The Twelve Kingdoms: The Shore in Twilight

by Fuyumi Ono

"What in the world has become of His Highness?" asked Risai.

  Haboku replied, "According to Sougen's letter, His Highness disappeared in the midst of the battle. They searched for him but haven't found him. That's all they know at this juncture. They haven't the slightest idea what happened. I have directed that they--or only Sougen himself--return to the capital for the time being, but hurrying as fast as they can, and factoring in the time it'll take for the pigeon to fly there, it will be ten days before he can get back."

  "How are things in Bun Province?" asked Ganchou.

  Haboku shook his head. "By all accounts, the rebellion remains active. They seem to have fought their way to an impasse."

  "So what do we do next?" asked Kaei.

  Nobody had an answer that question. Nobody knew the best course to pursue, and none of them had the authority to pursue it. The Chousai was supposed to step in during the King's absence, except that Eichuu, the Chousai, had been injured during the meishoku and was still unable to get up or even speak. The King's principal advisor, the Saiho, was missing, and the civil servants of the Imperial Court who enacted the King's will in his name simply weren't there anymore.

  "What are we supposed to do in a situation like this? Who gives direction to the ministers?"

  "According to precedent," said Haboku, "the Minister of Heaven takes over the post of Chousai as head of the Rikkan."

  They all fell silent. They had confirmed that at the time of the meishoku, the Minister of Heaven, Gaihaku, had been in the offices of the Sankou adjacent Jinjuu Manor. The Sankou served as counselor to the King and advisor to the Saiho. Its offices had been damaged severely and had collapsed. Of the Sankou and their assistants, two of the six were dead and one was severely wounded. The whereabouts of the remaining four--including Gaihaku--remained unknown.

  "Things having come to this, after the Minister of Heaven, I believe the job falls to the Minister of Earth."

  When Haboku said this, Senkaku, the Minister of Earth, shook his head. "Impossible. I am in no way equal to the task."

  Having declined the honor, nobody tried to encourage Senkaku to take it up. Senkaku was a young, meek civil servant. Having been plucked out of Zui Province for the position, he had no previous connections to Gyousou or the Imperial Army. He was honest and forthright, but lacked experience.

  Furthermore, at a critical time like this, an understanding of military affairs was a prerequisite. Gyousou's was a military court, and most of the remaining ministers had been commanders under Gyousou. In that light, the fact remained that only someone with a military background--even from the lowest military ranks--would be able to unify the Imperial Court.

  "What about Seirai-dono?" said Senkaku.

  Nobody seconded the suggestion. Seirai was also injured and was resting, but his wounds didn't seem mortal. Seirai was famed among the civil servants for having served as one of General Gyousou's commanders and his personal retainer. That made him the best qualified to lead the ministers. Everybody there knew this, and yet no one else put forward his name.

  "Until His Highness returns, if anybody is to knit the Imperial Court back together again, Seirai would be best. But that's not the problem here."

  Everybody nodded. The problem wasn't who would represent the ministers. If that's all it came down to, Haboku or Seirai could do so ably. Or Senkaku or even Risai. That's not where the problem lay. The problem was that Tai currently had no King.

  They didn't know the will of Gyousou. Had Gyousou died, the selection of the next king would take precedence over everything else.

  If the throne was vacated, until the king was enthroned, the Chousai would serve in his stead. But the badly injured Eichuu couldn't fill the post. The Minister of Heaven was missing. And none of the others could muster a quorum of supporters, even provisionally. Unable to appeal to either established custom or Divine reason, it would be close to impossible for anyone to unite the Imperial Court. Nobody had the necessary authority.

  "In other words," said Chou'un, of the Ministry of Fall, "should we take this to mean that no immediate replacement for the Chousai is forthcoming? Who can sufficiently unite our hearts and minds, stand as Chousai, and set up a provisional court?"

  "You've got it backwards!" Ganchou said in an angry voice. "Gyousou-sama is missing, that's all! Sougen said so as well. Nobody says that he's dead. Confirmation of his well-being takes precedence over all else."

