Nariuji watched him with a sad gaze. How many priests had gone missing, he wondered, and where? The more he tugged at the thread, the more it unraveled a deeper mystery. Ryuu made his goodbyes and then headed for his room. After washing and changing into court attire, he would need to request to see the emperor. His strange behavior was a concern.
A royal messenger was awaiting him outside his chamber. It seemed the emperor had beat him to the invitation.
The messenger bowed to him. “The emperor has requested your company at dinner,” said the messenger.
“Tell him I gladly accept,” Ryuu said.
The messenger nodded and hurried away. Had the emperor set spies in the white temple to wait for his return? He might very well be walking straight into a trap. The neko was waiting for him in his room. When he had left the hidden shrine, he had summoned him through their bond, and it was a good thing too, there was work to be done.
The neko stuck a claw in his cat ear and dug at earwax. “I hope you’re not planning on staying here long. The energy here is making my skin crawl.”
Even the neko could sense it. The situation was more serious than he’d originally thought.
“Then you’ll be glad to know I have a mission for you. Priests are going missing, I want you to find out where they’re going.”
“Delightful, more priests.” With a snap of his fingers, he took on the form of a cat. “Open the door, would you?” the neko meowed.
Ryuu slid the door open, and the neko sauntered out. With that taken care of, he could prepare for dinner. Ryuu washed and donned his court silks and headed out to the White Palace.
When he arrived at the gates of the palace, he noted the guard had been doubled. Inside the walls of the palace was no better. Winter was always a subdued time at the White Palace, many ministers and government officials retired to their homes for the cold months. But even for winter, the palace was empty. The courtiers he passed seemed on edge, glancing over their shoulder as if waiting for a dagger to strike them in the back.
When he reached the emperor’s quarters, a servant announced him before opening the double doors and showing him inside. The emperor was already seated and wore his less formal haori and hakama. If Ryuu didn’t know better, he might almost believe that this was a meal to be shared between equals. But though the emperor heeded his advice when he gave it, he, like many of his successors, were wary of him. When the crown prince became emperor, they learned the family’s secret. The first emperor had been a half yokai and yet still lived. As a rule, Ryuu did not meddle in politics, and left the emperors to rule on their own. But no matter how he distanced himself, there was always an undercurrent of unease between him and those that sat on the throne.
“Our Ryuu, you’ve returned at last.” The emperor stood to greet him, throwing out his arms to embrace him.
He could not think of a time the emperor had ever greeted him so warmly. But not wanting to give offense, he accepted the warm gesture, with a measure of wariness. He’d left Tetsuyama back at the temple, no one, even a former emperor, could wear a blade in the presence of the emperor. Now he was second-guessing his decision to do so.
“I am sorry for returning so late, my emperor,” Ryuu said, bowing low.
The emperor waved away his apologies. “We are old friends, are we not? There’s no need for such formalities.”
Given everything that the head priest had said, he thought the emperor would be suspicious of him, or at the least less in control of his sanity. But the emperor seemed unchanged from when he’d last seen him.
The emperor gestured for Ryuu to sit at one end of the table as he took his place on the other end. Servants entered with steaming plates of baked fish, fragrant soups, and pickled vegetables. Three bowls of rice were set out along with accompanying chopsticks.
“Are we expecting a third?” Ryuu asked.
The emperor glanced at the empty seat, and a smile spread his face. “Yes we are, she should be here any minute.”
He wouldn’t.
“Empress Consort Izume has arrived,” bellowed the servant.
“There she is now.” The emperor stood as the doors were flung open.
Ryuu schooled his face, not willing to give anything away, despite the rumors he had not expected the emperor to flaunt his consort this way. Did he know they had been lovers once? Izume entered dripping in layers of silk, her ebony hair pulled back with a jade comb, carved into the shape of sakura blossoms. There was an ethereal smile on her lips that brought him back to the days when she’d been a girl living at her father’s manor outside the scheming and politics of the White Palace, back when he had fallen in love with her.
