Yamada Monogatari: To Break the Demon Gate (28 page)

They sent a runner ahead as one of the remaining
bushi
escorted me to the former home of Princess Teiko. We had just reached the gardens when Prince Kanemore himself came hurrying up. He dismissed the guard.

“Lord Yamada! Praise Buddha you are here.”

“Takahito?” I asked, afraid at what the answer might be.

“He is well. But there have been more deaths, last night and again the night before. A servant to His Majesty himself and an officer of the guard of the Minamoto Clan were both taken.”

“What says Enryaku-ji?”

“That we need to round up more itinerant priests. Master Dai-wu insists there are many such still within the city.”

“I pray he is right. I’ve asked Kenji to bring them together.”

Kanemore frowned. “The priest will work against his own?”

“To the contrary—the priest and his lay brothers will help us save Prince Takahito’s life, if it is not already too late.”

“You know who our enemy is? Who is responsible for these attacks?”

“I do. It is Lord Sentaro.”

Kanemore glared at me. “Lord Yamada, are you going to start this again? I know that Master Dai-wu is not responsible! He could not be!”

“He isn’t. I said Lord Sentaro. I said nothing about Master Dai-wu.”

Now Prince Kanemore stared at me as if I had just started barking like a dog. “Lord Yamada, please stop speaking nonsense. Lord Sentaro
is
Master Dai-wu! They are the same man!”

“I once thought that. Now I know better. Thanks to Lady Snow.”

“Lady Snow? The messenger mentioned a prisoner. Has she some part in this?”

“A very major part, Prince Kanemore, the precise nature of which I have yet to sort out. I will need to speak to her again and soon, after I’ve had a little time to consider. But you can be certain she was acting on Lord Sentaro’s orders when she tried to kill me. Reluctantly, at least in Lord Sentaro’s regard, I am sure. He doesn’t want me dead. Yet.”

“And what proof do you have for any of this?”

“None,” I said. “Not one scrap. Except for the attempted assassination. I have a witness for that. Kenji.”

“Who is under threat of arrest as soon as he shows himself,” Prince Kanemore said. “Honestly, Lord Yamada, I want to believe you . . . ”

I smiled at my friend. “I am not asking you to believe me, Kanemore-sama. I am asking you to trust me.”

Prince Kanemore stood silent for several long moments, staring at nothing. I felt every one of those moments like a dying heartbeat. He finally grunted.

“What do you need me to do?”

I started to breathe again, and then I told him. “You will let it be known that, in two days’ time, Prince Takahito and his immediate household will be removed from the Imperial Compound and relocated to the Mansion of the Southwest Ward.”

Kanemore frowned. “The Sixth Ward mansion? That place is only used in times of sickness. Takahito is healthy as a bull.”

“I’m pleased to hear it. But you will say Prince Takahito has fallen ill and that, in the meantime, priests will be brought in to recite prayers for his recovery. One of Enryaku-ji’s best spies is currently in your custody, but she will be far from the only one. Word will reach the temple by nightfall.”

“Speaking of the woman you call Lady Snow, I would like to question her,” Kanemore said.

I sighed. “I know, and there will be a time when all your questions will be answered. Again, you must trust me when I tell you this time I speak of is not now. Let me question her first.”

“Very well. Use whatever methods you deem necessary. But just to be clear on this point: if anything happens to Prince Takahito, it is my honor . . . and your head.”

I almost smiled. Not because I thought he was joking, because I knew he was not. Rather, what I found humorous was the idea that, in such an event, my head would still matter to either of us.

“For the sake of both let us hope I am right. If I am wrong . . . well, the disposition of my head will be the least of our troubles.”

Kanemore conceded the point. “Is there anything else?”

“Two things. When I was at Court in my youth, Princess Ai had a young attendant, no more than ten years old at the time. Her name, if I recall right, was Maiya. Is she still at Court?”

“Yes, and still in attendance on Princess Ai . . . which is frankly astounding, given Ai’s temper. She’s married now to one of the Taira
bushi
under my command.”

“That complicates matters . . . oh, wait. Request that her husband be sent to relieve one of the guards we stationed at Lady Snow’s house, and that his wife accompany him. Say the prisoner needs a temporary attendant during his watch. There’s nothing improper in a married woman flitting about the city with her own husband as escort.”

