Yatagarasu Series
Volume 3:
The Golden Raven
Author: Chisato Abe
Part 4: Dark and Deep
Saku traveled through the warren of tunnels underground, never making a false step. More men came to meet him and followed behind him and Yukiya. Yukiya was careful around these newcomers. One false move on his part might cause these men to kill him on the spot.
Yukiya and Saku traveled through the tunnels for a long time. It was difficult to determine the exact time underground, but Yukiya was certain that he’d walked farther than he had when he’d walked from the Valley to the Underground earlier. The footing in the tunnels was uneven in places and several passageways were poorly maintained.
Yukiya’s unfamiliar clothing kept catching on things and slowing him down. He hurried after the old man, breathing heavily. He couldn’t fall behind.
Their destination was a cavern much larger than the previous hall. Its ceiling was so high that Yukiya couldn’t see it. One of the men raised a torch, revealing a huge boulder embedded in the wall.
“The tunnels continue past this stone,” Saku said. “I sealed off this path decades ago. Naturally, it hasn’t been maintained, and since I closed it, no one has passed through.”
“Why did you seal it off?” Yukiya asked. The Underground expanded its living spaces by spreading into new tunnels. Yukiya didn’t understand why tunnels would be sealed off unless they were very dangerous.
Saku turned his back to Yukiya. “That’s simple enough to explain. It is easy to enter this place, but it is hard to leave. I had a little trouble myself, the last time I was here. With any luck, you should find what you’re looking for.”
The old man grinned slyly. “I have no desire to get lost, so I won’t be going in with you. It’s a challenging place for a young person to enter, and I haven’t been here in decades so I can’t really warn you about any current dangers. But, well, if you want information, here it is.” He nodded toward the large boulder.
“What did you see in there?” Yukiya asked.
“What happens if I don’t return before the four hours are up?”
“If you’re not back in four hours, search for another way out.”
Yukiya blanched. If he got lost, he would die in the tunnel.
The old man called over the young men who were waiting nearby. They held a tray full of incense sticks.
Incense sticks cut to precise length like these could be used to tell time. These incense sticks would burn for exactly four hours. The tray was placed on a low wooden desk next to a candle.
“I’ll lend you this,” Saku said, pulling a small hanging lantern out of his pocket. It was shaped like a portable writing set. The section that would have been the ink reservoir was full of blue-white light.
Hanging lanterns of this type were specially made from rare materials. There was nothing more expensive than this lantern in the whole of the Underground. Unlike ordinary lanterns, this lantern burned sugar instead of oil. It gave off light, but almost no heat. For this reason, lanterns like this one were highly prized in the Imperial Court. They could be used near documents without starting fires. Their operation and handling was somewhat finicky, though. The cost and the strange way it operated meant that most Yatagarasu did not own a lantern like this one.
“It will get brighter,” Saku said. “Right now, it’s dormant. If you feed this piece of candy to it, it’ll brighten up right away. You’ll see. When the lantern burns through four candies, your time will be up.”
Yukiya accepted the lantern, then stripped off his outer layers of clothing. He kept the white kosode and his undergarments on and fastened the sword given to him by the Crown Prince to a belt around his waist.
“Are you ready?” one of the men asked.
Yukiya nodded.
“Then you can go,” Saku said.
The other young men ran toward the boulder in scattered groups. A cluster of thirty or so of them placed iron-covered logs beneath the boulder, using stones with natural grooves as fulcrums to apply force. Meanwhile, another group of men used rough ropes to pull at the boulder from the opposite side.
The boulder rolled out of the gap slowly, scraping across other rocks and the ground as it moved. When the boulder had rolled out enough to allow a person to pass, a wedge was placed in the gap so that it wouldn’t close immediately.
One of the young men checked to make sure the gap was secure, then lit one stick of incense.
“You may begin.”
Yukiya sliced through the sleeve of his kosode with his sword.
The young men reacted with alarm, but no one stopped Yukiya from doing anything. Saku watched him curiously.
Yukiya ignored the reactions of everyone around him. He separated threads at the cut edge of the kosode, searching for the weft threads that formed the fabric. When he found them he tugged, and thread unraveled smoothly in his hand. He tied the end of the thread to the leg of the desk where the incense was burning.
“That thread isn’t strong,” one man said. “Won’t it snap?”
“I’m sure it’ll be fine,” Yukiya said.
The young men whispered to each other in confusion. Ordinary silk thread would likely snap quickly from rubbing against the rock. However, the kosode and undergarment Yukiya wore were made of the highest grade of silk. The fabric was made by twisting silk threads together with spider silk. Spider silk was sticky and elastic and deceptively difficult to break. Both strands of thread together were stronger than either one on their own. The thread could be cut by something sharp—like Yukiya’s sword—but it wouldn’t break easily.
Yukiya was glad that the Crown Prince had given him a functional weapon. Most ceremonial swords had dull blades.
Yukiya tugged the thread spooling off his sleeve once and then stood up. “This is my lifeline,” he said. “I’m allowed to use something like this, right?”
“Of course,” Saku said. “We will not touch your thread. I can promise you that.”
“Thank you. I’ll see you in four hours.”
Yukiya entered the tunnel, which sloped upward.
It seemed that the rumor that no one had passed through here in decades was true. The moment he entered, he plunged into a mass of insect webs so thick that he had to part them like curtains. They didn’t feel the same as spider webs.
Not a great start, Yukiya thought.
Yukiya held the lantern’s handle in his mouth and cleared away the webs with the sheath of his sword.
After he broke through the webs, nothing obstructed Yukiya’s path for a long while. He glanced behind him and saw only darkness. The entrance to the tunnel was already out of sight. The lantern lit his way, helping him find his footing when the path became rough. He wove his feather robe around the lantern partway to prevent him from dropping it.
Yukiya walked with one hand against the rock wall to help guide him. The wall was usually wet. The darkness and silence all around terrified him. He told himself that having light was better than having none, but it might have been easier for him to navigate blind. The movement of his own shadow made him jump more than a few times.
If he got lost here, there was no way back. The thread unspooling from his sleeve was a fragile lifeline that he couldn’t rely on.
The sleeve soon unraveled completely, so Yukiya tied it to a new thread on a different part of the white kosode. A niggling little voice in the back of his mind urged him to run—to go as fast as he possibly could. But running risked breaking the thread, and besides, the path was not linear or uniform. There were places where he had to squeeze himself through tight holes and jump over underground streams. Sometimes there was no other path forward but up; he climbed rock walls and crawled into low tunnels. He never let go of the thread.
Climbing and crawling harmed his hands, knees, and elbows. He wove his feather robe thicker in those places and shivered. He was grateful for the thread. At least he wasn’t lost yet. He came to several dead ends, but his lantern helped him find a path, however narrow.
He hated squeezing through holes and tunnels the most. He had to suck in his stomach and twist his body to get through. Once or twice, he dropped the thread and had to turn around and find it. He grunted in frustration when this happened and sighed in relief when the thread was in his hand again.
The lantern burned through its first lump of candy and went out just as he was tying a new thread to the previous one. He cursed as the darkness swallowed him up. That meant he’d used up an hour. Three hours left. He still hadn’t reached his destination. He wanted to scream.
The fate of Taruhi Village was in his hands. Yukiya calmed himself and re-lit the lantern. Then he sped up. Now was not the time to panic. He was careful not to hit his head on rocks, which hung down from the ceiling like icicles here. He pressed on and tried to forget about time passing.
The lantern burned through its second piece of candy at a steady rate. Yukiya hadn’t seen anything white or strange so far. He came to a dead end on the shore of an underground lake. There was absolutely no way to go any further.
