The Twelve Kingdoms: A Thousand Leagues of Wind

what I'm saying."
    "I don't what to hear it!" Shoukei threw herself on the floor and covered her ears. "Just shut up already!"

Chapter 35
    " W ell, let's go."
    At Rakushun's urging, Shoukei picked up her things. The night before, he had left her to cry herself to sleep. He woke her up that morning. In the tavern, she warmed her chilled body with a bowl of gruel, and they left. He said nothing, and she kept her thoughts to herself.
    They left the city on foot, and pressed on toward the east. The snow was not as heavy in Ryuu as Hou. But a sharp, cold wind blew instead. It was the coldest time of the year. If you didn't have a thick wool muffler wrapped halfway up your face, small icicles would start forming at the end of your nose. And if you didn't keep your hair covered, it would turn to a sheet of ice.
    Many people traveled by horse cart. The bed of the wagon would be packed with straw and rags and covered with a thick tarp. Along with the heat from a brazier, you shared the warmth along with your fellow travelers. Farmers from the neighboring communities hired out their wagons while their fields lay fallow. Hou had a similar system, but in her home country they didn't use wagons, but horse-drawn sledges.
    "So where do you hail from?"
    The travelers they rode with were often girls and old women. Healthy men walked alongside on the highway. The girl sitting next Shoukei asked the question.
    Shoukei hugged the onjaku to her chest. "Hou," she said. The onjaku was a round metal container filled with hot coals. The surface was etched with a lattice of small slits and ridges and the interior was packed with steel wool. This kind of simple onjaku was hung around the neck and kept you warm when you go out in the winter.
    "Hou isn't doing well. The king was overthrown."
    "Ah . . . yeah."

    Wrapped in the heavy canvas, the interior of the wagon was dark, lit by a single lamp.
    "How about you, child?" she said to Rakushun. Beneath the heavy muffler, Shoukei laughed to herself.
    "I was born in Kou."
    "Oh, didn't the king of Kou die last year? Three years ago it was Hou and the year before last the empress of Kei died. Tai is in that condition now. These are unsettled times."
    "Ryuu is doing well. The king is very long-lived."
    "Yes," the girl laughed. "But not as long-lived as the king of En. But longer than Kou or Hou, so we count ourselves blessed."
    Shoukei instead thought of what she'd seen along the way. She'd assumed that it was a wealthy kingdom, but landscape was more desolate than she had expected. There were hardly any tall buildings. The cities spread out over the land as if clinging to the earth.
    When she interrupted to ask about this, the girl and the other travelers laughed. "The houses of Ryuu are in the earth. The winters are long and the summers cool, so we burrow into the ground. Rich or poor, all houses are big."
    She said that aside from the rain-drenched northeast and the Kyokai shoreline, houses in Ryuu had large rooms underground. Because of the cold climes, the kingdom did not have large-scale industry, but was rich in stone. They quarried stone, built their houses underground, connected the sub-basements together, and even tunneled out small underground roads.
    "Wow." Shoukei didn't know anything about the other kingdoms. She had never left Hou before. She hadn't associated with the citizens of other kingdoms. She had spent her life confined to the imperial palace. And with no interest in what was going on in the world around her, the whole idea of underground roads fascinated her.
    "What if the air goes bad? Doesn't it get stuffy in there?"
    "Oh, the ventilation takes care of it."
    "But there's no sunlight down there. Isn't it awful dark?"
    "There are skylights. In Ryuu, the courtyards of houses extend down into the ground. The light radiates out from there. It's not dark and gloomy at all. The rooms clustered around the courtyard are very comfortable."
    "And the tunnels?"
    "The tunnels are built on the same principle. Haven't you seen them? For the larger tunnels, the long, narrow skylights run down the center of the main thoroughfare."
    Now that she thought about it, Shoukei recalled seeing the long, narrow shed-like structures running down the middle of the road. Yet they didn't have roofs. She'd wondered what they were.
    "Those are the skylights? What about rain? Doesn't water collect in there?"
    The girl smiled. "It doesn't rain much there."
    Shoukei nodded. She looked at Rakushun. "That inn