L5r - scroll 04 - The Phoenix (12 page)

was.

"Well?" the mujina said. "Are you going to tell me your name, or must I call you 'rude human' during our travels together?"

"For one thing," Tadaka said, "we are
not
traveling together. For another, I have no intention of giving my name to any creature I encounter in this forsaken place."

"If that's the way you want to be ... " Ob flitted into the air and hovered above Tadaka's head. "Should I call you 'lord high rude human-sama,' or just 'rude-sama?'"

Tadaka turned and strode away. He hoped that if he ignored it, the mujina would get bored and go away.

"So, Rude-sama, tell me about yourself," Ob said.

Tadaka didn't answer.

"Where do you come from? Do you have family?"

Tadaka kept walking.

"I'm only asking so that I can notify your next of kin once you get yourself killed."

A small rise loomed in front of the Master of Earth, and he mounted it in three quick steps. Spells to rid himself of the bothersome imp flashed through his mind, but he discarded them. No need to waste magic on this annoying creature. He crested the rise and descended toward a flat plain.

The fog blew away, a curtain parted by invisible hands.

Bones littered the cracked and brittle ground before him. To his left rose the skeleton of a tree. A shadow moved in the fog on the other side of the clearing.

"Uh-oh!" Ob said. He vanished.

Tadaka put his hand to the hilt of his katana.

Out of the mist stepped a tall, lean woman dressed in a white kimono. She carried a long, double-pointed spear, and wore a green, demon-faced mask. Her black hair hung down past her hips and fluttered about her as she walked. She moved like a phantom, gliding quickly over the ground.

She spotted Tadaka and lowered her weapon for combat.

THE WAY OF WATER

Isawa Tomo knew he could put it off no longer. All morning he had avoided his duty, but now, the hour was growing late. Probably his brethren had completed their tasks already.

It was not like Tomo to shirk his duties— but this errand gave him no pleasure.

At daybreak he had sat by a river and told stories to a group of children he had never met before. He spoke of Amaterasu, the Sun Goddess, and her husband, Onnotangu, the Lord Moon. He told tales of Shinsei and the Serene Prophet Uikku. What the children liked best, though, was to hear the exploits of Shiba Ujimitsu, the Phoenix Champion.

Tomo didn't know Ujimitsu as well as his brother Tadaka did, but he still knew many thrilling tales of the champion. For his part, Tomo was glad to keep his young charges entertained. When the children had been called off to help their parents in the fields, Tomo busied himself elsewhere.

He found an old woman carrying clothes to the riverbank and helped her do her wash. Like the children, she never suspected Tomo's true identity. She was happy just for the help and companionship.

After that, he sat by the shore of Umi Amaterasu, the Sea of the Sun Goddess, and built sandcastles. The children who flocked to see his work were delighted. First he built Kyuden Isawa, then Shiro Shiba, and finally great Otosan Uchi itself. The children gathered fiddler crabs and sand hoppers to populate the castles and minnows and hermit crabs to guard the moats.

Building sandcastles only reminded Tomo of the castle he was avoiding. Finally, his heart heavy, he walked to a deserted quay and paid for a small skiff. The boat's owner wanted to go with Tomo, to row the Master of Water wherever he wanted to go, but Tomo would have none of it. His mission was too dangerous for peasant fisherman, or even for most heroes.

To the Master of Water, it would be little trouble. Tomo climbed aboard the small boat, painted blue to match the sky. Probably the fisherman hoped fish wouldn't be able to see the boat that way. Tomo smiled at the conceit.

Using the oars, he paddled out from the quay and into the open ocean. Sailboats darted about in the distance, chasing fish or perhaps sailing just for pleasure. This trip would be no pleasure for Isawa Tomo.

It had taken Tomo two days to walk up the coast to this point, and most of this day to work up his courage. The other Elemental Masters would think him silly, no doubt, putting off such a simple task. Certainly Tsuke would. The Master of Fire brooked little nonsense when he led the Council of Five. Fortunately, Tadaka had assumed a greater leadership role recently. The Master of Earth was more forgiving of Tomo's foibles.