But it wasn’t directed at him, her dark eyes skimmed right past him and came to rest instead on the emperor. The way her eyes lit up, it was as if he were the only man in the room. The emperor rose up to greet her, and took her hand to lead her to the place just beside him.
Now he knew why she was here. Izume had done this, to remind him that she had moved on. That she had chosen the emperor. It stung, she’d hurt him so many times, and he thought he would learn better, yet he never did.
“Ryuu isn’t empress consort Izume, a vision?” the emperor asked.
She smirked at him, one painted brow arched. That smile which had once driven him mad, now just twisted like a knife in his gut. Knowing her, she was already aware of what he was after, and had orchestrated this dinner to taunt him.
“She is radiant, as always.” He bowed to her.
The emperor and Izume took their seats.
“Izume has done great things for the kingdom, she found a priestess of immense power. We are close to destroying the yokai, tomorrow I will show you our army she helped us create.”
That powerful priestess could only be the missing soul piece. And these soldiers, was the emperor using hybrids to fight the yokai? Why tell him that, Izume wasn’t this careless.
“I would very much like to meet this priestess,” Ryuu said, doing his best to avoid looking at Izume.
“That won’t be possible, I’m afraid. She has never been seen by a man. She was raised in a remote temple, and both her body and soul are pure. We cannot risk a man’s lude gaze falling upon her and risking her purity.” She laughed.
“I see.” Was that how she had kept the emperor away from her? At least one thing was confirmed, the last piece of Kazue’s soul was here. And no matter what, he would find her. Izume could play her games, but he was a master at this, and he never lost.
20
The meetings seemed to drag on for an eternity. As Kaito’s emissary droned on about the details of the alliance he had made, his mind drifted to the woman in the cells below the palace. The promise he made to Kazue had been buried in the farthest reaches of his mind. When he first met Kazue, he was certain she was his destiny. But the reality of a love between a yokai and a human was it must come to an end. He had sworn to her that when the time came that they must part, he would find her again, in the next life. There was no next life for Kazue, and even if there were, he had Suzume, he wouldn’t turn on her for a painful memory.
“My Dragon?” said the emissary.
Kaito blinked at the council members who surrounded him, he hadn’t the slightest idea what they’d been saying.
“Very good,” Shin coughed into his hand.
“Yes, that all sounds good,” Kaito said with an authoritative tone.
The emissary bowed his head. “I am glad you are pleased with my work, My dragon...”
The emissary continued with his prattling. He’d forgotten just how tedious these sorts of proceedings were. It would have been much better to stay in bed with Suzume all day. That was right, this woman, the water of Kazue’s soul, who was she but another powerful priestess. She was no different than Hikaru and Souta. She might remember the promise Kazue, and he had made, but that didn’t matter. What was past was past.
When the emissary finished his long ramblings, and other matters were dea
lt with, Kaito rose, at last, eager to be free and return to Suzume.
“There is the matter of the captured priestess,” said one of the councilors.
“What about her?” Kaito snapped.
“We must decide what will be done with her,” said a councilor.
“We cannot allow another dangerous priestess to live in the seaside palace,” said the oni councilor.
Their prejudices were a problem. If they harbored this much hate for the water of Kazue’s soul, it might continue to spill over onto Suzume.
“As of now, we are not certain where her allegiances lie, she could very well be an ally in our fight against Hisato.”
“I don’t like it. The one untamed priestess nearly burned the palace to the ground,” groused the Oni as he brought a fist down on the table.
Kaito stood. “You remember who you are speaking of, she is my future empress.”
The oni glared at him but said no more. Though he wasn’t sure he could trust the water of Kazue’s soul. He also couldn’t avoid her forever, running from the memories she brought back to the forefront. He would need to speak with her and decide for himself if she were friend or enemy.
“I will speak with this priestess and decide her punishment, which will be announced at our next council meeting,” Kaito announced.
