The Wings of Dreams

reasoning of the vassals who serve the liege. He who sits upon the throne is not a vassal. The emperor makes the throne, not the other way around. The court jester remains the court jester no matter where he sits in the palace. And so it follows that the emperor must transcend the logic of his subjects.
    Gankyuu pressed his hands against his temples. “I didn’t follow that at all. But—”
    “But?”
    “But I think I understand why you’d go looking for Shushou after she left with Kiwa and apparently survived. The ordinary goushi took the detour. Anyone who didn’t was a fool. But a goushi who didn’t take the detour—who stood by his master while hunting down the youma and securing the safety of the route for the rest—such a goushi would be exemplary.”
    “Ah, what a splendid hypothetical.”
    “Which is why you didn’t grab Shushou as soon as she left. You wanted to put her to the test. You wanted to see if she was indeed a worthy vessel. ”
    Rikou laughed. “I do love a good experiment.”

Chapter 35
    [5-4]  S hushou trudged along. At night she slept in the shelter of a boulder. At dawn she set off again, searching for the mounds and markers she’d left behind. Though like a cruel joke, doing so invited the likelihood she was only wandering further away from the road.
    “What a fix I got myself into,” she mumbled to herself. “Whatever should I do?”
    A shadow fell across her path.
    She reacted before a conscious thought crossed her mind, dove for the cover of the nearest boulder and squeezed her body into the nook between the rock and the ground. Only after she’d hunched down did the possibility of an attack occur to her.
    She heard a strange cry above her head and couldn’t help but look up.
    She saw wings silhouetted against the sky. Nobody on the Shouzan rode a kijuu with wings. That big monkey must be dead. Other youma were flocking in to fight for its territory.

    Rikou pointed out at the prairie. “Gankyuu. Look—”
    Gankyuu followed his gaze and saw a pile of rocks. “A marker. Shushou’s?”
    “Who else? See how logically they’re spaced out? How three of them together form a straight line?”
    Rikou came alongside one and pointed to the next. The three together formed a single compass bearing. He squatted down to take a better look and saw that the stones were stacked on top of each other. It wasn’t a natural formation.
    “The markers stop here. She came from that direction and doubled back. One more and she would have come over the rise and seen the campfire.”
    Gankyuu glanced over his shoulder. Behind them was the slope of the bluff. Climb it and the remains of the wagon and the campfire would come into view. Following the markers further down the slope, they found the first perched atop a boulder, unambiguously decorated with a bough from a nearby bush.
    “This must be the starting point.” The markers radiated out in five directions from the boulder.
    “The girl’s still got her wits about her.” Gankyuu caught sight of the nearby shrub. “Rikou.”
    He darted around the thicket. The sleeve of a kimono jacket was tied to a branch. Gankyuu looked around and scooted down into the pit on the other side of the thicket. At the bottom of the depression in the rock was a small fissure. Gankyuu ducked down. It was too tight a fit for him to turn around but he got a good look inside.
    “She in there?”
    “No.” Gankyuu crawled out of the fissure and took in his surroundings. “But she was in there and climbed out. It had to be Shushou. An adult couldn’t make it all the way to the bottom.”
    “Which way did she go?”
    “Can’t tell. There aren’t any holes in there or in the prairie grass, so she didn’t dig for water.”
    “How long could she survive without water?”
    “Three days at most.”
    “It’s been day already.”
    “A child’s stride couldn’t have taken her far, providing a youma didn’t grab her.”

    Shushou napped beneath a rock. Towards evening, she set off again. She was hungry, tired, and thirsty. It all added up to feeling completely rotten.
    Being on her feet was better than lying down, though she wasn’t sure what to do, where to go, or even if she could find her way back to the cavern. The savanna offered no promising landmarks, only broad swaths of prairie grass and underbrush interrupted by pale earth dotted with boulders. The complete lack of unique features only added to her confusion.
    Shushou picked up a stone and