Reizo and Suki rode home in Gogo. Reizo wanted to create Ofuda on the paper Taru gave him for their journey, but he tried to talk Suki out of coming instead.
“Are you sure you want to come? It’s going to be dangerous. There could be bandits,” he said. Not to mention whatever killed all those people.
Suki looked at him like he was an idiot. "Of course there will be bandits, it's very far away from the safety of The Capital. Bandits even tried to attack our farm a time or two when I was a child. Lord and Lady Fujiwara both insisted that Gogo is very safe. Besides, you and Taru will be there.”
Reizo pinched the bridge of his nose. She had a point, Gogo was a mobile fortress and he could easily scare any bandits. He’d scared them off before, but never had to kill anyone. Well, they were robbers in The Capital. My wife owes Fujiwara a favor, just what I need. And she knows that I know asking for guards wasn’t a shakedown. That’s why she’s been distant since the winter. Realization and dread hit Reizo in rapid succession.
Reizo’s sour mood colored his reply. "Fine, you can come. But you must stay in the carriage. I don't know what will happen when we get to that barbaric town." Maybe I can cow her into postponing this fight.
But Suki was more confident now that she had been invited along for her knowledge, not merely as a courtesy. She shot her husband a withering glare. "Oh how fun, I finally get to see the countryside again. Much better than being cooped up in The Capital all the time." Her mild tone was for anyone listening in from the street. Even at night, people were out. Gogo’s curtains didn’t block sound.
Then she remembered the paper Junko Papermaster handed her. “Gogo, the carriage, will listen to you if you speak into the paper,” Junko told Suki.
Reizo looked away first. That was as much of an apology as he would give her. Suki dug Junko’s paper out of her sleeve to cover a smirk. She felt vindicated now that Reizo’s boss had sent him to her home province, which had been under a strange curse since winter. But in The Capital’s typical fashion, they were initially ignored.
Suki found the paper. It was thick and too coarse for writing letters. “Gogo, don’t let anyone hear what we say,” she felt silly. “And it’s so hot, give us a breeze,” she added. A breeze came from somewhere. She stared around in wonder, her anger temporarily forgotten.
“Reizo, where does the fresh air come from?”
He pinched his nose. “Silly woman, why are you bothering me with trivialities when we travel into danger?” Reizo looked around him and saw the tiny tornado expanding and spinning very slowly. The word eating breeze kami awoke and opened and closed their mouths like fish as he and Suki talked.
Just like that, Suki’s anger boiled over. “You treat me like a fool and a liar. How dare you!” Suki snapped. “You can’t even answer my simple question. A simple question for a powerful onmyoji! Oh wait, what rank are you again? Tenth! My father out ranks you.” She let the implication that her father had done Reizo's a great favor hang in the air.
“Ministry Head Fujiwara thought it was a shakedown too! How convenient that my new father-in-law asked for a Ministry investigation, or extra guards!” How did I lose control of this conversation? And I don’t want to be promoted because much of my pay comes directly from Fujiwara…Reizo realized he’d never explained any of this to Suki.
“It wasn’t. And Ministry Head Fujiwara has apologized,” Suki said smugly. When Reizo didn’t reply she continued. “And it’s thanks to Lady Fujiwara that I know what you do. She, not my husband, she explained to me how much work onmyoji do. She explained that you have actual duties and can’t spend your days dallying around sending poetry to whoever you please.” Tears welled in her eyes as months of worry and frustration came out.
“All day I chase around rumors and reports from stupid people who can’t see what I see. You know what real work I did this week? One, count it, one curse removal!” Reizo held up a finger. “Poetry? Poetry? Is that was this is about? Woman, any writing I do is reports. If I’m lucky those will be kindling for the next library fire! No one is reading my reports!” Reizo realized he was screaming at her.
“Of course I am one of those idiots you complain about,” Suki moved the argument up several decibels. “You’re always in a terrible mood, snapping at me when I try to talk to you! You are sending poetry to someone else!” The realization hit her and a tear escaped. That made her even madder. She didn’t want her cheating husband to see her cry.
The breeze eating kami gobbled their words dutifully.
“Everyone is blind! I have more in common with those Kitsune I picked up today than anyone in The Capital. You can’t see it. You can’t see the fat fish breeze kami eating all our words. Whatever you did with that paper worked. That breeze? It’s a slowed down tornado that’s meant to protect us from arrows. But no one else sees, so all I do is run around town and make up stupid stories and collect money. I’d rather be writing poetry.” He looked at his wife as if to say, “I’d write you poetry if I had time.” All his anger and strength left him when he saw her crying. He still held up a finger and put his hands in his lap.
“You would?” Suki’s voice broke. She realized she’d drawn back the thick paper to throw at her husband. She rested her hands instead and looked Reizo in the eye.
Reizo nodded. The sat in an awkward silence for a bit while Suki hid her tears and thought of what to say next, and Reizo wondered if he should say something.
“There are fat fish kami?” Suki looked around the carriage. “All I see is the silks.”
Reizo described everything he saw. As he described the now fat-to-bursting fish shaped breeze kami who ate all the words and the spinning tornado cooling them, a look of wonder grew on Suki’s face. As he watched her, the same wonder grew in his heart. By the time they got home, Reizo was filled with a sense of contentment he’d only felt in Fujiwara’s garden.
It was lucky that the two of them got along as well as they did in their arranged marriage. Reizo worked all the time (she hoped), and Suki managed the household. She had fewer servants here and hadn’t brought any from her home. They had to stay with her three younger sisters. Reizo and Suki had avoided each other as much as possible since Reizo blew off her request to help her home village.
But tonight he’d invited her into his room instead of stomping into his like he normally did.
"Reizo," Suki said later as she laid in his arms, "What town are we going to? Crossroads?” It was the closest town in that province to The Capital by the main road. News from her family hadn’t reached her yet, but the mail was slow and unreliable.
A slight breeze cooled her naked body and night insects chirped. She couldn’t see the garden beyond the veranda in the dark, so her thoughts turned inward.
She had only had four letters from her family since the curse. Fewer merchants, who also ferried mail for a price, traveled from The Capital. About once every three months, A servant from the governor's household and a few guards gathered up all the mail from the Good People’s farms and took it to The Capital. Then they'd collect any mail from where it was held at Ministry of the Right and return.
“Yes.” Suki smiled at the surprise in his voice. He asked her, “What do you know about Crossroads?”
“It’s the last small village in the province when traveling to The Capital. From Crossroads, the Other Road goes to Big Fork and Hot Spring. The provincial capital is down the Main Road. Crossroads is for tourists going to the hot spring and merchants. It’s a lovely place to stop on the way to the hot spring,” Suki added as she remembered a trip she’d taken with her mother and sisters. It seemed so long ago, but it was only the summer before she got married. One year ago.
“What about Big Fork and Hot Spring?” Reizo asked softly. He was so relaxed and sleepy.
“They are on either side of the hot spring. Big Fork is a Kitsune village, but they never caused problems.” Suki stared into the dark and remembered her last trip through Crossroads.
I’m dreaming Suki knows Big Fork is a Kitsune village, Reizo thought as he drifted off.
Picture by Daphne Zaras - http://www.nssl.noaa.gov/headlines/dszpics.htmlOriginally uploaded at en.wikipedia; description page is/was here., Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=2130165