A tremendous weight crashed onto my chest. I thought my ribs were breaking all over again. My eyes flew open. A monster, whose enormous head resembled a demon from the nine hells, crouched over me. His cavernous maw, lined with razor-sharp teeth, gaped open, and the beast’s hot, charnel-house breath played over my skin. Baleful yellow eyes glared at me, his malevolence shining through. Night-colored fur covered his skin. He edged closer, preparing to devour me.

I tried to yell for help. A muffled “Mmmrrfff” was all I could manage.

A female voice cried, “Lord Mao! BAD CAT!”

One of Surei’s girls rushed over waving her arms. Lord Mao stood from where he sat on my chest, stretched, then, without a glance at either the girl or me, hopped down onto the floor. He walked a short distance away, sat, and began to wash himself.

She ran to the door and yelled, “He’s awake!” then came back and said, “Good morning, Yoshi-san. My name is Kameru, but everyone calls me Dimples.” Dimples was one of the two girls who bathed me when I first arrived at the Spring Palace. She had a rather plain face, but her smile transformed her looks. She did have two adorable dimples. I guessed her age at twelve or thirteen.

I looked around. Vaguely, I recalled arriving back at the Spring Palace. There was also something about Surei tending me. Or was that another fever dream?

Dimples asked me, “How are you feeling?”

I was still winded from the cat, and my chest throbbed with every breath. After a few moments, I gasped out a weak, “I’m wonderful.”

Dimples got very stern. “Stop fooling. I need to know how you feel so I can give you the medicine Benkon left. Do you hurt at all?” She removed the sleep robes covering me to get a better look at my shoulder. I raised my head to see what she was doing, but that put pressure on my ribs and I lay back down with a groan.

She snatched her hand back and squeaked, “Sorry! Sorry! I didn’t mean to do that.”

After she had calmed down, she said, “Well, that shows that you hurt a lot. You’re going to need to drink this.”

She turned to a nearby table and poured some water into a drinking bowl, then unwrapped a paper packet and dumped the contents into the water. “The herbs have to steep for a time before you can drink it. Benkon said to wait to at least a count of fifty.” She stirred the contents of the bowl, counting conscientiously. Holding the bowl out, she said, “He says this will reduce the pain and make you heal more quickly.”

I took one whiff of the stuff and almost gagged. I took a small sip, but the drink was bitter. Spitting out the tea, I pushed the bowl away.

Dimples looked up at me, and her lower lip started to tremble. A couple of large tears welled at the corners of her eyes. She told me, her voice quivering, “Hyacinth-sama told me to give this to you. If you don’t drink it, she’ll be mad at me.”

I wondered if the ability to cry on demand was a skill all young girls were born with. If they aren’t, they learn it quickly enough. It was uncanny. Dimples had the same look Surei used to have at that age when I would tire of getting in trouble and refuse to go along with her ideas. Surei would use the same quivering lip, the same tears in the eyes, the same broken voice. Fortunately, I was no longer a gawky adolescent. I couldn’t be manipulated like this…

Oh, hell, who are you kidding? You can’t stand to see a girl cry. Especially after the way you treated her last time.

I took the bowl from her. Sucker. Somehow, I kept from gagging long enough to choke the stuff down. The bitter taste was actually worse than the smell.

When I handed the cup back to Dimples, she smiled. “I knew you could do it. Really, it will make you feel better. Do you need anything?”

“Get me something to get rid of the taste of that stuff. I need saké. And maybe something to eat.”

Dimples smiled again and called, “Reiko, would you go get a bowl of soup from the kitchen? He is hungry.”

I craned my neck to see better. Another girl about Dimples’ age sat on her heels in the corner. Reiko was much prettier than Dimples, but a self-indulgent pout spoiled her looks.

She sniffed and leaned back on her heels against the wall. “My father held the upper fifth rank. Your mother’s nothing but a cook, and he’s just a bushi. I don’t wait on bushi. Go get the soup yourself.”

Dimples sneered, “Your father might have been upper fifth rank once. Now, he’s just a common exile in Kyuushuu.”

Reiko glared and snapped back, “I’ll bet you don’t even know who your father is.”

