"Golden Sun"
"Golden Sun"
8/28/1986
I.
Blue light flickered for a second over the wide stone flag road which led up the hillside to the castle in the distance. Three figures appeared in that pale flash who had not been there a moment earlier, three people who instinctively formed an outward-facing circle and stared around them cautiously. It was late morning, the sun was nearly overhead and they were fully exposed and vulnerable.
The being was called itself Leonard Slade was tall, an inch over six feet in height and athletic in build with wide shoulders and a narrow waist. He looked vaguely of Latin origins, with short black hair, dark brown eyes and an olive-skinned handsome face which was calm to the point of being almost expressionless. The Trom wore a dark skin-tight outfit fitted with many pouches and pockets to hold numerous small devices. Strapped between his shoulder blades was a round dull grey disc the size of a dinner plate.
Beside him, somewhat shorter and slighter in build, Toshiro Mitsuru made a dramatic contrast. He was wearing low slippers, baggy black trousers and an open black vest which revealed incredibly defined muscles in his arms and torso, muscles developed in a lifetime of martial arts study. The Tiger Fury had coarse black hair which was a bit shaggy at the moment and eyes with a double eyelid fold. Right now, these eyes scanned the area around them intensely before he visibly relaxed a bit and lowered his arms from their defensive pose.
The third traveler was a young Asian girl barely eighteen, just old enough to have been accepted as a Tel Shai student and a KDF member. Tang Ming stood just an inch over five feet tall and weighed only one hundred pounds. She had long glossy black hair tied back in a ponytail, huge thoughtful eyes in a delicately-featured face which revealed none of the iron will and discipline she had shown all her life. In contrast to Shiro, she wore Western clothes.. white sneakers, denim jeans, a dark blue pullover and a light blue windbreaker.
"Chujir," she said quietly, the first of them to speak. "Homeland of my ancestors. I have always wanted to visit this realm. Already I feel like I would be at peace here."
"Easy for you to say," snorted Shiro. "You're Han through and through. I'm half Chinese and half Japanese and both races regard me as a halfbreed who belongs to neither of them..."
She smiled tolerantly at him. "A man with your skills and abilities makes a home for himself wherever he is."
As the Tiger Fury made a scoffing noise, Slade spoke up in his usual confident tones. "Our mission here is urgent, my friends. We have two days, give or take a few hours, before the gralic charge in our body fades and we return to the real world. In that time, we must recover the page from the REVELATIONS OF TOLLINOR and either destroy it or bring it back with us. Anyone who manages to translate that page will learned knowledge forbidden since the Darthan Age."
Shiro frowned at the Trom Monitor. He had always seemed to resent Slade for some unspoken reason. "Well, you're the designated leader of this squad, oh Trom. What's your first move?"
"Wait," interrupted Tang Ming, raising a small hand. "My awareness warns of hostile beings approaching. From there, by those trees. Yugen! Yugen from Chyl."
Both Slade and Shiro had learned to trust the Chinese girl's powers of perception. They turned to see a dozen men in brightly colored tunics emerge from the forest not one hundred yards away. They were armed with three-foot curved swords slung across their abdomens, making them as Zoku-Ya warriors. As soon as they spotted the strange intruders, the Yugen began striding quickly toward them with muttered curses.
"They intend to kill or capture us," Tang Ming warned. "I see anger shimmering over them like heat on a summer road."
"Let them try," Shiro chuckled, curling his hands into fists harder than rock and digging his toes into the ground experimentally. "I've taken Zoku-Ya before and made them eat their precious swords."
"There may be a more productive approach." Leonard Slade stepped between his teammates and the approaching swordsmen. This close, the bizarre Yugen could not be mistaken for members of any other Race. Their tawny, lion-hide skin and hairless heads and oddly colored eyes with black sclera and red irises, were distinctive enough. But Yugen literally had no noses. There was only a faint bulge between eyes and mouth, and they breathed in through that mouth in a way reminiscent of fish in open air.
As the Yugen came within hailing distance, Slade called out in perfect Chylan, "We come in peace! We mean no harm to anyone." Since the swordsmen seemed unmoved by this and even quickened their pace, the Trom repeated himself. This close, it could be seen that the Zoku-Yas' red and green tunics bore the emblem of a white crane. The swordsmen wore tight leggings under the tunics and short thick boots. All of them had their hands on the hilts of the swords but none had drawn as yet.
Moving around to stand beside Slade, Shiro raised his arms with his hands tensed into claws, apparently not just ready to fight but eager. Slade took a small round disc from one of the pouches on his suit and held it up in his palm. "I suggest you both look away," he whispered to his teammates. "Cover your ears as well."
When the apparent leader of the Zoku-ya, marked by a black skullcap on his bald head, started to slide the Zoku blade from its lacquered wooden scabbard, Slade triggered his device. It was as if lightning had struck directly overhead. Intolerably bright light flashed and turned the world solid white for a second, while a sharp detonation of sound cracked so loudly that it knocked the Yugen off their feet entirely.
"Damnit, Slade, that almost blew my head off!" Shiro grumbled.
"I did warn you."
"Well, next time warn me harder, mister!" the Tiger Fury snapped, shaking his head and blinking at the spots which blurred his vision.
"These men will recover their bearings in a minute," the Trom continued as if Shiro had not interrupted. "Hopefully we will be able to have a useful discussion when they can see and hear again."
II.
"Should we disarm them while they are helpless?" asked Tang Ming. She was rubbing her eyes and yawning, evidently trying to get her ears to pop.
"Oh, that would be a bad idea," Shiro put in. "These Yugen believe their souls reside in the blade of the Zoku. That would just make them incredibly riled up."
Soon, the stunned swordsmen stirred, got back up on their feet and unconsciously drew into a tight grouping facing the three strangers. It took a while for them to digest what had happen, the dazzling explosion of light and sound had been so unexpected. Finally, their leader took two steps forward and bowed his head while leaning on his sheathed sword.
"Have we called down the anger of the very gods in Heaven on us?" he asked bravely enough.
"No," Slade answered. "We are knights of the Order of Tel Shai, here to serve justice."
"We know the legend of Tel Shai," the Yugen admitted after a pause. "So you are not demons or servants of the spirit?"
"We are living Humans like yourselves," Slade said. "You know the knights of Tel Shai are men of honor. Tell me, whose castle is that?"
"Before I speak further, know that I am Yuchiarwa, a lieutenant to General Tanagasi. Where does your loyalty lie in this war? Do you take sides with Chujir or Chyl?"
"Neither. We are outsiders. The war in this land is not for us to judge. Will you take us to your general so we may explain our purpose in coming here?"
Shiro snorted lightly and muttered, "The diplomacy of the Trom. Ask them what they're doing here themselves."
"Very well," Yuchiarwa agreed, then turned to his men to give them a stern expression. "This is a matter beyond our station. It will be for our General to make decisions regarding your fate."
"That sounds ominous," Shiro said.
"Hush," advised Tang Ming, giving him a sharp elbow in the ribs.
"Follow us to the stronghold but be alert. Keep your eyes open! There are unseen eyes watching us even now." The leader of the Zoku-Ya gestured imperiously to his men and they all proceeded at a brisk walk along the road up the hill. The castle was perhaps a mile ahead of them.
Tang Ming was noticing how well-tended the road was. Not a weed nor a blade of grass stuck its head up, and there were no missing stones or chipped ones. Alongside the walkway was untouched brush and trees which resembled beech but whic had yellowish bark. As she followed the process, her awareness extended by itself into the forest to her left. Abruptly, she dropped into a low forward-leaning crouch and her left arm swirled in an outer block that neatly deflected the two-foot shaft of an arrow harmlessly to the ground.
