Bridge of Swords Read Online Free PDF

must never fall into the hands of the Magic-weavers! The Council thought all those things had been destroyed and what were left in the tombs of our forefathers were relics in different languages. I can see I shall have to take care of what is in there myself …’
    ‘But if it is true, then we cannot hide it away,’ Sendatsu argued. ‘It should be brought to the attention of the full Council. The people need to know — you cannot hide something like this forever.’
    ‘Have you not been listening to me, boy? This does not have to be forever, just long enough for me to gain control of the Council and see clan Tadayoshi rule supreme. Until then not a word of it can get out. Too much is at stake. That knowledge could destroy us all. Now go and get that scroll — I shall have the Council Guards meet you there.’
    ‘But …’
    ‘This is not something for you to worry about. Go now! Your children are waiting.’
    Sendatsu reluctantly stood. As ever, he was leaving his father’s study feeling sick to the stomach. This was nearly as bad as the time when Jaken had informed him he would not be allowed to marry Asami.
    ‘Move, boy!’
    Jaken hustled him out of the office and towards the front door.
    ‘I’ll just tell Mai and Cheijun where I am going.’ Sendatsu took a pace back to where he could hear their voices.
    ‘You will be back within a turn of the hourglass. They will not even miss you. Go!’ Jaken propelled him onwards.
    Sendatsu tried to set his feet. The voices were closer, he wanted to wait for a few more moments and he was sure he could see their faces. As ever, after talking to his father, he needed a way to lift the darkness inside him and his children were the only way he knew to do that. But while he trained with sword and bow every day, his father was just as strong — and twice as determined.
    ‘Hurry back.’ Jaken pushed him out of the door.
    Sendatsu, looking back, thought he almost saw his children; he could hear them clearly — then the door shut and they were lost to him.
    Heart still heavy, he turned and hurried back home.

2
    When we arrived in this land, we found the people warm and welcoming. The north-east, where we landed, was either hilly or covered in forest and few people were living there. They were happy to let us settle. Here we were able to use magic and our knowledge to turn the land to our advantage. We were a curious mix. We still retained some of the building and masonry habits and culture of our Elfaran forefathers, yet our food, farming and fighting techniques came from the Nipponese, the people among whom the Elfarans had first found a home.
    This was a golden time when we exchanged information with the people we found here. Yet already we were splitting. Some of us wanted to live among the people here, while others built a magnificent city for us. It wasn’t clear at the time, but already we had reached a dangerous fork in the road.
     
    When Sendatsu arrived home, he raced into the main reception room. In most elven villas this was a large, airy room, with a scatter of couches and the place where noble elves would receive guests. Here, it was filled with Mai and Cheijun’s toys, clothes and a scatter of dirty plates the servants had missed beneath the children’s mess. Beside a couch, on a small wooden table, was the scroll, just as he left it.
    Sendatsu lifted it, then hesitated. He had promised to bring it to Asami if his father failed to take it seriously. Perhaps he shoulddo something with this knowledge, show his father that he could not be pushed around. The only time he had stood up to Jaken was over the children. Instead of leaving them with servants, or his mother, to run errands for Jaken and supervise his many landholdings, mines and fishing vessels, he had declared he would look after Mai and Cheijun. But the thought of being at the front of this political battle terrified him. This would tear apart Dokuzen and he would be at the heart of it. That was too