by Ben Stevens
‘Master?’ I said, instinctively keeping my voice low.
‘Imagine, Kukai, that you realize that death itself is coming through that door,’ returned my master, pointing at the entrance at the opposite end of the room while keeping his voice down almost to a whisper.
‘So,’ continued my master, ‘in frantic desperation, you seek to escape through that window, breaking first through the wooden screen. But you are unsuccessful… you are pulled back, and taken away to…’
My master’s voice fell into silence, his gaze distant.
‘You think – Noami?’ I could not help but ask, even though my master was obviously deep in thought.
My master nodded.
‘I do... I do think Noami was the one who made such a desperate, yet ultimately futile attempt to escape, although I have no actual proof that it was indeed h –’
My master abruptly stopped his urgent whispering, staring down at the space between the waist-high wooden chest that was below the window, and the wall behind it. This space was minuscule, however; scarcely even half an inch wide.
‘But supposing… just supposing Noami already knew that any attempt at escape was useless,’ said my master then, his voice a mumbled monotone. ‘He yelled and struggled and broke the wooden screen for another reason – that is, in order to disguise his true intention…’
With that my master put his hands either side of the wooden chest, pulling it back a foot or so away from the wall. I exhaled slightly in surprise at what I saw then; for there, lying on the floor, was a heavy key of a type and design which I recognized as belonging to the Imperial Court.
‘Master…’ I murmured, my thoughts at once in complete disarray.
‘I’m afraid I misjudged Noami, that time I met him,’ said my master quietly. ‘I viewed him as being doggedly loyal to the Empress, certainly, and yet at the same time being not overly blessed with brains.
‘And yet here, here, he left us a desperate message in the only way he was able – a mild stroke of genius, conceived in his final few moments before he was led away to whatever fate possibly awaits us as well…’
‘Master?’ I could only repeat.
‘What does this key tell us, Kukai?’ came the rhetorical question. ‘It tells us that Noami was in this room, certainly; for only a courtier at the Imperial Court would have such a key in his possession. It may only open a storeroom, or something similarly mundane – and yet it is a key from the Royal Palace, and so its design is suitably opulent.
‘For that reason alone, Noami is to be congratulated for his quick thinking – for having successfully left us this sign that he’d been a prisoner here.
‘And yet, I do not believe that was all. This key also carries a warning – a clue as to the fate which awaits us…’
‘You think it is telling us that we may… we may be imprisoned somewhere?’ I suggested.
‘Yes, Kukai, I think that is exactly what it is telling us,’ declared my master quietly. ‘We are as good as imprisoned already; but soon, I think, we shall know exactly just what type of danger we are truly facing. We have played into our captors’ hands by having come here in the first place, as it was always intended that we should.
‘Indeed, Noami and those samurai might crudely be described as having been ‘bait’, their mysterious ‘disappearance’ wholly designed to provoke you and I into coming here, to investigate their whereabouts while also attempting to discover whether the Au truly have some way of fighting this plague that is destroying the rest of Japan.’
‘You knew this already, master, back at the Imperial Court?’ I asked quietly.
My master shrugged.
‘I had some inkling, that is all.’
‘Ezo meant for us to come here – but why?’
The look my master gave me was one I never wish to see again. Almost entirely devoid of hope.
‘Not Ezo – for he now serves a master himself. No longer is he the ultimate ruler of this settlement. Even if he does not yet fully realize such a thing himself. But if I am correct in what exactly Noami meant by leaving that key…’
So saying this, my master produced the small leather bag in which he carries an assortment of small tools and bladed instruments. I have mentioned such items before, specifically in The Cursed Temple and The Empress and the Monk. With a few of these tools – of the longer and thinner type – my master could pick almost any lock…
He did not need to say anything, as I watched him secrete one such ‘pick’ inside his kimono. Clearly, if we were to be forcibly placed inside some locked room, we at least had some chance of later freeing ourselves.
I turned to look at the sliding door of the room we were currently occupying. This was certainly not locked; nor, so far as I was aware, was there a guard outside. But if we attempted to leave, now, just how far would we get? If it truly had been intended that we should come here, to become captives, then why this initial, absurd courtesy and offer of a late breakfast or lunch…?
I was distracted from my thoughts as my master suddenly began choking. I turned back to face him, alarmed. For a moment, I felt a chill grip me. Had this plague somehow infected him…?
Then, banging the top of his chest several times with his fist, my master’s expression reposed and the choking stopped.
‘Are you okay, master?’
‘Yes,’ he said curtly. ‘I suggest that we get some rest now, before we are summoned to lunch. Later, I believe, we will require every ounce of energy we can muster, if we are to have one chance in a thousand of leaving this settlement of the Au alive…’
So saying this, he laid down upon one futon, the pupils of his eyes like pinpricks as he stared up at the ceiling…
5
Two men came to fetch us a few hours later. They said nothing, merely sliding open the door and motioning that we should come with them. We followed them along a series of corridors, and up several flights of stairs. We entered inside a large, bright room with a long table, upon which had been set a variety of appetizing dishes – mainly seafood.