"Resistance!" hissed a swordsman, as they all drew their weapons so closely together it seemed like a rehearsed routine. The entire party raced at full speed up the road as a flurry of arrow fell among them. Three of the Zoku-Ya dropped to the ground with a shaft sticking out of their backs or through the throat. Leonard Slade promptly intervened.
Unclipping the beam projector from his belt, with a selected cartridge already in place, he paused and swung the device from side to side. The photon ram was set on high. Thick branches snapped off trees and went spinning away, a hurricane of loose leaves swirled in a blinding cloud and black-garbed Resistance fighters were thrown bodily from their hiding places to tumble hard against tree trunks behind them.
With the Chujiran Resistance scattered for the moment, the Yugen rushed up toward the castle and the three Tel Shai knights were close behind them. More than three hundred years old, Suganito Castle was surrounded by an outer stone wall fifteen feet high, along the top of which Zoku-Ya swordsmen stood and watched the party approach. The fortress itself was constructed mostly of wood on a stone foundation, resembling a vast mansion rather than a typical European castle. It had elaborate decorative work on the outer walls and a single slim observation tower that rose ninety feet over the roof. The massive wooden gates, braced with iron strips, swung outward as orders were yelled from inside.
As the gates closed again, drawn by thick chains which a team of horses pulled over a wheel, Yuchiarwa dropped to one knee before a Yugen officer who held a staff topped with a short red pennant bearing the white crane emblem. Standing in formation behind this officer were forty of the Zoku-Ya, hands on sword hilts.
Rising as he was acknowledged, Yuchiarwa said, "My chief, we have returned from our patrol. The Chujir scum still lurk in the trees and undergrowth, ready to ambush our brave Zoku-Ya, but behold. I have brought you these three prisoners... Tel Shai dogs from the world beyond this realm."
"Prisoners?" repeated Shiro incredulously. He tensed and Tang Ming placed a restraining hand on his arm. The tightened muscles felt like carved jade rather than flesh and blood.
The officer raised the staff he held and regarded the three strangers suspiciously. It was difficult to read expressions on Yugen faces under the best of circumstances and these Zoku-Ya had been taught to show no emotion in any case. But traces of surprise and even alarm could be seen.
"Tel Shai?" the officer said. "It seems legends walk in the noonday sun much as mere mortals do. Two of these prisoners seem to be Chujiran! But I see no weapons on them. So. Know that I am Oniwiga, General of this occupation force here at Suganito Castle. What is your business with our Lord?"
Leonard Slade bowed his head politely and responded in Chylan. "It is not war which concerns us, oh Oniwiga, but the darker threat of Darthan magick. Somewhere in this realm is an item of forbidden knowledge which endangers both the Chujiran populations and your Zoku-Ya alike. It is to locate and destroy this Darthan artifact that we have entered this realm."
Oniwaga pointed with his staff toward the mountains in this distance. "This is a matter beyond simple soldiers such as we. You must take this up with the one in this land who is most learned about sorcery and ancient ways... the warlock we fear, Master ning."
At the mention of that name, every Zoku-Ya warrior dropped a hand to sword hilt and visibly tensed. It was as if a cold shadow had fallen over them.
III.
After General Oniwaga conferred off to one side with the Zoku-Ya who had brought them there, the three KDF members were offered water to drink and some dried meat wrapped in paper to take with them. Then Yuchiarwa gathered his men with another dozen added from the force at the castle and marched them back outside. As the great gate closed behind them, the three outsiders found themselves hiking down the road with some of Zoku-Ya in front of them and some behind. This time, the Yugen soldiers had brought rectangular shields of wood braced with iron strips and they carried these raised as they watched for ambush.
They passed a large village with cultivated fields and a herd of sheep grazing. All the villagers they saw were Chujirans, looking exactly like Northern Chinese people, staring with open resentment at the Zoku-Ya striding by. The Yugen might be occupying the castle but they were outsiders surrounded by hostile natives.
After a few minutes, Shiro grumbled in English, "We're hanging out with the wrong crowd if you ask me."
"I was thinking the same," Tang Ming replied in a low tone. "My sympathies are with the people of Chujir, not these invaders. Slade, why are we working with the Yugen?"
"It was just chance that we met them first when we appeared in this realm," the Trom told his partners. "We are not on the Yugen side. Actually, I conclude that the General is just using us as weapons to attack the sorcerEr he wants to destroy in any case."
The stone-flagged road turned down toward where a river could be seen in the distance, but Yuchirawa directed his party to keep marching toward the foothills a few miles ahead of them. A well-worn trail led them through the forest. The Zoku-Ya seemed noticeably more tense and anxious as they left the main road.
"I honestly don't see how Chyl expects to conquer Chujir in the first place," Shiro said. "Chujir is just too big, it's the biggest of the adjacent realms and Chyl is tiny in comparison."
"From what we know, Chyl is attempting to force Chujir to open trade despite its disinterest. Military force seems to be the way Chyl handles all relations with other realms. Whenever interaction is needed, Zoku-Ya are sent to intimidate." Did Slade's voice hold the slightest hint of disapproal? His measured tones usually sounded like someone reading a prepared statement.
Shiro watched Slade with barely concealed dislike. He could never explain his feelings about the Trom, because he was sworn never to reveal the secret of Andrew Steel. For four years now, the Tiger Fury had worked together with Steel to fight injustice and help those persecuted, and his respect for the strange man in grey was deep. To see Slade standing there, to know it was the Trom who had brought Steel into existence and who had literally designed him, annoyed Shiro immensely. It kept reminding him what he tried to overlook, that Andrew Steel was in fact not Human, he was not even living flesh and blood. Rather than deal with this, Shiro displaced his irritation onto the Trom and on Leonard Slade in particular.
Not that Slade seemed to notice or that he would have cared in any case. The Trom were as close to being emotionless as flesh and blood could approach.
They were trudging more steeply uphill and the woods had become sparser as boulders and rocky outcroppings started being common. The party had been marching at a brisk clip for hours and now Yuchiarwa ordered a halt. Many of them went behind trees to relieve themselves, some sat on boulders and rested their feet. But all remained wary.
Slade was watching and listening as intently as the rest of them. The Trom Monitor had keen senses but not more so than Human. He seemed to be expecting something, though, as he turned to Shiro and Ming. "If opportunity arises, we will join forces with the Chujir Resistance," he said.
"Oh, I agree," Shiro replied at once. "My mother was Chinese, you know. But what makes you say that now?"
Tang Ming stepped closer to her teammates. "We are being surrounded. I feel anticipation and anger and eagerness all around us. The smell of adrenalin is on the breeze."
"I trust your mystic perception," Shiro said. "I only wish you could teach it to us."
Nearby, the Zoku-Ya were sipping tiny bits from metal flasks they wore tied to their sashes. None of them seemed at ease. The grotesque noseless faces turned constantly from side to side and even their chief Yuchiarwa kept his hand on his sword hilt as he munched a handful of grain from his pouch.
One of the swordsmen had wandered further up the hill and now he came rushing back in obvious agitation. Bowing low, he begged his chief's forgiveness but insisted that everyone come see what he had found. The three KDF members went along with the twenty Zoku-Ya and stared at what they were gaping at with dismay.
