Imperial Sorrow

By Dan Devine

Daigo

I will always remember the day that my grandfather named me emperor. It was the same day he killed my father.

The abdicate had retired from the throne over three decades ago, but he had never ceased to be the power behind it. My father had reigned as emperor for almost twenty years and before him an older cousin had held the title, both were no more than figureheads, needing my grandfather's approval for all but the smallest decisions.

And now it would be my turn.

"It is a great sorrow to me that your father met with such tragedy," my grandfather told me as we sat alone in the Sun goddess' shrine awaiting the coronation ceremony, he reached out to pat my head affectionately before continuing. "But I have much faith in your character and ability. I am sure that you will be able to do all that is asked of you and rule strongly in his place."

I kept my face as still as stone while he talked. In truth, my blood was burning and I wanted to launch myself at this heartless demon across from me and tear at him with my bare hands, all the while renouncing any family ties that bound us.

My father Hida had not always done what was asked of him, and that had been his downfall.

The Imperial Guard were reporting that he had been blown from the palace's battlements during the recent storm, but I knew that he had been murdered by the abdicate's men for his increasing outspokenness and demands that he should rule in his own right.

My grandfather must have suspected that I realized the true cause of my father's death, but he continued to act as if he believed the official story and I did nothing to contradict him. Nor was I anything but receptive of his hugs and kisses after the Sun Priest had placed the signet upon my head and the mass of people choking the hill surrounding the shrine had knelt and burst into cheers all at once. His bony old frame was like that of some nightmarish skeleton, living on well beyond its years and animated only by some selfish desire. His brittle old hair brushed against me like some rough, coarse fiber, and his lips felt like the skin of a lizard when they touched me.

After it was over, my mother told me that I had been very brave to put my true emotions aside and play along so that I could await my opportunity. I did not feel brave. I felt like another traitor to my father.

Still, it soon became clear that the abdicate had made a mistake in underestimating my mother and leaving her alive. Shortly after his death, many of my father's friends and allies who had achieved high office were arrested for scandals or simply disappeared and the abdicate forced me to replace them with his choices. But my mother sought out others who were loyal to Hida's memory but had somehow escaped notice and brought them into our employ. Slowly we began to build our numbers.

It seems petty to complain, for as long as I did not object to being a puppet ruler I lived the life of sumptuous luxury that is an emperor's right. Hordes of servants ran to obey my every whim. I consumed the finest food and drink, prepared by the most skilled culinary masters. I dressed in only the most expensive cloth and wore jewelry more valuable then some small nations. At night I slept beneath silken sheets on a mattress of down that was plucked fresh each morning.

Only, I did not sleep soundly. I could see that my people suffered under heavy taxes and in return were served poor justice by corrupt officials, while the man who had killed my father sprawled lazily, secure in his power. He spent his days as he wished while I dealt with the ceremonial duties of a head of state, but the abdicate's men outnumbered us greatly so there was little that could be done.

Over time, I began to see that my mother's handmaidens were one of our most surprisingly potent weapons. They were women of rare beauty and dignity, and this did not go unnoticed by the soldiers who were assigned by the abdicate to "safeguard" me and my family.

Such gentle women would never presume to tell a warrior how to behave, but with a delicate feminine look here, or a warm smile there, they managed to communicate their preference for those men who served their young emperor's own interests. It seemed no coincidence when some of the youngest and most hot-blooded of the soldiers began to share their beliefs and win their affections.

And so, with maids' blushes and kisses, I increased my control over my personal guard.

The best of these men was a soldier named Shin. He was not a pretty man, with his pale, pock-marked skin, crooked nose, and matted brown hair; but with his passionately vivid poetry and his smooth romantic tongue, he still won many a ladies heart.

Shin was not the largest or the fiercest of the warriors, nor was he the best with sword or bow, but his bravery and cunning could not be denied. During exercises he often defeated his foes by out-thinking them, luring them into ambushes or trapping them in confining areas where their greater size became an obstacle.

I myself grew to love him for his quick wit and the tremendous skill and sneakiness he displayed during games of counters.

A full year after my rise to the throne, I found that my grandfather remained in fabulous health for a man his age, while my people all seemed sickly and nearly as thin. Abdicate Fuji had everyone throw a great festival in my honor, in spite of all my protests, and no expense was spared to bring in the most popular artists and the most amazing entertainers from afar. And while the nobles attending applauded in sycophantic delight, I saw no joy in the eyes of my people when my carriage was carried through the streets between towns.

