Starlit Reflections: Dark Quarter

Fushigi Yuugi is copyright Watase Yuu, Flower Comics, Studio Perriot, Pioneer Entertainment, Viz Communications and other interested parties. The characters and situation are used without permission for personal entertainment only, and no copyright infringements are intended. No profit is being made from this fic; if there was, Tasuki and Tamahome would lighten me of it, as soon as they could.

Prologue: Voice Across Time - Nuriko

I stretched, yawning, as the young maidservant left the Imperial Library. She had finished lighting and trimming the lamps as I had been reading, and now passed soundlessly out of the room. She did cast a glance back at me as she withdrew, a gently admonishing and inviting glance. I didn't need to hear her speak to know what she would say: "Missing dinner, young master? It will do you no good - come with me and I'll take care of you."

If only she knew....

I stood and reshelved the scrolls and parchments I'd been reviewing. Sairou's plight at the time of the appearance of the Priestess of Byakko was of no help to us.

It was depressing how little historical precedent there was. The advisors would run around like frightened chickens if we couldn't show then that what we were about to do had been done successfully before. Whenever, that was, that Lord Hotohori did decide what we were going to do.

Lord Hotohori hadn't actually given me the order to find possible solutions in the historical records, but I'd go absolutely crazy if I didn't do something, and reading old scrolls had a lot less potential to be embarrassing and/or destructive than throwing things. I was still living down the plum tree.

And anything was better than the daze Tamahome had fallen into. Yesterday he had sat unmoving on the rail of the verandah so long that two enterprising young sparrows had begun to build a nest on the top of his head. It had taken my conscience standing behind me with a broadsword to prod me into gently lifting the small structure off his hair and into a nearby tree. The servants watched him to make sure he didn't hurt himself - and, if I were honest, for the entertainment. He did some very silly things. And, if I were honest, I'd admit I was often among the watchers.

The rack beside the records of the Byakko Shichiseishi was, if possible, even dustier. I sighed as I pulled documents, books and scrolls off it at random. The most notable result of my research so far was that I was getting a crash course in absolutely trivial facts, none of which I needed to know. I didn't follow fashion right now - finding out that a hundred years ago girls used to shave their hairlines to give themselves high foreheads wasn't exactly earthshattering for me.

Kourin would be interested, though, so I made a note of it.

I opened the next book, glanced at it, and then took a second look. It was a very long look. I'm sure I was blushing bright red as I gently closed the book and set it aside. I'd never seen a pillow book before; Kourin would definitely be interested in seeing it, if the librarian would let me borrow it.

A slender hand pressed itself down on the table in front of me. I glanced up, yelped, and fell off my chair.

"Here you are," Lord Hotohori said flatly. "Nuriko, do you know how long I've been looking for you?"

"Since dinner?" I guessed, scrambling to my feet.

"Dinner," Lord Hotohori said, in a low, dangerous voice, "has been waiting for you. And I am hungry."

Uh-oh.

"I'm sorry," I apologised. "I thought it was a Court Dinner tonight." A sudden thought hit me. "A Court Dinner... waiting for me... oh no. You didn't."

Lord Hotohori sighed. "You're in luck. I cancelled the Court Dinner earlier today."

I sighed with relief.

"But it would have been waiting for you if it had occurred."

I should've known I wouldn't get off that easy.

"... So I've been trying to find some historical precedents," I finished my explanation.

Lord Hotohori nodded and took a mouthful of rice. I took advantage of the pause to feed myself.

Eating at the Emperor's table has some benefits - when Lord Hotohori takes his meals alone, or only with me, I will find my dish heaped with all my favourite foods and cooked to perfection. And if the cooks complain that Lord Nuriko has given to the Emperor his fondness for such plebian foods as sweet fried tofuu, I say in return: that just because he's the Emperor is no reason for him to be denied a treat that any poor person within his realm may enjoy.

That is another reason to avoid Court Dinners. I have quite a collection. Maybe one day one of them will prove effective in getting me out of the things.

"I understand your wish to help me," Lord Hotohori said calmly.

"Say 'stay out of trouble' and you'd be nearer the mark," I said wryly. "Or have you forgotten the plum tree?"

He grinned. "I don't think you'll ever be allowed to forget the plum tree," he said seriously.

I sighed. "So I'm trying to behave. It's not easy."

"Especially as the Emperor will be demanding the attendance of Lady Houki tomorrow."

His timing was impeccable. I'd just taken a mouthful of apple cider and it took all my self-control not to choke. "Wh-what?" I eventually wheezed.

A twisted half-smile flashed across his lips. "You are my current official choice for Empress," he commented.

"Now I wish I hadn't told you that," I said, in a resigned tone. "What do I have to do, anyway?"

He lifted an eyebrow at me.

"Oh."

"Don't worry, I just have to be seen to be spending time with an appropriate Empress-candidate," Lord Hotohori said, "so we'll just walk in the gardens. And we can watch the advisors have fits over my chivalry."

"They have fits over me no matter what I do," I mourned, "no matter what identity I'm in."

He shrugged. "It keeps them young."

"I think they'd prefer a different method."

"Probably," he said cheerfully. He wasn't the one being named in nightly prayers among the things to be delivered from.

Or maybe he was.

Dinner ended and I stood to retire for the night. The book I'd borrowed from the Imperial Library slipped from where I'd had it propped against the side of the couch and landed with a whump on the floor.

"What's this?" Lord Hotohori asked, picking up and flipping it open.

"No, don't!" I said quickly, but not quickly enough to stop him looking. I felt myself blush as he opened the cover.

"This is about you?!" he said in a wondering tone of voice.

"What? No!" I said. I might read a pillow book, but pose for one...!

"But it says so right here. 'My sister-in-duty, Nuriko of the Suzaku -'"

"May I see." I held out my hand, and didn't make it a question. He handed it over.

"Of course."

I looked at the first page, and realized that I'd borrowed the wrong book. The one I thought I'd had was still safely in the Imperial Library, and this volume....

"You're right," I said, in a wondering tone of voice. We both sat down again. "It says:

"'To my sister in duty and destiny, Nuriko of the Suzaku. I pray thee, do not turn away from this account, my sister. My God Genbu, Who with His brothers lives outside time itself and so knows far more of the workings of destiny than thee, I, or any of our acquaintance, doth assure me that it will fall into thy hands. And only into thine; from the moment I closed it, until thou didst lift it from its dusty rack, it hath lain untouched and unread.

'While Holy Genbu assureth me that this, my remembrance of my journeyings, trials and joys as a Shichiseishi of Genbu, shalt bring thee strength and eases to thine own pains, I cannot see how it may. Thy burdens are thine own, and this account cannot take any of thy responsibilities from thee. Thou art, as thou hast ever been, a Shichiseishi, with all the pain thy destiny entails.

'Yet my account may yet assist thee, for it will show thee that thou art not alone; thy destiny is hard, but not lonely. Even as I have drawn strength and love from my star-brothers, so too may thee from thine - and from me also, sister in destiny.

'My sister Nuriko, I beg of thee one favour. When thou hast read this journal, I beg of thee that thou burn it. For while I, as thy sister, shalt have no secrets from thee, still I would not share those secrets with others. As one woman to another, I ask this - not for myself, but for all those whose secrets I have written here - for my star-brothers, whose secret stories should remain secret, between Shichiseishi. If thou dost share these tales, I pray thou wilt share them only with thine own star-brothers.

'Thy sister across time,
Mei Ling, Shichiseishi Uruki of Genbu.'"

My eyes met Lord Hotohori's across the table, still strewn with the remnants of food. I reached down and turned the page, but before I could begin reading, he reached over and closed the book.

He looked at me seriously. "Read it tonight, and if you can share it with us, tell me tomorrow," he said.

I nodded. "I will. If I can," I replied.

    When I was born, my nurse told me in my childhood, the doctor looked at me and declared, "This girl will live in interesting times."
    My mother cried aloud, "Oh sir, say that will not be so!"
    The doctor turned then to my mother and said, "Then speak, not to I, but to your daughter. She will make them so."

To understand my actions, I believe it best if I share a little of the history of our people.

Hokkan is a country of wild, beautiful mountains and wide, glorious valleys. Ours is not a nation of farmers; only in the south and the east is there land that can be tilled. The rest of our land is beautiful pasture for the cattle, sheep and buffalo our people have herded for generations, with slopes to strengthen the legs and sharpen the grace of the horses that are the pride of our armies.

We do not have the rains and unrelieved heat of Konan, where it only snows rarely, nor the sweeping winds that scour Sairou, nor the typhoons that sweep the eastern coasts of Koutou. Our mountain peaks are never without snow, and our valleys are lush and green.

I am not the least bemused by the avarice of the Emperor of the East. Our Hokkan is truly a jewel among nations, so the attempts of the Koutou Emperor to invade and conquer it is in no wise a shock to myself or any true child of my land.

If all that the Koutou Emperor desired was land, it might well be that we would have simply withdrawn before him. But what the eastern Emperor wanted was nothing less than our greatest treasures; our horses. Alone of all the peoples of the Four Gods, we have bred up herds of horses, enough to mount our people. We are herdsmen, after all, and we must be able to follow our herds.

And so the Koutou Emperor sat upon our eastern flank, making curvetting raids into our territory, in a vain attempt to steal our herds without committing too much of his people to a war, just yet.

Still, it must be remembered that the God of Koutou was Seiryuu, the God of War; and the weight of the army arrayed against us was growing greater and greater, every day. The Great Khan was considering several courses of action placed before him, and he was no believer in the prophecy of deliverance by the hand of the Priestess of Genbu, though he did burn incense at the Shrine of the Snake-Turtle. Though he was no believer, he was aware that many within the nation were, and he could not afford to lose their trust.

This anticipated invasion was the sole topic of conversation in the court of the Great Khan for several months before the cool, early-winter day, on which I begin my story.

My name is Mei Ling, a not uncommon name among the people of Hokkan. That it is mine is a thing most unusual. For without boasting I may say that I was not a common child. My mother was a concubine of the Great Khan, and I was born to her after she was lifted from among his wife's ladies and into his harem.

Ironically, after he had done so and my mother was his, he lost interest in her, returning to his wife and his more favoured concubines. My mother never forgave him that, and spent her time involving herself in the harem's intrigues. To my mind, that was a better occupation than any other, which might have spared her attention enough to notice me. The Great Khan did not notice me at all.

The only person who saw me as more than yet another of the Great Khan's offspring was my nurse, Chiu Yuen, who loved me dearly, and whom I took shameless advantage of, as children do. I loved her very much, but that didn't stop me disobeying her at almost every opportunity.

