Japanese Dreams

by Sean Wallace (ed)

  The monk said, “I will miss our mornings together. But I have two feet and they will take me into exile as the emperor commands.”

  “No,” the man said. “The dragon king may govern the gates of water great and small, but this one gate I can open for your sake. The dragon king will kill me for my insolence. You must find my corpse and bury it, and build a shrine over it.” He pulled off his gloves and offered them to her.

  She took them. “How will I know where to find your corpse?” They both looked at the tablet with its whimsical dragon curve. “A river,” the monk said, understanding.

  “We are all trapped by the order of things,” said the man, “empress or woman or dragon. It is time we found another way.”

  “By dying?” asked the monk. She reminded him that she could not pray for his enlightenment.

  “You will find a way,” said the dragon. He would not be moved.

  Then they spoke of circles and triangles, of claw marks and the shapes of snow, and nothing more of farewell.

  The man went to the emperor’s palace, where everyone still wore white. The stories do not say if the man did the same. But he made his way to the empress amid her ladies in waiting.

  “I know why you are here,” the empress said, for she recognized the man for what he was.

  “Do you?” asked the man. “Weep, or do not weep; it is your choice. That is what these others have taken from you. Mine is the way of water, if you would have it.” And he held out his hand, his ungloved hand.

  The empress was not unwise in the ways of the heavens. She knew something of what the man’s fate would be. But she knew what was expected of her. She rested her hand in his.

  Every gate in the palace slammed open, and the doors as well, like the roaring of thunder.

  At last the empress wept, covering her face with her sleeves. The court was satisfied. But she never told anyone that her grief was no longer for the prince, but for the dragon and the monk for whom the dragon made his sacrifice.

  Crops abounded in the years that followed.

  The monk was not exiled. Instead, she walked the countryside until she found a river whose bends matched those of the dragon curve. Sure enough, there she found the man’s body, rent by lethal claws. The man would never have used his own claws to such purpose, but the dragon king was another matter.

  The monk gathered up the dragon’s body and buried it, as he had instructed. There she built a shrine. At night she listened to the sound of the river, and in the morning sometimes she thought she heard the man’s voice.

  The monk had brought the man’s last tablet with her, of course. She drew shapes in the dirt and scored them with rectangles, dividing and dividing each curve into pieces, but the answers never satisfied her.

  One night as the moon rose high and pale and wild, she woke, thinking, Of course. She could divide and divide each dragon curve into infinitely many rectangles—and then the answer would be precise. She could put something together by taking it apart.

  It would not have been possible with her hands, even dragon-gloved hands, but her devotions had taught her that the mind is capable of such wonders.

  “Are you there?” she asked the man. For she knew it had never troubled the man that her meditations came from someone other than a man, someone who was not a proper monk.

  We don’t know what the river answered, and no one ever saw the monk after that. But later, when other people discovered the shrine, they were astonished by the many devotional tablets, carved by claw and smoothed by hand. We may guess that the monk and the man knew, by then, what mattered and what didn’t—in their eyes, if not the eyes of the world.

  And that is the end of the story that matters.

  Contributors

  Born in the Pacific Northwest in 1979, Catherynne M. Valente is the author of Palimpsest and the Orphan’s Tales series, as well as The Labyrinth, Yume no Hon: The Book of Dreams, The Grass-Cutting Sword, and five books of poetry. She is the winner of the Tiptree Award, the Mythopoeic Award, the Rhysling Award, and the Million Writers Award. She has been nominated nine times for the Pushcart Prize, shortlisted for the Spectrum Award was a World Fantasy Award finalist in 2007. She currently lives on an island off the coast of Maine with her partner and two dogs.

  K. Bird Lincoln spent 4 years in Japan precariously perched on a bicycle with 2 girls under the age of 5. Now she resides in Portland, Oregon and guiltily drives a car. Her other work has been published hither and thither in places such as Strange Horizons, Ideomancer, and Flytrap. She can be bribed with chocolate, espresso, or a good paranormal romance. For free fiction and more, check out geocities.com/kblincoln/mossyglen.html.

  Ekaterina Sedia resides in the Pinelands of New Jersey. Her critically acclaimed novels, The Secret History of Moscow and The Alchemy of Stone released from Prime Books. Her next one, The House of Discarded Dreams, is scheduled for 2010. Her short stories have sold to Analog, Baen’s Universe, Dark Wisdom and Clarkesworld, as well as Haunted Legends and Magic in the Mirrorstone anthologies. Visit her at ekaterinasedia.com.

