Chase of the Samurai: A Raimy Rylan Hunt

Chase of the Samurai

A RAIMY RYLAN HUNT

Kenneth B Humphrey

Chase of the Samurai: A Raimy Rylan Hunt

© 2015 Kenneth B Humphrey

Cover design: Kenneth B Humphrey

All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof

may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever

without the express written permission of the publisher

except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

Printed in the United States of America

First Printing, 2015

ISBN: 0-9963659-0-7

ISBN-13:978-0-9963659-0-1

Wheatland House Publishing

More by the author

Young reader series

Raimy Rylan

Book 1: The World Serpent

Book 2: Chase of the Samurai

Book 3: Rylan - Origins

Adult crime thrillers

The Killing Arc

Killing the Man

The Killing Face

For my princess, Kayli.

And for every Meghan, Anna, Ashleigh, Edie and Kelsey that keep her that way.

One: Piper

February, Sunday afternoon

Philomena Rylan bites her lip and fights the tears that threaten to spill down her cheeks. No one calls her Philomena though. She prefers Piper or Pipes.

Her father Abraham claps his hands together, excitement behind his tinted glasses. Children! It is a double event. We have never witnessed something like this before! You must leave immediately, leave for the age of the samurai and ninja, for ancient Japan. There, our next demon awaits.

It's not often Abe shows emotion. He is a serious man in all ways, dressed in his usual serious black shirt and colored tie, dark-haired and dark-eyed. For him to raise his voice was unusual, no matter what the occasion.

Piper doesn’t respond though. Her exhaustion won’t allow it. She could barely lift her head to meet his stare.

She, her cousin Raimy and their friend Hadley Ohafky had just returned from a hunt. This one took them to ancient Denmark, to the time of the Vikings. There they had tracked and captured a demon named Jormugand, the world serpent. He had proven tougher than any before. Hadley nearly died, though she would never admit it.

Piper wants to speak up, to refuse her father, but it's not her way. She knows the incredible burden Raimy, Hadley and her carry. If he needed her to muster up enough strength to transport them back to Japan, she'd find a way somehow. That's her role, her secret. She can move people through time and space, placing their minds inside the body of someone else. In the old forgotten languages, her abilities made her an abbess. But she doesn't care about any of that now. She only wants to close her eyes and sleep for days.

It's Raimy who speaks up. What do you mean, Uncle Abe? What's a double event?

Her father turns his gaze to Raimy, the nephew who has lived with them for three years now, ever since his own father disappeared. You have your dreams, Raimy. Those dreams are full of imagery that contains clues and hints as to where our next prey hides.

Yeah, her cousin replies, with a sigh. Old news. I've been having them since I turned ten. Got that. They lead to a terrible night of sleep. Even he looks tired, bags under his red eyes, cheekbones looking like they are ready to poke through his skin. No fourteen year old boy should look that aged. He is the leader of their little group, a godi in the old words. He could sense the presence of demons across the ages and had the ability to create a web that would entrap them forever.

It's my job to interpret those images, to extract the clues so Piper knows where to bring you. This time, while you were gone chasing the world serpent, I studied your images and writing more closely. There seemed something amiss about them, something different from the other hunts you've completed. So I ran them through the program again using different sorting parameters and they revealed clues to another demon hiding in feudal Japan. We must capture it quickly.

At this Raimy levers himself up out of his chair. He grabs the crutches that are the only way he can stand. Ever since a car crushed his legs, he's been bound by those things that Piper knows he hates more than anything in the world. There's a bit of a sad look in his eyes and she also knows where it comes from. Whenever they go on a hunt, he gets his mind placed inside the body of another person and for that time he is able to move, to walk, to run, like a normal kid. It only makes the pain of his crippled body more so when he has to return back to reality and lean once again on his metal crutches.

Before he can reply, Hadley pushes off the wall where she leaned. Not going to happen, Abe.

She doesn't look tired like Piper and Raimy; she never looks tired. She just tires everyone else out. Unlike the cousins, Hadley doesn't have a magical power, but she has something just as wondrous. Unfortunately it came wrapped in a package of brashness, rebellious nature and wild tendencies. She's a year older than Piper, the same age as Raimy, and almost the same height, which is tall for a girl. Her dark skin and untamed hair seem to bristle with energy, a reflection of her personality. Her arms are bare in her basketball uniform, lean and muscled, a side effect of her abilities.

Abe turns to her, expression cool. Piper can sense her father's growing irritation at Hadley, but everyone knew that she was necessary for their hunts. In some sense, they couldn't do them without her. And why would that be Hadley?

Yo, your girl is nearly dead on her feet. These Travels take a lot out of her, man. Raimy ain't far behind.

And yet you are fresh as is newly woken.

Hey, I got the skills to pay the bills. With that she vaults over the chair in a backflip, landing on her hands and pushing off into a perfect two-point stance. Piper recognizes it from the most recent Olympics. A gymnast did that move to win gold. Hadley just did it on carpet in a top-floor condominium in downtown Chicago, IL.

That's her secret. Piper doesn't know what the name of the condition is, if it even has one. But it's like having photographic memory of the muscles. Any move Hadley sees, she can copy. Basketball (she plays on the boy's team), martial arts (which she watches endlessly), and yo-yo tricks are her favorites, but she can do so much more. Piper doesn't know if there's a limit to her capacity to copy someone; it's never been reached yet.

This is very important, Abe insists. This family has been charged with the protection of earth for a thousand years. No one else knows our mission, but everyday that someone wakes up and breathes in fresh air, it is a small victory for us. We've sacrificed for this, every single person of our bloodline, including Raimy's father, my brother. We cannot afford to relax our vigilance.

