The Twelve Kingdoms: A Thousand Leagues of Wind

by Fuyumi Ono

  The Twelve Kingdoms

  A Thousand Leagues of Wind,

  the Sky at Dawn

  by Fuyumi Ono

  translated by Eugene Woodbury

  Prologue

  er mother dabbed at her eyes. "Take care," she said. Her father and two older brothers remained steadfastly silent. Her younger sister and brother wouldn't come out of the house. Standing at the door, Suzu could hear her grandmother comforting them.

  "What's all this carrying on?" said the man next to her. His was the only cheerful voice. "Aoyagi-sama is a wealthy man. He'll dress you in fine clothes, teach you how to behave in civil society. When your apprenticeship is complete, you may well become the kind of proper young lady who can go wherever she pleases without the slightest reservation."

  He laughed loudly. Turning her head to glance up at him, Suzu's eyes took in the broken-down shack before them. The posts leaned and the thatched roof sagged. The dirt floor was divided into a mere two rooms, and everything inside leaned or sagged as well.

  Theirs was an impoverished life. They were tenant farmers who farmed rice, with most of the yearly yield going to pay the rent. On top of that, the previous year's harvest had proved meager, and when summer came again, ears did not appear on the stalks. As it was impossible to pay the rent, Suzu was indentured as a servant. Not her seventeen-year-old brother, or her eleven-year-old sister, or any of her other nine siblings. It was Suzu, fourteen years old according to the traditional lunar calender, but only twelve if you counted the years from her birth.

  "Well, let's get going."

  At the man's urging, Suzu bowed. She said no farewells. If she tried, she wouldn't be able to hold back the tears. She steeled her gaze and refused to blink. She looked at her home and memorized the faces she saw there.

  "Take care," her mother said again and wiped her face with her sleeve.

  With that, Suzu turned around. Her weeping mother, her stubbornly morose brothers, she understood now that none of them would be stepping forward to hold her back.

  Suzu trudged silently after the man as they passed through the outskirts of the village. It was near noon and they had already reached the limits of the world that she knew. The trail cut up the slopes from the foot of the mountain. Suzu had never set foot beyond the remote mountain pass.

  "You're a good kid. None of this weeping and wailing. That's what I like to see."

  The man's cheerful attitude never flagged. He walked with long strides, saying whatever came to his mind. "Tokyo is a great city. You've probably never seen gaslight, huh? The estate you're going to, you'll be able to ride on a street car as well. Do you even know what a horse-draw trolley is?"

  Suzu ignored him. To keep herself from looking back over her shoulder, she focused on the man's shadow and let his pace drag her along. When they drew apart, she would catch up in a flurry of tiny steps and then tread with satisfaction on the shape of the man's head.

  Repeating this over and over, they crossed the mountain pass. Starting down the other side, the shadow of the man's head disappeared. He had stopped to look up at the sky.

  Clouds raced across the sky from behind them. The shadow Suzu had been walking on grew faint.

  "Looks like rain."

  They glanced back at where they had come from. A shadow climbed the luxuriant, tree-covered slopes from the village. The shadow of the clouds stuck to their heels, almost as if the rain were pursuing. A warm breeze began to blow. Drops of rain drummed on the road.

  "Well, this is unfortunate," the man said, and dashed to a giant camphor tree growing along the side of the road. Suzu hugged her furoshiki-wrapped bundle to her chest and followed after him. The big drops of rain thudded against her cheeks and shoulders. Almost as soon as she had reached the cover of the branches, the squall turned into a driving downpour.

  Suzu scrunched up her neck and ran toward the base of the tree. The twisting trunk jutting out of the ground provided some cover as well. Probably because of the roots being worn smooth by any number of travelers stopping here to catch their breath, she lost her footing.

  Oh, don't trip, she thought, and at the same time was sent sprawling. She pitched forward and with her next step caught her toes on another root. She started to fall. Her feet slipped out from under her. Suzu skittered up to the end of a precipice in a little dance.

  "Hey, watch out!"

