"What! You think your forces will triumph? They'll be as bored as ours!"
"Yes, but when my men debate running away, they will remember that they have a much longer road home, over a sea whose tidesI control. Your men, on the other hand, will think of their wives and sweethearts, the comforts of their homes which stand oh, so much closer at hand! And that's to say nothing of the lure of home-cooking over army food. One fine day your kings and generals will wake up to face a sea of empty encampments. They will surrender out of pure embarrassment. All we need to do is outwait that day. It is only a matter of time."
Old One stared in awe at the Empress. Brilliant, she thought. She may be crazy-a three-year pregnancy? — but she's right. A war without battles can only endure for so long until even the most glory-blinded man gives it up as a bad bargain. And there are practical matters to consider as welclass="underline" Our kings can not feed their soldiers forever, not when those soldiers are the same men who must be home to till the fields. But the Japanese will be fed with supplies from their own land, carried on ships sped across the waters by those accursed Jewels. An empty belly swallows dreams of glory quickly. It is only a matter of time indeed, and then… defeat.
Old One got down on hands and knees and pressed her forehead to the mats. "O Empress, who can stand against the truth? I concede your eventual, inevitable victory and humbly offer you my services." Sitting back on her haunches, she added: "I have seen the banners of our armies raised on the hillside opposite this one. Let me go there to speak with the kings and the generals, let me explain to them the futility of prolonging this war. I am sure that we may reach an accord whose terms will satisfy both our peoples."
"Don't be silly," said the Empress. "What terms? I win, I get Korea. Well, my son the Emperor-to-be will get Korea, but I'll take care of it for him until he's old enough to appreciate it."
Old One did not care to hear her country spoken of as if it were a piece of Chinese porcelain to be kept out of reach of a rambunctious toddler. "Unconditional surrender? Is that all you will accept?"
"It's all I need to accept."
Old One scowled. The Empress met her angry look with an expression of utter composure. Both women knew that there was only truth behind Jingo's words, a truth that the Empress saw no need to honey-coat in order to make it more palatable.
The Empress could not know that Old One was as fond of honey as any bear, and just as liable to make reprisals if deprived of it.
You are as arrogant as a fortified town, O Empress, safe behind the walls of your goddess, and your Jewels, and your indisputable strategy, Old One thought, closing her eyes lest the sight of Jingo's complacent face should make her lose her temper at a diplomatically inadvisable juncture. I have never cared for walls. I swear that I will be the one to bring them down around your ears. Have I lived this long, mastered so much lore, learned so many spells, gathered so many memories and not one among them all will save my homeland? May the gods close my eyes with earth if that is so! The answer lies within me. The question now is only… where?
Old One retreated deep within herself, searching for the solution she knew she must find. With her eyes thus closed and her breathing slowed by deep contemplation, she lost all track of time. She was unaware that she had become the picture of an ancient woman who had grown weary of the world's commotion, had settled her dignity around her like a cloak, and simply had taken her leave. Her sudden silence and immobility alarmed the Empress, who grabbed her by the shoulder and called out her name in a most distracted manner.
"What?" Old One snapped like a turtle at this imperial interference with her meditations.
The Empress had not expected the presumed corpse to speak. She gasped and tottered back a few steps, her hands on her stomach. "Oh! Praise all the gods, you're still alive. For a moment, I thought- Don't ever do that again. Whenever I'm scared, it goes straight to my belly, makes my insides shake liketofu. Bad enough I've had morning sickness three years' running. You should apologize."
Old One's eyebrows twitched just the smallest degree. The three silver hairs that sprouted from the wart on her chin quivered. It was all the outward sign she gave to acknowledge that her prayers had been answered: She had her weapon.
Swiftly she clapped a look of the utmost concern over her face and shuffled forward on her knees to seize the Empress' hands. "A thousand pardons, august lady!" she wailed, swaying like a willow in a gale. "May the gods forgive me! What hideous harm have I perpetrated upon your royal beneficence? Oh, what have I done? What have I done?"
"Whathave you done?" the Empress asked, yanking her hands free of Old One's grasp. Although she had demanded an apology, she hadn't expected anything on this scale. She still looked worried, not so much for Old One's sake as for her own safety in the presence of a demented creature.
"The shock, my lady! The shock that I have inadvertently caused you. Do you not know how dreadfully bad it is for the unborn when the mother suffers any sort of emotional upheaval? I have lived long; I could tell you stories. My great-aunt's neighbor's brother's third wife was frightened by a wild monkey, and her son was born with the longest arms you ever saw. Thenher father's nephew's sister-in-law was startled by a rampaging stork, and so her son was born with the longest legs you ever saw. Andher sister's husband's cousin's bride was surprised by a runaway rooster, so her son was born with the longest- Well, they're not all tragedies, but still, can any woman take a chance when it is the very body of her child that may be unalterably altered?"
The Empress' eyes grew wide and wider as Old One's words played upon her fears. The aged seer contained her glee. Although she still could scarcely believe Jingo's tale of her amazingly extended pregnancy was real, the younger woman certainly was behaving like other first-time mothers: She was crossing unfamiliar territory and she was afraid.
"The gods-" Jingo faltered. "The gods would not allow any harm to come to my son."
Old One pressed her palms together. "What do the gods consider to be 'harm'? Health is one thing, appearance another. Do they view matters of mortal beauty as we do? Are all of them pleasing to the human eye?"
"Raiden… Raiden, the god of thunder, has fangs," the Empress admitted. "And Fujin, lord of the winds, has a most… astonishing aspect. His skin is the color of pitch, his feet and hands are taloned, and his face-his face is- Ah!" She covered her eyes and moaned. "Oh, my child, my child!"
Slowly Old One got to her feet and patted the Empress' back. "Do not fear, my lady. It has been proven that the unborn is only marked according to the nature of the thing that frightened its mother. It's not as if you were scared by the wind-god; just by me."
Jingo's head jerked up. "What do you mean?"
"I mean that if any change has befallen your child, he will enter the world looking no worse than this." Old One spread her arms wide and gave the Empress her broadest smile. Every wrinkle, every missing tooth, every bald patch, every brown spot and gnarled knucklebone and sag of slackened flesh on her body stood out in dreadful relief. Jingo gaped, then groaned.
Hmph! Thank yousomuch, Old One thought.Think you'lllook like a little plum blossom if you live to be my age? Keeping her resentment to herself, she reassured the Empress, saying: "Gracious lady, never fear! Your case is not hopeless. I can help you."
The Empress looked suspicious. "Why should I trust you or your remedies?"
"Think I'd poison you? Leave your troops without the one leader willing and able to fight a bloodless war? They'd run wild, burning crops, destroying villages, taking indiscriminate vengeance for your death on men, women, and children. Am I fool enough to make such a bad bargain for my people? The choice is plain: Trust me or trust to luck for your child's fate, O Empress."
Jingo rubbed her chin in thought for awhile, then said, "Tell me what you need."