The door slid open, and Surei walked into the room. Both girls froze. Surei stopped in front of Reiko and stared down at her. As the silence stretched out, all the blood drained from the girl’s face. After what seemed an eternity, in a very soft voice, Surei said, “If you find the tasks we have given you to be beneath your station, we should see about giving you duties more in keeping with your … abilities.”

Her voice hardened. “Wait for me in my office.” Reiko sprang up and ran out of the room, sobbing.

Surei turned back to Dimples, who still stood frozen in fear. Surei smiled at her. “Dear, go get some soup, would you? Maybe some misoshiru? Tell your mother to start a fresh batch. Wait until it’s ready, and then bring it back here.”

Dimples bowed and hurried out of the room. Surei knelt down by me. “I’m glad to see you awake. How are you feeling? We’ve been very worried about you.”

I cleared my throat. “I’m wonderful. Never been better.”

She gave me an exasperated look and frowned. “Stop trying to be funny. At least you’re still alive.”

Surei lightly laid her hand on my forehead, then, after a moment, nodded in approval. “And you are going to stay that way. I hope whatever you stumbled into in Isé was worth almost getting killed. What did you learn?”

“I discovered someone has taken over Akiko’s shouen and switched her title with that of a worked-out shouen nearby. The drop in income is because the switched shouen has been abandoned and all the peasants have absconded.”

Surei stared at me. “Are you sure of that?”

“When I visited one of the district’s shouen, they related a story of a devoted young woman turned into a sakura tree by the gods. But the sakura tree they showed me was not on the shouen they claimed was Akiko’s. Actually, when I mentioned I’d heard the same story from Akiko, District Magistrate Taira reacted strangely.”

“District Magistrate Taira?”

“Yes, I met him at Governor Abé’s party, and he took me to Akiko’s supposed shouen. It was at his yozakura that Inuki told me the story of the tree. The magistrate boasted the sakura in the legend was the very tree under which we were drinking at that very moment. When I mentioned the similarity between the two tales, Magistrate Taira nearly threw me out of the party. While following his directions to an inn, I was ambushed. By two different groups of people.”

Surei got a dangerous glint in her eye. “Inuki?”

I coughed and said, “She was one of the serving girls. She sat with me and served me saké during the yozakura. It was probably because of all the saké I drank that I mentioned Akiko. I wasn’t thinking very clearly.”

In the same tone she had used to address Reiko, Surei said, “Let me get this straight. I warned you to be careful and urged you to keep your guard up and not trust any of the local officials. After that warning, you involve yourself in court politics by rescuing the high priestess, attend parties from one end of Isé province to the other, fall in with the man who is responsible for Akiko’s problems and then, while drunk and flirting with serving girls at his party, reveal to him that you have discovered Akiko’s supposed shouen is nothing of the kind, but that she is the victim of some conspiracy to defraud her, whereupon he sends a gang of thugs to murder you who fail, but only because a different group of thugs tries to kill you first. Is that a fair analysis?” As she went on, her voice became increasingly shrill, until she was shouting at the end.

I was insulted. “When you put it that way, it sounds stupid.”

“Of course it sounds stupid. Because it was stupid!” she shouted.

Benkon came into the room. “Surei,” he said mildly, “you shouldn’t be yelling at the poor boy.”

“Poor boy? He has no sense at all. I can’t believe—”

“Surei,” the monk said sharply, “he doesn’t have the strength for this yet. You can yell at him after he has recovered a bit.”

He looked at her with concern. “You have been very excitable lately. Perhaps this would be a good time for some meditation.”

“Meditation! I have Yoshi to take care of. A shipment of saké coming in. The dance pavilion needs refurbishing, and I don’t have the funds. I don’t have time for meditation!” She stomped off.

Benkon smiled. “Don’t worry about her. You just gave her a bad scare. We’ve been working together on meditation and tranquility of mind. She was doing very well—until just recently. The last fortnight or so, she’s been … less composed. I’m not sure what’s wrong.”

I stared at him. “You called her Surei.”

He smiled. “Why shouldn’t I? I’ve known her longer than you have.” I looked skeptically at him. His smile widened. “You know, when I read you those yóuxiá tales, I didn’t think you’d go out and get yourself killed trying to emulate them.”