  "Please hold on a minute," said Kaei, raising her voice. The strain and anxiety had left her pale face practically colorless. "What do we do in a situation like this? What is the customary practice?"

  "Situations like this?" came voices around her. Kaei nodded. "I do not wish to raise such ominous possibilities, but please forebear for the time being. If, for example, His Highness had been slain, how would we proceed?"

  Senkaku replied, "The Taiho would choose the next King."

  "But the Taiho is missing as well."

  "If the Taiho died as well, then the Kingdom is declared 'vacant.' According to precedent, the Chousai serves in place of the king and a temporary court is established. If Eichuu-dono was too unwell to fill the position, then it'd be necessary to appoint a new Chousai."

  "And who makes the appointment?"

  Senkaku couldn't answer.

  "Don't the Taiho and King have the authority to appoint the Chousai? If the King is dead, then the Taiho acts. However, if both the King and the Taiho are dead, and there is no serving Chousai--have such conditions ever existed before?"

  Haboku answered bitterly, "There are cases of the King and the Taiho perishing simultaneously. And the Chousai meeting the same fate at the same time. But in those cases a pretender had taken the throne, slaying the King and the Taiho along with the Chousai and the Minister of Heaven in the midst of an insurrection. Aside from situations like that, there's never been an incident where all those required to knit the Imperial Court together have been absent."

  "The Chousai hasn't died," Senkaku interjected in a loud voice. "Although his wounds are severe, he is still conscious. The Imperial Seal is entrusted to the Chousai. The current Chousai can appoint the next."

  "The only person able to bestow the Imperial Seal upon the next Chousai is the Taiho, and only if the Taiho has first taken it into his custody. Because the Taiho is not present, how do you propose bestowing the Imperial Seal on the next Chousai?"

  "If His Highness had died, the Imperial Seal would become ineffective. In that case, the foot of the Hakuchi is used. With the foot of the Hakuchi, and following the recommendation of the Rikkan and the Sankou, the new Chousai can be appointed."

  "So this would not be limited only to His Highness's death. But first we must confirm their well-being, and turn the Kingdom upside down looking for His Highness and the Taiho."

  "But I ask you, who is to undertake such task encompassing the entire Kingdom? Without anybody to unite the ministers, do you think we can canvass the Kingdom from one end to the other?"

  In the next moment, the assembly descended into confusion. From her perch, Risai watched on in amazement. Precedent covered the death of a King. Precedent covered the death of the Taiho. However, nobody had ever considered the possibility of them both missing, and their physical welfare unknown. If one or the other still lived, that precedent existed. But both of them missing--and yet not necessarily dead--was a situation whose vagueness nobody knew how to deal with.

  "At any rate, even if the law must be set aside, the consent of His Highness--"

  At that moment, a loud cry was raised: "The King is dead."

  The assembly room fell silent, quiet enough to hear a pin drop. Risai turned toward the sound of the voice. Asen stood in the entranceway to the assembly room. With all the commotion, nobody had noticed his absence.

  Asen's eyes swept the room, and then he thrust forward his hand. His hand contained the foot of a bird.

  "I am sorry to presume, but believing that a confirmation of His Highness's well being was of the first order,
I took the liberty of visiting Godou Palace and the Castle of the Two Cries."

  The assembly room filled with mingled groans. Asen said in a very quiet voice, "The Hakuchi has fallen from its perch. According to precedent, I removed its foot and carried it here."

  Chapter 20

  Risai stopped speaking. The five people in the room let out a collective exclamation of surprise.

  "That means--" Youko said, and Risai nodded.

  "The Hakuchi falling from its perch meant the King was dead. We all lost hope at that point. None of us had any cause to doubt Asen's word."

  He'd once been Gyousou's brother in arms. They were once known as the two jewels in the crown. Their friendship was said to encompass both their professional and personal lives. After the passing of King Kyou, Gyousou treated Asen as a brother, and Gyousou's subordinates paid him all due respect. Asen as well repaid that trust and seemed well disposed toward Taiki.

