Chapter 19: The Vanguard at the Fork

Hanae was down the stairs before Jiro had his boots on.

The yard was grey and full of mist.

Wagons stood across the road, and archers crouched on the roof tiles he had laid.

The Princess walked the barricade in a plain soldier's coat with her gold cloak thrown off.

Beyond the fence, down at the ford, the river was full of black shapes.

There were sixty of them, tall and grey-skinned, in dark armor with curved horns on the helmets.

At their head rode a demon on a black horse, with an axe over his shoulder as long as a man.

"The vanguard captain," said Shiori beside her, in a very small voice.

Hanae took the skillet down from its hook by the kitchen door.

She had never been so glad of ten pounds of iron.

"My lord," the Princess said, in the cold clear voice that had made a quartermaster bow. "The Dawn Blade."

Kaito stood at the barricade between two soldiers.

He had not slept.

The Princess held the white and gold scabbard out to him across her two palms.

"The kingdom was promised a Hero," she said. "Here is your chance. Lead the line."

He took the sword, and his hand went to the hilt.

The demons began to cross the ford.

They came up the bank in a black tide, with no war cry, and the horse of their captain broke into a trot.

Then a gallop.

It came straight at the barricade, and the axe came off the captain's shoulder.

Hanae saw Kaito's face.

She saw the color go, and the pupils go wide, and the Dawn Blade stop an inch out of its scabbard.

He stood there, with his mouth open, in front of his own army.

"My lord," said the sergeant at his shoulder. "Draw."

Kaito did not move.

The horse was thirty paces away, twenty, ten.

A hand took the grey-wrapped sword from the rack by the door, and a tall man walked past Kaito without looking at him.

Jiro had come out in his shirt and his indigo coat.

He walked to the front of the line, to the very edge of the lantern's light, and pulled the knot at the hilt.