The Way Of The Dragon by Chris Bradford Read Free Book Online

with all his other possessions.
    ‘Let me do it,’ said Uekiya, putting down his pruning knife. ‘Though if the truth be known, I never expected to see it alive again.
Bonsai
are very difficult to grow. Perhaps you do have a little Japanese in you, after all.’
    With a wry smile upon his wrinkled face, the old gardener bowed and walked across the little wooden bridge that spanned a pond dotted with pink water lilies. He weaved his way along the pebbled path towards the house, leaving Jack alone to his thoughts.

    Jack had spent many happy hours beneath this
sakura
tree. At first recovering from the broken arm he’d sustained escaping the ninja attack on the
Alexandria
; then studying his father’s
rutter
; and, most enjoyable of all, being instructed by Akiko in her language and customs. Sitting there now, it was like finding sanctuary again.
    But it
wasn’t
like returning home.
    England was his home. Though after nearly four years, two of which had been at sea, it had become a distant memory. The only things tying him to his native land were his heart, his little sister Jess, his father’s
rutter
– now stolen – and a scrap of paper he’d found tucked within it.
    Jack opened the
inro
carrying case attached to his
obi
and carefully took out the fragile paper. It was a drawing given to his father by Jess before they’d left for the Japans. As had become habit, his fingers traced the outlines of his dead father, his sister in her summer smock holding hands with his own stick-thin body, and lastly his mother with her angel wings. Wiping a tear from his eye, Jack said a little prayer for Jess. Having only an old, ailing neighbour to rely on for his sister’s welfare, he feared for her future without a family. Jack
had
to find his way back to England.
    Yet he was trapped by circumstance. Adopted by Masamoto, his guardian considered himself responsible for Jack’s care until he was sixteen and deemed ‘of age’. Besides, any journey to the southern port of Nagasaki, where foreign trading ships docked, was fraught with danger now that
daimyo
Kamakura, the lord of Edo Province, had begun to rouse the population against Christians and foreigners.
    Not only that, Jack had to contend with the constant threat to his life posed by Dragon Eye. He couldn’t leave Japan without his father’s
rutter
. It was rightfully his and the key to his future. He had to retrieve the logbook before the code was broken. The hunter had now become the hunted. He
had
to find Dragon Eye.
    Dokugan Ryu’s eyeless mother had laughed at the suggestion of seeking out her ninja son. Dragon Eye was like the wind, she said, and moved with the seasons, never settling in the same place twice. Despite the offer of another coin, she refused to reveal his location. Yamato very much doubted she knew it anyway. He believed she was making the whole story up and they’d wasted their money on worthless lies.
    ‘Nice picture,’ Yamato commented, rounding the trunk of the
sakura
, fresh from his bath. ‘That the one Akiko rescued from the tree?’
    ‘Yes, it is,’ mumbled Jack, startled by his friend’s sudden appearance.
    He’d been so deep in thought that he hadn’t noticed Yamato’s approach. Jack carefully folded the parchment and slipped it back inside his
inro
. He was far more guarded with it ever since Kazuki, his arch-rival at school, had snatched the picture from his hands and thrown it into the topmost branches of a maple tree. Thankfully, Akiko had retrieved it for him, with an astounding display of agility.
    ‘I’ve been thinking we should keep our training up, just in case my father decides to allow us back to school,’ suggested Yamato.
    Jack looked up in surprise. Clearly, the bath had not only cleansed his friend’s body but his mind too. It was the most positive thing Yamato had uttered in ages. He knew his friend feared his father. Masamoto was a hard man to please since the death of his firstborn son, Tenno, and Yamato was