Chapter Twenty-Four Sen
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
Sen
Tokuon’s men were preparing to leave.
They would travel south and west, through the Serpent’s Scales to Tokuon’s lands in Gisan. From there they would gather bannermen still loyal to the Gensei and head toward the capital.
Sen was going with them.
When Hakaru heard the news, coming back through the main gates with his men, he had thrown Lord Tokuon to the dirt.
A dozen swords flashed in the black air and Nihira had to race between them to prevent his brother from starting a new slaughter in the yard.
The night grew cold and heartless. The fires had been lit.
“It was them.” Tokuon was seated before the new lord and his brother in the meeting-hall. “The Keishi snakes who did all of this.”
“Why? Why would they do that?” Nihira said. “They wanted my mother’s support. They asked for her loyalty!”
“And how long has she denied it to them?” Tokuon asked. “This is what they do. This is what they always do!”
“They would never, they don’t want to risk a war.”
“There is already a war!”
Nihira narrowed his eyes. “Say what you mean, Gisan.”
No more time.
At this, Tokuon turned his head, and the large warrior they had rescued from the Scales came forward with a bow.
The warrior Yozora died to save, Sen thought.
“Lord Nihira,” Tokuon began. “This is Kiie Taisha, Toryo of our house. Cousin of my father. He has something to tell you.”
Kiie stood like a boulder, large in the shoulder and the gut, with a pair of huge arms, angry eyes, and a scar around his throat where someone once had tried to kill him.
He’d been lord of Muzo, Sen learned, cousin of his uncle and ally to his father during the War of the Morning and the Night.
After the defeat, Kiie escaped to the great shrine on Mount Takano, taking the name Taisha’in before crossing the plains.
He told them his son Yoshimori was forced to become a monk, entering the priesthood in the old city of Naruji.
His daughter Mitsuko remained at her family’s home in Muzo, and was married to a Keishi ally to cement the peace.
The marriage was entirely political, but though she was officially in charge of the Muzo household, in practice the Tokeishi stewards who occupied it would never let her leave or gain supporters of her own.
“And there’s a crisis in the capital, lord.” Kiie’s voice boomed thick as mud. “Whispers of conspiracy, a plot to remove Seikiyo from power. The Keishi are taking control of the councils.”
Nihira muttered, “They couldn’t.”
Kiie said, “I came to your lands on behalf of my cousin Yora. He wishes to meet, in spring. I arrived in Gisan to see what things were like in the mountains, but… several days ago, our scouts found a messenger in the Scales, with unsettling news from the capital. Mountain-wolves. From the Musha’in, Akiyo.
Loyal to the Keishi. They’re in the Kanden.
And at the same time, the retired-emperor, he sends his agents to the edges of the realm, sowing discontent. ”
Tokuon swore. “We’ve been away too long.”
“Who’s the Musha’in?” Sen asked, startling the men with his voice.
Kiie turned to him, perhaps seeing him for the first time.
If he knew who Sen was, he gave no hint of it.
“A Kyohara, Hara-of-the-capital. Akiyo. She’s a daughter of the regent house, and the only woman in her clan who is kijin; she leads the chancellor’s army.
And she’s had to fight for it too; the western tradition takes accordance with the laws of the continent, where women are made to rule the house but nothing beyond.
They think our ways are backward. And yet they claim to love tradition.
They don’t have the same roots as we do.
Too busy with their ships and their trade, trying to remake our land into a new version of the continental dynasty they love so much. ”
“When the time comes,” Tokuon said, “the Kyohara Musha’in will be our most dangerous opponent on the field.”
He urged Nihira and his family to join him in the gathering of the clans.
“How do we know we can trust you?” Nihira asked, blinking with weariness. He hadn’t slept.
Kiie shifted. “Lord… to the west and south, everything is in peril. My cousin Yora wishes to consult with you.” A look to Tokuon. “Both of you. He has ever been a friend of the east, of Gisan… He wishes to mend this ill-will between you.”
“I know what he wants,” Tokuon said. Then, a silence. “The mirror prince has issued a call to arms. Nioh. To resist Keishi rule and the puppet they plan to put upon the throne. All loyal Gensei are to meet in the barrier plains. There is no choice.”
One moment and the next. Jobo was right: This is war.
Sen waited to see what his stewardbrother would say. Nihira now held power in the northeast. His warriors were famous horse-archers, but he was cautious. He’d learned much from his mother. He wouldn’t risk his people – or his standing among the capital’s elites – without considering all options.
