by Fuyumi Ono
Shouryuu said, "Getting a handle on the Imperial Court is always a challenge for a new king. But you've got to know when to take it easy, too. You ride everybody hard all the time and your fair-weather friends will start thinking up with ways to bite back. Backbiting is always the easy first step."
"So it is."
"If they're the type who will back down when the king turns up the heat, then don't make a big deal out of it. In any case, you want to keep things in proportion."
"Was it hard for you starting out?"
"You might say. There's no need try and hurry things along. With a king on the throne, the natural disasters and calamities will abate. By that alone, you are performing a great service."
"But that alone won't do."
"Why do you think kings are given such long lives? Because what needs to be done can't be done in fifty years or so. You're not working against a deadline, so pace yourself."
Youko nodded. "But you must have things that weigh on your mind."
"You mean the things that make your head hurt just thinking about? There's no end to them."
"Oh, great."
"If you didn't have any problems, you wouldn't have anything to do. It'd get boring." So said this king, who had ruled his kingdom for five hundred years. With a tone of voice somewhere between sarcasm and self-mockery, he added, "And if it did, I'd probably destroy En just to see what happened next."
2-2
"Say, do you think maybe Youko's getting a little down in the dumps?"
The water in the lake was warm. Rokuta took off his shoes and sat down on the shore and splashed around with his feet. Rakushun sat down next to him.
"It's hardly surprising that you would come to that conclusion."
Rakushun glanced over his shoulder at Rokuta. He'd thought he was the only one this had occurred to.
"Yeah. I have to wonder if Youko and Keiki are getting along."
"Don't be silly."
"But you hardly ever see them together."
"That's true." Rokuta rested his chin on his hands. "It could be that Keiki's just uncomfortable around guys like us. That's why we never see him. Shouryuu and I being the way we are, you know. We're not the kind of company that a super-serious guy like Keiki wants to hang with. And then you have to consider that he and Youko got off to a pretty shaky start."
"You think so?"
"Like I said, a super-serious guy. If Youko was all kicked-back like Shouryuu, they'd probably be at loggerheads already. But Youko taking herself pretty seriously as well, Keiki just keeps himself busy as a bee. Not to mention that Youko is Keiki's second liege."
"How's that factor in?"
"It factors in all over the place. When you've served two kings, you can't help comparing the two. You invest a lot of yourself in your first king. No matter what, the next one's going to take some getting used to. For example, even if the previous king was a bad man and his reign short-lived, the kirin's going to regret it. It's going to stick with him. No doubt it would have been better had Youko been a boy."
Rakushun exhaled. "Probably so."
"Youko can't help but remind him of the Late Empress Yo-ou. On top of that, there's his straight-laced personality, and the man doesn't exactly have a way with words. Makes him hard to read. Not to mention that hardly any time has passed."
Rakushun brought to mind Keiki's brusk, blunt manner, his expressionless face, his limpid, golden hair. Golden hair was particular to kirin, but comparing Rokuta and Keiki, their hair was each golden in its own way. Rokuta's hair was more of a bright yellow, while Keiki's was a colder, translucent color. It almost seemed an extension of his personality.
Rokuta laughed brightly. "One way or another, I'm sure Youko will make it work."
Rakushun nodded. "I'm sure she will."
Youko glanced at Rakushun and Rokuta, sitting there at the water's edge, absorbed in conversation. She said in a low voice, "I still don't get this place."
Shouryuu responded cheerfully, "No, I'm sure you don't. Anyway you look at it, it's different here." He chuckled. "Children growing on trees, now that was a shock."
Youko smiled thinly. The smile faded. "Not knowing all this stuff seems to irritate a lot of people."
"You mean Keiki?"
Youko glanced at him and shook her head. "The ministers and officials, too. Everybody seems taken aback by how totally clueless I am. And who can blame them?"
Every time she said, I don't get it, Keiki and the ministers shook their heads and sighed.