Tomo couldn't whisper wind into the boat's small sails, like his friend Uona could, but he had other means at his disposal. Sitting in the stern of the craft, he began to sing. The song was clear and rhythmic like the waves, and strong, like surf crashing on mighty cliffs. Water rose around the boat and bore her forward.

Swiftly the she ran, outpacing even the dolphins, who swam near the gunwales to get a look at the Master of Water. "Who are you?" their laughing faces seemed to ask. But when they saw Tomo they asked no more. Instead they jumped high into the air More submerging once more. Tomo smiled.

Propelled by the heaving of the sea, the Master of Water reached his destination quickly. The sun had barely crept past noon when he slowed his craft. No other boats plied the ocean at this point. No fishermen cast their nets or lines. This spot, the locals knew, was accursed.

Tomo looked back toward the distant shore. He could just see the outlines of the ancient jetty where it met the surf. A shadow ran below the surface to where Tomo sat in his boat. He changed his song, and the boat anchored itself in the waves.

long ago, a castle, Umiakari no Shiro—the "Sea Light," occupied this spot. It had been a lighthouse, a beacon to sailors and fishermen. The castle had been erected at the end of a long stone causeway. For years it withstood the assault of storm and sea.

Two hundred years ago, though, an earthquake cracked the castle's bedrock foundations. The tsunami that followed pushed (he Sea Light beneath the waves, drowning its daimyo and her retainers. Peasants said that the lady and her followers still lived beneath the waves and that the place was haunted. They called (he spot Shiro ga Shizumi Umi—"Sea of the Drowned Castle." That was why no boats sailed her waters.

Tomo did not fear the castle or its inhabitants. He feared what waited within. He stood in the prow of his tiny boat and chanted a prayer to Amaterasu. Then he jumped, feet first, over the side. The dark waters embraced him.

The ocean was cold for the time of the year. It nipped at Tomo's ears, toes, and fingertips. He opened his eyes. The world around him was a blue-green dream. Above him, he saw the disc of the Sun Goddess blazing down through the water. The ocean danced and sparkled with her light.

Tiny silver fish darted to and fro. Fist-sized squid rose from the depths to eat them. When the squid saw Tomo, though, they jetted away into the darkness. In the distance, Tomo heard the cries of whales. The leviathans' mournful songs seemed appropriate to this haunted place.

As Tomo swam downward, the waters protecting their master, providing him air to breathe. Great kelp beds rose up from the ocean floor below. The fronds tickled Tomo's skin as he swam through them. He laughed, forgetting for a moment the grim nature of his errand.

Soon, the light thinned, and so did the seaweed. When the last fronds parted, Tomo found himself swimming in an azure void, descending into indigo darkness. Down he went, deeper and deeper. Had he not been the Master of Water, the pressure would have crashed his frail body, but the ocean cherished him. Here he was truly at home.

It loomed out of the darkness like a white ghost: Shiro ga Shizumi—the "Drowned Castie." The castle listed seaward from the endless tug of waves, but its powerful magic kept the ancient fortress from crumbling. The castle's crooked battlements stretched up toward the light that would forever be denied them. Atop them all thrust the proud tower that had once housed the bonfires so friendly to sailors. Barnacles covered its sides and pale corals added their distinctive touches. Squid and viper-fish swam in and out of the lighthouse's windows, chasing each other in an endless parade.

His objective lay in the heart of the structure. The tower's top had been completely encrusted by coral and other hard-shelled marine life. The lower part of the structure had no windows. Its sole door stood blocked by tons of fallen masonry. Tomo didn't have time to move those rocks.

He chose the lowest window, though its was too small even for his lithe body. Tomo summoned an appropriate spell. He pictured the kanji in his mind and made the sinuous motions required. The water embraced him; he became one with it. He reached out and stuck one hand in through the narrow opening.

