The Twelve Kingdoms: A Thousand Leagues of Wind

Perhaps most or all of the people coming in and out of the inn.
    She felt like she'd chanced across something quite strange and curious. Feeling a touch of melancholy, she exited onto the main thoroughfare. It was already night, and even the number of drunks on the street had begun to decrease.
    The prefectural hall was located in the center of the city. The prefectural offices occupied the grounds within the fortress walls that surrounded the castle-like complex. On the inner loop road that ran around the walls was a large mansion facing eastwards.
    Shoukou, the governor of Shisui Prefecture, the beast of Takuhou.
    He had an official residence within the inner castle. A second residence, a large house in Takuhou's second district. And a huge estate in the countryside outside Takuhou.
    Suzu had recently taken to walking down this street and had determined that of his three residences, he was currently staying at the one on the inner loop road. The estate in the countryside was solely for entertaining invited guests. The house on the inner loop road was for when he had work to attend to at the prefectural hall. The third house seemed to be reserved for other occasions. This meant the beast was up to his usual tricks at the prefectural offices. She couldn't begin to imagine what sort of sinister plans he was cooking up, but there was no doubt that they weren't for the benefit of the people of Shisui.
    Suzu cast a cold look at the house and rode the sansui to the street corner. On the grounds of a deserted Taoist temple, she dismounted and sat down in an inconspicuous spot with a view of the currently-closed gate of the temple.
    Now we wait, Seishuu.
    She reached inside her vest and touched the handle of the dagger tucked into the sash of her kimono. The blade could cut a youma apart. It could cut apart a wizard as well. She had already determined that the sansui could vault the wall inside the loop road. Anything that could jump over that wall could easily trespass the wall of the house. If the master of the house was present, he would be sleeping in the back. And, in fact, to the back of the building that faced the road was a luxurious, multistoried house.
    I will make him feel our bitterness and pain.
    She hugged her arms tightly around her knees.

Chapter 46
    I n the dead of night, Suzu led the sansui to the inner loop road. She turned down an alleyway adjacent to Shoukou's house and stared up at the multistoried building rising over the wall.
    She'd leap across the wall and charge into the building. She would dispatch Shoukou and then jump down onto the road and head for Gyouten. There she would arrange an audience with the Royal Kei.
    I won't forgive them. Not Shoukou and not the Royal Kei.
    She repeated the words as if to convince herself and took up the reins of the sansui.
    A hand closed over hers. "No."
    Suzu sprang back, colliding with the sansui. The sansui neighed a discontented growl. She looked behind her. The shadow at her back had the height and width of a boulder.
    "Koshou."
    Another person appeared behind her and tore the reins from her grasp. A man she recalled seeing at the inn.
    "Why--?"
    It just wasn't Koshou and the other man. A number of others were hiding in the shadows along the narrow alleyway.
    Koshou softly wrapped Suzu on the knuckles. He said in a low voice, "Shoukou isn't the only one inside that house. There's guards all over the place. You gonna kill all of them?" He pulled on her arm. "C'mon. We're going home."
    "No. Let me go."
    Koshou glared at her. "If Shoukou finds out you've been staying with us, we're all dead men."
    Suzu caught her breath.
    "They wouldn't kill you right then and there. That's the problem. It'd cause all kind of trouble."
    "I . . . . "
    Suzu looked at the building rising over the wall and then back at Koshou. She had not intended to cause Sekki or Koshou any grief, but right there in front of her was the house of the enemy.
    Koshou patted her on the back. "I know how you feel, kid. So I'm asking you to come back with us."

    Men were camped out in front of the inn. When Suzu returned together with Koshou, Sekki ran up to them from behind the wall of men. He was holding a lantern. He said, "Suzu . . . thank God."
    The men echoed this opinion. Suzu bowed to them. Koshou again patted her on the back. He said, "Sorry about this, everybody. But we brought her back okay."
    The crowd sighed in relief. As they left in ones and twos, they patted her on the back as