by Fuyumi Ono
Taking the lead was Ren Chodai, a prosperous man who ran a business in the Kingdom of En.
“If he’d bothered to help those three, they might still be alive. Running away without a backwards glance, not even bothering to ascertain their condition—what sort of a man is that?”
Answering the question was the guardian on the rokushoku who’d spoken briefly to Shushou the night before. He went by the name of Kinhaku. The dozen or so that had fled a few steps ahead of the others were less an organized company than a group that traveled in the more or less the same place in the caravan.
Kinhaku said, “We knew what dangers awaited us if we remained. Our job is to protect those who pay us, not everybody else.”
“Then why are we traveling together in this caravan all the way to Mt. Hou?”
“Cowards of a feather stick together,” Kinhaku said with a ironic smile.
Chodai furrowed his brows. “If you’re talking cowards, abandoning those unfortunate folks and running for the hills is a good description.”
“I couldn’t care less how you define the word. But I suppose, then, that you promptly rushed to their assistance and you stood your ground to the end?”
The blood rushed to Chodai’s gaunt face.
“No? Another bit of tail wagging the dog.”
“What did you say?”
Gankyuu walked alongside Shushou, the haku’s reins in his hands. Observing the two enraged men, she reached over and tugged at his cloak. “Hey, do you think maybe we should stop? It looks like a fight is about to break out between those two.”
“They’re big boys,” Gankyuu said over his shoulder. “Let them sort it out.”
Twenty-seven years had passed since the abdication of the empress. All those with egos and aspirations to greatness had long since given up on the Shouzan, having already determined that they’d never sit on the throne.
People going on the Shouzan these days weren’t elbowing each other out of the way in a race to Mt. Hou. More likely they’d been encouraged by those impatient for the new ruler to appear. These were less the heroic figures than generally decent individuals.
If not them, then those of even smaller stature who, observing these good people returning heartbroken from the Yellow Sea, resolved to make something of their own petty ambitions. With all due haste they reformed themselves and mended their relations with their fellow man and tried to convince the world of their newly found virtue.
Whichever camp Chodai belonged to, he wasn’t the kind of man to abandon common sense for a pointless blood feud.
Shushou said, “Hey, Gankyuu.”
“If you’re going to ask what a dog’s tail is, don’t. When it come to trading insults, there’s no end to the words we can come up with.”
“Yeah, and I guess there’s nothing to be done about that either,” Shushou muttered. Gankyuu cast a sidelong glance at her and hiked up his brows. She said, “The fact is, we did run away. And to make matters worse, you knew that fires were dangerous and didn’t tell them.”
Gankyuu clucked to himself. He shook his head. “Like they would listen to anything I had to say.”
“They would. Because you’re a specialist about the Yellow Sea.”
“I have to wonder. Even if they did, it’d turn into a real nuisance.”
“Why?”
“Fires are dangerous. But at times they’re necessary. So you tell them to not go around recklessly lighting fires. The next time a fire becomes necessary, count on them pitching a fit about the last time you told them not to. Amateurs who can’t tell the difference have no business being in the Yellow Sea in the first place. You hired me, but not to clean up after every heedless idiot we meet along the way.”
“And if your employer tells you to?”
“I refuse.”
“Chicken.”
“Now, now,” interrupted Rikou. “That’s enough.”
“Are you taking this fraidy cat’s side too?” Shushou said in a muffled voice.
Rikou answered quietly, “As far as Gankyuu is concerned, we are a couple of impetuous idiots who walked into the Yellow Sea without knowing a thing about it. We’re likely to cause him no end of grief. So we should trust the one person who knows what he’s talking about.”
Shushou took in the vexed look on Rikou’s face and sighed. “So it’s all about bodyguards.”
“Bodyguards?”
“That’s what it’s all about in the end. Those who have the resources to hire a bodyguard survive. Those lacking the wisdom or the resources don’t. Their fate is to be left by the wayside.”
“Ah, yes.” Rikou said with a tight smile. “That could be the case.”
“In other words, those who enter the Yellow Sea without hiring a knowledgeable bodyguard have no one to blame but themselves. They’re the bad apples”
“I wouldn’t necessarily disagree with that either.”
“But that and telling people that fires are dangerous are two separate things. Gankyuu could have helped those men if he wanted to. He didn’t. As far as I’m concerned, the word coward isn’t that far from the truth.”
“I wouldn’t be so sure,” Rikou said with that same wry grin.
“It’s okay. I’ll tell everybody.”
“Enough already!” Gankyuu growled.
Shushou glared at him. “Didn’t you say you wouldn’t speak up because they’d just ignore you? Well, I don’t care if they do. So what’s the harm?”
“Don’t do anything stupid.”
“What’s stupid about it?”
Gankyuu looked at Shushou, his eyes briefly hard as cold steel. “That is information best kept among ourselves.”
Shushou felt her cheeks flushing. “You mean, if everybody knew how to travel more safely they couldn’t value their services so highly? Is that it?”
“I don’t care what you think it means. Don’t go around spreading bad advice.”
“I shall do as I please.”
