Chaos reigned – to Jack and his friends’ advantage. Losing themselves in the melee, they shook off the plague doctors, slipped past the constables and disappeared down a side street. Rose led them to a large brick house overlooking the Cherwell river.

With no time to waste, Jack hammered on the heavy oak door, yelling, ‘Open up!’

No one answered. Jack threw his shoulder against the door; the frame split and the door swung open. Inside in the hallway, they found the bailiff packing a trunk, evidently in a hurry to leave. When he saw Jack and Yori, his goldfish eyes almost bulged out of their sockets.

‘You!’ he cried, pointing an accusing fat finger at Yori. ‘You and your devil witch brought the plague upon us!’ And he cursed them bitterly.

‘We did no such thing,’ said Yori fiercely, in a rare show of temper. ‘You killed Akiko!’

The bailiff snorted. ‘Good riddance, I say, to that plague-infested –’

‘Give us back our weapons, you slimy toad,’ Jack demanded.

The bailiff puffed out his barrel chest. ‘No one speaks to me that way! I’m the bailiff of this town. You will –’

He suddenly clasped his fleshy throat and began to spit up blood. Through his fingers Jack glimpsed the gleam of a silver metal star. Jack spun round to see the black waxed cloak of a plague doctor filling the doorway. Before they became the next victim of a shuriken, Jack shoved his friends into the nearest room and slammed the door shut behind them.

‘We need to find our weapons,’ he said, as Yori and Rose helped him drag a heavy wooden bench across the doorway. They scoured the front room for their belongings, then dashed through another door into the dining chamber, but their frantic search turned up nothing. Behind them they heard the splintering of wood and the scrape of furniture as the plague doctor barged his way into the front room. Cutting through the kitchen, they crossed into the parlour, then took a servant’s passageway leading to a wood-panelled music room. There they found a lute and a harpsichord – but no swords, no bow, not even Yori’s shakujō.

‘We’ll have to try upstairs,’ said Jack, hearing the clatter of pans as the plague doctor entered the kitchen.

They raced back into the main hallway, where the bailiff now lay dead, his blood oozing across the floorboards. Then, just as they were mounting the staircase, Yori caught sight of Jack’s katana on a desk in the front study. Jumping over the bailiff’s body, Jack made a dash for his sword … but was too late.

The plague doctor had doubled back and was now blocking their way.

25: Kanzashi

As Jack, Yori and Rose stood motionless in the hallway, the plague doctor gave a shrill birdlike whistle, then drew a gleaming straight-edged sword from the sheath on his back. Up close, Jack recognized the weapon for what it was – a razor-sharp ninjatō.