The Twelve Kingdoms: A Thousand Leagues of Wind

by Fuyumi Ono

  Gobo shut the door, abruptly cutting off the light. "Drawn and quartered, you mean?"

  It meant tying her arms to a pair of stakes and her legs to two ox carts and then tearing her body in pieces. The most barbaric of all punishments.

  Shoukei screamed, but there was no one to hear her. In the freezing darkness of the cell, the only light came from the red glow of the coals in the brazier.

  Chapter 16

  It's all a bad dream, Shoukei thought as she was dragged from the cell. All lies, just more of Gobo's hate at her expense, she told herself over and over. She was taken to the public square in front of the Rishi. The blood froze in her veins.

  "It can't be."

  The square was lined with people. She saw outsiders there as well. At the center of the wall of people a patch of ground was cleared of snow. Two stakes had been pounded into the earth and two ox carts awaited her.

  She looked up at the two men holding her arms. "You're kidding, right? You're not really doing this, right?"

  "Oh, getting scared, are you?" one of the men sneered. "But your father did it so often."

  The other man gave her a twisted smile. "You should be overjoyed to go out the way your daddy loved the best. Daddy must be dancing in heaven, watching his little girl get her own moment on the stage."

  "No . . . . "

  Shoukei did everything she could to keep stop her forward progress. She planted her feet, resisted with all her might as they pulled her along, slumped to the ground and writhed to get free of their grasp, and all to no avail.

  "Stop, please."

  "Quit your whining!" the man spat at her. "This is how my wife was killed!"

  All she had done, he lamented, was wear a hairpin on a visit to a neighboring town. He yanked her as if to jerk her arms out of their sockets. "Giving you a taste of your own medicine doesn't quite make up for it, but it's all we got. It'll have to do."

  "No! Please."

  She saw no pity in the faces of the townspeople. With no hope of rescue, she was pulled down and pinned to the ground. She screamed and wept but these men had not a drop of compassion in them. She folded her arms and drew her knees to her chest. They pulled her arms out and fastened a leather strap around each wrist, turned her face up and stretched out her body and bound her arms to the stakes.

  Her eyes wide and searching for help, the dull, overcast sky reflected the empty look on her face. She kicked her legs against the earth. Somebody grabbed her legs. She felt the leather cord being wrapped around her ankles and screamed. She was rendered immobile, literally frozen to the ground.

  This can't be happening. Something so dreadful couldn't be happening to her. Her legs were bound with the leather cord. The cord was pulled back and tightened, spreading her legs apart.

  Into the corner of her fixed gaze floated a black stain. Ah, a premonition of death. I should want to die before my body is torn in two.

  Her jaw was wrenched open and a rag was stuffed into her mouth to deny her the easy out of swallowing her tongue. In her line of vision, the black stain grew larger.

  The cord tied to her legs was fastened to the carts. The stain spreading across the sky grew a magnitude larger. Suddenly, she saw a man's face leaning over her.

  She saw something red in the midst of the black. A crimson red. No, it was a flag.

  An ensign.

  And then she recognized the shape of the black stain. It was the silhouette of a bird. A great bird with three wings. Swooping down at them. And the silhouette of a rider astride it. The rider bore the red flag. Shoukei recognized the constellation of stars and two tigers on the flag.

  Shoukei shut her eyes. Tears squeezed out of the corners of her eyes and froze to her temples.

  The flag was the ensign of the provincial guard of Kei.

  At the sight of the flag, the people crowded into the square caught their collective breath.

  A few more minutes and the years of bitterness would have been revenged. Their families murdered in front of them, decapitated, and unable to do anything to save them. Denied even to bury the remains until the appointed time had passed. All that grief and resentment.

  The you-bird alighted in the square.

  "Halt!" the guardsman called out.

  Why? sighed many of the people there. Why should he show up now? They looked around for Gobo. She had opposed the execution to the end. They could only imagine that she had informed on them. But Gobo was nowhere to be seen.