My mouth sagged. He burst out laughing.

“You’re Koremitsu,” I accused him. “Surei’s half-brother. I thought you were in China!”

Eyes twinkling, he said, “My Buddhist name is Benkon. And I got back about a year ago.”

I leaned forward eagerly. “So, did you run into any yóuxiá in China?”

He nodded his head. “A few. Sadly, many of them don’t live up to their reputations. I am almost led to believe most of them are just bandits trying to put a righteous facade on their lawbreaking. However, there were a couple of men who really seemed to be working on behalf of the people.”

He glanced into the garden where Surei had taken most of her robes off and was now doing some kind of strange dance involving a lot of kicking and punching in the air. She was putting a lot of energy into it. I was glad I was not on the receiving end of those blows.

“They meditate like that in China?” I asked.

He nodded his head. “I went to China with the hope of learning the true path to enlightenment. I planned to bring it back to Japan and help my countrymen. But as I traveled from monastery to monastery, I discovered there was no one true path. Each group had a different teaching. One of the monasteries had developed a movement-based meditation that was quite martial in its qualities.” He laughed. “I immediately thought of Surei. She could never sit still long enough to meditate and found the standard Buddhist mantras painfully dull. I know she used to sneak out to practice weapons with you when she was supposed to be meditating. I thought this technique might work for her and others like her, so I traveled to the Shaolin temple on Mount Song where it is taught. I spent three years there and found much wisdom in their doctrines.”

He watched Surei for a moment. She had stopped kicking and punching and was doing something that looked more like an acrobatic dance. Her grace and athleticism were spellbinding.

He smiled and nodded approvingly. “It does seem to work for her.”

He knelt down beside me. “Let’s see how you are doing.”

Benkon unwrapped the bandage on my arm. The swelling had receded and the color of the skin was deep pink instead of the angry red I remembered. The wound was almost closed. I lifted my left arm slightly. Pain stabbed through my shoulder, but it was much less than I anticipated.

“It looks so much better,” I commented. “You learned some amazing things in China.”

“I wish I could take credit. But such miraculous healing is beyond my talents. That required sorcery.”

I remembered the twine and the paper doll. “Surei?”

He nodded.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

“Where did she learn to do this?”

He shook his head. “I don’t need to tell you she has always had a talent for it. Her mother was an Abé, you know, like Akiko’s mother. Surei found some scrolls recently and has been trying to learn magic from them. It is dangerous, perhaps foolishly so, but she is determined. You can credit your recovery to her skill in sorcery.”

Dimples came in with the soup. Benkon helped me sit up and drink it.

“I wouldn’t mind some saké,” I hinted.

“The yang of the saké opposes the yin of the medicine. The effects of the clash could be dangerous.” He poured something out of a nearby jug. “Drink this instead.”

I eyed the new concoction suspiciously and sniffed the bowl. It didn’t smell bad. I took a sip. It tasted like lemon but not as tart.

“It is made from rainwater and herbs. The Daoists recommend it for long life. I encourage everyone to drink it.” He helped me take another sip. “Too much saké can be hard on the body and cause early death.” Benkon gave me a sharp look. “Especially for bushi that drink too much of it.”

“For bushi, early death is very likely no matter what he drinks. I can’t sleep without some saké.”

Benkon sighed. “You shouldn’t drink in your condition. You are not well enough to try the moving meditation, but perhaps another form might help. Lie back down.”

I lay down. The awful stuff Dimples gave me seemed to be working. Breathing caused only a twinge of discomfort, and the pain in my arm had settled down to a dull ache.

“Now, I want you to focus on breathing. Breathe in as deeply as you can without pain. When you let the breath out, let all the tension flow out with it. Slowly now, in … out …”

I fell asleep almost instantly.

*****

The music was beautiful.

Is this what Paradise sounds like?

Luxuriating in the peace of almost-sleep, I was floating in a halfway place where I was still not quite awake. I heard someone open the door, followed by Dimples’ stern whisper, “He is still asleep. He needs his rest. You must not waken him.”

Meekly, but with barely suppressed amusement, Surei said, “Call me when he wakes up, I need to talk to him.”

The door quietly slid closed. I drifted off again.

