The Twelve Kingdoms: A Thousand Leagues of Wind

corridor.
    "Keikei!"
    Youko raced up to him and fell to her knees. A knife was buried deeply in the small body. When she touched him, there seemed to be no energy left in his body at all.
    "Keikei!"
    "Do not try to move him." Youko looked back at Keiki's grimacing face. "There is still breath in him. Hyouki, take the child to Kinpa Palace."
    "We won't make it in time," the low voice said.
    But Keiki nodded and said anyway, "If the occasion requires it, I shall carry him and go on ahead."
    "By your command," came the gruff answer.
    The red panther materialized beneath Keikei's body and hoisted the child onto its back. At the same time, a woman with white feathered arms appeared and bore him up.
    Youko said, "Hyouki, Kaiko, please do this for me."
    She looked around. The blood continued on into the guest quarters. Following the trail, she arrived at her own room. The floor was smeared with blood and gore. In the face of the horror, Keiki faltered and could not proceed.
    "Keiki, don't push yourself. Get out of here."
    "But--"
    "Look after Keikei for me. Get him to a doctor. There's not a moment to lose."
    "Yes, but--"
    Heedlessly, Youko entered the living room. She noticed that the door to the bedroom was open and headed toward it. Inside was the body of a girl.
    "Rangyoku!"
    Youko ran up to her, put her hand on her shoulder, and immediately withdrew it. She covered her face with her hands. "Why?"
    Rangyoku was dead.
    Youko couldn't begin to imagine who could hate Keikei and Rangyoku enough to kill them. Rangyoku's back was covered with countless wounds. She could not begin to grasp a reason for such brutality.
    "Why did this happen?" She tore at her hair and then suddenly lifted her head. "Enho?"
    "He is not here," said Hankyo.
    "Not here?"
    "Nowhere in the rike. I have searched every nook and cranny. Neither Enho nor his corpse."
    "How do you know?"
    "I smell three different bloods. He would seem to have been wounded. I conclude he was kidnaped."
    Youko bit her lip. Several nights before, a number of men had surrounded the rike. Perhaps men who had come to see Enho, men with dark faces. Perhaps men from Takuhou. It wouldn't necessarily have changed anything if she had been able to connect the dots, but it grieved her that she hadn't been able to protect them.
    "Rangyoku, I'm sorry," she said, stroking her back.
    Youko straightened Rangyoku's tangled hair. Her hands were clasped together beneath her body. It struck Youko as such a piteous posture that she pulled her arms out from under her. Her right hand was tightly curled into a fist. From the shape of her fist, it was obvious she was holding onto something. Youko took hold of the still warm hand and gently pried open the fingers. The golden seal tumbled out.
    "Oh, Rangyoku."
    Youko looked at the seal and at Rangyoku with wide eyes. In the end, had she grasped what it meant? She wouldn't have had time check the impression on the seal. Even if she had, with her wounds, and the fact that the impression was the mirror-image of the characters themselves, would have made reading it difficult, if not impossible.
    As Youko pondered this, she also considered the significance of how Rangyoku had hidden it, beneath her body, trying to keep it from being discovered. And the only people she could be hiding it from could have been the killers. But why had she hidden it? Because it belonged to Youko, because it was made out of gold. Or both.
    "Rangyoku . . . thank you." She didn't want to cry, but couldn't hold back the tears. "I am so sorry."
    If she hadn't left the rike, she could have protected them.
    "Hankyo, where is Keiki?"
    "Returning to the palace."
    Youko nodded. At the very least, Keikei alone must survive. If he did not, mere condolences would hardly be enough.
    A child also died in Takuhou.
    Biting her lip, Youko looked down at Rangyoku. She bowed her head to the floor. "This sorry excuse for an empress truly begs your forgiveness."

Part XV
    moonless night. The wind roared. Not a light was on in the rike. Youko sat listlessly in the empty main hall. Keiki had transformed into a unicorn and was bearing Keikei to the palace. Keikei was still alive. But whether or not he could be saved depended on the doctors.
    Hyouki said, "The Taiho is not well."
    Youko nodded.
    "What happened here?" the town manager had asked, when he saw Rangyoku's body. He covered his face with his hands. "And Keikei and Enho?"
    "They're not here," was Youko's only reply.
    What would she do if he