Hiroko sat upright in the carriage and cycled, concentrating on her patterns and the scrolls that Chang-li had copied out for her. Today, Cultivator Tyl had placed her inside the carriage, then withdrawn, leaving her alone. Hiroko was relieved not to have to repeat yesterday's performance of quizzing Tyl on every topic she could think of, instead taking some time to prepare herself for her next ordeal. When she and Joshi were reunited, he would be to the Peak of Spiritual Refinement, if not beyond. She wanted to be well along her own path. If she could reach the Peak of Mental Refinement on her own, that was probably too much to hope for.

As night began to fall, she felt the carriage descend again and prepared herself. If Cultivator Tyl had not lied, they should be descending into the Westgate capital city, Naiglan. She pulled back the curtains covering the window of her carriage and peered out.

There before her was a vast brown expanse. She stared. Had there been a serious crop failure here? A blight? Nothing seemed to be growing. The land beneath was rumpled in places by hummocks and hills, and off to the west it rose sharply with a flat-topped ridge rising 3,000 feet above the plains. A thin river snaked its way along the base of the ridge until it reached a grand canal, which diverted its course sharply eastward into the city they were approaching.

She knew Westgate was the farthest province from the centers of power, and had always heard Naiglan spoken of in tones of contempt as the home of barbarians and barely cultured fools. But this city was magnificent. Carved of red and black stone, its buildings rose in strange shapes she'd never seen. Straight towers topped with burgeoning onion-shaped domes. The domes were covered in copper to reflect the sunlight everywhere.

It was surrounded by a great black wall, twenty feet or more tall, with a rampart along the top wide enough for five men to stand across, or five rows of men to stand shooting downward. No other city in the empire that she had heard of had a wall like this. Why bother, when any cultivator passed to the Peak of Mental Refinement would consider such a wall nothing more than a stepping stone? But against the barbarian hordes, weak in cultivation but strong in horses, arrows, and men, these walls would be a formidable barrier.

The carriage descended into the heart of the city, an inner walled complex surrounded by four of the onion towers, these ones white and topped with silver, contrasting beautifully with the rest of the city. As they landed, guards hurried out to meet them.

These men all had beards and swarthier skin than most of the people Hiroko had previously known. They reminded her a bit of Joshi: slightly more rounded eyes than she was used to, and a thicker body type. But where he was bald, most of these men wore colorful turbans on their heads.

She was shocked to see men who were clearly not cultivators or nobles wearing the shades of the seven colors. Customs here must be very different than she was used to.

Hiroko gathered up herself. She cycled to regain calm. Then, as the carriage door was opened, Hiroko stepped down into the courtyard. The guards parted to reveal their master. He looked, at least, like a proper imperial servant, wearing robes in imperial black with a chain of office around his throat, clean-shaven with his hair in a long queue. The man appeared to be in his late forties.

He bowed. "Princess Hiroko, thank you for gracing us with your presence. I am Governor Jah Akh of Westgate Province, and I am pleased to make your acquaintance."

Hiroko released the weave she had already prepared. Her senses sprang out all around and she could see the web of connections between the governor and everyone else standing here. As the governor prattled on with a prepared speech, she noted the more interesting bonds.

Governor Jah Akh and Cultivator Tyl had a more intense connection than she had expected. The color was hard for her to interpret—a kind of green tinged with orange. She hadn't seen anywhere before, but it was thick and connected them mutually.

She set that worry aside. All of the guards were tenuously connected to the governor, as she would have expected. They were more strongly connected to each other, and, interestingly, about half of them were very strongly connected to someone or something that wasn't here at all. Possibly the Governor's guard had been infiltrated or supplanted by an outside organization. That could be useful.

Then, to her surprise, she realized that those men also had a thin, faint connection to her, so subtle she had almost not noticed it. Hiroko managed to hide her shock by covering her mouth and yawning.

The governor stopped in mid-word. "Your Highness, forgive me. No doubt this journey was wearisome."

"I am weary of your lies and your hospitality already, Governor Jah Akh," she said. "Let us speak plainly. You have brought me here to serve as a hostage against my father's good behavior."

As she spoke, Hiroko watched and noted with pleasure that the thin lines binding some of the guards to her had thickened just a bit. So was it possible these men had loyalties to her? That would go a long way to explaining why Governor Jah had risked her and brought her here.

