The next morning dawned with sunshine, but it did nothing to warm the frigid air over the island. I awoke with some sense of dread towards what the day would bring. The Nageeya were silent as we ate our breakfast, seeming to have the same sense of foreboding hanging over them as I did. Hotaki ate with us, but he said nothing to any of us before he left to join his lord.

The four of us—the three Nageeya and I—knelt around the table, a deep silence hanging over us, the slightest breath drawn in feeling too loud in the stillness.

The door slid open. I glanced up, seeing Hotaki come in, holding four small scrolls. He went to Komo's side; the blind woman was kneeling under the stairs, her eyes closed as if in meditation. I saw him bend towards her ear, and could hear the gentle hiss of whispering.

Komo stood and came towards us, kneeling at the table. I glanced up again, and could see Hotaki tapping the four scrolls in his hand.

"Three of you will be going home," he said. "On three scrolls, you have a note, and the payment for your families or houses for their gracious offer in sending you here. On only one scroll is the dragon of Lord Ashiro-han's house. The one with the dragon is the next bride."

He handed us the scrolls one by one, and each one of us opened them in turn. Fumei and Omei both looked relieved; Amei turned gray when she saw her scroll, swallowed, and closed her eyes.

It was finally my turn. I lifted my scroll with trembling hands, seeing the number set in the wax, the same number that had been painted on my mask. I broke the wax seal and opened the scroll.

Staring back at me were the gold eyes of the white dragon, its fangs bared and its body twisting and coiling on the deep blue field.

I swallowed, my breath catching in my lungs. The air suddenly felt stale, and it was all I could do to keep from pitching forward in a faint.

I glanced back at the Nageeya, then back at Hotaki. He gave me a look, holding out his hand. I gave him the scroll, and his eyes popped open, bulging from his face. He looked down at me.

"You?" He looked at the scroll again. "You? It is…I didn't think…Fumei and Omei are Nageeya, and they did exceedingly well, but…there must be some mistake." He rolled the scroll back up, placing the two pieces of wax together. Surely enough, the character for the number four appeared—the same character painted on my mask the day before.

"Is it Matamura Yori?" Komo asked.

"Yes," Hotaki replied, handing the scroll back to me.

I didn't want to look at the Nageeya. My eyes went to the scroll, staring at the dragon. There had to have been come mistake. Why would Lord Ashiro-han have chosen me out of highly skilled Nageeya?

A nobleman seeks to marry a woman, not an entertainer, Hotaki.

Lord Ashiro-han's words echoed in my brain. I was, in the least bit, a woman. I was still a girl, by most standards. Was it something I had said that had caused him to see me as a more fitting candidate for a bride?

"Komo," said Hotaki. "Please escort Yori upstairs, that you might prepare her to be presented to Lord Ashiro-han." He took the scroll from me, rolling it up and tucking it into his sleeve.

"Of course."

Komo and I stood, my feet feeling like they were frozen in blocks of ice, the floor heaving and tilting underneath me. The climb up the stairs felt like a mile long climb up the side of a mountain. I glanced down at the Nageeya. Amei and Omei looked away, but to my surprise, Fumei dipped her head, touching her fingers to her lips to sign that she was praying for me.

What I didn't know, at that time, was that it was the last I would see of the three Nageeya for several months.

I knelt at the steps of the altar inside the island's temple, wearing the same robe as I had during the bridal test, but this time I wore no mask. My face was painted for the sealing ceremony, and I had one of the same straw hats on my head. Komo and Hotaki knelt at my sides, though I wished I had Mother and Father there with me. It was tradition that parents were present at the sealing ceremony to hand over the daughter, but Mother and Father had already handed me over to Lord Ashiro-han, their sending me to the island being the permission the lord needed to marry me.

I didn't look at the priest. I kept my eyes focused on the step of the altar, not looking up when I heard the clack of wooden sandals on the stone floor. A cage came into my view, two doves seated on their perch.

I kept my head lowered; it was the first time Lord Ashiro-han would see my face. He already knew that he had chosen the daughter of Matamura Tatsuo; Hotaki had informed him before the sealing ceremony had begun. Lord Ashiro-han knew that I was only eighteen, and he knew that I was small, but he did not know my face. He had known my eyes. Would he not like my face? Would he be disappointed at his decision?

