L5r - scroll 03 - The Crane (15 page)

The handmaidens bowed first, a bevy of wilting flowers followed by the smooth flutter of fans. Behind him, Yoshi could sense his attendants' response, perfect and effortlessly sincere.

"Great Lady," he said, bowing gently. "I am honored by your audience. My prayers go to speed your husband to health, and may you both reign over the Emerald Empire for another thousand years." Of all the courtiers in the empire, only Yoshi could precisely manage the perfect blend of sincerity and politic that made such an elaborate greeting possible. Words, after all, were his specialty.

She kept her hood above her face, her hands carefully tucked into the sleeves of her gold and purple kimono. Beneath the golden hood, the perfect silhouette of her mask curved lightly against the dark cowl of shadow. Her dark hair was pulled back. Only a few long wisps escaped to trail across the silk that covered her high breasts. She said nothing, only inclined her head gently in appreciation of his greeting.

Yoshi quietly held out a hand, watching as the handmaidens peered toward him. At his side, one of his three attendants stepped forward, trying to glimpse the note he held.

The Scorpion smiled, a gloved hand sliding from her kimono's thick sleeve to accept the plainly wrapped message. "I am pleased to tell you that his Excellency, Lord Doji-sama, will be attending the emperor's formal announcement." The words were too straightforward, but he had been advised to keep formality. "As always, the Crane are honored to have received the invitation."

Kachiko smiled, slipping the acceptance note into her sleeve. Nodding, she stood. Her handmaidens clustered to her side. Even beneath the concealing cloak, her firm hip curved gracefully as she moved.

One of the maidens stepped forward, bowing again as she began to speak. "My lady respectfully tenders her regrets that she is unable to continue your earlier conversation. Her grief over her husband's illness has robbed her of her ability to speak."

Yoshi almost smiled. It was a clever ploy, one Bayushi Kachiko used infrequently. It saved her the dangers of conversation, reaffirmed her status as empress, and reminded of her husband's ailing health. A magnificent tactic but not enough to fend off a keen eye and sharp perception.

Allowing Kachiko to step aside, her handmaiden bowed respectfully. Beneath the hood, the handmaiden's face peered. For a moment, Yoshi caught a glimpse of a delicate veil of silk. A Scorpion's mask. The few Scorpion allowed to freely wear their masks were those in the direct retinue of the empress. No simple handmaid, this, but one of Kachiko's most loyal retainers.

The empress is frightened, he realized suddenly. Or she wishes me to believe she is. She has no fear of me—I am no bushi who could take her life. If she were to fear me, it would not be here that she showed her true face. What business does she have that her own assistants are not trusted enough to carry out? The Seppun sworn to her side would die for her, regardless of her past. It was not their business to question— only to serve to the death. Something more was at stake here, something even Kakita Yoshi's expert glance had nearly missed. The mask beneath the hood ... something about the way the empress held her hands in her sleeves . . . the slow movements of the handmaidens, as if screening their mistress—all became signals identifying the fox to the hunter.

Watching the empress and her handmaidens retreat into the gardens, Yoshi noted something more—a figure standing in the shadow of a statue. Yoshi's eyes narrowed. He signaled his attendants to precede him into the Imperial Palace. From his sleeve, he withdrew a small mirror, just large enough to be covered by a curved palm. He walked toward the palace and glanced down into the mirror, catching sight of the empress and her maidens. The shadow detached itself from the stone as soon as the Crane were a safe distance away. The figure moved silently to the path and knelt before Bayushi Kachiko. Something gold glistened in the faint light of the stone lanterns. Then, the Crane were too far away to see clearly. Kachiko's three retainers moved to encircle the kneeling figure and the willowy empress.

Yoshi put the mirror back into its secret pouch within his sleeve. Something was wrong—terribly wrong. Yoshi did not believe Kachiko's pretty lies. She was his oldest enemy in the court—and the only true challenge left to him since the Scorpion were destroyed. No matter whom she plotted against, a few well-placed whispers would shortly turn the matter to his advantage.

Soon, he swore, resisting the urge to glance behind him, he would master her treacheries as well. When he did, the Imperial Court would belong, truly and without reservation, to him.

