Norinaga would come. Lord Ujimitsu would turn on him, making him the hero of the day.
When he came, would I be of any use? What if Lord Ujimitsu couldn’t handle him? Would the cherry tree kami consent to come into that soiled and raw place inside me?
“I can take Hosokawa,” said Lord Ujimitsu. “Fox magic doesn’t scare me.”
“And the Imperial guards will be close by,” said Zeami.
I had more confidence in Ashikaga’s tumbling and fire tricks to deal with fox magic than either Lord Ujimitsu’s bravado or my broken connection to the kami. But Zeami made it clear my job was to stop my lordling from interfering once Norinaga did come.
I swallowed a bitterness that tasted nothing of the tea.
Lord Ujimitsu left first. A few moments later, Zeami followed him out the door, leaving me with a gentle squeeze on my shoulder that was everything fatherly. I gathered the tea things, chest, and stacked trays to carry back to the kitchen. An excuse for my absence. Uneasiness lodged like hot slivers in my chest. I’d been down this path before, planning things behind my lordling’s back. It wasn’t going to go neatly or cleanly, but I couldn’t think of any other way.
As soon as Beautiful laid eyes on me in the kitchen, she swept me into the restless scurrying of the preparations again, not letting me sit or stand until midday when the servants from the Emperor’s court began to arrive.
I’d thought Kazue full of her own importance. The ladies had their noses stuck so high up in the air it was amazing they didn’t trip. Layer upon layer of robe made them look round as bundled rice sheaves. Their dress made them so useless, in fact, that along with a resentful Beautiful and some of the older, less pretty maids, I was relegated to fetching their robes, ferrying drinks, and rearranging rugs. None of them lifted a finger for fear of messing the drape of their robe or ruining the exquisite placement of their fans and combs. After treading the path from cherry trees to kitchen three times for “just a mouthful of water” or “a sweet morsel,” I bubbled over with irritation like a teapot left too long on a brazier. This would not do. During one of my trips I’d detoured to the servants’ door to carefully nestle the netsuke fox carving on the post just under the eaves, but I ached to go check it. Had Norinaga seen it? Taken it? What if one of the servants took it down? What if Norinaga ignored Lord Ujimitsu’s note and the temptation of the netsuke invitation?
It was almost noon. I stepped in front of Beautiful as she left the cool shade of the stone kura cellar. Her arms were laden with zabuton, the same ones I’d just brought back from the pavilion two trips ago because they were “just a tiny bit musty.”
“I need a favor.”
Beautiful rolled her eyes. “I’m done doing favors. What? Now you’re frail as the imperial girls?” Beautiful’s voice tended to carry. I glanced around. Luckily, the nearest person in Imperial livery was way on the other side of the yard. I didn’t need extra attention, but I did need Beautiful’s help.
My younger sister always had a small, innocent way about her that made people want to help her. Even just for one of her smiles. I tried out May’s shy smile.
Beautiful guffawed, shifting the zabuton to one hip. “Stop, oh stop. You look like a cat with a crab clutching its tail. What is it you want?”
“I need an excuse to enter the main pavilion.”
“You and I aren’t getting within a stone’s throw of the main pavilion, not with all those Imperial girls cluttering up the place.”
“Help me, please?”
Beautiful’s eyes narrowed. “More noble plots?”
I stepped closer, lowering my voice to a conspiratorial whisper. A little truth might help. “Lord Ujimitsu is stirring up trouble. I need to get near Lord Yoshinori.”
“In case he needs his rug dragged to the other side of the pavilion? What else are you good for?”
“You know what I can do.” Or used to be able to do. Maybe still could do. My hand crept over the ache in my lower belly.
“Fine, fine,” said Beautiful. “No need to spell it out within hearing of Imperial servants. Help me with these.” She dumped half of her pile into my arms. We brought them to a group of ladies sitting under the outermost cherry tree, robes artfully arranged so the sumptuous designs didn’t clash. As we left, titters erupted behind us.
“Dress me in one of your silk robes. I can sneak in.”
Beautiful got a hard glint in her eyes. “Hardly.”