  Halfway through the warning, the man's voice turned into a shout. Where the trunk of the huge camphor tree split apart was an embankment steep enough to be called a cliff. Suzu teetered there on the edge. She dropped everything and reached out for the man's hands, a nearby branch, a clump of bushes, anything, but could not grab hold. She was just about to tumble in when she was struck by a torrent of rain. It roared in her ears like standing underneath a waterfall.

  Suzu's memory was intact up until the moment she thought she was going to fall. Then her head spun. She was thrown by the flood of water. She came to herself again. She seemed to be half-submerged in a river. But what river? It was so deep she couldn't feel the bottom. The water washing into her mouth was salty.

  The dark water swallowed her up. She lost consciousness. When she next opened her eyes, she was resting on a gently swaying bed. A handful of men were staring down at her.

  Suzu aroused herself with a start, blinked. The concerned looks on the faces of the men softened. They said something she didn't understand. She sat up and took in her surroundings. Her mouth dropped open in amazement. She was on a platform of old boards that barely jutted above the surface of the water. Raising her eyes, she saw that the black water went on forever, meeting the sky at the distant horizon in a straight line. It was the first time in her life that she had seen such a wide expanse of sea.

  She searched for the big camphor tree she had fallen under. Behind her was a cliff so high she had to crane her neck to take it all in. The cliff was deeply rutted. Here and there white threads of water streamed down the face. The wide platform of boards had been built out from the foot of the cliff. Piers lined the outer edge of the deck. Three small boats were docked there.

  Her only thought was that somehow she had been washed down the river and had ended up in the ocean. She'd heard that if you sailed all the way down a river, it would get bigger and bigger and eventually take you to the ocean.

  The ocean.

  The water was black as night. She placed her hands on the edge of the platform and stared down into the water. It was nothing like the lakes or river she knew. The water was amazingly clear, but she could not see the bottom. It continued on and on until it was swallowed up in a faraway blackness, where twinkling lights swam together in swarms.

  Somebody called to her, gently jostled her shoulders. Suzu finally tore her gaze away from the ocean. The men looked at her with distressed expressions on their faces. One of them said something to her that she didn't understand.

  Suzu replied with a blank look. "What? What are you saying?"

  The men glanced at each other in noisy consternation. They all spoke at once, words flying back and forth, but Suzu didn't comprehend a thing.

  "Hey, where am I? I've got to get back. What's the best way to get back to my village from here? The road to Tokyo would do as well, I guess. Do any of you know where Aoyagi-sama lives?"

  This set off another flurry of chatter amongst the men. Confused expressions clouded their countenances.

  The men huddled together in a conference. Suzu sat down on the deck and took a closer look around.

  The cliffs rose straight up as if the edge of the land had been torn off. The inner face of the cliff was hollowed out. There was a waterfall deep within the mount
ains near where she lived, but the height of these cliffs far and away exceeded the slope of that waterfall. The cliffs stretched out to the right and left or her, almost seeming to enclose the floating platform.

  If a section of the decking were removed, there would be no beach or base of the cliffs to be seen, only this huge, floating, raft-like deck jutting out from beneath the cliffs. Boats were tied up where the raft met the water. In the other direction, where the raft touched the cliffs, was a line of small houses.

  That makes sense, Suzu thought to herself. There's no beach so they built a beach. But how would anyone climb that cliff? When she tilted her head back and looked more closely, there were stone steps and ladders running up the tall cliff face. That must be how they got up and down.

  "Climbing a ladder like that would make my head spin," Suzu muttered to herself.

  The men glanced back at her. Pointing, they drew her attention to the top of the cliffs. Then they escorted her across the platform to the stone steps carved into the face of the precipice.

  It was the beginning of her gauntlet. She climbed the face of the cliff. Whenever she wanted to stop and sit down, somebody gave her a push from behind or somebody ahead of her pulled her up. Glancing back over her shoulder and quelling the dizziness brought on by the towering heights, she finally struggled to the top.

