Girl Rides the Wind by Jacques Antoine Read Free Book Online Page B

entire crowd gasped.
    In one final effort, and completely unable to find any quiet place inside, Kano charged at her, swinging wildly at her head. It only took a small step to evade his stroke, and she slashed at him, hard, a sideways stroke across the belly, just below the lacquered, bamboo do that protected his chest—“He’ll feel that, even through the padding,” she thought—and as his momentum carried him past her, she pivoted and brought the shinai down on a shoulder and diagonally across his back. In a real fight, with steel swords instead of bamboo, those two strokes would have ended him, and everyone watching around the ring seemed to know it.
    He came to a stop a few steps away, and turned to face her, his eyes wild. But before he could act on another hectic impulse, the fury in them seemed to subside as he looked at her. Tiny, slight, a mere woman with no armor, and yet she’d bested him in a fight he’d insisted on.
    Emily dropped to her knees, and said, “Forgive me, Sensei .”
    “You cheated,” he hissed at her. “Taking off the armor gave you an advantage.”
    “Wearing it gave you the advantage.”
    “How did you know I would hesitate?”
    “It is easy to see that your sword has never taken a life.”
    “And you have?” he roared, his anger rekindled. He raised the shinai above her, and she lowered her head beneath it.
    “Yes,” she said, in a tiny voice that perhaps no one outside the ring could hear.
    “And you think that makes you better than me?”
    “No, Sensei ,” she whispered. “It makes me much, much worse.”
    Her words froze him for an instant, and as he stood over her, the expression in his eyes softened. He glanced at the crowd, shook his head in disgust, and threw down the shinai .
    “Get up, Tenno-san. Thank you for the lesson,” he said in a gruff voice, before bowing and walking towards his men, who cringed at the expression on his face.
    Standing in the ring by herself, Emily had a moment to reflect on the events of an hour she could only wish to have back again. Oleschenko pushed her to challenge Tsukino, but he hadn’t ordered it. She could have refused, and even Durant’s pleading shouldn’t have influenced her, and she seriously doubted his nose felt any better for her efforts.
    “Whose brilliant idea was this?” she heard a familiar voice bark out, and turned to see Oleschenko standing at attention for a dressing down. “Operation Seabreeze depends on cooperation, Captain,” said Admiral Crichton, who was flanked by three staff officers, while Deputy Defense Minister Saito and Colonel Kamakura observed from a few feet away, nodding and whispering to each other—though Emily figured they understood nothing of what the Admiral said, beyond the temperature of his tone of voice.
    “Just how did you think putting her in the ring would seal their cooperation?” Crichton continued, with one of those questions it was wisest not to try to answer.
    In public, the Admiral was in no mood to hear an explanation, and Oleschenko had none to offer. Later, in a private office on loan for the purpose, he allowed Emily to fall on her sword, so to speak.
    “It was my fault, sir.”
    “No, Admiral,” Oleschenko interrupted. “I ordered her into the ring. I thought unit cohesion depended on it. After the way their man had…”
    “You’re not helping your cause, Captain,” Crichton said in a preemptory tone.
    “It wasn’t an order,” Emily said. “It was a request, and I should have refused. But in the heat of the moment… I gave in.”
    “Oleschenko, see if you can patch things up with their commander. I want a word with Tenno in private.”
    “But, sir,” he stammered out. “I need her to translate.”
    “You’ll manage without her,” Crichton roared. “Show some initiative, man.” After Oleschenko closed the door, he turned his attention to Emily. “Kneeling? In front of a vanquished opponent?”
    “Sir?”
    “Marines don’t kneel, not to