Young Samurai _ The Way Of The Dragon - Chris Bradford [43]
‘Damn gaijin!’ the man growled, spitting blood.
Jack tried to get away, but the other man still held his arms tight from behind. He flung back his head in an attempt to knock his captor’s teeth out, but something hard struck the back of his neck first.
Lights exploded in front of his eyes. He felt sick. Then blacked out.
17
PUNISHMENT
A musty smell of rotting straw filled Jack’s nostrils. His head pounded, his neck was stiff and a large bruise throbbed below his right ear. Licking his lips, a wave of nausea rose in his throat. He opened his eyes, only to discover it was dark. How long had he been out for?
Then he realized his captors hadn’t removed the bag from his head. His kimono was still damp, though, so he couldn’t have been unconscious for long. He tried to remove the bag, but his hands were tied. In fact, he couldn’t move at all. He was lying on his side upon a hard wooden floor, his feet and hands bound tightly behind his back.
‘I say we kill the gaijin,’ said a man to Jack’s right. ‘Far less hassle than delivering him alive.’
‘True…’ said the man with the gruff voice, standing behind Jack. ‘But he’s worth more alive.’
Jack tried to clear his head. He had to think his way out of this predicament. Who were his captors? They had to be ninja. Dragon Eye must have sent them to kidnap him. This was good news. It must mean the rutter was still not deciphered. But he’d planned to face Dragon Eye on equal terms, both swords in hand – not as a prisoner.
‘The only good gaijin is a dead gaijin,’ spat a third man to Jack’s left.
The wooden floorboards creaked as someone stepped closer. A cold steel blade was pressed against his throat. Bound and helpless, Jack couldn’t avoid his fate.
Snatching a last breath, he squeezed his eyes shut and prayed to God. In those final moments, his mind filled with all the memories of his life, his mother and father, of little Jess, the voyage around the world, his time in Japan, of the Niten Ichi Ryū and Masamoto, of Akiko and his friends. He realized he’d be leaving them all behind and desperately wanted to live.
‘Stop!’ shouted the gruff-voiced man.
The blade hesitated on Jack’s skin.
‘But daimyo Kamakura’s ruling clearly stated that any gaijin found in his domain are to face punishment,’ said the man with the knife.
‘Yes. But we’re not in his province – yet. Kyoto belongs to that soft-headed, Christian-loving daimyo Takatomi. Besides, this gaijin is no ordinary foreigner. He’s pretending to be samurai! How perverse is that? If we deliver him alive to daimyo Kamakura in Edo, our reward would be tenfold. We wouldn’t be masterless ashigaru any more. He’d make us samurai!’
The blade was withdrawn and Jack let out an unsteady sigh of relief. Though it was only a short reprieve, he’d live to see another day.
Jack reassessed his situation. His captors weren’t ninja. They were foot soldiers looking to better themselves. They were seeking the reward Kazuki had talked about during the opening ceremony of the Hall of the Hawk. He also knew he was still in Kyoto, so there was a slim chance he’d be able to escape before they moved him to Edo.
‘A good point,’ agreed the man to Jack’s right. ‘We can’t kill him. Not yet, anyway.’
‘Fine, but the daimyo’s decree allows us to punish gaijin in other ways besides death.’
The man with the knife wrenched Jack to his knees. Jack groaned under the strain, his bonds tightening painfully round his wrists.
‘He’s coming to. That’s good. He can hear his choices,’ the man said with glee.
He whipped the bag off Jack’s head. Jack squinted against the sudden brightness. Once his eyes grew accustomed to the light, he saw he was being held in a featureless room with a single high slit for a window. There was dirt and straw on the floor and the roof