Nightblade by Ryan Kirk Read Free Book Online

maintain the illusion of control he felt during the day. Evenings reminded Ryuu of his family. Night had been the time when his family would come together for their meal and share the events of the day. It hadn’t always been fun, but it had always been family, and Ryuu didn’t realize what that meant until he didn’t have one anymore.
    During the day he convinced himself that he was fine and he just had a couple of days off from chores to run around and be a child. He kept himself active enough that it was easy to do. Being busy and throwing himself into a new environment kept his mind off of what had happened. But at night there was little to do except speak with Shigeru. And while Shigeru was certainly polite and the most interesting man Ryuu had ever met, he wasn’t mother and father. It was at night that Ryuu remembered the images burned into his memory: the death and corpses of his mother and father, the last stand of the merchant’s son. He kept seeing his father turn around with his last breath, trying to warn his loved ones, but it was too late.
    It was at night he would cry. It would start as a single tear, but he knew from experience that once the first tear fell, he would lose all control. His sobs wracked his body, but he didn’t dare make a sound. He didn’t want Shigeru to know this weakness. He knew Shigeru was a man who had withstood everything that had been against him in life. And although Ryuu had only been with Shigeru for about a moon, he knew that Shigeru had never cried.
    The days began to pass in a manner that could almost be called routine, if life after trauma can ever be considered routine. Ryuu spent the days outside wandering in the wilderness or helping Shigeru tend the gardens. As he settled into the routine he started to help out with more of the chores. Not because Shigeru asked, but because it was the right thing for him to do. Shigeru had taken him in and saved his life. The nights, despite the heat of the fire in the hut, were cold and lonely, and Ryuu felt every minute of them, tears falling down his cheeks in silence.
     
    While Ryuu passed the days in relative peace, Shigeru was busy. His life for almost ten cycles had been structured. He raised enough food for one. He wasn’t worried about more food, but it did require more work. It was another mouth to feed and another body to clothe. The garden which he maintained was larger than he needed, but could not support two through the cycle. It would have to be enlarged. Clothes would not be an issue. He had more money than he would ever be able to spend from selling medicine in surrounding communities.
    Shigeru also had to gather more information. The journey had taken him much longer than he had expected. Of course, he hadn’t expected to come back with a child in tow. He needed to make a circuit of the surrounding villages, both to ensure the safety of his hut and to gather the latest news in the Southern Kingdom. He stayed alive by staying silent and aware of everything happening around him.
    Spring was dawning on the land, which meant war. The Three Kingdoms remained at relative peace although there continued to be talk of unusual troop movements. The Lord of the Southern Kingdom, Lord Azuma, was well known as a cunning leader. He ruled by strength, and although there was often talk against him, the Kingdom was peaceful and prosperous. Yes, those who spoke too loudly against the Lord had a tendency to disappear, but the Kingdom was stable. It was that very stability that brought Shigeru to the Southern Kingdom in the first place.
    Last fall, Lord Azuma hadn’t allowed his men to return from their annual campaign in the Three Sisters. Talk in the village closest to Shigeru was that Azuma had moved the deployment schedule. Typically troops returned from the Sisters in the fall, allowing families to be together and the harvest to get finished. Shigeru noted that having the young men back in the fall always seemed to produce a