A Thousand Leagues of Wind, the Sky at Dawn

8-1

"I don't recall giving you anything."

Shoukei sat, bound in cords, in a jail in Ryuu. The jail was so cold that frost was forming on the walls. The rat had been arrested along with her.

"I'd appreciate it if you could tell me what's going on."

Shoukei didn't answer. She didn't have a good answer. Accused of a frightening crime, she had abruptly blamed another person. That's all it came down to.

"What's your name?"

"Shoukei."

The guilt weighed so heavily on her mind, she tossed off the answer without thinking.

"Shoukei… that wouldn't be the name of the princess royal of Hou?"

Shoukei unconsciously nodded.

"Her full name is Son Shou, her azana is Shoukei."

"I… . "

How was it that a hanjuu from En would know such things? The imperial family's name was not widely circulated. The surnames of such high status individuals were not loosely bandied about.

"Rumors had it that you'd died, and rumors that you lived."

"Who are you?"

The rat stroked his whiskers. "My name is Rakushun. An ordinary student."

"Ordinary students ride suugu pegasi?"

"Like I said, it's a loaner. Are you being pursued because you're the princess royal?"

Shoukei didn't reply. She remembered what had happened to her the last time she'd confessed who she was. "If there's something on your mind, go ahead and ask me."

"I think you have more to worry about than me."

Shoukei flashed a crooked smile. "You know why I'm in jail? Because when you screw up, you get crucified."

Rakushun tugged on his whiskers. "Crucifixion? I guess that is what they do in Hou, the only kingdom that executes a criminal for the crime of theft. In fact, Hou has already repealed that law."

"Really?"

"It seems that the Royal Hou was quite the disciplinarian. Theft was a capital offense. Stealing gold or specie from the royal family merited death by the flogging. In the case of gems and jewelry, crucifixion. Stealing food got your head placed upon a pike. Have I got that right? But only in Hou. Normally, it's a hundred lashes. In Ryuu, it depends on the crime. A hundred strokes with the cane and ninety days of hard labor, I believe."

Shoukei looked at the rat in surprise. He was conversant in the laws of other kingdoms. This knowledge was the province of government officials. And, in fact, there were few even among those charged with enforcement of the laws that were well-versed in the penal codes of other kingdoms.

She explained this and asked again, "You're really an ordinary person?"

"An ordinary student. Any school student from En should know as much."

"Secondary school?"

"No, university."

Shoukei again looked at him with wide eyes. In Hou, there was one secondary school per province. The one national university admitted no more than a hundred students, so becoming a university students was no small feat. Upon graduation, you would become a civil servant or a high public official. Many dreamed of being accepted, but there were those who would take the entrance exam every year of their life and never pass.

"A child like you? How old are you?"

Rakushun's whiskers drooped. "I'm always mistaken for a child. Well, no matter. I'm twenty-two."

Shoukei blinked. It was not impossible but he would still be improbably young. It was not simply a matter of first qualifying for the selection process and then passing the entrance exams. You would also need the recommendation of your secondary school principal. It was not rare for students to be over thirty.

"That's quite impressive." This rat had it made. A comfortable life as a government bureaucrat. Shoukei had nothing. Not a thing. Only to wait for her trial, tied up in this jail.

"Well, getting arrested like this isn't exactly a good thing. I'll probably end up being expelled."

Shoukei looked at the rat. If he was indeed a college student, not only his intelligence, but his integrity had been called into question. Of course, if you were punished according to your crimes, he would undoubtedly be expelled.

However, Shoukei remembered, she would probably be extradited to Kyou, there to enjoy the scorn and punishments of the Royal Kyou. And it was likely that her punishments would be more severe than what was normally called for. This rat hardly stood to lose everything he had, while Shoukei had only her life left to her. One slip and she'd lose that, too.

"Well, I wonder what's going to happen next? So what happened to you? Why did all those Ryuu soldiers come storming into our room?"

Shoukei wouldn't answer the question. She turned her back and slumped back against the wall and closed her eyes, showing she had no more inclination to talk. From behind her, she heard a small sigh.

She feigned sleep but could not sleep. Trembling, she passed the night till dawn. The next day she was dragged out of jail. As she was hauled to her feet, she cast a glance back at the jail. From inside the jail, the rat leaned forward and gave her a fixed look.

