by Fuyumi Ono
Ever since he was working at the inn, the younger of the two sons would, when the fancy struck him, hire on with a crew and go sailing into the great beyond. His wandering ways continued after becoming a prince of the realm. But one good result was that Sou was always up to date on what was going on in the other eleven kingdoms.
At that moment, the balcony window opened. Seeing the face of the person there, Shoushou couldn’t help laughing.
“Hey, good, you’re all here,” was Rikou’s carefree greeting. His official name was Prince Takuro.
Meiki greeted the arrival of her son with another heavy sigh. “There are these things called doors, you know?”
“Yeah, but this is more convenient.”
“You can at least welcome your father home. He just got back from Kou Province.”
“Oh, so you’ve been on an excursion of your own, eh?”
“For the last two months. And you left two months before that. And still got back after him.”
“Well, well, well. Welcome home, Father.”
“Good heavens, it took you fourth months to think of home again? Where in the world have you been off to?”
“Mt. Hou, as it turns out.”
“No fair!” Bunki wailed. “And you didn’t take me! I haven’t been to Mt. Hou once!”
“To be precise, I didn’t set out with the intention of ending up at Mt. Hou.”
His mother gave him a genuinely surprised look. “Mt. Hou? Without an invitation from the Mistress of Mt. Hou?”
“There is that. I announced myself at the front gate and she was apparently in a good mood. She allowed me to leave from the rear entrance on my way back.”
“The rear entrance?” queried his mother.
Rikou pointed out the window. “Above the Sea of Clouds. I came here straight from Mt. Hou. A good long ways. A full two days. It’s extra tough not having any land below you.”
His sister chimed in, “You announced yourself at the front gate? That’s below the Sea of Clouds! Which means you crossed the Yellow Sea to get to Mt. Hou!”
Rikou grinned. “That’s right. I accompanied a caravan on the Shouzan and witnessed the accession.” Now he bowed formally to his father. “She waited on Mt. Hou for an auspicious day to hold the Investiture. The phoenix should announce her enthronement shortly. I thought it important that Your Highness hear the news first, so I took my leave from Mt. Hou early.”
Senshin looked up at his son. “What kind of person is she?”
Rikou said with a wink at his sister, “A young girl in whom I believe Bunki would find a kindred spirit.”
“An empress, then.”
“Twelve years old.”
It took the rest of them a startled minute to absorb that bit of information.
“That I didn’t expect.”
“The imperial accession is a difficult task in any case. How will a girl so young bring order to the imperial court?”
“It does seem a reach.”
“Which is why I think you should write to her personally, Father, and send an envoy to congratulate her on the occasion of her enthronement.”
“Ah, so you’re intending me to have the girl’s back.”
“I think Shushou will have a much harder time ahead of her without your support.”
“Shushou. So a twelve-year-old girl went on the Shouzan?”
“She did.” Rikou sat down at the table. “A truly amazing young lady, if I do say so myself. Her temperament is perfectly suited to the role. If she can surmount the inevitable turmoil that every fledgling court goes through, I do believe she’ll make a worthy empress.”
Meiki set a cup of tea in front of her son. “Don’t tell me you were the one who put the idea into her head?”
“Not in the slightest!” Rikou said with a boisterous laugh. “The likes of me couldn’t instigate a girl like that to do anything but what she’d already set her mind on. We met in Kyou. She’d already begun the Shouzan. She’s the daughter of the famous Banko Sou family of traders. Hearing that she’d run away from home to go on the Shouzan, I decided to accompany her.”
“Left to your own devices, you’re the last person who knows where he’ll end up when he goes anywhere.”
“Call it the workings of Providence. A twelve-year-old girl sets off with Mt. Hou in her sights. That girl runs into the profligate young son of the Ro clan. You’d think I’d at least have it in me to plan for the day when I could become the power behind the throne. But not at all. Rather, I was the one caught up in the extraordinary wave of serendipity that carried the empress-to-be along her journey.”
“That is something else,” marveled Bunki. “Crossing the Yellow Sea at the age of twelve. I’m eighteen and I can’t image doing such a thing!”
Rikou smiled. “I think you’re forgetting the other five hundred years.”
Bunki stuck her tongue out at him. She turned her attention to her father on the other side of the table. “Father, appoint me ambassador to her coronation. Pretty please. I so want to go.”
This time the sigh came from Prince Eisei (also known as Ritatsu). “So, Rikou, did you get around to telling her who you really are?”
“Oh, that is definitely going to give her a start.”
“Which won’t happen if we don’t send you.”
“Exactly. That’s why you have to dispatch me as the congratulatory envoy.”
“No fair!” Bunki protested again.
Ritatsu shushed her. “What else can we do? Rikou will serve as ambassador pro tem to Kyou. We need to come up with an appropriate gift. Father, does that meet with your approval?”
It was Meiki who nodded. “But Ritatsu will be head of mission. Put Rikou in charge and who knows what misadventures will befall our diplomatic corps.”
“Understood.”
“Considering the importance of making a good first impression, sending Shoushou would be the best option. But not right after a coronation. Because Shoushou has such a frail physique.”
“Mother, because Shoushou is a kirin, you mean. Say, how about we include Seisai among the gifts?”
“Ritatsu!” Rikou exclaimed.
Meiki nodded. “I concur. No good will come of leaving that creature in Rikou’s care.”
“And after I’ve gotten so attached to him,” Rikou pouted.
His older brother spared him no sympathy. “If you don’t like it, cast the blame at your own feet, vagabond. What if something happened in the Yellow Sea?”
“I took all the appropriate and necessary measures.”
“As if your appropriate and necessary measures are ever appropriate or necessary. At any rate, what might the empress take a fancy to?”
“Kijuu. I must admit that she would not be dissatisfied with Seisai.”
“That settles that, then.”
“Yes, yes,” Rikou said with forlorn look.
His father caught his eye. “So it seems my gift turned into something of a white elephant.”
Rikou smile. “That’s okay. Shushou will treat Seisai like a member of the family. Better, I suspect. But what a fine kijuu he was.”
“You wouldn’t be conniving already to get your hands on another one?”
“If you would only say the word—”
“The word is, let’s first see what kind of effort you put into your next assignment.”
“So that’s what it’s come to?” Rikou shook his head in bemused resignation and turned his gaze out the north windows. In a voice almost too soft to be heard, he said, “I made a few friends in the Yellow Sea.”
And now that he knew his way around the place, he could well imagine hunting one down on his own.
Five days later, the phoenix sang in the Kingdom of Sou. The news came from the Kingdom of Kyou: The Empress of Kyou has ascended to the throne.
From THE CHRONICLES OF KYOU
In the Eleventh Year of Fuhaku, Her Imperial Highness passed away in the Enshin. In that same year, a Kyouka appeared on Mt. Hou.
&
nbsp; In the Twelfth Year, the Kyouka gave birth to Kyouki.
In the Eighteenth Year, the Kouki appeared over the Rishi.
In the spring of the Thirty-Eighth Year, Saishou entered the Yellow Sea from Ken. The Taiho sallied forth to meet her and sealed the Covenant.
The name of Saishou was entered upon the Registry of the Gods and she took her rightful place on the Imperial Throne.