The Twelve Kingdoms: The Shore in Twilight

against His Highness, there was a rumor that His Highness had planned it all along, right? He left for Bun Province in order to test the mettle of those left behind in the capital. The remaining generals were Ganchou and Gashin and you. And Asen. Perhaps going so far as to divide Asen's forces was His Highness's way of hobbling Asen's fighting strength."
    "That's crazy."
    "At this point in time, I can't help thinking that it may be the truth. His Highness's departure for Bun Province may have been something he had no choice but to do, above and beyond the state Tetsui was in. In any case, he even dared to divide Asen's army, right? Perhaps His Highness was loosing a shot across Asen's bow."
    "But when Gyousou-sama previously sent the Taiho to Ren, he sent Asen with him as an envoy. If he had any doubts about him, would he have done something like that?"
    "But Sougen was with them too. Sougen and Seirai and the Taiho's Daiboku, Tansui, were also accompanying him. Counting their subordinates, the Taiho had eight retainers with him. Even if His Highness suspected that Asen was up to no good, there wasn't much Asen could have done. And because Asen went with him, he didn't participate in the winter hunt. In short, he was never informed of the details of the plan. It's possible that His Highness attached him to the mission to keep him in the dark."
    Risai didn't answer. She didn't buy everything Kaei was telling her. She didn't believe, but there were elements she found convincing. An insurrection had broken out in Bun Province. Tetsui was caught up in the chaos. The manner in which Gyousou-sama was induced to go there, and the manner in which Taiki was sent to Ren to keep the details of the purge from him--and Asen made to accompany him as an envoy--the two incidents had a familiar scent about them.
    She could almost say there was something unnatural about the way both had so naturally unfolded. Everything was "normal" inside the eye of the hurricane. Everything looked the way it was supposed to. But turn around and she would see the wolf of nature clothed like a lamb. Or at least that was what she thought she should see.
    It was like that slight sense of unease she could blame on her imagination, but somehow couldn't bring herself to ignore. And there was something she'd heard once: how, as tacticians, Gyousou and Asen were so similar to each other.
    Perhaps-- Risai unconsciously caught her breath. She hadn't seen it either. Nobody noticed that beneath the surface, two matched forces had been testing each other's weak spots, locked together in a fierce contest. But hadn't they seen the ripples here and there playing across the water's surface?
    Most people had overlooked them, but others had taken notice. At the time, Kaei had felt that sense of anomie, and at times Risai had sensed something in the wind. Here and there a great number of people had caught a faint whiff of the odd, only magnified by tangled rumors that showed no sign of abating.
    Risai trembled slightly. Two days hence in the early morning hours she would be leaving Kouki for Jou Province. Revolt had broken out in Jou Province, now of all times. When she considered the generals remaining behind, Risai felt that going to Jou Province was the proper thing to do. But still--
    "Risai, if all these prove groundless fears, that's fine with me. No, it's just my cowardly nature giving rise to these unjust suspicions." Kaei grasped her hand and said, "Come back safely. And laugh at me for being such a silly girl."
    Risai nodded.
    The day after next, Risai left Kouki in the early morning light, her heart gripped in blackness.
    That was the last time she had seen Kouki.

Chapter 21
    R isai took a deep breath and squeezed the jewel in her palm. "I had no choice but to go to Jou Province. A fortnight after leaving Zui Province, I arrived in Jou Province. Several days after crossing the border, a young civil servant raced into our camp."

    "Please help me," he said. "They're going to kill me."
    His whole body was trembling and he was in terrible condition. He didn't look like a government official. He was wearing the dirty farming clothes that peasants wear, suggesting that he intended to pass himself off as a refugee in order to escape his pursuers.
    "I'm a retainer to the Daiboku of the Ministry of Spring. I was assigned to the Castle of the Two Cries."
    He presented his insignia. The insignia was fashioned from a length of plaited cord the width of three fingers.