by C. J. Anaya
With any luck, Akane’s plans for taking my father’s throne would happen sooner rather than later. Though the details had not been shared with me, I knew I was an integral part in gathering the information she needed. My father hadn’t summoned me for one of his “meetings” since Katsu arrived, and though grateful for the reprieve, it couldn’t have come at a more inopportune time. Without these meetings, I could be of no benefit to Akane and her goals for usurping my father. I continued to work toward a solution to that problem.
For the last three weeks I had checked for messages from Daiki as well. I didn’t receive word from him for the first two weeks and wondered if something had happened to him. Fortunately, I found a communication from him the previous day as I walked the grounds of the garden. His note was brief but stated there was a newly married girl who had conceived three months ago and was in need of my services. In other words, the young lady in question was most likely malnourished and exhibiting early symptoms of a possible miscarriage.
I had left a note in return, letting Daiki know he should set up a meeting with the young girl for the next day. I felt satisfied, knowing that I would have another opportunity to use my powers for good.
So far, my extra activities with the samurai insurgents had not raised any suspicions from my father. The precautions we were taking enabled me to continue training with Musubi and helping the rebels however I could. The only thing that continued to trouble me was my nightmares. According to Aiko, I screamed and thrashed in my sleep every night now. She had taken to routinely giving me my sleeping draughts, hoping to prevent possible spies or other guards in the area from relating my alarming behavior to my father.
I appreciated her concern. My father had been known to beat me for what he called a mental weakness when it came to my nightmares. Troubled dreams were the direct result of a weakened mind incapable of controlling its own thought processes. I was always punished severely whenever he learned of them. Now that Katsu had arrived, I hoped he wouldn’t allow my father to lay a hand on me, but I didn’t want to discuss my nightmares with my betrothed unless I absolutely had to.
A tap on the door broke me from my quiet musings, and conversation between Saigo and Kenji stopped.
“Enter,” Saigo called out.
One of my guards opened the door.
“Princess, your father has summoned you. He wishes for you to meet him in his receiving room as soon as possible.”
I felt a chill sink deep within my bones. I wanted to run to my rooms and hide away for the remainder of the day, but I knew if my father was interrogating someone for information it might be an opportunity to gain some helpful information for Akane, and it was the first time since Katsu’s arrival that I had been given such an important opportunity.
“Does Katsu know about this meeting between myself and the emperor?”
He had made it very clear to my father that I would no longer participate in any further interrogations.
“No, Princess.”
I nodded. “We need to keep it that way, if you understand my meaning.”
His eyes narrowed, and he nodded his understanding.
“Be safe, and don’t take any unnecessary risks while you’re gathering your information.” Saigo gave my hand a squeeze.
Kenji gave me a supportive smile laced with worry but refrained from saying anything. I had always suspected that he somehow knew the extent of my father’s maltreatment, and if he did, then I was grateful he refrained from discussing it with my brother.
Feeling strengthened by their concern. I rose from my chair, squared my shoulders, and left the room.
I may have been putting on a brave face, but I was very practiced at that. On the inside my stomach clenched in knots while anxiety, and apprehension threatened to snuff out the breath in my lungs. I had a strong desire to run to Musubi and never return to the palace again.
As I walked with my guards, my wish to get to know them better resurfaced.
“Please, what are your names?” I whispered.
The guard who had summoned me missed a step, most likely surprised at my addressing him.
“I am called Yao, Princess. The man on your left is Chan. We are honored to be of service to you.” He kept his voice lowered.
I recognized the danger of conversing with my guards as we traversed the winding hallways through the palace toward my father’s receiving room, but I felt a pressing urgency to know these men who risked so much for the rebel cause.
“Will you be waiting for me when I have finished?”
He looked at me sideways from the corner of his eye and nodded.
We finally arrived at the doors of the receiving room. As they opened, I felt Yao give my hand a quick, encouraging squeeze. It was a bold move to make, considering men were not allowed to touch me. Without looking at him, I smiled a half smile to acknowledge his kindness, and then walked with purpose through the heavy ivory doors.
My father already paced the room. A shroud of anxiety mixed with excitement coiled tightly through his person. Whatever he had summoned me for must have been important for his guard to have dropped. Generally, I never had much success in getting a handle on his emotions. Of course, he usually tended to remain angry and hostile, and I never needed to rely on my empathic abilities to sense when he felt like that.
He stopped his pacing and rushed to me, not even giving me a chance to bow to him as protocol dictated. “It took you long enough to arrive,” he muttered in a harsh voice. Grabbing my arm, he walked to the right of the room and opened up the door to his study, a room he used to entertain dignitaries and his most trusted officers.
The ivory walls of the room were layered with paintings of ancient warrior kami such as Bishamonton and Hachiman. The frames were painted with real gold leaf, and the furnishings within the room matched the opulence of the framed paintings. Golden silk cushions were placed in a circle in the middle of the floor. Underneath the cushions the area was covered in gold matted flooring. White candles with gold floral patterns were held aloft by thin, tall holders and spaced evenly around the room. Incense burners hung from each corner of the room, letting off a sharp scent of wild cherry blossom.
