“I don’t know. She’s gone. She ran away.”
Yoshi’s gaze remained steady. “Where to? Why did she leave me? What have you done to her?”
The mask lay on the floor, staring at him with its hollow eyes. Hardly knowing what he was doing, but seeking some relief from his remorse and regret, he picked it up and put it on. Immediately he felt the pull of the Prince Abbot’s power, and knew what he must do. Perhaps it would assuage his immense pain. Yoshimori would never have become emperor anyway. His family were all dead and those who would have fought for him scattered. Now Shikanoko had to put an end to his life and take his handsome head back to Ryusonji.
He picked up his sword and held his hand out to the boy.
Yoshimori shrank from the sight of the mask.
“Come, Your Majesty must be brave,” Shika said.
“Shall I bring the lute?” Yoshi asked.
“There is no need for it,” Shika replied, and led him out of the hut.
The rain continued to fall softly, the birds were silent, and there was no wind. The only sound was the rushing water and the pounding of Shika’s heart. It was not the riverbank at Miyako, where so many were taken to be executed, but the side of a mountain stream, which would serve equally well.
“Look away from me toward the mountains,” he commanded.
After one brief glance Yoshi obeyed him.
As Shika raised his sword, Yoshi said, “The sun is rising.”
How could he see it? Clouds covered the sky, but the sun’s rays must have penetrated them in some way, for the raindrops were reflecting the colors of the rainbow all around them. For a moment Shika was dazzled, seeing clearly the fragile beauty of the child before him. He hesitated, suddenly reluctant to do what he was supposed to do.
From the cave came the twang of a bow. Time stopped. The world held its breath, the sword outlined against the fractured light. Shika gripped it harder and inhaled deeply.
Kon swooped toward him, talons extended, beak slashing, and the horses burst from the cave, Risu leading, her teeth bared, her ears flat.
Shika dropped the sword, raising his arms to protect the mask. Kon seized it in his talons, tore it from Shika’s face, and let it fall as Risu charged him, knocking him to the ground. He had seen her bad tempered before and she had bitten and kicked him many times, but he had never seen her so enraged she wanted to kill him. Nyorin was also lunging at him as he struggled to his feet, the stallion’s lips drawn back from his huge white teeth, his eyes flashing as if in the midst of battle. Nyorin’s head, solid bone, collided with Shika’s and as he fell again the stallion whirled around, kicking him with both back legs.
Neither sorcery nor all his skill with weapons could help him. Risu seized his right arm in her teeth and snapped it. Nyorin kicked him again, then brought his forefeet down on him, striking him on neck and shoulder. The mask lay on the ground, shattered in two. His vision went red with pain and then black.
When he regained consciousness the rain was falling more heavily. He crawled to the water and lay in it, feeling its icy coldness on every cut and bruise. One eye was closing and he could hardly see out of the other, yet he knew Yoshimori and the horses were gone. He could not raise his head to look upward to see if Kon had gone, too, but there was no sound from the werehawk. His arm throbbed unbearably and he could not move it, but the bone had not broken through the skin.
He began to tremble, not only from the cold water and the pain but also from profound shock that the horses he had loved and trusted should turn on him. He could understand why Kon had attacked him as viciously as he had gone for Zen—the werehawk’s instinct to protect the Emperor overrode any commands from either Shika or the Prince Abbot. But the horses? After many more minutes of confusion and pain the realization came to him that it was Kiyoyori’s spirit, within the unborn foal, that had driven Risu to turn on him, and Nyorin had followed.
Even the animal world recognizes that Yoshimori is emperor, and fights for him, he thought.
Eventually he managed to stand. He picked up the sword with his left hand and went to the hut. He could hardly bear to enter it—it seemed to reverberate still with his uncontrolled lust and he heard again his own cries with revulsion.
He gathered up the bow and the quiver of arrows, and the twisted metal that had been Kiyoyori’s sword. The lute had gone—of course it would have gone with Yoshi: not only animals but also objects recognized him.
Outside, he picked up the pieces of the broken mask and put them in the brocade seven-layered bag. He would go into the Darkwood. It would either kill him or heal him. If it healed him he would see the Prince Abbot destroyed and Yoshimori on the Lotus Throne.
AUTHOR’S NOTE
The Tale of Shikanoko was partly inspired by the great medieval warrior tales of Japan: The Tale of the Heike, The Taiheiki, the tales of Hōgen and Heiji, the Jōkyūki, and The Tale of the Soga Brothers. I have borrowed descriptions of weapons and clothes from these and am indebted to their English translators Royall Tyler, Helen Craig McCullough, and Thomas J. Cogan.
I would like to thank in particular Randy Schadel, who read early versions of the novels and made many invaluable suggestions.
ALSO BY LIAN HEARN
TALES OF THE OTORI
Across the Nightingale Floor
Grass for His Pillow
Brilliance of the Moon
The Harsh Cry of the Heron
Heaven’s Net Is Wide
Blossoms and Shadows
The Storyteller and His Three Daughters
A NOTE ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Lian Hearn is the pseudonym of a writer—born in England, educated at Oxford, currently living in Australia—who has had a lifelong interest in Japan, has lived there, and studies Japanese. She is the author of the bestselling series Tales of the Otori. You can sign up for email updates here.
All four volumes of Lian Hearn’s The Tale of Shikanoko will be published in 2016.
EMPEROR OF THE EIGHT ISLANDS
April 2016
AUTUMN PRINCESS, DRAGON CHILD
June 2016
LORD OF THE DARKWOOD
August 2016
THE TENGU’S GAME OF GO
September 2016
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CONTENTS
Copyright Notice
Epigraph
The Tale of Shikanoko List of Characters
Map
1. Kazumaru
2. Kazumaru/Shikanoko
3. Kiyoyori
4. Shikanoko
5. Kiyoyori
6. Shikanoko
7. Kiyoyori
8. Akihime
9. Tama
10. Shikanoko
11. Kiyoyori
12. Shikanoko
13. Tama
14. Kiyoyori
15. Aki
16. Kiyoyori
17. Aki
18. Shikanoko
19. Hina
20. Tama
21. Masachika
22. Aki
23. Shikanoko
Author’s Note
Also by Lian Hearn
A Note About the Author
Books in the Tale of Shikanoko Series
Copyright
Farrar, Straus and Giroux
18 West 18th Street, New York 10011
Copyright © 2016 by Lian Hearn Associates Pty Ltd.
All rights reserved
Originally published in 2016 by Hachette Australia
Published in the United States by Farrar, Straus and Giroux
First American edition, 2016
Map by K1229 Design
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Hearn, Lian, author.
Title: Emperor of the Eight Islands / Lian Hearn.
Description: First American edition.|New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2016.|Series: The tale of Shikanoko series; 1
Identifiers: LCCN 2015042559|ISBN 9780374536312 (softcover)|ISBN 9780374715014 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Japan—History—1185–1600—Fiction.|BISAC: FICTION / Literary.|FICTION / Fantasy / Historical.|GSAFD: Fantasy fiction.|Adventure fiction.|Historical fiction.
Classification: LCC PR9619.3.H3725 E47 2016|DDC 823/.914—dc23
LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2015042559
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