Guards dragged me, bound, outside the inner court to a retaining room on the edge of the outer court. Hands penetrated my robe, searching my body for evidence of my intent. Finding nothing, they threw me bodily into a cold, dark room innocent of even a window. I shivered where I crouched on bare feet, and waited for the interrogation that must follow.
I waited long in that freezing cell—long enough to doubt my judgment in having provoked the tolerance, if not friendship, of my royal hosts. Whether worthy of this punishment or not, I might have avoided it. Would I survive the interrogation? Would my interrogator survive it?
A guard unlatched the door with a groan of the heavy iron latch.
He pulled me, cringing, into the now sun drenched exterior room, then dragged me by my still bound arms, halting and stumbling outside into the court. Within a moment, I could see we were returning to the inner court, not to the Dairi, but to the Ogakumonjou. Would I be questioned there?
I fell prostrate upon the tatami, and soon, a servant announced the Emperor himself. I dared not look up, but prepared the lies I must speak if allowed to defend myself. I didn’t wait long for his calm, yet stern voice to urge my explanation.
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“Who sent you into my private residence?”
“No one sent me, Your Majesty.”
“You cannot protect him. You will be tortured. It will be found out at last.”
“Your Majesty may torture me, but it cannot alter the truth. I trespassed into the Royal Residence only at the goading of a strange dream, urging me to go and protect the Princess from a malefactor.”
“How did you intend to defend the Princess? You carried no weapon.”
“I would have warned her of the threat.”
A scoff of contempt.
“You are either lying or mad. There was no intruder but yourself.”
“In my dream, I saw clearly a stranger entering into the palace and heard a voice.”
“What did you hear?”
I paused. Being no practiced liar, I felt sure of detection, but as I opened my mouth to speak, new words flooded into my mind, seemingly from nowhere, and the words followed quickly out of my own mouth without further reflection.
“You must hurry. Save Otoppon.”
Silence fell over the hall, then, “What do you think that means: Save Otoppon?”
“I do not know, but I pledge my loyalty to the Emperor. I will serve until I die. I have proven that I do not fear for my own life.”
“You have proven no such thing!”
“I will go to death to serve the Emperor.”
The Emperor proclaimed me mad. And at last I dared lift my gaze above the tatami floor, but he gave a terse nod to the guards and strode out of the hall.