Emperor of the Fireflies Read online

  Emperor of the Fireflies

  Book 2

  of

  TIDE DRAGONS

  Sarah Ash

  © 2016 Sarah Ash

  Sarah Ash has asserted her rights in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 to be identified as the author of this work.

  www.sarah-ash.com

  Published by Tourmalise Press

  First published in eBook format in 2016

  ISBN: 9781912022946

  All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of the Publisher.

  All names, characters, places, organisations, businesses and events are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

  Spoken at the enthronement of the new emperor by the archbishop:

  “Ever since the First Empress, Himiko, forged a sacred bond between the God of the Sea and the imperial bloodline of the Islands of Cipangu, each emperor must yearly prove his right to rule by summoning the Tide Dragons of Ebb and Flood. Failure to do so furnishes indisputable proof that the emperor is no longer judged worthy by the gods to rule and protect the empire and must abdicate in favor of another of the imperial bloodline.”

  Contents

  Prologue

  Emperor of the Fireflies

  Part I

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  INTERLUDE

  Emperor of the Fireflies

  Part II

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Chapter 38

  Chapter 39

  Chapter 40

  Chapter 41

  Chapter 42

  Chapter 43

  Chapter 44

  Chapter 45

  Chapter 46

  Chapter 47

  Chapter 48

  Emperor of the Fireflies

  Part III

  Chapter 49

  Chapter 50

  Chapter 51

  Chapter 52

  Chapter 53

  Chapter 54

  Chapter 55

  Chapter 56

  Chapter 57

  Chapter 58

  Chapter 59

  Chapter 60

  Chapter 61

  Chapter 62

  Chapter 63

  Chapter 64

  Chapter 65

  Chapter 66

  Chapter 67

  Chapter 68

  Chapter 69

  Epilogue

  Glossary

  Honorifics

  Cast List

  Acknowledgments

  Prologue

  Roar of breakers cresting, each one higher than the last, crashing in toward the shore…

  “The sea is angry.” The young vixen lifted her head, pricking up her ears. “Can’t you feel it, Honou?”

  The sleek dog fox lifted his head too to sniff the air. “I can smell a storm,” he said. And then he growled, deep at the back of his throat, fur bristling as if scenting an enemy nearby. “Tide Dragons,” he said with loathing. “Tide Dragons stirring up trouble.”

  “We should go and see for ourselves.” She set out, skidding down the steep mountain path, winding in and out between the pines.

  “Hey, wait, Sakami!” Honou came bounding after her. “Lady Inari told us to guard the castle shrine.”

  “But this could mean danger for everyone.” The disturbing sense of imminent danger was making her restless; she had to move, to take action, even if she wasn’t sure what it might be.

  “Everyone?” He caught up with her and cut in front of her, forcing her to stop. “Who exactly do you mean by everyone?”

  A throng of human faces flashed across Sakami’s mind. She gave a little whine of confusion. “So many people…”

  Honou was staring at her shrewdly. “Are you getting your mortal memories back?” He walked around and around her, russet brush slowly swishing, the white tip flicking the tops of the long grasses.

  “You’re making me dizzy, Honou, please stop.”

  He stopped, his cool, moist nose touching hers, gazing deep into her eyes. Alarmed, she took a little jump backward. “You could forget about them all, all the humans, and just be mine,” he said softly.

  He was so close that she could breathe in his musky scent; it set off strange, giddy feelings that were not entirely unpleasant.

  “Well?” he said, nuzzling her suggestively. “You do like me. You’ve always liked me.”

  “I…” Another shudder of seawater comes flooding in. She skipped away again, fur bristling with the sense of approaching danger. “There’s no time for liking now! We must see for ourselves.” And she turned, making for the cliff top. Honou bounded after her, catching up with her as she came out of the shelter of the forest pines and ventured on to the rough grass of the high promontory that overlooked the bay.

  “Look,” she said. Below them, all she could see was a great expanse of dirty gray sea, stretching far out into the distant horizon. The water had come in far beyond the high tide mark and was lapping around the trunks of the forest trees at the edge of the beach. Ships at anchor in the bay below were being tossed to and fro by the surging tide, and the beach had disappeared beneath the in-rushing sea.

  “This is bad,” said Honou. “If it doesn’t stop soon…”

  And then a fine rain began to fall, silvery crystal drops that shimmered unnaturally bright against the louring gray of the sky.

  “This rain…” Sakami gazed upward, opening her jaws, letting it fall on her tongue. “It’s so sweet.”

  Honou copied her. “This is the best rain I’ve ever tasted,” he said, licking his chops with enthusiasm. “It’s…different from the usual.”

  “Ohhh…” Sakami closed her eyes in an ecstasy of sensations. As the raindrops melted on her tongue, she caught a glimpse of a young man with eyes as blue as the sun-drenched deep. He gazed at her with a look so intense and tender that it made her ache with sadness, although she didn’t know why. Then he turned, and began to walk away. “Don’t go. Wait!” Her heart started to pound. “I know you. I know you so well.”