I hesitated in front of the steps leading to the back of the main building’s verandah. It was asking a lot, true, and obviously I couldn’t maintain the charade for long, but surely Beautiful could get me dolled up enough to pass for a short while. I just had to get close to Ashikaga.
My desperation must have shown through. Beautiful made a clucking noise with her tongue, equal parts exasperation and amusement. “You can’t pass as one of those gilded lilies. You can’t hide what you are.”
My cheeks flushed, even as anger tightened my throat. I’d saved the life of the Daimyo and one remark from Beautiful made me feel like I’d never left Ashikaga Village at all. I was still the Tiger Year spinster, more suited to rice-baling than soiling thin porcelain or costly silk with my dirty, calloused fingers.
Beautiful leaned in, making sure I couldn’t look away. “Lord Yoshinori’s lover.”
The flush traveled all the way down my neck and arms. No one had said it so baldly before. Guilt gave me a twinge for assuming she’d wanted to shame me. “That doesn’t give me the right to barge in there.”
“Who will stop you? They can giggle all they like, but the truth is neither the Chamberlain nor those hussies will risk you complaining to Lord Yoshinori.” Beautiful tugged on my sleeve, pulling me up the stairs. “Better to ask for forgiveness than permission.”
Is that really how others saw me? Why did Kazue order me around, then? Or Jiro swear if I didn’t move fast enough? Maybe because I’d never acted the role Beautiful said I held. Something tickled down my neck. I thought of Mitsusuke’s arrogant look and pulled back my shoulders and lifted my chin.
Beautiful patted away a streak of dust from my shoulder. “Come with me. We’ll get a tidbit from Jiro. That’s all the excuse you need to enter the pavilion.”
In the kitchen, Jiro was still red-faced and frantic. The first dishes had gone out and a few had come back with complaints. Beautiful took one look at the uproar and herded me into a corner where completed dishes were waiting for Jiro’s harried assistants to finish garnishing. She pointed towards a tray of sliced persimmon layered like chrysanthemums. Under the cover of Beautiful’s turned back, I snatched the tray and slipped out.
A low rumble had started up in my belly. Either I needed a visit to the privy or the cherry tree kami was waking up.
Norinaga. Was he here already? My fingers clenched the tray so hard the knuckles turned white. Calm down, think. Ashikaga had to be out of the way before the wily fox general made his presence known. What could I do? My lordling had gotten Ujimitsu to agree to help the Ashikagas host this flower-viewing party for some deeper reason. Ashikaga meant to impress the Emperor or the Daimyo—if the party went well.
Zeami, Ujimitsu and I had agreed that it wouldn’t go as my lordling planned.
How could I get Ashikaga to leave the pavilion? Norinaga would be drawn there like a moth to a flame. My belly tightened, my bladder pressing down like I’d drunk a potful of soup. No time for this now. I needed . . .
Stomach troubles! I raced down the hallway, barely balancing the persimmons, past half-open sliding panels revealing small groups of busy servants. No one was in our room, thankfully, when I slid open the door. Kazue’s medicine box was a cunningly made puzzle square, but I’d seen her slide out the lid, twist it sideways, and push in a bottom piece that allowed the entire lid to lif
t away. Kazue ate a lot of rice and very few pickled vegetables. Some grumpy evenings she sprinkled powder from the box into her soup. She always left the room in a hurry afterwards and returned in a more even temper. She swore by the medicine—a mix of powdered peach pit, female ginseng, and lily root she bought from one of the foreign monks at some temple.
Perfect. I dug her medicine box out of layers of robes in her chest. Hurriedly I twisted and poked, managing to open the lid after only two tries. The powder was a dirty gray. It didn’t sink into the fruit flesh and disappear as I thought it would. I had to rub it in with a finger, and then wipe the finger on the inside of my sleeve.
After all my skulking and worry, it was disappointingly easy to make my way into the main pavilion with my tray. The guards at the shaded entrance hardly gave me a glance. They looked bored, obviously not impressed by our little grove of cherry trees. In the first anteroom, a pod of Imperial maidens shot me surprised and amused glances until one of the Ashikaga servants whispered in the ear of the oldest one. She then gave me such a frank appraisal from head to toe that I felt like I was the entertainment. I did my best Mitsusuke impression. I had every right to be there. I just had to act like the haughty girl with the ear of the Daimyo’s son.