As a daughter of the Great Khan, I had been educated beyond the rote recitation of the sagas that the common child learnt - I could read and write, and had been shown copies of poetry and stories. Of course, I was not educated nearly as well as my brothers were. Among my people, too much learning in a woman is a sign of immorality.

Which will explain why I was in the Temple of Genbu that day.

Nobody knew what I was or what I could do. The Great Khan did not believe in the legend of the Priestess of Genbu, my mother did not notice, I trusted neither my half-siblings nor the court eunuchs and it was too much fun to use my abilities to hide under poor Chiu Yuen's nose.

I was a very sly and secretive child. I liked keeping secrets and hiding away from others. My Shichiseishi talent assisted me tremendously and I exploited it.

If the Priests had known I was there they would have had an absolute fit. As it was, when I sneaked into the Temple of Genbu to read the copy of The Four Gods Sky And Earth that Taiitsukun had given to the Priests, I drew the shadows down around me, hiding me from view.

I always enjoyed reading the scroll. It made me feel important, as if I wasn't a disregarded daughter, who didn't even have the title of 'Lady'. Genbu Shichiseishi Uruki didn't need a title - the honour of being herself was more than enough.

I was settling down into the descriptions of the Shichiseishi when I felt the burning on my ankle. I glanced down, and sure enough, there it was: the jie glowing blackly against my fair skin. The symbol 'nu', Woman, shone dark into the darkness of the Temple.

I've always felt like Genbuseikun was having a wonderful laugh when He chose me, with that symbol. Most times, I share the joke.

"Hello," a soft voice called at the door. I didn't uncloak myself as I turned to look.

A girl stood there. She was wearing the oddest clothes - a dress, much thinner than the padded overtunic, overskirt and trousers that I and every other Hokkan maiden wore. Her garment was a thin, summery wrapped jacket and wrapped skirt that overlapped and were bound by a contrasting length of cloth that stretched from her breasts (and I could see the curve of her bosom under her garment - her maid should be severely reprimanded!) to her hips, which was itself bound with a cord. She was very pretty - her hair was long, the colour of a raven's wing, and her skin was pale, even for a person of Hokkan. Her eyes were too wide for true beauty, but there was something both cool and welcoming about her.

She stepped into the sanctuary - a place that was only comfortable for Genbu's servants, such as myself. Even the Great Khan was unsettled there and sought to leave almost as soon as he entered.

She moved within the sanctuary quietly and easily. "Please," she said softly. "I know you're there. Please come out. I won't tell, I promise." Her voice wavered, and so I slowly released my cloak of shadows.

Her eyes widened. "How did you do that?"

I smiled and shrugged, as I knew her for who she really was.

"My name is Uruki," I told her.

"I am Okuda Takiko," she replied.

And that clinched it. Only one person would wear foreign garments, have a foreign name, make my Shichiseishi symbol glow, detect me in my shadow cloak, arrive right at this time in our history and be comfortable in Genbu's sanctuary.

I knelt down before her and performed the obeisance to the Great Khan to her. She seemed shocked as I rose up from bowing so deeply that my forehead touched the flagstones of the Temple.

"Please don't be shocked," I said quietly. "Please let me explain. I've been waiting such a long time for you, my Lady...."

She accepted the explanation I gave her quietly, and frowned thoughtfully.

"I know it sounds fantastic -" I started, only to have her impatiently wave a hand at me.

"I believe you," she replied calmly. "He appeared to me as I fell into this world. So I believe you." She nodded at the statue of Genbu. "The thing is that I have to find seven people - six, actually - with special powers, and I shall tell them by the fact that they have a mark somewhere on their bodies." She sighed. "It isn't the sort of thing one can simply go up and ask!"

"They will know you, my Lady," I said positively. "I did."

Lady Takiko sighed. "Very well," she replied. "I'll take your word on it. But, what will the King here say-"

"He shall say nothing," I interjected quickly, "because he shall know nothing. Believe me, please, Lady Takiko - if you speak to the Great Khan, he will not believe you, at best, and assume you are a girl attempting to curry royal favour, at worst. Either way, your quest shall end here, in the court of Tolan. Come away with me, and we'll search for the other six Shichiseishi together."

Lady Takiko looked at me. "But it's obvious that the legend you've told me about is true. I'm here, and you're here - it's not a question of belief."

I thought hard. How to convince her? "It's not just a question of belief, Lady Takiko," I said seriously. "You're a very lovely girl. The Great Khan doesn't pay the respect to Genbu that he should, so I don't think he'd respect the person of Genbu's Priestess either."

Lady Takiko's eyes flickered, as if remembering something from her own past. "All right," she said slowly. "And, Miss Uruki, please just call me 'Takiko'."

"As you wish, Takiko, if you'll just call me 'Uruki'."

I cloaked us both in my shadows - it was a good thing I'd practiced so much - and let us both back to my chambers.

"Why did we come here?" Takiko asked me.

"Because we are about the same size, and if you have nothing to wear but that silky dress, you will die of the cold!"

"I'm glad I came by in time."

Both of us turned around. "Chiu Yuen!" I gasped.

Chiu Yuen gave us both a sad smile. "I don't blame you, Little Miss," she said, pulling out a half-packed bag and beginning to fill it up. "And the Priestess of Genbu too.... I'm very glad I have the chance to meet Your Grace," she said to Takiko.

"You - you knew?" I asked, stupidly. Obviously she knew.

"Whenever you were upset or sick when you were a baby, your symbol would shine, Little Miss," she said heavily. "And often, when I sent you off for lessons you did not like, I would see you duck into a shadow, and the shadow grow darker and you disappear. And I worship Genbu, not the foreigner's Buddha. I've always known, my Little Miss."

Spontaneously, I embraced her. "I'll miss you, Chiu Yuen," I told her, blinking away tears that I hadn't known I was shedding.

"Go well, Little Miss... but can you tell me something, please?"

"Anything," I promised. I saw Lady Takiko smiling wistfully from the corner of my eye, as if she were wishing for something similar for herself.

"Tell me, please... which Shichiseishi are you?"

I giggled. "Uruki. I'm Uruki."

Chiu Yuen looked thoughtful. "Lady Uruki... no, Little Miss, it doesn't suit you at all. I'll have to keep calling you Little Miss."

I hugged her again, because there were no words to say.

I had never been out of the Imperial Court before in my life.

Takiko took it much better than I did. Where I was coughing and wheezing from the dust and stained and dirty from where I had not dodged a cart rumbling past through a puddle, she seemed to glide over the effluvium of the streets. I was almost jealous.

Before we had stepped out, though, Takiko had said to me, "I was born and raised in a city like this, Uruki. I know how to move in it; so don't worry about me."

So I comforted myself with the thought that if I had been a child of the city, I too would have glided over the dirt and known when to step to avoid a splashing. I still, however, felt very sorry for myself as I dragged myself along in my Priestess' wake.

I was so busy feeling sorry for myself that I didn't notice Takiko stop and turn away from the path we had planned on as we left the Palace. I almost bumped into her as she stood stock-still on the roadway.

"This way," she said briefly, turning onto a side street.

I was too out-of-breath to do anything but follow her.

Chapter Two: Finding The Path ~ Hatsui

"When I was a child, I used to think ice meant clarity," Hatsui told me once.
"And now?" I asked him.
"Now I know it does."

We were walking briskly through the city of Tolan.

Actually, that is not correct. Takiko was walking briskly. I was limping in her wake, attempting to keep up. My success was qualified by the fact that I'd have to run every few steps to catch up.

She led me on a long, twisty journey through the back streets. This worried me. The eunuchs told stories about what happened in the back streets of the city to the maidservants, and the other children of the Khan and I used to listen in. They were probably hopelessly exaggerated, as they were being used to scare the girls away from the streets and keep them in the palace, but their effect remained, and I was constantly looking for the shadows on the street. In a shadow, I could hide us.

Takiko kept her head high and strode boldly, looking for all the world as if she owned the street she was walking on. She didn't look directly at any of the people on the street, glancing only sidelong at them as we passed them.

We were heading towards a district that I didn't recognise but didn't like the look of. The buildings were not in good repair and every so often people would be loitering on street corners. Which would not be so worrying if it weren't the middle of the afternoon.

We eventually came to a tavern. It may have been during the day, but the raucous sound of singing from within indicated that it's clientele had been there for some time and saw no reason why they wouldn't be there for a good few hours yet.

Before we could do more than glance incredulously at each other, voices inside the tavern were raised and a shouting match began. There was the sound of furniture breaking, and the meaty smack of fist against flesh, accompanied by feminine shrieks (what were women doing in a place that sold wine to be drunk on the premises, I remember wondering; I was very innocent, after all). There were cries of encouragement to the combatants, and finally an almighty crash, in the wake of which a man came flying out through the open door and hit the cobbles of the street in front of the public house. He was unconscious and covered with contusions, and would undoubtedly be very unhappy when he woke up.

Shortly after that, there was a further altercation within the tavern. A burly man appeared at the door, dragging a younger man, who wasn't too scrawny himself. "But he started it!" he was yelling, among expletives.

"I don't care," the burly man told him stolidly. "You've been told, Wen Yuan. Keep your mouth shut or keep out of my tavern."

"But he -"

"I. Don't. Care, boy. Get out and stay out. Count yourself lucky I'm not making you pay for the damage your tongue just caused."

"He hit me -"

"Just don't come back." And with that, the door slammed shut behind the younger man, leaving him standing alone in the street, facing away from us.

"He hit me first, I was only defending myself!" he yelled at the door, as if it cared. "It wasn't my fault!"

"Why did he hit you?" I asked. I was curious.

He swung around, yelped, and fell over. Takiko and I traded glances again.

He sat up, and rubbed the back of his head. "What a first impression," he said ruefully.

"Indeed," Takiko said acidly. "Are you even sober?"

The young man shrugged, smiling at us. His grey eyes gleamed roguishly at us from under his shock of greeny-grey hair. "Mostly," he replied cheerfully. He stood up and began to pat himself down. "Owowowow...." he chanted as he discovered new bruises. "Why do people so object to being told the truth when they're lying?"

"Possibly because they have a reason not to want to tell the truth?" I replied. "Why else would they lie?"

He looked hard at me, blinked, and then threw back his head in a loud laugh. "That... is truth!" he announced to the world at large.

I stepped over to Takiko and pulled gently on her sleeve. "Why are we talking to this drunk?" I hissed in her ear.

His ears were, however, much sharper than they looked. "Now that's not nice, Miss," he said mournfully. "Not nice at all."

Takiko took my hand and smiled at me, forestalling any angry retort I might make. "I am Okuda Takiko," she introduced herself to the man, "and this is my friend Mei Ling."

"You are the Legendary Priestess of Genbu, and the Imperial Princess behind you is the Genbu Shichiseishi Uruki," he corrected her.

