by Ben Stevens
3
‘Nothing is clear to me,’ declared my master, once we were back in the room with the two futon. Again, my master was sat upon one, his chin placed disconsolately in the palm of his hand.
‘Why the invitation to come here?’ continued my master. Understanding that he was merely thinking aloud, and not actually desiring an answer from his manservant, I kept quiet.
‘Sesshu knows full-well that the courtier named Noami would have appealed for my help, when he came to the inn to request that we come to the palace with him,’ said my master. ‘It was for that very reason that Sesshu dispatched him – the invitation to this banquet, and to meet the Empress herself, was merely a blind.
‘Yes,’ nodded my master, his gaze faraway and distant. ‘Sesshu wishes to pit his wits against mine. The challenge has been made as obviously as if Sesshu had issued it in words. It is up to me to destroy this foul, near-total control he clearly has over the Empress.
‘But how…?’
At that moment, there was a soft knock on one of the sliding doors. It opened and Noami entered inside. Rarely had I seen someone appear so perturbed.
‘I thought you should know,’ he began, a little breathlessly. ‘An oracle at a shrine near to this palace has just predicted that Sesshu will become Emperor. You see how great his influence, and how terrible!’
In his distress, Noami’s voice raised slightly as he uttered this last sentence.
‘Yes, I do,’ nodded my master. ‘I realize now what I must do. The only way to show to the Empress the type of evil, scheming creature she continually has by her side, whispering his ‘advice’ into her ear as she grows ever sicker in both body and mind.’
‘Ennin-sensei,’ returned Noami, his expression registering both disbelief and a wild hope. ‘You have a plan – some way you can defeat Sesshu?’
‘We will see,’ replied my master; and his voice had lost its previously ‘distant’ tone. It was now brisk, direct.
‘We will see you at this banquet, Noami-san,’ continued my master. ‘I think I will take a little rest beforehand.’
‘Yes, yes, of course,’ mumbled Noami. With a final, slightly confused glance at my master, he left the room, closing the sliding door behind him.
‘I’ve been hearing about this monk named Sesshu for some time, now,’ my master informed me. ‘As, doubtless, he has been hearing about me. Sooner or later we were bound to ‘meet’, as it were… He has just brought forward the inevitable, by causing me to come to this palace…
‘He trained at a somewhat remote monastery towards the north of Japan, but left there soon after the senior Abbot mysteriously fell down a flight of stone stairs and broke his neck.’
‘You think…?’ I said quietly.
My master shrugged.
‘Who knows? Since that time, however, wherever Sesshu has surfaced, people have a habit of dying. He is having to bide his time on this occasion, though. He knows he cannot act too hastily. First he needed to establish himself at the palace – that is, within the Imperial Court – and to get the Empress almost entirely under his control… And now this oracle, proclaiming that he will become Emperor. You see how he has planned everything so meticulously?’
‘You… you really think he intends to murder the Empress, master?’ I questioned, aghast. ‘But… but he saved her life, where all others – the Royal Physician himself – had failed!’
The look my master gave me was one I knew well. It never failed to cause me a feeling of distinct irritation. It was a look half of pity, and half of amusement. It informed me, as well as words, that I had missed entirely some important point.
‘I will rest now, Kukai, before we are summoned for this great banquet,’ declared my master. He lay back on the futon, closing his eyes.
Shaking my head slightly with vexation, I then began to prepare our finest kimono to be worn that evening.
4
A little before seven o’clock, we were summoned by a servant and again led along long corridors and up various flights of stairs to a great dining room. Low, long tables had been set out in a line, with a couple running horizontally rather than vertically on a raised area at one end of the room. This, I understood, was where the Empress, Sesshu and several of the most senior court officials (those of whom Sesshu still approved, undoubtedly) would be sat.