Ezo was sat there, wearing a smile I did not wholly care for as we entered the room. But then, my master’s earlier words – concerning the ‘chance in a thousand’ we apparently had of leaving this Au settlement alive – had already succeeded in setting my nerves fully on edge.
Ezo had his two samurai-like bodyguards sat either side of him, who also observed my master and me with a mutual expression like that of a wolf which has just come across an injured rabbit.
‘Please, Ennin and his servant, be seated,’ said Ezo.
We did as instructed, opposite the table from the alleged leader of the Au, the two men who’d fetched us from that room stood behind us. I felt the hairs rise on the back of my neck, wondering if it wasn’t within this room that my master and I were to be ‘dealt’ with. The offer of lunch and conversation, designed to lull us into a state of tranquility – and then a sudden, surprise attempt at assassination. Certainly, my master was the physical equal to most men; and yet there were five of them here in this room, all of them undoubtedly expert at fighting, and also armed.
If the attempt to kill us came now, I realized, we wouldn’t stand a chance.
‘Please, eat,’ said Ezo then.
My master and I took a few items from the dishes spread out on the table. I dipped a piece of sashimi in soy sauce, and did my best to swallow it down. I should have been ravenous, having eaten only sporadically during our journey here, and with no breakfast this morning – and yet I had absolutely no appetite.
My master, however, proceeded to eat as though his very life depended upon it; something which caused me to remember his words, concerning how we were to require ‘every ounce of energy’ later. Deciding that this enthusiastic eating was no doubt due to a desire to build up such ‘energy’, I grimly continued to chew.
‘So, Ennin, you have come here thinking we have discovered some… cure, to this plague?’ said Ezo at once.
‘How do you kno
w this?’ asked my master, steadily returning the bearded man’s faintly mocking stare.
‘Because we have no such plague, while virtually all of Japan does, and word concerning this must surely have reached the Imperial Court,’ returned Ezo.
Then, the mocking smile abruptly vanishing, he said sternly –
‘Or do you Japanese imagine that we Au are thoroughly stupid, mere country-bumpkins, unable even to make such an obvious deduction for ourselves?’
‘Not at all,’ returned my master, pausing to nibble on a pickle. ‘I just thought you might have first heard this from Noami.’
Ezo did not even blink.
‘I have no idea who you are talking about,’ he declared.
‘He was the first emissary to be dispatched by the Empress, together with a samurai escort,’ declared my master, his voice rising slightly. ‘His whereabouts – all of their whereabouts – are commonly unknown.
‘So you mean to say,’ continued my master, ‘that Noami and his retinue never came to this settlement?’
‘Do you not think I would have already told you,’ said Ezo, his deep voice thick with barely-restrained anger, ‘had we been visited by this man of whom you speak?’
‘So, he never came,’ shrugged my master, as I sought to keep my own expression as impassive as was possible, in the face of this terrible lie. ‘And as for the matter of this plague…’
‘We cannot help you there,’ said Ezo dismissively. ‘Doubtless the fact that we keep ourselves almost completely secluded from the outside world has saved us. I would not even have allowed you and your servant inside our settlement, regardless of whatever ‘declaration’ you happen to carry from the Empress, had I not personally wished to meet the famous Ennin.
‘This desire having now been fulfilled, you may both leave first thing tomorrow morning, after you and your horses have at least had the chance of a good rest.’
This was evidentially a dismissal. Ezo and his bodyguard began to rise, obliging my master and me to do the same.
‘You will be shown back to your room,’ said Ezo. ‘Dinner will be brought there for you later. You will be escorted back outside tomorrow morning, and this is the last time we shall talk. Goodbye, Ennin.’
‘Goodbye,’ said my master quietly, and with that we left this room, following the two men back to our own room.
Once inside, the door again closed, my master lay back on one of the futon.
‘So we wait for dinner to be served – and then we take a look around, as indeed it is intended we will.’
‘Master?’
‘Our actions have already been predicted, Kukai. Of course we are not going to remain inside this room until tomorrow morning, like a couple of frightened rabbits. And it has been made more than easy for us to escape out into this settlement, later on, the very door unlocked and no guards having been posted.
‘So once we have eaten, and the light outside of those two sliding windows begins to dim, we will set out to discover just what we can.’
‘And then, master?’
‘And then… and then we will meet the person who is truly in control of this settlement – and we may also very well discover just what type of fate ultimately befell Noami.’
6
Dinner was delivered by the same two men who’d earlier taken us to see Ezo. They again said not a word, depositing a tray with some (admittedly delicious-looking) food upon it, just inside the doorway.
‘First, we eat,’ said my master; and again I forced myself to do just that, as the light outside the closed windows of wood and rice-paper began rapidly to fade. There was an oil lamp inside this room, but this remained unlit as my master and I finished off our meals in the near-darkness.
‘Okay,’ said my master softly, and I followed him over to the sliding door of this room.
