‘YORI!’ cried Jack, hardly able to believe his eyes. Running over, he pulled his friend into an all-enveloping embrace. Then, falling to his knees, he bowed his head in shame. ‘How can you ever forgive me for abandoning you like that?’

‘Don’t listen to him,’ interrupted Hayato. ‘Jack was coming for you. I’m the one who stopped him.’

‘I’m glad you did,’ said Yori, smiling warmly. ‘It would have been a needless sacrifice for my dear friend.’

‘But if you are here, who’s that?’ asked Saburo, pointing to the figure tied to the burning stake.

‘A straw soldier, of course.’

Jack laughed in astonishment. Only now did he notice Yori was no longer wearing his armour.

‘But we were watching you all the time. How’s that possible?’ said Hayato.

Miyuki shot him a playful grin and replied, ‘Ninja magic.’

A howl of fury was heard from the paddy fields as Nakamura also discovered the truth. With the straw gone up in flames, the armour collapsed and an empty helmet bounced off the pyre. Nakamura glared in crazed disbelief when he spotted Yori safely behind the village defences. Yori gave him a little bow. This incensed the bandit even more and, kicking the helmet in a fit of rage, he stormed back to Akuma.

‘In order for us to escape without being detected, I needed to leave a decoy,’ explained Miyuki. ‘There wasn’t time to tell anyone of my plan. As it was, I barely reached Yori before midnight.’

‘So it was you who put out the torch?’ said Jack, his admiration for her growing even stronger.

‘With a snowball,’ Miyuki nodded.

‘Akuma’s going to be really furious now,’ said Saburo with a roguish grin.

Out in the paddy fields, the sound of cracking ice drew everyone’s attention. The heat from the fire had melted its frozen surface and the burning pyre dropped through to the waters beneath. The flames were extinguished and the plain once more fell into darkness.

53 Gone

53

GONE

The battle was to stay awake.

A second sleepless night meant exhaustion threatened to defeat the farmers before Akuma did. They sat beside the sentry fires, heads bobbing drowsily as they fought their fatigue. Barely able to keep their own eyes open, the young samurai took turns to patrol the boundary with their units. The moonless night forced them to rely solely upon their ears to warn of an attack. So every noise became the prelude to a bandit advance, every sound the beginning of an assault. Hayato reported hearing footsteps in the snow, but no bandits materialized to storm the moat. On Jack’s round, he heard the splintering of wood – soon realizing the remains of the bridge were being washed away by the river, piece by piece. The sound of horses’ hooves sent everyone on high alert, but again nothing came of it.

After that, the night settled into an uneasy quiet.