The Harsh Cry of the Heron (24 page)

‘I am in love with it
already,’ Shigeko said to her father as they neared the shrine. ‘How can I ever
thank you?’

‘You must thank Dr
Ishida,’ Takeo replied. ‘It is his gift to us: a precious gift, too, for he is
as attached to it as you are, and has been acquainted with it for a long time.
He will show you how to look after it.’

‘It is a wonderful
thing to have in Hagi,’ Mori Hiroki exclaimed when he saw it. ‘How blessed are
the Three Countries!’

And Shigeko thought
so too. Even Tenba seemed captivated by the kirin, running to the bamboo fence
to inspect it and touching noses gently with it. The only sad thing was that
Hiroshi was leaving. But when she remembered the moment earlier that morning,
she thought perhaps it was for the best that he was going home.

When Takeo returned
to the residence after the welcome of the kirin he went straight to Kaede,
concerned for her state of health, but she seemed recovered and was seated on
the veranda on the northern side of the house, where the sea breeze brought a
certain coolness, talking with Taro, the eldest son of the carpenter Shiro, who
had returned to Hagi with his father to rebuild the city after the earthquake,
and who now spent his time carving statues from wood.

Takeo greeted him
cheerfully, and Taro replied without undue ceremony, for their past history had
bound them together in friendship and Takeo deeply admired the other man’s
skill, unequalled in the Three Countries.

‘For some time I have
had an idea of how I might create a figure of the Goddess of Mercy,’ Taro said,
looking at his hands as though he wished they might speak for him. ‘Lady Otori
has a suggestion.’

‘You know the house
near the seashore,’ Kaede said. ‘It has been empty for years, ever since Akane
died. People say it is haunted by her spirit, that she used spells to try to
bind Lord Shigeru to her and in the end was trapped by her own dark magic.
Sailors say she lights lamps on the rocks to give false messages to ships, for
she hates all men. Let us tear the house down and have the garden purified.
Taro and his brother will build a new shrine there, for Kannon, and the statue
he makes of her will bless the seashore and the bay.’

‘Chiyo told me Akane’s
story when I was a boy,’ Takeo replied. ‘But Shigeru never spoke of her, nor of
his wife.’

‘Maybe the departed
spirits of both women will find rest,’ Taro said. T picture a small building -
we will not need to cut down the pine trees but will build among them. A double
roof, I think, with deep curves like this, and interlocking elbow joints to
support it.’

He showed Takeo the
sketches he had made of the building. ‘The lower roof balances the upper,
giving it an appearance of strength and gentleness. I hope to give the Blessed
One the same attributes. I wish I could show you a sketch of her, but she
remains hidden within the wood until my hands discover her.’

‘Will you carve from
one tree?’ Takeo asked.

‘Yes, I am in the
process of choosing the piece now.’

They discussed the
variety of tree, the age of the wood and such matters. Then Taro left them.

‘It is a fine plan,’
Takeo said to Kaede when they were alone. ‘I am delighted with it.’

‘I believe I have a
special reason to be thankful to the goddess,’ she said quietly. ‘This morning’s
sickness, which has passed quickly . . .’

He grasped her
meaning and felt again the familiar mixture of delight and terror, that their deep
love for each other should have created another life, launched another being
into a new cycle of birth and death. It was the thought of death that caused
the terror, awaking all the fears from the past when twice his children had
threatened her life.

‘My dearest wife,’ he
murmured, and, since they were alone, he embraced her.

‘I am embarrassed,’
she said, laughing a little. ‘It seems so old to be bearing a child! Shigeko is
already a woman. Yet I am so happy too. I thought I would never conceive again,
that our chances of having a son were gone.’

‘I have told you many
times, I am happy with our daughters,’ he said. ‘If we have another girl, I
will be delighted.’

‘I don’t want to
speak the words,’ Kaede whispered, ‘but this one I am sure is a boy.’

He held her against
him, wondering at the miracle of the new creature already growing inside her,
and they remained in silence for some time, breathing in each other’s
closeness. Then the sound of voices from the garden, the maids’ tread on the
boards of the veranda drew them back to the everyday world.

‘Did the kirin arrive
safely?’ Kaede inquired, for Takeo had already revealed the nature of the
surprise to her.

‘Yes, its appearance
was everything I could have hope for. Shigeko fell in love on the spot. The entire
populace was silenced in astonishment.’

‘To silence the Otori
is no mean feat!’ Kaede replied. ‘I expect they have recovered their tongues
and are already making up songs about it. I will go and see it for myself
later.’

‘You must not go out
in the heat,’ Takeo said swiftly. ‘You must not exert yourself at all. Ishida
must come and see you at once, and you must do everything he tells you.’

‘Ishida also arrived
safely? I am glad. And little Chikara?’

‘He was very seasick
- he is ashamed about it. But very happy to see his brother.’ Takeo was silent
for a moment, and then said, ‘We will delay the question of adoption until the
birth of our child. I do not want to raise expectations that cannot be met
later, or to create complications for the future.’

‘This is wise,’ Kaede
agreed. ‘Though I fear Zenko and Hana will be disappointed.’

‘It is only a delay,
not an outright refusal,’ Takeo pointed out.

‘You have grown wise,
and cautious, husband!’ she said, laughing.

‘Just as well,’ he
replied. ‘I hope I have mastered the rashness and thoughtlessness of my younger
self.’ He was weighing up what he should say next and, coming to a decision,
said, ‘There were other passengers from Hofu. Two of the foreigners, and a
woman who interprets for them.’

‘For what purpose
have they come here, do you think?’

