, vaulted over the fence and leapt into the air.

  Chapter 6

  The baboon sprang from rooftop to rooftop, from rooftop to telephone pole, hurdling from place to place with great bounding strides, almost as if carried aloft by the wind. This jarring, rampaging form of transport eventually brought them to the outskirts of the city and the ocean shore.

  The baboon released Youko atop the breakwater facing the harbor. In the time it took her to take a single breath it disappeared. Glancing up and down the seawall to see where it had gone she saw the stranger winding his way through the thicket of concrete tetrapods. He carried the jeweled sword.

  "Are you all right?" he called to her.

  Youko nodded. She felt dizzy. This was the baboon's doing, the result of the stark insanity swirling about her. Her knees gave out. She sat down heavily and began to sob.

  The stranger appeared besides her. "This is no place to weep."

  What is going on? she wanted to ask him. She could see that he was in no mood to offer explanations. She turned her face away from him, clasped her knees with trembling hands.

  "I'm scared."

  His reaction was cold and abrupt. "Save such emotions for a later time. They are after us as we speak. We shall hardly have time even to catch our breaths."

  "After us?"

  The stranger nodded. "You did not kill it when you should have. There is nothing we can do about that now. Hyouki and the others will slow it down, but I fear not enough."

  "You mean that bird? What was that bird?"

  "The kochou, you mean."

  "What is a kochou?"

  The stranger replied with a scornful expression. "It is one of them."

  The emptiness of the explanation made Youko shri
nk inside. "And who are you? Why are you helping me?"

  "My name is Keiki."

  He offered nothing more. Youko sighed to herself. She had clearly heard the others address him as Taiho but she was in no mood to press the matter. She only wanted to run away, go home. Her backpack and jacket were at school. She didn't want to go back there, not by herself. And she didn't exactly want to go home in this state. She crouched on the breakwater lost in her thoughts.

  "Are you ready?" Keiki asked.

  "Ready for what?"

  "Ready to leave."

  "Leave? Where to?"

  "There."

  Again, nowhere, anywhere. Youko couldn't care less. Keiki took her by the arm, again, for the umpteenth time. Why didn't he explain himself? Why did he keep dragging her all over the place?

  She said, "Hey, wait just a second."

  "You've had time enough. There is no more to spare."

  "Where is there? How long is it going to take?"

  "If we leave at once, a day."

  "No way!"

  "What do you mean by that?"

  His tone of voice cowed her. She had been toying with the idea of going with him out of curiosity. But she didn't know him from Adam. And a whole day. It was out of the question! What would her parents say when they came home to an empty house? They had never permitted her to travel anywhere that far by herself.

  "I can't. I just can't."

  None of this made any sense. Why did he keep threatening her, keep making these impossible demands? She wanted to cry. She knew he would berate her if she did so she hugged her knees, clamped her mouth shut, desperately held back the tears.

  A familiar voice echoed around them.

  "Taiho."

  Keiki quickly scanned the sky. "The kochou?"

  "Yes."

  A shiver ran down Youko's spine. The monster bird was coming. Keiki said to her, "I need your help." He pulled her to her feet, placed the sword in her hands. "If you love life at all then use this."

  "I keep telling you, I don't know how!"

  "No one else can."

  "That doesn't change anything!"

  "I shall grant you a Hinman." He called out, "Jouyuu."