THE COURT JESTER

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The Lost Shrine

By Mark Pitts

Prologue

The Unicorn patrol had been roving along the eastern border of their lands for nearly three days when they first encountered signs of a border incursion. The patrol’s commander - Shinjo Toranaga had been about to turn back in the direction of Shiro Moto for a well-earned rest, when they had come across the remains of a merchant caravan. Bodies and broken wagons lay strewn across the plain in all directions. The merchant’s guards had put up some token resistance but unusually there appeared to be no bodies of those responsible for attacking the caravan and no evidence of looting. After finding an obvious trail left by the raiders, the Unicorn scouts had determined that they were following a band of Tsuno – fierce, horned beasts of the Shadowlands that had recently appeared in Lion lands. Soon the weary Unicorn patrol found out that another larger group of the beasts had joined with those that had attacked the caravan. Together the Tsuno presented a very serious threat to the Unicorn farmlands into which they were heading at a breakneck pace. Despite his force’s tiredness Toranaga decided to give chase, after sending messengers off to Shiro Moto to raise the alarm and gather reinforcements. Where were they heading? Why were they here and not further east in Lion lands? He needed answers to those questions and he needed them fast.

After pursuing the Tsuno for another day the Unicorn patrol had attacked the stragglers of their rearguard, mostly consisting of those wounded fighting the merchant’s guards and some warriors carrying their dead. While engaged with these, the entire pack of beasts had turned at bay and viciously counterattacked the cavalry patrol. After some heavy fighting in which the Unicorn had come off worse, Toranaga gave orders to break off from the fight. The Unicorn had only managed to disengage successfully and escape annihilation because of their superior mobility and detailed knowledge of the terrain. The man-beasts were ferocious fighters and seemed to ignore their wounds. Toranaga decided to use hit and run tactics to weaken the beasts until reinforcements could arrive. When more troops did turn up they turned out to be another large Tsuno war band approaching in from the east. This new development resulted in the dwindling Unicorn patrol becoming cut off in a sheltered ravine and surrounded on all sides by vengeful Tsuno intent on drinking their blood!

Breakout

Shinjo Toranaga was a slightly built man of average height whose main advantage as a warrior came from his lightning reflexes and keen intellect. It was said that he had earned his rank as Taisho while serving under Khan Moto Chagatai who was impressed by his leadership abilities and military skill. The fact that Toranaga was from the disfavoured Shinjo family seemed of no import to the Khan, but then the Khan had a reputation for being a shrewd judge of character.

Today Shinjo Toranaga was having a bad day. He had lost over half of his command to this band of marauding Tsuno, was now surrounded in a ravine and still had no idea of why the beasts were here at all! All attempts to parley with the beasts were met by vicious assaults and had been impossible.

It was now just past the mid point of what had already been an eventful day and the Unicorn warleader was sat astride his steed near the summit of a hill with another rider beside him. Turning to the rider, a garishly dressed bushi, he spoke to him.

‘I have a bad feeling about this, Xu-shin. Take your horse archers around the right flank and find out what the beasts have in store for us there’.

‘But Toranaga-sama, Our ammunition is almost spent after the last running fight and our steeds are near exhausted...’

Toranaga cut him off. ‘Excuses Xu-shin? Your reputation is one of tenacity, not timidity! Let your skill make up for the lack of resources!’

‘Hai! Toranaga-sama’ Xu-shin replied ashamedly, and cantered off to fulfil his task.

Toranaga studied the rolling hills ahead of him intently as he leaned across the withers of his warhorse. Dark clouds rolled across the landscape, another early summer storm brewing on the horizon, when a thought suddenly occurred to him. He quickly pushed himself up in his saddle and turned his mount to face down the hill to the small defile below.

‘Come Fazief! We have work to do,’ he said to his horse and with that he cantered back down to the exhausted unit of horsemen at the base of the hill.