"Now, Princess, you do me ill," Governor Jah said. "As a matter of fact, though this was arranged in some rush, we did receive the clearance of the Gem Court. Dowager Pearl Lin-Ya had inquired of the wider court as to finding a blue lux tutor suitable for teaching you. As it happens, such a tutor resides here in Westgate. I rendered my offer through Dowager Pearl Akiya, and the Gem Court accepted."

Hiroko wasn't sure if he was lying or not. For now, it didn't matter.

The governor continued. "I shall take you to her now and place you in her care. Cultivator Tyl, you and your disciples have done well. Our contract is fulfilled. I shall have the usual payment rendered." He dismissed the cultivators. They trooped out on foot. Governor Jah extended an arm. "If you'll come with me, Your Highness."

Hiroko ignored his arm and strode off at once. The governor hurried to keep up. "This way," he said, placing a hand on her elbow.

She shook him off. "Do not dare touch me," she told him coldly. "I am an Indigo Princess promised to a cultivator who will make the heavens shake with his strength. You may, however, take me to the Dowager Pearl so that I can express my distaste for these circumstances."

When the governor ushered her through a wide, arching open entrance into yet another courtyard, this one full of plants and life, Hiroko's heart leapt. This garden reminded her of the Imperial Gardens where she had grown up.

If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.

Governor Jah saw her looking around and smiled. "These are the Tranquil Gardens of Westgate, where all the soft and greenness that does not exist anywhere else in the province is gathered. It is reserved for the Dowager Pearl and those she has chosen to aid her. I have asked the Dowager to provide you with quarters that face onto this garden. You will not be disturbed. All of your servants are chosen by the Dowager as well. If you wish to go anywhere else in the palace, inform the Dowager, and she will have an escort of Makar guards take you."

Despite herself, Hiroko was interested. She gestured at the men escorting them. "These, you mean?"

The governor nodded. "They are the most loyal of our local fighters. Men that we have recruited to help us in our wars against the barbaric clans. These are kinfolk to the barbarians who have seen the benefits of civilization and become loyal servants of empire."

Hiroko translated in her mind: these are the clans who couldn't hold what they had and so have come bowing and scraping to the emperor, hoping to profit when this war is over. "Isn't it imperial policy that such local auxiliaries are to be stationed in provinces far from their home?"

The governor laughed rather nervously. "Ah, ha, ha, yes, indeed. Many of them are doing just that. These are the men who are not, for whatever reason, well suited to life in the Imperial Legions."

"The Dowager Pearl awaits me?" Hiroko asked.

"She is within. I'll escort you."

"I am tired of you already, Governor," Hiroko said, cutting him off. And was pleased to see the shifting in the Makar guards. They might not understand what she was doing, but they could feel its effect, as she showed them this man that they followed was not worthy of command.

Hiroko didn't actually have a plan yet, but she was not going to be held hostage and used against her father without fighting back. "I shall find the Dowager on my own," she announced to the governor and strode off into the garden.

It wasn't hard to find the Dowager, though the gardens were considerably larger than Hiroko had thought at first. They were cunningly laid out, so each section felt intimate, but one area flowed into the next. She quickly realized that instead of being a large square surrounded by walls, the garden was a cross shape. She had come in on the southernmost leg.

When she approached the center, where the other three arms of the cross met, she found a lily pond with fountains that shot jets of water skyward. Huge, colorful fish swam in the pond, and the lily pads were large enough they looked as though she could step on them. Hiroko refrained.

At the edge of the pond was a pagoda. Inside the pagoda, sitting on a bench reading a book, was the Dowager Pearl. She looked up as Hiroko approached and rose, her dark black robes falling all the way to the floor. She wore a black pearl on her forehead as a sign of her rank. Like all of the Dowagers outside of the Imperial Gardens, this one had not borne a child to the Emperor. Now her life was spent dedicated to serving the Emperor and the Empire, administrating, working behind the scenes, all of her loyalties bound to the Emperor rather than any man.

Or so the theory said.

This Pearl looked young, far younger than any Dowagers Hiroko had previously met. She couldn't be out of the seraglio more than a few years. Her hair was dark and lustrous, her eyes bright, her skin untouched by wrinkles.

She smiled at Hiroko warmly. "Governor Jah Akh said you were arriving. I'm so pleased to meet you. Princess, I am Dowager Pearl Akiya."

Hiroko's half-formed strategies had been based around this Pearl being older, like the ones she had known before. Only matrons whose own children were grown were allowed to help raise the princes and princesses of the Imperial Gardens. The Gem Court chaperones had been a similar age. So, not quite knowing how to best approach, Hiroko decided to play this cautiously.

