The Smoke Dragon
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About this ebook
In a Japan that never was ... Yamabushi Kaidan is a mountain monk with tremendous fighting ability and spiritual powers, Yumi is a brilliant but untested warrior, fighting for her village and her independence, and Kaidan's apprentice Akio is a gifted healer with a courageous heart, but can their combined prowess save the village of Kyuusai from the onslaught of the Smoke Dragon, an evil never before seen in the Autumn Valley?
The Smoke Dragon is a Ditmar and Aurealis Awards finalist.
The Adventures of Yamabushi Kaidan continue in The Mist Ninja.
Shane Jiraiya Cummings
Shane Jiraiya Cummings has been acknowledged as "one of Australia’s leading voices in dark fantasy". Shane is the author of the forthcoming Yokai Wars series (Circle of Tears, Clockwork Legion, and Blight of the Underworld) and the dark fiction books The Abandonment of Grace and Everything After, Shards, the Apocrypha Sequence (Deviance, Divinity, Insanity, and Inferno), and the Ravenous Gods cycle (Requiem for the Burning God and Dreams of Destruction). He has won the Australian Shadows Award and two Ditmar Awards, and he has been nominated for more than twenty other major awards, including Spain's Premios Ignotus.Shane is an Active Member of the Horror Writers Association and former Vice President of the Australian Horror Writers Association. When he is not writing, Shane is an editor and journalist by day. By night (and on weekends), he can be found indulging in hobbies such as playing the guitar, photography, sword fighting, and testing the limits of his new cruiser motorcycle.In his youth, Shane was trained in the deadly arts of the ninja, and the name Jiraiya (lit. "Young Thunder", after the legendary ninja Jiraiya) was bestowed upon him by his sensei.Shane was born and raised in Sydney, Australia. He lived for many years in Perth, Western Australia, and Wellington, New Zealand, but he recently returned to his old home town to revisit the ghosts of his past.More information on Shane (including his free fiction) can be found online at www.jiraiya.com.au.
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The Smoke Dragon - Shane Jiraiya Cummings
THE SMOKE DRAGON
Shane Jiraiya Cummings
Copyright © Shane Jiraiya Cummings 2011.
A print version of The Smoke Dragon appears as Yamabushi Kaidan and the Smoke Dragon
in the anthology Fantastic Wonder Stories, ed. Russell B. Farr (Ticonderoga Publications, 2007, ISBN 9780958685689). This version was a finalist for the Aurealis Award (Young Adult Short Story) and the Ditmar Award (Best Novelette/Novella).
Smashwords Edition, License Notes:
This book may be reproduced, copied, and distributed for non-commercial purposes, provided the book remains in its complete original form. If you enjoyed this book, please return to Smashwords.com to discover other works by this author. Thank you for your support.
All characters in this book are fictitious.
No reference to any living person is intended.
* * *
To Kazuo Crando Saito, the inspiration for Yamabushi Kaidan.
* * *
Chapter 1
In a Japan that never was ...
Yamabushi Kaidan balanced on one leg atop the blossom tree.
His robes fluttered in the wind as he studied the columns of smoke rising from the village below. The ghost-white blossom tree that crested the summit of Mount Akiyama afforded him a view of the entire valley—leagues of patchwork fields ringed by mountains shrouded in mist.
That troubles me.
He pointed to the line of smoke retreating from Kyuusai village.
The sparrowhawk screeched his assent, flapping his wings for emphasis—a mottled brown blur contrasting against the snowy blossoms.
Yes, Tsubasa. An excellent idea,
said Kaidan.
Tsubasa launched himself from a bough, swirling blossoms in his wake. He circled high above the mountain, leaving Kaidan to ponder the smoke wafting from the valley.
Blossoms floated around the Yamabushi, undisturbed by the southerly gale cutting through the trees. His broad hat, peaked with black in tribute to the metal tokin caps of his brethren, sat unbothered on his head. The hat, like the blossoms, held a tranquillity at odds with the South Wind.
Kaidan dived from his flowery perch, landing on the thickest of the limbs below him, and then sprang to the earth. His landing, although feather-light, threw up another cloud of blossoms.
He laid his hand on the trunk, closing his eyes for a moment. Thank you for your patience, old friend.
A fast, irregular beat pulsed through his palm.
It seems we have a guest on the mountain.
He inclined an ear toward the tree line, listening to the trees suffer the South Wind’s ire—and something more.
Gathering up his iron-banded bo staff, he jogged into the forest and began the descent. The trees blurred as he raced through their midst, winding down the secret paths, jangling his bead necklace as he went. His staff was heavy, slowing his pace. After three recitals of the Mikkyo Chi mantra—invoking the earth spirit—to counter the wind magic used while on the blossom tree, the staff regained its normal weight.
Liberated to full speed, Kaidan became an off-white haze as he dashed downhill through the trees.
Ragged breathing from somewhere on the lower slope halted his descent as he neared the base of the mountain. He paused to listen, keeping his own breathing controlled. With a few whispered words, he slid behind a thick cedar trunk, disappearing from the