"Thank you, my lady," he whispered to himself as his assistants opened the thick wooden doors into the palace, hearing the inner rice-paper screen slide aside. "You have given me a weapon against the Lion, and you don't even realize it." Yoshi allowed himself a single smile of victory, and then moved on.

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A few short hours after dawn, the court of Hantei the !9th gathered at the Imperial Palace, their robes and kimonos thickly bundled about them. The emperor had not directly addressed his court in several months, and the implication that he may be well enough to receive the courtiers of the six clans sent a ripple of excitement through the palace. The wide corridors were festooned with ivy and boughs of pine. Delicate flower arrangements artfully decorated every corner and alcove of the tremendous building.

As Kakita Yoshi walked the halls, he could feel the age of the walls. The elegant architecture of a thousand years ago still stood proudly within the gleaming central city of the empire. For a thousand years, the line of the Hantei had ruled from this palace, giving the empire form and structure and guiding the clans.

The new Hantei was no great emperor, though. He was too young, too impulsive, and too angry. His arrogance was not curbed by wisdom. Why else would the boy have chosen to wed the poisonous wife of his father's murderer? To end the Bayushi line? No. He had done so because the woman was beautiful. Hantei the 39th was useless, impressionable. The throne was in the hands of an idiot.

Yoshi smiled. The emperor's ineptitude gave power to the Imperial Court, and thus to Yoshi. His command of the court hinged on favors given by the Crane Clan over the years, and a hundred lesser debts owed to Yoshi alone. With Hoturi as his banner, the way was easy.

Hoturi had brought a fire to the clan, a balance between the aggression of the Daidoji and the politic of the Doji and Kakita. He also wisely left the Asahina, fourth family of the Crane, alone on their wide plain, discussing peace and med itating on the Tao. In every way, Hoturi had proven more a champion than his father. Tall, strong, courageous, and handsome, his image reflected everything Yoshi needed the

Crane to be. Hoturi's strength of character did not matter— j only his charisma and the appearance of sincerity. It was a simple matter to gain loyalty from those who could see only with their eyes.

Down the empty hallway came the sounds of a samurai practicing, the gentle chants that gave rhythm to the practice kata. Good. Hoturi and the old sensei were awake and preparing for the day. Yoshi's pale hand fluttered through his notes as he remembered all that he had seen in the garden. He had memorized all the faces, ensuring he knew what to say to everyone he would meet.

Know your enemy—he thought, quoting the First Kakita ironically—even when your enemy has never touched a sword.

This morning, the court whispered of a battle with the Lion to the south, in which Shiba Tsukune was said to have aided the Crane. Yoshi smiled. He already knew ten times more than the others did, firsthand from Hoturi. Yoshi knew even more than his champion. Though no one else had seen Kachiko for days, Yoshi had met with her last evening. The strings he had pulled to arrange the meeting had damaged his strength in the court for days. Still, the meeting had given him weapons against the Lion ambassadors. A small army of Lion destroyed in Crane lands by the Daidoji guard and a troop of traveling Phoenix—more than anything, it cemented the public opinion of an alliance between the Phoenix and the Crane. It was an alliance Yoshi was eager to ensure.

Yoshi entered his chambers and waited until the Crane courtiers had gathered, including Hoturi and Toshimoko. After studying each in rapid appraisal, Yoshi led the Crane to the gardens. At his side, Doji Shizue and his other attendants walked silently. They had all been informed of their duties, but the tension of the court would shortly begin to fray their nerves. It was always so when the emperor spoke.

Servants scampered through the hallways, and Toshimoko straightened his obi for the ten thousandth time.

t loud Fortunes, Yoshi thought as he watched his brother walk. After nearly sixty years, the old Crane still hadn't mastered the ability to look casual. With Toshimoko, it was all or nothing—and court and courtiers, as far as he was con-c el ued, were nothing.

I wo servants slid back the shoji doors into the imperial tourtyard. Courtiers raised their heads from conversation. I hey looking up from behind colorful fans and took in the beauty and glory of the Crane.

Yoshi smiled gently, aware he was being studied, and looked up at his lord.

