by Stone, C. L.
Sota grunted and stepped forward, jutting an arm in the air in front of me as if barring me from him. “She already has one,” he said sharply.
Mrs. Satsu coughed roughly to get our attention. “Just tell me about your family history,” she told Shima.
While they talked, I looked on into the house. If the city was like a tree, the house was like a spiderweb, with corridors leading to other parts of the connected dwelling. I’d learn later that most of the city had dwellings like this, some even more elaborately woven, going on for several blocks.
The entryway was formal, with a cupboard for shoes and a small pitcher on a tiny table. Beyond it was a courtyard at the center of the home. The courtyard had a tiny pond, a young cherry tree, and a small green garden. There was a wooden floor with an overhanging thatch canopy. This path wove around the entire courtyard and provided sheltered access to three buildings. Later I learned the left was a smaller house for the maids, to the right was a larger two-story home for Mrs. Satsu and her guests. The third, across from the entryway, was a building with no windows and a single door that held the storeroom and the kitchens.
After questioning Shima, Mrs. Satsu went to the door we had left open and rolled it shut. She then turned to a side table that held a black pitcher. She picked up the pitcher and from it poured a fine line of white crystals across the floor in front of the doorway. Salt or sugar, or something else—I wasn’t sure. I couldn’t smell it from where I stood. I wasn’t familiar with the custom, but I assumed it was to keep either bad luck out or good luck in.
“We don’t have a lot of time,” she said as she replaced the pitcher, “but I may have use for you both. It doesn’t matter to me which is chosen, but we have to make agreements that you’ll have to abide by.” She said the last part to Ryuu and Shima. Her gurgling voice turned into a cackling the longer she spoke. “From this point, we’re connected, and you are an extension of my name. If anyone asks, you are with the House of Satsu. Most will assume you are distant family that has come to stay while registration is taking place. Sota, you’ll have to take on Shima and Ryuu. I don’t have any more escorts trained. Since Mizuki brought them, she’ll have to share.”
Shima, Sota and Ryuu wore mutual displeased frowns. “What about the registration?” Ryuu asked. “Should we go sign in?”
“Soon,” she said. “You’ll have time in a couple of weeks, before it closes. Doing so too soon may lead many enemies to you early on. The registered names are public. You become targets and will spend time trying to avoid trouble. The promise of annual taels for those accepted has made everyone greedy.”
A salary of taels if accepted. I leaned back on my heels. No wonder the competition was so fierce. I had been aware of it myself, but it made me realize why everyone was eager to get here so soon and appeal for the emperor’s attention.
“That’s not all of it,” she said. “If you are chosen, depending on your rank, either you’ll get a house, like mine, or you’ll join the emperor in the Immortal City, where you’ll live forever inside your own palace.”
“How?” Ryuu asked. “What would you know about being inside?”
“Because I was the grand empress’s royal dresser, before she died.” She beamed, her wrinkles stretching to her ears; she seemed old enough to me to have lived back when the grand empress, the grandmother of the current emperor, was still alive.
A royal dresser. My hopes soared. She had to know all sorts of things about the emperor and the palace. She could have connections as well. The beautiful girl leaving earlier suddenly made sense to me. Mrs. Satsu could make a girl look like royalty.
The discovery further drove my curiosity: why me?
When we said nothing further, as I imagined Ryuu and Shima were as stunned as I was, she motioned to us. “Come with me,” she said. “Leave the bird out here.”
Sota put the Taka’s cage on the floor, and we left our packs with him.
Mrs. Satsu guided Shima, Ryuu and me through. To the larger house and into a room with a tatami mat floor. There was a small square opening in the center of the floor, and inside was a tea kettle. An alcove in the wall displayed a single slim blue vase with a branch of plum flowers in bloom. Above it hung a scroll with two black-painted words: bountiful joy.
She slid the paper door shut, and near it was another pitcher. She lined the door with white crystals, and when she finished, she ushered us to sit on the floor.