The lake’s surface rippled gently before him.
Saku hadn’t been down here in decades. Maybe there’d been a rockfall or an earthquake that had altered the landscape in some way. There was no time to go back and search for another path. Maybe he’d have to turn around after all.
Yukiya hated that he’d come this far with nothing to show for it. He resigned himself to turning back before he ran out of time. If he died down here, he would accomplish nothing.
He still didn’t want to give up. Was this really a dead end? Had he overlooked something? He spun slowly, searching for another way forward. The light of his lantern reflected off the surface of the lake.
There were no holes in the ceiling, only stalactites. There were no openings in the rugged walls, either. Yukiya searched every shadow.
“Wait.”
There wasn’t a way through the cave. That wasn’t the way out.
Yukiya stared at the water. He lay down, obscuring the lantern light with his feather robe. As his eyes adjusted, he was able to make out a faint source of light.
A pale blue glow emanated from deep within the water.
Yukiya didn’t know if the passage had sunk over the decades or if Saku had traveled through the water, but he had no time to think about it. He took off his clothes and placed them on a dry rock. After a moment’s hesitation, he left his sword behind as well. He couldn’t get the blade wet.
Judging by the time limit he had been given, his destination shouldn’t be too far. This was kind of a gamble. Yukiya didn’t care.
The hanging lantern he’d been given was waterproof. He shed his feather robe, held the handle of the lantern in his mouth and dove straight down into the lake. He was a strong swimmer; he’d grown up playing in rivers and lakes with his brothers.
Don’t underestimate a country noble! he thought, feeling a sudden surge of anger he couldn’t explain. He kicked off the muddy lake bottom and moved forward underwater.
The water was as cold as ice. He kept the light ahead in his field of vision and refused to feel afraid. He soon realized that the light was coming from a hole in a rock wall underwater. He positioned himself to swim through the hole, which wasn’t very large. He braced his hands against the sides of the hole and pushed himself forward as fast as he could.
Thankfully, Yukiya was able to surface the moment he was through the hole. Yukiya took huge, gasping breaths and looked around. He’d expected to find some other light source here—a fire or a lantern—but there wasn’t one. The water itself glowed a pale, ethereal blue. It gushed from cracks in the rock walls all around this cavern and flowed into the underground lake.
The flowing water made a gentle, murmuring sound. Scattering droplets sparkled like winter stars in the night sky. Ripples on the surface of the water formed delicate circles that reminded Yukiya of moonlight.
For a brief moment, Yukiya was captivated by the beautiful and mysterious scene. But there was no time to appreciate it. Feeling his way out of the water, he transferred his lantern from his mouth to his hand and uncovered it. The light illuminated his way.
What Yukiya saw piled up by the water’s edge made him gasp in shock.
“What is this?!”
I saw a white thing in there that made me feel sick to my stomach just looking at it. If you can bring back even a fragment of that, I’ll help you with anything I can regarding those monkeys.
That was what Saku had said. Yukiya was definitely staring at something white and sickening.
A towering pile of bones.
The pile wasn’t carefully built or arranged. These were the bones of Yatagarasu, carelessly discarded in a heap. He knew that he wasn’t looking at animal bones because he saw skulls. Hollow eye sockets swallowed the scream that threatened to escape his throat.
If Yukiya hadn’t seen what had happened in Sugō firsthand, he definitely would have screamed. Now he felt revolted, but also exhausted and desperate. He’d found what he’d been looking for. He could scream later. Right now, he needed to grab something from the pile of bones.
Yukiya selected a bone that was small enough to fit in his palm. Now all he had to do was go home.
Then his lantern burned out.
Two hours left.
He was really cutting it close. Just as he was about to feed another piece of candy to the lantern, he heard a noise—and voices.
Yukiya froze.
A wooden door creaked open on metal hinges. The light of a torch shone from beyond the doorway. Yukiya heard multiple people talking, but he couldn’t understand what they were saying. There were a lot of strange screeches and high-pitched sounds. Every once in awhile, he thought he could understand a word or two, like “home” or “yeah.”
Yukiya didn’t make a sound as he crept forward to take a closer look at the speakers. They had new bones with them that they were adding to the pile. The wore brown kimonos—the same kind Yukiya had seen in Sugō.
He had found the monkeys.
Yukiya’s heart beat loudly in his ears.
He could hardly believe what he was seeing. If he were discovered here, he would be killed.
Yukiya crept back from where he’d come, concealing his face as he moved. After awhile, the voices of the monkeys faded away.
How much did Saku know? Had he really sent Yukiya down here without any warning at all? Had he thought that it would be too dangerous to say anything? Yukiya would never have believed that there were monkeys inside the tunnels if someone had simply told him that. If Saku had said that to him, he would have doubted everything else that the old man said.
Why on earth are there monkeys in a place like this? he wondered. But then he remembered the boulder and the Third Gate.
The monkeys weren’t in Souke Territory. He’d come to their territory instead. He was in their lair. That pile of bones proved how many people they’d killed so far. There were too many bones for the people of Taruhi Province to be the only victims. Had they been attacking Yatagarasu in other places secretly? For how long?
Yukiya mustered his courage. He fed another piece of candy to his lantern and set the handle in his mouth. He was about to dive into the water again when he locked eyes with someone hiding in the shadow of the pile of bones.
The silence was awkward. Yukiya was looking at a five-year-old boy. He’d probably been here all this time; Yukiya just hadn’t noticed him because of how dark it was.
It seemed that the child did not understand who Yukiya was. He sat on the ground with a bone in one hand, giving Yukiya a blank look.
He was playing with the bones like they were toys.
For a few seconds, Yukiya and the child stared at each other in a daze. It would have been comical if Yukiya weren’t so frightened. He didn’t move, and neither did the boy.
They couldn’t remain frozen forever.
Yukiya slowly moved his feet, gradually approaching the water’s edge.
The innocent-faced boy didn’t move a muscle.
Just as Yukiya thought he might be able to escape without incident, the sound of the wooden door opening made him jump. Torchlight lit the pile of bones.
“Youta?” Someone called out to the boy and rushed over to him.
The newcomer was another boy who was maybe ten or twelve years old. His facial features were similar to the smaller boy’s.
The older boy saw Yukiya. Like the younger boy, he froze—but only for a moment. Then he snarled ferociously and let out a wordless cry. An instant later, he was transforming: sprouting brown fur and growing greatly in size.
Baring his white teeth, the boy—now a monstrous monkey—lunged at Yukiya.
The other boy let out a piercing scream.
Yukiya grappled with the monkey. He’d left his sword behind, but the monkey wasn’t much taller than him even when he was fully transformed. It was possible for Yukiya to fight his way out of this.
Willing himself to remain calm, Yukiya fought without holding back. He punched the monkey in the nose as the monkey tried to gore him with his claws. The monkey stumbled backwards; Yukiya drove his elbow into the monkey’s solar plexus before he could recover. Thinking of all of the Yatagarasu who had died because of these monkeys made Yukiya stronger. He felt no need to show the monkey mercy.
As the monkey let out a pitiful shriek, Yukiya raised his foot to strike again.
Suddenly, something slammed into him from behind.
“Big brother!”
Yukiya was about to kick the boy away, but the fact that it was a child made him hesitate. He saw his little brother’s face when he looked a the boy. He couldn’t bring himself to harm such a little child. He tried to shake him off without hurting him.
The older boy—still transformed—gripped Yukiya by the throat and hauled him up. His grip was too strong for Yukiya to break. He pulled his legs up with great effort and kicked the monkey in the chest, hard. The money let go, stumbling back.
Yukiya rolled and kicked out again. This time, the monkey tripped and sprawled onto his back.
