by Fuyumi Ono
"They do keep things moving along at a merry clip."
"That they do," Koshou agree with a laugh. "Youko's got a good nose for people. I think she understood that a big guy like me being Daiboku and all, I was still a sad sack on my own. Hard for me to settle down when there aren't people around. Not to mention that the Palace is more than I could ever imagine. I wouldn't have lasted long cooped in my own manse all by myself. Thanks to the hubbub around here, I manage to hold my own."
"And to make matters worse, I came barging in."
"Youko asked that we keep things down to a dull roar, so I'm sorry about the noise and commotion. And I'm happy you haven't taken offense at our lack of decorum along the way."
"Oh, it's nothing," Risai smiled. She was happy as well to have been entrusted to such a trustworthy man. "The Royal Kei does seem to have the makings of a great Empress."
"It pleases me to hear a general from another kingdom say so. And I hope so too. Unlike people like you and me, the Empress and kirin just can't quit and do something else when the going gets tough."
"Very true," Risai agreed with a nod. The Empress could either improve herself and continue along that path, or walk the plank to destruction. No detours were allowed.
"The Royal Tai's a splendid chap as well, I hear. Kantai of the Palace Guard says so. He's our General of the Army of the Left. He says the Royal Tai was really something even before he was made king. He's even known among officers from other kingdoms."
"Yes, I think so too."
"I sure hope they get back okay, the Royal Tai and the Tai Taiho. The Taiho first, I guess."
Risai nodded again. At the very least, they must find Taiki. Otherwise, there'd be no hope for saving Tai.
The room fell in to silence. She heard footsteps. Keikei had returned. He flung open the door, and flooded in sunlight, ran into the room with a bright smile, clutching a flower.
"Some cotton roses were blooming in the gardens in the north courtyard," he said, holding out the stem of the flower.
Risai glanced at the flower and then at Keikei. "How old are you, Keikei-dono?"
Keikei giggled and said, "I just turned eleven."
"I see. I see."
Keikei's bashful smile dimmed in her vision, distorted by her veil of tears.
"Risai-dono?"
She could no longer see his smile. She reached out her hand and found his small, warm hand, the strength of his concern communicated through his fingers. "Are you happy?"
"Me? Um, well, sure--"
"I see."
Risai, called out the carefree voice, seeking her out, running toward her at full tilt, his face beaming. And if Hien was there, asking to pet her--
"The Taiho was about your age."
Please, God, bring Taiki home, Risai prayed that day for the first time. It was painful seeing her expectations betrayed. Wishing for something from the bottom of her heart only deepened the despair when those dreams were dashed. To pray was to hope. That was why she couldn't bring herself to pray until that day.
Risai had watched the people of Tai mutely visit the shrine. Watched them solemnly trudge to the shrine in the middle of snowstorms. Wordlessly, lest any word of protest might reach Asen's ears, they silently approached the shrine and placed a keihaku flower atop it. They expressed thanks for whatever blessings remained, and prayed for the safety of he who had given the flower to them.
While regretting that the people of Tai could do no more than that, Risai had not once visited a shrine. She hadn't been able to. It'd been the same since she'd been told the search for Taiki had commenced. More than the expectation that they would find him was the fear that they might not. And even if they did, what happened then? Taiki's return guaranteed nothing.
Then what did it all mean? It meant that Taiki was a candle on the water.
An old hermit Risai knew through acquaintances had once offered her refuge. He told her to give up. "There is no king here anymore."
Garyou, Gyousou's home village in the mountain valleys of I Province in Tai, had been reduced to embers. Risai had gone to I Province in search of Gyousou with the hope he was hiding out in the land of his birth. All she found were ruins shrouded in fog.
"And you need to take a load off as well."
"I'm doing fine."
"A kingdom without a king goes to wrack and ruin. Everybody knows that. But we don't know that the king is dead. If the royal rites aren't conducted, does the kingdom decline then? Or does the king's presence itself protect the kingdom?"
Risai shook her head. "I don't know."
"The era has begun during which Tai shall have no king. You have been looking for him all this time and to no avail. Haven't you done enough already?"
