by Fuyumi Ono
"People say that if the Taiho is alive and well, that's how old he'd be."
Risai expressed her thanks for the gruel and left the hovel, a new sliver of hope in her grasp. Her mount was tied up in front. "A teenage empress. A taika--" she muttered to herself, taking up the reins of her mount.
Kaei turned to her with a puzzled look. "What do you mean by that?"
"What do you think? Do you think Royal Kei might still harbor fond feelings for the land of her birth?"
"Risai?"
"She might be homesick for Yamato, I mean. She might long for some connection to her life there. Don't you think so?" There was an additional note of enthusiasm in Risai's voice.
From the look on Kaei's face, she clearly didn't know how to respond.
"The Taiho is also a taika. They're close to each other in age. If the Royal Kei learned more about the Taiho, shouldn't she want to meet him, want to help him? Not to mention that Kei has the full support of En."
Kaei gaped at her. "You're not really thinking of going to Kei to beg for assistance?"
"Why shouldn't we?"
"Risai, the empress could not violate the borders of another kingdom. And doing so under arms would provoke grave and immediate consequences. Dispatching troops to another kingdom is impossible."
"But you just heard them say so yourself! The Royal En lent his support to Kei. The Royal Kei was escorted to her ravaged kingdom by En forces."
"Those were unusual circumstances. The Royal Kei sought asylum in En. I'm pretty sure it wasn't the Royal En who crossed the borders to seek her out. In the end, the Royal Kei borrowed the En Imperial Army and returned to her own kingdom. Here in Tai, however, His Highness is nowhere to be found."
"But--"
"You're familiar with Jun Tei incident in the Kingdom of Sai?"
"The Jun Tei incident?"
"Long ago Jun Tei, the Sai King, grieved by the ongoing chaos in the Kingdom of Han and desiring to save the people of Han, sent in his Imperial Army. As a result he met an untimely death. Even to spare the people of a kingdom, Heaven will not countenance the army of one kingdom crossing the borders of another. Do you think any other monarch would wish to follow in Jun Tei's path?"
Risai shook her head. Then suddenly she looked up. "That's right. The Royal Kei is a taika. Perhaps she's unfamiliar with the Jun Tei incident."
"You can't seriously mean to do anything so abject and cowardly!" Kaei's pale, exhausted face twisted with shock and repugnance. "Are you suggesting that Kei be sacrificed to save Tai? Because that's what it sounds like."
"That is the--"
"No, Risai. Anything but that!"
"But what becomes of our kingdom?" Risai exclaimed. Gripping the reins in her hands she motioned at the base of the hill. "Look at that hamlet. You saw the people living there. That is what Tai has become. No one knows the whereabouts of His Highness. No one knows the whereabouts of the Taiho. There is nobody left who can save our kingdom!"
She had searched. Even while being pursued as a traitor she had searched for them. But she could find no evidence of Taiki and Gyousou anywhere. Not a trace left behind.
"Spring is coming, but where is there one field under the plow? If the fall does not yield a harvest, the people will certainly starve. If grain is not quickly stored away, the winter will come again. And with every winter, three more hamlets become two, and two become one. After this winter passes, how many of our populace will be left? How many more winters do you think Tai can survive?"
"But the ends do not justify causing Kei to sin against Heaven!"
"Someone has to come to the aid of Tai."
Kaei averted her eyes and shook her head no.
"I am going to Gyouten," Risai said.
Kaei looked back at her, pain and grief in her eyes. "Please. Anything but that!"
"Fleeing to the territory of the Province Lord of Sui ensures little more than our own safety. And even our own safety is hardly guaranteed. Sui Province may sicken just like the rest of the kingdom. It likely will. Then all we'll be able to do is to run away again."
"Risai."
"There is no other path left to us."
"Then here we must part ways."
Kaei clasped her shivering hands to her breast. Yet even the sight of Kaei's face--on the verge of tears--left her unmoved. Risai nodded. "I must do this. I have no choice."
