“His name was Gakai,” the queen continued. “He listened to what the prince told him, then stayed up all night to watch over his sleep. That night, a terrible thing happened.” Her lips trembled. “A little past midnight, when everyone else had fallen asleep, I was jolted wide awake. I was conscious, but I could not move. I forced my head to turn and looked at the prince. It was amazing. He was … glowing, with a pale blue pulsing light. It was as if he were a chrysalis, with some other creature growing inside him.
“Then I heard a voice. The Star Reader was chanting, his voice shaking. I saw him raise a shining sword above my son. Forgetting myself, I gathered all my strength and screamed. Instantly, the light disappeared, almost as if I were waking from a dream. Sound and the chill night air returned, and I realized that during those moments I had heard and felt nothing. The prince lay sleeping as if nothing had happened, and for a moment I thought I truly had been dreaming.
“But it was clearly no dream, because the Star Reader was drenched in sweat, as if someone had thrown hot water over him. And he was glaring at me.”
“Glaring at you, Your Highness?”
The queen clenched her teeth. “He said something terrible, something absolutely outrageous to me. He must have been so ashamed that I had seen his fear, he —” She was trembling, but somehow she managed to spit out the words. “He pointed at the prince, and he dared to ask me whether the blood of the Mikado really ran in his veins!”
“But why?”
The queen glared at Balsa. “Why? I would like to know myself! No matter how I pressed him, he only shook his head. Then he said, ‘Sooner or later, he who sleeps there will die.’ ” Sobs escaped her lips. “I was furious. I asked him how he could predict the prince’s death without taking measures to protect him. But he said, ‘If he were truly of royal blood, that thing would not be inside him. So do not accuse me of foretelling the death of a prince.’ ”
The boy woke suddenly, startled by the sound of his mother’s weeping. He patted her timidly on the back, clearly trying to comfort her. Then he turned to glare at Balsa. His eyes were so strikingly like the queen’s that it wrenched her heart. “Did you insult my mother?” he demanded.
“Shh!” The queen covered his mouth with her small hand. “You have misunderstood. You chose a good time to wake, Chagum. I was asking her to save your life.”
Balsa broke into a cold sweat, acutely aware that she was being drawn inexorably into deep trouble. “Your Highness, please. Wait a minute.”
“No. Let me finish my story first. Please.”
Chagum looked up at his mother in surprise. Balsa was sure that he had never seen her plead with a commoner before.
“Chagum, you must listen carefully too. Although you are far too young, you must engrave my words on your mind, and remember that you may never have the chance to hear them again.”
He nodded obediently.
“I have thought day and night about what the Star Reader said. And I think that I finally understand. He did not reveal any details to me; in fact, I think that he himself does not know what is inside my son — only that it is so terrible it will kill him. But he did make one thing very clear: Whatever this creature is, no one from the gods could ever be chosen to harbor it. Therefore, if it is inside Chagum, he cannot possibly be the Mikado’s child. That is what the Star Reader meant.”
“You mean the Mikado is not my father?” Chagum stared at her wide-eyed.
She answered him clearly, her voice quiet but intense. “I swear by earth and heaven, you are the Mikado’s son.” Then she looked at Balsa. “That at least I know for certain. Which means that some power that even the Star Reader doesn’t understand is working upon Chagum. Thus I wrote in secret to a highly reputed magic weaver in the capital, presenting it as a riddle to solve rather than something that had actually happened.”
“What was the name of this magic weaver?”
“Master Torogai.”
“And the message went through? You were lucky. Torogai wanders like the wind and is almost impossible to find.”
Once again, the prince looked bewildered; obviously, he had never seen a commoner speak to his mother like this before, either. When Balsa smiled at him, he frowned. Not a very friendly child, she thought.
“Are you sure that magic weaver was any good?” he asked.
“Yes, as far as I could learn, the very best.” The queen looked calmer now, and a faint smile touched her lips. “This was the essence of the reply: ‘I cannot say exactly what this “creature” is, but if it is the thing believed to have been destroyed long ago, the bearer will only die if he fails to protect the creature inside him. If he can keep himself and the creature alive until the midsummer solstice, he should survive.’ ”
“That’s all?”
The queen nodded. “This reply seemed to offer only more riddles, so I immediately sent a second message asking for a clearer answer. But by then Torogai had left the capital — to go where, no one knew. Still, I was happy that there was some hope.” Her eyes grew stern again. “But my relief did not last. Very soon after that, the ‘accidents’ began. It was then that I realized the Star Reader’s words had another, more sinister, meaning.”
The prince clenched his fists.
“Rumors that the prince carries such a creature would destroy the Mikado’s reputation as a descendant of the gods. To prevent this, he decided to have Chagum killed before anyone finds out, and to make his death appear to be an accident.”
“My father? My own father?”
The queen put her hand over the boy’s mouth again and drew him close in a tight embrace. “You must not hate him. He has no choice. Listen. Should he try to help you by summoning an exorcist, rumors would be bound to spread. Then it would no longer affect just you; it would affect the Mikado’s honor, his reputation, the entire future of this country. As long as you are his son, the prince, he must kill you.”