by Ben Stevens
‘Yes,’ continued my master. ‘You allowed us to leave this room and go where we wished, knowing that we did not believe you when you said that Noami and the samurai never arrived here. And, as such, that you surely had something to hide…’
‘Yes, Ennin – ‘something to hide’,’ repeated Ezo scornfully, his eyes glaring above that bushy beard. ‘And soon, as did Noami, you shall learn fully just what this something is. A way to repay Japan for all the indignities it has visited upon the Au people; the way it has mocked and belittle –’
‘Shut up,’ said my master at once, his voice cold and scornful. ‘I grow weary of talking to the servant. Where is the master – the real ‘mastermind’ behind this wave of death and disease that is fast destroying Japan?’
At once, from out there in the corridor, came a gentle swell of laughter. Gentle, yes – and yet at the same time it chilled me to the bone. Even before that horribly soft, almost hissing voice actually spoke, I knew who was stood there, his snake-like eyes shining in the darkness away from the lamplight.
‘Oh, bravo, Ennin-sensei – Bravo!’ said Sesshu, now appearing to stand like some foul wraith in the doorway. Then, to those men who had just stripped my master and me of our kimono –
‘Make sure they our searched well. Never mind that toy carried by the servant’ (this was, I assumed, a reference to my small knife) ‘make sure that the sensei is entirely free of any of his devices…’
Another search of my master ensuing, I could have groaned as the small, bladed instrument – of a type suitable for picking locks – was discovered. If we were to be taken somewhere, and locked in, this tool had been our one chance of escape. Really, it seemed to me as though my master could have made a better attempt at concealing it. It had virtually just been stuffed inside one of his pockets…
‘So, Ennin,’ continued Sesshu, staring with an evil smile at my master, ‘finally I have the chance to properly thank you for having had me removed from the Imperial Court, and marooned on an uninhabited island. But there is also someone else who would like to take one, shall we say… last look at you…’
And there now appeared Jubei, the erstwhile ‘Demon King’, beside Sesshu. He was also smiling, delighting in my master (and also I) being captive.
‘Of course the courtier named Noami was here,’ said Sesshu then. ‘We allowed him and his retinue in, before overcoming the samurai in a room within this building and slaughtering them. Noami, however, I allowed to discover just how this plague within Japan is being spread – indeed, to discover its very cause.
‘It was in this very room that I gave him some… shall we say, indication of the fate about to befall him. So that he even tried to escape, heading towards the window there! He did a little damage to that attractive wooden cover, before we were able to subdue him…
‘And later, when he was shaking and feverish, undoubtedly infected with the pestilence, we cast him outside in the cold and darkness, clad only in his undergarments. I have no idea whether it was exposure or the plague that finished him off first – but I observed, sometime the following afternoon, a number of ravens circling above an area no great distance to the east. So, one can only assume that poor Noami did not get very far…’
‘Why, Sesshu?’ demanded my master, stood straight-backed only now (just like I) dressed only in his undergarments. ‘Why the need for such cruelty?’
‘Why?’ hissed the evil monk in return, his snake-eyes at once burning. ‘You dare to ask me why? That someone so instrumental in my downfall at the Imperial Court should brazenly arrive here, and – ’
‘He had nothing to do with that,’ interrupted my master sternly. ‘I was the reason why you were banished, marooned. It was I who defeated you – no one else.’
‘Oh yes,’ said Sesshu, his voice at once becoming a vengeful whisper. ‘So for you – and for your servant the scribe – I have something special in store. You too – like Noami – will discover just what is causing this plague both within Japan as well as abroad. You will at least have this curiosity satisfied.
‘Only, unlike Noami, you will never again leave the room to which you will now be taken…’
He looked back out into the corridor, and I couldn’t help but emit a small gasp as two large figures now entered. I assumed they were men, although they wore some type of armor head to toe, covered in straw which had in turn been painted with a type of ‘pitch’. Every part of their body, I mean, was covered in such a way, so that they moved a little stiffly. And from this strange covering came the strong smell of smoke, such as I had smelt coming from the rear of the building outside.
‘Something carries this plague, and yet the smoke destroys it,’ said my master quickly, as the two figures of straw-and-armor each took one of my master’s and my arms. ‘This is protective wear, to be worn inside whatever this room is that we are being taken, afterwards to be hung in another room that is deliberately filled with smoke…’
‘Excellent, Ennin,’ mocked Sesshu. ‘Even now, with such little time remaining for you and your servant, that splendid brain of yours is busy working away. Only, there is no longer any need to make such strident mental efforts.
‘Now – now you will know everything…’
My master and I were pulled outside, and then dragged along a number of corridors. The men armed with swords and bows followed in close attendance, ready to cut us down the moment we showed the slightest sign of resistance.
Yes – we were being taken to the rear of the building. This I realized now. There was the smell of smoke, coming from a room at the very end of a small corridor. There was only one other door; and I noticed that everyone except for the men wearing that strange attire of straw and armor shrank back from it, as it was first unlocked with a key and then opened.
