The Dragon Saga Box Set

by Nicolette Andrews

  As she was hurrying out the door, having just finished dressing, she almost collided with Ryuu who was waiting outside.

  He bowed to her. "Good morning, Lady Suzume."

  Was he really going to pretend yesterday hadn't happened? She had a few choice remarks to make to him if that was the case. But as he straightened and met her gaze, he made the slightest shake of his head. Suzume glanced back at her maid who was standing just behind her, head bowed. Is my maid a spy? Or is he using her as an excuse to not talk about it? Given her position at court, she decided to keep her mouth shut.

  She tossed her hair and headed down the hall. She'd forgotten the emperor had ordered Ryuu to follow her. It would make her errand a little more difficult. As she marched along, she started to formulate a plan.

  The records room was actually just outside the main palace building. But since Ryuu was shadowing her, she had no trouble getting out of the main palace this time. Ryuu didn't question her or try to stop her from going where she willed. It was easy to pretend he wasn't there at all.

  The records room was a small building without much adornment. While the rest of the palace slept, the scholars who maintained the records were already busy at work. They hurried past Suzume and Ryuu, arms overladen with scrolls and stacks of documents. They didn't even bother to glance their way.

  Inside the building an ancient old man was sitting at a table, a sheet of paper covered in tiny cramped writing in front of him. His fingertips were stained black and his beard was trimmed neatly but it still brushed against the paper which he was bent over writing on.

  Suzume approached the old man. "Excuse me," she said in a tone that was meant to be polite.

  But the man did not seem to hear her. He dipped his pen into the ink and then continued to write.

  She cleared her throat delicately, hoping he would catch the hint.

  The old man continued on, oblivious. Suzume, losing her patience, slammed her hand down on the table. Startled by the sound, the man made a dark slash across his document.

  "Look what you've done!" he shouted as he stood. "Now I will have to start all over." He did not lift his gaze from the ruined document.

  Suzume glared at him with hands on hips.

  "The emperor sent me to speak with you," Suzume lied.

  "What is it, boy? I'm very busy."

  Suzume blushed and couldn't help but peer in Ryuu's direction. There was a faint hint of a smile on his face. She was fortunate he didn't expose her lies.

  Suzume sputtered in embarrassment. She could admit she wasn't at her best lately but to call her a boy! "I am not a boy. If you would look at me that would be clear!" she snapped, just barely holding back some choice insults of her own.

  The old man lifted his head for the first time, his dark eyes scanning her up and down before returning to his parchment. "So you're not. This is no place for a woman, be gone with you."

  Suzume growled low in her throat before taking a few calming breaths. Perhaps that's why Ryuu hadn't stopped her from coming here. Maybe he knew the head scholar wouldn't want to let her in. Well, she had a trick left up her sleeve.

  Suzume jutted out her seal in front of the old man's nose, forcing him to look at it. As his eyes rested on the emperor's seal, they grew wide.

  He dropped the ruined paper which fluttered onto the desk and he bowed deeply to Suzume. "How can I help you, my lady?" he said in a groveling tone.

  That's more like it. Suzume preened.

  "I would like to see the records."

  The old man continued to stare at his feet. "Which records?"

  "The ones that..." She trailed off. Hikaru had not been very specific with his instructions and she didn't want Ryuu to know what she was up to either. "That is not for you to know. Show me the way and I will find what I am searching for."

  "There are hundreds of years’ worth of records in the archives of all kinds. If you are more specific I can direct you toward what you're looking for?"

  Ryuu was watching her very intently now. She had to think quickly.

  She covered her face with her hand as if she were embarrassed, and gestured for the old man to come closer.

  "You see, there's this young man..." She let the old man fill in the blanks.

  The old man glanced up at her and frowned, perhaps puzzling out the nature of her request. "This is not a place to flirt," the scholar said, presumably getting annoyed.

  Ever the actress, Suzume made a distressed expression in Ryuu's direction. "I'm not here to flirt!" She turned away from the both of them and peeked from the corner of her eye at the old man and Ryuu. The old man appeared to be very confused, but Ryuu was watching her, his expression impossible to read.

  Suzume made a dramatic sigh. "There is a young man whose family genealogy I hoped to research," she said, meeting the old man's gaze.

  His eyes grew wide with understanding of her fake request. He coughed, his eyes averted. "Of course. As you wish, my lady." Then he turned quickly to his left. "Akihito, show her to the hall of genealogy." A young acolyte who Suzume had not seen before leaped up from his desk at the far side of the room. There was a smear of ink on his cheek that didn't quite hide the pockmarked skin of his age. He wouldn't meet her gaze as he gestured for her to follow him down a long hall.

  Ryuu motioned to follow her, but she turned around to face him. "I'll be safe enough with Akihito."

  The youth blushed crimson. Ryuu did not seem amused by the notion. "I am to guard you at all times."

  "It's just down the hall, and if I get a papercut I'll be sure to shout for you."

  They stared at one another for a moment, neither willing to budge, before Ryuu nodded his head in consent. "I'll be waiting here."