I began to worry that I would be associated with the actions of the abdicate and that if I did not act soon, my name and reputation would be so tarnished that I would never be able to regain the people's trust.

"Do not be so rash, Daigo," my mother scolded my gently when I confronted her with my fears. Her beautiful, smooth faced smelled of fresh powder and her dark eyes, as always, brimmed over with a heartbreaking mixture of sorrow and love. "Remember your father. The people of Nobu have lived under Abdicate Fuji for many years now. They know well that he is the cause of their ills."

"When you rise up to end his tyranny, that is what will be remembered. You need only wait until the time is right so that you can be victorious."

Over the coming months, it continued to nag at me that I lived so grandly, obeying my grandfather, while others suffered because of my inaction. Still, there must have been some wisdom to my mother's words, for soon I was visited by Nitta.

From the moment I met him, I knew that Nitta was not like the other men in my service. It was immediately clear that he was no pedigreed warrior from a famed house, instead he was actually something of an uncouth brute from the periphery. This meant that he had not come to my court, like so many others, seeking a sort of social advancement that he felt was his right, but instead out of an actual heartfelt duty to give his all serving his lord. His head was not turned by my mother and her ladies, though I'm sure he found them a pleasant distraction, for they were clearly secondary to his desire to become the best warrior in the service of the emperor.

In contrast to Shin, Nitta was an enormous bull of a man. The circumference of his neck was near to that of my waist, and his thighs and arms were not much smaller. At first, the men teased Nitta due to his bumpkinish nature and his questionable lineage, but drill after drill he slowly beat such disrespect out of them with the dulled blade of his wooden practice sword.

Slowly, I saw the men's loyalties shift to this hulking newcomer. Shin was a cleverer man than Nitta, but the latter proved a much more capable leader than his farm country persona implied, and in his daring Nitta usually displayed the relentlessness to fight through any traps that Shin had laid for him. Perhaps more importantly, I believe the men naturally preferred Nitta's straightforward tactics to Shin's more subtle trickery, effective though it may be.

I feared that this may lead to a conflict between my two best men, causing me to risk the loss of one of them, but Shin proved quite happy to step into the role of Nitta's unofficial second. Possibly, it would not have mattered, for my mother soon warned me that my retinue was now growing too large and that she had heard rumors that the abdicate was growing concerned with its size.

If I did not want to stage an outright revolt, I would need to either split my men or risk having Fuji force their reassignment elsewhere. After much deliberation, I chose Nitta and a third of my men to take up roles as retainers caring for my winter palace to the south. There he would continue to drill the rougher of the recruits while doing his best to unobtrusively increase our numbers. Shin, with his much prouder lineage and greater political influence here at court, would stay on and supervise my personal entourage.

This transfer of forces certainly did not escape the abdicate's eye, but it seemed to appease him for the moment, as he made no demands regarding the size or make up of my retinue. This peace proved short-lived, however. Perhaps feeling his age, Fuji soon began suggesting that I levy an increasingly widespread array of taxes to finance the construction of elaborate monuments and various statues honoring his reign.

The hottest days of summer were upon us and I watched the dragonflies flit across the pond at the heart of the Imperial Gardens where me and my mother sat upon the stone benches, fanned by our attendants.

"I cannot abide by this," I told her. "Farmers struggle all day in this heat in an attempt to feed their starving families. They have no more to give! And certainly it is more important to feed their children than his monstrous pride!"

"Not so loud, child!" scolded my mother. At the age of fourteen, I fumed at being addressed as such. "Those words are tantamount to treason!"

"Besides, be logical. Your grandfather's actions only reinforce the fact that if we can wait just a little longer, his time will have passed, and yours will have come. All bloodshed would be avoided."

I loved her dearly, but looked on her now with all the disgust and impatience of youth.

"Every second he breathes without punishment for his crimes is another injustice," I raved, quieter now but with greater fury. "Mark my words, that demon will outlive us all if we let him."

I saw the look of horror that came to my mother's face.

"Don't worry, mother," I said. "I realize it would be suicide to rise against him so soon after splitting my forces, but I will be his lapdog no longer. I will pass only those taxes as I see fit."

With that I strode from the swaying grasses of the garden back to the cooler stone of the palace, my attendants stumbling over themselves to follow in my wake. A sufficiently dramatic exit, but a foolish one. My mother now knew my heart, but my grandfather's spies had overheard me as well.

* * *

Nitta

"Dire news, sir," reported Yorii, unbuckling his riding helmet and running a hand through his long, wavy hair to straighten it. Normally, Nitta would have given him a lecture on vanity but he sensed he'd better hear what the boy had to say first.

