"I hope you have been well, grandfather," Suzume said, bowing her head to him. "Thank you for your hospitality."
The old man's gaze swept over her and toward the guards assembled behind her.
"I did not have much choice, did I?" he asked before he turned his back on her and walked into the palace proper.
"I guess that's as warm of a greeting as I can expect," Suzume said under her breath.
Tsuki chuckled. "I can see where you get your temperament from."
Suzume shot him a look, but he was not scared of her death glares and only grinned in reply. Servants showed them to their rooms and Suzume was given a bath to wash off the travel grit from her skin. When she got out of the bath, Hikaru and Rin were standing close together speaking in hushed whispers. She scrutinized the pair of them as if she could divine what they were hiding from her by the backs of their heads.
When they saw Suzume, they turned toward her with guilty expressions on their faces. Suzume glanced between them but before she could ask what they'd been talking about, Hikaru spoke first.
"This place hasn't changed in years," he said, admiring the room.
Any other questions flew from her mind as her brain froze on his statement. "You've been here before?"
Hikaru laughed a bit sheepishly, running his fingers through his hair. "I was born here."
Suzume frowned. "But you're like old, really old."
"And a Kaedemori, though I have not called myself one in many years."
"We're related?"
He smiled. "Very distantly. You would be my brother's granddaughter, many generations removed.”
Suzume shook her head. She knew her family had a long history, but Hikaru was her great uncle? That seemed absurd, despite everything else she had learned recently. It was just another connection that tied them together.
"Is the old man my relative too?"
"No, he isn't. I asked him already."
It was worth asking, she supposed. "As far as we can tell the only link we have to one another is the White Palace," Suzume said, considering the evidence.
"Don't worry about that now. You have a dinner party to prepare for." Rin put her hands on Suzume's shoulders, assuming the role of maid once again. She noticed the quick change of subject, but decided not to ask more. They would only find more clever ways to keep the truth from her.
"Don't you have anything for us to do?" Tsuki said as he plopped down on a seat beside Suzume.
"Please find something for him to do," Akira drawled. "He hasn't been this restless since we were left at that shrine."
Suzume considered this for a moment. The emperor wanted her to find any hint of her mother, and considering Tsuki, Akira, and Noaki could move about without being seen, perhaps they could investigate while she was at dinner.
"Why not do a bit of snooping? See if you can find any signs of where my mother went."
Tsuki gave her a deep bow. "Consider it done, my lady."
Noaki lingered a moment longer. "There is a strange energy about this place. Be careful."
"I will. Keep an eye out for me." Noaki bowed and went out into the garden, disappearing onto the rooftops without a sound.
Rin finished styling Suzume's hair and she and Hikaru made an excuse to leave as well. She wanted to follow them and see what they were up to, but it was almost dinner and seeing as she was guest of honor, her absence would be noted.
The dining hall was packed full of her many distant cousins, uncles, aunts, and other members of far-flung branches of the enormous Kaedemori family at the evening meal. To her surprise, she was given a place far away from her grandfather while Ryuu, however, was placed right next to him. I'm his closest relative here. I should be sitting beside him. Suzume scowled toward her grandfather's empty seat. Not that she particularly wanted to be close to him. Ryuu did his best to avoid eye contact with her by chatting with one of her great uncles that sat to his right.
A musician played as the dishes were served. Her grandfather remained conspicuously absent. Suzume made polite conversation with her third cousin, about nothing of real particular interest, while her eyes drifted toward Ryuu ever so often. Then halfway through the second course, her grandfather came in. He had a scowl on his face as he sat down. Ryuu leaned across and said something to him but the old man shook his head. What's Ryuu's connection to the family? She couldn't help but wonder. The empress had hinted as much. But at the time Suzume thought it was just to goad her.
When dinner was over, the guests slowly drifted out of the room. Suzume kept her eye on Ryuu, waiting and watching for him to leave. He seemed in no hurry to leave and was drinking with the other people in the room. Her grandfather had eaten and left. She considered following him, but given his cold welcome she knew she could not speak without being summoned first.
One of her cousins was talking to her with animation and knocked over a glass on her tray. Liquid was spilled on Suzume, and she took her eyes off Ryuu for just a moment.
When she looked up again, he was gone. How does he move so quickly? She wondered. She swiveled her head around, searching for him. He was exiting the hall on the far end away from her. Without even apologizing to her cousin, Suzume leaped up to chase after him. She wanted to see what he was up to.
She weaved her way through the crowd of people in the hall. Only after making her way over, she saw no sign of Ryuu. It was as if he had disappeared in a puff of smoke. Just when she was about to give up, a hand shot out and snatched her. Suzume was pulled into a nearby room.
A hand pressed over her mouth. Flames shot along her body, but a pressure point was pressed into her middle back and the flames died away in an instant. Suzume wriggled around and turned to see Ryuu staring down at her, his blue eyes illuminated softly in the dark room. He pressed his finger to his lips, telling her to be quiet.
She frowned at him, but he let her go and gestured for her to follow him. The room they were in was one that had a fold back door which could make the room larger.