  The threat was plain enough in his posture. There would be no chance for an escape. The acolyte led her down a hall lined with doors. There were markings on each door to indicate what was within. She passed by the door to the temple records, but she didn't get a chance to linger long beside it before the acolyte was opening the door to the genealogy room. Inside, shelves reached up to the ceiling with stacks and stacks of bound paper.

  Suzume's neck swiveled from one way to the other, gazing at all the paper.

  "There's so much of it."

  "Everyone who’s ever lived and worked in the palace is recorded here," the young man said, his voice cracking.

  He paused, likely embarrassed by his changing voice. Suzume pretended not to notice. "How does it all fit in here?"

  The boy flushed. "To tell you the truth, we lost a lot in the fire seventeen years ago."

  He pointed to a scorched shelf with papers whose edges were black and curled.

  Suzume nodded. She'd remembered hearing about the fire but she'd been too young at the time to remember much about the actual event. They say it burned most of the main palace. This young man could not have even been born at that time.

  After a few more minutes they stopped at a row of documents. "This is the royal genealogy," he said, motioning toward the papers.

  Suzume picked up the closest one, it was perhaps a hundred years old. She flipped through the lists of names. It listed empresses and emperors, and from a quick glance she saw her mother's family name, Kaedemori, mentioned at least three different times throughout the generations.

  The young man stood hovering nearby. She watched him from the corner of her eye. Could she trust him to get her to what she was really searching for?

  Suzume strolled down the aisle, hand tracing over the faded dates on the spines of the documents. Genealogy. I could have at least pretended to be looking for something a little more interesting.

  Since she was here, she decided to peruse for the year she was born. She skimmed backward from ancient years and the founding of the empire toward more recent years. But as she approached the year of her birth there was a five year gap. Files were missing. Maybe I skipped them. She went to the other side, but these were different records. She looked for the year of her birth and found t
he two years prior missing, as well as the year of her birth. What is this?

  Suzume scanned three different rows. Every single document for the year of her birth was missing. There were archives missing in gaps ranging anywhere from ten to fifty years. But in every case the year after she was born, the documentation resumed. Why is that year missing?

  "What caused the fire?" Suzume asked the acolyte.

  He almost jumped out of his skin when she turned to face him and a blush burned up his face.

  "I-i-it," he stuttered. She gave him an encouraging smile and he looked away from her and down at his feet before saying in a rush, "It was reported as an accident."

  Suzume rolled her eyes. "I wouldn't have thought it was arson," Suzume said, taking a step closer to him.

  She ran along a few more shelves and in every case, the year of her birth was gone. Could it be a coincidence? Or was there more to the story? The young man seemed very hesitant to talk about it. He was hiding something.

  The young scholar was wringing his hands. She took a step toward him and his eyes shot up toward her. She leaned in close to his ear to whisper, "It isn't a nobleman I'm trying to learn more about." He visibly gulped. She had him right where she wanted him. "Can you help me?"

  He nodded his head slowly.

  "I need to see the temple records."

  He stumbled back a step, his back slamming into a shelf which rocked dangerously. He spun around to balance the shelf, and as he had his back to her he said, “That's not possible. They're locked in that room." He gestured down the hall.

  "You must know where the key is."

  "Only the captain of the warrior priests has access."

  Ryuu had the key. Why was she not surprised? She had to see those records. She doubted she could steal the key from him, not with a yokai protecting his room. And it wasn't as if she could just ask him for it. But one thing was for certain, the answer to why she was this way was within those documents. She just had to figure out how to find a way in.

  20

  Suzume picked at her breakfast, tearing apart the baked fish without bringing a morsel to her mouth. All this time in the palace and all she'd managed to do was to find out... well, nothing. Her friends remained imprisoned and with Ryuu guarding over her every move, she had trapped herself in a gilded cage. The answer to why she was this way was somewhere in the palace. She could feel it. If only she could figure out how to find it. Plus, there was the added concern of Hisato. She'd spent too many sleepless nights clutching her staff and waiting for an attack.

  When the door to her chamber slid open, and footsteps came thundering in, Suzume leaped up to reach for her staff. She spun around to face the intruder, pointing her staff at the throat of a servant. He stared down at the end of her weapon with wide, terrified eyes.

  Her replacement maid rushed in behind him and she too stared at Suzume as if she were a wild animal who had just barged into the palace.

  "What are you doing here?"

  The man swallowed past a lump in his throat. "A m-message." With shaking hands, he held out a letter.

  Suzume lowered her weapon, realizing too late her overreaction. There was no use trying to cover it up and she kept her head held high.

  "Well, read it," she said.

  The man glanced around the room, to the scattered breakfast dishes that lay at her feet and then back to Suzume.

  "It is from the emperor. I am not permitted to read it," he said in a shaking voice.

  They were caught in a stalemate of sorts. She didn't want to lower her weapon, just in case, and he couldn't break court protocol. Since she already looked like a maniac, she said to her maid, "Bring the letter to me."

  The maid very cautiously took the letter from his hands and brought it over to Suzume. She couldn't open it one-handed since she was still holding onto the staff with her right hand.

  "Open it." She didn't like how imperious she sounded but she was too afraid to let go of her staff.

