He started after it but Chiun's voice stopped him like a cracking whip. "Remo. Come back. You do not know what you face."
"A car thief. Big freaking deal," said Remo.
Abruptly the Master of Sinanju was in front of him. He blocked the way, his face stiff and cold. "I will not risk your humiliation, too. Your honor must be unsullied if mine is to be avenged."
"What are you talking about?"
The Dragoon continued rumbling away. Remo tensed.
"Stay. I will explain."
His fists clenched tight, Remo wavered between obedience and pursuit. Ultimately obedience won. He let the air escape his lungs and followed Chiun's beckoning finger back into the dense forest of fir trees.
"You see these tracks?" Chiun said coldly.
"Looks like sandal prints."
"They are not," snapped Chiun, who then led him to a scarred fir tree.
"See this?" he asked, indicating a raw notch in the bark.
"Somebody chopped a hunk from that tree."
"It is the unmistakable bite of a katana. Study it well, Remo. For you have never before encountered its like."
In the darkness Remo looked at it from a couple of angles. "Looks like a sword chop."
"Yes. Some might call it a sword. But it is correctly called a katana. "
Remo's brow furrowed. "I don't know that word."
"Do you know the word ronin?"
"No."
"You are abysmally ignorant."
"Sue me."
"Sit."
Reluctantly Remo sat down on the fir needles, which were dry and odorless. A freshening breeze came off Long Island Sound, smelling of rank salt grass and dredged-up muck.
"A foe unlike any I have ever before encountered challenged me with his katana blade," said Chiun.
"Right."
"His first blow I parried successfully."
"Of course. You're you."
"His second passed through me harmlessly."
Remo frowned. "Okay..."
"We fought. Blows were struck. None landed. He was as mist. While I was as hard as bone. Yet no harm was done to either combatant."
"You were fighting a ghost?"
"A ronin."
Remo made a face. "I don't know that word."
Chiun lifted a hand, his left. The right lay in his lap, tightly fisted so the embarrassing absence of nail didn't show.
"I am not yet finished with my tale."
Remo subsided.
"Blows rained. Then the blade of doom was descending. But I feared it not, for it failed to swish and flutter the air it sliced through as a true blade should."
Remo nodded. Chiun had taught him years ago that striking swords made distinctive warning sounds.
"As this hateful blade had no substance. I failed to shrink from it." Chiun hung his aged head. "My error, which I will eternally regret."
"Oh, for crying out loud! It's only a nail."
Chiun clapped his hands in Remo's face. "My honor has been besmirched. The honor of the House has been besmirched. Thus, your honor has been sullied, as well."
"I don't feel besmirched or sullied," Remo countered. "Unless you count the fact that you let him run off with my new Dragoon."
Chiun regarded Remo with cold hazel eyes. "I have heard this story from my grandfather, who swore me to secrecy. My father never revealed it. Nor did the Master who trained me. But it is true nonetheless."
Remo had sense enough to close his mouth. Chiun's normally squeaky voice had deepened to the ringing tone he used to relate accounts of past Masters. There was no dissuading him from launching into whatever he was about to recount, so Remo mentally kissed his scarlet Dragoon goodbye and assumed an attentive mien.
"You know of shoguns?"
Remo nodded. "Sure. Old-time Japanese warlords."
"Once during a turbulent time in Japan, the shoguns were at war with one another. All Japan was in chaos. Terrible was the slaughter. Wonderful was the gold to be earned by a cunning Master who was prepared to play shogun against shogun."
An owl hooted. Without taking his eyes off Remo's face, Chiun picked up a stone and flung it. The owl squawked in midhoot and vacated the area in a frantic shivering of wings.
"The Master in those days was Kang. He was a very busy Master. There was no work from Egypt. There was no contact with Persia. The Khanates were quiet. But Japan called for his skills time and time again. Now in these days Kang would betake himself to Japan to succor this shogun or that shogun. He cared not which side of a duel he found himself. For one Japanese was the same as another in Kang's eyes." Chiun lifted a precautionary finger. "His mistake.
"A shogun sent a message to the village of Sinanju, which was peaceful and contented in the days of which I tell. For the gold flowed directly from Japan and into the bellies of the people of Sinanju. And this shogun summoned Kang to come to his keep to treat with him. The message was signed with the crest of a shogun Kang had never met but of whom he had heard.