He approached the two dismounted figures that were stood talking quietly to one another at the head of the unit. They both looked up expectantly as he rode up to them in a cloud of dust. One was a tall gangly looking samurai with a scar on his left cheek. The other looked very young and not long past her Gempukku; she was dressed in a fur-trimmed long coat and wore the characteristic trappings of an Iuchi shugenja.

It was the scarred samurai who spoke first. ‘Any sign of a way through, Toranaga-san?’

‘No, Tonga,’ the warleader replied. ‘But another of those storms is brewing to the north. I mean to use it to cover our attempt to break out.’

‘Which we must do before sundown, or none of us will live to see the next dawn!’ the shugenja added bluntly.

‘I think you are right Shiona, and once again I am going to need your assistance.’ The young shugenja merely nodded.

Toranaga turned to Tenugai. ‘I have sent Xu-shin to probe the right flank. As it is behind their line of march it may be less well defended. I sense a degree of urgency in their movements – always in a southerly direction towards the mountains. It’s almost as if…..’

‘Something is drawing them?’ Shiona finished for him.

‘Exactly!’ said Toranaga.

‘But there is nothing up in those mountains but rocks and a cold death’ replied Tenugai. ‘This part of our lands has our best farmland and they haven’t showed signs of wanting to stop here. What could they possibly want up in the mountains?’

‘That’s something that we need to find out, and fast,’ Toranaga replied. ‘Tenugai, I want what’s left of your jagun to take the lead, Shiona you’ll need to be with him and I’ll bring up the rear to clear our lines. First we must escape this encirclement and then we can find out why they’re here.’

Shinjo Tenugai and Iuchi Shiona mounted their steeds and rode off to brief their command. All was in readiness. Presently the sound of thundering hooves was heard and Shinjo Xu-shin at the head of his depleted jagun of horse archers came careering over the hilltop and down into the sheltered vale in a flurry of hooves and dust. Spotting Toranaga the bushi rode over to him, his colourful haori coated in blood and dust.

‘Toranaga–san, the beasts are much thinner on the ground over on the right. They seem itchy, as if they don’t want to be there. Only their leader is holding them in check, a large ugly brute that now only has one eye.’

The Warleader looked at the bushi warily, ‘What happened to his other eye then?’

‘Well, he got a bit too close so I decided to slow him down a bit’ the bushi replied sheepishly and tapped his bow-case meaningfully.

‘Hmm…you must be getting reckless, Xu-shin…..you’ve got blood on your clothing,’ Toranaga observed.

The bushi gave his leader a pained look, ‘It was a close run thing, my lord. My jagun has lost many good warriors this day. I fear we may lose even more before this is over.’

‘I think you may be right,’ the Warleader replied sadly.

Toranaga briefed the bushi with his plan and then Xu-shin’s jagun fanned out in front of the rest of the patrol to provide a screen. The dark clouds began roiling in and a light rain began to fall. Toranaga gave a signal to his command and they began moving up to the crest of the hill. The Unicorn bugler gave the signal to advance and as one the beleaguered patrol rode off into the teeth of the rising storm….

* * *

The Tsuno packleader was also having a bad day. Not only did the tribal leader relegate him to rearguard duty, but the horseboys had attacked and inflicted considerable damage on his pack. To compound matters one of the scum had shot an arrow into his eye. The pain was a minor inconvenience compared with the loss of the sight in one eye. How Kuroshimi had bayed for revenge as he’d ripped the arrow out, but the brightly coloured horseman had been too fast for him and had evaded his wrathful charge.

The tribe’s present leader did not hold Kuroshimi in high regard and it was only the tribal leader’s ferocious reputation and Kuroshimi’s need to reach the Shrine alive that had kept the one-eyed packleader from challenging him there and then. Besides, the tribal leader might yet fall in battle and then what prestige and power Kuroshimi would have if he got to the Shrine as the new tribal leader. Even now he could feel the Shrine calling irresistibly to him from the south. It was only his strong will that kept him from entering the battlerage that had ensnared the rest of his pack and only his iron grip on the pack that kept them here while the Shrine’s call drew them on.