  From beneath the surface of still, undisturbed waters, Asen suddenly made his presence known.

  The assembly room again fell quiet. The shock rendered everyone dumb. It was left to Asen to break the heavy silence.

  "In any case, the victims of the disaster must be tended to. An area should be set aside to treat the injured officials and the servants. I believe that medical facilities should be set up in the Outer Court as quickly as possible.

  Senkaku nodded, and then suddenly lifted his head. "Now that you mention it, what of Kouki?"

  "The city appears unharmed," answered Asen.

  He'd dispatched his troops at once to help the residents of the city and confirmed that it was undamaged. The shoku had occurred above the Sea of Clouds, which had also shielded the world below from its effects. At any rate, a rescript was prepared ordering that an infirmary be set up to treat the wounded ministers and servants, to which the seal of the Hakuchi's foot was applied.

  At that stage, it occurred to somebody that the Imperial Seal--from which the impression would have disappeared--must be taken into safekeeping. Asen had already dispatched one of his subordinates to do so. But the Seishin had not escaped damage and the Imperial Seal appeared lost among the rubble. A frantic search was said to be underway.

  While the ministers ran around like a bunch of chickens with their heads cut off, Asen alone seized the day and did what had to be done.

  That was one way the story was told.

  After the death of the King, the foot of the Hakuchi became the Imperial Seal. Someone had to take charge of it. By right, that someone should be the Saiho, but he was missing. The Sankou bore the burden in the Taiho's absence, but they had perished, along with their retainers. The Chousai slept, grievously wounded.

  Needless to say, the Imperial Palace was in utter chaos, and dealing with the chaos would require any number of orders and rescripts. The foot of the Hakuchi would be necessary for all of them. Someone had to take custody of the seal and notarize the documents.

  It only seemed natural to hand that responsibility to the man bearing the foot of the Hakuchi. Asen. Nobody raised an objection. Considering their flustered states of mind, a general would do what had to be done. In this moment of crisis, it would be better to rely on a military chain of command than the regular political bureaucracy. This Imperial Court had evolved as a martial court in the first place, and was well-disposed to taking directives from military officers.

  Moreover, Asen had once ranked alongside Gyousou in terms of talent, and many had hoped that he would be the next King. After acceding to the throne, Gyousou himself had granted him all due respect and had treated him warmly. Such things were on everybody's mind.

  Gyousou had plowed his furrow with the sword, and none of the regular civil servants could stand in for him now. The military personnel remaining in the capital consisted of Ganchou, Gashin and Risai. Ganchou and Gashin had worked their way up from the ranks, and were thought ill-suited to the intricacies of political administration. And Risai was a mere provincial soldier.

  Asen knew the ins and outs of politics, having served under Gyousou as a general in the Palace Guard. Given a little thought, it only seemed right that he should follow in Gyousou's footsteps. So, for the time being, things would be entrusted to Asen.

  The general consensus was that the Imperial Court would be reorganized and a provisional court inaugurated once the emergency had passed and things had calmed down.

  Without anybody explicitly saying so, the Hakuchi's foot was given to Asen for safekeeping. The mountain of paperwork that had to be dealt with was delivered to Asen, who in due course installed himself in the Inner Palace in order to adjudicate everything. Nobody sensed that there might be anything the least bit wrong with this.

  Gashin was dispatched to continue the search and bring order to Bun Province. In turn, having lost their temporary commanding officer, the troops from Asen's division were recalled to the capital. And perhaps sensing that something was amiss in the Imperial Palace, chaos broke out in Risai's adoptive home province of Jou, forcing her to travel there with all due haste.

  Kaei came to visit her late one night, two days before her planned departure. "So you've been mobilized?"

  "I'm the best person to attend to Jou Province, being familiar with the territory and all."

  "Yes," agreed Kaei, though looking as worried as she always did. She appeared more forlorn than usual. She stared hard at Risai's face, as if bidding her a final farewell.

  "Don't worry. I know Jou Province backwards and forwards. I have a lot of friends and associates in the Jou Provincial Army. The revolt there is nothing like that in Bun Province. It shouldn't take any time at all patching things up. I'll be back in no time at all."

