Chapter 28
The Empress' Last Stand
Forbidden Precinct, Tianjing
Among the Han, white was traditionally the color of mourning and so Masako was dressed all in white. The Wo were also known to wear white when performing ritual suicide, provided they had the opportunity to observe all the forms. And yet Masako found herself remembering her wedding kimono. When she married Sturla, the ceremony was in the Han fashion, but when she married Batista, she had a traditional wedding according to the customs of her own people. For traditional weddings among the Wo, white had a different meaning. It all seemed like so long ago.
The Capital would fall. That much was certain. Sturla had the reactor rigged to the vital signs of himself, Masako and Snorri. When all three of them were dead, the failsafes would be disabled and the reactor would go critical, destroying the Capital along with the invaders. It was one last spiteful stab at an enemy they never had any hope to overcome.
Snorri was at her side and before each of them was a little pedestal that had a knife with a pure white hilt and sheath that looked like one seamless piece. Masako's knife was much smaller because for women, you cut open the veins of the neck. Snorri, however, had the far more difficult task of seppuku, cutting open the belly. You did not die quickly this way and the idea was for warriors to bear the pain in quiet dignity, but for mercy's sake, there was a secondary who would take the head if the warrior's reserve would falter. Snorri's bodyguard Gou Lijun would have this honor. Though women were not normally afforded a secondary, Masako had Jung-hwa with her to ensure the job was done in case there was any interference.
She looked at the Little Companion on her wrist. She could monitor their lifesigns this way, otherwise she would not allow a piece of modern technology to pollute the solemnity of this ancient rite. Sturla was dead and if he was dead, it could only mean Batista was dead as well. The invaders would likely kill her and Snorri next or worse. At very least, they could die on their own terms.
She touched her stomach. It was a cruel turn for the young life growing within her, but she remembered the vow she made to Batista. The child would be born into the world a Princess of the Empire or not at all. To think that she would lose her daughter twice, this time by her own hand...
"Mother..." Snorri quailed.
"Courage, Snorri," Masako told him. "You are the Crown Prince. You have your duty to your father, your ancestors and to the Empire. We will show these dogs how the Sons of Heaven live and die."
"Your Majesty, serving you has been the greatest honor of my life," Jung-hwa said. "I will be following shortly after that I might continue to serve you in the world beyond."
"Dame Jung-hwa speaks well," Gou said. "It is my one regret that I will not see the day when Your Highness sits on the Phoenix Throne."
Heaven smiled on them that they should have such good and faithful servants. It was a waste of such good people to have them follow their masters in death, but surely death was preferable to whatever awaited them at the hands of the invaders. Surely, yes?
Masako resisted the urge to sigh. It would be better to get things over with, but she had resolved herself to first face her enemy that they might bear witness to her final act of defiance.
She did not have to wait much longer. They burst into the chamber dressed all in black like assassins, like the very assassins who slaughtered her household and murdered her father before her very eyes. Blindly, she had turned her knife on them instead of herself, but what could a 17-year-old girl hope to do against trained killers who overcame a great warrior like her father? She would not make the same mistake this time.
She bowed to the invaders as a proper host would and said, "Welcome to the Palace of Earthly Divinity. I regret that I cannot offer you the hospitality of the palace as your arrival was unannounced."
Speaking a language fairly similar to Celestial, the apparent leader among the invaders said, "In the name of His Majesty the Emperor, I order you to surrender. Lay down your weapons and put your hands on your head, interlocking your fingers. Do not resist."
"The Emperor is dead," Masako replied. "We must observe a period of mourning before a new one can be crowned, but I doubt you will allow that to happen."
"I am speaking of the true Emperor," the invader said, "not the pretender who reigned here. Surrender."
"My husband did not surrender and neither shall I."
She took her knife and unsheathed it, but before she could bring the blade to her neck, a girl's voice cried, "Mother!"
Masako stopped. It could not be, but there was Yasuko, clad in black like the invaders.
"Mama," she said, speaking in Wo, "it's over."
The knife fell from Masako's hand. Her resolve, her reserve, it all collapsed like a castle of sand. The tears welled up in her eyes and she wept. She wept as she had never done in her life, not when her father was murdered, not when she thought Yasuko was dead. No, this betrayal was worse than death. Nothing mattered anymore.