A Thousand Leagues of Wind, the Sky at Dawn

6-1

Rakushun's hirsute tail stood straight up. "Youko left the palace?"

Rokuta gave that sight a curious look and with the tips of his fingers motioned for him to calm down. "Mum's the word," he said, glancing around at the surrounding tables and the waiters delivering the food.

"Oh, yeah. Sorry."

Rokuta grinned and then with an annoyed expression picked up the bandana that had fallen onto the table in front of him. After covering his head with the bandana, he looked like an ordinary child again. "She just took off for a while. She asked for a visa, so I sent her one."

"What is going on with her?"

"Who knows?" said Rokuta, tossing a dumpling into his mouth. "All kinds of stuff. I got the feeling last time that she had a lot on her mind."

"Yeah," Rakushun muttered.

"It's because she's such a serious person. To make matters worse, everybody over there is so uptight and argumentative. You tell them to sit back and take it easy, but they're just not the kind of people who can do that."

Rakushun nodded. He picked up his chopsticks again and stopped. "I was thinking of going to see how she was."

University was in recess over the New Year's holiday, the last part of December and the first part of January.

"You're being overprotective." Rokuta gave Rakushun a teasing look.

Rakushun's whiskers drooped dejectedly. "And I thought I'd take the opportunity to go see my Mom."

The country of Rakushun's birth--the Kingdom of Kou--was going downhill and fast. The king had already died. Rokuta recalled Rakushun saying something about sending for his mother.

Rakushun said, "I'd like to find out more of the kingdoms around here, see how things are going in Kei."

"Expanding your horizons is always a good thing." Rokuta jabbed the dumpling skewer in Rakushun's direction. "If it's about your mother, I'll take care of it. How about you go check out Ryuu?"

"Ryuu?"

Rokuta nodded. He said in a hushed voice, "Recently, youma have shown up off the coast of Ryuu."

"You're kidding!"

"Word is that perhaps they were swept in from Tai. But youma don't go barging into a kingdom that isn't in trouble. Something stinks."

Rakushun mulled it over.

Rokuta added, "When I say I'd like to go see what's going on in Ryuu, I mean somebody who can put his other work aside and get on with it. If you could do this for me, it'd be a real help."

"Okay. I'll do it."

Rokuta's face lit up. "Hey, I appreciate it. Something strange is going on, I can feel it. There's Tai and Kei and Kou. And on top of that, Ryuu. Recently, none of the kingdoms around En have been on an even keel."

"That's true."

"If something fishy is going on in Ryuu, no matter how insignificant, I want you to let me know as soon as possible. I know I'm asking a lot. And while you're at it, I'll handle things for your mother and check in on Youko."

Rakushun nodded, and then turned his thoughts eastward.

Rokuta said, "Youko being Youko, she'll be okay."

Rakushun looked at Rokuta.

Rokuta said, "I trust her. It'll be tough for a while, but knowing her, she'll pull through. Ever heard of the word, kaitatsu?"

"No."

"It's particular to Kei. It means a longing for a king, a man. After so many bad empresses in a row, it's not an unreasonable sentiment. Even I was wondering if an empress really was a good idea. But my concerns were quickly put to rest. Youko being a girl means she gets judged on her looks alone. That's why we're the only ones who can really put our faith in her."

Rokuta grinned, and Rakushun smiled as well. "Yes, that's very true."

The province of Ei, with the capital Gyouten at its center, was shaped like a bent bow. Hokui Prefecture, in its northern quarter, was located at the very tip of the bow, west of Gyouten. In the eastern part of Hokui Prefecture was Kokei, or, as most people called it, the city of Hokui. Crossing the river brought you to Wa Province and the outskirts of a big city called Takuhou.

At a small cemetery on the outskirts of Hokui, Rangyoku brought her hands together in prayer. She was at the grave of the children who had been killed at the orphanage. Their parents had died. They had been entrusted to the orphanage, and in the end had been killed by the youma. Half a month later and she couldn't stop thinking of the fear and suffering they must have experienced.

Taking along the goat she'd left at the gate, Rangyoku returned to the town. During the day, she let the goat graze on the vacant land adjacent the city, and now she was taking it home. Kokei, the town Rangyoku lived in, was an appendage of the city of Hokui. From her perspective, Kokei really did look like a pimple growing on the side of Hokui. As she pulled the goat along behind her in the cold wind, the town's appearance struck her as rather forlorn. She entered the town through the Kokei gate and returned to the orphanage.

When she went around back of the orphanage to the barn, Keikei was running out of the back door to do his evening chores. With him was Youshi.

"Hey, you're home!"

Keikei's high voice carried far. Youshi gave her a slight bow. Rangyoku smiled in return, thinking, she is an odd one. A kaikyaku, Enho had said. That must be why. Enho said that she was a new member of the orphanage, but she was more like Enho's guest.

Towns were generally run by a town manager and a superintendent. The town manager worked in the town hall and officiated at the Rishi. The superintendent was his principal advisor. The superintendent was the most senior of the town elders. He was also headmaster at the orphanage and elementary school. Yet, Enho was not from Kokei. When Rangyoku inquired about this, she was told he was from Baku Province in the west of Kei. Usually, the posts of manager and superintendent were filled by people from that town.

The more she thought about it, the odder Enho's situation seemed.

