John Flanagan - The Emperor of Nihon-Ja

She shook her head, laughing at his sally. Then, realising that the others were standing by, waiting to hear why she had arrived so unexpectedly, she gestured to the chairs and couches around the central table.

'Please. Sit down, everyone. I need to talk to you.'

Selethen hesitated as the others resumed their seats.

'Perhaps I should leave you?' he suggested, sensing that this might well be a private matter for the Araluans. But Evanlyn considered his suggestion for a second or two, then shook her head.

'No need for you to go, Selethen. This is nothing secret.' She noticed the coffee pot on the table and added, 'I'd happily kill for a cup of coffee, however. It's been a long trip.'

'Of course! My apologies!' Alyss leapt to her feet again, irritated that her sense of hospitality had been found wanting. No doubt about it, Evanlyn's sudden appearance had flustered her. She quickly poured Evanlyn a cup and handed it across the table. The princess smiled gratefully, their mutual antipathy forgotten for the moment.

'Thanks, Alyss,' she said. Her omission of the formal 'Lady Alyss' was sign enough that her gratitude was genuine. Alyss nodded acknowledgement and resumed her seat. Evanlyn took a deep draught of the coffee, then looked appreciatively at the cup.

'I take it you supplied this coffee, Selethen?'

He smiled and she drank again, draining most of the remaining beverage. She set the cup down, paused for a second or two to gather her thoughts and plunged in.

'Long story short,' she said. 'Horace has gone missing.'

There were exclamations of surprise around the room. Will was the first to voice the thoughts of all of them.

'Missing?' he said. 'Missing where?'

'Nihon-Ja,' Evanlyn told them. 'My father sent him on a military mission some time ago. He was to present himself at the Emperor's court – he had letters of introduction from my father – and then spend some time studying Nihon-Jan military techniques and weapons.'

'What's happened? How did he go missing?' Will asked.

'To be accurate, I don't know what's happened. Look, let me explain,' she said, hastily cutting off Will's next question. 'Horace was travelling with George -'

'George Carter? George from the Ward? Our George, you mean?' Will interrupted. As he said 'Our George' he made a circling gesture that included himself and Alyss.

Halt raised an eyebrow at him as he saw the impatience on Evanlyn's face. 'Perhaps one of those interjections would have been sufficient,' he said, 'since they all relate to the same person.'

Evanlyn nodded gratefully at him. 'That's right,' she said. 'Your George. He was there to advise Horace on protocol and to act as an interpreter.'

Halt cocked his head to one side. 'But the common tongue is spoken in Nihon-Ja, surely?'

Evanlyn shrugged. 'Not as widely as in other countries. The Nihon-Jan have kept themselves a little…isolated…over the centuries. And my father thought it might be a diplomatic touch,' she nodded in Alyss's direction, 'if the Emperor was addressed in his own language.'

Alyss nodded. 'We try to do that wherever possible.'

'I still don't see what Horace would hope to learn from the Nihon-Jan about weapons and methods,' Will said. 'After all, he's a Swordmaster himself.'

'The Nihon-Jan warriors – they call them Senshi – use a different technique,' Halt interjected. 'And their swordsmiths have perfected a method of making extremely hard blades. Our Ranger weapon makers learned some of their techniques many years ago.'

'Is that why your saxe knives are so incredibly hard?' Alyss asked. It was a well-known fact that saxe knives could put a notch into the blades of normal swords.

'It's a technique where several iron rods are heated and beaten, then folded and twisted together to form a composite whole. Over the years, we've made it a practice to adopt good ideas from anywhere we can find them,' Halt told her.

'Our swordsmiths in Dimascar developed a similar technique for creating extra-hard blades,' Selethen put in.

'You're talking about Dimascarene blades, I assume?' Halt said. 'I've heard of them but never seen one.'

'They're very expensive. Not many people can afford them,' Selethen told him.

Halt nodded thoughtfully, filing the information away for future reference. Then he turned back to Evanlyn. 'I'm sorry, Evanlyn, we're digressing here. Please go on.'

'All right. Just to cover any further interruptions…' She looked meaningfully at Will, which he considered to be a little unfair. After all, it had been Halt and Selethen who had prattled on about super-hard sword blades, not him. But his indignation went unnoticed as she continued.

'I take it you're all familiar with the Silasian Council's fast message system?'

They all nodded. The Silasian Council was a cartel of traders based in the eastern part of the Constant Sea. They facilitated trade by instituting a central credit system so that funds could be transferred between countries, without the risk of actually sending money overland or by sea. In addition, they had realised some years prior that fast communications could be as beneficial to trade as efficient money transfers. They had set up a network of carrier pigeon services and express riders to take messages almost from one end of the known world to the other. Distances that might take weeks for a ship or a rider to cover could be traversed in a matter of days. Of course, the service was extremely expensive, but in emergencies, many users felt it was worth the cost.

'We received a message via that service from George several weeks ago,' Evanlyn said. 'It was only brief and he sent it from a port on the Ooghly River in Indus – which is pretty much the eastern limit of the message service. Apparently, there was a rebellion against the Emperor of Nihon-Ja, and Horace got caught up in it. The Emperor's forces are badly outnumbered and he's a fugitive. When last seen, he was heading north into the mountains, to hide out in some legendary fortress. Horace has gone with him.'

Will sat back and whistled slowly. It would be just like Horace, he thought, to get involved in such an idealistic venture.

'And what are you planning to do?' he asked, although he thought he knew the answer already. Evanlyn turned a steady gaze on him.

'I'm going to find Horace,' she said.

Nihon-Ja Horace's announcement met with a hail of protests from the others. Most vocal of all was George.

'Horace, you can't stay here! Don't you understand? We have no right to interfere in internal Nihon-Jan politics!'

Horace frowned at his countryman. 'This is a little more serious than just politics, George,' he told him. 'This is a rebellion against the lawful ruler. You can't pass that off as a matter of politics. It's treason for a start.'

George made an apologetic gesture towards the two Nihon-Jan leaders standing close by. He realised that his words could be deemed as undiplomatic.

'My apology, your excellency,' he said hastily. 'I meant no offence.'

Shigeru nodded. 'None taken, George-san. I understand your point of view. Whether this is a case of politics or treason, it's an internal Nihon-Jan matter.'

'That's right,' George said and he turned back to Horace. 'It's not as if Araluen has any sort of formal treaty with the Emperor. You and I were simply here as diplomats. We're granted freedom of movement throughout the country but we have to maintain our neutrality. If we get involved, if we take sides, we'll invalidate those credentials,' he cried. 'Don't you understand? We simply can't afford to do that!'

'As a matter of fact, I do understand,' Horace said. 'But it's a little late to start worrying about what will happen if we take sides. I'm afraid I've already done it.'

George frowned at him, not understanding. 'I don't -'