Ancient Illusions

by Joanne Pence

  “Don’t worry, Jianjun,” Ceinwen said. “I’m going with him.”

  “I’ve told you, that’s a terrible idea,” Michael said. “You should wait here with Jianjun.”

  “No.”

  Jianjun smiled at Michael’s stunned reaction to her simple word.

  “You were almost killed on that mountain!” Michael roared as he remembered the many bruises he’d seen on her body and the demon bite on her neck. Each had torn at him.

  She looked him in the eye. “I’m coming with you.”

  He couldn’t argue with the proud determination or strong defiance of the woman he had held in his arms throughout the long night—a night filled with thoughts of death, with guilt, and with an aching sorrow for the man who died, and those injured. Somehow, her presence, her warmth, her passion, had helped him through it. He didn’t understand her, but he wouldn’t have her any other way.

  He faced Jianjun. “Looks like she and I are both heading to Japan.”

  “Good. And while you’re there, as the Sheriff and his men find evidence about the attack, I’ll hack into every database I can think of to help figure out who did it. We’ll get those bastards.”

  Michael nodded. “Jake couldn’t ask for better behind-the-scenes help than you and your computer.”

  Just then, there was a light knock on the door. “Come in,” Jianjun called.

  The door opened, and Kira Holt stepped into the room. She saw Michael first and nodded, then Michael stepped aside so she could see Jianjun.

  She didn’t move, but just stood there and looked at him.

  Jianjun sat up straighter and didn’t say a word, just stared back at her, only her.

  Ceinwen nudged Michael and they quietly left the room.

  Chapter 44

  Convincing airport security in Missoula not to attempt to open the small Chinese container that held the pearl had been the most challenging part of the flight back to Japan. Michael explained that it was an ancient, very expensive Chinese artifact. But the lead container and dirt made the TSA agent suspicious, and he tried to pry open the bronze with a penknife. Michael finally convinced him that it obviously hadn’t been opened in two thousand years. After a sniffing dog and wand scan found no problem, the agent let it through.

  At Izumo, Michael rented a car, and he and Ceinwen headed for Kamigawa.

  “This is weird,” Michael said after about thirty minutes. “I was sure that the first time I drove this way, by the time I reached this area, I was seeing signs with the name Kamigawa.”

  “Are you sure this is the right road?” Ceinwen asked.

  “It’s the only road that goes along the sea. I can’t imagine having taken any other.”

  “Maybe signs will show up soon,” Ceinwen said.

  They continued on, settling back into the comfort of the car and glad to be away from airplanes, airports, and crowds of people.

  “Do you think you’ll be staying long in Japan?” Ceinwen asked.

  “If I can’t help Seiji Nakamura, I won’t be welcome,” Michael said.

  “I’m sure the pearl will be able to help him and Rachel,” she said.

  “I’m glad someone is.” He pulled off the road. “Something’s wrong. We’ve driven an hour and haven’t seen a sign yet. It took much less than that the first time.”

  “Maybe they changed the signs while we were gone?” Ceinwen said, but even she couldn’t believe that had happened. “Let’s ask how to find it at the next town.”

  They reached the town five minutes later and stopped at a bento stand. They asked the man selling box lunches which way to Kamigawa. He had spoken English when they bought the lunch, but now he seemed perplexed. Ceinwen got out her Japanese phrase book and said, “Kamigawa wa, doko desu ka?”

  He shook his head. “Kamigawa? Wakaranai.”

  They guessed he was saying he had no idea where it was. They tried asking a few more people. One of them spoke enough English to say there was “no Kamigawa.”

  They saw a train station and went into it. The route map was so complicated they couldn’t understand it. Ceinwen went to a ticket attendant, put 10,000 yen on the counter and said, “Ticket, please.”

  “Hai! Where to?”

  “Kamigawa.”

  The attendant frowned. “There’s no town with that name here.”

  “Yes. Two weeks ago, I took a train from Izumo to Kamigawa.”

  “Must be someplace else. No Kamigawa here.”