Or so it seemed to her. She didn't understand all the ins and outs of becoming a superintendent. The town manager certainly treated Enho as if he were of a considerably higher rank than himself. Enho had many visitors, who traveled great distances to see him, and who stayed over at the orphanage in order to converse with him. She didn't know who they were or why they came to see him. Even when she asked about them, no one could or would tell her. It was obvious, though, that all of his visitors greatly respected him. They came here to be taught by him. They were the ones staying in the guest quarters.

The rike compound where the orphanage was located generally consisted of four buildings. The first was the orphanage, where the orphans and elderly people stayed. The second was the assembly hall, where the townspeople could gather. When they returned from the villages and hamlets during the winter, the assembly hall was where they would come during the day. There they would weave and do piece work. Sometimes at night, they would turn the place into a bar and drink and have a good old time.

The guest quarters was a building for people visiting the orphanage or the town. Attached to the guest quarters was a garden, and in the garden was the cottage Enho used as a study, and where he spent most of the day. The care and upkeep of these buildings and the people and visitors who gathered there was the responsibility of the residents of the rike.

Youshi was assigned a room in the guest quarters. That was according to Enho's explicit instructions. If you didn't live in the orphanage itself, you weren't really counted as a resident of the rike. In the first place, the people who lived in the orphanage were supposed to be from the town, and Youshi obviously wasn't.

It just seems so strange.

Rangyoku left the goat to Keikei's care and went back to the kitchen with Youshi. She watched as Youshi drew water from the outside well and filled the tank in the kitchen.

Aside from the fact that Youshi had been given a room in the guest quarters, she spent the days the same as the other members of the orphanage. She helped out in the kitchen and cleaned up around the rike. The only really different thing about her was that when Rangyoku and Keikei were done with their chores and went off to play, Youshi went to Enho's study and talked with him.

It's probably because Youshi is a kaikyaku and he's teaching her what she needs to know about living here.

At least that's what Enho said, and it probably was true.

"What's up?" Youshi suddenly asked her.

Rangyoku started. Youshi had caught her standing there staring off into space. "Um… oh, nothing."

Youshi only quizzically tilted her head to the side, so Rangyoku asked her straight out. "Why did you come to Kokei?"

Ah, Youshi said to herself. "I didn't know anything of this world, and a person I know arranged for me to meet Enho. So here I am."

"Is Enho an important person? It's just that so many people come to see him."

"I don't really know. From talking with him, though, I would say that he is a very wise man."

"Huh."

When she was finished drawing the water, Rangyoku had her wash the vegetables. While dicing the vegetables, Rangyoku asked her, "Um, what kind of place is Yamato?" Old people said that it was the land of wizards. A land of dreams, where there was no suffering or grief.

"It's not so different from here. There are natural disasters and there are wars."

"Oh." She was somewhat relieved, and also somewhat disappointed.

"Can I ask you a question?" said Youshi.

Rangyoku stopped cutting the vegetables. "What?"

"Is Rangyoku your azana?"

"No, it's my real first name."

"People here have so many different names. It's very confusing."

She sighed, as if she truly were at a complete loss. Rangyoku couldn't help smiling. "I take it in Yamato you don't have an azana. The name listed on the census is your full name that you use all the time, and an azana is just a casual nickname. In olden times, nobody called you by your given name. Old-timers hate being called by their given name, but I don't care. My registered family name is So. When I become an adult, I'll choose my own surname and the characters for that name, but I'm not an adult yet."

Becoming an adult meant reaching one's majority. At the age of twenty, you would receive a plot of land from the government and become an independent person. This plot was called a partition or homestead. Those twenty years were calculated according to kazoe-doshi, meaning that you were one year old when born and counted a year older every New Year's day.

Youshi laughed. "See, there are so many ways to count your age. What a mess."

"Normally, age is counted by your birthday. It's because of compulsory service. Using kazoe-doshi, you can end up with people who are all seventeen years old but have all different sizes of bodies."

You became responsible for paying taxes when you became an adult and received a homestead, but age wasn't taken into consideration when it came to compulsory service. In an emergency, even ten-year-olds would be rounded up. Rebuilding dikes, digging ditches, building villages and hamlets, and in the worse case, fighting wars. It was rare to draft soldiers who hadn't reached the age of eighteen, but if troop strength proved insufficient, the draft age would be lowered.

"Compulsory service also used to be done according to kazoe-doshi, too, but that was a long time ago."

"Huh."

"Yamato doesn't have compulsory service?"

Youshi shook her head, a sardonic smile creeping onto her face. "It doesn't, but it often seems like the compulsory service is year-round."

"How's that?"

"Adults work from morning till midnight. Children study from morning till midnight. It's not actually compulsory, but if you don't work harder than everybody else, you'll really get left behind. So everybody works through the night to the break of dawn."

"Sounds awful," said Rangyoku.

Keikei burst into the kitchen, having finished tending to the goat. "I'm done!" he cheerfully declared, ready for his next job. "Well, then, clean off the table and get out the dishes."

"Okay."

A twinkle in her eyes, Youshi watched Keikei dart off, rag in hand. "Hard worker, Keikei is."

Rangyoku readily agreed. "He is, isn't he?"

The abundant pride she evidenced made Youshi smile. "Is Keikei his name?"

"It's his nickname, what everybody calls him. His real name is Rankei."