The jail was in the depths of the city hall. Shoukei had no idea whether this city was located in district or prefecture or county or anything else. Criminal cases were prosecuted in county and provincial courts, but a jail could be located anywhere.

Shoukei was escorted to the main chamber of the city hall and, still bound, sat down on the floor. A fat, middle-aged man sat on the rostrum in front of her. The jailers seized Shoukei by the binding cords and forced her to bow till her forehead touched the floor.

"The princess royal of Hou, Son Shou."

"No, I'm not. I could not possibly be such a personage as that."

The man smiled quizzically. "Is that so? We have word from the Royal Kyou herself that the princess royal of Hou stole objects from the imperial palace and fled the country. We also received notice of a warrant being issued by the empress for her arrest. The Royal Kyou kindly provided a catalog of the stolen articles, which together with the warrant was delivered by carrier pigeon. How do you explain that most of the articles listed in the catalog were found amongst your belongings?"

"They were… given to me." Her head pressed to the floor, she had to spit out the words. "The hanjuu I shared the room with, he gave them to me." Shoukei made the assertion, guilt heavy on her mind. I'm sorry, but there is no way I can go back to Kyou.

The man on the rostrum roared with laughter. "Do you really think that anybody here actually believes such lies?"

"But--!"

"Of course, it's exactly what a naif like the princess royal would say. She steals from the imperial palace in Kyou and flees the kingdom, stupid enough to stay in inns along the way. Instead of abandoning a conspicuous animal like a kitsuryou, she takes it along with her. Goods she should have pawned at once, she instead carefully hides in her luggage."

Shoukei bit her lip. She truly had botched it from the start. She had been so happy to be free that she had left common sense by the wayside.

"And all you stole were a few trinkets and baubles. How like a girl. A very silly girl."

"Kensei," a voice addressed the man on the rostrum. A kensei was a county court judge, meaning she was in a county court. "Would the princess royal have done such a foolish thing? It stands to reason that this girl is not the princess royal."

"That is a possibility," the judge agreed cheerfully. "Of course not. The truth must lie elsewhere. I shall ask her again. Are you the Princess Royal Son Shou?"

"I'm not!" she screamed at the floor, grasping at this one last straw.

"So the real princess royal forced these items upon you, and did so in order to mislead her pursuers. But would she have given such hard-won treasures to a complete stranger? No, not likely. So, what is it, miss? Were these items really given to you? Or did you steal them?"

Shoukei couldn't answer.

"Raise your head and look me in the eye. Are these stolen goods?"

Shoukei raised her head and looked into the red face of a man wearing a complacent smile. "No… they are not."

"And were they given to you? If they were, what kind of person is this, running around bestowing such idiotic alms on complete strangers? Or rather--"

The judge's voice softened to a coaxing purr. "Or rather, isn't it true that they've been yours all along? Afraid that your possession of them would be thought incriminating, you said they'd been given to you? It was mere coincidence that they happened to resemble the items in the catalog, when in fact they have nothing whatsoever to do with the booty spirited away from Kyou."

Grasping the direction in which he was steering the conversation, Shoukei nodded. "Yes."

"Yet aren't such fineries a bit too rich for a girl like you?"

"But… they're mine… really."

"Doubtful. Still, we're busy around here. Things to do, places to go. We simply do not have the time or resources to go around investigating every little suspicious incident. Once the court has been compensated for the costs of your confinement, you shall be released."

The implied deal now clear, Shoukei recoiled inside. The man was asking for a bribe. The clerks and officials in the courtroom were all snickering as well.

She said, "Sir, if you could find it in your heart to pardon the inconveniences I've imposed upon the court, I should want to leave the items in my satchel and the kitsuryou to your honor's safekeeping."

"Is that so?" The judge slapped his knees. "You are indeed a young girl familiar with the ways of the world. We shall set aside the complaint. Any resemblance between your goods and the aforementioned catalog of items is declared purely coincidental. It would of course be untenable to take them into custody if they were the property of the Royal Kyou, but as they are yours by declaration, I do not see a problem."

"They are mine," Shoukei stated, flashing an understanding smile at the judge and court officials.

"Understood. You shall be released upon your own recognizance. The court hereby takes into custody the kitsuryou and the remainder of your personal goods. Your bags and purse shall be returned to you. You are free to go."

"I thank the court."