Eagerly Kuroshimi fondled the fiery crystal that hung on a leather thong around his neck. The crystal pulsed in harmony with the Shrine’s call, blotting out the pain he felt in his ravaged eye. He barely even noticed the slow patter of rain as it began to fall on his thick hide and the increasing wind blowing in from the west, or how visibility had deteriorated with the onset of the storm. It was the flash of lightning and the deep roll of thunder that brought him from his reverie, his senses sharpened and his grip tightened on his large ono as the thunder continued to roll on in a less than natural way. It was then that he realised that it wasn’t the storm’s thunder continuing but the sound of hundreds of hooves drumming on the ground….

* * *

As the storm broke across them, the Unicorn horsemen emerged from the sheltered valley they had been resting in. Iuchi Shiona had called upon her mastery of spatial magic and had imbued the steeds of the patrol with an unnatural swiftness and agility. The hooves of the Unicorn horses glowed with a pale light and seemed to float just off the ground as they charged across the broad expanse of the intervening plain. Their passing barely raised a dust as they approached the line of hills where Xu-shin had located the Tsuno. They travelled with such speed that the riders had to check their mounts for fear of outrunning the storm rain shadow that they were following. Suddenly, the riders were entering the rolling hills where the Tsuno were waiting for them and the storm broke upon the hillside.

Shinjo Xu-shin’s outriders were the first to enter the fray. Wheeling around the flanks of the Tsuno position, they peppered any of the beasts that got too close with what little arrows they had left before the rain made their bows useless. Resistance to their passing seemed to be light. Xu-shin galloped by the Tsuno position with his katana drawn, all his arrows were now gone and his bowstring wet. The driving rain was getting heavier by the minute with visibility now down to a few dozen yards. The sodden bushi had to rein in his horse for fear of colliding with rocks, bushes and other objects materialising out of the gloom. Suddenly, the lumbering form of a Tsuno warrior came into view; the slavering beast locked its gaze on the mounted warrior and charged, it’s heavy naginata leading the way in. Xu-shin’s first reaction was to spur his mount away from the beast, but the struggling mount lost its footing in the now waterlogged turf and fought to stay on its legs. Xu-shin struggled to stay in the saddle and barely managed to bring his blade up to deflect the tip of the naginata that was aimed at his head with a powerful thrust. Although the blade missed its mark, the lumbering beast crashed into both rider and mount and both Tsuno, horse and rider fell to the ground in a heap of flailing arms, legs and spraying mud….

At the head of the Unicorn column Shinjo Tenugai led the charge into the driving rain. Wielding a heavy gaijin sabre of the pattern usually favoured by the Moto; he hacked and slashed at any Tsuno that got in his path. Iuchi Shiona followed on behind him, her head ducked low behind her horses’ neck, more to keep the rain out of her face than for any defensive reason. Tenugai’s wicked sabre easily cut through the thick Tsuno hide leaving hideous wounds even on the tough beasts, and those that fell to his blade didn’t get up again. Most of the horsemen in Tenugai’s jagun had long since lost their yaris and now relied upon their katanas and sabres to fight their way through the scattered man-beasts. Suddenly through the increasing gloom a large knot of Tsuno warriors appeared, there were perhaps a dozen or so advancing in a rough wedge formation. Without hesitation Tenugai led his horsemen in with Shiona still trailing behind him. Tenugai’s warhorse slammed into the lead man-beast and threw it off balance allowing the samurai to break into the Tsuno formation. The other Unicorn riders had a harder time of it, one had his horse impaled on a yari and went down hard, and yet another was slain by a Tsuno wielding a large ono. The remaining horsemen were either locked in combat with their opponents or able to break through the line and continue onwards. Tenugai reined in his horse when he realised the beast opposing him was still in the fight and covered Shiona’s passage through the Tsuno lines by engaging it. The beast used its no-dachi to deflect the warrior’s blow then dove at Tenugai’s horse with its massive horns lowered. Tenugai managed to grab the beast’s right horn with his left hand and twist it before the beast impacted with his horse, but it was not enough to stop the other horn from impaling his mount in the flank and tear a gaping wound in the poor animal. The impact and severity of the wound caused Tenugai’s screaming horse to collapse and fling its rider to the muddy ground. The samurai managed to scramble to his feet despite the slick ground, and gripping his sabre in two hands, swung it at the Tsuno who was trying to get at the dismounted rider over the stricken horse. His sabre connected with the beast’s shoulder, skittered off the armour in an upward direction and sliced the tsuno’s left horn and ear off. The creature bellowed with rage and swung its no-dachi at the samurai, but partway through the swing lost its balance because of the struggling horse. Tenugai tried to step away from the blow but it caught him on his hip, smashed into his armour and flung him to the ground. Had the Tsuno not lost his balance it would have carried the huge beast’s entire weight behind it and cleaved him in two. The stunned samurai looked up in time to see the beast finishing off his horse and then step over it with the intention of doing him next.