  "I'd hate to have to actually live here," Suzu said, plopping herself down on the ground. The men laughed and clapped her on the back and shoulders. She didn't understand anything they said, but she thought maybe they were praising her for a good job done.

  "I'd much rather work in the fields."

  There had been nets spread out and drying on the decking, so she could imagine that they had returned from fishing. Every time they brought in a catch, having to haul themselves up and down these cliffs, it must be a horrible amount of hard work. Working in the fields wasn't easy, but at least it was a quick jaunt out to the paddies across the causeways.

  Along the top of the cliffs ran a stone wall much higher than she was tall. She was motioned toward a door off to the side, so she dragged her weary body along behind the other men and kept on going.

  Inside the wall was a tiny village made up of a line of small shanties that looked like row houses. She was brought to one of the shanties where she was handed over to the care of an old woman. The old woman stripped off Suzu's waterlogged clothing and pointed her towards a futon spread out on a raised platform on the dirt floor. Suzu obediently crawled under the futon. With Suzu's clothing in hand, the old woman left the hut. Suzu watched her leave and then closed her eyes. She was exhausted.

  I wonder if I'm going to make it to Tokyo? she thought as she fell asleep. I'd better get to Aoyagi-sama's house as soon as possible. After all, I was sold to him.

  There was no other place for her to go to, and no home for her to return to.

  Of course, Suzu had no way of knowing that there was no such place as "Tokyo" in this world. The ocean she had nearly drowned in was the Kyokai, or the "Sea of Nothingness."

  The place where she had finally arrived was the Eastern Kingdom of Kei.

  Many years passed.

  Chapter 2

  Among the lands of the Twelve Kingdoms, that found in the far northwest is known as Hou, or more specifically, the Outland Kingdom of Hou.

  The ruler of the kingdom was the Royal Hou Chuutatsu. His registered family name was Son, his original uji, the surname he had chosen at adulthood, was Ken. As a minister of the Rikkan, Ken Chuutatsu had been commanding general of the Imperial Army. After the passing of the previous king, he was chosen by Hourin and acceded to the throne as the Royal Hou.

  In the Sixth year of Eiwa, the reign of Chuutatsu had reached only thirty years. That year, Youshun Palace, the Imperial Seat, was stormed by a force of 100,000 soldiers. Unable to bear his tyrannic rule any longer, the armies of the eight province lords had risen up against him.

  The like-minded citizens of the city opened the gates of Hoso, the capital city of Hou, and let them in. Almost immediately, they breached the palace perimeter to the inner sanctum where the soldiers of the Eight Provinces battled undauntedly with some three hundred of the king's bodyguards.

  In the end, the Royal Hou Chuutatsu was dead.

  "What is all that commotion?"

  Her mother's arms wrapped around her, Shoukei heard the bloodcurdling war cries. Shoukei was the daughter of Queen Kaka, Chuutatsu's wife. The plaintive query came from the prone and ailing Hourin, the kirin of Hou. The three of them were hidden within the depths of the palace.

  "It came from outside. Mom, whose voice was that?"

  Shoukei was all of thirteen. She was doted upon by her parents, the very apple of their eye. This young girl, bright and clever, beautiful and graceful, and praised as the veritable jewel of the crown, she twisted her face with dread.

  "No . . . it can't be."

  The people of Hou, provoked to revolt by the province lords, surrounded Hoso on all sides. The clanging of the instruments of war echoed inside the palace walls, as did the curses they sang out against the king.

  A surging tide of ashen blue armor. And those ferocious screams.

  "It can't be! Father . . . . "

  "No!" Kaka held Shoukei tightly in her arms. "This is not happening!"

  Kaka railed against the inconceivable. Overcome by the stench of blood, Hourin cried out disconsolately.

  "Hourin!"

  Hourin's pale face went white. "The king . . . the king is no longer with us."

  In that same moment, in the heart of the palace, came the sound of the door to queen's chambers opening.

  The soldiers tread into the room, their armor smeared with blood. The design of the insignia worn by the young man at their lead was that of a constellation of stars, the coat of arms of the province lords.