  The soldier dismounted from the bird. He wore armor and fleece. "Lynching is expressly forbidden!"

  But why? The disappointed voices swirled about the square.

  The soldier surveyed the scene. He wore the insignia of a provincial general. He held up his arm, signaling the crowd to be quiet. Two more birds descended and landed. The soldiers dismounted and ran into the square to free the bound girl.

  "I understand what you are feeling. But this is not according to the wishes of the Marquis."

  The murmurs of disappointment and disapproval welled up again. Looking out at them, the general could hear the pain in their voices. The people still held the late King Chuutatsu in nothing but raw contempt.

  An official famous for his honesty and forthrightness, who ferreted out corrupt bureaucrats in high places and would forgive no subordinate who took a bribe--that official's name was Chuutatsu. When he had been chosen as king, the government had, by and large, rejoiced. He would restore the kingdom, rotting under the rule of previous kings.

  However, the laws promulgated in order to stem the decay did not accomplish what Chuutatsu had hoped for. More laws were passed, statutes multiplied, and hardly before anyone knew it, there were regulations covering everybody from commoner to minister, and everything from what you wore to the utensils you ate with. And to these regulations were attached harsh penalties.

  Laws must be enforced without sentiment. This saying of Chuutatsu was, on the face of it, correct. If pity and compassion were allowed to distort the enforcement of the law, the law would become powerless. The number of people being punished grew alarmingly. This grieved Chuutatsu and he made the penalties even harsher. If ever a voice was raised in protest, a law was passed and that voice was silenced. And so the bodies of the executed criminals piled up in the town squares.

  In the year that Chuutatsu had been deposed, in that year alone, three-hundred thousand people were executed. Since his enthronement, the total had reached almost six-hundred thousand, or one person in five.

  "I well understand your bitterness, and so does the Marquis. That is why he dared to sully his own name and struck Chuutatsu down."

  After spurring the province lords to commit regicide, Gekkei withdrew to the provincial capital and retired from politics. The province lords and ministers took up the reins of government, but Gekkei would not participate.

  "When the people take it upon themselves to pass judgements and exact punishments according to their own interests, then the law becomes an ass. No matter how deep your indignation, you cannot trifle with the law, declare to your own satisfaction what is a sin and what is not, and avenge wrongs without proper authority."

  But, came the cries. The man once again held up his hand.

  "The fate of the princess royal has already been settled by the lords and ministers. Whatever objections you may have with this judgement, taking the law into your own hands cannot be condoned. If smiled upon even once, the rumors would race from this place like a wildfire. You are not the only ones with grievances to settle. The princess royal is not the only person so loathed. You know how the executioners have all hidden themselves away for fear of being lynched. More than the most cruel punishments, this kind of retribution would eat our kingdom alive. I am asking you to please consider the fate of our kingdom and act prudently."

  He gazed out at the bowed heads. "We shall protect our kingdom and deliver it to the new king without shame or regret. How can we expect enlightened rule from our future king if we hand over to him a kingdom ravaged
by revenge? The province lords and ministers are all working toward that end, and we all ask for your support in doing so."

  The girl was bundled onto the you-bird's back. Silence descended on the square, a silence soon swept away by sound of weeping.

  Part IV

  hen Shoukei opened her eyes, she was lying on a gorgeously-arrayed canopy bed. Ah, so it was all a dream after all. She breathed a sigh of relief. All a dream: the murder of her parents, being sent off to the orphanage, the slings and arrows of so much hate and malice, on the verge of being most cruelly executed.

  "You awake?" a frosty voice said.

  Shoukei sat up and looked around. The lady's maid sitting there next to the bed glared at her. Shoukei thought, What's this wench doing in my private chambers?

  As she mulled it over, the lady's maid got up and left the room. Shoukei finally noticed the differences between her room at Youshun Palace and the room she was in. All she had on was a short-sleeved cotton singlet, its hem lengthened with a mismatched patchwork of fabrics.

  Anxiety welled up in her heart. Glancing around the room, she saw folded on the table a plain jukun, a blouse and skirt made of stiff, rough wool, a cotton smock and a wool jacket.