Ryuu crept along the wall and pressed his ear up against the folding door. Suzume frowned after him, was about to ask questions when she heard her grandfather speak on the other side.
"Do we know why they've come?" he asked.
"We have not discovered that yet, my lord," said the second voice.
"The emperor must have sent Izume's daughter to test me."
The servant made no reply, perhaps it was not meant to give anything away.
"Just in case, send warning."
"Yes, my lord." The servant bowed. They listened as the footsteps receded. After a few heartbeats they heard nothing more. Perhaps they had both left.
Ryuu yanked Suzume by the arm and brought her out into the hall again. He kept on pulling her behind him, and it wasn't until they were in a palace garden far away from where they had been that he unclamped his hand off her mouth.
"What was that?"
"I thought you liked eavesdropping," he said.
Suzume only scowled in response.
"If he heard you stomping outside the room, you would have given me away. Not that he revealed much," Ryuu sighed.
"You did that on purpose. Why?"
"Why do you think?" he said with a crooked smile.
She was so frustrated with him. Why did he try to kidnap her and then introduce her to someone else like her? Why did everyone around her trust him, when all he did was confuse her? Why was he so maddening?
"What do you want from me?" she asked out of sheer frustration.
He crossed his arms over his chest and studied her for a moment. "You're much more like Izume than I thought."
She glared right back. "Don't try to change the subject."
His expression turned more serious. "If I could, I would tell you everything. But even now his eyes are on us. It was a risk just bringing in Souta."
"Who’s watching us? Can you tell me that?"
"Who do you think?"
They were in her grandfather's home. Was tha
t what Ryuu had been trying to tell her all this time? But what did he have to do with anything?
Before she could question him further however, Ryuu grabbed her and pulled her into the shadows of the nearby awning.
"What are you doing?"
"Shh," he clamped his hand over her mouth. Up above on top of the nearby building, something was leaping from roof to roof. Suzume felt the prickle of warning. There was a yokai in the palace and it was headed straight for her grandfather's room. Suzume and Ryuu shared a single look before they both went running after it.
30
Suzume ran down the hall, with Ryuu just a few feet in front of her. They sprinted through a courtyard, past a few servants who were almost bowled over by their pursuit. The shadows of three yokai leaped from roof to roof. They were headed straight for the inner rings of the palace and straight toward her grandfather. As they approached the inner rings of the palace where her grandfather’s rooms were, the yokai dropped down from the rooftops and onto the ground.
Before she could get closer, Ryuu held out his hand to stop her and placed his finger against his lips to tell her to remain quiet. They watched from the shadows as the yokai approached her grandfather's door. One of the group looked around. He was human-like in appearance, with shaggy brown hair, pointed ears, and a wolf pelt tied around his waist. For a moment Suzume thought he had spotted them watching from the shadows, but his eyes glided over them before sneaking inside. The other two yokai followed after him. Suzume and Ryuu waited a few heartbeats before creeping closer to the door.
Ryuu leaned in close to the door to listen in on the conversation. But there were no hushed conspiratorial whispers, only shouts rang out from within. Ryuu threw open the door, and Suzume followed him inside. Her grandfather stood in the center of the room, his long white hair down around his shoulders, and swinging a sword like a madman. The yokai circled around him, weapons drawn. But when they saw Ryuu and Suzume enter they turned their attention to them instead.
She hadn't been expecting an attack here, and she'd left her staff in her room. The only thing she had to fight with was her flame. As the yokai came barreling toward her, she hesitated to attack, running away from him to the far end of the room. I can't just run away. She glanced over her shoulder toward the monkey-like yokai who chased her, his long canines gleaming in the dim light of the chamber. But if I use my flame now, the old man isn't here to help bring me back. Despite her hesitation, flames sparked along her hands. As usual the flame of Kazue's soul had other ideas. Suzume turned to face the yokai.
She concentrated her fire to her hands, forming a ball of flame. She flung it at her attacker, and the smile was wiped from his face as the fire struck his torso and the flame caught onto his clothes. The yokai screamed before falling onto the floor, thrashing about and trying to put out the fire. While Suzume had taken care of that one, Ryuu had knocked out the second. A third had taken a hold of her grandfather and had a blade pressed to his throat.
"Don't move or I'll kill the old man," the yokai said.
Ryuu was not fazed by the threat and sang a song. Suzume felt the power of it reverberate on her skin. The fire on her body rose higher as if it would reach out and pluck the energy from the very air. But through sheer force of will, she was able to curb her desire to take the power for herself.
The song had no effect on the man holding her grandfather hostage but the yokai on the ground writhed in pain, backs arched as if someone was burning them alive from the inside.
The yokai holding her grandfather watched as his friends were tortured with wide eyes.
"Make all the threats that you want, everything you do to Lord Kaedemori I will do tenfold to your men," Ryuu said. There was a fierceness to his voice she had never heard before.
The yokai looked back at Ryuu, his eyes wide. "I know you, you're-" The yokai snarled but he was cut off by Ryuu.