After taking a deep breath, I commented, "I take it back. If you were anything like as rude to that man in the tavern, I don't blame him for hitting you at all."

"It is the truth," he said, with a wide-eyed expression.

"So? So was what we introduced ourselves with. I told you there are sometimes reasons for not telling all the truth all the time." Turning to Takiko, I said, "Let's go."

"You can't leave me behind!"

"Why not?" I replied. "All your talking about the truth -"

"It's my Shichiseishi talent! I can't help hearing the truth all the time. I know I'm drunk and I didn't make the best impression, but please believe me." He held out his left hand, the back to us, and I saw black fire tracing the character 'shi' on the skin there. "My Shichiseishi name is Hatsui. That hurts," he added.

"Don't I know it," I replied without thinking.

He laughed again. "Truth! I've got to stay around you, Uruki-star-sister - you're the only person who tells the truth all the time. No fuzzy double speech that drives me crazy from you!"

"Fine," I said flatly. "Now where do we go?" I asked Takiko.

She smoothed away the grin and replied, "I can't feel any other Shichiseishi in Tolan. I think we'll have to leave the city."

I sighed and said, "We'll have to look into buying some horses. Hatsui will be a help there...."

I glanced over at my new star-brother, who was busy throwing up at the side of the road.

"... when he sobers up." I shot a glance at Takiko. "You can giggle, you know," I added sourly.

It was disheartening how quickly she dissolved in laughter.

Once he threw up the wine, Hatsui seemed to sober up a lot. He also knew of a horse lot on the outskirts of the city.

His ability came in very useful there, something that pleased him greatly. I wasn't quite sure why; wouldn't the ability to hear the true value of objects be a great advantage when bargaining?

I'd never done any bargaining before, but I believe I made a decent job of it. My practice for the dramatic skits the Great Khan's wife regularly ordered performed paid off. With great dramatic flair, I dragged the man down to a decent price for three ponies.

Hatsui was apparently well-known to the gate guards.

"Ho, here's the bar-fighter of Tolan," one called. "Leaving us to drink in peace, Wen Yuan?"

"With the rotgut you drink? Pieces, you mean," Hatsui returned cheerfully. "I'm escorting these two young ladies on their journey. There's bandits in the mountains, you know."

"How long are you going for?" the other asked him. "So we'll all know when to head for the hills!"

"Ha, ha," Hatsui returned, with a vicious smile. "I'm not sure. Could be all winter, could be next week. Better drink while you can."

"And that's good advice for everyone!" the first called, as we passed through the gate.

Takiko and I didn't relax until we were out of sight. "Thank you," Takiko said to Hatsui, as we rode on into the mountains.

"It wasn't a problem," Hatsui told us cheerfully. "And now?"

"And now," Takiko said, "we go down there." She pointed down to the great plain below the foothills that Tolan was nestled in.

"The next Shichiseishi?" I asked.

"No - people," she replied. "There's a Shichiseishi there, but I'm supposed to save Hokkan, and they will tell me how."

"But the armies on the border -" I started.

She turned and looked at me. "Uruki," Takiko said gently, "a nation is much more than just land."

With that, she shifted in her saddle and began to gently ride down the path.

Chapter Three: The People's Priestess  ~ Namame
 

It was not long after we met that I came upon Namame sitting alone upon a rock beside the road. I sat on the ground beside the rock, and took advantage of the peace to write in my then-diary.

I did not believe he had noticed me until he said, "Uruki, all anyone wants is to be understood."

To this day, I cannot think of anything that could possibly define Namame better.

It took three days to ride down from Tolan to the first settlement on the plain below the foothills. After the hangover Hatsui had and complained about all the first morning, I quietly hid the bottle of plum wine we'd bought from the marketplace.

That evening, we told stories around the campfire. Takiko told us a tale of a sea-sprite who had fallen in love with a human lord, to the point where she traded her voice for feet, that she might walk upon the land as a human maid and so win his affections. Both she and I wept at its tragic end, and Hatsui told us that if she'd had the courage to approach him as herself, her story would have been very different.

Hatsui recited a lay of the far North, of a fisherman who had dealt kindly with the son of the Emperor of the Sea, but whose greedy and dishonest wife had driven back to demand wealth and honours of him until the Emperor lost patience and gave the greedy woman exactly what she deserved.

I think Hatsui enjoyed our shivers as he described the foolish woman's grisly fate a little too much.

For my part, I told the story of Plum Blossom, Jade Circle and the Winding Scarf. Hatsui and Takiko were both sympathetic, annoyed and properly appalled by the cold-hearted eunuch's icily practical solution to everyone's problems.

After we had made each other cry, shake, and otherwise provided ourselves with material for our nightmares, we went to our blankets.

Takiko slept soundly. Hatsui snored. Loudly. All night.

I was not good company the next day.

We were heading north, into the trade routes to the north and northwest, and I believe a further word of explanation is needed here.

The populations of Kounan and Koutou lie securely in the hands of the Four Gods, bound as they are to north and west by Hokkan and Sairou, and to the south and east by sea. Surrounded by nations that, friendly or not, still speak the same language and follow the same religion, it is easy for those of those countries to forget - or, at least, conveniently not remember - that we are not all of the world.

We of Hokkan have no such buffer zone. To our north lie tribes of nomadic, wild barbarians (the wild nomads of Hokkan are civilized), and to the west are nations, some of which we have cordial relations with, and some of which we don't.

In our past, we have conquered these regions. Many of their royal families are distantly related to our own. As a result we have established trade with these nations, and caravans regularly travel to and from our major cities.

Heading as we were into the great plain that lay between the mountains that bordered Hokkan on the north and south, we were riding towards the flat ground that makes the roads the traders prefer to drive their wagons over.

We were riding into bandit territory.

I was tired and not a good rider. The combination slowed our group down considerably, but I cannot be sorry, not when it was because we were moving slowly and quietly that we managed to sneak up behind the first group of raiders.

They were themselves a small group, only five of them, but they made up for their lack of numbers with sheer belligerence. We looked at their scars. We looked at their very sharp weapons. We listened to their boasts.

And then Hatsui, Takiko and I linked hands, I cloaked us all in shadows, and we quietly slipped past them. I kept the cloak up until we were a good two leagues down the road.

Rather than risk encountering another party of bandits, Takiko suggested we join a caravan of traders. That seemed to be only sensible, so we rode towards the nearest cloud of dust on the road.

The traders in the caravan we encountered objected to our joining them at their campfires, until I quickly went through my bag, in the hope of finding something worth trading, and offered them a string of pearls that I found there.

"I didn't know you had that," Takiko commented quietly as we lay in our blankets near one of the campfires, inside the caravan's guards.

"Neither did I," I replied, equally quietly. "Chiu Yuen appears to have packed several pieces of my jewellery in my bag. I suppose she realized I'd have to have something to pay my way with...." I drew a deep breath. If I were home at court, I would have eaten a meal of soft breads and rich, sweet pork with delicious vegetables, not chewed old cheese and bread, and instead of lying in these scratchy blankets I'd be sleeping on fresh cotton sheets. Chiu Yuen would have tucked me in and kissed me goodnight, and I would be lulled to sleep by her soft singing as she sewed in my outer room.

I rolled away from Takiko so that she wouldn't see me cry.

We entered the trade city of Lunyan a week later, slowly but with our persons and property intact.

Hatsui had stayed away from the trader's campfires after the first night with the caravan, and he hadn't stayed there with them for very long after Takiko and I had excused ourselves. He hadn't gotten drunk once either.

As we waved goodbye to the caravan, I said to him, very softly, "I thought that you and they would have become better friends."

Hatsui smiled at me and said, "And I thought you were honest, Uruki!"

I blushed and said, "From what the gate guards in Tolan said, I thought you enjoyed drinking with other men."

He shrugged and said, "The company wasn't bad, but I don't like alcohol much. I only drank to stop hearing. I'd've needed to drink around them, but I never have with you or Takiko."

"Oh," I said.

He grinned and said, very softly, "Besides, it's fun to make you blush."

"Why, you-"

A passerby said sharply to Hatsui, "Stop teasing your sister, boy!"

We both snapped "Hey!" at the spot where the stranger had been.

Takiko giggled.

We found an inn in a side street of the caravanserai, and after we deposited our bags in the room we engaged, we felt the need to explore the city a little. (We decided on one room because Hatsui, whatever his other faults, was a gentleman, and we didn't trust the innkeeper not to let the fact that two young ladies were alone in a small room be known to undesirable persons.)

After we extracted our valuables from our bags and hid them on our persons (we really didn't trust that innkeeper) we wandered out to the marketplace. Naturally enough, the place was buzzing with rumour.

It was while we were idly inspecting some cloths at a stall that we heard the first rumour concerning myself.

"Oh, but have you heard about the High Princess Meiran?" the stallkeeper asked Hatsui, as he leaned against the post holding up the awning. (He'd placed himself there, telling the stallkeeper that 'a brother has to keep an eye on his sisters', and ostentatiously ignoring the face I made.)

Hatsui controlled his face admirably, his eyes only flicking to me momentarily, and then back to the seller. "No," he replied blandly. "What did she do?"

"Why, she vanished from the Court! The Great Khan's most treasured and beautiful daughter -" I snorted, and turned it into a cough - "the poor man is heartbroken!"

"He is?" I asked, and if Takiko choked at the note of saccharine sweetness I infused into my voice, the stallkeeper didn't notice. "But why would she leave her father's side?"

"Because she was called to become one of the Priestess of Genbu's handmaidens, and she did not dream of refusing! Can you imagine? With her eyes flashing like elegant dark stars -" (I have brown eyes. Big brown eyes. 'Elegant' is not the word) "her glorious cloud of dark hair -" (My hair is brown, fine and flyaway. 'Glorious' is not the word either) "and skin white as milk -" (I really did snort at this one. My mind suddenly filled with countless memories of Chiu Yuen scolding me for sitting in the sun, and pointing at the reflection of my pinkened nose in the mirror. It didn't stop me, though - I knew that one day I'd have to go with the Priestess of Genbu and I'd have to be able to walk in the sun. The cloth seller apparently didn't notice, though, and continued) "she was the jewel of Tolan. All the Court is in mourning for her loss, and the Great Khan has charged the Priestess to hurry and save Hokkan, and return his precious daughter to him!"

"I wonder how the Priestess will save Hokkan?" Takiko asked innocently.

"I'm sure I don't know! She sits in state down in Tolan, and contemplates such things. She will know the best way to stop those greedy easterners. Not that the west is much better! Constantly exhorting us to worship their Buddha, and charging ruinous rates to honest traders. Praise Genbu, He's watching over us!"

