Free L5r - scroll 04 - The Phoenix by Stephen D. Sullivan Page B

tongue of anyone speaking such lies, but..."
    "But what?"
    "But all these rumors would cease if the emperor himself would appear to the men."
    "Impossible. He's far too ill."
    "Perhaps if I were to see him, then," Ishikawa said.
    The room grew suddenly cold. "Do you doubt my word that the emperor is alive, Captain Ishikawa?" Kachiko asked.
    A chill ran up Ishikawa's spine. He bowed, touching his head to the floor. "Of course not, Highness," he said.
    "Do your men doubt my word?"
    "Of course not, Highness."
    Kachiko pulled a fan from her robe and waved it open.
    "The matter is settled, then."
    As she spoke, the fusuma panel to her right slid open a crack. Kachiko stood suddenly, her robes ruffling about her like the fur of an angry tiger. "Who dares ...!" she began. Then she stopped, and the fury melted off her face.
    In the entryway to the room stood her husband, Emperor Hantei.
    Kachiko sat quickly and bowed her forehead to the floor. "Hantei-sama," she said affectionately. "I did not know you were up."
    "I heard someone calling," the young emperor said. His voice had a distant, dreamy quality to it.
    Ishikawa looked up as Kachiko rose and went to her husband's side. "You're not well, Otennoo-sama," she said.
    She was right. The emperor looked sick near unto death. His damp black locks fell in jagged points over his forehead, casting dark shadows around his eyes. His face had a pale cast.
    The boy was thin, little more than a skeleton in a dark blue kimono. A glistening sheen of sweat shone on his skin. A sickly sweet odor—like burning flowers—accompanied him as he entered the room. His feet were bare and bony. His fingernails and toenails were long and ragged.
    Only Hantei the 39th's eyes looked alive—but the life they held seemed wrong, suspicious if not actually malevolent. As the young emperor tottered into the room, Kachiko put one graceful arm around his shoulders.
    "You should not be up," she said gently. "You need rest."
    "Someone called me," Hantei repeated.
    "Perhaps you heard us talking," Kachiko offered.
    "You were talking about me?" Hantei asked, fixing her with a feverish gaze.
    "Your samurai are asking for you," Ishikawa said. He rose, to help Kachiko with the emperor. Kachiko shot him an angry glance as he joined her at the boy's side. "They wish to know that you are well, Hantei-sama," Ishikawa continued.
    "I am well," the emperor said. Ishikawa couldn't tell if it was an original thought, or if the plague-stricken Shining Prince was merely repeating Ishikawa's own words.
    "Perhaps well enough to review the troops?" Ishikawa ventured.
    Hantei glanced at him, a look of bewilderment flashing across the emperor's boyish face. He staggered forward, and Ishikawa caught him. The boy's body pressed against the captain of the guard. Ishikawa felt the heat of the emperor's fever. How can he live through such fires? Ishikawa wondered.
    "I will review the troops," Hantei said. Ishikawa smelled death in the sickly sweet odor of the emperor's breath.
    "Not tonight," Kachiko said gently. "It's late. You should
    retire. Perhaps in the morning____" She looked at Ishikawa, fire
    blazing in her dark eyes.
    Ishikawa's resolve melted. How could he ask this sick youth to leave the royal chambers? "Yes," Ishikawa said to the emperor. "Morning would be fine. If you are well enough."
    "Well enough," said Hantei.
    Kachiko turned to Ishikawa. "I can manage him myself," she said. "Captain Ishikawa, thank you for your concern. You are dismissed." She put her arm under the boy's and led him to the exit. Ishikawa bowed.
    The boy paused at the threshold as if listening and asked, "Is someone calling me? Father? Is that you?"
    Ishikawa suppressed a shudder. Kachiko hurried the Shining Prince back to his own chambers.
    When they had gone, Ishikawa slid back a fusuma panel at the rear of the room and left. He nodded to the guards outside the room; they nodded back. Only when he had passed into another wing of the castle did he breathe