I indicated the persimmons still somewhat shaped into Jiro’s chrysanthemum on my tray with a downward flick of my eyes. Beautiful was right. It was clear these ladies didn’t want to let me through, but no one wanted to be the one to tell me to go away.
She waved me through. I took a deep breath. This was it. The rumbling in my stomach was definitely more than just my own bowel issues. The small bones in my ear were vibrating with the irritated complaints of the cherry tree kami. Norinaga was here.
Chapter Twenty-four
* * *
ASHIKAGA AND UJIMITSU were the only two who noticed me when I entered the main section at a half-crouch. The Emperor! I was in the same room as the Emperor! I didn’t dare raise my eyes that direction, trying to make myself both haughty and small at the same time.
Ashikaga had caused the trio of oldest double-blossomed trees to be framed by billowing swaths of white cloth staked out on all sides. A small, quiet place within the general low hum of conversations and the rustling of sleeves and cushions. The top was open to the warm sunshine, filtering through the tops of the blossoms. A stir of air caused some of the white petals to float down upon the shoulders of the Emperor, sitting on a rug-covered platform in the place of honor, dead center. A few ladies and noble-men stood along the sides, murmuring together in quiet voices. In front of the platform, the Daimyo, on a slightly shorter platform of his own, looked on as Zeami inked large foreign characters onto a length of mulberry-paper held down at the four corners by smooth river stones. Petals blotted his ink here and there.
I made my way over to where Ashikaga sat with Lord Ujimitsu on a rug. A ceramic jug, emptied of its rice wine, sat upside down on a three-legged tray in front of them. My lordling arched an eyebrow.
“Lily?”
“Would you care for a persimmon?”
Ashikaga’s lips pressed together. “What are you doing here?”
I may have been ignored as just another household servant when I first entered, but glances were darting our way now. Even Zeami paused in his work, causing the Daimyo to frown slightly when he saw that I was the distraction. Zeami made some low comment, and both the Daimyo and the Emperor began chuckling.
I thrust the tray close to Ashikaga. “Please, have some fruit, my lord.” My lordling took a piece. I held my breath until the orange flesh had disappeared inside my lordling’s mouth.
“Here now,” said Ujimitsu after Ashikaga had eaten another two pieces. “I’m hungry, too.”
I jerked the tray a bit out of his reach. “These won’t be to your taste, sir.”
Ashikaga coughed. “What are you about?”
Thoughts darted away in all directions. I hadn’t planned through excuses. “I, I . . .” my voice faltered, cheeks flushing.
“Can’t stand being away from his side?” said Ujimitsu.
My belly was positively humming now with the cherry tree kami’s grumbling. How could all these lord and ladies sit right under the trees without feeling the kami? I wanted to squirm out of my skin. It was like mites running up and down the back of my neck. I had to get Ashikaga out of here. I put the half-eaten persimmon down on the rug.
Picking at the corner of my lordling’s sleeve as I’d seen Beautiful do with Jiro, I said softly, “may I have a word with you in private?”
Ashikaga glared at me if I’d suggested dancing naked in front of the Emperor’s platform. Ujimitsu gave out a hearty guffaw, the kind Ashikaga never even attempted, all manly amusement. “Need coaching on this as well, cousin?”
Stupid man. Ujimitsu had said the very thing most likely to prick Ashikaga’s pride. Didn’t he want our plan to succeed? He was supposed to help me get Ashikaga out of the way.
I put a fist over my chest and stared straight back into the fire of Ashikaga’s disapproval. This wasn’t nearly enough time for Kazue’s powder to take effect. I needed something drastic. “I saw a fox, my lord.” Ashikaga was too startled to notice the way Lord Ujimitsu’s smirk drained away. Or the way he mouthed “Now?” I nodded, answering both Ujimitsu’s question and my lordling’s raised eyebrows.
