by Devin Madson
She sat straight in her saddle, drawn up to her full height. ‘So, tell me again where I should be going? Nowhere is safer than under my brother’s protection.’
‘You can’t go back to Katashi! He sold you!’
‘Then he is severely in my debt, and he will make it up to me. I go to Katashi.’
With the breeze catching at her hair, Kimiko set her horse walking along the ridge, and guessing now that further argument would be pointless, I followed, Kaze exhibiting my reluctance in his lagging step.
It was a winding route that led down the mountainside, through sharp black rocks and nests of thin grass tangled like hair.
Catching up again, I said: ‘You knew he was here.’
Kimiko turned, her horse’s hooves crunching on the stone. ‘What did you say?’
‘I said you knew he was here, didn’t you?’
A little smile flashed across her face. ‘Where there’s smoke there’s fire.’
I fought the urge to open up, to let my Sight range over the world and see as I had always seen. I hated having no answers, hated being unable to see if Malice had yet made it to Esvar. I could not be sure that Katashi was in that valley, or Kin in the opposite camp. I could not feel Kimiko’s intent or hear her whispers, her soul as dead to me as Darius’s had once been. It was as though the world did not live at all, that beneath the warm sunshine and the birdsong was a dead land, more painting than living world.
You’ll get used to it, I told myself. It’s the way everyone else saw the world, this dull collection of dolls moving through a play.
But you aren’t like everyone else. You’re a god.
The sun was setting, its golden tongues reaching from behind mountain peaks. Around the arms of The Valley, rice paddies glimmered.
‘We’re not going to make it down there before dark,’ I said. ‘Why don’t we stop here for the night, where there’s cover.’
‘No. We keep moving.’
‘And if one of our horses should sprain its ankle stepping into a rabbit hole? We have less than an hour left of daylight, if that.’
‘It’s ankle?’ She turned her head toward me. ‘Don’t you know anything about horses?’
‘Not much. But I know they can hurt themselves.’
‘Then we had better hope Vice horses are as sure-footed as the Vices brag, because we’re getting to Katashi tonight.’
With our backs to the setting sun we began the descent, cutting diagonally down the slope. The track took us east, and for a time we left the crimson banners behind. Kimiko’s eyes darted everywhere and her hands held the reins tight, crushing the leather in whitening fingers. Wherever the path was dangerous she muttered under her breath, looking up at the falling sun, and where the track opened up she tapped her foot to the animal’s flank and urged him to a trot. Scraggy trees dotted the rocky slope like watchers in the night.
‘What is Darius going to do?’ I asked, bringing Kaze alongside her when I could. ‘Did he tell you?’
‘I don’t want to talk about Darius.’
‘I know you love him.’
‘Yes?’ she snapped. ‘And I pray to the gods I didn’t.’
‘But you do.’
A deep cleft dug between her brows. ‘What’s wrong with you, Endymion?’
‘What’s wrong with me?’
‘If you’ve got any more of those tactful questions in there, I’ll sew your lips shut.’
She urged her horse on ahead, its hooves sliding on the stones. Night was falling fast, and as the darkness gathered around me, I found a blindness I had never known. Robbed of even common sight, I had nothing left, nothing but unexpected sounds that sped my heart to a frenzy. ‘It gets easier,’ Darius had said. ‘You get used to being blind.’
Kimiko stopped at the bottom of the slope. ‘We have company,’ she said, her eyes darting at shadows.
Here in the bowl of The Valley profusions of bamboo grew in untamed clutches, and emerging from the shadow of a nearby thicket came a man on horseback, his form barely discernible in the dark. He might have been imaginary for all the life he exuded.
‘State your name and business.’
I could see no sign of his allegiance. Another appeared around the edge of the bamboo grove, his bow drawn. There might have been more, but I could not see them, could not feel them.
Kimiko drew herself up in the saddle. ‘I am Lady Kimiko Otako, and I am here to see my brother.’
The scout walked his horse closer. ‘Lady Kimiko Otako?’
‘That’s what I said.’