"Well, out with it then," he demanded, looking up from his study of the winter palace's supply inventory.

"Abdicate Fuji finally chooses to betray the true emperor! He has ordered the governor of Ki to call his troops to his banner and march north to the capital!"

There was a great intake of breath as a collective gasp went up from the entire household. Nitta studied the young warrior with growing concern. He would have expected a young warrior like Yorii to be anxious and excited by the opportunity for battle, but instead his posture was dour and resigned.

"How many men?" asked Nitta sharply.

"The governor's sergeant, who was all too happy to chat with me so long as I bought him a few drinks, boasted that five hundred strong would march north before sunset!"

There was a chorus of dismayed muttering. There were less than one hundred trained fighting men here at the winter palace, and some of them were the greenest of recruits. The forces guarding the emperor in the capital were not much larger, and there was no telling what percentage of them were actually loyal to the abdicate.

Nitta knew that hesitation would only give the men time to consider the same facts.

"Prepare yourselves!" he ordered in a booming voice. "We ride at once!"

"Against that number, we don't stand a chance!" protested Ashaga, a veteran who had recently married one of the local southern women.

"There will not be so many," countered Nitta severely. "You'd do well to doubt any claims made by one of Yorii's drinking companions."

There was a small spattering of laughter, and Yorii's face reddened slightly in embarrassment.

"Even if there's only half that many, we'll still be badly outnumbered!" called out a different voice. It was Datae, one of the newer men.

Nitta sprung from his chair and rounded on him. The general's face was also quite red, but with anger. Datae was not the only one who backed up a step involuntarily as Nitta swung in his direction.

"Have I been training such cowards that you only want to fight when victory is already assured? Well I have news for you, there is no such battle. It is not only how man men that matters, but what kind! Have you no hearts and no courage?"

Upon hearing this, all of the other men hung their heads in shame.

"The governor will surely be taking the river road north, he will not be expecting any resistance," continued Nitta. "We will beat him there and set an ambush. Then, greater numbers or no, we will take them by surprise and crush them! But we must the be first to arrive. No more grumbling, get moving!"

The entire household burst into motion.

* * *

Daigo

The first orders to take my head were issued to men who served in my own personal guard but Shin had long since marked those who were still loyal to my grandfather, and the would-be assassins were in turn stabbed in the back by those who had been assigned to watch them. None had gotten within one hundred feet of My Presence.

The Imperial Palace was teeming with guardsmen who were loyal only to the abdicate, but Shin and his men had barricaded the stairs to the top floor which held both my chambers and those of my mother. We found ourselves secure but under siege.

Knowing that I served only at the abdicate's whim, Shin had always awaited this day and had planned accordingly. As he rushed into my room to awaken me and inform me of my grandfather's actions, men were ushering my mother and her handmaidens into my rooms, while others ran through the halls to take up their positions. Everything took place with the order of a well-practiced drill.

"Abdicate Fuji has pronounced you a traitor and called for your immediate arrest," Shin

informed us. "He claims that you made an attempt to poison him last night and that this was part of a secret plot in which you planned to subjugate our empire to the nation of Wu."

"That's preposterous!" I sputtered.

Shin shrugged in response.

"Perhaps," he said. "But he has some highly placed officials willing to act as witnesses and collaborate his story, and whether the common people believe him or not, he appears to have the support of the army."

"The palace is surrounded and the lower floors have been infiltrated by members of the imperial guard who are loyal to Fuji. We can hold them off for a while provided they are unwilling to do anything drastic, such as burning the Imperial Palace to the ground, and there are stashes of food and water that we had prepared so we will be able to last longer than they would expect."

He paused, regarding me and my mother soberly.

"However, you must be aware that we are fighting a losing battle. We must try to flee eventually, unless you can somehow miraculously sway the abdicate's supporters to your side."

Realizing suddenly that I still appeared half-asleep, I rose from my bed and ordered my servants to help me don my robes of office.

"I will prepare letters proclaiming the truth of my grandfather's crimes both past and present and call on several of the prominent generals for aid. Surely, there must be some men of good character who chafe under his misrule."

"We have some pigeons we can use as carriers," replied Shin with a terse nod. I got the uncomfortable sensation that he was humoring me, letting me act futilely so that I would not feel entirely helpless. "I will also inform Nitta to our plight."

I nodded back and he bowed and left the room.