The rest of him followed the hand, flowing through the window like the body of a jellyfish. Once inside, the Master of Water resumed his own form. It was pitch black, but Tomo didn't need eyes to see. The ocean whispered its secrets to his mind. To him, the castle was lit by brilliant blue light.

A stairway spiraled down the middle of the keep. Tomo swam down the central shaft toward the tower's base. At the bottom of the stairway he found a portal. Once a wooden door had sealed the tower against intruders, but the door had long ago succumbed to sea worms. The castle was not without its guardians, though.

On each side of the door rested a huge Heike crab the size of .1 grown man. Markings that resembled samurai faces glowered on the creatures' carapaced backs. Legend said the crabs were samurai who had drowned in a long-ago sea battle. Looking at the monstrous crustaceans, Tomo could well believe it.

The creatures spotted him and immediately blocked the doorway with their long, armored legs. They raised their huge claws and snapped menacingly toward the intruder.

"1 am Isawa Tomo," Tomo said calmly, "Phoenix Master of Water. I come to see your mistress on an errand of utmost importance. You will let me pass."

The crabs clicked to each other for a minute. Then they moved aside, opening the doorway. Tomo swam through.

Beyond he found a vast chamber. Seaweed filled the place, hanging in the water like green and brown curtains. How the plants grew without the light of Amaterasu, Tomo could not guess. Weeds danced in the currents like snakes undulating through the water.

Tomo swam gently through the weeds, making his way to the far side of the room. They parted to reveal a huge chair made of shells and the skeletons of sea creatures.

In the chair sat the body of a woman, blue from death and shriveled by the ocean's salty depths. A white kimono of seaweed wound about her emaciated form. Her pale hair drifted in the currents. A necklace of pearls hung at her throat. Bracelets of pearls and shells adorned her wrists and ankles.

Her eyes were closed and her mouth open. She looked ancient. She didn't breathe. She didn't move, save with the room's currents. Across her breast she clutched a scroll case of pure white crystal.

Tomo swam forward. He reached out to take the scroll. His fingers brushed the case's crystal surface.

The woman's eyes blinked open.

Tomo, startled, took away his hand.

"Isawa Tomo," the drowned lady said, "the waves whispered to me of your coming."

"Lady Heike," he said, "I did not know you still lived."

"I exist," she said. "I wait. My castle will rise again at the end of the world. Has that time come?"

"I pray not," Tomo said. "My brethren seek to postpone that day indefinitely."

"So sad," she said. "In the end there will be peace. Peace like there is here, beneath the waves. Have you come to join me, Isawa Tomo?"

Tomo shook his head. "I cannot. I have a mission to complete."

"You've come for the scroll," she said.

Tomo nodded.

"Will you take it though it will mean your death, Isawa Tomo?"

"What is my death, compared to the end of the world?"

"Nothing," she replied, "unless your death hastens the day. When the Mistress of Water gave me the scroll long ago, she told me I would give it up before the world ended and the man who I gave it to would hasten that end."

"Never!" Tomo said. "I will use the scroll to fight the evil that engulfs Rokugan."

Lady Heike shook her head, and her white hair billowed out into the water like a halo. "Even the wise cannot see their own face," she said. "In any case, I return the scroll to you that it may quicken the day when my castle rises. Take it if you will."

Tomo reached out and seized the scroll case in both hands. He pulled. At first, it seemed the drowned lady would not let go. Then her stiff limbs gave way, and her long fingers uncurled. Tomo clutched the scroll to his breast.

"Stay with me," she whispered to him, her voice as sweet as the ocean's depths.

"I cannot," Tomo said again.

"Then begone," she replied. The seaweed drifted between them like a curtain, blocking her from sight.

Tomo turned and swam back through the castle to the surface. The window was barely large enough to pass the scroll

through. For just a moment, Tomo wondered if he was doing the right thing. Then he shook the feeling off and rose quickly to his boat.

Poking his head above water, he put the scroll into the skiff. He climbed aboard and collapsed, gasping for air. Never had an undersea journey affected him this way before.