“They mustered it to the north.” Yukiko pushed her empty plate aside and sighed. “Away from their own shoreline so the Shōgunate forces wouldn’t know their plans.”
“But where did the orders come from? Who pulled it together?”
“Imperatritsa.”
Everyone at the table turned to Piotr. The gaijin had been silent until this point, smoking ruefully at what looked to be the last of his honeyweed. Now he ambled over to the gathering, exhaled pale gray into the air between them.
“What the hells does that mean?” Michi asked.
“I’ve heard that word before,” Yukiko said. “But I’m not sure what it is…”
Piotr gathered a bunch of empty cups from the tea service and arranged them before him.
“Twelve house,” he said, gesturing to the cups. “Grigori, Baranova, Mostovoi, and is more, da? Twelve.”
“Twelve gaijin clans?” Akihito suggested.
“Da,” Piotr nodded. “Is clan, but not. Twelve house.” He pushed several of the cups into each other, sending one rolling. “We fight. No peace. Many years. Then…” He pointed to the Iron Samurai gathered around Isamu. “Shima is coming. Samurai. Making the war.” He pushed at the cups again. “Then one is coming. Imperatritsa. She take twelve…” The gaijin scooped the cups together into one mass of wobbling porcelain. “Make one. Imperatritsa Ostrovska.”
“A warlord,” Isamu said. “A warlord who united the gaijin clans.”
“I saw an image of her at the lightning farm,” Yukiko nodded. “A woman on a throne with twelve stars in her lap. She wore the skin of a great black eagle.”
“Not eagle.” Piotr shook his head. “Gryfon. Much strength. Much prize.”
Yukiko swallowed her reply before it had begun.
“She?” Ginjiro raised an eyebrow. “You are led by a woman?”
“She Zryachniye.” Piotr pointed to Hana. “Like pretty girl.”
Yoshi and Hana looked at each other, saying nothing. Silence descended, each stare settling on the girl and her impossible iris, glowing the color of rose-quartz. Akihito could see the blond roots in her hair—the gaijin blood she’d hidden for years creeping slowly to the surface.
“So, there’s our history lesson for the day,” Michi said. “But it still doesn’t solve the problem of the fleet of gaijin berserkers now drinking the Dragon Daimyo’s best saké. Nor Tora Hiro and his iron colossus.”
Yukiko nodded. “If the gaijin march west, we’ll sit between two armies. I don’t know if we have the strength to repel one. But we have to try.”
“This city was built to withstand an oni’s siege,” Ginjiro said. “It will withstand this.”
“So that’s the grand stratagem, General?” Michi said. “Just sit and wait?”
Misaki leaned forward, steepling her fingers at her chin. “Before the uprising, the rebellion had a plan to strike at First House. Destroy the chi stores there, along with the First Bloom. With no resupply, the Earthcrusher would not march long before running dry.”
“Finally, someone speaks wisdom,” Michi breathed.
“We’d been trying to infiltrate the complex for years, but only the Serpents and the Upper Blooms are allowed access.”
“There’s that word again,” Yukiko said. “What does it mean? Who are these Serpents?”
“They call themselves the Inquisition.” Misaki ran one hand over her bald scalp. “But they’re a cult, really. More fanatical than the Purifiers. They live in a kind of perpetual dream from drinking lotus smoke all day, and they guard the First Bloom. Maybe they control him too. No one really knows. But they’ve been part of the Guild since it was a Guild.”
“And why do you call them Serpents?”
“They visit chapterhouses to oversee the Awakening ceremonies. Whenever we got the chance, we’d set a drone on their trail. Years this took us, inch by careful inch. But they have serpents tattooed on their right arms.”
“Their right arms?” Akihito frowned. “Where their clan ink should be?”
“As you say.”
“A clan within the Guild?” Yukiko raised an eyebrow.
“That is impossible,” said Daimyo Isamu. “The Serpent clan no longer exists, any more than the Cranes or Monkeys or Leopards. The twenty-four clans became four zaibatsu when Kazumitsu seized his throne. The rest are dead and gone. My own ancestor, great Okimoto, crushed the Serpents into dust. Even Kitsune children know the tale.”
“Crushed?” Akihito blinked at the old clanlord. “When the first Daimyo took the Phoenix Throne, he offered peace to the clans in his territories. They were welcomed, not exterminated.”
“Okimoto offered the same to the Wolves, Falcons and Spiders, Akihito-san. But the Serpents venerated Lady Izanami, Mother of Death. Their lands sat on the borders of the Iishi mountains, close to the ruins of Devil Gate. They built temples to her name in the wilds. Called upon her to sing the song that would end the world.”
“The Iishi black temple.” Yukiko looked at Michi. “Where the oni lived…”