He knelt, and the priest—who Hotaki had called Teku—unrolled his scroll, beginning the words for the ceremony.

The Creator calls us together

One man and one woman

United on this sacred night

Bound together through the word

Of the Creator

"Inugoya Ashiro-han," he said, skipping the part where Lord Ashiro-han asked my parents' permission, "and Matamura Yori-no, you have come before the Creator to seal this covenant in the Creator's presence. May the blessing of the Creator and all the Seven Spirits of the Inner Circle of Paradise rest upon you, until the day on which the covenant is fulfilled by the union of man and wife."

He then took my hand, dripped the wax on it, did the same for Lord Ashiro-han, and brought our hands together. I shuddered when Lord Ashiro-han's hand touched mine; I started when I saw how tiny and pale my hand was compared to his. I did not look at his face, and kept my head lowered so my hat hid my face from his view.

The priest made the blessing sign over our hands and pulled them apart. Lord Ashiro-han presented me with the cage of doves, and I took it, handing it over to Komo. He then stood and offered his hands to me. I took them, letting him help me to my feet. As I stood, he released one of my hands, and took my chin, lifting my face so I had to look at him. I swallowed when I again thought of how much younger he was than I had first expected. He was younger than Itsua-han, and Father and Mother…I looked away, my face burning with the thought of him being my future husband, of having to lay with him.

He kept a hold on my chin and turned my head to the side, much like Hotaki had when he had first seen me. He then released me, stepping back to look me up and down. He said nothing, his scrutiny bringing heat to my face. His eyes alone felt like they were poking me, prodding and groping every inch of me. He stepped away from me and bowed. "Good night, Yori," he said. "I will see more of you in the days leading to the wedding."

I bowed in return, surprised that he was leaving. He turned and left the temple, and Hotaki and Komo led me out the other door.

"Why did he leave?" I asked.

"He has important matters to attend to," Komo said. "He hasn't the time to dine with us tonight."

I fell into silence, picking at the wax in my palm. Komo and Hotaki led me on the path, taking me back to the guest quarters. I would be moved to my own chambers within the main building the next morning, to prepare me for the wedding.

"Why me?" I asked aloud.

"What?" Komo turned her face to me.

"Why did he choose me of all the women?"

"You answered honestly," Hotaki replied. "When he asked the other girls if they wanted to marry him, they all said yes."

"You were the only one who said no," Komo said. "Lord Ashiro-han was looking for a wife with virtues. You happened to be honest, and he decided an honest wife, rather than a pretty one, or a talented one, or a skilled one, was the best choice."

"He said he had seen my eyes before," I said.

Komo and Hotaki stopped; Hotaki threw Komo a confused look. He drew Komo aside and went up the path out of earshot, whispering in her ear. I stood, watching them, puzzled at their behavior. Hotaki finished whispering to Komo and came back to my side.

"Is there anything wrong?" I asked.

"Nothing," Hotaki said. He offered me his arm and we set back on our way, joining Komo.

They said nothing to me the rest of the night. When I returned to the empty guest room and set the doves on their stand, I let my mind wander to all that had happened, from the conversation between Hotaki and his lord, to Hotaki and Komo's puzzlement when I told them that Lord Ashiro-han knew my eyes.

I went to the bathhouse alone, peeling off the robes and letting my hair down. The hot water seeped into my bones and eased the tension and the ache, and I dipped my face in the water to wipe away the paint.

I sank further into the water and rested my head on the stone ledge, staring up at the opening in the ceiling. The waning moon could be seen through it, and I could see the silhouette of a little bird perched there. I sat up, squinting to see the bird better, but it flew away, its chirp fading.

Its shape was that of a warbler…could it have been the bird I saved from the ice?

I didn't think any more of it as I finished my bath. I was tired, and I didn't want to spend the rest of my night kept awake by all the questions I was asking myself.

I turned my head over my shoulder to look at the reflection of my back. The Eung I had made into a tea that morning did well to ease the pain of the needles; all I felt was a dull ache.

The dragon's head sat at the base of my neck, the body coiled between my shoulder blades. Around it, my skin was red from the irritation, but by the day of the wedding, it would have looked better.