Youshi laughed. "It really is very confusing."

6-2

Youko did not have a really good idea of who Enho was. Keiki had arranged for her to come to the orphanage and had asked him to be her teacher. He was, according to Keiki, a very distinguished scholar. She hadn't been able to get anything more out of Enho, either, other than that he was also the superintendent of Kokei.

The day after she arrived, Enho told Youko to come to the study in the afternoon and then after supper so that they could get acquainted. At first, they chatted about nothing important. After that, he spent several days inquiring into her personal history. Then he asked about Yamato. What kind of country it was, the nature of the geography, what kind of business and industry it had, how it was governed. What people thought and dreamed about.

As Youko conversed with Enho, many things surprised her. She was mortified at how little she knew about her native land.

After straightening up the kitchen after lunch, Youko slipped down the portico to the study. Along the way, she allowed herself a sigh. Another day answering questions. Day after day, the breadth and depth of her ignorance grew and grew.

When she got to the study, Enho wasn't there. She looked out at the garden and saw him sitting in the gazebo-like tea room, bathed in sunlight.

"Oh, there you are."

When she walked out onto the veranda facing the tea room, he smiled. "The weather's turned out so nice today. Youko, come and have a seat."

She obediently sat down on the bench in the tea house.

"This must be your first winter here. How are things going?"

"It doesn't feel so different from Japan."

"Oh?" said Enho, with a nod. "Kei is quite fortunate, compared with the kingdoms to the north. Still, in the northern part of the kingdom, you can freeze to death living outdoors. Game is scarce in the fields. It's not the same as the warmer kingdoms where, though the yield may be poor, you can plant during the winter and gather a harvest. So, during the winter, what do you think the most important thing is to people?"

"Um, a warm house?"

Enho stroked his beard. "I can see how that would be true in Yamato. But, no, not a house, but food. Yours is the opinion of someone from a country whose people do not suffer from starvation."

Youko bowed her head in chagrin.

"It is a particularly grave concern in the kingdoms to the north. The mere touch of bad weather during the summer will be reflected in the fall's harvest. Even a poor harvest will be taxed. And from what remains, a certain proportion must be set aside for next year's planting. Eat your seed corn and next year you will starve for sure. Even when the storehouses are full, in some kingdoms, goods cannot be easily transported during the winter. In some kingdoms, even if you are starving, the ground will be frozen too hard to dig for roots."

"I understand."

"Talk it through and you'll figure it out. You only have to work at it."

Youko glanced at Enho's profile. "Were you perhaps testing me?"

"No. I don't set out to test people. I just try to determine where the problems are. You're a stranger in a strange land. The gulf between here and there is vast. There's no way that I'm going to be able to comprehend where you've come from."

Right, said Youko, with a nod.

Enho gazed at the garden for several minutes. Then he said, "It is a universal truth that the foundations of the kingdom are in the land."

Caught a bit off guard, Youko came to attention.

"All citizens receive a plot of land when they reach their majority. A single allotment is equal to one hundred are, or one hundred paces squared [one hectare]. Nine allotments form a well brigade. A well brigade, or one square ri (900 are) [nine hectares], is owned by eight families."

"Wait a minute. The units of measurement… . "

Rokuta, the kirin of En, often crossed the Kyokai to Yamato, and was well-versed in things Japanese. He managed to bring back with him some books and a few tools. According to what he'd taught her, one pace was equal to 135 centimeters.

"If one pace is 135 centimeters, and one ri is 300 paces, then… . "

Watching her run through the calculations, Enho laughed. "You're thinking about it too hard. One pace is equal to two strides. This is a stride--" Enho took a single step forward. "The width of a step is one stride. Two strides, left, right, is equal to one pace."

"Oh. That makes sense."

"So two steps, or strides, makes one pace. When referring to area, one pace squared is also called a pace. And a shaku is as follows."

Enho put his hands together as if praying, and then opened his hands, spreading out the palms. "The width of my hands is one shaku. One shaku is ten sun, so each sun is approximately the width of a finger."

"Got it."

"One jou is harder to describe, but it is generally the height of a man. One shou can be thought of as the amount of liquid scooped up with two hands." He added with a smile, "But because a large man has a longer stride, a ri he measures will be bigger than an actual ri. Similarly, a small man's shou isn't going to add up to an actual shou. Keep this in mind and things should average out right."

"I see," Youko said, with a small laugh.

"To sum up, one allotment is equal to one hundred paces squared, a plot of land four hundred paces in circumference. As farmland, it's quite spacious. Nine allotments make up a well brigade. This land is divided up amongst eight families. The well brigade is the smallest division of jurisdictional discipline that the kingdom exerts over the citizenry itself."

"Eight families on nine allotments?"

Enho gave her an approving smile. "One allotment serves as the commons. Eight families farm the eight allotments, and the ninth is held in trust by the kingdom. Eighty percent of the commons, called the kouden, is yielded to the government as tax. The remaining twenty percent, called the roke, is reserved for houses and gardens."

Ah, that's how it works, Youko thought, recalling the scenes of hamlets dotting the countryside. The hamlets consisted of the same general number of buildings. Not enough buildings to be called a village, but assembled together in a kind of proto-village.

"The kouden is eighty are and the roke is twenty are. And twenty are is?"

"Um… two thousand square paces."

