L5r - scroll 05 - The Crab (16 page)

"Life offers few guarantees other than death," Yori replied and said no more.

They rode on for another few miles in silence. Although they would be hard pressed to point out any landmarks to prove it, all the samurai were sure they grew near to the site of their previous battle.

A hot wind swirled the mist at their feet, then blew it away entirely as Kisada's horse strode onto a large, open plateau.

"Have you changed your mind so soon, Lord of the Crab Clan? I know you humans are fickle, but it has been less than a decade since you laughed so uproariously at my proposal."

The oni sat right where Kisada had seen it last, hunched uncomfortably in a sphere of translucent white light. While it had a vaguely human shape, the fact that the creature had no features made it hard for Kisada to tell whether or not it was mocking him. The ropy tendrils that made up its body were a deeper color now—closer to purple than red—and its eyes were a darker shade of yellow, but it still made the same straining and popping noises as it shifted within its tiny cell.

Kisada dismounted but made a sign for the others to stay as they were. He paced slowly toward the prison and stopped just as he went completely out of the beast's view. The oni to had to shift uncomfortably within the cramped sphere in order to meet Kisada's eye.

"At the time it struck me as an arrangement I would never have use for," the Great Bear said. There was no use being evasive.

"It would seem that 'never' has come!" The oni stretched its face into a broad grin and made a grating noise the samurai could only assume was laughter. "Are you ready to seek the Emerald Throne, Kisada?"

"You continue to read me wrong, oni," Kisada said. "The throne is no place for a warrior like me. I belong on the battlefield, not at the Imperial Court."

"Then why have you come back?" the creature asked. "To mock me? I thought even you Crab were above that."

The Great Bear bristled, but he did not allow the oni to bait him. He was here for a reason, and allowing himself to be cajoled into a fight would not accomplish anything.

"Many things have changed in the empire since last we talked," Kisada said. "Many more things are about to change."

The oni grunted. "Things are always changing in your world. Your lives are so short there is no continuity. Just as soon as one of you begins to accomplish a measurable task, he dies, and the next generation undoes all he worked for. Or, worse, they ignore the lessons he learned and make the same mistakes over again. I am not afraid that the world will pass me by while I sit here in this prison your shugenja conjured." The oni tapped absently against the inside of the sphere, sending tiny arcs of lightning across its surface. "I know that in a thousand years, when this spell finally fades away, you humans will still be making the same mistakes you are today, guarding the same wall and fighting the same feuds. And if you're not, it will be because my master the Dark God has crushed you once and for all."

"Then why offer to help me seek the throne?" asked the Great Bear.

"Because I am bored," the oni said with a sinew-popping shrug. "I was bored two years ago when I decided to participate in that assault on your wall, and I'm doubly bored now."

"Don't waste my time with lies!"

The oni stared at Kisada with its pale yellow eyes and threw its head back in raucous laughter.

"Very well," it said. "The truth is my master cares not a whit for me or my soldiers. We are only a part of his grand plan for revenge against the Hantei, and a small part at that. If we all died on Crab blades, it would make no difference to Fu Leng."

It leaned closer, the tendrils of its nose sizzling as they pressed against the magical sphere. "I place a higher value on my life."

Kisada laughed. "Your great plan to save your own life is to strike a bargain with your age-old enemy?"

The oni shrugged again. "My master has made no promise of my safety—that is something I would demand of you before 1 lent you my aid."

"What makes you think I wouldn't accept your help, then order you and your army slaughtered the moment I reach my goal?"

"Over the years you have proven to be reliable, Kisada— violent and aggressive, but reliable. You will keep your word. You always do. In you I see a chance to forge my own destiny. It may be generations before I find another Rokugani who warrants the respect and trust I have for you."

Kisada grunted, a sound even gruffer and deeper than the monster's. "I understand," he said reluctantly. "It is rare to find an enemy that you can revere at the same time you attempt to take his head. However, the fact remains: I will not seek the throne for myself, and I certainly will not do so for you. I
do,
however, offer you a counterproposal."

The ropy segments of the oni's forehead twitched and rose in an expression of curiosity.

"What is this counterproposal, oh mighty Crab?"

"Order your army to cease its attack on the Wall for one year."

"And why should I do that?"

The Great Bear leaned forward like a father whispering to his son. The oni pressed its face and hands against the sphere.

"A civil war threatens the empire. Empress Kachiko has set the clans against one another, vying for the Emerald Throne."

"I know
that!"
thundered the oni. "I foresaw these events before we had our first meeting! Why do you think I have
any
interest in who sits on my enemy's throne? "

"Ah, but it isn't the throne in which you should be interested." Kisada paused and raised his eyebrows imitating a particularly annoying expression of Kuni Yori's—one that presaged a particularly insightful comment.

The oni leaned back and considered, his expression similar to the one Kisada wore in such situations—half disbelief and half curiosity.

"Sitting on the throne is no guarantee of control. The emperor cannot master his own wife, let alone the ambitions of (he clans. Taking the throne wouldn't give me unquestioned authority over anyone.

"But I can rule the country—control the movement of troops. You want me to assure that the Rokugani forces will not wage war against your troops. I cannot guarantee that even I could do that from Otosan Uchi," Kisada paused dramatically. "But I
can
promise that when I seize control of Beiden Pass!"

"The pass?" croaked the oni. It scratched its chin with a finger made of entwined tentacles. "You will not move against an emperor you know to be weak and unable to rule, but you will make a military maneuver that will bring you in conflict with every other clan in your empire?"