Feminine giggling awakened me. The music had stopped. I opened my eyes and was surprised to discover the sun almost directly overhead. I had slept all night and most of the morning with no bad dreams. I closed my eyes again and lay back, resting.

A childish voice came from the veranda. “Do the Professor.”

Dimples said, “According to the Shōmonki, Taira no Masakado was attacked, actually ambushed by Minamoto Tasuku, at Nomoto.” A good attempt at imitating Professor’s gravelly speech, but she couldn’t do it quite perfectly—her voice wouldn't go low enough.

Dimples passed by the door droning on about Masakado to shrieks of laughter from the girls outside. While she couldn’t get his characteristic bass rumble, I had to admit that she copied his pedantic style precisely.

“Mistress! Do the mistress!” someone said.

“Now Sonoko, you missed something there.” Dimples did a pitch-perfect imitation of Surei. “Our customers expect everything without flaw. That is why they come here. We cannot have a leaf lying in the middle of the walkway.”

I chuckled at Dimples’ humor, then sucked in my breath as waves of pain emanated from my ribs.

More childish laughter sounded outside. “Do Cook! Do Cook!”

Mimicking Cook’s thick Kyuushuu accent, Dimples said “Who let Lord Mao in? Bad cat! Stay away from the fish!”

I frowned. If Dimples was truly Cook’s daughter, I didn't find the imitation particularly amusing. She was being extremely disrespectful of her mother.

Suddenly, the talking and laughing outside ceased. The door slid open and someone scampered into the room.

The koto music resumed. I opened my eyes. Dimples leaned over the large, thirteen-stringed instrument, playing softly. Her skill was astonishing for someone so young. Training a peasant girl to pass as a lady couldn’t have been easy, but with talent like Dimples’, I could appreciate why Surei had done it.

I sat up on my right elbow. Startled, Dimples fumbled with the instrument. “Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t think my playing would disturb you.”

“No, please go on. I love listening to you.”

Dimples colored, then continued playing. I compared her other to musicians I had heard. She was every bit as good as the players at the yozakura—

At the thought of the party, everything that happened in Isé came back in a rush. I had forgotten how my stupidity and carelessness had gotten me here. I felt like a fool. Thinking back over events in Isé, I couldn’t believe the way District Magistrate Taira had gulled me. Distasteful as it was, I had to admit Surei had a point. I had been very foolish in my behavior and it was unbelievably stupid to allow District Magistrate Taira to deceive me.

When Dimples finished playing, I asked her, “Where’s Hyacinth-sama?”

“She came in earlier, and saw you were asleep. But, I just saw her outside.”

Ah, that explains the sudden end to the imitations.

Dimples continued, “I think she is on her way here.”

Remembering how Dimples had bullied Surei earlier, I told her, “You know, Sur—Scarlet Hyacinth-sama is your superior, you really shouldn’t order her around like a kitchen drudge.”

She shook her head firmly. “Benkon told me that—” Her eyes suddenly widened. “What was that you said? You started to call her something else. Su-something.” Dimples gasped. “You know her real name, don’t you? None of us knows who she is, not even Mama, and Mama’s been with her for years!”

“No, uh, I—”

She raised her hand to her mouth. “You knew her before she became a dancer! No wonder she was so upset when you were hurt.” She stared at me, eyes wide. “You must be her old paramour, the true love she lost years ago. That’s why she has never truly loved anyone else.” Tears flooded her eyes. “It must have been terribly tragic circumstances that led to your parting.”

I said, weakly, “You’ve been reading too many romances—”

Her voice became excited. “Oh, you are a pair of star-crossed lovers who are cursed so they can’t talk about their plight. But curses can be broken, with our help!” She sprang to her feet and dashed over to my side, knelt down and squeezed my hand. “Don’t worry, we’ll do everything we can.” She stood back up. “Oh, this is so thrilling!”

I sagged back into the bed, letting my breath out in a long sigh. I felt like strangling every writer who had ever put brush to paper to fill the heads of impressionable young girls with romantic mush. Dimples’ wild guesses were just close enough to the truth to get me in trouble when Surei heard about it. I just had to hope that didn’t happen soon.