Risai met Kaei at the Imperial Palace. There they had forged a fast friendship and together were driven from the capital. Years passed. This winter, at long last, they had reunited in Ran, Kaei's home province. They'd somehow survived a winter there before their pursuers once again caught up with them. Together they'd managed to make it to the adjoining southern province of Sui.
Kaei looked long and hard at Risai. Then she pressed the sleeve of her cloak to her face and softly moaned. "Sui Province is infested with youma. As you head south, they will grow thicker and more fierce as you near the coast."
"I understand."
Kaei covered her face with her sleeves and lowered her head. When she raised her head again, there was a resolute expression on her face. This was the face of the accomplished individual who had risen from minister-in-chief of Ran Province to the top post in the Ministry of Summer in the Rikkan. She bowed once and turned her back.
I really am doing a despicable thing, Risai thought.
All the better if the Royal Kei was unfamiliar with the Jun Tei incident; and if she still held fond ties to the place of her birth; and if she could be incited by her emotions to save Tai. If so, Kei would be destroyed. As soon as the Imperial Army crossed the borders of Kei, the Royal Kei would soon likely follow the same path to destruction as Jun Tei. But even so, the Imperial Army would be left behind. A single division under her command was all she required.
She had resolved to do a terrible thing.
As if resolved to the bitter end, Kaei kept her back to her as she descended the hill toward Shisen. She did not look back or lessen her stride. Risai watched her leave. Grasping the reins of her mount, with a heavy heart she turned her gaze from Kaei's retreating figure to that of Hien, her pegasus.
"I alone have lost my mind in my struggle to save Tai," she said, stroking the glistening black fur at its neck. "You remember him, don't you?" She pressed her forehead against its muzzle.
Inside her head, the high, joyous voice rose out of the darkness of her thoughts. Risai. He ran toward her at full tilt, as if about to dive headfirst into the ground. No doubt that he'd be asking if it was okay to pet Hien.
"You remember those small hands? I know you loved the Taiho very much."
Hien cooed softly in response.
"Shall we become the last fools left in Tai together, then? Shall we be on our way?"
Hien looked back at Risai with those deep, black eyes. Without a word it knelt and urged her to climb onto its back. Risai pressed her face against its neck and then leapt into the saddle. Taking up the reins she cast her eyes toward Shisen. There a forlorn, solitary figure stood looking back at her.
Kaei.
Will you destroy Kei to save Tai?
Risai eyes lingered vacantly on the ceiling of the bedroom. There, the face in her mind's eye looked down on her, clouded with loathing and contempt.
But this is what I came here for.
She'd arrived here with her life hanging by a thread. She'd only survived because the Royal Kei had saved her.
Risai could not help but close her eyes. So this surely must be what I am fated to do.
Interlude
Sanshi took a deep breath. The murky, golden gloom surrounded her. She was inside a narrow, endless "somewhere."
I made it in time.
She had broken through without breaking free. She'd held on. A vague twinge of unease passed through her. She let the air out of her lungs, almost startled by her profound sense of relief.
A voice suddenly echoing from somewhere out of the amber darkness brought her back to herself.
"This is--
"
The surprised tone of the voice made her to take hold of her senses.
"--a cell."
"Gouran."
Had he accompanied her? Amidst all the confusion? "A cell?" Sanshi was about to challenge him, half in startled wonder, when she realized this as well. They were within the familiar confines of Taiki's shadow.
In truth, Sanshi had no idea where they were. Wherever the murky, golden darkness had descended. No earth and no sky, no beginning and no end.
Sanshi and the other magical you-beings did not sleep as did animals or people. There was thus no way of them to imagine such an analogy, but "sleep" was to them like a waking dream. She vaguely understood she was "somewhere." But not what kind of place this was or its location. Whether the muddy, saffron mist was falling on them or whether the weak, golden light was radiating around them.