The hot-food vendor we patronized had a far more colourful version to share. "The Emperor of Koutou stole her out of her own bed with vile magics! All this talk about being 'called by Genbu' is just a front to preserve the poor girl's reputation. They say she's so beautiful - that Emperor's probably made the princess his concubine already."

My face must have been an absolute picture, for the vendor bent over and said worriedly, "Are you all right, miss? The food didn't disagree with you?"

I coughed. "N-no," I managed. "Just - just went down the wrong way."

"Oh, that's a relief. It's so hard to get good foods these days - all the locals are gouging us terribly. It's enough to make you wish the story about the Priestess of Genbu really was true."

Takiko was the one to have the coughing fit this time, as we left.

And so we bounced from stall to stall and story to story. I heard about five different version of my name (although how they managed to construct 'Xai Tan' out of 'Mei Ling' I still don't know) and about six versions of my leaving Court, from being stolen entirely against my will out of my bed to leaving with full departure ceremonies. Belief in the Priestess of Genbu varied from absolute belief to absolute disbelief.

We were tired and amazed when we returned to our inn.

Lying in bed that night - ah, for mattresses, pillows and clean sheets! - I said, "I really can't believe that the Khan is spreading such rumours about me."

Hatsui's voice came out of the darkness. "Perhaps he isn't."

"But who else would?"

"Did you have enemies at your father's Court?" Takiko asked.

"I suppose," I replied. "Everyone has enemies at the Court of the Great Khan. But these rumours are silly! I'm not the great beauty they're describing, so if they're meant to hinder me, they're not working - people are looking me in the face while telling me these stories. The only thing I can think that these rumours will do is make it difficult for me to go back to Court...." my voice trailed off as I thought about that.

I'd never really liked it at Court, but it was the closest thing I had to a home. I had been born and raised there, but I'd never really belonged there.

"Do you want to go back?" Takiko asked.

"Not... really," I replied slowly, "but there isn't really anywhere else I can go."

"My mother probably wouldn't mind adopting a daughter," Hatsui interjected, "if you don't mind being a commoner."

"Thank you," I said to both of them.

The next day, we ventured forth again, to the merchant's sector this time. We took our leave of the inn (much to the innkeeper's disappointment, because we had paid a rather high price for that room) and headed off to sell several pieces of the jewellery that Chiu Yuen had thought to provide me with. Hatsui's purse was running far too thin for anyone's liking, least of all his.

The merchant's quarter had all the bustle of colour and crowding of the caravanserai, but as it was the place where the merchants who remained here all year round lived, the buildings here were a bit more permanent, built of stone rather than canvas and wood.

We chose a jewellers' shop that was a bit quieter than the rest. I'd heard enough rumours the day before to satisfy any craving I had for fame, Hatsui was not wildly enthusiastic about crowds in the first place, and Takiko had had enough window shopping the day before. We slipped in quietly and waited till the shop was empty of everyone except the jeweller and ourselves.

I think he got a bit of a shock when he turned around to see a fine emerald necklace laid on the counter. He looked up to see Hatsui grinning at him.

"It's for sale," Hatsui said calmly. "How much do you think it's worth?"

As we'd heard the prices this man was charging his other customers, we'd revised our strategy. He wasn't selling his goods cheap and could well afford to give us a decent price.

"I'll give you... a hundred gold for it," The jeweller said.

Hatsui glared. "You know it's worth at least a thousand gold. Give us nine hundred and stop wasting our time."

"I can't afford that!" the jeweller protested. "You'll bankrupt me! A hundred and fifty."

"In a place like this? You can well and truly afford it. We'll drop to eight hundred and fifty."

As we were haggling, a door behind the counter opened, and out stepped the most beautiful young man I'd ever seen. He had the same dark green eyes as the jeweller, but his hair was the colour of the gold set around the emeralds we were haggling over. Beside me, I heard Takiko draw in a deep breath.

He looked up and glanced at us. His eyes ran over Hatsui and I, and came to a sudden stop on Takiko. He drew in a breath of his own.

I felt my ankle suddenly start burning. I didn't need to look to see that my symbol was blazing out through my sock.

Hatsui swore and began rubbing the back of his right hand, as if that would make the fire of Genbu's mark fade.

The boy flipped his left arm up, displaying the underside to us and showing the sigil 'Bi' on the inside of his wrist.

"Yu Ping!" the jeweller gasped. "How many times have I told you? Put that away before somebody sees you!"

"It's a bit late," I said as calmly as I could. "Hello, Namame. I'm Uruki, and this is Hatsui. We've been looking for you."

The jeweller turned and looked at us. Hatsui grinned and lifted his hand, displaying his character.

Takiko kicked my ankle.

"Oh! and this is Okuda Takiko, the Priestess of Genbu," I introduced her.

Namame's face lit up, as if he had just been presented to a goddess. He came out from behind the counter, revealing a slender physique, and fell to one knee before Takiko. "My Lady," he said soulfully, "I am Yu Ping, Genbu Shichiseishi Namame, and I am yours to command."

Takiko blushed. "Please rise," she said quietly. "I am young, and a stranger in this land. I would that we were friends." She did not lift her eyes from Namame's as he rose from his genuflection, and he did not turn his eyes away from her face.

The jeweller, Hatsui and I looked at each other.

"Five hundred gold for the necklace?" the jeweller eventually asked, with a sigh.

"That was what we were thinking, yes," I agreed. "Um... about your son...."

The jeweller sagged onto a stool. "My youngest," he said sadly. "I guess... I mean, I always knew it would happen, it's just that... well... I wasn't expecting it to be so soon. He's only seventeen."

Hatsui cleared his throat. "It's not like he's going away forever. We'll bring him back. And... um...." He glanced over at where Takiko and Namame were still staring at each other.

Namame's father looked at them, and then looked at us. "Yes," he sighed, and then straightened himself. "I would consider it an honour if you would dine with my family tonight, and spend the night within my house," he formally invited us.

"We are honoured, and delighted to accept your gracious hospitality," I replied.

"Thank you," Hatsui added.

We turned to look at Namame and Takiko.

"They've got to blink sometime," Hatsui predicted.

We set off north the next morning, deeper into the plains that led up to the steppe.

Namame's family had all been very interested in us. Takiko had been taken to the bosom of the family, and asked to recite her history several times. All his female relatives spent their time fussing over her. Hatsui had found Namame's brothers congenial company and spent more than a little time with them.

I felt left out, and the visit had left me feeling hollow.

It is an odd feeling to no longer be the centre of someone's attention. Almost from the moment Takiko had entered Hokkan, I had been by her side. She had always turned to me first, over the past week. We had discovered saddle sores and the city's stink together.

And now she was talking with and confiding in Namame.

I turned my back on them and dug my heels into my pony's sides. We had four more Shichiseishi to find. But the wind blew past me, and I felt emptier than ever.

Chapter Four: On The Plains ~ Hikitsu

"They say," Hikitsu once said, "that the hero only dies one death, but a coward dies a thousand times."

I replied, thoughtfully, "That seems awfully harsh on all the people who aren't heroes."

Hikitsu shrugged. "I prefer to think of it as an indictment on heroes, myself."

"Why?" I asked.

"Because it says that only cowards are bright enough to anticipate and avoid dangerous situations."

The plains of central Hokkan are deceptive. With all these broad, flat expanses of land, apparently well-watered by the broad rivers, a southerner might well ask why they are great plains of grass, and not a chequered gameboard of farmland.

The answer lies in a combination of our geography and our climate. Our crisp weather is cooler than that of the more southern nations, and warmth is needed for the growth of crops. Also, steady rainfall is required for intensive farming - and the mountains which border our country in the north and south often block the rainclouds, pregnant with lifegiving rain, which lie low in the sky. The southernmost part of Hokkan beyond the mountains, and our most eastern regions, bordered by the sea, both enjoy regular and plentiful rainfall. It should be no surprise that they are farmland, and produce the fine millets and wheat that in their turn provide us all with flour for bread, a foodstuff quite alien to the south.

To our west, where the mountains draw close together, the rivers do not flow and the land is so poor that it can only be called desert. And the plains of the centre are too dry to farm and too fine to ignore; so there dwell the herding tribes who make up the most of my people.

We were going to run into them sooner or later. Between you and I, I would have preferred it to be 'later'.

I am absolutely convinced that Genbu was paying very close attention to our progression, for that is the only explanation I can provide to the fact that no snow fell before us, to halt or slow our path; and that we were not hampered by sleet nor storm nor blizzard. This was yet more remarkable, as we were moving north during winter.

Do not ever say the Gods do not know their peoples, their lands, or their business; they may take steps to teach you otherwise.

Hatsui and I, by unspoken accord, rode together behind Takiko and Namame.

I was not trustful of this new event, even taking into account my jealousy. It is one thing to fall into a sudden, desperate attraction; such things happen regularly and are sometimes even mutual. But this was somehow something more and deeper than a passing crush, and its intensity was almost frightening.

True to Hatsui's leavening humour, Namame and Takiko had blinked, and begun to speak - almost shyly, as if each was afraid of what the other would do in response, and receiving the words of the other as if they were treasures studded with precious gems.

I was caught between amusement at their hesitant steps and exasperation at their lack of speed. Takiko had turned to Namame; I should be able to see something that made the loss, if not worthwhile, then at least explained.

"I'm pleased they're taking it slowly," Hatsui told me that evening, when I mentioned the matter, in a roundabout fashion, and not mentioning my feelings of jealous abandonment. Takiko and Namame were out of hearing range, but well within sight, fetching us water for tea from the roadside well. There was no toll on this particular well, but they spent so much time fussing over the bucket, they might as well be negotiating the price.

I sighed. "I just wish they'd declare themselves, or something," I said mournfully. "They're in love with each other -"

"Are they really?" Hatsui said thoughtfully.

I looked at him.

He looked at me, and his eyes were hooded in the evening sunlight. "Uruki, I've never said this, but you're really an innocent little girl who doesn't have a clue about the real world." He blew at a puff of smoke that was drifting near his face. "In the bottom of your mind, you believe in True Love and Honesty and Justice and all that rubbish."

"... it isn't rubbish," I said faintly, staring at the fire between us.

"My point exactly."

"I mean it," I said, looking him in the eyes and glaring at him. "It isn't rubbish! You hear the truth - that means it has to exist! Your own existence is proof of it."

Hatsui shook his head with a rueful grin. "Yes, mistress," he murmured with mock respect.

"And don't do that. You're not a Court eunuch!"

"Oh, I know that," he said, in the oddest tone of voice.

Namame and Takiko returned (with a full bucket) before I could ask him what he meant.

I decided to talk to Takiko the next morning. So I rode up beside her as we set off the next day.

Namame was on her other side (of course), but I decided to ignore that. It wasn't like I could wave my hand and dismiss him. He seemed to understand my feelings, though, and gracefully retired to Hatsui's side.

