Sarah Ash's Blog, page 16
August 6, 2014
A Superb Edward Miller Cover for Urban Mythic 2
To find out more about this exciting new collection from Alchemy Press (including my latest short story ‘La Vouivre’) please go to: http://alchemypress.wordpress.com/
July 20, 2014
I’ll be at LonCon3 in August (Pt 3) Anime/Manga
Here are the anime/manga (and film/tv) panels I’m taking part in (or moderating):
You Got Your SF in My Anime!
Thursday 19:00 – 20:00, Capital Suite 2 (ExCeL)
If the cliche image of Western science fiction is spaceships and aliens, the cliches of anime SF might be giant robots and cyberspace — so let’s look a little closer. What’s distinctive about anime’s use of SF, in works such as Ghost in the Shell, Spaceship Yamato, Strike Witches or Planetes? What are the lines of influence between the Japanese and Western SF traditions, and what does each have to offer the other?
Sarah Ash (M) , Juan Sanmiguel, Lars Adler, Django Wexler, Laura Mauro
Manga Evolutions
Friday 12:00 – 13:30, Capital Suite 2 (ExCeL)
Manga developed in Japan as a syncretic reaction to American comic books from an indigenous art perspective, to become a unique style of sequential art.
Manga has since emerged from Japan to become a vibrant style adopted by creators in other countries.
What are the more interesting and existing transformations that Manga has undergone in Japan, and outside its birthplace? What is the future of Manga as an art expression in the 21st century?
Zen Cho (M) , Sarah Ash , Emmeline Pui Ling Dobson , Eric Senabre , Kyoko Ogushi
The Girls Who Waited
Friday 19:00 – 20:00, Capital Suite 11 (ExCeL)
Last year, in an essay for The Guardian, Anna Smith highlighted the lack of on-screen time-travel stories with female protagonists. In works as varied as Doctor Who, Quantum Leap, The Time-Traveller’s Wife, About Time, The Terminator, and Back to the Future, women are either companions or observers. Is this simply a question of men being given an agency denied to women, or is there something more complex going on? What stories is time travel being used to tell? Which films and TV shows do feature time travelling women? Which women are allowed to travel, and what do their stories have in common?
Russell Blackford (M), L. M. Myles , Sarah Ash, MaryAnn Johanson, Andy Duncan
Queering Anime
Monday 12:00 – 13:30, Capital Suite 5 (ExCeL)
Anime and manga feature queer content often enough that multiple recognised subgenres exist, from bara to yaoi. But when are these depictions empowering, and when do they reinscribe conservative understandings of gender and sexuality? Where can we can find positive explorations of genderplay and gender performance in anime and manga?
Sarah Ash (M) , Arwen Grune, Kendra Leigh Speedling, Ciaran Roberts, Amy Young
I’ll be at LonCon3 in August (Pt 2) Anime/Manga
Here are the anime/manga (and film/tv) panels I’m taking part in (or moderating):
You Got Your SF in My Anime!
Thursday 19:00 – 20:00, Capital Suite 2 (ExCeL)
If the cliche image of Western science fiction is spaceships and aliens, the cliches of anime SF might be giant robots and cyberspace — so let’s look a little closer. What’s distinctive about anime’s use of SF, in works such as Ghost in the Shell, Spaceship Yamato, Strike Witches or Planetes? What are the lines of influence between the Japanese and Western SF traditions, and what does each have to offer the other?
Sarah Ash (M) , Juan Sanmiguel, Lars Adler, Django Wexler, Laura Mauro
Manga Evolutions
Friday 12:00 – 13:30, Capital Suite 2 (ExCeL)
Manga developed in Japan as a syncretic reaction to American comic books from an indigenous art perspective, to become a unique style of sequential art.
Manga has since emerged from Japan to become a vibrant style adopted by creators in other countries.
What are the more interesting and existing transformations that Manga has undergone in Japan, and outside its birthplace? What is the future of Manga as an art expression in the 21st century?
Zen Cho (M) , Sarah Ash , Emmeline Pui Ling Dobson , Eric Senabre , Kyoko Ogushi
The Girls Who Waited
Friday 19:00 – 20:00, Capital Suite 11 (ExCeL)
Last year, in an essay for The Guardian, Anna Smith highlighted the lack of on-screen time-travel stories with female protagonists. In works as varied as Doctor Who, Quantum Leap, The Time-Traveller’s Wife, About Time, The Terminator, and Back to the Future, women are either companions or observers. Is this simply a question of men being given an agency denied to women, or is there something more complex going on? What stories is time travel being used to tell? Which films and TV shows do feature time travelling women? Which women are allowed to travel, and what do their stories have in common?
