The Lord of the Sands of Time Read Free Page A

answered.
    “Later. What about FETs?”
    “None detected, not even a comm net. This suggests that the RET has not been fully activated. Probably a stray,” said the sword.
    “It may be a stray, but it’s also a threat. Location?”
    “Thirty-five meters from your position and holding. O—look out!”
    A log hurtled from the trees, striking the soldier like a battering ram and flinging him through the air. The sword flew out of his hand and plunged into the ground, inches from Miyo. The mononoké scudded out of the woods and onto the ridge. It pounced on the soldier.
    “Sword!” As the soldier shouted, the monster’s heavy club swung down. With astonishing speed the soldier sprang to his feet, out of harm’s way. He touched his hip and a swarm of small stones flew at the beast and exploded in a flurry of detonations. The mononoké flinched for just a moment, then advanced as if it had hardly noticed. Swinging club, then scythe, then club again, it pressed the attack.
    “Throw me, woman.” Miyo was transfixed by the fighting, but when she heard the voice of the sword she wheeled in surprise. It spoke again.
    “Throw me to him. Now !”
    The blade was huge, gently curved. The spine was milky white, but the edge was transparent and shone with a blinding radiance. This was nothing like Kan’s sword, neither in make nor material. And it spoke!
    “Quickly, woman!”
    “Give me Cutty!” As sword and soldier called out to Miyo in the same moment, she understood. She wrenched the sword from the soil, marveling at its unexpected weight, and took a running start before flinging it through the air. Turning through its arc, the sword plunged grip first toward the soldier, who sprang to catch it.
    The blade flashed white.
    The giant’s upraised club arm dropped away like a stalk of grass beneath a razor. The swinging scythe shattered like glass. As the mononoké staggered, the sword swept across its belly. The soldier leaped atop the creature and hacked at the bug-like head, severing it from the body. Then he plunged the sword into the creature’s neck and twisted it. “Burn!” he roared.
    From the stump came a hissing sound like hot iron plunged in water, then a thin plume of smoke. The dismembered behemoth toppled backward as the soldier jumped down from it. The soldier stowed his sword in the sheath across his back and walked over to Miyo.
    Surely this was some waking dream. How could Miyo have defeated such a being? She might have needed a hundred soldiers or more, and a stout fort. They might have lured it into a deep pit. That was the only defense she could imagine. Yet this man took mere seconds to cleave the horror into pieces. Miyo knew no other legend to match it, and so she knew him, the ancient sage whose word was proclaimed throughout Heaven and Earth. There could be no other answer.
    “You are…the Messenger? Of the Laws?”
    The soldier spoke over his shoulder. “Language.”
    “There seems to be some vowel shift relative to the root stream, but the language is still recognizable as archaic Japanese. Shall I translate?”
    “Confirm the era and I’ll do it myself. Chronocompass reads two, four, eight CE . Yours?”
    “The same.”
    The soldier nodded and spoke to Miyo. “I am Messenger O. Do you understand?” O. The word for king, Miyo thought. “I understand. You are Messenger…O.”
    “I bring tidings of war.”
    Miyo lifted the hand she’d been pressing against Kan’s wound and bowed her head deeply. “Messenger O, I thank you. You have delivered us.”
    “Save it for later. Let’s have a look at the boy.”
    Miyo wordlessly yielded her place beside Kan. The Messenger leaned over the boy and touched his wound. Miyo caught a glimpse of blood-soaked white muscle through a gap in the bandage and reflexively turned away. After a few moments she looked back. Her eyes widened when she saw that the gash had been closed by a thin film.
    “His wound…” Miyo faltered.
    “There’s nothing I