‘And who is this?’ He jerked his head at me.
‘Is it not usual for a lady to travel with an escort?’
The man grunted, and without taking his eyes off her, lifted his hand and beckoned. The scout with the bow let his string fall slack, and walked his mount forward.
‘This lady claims to be Emperor Katashi’s sister, Lady Kimiko,’ the first man said to the second. ‘Do you recognise her?’
The second scout shook his head. ‘I’ve never met Lady Kimiko.’
‘If you doubt the veracity of my word,’ Kimiko began with a snap, ‘then Captain Tan will easily be able to identify me. ’
‘General Tan,’ I corrected. A smile had turned his bloodless lips. They had all been happy to die.
‘General Tan is dead, my lady,’ the first scout said. ‘He was sent after the Vices with one hundred and fifty of our best, and not a single one of them returned.’
Kimiko’s gaze edged my way. ‘Dead?’
The scout did not answer. He was eyeing Kimiko, taking her in from head to foot. It was dark, but I knew how Kin trained scouts and imagined Katashi was no different. Men who could see in the dark were invaluable.
She returned his stare, chin tilted, and after a while he grunted. ‘Very well, my lady,’ he said. ‘We will escort you.’
‘Don’t trust me?’
‘Your pardon, my lady, but I don’t trust anyone.’
He gestured to his men, and more shadows moved in the bamboo thicket. ‘After you, my lady,’ he said, sweeping his hand before him.
She clicked her tongue and set her horse walking, glancing back to be sure I followed.
‘We have been tracking you for much of the evening,’ the scout said as she drew alongside him. ‘You were fortunate not to be picked up by Kin’s men. We got two on your trail at sunset.’
‘Do you want my thanks?’
‘I do not do my job for your thanks, my lady.’
Kimiko didn’t reply. I followed in her wake, listening to the hoofbeats that filled the night, unable to tell how many scouts were with us. Before my maturation I had been weak, but now I might as well have been walking with my eyes closed.
We continued through the night, riders coming and going around us. Sometimes they would ride up to join their leader and there would be a whispered conversation, an exchange of nods, then they would fall back into the darkness.
Seemingly without reason, the lead scout slowed his pace, glancing at Kimiko but not speaking. A pair of perimeter guards stepped from nowhere. ‘Clear?’
‘Clear. Visitors for Emperor Katashi.’
The man who had spoken jerked his head. ‘Go on then. He’s preparing to ride.’
We continued on, a gentle susurrus rising around us like a trick of the breeze, and little by little Katashi’s camp appeared from the night.
Silent soldiers fell in behind us as we rode between the first tents, and soon Kimiko and I were the centre of a long procession. Whispers followed. Men nudged one another and pointed, not at me but at this small woman, dressed like a commoner, who was somehow as tall as Katashi himself. Moonlight reflected from curious eyes. These men were preparing for battle. Dressed in armour, they sat around in grou
ps, waxing their bowstrings and sharpening their swords, talking, laughing, eating, praying.
The Imperial tent appeared above the sea of black canvas, itself barely owning a hint of crimson in the night. It loomed, the flutter of its flags filling me with misgiving. Kimiko seemed not to feel it, just rode on behind our guide, ignoring the interested stares of Pikes and traitors alike.
Two soldiers stood guard outside the great tent, each possessed of a spear and an unmoving disposition. Both spears lowered toward Kimiko as she slid from her saddle.
‘Lift your weapons,’ she ordered. ‘I am Lady Kimiko Otako and you will bow when you address me.’
I stared at the gleam of moonlight on the nearest spearhead.
‘Well?’ the scout said, still mounted. ‘You men are Pikes. Is this Lady Kimiko Otako?’
The spears lifted. ‘Apologies, my lady,’ one of the Pikes said. ‘I will inform His Majesty that you are here.’
‘Do it, and do it quickly,’ she ordered, turning to me as she spoke. ‘You’ll wait here for me?’
‘Yes,’ I said, conscious of relief. ‘My lady.’ A boy stepped forward to take Kaze’s reins and I dismounted, patting his flank.