  Erzebet YellowBoy is the fiction editor of Cabinet des Fées, a fairy tale journal, and co-editor (with Sean Wallace) of Jabberwocky Magazine. She is also the founder of Papaveria Press, a private press specializing in handbound limited editions of mythic poetry and prose. Her stories and poems have appeared in Fantasy Magazine, Goblin Fruit, Mythic Delirium, Electric Velocipede and others and her second novel, Sleeping Helena, is due out next year. Visit her website at erzebet.com for more.

  Robert Joseph Levy is an author of books, stories and plays whose work has been seen Off-Broadway. He studied at Oberlin before graduating from Harvard and earning a Master of Arts degree in forensic psychology at John Jay College of Criminal Justice (CUNY). He lives with his husband and son in Brooklyn, NY.

  A Clarion Workshop graduate, Robert has published three books with Simon & Schuster, including The Suicide King and Go Ask Malice (both set in the Buffy the Vampire Slayer universe), as well as another written pseudonymously that was named one of The New York Public Library’s Best Books for the Teen Age 2008.

  Robert would like to extend his appreciation to the generous and kind Christopher Barzak for providing the story’s kanji.

  Richard Parks lives in Mississippi with his wife and a varying number of cats. He collects Japanese woodblock prints but otherwise has no hobbies since he discovered that they all require time. His fiction has appeared in Asimov’s SF, Realms of Fantasy, Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet, Fantasy Magazine, Weird Tales, and numerous anthologies, including Year’s Best Fantasy and Fantasy: The Best of the Year. His third story collection, On the Banks of the River of Heaven, is due out in 2010 from Prime Books.

  Eugie Foster calls home a mildly haunted, fey-infested house in metro Atlanta that she shares with her husband, Matthew, and her pet skunk, Hobkin. Her publication credits number over 100 and include stories in Realms of Fantasy, Interzone, Cricket, Fantasy Magazine, Orson Scott Card’s InterGalactic Medicine Show, Baen’s Universe, and anthologies Best New Fantasy, Heroes in Training, Best New Romantic Fantasy 2, and So Fey. Her short story collection, Returning My Sister’s Face: And Other Far Eastern Tales of Whimsy and Malice, is now available from Norilana Books. Visit her online at EugieFoster.com.

  Jay Lake lives in Portland, Oregon, where he works on numerous writing and editing projects. His 2009 novels are Green from Tor Books, Madness of Flowers from Night Shade Books, and Death of a Starship from MonkeyBrain Books. His short fiction appears regularly in literary and genre markets worldwide. Jay is a winner of the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer, and a multiple nominee for the Hugo and World Fantasy Awards.

  Ken Scholes’s quirky, speculative short fiction has been showing up over the last eight years in publications like Clarkesworld, Realms of Fantasy, Weird Tales and Writers of the Future Volume XXI. Ken’s first novel, Lamentation, debuted from Tor in February 2009. It is the first of five volumes in the Psalms of Isaak series. The secon
d, Canticle, is in production for an October 2009 publication. Ken’s first short story collection, Long Walks, Last Flights and Other Strange Journeys, is available from Fairwood Press. Ken lives near Portland, Oregon, with his amazing wonder-wife Jen West Scholes. He invites folks to look him up through his website.

  Jenn Reese is the author of Jade Tiger, a kung fu action-adventure romance (with tigers) from Juno Books. She currently lives in Los Angeles where she writes for a children’s TV show, studies martial arts, and dreams of rain. You can follow her adventures at jennreese.com.

  Lisa Mantchev grew up in the small Northern California town of Ukiah and can pinpoint her first forays into fiction to the short stories she thumped out on an ancient typewriter. She makes her home on the Olympic Peninsula of Washington state with her husband Angel, her daughter Amélie and four hairy miscreant dogs. A list of her short fiction can be found on her authorly website (lisamantchev.com) and Eyes Like Stars, her debut novel, is due out Summer of 2009 from Feiwel & Friends. You can read more about it at theatre-illuminata.com.

  Steve Berman specializes in gay-themed tales of speculative fiction. He’s traveled as far as Mongolia. He has edited such anthologies as So Fey and the annual Wilde Stories. His young adult novel, Vintage, A Ghost Story, was a finalist for the Andre Norton Award. For more of his stories, page through Trysts and Second Thoughts, his two short story collections.

  Yoon Ha Lee’s fiction has appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet, and Sybil’s Garage. She lives in Pasadena, CA with her husband and daughter.

  About the Editor

  Sean Wallace is the founder and editor for Prime Books, which won a World Fantasy Award in 2006. In his spare time he is also co-editor of Clarkesworld Magazine and Fantasy Magazine; the editor of the following anthologies: Best New Fantasy, Horror: The Best of the Year, Jabberwocky, Japanese Dreams, and The New Gothic; and co-editor of Bandersnatch, Fantasy, Phantom, and Weird Tales: The 21st Century. He currently and happily resides in Rockville , MD , with his wife and two cats.