This opened into the long, darkened corridor. Not a sound to be heard, far less a soul to be seen. I had no idea which way to go, but my master’s memory was excellent and so he fully remembered the way we had come when we’d first entered inside this large, multi-level building. So we stole along a succession of corridors, as I marveled at the sheer absence of people. Had my master and I deliberately been left as isolated as possible, the darkness, silence and general sense of solitude could not have been more acute.
For a few moments, I almost found myself wondering if the entire population of this settlement had not just somehow vanished, leaving only my master and me…
But then we were at one of the main entrances into the compound. It was unguarded! We stole outside – and there, at last, we saw people walking nearby. But we were crouched low, lurking in the shadows, and using the night’s inky darkness as cover we set forth to –
Where? I had no idea; as usual, I was merely following my master.
Yes, the nighttime was now full, so that there were bright, red and yellow lanterns strung along the sides of the wide, paved roads. The smell of cooking meat heavy and delicious in the air. People stood talking, laughing. Such a scene so different from those scenes of death and despair currently being enacted across the rest of Japan…
And yet Ezo had said that he couldn’t help us. That the Au had possibly avoided succumbing to this dreaded plague only because they avoided almost all contact with the outside world. Was he lying? Possibly. I doubted whether he would have helped even if he’d had some kind of cure right there at hand. He’d also lied about the certainty that Noami had been staying in the very same room as the one occupied by my master and me. That hinted at foul play – had the samurai first been ‘dealt’ with, as it were, with the courtier to the Empress herself being left until last?
And what was the purpose of my master’s mission now? He was seeking to find – something?
It was too much. Yet again, as was usual in any case concerning my master, there were far too many questions. Attempting to consider them all threatened only to push me towards lunacy…
…I gathered that we were in fact skirting around the large, multi-leveled building, within which we had until recently been staying. We moved from behind one bit of cover – a tree, some bamboo – to the other, moving silently and always in the darkness away from the shining lamps.
And then I caught it. The first whiff of wood-smoke. Quite unmistakable. We were moving away from the busy areas, now. Moving around the back of the large building, I guessed. That smell of smoke growing ever stronger. I thought maybe something was on fire – a building, perhaps – and yet no one was shouting; no bells were being rung and the like.
Yes, we were at the back of this building now. Crouched by a rear exit that lay almost in total darkness, only the half-moon shining above providing scant illumination. The smell of smoke very strong, yet – as I say – no sign of any fire. Almost as though this smoke was being emitted, as it were – through a pipe or something similar – from inside the building.
But why? For what possible reason?
Suddenly there was a great creaking sound, as the large, heavy wooden gate at the very rear of the building was slowly pushed outwards by a black-clothed figure. My master and I hurried behind a large bush that grew beside the track leading to this exit, as a horse carrying a rider at once thundered out from inside.
I was just able to see (so close was I to the horse as it shot past) that hanging beside the saddle was a large wooden box, with a number of holes made in it, such as might have been used to transport something living…
Living?
Also, the smell of smoke increased as the great wooden door opened; and then, as the black-clothed figure closed it again, this smell noticeably decreased. It was still obvious in the otherwise crisp and chilly night air, however.
‘Master?’ I murmured.
‘Come, Kukai, we will return,’ sighed my master in reply. ‘There is some sort of devilry taking place here – but of what exact nature, I am powerless to say. It matters not, anyway. Soon, have no doubt, all our questions will be answered, before we possibly discover what fat
e claimed Noami.’
I could hardly bear this sense of resignation being ‘emitted’, for want of a better word, by my master. As though all our best efforts were as chaff; that whatever we did had already been somehow ‘predicted’ by Ezo, or whoever it was who was ultimately in charge of this settlement, and so our fate was already as good as sealed.
And yet, as always, I had no choice but just to follow my master, and do exactly as he said.
Even if – as was becoming ever more certain in my mind – it took us both to our deaths.
7
We stole back the way we had come, entering inside the colossal central building, with again not a soul to be seen as we worked our along the ground floor and its darkened wooden corridors, the tatami rooms on either side large, silent and empty.
Then we were once again inside that room with its decorative window cover. I stood there beside my master, neither of us speaking, as though we were just waiting for –
‘Well, Ennin?’ came Ezo’s mocking voice at once, from outside in the corridor. ‘So tell me, what do you make of all that you saw?’
The door slid open, and in walked the big, bearded man, accompanied by several other men who immediately spread out. They carried swords, and a couple of them oil lamps. Two of them also carried bows, with arrows cocked ready. Obviously, they were actually aware of my master’s ability at the martial arts. As such, they were taking no chances. And yet, my master was unarmed, although I was as always carrying my small knife.
If only they did not –
‘Search them,’ commanded Ezo at once. ‘And strip them of their kimono. Leave them clad only in such garments as will just preserve their modesty…’
‘You had us followed,’ said my master, as our clothing was torn away. My knife was quickly discovered, held up for inspection, laughed at and then tossed aside.