Yukiya had to leave before the adults showed up. He couldn’t defeat an adult monkey unarmed.
The smaller boy was still trying to attack Yukiya. He punched Yukiya weakly, crying out something in his strange language.
As Yukiya struggled to restrain the boy, the boy bit him on the arm.
Then the boy transformed into his monkey form.
Yukiya heard more footsteps. He desperately tried to shake off the boy. His eyes were on the water. He needed to escape now.
He noticed that the surface of the underground lake was rippling strangely. Before he could react, a black shadow floated up from the water and leaped onto the shore.
Yukiya saw a flash of metal. A moment later, the monkey’s neck had been sliced through. He collapsed to the ground.
The monkey lying on the ground watched in stunned disbelief.
Yukiya was equally stunned. He looked up at his rescuer.
The Crown Prince stood above him, sword drawn. He was supposed to be under house arrest in the Sun Palace per Natsuka’s orders. So much for that.
The wooden door opened once more, revealing two large monkeys rushing toward them.
“Go,” the Crown Prince commanded. “Hurry!”
Yukiya retrieved his borrowed lantern and then jumped into the water. He slipped through the hole, swimming as fast as he could. He surfaced at the shore of the lake and picked up his kimono and sword. The Crown Prince caught up to him a few moments later.
“I took care of the ones who tried to follow us, but we need to move. Even monkeys can swim through that hole in their human forms. Run as fast as you can!”
Yukiya wove his feather robe onto his body as he ran. He gripped his sword tightly in one hand and the lantern in the other. He followed the thread back along the path he’d taken. The path was irregular; there were few places where he could flat-out sprint.
The Crown Prince stayed right behind Yukiya. He gave Yukiya a hand in dangerous spots, sometimes serving as a stepping stone himself. He also gave instructions for getting through some of the narrower gaps more easily. The way back was much easier than the way he’d taken thanks to the Crown Prince’s assistance.
“I forgot to ask,” Yukiya said as they ran. “Why are you here?”
“I slipped out of the Sun Palace.”
“…How?”
“Well, there was a bit of force involved. But not much.”
Masuho no Susuki had opposed Yukiya going to the Underground as a hostage. She’d mobilized the women in Sakura Palace with Hamayū’s blessing. Those women had created a distraction for the Yamauchishu and other guards that Natsuka had hired. Not all of them, but enough for the Crown Prince to escape his cage.
“I wish I could have left things to Natsuka, but I knew I couldn’t.”
The Crown Prince understood how the Underground worked. He knew that the Underground’s bosses would never negotiate with Natsuka. Natsuka had refused to see reason. Rokon had listened to his concerns, but he’d seemed to find the whole situation amusing. The Crown Prince worried that the Imperial Court’s fragile peace with the Valley would shatter if Natsuka showed up in his place, so he arranged an end-around meeting with Saku.
“I had to use a rather reckless method to get ahead of Natsuka and negotiate with the influential figures of the Underground. It’s unfortunate that I had to exclude Tobi, but he was meeting with Natsuka, so I didn’t see a way around that.”
Yukiya nodded in understanding. “So Saku appeared at that meeting because of you?”
“Nothing so heavy-handed. I didn’t expect him to do anything in person. I expected to walk this path alone.”
Saku had agreed to settle things with Natsuka as best he could and then let the Crown Prince travel through the tunnel. The Crown Prince didn’t know why he’d let Yukiya go ahead of him.
Yukiya thought about the stick of incense burning to measure the time he had left.
“Did I… I mean, was I not supposed to do this? I thought I had to do something…”
The Crown Prince had caught up with him even though he’d started down the path later. He’d also dispatched Yukiya’s attackers and was helping him get back to the Underground more quickly. It seemed like everything Yukiya had done had only slowed the Crown Prince down.
“Let’s make it out of here before we talk about what we are and are not supposed to do,” the Crown Prince said decisively. “We can’t waste time.”
Yukiya looked at the white thread he was holding. He felt pressure from the time limit; he wanted to move even faster.
The lantern flickered and went out.
An hour left.
The Crown Prince paused to feed another candy to the lantern. “We’re making good time,” he said. “We should make it back soon. I don’t sense any monkeys chasing us. We’ll be all right.”
Yukiya didn’t share the Crown Prince’s optimism, but he didn’t say so. He hadn’t thought about the monkeys following them. He needed to be more on guard. He tugged at his thread, which had been taut this whole time.
Then the thread snapped. A terrible feeling settled in his gut and stayed there.
“The thread broke,” he said.
“Don’t reel it in the rest of the way,” the Crown Prince said. “We’ll keep watching the path ahead.”
Yukiya nodded. He let go of the thread and followed it only with his eyes as they walked. They went through another narrow tunnel that opened into a large cavern that was utterly unfamiliar.
The Crown Prince and Yukiya paused in the cavern, looking around using the lantern light.
“Your Imperial Highness,” Yukiya said, “Where are we? On my way here, I never saw this.”
“Neither did I,” the Crown Prince said. “I followed your thread to find you.”
Yukiya frowned. There were dozens of paths leading away from this cavern. It was like a beehive or an anthill. Yukiya was certain he’d never seen this place before. There had only been one path forward for his whole journey.
“Where’s the thread?” the Crown Prince asked.
“It seems to have broken here.” He couldn’t find the thread anywhere.
The Crown Prince and Yukiya searched for the broken end of the thread for long minutes that felt even longer. Yukiya found something glinting in the shadows and pointed.
“The thread!” Yukiya picked it up triumphantly. He followed it forward, feeling reassured.
The Crown Prince grabbed his collar and hauled him backward.
“Idiot! Watch your step!”
Startled by the shout, Yukiya looked down as instructed and gasped.
There was a pit, dark and deep, right in front of him. He would have fallen down it if the Crown Prince had not intervened.
“Be careful. This is not an ordinary place.” The Crown Prince released Yukiya’s collar.
“Sorry. But I did find the thread.”
They should be able to reach the exit.
The Crown Prince frowned. “Wait a minute.” He turned around and then set his own lantern down. “Let’s follow the thread now.”
They did. Yukiya didn’t understand why the Crown Prince had left his lantern behind, but he assumed that there was a reason. There was always a reason.
They jumped over the pit and kept following the thread. Soon, a light appeared ahead of them. Yukiya didn’t hurry toward it—he’d learned a lesson about excessive haste.
The light they were seeing came from the Crown Prince’s lantern. They’d returned to where they’d started somehow.
“That’s strange,” Yukiya said in a trembling voice.
“The path we just took was almost completely straight. If we were going to end up back here, we should have turned somewhere, or gone up or down. We didn’t.”
The thread Yukiya had been following was cut off right around the center of the cavern.
A chill went up Yukiya’s spine.
What was going on? Had someone cut the thread? And why here?
The Crown Prince made a thinking noise. Then he picked up a small stone nearby and tossed it down the passageway they’d traveled through.
The stone landed with a clatter beside the Crown Prince and Yukiya a few moments later.
The Crown Prince and Yukiya exchanged glances.
The Crown Prince threw his lantern through the passageway next. It landed next to them a few seconds later. It hadn’t taken any longer than the stone had to return to them.
Catching the lantern before it fell to the floor so that it wouldn’t be damaged, the Crown Prince nodded to himself. “Now I understand. That way only ever leads to here.”
Yukiya understood now what Saku had meant when he’d said, “It is easy to enter this place, but it is hard to leave.”
They’d been diverted from Yukiya’s path and were running out of time. They couldn’t wander aimlessly.
“What should we do?” Yukiya asked. “The thread is useless now.”