"That's right. A single family's share is two hundred square paces for the garden, fifty square paces for the house. Do you know how big a garden of two hundred square paces is?"

"Um, no."

"Fruits trees and mulberry bushes are planted around the periphery. The land left over is devoted to the garden. The garden should be sufficient to provide for one house and two people. A house of fifty paces is small. Two rooms, living room and kitchen. I believe in Japan it is called a two eru-dee-kee."

Youko grinned. "A 2LDK."

Enho smiled as well. "A house is generally counted as two people. There is enough land to supply the food and a house big enough for two. Eight such families constitute a hamlet. Three hamlets make a village. The village is smallest division of municipal incorporation. Three hamlets of eight families come to twenty-four families, plus the rike equals twenty-five."

"And you can get a house in the village as well?"

"Yes. The hamlets are in the countryside, so when the land lies fallow, there's not much for them to do there. During the winter, the twenty-four families return to the village."

Youko smiled. If she listened carefully, right now she could hear the lively voices from around the rike. The women had gathered to spin and work the looms. The men had gathered to weave matts and baskets. They would be talking about the goings-on in their hamlets.

"In any case, the basis of everything is the one square ri that constitutes a well brigade. It is governed according to the seidenhou, the law of well and paddy."

Youko took a breath. "Yes, it's written in the Divine Decrees, on the scrolls of the Law of the Land."

Oh? said Enho, hiking up his white eyebrows.

"But I could hardly read any of it."

Not only was it written in medieval Chinese characters, but in hakubun, a particularly dense kind of unpunctuated Chinese text. As a consequence, she found it mostly incomprehensible, and she didn't have access to anything like a Chinese-Japanese dictionary. Frankly, it was way over her head. Even having Keiki read it for her and following along in the text, she didn't have a clue.

"It would be preferable if somehow you could learn to read Chinese."

When Youko sighed, Enho laughed. "That's okay. You've got a good memory. If you work hard and take things seriously, you have what it takes to get by okay."

Unconsciously, she straightened her posture.

"The smallest possible house on the smallest possible plot of land. You work hard, and there are no natural disasters or unexpected phenomenon, you'll never be left to starve. All citizens of the kingdom get this minimum allotment. Whether or not they can live comfortably depends in the end on their own resourcefulness."

"And when there are natural disasters?"

"What you must keep in mind is the former, not the latter. You must stop trying to shoulder the burdens of the entire population. You must concern yourself with water and land management, and your own self-discipline, and by doing so extending your life if even just a little."

"I know that, but… . "

"As for the things that you ought to do, they are quite limited. To prepare for droughts, create reservoirs and dig canals. To prepare for floods, build dikes and levees and improve the watersheds. To prepare for famine, stockpile grain. To guard against youma, train the military. Then there's the untangling of the red tape that is the law… but that's about it. And these are mostly the responsibilities of the ministers, not something you should be doing yourself. Okay? Was there anything else troubling your mind?"

Youko laughed. "I guess you're right."

"Save superfluous thoughts like making the kingdom rich and prosperous for later. First, concentrate on quelling the turmoil and unrest, on making sure things are not getting any worse."

Youko took a deep breath. It felt as if a great weight was lifted from her shoulders. "Thank you," she said.

6-3

"So it's faster coming back the other way? Why's that?"

Suzu was standing on the deck, facing the wind. Hearing the kid's voice, she grimaced.

"It's the season. The wind blows from the northeast. The ocean currents also flow from north to south. That's why the return trip is faster."

"Huh."

When she turned around, she saw Seishuu sitting next to a sailor.

"Boats are real interesting. I'm going to become a sailor!"

"Good for you," the sailor laughed.

From Sou to a port in the southeast of Kei would take half a month. Already she had come halfway on her voyage. There weren't many people on the boat, so she'd pretty much gotten to know everybody. Seishuu was the youngest. He talked to everybody without the slightest hesitation, and because he always had something smart to say, even the sailors said he was a clever kid and doted on him. Watching all this just irritated Suzu.

He doesn't understand anything. But he's just a kid, so he can't help it.

Still, it ticked her off whenever he tried to tell her that the awful things that happened to her happened all the time, like being separated forever from your home.

All the time? Just how many kaikyaku do you think there are in this world?

With a huff, Suzu turned her back and returned to the stateroom.

The stateroom was filled with the smell of oil. It had repulsed her at first, but she'd gotten used to it. Still, if you stayed inside for long, the rolling motion of the boat and the smell made you sick to your stomach. That was why, when there was good weather, most of the passengers went out on the deck. Right now, Suzu was alone in the room.

The stateroom was split into two large areas where everybody slept. For the time being, there was a section for men and a section for women, but only because there were so few passengers.

Suzu sat down and let out a breath. From behind her, she heard that annoying voice.

"Hey, Suzu, quit giving me those looks the way you do."

Suzu didn't turn around. She pulled her luggage toward her as if she were busy. She opened a package inside the trunk. "What are you talking about?"

"That sailor got on my case. He thought I was teasing you or something."

"Oh?"

The light footsteps approached her. Seishuu sat down next to her. "What are you so mad at me for?"

"I'm not mad at anything."

"What a big baby."

Hearing his exaggerated sigh, she glared at him. "I'm an adult, that's why I'm not mad. I don't let myself get upset by what children do."

Seishuu gave Suzu a brief, searching look.