  Ceinwen glanced at Michael who looked every bit as puzzled as she felt.

  “This makes no sense,” she said as they walked out of the station.

  “Just like Jianjun indicated,” Michael murmured, then explained. “Jianjun came to Japan when he couldn’t reach me or Rachel by phone or text, and the emails he’d sent weren’t opened. But he couldn’t find the man named Yamato Toru who first told him about Kamigawa. Yamato’s phone number had been disconnected. Even stranger, he discovered the Nakamura family isn’t listed as a daimyo family.”

  Ceinwen gawked at him. “That’s crazy. Rachel and I found Kamigawa with no trouble at the Izumo train station. Although, now that I think about it, we had no luck at first either, but once on the train platforms, Rachel saw the right sign. I never did. But the train took us right there.”

  “And was it a normal train?” Michael asked. “By that, I mean there were a lot of people and stops.”

  “I don’t know what’s normal for Japan,” Ceinwen admitted. “But Kamigawa was the first stop, and we were the only ones to get off.”

  “Did you see others on the train?” Michael asked.

  Ceinwen thought a moment. “Come to think of it, no. But we were in the last car and assumed others were up front.”

  “Strange,” Michael said.

  “If all else fails we can go back to Izumo and find the train Rachel and I took to Kamigawa.”

  “I don’t think that’ll help,” Michael said. “Not if Jianjun was right. Let’s drive along the coast. We’re sure to see something that looks familiar.”

  “I don’t understand,” Ceinwen said. “What are you thinking?”

  He waited a long moment, then said, “That Kamigawa is in a different plane of existence from this one. It’s like what we encountered … uh, in the past.”

  “In Idaho?” she asked, shocked at what he was suggesting.

  “Maybe.”

  “You’re talking different dimensions. Isn’t that Einstein territory, or somebody like him? But that’s all theoretical.”

  Michael nodded. “I know.”

  They got in the car and headed back along the main highway toward Izumo. Michael hoped to find something familiar. After about fifteen minutes, he reached a small town and stopped. “I’m sure I drove through this town,” he said as he peered up and down at the small street. “A road sign to Kamigawa directed me to head up into the mountains.”

  “Let’s find that road,” Ceinwen said.

  They easily found it and drove into the mountains.

  “Does this look familiar?” Ceinwen asked.

  “No. But let’s see where it leads.”

  It led to a dead-end.

  Michael stopped the car. He and Ceinwen got out and studied the area around them. “This has to be the place,” Michael said. “I spent a lot of time looking at the mountains as I walked from the Hearn house to the Nakamura manor. It was those mountains, right there, that I saw.”

  Ceinwen eyed the landscape. “But I see no sign any town was ever here.”

  “Which means it—Kamigawa—was all an illusion,” Michael murmured.

  “But it wasn’t! We were there,” Ceinwen said. “No matter what, we were there. And Rachel still is.”

  Michael took a deep breath. “In Chinese tradition, there’s a land where alchemy works, and the dead don’t die. Over two millennia ago, the alchemist Li Chao Kuin learned to transform the powder of cinnabar to a yellow gold that gave prolonged longevity. People with such longevity live among the blessed
hsien on the island of P'eng Lai. There, it’s as if they are immortal. I always suspected the island spoken of was part of Japan. Now, I can’t help but wonder if Kamigawa isn’t a part of that land.”

  “I won’t pretend to understand any of that,” Ceinwen said. “But you talk as if such a superstition is real.”

  “Would you believe me if I told you I once met someone who lived there? She was a fine woman who died an unfortunate death, at far too young an age.”

  “You knew a woman who claimed to be immortal?” Ceinwen asked softly.

  “Not only claimed. She was. She saved my life, in fact.” He paused a moment as if thinking back to that strange time, and ignored the confused, troubled way Ceinwen was looking at him. “But right now, the important thing is for us to reach Kamigawa. We know demons want this pearl, which gives me an idea.”