Dude, what's it matter when we go? Your daughter is a time traveler. A. Time. Traveler. Let her rest up and she'll drop us into the right spot we we decide to go. Besides, I promised my pops I'd spend time with him today. Catch you suckers on the flip. Hadley stretches tall, cracking her joints, and saunters out of the room. The sound of the front door slamming is loud in the large space.

Piper can almost feel the heat of her father's anger. He doesn't say a word, he merely stomps out of the room to his upstairs lab. She hears the little beeps as he punches in the key code to the door lock then enters. That door also slams shut. And then it's just her and Raimy.

He meets her eyes. Someday, someone is going to pop her right in the mouth, and it may be your dad. A humorless smile crosses his face. It doesn't reach his eyes.

I think she goes out of her way to provoke him.

Then that would make Uncle Abe like anyone else that crosses her path. It's her thing.

She shouldn't do that, Piper whispers, as much to herself as to Raimy.

He pivots his crutches and starts moving towards the door. I know I said we'd catch up on our shows, Pipes, but I got to get some sleep. I'd never make it to the first commercial. We can do them later tonight, okay? I promise.

She doesn't respond as he stumps across the main foyer to the elevator. The doors ding softly as they close, only to repeat the sound a few seconds later up on the second floor. Raimy closes the door to his bedroom with a solid click.

And then Piper Rylan is alone. Sometimes it seems like she's always alone.

Despite her exhaustion and desperate need for sleep, she can't still her whirling thoughts. A double event. Back to back trips. Does that mean something? They've never come across a demon so quickly. Over the last few years, the three kids have caught many demons. Usually the hunts are spaced a few months apart. So why would there suddenly be two hunts buried in the same dream?

Piper knows they are down to the last nine. Jormugand was the first of them, leaving eight more yet. She figures they are the strongest and smartest; that's the only way they could have lasted this long. She knows that the single goal of all demons is the death of mankind. They want to erase Man from all the lands and seas, to reclaim the planet that once was theirs way back before time began. Her ancestors - and Raimy's - were gifted with the power to help prevent a demon takeover. She doesn't know how many of her ancestors did this, but now there is only her and Raimy left of the Rylan line. It's up to them to finish that great task started so many centuries ago. And that's a lot for a teenage kid to bear.

But bear it she can. This Piper knows. Her mother was also an abbess, before her disappearance. People in the bloodline of Rylan had a bad habit of disappearing: her mom, Raimy's dad, his mom before that. It is the price of protecting earth, she figures.

Maybe one day she too will disappear.

Two: Raimy

Monday morning

I lean into my crutches outside Principal Evans' office and watch as Hadley walks towards me. She's tall and lanky, with a mop of wild hair that is usually pulled back into a knot. Looking at her, you'd never guess the amazing skill she has. She just looks like any other loud-mouthed sports girl, not like a person who can copy any move on earth and repeat it perfectly. Piper and I have our birthright, rooted in family blood and mystical ability. Her birthright is all physical and really, REALLY cool. I’d trade in a heartbeat.

It always makes me a little jealous, since I can't even walk without these stupid crutches, but it's not like I resent Hadley for her skill. I'm just sick of being a gimp.

During our demon hunts, Hadley is our protector. Her personality is tough to take sometimes since she never seems to care too much about anyone else, but there's no one who can do what she does. Most of her free time is spent watching sports and martial arts movies. I can almost guarantee that after Uncle Abe announced Japan was our next hunt, she ran home and spun up YouTube for ninja videos.

What are we doing here? She asks.

I shrug. Rock, paper, scissors it's something you did.

You're on, punk.

We're midway through the tiebreak when Piper comes around the corner.

What's going on? She whispers.

Whatever it is, I'm sure it's Hadley's fault, I say. I throw paper. She throws scissors.

Boy, you done watch your mouth, Hadley says in some weird accent. She probably watched a video clip this morning where someone talked like that.

I snort. Without you, I'd never know where the Principal’s office is. But now his secretary knows everything about me. Did you know she sent a birthday card last month?

Piper just gives a weak smile and I notice how tired she looks.

Hey, are you all right?

Yeah, just worn out.

I nod and shift my position, standing up straighter against my crutches. Me too. This last hunt took a lot out of all of us I think.

Hadley sniffs and looks away. It's her way of showing that she didn't feel exhausted like us. As I said, her personality can be hard to take. She's always so competitive.

Jormugand was something else, huh? I say. He was different than any other demon we've chased.

I’m not just saying that. This demon controlled other demons, commanding them as his soldiers, which is something we’ve never come across before. He seemed less like the usual mindless demon gnawing its way through myth and history, and more like a human in his thinking and actions.

If my father is right about these last nine, they may all be like that, Piper responds.

That’s a frightening thought.

I don't like to see her burdened this way, she takes things so serious, and I'm not sure how much she can take. I shift the subject. Carl said you took the bus this morning. Carl is Abe's driver and usually drives us to school. I have trouble with bus steps. Really, any steps.

I couldn't sleep so I caught the early route.

Gross, Hadley butts in. Coming here before you need to.

Just then the principal's office door opens. His secretary points to three chairs lined up against one wall next to his desk. I lower myself down, bumping Piper's knee with one of my crutches by accident. Sorry, I mutter.

Hadley waltzes around and plops herself down in the principal's chair, throwing her feet up on his desk.

Get out of there! Piper hisses, eyes wide and fearful. She doesn't want to get in more trouble.

With a smirk, Hadley moves to the seat next to me just as Evans walks in. Behind him trail Uncle Abe and Hadley's father, Isaiah Ohafky. He's a large round man, not quite as tall as Abe, but much wider. Unlike his daughter's beady squinting stare, his eyes are edged with laugh lines at the corners. I've never heard him say anything negative or even raise his voice. He calls us Sir Raimy and Princess Piper. How Hadley turned out this way