Dimples dashed for the door. Just then, Surei came through and they collided. Dimples bowed in apology to Surei, then stopped and stared at her. She burst into tears, hugged her mistress, and buried her face in Surei’s robes. In a muffled voice, she said, “Don’t worry, everything will be all right!” Still crying, she left the room, gone to do Buddha-knows-what.

Surei watched her leave with a puzzled frown. She looked back at me and asked, “What have you done to her now?”

I tried to sound innocent. “Me? I haven’t done anything. She was babbling about true love or something like that.”

Shrugging and dismissing the matter, Surei said, “I’m glad you’re awake. I wanted to see how you were. Did Dimples give you your medicine before she went racing off?”

Remembering the foul taste of the stuff, I lied. “Yes.”

Surei spotted the hot water and unopened packet of herbs on the table. “Nice try, Yoshi.” She mixed the medicine and set it out of my reach. “This will be ready soon. I’ll be right back.”

She returned shortly carrying a covered tray. Lord Mao trotted in behind her. Surei knelt gracefully and set the tray down beside me. I tried unsuccessfully to sit up, then gasped in pain and lay back. Surei leaned forward and supported me, slipping cushions behind me until my back was propped up.

The dish smelled familiar. I lifted the lid and exclaimed, “You remembered!”

Surei smiled. “I ate at your house often enough. How could I forget?” Cook had made my favorite food, a stew made with fish, noodles, and vegetables all cooked together with Kyuushuu seasonings. My father’s cook hailed from the southern island, and we ate lots of Kyuushuu dishes when I was growing up. It was thoughtful of Surei to have Cook fix it for me. My stomach growled.

“Medicine first,” she said, proffering the bowl.

I took it and tried to choke the stuff down.

Surei laughed. “Yoshi, you’re making faces like a little boy.”

After I finished the vile concoction, Surei finally put the tray on my lap. As I ate, I marveled at the quality of the food. “This is really excellent,” I said, between mouthfuls. “You have a lot of very talented people here at the Spring Palace.”

“I try to get the best.” She looked at me and sighed. “I want to apologize for my behavior last night. I shouldn’t have lost my temper. It won’t happen again, I am normally in complete control of myself.”

I choked on my food. Surei leaned over me, her face concerned. “Are you all right?”

“I’m fine,” I got out, between coughs.

In complete control was not a characteristic I associated with Surei, especially in our relations. Short-tempered, histrionic, capricious, but hardly in complete control. I idly considered testing her level of restraint but decided that would be petty, given her evident desire to make peace between us.

Surei stared off into the distance while I ate. Lord Mao climbed into Surei’s lap and butted his head against her stomach. Absently, she began petting him.

She finally spoke. “I should have let you finish your story instead of getting angry. Go ahead and tell me what happened in Isé.”

“Are you sure that’s a good idea? I don’t have anything to defend myself with.”

She smiled sweetly and said, “I promise not to hurt you.”

I started with Governor Abé. When I got to the part about the sketches, Surei interrupted me. “My mother’s brother, Abé no Isamu, was an artist. He went to the provinces to practice his art and escape the constant complaining from his family about wasted opportunities and missed government appointments. There were rumors he had become some sort of provincial official…” She paused and looked outside for a moment. “That was years ago. He might be the same Governor Abé. I’ll have Akiko write to him. If he is our uncle, it could be very helpful in resolving her problem.” She turned back to me. “Please go on.”

I didn’t feel the need to upset Surei again, so I didn’t mention the hyacinth pin and the note I gave Magistrate Taira. I could tell her that later—after I regained the ability to run. When I got to the yozakura festival, I figured reminding Surei of Inuki would serve no particular purpose. Still, I did tell her about the dance and reminded her of the legend and Taira’s odd reaction to it.

Surei stood and began pacing back and forth. “Yes, switched shouen make sense. It explains everything. That must be it. But why? Magistrate Taira can’t be keeping the tax money. A shortfall that big would be noticed, so it has to be going to the monks. Someone from the monastery has to be paying him off.”

“Taira mentioned something about visiting influential friends in the capital.”

