behind this endeavor,” he said. “Take comfort from the knowledge that he needs you.”
I did, however grim that comfort might have been.
On the first night there were fires burning in the mountains, though from where we made camp I couldn’t tell who was winning. Instead of trying to judge what was impossible to judge, I went to find my lord, who had retreated to his own tent since the sun had set, and hadn’t emerged once.
I knelt as I entered. Then, when Mamoru did not bid me rise, I raised my head cautiously.
He was sitting against the far canvas wall, limp and as if still in sleep, though he was sitting, his head unbowed. His hair was braided as it had once been for his victories in the long war, but his clothing was new and a strange foreign imprint on the rest of him, which was so familiar to me. They should have at least clad us in blue, though that moment would prove striking in a print. When the art was made of that day, as I knew it would be, the color would serve as quiet commentary, that which would remain unsaid between the other lords.
“My prince,” I whispered.
“It smells like dragons,” he said, opening his eyes. In the flickering light of the lamp he’d lit, I could not read his expression. “The smoke from the mountains. Are we doing the right thing?”
“My lord,” I said, not rising from my place. “Iseul has tried to kill you. He has broken two of our oldest laws; he has harmed a brother and he has manipulated the blood. It is your place—no, it is your duty—to make right what he has broken. Think of what your father would want if he were here to offer his counsel.”
Mamoru nodded slowly though he didn’t seem convinced.
“They—the Esar, and his men, that is—intend for me to kill him.”
“He is too dangerous to be kept a prisoner,” I reasoned, hating myself for being the one to speak such things. Mamoru’s arm, at least, was no longer bandaged from where I’d beaten him to save his life, and the bruises were beginning to fade. Those wounds, at least, healed quickly. There were others—some of them I bore—that would take more time than that.
Slowly I rose, crossing the distance between myself and my lord to kneel properly at his side.
“When you are Emperor, Mamoru, you may take your summers anywhere you like. Even in a small fishing village in Honganje should you so choose.”
Mamoru turned to me, his eyes wide with surprise. “What?”
“You look as though you’re headed to an execution instead of home,” I said.
Mamoru laughed, more quietly than I’d grown used to. “I am headed to an execution,” he said. “Though hopefully it is not my own.”
“The offer remains,” I said. “I told you I would take you to my sister’s home in the mountains. We’ve come this far.”
“Then I might meet her after all,” Mamoru said, drawing his knees up to his chest and turning his gaze into the lamplight.
There was so much of the Emperor in him. Looking at him was sometimes like catching an accidental glimpse of the sun. Both made my nose sting and my eyes hurt.
“She’ll likely kill me for bringing an imperial entourage into her house without forewarning,” I added. “We’ll have to write to her first, in any case.”
“She sounds wonderful,” Mamoru said. There was a smile tugging at the corners of his mouth.
“Of course she’s wonderful,” I said. “If you’re willing to wake up earlier than the gods in the morning to a punishing day spent in a boat smaller than a hollowed gourd.”
“I happen to think I’d make an excellent fisherman,” Mamoru pointed out. “Fear of fish notwithstanding.” The smell of smoke hung heavy in the air, and when he spoke next there was a hint of uncertainty in his voice. “Do you think we’ll make it in time?”
“Yes,” I said. “I don’t believe that we would have come so far only to fail in the final hour.”
He smiled bleakly. “I hope you’re right. Think how disappointed Goro would be if we ruined his play.”
“You must forgive me my overconfidence in this one small area,” I said, leaning my shoulder against his. “Since we have dared to accomplish the impossible so far, I find it hard to imagine that we mightn’t do it here as well.”
“The only question, then, is whether we will arrive at the capital in time to save the diplomats,” Mamoru