Shoukei bowed her head, hiding the emotions that flooded to her face.

Shoukei collected her bags and purse from the bailiff and staggered down the freezing, windswept street.

I'm saved.

She had not only been spared her life, but would not be sent back to Kyou. Her hard-won treasures, however, had been stolen out from under her, along with the kitsuryou. And that wasn't all.

Shoukei put her hand into her pocket and found there her much lighter purse. The hairpin she'd given to the inn had been confiscated. When returning the purse to her, the bailiff said that her account at the inn had been settled with the contents of her purse.

But even left penniless was many times better than being sent back to Kyou, or so she told herself as she adjusted her leather overcoat and wrapped her shawl around her neck.

But what do I do now?"

In her bags she had a change of clothes and some jewelry she had bought the other day. If she hocked it all for cash, just how much further could she go? In order to get to Kei, she'd have to go to Tai and get her hands on a passport. But to get to Tai in the first place, she'd have to board a boat from Ryuu bound for Tai. And she didn't have enough to cover her travel expenses for more than five days.

What if she traveled on foot and stayed in the cheapest inns? And if that didn't work, she'd have to travel while groveling for free lodging along the way, begging for day labor, and generally relying on the kindness of strangers. It wasn't something she had ever believed she could do.

At a complete loss as to what to do, Shoukei exited through the gates of the town hall, hanging her head.

"So you're all right, then," a voice called out to her.

Shoukei looked up in surprise and saw the rat there holding the reins of the splendid suugu. "You… . "

"I was wondering how things turned out and came over to see how you were doing. It looks like you cleared everything up."

"Not necessarily."

Shoukei spun around and walked off in the other direction. The sound of footsteps soon came pattering after her.

"Not necessarily?"

"What it came down to was, I pay a bribe and all is forgiven. The result was, they took everything I had." Shoukei spat on the street. There was no sense in taking it out on the rat, but the happy-go-lucky expression on his face irritated her.

"Strange," he said in a low voice. Shoukei turned to him. He said, "To think that the government officials of Ryuu would even make such demands."

"These ones did. There's nothing unusual about it. In every world and every kingdom there are people who brandish power to line their own pockets."

"But Ryuu is renown for its constitutional government. The Royal Hou also tried to emulate Ryuu in the creation of the national polity."

Shoukei stopped walking.

"Far more laws were promulgated disciplining the bureaucracy than the citizenry, though Hou differed a bit in the actual implementation. The public servants of Ryuu should not act corruptly. Laws forbid it. And you're saying that a county court judge so brazenly asked for a bribe? It does all begin to make sense."

"What does?"

"That the system charged with monitoring the bureaucracy is itself breaking down. Shoukei, you said you wanted to go to Tai? And you intended to depart from a port in Ryuu?"

Shoukei laughed derisively. "I don't have enough money to travel directly to Kei."

"I would advise against it."

"Why?"

Amidst the hustle and bustle of traffic headed toward the main gate, the rat lowered his voice. "Youma are appearing in the Kyokai."

"I heard that yesterday."

"Half of them are coming from Tai, but the other half are coming from the shores of Ryuu."

"What?"

Shoukei stopped again and looked at the hanjuu. His black eyes looked back at her. He said, "Ryuu is on the decline."

Shoukei thought this over for a minute. The Royal Ryuu had ruled his country longer than the Royal Kyou. Already, his reign had passed a hundred and twenty years, and he was said to be an enlightened monarch. Shoukei had always thought of the nearest three kingdoms, Han, Kyou and Ryuu, as inviolable. These had been stable kingdoms since the time she was born.

"So what's your next step?"

Suddenly asked this question, Shoukei turned to face Rakushun. Without really knowing what she was doing, she stepped out of the pedestrian traffic moving along the street.

"My next step?"

"Didn't you say you wanted to go to Tai? And all your stuff got ripped off. So you've got no travel money, right? I'm going to wander around Ryuu for a bit and then return to En. If that's okay with you, want to come along?"

Shoukei gaped at him. "You're kidding me. You mean, take me to En?"

"To Kankyuu, if you don't mind. But I am going to have to ask you to hoof it for a while."

"Are you stupid? Didn't I almost get you framed for theft?"

Rakushun laughed. "Not at all. I didn't think I was going to be charged. The endorsements on my visa do carry a bit of weight."

"That's not the problem."