"What?"

"You look like an easy-going person on the outside, but you're a sourpuss underneath."

Suzu turned on him. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"Nobody's ever said that to you before? You really can be a pain."

Although knowing that if she lost her temper, she'd lose the argument, Suzu couldn't keep the blood from rushing to her head. Almost without realizing it, she hit him. "Shut up!"

Riyou. Kouko. Everybody hates me. Everybody has it in for me.

Seishuu's eyes flew open. He laughed. "I don't believe it! I'm right!'

"Get out of here!"

"Nobody likes to hear the truth about themselves."

"I said, get lost!"

"Does it hurt your feeling that much, telling you that lots of people are just like you? I wasn't wrong. Lots of people can't ever go home again. It's tough for everybody. There's nothing special about you. But you don't get it, that's what makes you such a meanie."

"I hate you!" Suzu couldn't take it anymore and broke down in tears. The truth did hurt. Nobody she'd met in this world had liked her. Nobody understood her. Nobody ever felt sorry for her.

But why? "Why does everybody pick on me? Riyou, you, what do you all have against me? What did I ever do to you!?"

"Who's Riyou?"

"The mistress of Suibi Grotto, in Sai."

It all gushed out of her. How cruel Riyou was. How demanding she was. All the hardships Suzu had suffered. How she was rescued by the Royal Sai, who turned around and kicked her out of the palace. But saying all this wouldn't make a bit of difference to a child like him.

"It's too bad, Suzu. You're more of a kid than I am."

"What?"

"Do you like yourself, Suzu?"

Suzu shot him a surprised look.

"Do you think you're a good person?"

"Not really." She was so miserable all the time.

"So it's hardly surprising that other people don't like you either, huh? After all, don't people put themselves first, and always think of themselves first?"

Suzu gaped at him.

"It's asking an awful lot, expecting other people to like you when you don't even like yourself."

"I didn't mean--" Suzu hastily arranged her thoughts. "That's not what I meant! Of course I like myself. Who doesn't? But nobody ever tells me! I don't like the me that nobody else likes. That's what I meant."

"So, does that make the people who don't like you bad people? What if you changed your attitude and became a likeable person? But that's a reach for you, too. So you end up being disagreeable. Nothing more. End of story."

"You don't understand!" Suzu wrung her hands together. "You don't understand me! It's because I'm a kaikyaku! Kaikyaku are different from people like you! That's why you all hate me for no reason at all!"

"You know, I can't stand people like you." Seishuu took a breath and let it out.

"Who wants to be like that? Trying to be unhappier than anybody else, then taking the easy way out and blaming your unhappiness for all your problems."

Suzu gasped. She detested this little runt to a degree that made her dizzy.

"It's really dumb," he continued. "All you can do is brag about how unluckier you are than everybody else. And even when you're not, you're the kind of person who'll make sure that you are."

"No fair! You're just being mean! Why do you have to say things like that? After all the suffering I've been through!"

"Did all that suffering make you a better person? Does all your patience make you feel better about yourself? Me, when it comes to suffering, I'd rather put it behind me." Seishuu cocked his head to one side. "Do you think if you weren't a kaikyaku, everything would be peachy? You're a wizard. You won't get sick, won't ever grow old, right? What do you say when you're around people who really are sick and suffering? Wizards don't have to worry about eating, neither. You go to where people are starving to death, are you still gonna think you're worse off than them?"

"I don't want to talk to you. You just saying that because you caught all the lucky breaks and I didn't."

"I caught all the lucky breaks?"

"Yeah. You were born here and grew up here, and you've got a family and a place to go home to."

"I don't have a home."

"What?" said Suzu.

"I used to live in Kou. And not just my home, but our entire village is gone." Seishuu wrapped his arms around his knees. "We lived near the Kyokai. The whole cliff gave way and sent everything and everybody into the sea. Well, not everybody, if you're gonna get picky about it. There's always me." He laughed. "Everybody who was at home, my aunt and the kids, they all died. I'm lucky to be alive."

Suzu was at a loss for words. She recalled the village that had given her shelter when she was swept ashore in Kei. The village overlooking the ocean, clinging to the edge of the cliffs. If that cliff collapsed… .

"Go to Kou and you'll find a lot of kids like me. The king died. The Taiho died, too. It's going to be hard times until a new king sits on the throne, and that's not going to happen overnight. Everybody's getting out while they can. I don't know when they're going to get a new king, but I know I'm not going back until they do. Maybe I'll never go back."

"But… . "

"My village happened to be close to the borders of Sou. I was lucky enough to escape. Kou is only going to get worse. After this, even if you wanted to make a run for it, it's not likely you could."

"Still, you wanted to escape."

"Not everybody wants to run away. You own home is always best. Lots of people started running and were lining up at the borders. Then the youma came and ate them up. Even if they had homes to go home to, they're not going home now." He muttered, almost as an aside, "My father, neither."

"And your mother?"

"Dead," said Seishuu, with a unsettled laugh. "We were all going to get a boat and sail to Kei. But she died before the boat came into port. I gave my mom's ticket to that old man."

A scrawny, middle-aged man had come aboard with him.

"He's from Kou, too. He got out with just the clothes on his back. Didn't have the money for the fare."

"But why Kei? You escaped to Sou." Sou was the wealthiest of the Twelve Kingdoms.