There was grumbling among the councilors but no real protests. It was good enough for now. With that, the council meeting was finished and Shin followed Kaito out.
“The oni is becoming a problem, we should watch out for him,” Shin remarked.
“He is, be sure to keep an eye on him, won’t you?” Kaito asked him.
Shin nodded his head in understanding.
“Will you go and speak with the prisoner?”
Thinking about it made his heart race. It wouldn’t hurt to go in, just for a few minutes. Would it?
“I think I must. They were right, we cannot leave her locked up forever.”
Shin quirked a brow at him. He knew him too well. But speaking to this woman, it wasn’t as if he were betraying Suzume. It meant nothing.
Together they went to the stairway that led into the cells. A pair of guards were waiting at the entrance. Kaito nodded at both of them before he and Shin descended into the depths. The closer he got, the feel of Kazue’s energy got stronger. He hadn’t noticed it in the chaos of the battlefield, but unlike the other soul fragments, the water of Kazue’s soul had a distinct feeling of Kazue. It was almost as if she had been reborn.
A barrier encased her cell, and she squatted at the back of it. They’d put her in shackles that suppressed her spiritual power. After seeing what she could do on the battlefield they weren’t willing to take any risks. On the battlefield, she’d looked powerful and fierce, but now she looked small, shrunk, and so very young. She was perhaps a year or two younger than Suzume. In her stained clothes and her ebony hair falling in her face, he could see nothing about her that resembled the Kazue he had known. Even in tatters, Kazue had always held her head high.
As he approached her cell, her head perked up, there was a smudge of dirt on her cheek, and yet she was smiling. It was a bright and innocent smile as she stood up and approached the barrier, but the shackles held her back. “I was hoping you’d come.”
Kaito crossed his arms over his chest. He must remember this wasn’t Kazue, but a potential trap set by Hisato. “I came to ask you some questions.”
“I’ll answer anything you want!”
Her enthusiasm was seemingly genuine, but how could she be so eager locked in a cell and covered in dirt.
“Don’t be mistaken, this doesn’t mean I trust you,” Kaito warned. It felt pertinent to make that much clear.
Her face fell, and her pouting expression was an echo of Kazue’s. She always made that face when he would leave her. Back then, their time together had never felt like enough, duty was always calling him away. And no matter how long they spent together, it was never enough. As time went on, he started pouring more and more time into her, abandoning his duties to others. Standing back and looking at it now, perhaps she had been manipulating him the entire time, wrapping him around her finger until he could see nothing but her. Had Hisato coached this imposter trying to do the same? Filled her head with memories of a past that didn’t belong to her? Well, he wouldn’t fall for her lies again.
“Are you working for Hisato?” Kaito asked straight out, there was no point in beating around the bush.
“Yes, Hisato is the one who found me at the shrine where I was raised.” She shifted from foot to foot, and her shackles clanked together.
She hadn’t even attempted to deny it. Was she a simple fool, or was this some more subtle form of deception?
“I’m surprised by your honesty, and I suppose he was the one who ordered you to steal the staff and attack Suzume?” he asked.
She frowned. “She’s an impostor who stole my staff and bewitched you. I had to stop her before she hurt you.” She reached for him, but her shackles wouldn’t allow her to get far.
“Is that what he told you?” he scoffed.
She canted her head to the side and fluttered her long lashes. “Everything I did was to fulfill our promise. It was one of my first memories, every night you were in my dreams. You flew to me as a dragon while I waited in the field of spider lilies...”
Her words evoked vivid memories. Kaito and Kazue lying together in a field of red spider lilies. The touch of her hair as she laid her head upon his chest. He shook himself. It was a trick, it had to be.
“You lie, you couldn’t remember that.”
She recoiled as if she had been struck. “I can see why you wouldn’t trust me. I know what I did in my last life, how I trapped you. I wanted to leave that shrine, to find you and free you, but the head priestess, she kept me trapped, she wouldn’t let me leave.”