Not even that distinction.
Wherever they were was narrow and confining. It plainly felt so. And something firm and strong seemed to be holding them here. And that wasn't simply because, compared to its normal strength, the "golden" hue of the light was so terribly dim.
They were definitely enclosed in a kind of cell.
"This is--" she said, but she sensed no air passing through her throat. Only the thought. Perhaps only the intent to speak.
"What is this shell?" asked Gouran. But that equally may have been nothing more than the intimations of his voice. The confusion enveloped her.
"A shell--"
Her intuition told her this was Taiki. The thing surrounding them gave her every impression that this was Taiki. Testing this hypothesis, Sanshi tried pushing her consciousness beyond their confines. Normally she should come into contact with psychic streams entwining Taiki. But a viscous resistance blocked her.
"We can't escape his shadow!"
No, it was not impossible. Concentrating with all her might she somehow might be able to rupture these restraints. But she sensed that the effort would exhaust her. It would take an extraordinary amount of energy and no little pain.
And yet Sanshi had possessed every intent of surveying her surroundings.
The dim light. Taiki's weak ki. Its bright source hidden from them, the frighteningly thin psychic streams descended on them as if through a heavy downpour.
"We are closed in--"
Gouran's voice sent a chill down Sanshi's back. A kirin was one species of you-being. The energy required by these magical beings to surmount the boundaries between human and beast was bestowed upon them by Heaven. The thread of that spiritual energy infusing them was thin indeed.
The shirei lived off that energy. And so their efforts were in vain.
The opening through which that energy trickled was thin as well. More critical than the weakness of the psychic streams around Taiki was that he could not draw them in. He lacked his horn.
They were consuming themselves. The more of Taiki's energy Sanshi and Gouran consumed, the less was left to Taiki. Not enough energy was trickling through to them to keep their threads of life alive.
Even though his enemies were about.
Enemies who'd attacked him. The sudden transformation to kirin. And the shoku rising out of his scream. Taiki could not have known how to create such a shoku. The power was given to Kirin by Heaven, but Taiki didn't understand the powers of a kirin very well. The shoku he produced was purely instinctual. The severe wound he had taken to his horn must be related to it. That something so dreadful could have happened while Sanshi and Gouran were journeying to Gyousou, of all times, was undoubtedly part of the same devious plot.
Some person or persons unknown had made sure that Sanshi and Gouran would not be at Taiki's side. And then took advantage of their absence to attack him. If the kirin died, so would the king.
This is an insurrection, Sanshi muttered to herself. But by whom?
In the midst of the shoku, Sanshi was sure she had perceived a single, lingering shadow. But she hadn't been able to ascertain its identity.
That must have been the assailant. Or perhaps the leader of the rebellion. Just as the rumors said, Gyousou had been lured to Bun Province, and Taiki had been inveigled to dispatch Sanshi and Gouran to Gyousou. As a result, they hadn't been there to protect him. Taking advantage of that opening, Taiki had been attacked. But the enemy didn't kill Taiki. If only by a hair, the assassination had failed. Their enemies could be mounting another attack even now. And yet here they were trapped.
"What should we do?" came Gouran voice from the midst of the saffron darkness.
"We must sleep."
Sleep consumed the least psychic energy. Not the sleep of beasts, which would leave them defenseless. They would rest their physical bodies while setting their consciousnesses free to sense any attack.
"Remain vigilant. Our enemies may soon be upon us."
In a daze, guided by the curtains of black and white funerary bunting, he approached one of the houses. The crowds of people dressed in black reached from the front gate up to the genkan. The smell of chrysanthemums and incense hung over them. Then several of them noticed him. With a cry of surprise the adults rushed toward him. Through the crowds he could see a man and woman dressed in black.
Behind the sobbing woman there was a picture wreathed in chrysanthemums of an old woman. At last he understood the nature of the building in which the altar was located.
This was his home.