"Because we're originally from Kei."

"From Kei?"

"The empress of Kei, the one before the empress now, before she took the throne, things were really in a bad state. When I was real small, we fled to Kou. There ought to be a nice, quiet village there, right? Mom said that when Kei got a new king, we'd go back." Seishuu took a deep breath. "Mom and Dad weren't very lucky. They died knowing nothing but hard times."

Suzu gave him an irritated look. "My parents suffered a lot, too. We were poor, never had anything good to eat. And then the crops failed. I was sold as an indentured servant and sent packing."

"Yeah, but that's better than everybody dying."

"You only say that because you're so fortunate. Your parents were good to you, right? My parents were the kind of parents who sell their children."

"True, I liked my parents, but it's lonely being the only one left."

"Same with me. You're the lucky one. You were with them to the end. I'll never see my parents again. I don't know what became of the country I left, except that they're all dead for sure."

"So, we're in the same boat together."

"We're not the same! Just being there when they died, that was a blessing. I wanted to care for them in their old age."

"Being there when my mom died, well, okay. But my dad was eaten by a youma. I really didn't want to see that."

"Still, he was there with you till the end! I wanted to take care of them no matter what happened. I didn't want to leave their side, ever."

Seishuu tilted his head to the side. "You know, Suzu, you're doing everything you can right now to be unhappy."

"What?"

"You're being cruel. It should be pretty obvious whether it's better to see your father torn to piece and eaten by a youma, or not. I didn't want to see that. I couldn't run to him, either. I couldn't do anything to help. I had no choice but to run away. My father has no grave. There was no funeral. Do you really mean that is better?"

Suzu's hand flew to her mouth. "I… . "

"It's a lie to say that your suffering is worse than anybody else's. Everybody suffers the same. If there's somebody somewhere who's never suffered, I'd like to meet them."

"I'm sorry, I didn't… . " She bowed her head in chagrin. This child had seen his father slaughtered in front of his eyes. There was no way that was the better fate.

"When things really get that bad, people do what ever they can to escape it. If it's not bad enough to do that, Suzu, you weren't suffering enough to want to run away."

"But… . "

"I don't know how to describe it, but you know that feeling when you want to die, and you know that fighting on won't do any good?"

"That's, um… . . "

"Talk is easy. Suzu, whatever you suffered wasn't bad enough to try to escape from or die trying. Nobody's gonna feel sorry for people who drown themselves in their own misfortunes. After all, living your own life is a full-time job. If you had someone sidling up to you all the time and wanting you to feel all sorry for them, you'd get sick of them. Don't you think?"

Is that what it comes down to? Is that why nobody could stand to have her around? Though she could hardly believe that Riyou or Kouko every really suffered in their lives.

Um… . " said Seishuu.

Suzu looked up and saw that Seishuu was resting his head on his knees.

"What's wrong?"

"Being around you makes my head hurt."

Suzu gave the smart remark an equally sharp look, but then noticed the sweat on his brow. "Does it's really hurt? Are you all right?"

"I'm okay."

He rolled over and lay down. His face was gray.

"Hold on. I'll go get somebody."

"Don't bother. I'll feel better after some sleep. I'm used to it."

Suzu peered closely at his face. "This happen often?"

"Now and then. It's this injury that hurts."

"Injury?"

"A youma nicked me in the back of the head. It starts hurting now and then."

"Oh."

"I'll be okay. It gets better after I sleep."

Suzu quickly got a blanket and tucked it around his shoulders.

6-4

Shoukei was assigned to the Shousha, the superintendent in charge of the palace buildings in the Ministry of Heaven. To be precise, she was made a servant to his underlings.

Her day began before daybreak. She was awakened before she could see the first rays of dawn and started earning her daily keep by dusting all the furniture. She polished the windows, swept, mopped and polished the floors. Before the empress and ministers awoke, everything had to be washed and dried.

The gardens were groomed while the empress and ministers were in their meetings. Weeds were pulled, the cobblestones swept and scrubbed. By the time the high officials finished with their duties and returned to their ministries, everything had to be wiped down again. And then you had to rush back to the place they just left and straight it up. At the end of the day, you washed all the cleaning rags and went to bed right after dinner.

If she were mopping the floor or washing the cobblestones and the empress or a minister happened to pass by, she had to prostrate herself right there in the place she was cleaning. She stooped over or kowtowed until the person in question had gone by. Otherwise, she had to walk around with a big pile of rags in a hamper on her back. If anybody complained about a spot of dirt anywhere, she had to fly over, bow with her face to the floor, and wipe away the stain.

Her quarters were in a dorm in a corner of the Imperial Palace. She was given clothes to wear and was never hungry. Winters in Kyou were slightly more temperate than winters in Hou, and the world above the Sea of Clouds even more so compared to the world below. But life here was a lot worse than it was when she was living in that poor little village in Hou.

The other servants took pride in working at the palace, but pride was the farthest things from Shoukei's mind. Until three years ago, she had been the one walking on the polished floors, the one being kowtowed to. It was her own personal hell to have to scrape the floor with her forehead in a palace like it.

On top of that, the Royal Kyou Shushou assiduously avoided her. Since that first day, she had not spoken to her once. At best, as Shoukei crawled along the floor, she might spy a glimpse of the brilliant silk train of her dress, a whiff of fragrant perfume, the clear, lucid chiming of her swaying obidama as she sailed past her.