The glares I aimed at him may have helped somewhat.

"You don't like Namame, Uruki," Takiko accused me mildly as he withdrew.

"Whatever gave you that idea? He's a perfectly pleasant young man," I replied calmly. "It's just that I haven't had the chance to talk to you for a while."

Takiko winced. "I see," she muttered.

We rode in uncomfortable silent for a few minutes, and then I smiled. "Look over there!"

Takiko looked, and frowned. "I don't see anything."

"Over here," I said, looking down at the side of the road. Takiko rode over to me, and then recoiled. "Oh," she said faintly.

I blinked up at her. "What is wrong, Takiko? They're grass pythons - Genbu's sacred snake."

"There - aren't any snakes in Japan," she said softly. I didn't hear the edge of horror in her voice. I will always wonder what would have happened if I had. Could I have prevented what would be?

But I didn't hear, and I didn't look up to see the expression on her face as I dismounted and slid my hand into the knot. Poor things, they were hungry for any scrap of warmth before the snows flew and they entered their long sleep through the winter, and so they crept over my hands and twisted around my wrists. Their soft, dry skins tickled as they ran over the back of my hands, and I laughed at the sensation.

"What is it?" Hatsui called, from where he and Namame were riding behind us.

"Come and look - both of you!" I called gayly, smiling as the snakes wove around my hands.

They did, and I raised my eyes to Namame's. With a smile of rueful apology, I said, "Come and pat them. They're perfectly friendly."

Hatsui was faster in dismounting than Namame, and strolled over to unwind a few of the snakes from my hands. "Grass pythons?" he said. "But isn't it a bit late for them?"

"Genbu is smiling on us," I replied happily.

"I agree. This is definitely the best of all possible omens," Namame said. He looked up at me and smiled, a gentle smile of forgiveness. Reaching down into the knot himself, he let the black-and-green snakes creep over his skin, smiling at the touch of the rough edges of their scales. Yes, they were ready for hibernation, and it would likely only be a few more hours before they curled up in their burrow, fat on rats and mice, and began to sleep the winter out, growing in peace and stretching their skins to the breaking point. Fine snakeskins would be lying on the ground here, come spring, and I resolved that I'd come back and find them.

None of us paid attention to the fact that Takiko remained mounted and silent.

The truly painful thing about journeying that nobody ever tells you is the way that, when you are in towns, you sleep in inns (or houses) with beds, which have pillows and mattresses; and, when you are not in towns, you sleep on the ground, on a pad fashioned of blankets, covered by another. If you are wise enough to purchase one, another option is a padded sack, made to the dimensions of a human; these roll up to much the same size as a bulky blanket and are infinitely more convenient. You're still lying on the ground, though.

The contrast is very painful. But you don't have to believe me. Ask Namame. He and I commiserated all afternoon as we rode north again.

Takiko had been very quiet after we had eaten our noon meal. I don't think she was very happy about the way Hatsui, Namame and I kept giving titbits to the snakes.

I don't regret it though. I still felt jealous of Namame, but it was nowhere near as virulent as it had been earlier; it was as if the pythons had reminded me that he was as much my brother as Hatsui, and so, as we had stroked these small reminders of our God, I had begun to speak to him. Our conversation remained light, but still... it was better than it had been.

We came upon a tribe of herders that afternoon.

The large, circular felt tents that custom decrees for the herders of the plains aren't the most efficient design in the world. However, the people of the plains have lived in them for hundreds of years; and custom is inviolate. We do things which we have done for hundreds of years because we have done them for hundreds of years. Logic does not come into the question.

The encampment of the nomad tribe seemed no different to any of the other tribes I'd seen from the wall around the Great Khan's palace, but with one significant difference.

They were herding horses.

The scholars may discuss the gold and gemstone deposits in the southern mountains to their heart's content. Tutors may speak of the rich alluvial soil of the south and east all they like. To me and the majority of my countrymen, our horses are our greatest wealth. The proud arch of their necks as they toss their manes - the sure step on their strong hooves - the fiery light of the sun through flickering tails - the beauty of a well-bred, well-trained horse is unmatched in all the world.

We rode down on our little ponies - and how little they looked, when compared to their full-sized cousins! - and introduced ourselves. We were welcomed and invited to stay for the night.

With that out of the way, I was able to do a little exploring, and I'm sure that it is understandable how I managed to end up beside the fence of the riding-horses' enclosure.

"They're beautiful, aren't they?" Takiko said, from behind me.

"Oh, yes," I agreed fervently.

She seemed uncomfortable, shifting from foot to foot, so I decided to make it easier on her. "I'm sorry that we made such a fuss over the pythons at noontime."

She seemed taken aback, so I continued. "I should have realized you were uncomfortable with them -"

"No, no!" she interrupted me. "It was all right. There was no need to stop you. I'm just not used to snakes. That was all."

I looked at her, she at me, and we both smiled at each other. I knew what she hadn't said, and she seemed to understand that I'd been out of sorts. She held out her hand, and I took it.

"Well, well, what have we here?" the tribe's headman's son came strolling up, with two other young men behind him.

I let go of Takiko's hand, reluctantly, and stepped away from her. "Admiring the horses," I said as calmly as I could. "They are beautiful."

"As beautiful as us?" one of the boys leered. I took a step back, further away, and was gratified to see their eyes following me, and not Takiko as she quietly eased away from the group.

"I think there's no sight quite like a beautiful horse," I replied evasively, and took another step back. Unfortunately, this brought me right up to the fence. The boys saw it and encircled me. I swallowed. My only consolation was that Takiko was well away by now.

"I'm sure I can change your mind," the headman's son leered.

"I'm not," I retorted, and quickly climbed to the top of the fence. I took a flying leap off the thin wooden paling and landed awkwardly on a young roan mare. Sitting up as fast as I dared, I saw the three boys scrambling over the fence. Without another thought, I kicked the poor mare. Hard.

The horse charged off, over the plains, and I hung on for dear life. I was an idiot! I berated myself as the frightened horse fled. I had only learnt to ride less than a month ago, and now I was trying to ride with neither bit nor saddle! I couldn't tell the horse where to go, much less to slow down and let me off - I should never have tried this!

The only thing I could think of to do was hang on until the mare tired herself out, and then when she stopped running, let myself fall off. It wouldn't be long, I told myself. After all, I am a weight, and she's obviously not used to running with a rider.

What I did not know at the time was that there's a difference between 'galloping' and 'running'. The first is a gait that, while it is very fast and does spend a lot of the horse's energy, is a natural part of a horse's life and so can be sustained for quite a while. The second is an instinctive response to danger and is faster but can't be kept up by a horse for a long period of time.

The mare had started out running, but had adjusted to a gallop. I wasn't that heavy, so she would probably have been able to keep it up for quite a long time... if the ice wall hadn't snapped up directly in front of her. She saw the jagged sheet of ice suddenly spring up in front of her, and reared. I, like the complete tyro that I was, let go of her mane; and as she flung me off, I watched the rough hair arc and fall against her neck.

Silly horse will end up breaking her neck, I thought dreamily; and then with a knock so quick it didn't even hurt, the darkness swallowed me.

It did hurt, very much so, when I woke.

"Don't move," a male voice, gently admonishing, chided me. "You've got quite a nasty bump."

"Takiko? Hatsui? Namame?" I asked blankly. I didn't try to open my eyes. I could feel a cold compress over them, so trying to open them wouldn't have done me much good anyway. "My head hurts," I inanely commented to the unknown man.

The man seemed to pause. For a long second I couldn't hear him do anything. Then the soft splashing of water in a stone basin resumed. "What is your name?" he asked me softly.

"Uruki," I said. "Well, actually, it's Mei Ling, but I'm Genbu Shichiseishi Uruki, and I'm accompanying the Priestess of Genbu, so I'm not really Mei Ling, not until we call Genbu. And I don't think I'll be Mei Ling then either, because I can't go back, can I? They've seen to that. I wasn't a threat to anyone, he didn't even notice me! Why did they have to do that?" I was babbling, but I couldn't stop myself.

"It's all right," he said soothingly. "Being Uruki isn't bad, is it?" He gently lifted the compress from my eyes, and I blinked them open. The figure bending over me was fuzzy, but he gradually came into focus.

An elegant, fine-boned face greeted me. Fine grey-white hair hung down around his face, and his thin lips were smiling at me. His left eye was a clear and steady grey, while his right....

I couldn't help myself. I reached up and gently touched the tears that flowed down his cheek, welling up in a futile, instinctive attempt to soothe the burning of the symbol graven on the eye.

Yet he was smiling, though the skin around his lips was taut with pain.

"My name is Chen Emtato," he said softly, "but I prefer to be called Hikitsu."

Chapter Five: In Genbu's Highlands ~ Tomite

Tomite was ever a soul of action, and could always be relied upon to be hunting dinner, scouting our path or just riding. His skill in the saddle was only matched by his impatience out of it.

He took it upon himself to teach me how to ride properly. One morning, when we were far from the others, I was thrown by my horse. It was not the first time, nor the last; but this particular time I was specifically unhappy with the situation, and I told him so, at length.

When I had wound down, he lifted an eyebrow at me and said, "Uruki, if you give up now, how will you ever make it to the end?"

I got back on the horse.

I had awoken under Hikitsu's care in the late afternoon, and while he allowed me to sit up, he didn't let me get up. To be fair, I didn't argue very hard. In fact, if it weren't for the fact that he kept up a light banter and insisted that I respond to him while he chopped roots and measured herbs, you would be hard-pressed to tell that I actually was awake.

He admitted that he was the one who had broken the mare's headlong gallop, and that he had created the wall of ice that I'd seen as I fell.

"That's a relief," I told him.

"Why?" he asked me.

"It means I wasn't hallucinating," I told him.

"Also that your memory is working just fine," he replied with satisfaction, as he set aside the wild carrots and began to trim the beans. He looked up from time to time, scanning the area visible through the door of the tent.

"Are you waiting for someone?" I enquired.

He smiled gently. "Yes," he told me with a broad smile. "My... best friend. You will be happy to meet each other," he said, with certainty.

I wasn't quite so sure. My first meetings with people lately had definitely not been the most positive experiences of my life. However, Hikitsu was a nice person and his friend would probably be too. At least, I hoped so.

To pass the time, I asked him what his talent was.

"Oh, I make impenetrable barriers out of ice," he told me. "Nothing can get through my ice walls, and I make snakes of ice that can deflect any blow."

"But you're a healer," I objected. For some obscure reason, I felt that the two abilities could not coexist.

"What better gift for a healer, than protection from everything?" Hikitsu said, with a wry twist of his lips.

I could not disagree.

