“I– I must see them,” he managed to gasp.
“I agree,” Bramen said, moving next to him. “We must go. Immediately.”
“Come,” Yuna said, taking Azuma’s arm. “We go together.”
Azuma didn’t remember the three of them navigating the halls, twisting their way through corridors strewn with dead bodies.
“Here,” Yuna finally murmured, directing him with a squeeze on his elbow.
Azuma paused at the doorway leading to his parents’ room.
Two servants inside were kneeling, scrubbing at puddles of blood on the floor. Azuma walked, stiff-legged, to his father’s bed. He arrived at the foot of it, only to see his father on the mattress.
His father stared at the ceiling, glassy-eyed in death. His neck had been filleted open, and there was a knife sticking out of his chest. The curved, dagger-like blade had a handle covered in chunks of turtle shell.
His stepmother lay on her stomach, her head kinked at an unnatural angle. The spread of her lips made it appear that she was screaming even in death. As if breaking Nishu Milwan’s neck wasn’t enough, her tormentor had slashed her wrists as well, so that her blood had drained out.
Azuma only spared Nishu Milwan a cursory glance, then trained his gaze back on his father.
Danjuro. He had always been stronger than lions. It was Danjuro who made the Nari clan the powerful clan it had been.
The deep grief that rippled through Azuma’s bod was paralyzing and frightening.
Azuma focused his eyes on the blade sticking out of Danjuro’s chest. He knew that blade. He’d seen it before.
Yuna crouched next to their father, her face reflecting a pain that was similar in intensity to Azuma’s.
“There are initials on it,” she murmured, peering close. “N. A.”
She paled and met Azuma’s gaze.
“Nobu Ameya. Kenzo’s second son,” Azuma said.
The blade in his father’s chest belonged to Nobu! There was no disputing the owner of this elaborate blade. Such fine workmanship had to be owned by someone high in a Clan.
Incredible amounts of intense rage boiled in his veins.
More blood had been spilled than he’d been aware of. Worse, he had rejoiced while his father lay dead.
“Azuma,” Yuna whispered, pressing a hand into his arm. “Calm yourself. The time for retribution will come, but that time is not right now. We must be patient.”
A knock sounded on the door again. Yuna let out a long sigh.
“Yes?”
Another servant stepped into the room.
“Nishu Yuna. Saten Azuma. I have been sent to tell you that Kenzo Ameya has been found dead, in his room.”
Azuma snorted. One less Ameya to worry about.
“How did he die?” Yuna asked.
“He was found naked on his bed. He had been stabbed with something. His third wife, Shima, was also found dead in the adjoining room.”
“Thank you,” Yuna murmured. “This has been a bloody night, indeed.” She gave a crisp nod, indicating her dismissal of the servant.
“Can’t say I’m sorry for that one,” Azuma hissed.
The news didn’t surprise him; he was aware Yuna had long plotted Kenzo’s death. Still, it gave him some comfort to know the strength of her execution and follow-through.
A flicker of movement caught his eyes. Azuma jerked his head up to see Matsu Maeba, the Falconer of the Haku clan, making his way through the room.
“Matsu,” Azuma said, his throat raw. “What do your sharp eyes see?”
The Falconer crouched near Danjuro’s body, his sharp eyes constantly moving, analyzing, assessing. Finally Matsu straightened, and motioned at the bed.
“I notice something on their bed,” he said.
“What is it?”
“A brilliant green shell, probably one belonging to the Ameya soldiers. One doesn’t need to be perceptive to know that’s an Ameya dagger in your father’s chest.”
So this is it, Azuma thought, dumbfounded. His acting hadn’t been fake after all. The Ameyas really had betrayed them. Why else would someone kill Danjuro and his whore of a wife?
He whirled around. “I will kill all of them! I’ll slit all their throats and let them – ”
“Of course you will,” Yuna soothed, grabbing his wrist. She pulled on it, forcing him to look at her. “But not at the expense of greater things.”
The shining intensity in her brilliant violet eyes calmed him a bit.
“Yes,” he agreed.
“As for Ren,” Yuna said, leaning back to allow more space between them, “we must tell her very carefully. She was fond of our father. She’s suffered enough.”
“And her new husband is missing,” Azuma snapped.
Yuna sighed. “That too. I fear someone has told her without me knowing. I need to be there to support her.”
She spun around to address the rest of those present in the room, glancing from Bramen to Matsu to the weeping maids still scrubbing the floor clean of blood.
“Please,” Yuna said in a soft voice. “Please, everyone, get some rest. It has been a horrible day that cannot be comprehended in such a short time. Retreat to your rooms, all. Tomorrow we will send the guests back home, and the Nari and Hiwan clans will come together to talk about the future of the Empire.”
The two maids gratefully relinquished their brushes in the buckets now frothing with pink bubbles.
Yuna sent them a gentle, weary smile. “Go,” she urged.
The maids disappeared off into the hall as Matsu stepped forward.
“Nishu Yuna, your grace under pressure knows no bounds.”
“We do the best we can in tragedy.”
He nodded to them and slipped out of the room.
“Bramen,” Yuna said, “get some rest. You are now our leader, and you need to keep up your strength. I will care for Azuma and Ren tonight.”
Bramen nodded, seeming relieved. “One word of caution to the both of you as you proceed.” He met both of their gazes. “Let someone else find Isao. Clearly there are alliances and machinations in place we knew nothing about. Discretion is critical. ”
“We shall consider this,” Yuna said, nodding her head.
“You know of whom I speak of, Azuma,” Bramen continued.
Azuma nodded, his throat thickening. He knew exactly of whom Bramen spoke, and his mind had already touched there.
Bramen sent one last, uneasy glance out the window. “Did you see the bloody moon in the sky tonight? The gods are crying. Or maybe they’re simply helping us find the Prince so we can kill him.”
With that, he departed the room.
Azuma watched him go, grateful for Yuna’s protective presence.
“Come, brother. It’s safe in my room.”
“Yuna, this is bad.”
“It’s horrible, but not yet out of control.”
Azuma paced back and forth across Yuna’s room. “But the Ameyas really did betray us. Now that my father is dead, everything changes. Once one thing fails, the rest follows. Always.”
“You’re trying to predict the future. There is much still under our control.”
He drove a hand through his hair. “I don’t like this.”
“How are you going to find Isao? Focus on that. Having something to do will make you feel better.”
He paused at the window, glancing out at the deep blackness of the city. The raging fires had become smoldering coals now, flickering reddish in the late hours. “Yes,” he murmured. “Isao. You know whom I didn’t see amongst the dead? Khalem.”
Yuna’s eyes widened. She rounded her lips. “Oh. Yes. I see.”
“He’s with him; I know it. How else would inexperienced Isao make it out alive? Khalem must be with him. I want to hire two of the best mercenaries to go after Isao. We should not follow them ourselves.”
Yuna let out a sigh. “I agree.”
“I know of two. They’re called, ‘the Twins.’ As soon as we finish here, I’ll send an immediate messenger to them. If the messenger leaves now, the Twins can be here in the morning. They live not too far away in a hut in the nation of Sunsan. Their services are expensive, but well worth the price.”
“We will pay whatever it takes to get rid of the Isao problem,” Yuna concurred.
Azuma felt rage build up inside as he pictured his father’s lifeless body on the bed.
“Yes,” he murmured. “Whatever it takes.”
Rakesh