The Twelve Kingdoms: A Thousand Leagues of Wind

Kei?"
    "No. I'm from Hou."
    "Hou? The northwest kingdom in the Kyokai?"
    "Yes. One of the four Outland Kingdoms. How about yourself?"
    "I'm from Sai. We've both come from far away kingdoms."
    "Indeed," laughed Shoukei.
    Suzu felt herself relaxing. "This is nice. It's not often that I've gotten to meet a girl my same age in Kei."
    "That's true. So why have you traveled so far to get here?"
    Suzu pondered the question. She'd set out on her journey for any numbers of reasons, and all of them were dead and gone. Her past desires had no relationship to who she was now. "Oh, this and that."
    "This and that brought you all the way to Kei?"
    "Well, first of all, I heard that the Empress of Kei was a girl my same age--"
    Shoukei eyes blinked and opened a bit wider.
    "--and that she was a kaikyaku like me."
    "You're also from Yamato?"
    "Yes, that's right. With no place to call my own, I thought I'd call the kingdom of a fellow kaikyaku my home. Does that make any sense?"
    Shoukei looked at her, her face blank with surprise. Finally she laughed and said, "Me, too."
    "Eh? You're a kaikyaku?"
    "No. I also came to this kingdom to see the Royal Kei--"
    Suzu gaped at her.
    "--because she was an empress the same age as me."
    "That's weird. So the two of us, from Sai and Hou, came here to see the Royal Kei, and just happened to meet."
    "Sure seems like it."
    "Wow."
    "You're not kidding."
    Suzu and Shoukei giggled. "Hey!" came Rou's voice behind them. "No carrying on personal conversations!"
    Suzu looked back with surprise, Rou was standing there, teacups in hand, and a sour look on his face. "No private chitchat between people who meet here. My place, my rules."
    "Oh . . . sorry."
    "I'm a broker of things, not of people. People who use my services are people with a reason for being here. No shady types set one foot inside the gate. And whatever reasons the two of you have, best you not know too much about each other."
    "Sure," said Suzu, with a shrug of her shoulders. She glanced at Shoukei and caught her looking the same way, and for a moment their eyes met.

Chapter 59
    T he next shipment didn't arrive until just before the gates closed. As Suzu and Shoukei couldn't leave Houkaku, they had no choice but to stay the night at Rou's place. They ended up sleeping in a small room furnished with a divan and a bed without a canopy. Two people in a space meant for one.
    "Which one do you want? The bed or the divan?"
    "Either's fine."
    "Then you take the bed. I'll sleep on the divan."
    "You don't have to do that."
    "I'm returning on the sansui. Meikaku is way to the east, isn't it? And you've got to go back by horse, right?"
    "Meikaku is only a day's ride by horse."
    "You should take the bed, then. It's only a half-day ride for me."
    Shoukei thought about it for a minute, then nodded. "Thanks. To tell the truth, it'd be nice for a change. I've been sleeping on a couch for so long."
    "Really? Well, great then."
    The two girls grinned at each other.
    "Suzu," Shoukei asked, "what do you do in Takuhou?" And then quickly added, "Maybe that's the kind of thing I'm not supposed to ask."
    "Let's pretend we didn't hear anybody say that."
    They both giggled, the private laughter filling the small room.
    "Oh, I do odd jobs around the inn. How about you, Shoukei?"
    "Same here."
    "So how did you come across--" those weapons, Suzu started to ask, and thought better of the question. They were probably getting a bit over their heads with a subject like that.
    But Shoukei leaned forward and answered. "It is out of the ordinary. Do you know what's in those crates?"
    "More or less."
    "Winter weapons. To be used how? And there are thirty of them. Not things you can easily lay your hands on."
    "Did the people you got them from say what they would do with the weapons?"
    "I was only asked to make the delivery."
    "Me, too."
    A moment of silence followed, the two of them exchanging glances. Shoukei smiled first. "I haven't the slightest idea. It is unusual, amassing winter weapons like that. But somebody with money must be behind it."
    "Yeah. I guess we've been told only what we need to know."
    Shoukei tilted her head to the side and looked at Suzu. The girl from Takuhou was taking back a shipment of thirty winter weapons. The price of those thirty would be approximate to that of 300 ordinary weapons.
    From Takuhou. "Then perhaps the target is Shoukou?"
    Suzu waved her hands in denial. "No, it can't be."
    "The man who sent me here is gathering mercenaries instead of