Young Samurai: The Ring of Sky Read Online Free Page A

caught the feet of the approaching samurai, causing them to stumble
     and sprawl on the ground. In the confusion, Jack took off after Benkei.
    He finally caught up with him near the
     outskirts of town.
    ‘They’re still after us,’
     cried Jack.
    ‘Of course they are,’ replied
     Benkei, rolling his eyes. ‘You’re charged with
treason
against the
     Shogun himself! I was better off buried up to my neck in sand!’
    ‘And I’d be long gone if I
     hadn’t stopped to save your life,’ retorted Jack.
    Benkei sighed. ‘Fair point,
nanban
. But don’t start thinking I owe you any life debt. I
     don’t believe in any of that
bushido
nonsense.’
    ‘There they are!’ came a shout
     as the samurai patrol made a reappearance further down the road.
    ‘Here we go again,’ sighed
     Benkei in exasperation. ‘We’ll have to risk the Nine Hells of
     Beppu.’
    ‘
Nine
hells?’ Jack
     wasn’t reassured by the sinister-sounding name.
    ‘It’s our only hope,’
     Benkei replied gravely, scrambling up a trail into the forested hillside. ‘The
     nine
jigoku
are home to the demons of the volcano. No one goes near, unless
     they have to.’
    The path wound its way through the trees and
     bushes, before passing beneath several red
torii
gates. As they progressed
     deeper, the trees became sickly, their leaves blotched and limp, their trunks bleached
     white as bone. Wisps of steam swirled amid the skeletal branches, lending the forest an
     eerie and unearthly atmosphere. Jack felt as if he’d entered another world, one of
     spirits, demons and dragons. The air was humid and thick with the tang of sulphur. A
     ferocious hissing, like an angry nest of serpents, issued from within the veils of
     mist.
    ‘Careful where you tread,’
     warned Benkei, pointing to asmall fissure in the ground through which
     scorching vapour whistled out. ‘The heat will as soon cook you as it’ll cook
     rice!’
    Jack kept close to Benkei as he guided him
     across a hellish landscape. Through the swirls of roaring steam, Jack spied noxious
     pools of bubbling mud and shimmering lakes in lurid hues. A pond, bright blue as a
     cobalt sea, simmered like a giant’s cooking pot. Another flowed white like sour
     milk. A third seethed with waters yellow as molten gold.
    ‘Fall into a
jigoku
and
     you’ll be boiled alive!’ warned Benkei, holding a hand to his mouth against
     the egg-like stench that filled their nostrils.
    As they negotiated their way round the
     different Hell ponds, they heard an argument break out among the samurai patrol.
    ‘I don’t care what demons or
     dragons dwell in this place!’ barked the leader, his voice strangely disembodied
     amid the steam. ‘The Shogun signed this
gaijin
’s arrest warrant
personally
. Now spread out and find them – or I’ll throw each of you
     into a Hell!’
    Hidden by the same mist, Jack and Benkei
     silently made their escape. They passed a pool of hiccupping grey mud, large bubbles
     rising like the bald pates of Buddhist monks until they burst with a
pop
.
    All of a sudden the air cleared and Benkei
     found himself face to face with a steely-eyed samurai. He barely managed to duck as a
     blade sliced towards his neck. Jack withdrew his
katana
in a flash, blocking a
     second strike aimed at Benkei’s midriff, and pushed him out of harm’s
     way.
    The samurai now swung his sword with deadly
     intent atJack. Deflecting the blade easily, Jack countered with a
     rising cut. The tip sliced within a hair’s breadth of the samurai’s chin and
     would have made contact if Jack hadn’t been seized from behind. A second larger
     samurai wrapped a forearm round Jack’s throat and began to strangle him.
     Anticipating an easy kill, the first samurai charged forward to skewer their foreign
     captive through the stomach. But Jack still had his sword arm free and managed to fend
     off the attack. The samurai struck again. Jack deflected it – and the next strike – much
     to the