“Ten’in sovereignty has left us to our own laws for a hundred years,” Nihira said slowly.
“We fought for this independence and stewardship of our own lands, with our own people, in blood and pain before. We cannot march against the Sunlit City. To do so would undo everything we have achieved since the time of my great-grandfather.”
Tokuon seethed. “So you would hide in your hills and do nothing? When the capital has rotted away? You still pay them their gold, I know this. You would pay those that killed your own people, as you said, only a hundred years ago. You are a coward.”
“I pay for peace,” Nihira said. “As we all must pay.”
Tokuon shook his head. “We pay because we don’t have the courage to speak up.
The child-emperors have no power! They live at the whims of their regents.
And now? Seikiyo – he weds his daughter to the Ten’in, uses his puppet-strings to make himself a grandson.
A Keishi grandson, next in line of succession. ”
“I will not take part in another war for succession,” Nihira said. “It is foolishness.”
“And you?” Tokuon said suddenly, looking to Sen. “The Hoshiakari, second heir to our house, what would you do? You said you had no choice. Have you not longed for this day as well?”
“What day is that, lord?” Sen asked, carefully.
He said it to buy time. He didn’t know what the right course was. Nihira had a point. But what was the purpose of appeasement? Every day they paid for peace was a day the capital grew stronger. Sen knew this. And he knew Nihira did, too.
“Ogami’in,” Tokuon said. “You cannot leave your lands, fine. Then let us have a trade of forces. As a friend of the Gensei, offer your cavalry to us. Your family’s bannermen…”
“We have our own country here,” Nihira told him. “I will not take part in a war to the west. It will bring only pain.”
Tokuon growled. “You have a blood-debt to the Gensei! Who was it that helped you win the Iteki lands before your great-grandfather built this town? It was us! What of that debt?”
“We have sheltered your family’s heir, my mother raised him – is that not payment enough?”
“We need your strength, we need your army.”
“I cannot leave my lands.”
“Coward.”
“You misunderstand me,” Nihira said. “I would side with you if I could. But I know what my mother said. And I know the truth of it. And if I am to follow in her steps, I must act for the people here. I am bound to the people of this country. This land. We have sworn in stewardship that we will not take part. We run our own country.”
“You are isolated,” Tokuon said.
“We have learned the value of looking after ourselves. That is part of our deal with the emperor. I cannot leave my lands with any show of force. That was the rule. In return we have been given leave to govern unburdened. Nothing more. My men will escort you safely from our country, lord. I wish you well, but I cannot take part.”
Tokuon clenched his jaw. When he rose, his bow was barely a courtesy. “Perhaps,” he said, “when we control the capital again, we will come back and re-examine the terms of your ‘deal’.”
He turned. “You are hurting, lord. Rest, do what you need. But tomorrow, there will be another sun.”
A glance to Sen: “And I’ll need better answers.”
Later, Sen watched as Tokuon’s ground-runners, led by Myorin and Tsuna, left the gates in darkness, wearing black and brown and green.
Perfect scouts, the Jibashiri would scour the woods around Kitano, making sure no spies were still in the area – and if there were, death would be a mercy for them.
Tsuna, sleek as a fox, caught his eye before she left, and nodded; then vanished into the wild blue dark.
Sen watched them from the gate. The others moved quickly, despite the shadowy terrain, and within a moment, they’d crossed into the underbrush at the side of the road. Two Jibashiri raced up the road itself, covering each other’s backs as they went into the night.
“Naoza knows how to watch the roads.” Tokuon spoke quietly, from beside him.
“What will they do?”
Tokuon’s eyes were set on the dewy road and the slope leading down to the outvillage, and to Sen it seemed as if he could see with a hawk’s vision, far into the dark, farther than any human could.
“If any mountain-wolves are still out there,” he said at last, “none will be left by the morning.”
“You don’t think they’ll find anything?”
Tokuon met his eyes. “The Musha’in is the best fighter in the Keishi army.
She’s a master tactician. Her troops follow her with an almost religious zeal.
She’s too smart to let them linger here for long.
No, they will scatter into the winds. Their orders would be to cut in, bleed us, then disappear.
Whoever these assassins were, they’re long gone. ”
“And the Jibashiri, the sisters, they went out anyway.”
“It must be done. If nothing else, it will prepare us for the journey ahead.” He began making his way back to the hall. “Besides,” he said, “they like to hunt.”