Guardian of Heaven and Earth
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Kanbal
Part 2 - Disturbances in Nayugu
Chapter 1 - The Holy Sage's Death
Sunlight streaming in from high windows made the tall columns cut shadows across the floor of the Star Palace. Shuga sat at a large stone desk near a flickering fire. There were half a dozen star charts spread out on the desk in front of him. He felt eyes on him from somewhere and turned around.
Jin stood in the shadow of one of the room’s columns.
“You really can move without making a sound,” Shuga muttered.
“Are you planning to study forever?” Jin asked with a touch of sarcasm in his tone. “The meeting’s going on without you, you know. You can’t hide yourself in here forever.”
“I’m not hiding. I just have a mountain of things to think about and figure out.” He lowered his voice and asked, “Did you see any guards on the door?”
Jin nodded. “Two servants who don’t usually work anywhere near this place. I’m not sure if Gakai or Lieutenant-General Karyou ordered them here, but I’m fairly sure it was one of them.”
“Did you find out how lord Karyou is contacting the Talsh?” Shuga asked.
Jin rubbed his chin thoughtfully. “There’s a merchant attached to his household that often goes in and out. If I follow him and things go badly, the spy will be onto us--and I can’t follow him using higher authority without more proof.” He paused, then asked, “Has Karyou told you anything else?”
Shuga said nothing. He and Jin looked at one another for a long moment.
“Shuga,” Jin said in a harsh tone, “what do you intend to do now?”
Shuga turned away from him, facing the windows and the light.
“Do you intend to accept lord Karyou’s proposal?” Jin asked.
Shuga turned back toward Jin. “If I said I was, what would you do?” he asked.
Jin’s eyes glinted with dark malice. “If you plan to hand the country over to the Talsh, then I can’t let you live.”
“Why?” Shuga asked.
“Because of the harm that subservience to Talsh would do this country,” he said. “If we kneel at Talsh’s feet, we become their tools, to be used as weapons of warfare and commerce against our neighbors. They will take our food and our men for their armies and use them to invade the rest of the northern continent. Our country wouldn’t survive that. It makes you think about all those things the Mikado says about purity--anything that survived would be too polluted and corrupted to be recognizable.”
Shuga fixed a cold gaze on Jin. “I don’t think you understand the reasons why I would want to accept such a proposal. So let me explain.”
Jin flinched a little at the severity of his tone.
“I recognize the world you’re describing under Talsh rule,” he said. “It’s very likely accurate. But if we fight the Talsh head-on, the world will be even worse than that. Imagine how many people will die. The entire country will burn. The Talsh will take everything and leave us, and the people, nothing. The few who survive will be made slaves.”
The sharpness in his tone now reached his eyes. “Do you really think that’s better than subservience, and survival? Or do you have a better idea, one that doesn’t lead to so much destruction and death?”
Jin looked down. “So you intend to beg,” he said. Before Shuga could blink, there was a knife at his throat.
“I want the people to live.” He held Jin’s gaze steadily.
Jin looked away. “So you’ll ally yourself with Karyou and kill the Mikado, then?”
Hunters lived to serve and protect the Mikado. Jin’s father, grandfather and great-grandfather had all sworn oaths to protect him from any danger. Jin had defied the Mikado’s orders in sparing Crown Prince Chagum’s life, so his loyalty was, perhaps, not as strong as that of his ancestors. That being said, he would never kill the Mikado, or stand aside to let others do it. He felt sick just thinking about it.
Jin pressed down a little on the knife at Shuga’s throat. A drop of blood shone on the blade.
Shuga remained calm. “If killing me would save the Mikado, do it. Kill me, kill Karyou, and wait for the Talsh army to come and burn the city and the palace to the ground. Protect your Mikado for as long as you can, until they come to murder him, too. But realize that by doing that, you’re helping to usher in that future.”
Jin was sweating, but his expression was as calm and dispassionate as the surface of a lake in winter.
“If I agree to lord Karyou’s proposal,” he said, “I can start talking to the Talsh, maybe even Prince Raul. The proposal as it currently stands is favorable to us. If the Mikado dies, then the Crown Prince will be the next Mikado. Our people won’t be killed; cities and villages won’t be burned. I don’t think that accepting such a proposal is inherently wrong. It’s the Mikado’s duty to guide the nation, and the Star Readers’ duty to guide the Mikado. I see no inherent contradiction in accepting this proposal and staying true to my core mandate.”
The hand that held the knife to Shuga’s throat started shaking. Blood dripped onto Shuga’s collar. Jin clenched the fist that held the knife, then removed the knife from Shuga’s neck.
“The Mikado’s son must live to rule,” he said.
Shuga stared at Jin for a long moment, then nodded.
Four days later, the Holy Sage, Hibi Tonan, breathed his last.
He died without formalizing who his successor should be. When he’d first fallen ill, he had selected Shuga, Gakai and Ozuru as potential candidates to succeed him. He was going to choose one of the candidates definitively after a period of observation, but his illness had worsened rapidly, giving him neither the time nor the strength to make a decision.
He collapsed quite suddenly to the floor on the morning of his death, and he never rose again. He held on to life for some hours, struggling to speak; the keen perception and intelligence in his eyes were a shadow of what they’d once been. He eventually fell into a deep sleep from which he was never to awaken.
The Holy Sage had been the Mikado’s closest confidant and friend for many, many years--and now, he was gone, right when the Mikado needed his wisdom and experience the most.
Shuga had been preparing for this day for a long time, but the Holy Sage’s death still came as something of a shock. He considered it likely that the Mikado would appoint Gakai as the next Holy Sage after his hundred days of mourning Hibi Tonan were concluded. He had guessed that Gakai was the favorite from the very beginning.
The instant he heard about Hibi Tonan’s death, Shuga felt all of his vulnerabilities plainly, as if there were holes all over his body. The first emotion that overcame him was despair. The Holy Sage had protected him and his status simply by living for so long that Shuga had taken him for granted.
There was no one left to teach him now if he was ever lost or confused or needed help with his interpretations. He had desperately wanted to consult with him on the impending war--but now, he never could.
Shuga remained alone in his room for a long time after hearing the news.
The Mikado spent the day and night in official mourning, but his facade of placid calm did not crack. He went to the sacred spring, purest and holiest of all places in the imperial palace, to cleanse himself.
When he was clean, he secluded himself in his most private and sacred hall, shut the door, and thought about the Holy Sage as he’d been in life. Hibi Tonan had been his teacher in childhood. His father had died early, so the Mikado had learned how to be a Mikado and a man from the Holy Sage; he’d certainly learned more from him than his own father.
Because of his father’s early death, the Mikado had ascended the throne while he was still young. Many tried to manipulate him or seize part of his power, but the Holy Sage always supported and protected him. He taught him how to understand complex politics and economics so that he could rule New Yogo well.
Hibi Tonan had always been by his side for as long as he could remember, but now, he would never open his eyes again.
The Mikado stood in his hall and stared into the darkness, still as a statue, and he grieved.
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