There. A little bit of truth to remind the Boar of the stakes. Now he needed to wipe that exaggerated, sneaky look off his face and keep his fingers away from the place where his scabbard usually rested in his obi. No need to attract attention. The Emperor’s back was to us. Only a fringe of oiled and tied hair was visible under the high, black mesh court hat over a series of robes shot through with thread-of-silver.
Ashikaga brushed past me towards the Daimyo’s platform and knelt in the grass. Zeami made a loud, rude comment comparing one of the Imperial handmaiden’s busts to the curve of the apples he was painting underneath a verse. Under the cover of the Emperor’s laugh, Ashikaga spoke quietly with the Daimyo. Returning to collect me, my lordling’s face was pale and tight, but something made those black eyes brighter than usual. Excitement?
“Show me,” said Ashikaga. With a bow to Ujimitsu, whose exaggerated wink in my direction hopefully went unquestioned, we took our leave through the billowing cloth walls of the pavilion. Ujimitsu was no Zeami, that was for sure. The Boar would need cunning to keep Norinaga, the sly fox, from harming the Daimyo and the Emperor.
My part was to lead my lordling to a secluded spot and wait. Norinaga would surely head straight toward the pavilion assuming all the nobles tarried in the main enclosure. I gave a frustrated huff of breath. We were still too close. If Ashikaga heard the commotion of Norinaga’s entrance, I wouldn’t be able to stop my lordling from running back. Ujimitsu would have no chance to impress the Emperor.
“Shall we stop by the privy?”
“What’s gotten into you? You said you saw a fox, Lily. Are you playing some game?”
“Not a game,” I said. This was deadly earnest.
“Show me.”
“What?”
“Show me the place where you saw the damn fox!”
Startled into movement by Ashikaga’s anger, my feet hustled towards Lady Ashikaga’s deserted hall before my mind caught up with a plan. It was the most secluded place on the residence grounds. Everywhere else was crowded with nobles or servants.
The trellis, still covered by a profusion of morning glory buds, and the hall itself sat empty and absolutely still. The kami’s rumbling warning, communicating up from the gravel path through wooden geta into the pads of my toes, set my teeth on edge.
“Here,” I said. We were as far as we could get from the main pavilion. Jitters crawled up my spine, like someone staring at me from behind.
Ashikaga st
rode around the front of the hall, hands fisting around empty air, swordless due to the Emperor’s presence. A kick to the shrubbery along the front wall rousted only caterpillars and grasshoppers. Ashikaga turned back to me, lips in a pale, angry line, arms crossed in front. “What are you playing at?” The words were a lash.
“My lord . . .”
Suddenly, my lordling turned even paler. Ashikaga gritted teeth as if holding back great anger . . . or . . . the powder working at last? “No one’s here now. Keep an eye out. I’ll be back.”
I heaved a sigh of relief. No need to come up with a believable excuse after all. The privy was a safe place to keep my lordling out of the way for a while. When Ashikaga returned, I’d insist on searching the inside of the hall. That would be enough time for Norinaga to make his move on the enclosure. Ashikaga would be too late. Ujimitsu would fend off the general and reap the Emperor’s gratitude and respect. It wouldn’t be easy to watch Ashikaga slink away in disgrace, but once we were back home in Ashikaga Village even my lordling would come to see it was for the best.
The fox general was close. I could feel it. My own belly ached as if I’d ingested the powder myself. A reaction to the fox magic?
“Hurry back,” I called to Ashikaga as a large, red shape came hurtling out of the hall’s open verandah window and landed on my lordling’s back, throwing Ashikaga face-first onto the ground.
Instinct brought my mother’s warding song to my lips.
It is for your sake, that I walk, careless, the fields in spring. . . .
Verses tumbled out, empty and dull, out of tune in a way that had nothing to do with the melody I knew in my bones, and everything to do with the raw place inside my belly where the yurei had forced its way inside.
I shut my mouth with a snap.
Norinaga-the-fox knelt on Ashikaga’s back, tongue lolling out between canines in a gruesome grin.
You summoned me?
The words hurt. Like Norinaga used a radish grater instead of a voice. Here. He was here. Why wasn’t he in the pavilion?
The Straw Doll Cries at Midnight (A Tiger Lily Novel Book 2) Page 29