  “What are you babbling about?” Honou nipped her gently, yet sharply enough to shatter the vision. She blinked at him. The fleeting image had gone but the sensation remained, so intense that it frightened her. “I – I felt as if I just lost something. Or someone. Someone very important to me.”

>   But before Honou could reply, a gust like a deep sigh stirred the forest and set the cliff-top grasses rippling. The Rice Goddess Inari, their mistress, flitted past them, her hands covering her face, her white robes streaming out behind her.

  “Lady Inari?” Sakami called. The goddess stopped, hearing her voice, and turned. Sakami saw that her face was wet with tears.

  “What’s wrong, my lady?” Sakami crept up to her and rubbed her head gently against her, wanting to comfort her. “Why are you so sad? Why are you crying?”

  “Sakami, Honou.” Inari stroked their coats and Sakami closed her eyes, reveling in the deep pleasure she felt at her touch; the goddess’s fingers exuded a soft tingle of warmth that made her whole body glow. “My little ones. Thank you for reminding me of my true purpose.” She wiped the glistening tears from her cheeks. “I am Inari now. I’m not Empress Himiko any longer, although it seems that I still retain her memories. I…” Her words died away as she suddenly went very still, as though listening intently.

  “No,” Sakami heard her murmur. “Not now. Not here.” She rose. “Run, children. Get away while you can.”

  ***

  Naoki and Yūgiri, summoned to attend on Prince Hotaru, found the emperor-elect in the abbot’s garden overlooking the sea.

  “We pursued the prisoners along the cliff path.” An officer in the imperial guards presented Hotaru with a plain black flute and a katana. “But this was all we found.”

  “A flute,” said Hotaru, examining the slender instrument, “and a sword?”

  “There was a burst of dazzling light…and when we could see clearly again, the fugitives had vanished.”

  “I see.”

  “If they jumped into the sea from the cliffs, I doubt they would have survived the fall. We’re searching the shore to see if any bodies have been washed up.”

  Bodies. Naoki sensed Yūgiri flinch but the clan healer remained mute.

  “Do you recognize this sword, Lord Naoki?” Hotaru asked, nodding to the officer to hand the weapon to him. Naoki took it and, after a swift glance, identified the distinctive scarlet mon on the hilt that marked it as belonging to an elite Akatobi retainer.

  “That katana belongs to Lord Masao, my brother.”

  “Then, Lord Naoki, please receive your brother’s sword; perhaps your father would like to have it in his keeping until we can discover what has become of its owner.”

  Naoki bowed his head as he took the katana in both hands and returned to Yūgiri’s side.

  They can’t be dead. . .can they? Masao’s a strong swimmer. . .but the jump from such a great height could have knocked him unconscious…

  “And I will look after Lord Kaito’s flute,” said Hotaru, handing it to his page Kobai. He turned away from the sea, saying as he left, “Interrogate anyone who was on the shore – or the cliffs – at the time. I want to know if anyone witnessed anything unusual.”

  ***

  “The Tide Jewels.” Emperor-elect Hotaru stood in the burned-out shell of the Tide Dragon temple, gazing at the two sacred pearls in his hands; in his left lay the Ebb Jewel, creamy-white as tide-foam, and in his right, the Flood Jewel, a deep and translucent blue.

  “Fakes,” he murmured. Only he knew they were fakes – or so he hoped. He had lost his hold on the original sacred jewels when Kaito of the Black Cranes had pushed him into the sea – and nearly ruined all his carefully-laid plans to depose his brother, Emperor Suzaku.

  What followed seemed like a miracle wrought by the gods of sea: the jewels had melted on contact with the waves, creating a glistening fountain that showered down on the whole coastline, extinguishing the fire ravaging the Tide Dragon monastery. It was only thanks to his swift use of a substitution charm that he had managed to conceal the fake stones in his sleeves, so that it looked as if he had saved the originals. To all – but Lord Kaito.

  “Imperial majesty.” Nakakuni, captain of the imperial guard, came hurrying toward him from the cliff path, followed by several of his men.

  “Any further sign of the prisoners, Captain?”

  Nakakuni shook his head. “We’ve had the local fishermen searching the bay. They say there’s no way that Lord Kaito or Lord Masao could have survived that jump from the cliffs into the sea.”

  “But no bodies have been washed ashore yet?”

  “No, imperial majesty.”

  Hotaru wanted firm proof that Kaito was dead. “Keep searching,” he said. Nakakuni’s reputation was already tarnished by the fact that he had let two such important prisoners escape and it was obvious to Hotaru that he was eager to restore his good name.

  Back in his rooms in the monastery guest house, Hotaru placed the fake Tide Jewels in a little black lacquered casket next to the ebony flute found abandoned on the cliff path after Lord Kaito had thrown himself into the sea to escape the imperial guards. Beside it lay Lord Masao’s katana, its hilt and sheath bearing the distinctive scarlet Akatobi clan mon.