At face level, a section of the bark on a yellow beech had been peeled away. Carved deeply into the exposed trunk were two Chujiran ideograms. If Shiro or Ming could not read the symbols, it hardly mattered because the excited Zoku-Ya were all yelling at the same time.
"Golden Sun!"
"It says Golden Sun is here!"
"We are dead men!"
Drawing his sword from its scabbard and flourishing it, the chief barked, "Be silent! We are a score against one! Let the Golden Sun show his face if he-" His words were cut off as a man in gold silk robes leaped up from behind a boulder, seized him and threw him headlong into the mass of Zoku-Ya with deadly impact. Moving in a glittering blur, the intruder tore around the assembled swordsman, striking blows too quick to evade, too powerful to survive. In less than a second, three of the swordsmen had fallen with broken necks or ruptured hearts. Then two more died as the attacker slammed their heads together with a hollow cracking noise.
One of the Zoku-Ya swung his blade in a horizontal arc of steel, and Golden Sun hopped back just inches from his path. In the instant he was still, the fighter could be seen clearly. Not more than five feet six inches tall and stocky, he had a wide face and a nose that had been broken at some point. The man was in his late forties and weathered, his head was almost shaven with just a black bristle covering it. Sun wore boots and leggings of soft leather, but his loosely-sashed tunic was of a beautiful gold silk that glimmered in the late afternoon sunlight. In black on the back of his tunic were those Chujiran ideograms for "gold" and "sun."
In that second while the Zoku-Ya recovered their wits and formed a mass of gleaming blades, while Golden Sun dropped into a low stance with his open hands raised, Leonard Slade unclipped his beam projector again.
"This violence is inefficient," he began, but Shiro cut him off with a hand on his arm.
"No. Stand aside, Trom. Allow me."
Moving next to the Resistance fighter as the Yugen swordsmen spread out to attack, Shiro said in Korean, "Chong Kyu Sun, let me handle them."
Whether Sun was startled at hearing his own language after so many years or whether he was simply taken aback at the audacity of this stranger, he did indeed remain where he was while Shiro swung in front of him to confront the swordsmen.
Whipping off his vest for full freedom of movement, Shiro flung it on the ground behind him. Stripped to the waist, he was an amazing sight with zero body fat and wiry bundles of muscles under his bronzed skin. The Zoku-Ya were only stalled for a second at this unexpected intervention by the stranger before moving forward.
Shiro roared, the deep full-chested cry of the Tiger Fury that somehow sounded exactly the whiplash snarl of a real tiger. Again, the Yugen swordsmen were confused for an instant and then the Tiger Fury plowed into them in a lightning flurry of perfect strikes. Every blow broke bone where it struck, every kick threw a Yugen dying to the ground. He seemed to flicker from one instant to the next. The steel blades hissed through the air but always missed by a finger's-width as if the Zoku-Ya were deliberately trying to come close without making contact. This was an illusion. Shiro was acting on a plateau of Human coordination that only came from a lifetime of training and years under Teacher Chael of Tel Shai. He was swerving under or back from each slash even as they began, without it affecting his own punches and kicks. More than one Yugen warrior froze as he tried to follow the stranger's movements, only to be killed a split-second later.
It was eerie to watch, almost a ballet in its precision and grace except the brutal cracking noises of contact and the moans of dying warriors and bodies hitting the ground.
Two at a time, then one by one as their numbers shrank rapidly, the Yugen fell. Less than a full minute after he had attacked, Shiro Mitsuru stood alone within a ring of corpses and dying men. He was breathing more quickly and his torso was covered with a film of sweat, but he had not been scratched even once. The Tiger Fury shook his head, took a deep shuddering breath and seemed to remember his teammates for the first time.
Slade as always showed no expression other than a subdued clinical interest in the situation. Tang Ming was not smiling, but her face seemed somberly appreciative of the skill and speed she had just witnessed. Chong Kyu Sun was staring openly at Shiro, since that tiger roar had proven to him that here was another Tiger Fury like himself.
Moving belligerently toward Golden Sun, Shiro had intended to challenge him to a duel next. He wanted to prove he was a greater Master of Kumundu than Sun, that he was not second best to the Tiger Fury he had replaced as Andrew Steel's partner. It was something that had been eating away at him for a long time. Shiro met the frank, admiring stare from Sun and suddenly felt deflated. A realization washed over him. He looked back at Golden Sun and then over at the Trom he had resented for years. All the hard feelings seemed to drop away from him like a weight being lifted.
Clasping his open left hand over his right fist in the traditional salute, Shiro Mitsuru bowed low to the three heroes standing before him. "I will always do my best," he said in a choked voice. "Please try to forgive me."
IV.
There was so much to discuss. They made no attempt to conceal the dozen bodies. Golden Sun's Resistance efforts benefitted from the Yugen invaders living in fear of him. The more invincible and uncatchable he seemed, the more demoralized the Zoku-Ya became. They began to continue on the trail to the tower of the sorcerer Master ning and talked as they went. First, though, Tang Ming claimed a Zoku sword from one of the fallen, tying it by his sash across her shoulders so its hilt was up by her left shoulder.
"Normally I do not use weapons," she explained as her teammates watched. "But I have a sort of hunch..."
"In any case, that Yugen has no need for it any more," Golden Sun said. "You may find his weapon handy before this is over."
Chong Kyu Sun had become the first Tiger Fury approved by Teacher Chael in a generation. That had been in 1964. Returning to the world, Sun had been recruited by Andrew Steel, who was just launching his own career as international crime fighter and troubleshooter with an emphasis on helping victims. Along with Jennifer Ross and Fred Hogarty, Golden Sun had served as the trusted assistant and eventually full partner of the grey man for more than a decade. Sun recounted some of the many maniacs and masterminds he had defeated alongside Steel. Lord Julian Gable, the Kings in the Crypt, the Sanguinarians, Red Sect. Probably their biggest accomplishment had been smashing the subversive militia known as the WAR Party.
Then a week spent here in Chujir fighting the Smiling Brethren had troubled him. He saw the common people struggling against rampant banditry and pirates, with the Emperor far away in the city and seemingly uninterested. Sun had returned to help out, with the intention of staying only a short time. But soon it became his crusade. With the coming of the Yugen invaders forcing their way on a politically weak Chujir, Sun had decided to remain here until the work was done. He had returned to the world to explain his decision, received the full support and encouragement of Andrew Steel and had been here even since.
By now, dusk was almost falling and they were moving up a steep incline that had become increasingly rocky and barren. Only a few scattered bushes popped up here and there. Shiro told his side of events with his strange upbringing. His father and mother had stolen a fortune from the treasury of the White Web, an act of either incredible daring or recklessness. That centuries-old network of assassins had immediately launched a hunt for them that lasted fourteen years. Their newborn son grew up hiding in motel rooms and rented apartments and in cars on the road, never knowing a real home. As soon as he could walk, they had spent their wealth on having Shiro train under every available martial arts master in every style possible. He never knew if this had been their goal for him all along or if they just thought it was the only way he could survive the unending attacks from everything from ninja to brumal to Dacoits to snipers.
Just before his fifteenth birthday, Shiro returned to a secluded cottage to find the White Web had caught up with his parents at last. He had only mourned them briefly because he had to stay on the move. Then he had met an elderly sifu who had sponsored him to apply at the Order of Tel Shai. Shiro had been taken as a student by Chael and broke all odds by successfully qualifying as the new Tiger Fury. It was rare that more than one person in a century achieved that.