Kisada threw his head back and laughed. "After fighting the Crab for so long, I'd have thought you'd understand us better! My duty is to protect the empire, whether from unholy monstrosities or from honorless dogs. If other clans cannot see that civil war is a threat to the empire, I have no compunction about teaching them with steel and blood."

The oni nodded. "You truly are a man of vision, Crab Lord."

Kisada waited. So far the oni had agreed to nothing.

"I cannot accept this proposal. The taking and holding of a mountain pass is a temporary thing. What you win today, you could lose tomorrow. If anything goes wrong for you, my army's inaction will bring Fu Leng's wrath down on us all."

"What is the difference?" demanded the Great Bear. "Could I not just as easily lose the throne, if I decided to make it mine?"

The oni laughed that terrible, grating laugh. "Any warrior can kill a foe or take a pass—but it takes a legend to kill an emperor!"

"So you reject my offer?" Kisada was obviously displeased.

"As I said," the oni continued, "I cannot completely hold off our attacks based on your plan. However, I can offer you two things: a reduction in aggression against your position, and support in your efforts to take the pass, if not the throne."

The Great Bear blinked several times.

"Support?" said Kisada. "What do you mean support? And how severely would you curtail your assault on the Wall?"

The oni smiled so broadly that several tendrils snapped and whipped around at the side of the creature's maw.

"I offer support in the form of troops. I will send as many of my warriors with you as you like. Our mission is to invade Rokugan—Fu Leng never said anything about waging war against the Crab in order to do so."

Kisada cocked his eyebrow and tilted his head slightly. "You will place your troops under my command?"

"No," the oni looked aghast. "They will not fight for your cause. But they
will
march by your side and bolster the apparent size of your army. Your army will seem an unstoppable force. Tell me how many troops you wish to take. Every goblin, ogre, and zombie that follows you is one more creature who will not be assaulting your precious wall in your absence."

Kisada sat as still as a decorative suit of armor. For a very long time he said nothing. "You want me to march my army off to war alongside an army of our greatest enemies? How can we possibly trust that your warriors will not turn on us the minute we lie down to sleep? How can I be sure that you will not order your beasts to wait until we are engaged in battle with our enemy, then attack us from our exposed flanks?"

"And how do I know, Hida Kisada, that you will not march my subjects into the heart of enemy territory and slay them where they stand? Trust, you see, cannot always be earned. Sometimes mutual suspicion is enough. I respect you, Crab Lord. I do not trust you. This proposal is so perilous for both of us that we cannot enter into it with duplicity in our hearts. We have no choice but to be true to one another."

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From their vantage at the plateau's edge, Yakamo and Yori could make out most of what the oni said. Its voice resonated low and clear and seemed to travel through the very ground itself. However, they could not hear a word said by the Great Bear.

"How can he accept such a proposal?" Yakamo said.

"Your father is a cunning general," replied Yori, though he knew the question was rhetorical. "He knows that sometimes the most strategic tactic is not the most likely to succeed. The one your enemy least expects is."

Yakamo looked at the shugenja.

"If he does agree," Yakamo said, this time specifically to the shugenja, "what does that mean for the Crab? For a thousand years we have defined ourselves by our fight against the Shadow-lands. If we march into battle with those creatures at our sides, what do we stand for?"

Yori smiled underneath his hood. He had been waiting for Yakamo to ask this question, and now he needed to be careful in answering it. He had to let the silence hang for just the right amount of time, and he himself had to appear to struggle with the matter. The shugenja raised a hand to his long mustache and stroked it pensively. This was the art of manipulation. This was the moment when years of planning came together.

"History is replete with tales of enemies who became the closest of allies," he finally said in his practiced, faraway voice— the one that made it seem he was drawing on some mystical store of knowledge. "If Kisada succeeds in bridging this gulf, he may well be remembered as the greatest leader in the history of the empire."

Yakamo grunted in agreement. As far as he was concerned, his father already deserved that accolade.

"Savor this moment, Yakamo-san," Yori continued. "It is one that history will remember for centuries to come. Make yourself a part of it. Use it to improve your own karma."

Yakamo became still, his eyes never leaving his father's yet-silent figure.

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"Very well," Kisada finally answered. "I will take two thousand of your troops to march alongside mine."

The oni clapped its tremendous hands together once.

"So it shall be," the creature said. "They will report to your Wall at first light tomorrow. Remember, they will follow you and take your marching orders, but they will not fight for you."

Kisada smiled wryly. "But they
will,
I think, defend themselves if attacked by other forces."

"Without a doubt."

Both Kisada and the oni burst into laughter, but not at each other. For the first time, the two ancient enemies laughed together.

"Now have your shugenja release me, and we will drink a toast to our new alliance."

Kisada grew deathly quiet.

"We are not allies," he said. "And you are not leaving that prison."

"What?" roared the oni.

"Let's call it 'insurance,'" the Great Bear said. "I need some guarantee that your soldiers here will behave themselves while my army is divided. I suspect that even depleted by two thousand, your army could continue to throw their lives away on our blades for weeks before we noticed a slack in your attacks."

"You are indeed clever—and quite correct," replied the oni. "But the fact is that my army poses a greater threat to your position if I am imprisoned and cannot punish them for disobeying my orders, which they do with alarming frequency."

Kisada considered this. "So what I need is a way to put you back in command of your forces and still maintain the position of strength I have while you're my prisoner."