Read The Twilight War for Free Online

at his roommates. ‘I’m warning you now, I’m tired, so no crazy stuff tonight, you hear me?’
    Motto inclined his large head, then bounded onto the end of the bedroll. Banken darted after him. Both animals scrambled around excitedly, stamping grubby paw marks all over the futon. Moonshadow clicked his tongue.
    â€˜Cut that out now –’ he began impatiently. The animals froze. ‘That’s better,’ Moonshadow said. Then the dog and cat turned as one. They stared at the wall to his left.
    A soft, rhythmic knocking came from inside it, steadily growing louder. Moonshadow dropped to one knee. He gently prised open a small door in the wood panelling below his narrow window and peered inside.
    In the secret compartment – the kind found in every sleeping chamber in the monastery – hid a small wooden wheel, fitted with carved clappers.It was connected to a system of ropes and pulleys inside the walls, which ran off black trip-wires hidden in the outermost gardens. Moonshadow gaped as the wheel turned faster and the device’s rapping grew louder, indicating repeated trip-wire activations outside.
    â€˜Can’t be a malfunction.’ He stood up quickly. ‘The Fuma must be here!’
    Then he saw his companions flinch and stare up at the ceiling. Motto let out a low growl. Banken’s tail flicked. She crouched low to the floor, hissing.
    â€˜Oh no –’ Moonshadow whispered. Now he could make out the faint sounds too. He had sensed no latent shinobi energy, but then again, his intuition in that department was famously poor. Moonshadow eyed the ceiling along with the animals until a sharp odour made his nostrils flare. Recognising its tang, he shrank back.
    A burning fuse! This was an attack!
    Moonshadow threw himself sideways, twisting across the floor to where his sword lay against the wall. With a huff of relief, he closed his hand around the scabbard. He leapt to his feet, hurriedly sliding his weapon under the belt of his thin sleeping kimono. Motto and Banken scuttled for the door, glancing back as if urging him to follow.
    With a flash of gold fire and a thunderous roar, the ceiling flew apart. Moonshadow dodged awhirling, charred plank and then drew his sword. He peered upwards. A twisting cloud of black smoke now filled the top third of his room. Through its billowing coils he caught flashes of red-orange light. Fire! Above his torn ceiling, parts of a long roofing beam had been set alight by the bomb. If that fire spread –
    He flinched at the roar of a second detonation, each of its echoes as loud as the blast itself. Wait! He blinked. That was impossible. With a horrified gasp he realised it was not one echoing blast, but a well-timed series of explosions! As the last rolling growl faded, gunpowder filled the air, stinging his eyes and making his nose tingle and run.
    From all directions, through wooden walls, doors, and paper screens, alarming new noises reached him. Startled shouts, the first rings of steel against steel, thuds and whacks as bodies were slammed into doorposts or floorboards.
    His skin prickled as the commotion spread. Combat was breaking out all over the fortified monastery! The sounds of tumult outside confirmed that the Fuma had engaged the monastery’s night guards, who were spread around the base’s outer borders. Those guards were hand-picked samurai with a little counter-shinobi training; good men, but hardly a match for the Fuma! What should he do? Run out the door, let himself be seen, join the fight head-on? Or leap up into the ceiling cavityand try to outflank them? He gulped in a breath, gunpowder grains bitter on his tongue.
    Motto and Banken attacked the solid sliding door, the cat hissing, the dog whining, both clawing in vain desperation. A warning instinct drew Moonshadow’s eyes back to the ceiling. The layer of twisting black smoke pulsed. It parted fleetingly to reveal a few stars and the hems of