Once it had all been within her grasp.

"What's this?"

Shoukei put down the cloth she was using to dust the furniture and picked up the ornamental hairpin in the shape of a flower. It was made from a kind of limpid ruby mined in the Kingdom of Tai. It was in the shape of a peony, carved from a single crystal of the transparent, scarlet gemstone, a gorgeous, blossoming flower, layered with petals so thin you imagined them bending at the touch of a fingertip.

"I used to have dozens. The ministers fell over each other presenting them to me."

She was in a room inside the imperial repository. The jewelry was neatly lined up on a shelf, wrapped in clothes.

So what's with all these things? Probably got stored here and long forgotten. Stored away, belonging to no one, put away for safekeeping, waiting to be disposed of by the next king or to decorate the hair of the queen or princess. And so the gifts just piled up in the repository.

Or the empress.

Shoukei was seized with the urge to dash the hairpin on the floor.

The Royal Kyou. Or the Royal Kei.

Right now, these were the kinds of accolades and glory raining down on them. And this was the cruel lot that she, the mere daughter of a king, had been left to.

"Sooner or later, everything comes to an end."

Every king, too, comes to an end. A day when the corpses roll on the floor.

She tried calming herself with these words but would not be pacified. Her life would end before that day came for the Royal Kyou and Royal Kei.

"You done in there?"

The sudden voice made Shoukei's heard skip a beat. The old woman who oversaw the Shousha's servants had caught sight of her.

"Um… yes, I am."

"Well, then, get onto your next job. If you don't hurry up and get it done, you won't be in time for dinner."

"I'm sorry," Shoukei apologized, rewrapping the hairpin.

The old woman laughed. "Allowing young women in here is always a mistake. I understand how you feel, but don't go around touching the fine merchandise. There'd be hell to pay if any of it got broke."

"Yes," she said, placing it back on the shelf.

"They all think, what would this look like in my hair? Oh, I'd be so beautiful. I did the same thing when I was your age."

Shoukei glanced back at the wrinkled old woman. The woman smiled. "It's always a disappointment. It don't look right on girls like us, just looks sad and funny, like decorating a scarecrow with flowers."

Shoukei picked up the cleaning cloth and clenched it tightly.

"We've got the arms and legs of people who work for a living. Strong physiques and even dispositions. Got no rank or fine jewelry to wear, but you don't need those to have pride in a sound body and mind. Don't need to care about doodads like that."

But I'm different. The words stuck in her throat. She painfully swallowed the retort.

With no idea what Shoukei was thinking, the lady laughed. "Only makes it worse, you still being young and all. And kinda cute as well. But you got to treasure what's been given you. You don't want to go lusting after baubles and ignoring your hard-won talents. Well, when you're done here, go to the room in the back."

Her head bowed, Shoukei hurried out of the room and went to a room deeper in the building. She closed the door and took several deep breaths.

The jewel of Youshun Palace. Skin like pearl, dark blue hair like the sky before daybreak. Eyes the color of amethyst. Waves of praise and adoration falling on her as ceaselessly as the waves breaking upon the shore. She'd lost all of it, and for no reason of her own.

"I used to have tons of these," she said to herself, approaching the shelf.

It was the room where the ceremonial fineries were kept, used to dress up the empress, queen or princess for religious festivals. Robes entwined with the feathers of a phoenix, strings of black pearls like so many poppy seeds woven into a fretwork, a diadem displaying a phoenix perched on the branch of a Chinese parasol tree.

The jewels could be plucked by the handful from the gemstone fountains in the Kingdom of Tai. She knew for a fact that of most value were the pearls, harvested in the southern waters of the Red Sea.

All gone. All those beautiful things that had once been hers, locked away in the imperial repository in Hou, waiting for the next king to be crowned.

"But they were all mine."

They had been made for her, tailored to her specifications, presented to her by her retainers. Why must they pass right under her nose to the next empress? Shoukei found herself possessed of the conviction that she must be the next empress of Hou.

I am the Empress. Just like that girl the same age as me. The Royal Kei.

That girl got lucky and robbed her of everything that had once been rightfully her own. Here she was, crawling and groveling, being worked to death, growing old and decrepit without a speck of joy or happiness, while she was adorning herself with all these treasures.

Unforgivable.

The Royal Kei had taken everything Shoukei had lost. A girl who had been a big fat nothing until the kirin chose her, and then she went and grabbed everything Shoukei had lost. A peon like her didn't deserve a thing.

Right now she'd be in the imperial palace in Kei, living it up on cloud nine. Like Shoukei, she'd never dream that one day she'd lose it all. She'd be too busy dressing herself up in all her countless gowns and adorning herself with ruby hairpins.

I'll steal it all back. Shoukei would take from that girl everything that had been taken from her. She casually placed the phoenix diadem on her head. There was a mirror in the corner of the room. She removed the dust cover and gazed into the glass.

Still fits me like a charm.

She quickly straightened her clothes and prettied up her hair.

Let's say I take this from the Royal Kei.

And the throne as well.

If it was okay for Gekkei, that monster who'd killed her father and cast her into these miserable circumstances, then it'd be okay for her, too. Shoukei glanced in the direction of the Royal Kyou's living quarters. I'll take it from her, she thought momentarily. But it would never fill the void in her soul the same way taking it from the Royal Kei would.