“Is that what Hisato taught you to say. Kazue made a fool of me, but you are nothing but a pale reflection of her.”
She fell to her knees in a deep bow, and there were tears gathering on her lashes. “I know what I did in my past life can never be forgiven, but I hope you can find it in your heart to forgive me for what I did.”
He stared down at her. And as much as he wanted to punish her in place of Kazue, who had betrayed him and for siding with Hisato, looking at her frail figure cowering before him, he could only feel pity for her.
“You sided with a dangerous entity, mere words won’t be enough to convince me I can trust you,” he replied.
“I was blinded by my desire to reunite with you. I can see that, the things he made me do...” Her voice cracked. “I’m not proud of it. But tell me what I can do to prove myself to you, and I will do it.”
Either she was sincere, or she was a skilled manipulator to make his conviction waiver this way.
“Do you really think I am going to believe your lies?”
She stood up again. “But you have to believe me, I know what Hisato’s plotting. He’s been building a hybrid army.”
“I know that much already, you’ll have to do better than that.”
She shook her head. “He’s preparing an attack, he sent me to distract you. He has a force at a temple northeast of here gathering for an attack, if you can get to them first it will thwart his plans.”
He narrowed his eyes as he studied her. It was possible this was all Hisato’s plan, give him false information to lure him into a trap. But the thought of the strange incidents around the region, the way Hisato had been too quiet. He couldn’t dismiss her words entirely.
“We shall see how much truth there is to your words.”
He strode out before he did something else reckless. When he got to the top of the steps, Shin was waiting for him.
“What did you decide?” he asked.
“There’s something I need to investigate. If I’m not back by nightfall, I want you to send our entire force to the northeast.”
Shin nodded.
Before he could second guess the dec
ision, Kaito transformed into a dragon and took to the sky. He flew in the direction that the water of Kazue’s soul had indicated. Endless forest and the occasional fishing village were all he spotted for miles. He kept his senses spread out, prepared for an attack at any moment. After a few hours of flying, he sensed it, a variable hornets’ nest of hybrids all gathered in one place.
The closer he got, the stronger the sensation became. Low hanging clouds shielded the ground from view, but he could feel them, a slimy sensation that crawled over his skin.
Kaito dipped below the horizon, and there they were, just as the water of Kazue’s soul had said. An army of hybrids. They were milling around like mindless animals. As far as he could tell, Hisato wasn’t among them. They were like livestock in a pen, waiting to be unleashed. With the right force, they could sweep through them like a blade cutting silk.
There must be some trick, a trap hidden among this seeming force. He spent hours scanning the area looking for hidden power among them, some sign of a deeper strategy. But as far as he could tell, it was nothing. Kaito returned to the seaside palace, and reported to Shin and the others.
The councilors were understandably wary, but it was easy enough to convince them to bring a force large enough to handle the hybrids. They arrived where the hybrids were gathered and surrounded them. A barrier kept them penned in, but it was easily broken through.
The hybrids had not a chance, and they swept through Hisato’s force, leaving nothing behind but a bloody battlefield. Kazue hadn’t lied; she had, in fact, saved them from an attack from Hisato. Had this force caught them unawares, the casualty count would have been much higher. He had wanted to doubt her, but now he had to believe she was on their side.
21
Rin, Hikaru, and the tengu prince arrived at the tengu mountain just as dusk was falling. This time as she approached, it was by air. He held both her and Hikaru close to him as they flew. His stamina was impressive, considering he’d been frozen solid in ice for centuries. From this vantage point, she could see the sprawling compound and the hundreds of tengu who lived within its walls. Once the alliance was confirmed, all of these soldiers would join The Dragon’s forces, none of the others would dare to stand against him. It would mean a new era of peace, one where Hikaru and her wouldn’t need to continue looking over their shoulders at every turn.
The Fractured Soul Page 16