Thin, gold-colored cushions had been set out for the guests, who numbered around forty. They began to come in, shown to their places by fawning servants. I was sat next to my master, the pair of us a number of places away from the Empress’s table. But still – I noticed that we were closer to the Empress than Noami, who was sat almost at the far end…
The atmosphere was rather gloomy. Like the room in which we had first been received by the Empress – and Sesshu – it was strangely dark, some candles burning against the wall. I felt slightly hot in my formal kimono.
The Empress, Sesshu and three male courtiers (walking behind the pair, followed finally by the two samurai who belonged to the Imperial Bodyguard) entered via a door close to their table. I’d not previously noticed this door; it was skillfully set into a large wall, upon which had been painted an evening view of the Imperial City from what was surely the highest point of the palace. It was an almost magical scene (doubtless it owed a certain debt to the artist’s imagination) with gleaming lanterns strung out over the East and West Rivers which served the palace’s moat, and huge white cranes soaring in the dark purple sky above…
All of us turned kneeling towards the Empress’s table, and then touched our foreheads almost to the tatami. When (in that soft, trembling voice) she bade us to face the table again, I lifted my head and was just able to see Sesshu smiling coldly, clearly relishing this homage being paid. And if what Noami had said, concerning the proclamation issued by the oracle, was true, then how long before Sesshu was receiving this homage directly?
The exquisite food began to arrive, served upon any number of beautiful little china cups, saucers, dishes and such. A splendid fish more than a foot long was served as sashimi; its body sliced and garnished, it moved slightly on the large dish, still alive. Delicious, warmed sake was poured into delicate glasses.
The guests ate and drank while talking softly and politely. But you could see the various eyes frequently stealing a glance towards the head table, where the Empress was having a whispered, secretive conversation with the monk named Sesshu. A few times she actually giggled, quickly covering her mouth as she did so. All in all, I considered, it was most unseemly behavior for the ruler of Japan. But this (I then realized) was just more evidence of the ruinous effect Sesshu was having upon the Empress. At all costs, my master had to somehow stop him…
But how, exactly, to do such a thing?
With this question firmly in mind, I looked at my master – and started. He was clearly sick, his eyes half-closed and sweat pouring from his brow. Certainly, this room was a little stifling, but still…
Others were beginning to notice, also. When my master gave a slight groan, and made as though to pitch forwards towards the low table, I caught his upper body just in time.
‘Ennin-sensei is unwell?’ asked a voice from the head table. It was Sesshu who was speaking. I looked at his arrogant face – a smirk only barely being repressed by a feigned expression of concern – and felt a terrible suspicion suddenly occur…
Had my master just been poisoned? This was, after all, almost certainly the way in which one of Sesshu’s most virulent critics had previously been silenced. And yet the food (as delicious and meticulously prepared as it was) was being brought in on trays by servants and distributed in no particular order; had there been a poisoned dish, there was no guaranteeing that it would actually be consumed by my master himself.
Besides which… It was surely risky, even for Sesshu, to attempt to kill a perceived adversary here – at a distinguished dinner held in the presence of the Empress herself...
Unless Sesshu had grown so arrogant, so certain in his power th
at he considered he could do exactly as he liked…
‘You,’ said Sesshu then, pointing directly at me. ‘Help your master up, and escort him back to your room. A servant will show you the way.’
That was fortunate – for I’d become quite lost during the long walk through the palace, and up several flights of stairs, to this large, gloomy dining room.
‘Yes, sir,’ I said humbly, inclining my head.
My master suddenly spoke in a strained, weak voice which showed as clearly as anything else just how sick he was.
‘Empress, my deepest apologies,’ he said. ‘I do not know what – ’
‘Do not concern yourself with apologies, Ennin-sensei,’ replied the Empress, in a voice no stronger than my master’s own. ‘Return to your room and rest. Anything you require will be brought for you. If you require a physician, one will be provided. You have only to say.’