  "Where am I?"

  Still wearing only the singlet, Shoukei stepped down from the bed stand and wandered around the room.

  This isn't a dream. That guardsman came to my rescue and saved me.

  Shoukei didn't know if that was something she should be grateful for or not. The bedroom door opened. A man was shown into the room by the lady's maid.

  Shoukei froze on the spot. "Gekkei."

  A sardonic smile came to the man's lips. "Get dressed."

  Shoukei rushed back to the bed stand, mortified to have been seen in the threadbare singlet. She hastily donned the jukun, flushing with shame at the shabbiness of the blouse and skirt.

  "Your thanks are in order to Gobo. She traveled all through the day and night to get to the castle to let us know what was going on."

  Gekkei's voice filtered through the curtains of the big canopy bed. Shoukei arranged the outfit as best she could. Gobo? she grimaced. What was with that woman? She'd made her life hell and then turned around and kissed up to Gekkei like an angel. Be thankful to a creature like that?

  With all the intestinal fortitude she could muster, she emerged from the canopy bed and stepped down from the bed stand, holding her head high. Gekkei leaned back against the big table, folded his arms and looked her over.

  "I never thought we'd meet again, but unfortunately it became necessary."

  "Satisfied are you? Happy to see me reduced to such a degenerate state?"

  "You are quite the dreadful sight."

  Shoukei felt the blood rush to her cheeks. Her impoverished appearance next to the silk-clad Gekkei. Her bony, sunburnt body. As it was winter, she hadn't bathed in ages.

  "You did this to me." Shoukei said, her words suffused with anger.

  "You mean, dressed you in rags and sent you to work?" Gekkei smirked. "How easy it must have been to adorn yourself with silk and jewels and be praised for your beauty. What girl would not think herself elegant with servants at her beck and call, and summers spent frolicking in the shade of the trees? But the great majority of the people wear what you call rags and work the land by the sweat of their brows. What is truly ugly is your contempt for their humble lives."

  "And where are we now, Gekkei?" Shoukei spat back at him. "In your castle, with you dressed in silk, toying with the powers of the government, indulging your prurient little games. Is it fun playing king?"

  Gekkei grinned. "I can hardly think of how to reply to such a question."

  "You're the traitor who killed the king and stole the throne."

  "That as well I see no need to deny. It is certainly correct on its face." He turned his gaze on her. "Evidently, allowing the princess royal to reside in Hou will only cause more senseless chaos. It's probably best that you left."

  "You mean, banish me? You've already removed my name from the Registry of Wizards and forced me to live in rags in a shack in the sticks. Now you make me an exile?"

  "Considering the weighty matters of state before us, do you really think that amounts to much?"

  In the face of his clear contempt, Shoukei could do little more than wring her hands. "You can't be serious!"

  "I know that the Kingdom of Hou faces certain decline. From this point forward, things will only get worse. What you call 'rags,' what you call the 'sticks,' they will seem like luxuries."

  "You're the one who killed the king!"

  "And that I do not apologize for," Gekkei continued coldly. "If Chuutatsu's despotism had been allowed to continue, the greater part of the people would have been lost as well. At any rate, he was fated to fall. But while we waited for Heaven to sanction him, things may well have become so chaotic as to prevent the kingdom from ever returning to its former glory. What we did was necessarily to keep the damage to a minimum."

  "Then you ought to ascend the mountain and ascertain the Divine Will. Ask whether you, the regicide, should become king. The Divine Will was certainly not with you when you murdered the king. Were I you, I would take care not to be struck by a passing thunderbolt."

  "Again, I see no need to contradict you." Gekkei smiled sardonically. "I have requested that you be taken to the Kingdom of Kyou. The Royal Kyou has kindly agreed to take the princess royal into custody."

  He turned to leave. Shoukei shouted at him, "Why don't you kill me? Cut off my head with the same sword you killed my father with!"

  "Because I choose not to," said Gekkei, heading for the door.