“True enough, but you’re sending a noblewoman to wait attendance on an
asobi
? It’s an insult!”

“I do not believe the lady in question will find it so,” I said, and Kanemore scowled.

“Is Lady Maiya involved in this too?”

“Not at all. Yet I believe she may have some knowledge that will prove helpful to me if I am to get at the truth. As for the second matter . . . ” I reached into my sleeve and pulled out a small scroll. “Will you have this message delivered to the boy named Nidai at Lady Snow’s place of confinement?”

“Easily arranged.”

Kanemore took the scroll and, after I explained what would be required of Nidai, he left to start his preparations. It was past time that I saw to my own.

Logically I had every right to find satisfaction in what I was about to do, but I did not. In fact, I found myself dreading the whole sordid business. I think Lady Snow had fully expected me to kill her there on the road to Nara. I thought, perhaps, in time she would come to wish I had done exactly that, for if my suspicions were correct, what I was about to do to her was much worse.

I made contact with Kenji at several points during the day. He was still traveling as “Kenji-san,” not as a priest, and using one more set of spare clothes I had managed to scrounge in order to slip his brother priests into the now-shuttered hostel south of the Demon Gate.

He paused in the fragrant shade of a
sugi,
its evergreen fronds whispering in the breeze. I passed him a wine bottle.

He spat and then swore. “There is water in this wine bottle!”

“And that is all you’re going to drink until this matter is settled. If you behave yourself, next time I will bring tea. I need us both sober, Kenji-san.”

“Tyrant.”

“When necessary. How many mendicants have you located so far?”

“Twelve. How many do we need?”

“Sixteen at the least, and better more than fewer. Don’t make me go calling at any of the other temples to fill out the number. While many of them are no friends of Enryaku-ji, that’s still a risk I’d rather not take. How much time do you need?”

“As much as you can give me. Kintaro tells me of two more hiding in the Sixth Ward, and Gen claims there is one hiding in the Gion Shrine itself. I’ll see if I can find them. They may know of others.”

“It wouldn’t surprise me if the priests of Gion felt the urge to break wind in the direction of Enryaku Temple,” I said. “No matter. Since all must be in readiness by tomorrow night, you must be done by tomorrow noon at the latest. You know as well as I that some of your brothers will need instruction in the proper execution of their duties beforehand. Your lives and ours will depend on it.”

“They will be ready,” Kenji said grimly.

“I’ll leave it to you then.”

“Right now I’m more concerned with my failing legs than my brother priests’ neglected spiritual practices.”

Kenji was free to grumble so far as I was concerned, just as long as he did what he was supposed to do. After a brief rest he was off his rear and on his feet again. I didn’t want to tell him I’d have traded assignments with him in a heartbeat if it were possible.

My next goal was the shop of the illustrious Chang Yu. I was afraid the recent crackdowns may have spread to the old Daoist as well, but I found him in his shop, looking like a fat angry spider.

“I’ll speculate,” I said, “Enryaku-ji has left customers both frightened and scarce?”

“Those infernal monks say I am a bad influence,” Chang Yu said, scowling. “Chinese magic and foreign ideas, that I am no better than those unsavory homeless priests who used to wander the city. I suppose I am next, Lord Yamada. Really, now, should an honest tradesman be subject to such abuse?”

“Suppose I were to tell you there may be a way that we can help each other?”

“I would assume in such a case it involves personal danger.”

“A bit,” I admitted. “But no more dangerous than sitting around here waiting for the monks to surrender to the impulse to pull your shop down around your ears.”

“Point taken,” the old man said. “I’ve lived a long while, that doesn’t mean I am quite finished with this old body just yet. What do you want of me?”

“When you trapped that spirit in the alley behind your shop some weeks ago, your barrier prevented the ghost from moving in one direction only. Its own spiritual compulsions would not allow it to move in any other direction. Can you confine a spirit who has no such compulsions? Say, in a house?”

“I suppose,” Chang Yu said, frowning. “The barriers extend through the earth and upwards on the same curve. It would be a tricky affair, mind. Three barriers would have to be in place before the creature entered, and the fourth barrier put in place to complete the sphere the moment the spirit is inside. Contact with any of the other barriers already in place might give warning.”