‘Thank you, Empress,’ returned my master. He slowly stood up, a servant appearing to stand by his side in case he looked like falling. But with a deep bow towards the Empress (and so also Sesshu), my master then walked if a little shakily towards the door through which we had first entered. (This room was so large that there were a number of different entrances.)
I wondered if my master would manage to walk all the way back to our room, guided by the servant. But he did, the servant leaving us after my master declared that he wished only to rest.
He lay down upon the futon for a few minutes… And then I was startled when he suddenly stood up. The sweating had ceased entirely, and his eyes now burnt with resolve.
‘Master…?’ I said hesitantly, in the act of lighting a lamp as the spring evening began quickly to darken.
‘It is relatively easy to feign even severe sickness,’ said my master, as he changed out of his ‘formal’ kimono and back into his favored, plain brown clothing. ‘But was Sesshu actually fooled, I wonder…?’
‘I – ’ I began; and then realized that I could think of absolutely nothing else to say. What was happening here?
I watched as my master produced the small pouch filled with the various little tools which he sometimes required to open locks, unscrew bolts, and so on.
‘While the Empress and the monk Sesshu are otherwise engaged, I will head to her quarters. Maybe there, I will find something that I can use to discredit Sesshu in the Empress’s eyes. For this is the only possible way to ruin him, and thus check his foul plans for obtaining power.’
My blood ran cold.
‘Master,’ I said in a hushed voice. ‘To be found in the Royal Chambers of the Imperial Palace, without permission, is punishable by execution. Everyone in Japan knows this.’
My master shrugged.
‘I do not know what other course to take, and time is growing short. I will find a way into these chambers somehow, although they will certainly be guarded. The Empress is sickening day-by-day; and now there has been this ‘revelation’ – this oracle predicting that the murderer Sesshu will become Emperor of Japan…’
‘Let me come with you, master,’ I requested.
‘No – just remain here, Kukai, and await my return,’ instructed my master.
With that, he slid open the door to our room – and closing it behind him again, was gone.
5
I could scarcely believe my master’s foolishness. I wondered if he hadn’t perhaps just taken leave of his senses. To sneak into the Royal Chambers of the Imperial Palace, and there to creep around in the hope that he might somehow find something defamatory, concerning this monk named Sesshu? If ever there had been a vaguer, more ridiculous (to say nothing of dangerous) plan, I had not heard of it.
There, sat beside the flickering lamp, I waited with strained nerves for my master to re-enter into this room. But first one hour passed, then two and then three. The banquet in the dining hall had surely finished by now; the Empress would be escorted back up to the Royal Chambers (with Sesshu by her side? – I couldn’t help but wonder), and if her bodyguard was to find my master there…
But of course, this assumed that my master had even been able to sneak into the Royal Chambers in the first place. This part of the Imperial Palace was, naturally, constantly guarded by members of the samurai elite – and yet if anyone was capable of getting past them, then it was my master. For when he wished, he could exhibit the stealth and speed of a ninja; something I believe related to that shadowy training he’d received in China as young man. (Something about which I first described in the adventure entitled The Cursed Temple.)
…As I sat immersed in my thoughts, the sliding doors to this room suddenly flew open and three samurai stalked into the room.
I scarcely had time to register their entry, before two of them each grabbed one of my arms and pulled me to my feet.
‘Wait,’ I said. ‘What – what is this?’
In reply, the third samurai gave me a backhanded blow across the face.
‘Silence, dog!’ he bellowed. ‘Your treacherous master is in the palace dungeon, and that is where we are taking you now…’
So stunned was I by the blow and what I was hearing that I gave no reply. Far less resistance. I was pulled out of the room – and then began a long journey along long corridors ill-lit by flickering wall-lamps, and down dark, winding stone staircases. Finally the walls were no longer of wood and paper, carefully embossed with the Imperial Crest – instead they were of stone, dripping moisture. I judged we were below the level of the palace moat – and about to enter the dungeons.