He laughed again. "These kinds of fortuitous encounters seem to be my destiny."

8-2

The new year began.

In half a month, Suzu and Seishuu had come to Shisui Prefecture at the western fringes of Wa Province. If they kept on along this road, heading west, they would enter Eishuu, home province of Gyouten, the capital.

They'd covered this much ground in a fortnight by horse cart. Nevertheless, they'd only gotten this far because Seishuu's condition had worsened markedly. No matter what she did, his difficulties began as soon as he woke up. Sometimes he would spend half the day in pain. On such days, and often the next, they couldn't really travel.

Midway through their journey, they welcomed in the New Year.

Seishuu's eyes hadn't improved. His vertigo was as bad as before, making it difficult for him to travel on foot. His headaches began to be accompanied by convulsions and then by vomiting.

"Sorry, Suzu."

He was lying in the bed of a swaying horse cart. The tarp over the wagon covered the bed of the cart. When they had the room, farmers in the outlying villages made a bit of money giving rides to people walking along the road. Officials traveled in stagecoaches, but they were reserved for the wealthy, and didn't give rides to people like Suzu.

"How's the money holding out? I could walk if we had to. Though not very fast."

"We're doing okay. You don't need to worry about such things." Suzu gave him a playful rap on the forehead.

Seishuu laughed and then pouted, "Don't treat me like a pissant little kid."

His smiling face was drawn and thin. He was sick so often that he couldn't keep anything down. The way he spoke was strange as well. Because Suzu was a wizard, she could understand everything he said, but to everybody else, like the horse cart driver, he only spoke gibberish. His condition had reached the stage where words like "Go" and "Listen" were the only intelligible things they heard.

"If you've got the time to waste mouthing off, then go to sleep."

"I do worry, Suzu. You can be so unreliable."

"Oh, shut up," she said, but had to smile. She no longer got angry when he needled her. There was no malice in his words. It's true that sometimes people would say things that would set him off as well. When he'd say something like, "I'm in pretty bad shape, aren't I?" It was easier just to tell him, "Oh, no you're not."

Suzu looked at Seishuu. "Perhaps it was like that for Riyou-sama as well."

"What was?"

"Everybody at the Grotto hated her. But when asked, nobody ever said they did. We'd all shake our heads and say, 'Of course not!' Still, Riyou would always have some sarcastic comeback."

"Nobody likes to be told people don't like them. At the same time, nobody likes to be told that they're liked by everybody when they know they aren't."

"In that case, it's better if you're not a disagreeable person to start with."

"Yeah," said Seishuu, staring up at the tarp tented over the bed of the cart. "People will be irritating. People will get under your skin. People know they shouldn't do stuff like that, but you know they will."

"Yeah, they will."

"At times, it may occur to them that they did in fact do something wrong. If they then ask if there are people who don't like them, and they're plainly told that there aren't, obviously they're not going to be satisfied. Even if they're told that there are, they're not going to like it."

"Maybe not."

"If things keep going on in that vein, in ways that they don't understand themselves, they'll get stubborn and say, 'So tell me what you really think.' I think a lot of people come to feel that way."

Suzu gave him a surprised look. "I sounds like you know what's it like to be Riyou-sama."

"It's not hard to imagine."

"I guess not."

When she thought back about it now, she had never tried to imagine what it must have been like to be Riyou. She only thought about what a mean bitch she was.

"Honestly, I never gave a moment's thought to how Riyou-sama felt. Putting up with her was enough. It's hard to imagine that it also frustrated and rankled Riyou and that's what made her so cynical. And when she couldn't stomach what you said, she'd heap a lot of unpleasant chores on your back. The only place you could catch your breath was in your own bed. Even then, she'd wake you up at all hours."

Seishuu sighed. "That really is sad."

"It was awful."

"Not you, Suzu. You were there because you chose to be there. That's not true of Riyou."

Suzu gave him a reproachful glare. "You're not me. Are you telling me you feel sorry for her?"

"Isn't it a pain always having to be such a stick-in-the-mud like that? It looks like you ended up hating yourself, too. Sure must suck being you. But the problem is, you can never run away from yourself."

"I suppose," Suzu said peevishly, looking the other way. She lifted a corner of the tarp and glanced out at the road. "It may sound funny to you, but it really was tough. It's sad to think that my happiest moments were when I could crawl into a freezing bed on winter nights and have all my own thoughts to myself."