Russell Blackford (M), L. M. Myles , Sarah Ash, MaryAnn Johanson, Andy Duncan
Queering Anime
Monday 12:00 – 13:30, Capital Suite 5 (ExCeL)
Anime and manga feature queer content often enough that multiple recognised subgenres exist, from bara to yaoi. But when are these depictions empowering, and when do they reinscribe conservative understandings of gender and sexuality? Where can we can find positive explorations of genderplay and gender performance in anime and manga?
Sarah Ash (M) , Arwen Grune, Kendra Leigh Speedling, Ciaran Roberts, Amy Young
July 19, 2014
I’ll be at LonCon3 (Pt 2) Music
Music Composition & the Fantastic
Friday 11:00 – 12:00, Capital Suite 13 (ExCeL)
On the day of the Symphonic concert, panelists discuss musical composition, with an eye on the Science Fiction and Fantasy genres. What makes the sound of the future, and other elements of the stories of the fantastic? What are the technical aspects? What are the characteristic examples and creators?
Isabella van Elferen (M), Sarah Ash, Katie Lynn Daniels , Gary Lloyd, Ada Palmer
Music as (Universal) Communication
Sunday 11:00 – 12:00, Capital Suite 5 (ExCeL)
Panellists discuss music and communication. Could it be the basis for a universal language, given its mathematical basis, centrality to most human cultures and psychology and use by many other species? Why first contact might be via music (Close Encounters). Music on space-probes…
Sarah Ash (M) , Jack William Bell, Tim Griffin , Kevin McVeigh, Isabella van Elferen
I’ll be at LonCon3 (Pt 3) Music
Music Composition & the Fantastic
Friday 11:00 – 12:00, Capital Suite 13 (ExCeL)
On the day of the Symphonic concert, panelists discuss musical composition, with an eye on the Science Fiction and Fantasy genres. What makes the sound of the future, and other elements of the stories of the fantastic? What are the technical aspects? What are the characteristic examples and creators?
Isabella van Elferen (M), Sarah Ash, Katie Lynn Daniels , Gary Lloyd, Ada Palmer
Music as (Universal) Communication
Sunday 11:00 – 12:00, Capital Suite 5 (ExCeL)
Panellists discuss music and communication. Could it be the basis for a universal language, given its mathematical basis, centrality to most human cultures and psychology and use by many other species? Why first contact might be via music (Close Encounters). Music on space-probes…
Sarah Ash (M) , Jack William Bell, Tim Griffin , Kevin McVeigh, Isabella van Elferen
I’ll be at LonCon3 in August (Pt 1)
I’m very much looking forward to taking part in Worldcon at ExCel, London from 14th-18th August. I’ll post my panels in three parts; first of all, here are the literary ones – plus a (shared) Kaffeeklatsch and, yes, a reading:
Adult Readers Within the YA Market
Saturday 13:30 – 15:00, Capital Suite 10 (ExCeL)
Age recommendations on books are meant to be a useful feature for readers. What are the risks and benefits associated with age classification, and is it a necessary evil or a marketing mistake? And what’s all this we hear about the emerging “New Adult” market? Will this have on YA books? Moreover, how do the growing number of adult readers affect the YA market? Are we leaving actual young adult readers behind in favor of attracting adult buyers?
Sarah Ash , Joshua Bilmes, Ben Jeapes , Bella Pagan
Kaffeeklatsch
Saturday 17:00 – 18:00, London Suite 5 (ExCeL)
Sarah Ash , Jonathan Oliver
Seeing the Future, Knowing the Past
Sunday 12:00 – 13:30, Capital Suite 7+12 (ExCeL)
Fantasy’s use of prophecy – knowable futures – often parallels the way it treats the past, as something both knowable and stable: details of history known from a thousand years back, kingly bloodlines in direct descent for several hundreds of years, etc. In reality, George I of England was 58th in line for the throne and there is a Jacobean claimant still out there somewhere. No one really knows where France originated. History is messy and mutable. Why is fantasy so keen on the known?
