The dragon charged straight over a kobaya in its path, splitting the smaller boat in half and crushing its crew. One of the surviving seki-bune fired off a cannon. But the iron ball merely bounced off the spiked back of the beast. The dragon roared flame in retaliation, setting fire to the battleship’s mainsail along with several of the crew. Screaming, the Sea Samurai threw themselves overboard, tumbling like human comets into the water.

As Jack fought to keep Saburo above the surface, dead and dismembered bodies of other Sea Samurai washed past.

‘Jack!’ cried Miyuki, swimming over with Yori and Cheng in tow.

Yori was hanging on to the canvas bag and his staff for dear life.

‘We … need … a boat,’ gasped Jack, Saburo’s dead weight slowly slipping from his grasp.

‘Look there!’ cried Cheng, pointing to wreckage from the kobaya.

A section of deck drifted near and Miyuki grabbed hold. Clambering on to the makeshift raft, she hauled Saburo to safety, then helped the others. They all collapsed with exhaustion. Unguided and unpowered, the raft was tossed on the waves.

Mercifully, they drifted away from the atake-bune just before it exploded, the Seto Sea swallowing the great battleship whole.

26

Adrift

Jack felt the warmth of the morning sun on his face and heard the gentle lap of waves. Opening his eyes, he discovered his friends sprawled across the raft, fast asleep. Yori was curled round the canvas bag in the middle, with Saburo propped against him.

Sitting up, Jack inspected the splintered section of deck that had saved their lives. Rectangular with the main beams beneath, the raft was buoyant and large enough to hold them all. But their weight made it unstable and even the smallest waves threatened to capsize them.

Surveying the horizon, Jack’s hopes rose … then fell. None of the devastation from the previous night was visible and no samurai or pirate ships pursued them. But now the Seto Sea stretched unbroken in all directions. With no land in sight, he guessed their raft had been caught in an outgoing tidal current – which meant they could be drifting into the vast and dangerous expanse of the Pacific Ocean. Glancing up at the sun, Jack tried to calculate the direction they were heading in. But, without any landmark to judge their progress by, it was impossible to tell. And since he wasn’t familiar with these waters, even if he could establish a bearing, he wouldn’t know whether their current course was a good or bad thing. He shook Cheng and the others awake.

‘Where are we?’ asked Saburo, groggily sitting up.

Jack stared in amazement at his friend.

‘What?’ said Saburo, blinking and wiping his eyes.

‘You’re better!’

Saburo gave a pained smile as he rubbed a stiff shoulder. ‘I wouldn’t say that. I feel like twenty sumo wrestlers have jumped on my bones. My muscles burn every time I move.’