Back in the world, the new Tiger Fury was approached by Andrew Steel and he accepted. But it always troubled him that perhaps he was nothing more than a replacement for Chong Kyu Sun. He hated the thought of being just a fill-in, second best in Steel's eyes although no indication was ever given that this was so. In the years since, Shiro had sometimes daydreamed about coming to Chujir and challenging Golden Sun to a conclusive duel just to ease his pride.
But it hadn't worked out that way today. He was glad.
Following the two, Tang Ming was thoughtful. Her own studies in Kumundu were still at an early enough stage that she would not think of comparing her skills to theirs. It was her gralic powers of perceiving what was important to her, of locating lost or hidden objects, of uncanny timing beyond normal Human ability that had made her qualified to join the KDF. Now, as they first saw the solitary stone tower at the top of the mountain, all that perceptive awareness screamed at her that they were in peril.
She cleared her throat and the three men all paused to look back at her. Tang Ming raised her shoulders apologetically. "Maybe it's obvious and I don't need to say it. But I feel extreme danger is near as we approach that tower. What do we know about this warlock?"
"Master ning is said to be very old, he is said to have been living for ages in these hills," Golden Sun replied seriously. "He has slaves from different realms. He takes young girls from villages as 'brides' every winter and they are never seen again. Oh, and he is supposed to be able to speak with the dead."
"Damn," Shiro grumbled. "Just your typical evil sorcerer."
"We do not know if he has been able to translate any writing on that page," Slade reminded them. "The REVELATIONS OF TOLLINOR traditionally has been attributed to Tollinor Kje himself back in the Darthan Age. It contains literally hundreds of the most potent spells in gralic magick."
"All the more reason to attack quickly," Shiro said as he quickened his pace up the slope. The tower of Master ning reached up a hundred feet, tapering as it rose to a walkway ledge just under the pointed peak. A single high slot over this ledge seemed to be the only opening in the whole structure. There were no doors or windows that they could see. The tower was made of individual irregular stones that had somehow been fit closely together without any sort of mortar.
"How does he get in and out?" asked Golden Sun. "With magick?"
"No," Tang Ming said casually. "I can sense hidden trap doors in the ground near the tower. There. And there. He may be a trickster as much as a wizard." Her head swung upward and she pointed at the walkway at the top of the tower. "He has seen us."
In that opening appeared a thin elderly Chujiran, wrapped in a black robe and leaning on a cane as gnarled as the hands which gripped it. Master ning had white hair hanging down his back, a white beard which touched his chest and bushy white eyebrows which stood up in spikes. "You have come a long way merely to die, Tel Shai dogs," he called down in a thin reedy tone.
"You know what we want from you!" Slade answered in a voice suddenly deeper and more commanding than normal Human tones. "Surrender it to us."
Master ning raised his free hand, holding in it a piece of tan parchment a foot long and just as wide. "Ah. It is learning you crave, then? Few there are who can read the antique runes of ancient Maroch, my friend... but I am one of them."
The Trom unclipped his beam projector again, but even as he adjusted its controls, a flare of lurid red force shimmered in the air near the top of the tower. Some winged creature shrieked and hurtled down straight for them.
There was a glimpse of steel glittering in the dusk and Tang Ming was stepping back with the sword held in both hands, blood smearing its blade. At her feet, sliced nearly in half, lay a strange beast. The creature looked most like a manta ray, with a wingspread of four feet and a cylindrical white body about the size of a big dog. The eyes were set high on the rudimentary head and the mouth was a crescent sharklike semi-circle packed with long sharp teeth. Halfway down the body was a pair of muscular legs ending in raptor feet with huge talons. A thin whip of a tail thrashed and was still as the thing died.
"An Air Devil from Fanedral!" gloated the shriveled warlock atop his tower. "Hold, meet another of Fanedral's more interesting denizens." Again, the dark crimson gateway flared in mid-air and a much bigger brute dove down at the four heroes. With a manlike body seven feet high, wide batlike wings spread and the head of a great hound, there was no mistaking a Kulan. Few creatures were more feared in the Midnight War.
Even before the winged demon could pounce on its intended prey, the pale beam from Slade's projector slammed into with audible impact. At full intensity, the photon ram could batter down stone walls. Struck by that kinetic force, ribs cracking and breath being driven from its lungs by the pressure, the Kulan landed heavily on its face near the four Tel Shai knights. Stepping closer, the Trom Monitor shifted the beam to play over the demon's head and the sound of its thick skull cracking was decisive.
"You begin to vex me!" yelled Master ning. "Perhaps a Manticore from Okali will teach you respect."
"Forgive my boldness," Golden Sun said as he lunged over to wrest the Zoku sword from Tang Ming's grip. In a single movement, he spun the weapon to grasp it by the hilt and flung it upward where it twirled end over to end to slide neatly through the bony chest of Master ning. The warlock did not even have time for a final gasp of outrage. With the point of the sword protruding out from between his shoulder blades, the sorceror fell forward off the parapet and plummeted straight down to land on his head almost at Sun's feet. One withered hand still clutched the piece of parchment.
Blinking, Ming realized her mouth was hanging open and she consciously closed it. The strength and accuracy needed for that throw was amazing. A moment earlier, she would have sworn it was beyond the ability of any Human, even a Tiger Fury, but there before them lay the sorcerer with the blade through his body.
"Excellent!" cried Shiro. "That would never have occurred to me, Sun, and to be honest I don't think I would have been able to do it."
Chong Jyu Sun tried to appear modest, almost scuffing his toes in the dirt but he was obviously pleased with himself. "I have dealing with the Zoku-Ya for years now. Being able to fling their weapon was a useful skill to develop."
Immediately after Master Naeng had fallen, Leonard Slade crouched over the body and tugged the parchment from the lifeless fingers. "This is indeed the page we have been seeking," he announced as he rose. "It is rare for Trom to destroy information, but in this case I feel justified. These secrets can only cause harm." Moving away from the others, he removed the photon ram cartridge from his beam projector and click the thermal one into place.
"What a relief," Golden Sun said. "I admit I did not think I could slay that wizard by myself. So many have tried. So, my friends, what are your plans now?"
Tang Ming glanced over at Shiro. "Well, we have a day and a half before we are returned to the real world. Maybe we should see if the villagers will take us in so we can avoid further conflict with the Yugen?"
"Are you jesting? After they learn the Master Naeng is dead, they will treat you as the most honored guests in their lifetimes! You will feast on their best food and they will offer you their softest beds. And you will be praised and flattered until you can bear it no longer."
"I don't know," Shiro said jokingly, "I can bear a lot of praise and flattery. But Ming is right, we should try to lay low among the villagers until we are brought home. You and I, Sun, we have so much to discuss. We can reminisce about the torturous training at Tel Shai, we can brag about our deeds and laugh at our worst blunders. You do know that Andrew is still as active as ever, saving the world every day?"
"I am glad to hear that," Sun replied, taking Shiro by the arm and leading him over to watch where Slade was reducing the parchment to ashes. "But first I want news of my own country. I have not left Chujir in years. Tell me, are the North and South any closer to reuniting?"
"No, I'm afraid not. There are always talks, but not much has changed in Korea lately..." Shiro began as they walked off.
Tang Ming had been wearing a pensive expression, gazing down at the corpses of the warlock and of the beasts that had attacked them. She also was thinking of all the Yugen swordsmen who had died that day, and she was wondering how long this war would last. But then Shiro and Sun changed her mood. Hearing them chat like old friends, she straightened up and smiled happily.