Japanese characters were inscribed in gold across the ceiling as a means of protection against my father’s enemies. I thought it all superstitious nonsense, but if the prophecy was real, and nekomata did in fact exist, then who was I to turn my nose up at the idea of magical properties emanating from Japanese symbols?
Two of my father’s higher ups in his army sat on the floor with various injuries needing attending. I recognized one, General Li, a man just as power hungry and cutthroat as my father. I had healed several of his injuries before and disliked the way he looked at me during the process. He was in his fifties, large and muscular from countless years of service in the battlefield.
The other general was a mystery to me. I had not yet met him and was sure I wouldn’t like him when I did. He looked quite young to have ascended the ranks in my father’s army, and to be the beneficiary of a healing by the emperor’s daughter was a high honor indeed, at least, according to my father. The man looked to be in his early thirties.
Akane hadn’t yet requested my services for gathering intel, but I recognized the opportunity presented to me and decided now was as good a time as any to see if my idea would work. I needed to be extremely careful, however. My father watched me like a hawk during these healings.
“General Li, you have already met my daughter,” my father said. He turned his eyes on the other soldier. “However, you, young Ojin, have not had the opportunity to benefit from The Healer’s ministrations. Let us start with you first since your wound is more serious than Li’s.”
The two men bowed their heads in acknowledgment, and my father released me. I kept my head and eyes lowered as I made my way to the younger man. All the while, I could feel the older general’s eyes staring at me. I knelt on one of the gold floor mats in front of the soldier, and without acknowledging hi
m, placed both hands on either side of his head and closed my eyes.
His injury was painful to be sure, but in no way life threatening. Usually the men my father brought here for me to heal were fatally wounded or their injury prevented them from fighting ever again. I couldn’t understand why I’d been summoned to heal something as minimal as a cracked rib and a dislocated shoulder. It wouldn’t afford me much time to search the man’s memories, but I started the process anyway, transferring memories from a few months back until now, absorbing the information and then returning them quickly as I healed the man’s injuries. I made certain to draw the healing process out for as long as I possibly could without raising any kind of suspicion from my father.
Not only was it strange to be summoned for a healing of this nature, but as I attended to the soldier’s cracked rib, I encountered another curiosity. The man’s blood contained foreign entities attempting to bond with the blood cells. They looked harmless, and upon further examination, appeared to have their own healing properties. The entities lit with the touch of my ki and began bonding to the blood cells, strengthening them in a way my ki failed to recognize. I looked at the rest of the entities that had not yet bonded and searched for more answers.
The tiny lights within them circled around my ki and the intelligences attempted to impart the information I was seeking.
“What is taking so long, Daughter?” my father growled.
I startled, sending a pulse of emotion through the man’s body and with that emotion the rest of the entities and intelligences bonded to the blood cells, pulsating with life and strengthening the organs.
I pulled away from the man. “I…Father, I sensed some abnormalities within his blood stream. It doesn’t appear to be a threat, but I wanted to ascertain what must be done with it.”
“Yes, yes,” my father replied, flicking his hand in the air as if this were old news to him. “We are experimenting with some new herbs, a tonic to fortify the body. That is all.” He paused in his explanation, and I wondered that he had actually condescended to answer my question. Usually he ignored me. “Anything else?” He shifted nervously, allowing his control to come crumbling down around him. His apprehension rushed over me, leaving me to wonder what he was up to. He was obviously lying, but why? I felt wholly confused by this strange turn of events.
“He had a cracked rib and injured shoulder, which I easily dealt with.”
“Very good.” He nodded. “Now to the general.”
Very good? Had he just paid me a compliment? I felt unbalanced by his unusual behavior.
He impatiently nodded and motioned for me to move to my left. I swallowed as my stomach churned. I did not like touching General Li or his ki. Both felt slimy and corrupt. I reluctantly moved toward him and then closed my eyes to avoid becoming trapped within his dirty glance.
Once again the injuries were slight, almost superficial. A fractured left wrist. The general was right handed. He could have easily fought without the use of his left wrist. His injury would not buy me much time. I rushed to absorb the last few months of his memories and managed to do so even faster than I had with the first man.
Just as I prepared to break the connection, I sensed the same types of abnormalities within his blood. I hoped that maybe the intelligences present would be able to impart whatever information their existence represented, but the minute I moved to touch them and explore the situation further, they lit with a blinding light, coursing throughout his entire body, and then immediately bonded to the blood cells. It was as if my ki triggered some kind of chemical reaction.
I felt uneasy at the thought. I released the general and rose from the floor, moving to my father’s side as my mind spun with question after question, not to mention an enormous amount of information. It would take me a moment to form the memories into an appropriate time-line and spot the details, if any, that might be of use to Akane. Fortunately, the amount of memories I absorbed were less than what I was used to. I gave my father a quiet acknowledgment without feeling the usual heaviness of absorbing someone’s entire lifespan.