"There were other people, weren't there? You never thought of talking to them?"

"I did. But me being a kaikyaku, most people didn't get me. They'd laugh at me every time I'd ask about something I didn't know, so I lost interest. To be sure, it was bad of me not to try and learn stuff myself, but when people are always laughing at you, and they don't have much of desire to learn anything about you, pretty soon there's not much point to it."

"So you'd lie in you bed and tell yourself how pitiful you were, how you were the unluckiest girl in the whole world, and cry yourself to sleep."

"That's not… . " she started to say. But it was, she realized, blushing at the truth. "I didn't do that. I thought about lots of things. Like, how it was all a dream, and when I opened my eyes again I'd be lying in my real bed at home."

She laughed wistfully. "After I found out about the Royal Kei, I'd dream about what kind of person she was. I was sure that she must be homesick for Yamato, too. I'd imagine us getting together and talking together like we are now, me telling her all about my hometown."

And the Royal Kei would be so happy to have someone to talk to, and would tell her all about where she was from, too.

Suzu let out a breath. "But when I woke up, it was right back in the same place. Riyou was as unpleasant as ever, working us to the bone, and everybody was mean to me all the time."

Seishuu gave her an exasperated look. "Suzu, you do carry on like a little kid. What did you expect? You never do anything for yourself."

Suzu's eyes flew open in disbelief. Seishuu answered with a tired sigh. "Daydreams sure don't take any effort. Compared to the problems in front of your face and the things that have got to be done, daydreams are a lot easier. But all that time, you're just putting off till tomorrow the things you got to think about now, that you got to do now, right? Instead, nothing changes, nothing gets decided, nothing gets settled."

"That is true."

"Keep on like this, with your head stuck up in the clouds, you're never going to grow up, Suzu."

"You know, there are times when you really are a pain."

Bleah, said Seishuu, sticking his tongue out at her. He curled into a ball. "You're always so weepy, Suzu. I can't stand it."

"Sorry I'm such a crybaby. I think it's because when I was little, I never cried. I was a very patient kid." The man who bought her from her family and led her to the mountain pass said so, too. He said how he appreciated that she didn't get all teary-eyed. "But it was a lot of hard times that turned me into a crybaby."

Seishuu looked at her. "Our home in Kei got burned down, most of the people in our village killed. We had to leave. Before we left, we went to see the burned-down ruins of our house and everybody cried up a storm. It was so sad we couldn't stand it. Because we were kids, we cried all the time. It wasn't like normal crying. It was like we were never going to stop crying for the rest of our lives."

"Even you?"

"Even me. At least I thought so at the time. The way I see it, there's two kinds of crying. People cry because they feel so sorry for themselves, and they cry because they're sad. People who feel sorry for themselves are like children who want something done for them. They want their big brother or mother or next door neighbor to help them."

Suzu just looked at him.

"It's because, in situations like this, children don't have any way of protecting themselves. That's why I say they cry like children."

"Huh," Suzu replied. Seishuu didn't speak for a while, either. She said, "So, Seishuu, where did your family live in Kei?"

"In the south."

"When you're feeling better, why don't we go check it out?"

"Together?"

Seishuu uncurled himself. He had all of Suzu's clothes wrapped around him. The horse cart was cold, and he was covered up all the way to his nose. He peered at her with his eyes only.

She said, "You don't want to?"

"Going anywhere with you is such a pain in the ass, Suzu."

He grinned. Suzu laughed.

8-3

The town of Kokei was adjacent to the city of Hokui, appended to its northeast corner. The only government office was the town hall. The other buildings belonged to the twenty-five households, the smallest size of an incorporated city.

Youko and Rangyoku passed through the gate of the rike and onto the Main Street. Most towns were surrounded by a tall stockade a hundred yards in every direction. The small houses circled the inside the wall. The town hall, Rishi and rike were located in a row in the northern sector of the town. The Main Street ran east-to-west in front of them. The street running north-south from the Rishi to the main gate was the Center Street.

The town hall housed the government offices and the elementary school. The Rishi was the official town shrine where the riboku and the gods were enshrined. A common configuration was for the state shrines of the Gods of the Earth and Gods of Five Grains to be located along the western wall, and the ancestral shrines along the eastern wall. But the faith of the townspeople was focused on the riboku. Because it was through the riboku that children were bestowed and livestock were granted.