Risai reacted with surprise. "Are you telling me to abandon the king?"
The old man shook his head. Deep lines ran through his wise and weathered face. "I'm only saying you should consider your own welfare. You are also one of the king's subjects, one of all those he must redeem."
"I--"
"If you are to talk about the happiness of the people of Tai, shouldn't you include yourself among them? If you intend to bear the pain of all on your own shoulders, nobody will end up happy."
Risai nodded dejectedly.
"And yet he remains the only person who can save this kingdom--"
With a sad sigh, the old man got up and left the room, leaving his granddaughter there alone. She gave Risai a sad and wistful look.
"Do you think me a fool as well for wandering around after the king?"
The girl shook her head. "I don't know. I've never met the king. I don't understand politics. The king is somebody who lives above the clouds. Even Taiki is far, far above our stations. But the smoke--"
"What's that?"
"Looking down from the gates, you can seen the whole of I Province and all the smoke hanging in the sky above it."
"Ah," Risai said.
Asen could not condone the existence of anything connected to Gyousou. Or anyone Gyousou had governed. Or anyone who had ever found fault with Asen personally. Any burg that did not agree with his fancy was rooted up and burned to the ground. Those who turned their backs to him were scattered and driven from their lands.
"Is it true that kingdoms to the south enjoy springtime weather all the year round? That it never snows in Sou? I've heard the rivers never freeze over. That the sun shines warmly even in winter. And when the storm clouds part, the skies above are as blue as forever--"
Risai nodded. She had never been further south than the Yellow Sea. But the sun shone so brightly there, and the sky was truly as deeply blue as forever.
"From the first snow until the last, how many days will the skies be clear? They could be counted on the fingers of one hand. And so the smoke--"
Risai grasped what the child was saying. Instinctively she seized her hand.
"And those few clear days as well are obscured by the smoke. The fires scorch the ground and melt the snow and freeze the rubble solid. How long must the people of Tai await the spring? It seems like the Imperial Palace is the single remaining spot of blue in a land covered by low, thick clouds. Even those blue skies are turning gray. The smoke that covers Tai like snow blankets Kouki as well. This kingdom has no clear days left."
The girl looked up at Risai, her eyes brimming with sadness. "Kouki must yet dwell under clear skies. In Kouki must be that one spark of spring, that one ray of sunlight that never freezes in the midst of winter."
The girl who had so spoken so resolutely was no longer in this world. She had been executed together with her grandfather for the crime of sheltering Risai. But at the time and afterwards they had abetted her escape, even knowing the fate that awaited them.
Risai vowed to herself that she would never forget those words.
Please save His Highness and the Taiho.
Chapter 34
The message came two days after the Royal Han showed up, arriving unexpectedly as such messages tended to. Three
guests would be crossing the Sea of Clouds to see her. Youko and Keiki were to wait at the reception hall above the Forbidden Gate.
Her visitors were Shouryuu and Rokuta, as she had expected, together with a golden-haired young woman she hadn't seen before.
"Has the Royal Han arrived?" queried Rokuta, as he dismounted from his suugu.
"Yes," Youko answered, greeting them with a bemused smile.
"Figures. That's why suddenly he went all incommunicado on me." He turned to the girl climbing off the white kijuu. "This is the Ren Taiho."
A tad flustered, Youko gave her a quick nod. Renrin struck her as a cheerful girl of eighteen or so.
"Renrin, this is Youko, the Royal Kei. That's Keiki standing next to her." Rokuta asked, "So where's His Royalness and Sis?"
"Probably in their rooms," Youko said with the same wry grin.
They'd rented rooms in Gyouten, but Youko insisted they stay at Kinpa Palace. The Royal Han, though, proved a man hard to please. She showed him first to the visitor's palace, reserved for guests of honor. But he said it reeked of bad taste and refused to stay there. Finally, he cavalierly picked one of the cottages secluded among the hillocks in the Seiden garden.
And then decided that this vase was ugly, so get rid of it. And that painting was a sore sight for eyes, so switch it with this one. And so on.