She smiled at the Pearl. "I'm so pleased to meet you."

Dowager Pearl Akiya gestured. "Will you join me?"

Hiroko climbed the steps to the pagoda, where she found padded benches overlooking the lily pond. She sat. Akiya clapped, and a pair of servants appeared as if from nowhere.

"Refreshments?"

"Please," Hiroko said in a faint voice. "The journey was long and troubling. I'm fainting, but not much. I don't think I could stomach more than a few bites. Perhaps some fresh fruit and... clear water?"

"At once." Akiya commanded, sending the servants off, before sitting down next to Hiroko. She bit her lip, looking even younger, and folded her hands together in some dismay. "Princess, I'm sorry to hear that your journey was troubling."

"How could it not be?" Hiroko asked, pressing a hand to her brow. She sighed, then worried she was overdoing it, and let her hand drop to her lap. "I was kidnapped by thugs and hooligans."

Akiya's eyes widened. "Governor Jah Akh swore he was sending refined cultivators of a reputable sect to escort you."

"They took my ladies-in-waiting from me and dragged my carriage through the sky," Hiroko said. "Hundreds of feet in the air. I could have died."

Akiya looked genuinely aghast. "I had no idea. That's terrible. I shall reprimand the governor and perhaps include it in my next letter of report to court. That is, with your permission, if you think I should."

And now Hiroko was certain she had the right of it. Akiya really was very young.

The servants returned with food. Hiroko sipped delicately from the goblet of water and nibbled at the edges of the ripe berries they had brought her. They really were delicious, and she perked up quite a bit.

She looked out at the pond. "This is very tranquil," she said, and thought of a conversational gambit. "It reminds me of the Imperial Gardens, does it not?"

Akiya sighed. "Indeed. You and I are the only ones here to have ever laid sight on those grounds. No one else understands that this is just a pale mockery, but it is a comfort in this horrible, barren place."

"Has there been a famine?" Hiroko asked. "When I was approaching, everything looked brown and dead."

Akiya shook her head. "I know. That's what I thought when I first came here. But it's just how it looks. Even the bushes look dead for eleven months of the year, and then in earliest springtime, they put forth little shoots of green and tiny flowers and have all of their growth before dying again. It's a horrible, hateful place," she said bitterly.

"This is your first posting, then?"

"It is," Akiya sighed. "I suppose I should be grateful for anything." She looked down at her hands. "I was only in the Gardens for five years. My training isn't complete. I was sent to finish up my education by getting some practical experience."

Startled, Hiroko blurted out, "What? But Pearls served for ten years." Then she bit her lip. "I'm sorry. That was thoughtless."

There were two reasons why a Pearl might end her stay in the Imperial Gardens early. Since Akiya was here and alive rather than executed and her name blotted out, she had not been caught having an affair with a mortal man. That meant she was Blighted. She had become pregnant with one of the Emperor's children, but had either lost the baby or it had died at birth. Either way, she had been sent away from the harem. She would have a title and respect, but that shadow would always linger on her. And it meant that she might be only four or five years older than Hiroko herself.

Impulsively, Hiroko reached out and took Akiya's hand and squeezed it. "It's fine," she said. "I'm certain you have done everything to make me comfortable. Governor Jah said that there was a blue lux tutor he's arranged for me?"

"Oh yes!" Akiya leapt up. "That is, she claims to be adept at blue lux, but no one here is skilled enough to know. The Clouds of Heaven Sect cultivators refused to even speak to her. She's a Sectless." Akiya shrugged. "I've arranged for her to meet you in your quarters just as soon as you're settled in. May I show you to your rooms now, Princess?"

"Please," Hiroko said, and gave Akiya a genuine smile. Her curiosity was aroused and she wondered what sort of person this tutor might be. The thought almost distracted her from the other thing she had meant to bring up. "Also, I'll need arrangements to replenish my stores of luxes."

"Of course. I go to the local tower every other week. I'll arrange to take you with me in three days, if that's enough."

Hiroko desperately wanted to go now and replenish her lux supplies, but she would take what she could get. After all, her chances of surviving here depended on gaining control of the situation. Making Akiya into her ally would be step one, and if she could get some training on how to use Blue Lux at the same time, so much the better.

Sooner or later, Governor Jah Akh would make his move to use her against her father. Hiroko needed to be ready when that happened.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.