Chapter 42
Kaminari had pale skin and short, near-black hair. She wore a dress similar in style to Mirala’s and was about the same age and height.
“That is Korin?” Sheiji asked.
Mirala smiled, “They were going to kill him, so I brought him hear and hid him as my maid. I have so many, no one really noticed.”
Korin blushed at Sheiji seeing him in a dress.
“Korin, you don’t need to fear for your life anymore,” Sheiji told him. “If you’ll come with me, I’ll get you some proper clothes and we’ll cut your hair. Then you can tell me what we agreed to. Do you remember?”
Korin nodded, “Yes, Vua. Thank you.”
Soon, Korin was once again dressed as a boy. He sat across from Sheiji beside Inon and Jihaad who Sheiji had thought should hear Korin tell who had murdered King Tuan. Korin briefly told his story to the others. When he had finished he looked at Sheiji, “Now I shall tell you about the killer. I was sweeping out the hearth and preparing the fire for supper one night. It was earlier than usual and they did not expect me to be there.
“I heard footsteps coming as I was bent before the hearth. It was a very large hearth, it had to be big enough to cook all the palace meals. I crouched in a dark corner and hid. The footsteps came and stopped beside the hearth. ‘This is it,’ said once voice. ‘Put it in Tuan’s supper. It has no taste and will take several hours to kill. If someone tastes his food for poison, they will not die immediately, so Tuan will eat the food and die. No one will know he is sick until late tonight and you will have time to get away.’
“Then the other man took the pouch containing the poison and slipped it into his pocket. I bumped a metal ladle hanging next to me and they heard it. They pulled me out and I saw who the assassin was: the head cook. I tried to tell someone, but I didn’t know who to trust and the cook kept me busy all day. He could do nothing to me without arousing suspicion, so he kept me near him.
“Then, when we awoke the next morning and found the king dead, the head cook blamed me, saying he saw me sprinkling something into the food. He said I was a foreign spy. That’s when I had to flee for my life,” Korin concluded.
They sat in silence for a minute. Then Sheiji spoke, “But who gave the cook the poison? Why did they want the king dead?”
“I know that, too,” Korin replied. “I’ll tell you.”
“Egamer, Palesh, what are we to do?” Vishou screamed at his two remaining advisors.
“Your Majesty, I would advise that you send the most loving of letters to His Majesty Sheiji-Yueng in Imatsuro, requesting that your beloved daughter be sent home at once,” Egamer said. “Once here, we may get rid of her most easily.”
“But they must suspect nothing,” Palesh added. “No one must suspect that you killed her.”
“Yes, yes,” Vishou laughed in a deep voice. “Yes. An accident. Of course. Not my fault. An accident.”
“Of course, they may not send her,” Egamer replied. “If the wedding is to be soon, they may just have you visit her there.”
“Yes, yes,” Vishou replied. He thoughtfully stroked his beard. “Perhaps the same method as we used on our dear friend in Osaku?” he grinned.
“Ah, poison?” Palesh smiled. “Very good.”
“Let us not send a letter requesting Sahima to come here, for then we would have to somehow create an accident. It would be much simpler to poison her on her wedding day,” Vishou said and exclaimed with triumph and a loud guffaw, “It would break the poor little king’s heart!”
“I will prepare the poison at once,” Egamer said.
“No, just wait a moment. We must discuss one other matter,” Vishou said. “My son, Aruj. His wedding day also approaches.”
“Yes, I remember,” Palesh said. “With Princess Nam of Osaku. Only child of Tuan.”
“Yes. With Nam as Aruj’s wife, both his throne and Osaku’s will be ours. You know that Aruj is not very bright.”
“One thing, Majesty, that I do not understand,” Egamer interrupted. “Why is it better to unite Nakuchi with Osaku rather than Imatsuro? Imatsuro is larger.”
“You fool!” Vishou roared, swinging his hand at Egamer’s face. Egamer, quite used to dodging his master’s blows, ducked. “Imatsuro will come later. Then Jiwu and Kasara. Then onto the world. Osaku has the largest navy in the world! With them as our allies, we’ll be invincible. Besides, right now, we are landlocked except for the very tip in the west. We need port cities and Osaku can provide that.”
“Imatsuro has port cities,” Palesh suggested.
“But their navy is nearly nonexistent. We want the navy,” Vishou explained. “No, go on and prepare everything as we have discussed. And make arrangements for Aruj’s wedding.”