She nodded her head, as if she had gotten something clear in her own mind. “I am certain there’s a conspiracy to cheat Akiko of her shouen income. It’s too big for someone with only local connections, like District Magistrate Taira, to pull off by himself. He must have some help here in the capital. Or rather, he is their help in the provinces. When you’re feeling better, you’re going to need to go ask around the Ministry of Public Affairs and see if you can find anything out. I suspect this goes much further than just one shouen and a single low-ranking official out in the provinces.” She stopped and looked at me with a smile. “I know we are going to be able to fix things for Akiko.”

Since Surei was in such a good mood, I risked a sensitive question. “Who is Kuzu-no-ha, Surei? You and she had an argument while you were working on me here in the room. She called you granddaughter.”

Surei sighed and sat back down. “You remember Abé no Seimei was my great-great-grandfather, right?”

“As if you would ever let anyone forget. You mentioned it often enough.”

“Well, if you remember the stories about him, his mother was a kitsuné. Kuzu-no-ha.”

I stared at her in disbelief. “She is your great-great-great-grandmother? She’s younger than you are.”

Surei shrugged her shoulders. “A kitsuné can appear as any age she wants. She’s at least five hundred years old.”

I thought about that for a moment. It was hard to imagine anyone that old. “Does she help out all her relations? How about Akiko?”

“No, I seem to be the only one she’s interested in. She has said I am her only true descendant.”

“Then why is she interested in me? I am not descended from Abé no Seimei.”

Surei looked at me sharply, “What do you mean?”

I told her how Kuzu-no-ha had appeared in my dreams over the years. “And, on the way to Isé, she led me to the men attacking the high priestess. Why would a kitsuné care about that?”

“I have no idea. I don’t understand most of the things she does.” Her eyes narrowed. “I intend to find out.”

I relaxed on the pillow. The pain in my chest and arm was growing dull. Perhaps Benkon’s medicine was worth the horrible taste. I felt full and relaxed. Surei certainly did have some extraordinary people here.

“What is the political climate like? Have things improved?” I asked.

“No, bushi keep flooding in. Both sides are hiring now.”

“Have you decided what you’re going to do? Is there someplace you can go during the unrest?”

“Me? Why would I need to go anywhere? I am friendly with both Emperor Go-Shirakawa and Retired Emperor Sutoko. No one is going to attack here.”

“Those two might not, but if there is fighting in the city, there will be wandering bushi and bands of looters. Chaos and fires follow in their wake. This place would be a prime target. Saké and girls—all in one location? They will gather like bees to a flower.”

Surei stared at me in horror.

Her head sank down to her chest and she massaged her brow. “Now I have that to worry about on top of all my other worries.”

“What other worries?”

“Yoshi, you must understand the position this rescue of the high priestess has put you in. The story has spread all over the capital, and everyone is trying to find Inspector Minamoto. It is said the emperor wants to thank you personally.”

“Really?” I smiled. I imagined a personal audience with the emperor and an imperial reward.

“Everybody wants to know who this inspector is. His family. His lineage. Fortunately, your Minamoto clan is both numerous and widespread, and no one knows which branch you are from. Your accent no longer sounds like you were born in the capital, so they think you came from one of the provincial offshoots of the Minamotos. But they will want to know which one,” Surei said sharply.

“Oh.” My imagined imperial audience changed to a procession to the grounds outside the capital, an appointment with the executioner, and my head being displayed on a pole outside the city walls. “Well, maybe the emperor will believe me when I tell him I didn’t desert and explain what really happened.”

Surei looked exasperated. “And if Junior Retired Emperor Sutoku succeeds in taking the throne, maybe he’ll have you executed for desertion, treason, and anything else he can think of in retaliation for your defense of the high priestess. It would have been better if you had ignored my grandmother and just stayed in bed. The intrigues of the court are dangerous for people like us. The nobles have no qualms about using someone and then discarding him the moment he ceases to be of value. Concentrate on Akiko’s problem. There is danger enough there, as your wounds show. Your intercession with the High Priestess may have consequences in the future. I have no desire to take sides in the coming struggle, but if your connection with me becomes known, there will be questions about my loyalties.”

She sighed. “I wish you hadn’t gotten involved.”

“And leave the high priestess in the hands of those thugs?” I shook my head. “I couldn’t do that.”

Surei smiled in spite of herself. “Maybe you haven’t changed that much after all.”