William B. Hafford (M), Sarah Ash , Liz Bourke , Karen Miller, Kari Sperring
Reading: Sarah Ash
Sunday 18:30 – 19:00, London Suite 1 (ExCeL)
June 20, 2014
Meet the Artist!
I’d like to share the work of some young and gifted artists who have contributed to Children of the Serpent Gate, the DeviantArt site set up by Marcelle Natisin to show work inspired by the Artamon novels and my other fantasy fiction.
My first is Acyel, a young French artist. Her work caught my eye as she had produced the first page of a graphic novel version of ‘Lord of Snow and Shadows.’ I’d love to see more! (Hint, hint…)
She has also created some fine portraits of the main characters: Gavril; Kiukiu; Eugene; Astasia; and Celestine, the heroine of Alchymist’s Legacy.
You can see more of her work at http://acyel.deviantart.com/
Kiukirilya
June 12, 2014
New Short Story for The Alchemy Press!
Editors Jan Edwards and Jenny Barber have now finalised the stories for The Alchemy Press Book of Urban Mythic 2. In alphabetical order they are:
Sarah Ash – La Vouivre
James Brogden – Avatising
Carl Barker – The West Dulwich Horror
Andrew Coulthard – Paradise Walk
K T Davies – For the Memory of Jane
Pauline E Dungate – Trapped in the Web
Chico Kidd – Blood*uckers
Tanith Lee – The Mermaid
Christine Morgan – High School Mythical:Asgard
Lou Morgan – Death and the Weaver
Marion Pitman – The Cupboard of Winds
Adrian Tchaikovsky – Where the Brass Band Plays
With a cover painting by Les Edwards.
I’m so delighted to have a story coming out soon in this new anthology! I really enjoyed The Alchemy Press book of Urban Mythic 1 – and I can’t wait to see Les Edwards’s cover art!
http://alchemypress.wordpress.com/201...
May 1, 2014
The Flood Dragon’s Sacrifice
Two rival clans. Two sacred pearls, the Tide Jewels, that can summon the Tide Dragons to protect the empire. Two young men, Kaito and Naoki, one a Black Crane healer, the other a Red Kite shinobi, are sucked into an ancient, unresolved conflict between the gods of land and sea, when the exiled Red Kites steal the Tide Jewels and re-ignite a bitter clan war. Kaito must find a way to restore the emperor’s jewels – but how can it be done without betraying his own clan or angering the gods?
April 26, 2014
The Flood Dragon’s Sacrifice
Prologue
I can smell burning. The boy woke suddenly, sitting up and staring around the unfamiliar room. Where am I? The darkness was illuminated by a dull red glare. The whine of a wild sea wind rattled the shingles. And the sharp scent of fire tainted the fresh night air.
“Father?”
There was no reply. His mind still fogged by sleep, he saw by the faint glow the abandoned futons where his father and his retainers had been sleeping beside him.
Where has everyone gone?
And then he heard a man shouting at the top of his lungs.
“Is Lord Morimitsu here? I must speak with him!”
The boy crawled to the window and slid it open. The great courtyard outside was filled with shaven-headed monks carrying torches, milling around three men on horseback. By the torchlight, the boy could see that the riders were warriors, armed with swords and bows. The sight of the monks reminded him where he was; his father had brought him to the Tide Dragon temple to be treated by the Master Healer.
“Who wants to speak with me?” His father’s deep voice, rough with lack of sleep, rang out across the courtyard. The boy could see him now, standing at the far side with his men.
The foremost of the three horsemen nudged his steed forward. “I am Toshiro, lord of Akatobi Castle.”
Even as the boy gasped, Lord Morimitsu’s bodyguards drew their swords, the torch flames glinting on the naked steel as they placed themselves before their master. Lord Toshiro was the head of the Red Kites clan and the sworn enemy of his family.
“Lord Morimitsu, I need your help,” said the stranger, and there was raw desperation in his voice. “A forest fire is ravaging my lands. This cursed wind is driving the flames directly toward the castle.”
“My help?” Lord Morimitsu repeated slowly. “What can I do against the forces of nature? I can’t stop the wind from blowing. I could send my men to assist you in evacuating the castle.” He folded his arms across his chest. “But many of my retainers have lost fathers, brothers, and sons to your clansmen. You are asking a great deal of us, my lord.”
