The Dancing Swordsman

Stories for Another Day

Cody never thought he would be a hero. Even when he was a small boy and he had rescued his mother from a spider by picking it up by one leg and carrying it outside, he was so frightened that the spider shook between his fingers. Still, he was always happy to do anything he could for anyone who needed help. Which was why, when the greatest and most terrible threat came, it was Cody who was the one, against all odds, who saved the city.

It had been a warm, rainy summer, and the crops on the farms outside the city were flourishing. Everyone in the city looked forward to an excellent harvest and a prosperous year. Then a rumour began that made every farmer shiver in his boots. A plague of locusts was crossing the country, drawn by the golden fields of wheat and barley. But these were no ordinary locusts.

The first sign of the invasion was a quiet rattling, then a slight rasping, just as the sun was rising. It woke Cody’s wife, Elinda, and she slipped out of bed and went to the window. What she saw froze her heart with horror. A single locust, as big as a man, was savaging the crops. Its mouth parts moved like threshing blades, and its legs, serrated like saw-blades, slashed through stalks and branches as if they were dry grass.

As Elinda took a breath to shout for Cody, the giant locust was joined by another, then five more, then a dozen. Elinda screamed, but by the time Cody reached her side, every living plant was gone.

Within days, the acres of crops around the city were little more than fields of dust. Then the locusts attacked hedges and gardens, even fully grown trees. The people huddled in their homes, waiting for the devastation to end, and the creatures to leave in search of fresh pastures. But when every leaf and every blade of grass had been devoured, the creatures turned their quivering antennas on the city itself.

The Town Council called an emergency meeting. “We could burn the fields, but there is nothing left to burn!” they said.

“What if we poison the locusts?” suggested one.

“There isn’t enough poison in the whole city to kill a tenth of them!” said another. “Our only hope is the army, with their armour and their swords and spears.”

Everyone agreed. “Who will take a message to the capital for us?” they said.

So they called all the people together and said to them, “We must send for the army, or all of us will perish.”

The people looked at each other. To reach the capital and summon the army, the messenger would have to pass the nests of the locusts. They looked down, hoping someone else would volunteer.

“Cody will go,” Elinda said. Cody started with surprise, but Elinda pressed his arm and smiled at him warmly.

“Yes, I will go,” Cody said, “if no-one else will.” Everyone else couldn’t wait to clap Cody on the shoulder and tell him he was definitely the right man for the job.

“Do you have any skill with weapons?” asked the Town Councillors. Cody shook his head. The Councillors looked at each other out of the corners of their eyes, and shrugged. “No matter. You must do the best you can,” they said.

Cody and Elinda went home to get ready. “Take my father’s sword,” she said, unwrapping an old weapon that had lain rusting in the barn for years. “I know you have never used a sword, but it may mean the difference between life and death for you. And take this too.” She gave him a piece of wood, little more than a stick. “When you make camp, put this in the fire, and if you are ever in need, say, ‘To me!'”

Cody strapped the rusty sword awkwardly around his waist and thrust the piece of wood into his pack. Elinda kissed him goodbye, and he slipped out into the night.

Even at night the locusts stirred in their rest, clicking their mouth parts ominously. Cody inched his way past them, keeping to the ditches at the sides of the fields, struggling through the mud, making as little noise as possible. Eventually he reached the outskirts of the city, a desert of destruction where even the locusts did not come.

He built a small fire for warmth and to deter the wild animals that roam the edges of all cities. Remembering Elinda’s strange gift, he put the piece of wood on the fire. A soft blue haze rose and hung in the air over the flames. It seemed to Cody that the image of a swordsman shimmered in the haze, twisting and turning as the flames leapt. As the image wavered, the swordsman seemed to dance, his armour flashing. It was oddly comforting, and Cody fell asleep quickly.

He was woken barely an hour later by a hurricane of growling and barking. A pack of wild dogs had found him. Starved since the locusts had cleared the land of everything living, they turned on Cody.

Cody struggled to free the rusty sword from its wrappings, at the same time shouting, “To me! To me!” Suddenly the swordsman was at his side, slashing right and left, sending the wild dogs skittering away, yelping. He put up his sword, saluted Cody and disappeared.

Cody sat down by the fire to catch his breath, more surprised by his rescue than he had been by the dogs attacking him. The image in the smoke of the fire wavered gently as before, dancing slowly before his eyes.

He put out the fire, taking care to keep the piece of wood, a little smaller now, and continued his journey. As he went, he turned what had happened over in his mind. The next time he paused to rest, he made a fire again. When the dancing swordsman appeared, he said clearly, “To me!”

The swordsman instantly stood before him. “It seems to me that two swords may be needed at some point and I am worse than useless with this,” Cody said, showing the swordsman his rusty sword.

The swordsman bowed without a sound, then began teaching Cody how to stand, how to move lightly on his feet and wield the heavy sword, thrusting and parrying. Hour after hour they practised, as the fire burned lower and lower, until Cody was too exhausted to even lift his sword.

Over the next two days, Cody journeyed during daylight hours, and at nightfall he called up the swordsman and they trained, dancing back and forth around the fire. As soon as it was light, he resumed his journey. Finally, on the evening of the third day, he reached the mountain pass above the main road into the capital. The pass was so narrow that no more than a single man on horseback or two men on foot could pass through at the same time. Cody went through the pass and crossed into the centre of the capital, where the Chief Minister’s palace stood.

The Chief Minister listened gravely to Cody’s account of the locust attack. “I will send the army at once,” he said, “before this horrific enemy lays waste to the whole country.” He gave orders for the army to prepare to leave immediately.

But an army cannot be ready to travel in an instant. There are supplies to gather, uniforms, weapons, food, carts and horses to carry the ammunition. Cody grew impatient at the thought of the ravenous locusts swarming over the city walls, and decided not to wait. “I will go on ahead,” he said, “and tell the people that the army is on its way.”

He hurried back the way he had come, going back through the mountain pass under cover of darkness. As he started to make his way down the hill, something made him pause. A faint rattling reached him. He stood motionless and peered into the darkness. To his right and left, mere metres away, there were the locusts, dozens of them, crouched on either side of the pass.

A terrible fear seized his heart. The locusts, lying in wait at the pass, could decimate the army as it passed through in single file. There would be no escape for them, nowhere to run or hide. The army would walk straight into the mouths of the enemy. And with the army disposed of, the way into the capital was open, and the last defence of the whole country was gone.

Cody pulled his last match from his pocket and lit the remaining fragment of wood. “To me!” he shouted, and the dancing swordsman was by his side in the next instant.

In a whirlwind of steel they attacked the horde of locusts. A terrible battle followed. The swordsman seemed tireless, but Cody was soon wounded in many places. He fought on as well as he could, although the numbers of locusts seemed endless. Then what he feared most happened. The last fragment of wood burned through and collapsed into ashes. The swordsman was gone.

Bleeding and barely able to stand, Cody faced the insect horde alone, ready to fight to his last breath. At that very moment, the army came pouring through the mountain pass, surrounding Cody and taking up the fight. The locusts fell back, scattering everywhere, and in a few short hours they were all dead.

The whole city and everyone in the capital were overjoyed when they saw they had been saved. The army carried Cody home on their shoulders, and although Cody never lifted his sword against an enemy again, he and Elinda and their children wanted for nothing for the rest of their lives.