From the halls I heard men's screams and the ring of metal on metal. It seemed to go on for a long time, but eventually there came the rapid thudding of men's footsteps as they retreated downstairs. I let out a breath that I did not know I had been holding. Injured men were dragged into the room and my mother's ladies did what they could to help clean and bind their wounds.

I sat among them, both thanking them and asking their forgiveness. Both sets of words felt hollow. My mother's eyes settled upon me as I spoke with them, and I raised my own to meet her gaze.

After a long moment of silence, I crossed the room and hugged her to me.

"I am sorry," I told her.

"Do not be," she said. "You were the one who was right, like your father before you. It is better you die like this than live your life as less than a man, never acting on your own, despised by all who know you."

I felt her tears roll down my arm, but by the time I had straightened myself from our embrace, the tears had ended and her eyes shone brightly with determination.

The door opened and more wounded men were dragged into the room.

* * *

Nitta

It turned out that the sergeant from Ki's army had not been exaggerating. If anything, the plume of dust being kicked up by the soldiers marching along the river road led Nitta to believe that even more troops had answered the governor's call than he had expected.

The enemy was not yet close enough for the less experienced members of Nitta's unit to realize this, but he could already sense the slumping of his veteran's shoulders. He wished he could do something to maintain their morale, but he could hardly stand up and give a rousing speech without giving away their concealment. Even sending a messenger running along the hill tops ahead of the enemy would be too much of a risk. He would just have to hope that they were ready.

Waiting, of course, was the hardest part of any ambush and today was no different. They could hear the governor's troops' spirited singing as they marched along the riverside, but it felt like days before they reached the expanse of road laid out beneath him.

The grassy hills here were not very steep, nor did the sparse brush that grew upon them provide much cover, but they were the best that Nitta had had to work with. The edges of the river road had been leveled for miles around to avoid just this kind of ambush and prevent banditry. Nitta had no doubt that that swamp rat Shin would have been able to come up with something better, but he probably had his hands full just keeping the emperor's head on his royal neck right about now.

Nitta watched tensely as row after row of soldiers marched by beneath him and prayed silently that none of his young men would succumb to an itchy stringfinger and spring the trap too early. Some deity must have been listening, because his men were as still as statues until he gave the signal.

With a great crash, logs rolled down the hillside ahead, colliding in the road and blocking the progress of the column. Nitta rose, and with an exuberant yelp, charged downhill towards the western edge of the road. Across from him, Yorii and his unit rained down from the hills to the east, trapping the enemy between them.

There were too many men, and even with surprise on their side, Nitta doubted that they could break them. Their best hope was to hold them in place long enough for the archers lining the hills to even the odds.

Nitta was a huge man, but his long-legged stride ate up the ground as quickly as any of his smaller, more nimble companions'. He was not the sort of general that led from the rear. Instead, he was the first man in his unit to his the enemy line, battering a pair of the governor's men to the ground with the first swing of his two-handed greatsword.

Screaming triumphantly, his men surged forward around him. Caught unprepared, their foes took heavy losses before they could properly turn to face this incoming threat. Nitta felt a glow of pride as his men wedged their way in between the lines of the enemy formation. On the eastern flank, Yorii's warriors were doing the same, and in between them dozens of men fell dead, feathered by arrows. Nitta ducked under a man's axe, drove the point of his sword through the space beneath his adversary's exposed armpit, and stepped forward over him. By the Sun goddess! Maybe they could break this column in two after all!

"The troops at the northern head of the column are ignoring the barricade and turning to head back in our direction," shouted a runner to Nitta, struggling to be heard over the clanking of sword on shield. He was busy freeing his blade from his most recent opponent and did not reply. The governor's reaction was to be expected, and they'd scattered some obstacles along the hillside to make it difficult for the troops at the head of the column to reach their archers. The men could still push back south along the road, filling in for their fallen comrades, of course, but there was nothing that Nitta could do to stop that.

As Nitta stalked forward, batting a sword out of another man's hands and running him through, the enemy line gave way before him. His men cheered, thinking that they had driven them back in retreat, but as Nitta hacked a savage gash in another man's throat to clear his path, his stomach sank in dismay.

The enemy was indeed pulling back from the western edge of the road, but not in disarray. On the opposite flank, Yorii had fallen, and his men had not held without him. The governor's men were pursuing them up the far slope and leaving Nitta's group behind them. "Hold your positions!" He shouted at the top of his lungs, slapping his sword against his shield to try and get the fleeing warriors' attention. "Protect your bowmen!"