I glanced at Teku; the priest was packing away the bamboo, his ink, and the needles he had used for the tattoo. Only a priest could make such wonderful pieces of art, as it was an extremely sacred ceremony. The incense still smoldered from his beginning prayer, and I was beginning to feel sleepy from laying on my stomach all day.

He showed indifference to my state of nakedness. I had panicked when Komo had begun to pull my robe down to expose my upper body in Teku's presence, only to realize how foolish I had been when Teku opened his tattoo case.

He said nothing, bowed, and took his leave. I was alone in the room, and turned to look again at the dragon. It was outlined in deep green, its eyes the same gold, and the white of its scales looking like Teku had painted it on with a brush. I was convinced there was some sort of magic involved, as I had never seen a tattoo like it.

Komo came in shortly after the priest had left. I lifted my robe to cover my chest, but stopped, remembering Komo's blindness. She had a bowl with steam rising from it, and offered it to me. It was hot broth; my stomach growled when I realized I hadn't had anything to eat all day. I took a sip of the broth and looked up at Komo, wondering about her eyes, the lack of the comb, why she of all people was master of the house.

She knelt across from me, drawing a small scroll of parchment from her sleeve. "I did not think that you would have been Lord Ashiro-han's choice."

I paused, lowering the bowl from my face. "I didn't think either."

Komo unrolled the scroll, and I watched her flatten it on the floor, running her fingers over it. There was nothing on the scroll, but when I looked harder, I could see bumps and grooves.

"You are the youngest of his brides," Komo said. "His first bride was a few years older than he was."

I glanced up. Komo was still running her fingers over the paper.

"He was younger than you when he took his first wife," Komo continued. "After the deaths of his father and his older brothers, his advisor urged him to bear an heir should any ill fate befall the last son. His advisor offered his own daughter to Lord Ashiro-han."

"How did she die?" I asked.

Komo's fingers stopped moving. "What?"

"The first wife," I said. "What caused her death?"

"She fell," Komo said. "The stairs down to the cove were covered in ice, and she wasn't being careful."

"And the second wife?"

Komo drew her brows together, her frown deepening the lines in her foxlike face. "Why do you ask?"

"Surely if six women have died before me, I might see a pattern, and take the necessary precautions so that I might not suffer the same fate."

Komo tensed, and I could tell I had hit a delicate subject.

"I overheard Hotaki and Lord Ashiro-han when I was…when I was outside," I continued. "It was before my bridal test. Hotaki was saying that Lord Ashiro-han needed a son and—"

"Of course he does." Komo cut me off. "He is growing older, and he has been lord of our region for seventeen years without bearing a single child."

I did the math in my head, though it took some time. If Lord Ashiro-han was younger than I was, possibly sixteen or seventeen, when he became lord and took his first wife, then seventeen years from then…he would only have been in his early thirties. "He must not be that old," I said. "Can he not father a child?"

Komo paused. Her silence allowed me to continue.

"If he has not fathered any children, certainly he might…he might not be able to."

"It is not that he can't," Komo said. "His last wife died in childbirth, along with the baby. The fourth one, too, suffered a miscarriage that killed her."

"How can he be so cruel?"

Komo lifted her head. "Cruel?"

"Does he not know that each one of his wives will die? Are his wives not doomed by marrying him?"

"He is not a prophet," Komo said. She sighed, rolling up her scroll. A sudden sadness came over her face, and as she tucked the scroll into her sleeve, I thought I saw a glistening of tears in her eyes. "Teku said the time is right."

"The time is right for what?"

"For the lord to bear his son." She stood. "There are things you must understand, Yori, and things you can't until the time is fit for you to understand them. Your only duty is to be a wife, and, should the Creator will it, a mother."

I turned my attention back to the broth to finish it as Komo left. At the end of the week, I would pass from the house of one man to the house of another man, with no choice of my own. If I had a choice, I would have gone far away to the west, where women could choose who they wanted to marry, where they were seen as their own person rather than the possession of their fathers and husbands.

Something splashed into the broth; I realized it was a tear. I reached up and wiped it away, but I only felt more welling in my eyes. I set the bowl aside and put my face in my hands. My only purpose to these people of Lord Ashiro-han's house was to carry a child. I wasn't ready to be a mother.

I stayed there, hunched over, my face buried in my hands as I wept for the future I would have to face.