Legend of the Five Rings: 2018 Collected Stories by Compiled by Fantasy Flight

Author:Compiled by Fantasy Flight [Kreines, Compiled by J.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Kurosunai Village

By Chris Longhurst

* * *

The fence post was crooked. Katsuo swore quietly under his breath, wrapped both hands around the post, and pulled. It came loose from the dry soil too easily; the long summer had baked the dirt into coarse powder.

“Aren’t you supposed to be mending that fence?”

Katsuo laid the post on the ground, turned, and gave Tomoko a tired smile. She was standing under a gnarled camphor tree by the side of the path, taking advantage of the shade that didn’t quite reach the spot where Katsuo was working. Two buckets of water stood on the ground beside her.

“I don’t build like the Kaiu do.” He waved at the hole. “It was crooked.”

“I know.” Tomoko smirked. “I’ve been watching you sweat for a while.”

Katsuo rolled his eyes and held out his hand. “Come here.”

Tomoko stayed where she was and mimicked Katsuo’s gesture. “You come here. It’s shadier.”

Katsuo shrugged. It was true. He crossed the path and kissed her hello.

“Your mother’s going to wonder where her water is,” he said. Tomoko wrapped her arms around him and rested her head on his shoulder.

“I volunteered to go to the well on the path that runs right by your farm,” she said. “She knows exactly where her water is. Besides,” she added, “my parents like you.”

Katsuo said nothing and held Tomoko close. She had threaded a flower into her hair, its perfume mixing with the scent of camphor from the tree. Looking over her shoulder, beneath the berry-laden branches, he could see the terraced fields of Kurosunai Village, the local wood bordering them to his right, and on the left, the dirt road along which the village’s few visitors would come and go. Beyond all that, the wider expanse of Ishigaki Province. Maybe one day he would get a chance to see some of it.

He squinted and shaded his eyes. Tomoko twisted around to see what he was looking at. There were figures on the road. A small group, mounted, bearing pennants, too far away for him to read their crest.

“Samurai?” he said. Tomoko nodded.

“Looks like. Doesn’t Yasuki-sama normally come by herself, though?”

“Normally. Why would she need—” Katsuo suddenly felt cold. “It’s the still. The barley. It’s got to be.”

“No.” Tomoko pushed away from him. She bit her lip. “Maybe? No. Who would tell them?”

“Take the water to your mother, and let her know that samurai are coming,” Katsuo said. “I can’t go anywhere until this fence is fixed.”

“Make it quick,” Tomoko said. She crouched to retrieve her carrying pole, weaving it into the handles of the two buckets and heaving it onto her shoulder as she stood up. “Yasuki-sama still dotes on you like a mother, so you’re our best chance of her going easy on us.”

Katsuo watched her as she hurried away. No sense of contentment this time, or faint wonder that, of all the boys, she had chosen him... just the cold coil of fear in his stomach.

Yasuki Hikaru had looked after the village for longer than

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