It was no use, he could not be heard on the distant hills over the din of the battle and the enemy drove back Yorii's unit and slaughtered the undefended archers.

Nitta would have liked to send his own men sprinting across the road to strike them in the rear, but that would have exposed his own archers, and he could see the crimson clad governor on his fine horse rallying several of the soldiers who had been trapped in the northern part of the column to take advantage of the empty road space and urged them back towards the south.

The emperor's men were caught flatfooted, it was now they who were facing a charge and the enemy had both momentum and greater numbers. It was all that they could do to keep from being surrounded..Arrows continued to rain down from above, but each foe felled was replaced by another, while each of Nitta's fallen shrunk the size of their line so that the foe threatened to surge around them.

Howling like an animal, Nitta swung his sword in an arc around his body. His enemies fell in batches of two and three and even his own men feared to stand too close to him. But the governor's soldiers showed their discipline and continued to wear away at the emperor's men. Though they fought bravely, the warriors to Nitta's left and right gradually fell away until the enemy overran them, rushing past his sides to reach the archers behind him.

Nitta was now surrounded on all sides, though he could see another small pocket of his men still fighting not far off to his right. The enemy should have pressed him now and killed him easily, but they seemed afraid of him and gave him too wide of a berth.

Still, even he could not fight so many at once and when he lunged at one man the blow from a second broke his right arm, and so he slew two more left-handed, using only his long knife against their sword and shield.

A blade from behind him pierced his left arm, slicing through muscle, and the limb fell limply to his side. Somehow the enemy still seemed hesitant to move in for the kill. He could see the governor atop his fine horse with a pretty red plume rising from his helmet. The man stood at the back of his troops, afraid even now to ride forward and strike him down.

"Cowards!" yelled Nitta. "Always remember that you could not kill the true emperor's finest general!"

And so speaking, he thrust out his neck and threw himself forward onto his own blade. Seeing this, his men cheered and fought to the last, taking many lives for each of their own.

The governor had won the battle, but almost two thirds of his troops had been lost, and the morale of those surviving was in tatters. Despite his urgings and threats, he could do nothing to hurry their lethargic clearing of the roadway, and from there they advanced on the capital at a much more cautious pace.

* * *

Daigo

"There are more grave tidings, my lord."

Throughout his tireless defense of the palace, I had never seen Shin look so grim. My first thought was that Fuji's men must have broken through the blockade and reached the top floor. My men had held out for nearly a full day now, though they had had to go so far as to boil oil in small pots over the fireplace beside my bed and pour it down on guardsmen attempting to scale the walls or force their way up the stairs. Catapults were even being wheeled into position to take aim at the walls surrounding us, but I hoped that not even my grandfather was so insane as to fire on his own Imperial Palace.

"It is Nitta and the rest of our men," Shin continued. "They have fallen in battle."

"What? Where? How can this be?"

Behind me a few of the women began to sob.

"It seems the abdicate had ordered more troops to be brought north from Ki to support him. He must have feared you would have a greater influence over the imperial guard and not wanted to take any chances."

Shin scowled bitterly.

"Nitta ambushed the enemy reinforcements as they neared the winter palace, but he was badly outnumbered and could not have hoped to defeat them."

"May the gods show mercy on the souls of such good and loyal men," I said, shaking my head. More blood on my hands, more men whom I had failed as a leader, men whose faith I did not deserve.

"Their actions have likely saved our lives," said Shin, interrupting my self-pity. "Nitta's attack slowed their approach to the capital. We must flee while we can or there will be too many soldiers in the city streets for us to escape detection."

"I had held out hope that Nitta or one of the lords that you contacted would come to our aid and march on the capital, but there can be no further doubt that no one is coming to save us."

Shin looked at me pleadingly.

"I do not see what other choice we have except to surrender," I replied. Is that what Shin was suggesting? I thought I could be brave enough for as long as it took to turn myself over if it would save the lives of my men or my mother, but I doubted that my grandfather would be so forgiving of those whom he saw as my conspirators.

"We are not entirely out of options," answered Shin. "While none were willing to act openly against the abdicate there were those who offered to help shelter you if you could find a way to escape. If we can get out of the city I feel that we can trust Lord Min to keep us hidden and help us gather more support."

"He has always been a man of principle," interjected my mother. "I too would trust him."

I motioned for Shin to go on.

"Some of the guardsmen stationed outside the palace are also loyal to you," he said. "I have been unable to communicate with them since this conflict began, but if they remember the plan, they should be watching for us to make our escape through the secret tunnels. The exits from the tunnels are guarded, of course, but they will come to our aid and help us make our way out of the city."