“This place is probably right on Yamauchi’s border,” the Crown Prince said. “Our borders have powerful protective magic and prevent anyone from entering from the outside.”
Yukiya remembered the tears in reality. Those were also easy to enter—and it was impossible for anyone to come back unless they were a true Golden Raven.
He thought it was strange for them to be at the border. They were nowhere near Yamauchi’s edges. Unless…
“Was path we came through actually the Third Gate?” Yukiya asked. He hadn’t expected the Third Gate to look like a hole in a tunnel.
“To find out for sure, we’ll have to talk to that man.”
“Wait a second. You’re a true Golden Raven! Why can’t you pass through this barrier? You can cross back and forth between tears in reality.”
“You’re right; I should be able to. I expected to encounter the protective barrier here, but I didn’t expect not to be recognized by it. I chased after you and was confident that we’d find our way back.” He shook his head. “This is a problem. I have no idea how to find the path back to the tunnel from here. This is the fault of my own arrogance. I never expected the barrier to treat me like an outsider.”
The Crown Prince still appeared calm on the outside.
Yukiya knew better. He’d served the Crown Prince for a year and knew when he was faking. He was a little stunned that the Crown Prince had admitted that he had no idea what to do.
“So we’re trapped,” Yukiya said.
If they stayed here, the monkeys would find them sooner or later. The Crown Prince would he able to protect them from a few, but how many? They might starve down here if they weren’t killed by the monkeys.
“Don’t panic,” the Crown Prince said as he took in Yukiya’s marked distress. “The barrier excludes us both. I think it might be something different from the barrier around Yamauchi.”
“Like what?”
“I think this is a barrier that excludes everyone except for people who already know the way through,” the Crown Prince said. “It’s not about special powers or being a specific species. There’s some trick to finding a way through.”
If the Crown Prince was right, then this was a puzzle that they had to solve. All they needed for that was a flexible mind that was good at solving problems.
“We don’t have the time to think things over,” Yukiya said.
“I know. That’s why you need to think as well. Saku managed to return. The trick isn’t something impossible or time-consuming. We can figure this out.”
Yukiya held his tongue, suppressing the growing urge to complain.
Think. Okay. I can do that.
The Crown Prince and his attendant fell into silent contemplation for a short while.
Saku had traveled to the pile of bones and back again. He’d gotten stuck, but he’d still managed to find his way back. How had he found the way out?
Yukiya scratched his head in frustration.
The boulder blocking the tunnel had been placed there after Saku’s return. There were no time limits back then, so to be told to find it in such a short time now—how reckless of the old man. There were monkeys deep in the tunnels, so they couldn’t leave the way open for Yukiya and the Crown Prince indefinitely. Even so, four hours seemed rather unreasonable.
Saku must have realized that Yukiya’s thread would be meaningless. He hadn’t stopped Yukiya from using it and had promised not to touch it, but he didn’t have to touch it. The magic in the tunnels prevented the thread from guiding them back.
But how would Saku have known that in advance? He’d managed to go down this path and return. Yukiya thought about Saku’s instructions, trying to recall everything he’d said. The time limit was crucial—he’d been given four hours and no more. Just getting there and fighting the monkeys took almost exactly two hours. The path back should take the same.
It was likely that Saku had spent more than four hours in the tunnels, but it should be possible to make it back in that time. Otherwise the challenge presented would be unfair and skewed toward killing Yukiya and the Crown Prince. Yukiya didn’t trust Saku, not really, but he hadn’t gotten the sense that the old man wanted him dead.
The lantern.
These lanterns were expensive pieces of equipment, and rare. He couldn’t assume that Saku had owned a lantern like the ones he and the Crown Prince carried in the past.
The thread.
Saku had sworn not to touch the thread, but he also hadn’t seemed to think it would work as a lifeline. Had he found Yukiya’s small bit of planning amusing?
The time limit made everything so much harder. The time limit was a disadvantage. Saku had given him the lantern as an advantage to offset that. Was the lantern a clue? What did he have to do?
Saku hadn’t said any of this outright. Yukiya was making assumptions. He had to think about what Saku had intended just as much as what he’d said.
“Your Imperial Highness,” Yukiya said, “put out your lantern.”
The Crown Prince blinked in surprise. “Huh? If I do that, we’ll lose track of time.”
Yukiya had already put out his own lantern. “That doesn’t matter anymore,” Yukiya said. “We’re already close to the time limit. We can use the smell and smoke to guide us back.”
“The incense,” the Crown Prince said, nodding. “You think it will be easier to see the smoke in the dark.”
“It’s worth trying.”
Yukiya took a deep breath and tried to sniff out the incense. The different tunnels and pathways all around him were more confusing in the light. It was easy to be misled by visual information. They had to rely on their other senses to find the way out.
Most likely, the four-hour time limit set by Saku had no real meaning. What mattered was whether or not the Crown Prince and Yukiya would notice the scent from the incense and use it as a guide to find their way back.
Carefully feeling their way forward to avoid falling into pits, they searched the chamber, smelling for the incense all the while.
Yukiya heard voices behind him and to the right before he smelled anything.
The monkeys, he thought.
The Crown Prince tensed beside him. Then he called out softly, “Found it. There’s a scent coming from here.”
“Really?!”
“White sandalwood and cinnamon bark. There’s no mistake, it’s that incense.” His head tilted toward the other voices. “We have to hurry. We’re out of time.” He lifted Yukiya up and carried him piggyback.
Ordinarily, Yukiya would have protested this treatment quite strongly. He could run on his own. But the Crown Prince was taller and they were already moving. He’d waste more time if he struggled.
If Yukiya’s memory was correct, the path from the large boulder to the first chamber was a gentle slope. They were running slightly downhill now, the Crown Prince’s footing unerring in the dark. The rocky walls of the tunnel closed in on them, but the Crown Prince managed not to snag their clothes on anything.
Before long, the light at the end of the tunnel came into view. Yukiya saw purple incense smoke hanging heavily in the air. He noticed shadows moving ahead of them. Someone was going to remove the wedge that kept the tunnel open.
Yukiya cried out in alarm. “Wait! I’ve come back!”
The Crown Prince rushed ahead at top speed. Torchlight flared to life, bathing the inside of the tunnel in a golden glow. The Crown Prince let Yukiya down, breathing hard. He collapsed to his hands and knees.
“You’re late,” Saku said mildly. He sat on a folding stool beside the desk where the incense was burning. He sipped steaming tea from a mug.
Yukiya hadn’t seen the stool there before. The desk was full of incense ashes.
“So, did you bring it?” Saku asked.
Yukiya took out the bone fragment he had carried in his sleeve, placing it in Saku’s hands. “Here it is. Take a look.”
The old man picked up the small white bone and rolled it in his wrinkled palm.
The Crown Prince wiped the sweat from his forehead and then stood up. “What does it mean, King Saku of the Underground?”
Saku’s smile hardened at the edges. “Perhaps you can tell me, Crown Prince Nazukihiko.”
“It comes from the world outside,” the Crown Prince said. “Anyone who’s been there would know.”
Yukiya looked back and forth between the Crown Prince and Saku. “Huh? I’ve never been there so I don’t know anything.”
“This is not a Yatagarasu bone,” Saku said. “It is not from a Yatagarasu at all, not even one who died in human shape. It does not belong to any animal of Yamauchi, either. No. This is a human bone.” He looked at the Crown Prince. “The Valley will embrace those who fall into our care. Protect those who soar above, Golden Raven.”
***
“The monkeys are in Souke Territory?” Prince Natsuka asked, alarmed.
Yukiya and the Crown Prince had returned to the Sun Palace after their adventures underground. Natsuka and Rokon were already present when they arrived.