  The maid bobbed her head and did as Suzume commanded, breaking the seal and holding up the open letter to Suzume. It all seemed a bit excessive, when the emperor could just as easily come and talk to her as he had before. Not that she was making it any easier by holding these two servants captive. She took the document from the woman's hand and read it over quickly.

  'Come to the throne room.'

  She stared at the letter, and sudden fear gripped her throat. Perhaps he'd tired of playing the doting father and he was about to imprison her.

  There was only response she could give. "Tell him I shall be there within the hour."

  "He said you are to come straight away." He seemed hesitant to tell her, as if he feared she would strike him with her staff if he did.

  A knot twisted in her stomach.

  "Is it something urgent?" she asked, her mouth felt very dry all of the sudden.

  "The emperor did not tell me." The servant bowed in apology.

  Her heart was pounding in her chest. "I'll be just a moment."

  She turned and walked into her bedchamber, just out of view of the servant. Her staff was still held loosely in her hand. She paced back and forth a few moments. She only had to keep a cool head. Perhaps it was nothing at all. Or Ryuu had told the emperor he'd caught her snooping and she was going to be tried for treason. But if he wanted to imprison her, he would have sent a guard and not a servant with a message. Memories of her exile ran through her head and she found it difficult to breathe all of the sudden.

  It took her a few minutes but she righted her nerves and walked out head held high. She left her staff behind, though her hands itched to feel its comforting weight. The servant seemed to have composed himself as well, or perhaps it was because she'd left the weapon behind. He escorted her to the audience hall.

  A pair of guards stood outside the door, and as she approached they each reached to open one side of the double doors. The large audience chamber yawned open before her. It was by far one of the largest rooms in the main palace. It was filled with columns painted red and accented with gold. Normally the emperor met with his counselors and governors in this place. But today it was empty and eerily quiet.

  Light poured in from windows along the edge of the ceiling, filling the space with alternating shafts of golden light and dark shadows. At the end of the room was a raised dais higher than Suzume's head with stairs leading up to it on either side. That was where the emperor sat.

  Taking a calming breath, Suzume stepped into the throne room. As soon as she went through the double doors, they were slammed shut behind her. The sound echoed through the empty room. It took some convincing to guide her footsteps forward toward the dais.

  As she got closer, she saw the emperor sitting atop his golden throne. At the foot of it, in the place where the council normally stood, Ryuu stood with his back toward her. Suzume kept her face blank of any expression and approached the throne, bowing deeply as was expected of her.

  "Thank you for coming," the emperor said. His voice boomed with authority.

  There was no doubt in her mind now that this was official business. She remained bowed low, and until the emperor gave his command she would not even so much as dare look at him. It was strange to think how much fear a mortal struck into her heart, when she'd faced far more dangerous yokai.

  "My daughter, please rise," the emperor said in a softer tone.

  Hearing his address, she was filled with relief and she raised her head. Ryuu remained one step in front of her, his back turned toward her and his head bowed.

  "I brought you here to speak with you of grave matters that affect our kingdom." He paused, perhaps to let the weight of his words sink in. Suzume resisted the urge to fidget as the moment dragged out. "A threat has arisen that I think you are best suited to deal with."

  From the moment she had agreed to work for the emperor, she'd feared this moment. But she couldn't leave the palace, not yet. Not when she hadn't learned anything, not when she hadn't freed her friends.

&nb
sp; "Are you sure I'm ready?" she blurted without thinking. Her desire to stop the emperor overrode her better judgment.

  "Ryuu has informed me you are more than capable," the emperor replied.

  Suzume gave a sideways glance toward Ryuu. He did, did he? Was he trying to get her killed? Or was this part of his plot to get her out of the palace? Was that his plan then, get her away from the palace and the answers she sought?

  "He is too kind, your majesty, but I think I would benefit from more training."

  "You are strong and fierce like your mother. I have faith that you can complete this mission. Besides, you'll have Ryuu with you."

  Further protests were on the tip of her tongue. But if she pushed back too hard, then the emperor might suspect her motives.

  "I will do my best to serve you," she said mechanically, though there were a few other choice words she'd like to say instead.

  "Is that what you think? That I only wish for you to serve me?" the emperor asked. His tone was sharp but not angry. It was almost sad. Suzume had been cautious of looking at him directly, but she chanced it now. His expression was hurt, almost sad. He looked down for a moment, and if she was a bit more naive she might think it was to pretend he was embarrassed. "I have not been a good father to you and for that I am sorry. If our need was not great, I would not ask."

  "Why ask me at all? What can I possibly do for the empire?"

  It was Ryuu who spoke. "You have more knowledge of yokai than most. You know their weaknesses and their strengths." His gaze almost challenged her to refute it.

  She glared back at him and for a moment she considered exposing him to the emperor. But the emperor seemed to trust Ryuu's word. And accusing him might backfire and make her seem like the villain.

  "There must be others, like the priest Makato. He is much more knowledgeable." She stared at Ryuu, challenging him without words. I know you have something to do with Hikaru and me.

  The emperor stood and both Suzume and Ryuu fell into deep bows.