This predication was quickly proved true. A large, iron-grill gate was opened, and I was shoved along a corridor with low, thick wooden doors (inset in which were small apertures with three metal bars) on either side. Close towards the end of this corridor, one of these doors was opened and I was pushed inside.
The door slammed shut behind me. There, in the near-darkness, I first failed to see the other figure sat against one of the damp stone walls, on top of some stinking straw.
‘Hello, Kukai,’ greeted this figure.
I started; and then walked quickly towards him.
‘Master!’ I cried. ‘Master – what has happened?’
I sensed rather than saw my master shrug.
‘I was caught, Kukai. Caught in the Royal Chambers.’
My stomach turned and I believe I emitted a groan. My master was already as good as dead – we both knew that. Then I realized that this door had a lock, as did the iron-grill gate of the corridor outside…
‘Master,’ I said, for some reason slightly lowering my voice. ‘Those tools you carry in the leather pouch, did you…’
‘That pouch was taken from me,’ said my master, in an almost lazy sounding voice – as though he didn’t quite care. ‘I was searched, and it was found.’
A sense of confusion nestled in beside my consuming despair. The Ennin-sensei I knew would have quickly hidden two or three lock picks, perhaps inside his mouth. He would somehow have fooled the most thorough of searches. And so this cell would no more have been able to hold him than it would a ghost. And yet here he was, apparently resigned to his fate, stretched out on the straw and –
‘Master,’ I said finally. ‘I don’t understand what is happening.’
‘I have been caught sneaking around in the Royal Chambers,’ returned my master, ‘and very soon you will see me die. But before I do die, you must promise to do everything I instruct you to do in whatever time I have left. Do you understand?’
‘Master!’ I almost cried, scarcely believing what I was hearing. I threw myself down on my knees before him. ‘What is this lunacy?’
‘It is for the very sake of the Empress – whose life is worth my own a thousand times over. So, Kukai – time is growing short. Before we are joined by company, as we shortly will be, will you promise to do everything I ask for?’
I bowed my head, breathing deeply. All was just utter madness; I didn’t understand…
Then I realized that I had only to promise to do as my master wa
nted – as I had done so many times before.
Except this time…
This time my master was going to die…
‘Yes, master,’ I intoned in what was barely a murmur. ‘I will do whatever you wish.’
‘Thank you, Kukai.’
The cell door opened again. I strained my eyes against the torchlight outside, struggling to see who was entering into the dank-smelling darkness of this dungeon cell. Then I emitted a gasp, and wondered if I hadn’t just passed into some strange realm of madness. How else to account for the fact that the Empress herself was in this cell, the monk named Sesshu stood beside her and three samurai behind?
‘Ennin-sensei,’ said the Empress in that delicate voice of hers, as my master and I bowed our heads. ‘Whatever did you think you were doing?’
‘Forgive me, Empress,’ returned my master. ‘I… I must have taken leave of my senses…’
‘No, no, no,’ said Sesshu then; and in that repeated word I could almost detect his smirk.
‘The great Ennin-sensei suddenly took leave of his senses?’ continued the monk in a mocking voice. ‘That I can’t believe. There must have been a reason why you were snooping around in the Royal Chambers, Ennin – so what was it?’
This final question was said in a markedly harsher voice than Sesshu had used previously. The use of the sensei suffix was suddenly dropped. Evidently, Sesshu had taken it upon himself to act as interrogator. With, it seemed, the Empress’s permission.
My master stared up at the monk.
‘Sesshu-san,’ returned my master levelly. ‘I answer to the Empress of Japan – for it is in her quarters that I have been caught trespassing. I do not answer to you.’
The Empress gasped and put both her frail, shaking hands to her mouth.
‘Ennin-sensei,’ she said, in that voice that was like a dying dove flapping its wings. ‘You have been caught committing a most grave crime – do not compound the seriousness of this matter with insolence.’
My master again stared down at the stone floor.