  "It's all because you wanted to be king!" Shoukei fumed. "Because you were jealous of him! And now everybody, including you, you all hate me because you're envious of me! Because I'm the princess royal! Isn't that right?"

  Gekkei didn't answer. He left without a look back. The door shut behind him. Shoukei stared at the closed door, and then buried her face in her hands.

  Gekkei returned to the Gaiden from the inner palace. Shoukei was hidden away in the depths of the palace. He knew that even amongst the ministers there were still those who deeply resented her existence and would try to kill her if they had the chance.

  You ought to ascend the mountain and ascertain the Divine Will.

  Her words stabbed him to the core. He knew well enough that he had rejected the Divine Will, but there was no regretting it now. He stopped at a window just outside the Gaiden and looked southeast over the Sea of Clouds, toward the Five Sacred Mountains at the center of the world. There, the kirin who would choose the next king was being born.

  In two or three years, the word would come from Mt. Hou and the yellow standards would be raised over every Rishi in the country. There was a kirin on Mt. Hou and the king would be chosen. Those so possessed would ascend the mountain and express their desire for the throne. Gekkei knew he would not be one of them.

  The cruel laws had been followed by slaughter after slaughter. News spread of the failing health of the kirin. Despite the likelihood of it being the shitsudou, the desperate Chuutatsu set about enacting even harsher statutes. If it was the shitsudou and the kirin was destroyed by it, it would take several months to a year for the kirin to die. And even after the kirin died, it would again take several months to a year for the king to be overcome as well. In that space of time, who knew what horrors he would wreak upon the people. Gekkei had no choice but expedite matters. Doing so must to some degree be in keeping with the Divine Will.

  He would deliver a worthy kingdom to the next king. Until that day, the Mandate of Heaven had fallen upon his shoulders, and that was to fight against the inevitable ruin of the kingdom.

  He turned to the southeast, toward Mt. Hou, and bowed his head.

  Gobo heard the lady's maid approaching the room and raised her head.

  She'd borrowed a horse from the stables at the town hall and galloped day and night through the snow. She'd made it in time. The pro
vincial guard was sent to rescue Shoukei. As she rested at the castle, Gobo waited for the judgement that was sure to come. She had confessed to figuring out that the girl entrusted to her was the princess royal, confessed to torturing her with this knowledge. As a consequence, she had betrayed Shoukei's identity to the townspeople.

  Gekkei stepped into the room. Gobo knelt and bowed low before him.

  "Please, as you were."

  Gobo looked up at Gekkei's serene face. Gekkei said, "The princess royal will be leaving Hou. I cannot tell you where, but she will never return to Hou again."

  Of course, Gobo nodded, staring down at the ground. Of course he'd let the girl off with a slap on the wrists. She'd been hoping for Gekkei to regret the fact that he hadn't punished Shoukei severely enough and would be thrashing her on her behalf.

  "You'll be dismissed from your position as headmistress and superintendent."

  "I know that."

  "For the time being, the townspeople will not be well disposed toward you. I've arranged for you to be relocated."

  "Thank you, but I do not think that necessary."

  Gekkei examined Gobo's upturned face. "You demonstrated a remarkable concern for the girl's fate. So why did you persecute her so severely?"

  "I couldn't forgive her." Gobo averted her gaze. "Chuutatsu murdered my son. I knew that it could never make up for everything I felt, but whenever I saw her, I couldn't help but take it out on her. I'd get so angry I'd lose control of myself. But it was she who told me. She said she was the princess royal, said she didn't know anything of what her father did. I couldn't forgive that."

  "I see," said Gekkei.

  "The princess royal has responsibilities of her own to own up to, to live up to. To simply cast the past aside and beg shamelessly for mercy, that is unforgivable. She never did what she was supposed to. Around here, you forget to tend to the livestock and people go hungry. She never pulled her own weight. She'd come right out and tell you she hadn't done her part and expect you to feel all sorry for her because of how hard it was. I thought to myself, why should I let her get away with this?"