The Twelve Kingdoms: The Shore in Twilight by Fuyumi Ono Page A

her forehead against its muzzle.
    Inside her head, the high, joyous voice rose out of the darkness of her thoughts. Risai. He ran toward her at full tilt, as if about to dive headfirst into the ground. No doubt that he'd be asking if it was okay to pet Hien.
    "You remember those small hands? I know you loved the Taiho very much."
    Hien cooed softly in response.
    "Shall we become the last fools left in Tai together, then? Shall we be on our way?"
    Hien looked back at Risai with those deep, black eyes. Without a word it knelt and urged her to climb onto its back. Risai pressed her face against its neck and then leapt into the saddle. Taking up the reins she cast her eyes toward Shisen. There a forlorn, solitary figure stood looking back at her.
    Kaei.
    Will you destroy Kei to save Tai?
    Risai eyes lingered vacantly on the ceiling of the bedroom. There, the face in her mind's eye looked down on her, clouded with loathing and contempt.
    But this is what I came here for.
    She'd arrived here with her life hanging by a thread. She'd only survived because the Royal Kei had saved her.
    Risai could not help but close her eyes. So this surely must be what I am fated to do.

Interlude
    S anshi took a deep breath. The murky, golden gloom surrounded her. She was inside a narrow, endless "somewhere."
    I made it in time.
    She had broken through without breaking free. She'd held on. A vague twinge of unease passed through her. She let the air out of her lungs, almost startled by her profound sense of relief.
    A voice suddenly echoing from somewhere out of the amber darkness brought her back to herself.
    "This is--"
    The surprised tone of the voice made her to take hold of her senses.
    "--a cell."
    "Gouran."
    Had he accompanied her? Amidst all the confusion? "A cell?" Sanshi was about to challenge him, half in startled wonder, when she realized this as well. They were within the familiar confines of Taiki's shadow.
    In truth, Sanshi had no idea where they were. Wherever the murky, golden darkness had descended. No earth and no sky, no beginning and no end.
    Sanshi and the other magical you -beings did not sleep as did animals or people. There was thus no way of them to imagine such an analogy, but "sleep" was to them like a waking dream. She vaguely understood she was "somewhere." But not what kind of place this was or its location. Whether the muddy, saffron mist was falling on them or whether the weak, golden light was radiating around them.
    Not even that distinction.
    Wherever they were was narrow and confining. It plainly felt so. And something firm and strong seemed to be holding them here. And that wasn't simply because, compared to its normal strength, the "golden" hue of the light was so terribly dim.
    They were definitely enclosed in a kind of cell.
    "This is--" she said, but she sensed no air passing through her throat. Only the thought. Perhaps only the intent to speak.
    "What is this shell?" asked Gouran. But that equally may have been nothing more than the intimations of his voice. The confusion enveloped her.
    "A shell--"
    Her intuition told her this was Taiki. The thing surrounding them gave her every impression that this was Taiki. Testing this hypothesis, Sanshi tried pushing her consciousness beyond their confines. Normally she should come into contact with psychic streams entwining Taiki. But a viscous resistance blocked her.
    "We can't escape his shadow!"
    No, it was not impossible. Concentrating with all her might she somehow might be able to rupture these restraints. But she sensed that the effort would exhaust her. It would take an extraordinary amount of energy and no little pain.
    And yet Sanshi had possessed every intent of surveying her surroundings.
    The dim light. Taiki's weak ki. Its bright source hidden from them, the frighteningly thin psychic streams descended on them as if through a heavy downpour.
    "We are closed in--"
    Gouran's voice sent a chill down Sanshi's back. A kirin was one species of you -being. The