1 loturi stood calmly. He appeared every inch the lord of the Crane, with a gleaming silver kimono over a silk tunic of darkest blue. The silver was just close enough to white that it reminded one of mourning, Yoshi noted. Well enough, that too could be used to their advantage—the lord mourned for the men lost under his command. He remembered those who had died fighting the Lion.

A bell rang in the courtyard, announcing their arrival.

Yoshi and his retinue bowed politely to the assemblage. Allowing Hoturi to step forward, Kakita Yoshi positioned himself at his lord's right elbow, completely prepared for the day's events.

"We are honored to have the Crane Champion among us today." One of the Unicorn bowed. Instantly, Kakita Yoshi recognized the man as Ide Tadaji, foremost Unicorn courtier.

"No, Lord Tadaji," Hoturi smiled and bowed as he recognized his Unicorn friend. "We are all honored to have been invited to the emperor's court. The day is pleasant, and surely, the emperor's health must be much improved, to see Amaterasu herself gracing the garden." Indeed, sunlight streamed around them, piercing the clouds effortlessly. The morning had deepened, and the budding flowers had begun to open in the early sunlight.

"If the emperor grows healthy once more then surely the land will follow," the LTnicorn said hopefully. Though the Ide was simple to read, he was difficult to predict. "The plague that burdens the northern lands—I have heard that it has spread to your own, my lord."

"Yes," Hoturi said carefully. He motioned for the Unicorn to walk with them, and seemed glad to see the gentle Ide once more. The two had been friends before the coup, when Hoturi spent much of his time in the Imperial Court. Time had lessened their companionship, but the two men still exchanged occasional letters. "Four villages have reported it, but it grows slowly. We have every reason to expect that our lands will be spared that particular pestilence."

"We traded one plague for another." Toshimoko said rashly, and then blanched at his own words. "My pardon, my lord," he mumbled, picking a bit of lint from his twisted obi.

The Unicorn seemed glad the ice had been broken. "My lord Hoturi-sama, if you have time while you are visiting your cousin, I should like to speak with you about the plague ... and other matters."

Yoshi pulled a flower from a nearby bush, watching the dance of courtiers around them. Hoturi was handling the Uni corn's persistence well.

"I will gladly meet you in the gardens while I am here. In a few days, perhaps?"

"You are too kind, Lord Champion," Tadaji said, bowing again.

Politely, Yoshi bowed to Tadaji, interrupting their conversation. "Tadaji, if you have the time, I also wish to speak with you about certain issues. The Unicorn are in need of rice, I hear, to feed the peasants in your southern provinces. With the battles among the minor clans, the Falcon will most likely not be able to return their usual tithe to your borders."

Tadaji's face fell.

Pity the Unicorn, Yoshi thought smugly. They cannot even tell you how they plan to feed their heimin from day to day.

"The Falcon are at war?"

"Oh, yes. Wasp brigands are attacking them, it is said. A village has already been lost near Kyuden Toritaka. Had you not heard?" Yoshi would have been surprised if Tadaji had said yes, considering the first battle had begun two days ago. I le raised his fan conspiratorially and led the Ide ambassador away from Hoturi and Toshimoko. "Some Lion say the Uni corn secretly attacked the Falcon in order to provide a false reason to invade Ikoma lands. Of course, that isn't true...."

"Not at all!" Tadaji's features quirked.

Noting Ikoma Ujiaki, the Lion courtier, marching angrily through the court, Yoshi stepped closer to Ide Tadaji. "See how angry the Lion are, simply because you and I are speaking? The Unicorn are unappreciated, your ways so badly misunderstood—"

"Not here, Ryobu," Ujiaki said nearby, his hand touching another Lion's chest warningly.

The young man blanched at his superior's touch, insulted by the public reprimand. His too-pale face reddened under a shock of dyed golden hair. "My brother is dead. His name was Hametsu. Matsu Hametsu."

Stone-faced, Hoturi watched the confrontation. "Your brother died attacking the Crane." It was both a declaration and a response. Nearby courtiers raised their fans, pretending to ignore the simmering ferocity behind Hoturi's words. "He deserved to die, for breaking the emperor's edict against war.