The Twelve Kingdoms: Shadow of the Moon

They live only for the king, have no parents or siblings, not even names. If the king chooses, he can work you half to death. In the end, you end up dying because of the king. And not even a grave awaits you."
    Enki shot a look at the En. His lord turned the other way. Enki frowned and sighed.
    "No grave?" Youko asked and Enki averted his eyes as if in self-reproach for having brought the subject up.
    "You can't get somebody to prepare a grave for you?"
    The En said with a forced smile, "It's not that he does not have a grave. King and kirin are interred together. He means there isn't a body."
    "Why?" Perhaps, she thought, because the kirin were supernatural beings, no physical body was left behind.
    "That's enough."
    Enki said, "Look, it's no big secret. The kirin employs the youma as his servants. The kirin and the youma make a pact. The youma who accept the pact promise to obey the kirin. In exchange, when the kirin dies, the youma get to feast on his body."
    Youko looked up, first at the En, then at Enki. Enki shrugged.
    "That's what it comes down to. Kirin sure must taste good. Anyway, I'll be dead by then, so I can't say I really care. If it seems a sad end to you, well, then take good care of Keiki. Try not to let him down."
    Youko didn't know what to say. So instead she said, "The Royal Kou must not have feared causing Kourin similar distress."
    The En smiled sardonically. "Who knows what the Royal Kou is thinking."
    Enki shrugged as well. "Interfering in the internal affairs of other kingdoms will lose you the Mandate of Heaven. Despite that, he couldn't refrain from launching on this idiotic course. He must have a powerful reason."
    "You would think."
    "And yet, acting without a thought in their heads, save knowing that at some point they'll have to face the music alone, humans go rushing in where angels fear to tread. They're fools. The more it hurts, the less they think."
    His words hit home like a punch to the solar plexus. Youko could only nod. "It's scary."
    "Scary?"
    "Yeah. I can't help feeling I've just caught a tiger by the tail."
    The En smiled softly. "The kirin cannot deny the king. But that doesn't mean that he will do everything you say without objection. Never forget you're just a dumb human. That's the best way to let your other half help you out."
    "My other half?"
    "Your kirin."
    Youko nodded. She glanced at the chair to her right. The sword was sitting there. The Suiguu-tou, the Water Monkey Sword, that could see the future and the present and what was far from her.
    The En hadn't said as much, but if she could control the sword, shouldn't she be able to tell what the Royal Kou was up to?

Chapter 62
    T he kingdom had two armies. The Provincial Guard was entrusted to the province lords and garrisoned in their various locals. The Imperial Army answered directly to the king.
    The regular cavalry would push toward Iryuu, the provincial capital of Sei in the Kingdom of Kei. This campaign, however, would take a month, and when it came to saving Keiki, a month was too long to wait. So it was decided that a combined squadron of a hundred and twenty elite horsemen, skilled at riding pegasi and other flying beasts, would be mustered for an aerial raid on Iryuu.
    En and Enki left at once to make the preparations. They weren't back by lunch or supper. Leaving Rakushun to his own devices, Youko returned to her room. She placed the sword on the table and sat down in front of it.
    She was the lord of the sword. Although she understood this in theory, what it meant in practice perplexed her. It must be quite difficult, but as she hadn't the slightest idea what to do, it couldn't hurt to give it a try and seeing what happened.
    She didn't know how to deliberately bring about a vision. But if all she had to do was call it forth, perhaps it wouldn't be that hard.
    Long before she had come to this world, she had seen the dreams and had heard the sound of falling water. When she asked the En about it, he told her that those visions had undoubtedly been shown to her by the sword. Most likely, the sword had predicted the enemy attack, and had been warning her, the lord of the sword, of what was going to happen.
    But at the time, Youko hadn't yet met Keiki, had not covenanted with anybody. Yet the sword knew that she was its lord. Before receiving the Mandate of Heaven, before being chosen....
    Explaining all of this to the En, he ventured in turn that perhaps she had been born with the Mandate of Heaven upon