A Secret Man of Blood

Chapter Ten

Squad and the attacker clash in a storm of steel, and the spectre spins, exposing his back to a strike; the man attacks with stunning speed but Squad is slightly faster, slapping the strike away with one blade and, as he completes his spin, cutting through the man's midriff with the other. Then he plunges forward and puts both swords through the attacker's head, cutting through futuristic sunglasses wrapped around the face.

While Squad looks down at his downed opponent, Sig walks over, takes off the man's coat and gently covers the corpse with it. This is oddly touching and Sig explains his actions while shaking his head at the man's misfortune. "The cyber-ninja thing isn't cool anymore. He's got enough to contend with, being dead, without the added humiliation of wearing last season's outfit."

Alarms and sounds of fighting in the near distance attract their attention.

*

Home. He feels its hook inside him every moment, yet Mazer pushes on. He's wearing a cloak to hide his Scrovengi identity and the human girl, whose name is Lu, is similarly disguised. He half expects her to be wise and all-knowing beyond her years, because of his speculation that she's the new holder of the Mandate of Heaven.

She carries the weight of lives on her back, and he feels responsible for her. He's responsible for all of them, the memories or emotions or whatever they are that live inside her. He's a soldier, not an extinguisher of cultures. Still, he hasn't found the words to describe this protection to her, to cross the frontier of words and say, "I'll get you to your people, no matter the path."

The Scrovengi attack has stormed through this part of the Jade Empire for several hundred miles in all directions, so they're heading south, towards Ryoko, the first city beyond Scrovengi control. By sticking to backroads, they have avoided incident so far and Mazer's conviction to protect the girl remains untested, so he suspects she doesn't trust him.

"Are you tired?" he asks her.

She makes a little noise and shrugs.

He smiles and shakes his head. "Was that strange, non-committal cat noise supposed to tell me something?"

She rounds on him. "Why did you invade our country?"

"Because I was ordered to."

"That's not a very good reason."

"It's the only one I've got, so move on." Mazer takes out a turkey he caught earlier, but Lu's disgust is obvious. "You need to eat."

"I don't eat meat."

"It's alright – I smashed its face off."

"You're a barbarian!"

Mazer laughs, then breathes in deeply, looking out over the rolling fields and white flames of cloud stretching into the distance. "The country is very beautiful."

"Yeah. It's like the city but without all the stuff."

Shaking his head, Mazer again breathes deeply. "I feel revitalised."

"You sound like a cult leader or a serial killer."

"I'm not a cult leader!"

"...But you could be a serial killer?"

"I'm not—"

Sensing something, Mazer pulls Lu down a slight incline by the side of the road. A line of trees on the other side marks the start of a large forested area, and it was from here that Mazer's special forces instincts alerted him to movement.

"What is it?" Lu whispers, but Mazer lifts a finger in warning.

Shadows are moving amongst the trees, heading their way and Mazer's hand drifts to his blade. Without waiting, Lu takes off towards the shadows, shouting. "Help! I'm being kidnapped!"