The secret tunnels had originally been designed to allow an emperor to escape in just this sort of situation if the palace were to be besieged. Unfortunately, as a former emperor, Abdicate Fuji was well aware of them and had their exits well defended. Even before he issued the warrant for my arrest he had left a large contingent stationed there to make sure I did not use the tunnels to send my own agents off to any secret meetings. But if what Shin said was true, and we received enough assistance to fight our way through, we would come out of the tunnels far enough from the troops encircling the palace that we had a realistic chance of escape.

"We should move as soon as night falls," I told him.

He bowed and left for a short while to organize the troops and gather our meager supplies. Two of the soldiers, Kendo and Takai, had agreed to stay behind. One would continue to guard each entrance to the palace's top floor to create the illusion that we still maintained its defense. I wept as I clasped their hands in farewell. We all knew that they would not survive the imperial guard's next determined charge.

I rotated the statue of the moon god on the small shrine in my chambers, and slid the pedestal out of the way to reveal the entrance to the tunnels. Shin examined the assembly with academic interest, he had learned of the tunnels' existence, but had not known how to access them.

Shin and most of our remaining warriors entered first, then me and the women, and finally a few of the wounded soldiers who would follow along at a slower pace and protect our backs if we were chased through the tunnels.

Those of us in the middle of the group had no light source close at hand, which was just as well, as it would only have let us see the numerous rats that we could hear rustling in the darkness. The tunnels were dank and musty and smelled more than a little like a sewer. There's no telling how long I stumbled through them, banging my head repeatedly on the hard stone, and scraping my arms and legs along the walls of the passageway.

The first sign that we were reaching the end was a wash of thankfully fresh air followed, around a bend of the tunnel, by the soft glow of moonlight. The coarser sound of someone screaming in pain came soon after.

My men formed a wall of bodies at the end of the tunnel, but I saw with dismay that they were being pushed back towards me into the passageway by whatever force lay beyond them. For a moment I stood frozen, having no desire to turn and go back in the direction that I had come, but knowing that Shin would be angered if I were to move into the fray and place myself in danger.

I had just begun to draw my sword and was waving at the noblewomen to stay behind me when there was a shout from outside and my men began to push forward once more. Shin's promised help had arrived.

Moments later, it was over. The abdicate's men had thrown down their swords, and without any rope to spare, Shin had had them remove their breeches so that they could be used to bind them and strips could be cut to gag them and keep them from doing any further yelling to announce our escape.

Our rescuers came to bend their knee before me, but I shouted at them to get up. They had saved our lives and it was I who should be honoring them, not the other way around. They looked rather abashed by this, but at least they got on their feet and got moving. The sounds of our short combat had carried and I could see torches moving down the city's streets in our direction.

Shin led us along something that looked more like a goat herding trail than a path. No one complained. It was steep and treacherous, and passed near no buildings. Luckily, by design, the tunnels exited in a very sparsely populated area. We passed only a few shady looking characters, and seeing men wearing the emperor's sigil, they made themselves scare without giving us a closer look.

As we grew nearer to the city wall, I became certain that a sentry would spot us and give cry to our position. I need not have worried however; a sentry spotted us well before we reached the shadows

of the wall, but at a hand signal from Shin he tossed down a rope ladder for us to climb. Once up we were practically pushed off the far side of the wall by the sentry to rappel down a long rope towards the countryside below. One of Shin's more athletic young lads had gone first, and he caught the rest of us as we descended. The sentry himself followed along after us and pulled the rope down with him, somehow snapping it in such a way that it released his knot. I gulped thinking of how I might have shared my father's fate if I had only jerked the wrong way while descending.

Shin led us off the road along a shadowy path between the hills that wound down into a large farmstead. It was filled with hardy looking peasants who I soon began to fear would not stop prostrating themselves before me long enough to help aid in our escape. Shin insisted that we split up and allow the peasants to smuggle us away in small groups.

I soon found myself covered by a thin covering of straw that my conspirators seemed only halfway certain would not suffocate me. The road to Lord Min's castle proved to be a long and uneven one, and Shin always likes to mock me by saying that I was the only emperor ever to arrive at a new capital in an oxcart, conveniently forgetting that it was his idea. I counter by saying that it was a sign of the unity between me and my subjects.

Somehow all of us escaped capture along the road to Castle Sato, and there we found that Lord Min was not the only noble who awaited us. The civil war had begun.