"It's because I'm a woman, that's why they're not happy with me." She'd heard the whispers plenty of times already. This is what you get with an empress.
"Not quite," said Shouryuu.
Youko looked at him. "No?"
"When I came here, the most perplexing things to me were that woman could become ministers and the strange relationship between parents and children."
"Meaning?"
"In Yamato, women were at the center of the family. They never ventured into the outside world. But here, women will leave their children in the care of the father and go to work. Because the Late Empress Yo-ou expelled all the women from the kingdom, Kei doesn't have many female ministers, but in En they make up almost half of my staff. As you would expect, men predominate in the military. Even there, a good third of the soldiers are women."
"Really… . "
"If you think it over, there's nothing unusual about it. The kirin choose the kings, and as many of the kirin are female as male. Every generation, the scales may tip one way or the other, but in the long run it balances out to about fifty-fifty. The kings chosen are about half women and half men. Go through the historical records and do the calculations and you'll see that neither sex is favored in the long run."
"No kidding," said Youko, her eyes growing wide.
"There's nothing wrong with a king or kirin being a woman, and there's nothing wrong with a minister being a woman, either. Women here do not give birth, and raising children is not by default the woman's job. So the woman's place is not necessarily in the home. Simply because of raw physical strength, they are not as suited for the military, but where delicacy is called for, or a comprehension of the intricate workings of business, they are unsurpassed. As government administrators they can go far. Secretariats are often staffed by women."
Youko laughed. "Of course."
"That's why I don't think the ministers of Kei are giving you a cold shoulder because you're a woman. At the same time, however, being a women does have something to do with it, Kei having had such bad luck with empresses of late."
She gave him a good long look.
"These last three generations have seen a succession of incompetent monarchs who just happened all to be empresses. The last king Keiki chose was an empress and her reign was singularly short. And then he goes and chooses another empress. So the ministers must be thinking to themselves, What? Again?"
"That's what it's about?"
"That's what it really is about. The Royal Kyou of the northwest kingdom of Kyou has reigned for almost ninety years. And the empress who ruled before her did so for an extraordinarily long time. So if you were to spring a male king on the people of Kyou, they probably wouldn't be very happy about it. In the final analysis, that's what it amounts to. Don't worry about it."
Youko sighed and then smiled. "Thanks for straightening me out."
"No problem," Shouryuu replied with a grin. "If there's any way I can help out, let me know and I'll do what I can."
Youko bowed to him. "I am truly grateful for all you've done."
2-3
As she had promised, two weeks later Riyou, lord of Suibi Grotto, returned to her mountainous fiefdom.
When she arrived at Mt. Ha, she drew alongside the soaring castle on Suibi Peak. In the world below, at the foot of Suibi Peak, she could see the hodgepodge of small blue roofs. If you took the tunnel from Suibi Grotto down through the heart of the peak, that is where you would emerge in the world below. The pal
isades enclosing the buildings stood in neat rows, along with more blue-tiled roofs standing before the gate. It was a shrine dedicated to the wizard who lived on Suibi Peak.
Astride Setsuko's back, peering down at the tableau beneath her, a crooked smile came to Riyou's lips. All she was doing here was piling on the years, nothing more. And yet these people from the world below were grateful for her presence.
Her worshipers no doubt believed that if something serious happened to them one day, Riyou would come to their rescue. In times past, there had been famous wizards of the air who did lend a hand to those in need. Still, it was awfully ignorant of them to expect that all wizards should similarly be overflowing with grace and good works.
"Let's go home."
Setsuko set down before the gate to the grotto. Five servants rushed out to greet her. Riyou dismounted and gave them a once-over.
"Any changes in my absence?"
Fine with her if there were. In a place in her heart she chose to ignore, Riyou knew that a long life was a thing you could weary of. Add three hundred years on top of that, along with the loneliness that came from being left behind by the world. There was not a mortal being left who still remembered a woman named Riyou.