Natsuka looked like he had a lot of questions, but news about the monkeys being so close to Yamauchi’s heart rendered him silent.
The Crown Prince nodded solemnly. “Yes and no. Digging any random hole through the mountain won’t take us to where the monkeys are.”
That much was true, and it was a relief. There was a magical barrier between the world of the monkeys and Yamauchi.
“So you found the Third Gate,” Hamayū said grimly. “And you found out where the monkeys are. That’s where they’re invading from, right?”
The Crown Prince shook his head. “I do not think the cave that leads to the monkeys is the Third Gate. The monkeys don’t seem to be using it to travel.” He’d been thinking about the monkeys he and Yukiya had seen. “Yamauchi and the monkey world touch in that place. It’s not part of the monkey world—it’s a border between worlds. An in-between space. That’s where they make their nests. It’s possible that they don’t have their own world at all, but prey on other worlds by keeping to the borders.”
“The borders?”
“Yes. It makes sense, given what King Saku told us and what I already know.”
The Crown Prince had gone through the Second Gate when he’d traveled abroad as a child. The Second Gate didn’t connect smoothly to all foreign lands; there was always an in-between or border space that he’d needed to pass through.
“The caves I saw when I traveled to the lands connected to us by the Second Gate were well-lit and well-maintained so that travelers wouldn’t get lost. The one we just came from isn’t maintained at all. The tunnels are dark and there are environmental hazards. I don’t think it’s frequently traveled. We encountered the monkeys in a cavern, not at the end of the tunnels. I think that the tunnels connect to another world eventually, but we didn’t reach it.”
The proof was the bones they’d found in the cave.
Yukiya placed the bone he’d brought back down on the rice mat floor so that everyone could see it. The bone cast a shadow on the floor.
“That is not the bone of a Yatagarasu who died in human form,” the Crown Prince said.
“It isn’t?” Yukiya asked. He’d witnessed the attack on Sugō and the bones left behind. He thought that the bones he’d seen in the cave were similar to those.
“No,” the Crown Prince said, “though it’s understandable that you’d think they were the same. You have never traveled to other lands or worlds. But this bone belongs to a creature that doesn’t exist in Yamauchi—a human.”
“A human? Is there a difference between humans and Yatagarasu?” Yukiya asked, tilting his head in puzzlement. His only familiarity with the word “human” came from his understanding of his non-raven form. He’d assumed that “human” was a descriptive adjective and not the name of an entirely different species.
Tengu, who were trading partners of the Yatagarasu, took on human forms to trade with Yatagarasu. Yukiya had never thought much about it, but he’d assumed that everyone he’d ever met had a human form and an animal one. That seemed normal to him. The idea that there were humans who couldn’t transform into something else was exceedingly strange.
“We call these shapes our human forms, but we are not human,” the Crown Prince said. “You understand the distinction, right? Humans look like us when we are in our human forms, but they do not transform at all.”
Yukiya didn’t think of himself as a stupid boy, but he had trouble wrapping his mind around this idea. “I don’t get it. I thought we made the distinction so that we wouldn’t be confused for horses, or something like that.”
“Dead wrong,” the Crown Prince said. “There are no Yatagarasu in the human world that is connected to ours. There are a few Tengu, and they pass covertly among the humans, concealing their powers out of fear of being discovered. Humans dominate that world. Our true nature is expressed in our raven forms. The humans have only one form, so their true nature is human. We call our human forms that because of the humans in that world, not because of any distinction made in our own world.” He hesitated, looking as confused as Yukiya felt.
“It takes some getting used to,” the Crown Prince said. “When I first traveled to the human world, I was astonished by them. They are not born from eggs. They’re not like us, and yet they are. Language, religion, customs, culture, scholarship—we share many things with the humans. So much so that I’m convinced our ancestors came from that world and tried to recreate it here.”
According to Yamauchi’s legends, this land had been founded by the mountain god. The Crown Prince’s idea didn’t directly contradict those legends, but they implied more information that was less widely known. Nearly everything in Yamauchi was a copy or an imitation of something that existed in the human world.
Yamauchi was like an ornamental garden modeled on a very real and messy world. Yatagarasu could wear human forms like masks and ape the culture and language of the human world, but they were not human.
“Sometimes I wonder if we could always transform, or if our contact with the human world made us discover or create such an ability,” the Crown Prince said. “But that’s speculation, of course. What we know for sure is that the bones we found in the tunnels are human. The monkeys have access to the human world. I haven’t heard of monkeys eating humans before, not even in the human world. I wonder if the monkeys originated in the human world or if they came from elsewhere. That’s also something we don’t know. It seems like the monkeys take humans from their world and eat them on the border between worlds where they’re less likely to be discovered.”
“And then they discovered the tunnel leading into Yamauchi,” Hamayū prompted. “We weren’t targeted. But we look like humans most of the time. The monkeys saw us as another food source.”
Sumio nodded thoughtfully. “They didn’t try to eat the horses. Remember? In Sugō and elsewhere, they left the horses where they were. They eat humans—only humans.”
“So there’s another passage,” the Crown Prince said. “A way between the tunnels we were in and the human world.”
“Do you think so?” Rokon asked. “If it does exist, it’s in the central mountain somewhere, right?”
Natsuka turned sharply to face him. “Why do you say that?”
“The other gates that we know of connect to the central mountain,” Rokon said. “Any new gate could be opened from there.”
That lent credence to the idea that the Underground had discovered the Third Gate. Long ago, nobles had attempted to build a palace on the summit of the central mountain. During excavation, they’d discovered the first two gates and sealed them off, making the area around them a forbidden zone for all but the most privileged.
Excavation had happened in the Underground, too, and no nobles would interfere to block off a new gate if it was discovered.
“Saku said the tunnel we went through wasn’t the Third Gate,” Yukiya said. “They couldn’t invade through that passage anyway, not with it blocked off. They’re getting in some other way.”
Yukiya had been relieved to learn that there wasn’t some secret Third Gate connected to Hokke Territory, at least not that Saku knew of. But the monkeys were invading somehow, and they still didn’t know where they were coming from.
Natsuka appeared bewildered. “If they’re not entering Yamauchi through Hokke Territory, then why was Hokke Territory attacked and raided? If we believe King Saku, we would have to accept that the monkeys entered Yamauchi in Souke Territory and traveled all the way to Hokke Territory to perform their nefarious deeds. Why would they do that?”
“We’re food,” Yukiya said. “To them, we’re only food. It’s easier to hide and find cover in the northern mountains. If they’d hunted here, where there are so many people and guards, they would have been caught right away.”
The monkeys probably tried to hunt as many prey as possible as quietly as they could so as not to be noticed by the Yatagarasu.
“There are many Yatagarasu in Souke Territory. If someone goes missing, it’s noticed immediately. But Sugō and Shimaki are on the frontier. People go missing all the time. It took almost a month for us to find out what happened in Shimaki, remember?”
Natsuka nodded. “A fair point, but how would they reach Hokke Territory without guidance? They can’t fly and they do not speak our language. It’s a long way from Souke Territory to Hokke Territory on foot.”
Silence as everyone in the room pondered the implications of that.
Natsuka sighed. “Could they have had an escort? Someone must have led them to Hokke Territory. There’s no other explanation.”
Sugō and Shimaki were isolated: perfect places for the monkeys to hunt. Someone had known that. They’d investigated Hokke Territory on the monkeys’ behalf and had led them to it.
“Monkeys can impersonate Yatagarasu,” Natsuka ventured. “One who stayed here long enough might learn the language.”
“Or a Yatagarasu betrayed us all,” the Crown Prince said darkly.
