Cephiro, Elven Province

[Carthrat]

"Perhaps. But seeing that you have found their plans, they might have accelerated their march on the capital," replies Okina. "As it stands, we must begin preperations for refugees, Doji infiltrators or not. If you three would help, I would be-"

At this point, a pair of samurai walk in, helping a wounded elf stagger inside the audience chamber.

"Okina..dono.. Sakura's ship. Most of the sailors were.. Katsu bushi in disguise."

"Katsu bushi? How? Why? The Katsu are hundreds of miles away!" exclaims Okina, astonished.

"They let me go.." the elf continues, perhaps unhearing what Okina was saying. "They're holding her hostage, but they havn't made any demands.. gah!"

The elf suddenly starts coughing up blood..

[Ebiris]

Fuu rushes over to the wounded Elf, spontaneously casting Cure Light Wounds on him by sacrificing her Shield of Faith spell.

[Carthrat]

The elf coughs and sputters a bit, but regains his voice.

"The Katsu are lead by a Doji monk," he says. "Long hair. Extremely skilled. We didn't have a chance.

Now the ship is floating. They've made no effort to move it, it's like they're waiting for something.."

[Corwin]

"Or someone," Umi finishes, looking at her friends. "Well, we did come here to meet with Sakura-san. Now, how do we get to that ship?"

[Carthrat]

"I'll accompany you to the docks and make them lend you a boat," says Okina. "Or perhaps the Gaijin will allow us to borrow one of theirs, seeing as their minister was also on board."

[Ebiris]

Fuu holds up a hand as she speaks, "Rather than put ourselves at their mercy by charging in in full view, it may be more advantageous to wait until nightfall before making a more covert approach to the ship," she suggests.

[Corwin]

"It depends on what you plan on doing when we get there, I guess," Umi tells Fuu. "If you're thinking of infiltrating the ship over the cover of darkness and rescuing Sakura-san, then I suspect that monk, Shigen, won't fall for it." She thinks for a moment. "Unless you want to draw him away from the Katsu to attempt and negotiate, while a crew of warriors supplied by Okina-san uses the darkness and this distraction to get onboard the ship?"

[Ebiris]

"I was actually planning on us three attempting a daring rescue," Fuu admits ruefully, "Taking along a larger force has a much greater risk of the hostages being killed..."

Fuu looks thoughtful for a moment, before shaking her head, "If an infiltration is unlikely to succeed, what do you suggest? That we attempt to negotiate in good faith?"

[Corwin]

"I believe that Scarface wants something. And he is obviously waiting for someone to hear what that something is." Umi shrugs helplessly. "If you think our chances of going either through or around him at night and rescuing Sakura-san from all the Katsu men are better, I'll do tha in a flash."

[Halbarad]

Hikaru speaks up quietly. "It seems like a trap to me. Why do this now, right as we arrive here? And if they really wanted to disorganize us, why wait to kill Sakura-sama?"

She shakes her head. "One thing is bothering me. How does this Shigen know where we're going? He ran right into me back at the Matsu camp, Umi ran into him again at Otsu. Now he's here, or fairly close to here."

[Corwin]

"Perhaps one of our scouts was captured and interrogated by the enemy," Umi says, frowning. "They would know the instructions we received from Master Toshi, which are to report to Sakura-san, as well as which route we would likely take to get to the capital."

[Ebiris]

"I cannot say how he knew to meet us at the Matsu camp - it could have been happenstance, but as for the rest, it would be fairly easy to deduce we would head straight for the capital with the information we gained. Or as Umi said, they could have gotten the information from capturing one of our men. We still don't know what happened to Koshi-san," Fuu says to Hikaru, "And you are right, there is nothing for them to gain by keeping Sakura-sama alive, unless they wish to use her as bait for someone else. Or three someone elses..."

[Halbarad]

Hikaru sighs. "If that is the case, then do we give him what he wants or not? If the three he's 'testing' are the three of us, what do we do if we go to meet with him?"

[Corwin]

Umi blinks. "We find out what he wants in exchange for returning Sakura-san, of course. And maybe, what is the point in the Doji attack on our lands."

[Halbarad]

Hikaru sighs. "I don't want to go at all, but it looks like we'll have to. Umi, your plan sounds like the best idea; we act as a distraction for Shigen while another group frees Sakura-sama."