“A fifteen-day march, Daimyo,” said a voice like angry insect wings. “Then you and the Earthcrusher will be in the Iishi.”
Hiro glanced at the figure looming beside him. Shateigashira Kensai was encased in his heavy brass atmos-suit. Instead of an expressionless mask like other Guildsmen, the Voice of the Lotus Guild in Kigen wore a sculpted brass face over his own. The features were of a beautiful boy in the prime of his youth, pouting lips open in a permanent howl and spewing segmented cable. Glowing blood-red eyes regarded Hiro, unblinking and soulless.
Three Guild Artificers stood with their Second Bloom, also encased in rivet-studded brass. Mechabacii clicked and skittered on their chests, counting beads moving back and forth in unfathomable patterns. Hiro wondered if any of them had helped design the replacement for the arm she’d torn from his shoulder.
He could feel his missing fingers, tried to ignore the urge to scratch.
The urge to scream.
The room in which the men stood was known as “the Face of Shima.” It loomed in the heart of the Shōgun’s palace, fifty feet square, two stories deep. The floor consisted of over a thousand interlocking tiles, forming an enormous map of the Seven Isles. A cluster of lights and scrims in the ceiling illuminated tiny armies in Kigen city, the Phoenix capital Danro, the staging ground near First House.
A nation poised on the brink of war.
Hiro’s eyes were locked on the small inlaid peaks of the Iishi mountains, the tiny spotlight indicating the Kagé stronghold.
There she waits for me.
“North, northeast,” he said. “First House to the Iishi. Magnify.”
The servants in the control booth worked a series of levers and dials. The chatter of iron ratchets sounded below, and like a wave across a wooden ocean, each floor tile slipped down into the impossible mechanism beneath. New tiles slid up into place, flipping over one by one until the floor became whole again. The map now showed an enlarged version of the Imperium’s northeast. A scrim was flipped, and the planned invasion route was traced in red light.
“We approach indirectly,” Hiro noted. “Why not head straight to the mountains?”
“The Jukai deadlands should be avoided, Daimyo.” Kensai indicated gray areas around First House otherwise referred to as “the Stain.” “The Earthcrusher would not be troubled, but some fissures are too wide for a shredderman to cross. Besides, you need to muster your troops.”
“The Phoenix fleet is already assembled,” Hiro frowned. “Daimyo Shin and Shou have graciously given me command of their forces, and my Tiger troops muster as we speak.”
“And the Dragon clan? The Foxes?”
“The Ryu flip back and forth like counting beads. And the Foxes are buried inside their holes. We do not need them. Between the Earthcrusher, a hundred shreddermen suits and the Phoenix sky-fleet, we have more than enough swords to destroy the Kagé.”
“The Dragons and Foxes may yet bend their knee when they see the Earthcrusher.”
“The destruction of the rebellion is all that matters, Kensai-san.”
The Second Bloom’s voice grew cold. “It is worth a detour to give Fox and Dragon a chance to join our endeavor.”
“No.”
“No?”
“I will not waste time in seeking their aid. Every day Yuki—” Hiro faltered, drew a calming breath. “… Every day Yoritomo’s assassin lives is another day the Kazumitsu Elite live in disgrace. The Kagé burned my city. Killed my fiancée. They must die. Every one. Not next year. Not next month. Now!” The word was punctuated by an armored fist onto timber.
“I will repeat myself.” Kensai folded his arms. “If the Kitsune and Ryu offer allegiance when they lay eyes on the Earthcrusher, you will accept it.”
“You forget yourself, Guildsman. I am your Shōgun!”
“But you are not Shōgun, Hiro-san. Daimyo Haruka of the Dragon clan has not sworn to you. Daimyo Isamu of the Foxes did not even attend your wedding feast. You command the Tiger and Phoenix clans only through the strength of arms the Lotus Guild provides. So if Fox or Dragon capitulate at any point, you will welcome them with open arms. Though you may be intent on glorious suicide, some of us have a responsibility to the Imperium after this insurgency is quashed. The war against the gaijin must be renewed. We need more land. More slaves. More inochi. If we can save months of conflict against the Foxes and Dragons, we will.”
“I will not simply—”
“You will do as you are told!”
As one, Hiro’s samurai drew their chainkatanas and thumbed the ignitions. Lantern light flashed on spinning steel teeth, in the eyes of the death-white samurai in their demon masks. The air was filled with the screech of saw-toothed blades. Hissing pistons. Revving motors.