John Flanagan - The Emperor of Nihon-Ja

Horace cut him short. 'While you were having your little nap beside the track back there,' he said, 'I killed two of Arisaka's soldiers. I think he might see that as taking sides, don't you?'

George threw his hands out in a gesture of bewilderment. 'You what? What could have led you to do such an incredibly stupid thing, Horace? Surely you knew better than that! Why? Just tell me why?'

The Emperor coughed politely before Horace could answer and stepped forward to lay a calming hand on George's forearm.

'Perhaps it was because they were trying to kill me at the time,' he said.

George, once again, looked suitably chastened. As an expert on protocol, he wasn't performing so well, he thought. Horace, seeing George momentarily stumped for words, followed up his advantage.

'I just didn't think, George,' he said, with a hint of a smile flickering at the corner of his mouth. 'I should have checked through our credentials to see what I should do if someone tried to kill the Emperor. But, gosh, I just dashed in and stopped them the best I could.'

Shukin began to smile as well. But the Emperor's next words quickly dispelled the expression from his face.

'In fact, Arisaka might well view the act of saving my life as a bigger affront than the killing of his two men,' Shigeru said.

'His excellency is right,' Shukin agreed, all seriousness now. 'That will establish Or'ss-san as his sworn enemy. Arisaka doesn't like to have his plans thwarted.'

George looked from one face to another, desperately trying to see a way out of this predicament.

'But he doesn't have to know about it, surely? We're miles from anywhere, in a remote forest on a mountain! Who's going to tell him?'

'Maybe,' Horace said, 'the ambushers who escaped will mention it. I know I would, in their place.'

George, seeing the ground crumbling under his feet, shook his head in disgusted resignation.

'Oh, great!' he said wearily. 'You let witnesses get away! If you were going to join in, Horace, why didn't you make a complete job of it?'

Horace frowned at him. 'Are you saying that our diplomatic status would be in better shape if I'd killed twice as many of Arisaka's men?' he asked. The logic of George's position seemed to escape him.

'No. No. No,' George said, finally accepting the inevitable. 'Well, I suppose you've made our bed. Now we just have to lie on it.'

A silence fell over the small group. Shukin and the Emperor exchanged awkward glances. Horace looked at them and nodded almost imperceptibly. He sensed what they were thinking.

'I wonder would you excuse us for a moment, your excellency?' he said.

Shigeru inclined his head and Horace gestured for George to ride a few metres away from the group gathered round the Emperor. George followed him, looking mystified.

'What is it now?' he asked as soon as they were out of earshot. 'What else did you do when I was unconscious – because I was unconscious, you know. I had a whacking great arrow stuck in my arm!' He added the last with a little heat. Horace's joking reference to his 'little nap' had struck a raw nerve.

Horace made a placating gesture. 'I know. I know. I'm sorry I said what I did. After all, you did save my life.'

George looked a little mollified. There weren't too many people who could claim to have achieved anything like that, he thought. Horace normally didn't need anyone else to save his life. He was pretty skilled at doing it for himself. Now he thought about it, George found himself wondering if even his former wardmate, Will Treaty, famous as he might have become, had ever actually saved Horace's life in such a definite manner.

'Well, yes. All right. But what did you want to talk about?'

'George,' Horace began, then hesitated. 'There's no tactful way to put this, so I'll just come out and say it. You're not staying.'

'Well, of course I am!' George exploded. 'If you're staying, I'm staying with you. I'm your friend. Friends don't run off and desert other friends just because there's a bit of danger! All right, I carried on about my arm hurting. But I'm not afraid, Horace. I'm not some kind of coward who'll go slinking off and leave you to face the danger on your own!'

Horace was nodding as the scribe delivered this impassioned response. George wasn't a coward, he knew. Far from it. But facts were facts and they had to be faced.

'George,' he said calmly, 'you're seriously injured with that arm. But even if you were in perfect health, you wouldn't be up to the journey we're about to undertake.'

'Don't worry about me!' George said, with considerable spirit, regardless of the fact that his voice would carry clearly to the Nihon-Jan warriors a few metres away. 'I'll keep up all right. I won't hold you back!' But he saw Horace shaking his head again and, deep down, George knew that the tall young warrior was right.

'You wouldn't want to hold us up,' Horace said. 'And I know you'd try your best. But you're not cut out for this sort of life, George. For starters, you're not a good enough rider.'

'I…' George stopped. He knew it was true.

'You're riding the slowest horse in the group,' Horace pointed out. 'If the rest of us have to come down to his pace, you will be slowing us down. It won't be your fault, George. But if Shigeru is going to escape Arisaka, we're going to have to ride fast and live rough. And if we're waiting for your slow horse all the time, we're putting the Emperor's life at risk. Surely you don't want that?'

Horace thought it was more tactful to blame the horse for George's potential to slow the group down. It was true up to a point but George saw through the device. He had a slow, old horse because he was a poor rider and a slow, old horse was all he could handle.

He hung his head miserably. 'I'm just not good enough, am I?' he said in a low voice.

Horace reached over in the saddle and patted his shoulder.

'It's not that you're not good enough,' he said. 'You're just not trained for this sort of life. You're at home in diplomatic meetings, working out complex treaties between countries, and in courtrooms, coming up with a brilliant argument to save somebody's life or property. That's what you're good at. That's what you've trained for. On the other hand, this is what I've trained for.' Horace swept his arm around the mountainous countryside that surrounded them as he said the words. George wouldn't meet his gaze. His narrow shoulders rose and fell as he heaved a deep sigh.

'I know,' he said finally.

'Besides, I need you to get word back to Araluen, so they'll know what's become of me. I can't just disappear off the face of the earth without telling people where I've gone.'

George raised his eyes to meet Horace's then. 'You think you're going to die here, don't you?' he said quietly. 'You don't think Shigeru has a chance.'

Horace shook his head. 'George, I never go into any fight thinking I'm going to lose.'

'But you said you can't just disappear off the face of the earth. That doesn't sound like you're too confident.'

Horace grinned at him then. 'That's the trouble with you attorneys,' he said. 'You're too darned literal. Let's just say my disappearance will be a temporary matter.'

George's face was screwed up as his mind moved rapidly. 'If I could get word to Will and Halt,' he said, 'they might come to help you. In fact, they'd surely come to help you.'

'It's a great idea,' Horace said sadly. The thought of having the two Rangers by his side in this affair was an extremely attractive one. 'But it's a pipe dream. It'll take you months to get all the way back to Araluen. By that time, things here will be well and truly settled – one way or another.'

But now George was bubbling over with enthusiasm for his idea.

'No! No! No! I don't have to get all the way back! I only need to get to Indus! From there, I can use the Silasian fast message service. That'll get word to them within a few days!'