‘To increase their
opportunities for trade, I suppose; to see a little more of a country that is a
complete mystery to them. I haven’t had a chance to speak to Ishida yet. He may
know more. We need to be able to understand them. I hoped you might learn their
language, with the help of the woman who has come with them, but I do not want
to place any extra demands on you at this time.’

‘Studying, learning a
language is one of the things I delight in,’ Kaede replied. ‘It seems an ideal
occupation at a time when other activities must be curtailed. I will certainly
do it. But who is the woman who has come with them? It interests me that she
has mastered a foreign tongue.’

Takeo said in a
distant voice, ‘I do not want to shock you, but I must tell you. She is from
the East, and had lived for some time in Inuyama. She was born in the same
village I was, to the same mother. She is my sister.’

‘One of the two you
believed to be dead?’ Kaede said in astonishment.

‘Yes, the younger girl,
Madaren.’

Kaede frowned. ‘It is
a strange name.’

‘It is common enough
among the Hidden. She took some other name, I believe, after the massacre. She
was sold into a brothel by the soldiers who killed her - my -mother and sister.
She ran away to Hofu and worked in another brothel, where she met the foreigner
called Don Joao: she speaks their language well.’

‘How do you know all
this?’

‘We happened to see
each other in an inn in Hofu. I was in disguise, meeting Terada Fumio in the
hope, vain as it turned out, of intercepting smuggled weapons. We recognized
each other.’

‘But it must be years
. . .?’ Kaede was staring at him, partly in sympathy, partly in disbelief.

‘I am sure it is her.
We met one more time, briefly, and I was convinced of it. I had inquiries made
about her and learned something of her life. I told her I would provide for her
but I did not want to see her again. The gulf between us has become too vast.
But now she has come here  ...  It is natural that she should be drawn to the
foreigners, for their religion is in essence the same as the beliefs of the
Hidden. I will not recognize her as my relative, but rumours may well spread,
and I wanted you to hear the truth from me.’

‘Presumably she may
be very useful to us, both as an interpreter and as a teacher. Can you prevail
on her to become a spy?’ Kaede seemed to be making an effort to master her
surprise and speak rationally.

‘I am sure she will
be a source of information, wittingly or not. But information flows in both
directions. She may prove a useful way to plant ideas in the minds of the
foreigners. So I must ask you to treat her accordingly, with kindness, even
respect, but do not reveal any secrets to her, and never speak to her of me.’

‘Does she look like
you? I am longing to see her now.’

He shook his head. ‘She
looks like our mother.’

Kaede said, ‘You
sound so cold. Was it not a thrill to find her alive? Do you not want to bring
her into your family?’

‘I thought she was
dead. I grieved for her with the others. Now I don’t know how to treat her: I
have become someone quite different from the boy who was her brother. The gap
between our rank and status has become huge. Moreover, she is a fervent
believer: I believe in nothing, and will never adhere to our childhood religion
again. I suspect the foreigners want to spread their religion - to convert
people. Who knows why? I cannot let any one of the many ways of believing hold
sway over me, for I must protect them all from each other in case their
arguments tear our society apart.’

‘No one watching you
conduct the necessary ceremonies at temple and shrine would be convinced of
your disbelief,’ Kaede said. ‘And what about my new shrine and statue?’

‘You know my skills
as an actor,’ Takeo replied, with a sudden note of bitterness. ‘I am perfectly
happy to pretend belief for the sake of stability. But if you are of the Hidden
there can ultimately be no pretence where belief is concerned. You are exposed
to the all-seeing, pitiless gaze of God.’ If my father had not converted, he
would still be alive, he was thinking. And I would have been someone else.

‘Surely the god of
the Hidden is merciful?’ Kaede exclaimed.

‘To believers, maybe.
Everyone else is damned into Hell for eternity.’

‘I could never
believe that!’ Kaede said, after a moment’s deep thought.

‘Nor can I. But it is
what the Hidden believe, and so do the foreigners. We must be very wary of them
- if they think us damned already, they may feel justified in treating us with
contempt or malice.’

He saw Kaede tremble
slightly, and feared she had been touched by some premonition.

In the eighth month
came the Festival of the Dead. Seashore and riverbank were filled with throngs of
people, their dancing shapes stark against the blaze of bonfires, and countless
lamps floated on the dark water. The dead were welcomed, feasted and
fare-welled with the customary mixture of sadness and joy, dread and elation.
Maya and Miki lit candles for Kenji, whom they missed deeply, but their genuine
grief did not keep them from their newest pastime, tormenting Sunaomi and
Chikara. They had overheard the adult conversations and knew of the proposal to
adopt one or both of the boys, and they saw Kaede’s fondness for her nephews
and imagined she preferred them because they were boys.

They were not told
directly of Kaede’s pregnancy, but in the way of alert, watchful children they
discerned it, and the fact that it was not openly spoken of troubled them all
the more. The summer days were long and hot: everyone grew irritable. Shigeko
seemed to have advanced effortlessly ahead into adulthood and to have become
distant. She spent more time with their father, discussing the visit to the
capital the following year and other matters of state. Shizuka was occupied
with the administration of the Tribe.

The twins were never allowed
outside the castle grounds alone, and only on special occasions when
accompanied, but they were already extremely skilful in the ways of the Tribe,
and though they were not supposed to use these, because they felt bored and
neglected, they tried them out.

‘What’s the point of
all that training if we never use our talents?’ Maya grumbled quietly, and Miki
agreed with her.

Miki could use the
second self long enough to give the impression that Maya was in the room while
Maya took on invisibility in order to creep up on Sunaomi and Chikara and
terrify them with a ghost-like breath on the back of the neck, or sudden touch
on the hair. They had obeyed the rule against roaming outside, but it irked
them: both of them longed to explore the bustling, fascinating town, the forest
beyond the river, the area around the volcano, the wooded hill above the
castle.