Favored (Among the Favored Book 1)

by Stone, C. L.

  Ryuu returned first, looking uncomfortable. “I don’t think he likes me,” he said. “He asked me three times how to spell my full name, and I’m pretty sure he still got it wrong.”

  “You should have flirted with him a little,” I said, reciting what Apricot had told me. “To ease his tension.”

  “Trust me, I tried. I batted my eyelashes and talked about his manhood. I think that’s why he tried to misspell my name. He doesn’t like men.” He grumbled more under his breath and drooped his shoulders.

  Shima appeared shortly after. He pressed his lips hard together, shaking his head. “I’m registered, but...”

  I walked up beside him, touching his arm delicately like Sota had done for me. “But what?”

  He picked his head up enough to look at where I had touched him. His eyebrow went up, and he stiffened. “He...wanted me to return tonight. For a favor...”

  “What sort of favor?” I asked.

  Shima twisted his lips and looked back at Ryuu in a strange stare.

  “You’ve got to be kidding me,” Ryuu said. “Your flirting worked? What was wrong with mine?”

  “I shouldn’t go to him,” Shima said. “I don’t want to.”

  “You don’t have to,” Sota said. “He doesn’t make selections. He just keeps the records.”

  Shima seemed relieved at this. “I was worried...if it might be our only chance somehow...”

  “I still want to know what was wrong with mine,” Ryuu said.

  CONFRONTATION

  NO MATTER WHAT HAPPENED now, we were registered officially. That took some weight off my shoulders. This would all soon be over. Whether or not I was selected for anything, I’d be grateful for the pressure of such competition to cease.

  At this point, being sent home wasn’t the worst thing that could happen to me.

  As we walked, it was Ryuu I walked beside, with Shima and Sota behind us again. “What happens if two of us are selected?” I asked. “Or all three?”

  “It would be a great honor,” Sota said. “But depending on the position, you may be separated.”

  “Won’t we all be in the Immortal City?”

  “It is a big place,” he said. “Thousands of people reside there. At least they used to.”

  “What happened to them?”

  Sota sighed. “Often when royalty dies, they move out. Like Mrs. Satsu. They are rewarded, of course. Usually they get a house and an annual reward of taels. Sometimes an honorable marriage. Sometimes they are blessed with children, royal cousins of princes and princesses whose mothers had died in childbirth.”

  “What about Mrs. Satsu?”

  “She was married,” he said. “To an escort of her majesty.”

  “Didn’t she want to be married?”

  “It was a gift,” he said in a solemn tone.

  I couldn’t imagine being given a husband like a prize, like a bolt of cloth or a bag of rice.

  The path on the way home was mostly clear. We took the long way again. Low-hanging clouds rolled in from the west, but the rain held off as we walked.

  We turned the corner of Mrs. Satsu’s street to discover there were people just outside her door. As we got closer, I realized they were royal guards.

  Not again.

  I would have thought that after the first time someone had been arrested by the guards, no one else would be foolish enough to do anything wrong. However, after the kimono incident, I shouldn’t have been surprised. Perhaps the person had been caught.

  Sota stepped in front of me, positioning himself in a way that made me tense. It was a move he had taught me, something he would do only if I needed protection.

  Suddenly I remembered. “Wasn’t Apricot due for inspection soon? Wouldn’t they have sent guards to escort her to the Immortal City?”

  “They wouldn’t have brought this many,” Sota said quietly.

  He made us wait outside. We stood by as the guards out front talked to each other. Neighbors appeared from nearby homes, checking on what was going on but then disappearing, closing their doors tightly.

  It left me feeling vulnerable standing outside like this. “Should we take a walk or something? Until they’ve done what they—”

  Before I could finish, two men left the house, carrying a stiff wooden stretcher between them.

  The body lying on top was Mrs. Satsu’s.

  I had seen death in many forms before, with animals and people in the village. However, hers was a complete shock to my system. She was covered in a thin blanket up to her shoulders. Her eyes were open, staring upward. But it was her mouth that startled me, the way her tongue was swollen, poking out and completely black.

  I cried out as they passed us, my heart wrenching. I’d just spoken to her that morning. It felt impossible.

  Dead.

  She had done so much for me. She was the one who had brought me such a distance. Without her, I would have never met Sota, Ryuu or Shima. I would not have had the courage even to try to register.

  How could anyone do this?

  Ryuu walked away from us, heading to one of the guards stationed at the door.

  Sota rushed after him, grabbing him by the forearm. “Stop,” he said.

  Ryuu’s eyes were wide and his lips curled back, revealing his teeth. His usual chipper disposition had completely disappeared. “I want to know what happened,” he seethed. “Who did this to her?”

  “We need to approach this delicately,” Sota said and then gazed at me and Shima. “Keep your heads high and stay silent. I will guide you.”

  My heart thundered, still broken at seeing Mrs. Satsu in her dead state. I considered why anyone would bother to kill her. Weren’t we, as the competition, the ones who should be targeted?

  Somehow in that moment, I realized that after all of this work, after all the effort, there would be no stamp of her approval for anyone. Someone had made sure none of us would be given a seal marking us for consideration for the secret position designated by the emperor.