  "I would certainly expect so. I shall await you return home, the sooner the better." Kaei smiled thinly. She looked on the verge of tears. "Um, Risai, we're going to come out of this okay, right?"

  "What's that?"

  "His Highness and the Taiho are no longer with us. And yet the Kingdom is still rushing into a new era. I'm scared."

  "Again?" Risai jested lightly.

  Kaei replied with a strained smile. "I guess I'm always frightened by something."

  Risai grinned. "That's for sure."

  "But, Risai, I'm more scared now than I was before. His Highness was like a runaway horse. And being the rider perched on the back of that horse was truly unnerving. Even now the Kingdom is dashing on ahead. What are those of us in the saddle doing?"

  "Eh?" said Risai, raising her voice and looking back at Kaei's troubled face.

  "No matter how impatient and overly confident his actions, His Highness was the true and undeniable Royal Tai. He was chosen by the Taiho, received the Mandate of Heaven, and acceded to the throne. He may be an unruly stallion, but he is most definitely Heaven's stallion. But now?"

  For several seconds, Risai just looked at her. Kaei averted her eyes.

  "We've gotten used to a provisional court before. A provisional court was in session from the time of King Kyou's death until the coronation of His Highness. So I don't find that by itself discomfiting. But I'm getting more and more frightened day by day. What is he up to? Installing himself in the Inner Palace, using the Hakuchi's foot as an Imperial Seal?"

  "You mean, Asen?"

  "This is certainly not the decree of Heaven. The welfare of the Taiho has not been ascertained. If the Taiho was here, or even if the Taiho was dead, the current state of things wouldn't be so unusual. Yet is the Taiho really dead?"

  "But Kaei--"

  "The meishoku swept the Taiho away to that other world. If he was simply swept away, then he could return. That probably means he can't return even if he wishes to. However, as long as the Taiho is alive somewhere, there can be no provisional court." Kaei frowned. "If Asen is a pretender, then this is a pretender's court."

  "Kaei!" Risai's eyes flashed around the room. But these were Risai's quarters and nobody else was there.

  "Risai, you remember the rumors that circulated after His Highness depar
ted for Bun Province?"

  "That hoping for another Tetsui in Bun Province was a bridge too far?"

  "Yes. But that wasn't the only one. At the time, there was another rumor that attracted my attention."

  "Another rumor?"

  "The same time as the rumor about this being a plot against His Highness, there was a rumor that His Highness had planned it all along, right? He left for Bun Province in order to test the mettle of those left behind in the capital. The remaining generals were Ganchou and Gashin and you. And Asen. Perhaps going so far as to divide Asen's forces was His Highness's way of hobbling Asen's fighting strength."

  "That's crazy."

  "At this point in time, I can't help thinking that it may be the truth. His Highness's departure for Bun Province may have been something he had no choice but to do, above and beyond the state Tetsui was in. In any case, he even dared to divide Asen's army, right? Perhaps His Highness was loosing a shot across Asen's bow."

  "But when Gyousou-sama previously sent the Taiho to Ren, he sent Asen with him as an envoy. If he had any doubts about him, would he have done something like that?"

  "But Sougen was with them too. Sougen and Seirai and the Taiho's Daiboku, Tansui, were also accompanying him. Counting their subordinates, the Taiho had eight retainers with him. Even if His Highness suspected that Asen was up to no good, there wasn't much Asen could have done. And because Asen went with him, he didn't participate in the winter hunt. In short, he was never informed of the details of the plan. It's possible that His Highness attached him to the mission to keep him in the dark."

  Risai didn't answer. She didn't buy everything Kaei was telling her. She didn't believe, but there were elements she found convincing. An insurrection had broken out in Bun Province. Tetsui was caught up in the chaos. The manner in which Gyousou-sama was induced to go there, and the manner in which Taiki was sent to Ren to keep the details of the purge from him--and Asen made to accompany him as an envoy--the two incidents had a familiar scent about them.