Guardian of Heaven and Earth
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Rota
Part 1 - Searching for Chagum
Chapter 3 - The Mikado's Dignity
Shuga jolted awake.
He’d been having a nightmare, so at first he had no idea where he was. He stared into the darkness and breathed to calm himself down. He was in his own room in the Star Palace, lying down.
There was someone crouched down at the end of his futon. Shuga sat up hurriedly. The early light of dawn made all the shadows in the room look faintly blue; he couldn’t identify the figure at all.
The figure put a finger to their lips and said, “Sh. It’s just me.”
Shuga’s shoulders relaxed. “Jin? Don’t scare me like that. I thought you were here to kill me.” He pushed aside his blankets and looked at Jin. “But you didn’t kill me in my sleep, so why are you here?”
Jin smiled slightly. “Yeah, I could have easily killed you in your sleep--but the threat of other assassins is fairly low.” He wasn’t smiling anymore. “If I were you, I’d be more concerned about poison.”
Shuga grimaced. “You’re probably right. I’ve been trying to keep my head down, but I’m sure there are some people out there who want to harm me.”
A messenger from the Talsh empire had arrived in New Yogo shortly after Jin’s return from Sangal. Jin had reported that Crown Prince Chagum was dead--and now, the Talsh empire was coming to invade New Yogo. The Talsh had demanded a response from the Mikado by the evening of midsummer. He could either submit to Talsh rule or have his nation be utterly destroyed.
The deadline was Talsh’s midsummer day, not New Yogo’s, which was already past. Talsh midsummer corresponded to the twentieth day of New Yogo’s spring, only a few weeks after the winter snow melted.
In the roughly half a year that Talsh waited for an answer, no ships landed on Nayoro peninsula. Talsh already had a foothold in Sangal, the seafaring nation to the south. Asking Sangal for help was out of the question, even though New Yogo and Sangal had been allies for a very long time. All New Yogo could expect from Sangal now was betrayal.
Ultimately, the decision of how to react to the threat of Talsh invasion fell to three people: the Mikado, the Holy Sage’s primary disciple, Gakai, and the new Crown Prince’s grandfather, Army General Radou.
After Crown Prince Chagum was declared dead, the Mikado had a grand state funeral for him, then immediately designated Tugum, his younger son, as the new Crown Prince. General Radou was proud of his new position and extremely pompous about it.
The Mikado, Gakai and Army General Radou held many meetings and secret conferences inside the imperial palace. Meetings with other government officials were also held, of course, but those were a mere formality; all the actual decision-making regarding Talsh fell to these three men.
As the threat of invasion loomed ever closer, the spirit of the nation started to resemble an out-of-control horse darting around in random directions. Perhaps the Holy Sage could have taken matters into his own hands and quelled the chaos, but he had collapsed in the spring of this year and still wasn’t able to leave his sickchamber. He mostly just slept and tried to recover his strength.
When news of Crown Prince Chagum’s death reached the palace, the faction that had supported him at court collapsed almost immediately. The shock of his sudden death when he’d been so young and in such excellent health stunned his former supporters into wary silence. The Holy Sage had not yet transferred the responsibilities of his office to anyone, but Gakai operated as the new Holy Sage in fact if not in name.
The result was that Shuga, who was also a candidate to become the next Holy Sage, was excluded from all important meetings regarding the Talsh threat. He didn’t have the will or the heart to challenge Gakai for his place.
“Keeping your head down is a wise idea, but if you stay cooped up in here forever, people might assume you’re dead already,” Jin said.
Shuga smiled. “I’m not dead, just thinking. The only good thing about the current situation is that I’ve got lots and lots of time to think.” He tilted his head and said, “You didn’t answer my original question. Why bother to sneak in here and talk to me? There must be a reason.”
“Of course there is. I have news.”
Shuga’s face lit up. “Did your messenger find Balsa?”
Jin smiled. “Yeah. She put her spear to his throat. I doubt he’ll forget that in a hurry.”
Shuga chuckled. He and Jin sat in silence in the predawn gloom for a while. "You're in a weird mood," Shuga said.
Jin had successfully assassinated Crown Prince Chagum a year and a half ago--at least, that was the official story. As a reward for his achievements, the Mikado had promoted Jin, making him the leader of the Hunters over Mon, whose health was beginning to deteriorate. Jin had sent a messenger to Rota in secret to seek out Balsa in the hope that she might find Crown Prince Chagum and save him. However, if she was successful, then Crown Prince Chagum would return safely to his homeland, and the Mikado would know that Jin had lied.
Jin's eyebrows lifted slightly. "Why shouldn't I be? The Talsh are coming, and they're famous for killing men, women and children without mercy. If the Talsh really do invade, I'll almost certainly die in battle."
Shuga stared fixedly at Jin. His typically nondescript appearance concealed an unusually courageous spirit.