“The murder was commanded by Emperor Vishou?” Sheiji gasped after Korin had explained. “All because he wanted his son to marry the princess, inherit Osaku and get the navy?”
“Yes, Vua. I heard it all myself,” Korin assured them.
“Korin, you will be greatly rewarded for this. But for now, I think it would be safest for you to return in your disguise to be Mirala’s maid. That is why I did not cut your hair yet. She will be returning to her family in Hevana soon, but we will find a different way to keep you safe when the time comes for her to leave. For now, this is our best option.”
“Yes, Vua,” Korin agreed for the sake of his safety. “She is kind to me. I really don’t mind too much.”
“Good. Here are your clothes,” Sheiji handed him the dress and sent him off to change.”
“Well, I suppose everything is tied up, then,” Jihaad said. “Mirala is going home, you know who poisoned Tuan and Korin is found. All that remains is to do something about Vishou and find Sahima.”
“There are still two stories yet untold,” Sheiji said.
“Whose?” Jihaad asked.
“Yours…and your father’s.”
“So, you want to know my story?” Fa-Ying asked. He was looking much better and the color was coming back into his cheeks. Jihaad’s daily visits had worked wonders on giving him back his strength.
“Yes, I want to hear it,” Sheiji answered. “And Jihaad’s as well. You never told me you had a son, Fa-Ying.”
“I never knew I had a son,” Fa-Ying said. “Only that my wife was with child. I never found out anything more. But I suppose I must explain that, too.
“My father was an Imatsuran soldier for many years. While stationed in Haytab, the desert country on the skinniest part of the continent, he met my mother a native Haytabi. For three years he stayed with my mother in Haytab, but then the army forced him to return to Imatsuro and leave my mother and me behind. I grew up in Haytab and when I was sixteen, I joined the Haytabi National Army.
“I met Sultana, Jihaad’s mother, when I was twenty six and a year after that, I was appointed Assistant General to the Army. Sultana and I thought we could never have children, but apparently…” Fa-Ying glanced at Jihaad lovingly.
“When I was thirty, I was stationed in the northern part of Haytab,” Fa-Ying continued quietly. “Sultana wrote me and told me she was with child. I never learned if it was a boy or a girl, for I was captured after a battle with my father’s people, Imatsuro. I was made a slave in the palace and slowly, I gained the trust and friendship of the new king, Kawa. He gave me my freedom and appointed me as First Advisor.”
“You were a slave?” Sheiji asked, eyes widening.
“Yes,” Fa-Ying said. “Few know who are alive today. It was long ago when I gained my freedom. Sui-Tsai knew. That is why he always called me Ying. Only a slave is called by his second name alone.”
Sheiji nodded. “Why did you never ask my father for permission to return to Haytab and see Sultana and your child?”
Fa-Ying’s jaw trembled slightly, “I did once. Your father forbade me to go. He feared I might not return and he would have been right. If I had seen Sultana and Jihaad…I could not have returned here alone.”
“But
surely my father would have allowed Sultana and Jihaad to come home with you,” Sheiji argued. Fa-Ying shook his head sadly, but did not explain further.
“Jihaad, how did you come to Imatsuro?” Sheiji asked.
“Sultana, my mother, told me about my father,” Jihaad began. “She spoke of him so fondly. She told me stories of his bravery in battle and how much he loved her. And when I was old enough, she explained how he had been captured and taken away to Imatsuro. She didn’t know much about his capture, but she said what she could. I swore that I would find him as soon as I was old enough to leave home. And that’s just what I did.
“I came to Imatsuro and found a job as a traveling merchant. I searched for Fa-Ying for years. The only thing I found was a wonderful wife. We finally settled down after our second child was born, and moved to Taiyunyi. We had five children. Just recently, Sui-Tsai’s men burst down my door, killed my wife and two oldest children and forced me into service of the army. But you know all that already. That’s all there is to my story.”
Sheiji looked at Fa-Ying through new eyes. He had never known much about Fa-Ying’s past, though he was certainly a strange man. Now as Fa-Ying lay exhausted on the bed, Sheiji wished he had gotten to know this man sooner. Because Fa-Ying had been around all of Sheiji’s life, Sheiji had taken it for granted that Fa-Ying would be around forever. But now he realized that Fa-Ying’s time was running out.