We knelt around the kettle, Sota to my left and Ryuu to my right. When Mrs. Satsu knelt across from us, she opened the cold kettle’s top and brought out a small scroll of paper.
She unrolled it and turned the paper to us so we could read it. The handwriting was hard for me to decipher, but it was similar to the edict Ryuu had shown me in his Teorb, and it displayed the official red seal of the emperor.
The first sentence terrified me. It indicated that if anyone revealed its contents to unauthorized persons, they would be condemned as traitors and beheaded. I sat back, fearing for my life and not wanting to read further.
She held up a single bony finger to her lips. “As long as you never speak about what you see here outside this room, you’ll be safe. If you ever do, I’ll know.”
The paper had names at the top, including Mrs. Satsu’s. It was asking for help identifying the best candidates for a very select position within the emperor’s court. They were to be taken to the registry office with her seal of approval. They wouldn’t be guaranteed to be chosen for this secret position but would be given special consideration, and at the end, they would be given a task to determine if they were qualified. Great rewards were promised; however, the exact nature of the position wasn’t specified. The document simply stated that only the best were to apply.
The best at what?
“I’m limited to three people,” she said, holding up three fingers. “Three choices to present to the emperor for this position. And then there are those other people who were asked to submit their three choices. So there could be a few dozen people competing for this one secret position.”
“Then why me?” I asked, unable to contain the biggest nagging question in my mind. “I’m a nobody from a tiny village.”
“Exactly, Mizuki,” she said. “And that’s what will make you stand out. You have no connections or loyalty to anyone else, save the emperor. And so, in his eyes, you’re uncorrupted, and I think that will be unique. No one else, outside of the people mentioned on this page and those I select, know about this.”
“I have some connections,” Ryuu said. “Does that mean I’m not a good option?”
“You have no connections of any meaning,” Mrs. Satsu said with a dismissive wave of her hand.
“I’m not sure if I should be flattered or insulted.”
“In this case, you should be grateful.”
Shima frowned. “I am no one,” he said.
Mrs. Satsu shrugged. She pointed to me. “You chose to stay with her. She stood up for you. You can try to impress me, or go out on your own, or try to become another escort. There are options, but you’re here because of her. She sees something in you to have you stay. Don’t forget that.”
I shared a look with Sota and Shima and Ryuu. Sota seemed at ease, and I wasn’t sure if this meant he had known about all of this or he found it uninteresting because he couldn’t be chosen. “So any of us may register for this?” I asked.
“You aren’t the only ones I’ve brought here,” she said. “You’ve got two weeks to impress me. I’ll have to make a decision later. However, it isn’t worthless to stay here. If I don’t select you, you can go on to register on your own for the other available positions.”
“Meaning either way, we’ll look better if we stay with you and learn a few things?” Ryuu asked.
“Yes. A couple of weeks won’t hurt your chances, but if you decide not to join me, you’ll miss out on my seal of approval.” Then her expression changed to something sly. “Just remember that the taels you earn, you’ll have to split
among any of your supporters. Some may try to trick you just for the money. Some will want to join you, only to betray you, paid by someone else. You’ll have to choose carefully who you let into your confidence.”
“So that’s it,” Ryuu said seriously, his voice becoming deeper, his eyes narrowing. “Now I’m glad I came along. You consider us investments.”
“In a way.”
Ryuu continued, “I want to know what I’m signing up for. This says beheading if we tell anyone else. Must be an important position. What exactly is it?”
“No one knows,” she said. She placed her own palm over her heart. “I can only send who I think the emperor could use in his court. I also can’t let you go before the registry, to be tested and inspected, looking like beggars. With my help and support, you’ll be dressed and taught about the rules of the court, how you’ll behave, and the expectations of you. You’ll also be given a few lessons in different areas. Some in traditional folk dance and song, others in economics and politics. You have two weeks to turn from rats into phoenixes, worthy of entering his court.”
