The crunch of hooves on armor and bone would haunt me forever.
The road curved sharply ahead, diving between massive pines. We took it at dangerous speed, horses sliding on loose stone, dirt flying from their shoes.
Another volley arced above—one grazed my shoulder, the pain sharp and clean, tearing silk and skin.
My horse was failing. I could feel it in her labored breathing, see it in the foam at her mouth turning pink with blood from her lungs. She was running herself to death for me.
“The bridge!” someone shouted.
Ahead, a narrow stone bridge rose over a gorge—but half of it was gone, collapsed into the ravine below. There was no way around.
“JUMP!” Haru commanded.
His horse gathered itself and leaped. For a moment, prince and mount hung in the air, suspended over certain death, before crashing down on the far side.
Esumi followed.
Then me.
The gap yawned beneath us, then my horse’s hooves scraped stone as we landed, her back legs sliding, scrambling for purchase. For one endless heartbeat, we teetered on the edge. Then she found her footing and we were across, but I felt her shudder, felt something break inside her.
Behind us, not everyone made it.
Screams echoed up from the gorge.
“Make for the temple!” Esumi shouted, blood streaming from a gash on his forehead. “Get to Suwa!”
Ahead, rising from the valley floor like a promise of salvation, the temple’s walls came into view, but it seemed impossibly far, and my horse was dying a little more beneath me with every stride. Then Haru’s mount screamed and went down, two arrows protruding from its side.
I didn’t think, just turned my horse and grabbed Haru’s outstretched hand, hauling him up behind me. The additional weight made my mount stagger.
“She can’t—” Haru started.
“Shewill,” I said fiercely.
The temple walls grew closer.
Something moved atop them.
Guards. Watchers.
A gong rang out, deep and urgent, vibrating through my bones. Then another. Then horns, their brass voices carrying across the valley like the promise of salvation.
The temple’s gates burst open.
Samurai poured out—not in parade formation to greet the arriving prince, but in the controlled chaos of warriors responding to a threat. They flowed toward us like a river of steel, their battle cries echoing off the mountains.
Our pursuers saw them, too. Their attack faltered, arrows becoming sporadic. Within moments, they were fleeing back into the forest, vanishing like smoke.
We crashed through the temple’s gates. My horse made it three more strides before her legs buckled. Haru and I tumbled off as she collapsed, her sides heaving once, twice, then going still. Pink foam covered her muzzle. She’d run her heart to bursting for us.
I tried to stand but couldn’t. My legs were water. Blood—mine, others’, my horse’s—soaked my clothes. The copper taste coated my throat.
My hands shook as I pressed them to the ground, trying to stop the world from spinning.
Around us, the final count of those who’d made it: three guards, maybe five. Out of fifty.
The captain was nowhere to be seen.
