The Cycle of Reversion - Book 2 - Escape from Sapporo
The Return Journey Begins
To read Book 1 from the start, click here
To read Book 2 from the start, click here
Previously, in the Cycle of Reversion
The Emerald Palace Hotel is Safe from the dragons. However, once all threats had been dealt with, an urgent note informed the Emerald Clan leadership that the Hong Clan planned to invade Japan from China with a force of one million strong. To deal with this threat, Dahia, the head of the Emerald vampire sisters, has asked Jack to organize and lead a rescue mission to recover the clan's King and Queen.
The wizard Jack Adams, the hotel Manager Satoshi Watanabe, and the security agent Akira Musashi lead the team that will head to Sapporo to recover the royals. They purchased a ‘dragon boat’ designed for tourists in Tokyo Harbor. Two giant sea turtles pull it, and an entire gnome crew runs the boat.
The party landed in Sapporo and followed a force of over 120 North Korean warriors who came to take the King and Queen of Midori, who were hidden away here, for themselves. The Koreans marched to the TV tower in downtown Sapporo and set up camp to begin in the morning to get the royal couple.
Jack and the others, a force of just 15, attacked the Koreans during the night and killed many, including all the senior officers. In the process, they took many wounds.
The Remainder of the Koreans marched away in the morning, and Jack and the others recovered the Royal Couple. The New Queen was a healer and healed many of the wounded. Five of the ESS agents had been killed in the attack, and Queen Tatsuo rssurected them as nightwalkers (vampires). The party marched back to their boat and, on the way, attacked the North Koreans that were blocking their path. The royal retainers who had been with the royal couple in the tomb watched as the others scouted and cleared the way.
The Story Continues:
The guards' leader asked Satoshi, “What would you like us to do? We feel useless here and want to help.”
Satoshi thought momentarily and said, “When everyone gets back, we will need to move quickly. Please make sure that everything is packed and ready to go. I want to show you these nice bags that Jack made. We can walk around like we do because all our equipment, armor, and weapons are in these bags. The bags are marked with the name of the person who controls them. Only that person can use it. But you can ensure they are all here, unfolded, and ready for use as soon as they arrive. I will pull some things out of my bag. Can any of you cook?”
The leader pointed at one of the others. “San can cook.”
Satoshi frowned. “His name is ‘San,’ like the number ‘3’?”
The leader said, “Yes, I am Ichi; one, that is Ni; two, He is San, as I mentioned, and our newest member has the name ‘Yon’ for four. Of course, we use the other word for four rather than ‘Shi,’ which means ‘death.’”
Satoshi said, “So, you are called One, Two, Three, and Four?”
Ichi replied, “Yes. We find it keeps things simple.”
Satoshi shook his head. “That it does.”
He reached into his bag and said, “Cooking Pot.”
He handed the cooking pot to San, who still had a surprised expression from Satoshi pulling a pot from an empty bag. Satoshi said, “Get some water from the water bottles I will give you and start a small fire. Keep it concealed and small, and use only dry wood to burn. Let’s make up a pot of rice for any of those who don’t drink blood, like yourselves, for instance. I am sure that many of us must feel like we are starving. I know that I do. Also, I will get you another pot and more water to make tea.”
He laid down himself and awaited word from the others.
About 30 minutes later, Desert Wind descended to land next to the fire. Both Jack and Satoshi were fast asleep. The four guards watched her and said nothing as she returned to her human form.
She looked at them, and they looked back. Ichi asked, “Would you like some rice or tea?”
“I would love some,” she replied. She sat down, ate half the rice, drank half the tea, and fell asleep next to Jack and Satoshi.
Ichi looked at her, shrugged, and started making more rice and tea.
Oka and Franz were the first to return another half hour after Desert Wind had returned. They looked at Jack, Satoshi, and Desert Wind, who were still sleeping. Ichi approached Oka and asked, “Rice or Tea?”
Oka replied, "That sounds great! Franz, my friend, they have made us supper!”
Ichi watched as Oka had a cup of rice and tea, and Franz had all the rest.”
When they were done, Oka said, “There is no reason to wake them till the others return. I wouldn’t mind a little shuteye myself.”
Oka and Franz lay down next to the others and fell fast asleep.
“More rice and tea?” asked Ni.
“Yes. And this time, let’s double the quantity,” said Ichi.
Finally, all the rest came in at about the same time. Akira led his ESS agents; the king and queen followed with grins, and Miss Ling and Vyndryx were the last.
With the noise of people talking and knocking about, Jack woke up. He blinked a few times and saw the others sleeping beside him. He gently nudged Desert Wind, Satoshi, and Oka. He let Oka wake up Franz. He had made the mistake of trying to wake up the troll before and now stayed outside of his rather incredible reach when doing so.
When everyone was awake and fed, Satoshi started. “Very well. It is good to see you all alive and not fleeing from someone. Please, let’s start with the Royal Couple. What did you find?”