Natsuka nodded. “Either way, the monkeys had help. If they traveled overland, they would have had to pass through a checkpoint. I’ll have those investigated immediately.”
They knew the dates of the attacks, so it shouldn’t be too hard to get relevant information from the security checkpoints.
Natsuka was about to get to his feet when the Crown Prince extended a hand, commanding him to remain.
“Wait. There’s one more thing I want you to investigate in the checkpoint records.”
Everyone in the room gave the Crown Prince a puzzled or interested glance.
“We got one more clue from King Saku,” the Crown Prince said. “The collaborator that assisted the monkeys by escorting them to Hokke Territory is likely the same person who guided them to Yamauchi in the first place.”
“How could you possibly know that?” Yukiya asked.
“The bone,” the Crown Prince said. He picked the bone up from the floor. “Human bones are not the same as ours, and they have a specific purpose. I don’t know who discovered it or why, but ground human bones create sagecap.”
Yukiya swallowed. “The drug.”
The Crown Prince nodded. He remembered the last thing Saku had said to him. “The Valley will embrace those who fall into our care. Protect those who soar above, Golden Raven.”
Even if Saku had never said that, Nazukihiko knew his duty. He’d always planned to protect everyone. That was his purpose.
***
Yukiya visited Sakura Palace and found Koume among the ladies-in-waiting. She was receiving sewing lessons from the other ladies. They had given her scraps of fabric to practice on. Koume worked diligently, pausing occasionally to ask for advice from the other ladies.
The lady-in-waiting who had guided Yukiya to Koume called her name.
Koume looked up. She gave Yukiya a happy smile and a wave. “Yukiya! It’s been ages!” She walked over to him. “Is your business in the capital taken care of?”
“I have something I’d like to talk to you about. Do you have a moment?” Yukiya asked.
“Sure,” Koume said. “I have nothing pressing to do.”
Taking the bewildered Koume with him, Yukiya entered a small room he had previously arranged with Masuho no Susuki. He slid the door shut and then turned to face Koume.
The corners of Koume’s eyes tightened briefly from nervousness.
This room was a late addition to Sakura Palace; it had been built to accommodate more court ladies and ladies-in-waiting as the palace’s population increased over time. One wall faced the sun and was covered by layers of paper screens. The early summer sunlight shone through the screens, casting soft white light into the room. The light suited Koume, who had donned a vividly colored uniform.
“You look nice,” Yukiya said.
Koume’s face lit up with delight. “Right? Isn’t it all so wonderful? Duchess Masuho no Susuki prepared clothes for me,” she said excitedly. She spun around, showing off her simple court lady’s attire.
Koume wore short hakama, a peach-colored outer robe, a silk inner robe and a glossy unlined kimono. The outer robe was embroidered with small flowers and vines. Her bright hair was neatly combed and her lips were painted faintly red.
Compared to when they’d first met, Koume had undergone a remarkable transformation. Her clothes were very different, of course, but the expression on her face was what drew Yukiya’s eye the most. She was acting like a completely different person.
“Are we going back to Hokke Territory soon?” Koume asked. “Could I request for us to stay longer, just a little? The ladies of Sakura Palace said they’d teach me the latest games that are popular in the Imperial Court.”
She seemed more lively and energetic than before, which Yukiya couldn’t help but find suspicious.
“You’ve been like this from the start, haven’t you?” Yukiya asked. “You haven’t been too concerned about your father’s safety.”
“Well, there’s nothing I can do about things I don’t know,” she replied.
“Is that really how you feel?”
Koume’s smile suddenly faded. “Why ask me that now?”
“Weren’t you convinced that your father was still alive? You knew that it was your own father who brought the monkeys all the way to Taruhi Province.”
Koume was lost for words. Her eyes darted around. Then she forced a strained smile. “I don’t think I understand what you’re talking about.”
“You don’t?”
“What are you basing this on?”
“There’s proof.” Yukiya stared at Koume, who was trembling more and more as time passed. “Your father brought two carts to Sugō. They were left behind. In the report submitted to the Imperial Court, it was noted that there were two sets of fresh wheel tracks on the road. It would be impossible for you and your father to transport both carts on your own, without any assistance. They were full, otherwise the impressions on the road wouldn’t have been so deep.
“Because of the circumstances surrounding the attack, we’ve received expedited reports from the officials who were at the border checkpoints that day. They reported that you and your father brought only one cart across the border. In reality, you bribed a few guards and sneaked a second cart through the checkpoint. Two servants who were pulling the second cart were allowed into Hokke Territory without having their identities checked and verified.”
The attacks had happened at dead ends of ancient roads—difficult places for most people to reach.
“There’s no point in lying,” Yukiya said. “Not when we all know the truth. Those two servants might as well be ghosts—there’s no record of their names. Who are they?”
Koume listened silently, her large eyes wide open and her mouth set in a straight line. When Yukiya finished speaking, she sighed.
“Very well, I’ll admit it. Four of us entered Hokke Territory.”
“Why didn’t you reveal that when you were asked about the attack?”
“No one ever asked me that question,” Koume said. “Besides, the servants passed over the border illegally. I didn’t want to mention that in front of officials of the Imperial Court.” She frowned, but expressed no remorse. She seemed to think that illegally crossing the border wasn’t a crime worth reporting. “If you’re going to blame us for our wrongdoing, you should also shame the officials among your own people who accepted bribes and shirked their duty.”
Yukiya ignored Koume’s attempt to deflect the subject away from her. “When you heard that the people in Sugō had been brutally murdered, weren’t you worried about the servants’ safety?”
“They weren’t really servants. They were just helpers my father brought along. I barely knew them, so I didn’t really care. I don’t even know their names or where they came from,” Koume added.
“I suspect these helpers might have been monkeys. What do you think?”
Koume’s lips trembled. “I don’t know anything about that. Even if they were, how would I have noticed?”
“You said that you were transporting rice wine to Sugō,” Yukiya said.
“Yes, that’s right.”
“No jars of rice wine were found anywhere in Sugō.”
“There was a banquet that night,” Koume said. “They must have drunk it all.”
“Two wagon-loads of rice wine?”
“Yes. It was a rare vintage purchased from Souke Territory. Everyone wanted a drink and was really happy to try it.”
“And after drinking it, you were overcome by terrible drowsiness. You said you drank the wine at the banquet. That was the same rice wine you brought with you, wasn’t it?”
Koume let out a small gasp and covered her mouth with both hands.
“After drinking the rice wine, you slept deeply for more than a whole day. The doctor said there was a possibility that something had been added to the drink.”
If a sleeping drug had been mixed into the rice wine, then everyone who drank it would have fallen into a deep sleep. Only the children, who hadn’t drunk any, were unaffected, while the adults were rendered helpless by the drug.
If the monkeys attacked at that moment, Sugō’s citizens would have stood no chance.
“Earlier, I said that there were no jars containing rice wine. But there were jars that contained… other things.”
“Like what?”
“The people of Sugō, cut into pieces and preserved in salt!” Yukiya had tried to be calm as he’d asked his questions, but now his temper flared.
Startled by Yukiya’s shout, Koume stepped back in fear.
“It’s efficient, I’ll give you that,” Yukiya gritted out. “You bring wine laced with a strong sedative into town. The people who drink it are easy prey for the monkeys, who use the empty wine jars to preserve their food.”
“Stop it.”
Yukiya stepped closer to Koume. “After that, you just seal the jars as before and take them back to the capital. No one passing by would ever imagine what was actually in those jars. Carts can travel openly along the main roads.”
“Please, stop.”
“You just have to give a little bribe to some foolish guards, right? It would be easy to transport the salt-preserved bodies to the capital. This happened in part because the guards didn’t check what was inside the jars, but no one would expect to find something so heinous.”