“If you make big announcements and something happens, there’s no telling how the guardians might make their displeasure known.”
“Is that a threat?”
Gankyuu met Shushou’s scowl with one no less pointed. “A warning.”
“And I shall tell you this: you are a miserable excuse for a man.”
“Am I?”
Gankyuu turned his eyes straight ahead. With a final sharp look, Shushou harrumphed and averted her gaze. She glanced up at Rikou. “A real coward. No two ways about it.”
But she found no agreement and no humor in his face. He looked at her with a grave expression that raised a sudden qualm in her heart.
What? she started to say when Rikou muttered, “You are still young.”
“Meaning? That I am a child is hardly a mystery to me either.”
Rikou nodded and smiled. “Meaning this is something we should let Gankyuu handle.”
Shushou puffed out her cheeks in a pout. “I get it, cowards sticking up for each other. You’re probably dying to tell me how adults know stuff that only makes sense to other adults too.”
“What about it?”
“Sure. Fine. But keep this in mind: the throne does not distinguish between children and adults. When I become empress, don’t think I’m going to forget any of this.”
Part Three
Chapter 17
[3-1] Passing through the forest took another five days. During that time, two more members of the caravan died.
A wide and shallow river cut through the forest. A single chain stretched across the river to the opposite shore. Clinging to the chain, the river bottom slippery underfoot, they crossed the river and plunged back into the forest.
As before, the foot-worn trail ran alongside a valley stream. Their only recourse was to climb alongside it as well.
Day by day, the Kongou Mountains faded into the distance behind them. When the caravan entered a clearing to rest and make camp, the ridgelines of the Kongou Mountains were visible above the forest canopy. But t
hey grew fainter and fainter day by day, slowly sinking down into the sea of trees.
The trail finally crossed a mountain. Coming down the other side, the Kongou Mountains were swallowed by the great expanse of green.
More fallen trees cluttered the forest floor, along with dying and withered ones. Before long, all they could see before them were trees piled atop each other like chopsticks, decaying and overgrown with moss, the whitened trunks poking out from among them like bleached bones.
Emerging from this dead forest, they found themselves on the banks of a eerily crystal clear lake. Within the lake was a long, stone-lined depression, submerged beneath the glass-like water.
Fifteen days had passed since they’d left the fortress. The number of fatalities had reached ten.
During that time, the caravan had worked out a system of sorts. Taking the point were the goushi and koushu like Gankyuu. Tagging along were Shitsu Kiwa and others without guardians who, together with their entourages, had thrown in with the koushu. Plus those who similarly hoped to draw on the good graces of the goushi. Together, the lead group came to almost two hundred.
Following after them was an ensemble of around a hundred and fifty put together by Ren Chodai. Many of them made no effort to hide their contempt for Kiwa and the goushi.
The rest had the protection of their skilled retainers and were equipped accordingly. They didn’t ally themselves with either camp, and traveled in the caravan wherever they could best fit in.
A rough form of leadership had formed among the twenty or so koushu, in the groups led by Kiwa and Chodai, and in the smaller, unaligned bands. Kiwa’s and Chodai’s entourages also included hangers-on who joined this or that group on a purely utilitarian basis. As a result, there was no end to the bickering and backbiting.
The koushu were hardly a model of organization. But they did understand what to do and what not to do. When something happened, they joined forces without anybody shouting out commands.
They quietly came together to clear fallen trees off the path, then separated and continued on without any ado. They selected similar ground for their campsites. At such times, Kiwa hurriedly ordered his people to rally around the koushu. Where they stopped, he pitched his tents nearby.
All the while, Chodai pretended they weren’t even there or even searched out detours. He quite deliberately made camp as far away from them as was reasonably possible.
“It’s weird,” Shushou muttered.
They were clearing the dead leaves and grass out of a hollow in the pile of decaying trees on the banks of the lake. Leaning over to secure a tree with a length piece of rope, Rikou paused. “What is?”
“Shitsu-san and Ren-san. Especially Shitsu-san. He’s an odd duck.”
“How’s that?” Rikou pushed aside a rotten trunk, drove a stake into the exposed ground, and fastened the other end of the rope to it.
“Look where he pitched his tent, next to these fallen trees like us. He apes everything we do.”
“He probably thinks that is the safest course of action.”
“Yeah, I get that. But Shitsu has an entourage of at least forty. With such a large group, mimicking the three of us doesn’t make sense.”
Shushou looked at the bustling Kiwa camp. She understood why Gankyuu picked this as their camp site. He always sought out sheltered locations where they could hide out of plain view. Except that hiding was out of the question with Kiwa and his big crew stomping around.
“That is true.”
“Why doesn’t he simply ask Gankyuu or one of the guardians for an opinion on the matter? Something like, where’s the best place for a big group like ours? As long Shitsu-san keeps on doing whatever he sees us doing, he’s not going to ask what would be the best course for him.”
“Would you ask, Shushou?”
“Of course. People who are experienced at doing things are bound to have the best answers. The koushu travel in small groups, but that doesn’t mean they don’t know anything about organizing big ones.”