Lord Toshiro dismounted, handing the reins of his horse to one of the monks. To the boy’s astonishment, the enemy lord knelt down before his father and bowed until his forehead almost touched the gravel, the kind of obeisance only the poorest peasant would make. Then, raising his head, Lord Toshiro said, “Please, I beg you. The emperor has given you the right to guard the Tide Jewels. Use the Flood Jewel and bring the tide in to quench the flames.”
There had been a low murmur when Lord Toshiro knelt down before Lord Morimitsu but now it grew louder as the monks began to protest.
“Before it’s too late. The castle is cut off by a ring of fire. My wife and children are trapped inside.”
The boy saw the agony in Lord Toshiro’s face. What will my father do?
At that moment the crowd of monks parted to let a white-robed man through.
“Abbot Genko, did you hear what Lord Toshiro just said?” asked Lord Morimitsu.
“Act now.” Lord Toshiro’s voice broke. “All this time the merciless wind has been blowing in from the sea. Soon the castle will be engulfed.”
“Only the emperor can use the Tide Jewels, Lord Toshiro,” said the abbot. “If Lord Morimitsu were to abuse the sanctity of the bond, forged between the dragons of the sea and the imperial family. there would be very serious consequences.”
Lord Toshiro let out a harsh laugh. “Oh, come now, Abbot. We all know that the imperial bloodline has been diluted down the centuries. Both Morimitsu and I have imperial blood in our veins.”
“And even if I could summon the Flood Dragon,” said Lord Morimitsu, “how could I ensure that the tide he brought didn’t drown your family as well as quenching the flames?” The boy bit his lip; he had never heard his father sound so anguished before.
“I’ll take that risk. I’ll even risk summoning the Ebb Dragon to make the waters recede. But, in the name of all the gods, let’s do it now!” Even as Lord Toshiro spoke, another fierce gust of wind swept through the courtyard, setting the monks’ torch flames wildly guttering. The scarlet glow in the sky grew more intense.
“I can’t,” Lord Morimitsu said at length, his voice toneless. “I made a vow to the emperor to protect the jewels. I vowed to never let them be used except to defend Cipangu. I can’t risk the devastation that a flood tide would bring to all the villages along the coast.”
“Then fight me.” Lord Toshiro drew his katana; in the torchlight it seemed to drip gouts of fire. “Fight me for the jewels.” A crazed glint lit his eyes as he advanced toward Lord Morimitsu.
The boy wanted to call out to his father, yet when he opened his mouth no sound came from his dry throat.
The abbot moved to place himself between the two men.
“Have you forgotten where you are, my lord?” he said quietly. “Put down your blade. There will be no bloodshed on sacred ground.”
Lord Toshiro stood silent a moment, staring at his rival. Then he sheathed his sword, and, seizing the reins of his horse, swung himself up into the saddle.
“Why am I wasting my time here?” he cried, turning his horse’s head toward the gates. “Okitane, Yūdai; let’s go.” The other two Kite warriors urged their steeds to follow their master.
“Wait – at least let us come with you to help,” cried the abbot.
“You? You’d only slow us down, old man!” Lord Toshiro cried back over his shoulder. “Don’t think I’ll forget this, Morimitsu! If one – just one – of my family dies because of your cursed vow, the Black Cranes will pay. You’ll pay in blood.”
The boy saw the three horsemen starkly silhouetted against the fiery sky as the monks pulled open the outer gates to let them through. The clatter of the horses’ fast-galloping hooves faded as the roar of another fierce gust of wind swept through the courtyard, sending up little eddies of dust.
Abbot Genko went up to Lord Morimitsu who was standing motionless, still gazing after the horsemen.
“What could I do? My sworn duty to his imperial majesty is to keep the jewels safe,” the boy heard his father say, and there was a catch in his usually steady voice. “If I summoned the Flood Dragon, there’s no telling how many innocent lives would be lost. And there’s no knowing if he would even come to my call.”
“Lord Toshiro is a rash, arrogant man,” said the abbot. “But I’ll send the ox carts out to lend him what aid we can.”
The boy could not bear to stay watching any longer. “Father!” he called. He wanted to run to him, but he couldn’t run anywhere because of his crippled leg.
“Kaito?” Lord Morimitsu turned. “You’re awake?” He strode over and lifted the boy out of the window. “You heard what happened?” The boy nodded. In the open courtyard, the acrid smell of burning was so strong that he half-feared to see flames licking at the roof of the outer buildings of the monastery.