“I said stop it!” Koume screamed and then covered her ears, crouching down.
“Why are you so upset? You did nothing wrong, did you? Then lift your head and face the evidence.”
“I’m sorry. Truly, I didn’t know anything. I had no idea what my father and those two men were doing. I just thought it was strange, that’s all. I slept through the whole attack, so I didn’t see what happened.”
Koume cried and made all kinds of excuses.
Yukiya kept asking questions, enforcing calm upon himself. “When you say something seemed strange, what do you mean?”
“My father looked anxious the whole time, and it felt like he was hiding something from me. The men were all silent. No matter what I said to them, they wouldn’t answer. They just stared at me and grinned. It was really creepy,” Koume said through her tears. “And the servants were incredible strong. One of them could carry a whole cart to Sugō by himself. I wondered, once or twice, if they were even Yatagarasu at all.”
“If you suspected that, why didn’t you say anything?” Yukiya asked.
“Because, honestly, I didn’t know for sure, and I wasn’t certain about my father’s safety.”
In short, Koume had suspected her father’s involvement in the attack on Sugō, but she was trying to protect him.
“Since those men were involved, I hoped that my father might still be alive.” Koume wiped her face with her sleeve, her eyes red, and looked straight at Yukiya. “After hearing all this, I’m not sure anymore. My father was definitely a good-for-nothing, but he’d never get involved in something like this.”
Koume suggested that her father was simply used by the monkeys.
“Even if he was told to cooperate with something so terrible, he might have lost his nerve. I couldn’t have done anything to stop them even if I’d known everything. I was deceived and just used for their purposes. Maybe I would have been killed if they’d found me in that chest.”
As Koume’s eyes filled with tears, Yukiya said, “That’s not the case. The monkeys wanted to bring salted bodies back to the capital without being noticed by the Yatagarasu. They would have needed you to get them past the security checkpoints again.”
It was likely that Koume’s father had lingered near Sugō and that the Crown Prince and Yukiya hadn’t found him before he could flee.
“But you can’t know that for sure!” Koume choked out.
Yukiya looked down at Koume without pity. “Your father was rewarded for cooperating with the monkeys.”
“Rewarded?”
“They gave him sagecap,” Yukiya said.
Everything had started with sagecap. The Crown Prince had come to Taruhi Village in search of it, and they’d found the massacre at Sugō while looking for it. People in the Underground suspected that Koume’s father was selling sagecap illegally. It was well known that Koume’s father had no money. He hardly worked, loved to gamble and accumulated new debt everywhere. Koume, his only family, constantly nagged at him to earn more.
Sagecap was a rare drug that could be sold at a high price. If Koume’s father relied on his income from sagecap, then he would commit any number of reckless acts to protect his bottom line.
“I don’t know anything about sagecap,” Koume said firmly.
“That’s unfortunate, but a man matching your father’s description was seen at several locations where sagecap was sold.”
There were witnesses who’d seen Koume’s father at Tamari’s inn and the side of the road leading into town.
After returning from the Underground, Yukiya had asked for an update regarding the sagecap investigation, which had been all but buried after the monkey attacks. Just before the hunter purchased sagecap in Tamari, a man believed to be Koume’s father lost a large sum while gambling. He probably hadn’t intended to sell the sagecap in Taruhi Province, at least not right away, but his desperate need for funds had motivated him. He’d lost so much money that he couldn’t pay for a night’s lodging.
As she listened, Koume’s face grew paler and paler. “No way. My father…”
“And you really knew nothing about any of this?” Yukiya asked. He changed his tone, attempting to feign concern for Koume’s well-being. “I think your father is still alive. If you know anything, it’s better to say it now. Since your father hasn’t been found, if things stay as they are, you might be handed over to the Underground like they asked.”
“The Underground?” Koume wailed. “Why me?”
“The King of the Underground gave us crucial information about sagecap,” Yukiya said. “He wants us to hand you over in exchange.”
Koume’s face went slack. “You’re kidding, right? Please, stop. If I’m tortured by those people, I’ll suffer a fate far worse than death.”
“The Crown Prince and I both want to avoid handing you over,” Yukiya said. He gently took her hand. “That’s why we need your cooperation as much as possible. Please, will you help us?”
Koume wiped her tears and nodded quietly, saying, “I understand.”
***
“I think you’re becoming a bad person,” Sumio said after Yukiya handed Koume over to the guards for questioning. They were back in the Sun Palace. Sumio and the Crown Prince had followed Yukiya and listened in on his and Koume’s conversation from the next room.
Yukiya thought he’d done a pretty good job of getting Koume to cooperate, so Sumio’s comment was rather unwelcome. “I am not. It’s not like I wanted to say any of those things. Besides, the most important thing is achieving our goal, right? I’ll be a bad person if it means Taruhi is safe.”
“Did you hear that, Princess Hamayū?” Rokon asked, chuckling. “He’s not even of age yet and he’s already planning to be evil.”
Hamayū cackled. “I can’t wait to see what the future holds for him.”
For reasons Yukiya could not fathom, Hamayū and Rokon got along well. Yukiya’s gaze flicked to the Crown Prince, who didn’t seem to care that his wife was being friendly towards another man.
The Crown Prince was commiserating with his brother. “Hopefully Koume will finally tell us what she knows.”
The story of handing Koume over to the Underground was just that: a story. Natsuka had told Yukiya to threaten Koume with that fabrication.
Natsuka rubbed the dark circles under his eyes. “I can’t believe we were betrayed for money,” he said. “Everyone knows that material wealth is pointless. Especially if you spend it as irresponsibly as Koume’s father does. What a fool.”
Yukiya had never seen Prince Natsuka so exhausted before. His judgment of Koume’s father lacked all energy. He wasn’t disgusted by the man, but confused.
Yukiya agreed with Natsuka wholeheartedly; money was a stupid reason to betray your entire species.
Hamayū shook her head. “You’ve never wanted for money. You’ve never struggled for it. A man like that has. Try living for just one day without knowing where your next meal is coming from. You’d never dismiss the value of money ever again.” She smiled sadly.
Hamayū had been disowned as a child and stripped of her noble status. She’d lived as a poor commoner for some years. Remembering that made Yukiya and the others in the room somewhat uncomfortable.
Yukiya looked to Sumio, who gave him a reassuring nod.
“So, what now?” Rokon asked. “Even if Koume spills the beans, we’re no closer to catching her bastard of a father. Duty calls, Yamauchi needs us, and all that.”
“Indeed,” Natsuka said. “As long as the monkeys are able to travel to our world in secret, we are under threat. They might attack the capital itself at any time.”
Imagining the monkeys barging directly into the Imperial Court and ravaging the nobles made goosebumps prickle on Yukiya’s skin. They knew that the monkeys were intelligent beings. If they systematically destroyed Yamauchi’s command structure and seized control of the Imperial Palace, what would happen then?
“The Imperial Army of Heaven isn’t prepared for this threat,” Sumio said. “They’re used to quelling local uprisings and defending the Imperial Court, but the recent attacks have spread them thin. We have secret caches of food and weapons in the provinces, but if the weapons here are seized, the Imperial Army of Heaven and the main army will both be at a major disadvantage.”
Prince Natsuka nodded thoughtfully. “The Imperial Court is a natural fortress. If the very place we are supposed to protect is occupied first and the enemy barricades themselves inside, we will have no good way to respond. The more we fight, the more food will be supplied to the monkeys. For them, it would be like their feeding ground coming directly to them. In indoor combat, where ranged weapons are not effective, engaging in close combat with the large monkeys would put the Yatagarasu at a disadvantage. Yamauchi has enjoyed long years of relative peace. There have been various power struggles between the Four Families and Souke, but Souke has always prevailed.”
