The Twelve Kingdoms: A Thousand Leagues of Wind

allowing the princess royal to reside in Hou will only cause more senseless chaos. It's probably best that you left."
    "You mean, banish me? You've already removed my name from the Registry of Wizards and forced me to live in rags in a shack in the sticks. Now you make me an exile?"
    "Considering the weighty matters of state before us, do you really think that amounts to much?"
    In the face of his clear contempt, Shoukei could do little more than wring her hands. "You can't be serious!"
    "I know that the Kingdom of Hou faces certain decline. From this point forward, things will only get worse. What you call 'rags,' what you call the 'sticks,' they will seem like luxuries."
    "You're the one who killed the king!"
    "And that I do not apologize for," Gekkei continued coldly. "If Chuutatsu's despotism had been allowed to continue, the greater part of the people would have been lost as well. At any rate, he was fated to fall. But while we waited for Heaven to sanction him, things may well have become so chaotic as to prevent the kingdom from ever returning to its former glory. What we did was necessarily to keep the damage to a minimum."
    "Then you ought to ascend the mountain and ascertain the Divine Will. Ask whether you, the regicide, should become king. The Divine Will was certainly not with you when you murdered the king. Were I you, I would take care not to be struck by a passing thunderbolt."
    "Again, I see no need to contradict you." Gekkei smiled sardonically. "I have requested that you be taken to the Kingdom of Kyou. The Royal Kyou has kindly agreed to take the princess royal into custody."
    He turned to leave. Shoukei shouted at him, "Why don't you kill me? Cut off my head with the same sword you killed my father with!"
    "Because I choose not to," said Gekkei, heading for the door.
    "It's all because you wanted to be king!" Shoukei fumed. "Because you were jealous of him! And now everybody, including you, you all hate me because you're envious of me! Because I'm the princess royal! Isn't that right?"
    Gekkei didn't answer. He left without a look back. The door shut behind him. Shoukei stared at the closed door, and then buried her face in her hands.

    Gekkei returned to the Gaiden from the inner palace. Shoukei was hidden away in the depths of the palace. He knew that even amongst the ministers there were still those who deeply resented her existence and would try to kill her if they had the chance.
    You ought to ascend the mountain and ascertain the Divine Will.
    Her words stabbed him to the core. He knew well enough that he had rejected the Divine Will, but there was no regretting it now. He stopped at a window just outside the Gaiden and looked southeast over the Sea of Clouds, toward the Five Sacred Mountains at the center of the world. There, the kirin who would choose the next king was being born.
    In two or three years, the word would come from Mt. Hou and the yellow standards would be raised over every Rishi in the country. There was a kirin on Mt. Hou and the king would be chosen. Those so possessed would ascend the mountain and express their desire for the throne. Gekkei knew he would not be one of them.
    The cruel laws had been followed by slaughter after slaughter. News spread of the failing health of the kirin. Despite the likelihood of it being the shitsudou, the desperate Chuutatsu set about enacting even harsher statutes. If it was the shitsudou and the kirin was destroyed by it, it would take several months to a year for the kirin to die. And even after the kirin died, it would again take several months to a year for the king to be overcome as well. In that space of time, who knew what horrors he would wreak upon the people. Gekkei had no choice but expedite matters. Doing so must to some degree be in keeping with the Divine Will.
    He would deliver a worthy kingdom to the next king. Until that day, the Mandate of Heaven had fallen upon his shoulders, and that was to fight against the inevitable ruin of the kingdom.
    He turned to the southeast, toward Mt. Hou, and bowed his head.

    Gobo heard the lady's maid approaching the room and raised her head.
    She'd borrowed a horse from the stables at the town hall and galloped day and night through the snow. She'd made it in time. The provincial guard was sent to rescue Shoukei. As she rested at the castle, Gobo waited for the judgement that was sure to come. She had confessed to figuring out that the girl entrusted to her was the princess royal,