  He took the lead container from his duffel bag and then lifted out the bronze vessel. “I’ve brought the pearl to Kamigawa,” he called into the wind and the land around him. “I know you want the pearl. It’s here. And now, I need to see Kamigawa, to see my friends. Only after that will I open this container and free the pearl.”

  He placed the bronze, unopened, on the ground.

  And waited.

  Nothing happened.

  When the hour grew late, Ceinwen got into the car and fell asleep.

  At first light, Ceinwen awoke to the call of nature. She stumbled from the car, and then froze.

  “Michael! Wake up!” He was asleep on the ground, the bronze in his hand.

  He opened his eyes.

  “Look.”

  He sat up to see Kamigawa in the distance, and at the top of the hill overlooking it stood the Nakamura estate.

  Chapter 45

  As Jianjun watched Kira get ready for bed, he couldn’t believe she was with him. If it took a bullet to get her there, he was glad to take it. He had come to think of it as Cupid’s bullet, but he didn’t need to be shot with it to know how he felt.

  He had been released from the hospital that morning, and Jake Sullivan had invited them to stay at his house. Well, not exactly Jake. His lady friend, Charlotte Reed, after learning all that had happened, flew “home” to Salmon. She wanted to be there for Deputy Grayson’s funeral, but also to help Jake in any way she could. Jianjun had heard all about her, though he had never met her face-to-face.

  She had suggested Jianjun move into their guest room, with Kira staying there as well. But much to Jianjun’s relief, Kira had already found accommodations in a lodge on a rise overlooking the town. The suite had a separate sitting room and a private deck. Jianjun happily joined her there to recuperate.

  They spent a lot of time catching up on the past year. He learned that although Kira had lost her job as an FBI profiler, she was once again working as a psychiatrist in private practice. She had been asked to join an established team of doctors, and her business had quickly picked up. It included a number of former patients who were glad she was practicing again.

  She basically liked her work, although several patients thought their lives were a lot tougher than they really were. She was often tempted to ask them if they wanted to hear about real problems and real life-threatening situations. If so, the stories she could tell!

  But she didn’t.

  He laughed with her. It felt good to laugh, even to smile. He done little of either the past year. Sometimes when he was alone he’d shut his eyes and relive the complete elation he felt when she walked into his room in the Salmon hospital.

  “Kira,” was all he could say.

  She gave him a shy smile. “I hope you don’t mind that I’m here. When Michael told me you were hurt …”

  He wanted to jump for joy, despite the tubes, pain-pills, and everything else that tied him to the hospital bed. Instead, he calmly said, “He shouldn’t have bothered you.”

  “Yes, Jianjun. He should have.”

  His heart filled his throat and he had to wait a moment before he could speak. “It’s good to see you again.”

  “You’re probably thinking that I still can’t pronounce your name correctly.” Her eyes grew shiny and moist.

  His mind raced with a thousand things to say to her—and another thousand that he should never say. “I like the way you say it.”

  She drew in her breath. “How are you feeling?”

  “Much better … since about a minute ago. The doctors have a good prognosis, fortunately.”

  She pulled the chair to his side and placed her hand atop his as he explained briefly about the attack.

  “That damned pearl,” she said. She was one of the people with Michael as they had faced down the demons connected to the pearl. “I had hoped we would never hear anything more about it.”

  “All of us hoped that.”

  She took a deep breath. “Is your wife here yet?”

  He shook his head. “I didn’t even tell her about this. And I doubt Michael did either.”

  “Why not?”

  “She wouldn’t have cared. Not really.”

  Kira’s lips tightened. “I see.”

  “What about you?” he asked. “Are you seeing someone? Someone special, perhaps?”

  “I’m afraid not.” Her expression was wry. “After you’ve battled crazed Chinese demons side-by-side with someone, everyone else you meet seems a bit dull.”

  He beamed and both his hands wrapped around hers. “God, Kira. I can’t believe you’re here. I turned away from you once, and a bad situation has only become worse. I don’t know how you feel about me. I don’t know how any of this will turn out. But, if you’re willing, I want to be with you. Only you.”

  She flashed him a broad smile. “I’m here, aren’t I?”