"Very interesting," Youko said to herself.

Rangyoku leaned toward her. "What is?"

"Oh, nothing, just thinking about the Rishi. It seems like the state and ancestral shrines were tossed in as an afterthought, a sort of consolation prize."

In fact, the state and ancestral shrines were small and mostly just sat there gathering dust.

Rangyoku giggled. "You do say the most curious things, Youshi."

"I do?"

"The riboku brings children. No matter how many offerings you bring, or how many prayers you pray, the harvest won't necessarily be plentiful and you won't necessarily be protected from calamities. So the riboku is always first in our minds. That's bound to be the case, no matter what, don't you think?"

"You're a very pragmatic people, that's for sure. But Tentei--Lord God of the Heavens--and Seioubo--Queen Mother of the West--are different."

Tentei and Seioubo were often enshrined together in the Rishi, but there were also districts in the town set aside for shrines dedicated to them.

"That's because they're the ones that give you children."

"Tentei and Seioubo?"

"Yes. A couple who wants a child prays to the riboku and ties a ribbon to a branch of the tree."

"And if you're not married, you can't?"

"Nope. The Amanuensis records the names of all the people who want a child and sends it to the Queen Mother of the West. She makes a request to the Tentei, who chooses the most suitable of them to receive a child. Then Seioubo commands the goddesses to create a ranka."

"Huh." It struck her as quite different from any of the old fairy tales she'd heard back in Japan. Not that she could remember them with any great detail.

"The Internuncio implants the seed that will become the child inside the ranka, and then bears the ranka to the riboku. Isn't that how they do it in Yamato?"

"Not at all." Youko said slyly, "Do you believe all of it, Rangyoku? What you just told me?"

Rangyoku laughed. "Not literally. But a ranka does appear. And if a ranka doesn't appear on the branch that you chose, you just can't go pick one from somewhere else. It won't come off. Amazing, isn't it? That's why it's got to be what God gave to you."

"Of course," Youko smiled. "Livestock are also born on the riboku, right?"

"Yes. From the first of the month to the seventh, petitions are made to the riboku. The first day is for birds like chickens and ducks. The second day is for dogs. The third day is for sheep and goats. The fourth day is for boars and pigs. The fifth day is for cattle, and the sixth for horses. The seventh day is for people."

"People? There are days designated for people?"

"Yeah. On the seventh or any day after the ninth. Children requested on the seventh are supposed to turn out the best. My mom said that Keikei was."

"I see."

"Livestock germinate in a month. You can tie many ribbons at once, but not all of them will necessarily grow a ranka. For people, it's always only one."

"So you don't have twins?"

"Twins?"

"When two children are born at the same time? In Yamato, as many as five children have been born at the same time."

"Wow, that's weird." Rangyoku looked back over her shoulder at the Rishi. "The eighth day is for crops. But only the empress can make such requests."

"You can grow the five grains [wheat, rice, beans, and kinds of millet] whenever you want yourself just by planting the seeds. When they bear fruit, you get more seeds, right?"

"That would seem to be the case."

"Plants and trees aren't animals. But not just anybody can make requests for new grain stocks. Only the empress can do that, and at a tree in the Imperial Palace. When Heaven grants the request and the tree bears fruit, the next year, a ranka containing those seeds can grow on every riboku in the kingdom.

Youko opened her eyes wide with surprise. This certainly was news to her. She'd have to ask Enho to fill her in on the details.

"Yaboku, or wild riboku, grow animals other than livestock and domesticated birds. Did you know there are trees in the water, too?"

"I didn't. For fish, I imagine?"

Rangyoku smiled. "Exactly. And then yaboku for wild grasses and trees."

"Plants other than grains just grow on their own?"

"They do. Otherwise there wouldn't be any new plants and trees. So it seems like they can do it all by themselves. When and where new grasses are born nobody knows. So now and then people examine the base of yaboku to see if any unfamiliar plants are growing there. If there are, then bring them home and grow them. There are itinerants who do that for a living. They're called husbandry hunters. They go around searching for new ranka. It also seems to depend on the riboku. There are trees that produce a lot wild species, and those that don't at all. The ones that do are kept secret. No one will talk about them. Hunters will kill people who try to follow them."

"Huh."