It was the queen who spoke up first. She said, “We explored all four tunnels. We are not dealing with a military genius here. The blocked-up tunnels are that. Blocked up, empty tunnels. The fourth tunnel has over 100 troops inside, with a central core of 40 men in armor, 50 archers in support, and the leader with ten tougher-looking men in armor further back. Other than that, it is the scouts on the hill.”
“Thank you, your majesty,” said Satoshi. Facing Akira, who looked naked in leather armor, he said, “Speaking of the scouts on the hill, how did it go?”
Akira laughed, “If I had known how effective ‘nightwalkers’ could be, I’d have had my troops converted long ago. But I suppose some daylight troops will still be required. Perhaps a dozen lightly armored enemy troops were scattered around the hill, mostly with bows, overlooking the entrance and exit to the fourth tunnel where all the troops were. These Nightwalker ESS cannot be seen at night unless they want to be, and they are completely silent. The scouts didn’t stand a chance. They were dead before they knew they were under attack. I didn’t do a thing other than keep an eye out for anyone else approaching, which they did not. There are no more Korean scouts.”
“Excellent,” said Satoshi. “Next, Oka and Franz. What did you find at the railway?”
Oka replied, “We found an excellent railway and even a small road free of stalled cars. I don’t think that road got used much. We can easily skirt the mountain and all the tunnels.”
“Even better,” said Satoshi. “Now, last but not least, Desert Wind, what did you find at the Ferry terminal?”
Desert Wind stood and said, “The Leviathan is an incredible creature, but it is not invincible.” A force composed of six frigates made of a lightweight metal was rowed here from the north, no doubt from China. They flew a solid red flag surrounded by a border of yellow on all sides.”
The king interrupted briefly, “That is the Hong flag.”
Desert Wind continued, “Each ship had 100 men in it, and they were all armed with bows. Bows, however, are completely useless against a Leviathan. It simply ignores any arrows. I think its skin must be at least a few feet thick. These smaller ships also had ramming prows, and they lost two boats trying to ram the Leviathan. It did not ignore the Rams, so I think they must have hurt it, but they did make it angry. As it happens, the Leviathan has both a tail and a mouth. It smashed one of the boats that got too close to the tail, trying to get the arrows to do damage. The Leviathan raised its tail completely out of the water, smashed the ship flat, and broke the keel and the structure into at least three pieces. I don’t see how anyone could have survived that hit. A ship rammed it in the side and drew blood in the water for the first time. That made it angry, and what I thought was a forward ramp on the beast opened up a good thirty feet back and bit the ship in two, catching much of the crew in its gullet. But that is when a larger version of one of the Hong ships approached from the side, and a ball of flame flew over and struck the creature, setting that thick skin on fire. This was followed up by a great bolt of lightning that stunned the beast. Once it was stunned, the remaining ships rammed it over and over until it finally sank. I left at that point. I wasn’t going to risk getting hit with a lightning bolt myself. But we can safely assume that they are landing even now.”
Jack shook his head. “That’s all we need. The Hong have themselves a powerful wizard as well.”
The room was silent for a moment. Satoshi said, “So what do we want to do?”
Jack looked around. “I don’t want to fight the guys in the tunnel if we can avoid it, but I also don’t want to walk into a fight with some 400-plus Hong troops. Is there any way we can take the railroad path around the mountain and cut inland away from the sea and the tunnel?”
Desert Wind answered, “It is about a mile and a half between the tunnel exit and a branch in the expressways where one goes towards the coast and the ferry terminal, and the other goes inland away from the ferry terminal. That one is our road. The bad news is that we still have twenty miles between us and our ship. I don’t see how we can get there before dawn even if we leave at once.”
Satoshi said, “Aren’t we walking pretty close to the shore for the last half of that journey once we are already past the Ferry Terminal?”
Desert Wind said, “Yes. If they could come towards us and meet us, we could shorten the walk to maybe twelve miles. The problem is, if the Hong heads up the coast, they will catch us in their fast boats.”
Satoshi said, “We will have to take that chance. We cannot go twenty miles, but we can go twelve. I’m sorry, Desert Wind, but we need you to be our messenger and fly like the wind. We need you to tell Captain Minato to sail to the nearest harbor that we can walk to without risking being seen by the Hong.”
She looked determined and said, “I can be on the boat in 30 to 40 minutes.”
Satoshi said, “Thank you, please do that. Once you tell them, come back. We are likely to need you on the way.”
“Very good,” she said. She immediately got up and looked around to reassure herself that she had all she needed, and the familiar mist started appearing around her.
Satoshi said. “All right, everyone. It is time to roll right now. Pack up the gear and form up. Miss Ling and Vyndryx are on point. We all follow each other as quickly as we can keep pace. The sooner we start, the sooner we get there.”
