The Twelve Kingdoms: A Thousand Leagues of Wind

by Fuyumi Ono

  "To tell the truth, it's still hard for me to stay in cheap hotels. It's mortifying to have to wear wool. But that's the penance I've got to pay." She clenched her hands, turning the tips of her entwined fingers white. "All I did was play around at the palace. I didn't do anything else. I didn't know people hated my father so much that they wanted to murder him. I didn't want to know. And now I'm paying for it. That's why Gekkei--he's the marquis of Kei Province--erased me from the Registry of Wizards. I get it now."

  "Yeah."

  "If I hadn't been the princess royal, I would just be another child at the orphanage. I'd still be in my minority, without the wits to become a government official. That's why I got sent to the orphanage. I didn't have a clue. I just didn't get it."

  "Better you get it now than never."

  "Yeah," Shoukei laughed. "The Royal Kei, what kind of person is she?"

  "She's about the same age as you."

  "But not an idiot like me."

  "Oh, she would call herself an idiot. And then she would say: But they made me empress, anyway!"

  Shoukei laughed again. "She sounds like me."

  "Perhaps. But you are more, well, feminine. The Empress is kind of rough about the edges."

  Shoukei giggled and looked out the window at the passing scenery. "I'd like to go to Kei." She wanted to meet this empress. And if not meet her, she wanted to see what kind of a kingdom she was going to create.

  "Returnee groups are forming all over En and heading to Kei."

  "You mean, since the Royal Kei was enthroned, people have been going back."

  "Quite a number of people. They don't really know what kind of monarch she'll turn out to be, but in any case, with the Royal En lending a hand in her ascension, the people of Kei are pretty sure she'll turn out to be a good empress."

  "So that's the rumor. But it's hardly carved in stone that she'll be an enlightened monarch."

  "True, but home is better than staying in En. They've got land there, and while it might not be great, they can plant their own two feet on their own ground and start a life." Rakushun flashed a wry smile. "There was nothing wrong with getting out of Kei while the getting was good, but when it comes right down to it, life is rough for a refugee in En. It is better than staying behind in a kingdom going to the dogs. And En does its best to take care of people. Seeing how rich En is has got to hurt, though. Still, the only way to become a citizen of En is to buy land or become a public servant, and neither one of those is easy. Otherwise, if you wanted to settle down in En, you'd have to get hired by a wealthy land owner and work as an itinerant farmer, or get a job in a shop. So people long for their home country."

  "Makes sense."

  "I've been very fortunate. I was lucky enough to get into the university. The people of Kei are pretty fortunate, too, compared to the average refugee elsewhere."

  "Really?"

  "The Royal Kei and Royal En have a good relationship. The Royal Kei has told the Royal En to convey her best regards to her subjects and the Royal En has acknowledged her wishes. That alone is plenty to be thankful for. He has done much to help resettle the people from Kei back in their home kingdom. It's coming out of the national budgets of both En and Kei, a compromise worked out between the En and Kei. It doesn't make life easier for people from the other kingdoms, though."

  "Indeed."

  "The Royal Kei has a lot of things going for her. She's got a strong En watching her back, there to encourage her."

  Shoukei wondered what kind of geography Kei had, it being so much further south than Hou. She said, "Do you think the returnees would mind someone who wasn't from Kei coming along with them?"

  "I don't think so. They've got no way to check whether you've got a valid passport or not. A lot of people's homes were destroyed and they fled without their papers. Even so, if you want to go to Kei, I'll take you as far as the border."

  "Rakushun."

  "Tama should be waiting at the next town. The suugu, I mean. That's his name. With Tama, I can fly you to the Koushuu Mountains and be back to Kankyuu in two days."

  Shoukei looked out toward the southeast. "You don't have any concerns about my going to Kei?"

  "Not at all. Check it out. Go see what it's like."

  "I will."

  "Once you've seen what you need to see, how about you come back to Kankyuu and fill me in on how things are going there?"

  Shoukei nodded.

  Chapter 42

  Shoukou. He killed Seishuu. Huddled in her room in the inn, those three words alone occupied her mind. He killed Seishuu.

