'Flame of the Ocean' - Chapter V
Kasumi found Satoshi by the lakeshore, playing with Denko. A sling and a stone lay by his side, and a strip of blue cloth was tied around his head.
Satoshi waved hello when he saw her. “I thought we wouldn’t see you at all this week, because of your sister’s wedding.”
“It went different than I thought,” said Kasumi. “What were you doing with that sling?”
“There was a stone-flinging contest today,” he said. “I lost at the targets, but I could knock all the nuts free from the trees.” Denko squeaked, and Satoshi gave him a chestnut from the inside of his sleeve. “How was the wedding?”
“Not so boring as the others.” Kasumi sat down on the sand, by the base of the rock Satoshi was sitting on. “Satoshi, how would you feel if I married?”
“You?” Satoshi laughed. “You aren’t marrying. We’re too young for such things.”
“Not so young anymore,” said Kasumi. “I know there have been some weddings in your village. I’ve heard them.”
Satoshi shrugged. Chestnuts spilled out of his sleeves. Denko hurried to claim them. “One or two,” he admitted. “But we don’t have any treasure or titles to trade like you high lords do. People can marry who they want here, most of the time.”
“Whoever they want?” asked Kasumi.
“Sometimes. It doesn’t matter to me.”
“So it wouldn’t bother you at all if I married?”
Satoshi scratched his nose and ruffled his hair. “You aren’t, are you?”
“No,” said Kasumi, firm as iron. “It was only a thought after today. What I really want to ask you is – Satoshi, Denko is clever, isn’t he?”
“The cleverest mouse ever born,” Satoshi boasted, petting Denko on the head.
“And you have been trying at sea languages, haven’t you?” Kasumi asked him.
“Of course I have. You’d never let me alone if I didn’t practice.”
“And your bow – your sling – your horse – all your hobbies. You’ve gotten better at them, right?”
“You know I have, Kasumi. What are all these questions for?”
Kasumi bit her lip. She wanted to tell Satoshi everything: her parents’ command, the lie she had fed them to earn a reprieve, and what that lie meant for Satoshi. He was looking right into her eyes, all attentive, even with Denko crawling up his sleeve for more nuts. But he looked at her as if they were chatting about their day. He sensed nothing amiss. And the way he talks about marriage, of my marriage…no. He could never act the part I need him to, not knowingly.
She would have to give him another, then.
“For a great honor, Satoshi!” she said. She stood up and took his hands in hers. “My father the dragon king has set a terrible challenge, one only the bravest and most daring can face.”
“What kind of challenge?” Satoshi asked.
“A test of skill. A test of nerve. A quest, to find treasure to win greater treasure. He thought it up after the wedding, and I just knew it was the sort of thing you’d love to try.” It wasn’t a lie, only a broad truth.
“Try?” Satoshi grinned. “You mean win! What kind of fish folk am I competing with?”
“None – that is, you have to try one at a time.” That part was a lie; there were no other competitors. Kasumi just managed not to stammer.
“And what’s the treasure I get if I win? Will Mama like it?”
“I know she will.” Kasumi took a step toward the lake. “The challenge is being held in my father’s palace, and only for one day. We’ll have to go now if you want to try it.” Kasumi wanted as little time for him to think as possible. For me, too, or I’ll never go through with this.
Satoshi resisted her pull. His head turned toward his house. Hayami’s voice, warm as sunned grass, wafted from the doorway in a gentle, breathy tune. Kasumi’s own breath tightened. She never likes him to leave the village if it can be helped. He’s so short and silly, she worries for him when he’s away. That made Kasumi’s tummy lurch. Deceiving the old woman was almost as cold as deceiving Satoshi himself.
“Would we be back in time for supper?” Satoshi whispered. His grin was delighted and heartless, a truant’s grin.
“Tomorrow,” said Kasumi. “You’ll be back tomorrow.”
Satoshi’s eyes flickered back to the house. With his mother’s voice, something else came from the doorway, the smell of fermenting soy.
“I’ll do it!” He was giggling, bobbing on his feet. Kasumi shook her head as she tugged him along. Satoshi whistled for Denko, who raced back up into his hair just before they all disappeared under the water.
Kasumi had taken Satoshi into the lake before, for his language lessons and for water games. He wasn’t a strong swimmer, but he thought he was, and wouldn’t take lessons from Kasumi however much she offered. He couldn’t manage the river alone, much less the whole way to the palace. But he held Kasumi’s hand as lightly as he dared and kicked at her tail fin whenever it brushed against his legs, until she slapped him with it to stop.