9/4/2016
8/28/1986
I.
Blue light flickered for a second over the wide stone flag road which led up the hillside to the castle in the distance. Three figures appeared in that pale flash who had not been there a moment earlier, three people who instinctively formed an outward-facing circle and stared around them cautiously. It was late morning, the sun was nearly overhead and they were fully exposed and vulnerable.
The being was called itself Leonard Slade was tall, an inch over six feet in height and athletic in build with wide shoulders and a narrow waist. He looked vaguely of Latin origins, with short black hair, dark brown eyes and an olive-skinned handsome face which was calm to the point of being almost expressionless. The Trom wore a dark skin-tight outfit fitted with many pouches and pockets to hold numerous small devices. Strapped between his shoulder blades was a round dull grey disc the size of a dinner plate.
Beside him, somewhat shorter and slighter in build, Toshiro Mitsuru made a dramatic contrast. He was wearing low slippers, baggy black trousers and an open black vest which revealed incredibly defined muscles in his arms and torso, muscles developed in a lifetime of martial arts study. The Tiger Fury had coarse black hair which was a bit shaggy at the moment and eyes with a double eyelid fold. Right now, these eyes scanned the area around them intensely before he visibly relaxed a bit and lowered his arms from their defensive pose.
The third traveler was a young Asian girl barely eighteen, just old enough to have been accepted as a Tel Shai student and a KDF member. Tang Ming stood just an inch over five feet tall and weighed only one hundred pounds. She had long glossy black hair tied back in a ponytail, huge thoughtful eyes in a delicately-featured face which revealed none of the iron will and discipline she had shown all her life. In contrast to Shiro, she wore Western clothes.. white sneakers, denim jeans, a dark blue pullover and a light blue windbreaker.
"Chujir," she said quietly, the first of them to speak. "Homeland of my ancestors. I have always wanted to visit this realm. Already I feel like I would be at peace here."
"Easy for you to say," snorted Shiro. "You're Han through and through. I'm half Chinese and half Japanese and both races regard me as a halfbreed who belongs to neither of them..."
She smiled tolerantly at him. "A man with your skills and abilities makes a home for himself wherever he is."
As the Tiger Fury made a scoffing noise, Slade spoke up in his usual confident tones. "Our mission here is urgent, my friends. We have two days, give or take a few hours, before the gralic charge in our body fades and we return to the real world. In that time, we must recover the page from the REVELATIONS OF TOLLINOR and either destroy it or bring it back with us. Anyone who manages to translate that page will learned knowledge forbidden since the Darthan Age."
Shiro frowned at the Trom Monitor. He had always seemed to resent Slade for some unspoken reason. "Well, you're the designated leader of this squad, oh Trom. What's your first move?"
"Wait," interrupted Tang Ming, raising a small hand. "My awareness warns of hostile beings approaching. From there, by those trees. Yugen! Yugen from Chyl."
Both Slade and Shiro had learned to trust the Chinese girl's powers of perception. They turned to see a dozen men in brightly colored tunics emerge from the forest not one hundred yards away. They were armed with three-foot curved swords slung across their abdomens, making them as Zoku-Ya warriors. As soon as they spotted the strange intruders, the Yugen began striding quickly toward them with muttered curses.
"They intend to kill or capture us," Tang Ming warned. "I see anger shimmering over them like heat on a summer road."
"Let them try," Shiro chuckled, curling his hands into fists harder than rock and digging his toes into the ground experimentally. "I've taken Zoku-Ya before and made them eat their precious swords."
"There may be a more productive approach." Leonard Slade stepped between his teammates and the approaching swordsmen. This close, the bizarre Yugen could not be mistaken for members of any other Race. Their tawny, lion-hide skin and hairless heads and oddly colored eyes with black sclera and red irises, were distinctive enough. But Yugen literally had no noses. There was only a faint bulge between eyes and mouth, and they breathed in through that mouth in a way reminiscent of fish in open air.
As the Yugen came within hailing distance, Slade called out in perfect Chylan, "We come in peace! We mean no harm to anyone." Since the swordsmen seemed unmoved by this and even quickened their pace, the Trom repeated himself. This close, it could be seen that the Zoku-Yas' red and green tunics bore the emblem of a white crane. The swordsmen wore tight leggings under the tunics and short thick boots. All of them had their hands on the hilts of the swords but none had drawn as yet.
Moving around to stand beside Slade, Shiro raised his arms with his hands tensed into claws, apparently not just ready to fight but eager. Slade took a small round disc from one of the pouches on his suit and held it up in his palm. "I suggest you both look away," he whispered to his teammates. "Cover your ears as well."
When the apparent leader of the Zoku-ya, marked by a black skullcap on his bald head, started to slide the Zoku blade from its lacquered wooden scabbard, Slade triggered his device. It was as if lightning had struck directly overhead. Intolerably bright light flashed and turned the world solid white for a second, while a sharp detonation of sound cracked so loudly that it knocked the Yugen off their feet entirely.
"Damnit, Slade, that almost blew my head off!" Shiro grumbled.
"I did warn you."
"Well, next time warn me harder, mister!" the Tiger Fury snapped, shaking his head and blinking at the spots which blurred his vision.
"These men will recover their bearings in a minute," the Trom continued as if Shiro had not interrupted. "Hopefully we will be able to have a useful discussion when they can see and hear again."
II.
"Should we disarm them while they are helpless?" asked Tang Ming. She was rubbing her eyes and yawning, evidently trying to get her ears to pop.
"Oh, that would be a bad idea," Shiro put in. "These Yugen believe their souls reside in the blade of the Zoku. That would just make them incredibly riled up."
Soon, the stunned swordsmen stirred, got back up on their feet and unconsciously drew into a tight grouping facing the three strangers. It took a while for them to digest what had happen, the dazzling explosion of light and sound had been so unexpected. Finally, their leader took two steps forward and bowed his head while leaning on his sheathed sword.
"Have we called down the anger of the very gods in Heaven on us?" he asked bravely enough.
"No," Slade answered. "We are knights of the Order of Tel Shai, here to serve justice."
"We know the legend of Tel Shai," the Yugen admitted after a pause. "So you are not demons or servants of the spirit?"
"We are living Humans like yourselves," Slade said. "You know the knights of Tel Shai are men of honor. Tell me, whose castle is that?"
"Before I speak further, know that I am Yuchiarwa, a lieutenant to General Tanagasi. Where does your loyalty lie in this war? Do you take sides with Chujir or Chyl?"
"Neither. We are outsiders. The war in this land is not for us to judge. Will you take us to your general so we may explain our purpose in coming here?"
Shiro snorted lightly and muttered, "The diplomacy of the Trom. Ask them what they're doing here themselves."
"Very well," Yuchiarwa agreed, then turned to his men to give them a stern expression. "This is a matter beyond our station. It will be for our General to make decisions regarding your fate."
"That sounds ominous," Shiro said.
"Hush," advised Tang Ming, giving him a sharp elbow in the ribs.
"Follow us to the stronghold but be alert. Keep your eyes open! There are unseen eyes watching us even now." The leader of the Zoku-Ya gestured imperiously to his men and they all proceeded at a brisk walk along the road up the hill. The castle was perhaps a mile ahead of them.
Tang Ming was noticing how well-tended the road was. Not a weed nor a blade of grass stuck its head up, and there were no missing stones or chipped ones. Alongside the walkway was untouched brush and trees which resembled beech but whic had yellowish bark. As she followed the process, her awareness extended by itself into the forest to her left. Abruptly, she dropped into a low forward-leaning crouch and her left arm swirled in an outer block that neatly deflected the two-foot shaft of an arrow harmlessly to the ground.