"I'm back! - a new patient?" a new voice broke in. I turned my head to see a young man at the tent flap. He was intensely masculine and not handsome, his face too stern and features too sharp for beauty.

I did not swoon. I did not collapse in a puddle of femininity. The fact that I fell flat on my face in front of him is simply and solely because I got my feet tangled in the rug Hikitsu had covered me with when I tried to stand up.

Hikitsu, kindly, did not laugh; instead, he helped me to my feet and straightened the rug out. "Not quite," he said calmly, with only the faintest tremor in his voice.

The young man lifted a sculpted eyebrow over his piercing dark eyes. "Then..." he said, impatiently.

Hikitsu made a 'phrump'ing noise in his throat. "Are you numb?" he demanded. "Can't you feel her?"

It hit me and I suddenly realized why Hikitsu had been so certain I would like his mysterious friend. I giggled into the moment, and sat down again, scrabbling at my sock.

"What are you doing?" the stranger asked me.

I flashed him a grin, and my ankle, which was burning. "Establishing my credentials," I told him cheerfully. "I'm Uruki! Which of my star-brothers are you?"

He glared at Hikitsu, who was paying a lot of attention to the fire in the porcelain stove, and whose shoulders were shaking. Then he looked at me, a smouldering look that made every part of me sit up and pay attention. "I," he said with dignity, "am Tam Chamka, Genbu Shichiseishi Tomite."

Hikitsu, at this point, slammed the stove door. We still heard the chuckle.

Tomite had gone hunting earlier in the day, which was why Hikitsu had not bothered to prepare any meats, or to start the actual cooking of dinner; the meat was still on the way.

Today he had brought back a brace of wild rabbit, skinning and cleaning them before he had entered the tent. Hikitsu calmly took possession of the meat, and less than an hour later we were eating a savoury stew that easily surpassed all the fine meals I had eaten in my father's house.

Hikitsu, however, denied my compliments. "I am a healer, and thus versed in the ways of herbs," was all he would say.

When I told them that I had been travelling with the Priestess of Genbu and two other Shichiseishi, they traded odd glances. But "So it has begun," was all that Tomite said.

Remembering, I wonder if Lord Genbu managed to communicate what would happen to them. But, then again, neither Tomite nor Hikitsu were optimists.

"I really should be looking for Takiko and the others," I said apologetically, as we finished the meal. I probably ate too much of it - not that I regret it. That stew was one of the finest meals I ever had in my life.

"In the morning," Tomite told me. "It's full dark now. Wait until you can see where you're going."

"That's sensible," I conceded, and retired to the bed where I had spent the afternoon.

Tomite and Hikitsu were up long before I was. At the time, I was still of the opinion that sunrise was scheduled far too early in the day.

The mare that had run away with me was long since gone, so I was preparing to walk when Tomite caught my hand and brought me over to where a beautiful fawn-coloured mare was coralled.

"This is Mei-Mei," he told me quietly. "I think she'll suit you."

I admired the proud arch of her neck and the black of her mane and tail as she pranced and curvetted in the dawnlight. However, that itself gave me pause.

"Are you sure? I'm a rank beginner, you know. I didn't even know how to ride a month ago."

He smiled at me. "Don't worry. She won't run away with you."

I smiled back. Oh, he was fine, with that dark hair pulled back by his round furred hat - it was enough to make a girl murderous when she saw the way he and Hikitsu looked at each other.

He turned away to pick up the tack, and I sighed, wishing that somewhere, there was someone for me.  Then I shook my head swiftly. Honestly, being surrounded by romantic couples was going to my head.

We had been riding south for an hour when Hikitsu pointed ahead and announced, "Looks like we'll have company."

I squinted at the dots on the horizon. "Three of them," I observed laconically.

"You're picking up good habits, Uruki," Tomite complimented me.

I glanced over at him, but he wasn't looking at me. I shrugged and turned back to the task at hand - staying on the horse.

Of course, it takes time to catch up to people you see in the distance, especially as we weren't crowding the horses. Tomite had given me a strong lecture about it.

Tomite seemed to have almost a different personality in the saddle. On his own two feet he was impatient, hostile and inclined to attack, but in the saddle he was calm, peaceful and even - dare I say it? - nice.

He had picked well for me. Mei-Mei was spirited, true, but she was much more inclined to stay close to her herdmates than to go racing off over the plains. I made a point of not touching her with my heels - I had learnt my lesson about kicking horses - and she didn't do more than toss her head at me.

Eventually we drew close enough to distinguish the identities of the three riding furiously towards us, and I gently tugged on Mei-Mei's reins, enough to make her slow and fall back into line with the others. "You knew," I accused them.

"I suspected," Hikitsu replied.

"They're actually a bit slower than I expected," Tomite said consideringly. "The mare that brought you must have been galloping longer than you thought."

The three riders were Hatsui, Namame and Takiko, of course. I loosened the reins and Mei-Mei virtually leapt forward. Takiko touched the sides of her horse with her heels, and the two of us met ahead of everyone else.

We just hugged, as the young men came riding up around us.

"Oh, Takiko," I said brightly, "let me introduce you. This is Hikitsu -"

"It's a pleasure to meet you."

"- and this is Tomite."

"Hello."

"Tomite, Hikitsu, this is Takiko, the Priestess of Genbu -"

"I'm so glad to meet you both. Thank you for helping Uruki!"

"- this is Hatsui -"

"Yo."

I glanced at Hatsui. He seemed to be very quiet, and almost glaring at Hikitsu? I shook my head and finished up.

"And this is Namame."

"It's good to finally find you." Namame said brightly.

"No problem," Tomite said.

"We Shichiseishi have to stick together," Hikitsu added.

"Now that we are together," I said brightly, "there's only two to go! I wonder what Iname and Urumiya are like?"

Takiko smiled at me. "Well, we won't find out standing here. Let's go... this way!"

So we all set off for the southeast, towards the mountains.

Chapter Six: Toward Destiny - Iname

 Iname was often given to quiet contemplation, and was the only one of us to make a hobby of stargazing.  One night, as we lay beside the road, he pointed out the stars of our seishuku.  I was more interested in the way our constellations lay side by side than any abstract beauty they presented.

 Iname laughed as I told him that, but sobered quickly.  He remained silent a long time, lying on his back, staring at the sky.  Jealous of his attention, I demanded to know what he found so fascinating about the sky.

 "They go on forever, Uruki," he replied.  "The stones are eternal, but they are below our feet.  The stars beckon us up to join them, now and for always."

 "Will you go?" I demanded petulantly.

 He glanced over at me and chuckled.  "I will always reach up to them," he assured me, "but my feet will always remain safely here."

 A week after we had met Hikitsu and Tomite, I was regretting my impulsive tongue.

 "Now that we are together," I had said brightly, "there's only two to go!  I wonder what Iname and Urumiya are like?"

 After seven days of riding from dawn to dusk and long, hard riding lessons - Tomite was a patient teacher, but he was also an implacable one - I was not a happy person.

 We had ridden halfway up the country and three-quarters of the way across.  I had met garrulous shopkeepers, closemouthed herdsmen, foreign traders, and delinquent youths.

 Namame had taken great delight in recounting how, after Takiko had come running into the main tent and blurted out my situation, the men of the tribe had come charging out to my rescue just a little too late and had to settle for soundly thrashing the three youths instead.  He also said that they would suffer consequences, beyond the night.  I didn't want to think about that.  Intellectually, I knew that the tribes of the central plains practiced slavery, but the idea that someone would be enslaved because of me was uncomfortable.  The ringleader had been the chieftain's son, but a younger son, not the youngest nor the eldest, which was an uncomfortable place to be.

 I still couldn't really accept that, as a Genbu shichiseishi, in the eyes of many of Hokkan's people I was far more important than the Great Khan.  I was too used to being Mei Ling, the more-or-less ignored not-quite-princess.

 The mountains were no longer misty blue clouds on the horizon - now we could see Genbu's hands as they cupped the plain of His people.  The thick rocky fingers of mountains thrust up against the sky, almost a line across the western border.  The only real break in the Western mountains was the Pass of Tolan, named for the city built in and across it.  Or perhaps the city was named for the pass.  It didn't really matter.

 The city of Tolan is the largest city in Hokkan.  It is the capital of our country, and the residence of the Great Khan.

 It was the place I could no longer call home.

 Hatsui had been acting oddly ever since Tomite and Hikitsu had joined us.  He shared a tent with them, but he didn't seem to be resentful of them.  I must admit that I didn't try to understand his feelings - I sensed that if I did, it would bring me nothing but pain.  So, in my childish selfishness, I deliberately did not think about them.

 Perhaps this was wise of me, though.  As long as Hatsui could look at me and know that I did not know, he was not rejected.  However, considering all that next happened... perhaps he would have been better to declare himself.  Perhaps I should have looked deeper and given him an answer before the question was asked.

 It would have hurt, but the pain was inevitable, and perhaps it might have been lessened a little.

 Perhaps.

 I imagine that it was at approximately this time that the Emperor of Koutou finally responded to the news that had swept all around Hokkan.  Certainly I can think of no reason why the Koutou soldiers should have delayed their progress, and the location of the High Temple of Genbu, in the centre of Tolan, was no secret.

 So it is likely that it was around this time that the army of Koutou sent out its assassination squads, with orders to find and kill the Genbu Shichiseishi, by whatever means necessary.

 We were going back to Tolan.

 The city was and yet was not my childhood home.  I had spent my childhood sequestered in the Women's Quarter of the Palace of the Great Khan; in truth, I was as innocent of Tolan's streets as any child of the steppe tribes.  Yet it was the place I was born.

 I couldn't go back.  I had journeyed, chaperoned only by Takiko, in the company of several young men.  Never mind that two were far more interested in each other than any girl, one was madly in love with my companion and the fourth treated me like a rather annoying younger sister.  Rumour was not aware of any of that.

 So I was no longer marriageable, which is about the only value any princess has, which meant that the Great Khan would not welcome me back.  The only person who would, would be my old nurse, Chui Yuen, who I missed terribly.

 That was the only good thing about it; I would see her again.  If, that is, I could get past the gate.

 I felt myself grinning.  That last, at least, was definitely not a problem.

 Hatsui was not pleased with my plan.

 "Are you insane?" he demanded harshly, after I outlined my plan over the breakfast fire.

 "No," I replied archly.  "You of all people should know I can be inconspicuous if I want to be.  I want to see Chiu Yuen.  I'm going to see her."

 "You've heard all the rumours!  You'll be mobbed!"

 "The descriptions aren't even accurate.  Nobody's going to recognise me."

 "Give up, Hatsui," Hikitsu advised.  "When she gets that look in her eyes, all we can do is get out of the way."

 I glared at him.  What look?