  "Such impudence!" Kaka shouted at him. "Where do you think you are? Heaven forbid you should be allowed for an instant before the queen and Taiho!"

  The man's fearless young face hardly wavered. Without a word, he cast down before Kaka the thing he was carrying in his right hand. It struck the floor with a heavy thud and a splatter of blood and rolled next to Shoukei's feet. Bitter eyes stared into space.

  "Father!"

  All kings were promised immortality, but even an immortal king could not live once his head had been separated from his body. Shoukei and her mother screamed. They cast themselves upon the divan where Hourin lay.

  The man laughed. "Do you find your father's--your husband's--visage so frightening?" he asked darkly.

  Kaka stared him in the face. "Marquis Kei!" She corrected herself, addressing him more rudely by his name. "Gekkei! You bastard!"

  Gekkei, Province Lord of Kei, lowered his voice and said coldly, "The Royal Hou has been deposed. The time has come for the queen and princess to part company."

  "What are you saying!" Kaka implored. Clinging to her mother's arm, Shoukei trembled violently.

  "The king who enacted cruel laws and oppressed his people and the queen who executed the blameless citizens who criticized him--I desire them both to know something of that suffering."

  "The king--the king did nothing but what was good for his subjects."

  "What good are laws that reward a child with death for stealing a loaf of bread? A child gasping beneath the weight of poverty, having no place else to turn? Or laws that treat a missed tax payment as a capital crime? Or laws that enslave a man and condemn him to death when he falls ill and cannot pull his load? Whatever you are feeling now is nothing compared to the horrors experienced by the people."

  Gekkei motioned with his hand. From the rear of the phalanx, a soldier ran up to Kaka and tore Shoukei from her arms. Shoukei wailed. Her mother cried bitterly.

  "You envied other women their beauty and their wisdom. Or rather, feared that their daughters might prove more talented than your own. You concocted imaginary crimes, slandered them, and now the earth resounds with their funeral dirges. Can you begin to comp
rehend the grief of these families as the corpses of their loved ones were cast before them?"

  "You bastard!" Kaka spat at him.

  Gekkei paid the insult no mind. He turned to Shoukei, wriggling in the grip of the soldier. "You pay attention as well, young lady. Your miserable family always insulated itself from the scene of the crime. Have you the slightest idea what an execution is really like?"

  "Stop it! Please . . . . Mother!"

  Shoukei's shrieks stirred not a soul, moved not heart in that place. Gasping, her eyes wide, she watched as Gekkei brandished the sword. Unable to look away even at the instant of impact, Shoukei witnessed the very moment when her mother's life left its body.

  A scream frozen on its face, its mouth gasping a wordless cry into empty air, the severed head of her mother rolled against the head of the Royal Hou Chuutatsu.

  In that moment, Shoukei could not blink, could not speak. Gekkei cast her a disinterested glance and walked over to the divan where Hourin was resting. Hourin looked up at him with blank eyes.

  "I wish you to understand as well the two generations of despair suffered by the people because of this black prince whom you chose."

  Hourin stared at him hard, and quietly nodded. Gekkei bowed low in respect. Then he raised the sword above his head.

  The Royal Hou and the Hourin Touka. Thus did the dynasty of the Kingdom of Hou draw a close.

  Shoukei watched dumbfounded as the bodies were born away. No, to say she "watched" perhaps means only that the images continued to impinge upon her sight. She likely understood nothing of what she was seeing.

  She sat listlessly on the floor. Gekkei stood before her. She raised her eyes, from the tip of his toes to the top of his head.

  "Son Shou, daughter of the Royal Hou, your name shall be deleted from the Registry of Wizards."

  Shoukei looked at Gekkei's face. The reality of her mother's death hadn't sunk in. Now, on top of everything else, losing her place in the Registry of Wizards. That meant that her body would once again begin to age normally. The thought terrified her. Her name had been listed in the Registry for at least thirty years. Where was one such as herself supposed to live now?