The Wings of Dreams

Amateurs who can’t tell the difference have no business being in the Yellow Sea in the first place. You hired me, but not to clean up after every heedless idiot we meet along the way.”
    “And if your employer tells you to?”
    “I refuse.”
    “Chicken.”
    “Now, now,” interrupted Rikou. “That’s enough.”
    “Are you taking this fraidy cat’s side too?” Shushou said in a muffled voice.
    Rikou answered quietly, “As far as Gankyuu is concerned, we are a couple of impetuous idiots who walked into the Yellow Sea without knowing a thing about it. We’re likely to cause him no end of grief. So we should trust the one person who knows what he’s talking about.”
    Shushou took in the vexed look on Rikou’s face and sighed. “So it’s all about bodyguards.”
    “Bodyguards?”
    “That’s what it’s all about in the end. Those who have the resources to hire a bodyguard survive. Those lacking the wisdom or the resources don’t. Their fate is to be left by the wayside.”
    “Ah, yes.” Rikou said with a tight smile. “That could be the case.”
    “In other words, those who enter the Yellow Sea without hiring a knowledgeable bodyguard have no one to blame but themselves. They’re the bad apples”
    “I wouldn’t necessarily disagree with that either.”
    “But that and telling people that fires are dangerous are two separate things. Gankyuu could have helped those men if he wanted to. He didn’t. As far as I’m concerned, the word coward isn’t that far from the truth.”
    “I wouldn’t be so sure,” Rikou said with that same wry grin.
    “It’s okay. I’ll tell everybody.”
    “Enough already!” Gankyuu growled.
    Shushou glared at him. “Didn’t you say you wouldn’t speak up because they’d just ignore you? Well, I don’t care if they do. So what’s the harm?”
    “Don’t do anything stupid.”
    “What’s stupid about it?”
    Gankyuu looked at Shushou, his eyes briefly hard as cold steel. “That is information best kept among ourselves.”
    Shushou felt her cheeks flushing. “You mean, if everybody knew how to travel more safely they couldn’t value their services so highly? Is that it?”
    “I don’t care what you think it means. Don’t go around spreading bad advice.”
    “ I shall do as I please.”
    “If you make big announcements and something happens, there’s no telling how the guardians might make their displeasure known.”
    “Is that a threat?”
    Gankyuu met Shushou’s scowl with one no less pointed. “A warning.”
    “And I shall tell you this: you are a miserable excuse for a man.”
    “Am I?”
    Gankyuu turned his eyes straight ahead. With a final sharp look, Shushou harrumphed and averted her gaze. She glanced up at Rikou. “A real coward. No two ways about it.”
    But she found no agreement and no humor in his face. He looked at her with a grave expression that raised a sudden qualm in her heart.
    What? she started to say when Rikou muttered, “You are still young.”
    “Meaning? That I am a child is hardly a mystery to me either.”
    Rikou nodded and smiled. “Meaning this is something we should let Gankyuu handle.”
    Shushou puffed out her cheeks in a pout. “I get it, cowards sticking up for each other. You’re probably dying to tell me how adults know stuff that only makes sense to other adults too.”
    “What about it?”
    “Sure. Fine. But keep this in mind: the throne does not distinguish between children and adults. When I become empress, don’t think I’m going to forget any of this.”

Part Three
Chapter 17
    [3-1]  P assing through the forest took another five days. During that time, two more members of the caravan died.
    A wide and shallow river cut through the forest. A single chain stretched across the river to the opposite shore. Clinging to the chain, the river bottom slippery underfoot, they crossed the river and plunged back into the forest.
    As before, the foot-worn trail ran alongside a valley stream. Their only recourse was to climb alongside it as well.
    Day by day, the Kongou Mountains faded into the distance behind them. When the caravan entered a clearing to rest and make camp, the ridgelines of the Kongou Mountains were visible above the forest canopy. But they grew fainter and fainter day by day, slowly sinking down into the sea of trees.
    The trail finally crossed a mountain. Coming down the other side, the Kongou Mountains were swallowed by the great expanse of green.
    More fallen trees cluttered