 Hikitsu clutched dramatically at his chest and toppled over backwards.  "Dear, oh dear," Tomite murmured.  "Hikitsu, are you still alive?"

 "Barely," my fellow shichiseishi replied cheerfully, still lying in the grass at his lover's feet.  "Perhaps you should check?"

 Tomite glanced around the circle, his eyes flicking over Takiko and Namame's blushing faces.  "I will, later," he promised, in a tone as bland as if he were discussing the weather.

 I gave up to the giggles.

 Nobody wanted to go with me.  Hikitsu and Tomite were not comfortable in large crowds, and Takiko wished to rest.  Namame would not leave her behind, and Hatsui, possibly in retaliation for my refusal to take his advice and remain, declared mulishly that he was not going into the main city either.  He was perfectly content, he stated, to remain in the common room of the trader's inn on the outskirts of the cattle yards outside Tolan.  I could go see my nurse if I wanted to, but he wasn't going.

 So I cloaked myself in shadows once again and set out alone, in an action I now recognise as the height of foolishness.  But at the time I could not imagine many of the dangers that might befall me.

 And so, if a watcher had been paying attention, he would have been able to see a moving patch of shadow that afternoon, darting along the city streets, slipping between passersby and traffic, moving towards the Palace.  I was wise enough with the ways of traffic by now to move with rather than against the flow.

 There were a lot of people on the street.  I wondered why until a loud voice ahead of me yelled "Make way!  Make way for the Great Khan!"

 I fled for the wall, but I was too late.  I did make it to the side of a buttress that jutted out onto the street, where a patch of shadow as big as a girl would not be remarkable.  I was still far too close to the street, and the royal procession, for my liking.

 First the eunuch, announcing the procession, walked past, followed by a group of boys, dressed in royal yellow, scattering sweet yellow roses over the street to perfume the air and hide the foul scent of the road from royal nostrils.  Then, mounted on an expensive, over-pampered horse, rode the Great Khan.

 I couldn't help it.  I had to look up at the man who had sired me.

 The Great Khan, I concluded rather clinically, was a handsome man.  His black hair was streaked with silver, not an unusual thing in a man aged over fifty.  His body was still well-muscled and he had not let those muscles go to fat as so many large, well-muscled men tend to do when they enter middle age.  His jaw was squared and jutted out as if he was setting it against some distasteful yet necessary task, and his brown eyes scanned the horizon, taking great care to never actually touch upon the street around him.

 Following his horse came the four carriages that carried his First Wife, his current favourite, his lesser wives, and his more-favoured concubines.  The Great Khan's First Wife was a woman of around his age, and handsome, with strong bones in her face and long, raven's-wing-black hair.  His favourite, however, was a girl no older than I was, from the south.  Her hair was long, the colour of fire, and her bright eyes were pale, almost colourless.  Her mouth was set in a petulant pout, that men doubtless found adorable.

 The three lesser wives sat in their carriage, as calm and composed as if they were still in their quarters at the Palace, obviously taking their behaviour from the First Wife.

 In marked contrast was the behaviour of the favoured concubines in the fourth and final carriage.  Singing and playing with toys, they amused themselves as they were carried to wherever the Great Khan was going.  The truly amazing thing, though, was that, in the centre of the favoured concubines, in the place reserved for the Emperor's secondary favourite - she who, while not quite as important as his most favoured concubine, is preferred to all his other concubines - was my mother!

 I stared in shock as I watched Li Jiang smile and chirp at a woman who she had spoken of with hate only a month before, and then turn to bestow a comment on another she had envied desperately.  She was clearly loving this new - and, I could see from the clenched teeth and stiff demeanour of those around her, quite genuine - status.

 The carriage moved down the street, and I watched it go, followed by a virtual army of serving maids and eunuchs.  Some part of me could not believe my eyes.  What had happened, to so lift my mother's status?

 I had to get to the Palace, and talk with Chui Yuen.

 The gate guards, predictably enough, did not notice a small shadow floating gently through their midst, and so I found myself within the Palace of the Great Khan once more.

 I did not linger over my old haunts, for I had no idea how long the Great Khan, his coterie of concubines and his army of servants would be gone.  I definitely didn't want to be there when they returned.

 Looking for her first in her little cubby in the servant's quarters, I tried my old rooms next, and there I found her - in her little chair drawn up to the window, busy sewing something.  I shut the door behind me, uncloaked myself and sighed with relief.

 She heard me, and looked up.  The sewing was flung to one side as she sprang up, as sprightly as if she were my age instead of twice it.  "Little Miss!"

 The next few minutes were lost in a frenzy of hugging.  I had missed Chiu Yuen, but I had not realized how much.  The past two weeks had been an eternity.

 Admidst tears and laughter, I told her of what they had been like; of my brothers, the land, and riding lessons.  I shared with her the amazement I'd felt at the market and my terror on that wild ride on the steppe.  Finally, I broached the subject that had been pulling at me hardest.

 "What has happened here, Chiu Yuen?  What happened to change my mother so?"

 Chiu Yuen sighed.  "You did, Little Miss."

 I felt my eyes widen.  "I did?"

 "I told you, didn't I, how long I had known of your destiny, my Little Miss?  It turned out that I was not the only one with their eyes upon you.  It appears that half the eunuchs used to watch for you, and most of the maids."

 I swallowed as I remembered childish pranks, such as snowballs lobbed from within the shadows.  "They - they did?"

 "Yes, Little Miss.  So when you did not reappear for dinner, the day you left, I was asked about it."  Chiu Yuen rubbed her wrist, and I felt a sudden chill.  My eyes narrowed as I saw the bruise.

 "Don't look like that, Little Miss!  This bruise was just an accident, from when I was made to sit down.  Long stopped them before they could do anything more to me."

 "Long?" Now that was a surprise to me.  Long was one of the most senior eunuchs in the Palace.  He was also about the only senior eunuch who ever behaved as if he noticed me, and had always treated me with respect.  Still, there is a great difference between a daughter of the Great Khan and her nursemaid; that he would protect a woman of Chui Yuen's status was a highly unusual act for an eunuch of his rank.

 For some reason, a brush of colour suddenly swept along Chiu Yuen's cheekbones.  "Long and I have been... friends for several years," she replied diffidently, "and he has always been very... kind to me."

 Two weeks before, I would not have heard those pauses.  Now, I could only wonder at what I wasn't hearing.  "I'm glad to hear that," I replied lightly, so as not to let her know what I'd heard.

 "So they sat me down and asked me where you were, and did not let me leave the servant's dining room until I had told them all about Lady Takiko and how you and she had left.  Among them was Zhong, who is -"

 "The Great Khan's confidant," I whispered.

 "Yes, Little Miss.  So he undoubtedly carried the story straight to the Great Khan."

 "I still don't see why that would affect Li Jiang's rank," I said quietly.

 "With the whole Palace abuzz with the fact that the First Shichiseishi had been a daughter of the Great Khan, he could not ignore your disappearance, Little Miss.  You were not here to heap honours upon, so he had to give recognition to your mother, for bearing you."

 "I heard a lot of rumours in the marketplaces," I said thoughtfully.  "They all said I was a great beauty and the treasured daughter of the Great Khan.  I almost died laughing."

 "That isn't such a joke anymore, Little Miss," Chiu Yuen replied slowly.  "The Great Khan has named you a High Princess, and in the last proclamation to the people, you were spoken of as 'the fair flower of Hokkan'."

 I blinked.  Then, I said slowly, "Why?"

 Chiu Yuen shrugged.  "Things are looking bad, Little Miss.  We have a threatened war on our border, and traders don't come when there's war.  We've all been praying for the Priestess of Genbu, and when she appears, the first person to follow her is the Great Khan's own daughter.  If he makes it look like you left with his blessings, then it looks like he's backing her.  And if it doesn't work, he can say he sacrificed his beloved daughter to the good of the country."

 I felt my lips twist.  "That sounds like him."

 "Don't make that face, Little Miss! Your face might freeze that way!"

 That restored my good humour.  "Why, Chiu Yuen," I teased, "I thought you knew that only happens when the wind blows south-south-west!"

 And that, in turn, restored hers.  "Mayhap so, and mayhap no, and mayhap we will never know," she replied cheerfully, one of her favourite sayings.  "But tell me more of your star-brothers - you say you have found four of the six?"

 I stayed for an hour, but after that time, I dared not remain.

 Chiu Yuen agreed with me.  "The Great Khan has only gone to the High Temple to burn incense for the Priestess of Genbu's success," she told me.  "We can expect him back within an hour.  And I do not think you wish to be found here, do you, Little Miss?"

 So I bade her a second farewell, cloaked myself in shadows once more, and ghosted out of the gate.

 I was almost too late.  No sooner was I outside the gate than the scent of roses assaulted my nose and I heard the cry, "Make way!  Make way!"

 So I did.  I fled down the nearest alley and ran until I was out of breath.  And thoroughly, completely lost.

  I really had to start thinking before I acted, I decided, as I found myself wandering the streets of Tolan.  The afternoon sunlight washed the street and there were no patches of shadow, so I had to reluctantly release my shadow and venture out, clad only in my clothing.  Which was perfectly respectable, but still, no protection from eyes.

 "Hey, pretty lady...."

 Or street boys who were bored.  I ignored them.

 "We're talkin' to ya, girl!"  My shoulder was roughly grasped and I was spun around.  I didn't hesitate, but simply continued the spin, letting the momentum wrench me out of the boy's hand and away from him.  I took the opportunity and ducked away from the group, running into an alley....

 .... Which turned out to be a dead end.

 I spun on my heel, turning to face the three (/Do these sort of boys always gang up in threes?/ I thought wildly) who were blocking off the end of the alley.

 Drawing in a deep breath, I was trying desperately to think of a way out of *this* one when the sound of hoofbeats came thudding down the street outside.  I expected them to go past, but instead the rider came galloping into the alley.  One of the street toughs got kicked as he tried to dive out of the way.  The young man on the back of the horse wheeled his mount around, holding his hand out to me.  I didn't reject this gift of luck and flung myself up onto the horse.  Then we were thundering down the street.

 The rider definitely had a destination in mind, and I wasn't sure it was a place I wanted to be.  "Where are we going?" I asked, over the hoofbeats.

 The young man tilted his head down to look at me, and I immediately lost all my thoughts.  Some strands of his long black hair had come undone from the tie at the nape of his neck, falling across his face and his strong, hawklike features.  His eyes were dark, dark green, richest beryl, darkest jade.  I could have stared at him forever.

 "My house,"  he replied.

 His house?  That was more sobering than a pail of cold water.  I stiffened in his arms.

 "My family will be delighted to meet you, Uruki," he added.

 Family?  And....

 "How do you know who I am?" I demanded suspiciously.