The matter of the foreign entities within the soldiers’ blood streams was a mystery I would certainly share with Akane. Though the entities were friendly, almost familiar even, I had a terrible feeling they were meant for some darker purpose. I highly doubted my father was concerned with developing tonics to help strengthen his soldiers. He simply wasn’t a thoughtful, caring deity.
No. This was something different.
“That will be all, Daughter. I will escort you out.”
I bowed to the men and exited behind my father. He gave me no explanation, and I asked for none. Asking him questions at this point would only raise his ire and suspicion, and the less curiosity I exhibited the less attention I drew to myself.
Yao and Chan were waiting for me outside the double doors. After my father dismissed me, they took me speedily to my room. I beckoned one guard to enter, while the other stayed outside.
“Yao, I need to meet with Akane as soon as possible. I have much to share with her, and feel it important that she receive this information as quickly as possible. Can you get a message to her and let her know it is vital she meet me at the ruins about thirty minutes before my training with Musubi this afternoon?”
“Absolutely, Princess.”
I nodded and then bowed at the waist in response to his bow. He turned swiftly and left the room. I heard him murmuring something soft to Chan and then said more loudly, “The Princess wishes to eat in her rooms this afternoon. I shall send for her maid immediately.”
I figured that louder part was for the benefit of any spies lurking about, and to explain the guard’s absence.
It was still early morning, and my “educational veil training” wasn’t scheduled until mid-afternoon. I needed to organize my thoughts and sift through the information I had received. I lay down upon my bed, closed my eyes and reviewed the first man’s memories. Most of the information was unimportant, though the maps with markings I viewed might be valuable. I wondered if the markings on the maps indicated where various troops were stationed. If so, I would need to share all of those locations with Akane.
One particular memory held some appeal, however. From the young commander’s point of view, I watched a man with a commanding presence approach him and the group of highly ranked officers. He held a large glass container filled with a dark, red liquid. He looked vaguely familiar, but I couldn’t quite place him and decided to worry about it later so I could focus on the memories flashing before me. He poured the contents of the container into several cups at the table and handed one to each of the men in the room.
“To your health, gentlemen. Let us hope this concoction works as well as His Imperial Highness claims it will.”
From the commander’s point of view I recognized General Li in the room, and four other men of varying stations, each draining their cups and lowering them to the table.
“When will the bonding take place?” Li asked.
“As soon as the king can send for you, though there will need to be some reason for your audience with The Healer. Who wishes to be summoned first?”
I felt the commander’s hand rise like it was my own. I saw Li volunteering out of the corner of the commander’s eye.
“Excellent,” the strange man said.
He moved quickly, faster than the young man’s eyes could follow. The commander doubled over in pain as his rib was cracked and his shoulder dislocated.
I pushed myself out of the memory, not interested in feeling the commander’s injuries any longer. I knew I would see the same scene played out from the general’s point of view if I decided to skim over his memories. I couldn’t imagine why the men had injured themselves on purpose to force a healing, but it didn’t bode well for the future.
My meeting with Akane couldn’t arrive fast enough.
Chapter Eleven
A firm knock at the door startled me from my thoughts.
“You may enter,�
� I distractedly responded. I fully expected one of the guards to peek their head through the door, letting me know my message to Akane had been dispatched. I was a bit startled to see Katsu walk in and shut the door behind him. The silence that followed his entrance felt a trifle awkward. He looked at me as if he wanted something, but his emotions let me know he was uncertain and, more surprisingly, a bit uncomfortable in my presence.
I studied him intently, trying to puzzle through the source of his awkwardness by reading his face, but his handsome features refused to give up their secrets. The firm lines of his jaw and high set of his cheek bones were pleasant to look at. I hadn’t developed strong feelings for Katsu, but even I could appreciate how handsome he looked.
“Was there something you needed?” I finally posed.
My voice effectively ended the strange staring match we were engaged in. Katsu blinked a few times as if to pull himself together, and then he tentatively approached me.
“I recognize it is quite unusual for me to enter your rooms without a chaperon,” he stated.
I quirked an eyebrow, wondering what he would have thought about my unchaperoned trainings with Musubi.
Oh, by the gods, why couldn’t I stop thinking about that man?
“Katsu, I’m certain my virtue is safe in your presence, whether we have a chaperon or not.”
The light smile that raised the corners of his lips was quite breathtaking. It made me wish that I could give this man a chance. Perhaps I could convince him that our union would be best served here, taking care of the empire and traveling when needed. If Katsu understood how badly the empire had been neglected, and the importance of the rebels’ noble cause, he might be persuaded to join us and overthrow my father’s reign.
My thoughts returned to Musubi, and my heart sank. Even if I succeeded in convincing Katsu to join our side and followed through with the union, I would always be miserable, wondering what kind of future I might have shared with Musubi if I hadn’t already been betrothed to someone else.