The Twelve Kingdoms: A Thousand Leagues of Wind

woman. "You! I can't bear this cold. Massage my feet for me. Honma!"
    She undoubtedly meant this scornful epithet for Suzu. "It's stale in here. The place needs to be aired out. Go wake everybody up. That's your punishment. The entire grotto needs a good cleaning. It's because of all this dust."
    You mean, now? Suzu swallowed the words that came to her lips. If Riyou said do it, she had to do it.
    "I am unfortunate to be surrounded by servants who can't clean a blessed thing to my satisfaction. Unbelievable. And be quiet about it. I'm trying to sleep!"

    Suzu had no choice but to go around and wake everybody up. Even if it was on Riyou's orders, nobody was ever happy about being pulled out of bed in the middle of the night, and they all turned their resentment on her. Her head bowed, she did as she was told. In the wintry dead of night they shook the dust out of everything, wiped, mopped, scrubbed and dried the stone-lined hallways. The winter solstice was almost upon them. The water at this time of night was freezing cold.
    Your Highness.
    As she scrubbed the floor, the tears welled up. That a girl from Japan had become empress of the Kingdom of Kei pleased her immeasurably. Wouldn't they meet, somewhere, sometime? Meeting her would be the happiest moment in her life. Imagining that moment was so gratifying, and awakening from the dream so miserable.
    Your Highness, please help me.

    The cleaning took them until sunrise. After a brief nap, morning chores awaited. Riyou awoke toward noon and inspected the work. She expressed displeasure with the effort and told them to do it all over again. This was when Suzu broke a vase.
    "What a good-for-nothing you are!" said Riyou, flinging the broken shards at her. "The cost of this vase will come out of your meals. You're a wizard, after all. You won't starve to death. And I'm a charitable enough person that I won't revoke your wizardhood." Riyou hiked up her eyebrows. "You don't like it? Then why not pack your bags and go?"
    Leaving the grotto would mean having her name erased from the Registry of Wizards. Riyou knew that was something Suzu could not do.
    "Of course you won't." She snorted. "You really are a useless child. It is only because I am such an extraordinarily generous person that I bother to keep you around."
    Suzu lowered her face and bit her lip. Could she leave this place? She swallowed the thought as soon as it came into her mind.
    "I've been treating you too well. You don't really need a bed, now, do you?"
    Suzu looked up at her.
    "Every minute you're sleeping in a nice, warm bed you're not doing any work. Don't you think so?" Riyou laughed with open malice. "You may sleep in the barn for the time being. It's so spacious in there and not so cold. Yes, that would suit you well."
    That meant sleeping with Setsuko, Riyou's tiger. Suzu's face went pale. Setsuko was not an animal easily handled by others. She was such a ferocious creature that only one man was assigned to be her handler.
    "Forgive me, please, Mistress," quailed Suzu, trembling with fear.
    Riyou stared down at her with undisguised scorn. "Oh, you'll do it. You ask so much of me. Who do you think you are?"
    Riyou laughed and said with an exaggerated sigh, "Well, all right. Instead, you can go get me some kankin. "
    "Mistress . . . . "
    Kankin was a kind of mossy mushroom that grew on the cliffs of the towering mountain. To pick them, you had secure yourself with a rope and rappel down the side of the cliffs.
    "Gather some kankin for breakfast tomorrow morning and you can consider yourself forgiven."

Chapter 13
    W hen Riyou told her to do something, Suzu knew of no way to refuse. So on a cold, dark night, with the light of a single lamp to guide her, she climbed Suibi Peak. Clinging to the rope, she searched for a footing amongst the rocks and shrubs. Gales of wind buffeted her. Standing on the narrow path that wound along the crest of the ridge, she had to bend over to face the full strength of the wind.
    The cliffs where the kankin mushroom grew were dangerously located halfway up the peak. She tied one end of the rope to a pine tree with it roots anchored into the rock. The other end she fastened around her waist. Clinging to the rope, she started to slowly lower herself down the side of the cliff, but the gusts of wind made her hesitate.
    The peaks of these towering mountains were extraordinarily tall. Even holding the lantern over her head, Suzu could not see the base of the cliff she was