In the little lake by the little village, there was little to see that Satoshi hadn’t seen all his life. When Kasumi led them down the shallow clear river to the wider red river downstream, she smiled at Satoshi’s gasps and cries of wonder at the fish, clay, and woods along the riverbank he had never seen. And when they left the river and came to the sea – the vast sea, endless sea, sky-blue and ultramarine and emerald and jade and pure white sunlight all mingled together everywhere around them – Satoshi pulled Kasumi to halt. There was no sound on his lips, but his eyes were as big as Kasumi had ever seen them. He turned all the way around in the water looking around, and put his hand into a streak of sunlight, as if he could grasp it. Kasumi laughed and bumped him with her whole fin and hip. She tipped his hanging mouth shut with her finger before she pulled him down, down toward the palace.
Once, when Kasumi was very young, she remembered that Namika had led a thin, hairy sailor down to the bottom of the sea and brought him to court. It was the only time Namika took a mind to their surface admirers, the only time they defied Father’s orders and Mother’s dictates, which forbid anyone from land to enter the palace without their leave. The poor man had shaken through the whole ordeal. His eyes went everywhere, taking in every inch of the palace, all its finery and splendor. In court he had fallen all over himself, paying tribute and homage to every whale and tuna and octopus, and most of all to the dragon king. That was when Mother caught Kasumi eavesdropping, and sent her back to her room. She wondered how the man’s friends reacted when he told them of all he saw.
But that first view of the sea seemed to claim all of Satoshi’s awe. He was tittering in Kasumi’s hands and asked to go faster, to get to the challenge, as soon as the palace came into sight. When they arrived at the path leading up to the open gates, Satoshi didn’t stop to look at anything, but hurried through into the grounds. “You don’t know the way!” Kasumi yelled after him twice. She had to catch him by the ankle so she could get control of him and lead him to the throne room.
The dragon king was waiting for them on his black throne. Not only him, but Mother as well, sitting on the back, and Namika too. They all floated together at Father’s right, three links come undone and now rejoined, but they still didn’t look like the old Namika.
It rarely struck Kasumi just how huge her father was. He never took any form but a dragon’s with her, and its size was familiar and therefore unimposing. But as the dragon king slithered his head, his neck, his thick clawed forearms directly above them and sniffed at Satoshi, Kasumi felt exceedingly small, like a krill in a supper dish.
That wasn’t a problem for Satoshi. He winced under the sniffing on account of the spray of bubbles, which knocked poor Denko and trapped him inside one large bubble. But Satoshi kept his eyes open and aimed square at the dragon king.
“This?” Father said in a low grumble.
“Yes,” Kasumi grumbled back. Satoshi stood up taller as Denko turned himself upright inside the bubble.
The dragon king’s whiskers twitched back and forth, but he recoiled himself along his throne. “Have you been told the challenge that awaits you?” he asked.
“Find treasure to win a treasure,” said Satoshi. “Lead me to it, dragon king!”
Father snorted, spraying more bubbles. “Is that how our daughter is putting it? Very well – treasure for treasure. There is much in our palace that could be called that, but there are four special objects precious to our wife and us – four pearls. There are none finer in all the waters of the world, for the lord of oysters himself made them for us to mark the birth of each daughter.
“There are also four special rooms in the palace: one in which it is always spring, one for summer, one for autumn, and one in which it is always winter.” The dragon king’s tail came off the throne and pointed in four directions in turn. “In each of these rooms, we have hidden one of these special pearls.” He reared up until his head left the light of the squid and only the shine of his eyes could still be seen of his face. “The task we put before you is to find these pearls fairly before morning comes to the world above. We shall watch you do it, all the dragon’s brood, from here in the throne room, for we may know the deeds of all things in the East Sea if we set a mind to them.”
“Is that all?” Satoshi said. He sounded almost disappointed. “Well, I’ll do it. Lead me to the first room. I’ll start with autumn, since that’s what it is on land now.”
There was so little propriety in his address that Kasumi giggled, while Father and Mother both huffed. The dragon king clapped his hands, and a salmon appeared in the doorway. It beckoned Satoshi with its tail and led him from the throne room.
Little Denko was still there, struggling with all his paws and tail to keep aright. “Poor Denko,” said Kasumi. She took the bubble gently in hand and brought it close to her mouth.
“You’ll want to go with Satoshi,” she whispered. She explained how to get to the room of ever autumn and gave Denko a little push to start the way.
“Does that boy know what awaits him?” Mother asked, in tones as cold as glacial melt.
“Of course,” said Kasumi. “Four pearls and my hand.” Lying here came much easier than it did on the lakeshore. And it will only be half a lie, once all is done.
“He is bolder than that lout your sisters once brought to us,” Father admitted. “But he will meet the same end.” At those words, Namika finally moved as one again: they bowed their heads and buried them in their hands.
“The same end?”
“What do you suppose happened to him?”
“You sent him home, didn’t you?” The man had done no insult to the dragon king, hadn’t dared or demanded or even asked for anything. And he had showered Namika with respectful compliments.
Father brought his horned head down from the ceiling until he was right before Kasumi. His eyes were each as large as her whole head. “As your sisters once learned, we suffer no uninvited guests or suitors lightly. When that boy loses, he graces our table as supper.”