  Every night in the hospital he had relived that scene before he fell asleep. Now, in the lodge overlooking Salmon City, she got into bed beside him and kissed him. In his drugged state, with medicine and bandages, that was as much as he could handle. But he didn’t think he’d ever gone to sleep with a broader smile on his face.

  Chapter 46

  Ceinwen woke up a few hours later in Michael’s bedroom. She had to admit, as comfortable as the futon had been in the room she had shared with Rachel, it didn’t compare to the nice mattress she’d fallen into when she and Michael reached the house around five that morning. Nor did it compare to having Michael in the bed with her.

  She sat up. Where was he?

  She made her way down to the kitchen. He sat at the table with coffee. Pastries and fruit were on the counter, and food was in the refrigerator. “Good morning.”

  “Did you sleep well?” he asked.

  “Once a certain someone left me alone long enough to fall asleep. Not that I’m complaining, mind you.”

  He pulled her close for a quick kiss.

  “This is all too strange.” Ceinwen got herself some coffee, and then tore a croissant in half. It wasn’t the least bit stale. “Hmm. I wonder if I dare eat this.”

  “It’s as if everything has been in suspended animation waiting for us to return,” he said.

  She picked up a peach and washed it. “Demons, do you think? Or do I sound like you now, seeing demons in every nook and cranny?”

  He grinned. “I don’t know what’s behind it, but whatever it is, it wants the pearl.”

  She nodded and ate the peach in silence.

  Soon, they left for the Nakamura home.

  They had just stepped onto the street when a dust cloud rose up. They squeezed their eyes shut and waited. When the storm passed, nothing seemed to have changed, and they headed up the hill.

  When they entered the gate, one of Seiji’s retainers came out to greet them, bowed low, and then ran back into the house. Lady Nakamura rushed to meet them.

  “Michael-sensei! And Miss Ceinwen! I’m so glad to see you both again.” She was breathless. “Please, come and sit. I must tell you all that has happened. I, we, need your help.”

  “What’s going on?” he asked, studying her face.


  “O-cha!” She commanded the maid to bring them tea. “Sit, please.” She directed Michael and Ceinwen to the zabuton by the low table. The two sat, and then she joined them.

  Michael and Ceinwen said nothing. Finally, Lady Nakamura spoke. “Seiji and Rachel are gone. They have left this house.”

  Michael and Ceinwen glanced at each other. “Do you know where they went?” Michael asked.

  “I have no idea.”

  “Any hint, or guess from something they might have said?”

  “You must understand. They both slept for a long time—several days. And then, they suddenly woke. When they did, they hugged and held each other. Rachel could not stop crying. They try to act happy to be alive and awake, but after a few days they stopped. Both said they had left too much behind. I don’t know what they meant. But they didn’t want to be here, not at all. They said … they said they must return, and that they’d rather be dead to this world. It makes no sense that they would speak such words.”

  “Return where?” Ceinwen asked, but Lady Nakamura only shook her head.

  “I can’t believe Rachel saying she’d rather be dead,” Ceinwen cried. “That’s not Rachel.”

  “Isn’t it?” Michael quietly asked.

  Ceinwen paled.

  Lady Nakamura wiped her tears. “What can I tell you? I have no idea where they could be. We have searched and have offered large rewards. But no one has seen them.”

  “If it is at all possible,” Michael said, “We will find them.”

  “Thank you,” Lady Nakamura said. “But also, there were two things that troubled me. I don’t know how to explain them.”

  “Go on,” Michael told her.

  “First, Seiji had grown healthy again. Not only that, but he was stronger, much stronger, than he had ever been. It was as if someone else had taken over the body of my son, but at the same time, he was Seiji. He was the same dear boy I have always known and loved. I don’t understand it.”

  Michael nodded. “And the other thing?”

  Lady Nakamura bit her bottom lip and looked away a moment. Then she slightly raised her eyebrows. “When they thought they were alone, when they thought no one was listening, I heard her call him Taishi, and he called her O-Yuki.”