Iuchi Shiona looked back over her shoulder to see Tenugai’s horse collapse; she looked around her to see all the other Tsuno busily engaged in fighting Unicorn warriors. The rain continued to lash over the combatants making visibility poor and the ground turn into a quagmire. To her left two samurai were finishing off one of the beasts with their katanas while other riders were moving past her in their attempt to break through. Then when Tenugai was knocked to the ground she decided to act. In an instant she uttered an incantation in a strange gaijin tongue and extended her palm outwards in a gesture towards the advancing Tsuno that was bearing down on the floored samurai.

Shinjo Tenugai watched with morbid fascination when the midriff of the Tsuno seemed to blur, like a reflection in a pool being disturbed by a ripple. The beast stopped in its tracks and bellowed, dropping its huge sword to the ground. Slowly the ripples extended to encompass all of its body; then in an instant the beast contorted at impossible angles and was torn asunder in a spray of blood before collapsing to the ground in a heap.

Slowly Tenugai stood up as the rain washed the beast’s blood from his face and armour. He looked over at the young shugenja. ‘My thanks, Shiona-san. Now go before you are overwhelmed!’

‘I did not save you to leave you here to die, Tenugai.’ She replied. ‘My horse will carry two. Can you ride?’

Tenugai grinned back at her. ‘What other choice is there!’ The scarred samurai limped over and climbed up onto her horse and they turned and rode off into the gloom with the sounds of battle all around them.

Shinjo Xu-shin recovered first and rolled away from the entangled Tsuno and warhorse, cursing as his bow snapped in half as he did so. The Tsuno began to rise from the ground as the horse pulled itself up and bolted into the gloom. In a flash the bushi sliced at the beast with his katana severing its bull-like head and sending the lifeless Tsuno crashing to the ground. The mud encrusted bushi then looked around him; seeing no one around and having lost his mount he set off into the storm on foot. Xu-shin had only gone a hundred paces or so, the rain falling in sheets around him when a large Tsuno appeared to his right. The beast was a massive specimen, carried a huge ono in one hand and locked the gaze of its one good eye upon the surprised bushi….

* * *

Shinjo Toranaga led his depleted jagun into the rainstorm that had engulfed the hillside about a hundred paces behind Tenugai’s lead unit. He rapidly lost sight of them in the murk but continued to move forward albeit at a reduced pace. Toranaga still carried his cross-headed yari and held it poised to strike any target that should present itself. Behind and to either side of him were two other burly samurai: Shinjo Vandai and Moto Kagati. The former armed with a sabre and the latter a yari. Shinjo Vandai was the current Master of the Hunt and carried a curved golden horn on a scarlet-dyed horsehair sling over his shoulder. The three samurai trotted ahead scanning for enemies that might loom up at them out of the rain. Kagati checked his mount suddenly and levelling his yari charged off to the left to engage a rapidly charging Tsuno, the sound of his war cry and the clash of metal on metal was all that Toranaga heard as the combatants disappeared behind in the gloom. Suddenly to his left the remaining two samurai heard a blood chilling bellow that seemed to be something borne from the depths of Jigoku. Even the warrior’s horses flinched at the sound of its feral exasperation. Something in Toranaga nagged at him to seek out the source of this unearthly cry and he turned his horse in its direction levelling his cross-headed yari as he did so. Vandai wheeled his horse to follow his commander into the murk, gripping his sabre all the more tightly.