She said aloud, "I'll usurp the throne of the Royal Kei."

And when she did, she'd cheerfully tell the Royal Kyou to put up or shut up. The license you gave to Gekkei, now you give to me. Then at last she would be at peace.

Shoukei put down the diadem. She carefully wrapped it in its cloth and placed it back on the shelf. Instead, after perusing all the objects, she chose several smaller baubles and ornamented belts, and hid them inside a pile of rags in her cleaning hamper. If she broke them apart and sold the gems, she had enough to cover her travel expenses to Kei.

Of course, she'd be found out. Everything in here was under the purview of a conservator, and his underlings came by every day, dusting off and polishing the merchandise. But that a concern for tomorrow. They had all completed their work for the day.

She inspected the position of everything on the shelf, filling in the spaces left behind. With an innocent look plastered on her face, she did her cleaning and then hid the bounty in the undergrowth in the garden. Wearing a guileless expression, she washed her rags and ate dinner. She returned to her room with four other servants and pretended to sleep while she waited for night to fall.

In the dead of night, she strapped the hamper to her back and approached the main gates to palace complex. She called out to the night-watchman there, saying that as a punishment for her carelessness, she had been ordered by the empress to clean her riding tack.

With a doubtful look on his face, the night-watchman let her pass.

If there were no mounts there to fly her away from the gates, she'd never get out. The pegasi were kept in the royal stables outside the gate, but they couldn't be ridden by ordinary servants.

But I'm no ordinary servant.

Entering the stables, her eyes fell upon a flying horse called a kitsuryou. She quickly saddled him up.

"I used to have a kitsuryou of my own."

She grinned, flung open the stable doors, laughed in the face of the night-watchman running toward her, and launched herself into the sky.

"Amazing."

Shushou sat her flabbergasted self down in the chair. According to the night-watchman, a servant had commandeered a pegasus and, ignoring his commands to halt, had flown away from the palace gates. Upon closer inspection, it turned out to be Shoukei, the princess from Hou given over to her custody. And not only that, several valuables had vanished from the imperial repository.

"She certainly surprised me."

"Then, you have done all you can for her," the kirin answered in a perplexed voice. More than one of grace or refinement, this kirin left an impression of profound naivite.

Shushou smiled sweetly at her retainer. "I've done what? No matter what the circumstances, breaking the law is still a bad thing. Right?"

"And who drove her to do such a bad thing? Please consider that as well."

"But, of course," Shushou laughed. "C'mere, Kyouki."

She beckoned him with her smiling countenance to come up next to her and squat down. Kyouki obediently knelt down and looked up at his eternally young liege. Then the palm of her hand striking the side of his face. The sound alone made the assembled ministers flinch.

The hand she raised against the Saiho of the kingdom didn't even leave a mark. Shushou shook the stinging sensation out of hand. "I would have preferred a kirin smaller than me, like the En Taiho. I want to give somebody a walloping and my arm won't even reach. It is really annoying."

"Your Highness--"

Shushou said with a grin, "That Shoukei was really annoying, too. Such a stuck-up brat, she had nothing but contempt for the life of a servant, didn't she? Otherwise, what would be the point? I wanted to needle her a bit."

"Your Highness!"

"The princess royal becomes a mere servant, working from dawn till dusk, kowtowing to people. So she steals some things and runs away and that's the end of it? Times like this, a kirin's compassion makes me laugh."

With a hmph, Shushou raised her head and gazed down at her retainer, cowering there with downcast eyes. "What is with you kirin? Don't you realize that this so-called compassion is like spitting in the face of all the other honest, hard-working servants?"

Shushou looked down at the disheartened man. "Nobody lives better than the royalty of a kingdom. I live a better, more blessed life than any servant, but I bear far more responsibilities than any servant. That's why, though I live a life clothed in silk, the servants forgive me that and bow their heads. Were that not the case, I'd pretty soon lose my head like the Royal Hou. No?"

"Ah… yes."

"Shoukei didn't have a clue about those responsibilities. She didn't live up to those responsibilities. The godforsaken work is too hard, cleaning is too hard. She whines and complains and carries on like the spoilt child she is. If we look the other way now, we're insulting all the people who do those jobs and do them well. If we treat her the same as everybody else who puts in a full day's work, who doesn't steal, who doesn't run away, how are we keeping faith with those good people?"

Shushou sighed and glanced down at her hangdog kirin. "I understand people like her, but she is unworthy of anybody's pity. With all these gushings of misplaced compassion, you ought to be a mortician. You're exactly the right person to bring to a funeral. Stand there weeping with a kirin by your side, I'm sure it'd be very consoling to the bereaved family."

"Please forgive me."

Shushou called to the assembled ministers. "Dispatch the Imperial Army and capture Shoukei. Contact Han and Ryuu and ask them to extradite her if the criminal falls into their grasp."

"As you wish, Your Highness."

The servant from the imperial repository still lay prostrated before her. Shushou gave her a long look. "Raise your head, please. I know that you are surrounded by many temptations in the course of your duties. You have done well to resist them."

"But I failed to supervise her properly."

"That was not your fault in the least. You have served well. Keep up the good work, okay?"

"Yes, Your Highness."

At the sight of the overwhelmed old lady, Kyouki touched his cheek and sighed.