One of the menservants bowed low and said, "There have been no changes."
"Is that so."
She scanned the entrance to the grotto. Of course she remembered what she had asked of them before she left. The grotto had been spiffed up considerably. The various beams and columns sported a fresh coat of red paint, the walls newly-applied white stucco.
"So it looks like nobody ran off and played hooky."
Riyou laughed. Leaving the red tiger in the care of a groom, she took herself back to the main house. When she arrived at her room, three girls were already waiting, heads bowed, no doubt given the heads-up by a fleet-footed servant.
"Welcome back."
She nodded curtly and continued to stand there. The three scurried over to her and began to undress her. The room was perfectly in order. The pillars and walls had been repainted. All this could not have been accomplished in a mere fortnight. They had likely only tended to the places Riyou was most likely to notice.
"Honma."
Startled, Suzu raised her head. The girl's fear of her was palpable from the moment she entered the room till she left. Knowing this, Riyou looked down at the kneeling girl straightening up her clothes. She said with pure spite, "I went to see the brand-new Royal Kei. I'd say she's about your age, an empress."
Empress, Suzu repeated in a small, trembling voice.
"Like I said, about your age, though hardly in the same league. Not very ostentatious. A rather severe young lady."
Suzu nodded. Riyou suppressed a smile as she pulled on her robes. "I ran into her at Kaisen Grotto on Mt. Ga. It was right after the enthronement and I went to pay my respects. The mistress of Kaisen Grotto just happens to be the mother of the Royal Kei from many, many generations past. The empress is a woman of manners and breeding. In other words, not like you at all."
Riyou sat down, comfortably draped in her house robes. Seeing that Riyou's attention was focused on Suzu alone, the two other maidservants bowed and wordlessly withdrew.
"Apparently she was born in Yamato."
Suzu's head shot up, her eyes seeming to fill her entire face.
"That's right. Where you came from, that place across the eastern Kyokai. Ironic, isn't it? Two girls born in the same Yamato. One becomes a lowly maidservant, the other the empress of the Eastern Kingdom of Kei. A frugal dresser, to be sure, but royalty nonetheless. Her clothes and even her hairpins were of the highest class." Riyou smirked. "If we turned you upside down and shook you silly, not a single jewel would fall out. But when she returns to her palace, it's to mountains of gems, no?"
Suzu again nodded. She did not glower or answer back when Riyou ridiculed her. She only debased herself so as not to provoke Riyou any further. Riyou's teasing of the girl resembled that of a predator playing with its prey.
"Oh, I've heard all kinds of things. The Royal Kei was also swept into this world. At first, she was at a complete loss. Isn't that rich? But despite not knowing a thing, she set off on her journey and eventually sought the assistance of the Royal En."
Riyou nudged Suzu's collar with the tips of her crossed feet. "Well, for that matter, there's going to be a world of difference between you and anybody else. Falling in with a bunch of itinerant actors, lacking even the talent to stand up on a stage, relegated to a life of menial servitude. The little nobody who begged and pleaded to become my maid."
She gave the girl another jab with her toes, swaying Suzu's bowed head and shaking free several teardrops.
"Now, now, what's this? Imagining the Royal Kei as some sort of kindred spirit? How impertinent. She'd be furious to be pitied by the likes of you. It'd be like a slap in the face."
Suzu's couldn't hold back her smothered sobs and Riyou raised her eyebrows. Having forced her victim to yield, her interest faded. "You may leave," she said dismissively. "I don't want to look at your wretched face. Get out of my sight."
Suzu ran to the garden, to the twisted old pine tree in the heart of the garden where no one could see her. She clung to the trunk of the tree and wept.
Yamato, the country she so longed for.
"What happened to you, Mokurin? Did the mistress say something to you?"
The old man hurried over to her. Suzu could only shake her head. It was just Riyou being her normal self. She lived to ride Suzu like that. Did she find Suzu so detestable? She couldn't imagine what it was about her that made her so hateful.