  I thought of this as Sota led the way.

  The royal guard stopped us before we could go inside. “If you are visiting, please come back later.”

  “We live here,” Sota said. “We’ve just come from registration. What happened?”

  The guard lowered his hand. “We were called in for a murder. Mrs. Satsu was found dead in her bedroom by one of the maids. Someone poisoned her tea.”

  Suddenly there was a loud commotion in the courtyard. The guard we were speaking to left his position to check it out. We went inside, following behind him.

  In the green garden in the courtyard, Apricot stood one of the guards gripping her shoulder, tugging at her like a child and speaking to her harshly. “You’ll be hanged if you resist being arrested. A court will decide if you’re innocent.”

  “I would never!” Apricot cried. Her kimono was rumpled. Her painted cheeks were now streaked with tears. She looked toward the walkway, where the other students huddled together in a group, looking upon the scene. “I have been with each of you this morning,” she said. “I could not have done this. I would never do this to her.”

  “We saw him,” one of female students said in a soft voice. “Your escort brought her tea this morning.”

  Her eyes widened. “I never told him to do this.”

  I couldn’t believe what was happening. Apricot wouldn’t kill her own mother. And why would her escort poison her? It didn’t make any sense.

  However, after Apricot spoke, the other students cast their eyes down. They refused to look her in the face.

  Did they really think she would kill her mother?

  Or...since she was accused, were they simply not getting involved? Were they hoping Apricot would be arrested?

  Jealousy? Apricot being accused of murder might dissuade the emperor from choosing her, even if she was innocent. Were they considering a position?

  That consideration infuriated me. How petty, and selfish!

  Suddenly, I felt myself stepping forw
ard and raising a hand toward the guard holding Apricot. Before I could really think of what I was going to do, I was doing it.

  “Please take your hands off of His Majesty’s betrothed,” I said in the steadiest voice I could.

  As I did, the Taka appeared, alighting on my shoulder. I hadn’t summoned him, but the commotion must have caught his attention enough to come inspect what was going on.

  The guard holding Apricot released her wrist to gaze at me, his mouth open, tongue darting behind his lips, but without words.

  I didn’t know how I wasn’t shaking in that moment, but it seemed my body refused to fall apart in this moment. I kept my head up, my shoulders back and I stared at them, silently demanding obedience.

  “We have to take her in,” one of the other guards behind me said. “For questioning.”

  “Shouldn’t you be looking for the escort?” I asked. I did my best to draw some power into my voice. “He may have been her escort, but you’re wasting time with her when you should be looking for him.”

  I couldn’t believe what I was doing, but I couldn’t help remembering how Apricot had shown me how to use my looks and confidence in order to make others believe I was royal, and worth listening to.

  To tremble and show fear now might have meant I’d be taken in along with Apricot. We’d look like conspirators if the truth came out that she’d actually had killed her mother.

  I put my trust in her, but I was also putting my own neck at risk.

  The guards looked at one another, puzzled, possibly wondering what rank I had to be giving them orders.

  “We are searching for him,” they said.

  “Isn’t it strange that you’re having to look for him?” Ryuu said, mimicking me by standing tall beside me. “It seems to me that if Apricot had done this, then she’d be hiding with him. She had no reason to kill her, anyway. Mrs. Satsu was her mother, and Apricot was already in line to be a future wife of the emperor.”

  There was a murmur among the students, a grumbling displeasure, but no one challenged us.

  This angered me further. How could they? None of them desired to help Apricot at all? After everything Apricot and Mrs. Satsu had done for them, it sickened me that they could behave so dishonorably.

  However, the guard did release his hold. Apricot kept herself erect and tidied her clothes, rumpled after being yanked around. “The last I saw of him was this morning before breakfast, when he left my room.” Her eyebrows lifted, her eyes wide. “He left me tea. I never touched it.”

  Two guards left to inspect her room. When they returned, they brought with them a cup, still filled with cold tea.

  The head guard came forward and sniffed at it. “Smells the same as Mrs. Satsu’s tea. The exact same.”

  Apricot stiffened, but I had a feeling she was keeping herself together. This was proof. She had been targeted and had narrowly escaped death herself.

  “Her escort failed to kill Apricot as well, then,” I said. I moved beside her, putting myself between her and the guards and waving them off. “You must find him. Please set up men to guard Apricot’s room. No one but myself and those I approve will enter until the escort is caught.”

  Ryuu, Shima and Sota joined me, standing guard around Apricot. Sota stood ahead of us and spoke to the guard and students. “You will need to question everyone,” he said. “Call your inspectors and have them set up here for the night.” He turned to the students and their escorts. “You should all return to your rooms.”

  Some murmurs of protest erupted. However, most of the students walked away. One pair of female students and their escorts turned toward the front doorway instead, apparently intending to leave.

  A guard stopped them. “Where are you going?”

  “We don’t take orders from dirty peasants,” one of them said. “She may look like a butterfly, but she is just a dung fly.”

  “We won’t be spoken to like this,” the other said.

  “There is nothing for us here,” the first went on. “Without Mrs. Satsu, we’ve nothing to stay for. We’re going home.”