Kimiko was ushered inside, the crimson fabric falling closed behind her. Darius had asked that I get her safely away from Esvar and I had done so, but delivering her into a war zone, and to a brother who had already sold her once, was probably not what he’d had in mind. I hoped it wouldn’t be long before we were moving again.
I ran my fingers through Kaze’s mane. He was thinking of his next meal and his thirst, not even a little curious about the men around him. His disconnection steadied me. ‘You are very wise, my friend,’ I said, patting his neck, his summer coat sleek. ‘We’ll get through this.’
He agreed, but continued with his silent demands for food.
I ripped my hand away and the connection snapped. I had turned the Empathy in on itself but it was still seeping out, finding cracks. It wasn’t working.
‘Bring him in.’
A hand gripped my arm, yanking me back. I tried to pull away, but the fingers tightened. More hands. Voices. Grunts. And I was dragged back, Kaze’s whinny cutting through it all. Red fabric passed overhead, caressing the helmets of my captors as they pushed through. Lanterns hung from the canopy and the air was thick with the smell of leather.
‘Put him down.’
They dropped me onto matting so fresh it still smelt of the sun, its reeds like spun gold. Overhead a familiar voice. ‘We’ve located Lord Laroth and his brother,’ it said. ‘Send men to Esvar. I want them apprehended. Alive. There’s only two of them, but be careful, they’re both freaks.’
Emperor Katashi. Taller. Broader. He filled the tent from floor to gently shifting ceiling, his strong form dressed in layers of fine leather armour and a crimson surcoat. He wore no crown, but he didn’t need it. Even without my Empathy his aura was all the crown he needed.
Monarch.
He looked down at me, a pair of hard sapphires set beneath heavy brows. ‘Welcome back, Endymion,’ he said. ‘Or should I say, welcome back, cousin. It seems you are not dead after all.’ He crouched in front of me, his leather creaking with every movement of his body. ‘Takehiko.’
‘Katashi.’
‘You lied to me.’
‘No. I couldn’t tell you a truth I didn’t know myself.’
His eyes narrowed. ‘And how is that? You’re an Otako.’
‘An Otako who was taken from his family at three years old,’ I retorted, still kneeling upon the matting. ‘An Otako raised to know nothing about who I was and where I came from.’
Katashi straightened, and for the first time I saw Kimiko there, truly dwarfed by his great height. I did not have to ask how he knew, did not have to ask what she had sold me for. She would do anything for Darius.
‘Lord Takehiko Otako,’ Katashi said, turning to stride across the crisp matting, dry reeds cracking beneath his feet. ‘Lord Takehiko Otako.’ Upon his back sat Hatsukoi, her graceful strength lending still more height to his impressive form. Never had a man looked more like a god. ‘Lord Takehiko Otako, heir to the Crimson Throne.’
‘I don’t want it.’
‘No?’ He spun back to face me. ‘But then you’re not a true Otako, are you? No son of Emperor Lan would still be kneeling at my feet. Even your slippery kasu of a sister never knelt at my feet. You’re a Laroth, but I’ve seen the papers. A freakish bastard squeezed from between your mother’s legs you might be, but you’re still the rightful heir.’ Katashi spat. ‘And here you are, back from the dead. Do you expect to be welcomed into the family?’
Stung, I went to rise, only to feel the weight of a sword upon my shoulder. ‘Don’t even think about moving,’ a man said from behind me. ‘Stay on your knees.’
‘Or you’ll kill me?’ I snapped, turning my head to see the tail of a black sash. ‘I’m already dead. This is no family. Katashi sold his own twin sister to the Vices, and gods know what he’s done with mine. Grace Tianto lost his head for killing his own blood. I think it’s a long time since the Otakos were a family.’
Katashi lifted Hatsukoi from her holster in one smooth movement. The arrow was in his hand, an instant all it took to nock and draw, Hatsukoi’s body pulled into a grin. ‘I could put this arrow through the back of your head and save myself a lot of trouble.’