 He smiled, a heartbreaker's smile, and transferred the reins to his right hand.  Then he used the left to roll up his right sleeve, displaying the symbol 'Niu' on his right bicep.  "The stones told me," he said simply.

 "You're Iname?" I asked disbelievingly.

 "So I am.  It must be your lucky day!"

Chapter Seven: Reflection ~ Urumiya

Urumiya was always singing - he hummed in his sleep, he sang while he played, and he played his harp as he rode.

"Why do you always make music, Urumiya?" I demanded one day.

He chuckled, and replied, "Because music makes people smile, and I love doing that."

He rode off before I could ask him what he meant.

I did not recognise any of the districts Iname carried me through. That was not the thing which worried me. What disturbed me was the fact that what signs I could read were of taverns, the streets were unswept and the people I could see around us were unkempt. We rode past several street corners, with a young woman no older than I standing on each, wearing rags artfully torn to suggest more than they showed. I saw them smiling up at other, unaccompanied, men. Their expressions did not reach their eyes.

When Iname and I rode past, they did not look up at him with the feigned sympathy and alluring promise they showed to other men who walked in company, the sidelong glances that said, clearer than words, 'You poor dear! Were you alone, I would be happy to walk with you instead....' As, indeed, they would be happy to now, for a few coins.

Instead, from Iname they hid their eyes, but stared at me - and in their gazes I read unfeigned sympathy. As if, however wretched whoring themselves was, I was in a far worse position than they.

As we rode deeper into the underbelly of Tolan, the fear awoke within me that they had the right of it.

We eventually came to a halt outside a tavern. I could hear the sound of drunken carousing within, despite the fact that it was only midafternoon.

"I'm not going in there," I announced flatly.

Iname lifted one sculptured brow at me. "Oh?" His tone was light, as if I defied him uselessly.

"No," I said decidedly. "You can go in and conduct your business. I'll stay here and make sure nobody steals the horse."

He blinked. "Nobody," he replied, "would dream of stealing my horse."

"So I'll be perfectly safe here, waiting for you," I replied cheerfully.

"You don't have anything to worry about inside," he tried coaxing me.

It didn't work. "I don't mind waiting out here," I told him.

"I won't let anyone interfere with you," he tried again.

"In an area like this," I replied, "it is better that you should look after yourself. I'll be safe out here, so you won't have to worry about me, and be free to guard yourself."

He chuckled. "You really don't want to go in, do you?"

"Not on your life," I replied. "Iname, please. Go easy on yourself. Just say I won the argument and go in? It'll be terrible for your reputation if you're seen having to physically drag a girl somewhere."

"But this is where the boss is," he muttered in an agonized tone. "He's going to want to see you...."

It all came together then, in a picture that was shocking in its simplicity. Iname was involved in crime! And whichever criminal he was involved with was inside the tavern.

I drew in a deep breath. "Maybe so, but I don't want to go in there," I reiterated. "I won't go in there. If your employer wants to meet me, he can come out."

Iname gave me a sidelong look. "All right," he conceded. Slipping off the horse and handing up the reins to me, he fixed me with a stern glare. "You won't go anywhere," he ordered.

"I wouldn't dream of it," I replied sweetly, crossing my fingers.

As soon as he had disappeared into the shadow of the door of the tavern, I gently pulled the horse back into the shade and cloaked both of us in shadow.

If I could remember to do this when I really needed to, and not when I was not actually in immediate danger, then my life would have been a lot less exciting. I smiled to myself. After all, hadn't the doctor himself said that I would make the times interesting?

It's always disappointing when people live down to your expectations, and this time was no exception. A slender man, who looked to be in his early thirties by his face, and in his eighties by the cynicism and bitterness in his eyes, stalked out the door and stopped dead just over the lintel. The stream of profanity he spat was most unimaginative.

He gestured abruptly and two men came out, dragging a third - Iname - between them. The first man hit him, hard, across the face.

"Where the hell is she?"

Iname coughed. "I don't know, I swear! I left her here - she said she'd stay-"

He was cut off by a vicious short punch to his solar plexus. His eyes bulged and he began gasping for breath. The older man began stalking back and forth before him.

"Do you know... boy, do you have any idea how much the flower of Tolan is worth? No, of course you wouldn't, someone as brainless as you. She'd fetch a pretty penny from the Emperor of Koutou, after we'd finished with her." His ugly laugh was echoed by the thugs holding Iname up.

That got a reaction from Iname. "But you said -"

His master backhanded him so hard the two specimens of street trash couldn't keep a grip on him, and he flew backwards, hitting the wall. Fortunately, the sound was only a low-impact (thump) and nothing more sickening.

"You're a little idiot, Genbu Shichiseishi," he hissed, kicking Iname's ribs for emphasis. "You seem to think that I'm a 'nice' person. Allow me to educate you, once and for all. Do you think my stable of whores serve because they want to?" He kicked Iname again. "Do you think the owners of my pretty jewels give them to me?" Another kick. "Do you honestly think people give way to me because they recognise my superior worth?" He squatted over Iname's body, picking him up by the collar and pulling his face up so close that flecks of spittle flew from his lips to land on Iname's face. "I am a pimp and a thief. I am an extortionist, a rapist and a murderer. I commit grievous bodily harm for fun and profit. I took you in off the street because it struck me as a good idea at the time. You are nothing to me, little boy. And now you've failed me." He stood up, letting go of Iname's shirt and snapping his hands, as if to flick the dirt of Iname's person off them.

He glanced at the two thugs standing silently, watching the entire scene. "He's yours. He's outlived his usefulness."

The two exchanged glee-filled glances, but did not move until their master had fastidiously stepped over Iname's prone form, passing back into the murky depths of the tavern. Then they both moved ponderously toward his body.

As they passed me, I slipped from the horse's saddle, walked up behind them as silently as I could, fisted my hands together, and brought them down as hard as I could on the back of the closest one's head.

He went down like a crashing wave, falling first to his knees and then onto his face, spreading out all over the street. The second thug tripped over his arm, hitting the cobbles hard and obligingly knocking himself out.

I daintily led the horse over to where Iname lay on the street. For a slender man, he was very heavy! But after a few minutes of heaving and pushing, I managed to get him slung over the horse's back. With several backward glances in case another lackey-thug came out of the tavern - because, while they couldn't see into my shadow-cloak, they might very well see a patch of shadow moving about, and that could be just as damning - I began to pick my way down the street, leading the horse away.

While I did what I should've done in the first place, and found my way to a crowded street, listened to the people around me, and began to follow them to the cattle-merchant's quarter, where I had left the others. Hopefully Hatsui would have bespoken us rooms in the inn where he had settled to spend his afternoon.

As I glided along in the shadow of the prosperous sheep merchant who was returning to his hostelry after a profitable afternoon at the market (all of which I gleaned from his boasting to the young lady, probably one of his wives, who rode beside him), I thought about what had happened this afternoon.

Iname had brought me to a criminal - but that criminal had clearly been important to him, and it was obvious that he had believed that no real harm would come to me there. And now, it seemed, I was no longer the only Shichiseishi who could never go home.

Even beaten and unconscious, he was attractive. I fell back a little, so I was no longer at the horse's head, but at his shoulder. The gelding tossed his head, but was otherwise content to follow the other horses. I reached out, and gently touched Iname's cheek. He twitched, and opened bruised-looking eyes. "Huh? Where-"

"Ssshh," I whispered. "It's all right. I'm here, you're going to be all right."

"Uruki?" he questioned. "Uruki, I'm sorry, I-"

"Ssshh, it's all right, I understand," I soothed. "Don't talk, I'm taking you somewhere safe."

"He wanted-"

"I know very well what he wanted," I replied, a sharp note in my voice. "I was there."

"You were...?"

"I did say I'd stay, didn't I? Now shush."

Iname subsided, but I didn't lift my hand from his face. Touching him was soothing to the feelings rolling through me, somehow.

I followed the merchant all the way back to the main street of the cattle district, where I saw a dreamy-eyed Namame leading an equally dreamy-eyed Takiko through the crowd. I shed the shadow-cloak when I saw them, cutting across the path of I don't know how many other people to come up to them.

Despite the chaos that I left churning behind me, they still didn't notice me as I dragged Iname and his horse up to meet them. "Hello!" I said brightly, and watched them both jump.

"U-Uruki!" Namame stuttered. "What - what a surprise!"

Takiko blushed as she said, "Namame and I went for a walk."

I eyed the circlet of wild daisies that rested on top of her glossy black hair and replied, with the straightest face I could, "I hope you had a nice time."

"We did," Namame answered dreamily. "There's the nicest little grove -"

"Who's that?" Takiko interrupted him, pointing at Iname.

"This is Iname," I said. "Do you know where the others are? It's important."

"Um - I think they're at the Golden Lion Inn," Namame said, "where we left them this morning."

"Then let's go," I said, swinging round and stopping to stare.

The street behind me was absolute chaos. No less than three carts had crashed into each other, spreading out over the street. Two others had attempted to avoid the crash and had crashed themselves, into buildings at the side of the road. People had climbed out of the wreckage and were screaming at each other. Others were sneakily picking up packages off the road and leaving quietly.

"What happened?" I demanded.

Iname began to snicker.

"OW!" Iname yelled, some time later.

"Don't be a baby," Hikitsu told him briskly, pulling the bandage tight. "Your wounds aren't that bad. The worst you have are some bruised ribs."

"It still hurts," he complained.

"How did you get so beaten up, anyway?" Hatsui demanded, from where he was leaning against the wall of the room he'd bespoken.

"He stood between some street thugs and me," I said quickly.

He looked at me, at Iname, and then back at me. "I told you not to go," he said flatly. He clearly had heard the truth I was not saying.

"And I told you that I would go," I hissed back.

"You don't know anything about Tolan," he said angrily.

"Did I ever say I did?" I replied, my voice venomously soft. "If you were so concerned for me, you could have come with me."

Tomite stalked between us. "That's enough," he said harshly. "If you can't be civil, you can leave the room."

"Fine," Hatsui snapped, and stalked out, slamming the door behind him.

"What's his problem?" I asked the air.

Hikitsu, Tomite, Namame and Takiko all looked at each other.

"That's fine, don't tell me," I complained. "I only seem to set him off every time I turn around, why should you tell me!"

Takiko sighed. "I'll tell you later," she promised.

Iname stretched. I determinedly did not look at the play of his muscles under the skin of his bare chest. "I'm sorry," he said apologetically.

"Don't apologise," Hikitsu told him. "We're your star-brothers and star-sisters. This is what we do."

Iname winced. "Yes, but... but what I did is going to hurt all of you. I - I used to be a criminal."

"Used to be?" Takiko asked in a sinking voice.

"I, um, quit. About half an hour ago. Well, not really 'quit'. More 'got kicked