The Twelve Kingdoms: A Thousand Leagues of Wind

top it's going to put him off."
    At least, that's the opinion I'll be sure to leave him with.
    Her ladies-in-waiting were still trying to find a comb that went with her hair, and this statement left them looking so despondent that Youko had to laugh. "Look," she said, "I'm not talking about putting on togs, but couldn't we pare things down a bit?"
    When she told the Royal En Shouryuu about it later, he roared with laughter. "It's a hard life, isn't it, Youko?"
    "I preferred Gen'ei Palace. They understood."
    When you became a king, even a man wasn't supposed to run around in togs. Still, for the most part, Shouryuu's appearance was plainer than the average minister of Kei.
    Rokuta leaned against the railing of the gazebo and scowled. "Oh, live with it," he said. "He's been fighting it for three hundred years. What you're seeing now are the hard-won fruits of compromise."
    "Fighting . . . oh, I see. The fashion police." Youko grinned.
    "It's nice in Yamato. You know 'western dress'? The kind of clothes that are real easy to move around in."
    "You certainly seem to know it well. You go to Japan a lot?"
    "Now and then," Rokuta said with a knowing smile. "One of the few perks of being a kirin. Once a year or so I take a little trip." He folded his arms across his chest. "That said, there's no way I'm going shopping for you or becoming your tailor. What I prefer is no better than beggar's rags, I'm telling you."
    "Well, I really don't need anything like that from over there." She glanced at Rokuta. "But exactly how do you go shopping for clothes? The money is completely different."
    "Oh, there are ways," Rokuta said with a laugh.
    Youko gave him a surprised look. "I thought kirin were supposed to act only with the purest of intentions at heart."
    "Let's not go there." Rokuta jumped down into the garden. "Hey, Rakushun, what's up?"
    Rakushun was standing at the edge of a lake not far from the portico looking out at the water. Rokuta ran over to him.
    They were in Hari Palace, located to the south of Kinpa Palace. Hari Palace was a greenhouse build by a king many generations before. The walls and transoms were made of glass, as was the steeply steepled roof, supported by a row of white stone pillars. Light streamed down on the garden. In the midst of the grove, the clear, brimming water of a lake spilled off into a marshy stream. The lake was stocked with fish. Brightly-feathered birds flew about. The portico enclosed a large garden. Several small gazebos were set amidst the blossoming flowers.
    Shouryuu said, "Nice place to take a nap."
    Youko smiled. "When do you ever have time to take a nap?"
    "Oh, the bureaucrats do most of the heavy lifting in En these days. There's not much left for me to do."
    "But of course."
    He said, lowering his voice, "It's tough going until you can find the kind of people you can trust the government with." Youko looked at him and he smiled bitterly. "The early days of a dynasty are not about thought and reason. For the time being, your kirin won't be of much use to you. What it comes down to is how long it will take you to gather a band of trusted and loyal retainers."
    "Yeah."
    "And what became of the Marquis of Baku?"
    Youko shook her head with an exclamation of exasperation. The man's name was Koukan. Koukan had once been province lord of a Baku, on the western coast of Kei facing the Blue Sea. After Kei fell into chaos under the rule of the pretender, Baku continued to resist.
    When Youko asked for Shouryuu's assistance in overthrowing the pretender, the first thing he encouraged her to do was contact Koukan and obtain the support of the provincial guard of Baku. But before this communique could be delivered, the Marquis was captured by the pretender's forces.
    "It seems that the Marquis of Baku had designs on the throne as well."
    "Really?"
    With Youko's arrival, those not actually residing at the palace had difficulty deciding whether she was the true king or not. Many of the province lords far from the capital flocked to the pretender's side, but Koukan did not. He carried on the fight.
    What in the world was he up to, wondered the government functionaries. Far more than the province lords who had sided with the pretender, they focused their criticism on Koukan.
    He dared to seek the throne for himself and refused to bow to the pretender, that's what some said of Koukan. Others rose to his defense, and so the Imperial Court was split in two. In the end, the weight of evidence tipped the