"Resistance!" hissed a swordsman, as they all drew their weapons so closely together it seemed like a rehearsed routine. The entire party raced at full speed up the road as a flurry of arrow fell among them. Three of the Zoku-Ya dropped to the ground with a shaft sticking out of their backs or through the throat. Leonard Slade promptly intervened.
Unclipping the beam projector from his belt, with a selected cartridge already in place, he paused and swung the device from side to side. The photon ram was set on high. Thick branches snapped off trees and went spinning away, a hurricane of loose leaves swirled in a blinding cloud and black-garbed Resistance fighters were thrown bodily from their hiding places to tumble hard against tree trunks behind them.
With the Chujiran Resistance scattered for the moment, the Yugen rushed up toward the castle and the three Tel Shai knights were close behind them. More than three hundred years old, Suganito Castle was surrounded by an outer stone wall fifteen feet high, along the top of which Zoku-Ya swordsmen stood and watched the party approach. The fortress itself was constructed mostly of wood on a stone foundation, resembling a vast mansion rather than a typical European castle. It had elaborate decorative work on the outer walls and a single slim observation tower that rose ninety feet over the roof. The massive wooden gates, braced with iron strips, swung outward as orders were yelled from inside.
As the gates closed again, drawn by thick chains which a team of horses pulled over a wheel, Yuchiarwa dropped to one knee before a Yugen officer who held a staff topped with a short red pennant bearing the white crane emblem. Standing in formation behind this officer were forty of the Zoku-Ya, hands on sword hilts.
Rising as he was acknowledged, Yuchiarwa said, "My chief, we have returned from our patrol. The Chujir scum still lurk in the trees and undergrowth, ready to ambush our brave Zoku-Ya, but behold. I have brought you these three prisoners... Tel Shai dogs from the world beyond this realm."
"Prisoners?" repeated Shiro incredulously. He tensed and Tang Ming placed a restraining hand on his arm. The tightened muscles felt like carved jade rather than flesh and blood.
The officer raised the staff he held and regarded the three strangers suspiciously. It was difficult to read expressions on Yugen faces under the best of circumstances and these Zoku-Ya had been taught to show no emotion in any case. But traces of surprise and even alarm could be seen.
"Tel Shai?" the officer said. "It seems legends walk in the noonday sun much as mere mortals do. Two of these prisoners seem to be Chujiran! But I see no weapons on them. So. Know that I am Oniwiga, General of this occupation force here at Suganito Castle. What is your business with our Lord?"
Leonard Slade bowed his head politely and responded in Chylan. "It is not war which concerns us, oh Oniwiga, but the darker threat of Darthan magick. Somewhere in this realm is an item of forbidden knowledge which endangers both the Chujiran populations and your Zoku-Ya alike. It is to locate and destroy this Darthan artifact that we have entered this realm."
Oniwaga pointed with his staff toward the mountains in this distance. "This is a matter beyond simple soldiers such as we. You must take this up with the one in this land who is most learned about sorcery and ancient ways... the warlock we fear, Master ning."
At the mention of that name, every Zoku-Ya warrior dropped a hand to sword hilt and visibly tensed. It was as if a cold shadow had fallen over them.
III.
After General Oniwaga conferred off to one side with the Zoku-Ya who had brought them there, the three KDF members were offered water to drink and some dried meat wrapped in paper to take with them. Then Yuchiarwa gathered his men with another dozen added from the force at the castle and marched them back outside. As the great gate closed behind them, the three outsiders found themselves hiking down the road with some of Zoku-Ya in front of them and some behind. This time, the Yugen soldiers had brought rectangular shields of wood braced with iron strips and they carried these raised as they watched for ambush.
They passed a large village with cultivated fields and a herd of sheep grazing. All the villagers they saw were Chujirans, looking exactly like Northern Chinese people, staring with open resentment at the Zoku-Ya striding by. The Yugen might be occupying the castle but they were outsiders surrounded by hostile natives.
After a few minutes, Shiro grumbled in English, "We're hanging out with the wrong crowd if you ask me."
"I was thinking the same," Tang Ming replied in a low tone. "My sympathies are with the people of Chujir, not these invaders. Slade, why are we working with the Yugen?"
"It was just chance that we met them first when we appeared in this realm," the Trom told his partners. "We are not on the Yugen side. Actually, I conclude that the General is just using us as weapons to attack the sorcerEr he wants to destroy in any case."
The stone-flagged road turned down toward where a river could be seen in the distance, but Yuchirawa directed his party to keep marching toward the foothills a few miles ahead of them. A well-worn trail led them through the forest. The Zoku-Ya seemed noticeably more tense and anxious as they left the main road.
"I honestly don't see how Chyl expects to conquer Chujir in the first place," Shiro said. "Chujir is just too big, it's the biggest of the adjacent realms and Chyl is tiny in comparison."
"From what we know, Chyl is attempting to force Chujir to open trade despite its disinterest. Military force seems to be the way Chyl handles all relations with other realms. Whenever interaction is needed, Zoku-Ya are sent to intimidate." Did Slade's voice hold the slightest hint of disapproal? His measured tones usually sounded like someone reading a prepared statement.
Shiro watched Slade with barely concealed dislike. He could never explain his feelings about the Trom, because he was sworn never to reveal the secret of Andrew Steel. For four years now, the Tiger Fury had worked together with Steel to fight injustice and help those persecuted, and his respect for the strange man in grey was deep. To see Slade standing there, to know it was the Trom who had brought Steel into existence and who had literally designed him, annoyed Shiro immensely. It kept reminding him what he tried to overlook, that Andrew Steel was in fact not Human, he was not even living flesh and blood. Rather than deal with this, Shiro displaced his irritation onto the Trom and on Leonard Slade in particular.
Not that Slade seemed to notice or that he would have cared in any case. The Trom were as close to being emotionless as flesh and blood could approach.
They were trudging more steeply uphill and the woods had become sparser as boulders and rocky outcroppings started being common. The party had been marching at a brisk clip for hours and now Yuchiarwa ordered a halt. Many of them went behind trees to relieve themselves, some sat on boulders and rested their feet. But all remained wary.
Slade was watching and listening as intently as the rest of them. The Trom Monitor had keen senses but not more so than Human. He seemed to be expecting something, though, as he turned to Shiro and Ming. "If opportunity arises, we will join forces with the Chujir Resistance," he said.
"Oh, I agree," Shiro replied at once. "My mother was Chinese, you know. But what makes you say that now?"
Tang Ming stepped closer to her teammates. "We are being surrounded. I feel anticipation and anger and eagerness all around us. The smell of adrenalin is on the breeze."
"I trust your mystic perception," Shiro said. "I only wish you could teach it to us."
Nearby, the Zoku-Ya were sipping tiny bits from metal flasks they wore tied to their sashes. None of them seemed at ease. The grotesque noseless faces turned constantly from side to side and even their chief Yuchiarwa kept his hand on his sword hilt as he munched a handful of grain from his pouch.
One of the swordsmen had wandered further up the hill and now he came rushing back in obvious agitation. Bowing low, he begged his chief's forgiveness but insisted that everyone come see what he had found. The three KDF members went along with the twenty Zoku-Ya and stared at what they were gaping at with dismay.