  "I won't forgive. I won't forget."

  Suzu repeated these words over and over to herself. A knock came at the door. It was one of the innkeeper's servants.

  "Miss, the gates have opened. Will you be staying on?"

  Suzu got out her coin purse. "A little while longer. Here, I'll pay in advance."

  It was enough to cover her expenses for five more days. After that, it would take another five days to get to Gyouten.

  "Well, okay then," said the servant. He quickly cleaned up the room and left. Suzu watched him go. She stared at the ceiling. "Shoukou. I won't forgive you."

  After that, Suzu wandered about the city pretending to be taking a stroll and seeing the sights. She'd randomly greet passers-by and ask them about Shoukou. No one had much to say. It wasn't a subject people felt free to talk about.

  She thought at first about bringing charges against him, but after walking around the city for five days, she realized that would be impossible. Shoukou was a governor with a great deal of power. He controlled Shisui Prefecture. The taxes far exceeded the rate set by the kingdom, and the balance disappeared into his pockets. The tax collectors were brutal. The law was a plaything used to punish people on a whim.

  As egregious as his actions were, Shoukou hadn't answered for them and wouldn't answer for them. That's what everybody said. He distributed his ill-gotten gains throughout the bureaucracy and bought his own protection.

  Her next thought had been to travel to Gyouten and directly appeal to the Royal Kei. It wouldn't be easy arranging an audience with the empress, but she did have her passport with the endorsement of the Royal Sai.

  After five days in the city, she gave up on that, too. What she'd learned of Shoukou's brazen behavior was even worse. The city spilled over with privately resentful voices, but such was the fierceness of Shoukou's grip that none dare voice these feelings aloud.

  "Seventy percent or a life," was the expression she heard.

  The tax was seventy percent of the harvest. If this payment was short in the slightest, you paid with a life. Turn yourself in to be killed, or present the head of one of your family.

  Shoukou went hunting in the hamlets, they said. When he was in one of his moods, he'd go to a farming village in the outlying districts and kidnap girls. A few days later he'd toss them out like a bundle of old rags.

  At times, merchants came from the borders of Kou and ships arrived from Tai carrying human cargo. He deceived itinerants and refugees from the faltering kingdoms into coming to Shisui to replace those that had died beneath his lash. Wagons and ships traveled to the kingdoms bearing food and provisions and distributed it to families who had lost their homes and land. Those receiving the goods believed that the governor dispatching the wagons and ships to be a compassionate man. In the place of the provisions, people were carried on the return trip. Travelers who came, lured by the promise of land and citizenship, would curse their terrible folly only afterwards.

  Why, Suzu asked herself with almost unbridled fury. Why would the Royal Kei keep such a beast as a public servant?

  Rumors abounded on the streets. The reason Shoukou could persecute the people so, the reason he was never called to account, was because he had somebody covering for him. Probably somebody in Gyouten. Somebody in Kinpa Palace. Somebody at the top.

  The late empress Yo-o had been in on it, so the rumors went.

  The late empress had no inter
est in governing the kingdom, that was why. The ministers and government officials did whatever they wanted and nobody gave a damn. Kiss a little ass, throw a little jewelry and silk around, and they'd look the other way.

  Because she was a woman, the people of Takuhou said. Kei had bad luck with empresses. They never governed in peace.

  Suzu laughed to herself. An empress from Yamato, the one person in the world who would understand her. A monarch filled with gentleness and compassion.

  What a joke.

  The Royal Kei had been her best and last hope, the one thing that kept her going. I want to meet her, Suzu had told herself over and over again. What an idiot she'd been.

  "I won't forgive them. Shoukou or the Royal Kei."

  Suzu left Takuhou and headed for Gyouten. As expected, it took her five days. Using her bank book, she withdrew the balance of the funds. It'd raise eyebrows when the Royal Sai found out, but at this point Suzu didn't care.

  The first thing she went looking for was a licensed arms merchant.