"I don't know what she said, but you mustn't take it to heart. Serving the mistress requires a lot of patience."
"I know that."
Even knowing that, it didn't mean being ridiculed by others didn't hurt.
"Then why… ?"
Suzu collapsed to the ground in tears. Behind her, the old man sighed. "The Royal Kei," Suzu said between sobs. The Royal Kei was from Yamato. If she was, then from where? What had become of her home country? "Um… " she said, raising her tear-streaked face. When the flustered old man turned around, she asked, "The Royal Kei, where does she live?"
"She lives in the Kingdom of Kei, of course. In the royal palace."
"Oh."
A girl who had come from Yamato just like she had. Like her, she had probably been washed onto the shores of Kei. And she became a king. In this world, with their respective stations in life, their paths should never cross.
I want to meet her. Perhaps even find out what kind of person she is.
Another woman like her should have some sympathy for her plight. She would understand what it was like to be separated from her homeland, the distress of being swept into this strange land, the pain of understanding nothing, the torment of her situation.
"Do you think the Royal Kei will ever come to Sai?"
The old man shook his head. "Can't see why she would. A king coming to visit from somewhere else, it hardly ever happens."
"I see."
I want to meet her, Suzu again whispered inside her heart. How could she ever make it happen? As far as going to Kei and finding her there, what were the chances? How would she get to Kei? If she asked Riyou, the woman would just laugh at her. If she asked for the time to journey there, without giving a reason why, it was hardly likely that Riyou would ever let her go. Simply imagining Riyou's abuse and ridicule made Suzu tremble.
I want to see her, but have no way to go to see her.
What kind of woman was she? If she was good enough to sit upon the throne, she should be a person of great charity, not a cruel witch like Riyou. There were so many things she wanted to ask. More than that, so many things she wanted to plead for.
Come. Suzu looked up at the eastern sky. Please come, come to Sai. Come to Sai and rescue me.
2-4
The wind blew across the white hill, scattering the fallen snow like a blanket of cherry blossoms.
&n
bsp; Shoukei rested her hands from pulling the sleigh and stretched her back. In the distance she could see the walls of Shindou. At last she was drawing near to the town. The town itself looked like it was buried in snow. The dusk was falling, Shoukei's breath blossomed white against the hazy darkness filling the landscape. Winters in the northern kingdoms were severe, especially the winters in Hou, where the snowfall was considerable. More than the cold, it was simply getting around that was so difficult. The roads were buried in snow, the cities shut off and isolated.
Everyone practically holding their breath and waiting for the thaw.
Because nothing could be moved during the winter, the smaller shops had to close their doors. When inventories ran low, only those establishments with horse-drawn sleighs could be depended upon. And if you didn't have the patience to wait for the next sleigh to arrive, your only other choice was to wade through the waist-high snow to the next town.
Which is what Shoukei was doing now.
She drew back her shoulders and took a breath. She picked up the rope and draped it over her shoulders. She had to get to the town before the gates closed. Get shut out of the town in this weather and she would surely freeze to death.
The grade of the road was indistinguishable from the white, rolling hills of surrounding countryside, making it hard to tell where the road ended and the fields began. The fields were surrounded by rock walls to keep grazing goats, sheep and cows from straying, but these too were buried beneath the snow. Though it was yet before the winter solstice, the snowfall this year had been unusually heavy.
Her shoulders ached from the weight of the tow rope. Her toes were frozen. The hundred pounds of charcoal loaded onto the sled made the going slow. She could have just as well been hauling a grown man.
How long do I go on living like this?
Numb and exhausted, that was the only thought going through her mind. Several times already she had run off the road and fallen into a drift. Each time she had to carry up the sled and load the charcoal back on. If she didn't make better time the gates were going to close. That was what kept her shivering, trembling legs moving forward. She dragged the sled along, ignoring the pain that cut like a knife into her throat and sides.