At face level, a section of the bark on a yellow beech had been peeled away. Carved deeply into the exposed trunk were two Chujiran ideograms. If Shiro or Ming could not read the symbols, it hardly mattered because the excited Zoku-Ya were all yelling at the same time.
"Golden Sun!"
"It says Golden Sun is here!"
"We are dead men!"
Drawing his sword from its scabbard and flourishing it, the chief barked, "Be silent! We are a score against one! Let the Golden Sun show his face if he-" His words were cut off as a man in gold silk robes leaped up from behind a boulder, seized him and threw him headlong into the mass of Zoku-Ya with deadly impact. Moving in a glittering blur, the intruder tore around the assembled swordsman, striking blows too quick to evade, too powerful to survive. In less than a second, three of the swordsmen had fallen with broken necks or ruptured hearts. Then two more died as the attacker slammed their heads together with a hollow cracking noise.
One of the Zoku-Ya swung his blade in a horizontal arc of steel, and Golden Sun hopped back just inches from his path. In the instant he was still, the fighter could be seen clearly. Not more than five feet six inches tall and stocky, he had a wide face and a nose that had been broken at some point. The man was in his late forties and weathered, his head was almost shaven with just a black bristle covering it. Sun wore boots and leggings of soft leather, but his loosely-sashed tunic was of a beautiful gold silk that glimmered in the late afternoon sunlight. In black on the back of his tunic were those Chujiran ideograms for "gold" and "sun."
In that second while the Zoku-Ya recovered their wits and formed a mass of gleaming blades, while Golden Sun dropped into a low stance with his open hands raised, Leonard Slade unclipped his beam projector again.
"This violence is inefficient," he began, but Shiro cut him off with a hand on his arm.
"No. Stand aside, Trom. Allow me."
Moving next to the Resistance fighter as the Yugen swordsmen spread out to attack, Shiro said in Korean, "Chong Kyu Sun, let me handle them."
Whether Sun was startled at hearing his own language after so many years or whether he was simply taken aback at the audacity of this stranger, he did indeed remain where he was while Shiro swung in front of him to confront the swordsmen.
Whipping off his vest for full freedom of movement, Shiro flung it on the ground behind him. Stripped to the waist, he was an amazing sight with zero body fat and wiry bundles of muscles under his bronzed skin. The Zoku-Ya were only stalled for a second at this unexpected intervention by the stranger before moving forward.
Shiro roared, the deep full-chested cry of the Tiger Fury that somehow sounded exactly the whiplash snarl of a real tiger. Again, the Yugen swordsmen were confused for an instant and then the Tiger Fury plowed into them in a lightning flurry of perfect strikes. Every blow broke bone where it struck, every kick threw a Yugen dying to the ground. He seemed to flicker from one instant to the next. The steel blades hissed through the air but always missed by a finger's-width as if the Zoku-Ya were deliberately trying to come close without making contact. This was an illusion. Shiro was acting on a plateau of Human coordination that only came from a lifetime of training and years under Teacher Chael of Tel Shai. He was swerving under or back from each slash even as they began, without it affecting his own punches and kicks. More than one Yugen warrior froze as he tried to follow the stranger's movements, only to be killed a split-second later.
It was eerie to watch, almost a ballet in its precision and grace except the brutal cracking noises of contact and the moans of dying warriors and bodies hitting the ground.
Two at a time, then one by one as their numbers shrank rapidly, the Yugen fell. Less than a full minute after he had attacked, Shiro Mitsuru stood alone within a ring of corpses and dying men. He was breathing more quickly and his torso was covered with a film of sweat, but he had not been scratched even once. The Tiger Fury shook his head, took a deep shuddering breath and seemed to remember his teammates for the first time.
Slade as always showed no expression other than a subdued clinical interest in the situation. Tang Ming was not smiling, but her face seemed somberly appreciative of the skill and speed she had just witnessed. Chong Kyu Sun was staring openly at Shiro, since that tiger roar had proven to him that here was another Tiger Fury like himself.
Moving belligerently toward Golden Sun, Shiro had intended to challenge him to a duel next. He wanted to prove he was a greater Master of Kumundu than Sun, that he was not second best to the Tiger Fury he had replaced as Andrew Steel's partner. It was something that had been eating away at him for a long time. Shiro met the frank, admiring stare from Sun and suddenly felt deflated. A realization washed over him. He looked back at Golden Sun and then over at the Trom he had resented for years. All the hard feelings seemed to drop away from him like a weight being lifted.
Clasping his open left hand over his right fist in the traditional salute, Shiro Mitsuru bowed low to the three heroes standing before him. "I will always do my best," he said in a choked voice. "Please try to forgive me."
IV.
There was so much to discuss. They made no attempt to conceal the dozen bodies. Golden Sun's Resistance efforts benefitted from the Yugen invaders living in fear of him. The more invincible and uncatchable he seemed, the more demoralized the Zoku-Ya became. They began to continue on the trail to the tower of the sorcerer Master ning and talked as they went. First, though, Tang Ming claimed a Zoku sword from one of the fallen, tying it by his sash across her shoulders so its hilt was up by her left shoulder.
"Normally I do not use weapons," she explained as her teammates watched. "But I have a sort of hunch..."
"In any case, that Yugen has no need for it any more," Golden Sun said. "You may find his weapon handy before this is over."
Chong Kyu Sun had become the first Tiger Fury approved by Teacher Chael in a generation. That had been in 1964. Returning to the world, Sun had been recruited by Andrew Steel, who was just launching his own career as international crime fighter and troubleshooter with an emphasis on helping victims. Along with Jennifer Ross and Fred Hogarty, Golden Sun had served as the trusted assistant and eventually full partner of the grey man for more than a decade. Sun recounted some of the many maniacs and masterminds he had defeated alongside Steel. Lord Julian Gable, the Kings in the Crypt, the Sanguinarians, Red Sect. Probably their biggest accomplishment had been smashing the subversive militia known as the WAR Party.
Then a week spent here in Chujir fighting the Smiling Brethren had troubled him. He saw the common people struggling against rampant banditry and pirates, with the Emperor far away in the city and seemingly uninterested. Sun had returned to help out, with the intention of staying only a short time. But soon it became his crusade. With the coming of the Yugen invaders forcing their way on a politically weak Chujir, Sun had decided to remain here until the work was done. He had returned to the world to explain his decision, received the full support and encouragement of Andrew Steel and had been here even since.
By now, dusk was almost falling and they were moving up a steep incline that had become increasingly rocky and barren. Only a few scattered bushes popped up here and there. Shiro told his side of events with his strange upbringing. His father and mother had stolen a fortune from the treasury of the White Web, an act of either incredible daring or recklessness. That centuries-old network of assassins had immediately launched a hunt for them that lasted fourteen years. Their newborn son grew up hiding in motel rooms and rented apartments and in cars on the road, never knowing a real home. As soon as he could walk, they had spent their wealth on having Shiro train under every available martial arts master in every style possible. He never knew if this had been their goal for him all along or if they just thought it was the only way he could survive the unending attacks from everything from ninja to brumal to Dacoits to snipers.
Just before his fifteenth birthday, Shiro returned to a secluded cottage to find the White Web had caught up with his parents at last. He had only mourned them briefly because he had to stay on the move. Then he had met an elderly sifu who had sponsored him to apply at the Order of Tel Shai. Shiro had been taken as a student by Chael and broke all odds by successfully qualifying as the new Tiger Fury. It was rare that more than one person in a century achieved that.