"If you know who I am, let's cut to the chase," Ryuu said coldly. "What do you want with Lord Kaedemori?"
He had yet to let go of her grandfather and stared at his men on the floor. "Akio wanted to give him a message." His eyes drifted toward Suzume. "Give me what I am owed."
There was a sinking sensation in Suzume's gut. She didn't like the way the yokai's gaze settled on her.
"Let him go and we can make a deal," Ryuu said.
"We're not making deals with yokai," her grandfather said through gritted teeth. The wolf yokai only smiled and held the blade closer to his throat, just tight enough where if her grandfather breathed too hard the blade would scrape his throat.
Lord Kaedemori held his breath.
"It's too late for that. The deal has already been struck," the yokai said.
Ryuu sang again, and his song was drowned out by the screams of the yokai on the floor. The yokai's grip on her grandfather loosened as his gaze was focused entirely on his comrades.
Suzume saw her chance and took it. While the wolf was distracted, she lunged for him. She shoved her shoulder into his free arm and her grandfather took that same opportunity to slide just out of his grip. The wolf turned toward Suzume with a snarl, and she held up her flaming hands. The pair of them circled one another, and she grabbed onto his forearm with a flaming hand. He pulled back just in time to sweep his leg and knock her onto the ground. Before he could pounce onto her though Ryuu sang another song, different than the first. It caught the wolf yokai in his trap and it was frozen in place. His eyes glared at all of them.
Suzume got back up, panting for breath.
"So you're not completely useless," her grandfather said to her as he rubbed the spot on his neck where the blade had been inches from ending his life.
"Thanks," Suzume replied snidely.
"You've got quicker responses than my men."
Her grandfather looked past Suzume to see several guards who had just arrived. The soldiers did not seem surprised to see the incapacitated yokai lying on the ground. "Take these things away," her grandfather said with an imperious wave of his hand. The guards hurried into the room and gathered up the incapacitated yokai dragging them from the room. Suzume watched them go, shaking her head. Was everyone keeping yokai from me my entire life?
"This isn't the first time, is it?" Ryuu asked Lord Kaedemori.
The old man glared at him for a moment, and for a second Suzume thought he was not going to answer at all.
"No, it is not. Come." He gestured for them to follow him.
He led them into the adjoining chamber. His audience chamber was lined with empty armor. The voids of darkness in the helmets seemed to be staring at them as her grandfather led them to a table at the far end of the room. Everyone sat down, and Suzume looked around at the dreary room. A servant came in and when he saw the disheveled state of Lord Kaedemori he tutted.
"They were back again," the servant said. "At least let me dress you, my lord."
"Do something useful and bring us tea," Lord Kaedemori snapped.
The servant only shook his head and left to fulfill the command.
It felt strange to be in her grandfather's personal chambers. He appeared to be dressed for bed, his hair unbound from its typical top knot. She could see how his hairline receded at the temples and he seemed so much older and shrunken in his night clothes.
The servant returned with the tea. He poured each of them a glass before backing out of the room, leaving them alone. No one said anything as they drank their tea.
It was Ryuu who spoke first. "You have some explaining to do."
Her grandfather sighed and set down his teacup. "This goes back generations. Our clan owes all our success and power to the blessing of the forest guardian, Akio."
"And what price have you paid for that?" He looked away toward the empty suits of armor on the wall.
"Nothing important. We honor him with offerings just as one would any other deity."
"And then what changed?" Ryuu prompted.
Her grandfather pursed his lips. "Several years ago someone of my house made
a deal with him, for power. The agreed payment was not made and he's started causing problems. It is nothing that we cannot handle."
"What sort of deal did you make?"
Lord Kaedemori turned those dangerous obsidian eyes toward Ryuu. "It wasn't me who made the deal, but my daughter, Izume."
Suzume felt her entire body go cold. "What sort of deal did she make?" Suzume asked.
"You'd have to ask her that."
"You know, don't you?" Suzume slammed her hands down on the table. She was sick of secrets. Anger burst out of her like fire.
The old man glared at her for a moment. "Izume was never forthcoming with me. But she is my daughter. Not long after she disappeared into the forest, she was chosen as a candidate for the emperor's bride."
"She made a deal with this yokai to become empress."
Her grandfather did not answer but continued to stare at Suzume.
"Where is Izume?" Ryuu asked.
Her grandfather looked away from Suzume to focus on Ryuu. "No one knows for certain. She disappeared without leaving a trace and she took her son with her."
It stung her to hear that. Had her mother cared so little for her that she cast her aside?
"The emperor knows you're communicating with her," Ryuu said.
"Does he now?"
"Either you can cooperate or you will be arrested for treason. Those are the terms the emperor has set."
Her grandfather smiled as he leaned forward. "I will make you a deal. Help me with this problem I'm having and I will tell the emperor everything I know."
"We don't need to make a deal."
"Oh, but you do, because once I am gone, it will be her the guardian tries to collect from." He nodded toward Suzume.
The Dragon Saga Box Set Page 94