  There’s a connection between this flute and the Tide Dragons, I’m certain of it. He picked the flute up and blew gently over the mouthpiece. A soft, breathy note issued and he winced. If I can unravel precisely what that is and use it… He laid the flute down carefully.

  Why I am I fretting over such a trivial matter? I have a year until the next Festival in which to track the Tide Dragons and re-forge the bond between the sea and the imperial house. And there are more immediate concerns to be sorted out first.

  Hotaru pushed back his left sleeve which concealed the black-and-scarlet Fire Dragon seal tattooed on the underside of his wrist. He pressed firmly on the seal, whispering the name of his most powerful shikigami.

  “Kurika; I need you. Come quickly.”

  He felt a stab of heat as the little flame inked with the dragon’s blood glowed faintly. But Kurika did not appear. Where on earth can he be? He should respond instantly to his master’s summons.

  Hotaru pressed again, more forcefully this time. He’s been gone far too long. Why hasn’t he reappeared? He tried to ignore the growing feeling of unease that had been troubling him since the shikigami had failed to obey his summons. Kurika’s becoming more willful by the day. I can’t afford to lose control of him again. He caused so much damage that first time…

  ***

  “Honou,” Sakami whispered, “I’m afraid.” The air thrummed with a fiery energy that was utterly different from the surging force of the sea she had experienced earlier. It sizzled through her mind with a fierce and furious heat that made her chest burn, as though seared by a lethal burst of flame.

  “Get behind me,” Honou said staunchly. “I’ll protect you.”

  “It’s coming this way. What is it? I – I’ve felt this power before.” Fear paralyzed her; she wanted to flee but her paws wouldn’t move. Choking smoke swirled up in her mind.

  Fire. Our village is on fire. . .

  “Go!” Inari cried, drawing herself up to her full height as a cloud scudded across the sun, plunging the mountainside into darkness. Daring to glance up, Sakami saw not a cloud but a dragon hurtling toward them, its sinuous body dark, yet exuding a red glow of heat, like charcoal in a brazier.

  “Sakami.” Honou nudged her. “Over there.” He pushed her toward the shelter of some tumbled boulders close by. As she dashed behind the lichened stone, she felt a shimmer of stifling heat emanating from the dragon’s body. I hope it doesn’t set the undergrowth alight…

  Inari positioned herself in front of the boulders, a dazzling sentinel protecting the foxes sheltering behind her as the dragon circled overhead.

  It made a sudden dart toward her and Inari flung up her arms, creating a shield of pale, pure light around her. Repelled, the dragon let out a piercing hiss of frustration that hurt Sakami’s sensitive ears. She shrank against Honou for reassurance, feeling the pounding of his heart resonating throughout his taut body; he was tensed, ready to fight.

  The dragon circled overhead, readying itself for a second assault. But instead of snorting out a blast o
f fire as Sakami imagined it would, the creature landed on the cliff top, shrouding itself in a billowing swirl of spark-studded smoke. A figure emerged, striding straight toward them. Sakami blinked. The dragon had transformed into a tall, powerfully built man, with penetrating eyes, red as molten lava, and flame-streaked black hair that streamed behind him like a cloak. As he approached, she noticed that a tattoo had been etched on his left breast in the shape of a dragon curled in on itself, a circle of scarlet and black.

  I’ve seen a tattoo like that before somewhere. . .

  “I’ve been waiting a long time for this meeting, Inari.” The deep, smoke-seared voice was raw with hatred. “Too long.”

  “What are you doing here, Kurika?”

  “What am I doing here?” Harsh, mocking laughter crackled through the air and Sakami cowered, flattening her body against the ground, fearing the fire kami would sear her with his burning breath. “This is my mountain. Or was my mountain, until you stole it from me. I’ve come to take it back.” Sakami could taste Kurika’s fury on the air; it had a bitter, sulfurous taint to it.

  “This is my territory now.” The light streaming from Inari’s body had become so bright that Sakami could no longer look directly at her. “You forfeited your right to it when you lost the duel to me.”

  “But where is your sacred sword, Inari? The sword you used to skewer me to the living rock beneath your shrine? Shattered in a thousand pieces and scattered across the mountain. What can you do without it to protect yourself?”

  “And who shattered that sword?” Inari stood her ground. Sakami gazed at her in admiration, wondering how the goddess could find the courage to confront such a powerful and vengeful kami. “Was it you, Kurika? No. It was the mortal who bound you to him with the life force of his young bride. You’re not free. You’re his creature now.”

  Kurika flung back his smoke-wreathed head and let out another burst of dry, incredulous laughter.

  “You’re bluffing, Kurika. You’re still in thrall to your master.”

  “His hold over me is growing weaker. No mortal master can control me for long.”

  “Yet your attack was feeble and easily deflected. You’ve been his servant for seven summers now. You’ve become too dependent on him.”