Still carrying him, his father walked to the gates and gazed into the night. Behind them, the monks hurried to and fro, loading up the ox carts with supplies as the grumpily lowing oxen were coaxed into the harnesses.
Kaito saw the flames lighting the horizon where the forest was burning. The sky was filled with clouds of thick smoke, obliterating the stars. Akatobi Castle must lie beyond that wall of fire. He shuddered.
“Will Lord Toshiro’s children die?” he asked, unable to take his eyes away from the conflagration. He felt his father’s arms tighten around him.
“I can only hope that his family was able to escape before the fire reached the castle.”
“Ha! Why waste your sympathy on the Kites?” said a dry voice. Kakumyo, the clan lord’s chief retainer, had come to stand behind them. “Lord Toshiro drew his sword on you. That was unforgivable.” As the ox carts trundled out of the gates, Kakumyo went on, “And that’s the reason why our clan has guardianship of the Tide Jewels, not the Red Kites. How could the emperor trust such a hot-headed, insolent family with the sacred treasures?”
“There was no way I could risk summoning the Tide Dragons,” said Lord Morimitsu, setting Kaito down, “yet I fear that my decision today will only stir up the old enmities between our clans.”
Kakumyo shrugged. “The Kites will be too busy rebuilding to retaliate once the blaze dies down.” He shivered suddenly, turning his gaze toward the sea. “Yet when did this gale change course? And where did it come from so suddenly?”
“You’re right, Lord Kakumyo.” Abbot Genko joined them, shading his eyes with his hand as he looked out toward the rim of flame brightening the horizon. “It looks as if the Kites were taken by surprise. The winds off the sea can be unpredictable. The local fishermen say that the Tide Dragons are angry when a gale like this comes tearing in across the bay without warning.”
Kaito could not take his eyes from the glare of the crimson sky. He was thinking how terrifying it would be to have to flee from the raging flames into the castle tunnels, not knowing if, at the end, there would be any escape from the searing heat and choking smoke. “Did Lord Toshiro make the Tide Dragons angry?”
Kakumyo let out a snort of laughter. “A good question, young lord! Who knows what the Kites have been up to? They’ve been quiet for too long.”
***
“Naoki! Lord Naoki!” Every time Masao shouted out his young lord’s name, he drew in another choking breath of hot, acrid fumes. One arm raised to protect his streaming eyes, he struggled forward into the smoke-filled courtyard, coughing. The roar of the flames was punctuated by the explosive sound of falling timbers nearby.
His heart thudded painfully with each crash. He was more terrified than he had ever been in his whole thirteen years. Yet he struggled on because Naoki was both his friend and his responsibility; as the young lord’s squire, it was his duty to protect him, even at the cost of his life.
Where are you, Naoki? When the alarm was raised at dusk, the two boys had been playing truant from their afternoon lessons, trying to catch frogs by the stream in the woods.
He remembered looking up and seeing a cloud of fireflies floating above the castle, each little pinprick of fiery light a fleck of gold against the purple sky. The sight was so beautiful that he had stopped to gaze in awe.
“Look, Naoki!” he had said, pointing. “Have you ever seen so many fireflies before?”
Naoki had caught hold of his arm, dragging him onward. “Come on, we’ll be late. And then we’ll get a beating.”
But as they ran back through the trees, they heard the frantic ringing of the alarm bell. By the time they emerged in front of the compound, the sky was bright with flames shooting skywards from the castle towers. And from inside the walls they could hear terrified shouts and cries of confusion.
For a moment they both stood still, unable to grasp what was happening. Then Naoki shot forward, running toward the main gate.
“Mother!” he cried. “Mother’s in the main tower!”
“Come back!” Masao set out after him; Naoki might be younger and shorter, but his neat, wiry frame meant he could beat Masao in any contest of speed.
How has the fire gained control so fast?
By the time Masao reached the gate, Naoki had already plunged inside into the swirling smoke. Masao had no choice but to follow him into the blazing courtyard. Inside, retainers and servants were hurrying to and fro with buckets of water in a vain attempt to extinguish the flames.
A figure loomed up out of the billowing smoke; Masao saw Lord Kiyoshi, Naoki’s older brother, approaching. He was dragging someone by the scruff of the neck.