  “You won’t leave until we’ve spoken with everyone,” the head guard said. He walked forward, positioning himself in front of them and blocking their exit. “By order of His Majesty, you will not leave here until I say you can.”

  “We need to get to the registration office,” one of them said.

  “You’ll have to wait.”

  “But the last day is today!”

  Despite their protests, the guard wouldn’t listen.

  After some time, only one guard remained to monitor Sota, Shima, Ryuu and me, along with Apricot.

  Apricot broke then, her tears falling and her delicate hands covering her face.

  I went to her, putting my arms around her. “I’m sorry,” I said.

  “A few of the others, I considered friends,” she said. “Including my escort. And yet no one else would help me. And my mother...”

  “This competition has forged a few false alliances,” Sota said quietly. “And it has brought to the surface people who will do anything for taels and power. But now we know who we can trust.”

  “Our numbers are diminishing,” Shima said.

  “We must forge new alliances,” Ryuu said. “With trusted people. Maybe the competition was good after all.” He then jolted and covered his mouth with his palm. He spoke through it, a little muffled. “I’m sorry. Not this... I didn’t mean...”

  “I know what you meant.” Apricot breathed out slowly through her lips and lifted her head, pulling away from me. “I will not forget this,” she said. “But I need to be alone...for a little while.”

  “I’ll wait outside your door,” I said.

  “No,” Sota said. “I will.” He looked at me. “You should change, and rest. Be ready to answer any questions.”

  I nodded and gave Apricot my promise that I’d check up on her if possible.

  Ryuu, Shima and I retreated to our room. I stood by the door as the others undressed and got into plain house kimonos.

  When he realized I hadn’t moved, Shima came to me, tugging me by the arm. “She’ll be okay.”

  “She just lost her mother,” I said, and I gazed at him through tearful eyes. “She will not be okay.”

  He pressed his lips together and then nodded. “Then you know there is nothing we can do for her, except let her know we’re here. And not to neglect her.”

  “I won’t,” I said.

  He tugged me again by the arm, but instead of guiding me anywhere, he pulled me into a hug.

  It was a strange experience. I hadn’t hugged anyone except my parents, and that had been when I was a child. While I had been close to the others during my time with them, this was different.

  His arms wrapped around my body, pressing me to his. In a way, I felt he needed it as much as he thought I did.

  Slowly, I put my arms around his neck, giving what little comfort I thought I could.

  He stayed there for a few minutes and buried his face in my shoulder.

  I thought I would cry, but I couldn’t. I was too angry. It wasn’t just the murder, but how horribly the others had treated Apricot. It hadn’t been her decision to be selected as a possible wife of the emperor. It wasn’t up to us who was chosen.

  I sensed Ryuu coming up behind us, and then he put a warm palm on my shoulder. “I know this isn’t a good time,” he said quietly, “but...I changed my mind. I don’t want to just go home. I don’t want people like that to take our place.”

  I sniffed sharply and pulled away from Shima, wiping at my face. “I agree.”

  Shima pursed his lips tightly and nodded. “If we’re given a chance, I’ll take it.”

  “Then we all have to do well at inspection,” Ryuu said. “Let’s focus.”

  The determination settled into me. Where before, I would have accepted going home and considered death to be the worst possible outcome, now I considered what would happen if we left and gave up.

  How dangerous a
life it was to be the emperor or one of his chosen. The Immortal City was indeed perilous, if we allowed it to be.

  And I would not allow it. Not while I had breath in my body.

  SUSPECTS

  WHILE WE WAITED FOR word about the investigation, Shima, Ryuu and I spent the hours studying what we could in books and going over what we had learned. It was difficult to focus when just outside our walls, we heard murmuring and the occasional guard asking students and escorts to come join them for questioning.

  Apparently questioning was taking place in the schoolroom. Eventually Sota returned to us with information.

  “He has been caught,” he said. He knelt with us as we made a circle around him. We had the Taka sing and hum while he spoke. “The escort was captured. And he confessed. He was paid by the same student who had been arrested before.”

  “How?” I asked.

  “Even while under house arrest, she had been permitted visitors,” he said. “Her family is of high rank. She sent people to bribe others to do as she wished. Apparently he wasn’t the only one involved, either. The maid who had prepared the tea was in on it.”

  I sat back on my heels. I couldn’t believe it. We all could have met that same fate.

  “It was an obvious case of revenge,” Sota said. “At least as far as she was concerned. The emperor had passed her by as a wife. But it turns out she had others who were just as perturbed, thinking rank should outweigh beauty. She confessed she joined the house to sabotage Mrs. Satsu’s other students. She refused to identify her supporter. They’re still looking for the person who paid her to organize the murder.”

  “So we may never find out who,” I said. “We will always wonder who may come at us next.”

  “Our battle will never be over if we continue,” Sota said. “But it will be important to keep powerful, trustworthy allies.”

  How things had unraveled bothered me. One word from me to Sota. One letter sent to authorities, and it had been the tipping point to revealing the truth. How many more might have died if we hadn’t been ready?

  It bothered me that Apricot’s escort could turn out to be a murderer. And with her mother gone, she had no one near her she could trust.