Excerpt from BLUE FINGERS: A Ninja's Tale

The next morning, Spider lay out the sketchy map of the castle on the grass. "Add anything you noticed," he commanded.
Koji gazed at the paper in silence. If Spider would like to know about anything he saw, surely he would most like to know about the new weapon. But what good would it do him to reveal the musket now? Yet there might come a time when the information was precious.
"Why do you want to know what I saw in the castle, anyway?" Koji asked, although he thought he knew the answer.
"Why do you think?"
Koji was disgusted. He had hidden his firecrackers in one of the storeroom-caves, but he wished he had them now. He wanted to light one and push it up Spider's nose. "You were in the castle with me," he said, "hidden somewhere. So think for yourself what the layout is like. I won't help you." It took all his courage to roll the map shut.
"Think hard before you make threats you are powerless to carry out," said a rasping voice from behind. Koji and Spider spun around together. Dark Fire sat on a nearby stump with his walking sticks on the ground beside him. On his knee, he balanced his pet cricket in its bamboo cage. He held one end of a long thread. The other end was tied around the leg of a crow with clipped wings. It hopped around, pecking at the ground.

Koji and Spider waited for Dark Fire's attention while he gave the string a harsh tug. He chuckled over the crow's antics as cawing, it fell and fluttered its wings in a panic. After it finally calmed down, Dark Fire tugged the string again. "I am becoming impatient with you, Farm Boy," he told Koji. He kept pulling the glossy bird closer. When it was near, he gently slid open the door of his pet cricket's cage. He tipped it up slightly and the cricket slid out onto the cave floor in front of the crow.
For a moment, the crow and cricket both stood motionless.<Next>