Tomiko watched her husband and daughter. “I’m worried about the rats and bugs.”
“You should stay on the ship.”
She smiled. “There are rats and bugs there too.”
“Yunnan Province isn’t Singapore. I’ll have some of the locals clean tomorrow.”
Tomiko brushed strands of ebony hair from the baby’s face. “You have more important duties. I’m sorry I complained.”
He kissed his daughter’s chubby cheek. “I have no more important duties than caring for my wife and daughter.”
The woman beamed with pride and used her foot to tap a thick oilcloth packet of papers with the seal of the Serene Court in Singapore. “The emperor expects results from his youngest prefect. A few rats and bugs won’t matter in the long run.”
“He’ll get results, as he always has. Within a month, I intend to have coal and iron-ore sites surveyed. And I will need estimates on agricultural output. And I can manage to provide a clean home for my family.” Mamoru handed the baby back to his wife.
“Well, it is pretty here. The mountains are beautiful, and I saw lovely fields outside town.”
He pointed at her sternly. “Don’t be fooled. The forests are full of headhunters and cannibals.”
“And vampires?”
Mamoru shrugged. “They cannot be ruled out, but I don’t worry about them here in Yunnan. We are at the southern edge of their frontier. For my peace of mind, however, you are not to be outside this palace without an armed guard.”
“Of course.” She gave a plaintive look around the crumbling courtyard at the boundaries of her new world.
“Would you rather return home? You are free to. You said you wanted to be with me.”
“I do.” Tomiko reached out. “I want to be beside you and watch you as you create this place. And I want you to be with your daughter.”
“I couldn’t do it without you.” Mamoru took her wrist and kissed it. “I wouldn’t want to.”
Tomiko sat on the wooden veranda bouncing the baby as Mamoru began to pace the dirt. He grew animated as he explained how he intended to tame the wild fringes of the civilized world. The mines would expand. The farms would spread. The towns would rise. He would create a prosperous and powerful province on the northern frontier, a source of wealth for imperial growth as well as a brake on Equatorian expansion.
As Mamoru planned their future out loud, Tomiko took several crystals from her coat pocket and rolled them between her fingers. She tossed them on the wooden planks and stared at them. Her gasp caused him to pause in his speech, and she quickly snatched the crystals up again.
Mamoru asked with an indulgent smile, “What does your geomancy say about our path? Great things?”
“Nothing.” She wouldn’t meet his eyes.
“No?” He took the crystals from his wife’s unwilling fingers and studied them. His mind filled with images of lush green mountains and particular scents that he recognized. “These are from Java, aren’t they? One day, I would like to learn more about this science.”
Tomiko seemed flustered and nervous. “It’s a mere game not worth your time. You should focus on the real world. Build your political career.”
“I have. But in a few years, once I have made Yunnan into the richest province in the Empire, we will return to Singapore, where I will receive a high position at court. There will be little more I can accomplish in the realm of the known world, since I can’t become emperor.” Mamoru laughed. “I will need some new field to conquer. You said once I had great promise as a geomancer.”
She merely shook her head. “No.”
Mamoru bent over her worried face with a look of false alarm, and put a hand on her trembling shoulder. “Did your cast predict something dire? Am I doomed?”
Tomiko stood and struck the crystals from his hand. “Stop! Don’t mock it!”
The prefect stood with open mouth. He took his resistant wife by the arm. “I’m sorry.”
She reached inside the collar of his shirt and pulled out a thin chain with a small crystal in intricate silver filigree. She exhaled in relief when she saw it.
“What?” Mamoru looked at her with curiosity. “Are you surprised to see it? That’s the talisman you gave me last year. The perfect match to yours. I always wear it.”
“I just wanted to know you had it.” Tomiko squeezed her eyes tight and placed the palm of one hand on the side of his face. “Promise me you will never ask me about geomancy. I don’t want you to study it. Ever. I don’t want you to be that man.”
“I don’t understand. You said that I had great skills—”