“And what’s your cut?” Ryuu asked. “I’m assuming that’s why you are volunteering your time so generously. You want a cut of the salary.”
He made a good point. I hadn’t even considered what she got out of it.
Mrs. Satsu squinted at him. “Don’t you trust me?”
“I trust a good contract,” he said. “You want a cut of the annual income. I want to know exactly how much, if I’d be a beggar in a fancy robe in a pretty house because you got the rest of it.”
“If you manage to get into a palace, I’d likely go with you, to guide you for life,” she said. She scratched absently at a wart on her neck, but there was a sharpness to her gaze. “Or if it is a house like mine, I’d likely move into it. Hopefully one closer to the wall, and bigger.”
A bigger house? I couldn’t believe it. I’d give anything to live in her current house. It was big and nice and warm. How could she ask for anything more?
Was that what she was thinking? That a poor girl like me would be so grateful that I’d give anything to live in even a tiny piece of what she had? And of Shima? Would she assume we wouldn’t know any better and would simply be grateful to get whatever we were given?
Would she be entirely wrong? I shared a look with Shima, which told me that any of the options she shared were glorious bonuses to us. A salary of any sort, food, a big house... they were dreams.
“Give me a number,” Ryuu said firmly.
I gave Ryuu’s arm a tender touch. I felt he was being rude, and she could just as well dismiss us into the street at any point she liked and work with the others who would be training in this house for the same position we were going to be fighting over. “I thought you weren’t sure you even wanted to get selected,” I said.
“That was before I knew there was a lot of money involved,” he said. “And that she might have screwed you and Shima over. I like good deals, not blind ones. Now I’m interested, even though getting stuck in the Immortal City for the rest of my life doesn’t sound appealing.”
“Then register now,” Sota said, staring absently at the door. “Show up as you are, without any training. It’s less likely you’ll get picked at all.”
Ryuu shot him a glare. “You know, I was going to stay for the taels, and maybe for Mizuki if she asked me, but now I feel like staying just to irritate you.”
I was going to scold Ryuu for saying what he did, except my brain wanted to save what he’d said about me: that he’d stay if I asked.
I touched his arm again, to get his attention and to silence his rude tongue. “If you feel that strongly, work with me. We can help each other.” I motioned to Shima. “You too. We can make a deal between us. We get to select our supporters, yes? I’ll help you if I can. And if I get in, you both can be my supporters.”
His face lit up. He smoothed his hands together in front of his chest. “Now you’re talking. That’s what I was thinking. Triple our chances.”
Shima shrugged. “I don’t think I had any chance, but I’d share anything at this point if it means a good meal every night.”
I continued, “And Sota knows more than we do. We need him. Let’s learn what we can here, at least. What do we know of the royal court?”
Ryuu’s features softened at this. “I think you’re more likely to get in than either of us. She came out and fetched you.” He snapped his attention back to Mrs. Satsu. “So tell us some numbers, or we’ll go and register on our own together. We’ve got a little leverage. You’ll have fewer students to choose from. You came all the way out to our village to find someone like her. I think that means she’s a good choice for this position you’re talking about. Unless you think you have time to go and find someone else like her.”
Ryuu really did have a head for negotiations. He saw angles in places that I didn’t. I admired it and thought if I ended up in a palace, or even in a house, he was a good choice as a supporter who could deal on my behalf.
“And if it is as dangerous as it sounds, you’ll need more protection,” Shima said. He refolded his arms over his chest. “Either I’m in and I bring them, or she’s in and she brings us. So what’s the price?”
Mrs. Satsu sighed and nodded. “I want to join you in the palace if accepted, and twenty-five percent.”
“Ten percent,” Ryuu said. “If one gets a palace, I imagine the taels will be good enough that ten percent would be plenty. And you get the smallest room in the palace.”