Back in the world, the new Tiger Fury was approached by Andrew Steel and he accepted. But it always troubled him that perhaps he was nothing more than a replacement for Chong Kyu Sun. He hated the thought of being just a fill-in, second best in Steel's eyes although no indication was ever given that this was so. In the years since, Shiro had sometimes daydreamed about coming to Chujir and challenging Golden Sun to a conclusive duel just to ease his pride.
But it hadn't worked out that way today. He was glad.
Following the two, Tang Ming was thoughtful. Her own studies in Kumundu were still at an early enough stage that she would not think of comparing her skills to theirs. It was her gralic powers of perceiving what was important to her, of locating lost or hidden objects, of uncanny timing beyond normal Human ability that had made her qualified to join the KDF. Now, as they first saw the solitary stone tower at the top of the mountain, all that perceptive awareness screamed at her that they were in peril.
She cleared her throat and the three men all paused to look back at her. Tang Ming raised her shoulders apologetically. "Maybe it's obvious and I don't need to say it. But I feel extreme danger is near as we approach that tower. What do we know about this warlock?"
"Master ning is said to be very old, he is said to have been living for ages in these hills," Golden Sun replied seriously. "He has slaves from different realms. He takes young girls from villages as 'brides' every winter and they are never seen again. Oh, and he is supposed to be able to speak with the dead."
"Damn," Shiro grumbled. "Just your typical evil sorcerer."
"We do not know if he has been able to translate any writing on that page," Slade reminded them. "The REVELATIONS OF TOLLINOR traditionally has been attributed to Tollinor Kje himself back in the Darthan Age. It contains literally hundreds of the most potent spells in gralic magick."
"All the more reason to attack quickly," Shiro said as he quickened his pace up the slope. The tower of Master ning reached up a hundred feet, tapering as it rose to a walkway ledge just under the pointed peak. A single high slot over this ledge seemed to be the only opening in the whole structure. There were no doors or windows that they could see. The tower was made of individual irregular stones that had somehow been fit closely together without any sort of mortar.
"How does he get in and out?" asked Golden Sun. "With magick?"
"No," Tang Ming said casually. "I can sense hidden trap doors in the ground near the tower. There. And there. He may be a trickster as much as a wizard." Her head swung upward and she pointed at the walkway at the top of the tower. "He has seen us."
In that opening appeared a thin elderly Chujiran, wrapped in a black robe and leaning on a cane as gnarled as the hands which gripped it. Master ning had white hair hanging down his back, a white beard which touched his chest and bushy white eyebrows which stood up in spikes. "You have come a long way merely to die, Tel Shai dogs," he called down in a thin reedy tone.
"You know what we want from you!" Slade answered in a voice suddenly deeper and more commanding than normal Human tones. "Surrender it to us."
Master ning raised his free hand, holding in it a piece of tan parchment a foot long and just as wide. "Ah. It is learning you crave, then? Few there are who can read the antique runes of ancient Maroch, my friend... but I am one of them."
The Trom unclipped his beam projector again, but even as he adjusted its controls, a flare of lurid red force shimmered in the air near the top of the tower. Some winged creature shrieked and hurtled down straight for them.
There was a glimpse of steel glittering in the dusk and Tang Ming was stepping back with the sword held in both hands, blood smearing its blade. At her feet, sliced nearly in half, lay a strange beast. The creature looked most like a manta ray, with a wingspread of four feet and a cylindrical white body about the size of a big dog. The eyes were set high on the rudimentary head and the mouth was a crescent sharklike semi-circle packed with long sharp teeth. Halfway down the body was a pair of muscular legs ending in raptor feet with huge talons. A thin whip of a tail thrashed and was still as the thing died.
"An Air Devil from Fanedral!" gloated the shriveled warlock atop his tower. "Hold, meet another of Fanedral's more interesting denizens." Again, the dark crimson gateway flared in mid-air and a much bigger brute dove down at the four heroes. With a manlike body seven feet high, wide batlike wings spread and the head of a great hound, there was no mistaking a Kulan. Few creatures were more feared in the Midnight War.
Even before the winged demon could pounce on its intended prey, the pale beam from Slade's projector slammed into with audible impact. At full intensity, the photon ram could batter down stone walls. Struck by that kinetic force, ribs cracking and breath being driven from its lungs by the pressure, the Kulan landed heavily on its face near the four Tel Shai knights. Stepping closer, the Trom Monitor shifted the beam to play over the demon's head and the sound of its thick skull cracking was decisive.
"You begin to vex me!" yelled Master ning. "Perhaps a Manticore from Okali will teach you respect."
"Forgive my boldness," Golden Sun said as he lunged over to wrest the Zoku sword from Tang Ming's grip. In a single movement, he spun the weapon to grasp it by the hilt and flung it upward where it twirled end over to end to slide neatly through the bony chest of Master ning. The warlock did not even have time for a final gasp of outrage. With the point of the sword protruding out from between his shoulder blades, the sorceror fell forward off the parapet and plummeted straight down to land on his head almost at Sun's feet. One withered hand still clutched the piece of parchment.
Blinking, Ming realized her mouth was hanging open and she consciously closed it. The strength and accuracy needed for that throw was amazing. A moment earlier, she would have sworn it was beyond the ability of any Human, even a Tiger Fury, but there before them lay the sorcerer with the blade through his body.
"Excellent!" cried Shiro. "That would never have occurred to me, Sun, and to be honest I don't think I would have been able to do it."
Chong Jyu Sun tried to appear modest, almost scuffing his toes in the dirt but he was obviously pleased with himself. "I have dealing with the Zoku-Ya for years now. Being able to fling their weapon was a useful skill to develop."
Immediately after Master Naeng had fallen, Leonard Slade crouched over the body and tugged the parchment from the lifeless fingers. "This is indeed the page we have been seeking," he announced as he rose. "It is rare for Trom to destroy information, but in this case I feel justified. These secrets can only cause harm." Moving away from the others, he removed the photon ram cartridge from his beam projector and click the thermal one into place.
"What a relief," Golden Sun said. "I admit I did not think I could slay that wizard by myself. So many have tried. So, my friends, what are your plans now?"
Tang Ming glanced over at Shiro. "Well, we have a day and a half before we are returned to the real world. Maybe we should see if the villagers will take us in so we can avoid further conflict with the Yugen?"
"Are you jesting? After they learn the Master Naeng is dead, they will treat you as the most honored guests in their lifetimes! You will feast on their best food and they will offer you their softest beds. And you will be praised and flattered until you can bear it no longer."
"I don't know," Shiro said jokingly, "I can bear a lot of praise and flattery. But Ming is right, we should try to lay low among the villagers until we are brought home. You and I, Sun, we have so much to discuss. We can reminisce about the torturous training at Tel Shai, we can brag about our deeds and laugh at our worst blunders. You do know that Andrew is still as active as ever, saving the world every day?"
"I am glad to hear that," Sun replied, taking Shiro by the arm and leading him over to watch where Slade was reducing the parchment to ashes. "But first I want news of my own country. I have not left Chujir in years. Tell me, are the North and South any closer to reuniting?"
"No, I'm afraid not. There are always talks, but not much has changed in Korea lately..." Shiro began as they walked off.
Tang Ming had been wearing a pensive expression, gazing down at the corpses of the warlock and of the beasts that had attacked them. She also was thinking of all the Yugen swordsmen who had died that day, and she was wondering how long this war would last. But then Shiro and Sun changed her mood. Hearing them chat like old friends, she straightened up and smiled happily.
9/4/2016