And then he didn't get along with the poor chief butler assigned to look after them. He apparently found the man aesthetically deficient. Exasperated, Youko sent over Shoukei. Thankfully, he did take a liking to her, but then would barely allow her out of his sight.
Hanrin, on the other hand, making liberal use of Han's crown jewel, the koseisan, wandered at will around the Inner Palace. She suddenly burst into the Seishin--opined that some government official was unacceptably picking on some lowly bureaucrat--and sallied out again.
Shoukei's opinion--the babysitting duties having falling into her lap--was that while on the outside Hanrin might look every bit the spoiled and overindulged ingénue, underneath she was every bit as mischievous as Enki.
"She is a handful," Rokuta agreed in a small voice.
"So what's the relationship between En and Han?" Youko asked in turn.
"Reluctant allies, as it were. Because Han is a kingdom of such skilled craftsmen."
"Like, the way their workmanship with gold and silver is the best in the Twelve Kingdoms?"
"It's a truth that cannot be denied. Once upon a time, Han was blessed with nothing of worth. It was a middling kingdom full of middling people. The Royal Han turned that all around, making Han a kingdom of skilled artisans."
"Arts or crafts?"
"Anything that requires a fine and practiced hand. From materials like paper or cloth to the equipment needed to make them. Tools in particular. The tools made in Han are the finest anywhere. Whether a carpenter's rule or the weights in a set of scales, the differences in quality are as night and day."
"Huh."
"We're good at building the big stuff. Roads and buildings and ports. But the talents of Han's artisans are a necessary part of the equation. So that would make our relationship a substantial one."
Rokuta sighed, and Youko had a feeling of where that sigh came from.
"I'm not sure how to put this, but I do get the idea that he's a rather odd chap."
"You think? He and Shouryuu get along like cats and dogs." Rokuta glanced over his shoulder. Trailing along behind them, the morose-looking Shouryuu hadn't said a word since he'd joined them.
"Yeah, I kinda got that vibe," Youko muttered.
That was when they ran into Shoukei, coming down the garden path at a brisk clip. She headed towards them as if heading into a stiff wind, her shoes stamping against the cobblestones
"Oh, Shoukei. How's the Royal Han?"
Shoukei looked back at Youko, fire in her eyes. "He's in his room. Just to let you know, but he can't see anybody right now."
"He can't see anybody?"
"Well, it seems that the hairpins I picked out don't match the outfit, and he refuses to change. See for yourself! I swear I'm dressing him if it's the last thing I do!"
"So he's been giving you a hard time."
"Hmph," Shoukei pouted, crossing her arms across her chest. "We seem to have arrived at an impasse. As far as I'm concerned, they're fine. It's the choker that doesn't go with the earrings. I hope you don't mind, Youko, but I've been going through your stuff. Call me stubborn, but a woman's got to do what a woman's got to do!"
Having spoken her mind quite forcefully, Shoukei at last took note of the figures following behind Youko. Her face turned bright red. With a yelp she sank to the ground at the side of the path and bowed deeply. "Forgive me please!"
"A real pain in the neck, eh?" said Rokuta, the laughter evident in his voice. "That kirin of his sure is. She wouldn't be inside, would she?"
"Yeah, um, yes, they are."
"Ah. Well, we have something we need to discuss. The faster you can drag the Royal Epicure out of his room the better."
"I understand," Shoukei replied, with another bow.
Smothering grins of their own, they continued on their way, arriving at a pair of pagodas surrounded by a curious rock formation. Due to the Royal Han's idiosyncratic dislike of any of Youko's junior retainers except for Shoukei, nobody was there to greet them. So they simply announced themselves and walked in.
Hanrin lay sprawled on the couch. But it was quite obvious, Youko noted with a wry smile, that the way Royal Han had moved around the furniture and adjusted hanging scrolls breathed new life into the living space. The man definitely had good taste. And in the midst of it all, Hanrin's unkempt presence was exactly what turned the still life into a living portrait.