  You couldn't defeat a youma with an ordinary sword. You'd end up breaking the sword and not hurting the youma. For youma hunting, you had to have weapons upon which a special spell had been cast. Because they were only made by the Minister of Winter, they were called touki, or winter weapons. On the door to the shop was the official seal authorizing them to make armaments.

  Licensed arms merchants were also the only dealers in the chains and ropes used to capture and train youma and other you-beasts. Suzu recalled traveling often to an arms merchant at the base of Mt. Ha in the southwest kingdom of Sai to buy military-grade tack for the groom who took care of Riyou's flying tiger, Setsuko.

  And quite different from an ordinary dealer, these arms merchants carried a class of weapons not widely known to the public--weapons that could kill a wizard. A governor was a class of baron, and thus a full-fledged wizard. You had to have a particular kind of sword to wound him.

  Suzu browsed around the shop and selected a dagger. She didn't know how to use one, but she knew she'd need it. Arms merchants actually rarely sold "winter weapons" to customers. This was one time when the endorsement of the Royal Sai on her passport came in handy.

  She next went to an establishment that specialized in pegasi and flying beasts. She didn't need a horse or ox. What she needed was a mount much faster than a horse, a pegasus that could leap over any fence or barrier.

  Flying youma were captured by wild game hunters in the Yellow Sea, where youma abounded in great numbers. Game hunters were called "corpse hunters" because they spent as much time tracking down the bodies of fellow trackers killed by youma as they did the youma themselves. The job of a corpse hunter was to capture youma, break them and deliver them to a wrangler. Youma wranglers worked hand-in-hand with death. So the animals didn't come cheap. Capture a top of the line youma like a suugu, break and train it, and you would be set for life.

  Suzu entered the shop. A middle-aged man in the shop was turning through the pages of a ledger. He said, "Welcome."

  He only raised his eyes when he spoke. A scar ran from the top of his head to his right cheek. His right eye was caved in.

  "I'm looking for a pegasus."

  "How much?" Are you willing to spend? he meant.

  Suzu placed the bank notes on the table. "Whatever I can get for this."

  "You want one that flies or one that's fast?"

  "One that flies. And one that heeds commands well."

  "You ever been on a bird youma?"

  Riding a bird youma was no simple task. "No. I'd prefer a horse."

  "In that case, a sansui is the best I can do for you."

  "What kind of beast is a sansui?"

  "A horse with a blue coat. It doesn't really have what it takes to fly at altitude, but it's got strong legs. Handy for leaping over the occasional river. Not exactly fleet-footed. Three times as fast as your regular horse, but gets winded quick. If that's okay with you, I've got a real gentle one."

  Suzu nodded. "Sounds fine."

  "Where you staying?" the man asked.

  Flying youma were not kept in the city. Suzu gave him her name and the inn she was staying at.

  "I'll bring it to you. The whole thing takes seven days. I could get it to you quicker, but I'd have to run it, and it being a sansui, then you'd have to rest it a day. After that, it needs time changing owners."

  "Seven days suits me fine."

  "Half down, half on delivery."

  Suzu nodded. "It's a deal. I'll be waiting."

  And so she waited at the inn, portioning out the remainder of her funds to leave herself enough to eat. This was the Gyouten she had so longed for, the city that blanketed the terraced slopes of Mt. Ryou-un. She wasn't impressed. It didn't mean anything without Seishuu there with her.

  Seishuu, welcome to Gyouten.

  High up at the top of Mt. Ryou-un was the Imperial Palace. In the palace lived the Royal Kei, the damned fool of a monarch who let a man like Shoukou be.

  Suzu grasped the dagger inside her blouse. She'd gut Shoukou with it and head back to Gyouten ahead of the news. Using the Royal Sai's endorsement on her passport, she'd arrange for an audience with the Royal Kei.

  They'd squeal like stuck pigs. Shoukou, and at the end of the day, the Royal Kei--they'd picked the wrong child of Kei to kill.