“So you’re saying we would first have to know by which direction the spirit will be entering, yes?” The old magician indicated this was so, and I went on, “Do not fear. We know.”

Chang Yu scratched his scraggly beard. “Is this a powerful spirit?”

“I have never seen one more so,” I said. “Are your barriers up to the task?”

At first Chang Yu appeared affronted, but it did not last. He scratched his beard again. “You must realize, Lord Yamada, that the spirit in the alleyway was a small, pitiful thing.”

“You were listening when I addressed it the first time, yes?”

Chang Yu didn’t answer me directly, but then he didn’t need to. I considered his eavesdropping a foregone conclusion.

“I honestly cannot say what will happen, Yamada-sama,” he said finally. “While I have yet to meet the spirit that could defy my barriers, I do not claim such spirits do not exist.”

“We must risk it, Master Chang Yu. For the future of many people, including what’s left of your own.”

“I will need an assistant,” Chang Yu said. “Some of this must be done quickly, and I am not so young as I once was.”

“If you will direct the placements, I will see to it. If you do your best and the barriers fail, you have my permission to run as fast as those scrawny old legs can carry you.”

Chang Yu grinned, showing what few teeth he had left. “You might be surprised,” he said, “at just how quickly an old man can run, properly motivated.”

There was little more to do until evening. I returned to the Widow Tamahara’s establishment. I felt somewhat better after some tea and rice. I was considering taking a nap when Nidai appeared on the veranda.

“Nidai-kun. I was beginning to wonder if you were coming.”

“The guard didn’t want to let me go,” he said sullenly, “but then I showed him what you had written. Is it true? Will you help her?”

“I must tell you the truth, Nidai-kun, and I expect the same from you. You are almost a man now, and these are grave matters indeed. Do you understand?”

“
Hai,
Yamada-sama.”

“Very well. The truth is that Lady Snow’s life is no longer in my hands. When we returned to the capital I had to place her in the custody of Prince Kanemore, as I did not have the authority to hold her.”

“You could have let her go,” Nidai said.

“I could have cut her head off on the road to Nara, too,” I said. “But I did not. So, there we have two paths not taken. How much time shall we waste discussing what is no longer possible?”

He bowed. “I am sorry. I am . . . concerned.”

“Rightly so. You are in trouble, your mistress is in a great deal of trouble and likely to be in more before long. I want to help you both.”

Nidai started to say something but hesitated. “What is it, Nidai?” I asked.

“It’s just that . . . well, you said you wanted the truth. Lady Snow tried to kill you. I did as she commanded
because
she commanded. I bear neither you nor Kenji-san any ill will, but my one regret is that I did not serve her better. Why would you wish to help either of us?”

I grunted. “Spoken like a man and a sensible one at that. Your question deserves an answer, Nidai-kun. It’s true I am very angry with Lady Snow, but I want to help your mistress because I believe it will be to my ultimate advantage to do so. Now, whatever follows next, I cannot guarantee her life. As I said, that is beyond my power. Yet what we will ask of you in the days ahead will require bravery, as it involves a great deal of danger. If you serve us well, that fact will weigh on the scale in your favor and in more eyes than my own. I assume you showed my letter to Lady Snow?”

He reddened slightly then. “Yes. Was that wrong?”

“It was expected. What did she tell you? Again, I want the truth.”

“She instructed I do as you command and that I not attempt anything foolish on her behalf.”

“Very well. Report to the eastern gate of the Imperial Compound and take this,” I produced a second letter, “to Prince Kanemore. He is expecting you. It is my command that you obey him in every detail, though I’m certain he’ll expect no less with or without my word.”

“A real prince?” Nidai looked a little pale.

I kept my smile hidden. “None more so. Now off with you. Time is short.”

Nidai hurried away, and I heard the closing of the compound gate. I thought of where he had come from, what he had known growing up on the streets of the capital. One would consider himself a fool if he did not immediately flee his captors now that he had the chance, and get as far away as possible. That is, one would do so if he had been allowed to remain as he was, but I knew Lady Snow had permitted no such thing. Nidai had changed. I was about to place the boy in great peril for my own selfish reasons, but I knew he would not run and take joy in so refusing. There had been a time when I assumed one such as Nidai was unworthy to be Lady Snow’s servant. Now it was my fervent hope she might still prove worthy of
him.