John Flanagan - The Emperor of Nihon-Ja

'And you think Arisaka might know about this phalanx?'

'No,' Halt replied. 'But the idea of using spearmen or pikemen could well occur to him. I'd be surprised if it didn't – it's a logical idea. They could attack our front rank and they'd be safe from our short blades.'

'We'd have to close with them,' Horace said. 'We'd have to advance to fight them or our shield wall would be smashed to pieces.'

'And as soon as we advance, their comrades can outflank us,' Selethen said.

'We could use our javelins as lances,' Horace suggested. 'We could throw the first volley, then retain the javelins from the second and third rank as stabbing weapons.'

Halt rubbed his chin thoughtfully. 'That might work. The odds are that Arisaka won't have men who could handle anything as long as the Macedon lance. It takes years to develop the strength and skill necessary. My guess is they'll use normal spears, so we'd be fighting spears with spears. But at best, that'll be a stalemate. Eventually, we'll need to get to close quarters. That's where all the advantages lie with our men. So we need a way to stop any flanking movement.'

'Fifty or so archers would come in handy,' Will said.

'If we could train them. And if we had fifty bows,' Horace replied.

Will nodded despondently. But as he glanced up at his old mentor, he saw a light in Halt's eyes.

'I might have an idea,' the older Ranger said. 'Will, let's you and I go and find young Mikeru.'

Will, Halt and Mikeru stood on the parade ground where the Kikori gojus usually trained. The troops were resting at the moment so they had the ground to themselves.

'Mikeru,' Halt said, 'can you throw a spear?'

The young Kikori nodded enthusiastically. 'Of course, Halto-san. All Kikori learn to use a spear when they are very young.'

'Excellent.' Halt handed the young man a standard Kikori throwing spear and nodded to a pole some forty metres distant, on which he had placed one of the captured armour breastplates. 'Let me see you hit that breastplate.'

Mikeru tested the weight and balance of the spear, then strode forward until the target was thirty metres away. His right arm and body weight went back, his left leg extended and then he hurled the spear in a shallow arc. It smashed into the breastplate, piercing it and knocking it from the pole to clatter on the ground.

Halt noted the co-ordination of the throw, with right arm and shoulder, body and legs all combining to put maximum force behind the spear.

'Very good,' he said. 'Will, would you replace the target please?'

Will moved forward to replace the damaged breastplate on the pole, jerking the spear free as he did so. When he turned back, Halt had led Mikeru back to a point fifty metres from the target. Will rejoined them quickly and Halt took the spear from him, offering it to Mikeru.

'Let's see you do it from here,' he said. But Mikeru shook his head apologetically.

'It's too far. The spear is too heavy for me to throw so far.'

'Thought so,' Halt said. He now opened a rolled piece of canvas he had been carrying and produced a strange weapon, which he handed to Mikeru.

It was a giant dart, over a metre long and made from light bamboo, but with a heavy iron tip at one end. At the other end were three leather fins, laced and glued to the shaft like the fletching on an arrow. Just ahead of these fins, a shallow groove had been carved all the way around the shaft.

'Try it with this,' he said.

But again, Mikeru, after testing the weight of the projectile, shook his head.

'This one is too light, Halto-san. I can't put any force behind it.'

'Exactly,' Halt agreed. Then he produced a leather thong, knotted at one end and with a loop at the other. He wound the knotted end once around the groove at the rear of the shaft, then, holding it firmly in place, crossed the thong over itself, close to the knot, to hold it in place. Then, keeping tension on the thong, he extended it down the shaft to where Will noticed there was a section bound with thin cord, forming a hand grip. He took Mikeru's right hand and slipped the looped end of the thong over it, then placed the boy's hand on the cord-bound grip on the dart, making sure he kept the thong tight as he did so.

Understanding dawned in the Kikori youth's eyes as he held the dart, with the tensioned leather thong extending back over half its length, retained in place by the cord passing over the knot.

'Now try it,' Halt said.

Mikeru grinned at him, sighted on the breastplate, leaned back, then hurled his body and arm into the throw. The leather cord acted as a lever extension for his arm, adding enormous extra thrust to the throw. As the missile hissed away on a murderous, arcing flight, the knotted end of the thong simply came free and fell clear, swinging from Mikeru's wrist.

The dart just missed the breastplate, then thudded point first into the ground some eight metres past it. Mikeru shook his head in wonder.

'This is good,' he said. 'Very good.' He started out to retrieve the dart but Halt stopped him, pointing to the roll of canvas. There were three more darts lying there.

Mikeru was a natural athlete, with excellent hand-eye co-ordination. And he was already an expert spear thrower. It didn't take him long to become accustomed to this new technique. His fourth cast smashed into the leather armour, the heavy iron point tearing a jagged hole.

Halt slapped his back in encouragement.

'Show this to your friends,' he said. 'Make more of them and practise with them till you can all do it. We've got another seven or eight weeks until spring and I want thirty of you trained and ready with these weapons when we face Arisaka again.'

Mikeru nodded enthusiastically. He had been chafing at the fact that so far he had taken no active part in the battle against the usurper. And he knew his friends felt the same way. This would be their chance.

'We'll be ready, Halto-san,' he said, drawing himself up to his full height and bowing formally.

Halt nodded in acknowledgement. Then he and Will turned away, leaving Mikeru to retrieve the darts and continue perfecting his new skill.

'Now let's see what happens if they try to outflank us,' Halt said.

'Are you sure this is a good idea?' Evanlyn asked anxiously.

Alyss glanced up from where she was checking her equipment.

'No. I'm not. But it's an idea, and it's the only one we've got. I just hope you're as good as you say you are with that sling of yours.'

'I never said I'm all that good. Other people might have said it, not me,' Evanlyn protested.

Alyss regarded her cynically. 'Maybe. But I never heard you contradict them.'

The discussion was interrupted by a light tap on the door frame of the room they shared.

'Come in,' Alyss called and the screen door slid open to admit Lord Nimatsu. The Nihon-Jan nobleman wore a worried look on his face. He glanced at the bed and saw Alyss's equipment laid out ready.

'Ariss-san,' he said, bowing to her, 'I see you are determined to go ahead with this.'

'I'm afraid I have to, Lord Nimatsu. Your people won't go through that forest unless we show them that we have killed the Terror. And this is the best way I can think of to do that.'

'But couldn't you try with another pig – or a goat, perhaps – as bait?' Nimatsu asked.

Alyss shook her head. 'The Terror has shown it's not interested in animals. It only killed the pig to silence it, so that we'd get no warning that it was there. But once that was done, it didn't touch the carcass. It sat under our tree for hours, waiting to see if we'd come down. It wants people. It's a man-eater. So this time, I'm the pig.' She waited a second and glanced at Evanlyn. 'You could always object to the way I phrased that,' she suggested.

Evanlyn made a disclaiming gesture. 'This is too serious to joke about, Alyss. You're putting yourself in terrible danger. And you're putting a lot of trust in my skill with the sling. Why don't we draw lots to see who's the bait?'