While there were occasional minor local uprisings in Yamauchi, the idea of a revolution backed by military force was unthinkable to most people. Yamauchi didn’t have foreign enemies to deal with—until now.
“So the Imperial Court itself is a flaw in our defenses,” Rokon said with a fierce smile. “Ironic. And the Golden Raven has no direct military authority, either. The laws are hamstringing us.” He sounded like he was joking, but the implications of what he was saying were very serious. “If the monkeys planned this, they’re fucking brilliant. I’m ready to applaud.”
The Imperial Army of Heaven and ground troops had been dispatched to Hokke Territory. Some soldiers and guards remained, of course, but Yamauchi’s military strength was currently concentrated away from the Imperial Court, the place that was easiest to defend. If a large number of monkeys were to enter Yamauchi secretly, the Imperial Court would fall without much effort.
Seeing the group turn pale, Rokon burst out laughing. “That’s why you all have to stand firm now, right? Who knows if the monkeys have thought that far ahead yet. They might be brilliant, but they don’t know everything. If their intention was to encourage the dispatch of troops to the provinces, they would have been more obvious about it. We don’t know how many there are. We need to be ready to respond quickly to what they do. Before the monkeys recognize us as enemies rather than food, we have to find and block their way in.”
To do that, it was necessary to capture Koume’s father as soon as possible.
Rokon looked to Natsuka and asked if he had any ideas.
Natsuka nodded resolutely. “We’ll interrogate the daughter, and if we still can’t find out where her father is, then I intend to use her as bait.”
“How?” Yukiya asked.
“The plan is to spread the rumor that the daughter will be handed over to the Underground. People will think that the Imperial Court is making a deal with the King of the Underground. If word gets out that the Imperial Court is illegally selling the girl to the Underground in exchange for information about her father, the man himself won’t keep quiet about it.”
“Are you sure that will work?” Yukiya asked. “Koume doesn’t think very highly of her father. Do you really think he’d turn himself in to save her?”
Natsuka shrugged. “He might not. If he doesn’t, we’ll expose Koume as a traitor’s daughter and punish her accordingly. We’ll make it public. He might not lift a finger to save her, but an event like that should push him out of hiding. We’ll ambush him there and capture him.”
Yukiya was a little intimidated by Natsuka’s rough demeanor. Sometimes he didn’t act like a noble at all.
Hamayū blinked and edged closer to Rokon. “Rokon, is there something wrong with my brother-in-law?” she whispered.
“He’s been down in the dumps since King Saku scolded him like a little kid,” Rokon said brightly. “I think he’s feeling better now.”
“It’s not that I’m feeling better,” Natsuka shot back sullenly. “I’ve changed the way I think.” His forehead was deeply furrowed. “My plan to negotiate with the Underground failed, but now I know how things work there a lot better. If I ever need to do something like that again, I’ll be prepared.”
“A wise policy,” Nazukihiko said, nodding.
“I have to do the things that you can’t,” Natsuka muttered. “You can’t do everything.”
Nazukihiko smiled. “I could say the same to you. I don’t mind getting my hands dirty. It’s not like my reputation can get much worse. If there’s something I can’t do, I’ll let you do it. I see no problem with that.”
This was a reconciliation, of a sort. Natsuka was angry at himself for not being able to negotiate with the Underground. Nazukihiko bore him no ill will. He’d known that the Underground wouldn’t cooperate with his brother and had managed to slip his leash without too much trouble.
Sumio seemed embarrassed by the whole situation.
Natsuka showed no remorse for confining his brother and keeping him under guard.
Rokon pointed at his lord, who hadn’t reflected on his actions at all. “He’s learned something from his failure, even if he’s being ridiculous about it,” he said to the Crown Prince. “I’m satisfied. Learning is a good thing.”
“I agree,” the Crown Prince said. “We can’t really be choosy about our methods. Results matter to me more than how we get them. We must secure Koume’s father at all costs and discover the route the monkeys are using to infiltrate Yamauchi. We might need to threaten the girl’s execution, if it comes to it. We need to be ready for anything.”
The details of the situation—specifically, that the latest information came from the Underground—were kept secret, but everything else had been relayed to officials in the Imperial Court. Wanted posters and descriptions of the water seller Jihei were circulating throughout Yamauchi. Hopefully that would be enough to catch Koume’s father, though no one had come forward so far. Searches of Koume’s house and places Jihei frequented were already underway.
“How much did Koume really know about what her father was doing?” Yukiya asked. He couldn’t tell if Koume had lied to him or not. He didn’t trust his own judgment. “She drank the drugged rice wine. Why would she do that if she knew?”
Hamayū picked up an empty cup that had been placed on the writing desk. She fiddled with it, passing the cup from hand to hand as she thought. “From the reports we have, it doesn’t seem like Koume’s father brought her to Shimaki. But he brought her to Sugō. Why? Maybe he knew that the Underground had found out about his nefarious deeds and would search his home?”
If that was true, then Jihei might have suspected that his daughter would be used as a hostage. If he’d had no choice but to bring her with him, it would be natural for him to conceal the tragedy of the attack on Sugō from her as much as possible. He might have decided to give her the drugged wine and hide her in the chest.
“You believe that Koume knew nothing, Princess Hamayū?” Yukiya asked.
“I wouldn’t go so far as to say that. She must have noticed something.”
Natsuka listened to this conversation with a troubled frown on his face. “I haven’t met Koume. But, if I may speak based only on what I’ve heard of the situation, she seems quite suspicious. She could easily have been in on the whole thing. Perhaps she drank the drugged wine so that Sugō’s residents would not suspect her or her father of wrongdoing. This is not confirmed information yet, but there are rumors that a young woman of similar age was seen coming and going to the merchant that sold sagecap outside of Tamari.”
“A young woman?” the Crown Prince asked. “When?”
“Around the time when sagecap started circulating. She wore a cloak to conceal her face, so there’s no good description of her. According to someone who caught a glimpse of her, she was young, quite pretty, and appeared determined. So far, no one the investigators have spoken to remembers anything else about her.”
Koume was certainly young and might be described as strong-willed, but she didn’t strike Yukiya as a particularly pretty girl. She wasn’t ugly, either, he supposed.
“Should we show Koume to those who witnessed the young woman visiting her father in Tamari?” Yukiya asked.
“I’ve already done that,” Rokon said. “Neither she nor they were aware I was doing it. I wanted to see if the witnesses recognized her without prompting.”
“And did they?” Yukiya asked.
Apparently, when the witnesses saw Koume, they couldn’t say for sure whether it was her or not.
“I don’t know how much that girl is involved. We’re in a race against time. If the guards and soldiers can’t extract useful information from her, we’ll spread rumors about handing the girl over to the Underground.”
Natsuka warned them that it would be useless to try to stop him from spreading the rumors.
“I won’t stop you,” the Crown Prince said. “Sorry for making you do my dirty work. Again.”
Natsuka gave his younger brother a tight nod. Then he left the Sun Palace with Rokon. Natsuka’s many connections in the Imperial Court ensured that any rumor he created would spread quickly. Ideally, matters would be resolved before Koume was made a public spectacle.
Yukiya sincerely hoped that Natsuka and Rokon’s plan would work.
***
Two days later, a man was found hanging from the bridge that led to the capital’s Central Gate. He dangled from a bridge girder, his clothes flapping in the breeze.
He was dead.
Translator's Notes
The unit of time here is koku, which corresponds to about two hours. Yukiya is given two koku as a time limit.
The hyoid bone is a U-shaped bone in the neck which supports the tongue.
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