"I'm trying to think of a way for that not to happen," Shuga said. He put his face in his hands. "Have you discovered who the traitor in the palace is yet?"
Jin shook his head. "No, not yet."
"We have to find out who that is," Shuga said. "Once we know, we can figure out how to counter them."
Jin nodded. "I'll do everything I can."
When Jin left, he did so silently and without announcing it. Shuga stared at the dark walls of his room, all alone. Crown Prince Chagum had sent everything he knew about the Talsh invasion plan to Shuga in a letter before fleeing to Rota. The plan was all laid out simply and clearly, but it shocked Shuga to the core of himself. A sixteen-year-old should never have been able to write and send such a letter and then vanish as Chagum had done.
Thinking about what Chagum must have gone through during the long months he’d spent among his enemies was difficult for Shuga. His life hadn’t been easy before that: he’d had the fate of New Yogo and all its people on his shoulders since he was eleven years old. Shuga wanted him to be able to come home, back to the palace; he missed him. But when he thought about the current situation with Talsh, he also wanted Chagum to remain safe and far away until the danger was past.
The nation seemed to be running straight toward its own annihilation. New Yogo couldn’t possibly hope to defeat the Talsh empire in war. Facing the Talsh in open combat would result in nothing but death and the destruction of the land. There were only two ways to avoid that outcome.
The first would be for the Mikado to capitulate to the Talsh. It was obvious that New Yogo couldn’t win a war; bowing out and saving lives before the fighting started would be a logical solution. And surrendering without a fight would put the nation in a better position to negotiate fair treatment.
The second way would be for Crown Prince Chagum to succeed in his plan. He wanted to forge an alliance between New Yogo, Kanbal and Rota so that the three nations could beat back the Talsh together. Chagum had proposed just such an alliance to the Mikado before being sent to Sangal. Remembering the rage in the Mikado’s eyes when Chagum had brought forward his proposal made Shuga flinch.
Chagum knew that his plan was reckless and irresponsible, but he also felt that he had no other choice. The world was intolerably cruel for pushing him onto such a path, but that had always been true to a certain extent. Chagum had rarely been able to choose freely in his life. If his plan succeeded, he might be able to shift New Yogo onto a new path for the future. Shuga was fairly sure that the King of Rota would agree to the alliance.
Shuga rubbed his temples. The Mikado will never request military aid from Rota or Kanbal. The Mikado was blessed by Ten no Kami, the God of the Heavens; the idea that he would ever ask for help from other nations to protect New Yogo was nothing short of blasphemous. It was unfortunate that this was the case; Rota could mount a huge number of cavalry forces and rush quickly to New Yogo’s aid in the event of a war--but only if they were asked for help first. New Yogo and Rota could rebuff the first Talsh attacks, then bring in Kanbal to create a solid wall of resistance against the invasion.
But then, New Yogo would no longer be considered a country protected by the divine power of a god. Being saved or helped by mere humans was beneath the Mikado’s dignity, and asking anyone else for help was simply unthinkable.
The Mikado has a keen mind. He should have seen this situation coming and planned accordingly.
But New Yogo had always been relatively isolated from his neighbors. Isolation coupled with the policy that the Mikado should only rely on Ten no Kami and New Yogo’s gods would only result in New Yogo’s destruction.
Shuga’s fingers were shaking. He felt cold.
The Mikado could not be moved to accept a proposal that would save the lives of his people at the expense of his own dignity and pride. The Holy Sage might have been able to create such a proposal and get the Mikado to accept it, but Hibi Tonan was still ill. Without his guidance, the Mikado was leading the nation down the path of ruin.
If only Crown Prince Chagum were here.
Chagum was motivated to save New Yogo’s people. If he were in charge, there would be no need to fear that the country would be destroyed.
But it was highly unlikely that Crown Prince Chagum was still alive. It was even more unlikely that he’d return to Kosenkyo in time for any of his actions and opinions to matter. Wishing for him to be here was nothing more than an idle fancy: Chagum wasn’t here. Shuga couldn’t sit around waiting for him to come back.
There must be a way of reaching the Mikado--a way of peeling back his heavenly facade and appealing to the man underneath.
Hibi Tonan had told him once that the path of the Holy Sage was shrouded in darkness and that it would force him to do reprehensible things for the greater good. When Shuga had been a boy, he’d thought that the Holy Sage was the purest, kindest, most amazing person in the world. The Holy Sage was supposed to guide the Mikado, the child of a god, with the help of the Star Readers who read potential futures for the nation.
Shuga had always believed that Star Readers were supposed to help the Holy Sage and the Mikado create a better future for everyone.
It must be exhausting to be a saint or a sage. No one looks at you as you are. It ’s like you’ re too bright for people to see you clearly.
The room was as dark as the bottom of the sea. Shuga stayed seated on his futon and stared into the darkness.
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