‘Katashi,’ Kimiko warned. ‘Whatever else he might be, he’s our cousin.’
‘In name and nothing else. I will not let a Laroth by-blow sit on the Crimson Throne.’
‘He isn’t going to sit on it. He said himself he doesn’t want it. What threat is he to you?’
Katashi relaxed his bow arm, but did not turn the arrow aside. It was aimed for my right eye, and staring at that barbed point I began to wonder what it would feel like to die.
‘What threat?’ Katashi said, turning on his sister. ‘What threat? Are you a fool? Whatever the truth, this little kasu is Emperor Lan’s heir, the Crimson Throne belongs to him.’
‘No, it belongs to Kin, because he’s the one sitting on it in Mei’lian.’
The great man snarled, teeth bared like a dog. ‘Say that again and I will shoot him in the cock first.’
Unruffled, Kimiko tucked a rogue curl behind her ear. ‘It seems to me that you are the fool, Katashi,’ she said. ‘If you kill him you come no closer to having the crown, all you do is help Kin to keep it. What will people say if they find out what you’ve done?’
‘They won’t.’
‘You have great faith in your guards. But even if it should remain secret, you’ll lose the greatest weapon against Kin that has ever come your way.’
For an instant Katashi stared at her, then his lips slowly broke into a smile. ‘The honourable Kin, Master of the Imperial Guard. He took the Oath. Yes, and not just any oath.’ He let out a bark of laughter. ‘General Kin, sworn protector of Emperor Lan and all of his children. He is honour-bound not only to keep you safe but to uphold your claim to the throne.’
He lifted the bow again. ‘I think it’s time I gave The Usurper a present.’ He drew the string and shifted his aim. It was all I could see, as though the world contained nothing but this sharp metal point, darkened with black ink.
The barbed tip sunk into my skin, mangling flesh. I hissed a breath through clenched teeth and gripped below the wound, squeezing my eyes shut as the pain hit me hard.
‘What a mess,’ Katashi said, over my rapid breaths. ‘If you hadn’t moved it would have just gone clean through your arm and stuck well.’
I opened blurred eyes. Katashi had lowered his bow and was looking the wound over critically. I could not look at it, but my fingers found a tangled lump of flesh wet with blood, sharp barbs sticking through what was left of my skin. Sick, I tried to rise, but that same sword cam
e to rest upon my shoulder.
‘Leave the arrow in him,’ Katashi said, speaking to the man at my back. ‘Bring me ink. I want Kin to know who sent so wonderful a gift.’
‘Yes, Your Majesty.’
Crouching in front of me once again, Katashi touched the arrow. It bounced gently, and I gave a strangled cry. While the room spun slowly, I watched him stroke the black fletching with his thumb and trace the Otako motto branded upon the shaft.
‘We conquer. You bleed,’ Katashi said, noticing the direction of my gaze. ‘Too bad you aren’t a true Otako. We might have been brothers.’
‘I wouldn’t want to be your brother,’ I said, and spat. The spit hardly left my lips my mouth was so dry, and Katashi’s smile remained fixed. Footsteps returned. An ink stone was placed on the floor beside me, and Katashi picked up the brush, pulling back the hair from my forehead. The ink was cold. I tried to focus on the shapes he was forming, to read his words, but all I could think about was the hot blood dripping down my arm.
When he had finished, he dropped the brush back onto the stone. ‘Bag his head and deliver him to Kin,’ he said, nodding to his guards. ‘Let’s see how honourable The Usurper really is.’
Chapter 18
The sun was setting, and alone in the house, I waited.
Kimiko had known something was wrong the moment I slid the door to our sanctuary. She had looked up from the divan, her welcoming smile slowly fading. ‘What is it?’ she had asked.
‘Malice is coming. You have to go.’
Her jaw set stubbornly. ‘I’m not leaving.’ Even if you command me to go. She left those words unspoken, but they filled the air between us so thickly she may as well have given them voice.
‘You have to.’
‘If I have to leave, then why do you have to stay? We could go together. He can’t follow you forever.’