Shuli Go Stories Vol. 1: Beyond the Mists

Part 5

Lian and Ida rode side by side from the edge of Hona and into the mists of the Wamaian mountains, their horses close enough for Lian to reach out and grab Ida by the shoulder. Their pace was quick and they stopped only twice a day – one meal at midday, and one at night when the darkness combined with the mist and snow rolling off the mountains to make the path dangerous, even by torch. It was the first night's stopping point when Ida explained what Lian's task really looked like.

"You must know, Shuli Go, that I am not a natural politician. Few of us in Wamai are. I am Foreign Minister, but that post is largely ceremonial. We have little to do with the rest of the world. You will be more of the outside world than most of the court will have seen their entire lives. I was well educated as a child. I was the fourth son, and my father thought I would never inherit our lands. He assumed I would enter a career as a courtier, so he directed my training to that particular battlefield. My brothers had tutors in swordplay and warfare. I was taught Imperial and bookkeeping. It turned out our true paths were reversed – my brothers made poor warriors and were dead by the time I was twenty, and I make a poor politician. When my father died, I inherited all our lands, and I was forced to learn the craft of my ancestors in practice. A twenty year old leader of a major clan with more practice in poetry than battle tactics is a prime target in Wamai.

"I did lose my father's land, in the end. But not for forty years. And even then, it was through deceit away from the battlefield. My men were betrayed as I rode into my final battle, our archers directed to fire into my backside and our reinforcements sent to their death. I survived that day with my honor intact only because of the sheer number of men I killed. I was beaten, but not on the battlefield. I lost, Shuli Go, because I had forgotten the lessons my father had arranged for me. The lessons of the far more dangerous battlefield: politics.

"You are entering that field. To put it simply, the King of Wamai has been reduced to a ceremonial role. He is a figurehead. When my great-great-grandfather ruled the Ida clan, the King still had sway over the major clans, and army enough to enforce his rule should one clan step out of its proper role. But these last hundred and fifty years have destroyed the King's power. Your Empire has not troubled us in two hundred years, and we have had nowhere to look but inwards. The leader of each clan rules over his dominions like petty kingdoms, and the King and all the laws he is charged with enforcing, are paid lip service only. The clans move closer to war between one another each day, and the preparations for this war are not only material. Alliances and politics are underway that confound me and would have left my father, who was a warrior above all else, completely confused. A warrior seeks certainty and the chance to test steel. The leaders of clans today are more concerned with gold for bribes and horses for a final, unnecessary rush of cavalry after the field has already been covered in corpses.

"The King is new – twenty years old – and unmarried. Above all else, an alliance of blood with the King would benefit a clan deeply. Amongst the peasants the King is still revered as a God, and there are men, even amongst the warrior caste, who devote themselves and their loyalty to him above their clan lords. There are soldiers and farmers who will not raise a stick against a clan in a formal alliance of marriage with the King. I am one of those. I once swore this King's father an oath to serve his family until I died. And I will not break it. Hence, this position of Foreign Minister.

"In centuries past the King would have chosen his own wife, but as the position has weakened, each generation of King has been forced to adopt new laws that eroded his choice. First the marriage needed the approval of at least three clan leaders. Then it needed a majority of clan leaders to vote for it. Now, the King has no choice whatsoever – his father signed away his marriage rights when the King was but a child. His father did this to avoid a war, but it has only delayed it.