  As promised, the sansui was delivered seven days later. The stable boy handed Suzu the scent ball. Inside the scent ball was a burning incense stick. It had a little buckle to attach to a belt or sash. Inside the ball was the incense prepared by the youma dealer. The wrangler used this burning incense to tame the youma. When the youma was sold to another person, it'd be charmed by the smell of the incense and would not get alarmed. After that, the intensity of the incense was slowly reduced until the animal was acclimated to the scent of its owner.

  But Suzu didn't have much interest in any of this and didn't bother to remember much of it. Once she'd made it back to Gyouten, the thing could drop dead for all she cared.

  Suzu stayed on in Gyouten for three more days while she and the sansui got used to each other. Then she headed back to Shisui Prefecture and Takuhou.

  Seishuu, soon I'll have your revenge. Shoukou and the Royal Kei, they will feel what you felt in spades.

  Chapter 43

  Youko finished her morning chores and sent Enho's charges off to school. The school here didn't have an age limit, so Rangyoku attended along with Keikei. The main subjects were reading, writing and arithmetic. Children could go to school starting from the age of seven (counting a child as one at birth and a year older on each New Year), or five (counting birthdays on date of birth).

  Because there was no formal graduation, adults could attend as well, and often came with babes in arms.

  It was a pretty laid-back atmosphere. The main thing stressed was that the talk be about something more constructive than mere gossip. But as a consequence, open attendance was allowed only during the time that the villagers returned from the hamlets to the town. The school itself was closed from spring until fall. Anybody wishing to attend otherwise had to get a recommendation from the superintendent (who was also the principal).

  Youko lingered behind in the now vacant orphanage and fretted about the girl named Suzu. What should she do? Go to Takuhou to look for her? She'd sent Hankyo off to Gyouten and he still hadn't returned. That was another reason for her hesitation. As she prepared lunch, she turned the whole thing over in her mind, wondering what to do.

  "Hey, Youshi!" said Keikei.

  Enho always left with Keikei and Rangyoku and returned together. Keikei ran ahead and got home first.

  "Welcome back."

  "You got a guest!"

  "I do?"

  "Yeah," Keikei nodded.

  Youko glanced over her shoulder as Rangyoku walked in with Enho. Without a word, Rangyoku looked at Youko and grinned. "At the Eika Inn next to the dragon gate."

  "An inn?"

  Rangyoku giggled and went into the kitchen. S
he pulled Youko over to a secluded area by the wall. "It's a guy."

  Youko raised her eyebrows. The first image that popped into her head was the man she'd met at that shady tavern in Takuhou. "Was it perhaps a rather grim-looking man? A big man?"

  "More of a slender physique."

  "About fourteen or fifteen?" If it wasn't the big man, then maybe the boy who had intervened on her behalf.

  Rangyoku gave Youko a teasing scowl. "Oh, stop it! I can't believe you'd forget a good-looking guy like that! He said to tell you that your servant had arrived. You'd know who it was."

  Youko's eyes flew wide open.

  "Wow, I mean, your servant! That's so incredible!"

  Youko hastily waved her hands, batting away the implications. "Don't be ridiculous! It's nothing like that!"

  "Ah, you're blushing. Must be a really neat guy. He was dressed so fine!"

  "No, no, no. Oh, all right, what exactly did he have to say?"

  "So you do know him. You two must be really close." Rangyoku laughed out loud. She rolled up her sleeves and went to the water barrel. "Well, you better go right away and find out. And if you're not going to be back tonight, be sure to let us know!"

  "I figured it was you," Youko said when she walked into the guest suite at the inn and recognized the prim face.

  He opened his eyes suspiciously and leaned forward. Then quickly and politely bowed. The cloak fell from his shoulders.

  "Forgive me for beckoning you here."

  He certainly did present himself well. Compared to his usual attire, he had about himself an air of frugality, but that was because he couldn't very well show up here in full ministerial dress.

  "That was some way of getting my attention."

  "Eh?"

  The bellhop who had showed her to the room gave her a meaningful look. He left the room and wordlessly closed the doors behind him.

  Youko let out a deep sigh. "Forget it," she said, pulling out a chair and sitting down. From next to her ankles she heard what sounded like snickering laughter. "Oh, Hankyo. You know, you could have sent Hankyo for me."