“Masao!” he called out in a hoarse voice. “Get Naoki out of here. I’m going back for mother.”
He hauled his burden toward Masao, who instinctively opened his arms and caught Naoki as he thudded into him, almost knocking him off his feet.
“No!” cried Naoki, trying to fight free of Masao’s restraining grip. “Kiyoshi – let me help you – ”
“You can’t,” Masao said, dragging Naoki back the way they had come.
But Naoki struggled, fighting to get free. He had become a wild creature, maddened by the flames. “I’ve got to save her!” he yelled.
In desperation, Masao hit him. Hard. Winded, Naoki slumped forward; Masao hoisted his arm over his shoulder and began to half pull, half carry him away. But the courtyard had filled with dark smoke and Masao no longer knew where to find the gate. Tears streamed from his eyes as he struggled on, tripping over buckets abandoned by the servants as they fled the blaze.
His mother was Lady Fumiko’s chief attendant. If Lady Fumiko’s was trapped in the main tower, then his mother was trapped with her. And there was nothing he could do but obey Lord Kiyoshi’s orders and do his best to get Naoki out alive.
He staggered stubbornly onward, weighed down by his burden. The hot smoke burned his nostrils and mouth every time he tried to draw in a breath, searing its way down his throat.
And then he thought he heard distant voices calling to him.
“Masao – this way!”
The last thing he remembered seeing was the dazzling cloud of fiery sparks rising in the air above the flames, so bright against the inky night sky.
“Just…like the fireflies…” he murmured. And then he toppled forward into a pit of black smoke.
***
Kaito had almost been lulled into a doze by the steady onward trot of his father’s horse through the gathering dusk. He leaned back against Lord Morimitsu’s broad chest, grateful for the support, and felt his father’s arm tighten protectively around him.
Yet even though he was tired after the disturbance in the night, he could not forget the healer’s parting words.
“I’m afraid the damage to your son’s leg is past my skills; he’s made extraordinary progress in the last year, but he’ll never walk without a pronounced limp.”
Or run. Or be swift enough to wield a sword in battle, at my brother Takeru’s side.
Master Seishi’s verdict had been blunt. Kaito would have to learn to live with his disability. No amount of skilled manipulation or painful splinting would restore the withered muscles.
“Even now the fires are still smoldering. And yet this western side of the forest is untouched,” Lord Morimitsu was saying to his retainers. “That fierce wind off the sea drove the flames straight toward the Akatobi domain.”
“They say the goddess Inari protects these lands,” came back Kakumyo’s voice from further along the forest track. “Perhaps the Kites angered her in some way…”
“But how did Lord Toshiro know to find us at the temple?”
“Spies,” said the general brusquely. “Even now, they may be watching us. The Kites are still using Shadow skills, even though the emperor banned them.”
Kaito felt a sudden unfamiliar sensation that set his skin crawling.
“Father – ” he began sleepily.
Suddenly the forest track was filled with the fierce, fast beating of wings. Glancing upward, Kaito had the impression that a host of predatory birds was swooping down on them from the topmost branches. He flung up his arms instinctively to protect his face.
“Ambush!” yelled General Kakumyo.
They were surrounded by dark-garbed men whose sword blades gleamed dully in the twilight. One came directly toward Lord Morimitsu. In the dying light, Kaito recognized Lord Toshiro, although his face was haggard, streaked with cinder smuts and dried blood.
“She’s dead. And my eldest, Kiyoshi, too. So many dead in the flames. Now you must pay, Morimitsu no Kurozuro.”
“Kakumyo!” cried Lord Morimitsu, drawing his sword. “Get my son out of here!”
Before Kaito could even cry out, he felt himself grabbed by strong arms and swung over onto the saddle of another horse. A hail of deadly shuriken rained down around them as Kakumyo dug his heels into his steed’s flanks. Kaito heard the general give a muffled cry of pain as the horse careered wildly away along the path. Something wet and warm dripped onto Kaito’s head; glancing up at Kakumyo, he saw that the right side of his face was streaming with blood from a jagged shuriken-gash above his eye.
“Kakumyo,” he whispered, terrified, clinging to the horse’s mane as the wild headlong gallop continued. “Father.” His last memory of that nightmare ride was the clash and rasp of katana blades in the fading twilight counterpointed against the thud of the horse’s hoofs…