"Where have you been all this time?"
"A whole year has passed!"
Speaking as if in one voice, the sounds of the crowd washed over him like a wave. He feared he was in danger of being inundated. Strong claws dragged him back to shore. The hands of the kneeling, weeping woman in front of him dug into his arms.
"Mother?"
He blinked. For the life of him he couldn't understand why his mother was weeping so. What were all these people doing here? What were they all shouting about? What were these black and white curtains for? Why was his grandmother's photograph being displayed like that?
He quizzically tilted his head to the side. A woman from the neighborhood asked him, "What have you been doing up till now?"
"Up till now?" he echoed.
A flood a memories coursed through his thoughts, vanishing before his mind could seize upon them, leaving behind a deep, empty space. A curtain of snow danced at the bottom of that hole. Big, heavy snowflakes falling on a courtyard.
He'd been standing in the courtyard. His grandmother had scolded him and sent him outside. And--
"What I am doing in this place?" he asked the adults surrounding him. At the same time, a heavy lid closed inside of him. Everything about him that was beast and not human, together with his horn, was sealed tightly inside him.
What do you mean, this place?" The woman shook his shoulders. "Don't you remember? You've been missing for a year. Your mother and father have been worrying themselves half to death."
"I have--?"
But he'd been in the courtyard until just minutes ago. He raised his arm to point the way and felt his hair that at some point had grown out. He grasped a lock of his hair in bewilderment.
"Most definitely," the old people standing next to him said, dabbing at their eyes.
"Your grandmother called to you. In the end she seemed to have caught but just a glimpse of you."
With that, the old woman turned to the other people there. "Well, let's give the family some time alone for now. Let them say their final goodbyes before the funeral procession."
"Indeed," other voices agreed, and he was escorted along with his still weeping mother into the house.
His time here in this place once again began to move forward. At the same time, so began the long absence of Taiki, the "other" and now forgotten part of him.
Part Two
he girl placed a pillow behind Risai's back. "Are you in any pain?"
By this point Risai had grasped that the lady-in-waiting asking the question went by the odd name of Suzu. As things had turned out, Risai wasn't able t
o see the Royal Kei the last time she woke up. While being treated by the doctors, she fell back into a long slumber.
She had awoken several times after that, but the doctors said it was too soon for her to be seeing visitors. Another two days passed before they relaxed the prohibition.
"I appreciate all you've done for me."
For the first time in a long time she managed to sit up. Her body was weaker than she expected, and even leaning back against the pillow she felt winded. The doctors had not permitted her to leave the bed, so Risai had to meet with visitors in her sleeping quarters.
Suzu washed Risai's face, arranged her hair, and dressed her in a light tunic. She had apparently taken upon the responsibility of looking after Risai by herself. Not much time had passed since the coronation of the Royal Kei. This perhaps could account for the Imperial Palace being so short-handed.
Or perhaps Risai wasn't trusted, and guarding against the possibility that she might fall out of favor, they'd decided to restrict the number of court ladies attending her to one.
About the same time Suzu had finished dressing her, three visitors entered the room. The first one to step into the room and take a seat next to Risai's bed was Youko, the Royal Kei. There was no way she could forget her fiery red hair.
"How are you doing?"
"Thanks to Your Highness, I appeared to have escaped death. I thank you from the bottom of my heart. Having been blessed by your extraordinarily good graces, I must beg forgiveness for appearing before you in such a slovenly manner."
"Oh, don't worry about it. I know you must have suffered a lot, and your recuperation is my first priority. To those ends, I'd like to do whatever I can. If there is anything you need, please let me know. Anything at all."
Illustration
Risai estimated her age between sixteen and seventeen. The striking and unusual manner in which this young Empress spoke communicated great sincerity and good faith. She had imagined someone more frivolous and inconsequential. Risai was taken aback by the unexpected presence of a Royal Kei possessed of such soldierly fortitude.