“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.”
The Gensei army would gather in the farmlands below Mount Sengen, Tokuon said, north of the road to Kiseda and Tose: an anti-Keishi land at the heart of the fertile, grassy plains.
“I understand you wanted to remain with your friend,” he said as they headed back into the keep, on the faint pathway between Kitaiji and the road.
Sen didn’t know what to say. “We all have our different kinds of family, in this world,” he managed, at last.
Tokuon gave him a small smile.
“Yes. And care, and loyalty, is admirable. But your sister needs your help.”
“I’ve never met Kai Gekko’in,” Sen said. “Not that I can remember.”
“You were together when you were young. You and Lady Kai. I met you there, at your mother’s estate in Amayari, when you were born. I was a child then, but I remember. She used to hold you in her lap; you were just a babe, screaming and screaming, but when she held you, your sister was the only one who could get you to calm.”
“Lord Zusho holds them now,” Sen said. “Those lands.”
“Yes.” Tokuon slowed. Memories had come and fallen with thechanging moonlight. Clouds drifted like tattered lotus in the night, the world grew brighter, awash in its silver glow; even time now seemed to be halted. The autumn mountains gleamed. But rain threatened them from the west, a flat backdrop to the migrating birds in their lines. Tokuon dropped his facade.
“I cannot force Nihira to wage our war,” he said. “But the Gensei must be called to arms. We can raise this army. Seikiyo” – he spat the name, an insult – “will denounce us as rebels and raise his own army in the sovereign’s name.”
“You would go against the Ten’in?”
“Emperor Ashihara is under the Keishi thumb. Goshira still has true influence, and Prince Nioh has a claim. They’re planning their first moves in the capital now, but they must keep it secret, for Seikiyo has eyes and ears in all places there. I hope to bring our armies to join them.”
“So it will be another war for succession,” Sen said.
“I told you, Hoshiakari, I am here to bring you home. But it will not be easy.”
“Kai is the heir, not me.”
“Everything our family once had is gone. This is our chance to take it back.” Tokuon paused in the orange lanternlight. “We leave in the morning.”
Sen found his stewardbrother staring into a fire at the hearth. “Seikiyo Jokai,” Hakaru said, watching the flames. Sen realized he was drunk. “The Keishi. He’s chancellor now. If you saw him…”
“Chancellor,” Sen echoed, scowling.
“Running the whole capital. Man who did this to you. Your folks. Killed your parents. And now… with mother… If yousawhim…”
“They’d kill me before I ever saw him,” Sen said.
“If ever you came face-to-face with him.” Hakaru looked at Sen. “What d’you think you’d do?”
“Everywhere I might go, there will be a mark against me,” Sen said. “Because of what my father did. Everywhere but with Gensei. I don’t know the Keishi… How can I hate them? But they did this to us. They’re the reason I’m here.”
“My mother is the reason you’re here.”
“… And I have to repay that debt. I have to undo the damage they’ve done… if this was them, iftheyhurt her… That’s the only way I’ll be able to…” He dried up.
“What?”
Sen opened, and closed, his hands. “Go back,” he said.
“So, then do this for us,” Hakaru said. “For Iyo. You make your name. You clean it. Get rid of the shame. Get vengeance. Then you come home.”
Finally the door opened, and the healers let them in. But Lady Iyo of the Kitanohara was asleep. Her wounds had bled again. Her binds had been replaced. Her face had better color now, and Sen thought – hoped – she looked stronger than before. There was a chance she would survive, a chance she would recover. He fought tears again, gazing at her, the woman who had been the only mother in his life; her fine features, the gentle lines near her eyes, the gray braided hair and the soft scent of the oils she used, which even now still smelled like wildflowers. He placed a hand on hers, and felt the warmth. He thought she stirred.
But her eyes, her kind, wise eyes, didn’t open.