Mrs. Satsu grinned and then picked up the cold kettle of tea. She dusted the lid with her fingers. “Seeing as I’m paying all the upfront costs, I think I should get a little more. Twenty-three percent.”
Ryuu shook his head with a sly smile. “This may take a while.”
LESSONS
WHEN RYUU FINISHED negotiating, Mrs. Satsu had the three of us sign documents about awarding her seventeen percent of the taels of our annual income and the fourth-biggest room in the palace or home we ended up residing in.
Ryuu was irritated later to learn that Mrs. Satsu’s salary contracts with everyone else didn’t even involve room selection, only the taels. “How could anyone not think of that?” he asked. “She’d end up in the grandest room without negotiating such details.”
But we did walk away with the minimal amount of taels she’d be awarded compared to everyone else. He was a shrewd negotiator. I wondered why she allowed it, since we needed her more than she needed us, but she seemed amused by his abilities.
Later, we were given a tour of her home. Mrs. Satsu’s home, even just the section she resided in, was bigger than any building in the village where I had grown up. The entire house was free of dust, tidy, and we were told as we walked through to keep it that way.
The bottom floor had a large room with a slick wooden floor, which she called her schoolroom. Then there was the tatami room that she had spoken to us in, along with a library filled with shelves and tables full of books and documents. Also on the ground floor was a place she called a dressing room, which was a large room with mirrored walls and tables of makeup. Dressing dummies stood around the room, displaying some of the finest kimono I’d ever seen.
I had no idea that in the wealthier residences, people needed an entire room devoted to dressing, but Mrs. Satsu told me that there were several rooms in the palace for the grand empress that were kept just for bathing and dressing.
“A room for getting dressed, a room for makeup, two rooms for hair...”
“Two rooms?” I asked.
“Yes,” she said. “Although your hair is washed and waxed by a specialist in town here, this is done inside your own palace if you reside in one.”
My mind couldn’t even come up with why one needed two rooms for just the hair on one’s head. I pondered the possibility that there might be palaces within the Immortal City that had a room devoted to each part of the body.
The second floor had rows of bedrooms. Each room had thin paper wall
s, which meant if the light were angled just so, you’d be able to see shadows in each one.
Mrs. Satsu had Ryuu, Sota and Shima and me stay together in a single room. I hadn’t even thought otherwise, given we were the guests in her house, but Ryuu commented that it seemed unusual.
“Now I’m really glad I’m here,” Ryuu said to Mrs. Satsu. “I don’t think I’d trust Sota to sleep in the same room alone with Mizuki. Shouldn’t the men separate though?”
“Escorts must always stay within eyesight,” she said. “This will all be explained soon.” She did go on to say others she had taken under her wing were given an escort of her choosing, like Sota, only Sota was the only one who was a foreigner. Everyone else was local to the Immortal City. I wondered how he had managed to become an escort, trusted by Mrs. Satsu.
The rooms were fairly simple, with tatami on the floor, except for in the corner, where there was a low table next to the window. We deposited our things, what little we had, in the room, but we couldn’t stay long to rest.
After we had dropped off our bags and the Taka in the room we had been given, Mrs. Satsu had us join her in the schoolroom. Shima, Ryuu and I sat together on our knees on the slick wooden floor. She had one of the maids, a mature woman with a plump pumpkin bottom, to fetch the others to join us.
This took several minutes. I wasn’t sure where the others had been hiding, but apparently, they had all been sitting in their rooms, waiting for this moment. They had been so quiet, I wondered if they had heard everything we’d talked about since arriving.
Two by two, others entered the schoolroom. The first was a young girl, who I guessed to be fifteen. She wore a plain indigo house kimono. With her was a female escort, dressed similarly but identified by a dagger tied to her waist.
Three more girls entered, with male escorts, as did two boys, also with male escorts.
They all gazed at us with either disinterest or what I could only assume was hatred, even as they smiled. I was startled at first until I realized why. Six others. Ryuu, Shima, and I made nine. Only one would be selected.