"Hey," she said, glancing up from her book. "It's Youko and Keiki." She all but vaulted off the sofa. "Long time no see, Rokuta."
"Yo."
Hanrin pounced down in front of Shouryuu and peered up at his face. "And a long time no see to you too, Shouryuu. I see you showed looking like a country bumpkin. As usual."
"And you're as unhousebroken as usual. Go get your owner."
"No can do. Alas, his Highness still hasn't found a thing worth wearing around here."
With an expression that looked like he'd taken a bite out of a lemon, Shouryuu said, "I don't much care. If nothing suits him, then he can join us in the buff."
"Just the thing I'd expect from an ill-bred boor like you, Shouryuu." Her eyes lit on Renrin. "Well, well, well," she said flirtatiously, and followed with an elegant bow. "I don't believe I've had the honor."
"Um, this is the Ren Taiho."
"It is a pleasure to finally lay eyes on you. I am Hanrin."
With a bright smile, Renrin introduced herself as well.
Hanrin surveyed the room. "I gather the dead serious mood everybody's in has to do with the search for Taiki commencing?"
"That would be the case," Shouryuu answered dourly, motioning for Hanrin to sit down. "I asked you to come to En, but you never showed up. Instead I find you here."
"Oh, so that's why you came here? Well, good. I much prefer Kei. Your retainers in En really are an uncool lot. All they do is spew hot air all day long."
"You're describing yourself. At any rate, it's been decided that En and Kei, and Han and Ren will conduct the search in Yamato."
"And China?"
"Sou and Kyou and Sai."
"A major operation," Hanrin mused. She tilted her head and asked, "But is it okay, doing this sort of thing? I mean, I don't think it's ever been done before."
"It's okay," Rokuta answered. "We kirin searching for Taiki doesn't run up against Divine Providence."
"Hmm. So how does this search work? In concrete terms. Send in the Imperial Army?"
"Don't be silly," Enki said with a grimace. "Can't be done. Genkun asked us to keep the shoku to a bare minimum. And besides, it wouldn't do us any good. Taiki is a taika. Only we kirin can sense the presence of another kirin."
Hanrin gape
d at him. "Are you serious? Isn't Yamato a pretty big place?"
"Not as big as any one of our kingdoms, if you're just talking about Yamato."
"Even so, that's a whole lot of ground to cover. And only four of us. I could almost swear you're pulling my leg, Rokuta."
"I know it's a tall order. If it wasn't, then we wouldn't have asked the other kingdoms to pitch in and help in the first place."
"But--"
"We found Taiki once before. I can't remember exactly where it was, but I've got a grasp of the general area. There's no guarantee that Taiki returned to that spot. But our best bet is to start the search there and work outwards."
"You really plan on launching this dragnet with only that clue to go by? Unbelievable."
"You want to give up?" Rokuta scowled at her. "If you got a better option, I'll take it. But there isn't one. Obviously there's no telling how long this will take. But if you want to do something on behalf of Tai, it's all we've got!"
The room fell into silence. At length Renrin said, "What about using our shirei?"
"Shirei?"
"Yes. Shirei can detect the presence of their kirin, right? No matter how far away, my shirei will sense where I am and return to me. It stands to reason that shirei should be able to detect other kirin as well. Probably better than we kirin can."
"Indeed," Enki nodded. "What about it?" he said into the air.
"Yes," a voice spoke out of the ether. The voice of Enki's shirei.
"Well, then. What about youma?"
There was no answer.
"You can summon those of your own kind. Of course, we wouldn't want to gather dangerous youma. But the small, harmless ones?"
After another moment of silence, "Yes," came the answer.
"Great. This way we can really leverage our numbers."
"In that case," Hanrin said, raising her voice and clapping her hands together, "Han does have the Kouyoukyou."
"The Kouyoukyou?"
"Yes. The Kouyoukyou dematerializes the person whose image it reflects. Only beings capable of the tonkou can use it. Using it, theoretically, shirei and youma could replicate themselves infinitely. The replicated portion is limited in its capabilities. But if searching for someone is all that is called for, then it should prove sufficient."