Shinjo Xu-shin visibly paled when he recognised the huge beast before him and thought his time had come. The Tsuno’s savage war cry almost turned his blood to ice, but he held his katana in front of him defensively as the beast charged at him swinging its ono in a deadly arc. The Tsuno’s cloven hooves seemed to deal with the sucking mud on the ground and kept it on balance, Xu-shin slid back in the mud as the ono struck his katana shattering it into several pieces. The beast recovered from the swing quickly and back swiped the blade in a downward arc intending to sever the bushi’s right arm but Xu-shin overbalanced in his effort to avoid it and fell into the towering beast, the blow glancing off of his sode and crashing into the ground. Xu-shin tried to push his way past the enraged beast, his hand catching in a leather thong around the beast’s neck as he tried to manoeuvre around it. The Tsuno was having none of it though; the enraged beast viciously bit into the desperate bushi’s shoulder, crunching through the armour and drawing blood. ‘I taste your blood man-thing, and now I crush you for taking eye!’ it growled in broken Rokugani. Xu-shin grimaced in pain and fell to his knees in the mud, the rain ran down his face blurring his vision; the pain caused him to grip and pull away the thong his hand had closed around. He didn’t see the fiery crystal attached to it fall into the mud beside him for he was looking up to see the blurred image of the Tsuno’s great ono rise up above its horned head ready to deliver the killing blow.

To Shinjo Xu-shin the wait for the end to come seemed to take an eternity, but the blow never fell. Instead he was thrown onto his back as the lumbering beast was spun violently around as something struck it hard from the rear. The Tsuno roared in outrage as Shinjo Toranaga’s cross-headed yari tore into its shoulder smashing the shoulder blade and embedding the yari deep into its chest. Toranaga had to release his grip on the yari to avoid being unhorsed and drew his gaijin sabre as he rode by. Shinjo Vandai appeared in time to see the bellowing Tsuno sever the haft of the yari sticking from its back with a quick chop of its ono. The Tsuno never saw him coming as it was intent on preparing to deal with Toranaga, who had now turned his mount around and was heading back in its direction. Vandai’s sabre sliced into the wounded beast’s neck severing its spinal column and it crashed lifeless into the mud beside the prostrate form of Shinjo Xu-shin.

‘An excellent strike Vandai-san.’ Toranaga congratulated. The Master of the Hunt grinned his appreciation.

Xu-shin groggily pushed himself up onto one elbow, ‘It’s really good to see you Toranaga-sama’ he said.

‘Xu-shin? Is that you under all that mud?’ the warleader asked in genuine surprise. ‘I’d have thought that you’d have been well clear of this by now. What happened?’

‘It’s a long story, but running into my friend here was a bit of bad luck.’ The bushi replied indicating the still form of the Tsuno packleader.

Toranaga looked at the Tsuno with interest and then noted the beast’s missing eye. ‘Ah….now I see - your friend One-eye!’ he grinned, as the bushi carefully stood up clutching his bleeding shoulder. ‘Come, we must be gone from here. The storm is abating rapidly and we will soon be spotted. You can ride with me Xu-shin.’

The Unicorn patrol rode away from the hills and the Tsuno, as the storm rolled away to the north - they had escaped.

As Shinjo Xu-shin rode on the back of his warleader’s horse he realised he still gripped the leather thong in his numbed hand. His eyes widened as he noticed for the first time the fiery crystal attached to it; this would fetch a good price at the Ide trading post, he thought, and slowly he tucked it into his armour. Almost immediately the pain in his shoulder began to grow less and feeling returned to his hand….. And his mind began to wander…..

Part 2 – The Lion and the Unicorn to follow.