It was no more than five minutes, and the entire party was on the move. Jack tried penetrating the darkness with his gaze, but that went both ways. They were unlikely to be seen. He spent the energy to cast the group silence spell to make enemy troops less likely to notice them in the area.
It was about half a mile through dense woods and rough terrain to cut from the road they were on to the coastal railroad track. They had Franz lead the way, and he blazed a trail through the undergrowth to the coast. The final hundred feet was a steep drop to the train tracks. It took them nearly 30 minutes to cover that half mile. Finally, the last of them could get out of the woods, and while they were all covered in scratches, they were safe, and the enemy should have no idea where they were.
Satoshi reminded them, “We are exposed on this railway. Anyone looking from the sea will see us here. We need to move as fast as possible. Jack hated to do it, but the risk was so high that he spent a great deal of his remaining energy casting the group invisibility as well, at least until they could get away from the railway track that was right on the coast with no cover at all.
In a mile and a half, they were past the hill with the tunnels. In another half mile, they left the tracks, returned to the expressway, and slowly curled further inland.
In one more mile, they reached the junction where they left the coastal road behind them. The road was a half mile inland with no line of sight to the sea. Jack could finally drop the invisibility spell, and in another mile, he also dropped the silence spell. They had been walking for an hour and a half when Jack got the familiar mental call from Desert Wind.
She circled down and landed next to them. After getting more food and water, she took up a position next to Satoshi and Jack in human form and strode with them.
Satoshi looked over at her. So, how long do we have yet to go to reach the rendezvous with the boat?”
Desert Wind kept walking steadily for a moment and said, “Ten miles from here.”
Jack was doing the mental math. He said, “At the pace we are doing now, which has slowed a bit, it is still three to three and a half hours to get there. It is nearly two o’clock, so we arrive at about 5 to 5:30 a.m. When should sunrise be at this time of year?
Satoshi answered, “Almost exactly 5 a.m.
Jack called the Party, “Hey everybody, I know we are all tired, but we must pick up the pace. We need to cover ten miles in under three hours. Two and a half hours would be better.
As they headed inland, they could still see the glow off to their right from the fires at the ferry terminal. They strode along quietly and with purpose, driving themselves hard.
There were no further incidents until two and a half hours later. They crossed from the inland road to the coastal road, and from there, they could see the coast and one of the small private docks that dotted these shores. Except this particular dock had a bright red dragon boat with two giant sea turtles attached.
The Captain had the plank down and his crew standing by to help the passengers get on board. He wondered at the King and Queen as they crossed onto his ship.
Upon reaching the plank, the King asked Captain Minato, “Permission to board, Captain?”
The Captain nodded, and the King and Queen walked aboard with dignity and grace.
Wednesday, September 3, 2036: Daytime – Sapporo
The Captain bowed deeply, “You and your party are most welcome, my liege. It is an honor to be your Captain today.”
With that, the entire party came on board. The sun was about to peek over the horizon as the King, Queen, and the other nightwalkers got below deck, and Jack magically darkened all the windows and doorways against the sunlight that began streaming into the deck even as they shut the doors.
The Captain immediately turned the turtles to the west and had them set off as fast as they could swim away from Sapporo and the TV Tower that had been the tomb of the King and Queen for the past eighty years.
All Jack knew was that he could finally get some natural sleep. He broke out his bedroll and a small pillow and fell at once into an exhausted coma.
It may have been daylight, but the boat was filled with sleeping people. The only people that stayed awake were the Captain’s crew and one of the King’s guards. They would rotate every couple of hours, watching the others sleep. Even Desert Wind slept the whole time. Captain Minato could not tell the four guards apart from each other. They spoke little and never left the darkened room.
The Captain wasn’t sure who or what they were running from, but he was pleased to head home again.
They sailed all day long, never stopping. The turtles were doing well after the few days’ rest at Sapporo and were in good form today. They could keep a pace of about 17 kilometers per hour, over 10 knots. He kept them swimming for 12 hours until the sun again set over the sea to the west. Still, that whole time, the passengers stayed below decks. He felt like he was driving a funeral barge and not a tourist boat; it was so quiet.
As the sun descended, Desert Wind rose and came onto the deck. She went over to the Captain.
“Any news today, Captain?” she asked.
He glanced over at her. She was a strange one. She almost looked Asian, but he knew that she was Native American. She radiated a strength and a mystery. He would find her attractive if she didn’t also feel so dangerous. He realized that he was staring and cleared his throat. “Um, no, Miss. It has been a long and quiet day. Too quiet for my liking.”
She didn’t react to this. She looked out across the waves. She asked, “Any idea where we shall spend the night?”
The Captain replied, "I don’t know its name, but we can see a nice-looking breakwater and port up ahead, and I plan on putting it in there for the night.”
Desert Wind nodded and said, “Thank you.” She turned and went back below deck once again.
The Captain kept looking in her direction until she was out of sight. He said quietly, “You’re welcome.”