In fact, Shushou mused as she watched the dusk falling over the lake, Gankyuu told them the crystal clear water was poisonous. A mouthful wouldn’t cause instant death, but human and animals shouldn’t drink it. If Gankyuu hadn’t said told her, she probably would have. And so would have Kiwa and company if they hadn’t been listening in.
“Ren-san is strange too. I saw them on the shore debating whether or not to drink the water.”
Rikou coiled up the excess rope and chuckled. “I’m not surprised.”
“It seems they’re always discussing things, like they’re doing the opposite of us as a matter of course. I can understand him getting his back up because of his arguments with the goushi, but the goushi know the Yellow Sea a lot better than he does. I don’t see the point of being so contrary.”
“For what it’s worth, neither do I.”
“The one is just as annoyingly bullheaded as the other. Or is that the way all adults behave?”
“Probably.”
Rikou fastened the coil of rope to the travel packs. The travel packs were always ready to be strapped to the backs of the kijuus on a moment’s notice. Another one of those things Gankyuu never stopped harping on.
“I think it’s wrong, Gankyuu and the others not telling people what they know. Treating information like it’s some big secret is selfish and self-serving. I am totally against it.”
Rikou got to his feet. Not addressing that statement he said, “Where’d Gankyuu head off to?”
“He went to talk to one of the guardians.”
“What about?”
“Gankyuu is a hunter. That takes him away from the paths used on the Shouzan. He probably isn’t familiar with the road ahead. So he’s asking around. They’re the ones who said we shouldn’t drink the lake water.”
Rikou smiled. “So that’s it.”
Shushou blinked. “What?”
“If you ask him, he’ll tell you. Same goes for the goushi. I’ve seen men approach a goushi on behalf of a provincial general from somewhere or another. Same kind of questions. Shitsu-san doesn’t ask and neither does Ren-san.”
“Yeah, that’s what it comes down to.”
“I don’t think Gankyuu likes keeping secrets. It’s more that he dislikes telling people things they clearly don’t want to know.”
“So he won’t tell you anything until you beg him to? How’s that any different from flaunting that you know it and they don’t?”
“Not quite the same thing, I don’t think.”
“I have to wonder.”
Kinhaku squatted in front of Gankyuu and traced a map in the dirt. “After three more days, we’ll descend through the forest and come out at the lowest place in elevation.”
Kinhaku was a sturdy man who rode a rokushaku and had long experience as a guardian. Due to his stalwart nature, he’d been named the nominal leader of the dozen or so other goushi.
“And then level ground?”
“A marsh. Because of the muddy ground, you should stay on your kijuu. Crossing the marsh will take a day. Fly as much as possible, just skimming the surface. The marshes are home to some vicious leeches.”
“Are they poisonous?”
“No, but they do like the taste of human blood.”
“How’s the visibility?”
“Poor. The place is thick with overgrown trees and rotten trunks and tall grass.”
Gankyuu nodded. “So proceeding during the day wouldn’t present a problem?”
“Perhaps not there. The tough going comes before. Nothing but fallen trees. No good hiding places. To make matters worse, with all the dead trees and rocks underfoot, you can easily lose your footing. If a flying youma swoops down out of the blue, you don’t stand a chance.”
“Water?”
“No good. After this, we can’t depend on wells and springs for potable water. We’ll have to use jug stones.”
Jug stones were native to the Yellow Sea, having been popularized by the koushu. Placed
in a jar or canteen, jug stones purified contaminated water.
“So the hard part is getting to the marsh. Then the best time for crossing would be at night?”
“Not necessarily. In terms of the risk, it’s six of one, a half-dozen of the other. The bigger question is how those accompanying us will react, it being drummed into their heads so long that the nighttime is bloody dangerous. If they raise a stink about it, it’ll have to be daytime.”
“I figured as much.”
“You three have fast kijuu. You could make it to the marsh in a flash.”
“What about you?”
“We’ve got three people on foot and the master on a horse.” Kinhaku’s mouth twisted into a slight grimace. “I’m hoping for them to make an appearance tonight.”
“Yeah.”
Gankyuu was agreeing under his breath when Shushou called out. “Gankyuu, dinner’s ready.”
Gankyuu and Kinhaku started and glanced back over their shoulders. The girl peered down at them from a short ways off.
“I’m coming,” Gankyuu said, getting to his feet.
Squatted there on his haunches, Kinhaku chuckled. “That young lady of yours is holding up well.”
“Yeah, well.”
“The first time I saw her, I really had to wonder. But she’s got steel in her spine. There must be a lot to recommend about her.”
“Or so it would seem. Thing is, she’s as contrary as she is strong-willed.”
“So you’re saying she’s a handful.”
Gankyuu glanced up at Shushou, waiting for him at the top of the slope. “That little girl is clever as a fox. And that makes her one big pain in the ass.”
Chapter 18
[3-2] Youma attacked the campsites on the shores of the lake that very night.
Sensing Rikou and Gankyuu moving about, Shushou awoke from a light sleep. I don’t believe it, she thought. She hadn’t gotten up before the screams filled the air. Sheer amazement overshadowed the cold thrill of fear.