Letting Go
 
by Loren Dean

The skeletons advanced, terrifyingly silent.

Naoki was at one end of the line of villagers, and sensed their fear as he raised his bow. Many will die today, he thought as he and the half-dozen villagers with bows loosed their tiny volley. I hope it is not all for nothing.

The arrows of Naoki, his companions, and the villagers seemed largely ineffective. Much more effective at disrupting the undead advance was Ishi, hurling fire into the bone line from his perch on a hut roof. The force of his spells sent skeletons reeling about, breaking up their formation, though few seemed put out of action.

The undead reached the river, and the battle was on. Villagers rushed valiantly forward to the water's edge, pushing and kicking to keep their foes from gaining the bank. Naoki beheaded a grinning corpse and was just fast enough to pull a teenage girl out of the grip of another. She had enough of her wits to grab its mask through her hysteria, and Naoki pulling her away took the skeleton's mask as well. The thing collapsed into the river, its bones floating randomly downstream.

The line was holding! It was not artful, but the villagers fought bravely. Naoki even saw that senile old coot of a farmer, his pet rabbit under one arm, beating mercilessly at a skeleton with a gnarled walking stick. Kataji had moved to the line as well from his reserve position, and was laying mightily about him with his hastily-made tetsubo.

Still, despite the valiant defense, the skeletons were simply too many. Villagers were falling, and there was no one to take their places. The line was holding, but the line was forced back as the weight of the undead grew too great to keep at bay. Naoki cursed mentally as he shouted for the villagers around him to give ground.

His shout was followed by one from Ozaki at the other end of the line, and he turned to watch a sight that made his blood freeze. Behind a wedge of fresh skeletal troops came the maho-tsukai, wizened and desiccated, chanting madly as it held its weirdly carved staff aloft. As its chant reached fever pitch, it swung the staff in a wide arc, black fire spouting from its tip. Where the fire touched a fallen corpse, the body rose, glassy eyed, and in some cases still spurting blood from its death-wounds, to take up arms against its former friends. Naoki's breath caught as he saw the widow Koichiko turn on those who were her friends, blood still fountaining from the jagged stump of her left arm. What good is this defense if that thing can raise all the fallen at any time to reinforce his own?

Naoki ordered his troops to fall back to the secondary line as he raced to the other end. A vault and heave brought him onto the roof of farmer Ayaka's house, and he took a second to scan the battle as he brought out his bow. Things had taken a bad turn. Many villagers were fleeing west to the barn that housed the fishing coracles, pursued by skeletons step for step. Takehai was there already, holding skeletons back as best he could while villagers streamed past him. Marako was atop Motoko, bringing down her sword and his hooves on any skeleton within reach. Jinjiro was fighting for his life as he gave ground.

And there were Kataji and Ozaki, fighting in that achingly beautiful pair, playing their ballad of death to all who could crowd close enough. The remaining miners stood with them, forming a defensive wedge that continued to repulse the undead horde even as it fell back.

Naoki brought up his bow and drew an arrow. The shaft was but an inch too high, and whipped back the necromancer's hood, exposing his rotting face. The thing whipped its head about, searching for the source of the arrow, and saw Naoki just in time to evade the second shaft and order a massive, fully armored skeleton into position between them. Naoki planted an arrow in the bodyguard's chest plate, and on seeing that it hadn't slowed, gave up on the bow and jumped down from the roof.

He landed next to Jinjiro, the Crane's blade whirling as he kept a half-dozen skeletons away. Naoki took up a position alongside the Crane, and they fought with all they had. Soon, Naoki could hear Kataji's bellowed orders.

"Eyoio! Go!" And farmer Eyoio, the retired soldier, broke from the line to run for the barn.

"Jinjiro! Go!" Jinjiro hesitated, then broke for the barn. Naoki continued to fight, wondering grimly if Jinjiro would take umbrage at the lack of the -san from Kataji's address. Then he looked toward Kataji, and his heart sank.

Apparently, Kataji's knee had finally given, as the big crab had stopped moving, allowing the line to fall back without him. Ozaki and the miners were fighting brilliantly, but Kataji was surrounded. Naoki knew what was coming next.

"Naoki! Go!" Naoki did not pause from his swings. Ozaki and the miners had fallen back even with him now.

"Go!" Shouted Ozaki.

"I won't leave him there!"

"He's already left! Go now!"

Naoki paused a second longer, and Kataji turned to face him, their eyes meeting across the village square. No shouting passed between them, only the reading of each other's lips.

"Goodbye." Said Naoki.

"Do me the honor." Returned Kataji.

Naoki turned with Ozaki and the miners, swept up a coracle, and ran for the river. He again paused for a moment, just long enough to see a berserk Kataji be pulled beneath a sea of bone, swinging even as he fell.

Naoki flung the coracle into the river, and waded out to climb inside.

The dead walk again
One man, lame, stands defiant
Honor above life
  — Kakita Jinjiro