"You can gather unusual medicines and herbs and saplings for new crops and sell them, but it sounds like a scary business."

Youko nodded in agreement. Of course, people were discriminated against in this world as well. There wasn't much discrimination based on occupation, because vocations weren't inherited along family lines. No matter what family a child came from, he would get a partition when he turned twenty. A big business or enterprise couldn't be passed on to your children. The disabled were also treated with compassion. But the world was closed off to hanjuu and itinerants.

"What is it?" Rangyoku asked.

Youko shook her head.

Her friend was a hanjuu. In gratefulness to him, she wished to repeal all the laws that held hanjuu back. The ministers refused to go along. She considered it for her Inaugural Rescript, but that didn't sit right with her. The Inaugural Rescript was supposed to make a statement. Without really being aware of it, she had become seized with the conviction that she should carry out her first official duties with all the self-confidence and gravity of an empress.

"Did I say something bad?"

"No, of course not. Just something that's been on my mind of late. Ah, here we are."

She and Rangyoku came to the town gate. Rangyoku had to leave for the grazing grounds. Youko had a task in Hokui.

"Well, cheer up, okay?"

Youko smiled. No doubt, Rangyoku assumed that her dolefulness was caused by thoughts of her homeland. Appreciative of such sentiments, Youko waved and headed west on the loop road.

Towns usually had only one main gate. Kokei had two. That's because Kokei had originally been a part of Hokui.

The town was definitely the nucleus of the city. The city offices were originally located in an extension of the town hall. When the city became a county seat, the tables were turned, and the government offices were moved to the city center, and the essential services of the town were relegated to a block in the northeast corner of the city. Hokui was pushing the town right out of the city. At this point, there was no more than a single gate connecting them.

Youko entered Hokui and headed straight for the city hall in the center of the city. She followed the loop road around the city center until she found herself facing the southeast quadrant of the city.

"Where is it?" she muttered to herself.

Amidst the hustle and bustle of the street, right at her heels, a small voice said, "Turn right at the next corner."

Youko followed the directions, moving deeper into the city, and arrived at a tiny house. Originally, the only homeowners were residents of the town who had been given the property by the kingdom. But the fact of the matter was that people sold their land and houses and moved around. One person sold his homestead and acquired property or a shop from the city comptroller. Another person bought the land and hired tenant farmers to work any number of homesteads. One way or another, an entire hamlet would end up as the private domain of a single owner. Not a few individuals sold out without even seeing their own land grants and went looking for housing in the city.

The owner of this house had come to live there through a tangled series of events. At any rate, his name was Rou, and this was the house of the man who served Enho's strange visitor.

Hankyo had tailed him, and just as he had the first time, confirmed that the man had not gone to an inn but to the house of this Rou. The next day the man had left Hokui and headed north.

And now what?

Youko looked up at the house. If she called the man out and demanded to know who his guest was, she was unlikely to get an answer. She was watching from the opposite side of the street when suddenly the front gate opened. Youko averted her gaze and pretended like she was looking for something on the road.

"All right, then," a man's voice said.

"The package--" He stopped in mid-sentence, as if he had just noticed her there. A small, middle-aged man with calico hair. Next to him was a man as big as he was small, with a boulder-sized physique and ordinary, black hair. He looked at Youko and then away.

"It's up to you."

"I understand."

With that simple exchange, the two parted. The smaller man all but ran back inside the house. The big man started off down the avenue with quick steps.

Just an ordinary visitor, perhaps.

But she couldn't ignore the way the smaller man had suddenly stopped talking.

Youko walked away in the opposite direction from the big man. Under her breath she beckoned Hankyo.

"Does his presence concern you to such a degree?"

Youko nodded at the disembodied voice. "Sorry about this, but if you would. It may well be an ordinary visitor, but I'd like to get to the bottom his connection to Enho."

Just as Rangyoku predicted, Enho had been highly agitated after the visitor came and canceled their studies. And so with time on her hands, she'd come to see Rou's house for herself.

"By your command."

The small voice faded and disappeared.

That night, Hankyo returned past midnight and reported that man owned property in the city of Takuhou, Shisui Prefecture, just across the river in Wa Province.

"Takuhou?"

The city of Takuhou was to the east of Hokui. The man who had visited Enho had headed north. Was there even any connection between them?

Youko silently turned these facts over in her mind.