Free Wall of Spears by Duncan Lay Page B

her now. The chance to get Oroku alone and question him was too good to lose. She was watching him when she collided with someone coming the other way. She spun to face them, angry words springing to her lips before she remembered who she was supposed to be.
    ‘You clumsy esemono! I ought to have your head for that!’ an enraged young noble shouted, his hand going for his sword.
    Asami stepped past him, planning to run out of his reach but he was faster, grabbing her hood and pulling it down, dragging her back at the same time.
    ‘Hey — don’t I know you?’ the noble accused.
    Asami had no more time to waste on the fool and slammed her fist into his throat, sending him choking to the ground. But a quick glance towards Oroku told her the Magic-weaver had heard the commotion and, worse, spotted her.
    For a moment she thought he would call for help, then he plunged into the trees. Asami raced after him, hand holding her scabbard out to the side, careless of the shocked looks she was getting from the people nearby. She tore around a pair of trees to see Oroku standing before a third, a staff in his hand — he was obviously preparing to step through an oaken gateway somewhere. Asami reached into the magic and caused a large branch to drop. The Magic-weaver was forced to leap back or be hit and she covered the ground between them swiftly.
    Oroku’s face twisted in terror as he rolled onto his back and jabbed his makeshift staff at her, reaching into the magic at the same time to try to throw her backwards. But she had far more power than he did and it was child’s play to block his feeble attempt and turn it back on him, use the grass around to bind him and trap him, hold him helpless.
    ‘Let me go! Sumiko will have your head for this!’ Oroku spat, struggling to free himself.
    ‘She already wants my head. But it is your head that you should be worried about,’ Asami told him coldly. ‘Give me some answers and you shall walk away from here. Try to hold out and all they will find is your corpse.’
    ‘An empty threat!’ Oroku sneered.
    Asami sent a stream of ants pouring over his face, into his ears, nose and mouth. Oroku choked and snorted, trying to throw his head around, but the plants held him immobile. Asami let them continue until his eyes bulged and he was trying to scream, then brought the ants back out again.
    She let Oroku lie there for a moment, panting and shuddering.
    ‘Are you ready to talk, or do I have to do worse things to you?’ she asked coldly.
    ‘Sumiko will kill me if —’
    She did not even let him finish his sentence before sending a stream of ants back into his ears, where their bites had him screaming. So much so that she had to stop his voice.
    ‘Sumiko is not here. But I am. And your suffering will make others tremble if you do not tell me what is going on!’
    When he glared at her, she brought spiders out of the trees to sink their fangs into his face, each bite bringing forth a silent scream.
    ‘Ready to talk now?’
    She gave him his voice back and he gasped, ‘Enough! What do you want to know?’
    ‘Where are you going?’
    ‘Forland, to see the Forlish king.’
    ‘And why does Sumiko want to speak to the Forlish king again? Why the secrecy?’
    He hesitated and she reluctantly signalled to her waiting tiny accomplices, letting him see them walk across his swollen face.
    ‘What in Aroaril’s name is going on here?’ someone asked loudly behind her.
    Asami spun, hand going to her sword hilt, her mind gathering magic to defend herself, to see the young noble and a pair of his friends staring at her.
    ‘You’re not an esemono, are you?’ the noble accused, his throat red, his voice hoarse from her blow.
    ‘Leave us. This is no business of yours,’ Asami said roughly.
    ‘But I think it is. You struck me and you need to be punished.’
    Asami drew her sword. ‘I am Tadayoshi Onamai Asami, former leader of the Magic-weavers and wife to Tadayoshi Gaibun, commander of the