My master and I were shoved inside the musty-smelling darkness. Scrabbling, scratching noises could be heard; there was a sudden squeal that caused my insides to freeze with fear…
The men wearing the strange armor were doing something around the edges of the room, moving rapidly. I could hear noises as though something was being opened – various boxes or cages being opened…
Then, at once, something shot by my feet… I could barely see in the darkness, but there was the impression of a thick, furry body, a long tail…
The men wearing the straw-covered armor now left the room, closing and locking the door behind them. My master and I were alone in the room; but then there came Sesshu’s voice from outside –
‘Rats, Ennin-sensei. Such extraordinary creatures, don’t you think? So maligned and detested, and yet superb survivalists…
‘Having escaped from the island where I was marooned, I consequently came across a Chinese ship whose crew was stricken with the plague. Taking great pains not to catch this pestilence myself, naturally, I still saw that some of the rats you commonly find on such a ship were also prostrate, and so I realized that they were the carriers.
‘The carriers, that is, of the fleas which require a host, and which transmit this pestilence when they bite just such a host – be it a rat… or a human.’
I felt as though I would lose my mind at hearing such things, there in the darkness with squealing vermin all around me, and yet my master said almost calmly –
‘Of course. Always it begins in the poorer areas, where there is plenty of rubbish and waste and – rats… I’d been attempting to make that connection before, I now realize.
‘But still,’ my master continued, ‘you have been deliberately infecting vermin, and then transporting them out from this settlement, using horsemen, to be placed in villages and towns. By doing so, you, Jubei, Ezo and everyone else concerned have murdered countless men, women and children.
‘One simply question: why?’
‘I never meant – ’ I heard the man named Ezo say suddenly; but Sesshu cut him off as he returned –
‘Because Japan must first be weakened, so that I can ultimately take power. What need have I to amass some grea
t army, to combat various powerful daimyo, if I can simply destroy my enemies with this plague?
‘Of course, I had a similar idea concerning a picture, which would have been far less lethal for all concerned – but you rather ruined things there. So in a way, Ennin-sensei, you also shoulder some responsibility for this plague…’
‘And that poisonous tongue of yours persuaded this fool named Ezo that he and the whole of the Au tribe also might be avenged on the Japanese people, through your actions – hence his support,’ observed my master.
‘Damn you, Ennin!’ roared the bearded leader of the Au – who, I still realized, was fully under Sesshu’s control.
‘You have succeeded mainly in murdering the very poorest, and most wretched of people,’ stated my master, his voice like ice. ‘Many of the daimyo, and their forces, continue to live in castles unaffected by the plague. Your lunacy has in fact achieved nothing – at least, not as you intended.’
‘There is still time, Ennin. The plague will spread further; almost daily, rat-carrying horsemen are dispatched from here. Patience is required – that is all. And you learn patience, I might say, when you find yourself marooned on an uninhabited island.
‘But – even standing behind this door, I grow a little nervous at being in such close proximity to plague-carrying rats. The two men who placed you inside are currently having their armor and indeed (just to be certain) their very bodies ‘smoked’, as you might say, so to destroy any fleas that may have landed upon them, and the rest of us will be leaving in a moment.
‘But, before we do… You probably can’t see this in the darkness, but there are a series of cages, stacked in pairs, against the walls all around the room you are presently occupying.
‘In the top cages, fresh rats which are quickly infected by those rats carrying the plague-infected fleas in the cages below. We must constantly keep this cycle ‘moving’, as it were – I mean with the ‘fresh’ rats becoming infected, those carrying the plague being transported outside or just dying, and so on.
‘All of the bottom cages have just been opened, so those are plague rats running around you. We allowed Noami to remain inside long enough so that he was certainly infected, but still pulled him out before the rats could sense his… weakness. Wasn’t that kind of us, Ennin?
‘No such courtesy shall be extended to you. Humans get sicker quicker than rats from this plague, I’ve discovered, so that these infected rats will still be relatively healthy and… hungry, when you and your servant find yourselves so wracked with fear that you can no longer even stand.
‘And then the rats, sensing your weakness and thus their advantage, will begin to make ever-bolder movements towards you, sensing that they have a meal just there for the taking…’
It took everything I had not to scream out and beg for mercy. The thought of those vermin crawling all over my body, biting and scratching, was more than I could bear. Only someone like Sesshu could have devised such a fate. To have deliberately infected someone with the plague, and then to throw them outside the settlement’s walls clad in just their undergarments, there to die a miserable, shivering death from sickness and exposure…
That had been evil enough. But this – first the plague, and then the being devoured while still alive by rats…
No, no, no – I couldn’t bear it!
‘Ah – here return the men now, who placed you inside this room,’ declared Sesshu jovially. ‘So farewell, Ennin; and farewell to your servant Kukai, as well. This is one adventure of yours that he won’t be writing up, regrettably…’
Then there was silence, the men outside having obviously walked away. I felt tears prick at my eyes. After all the adventures, the times seemingly certain death had been faced and overcome… For my master and me to meet our end inside this dark, rat-infested room…
My master suddenly started choking – just as he had earlier inside that room with the ornamental window cover. I almost convulsed with terror. Had he got the plague, already…?
Then there came the softest ping of metal, upon the stone floor. Something ran over my bare foot and I gave a yell, kicking away the heavy, furry mass.
‘Kukai?’
‘The rats, master,’ I said, my voice trembling. ‘One just ran over my foot. How long till they…’
‘Kukai,’ repeated my master, pressing something against my hand. With a thrill, I felt that it was a thin, metallic lock-pick. Undoubtedly, it was this I’d just heard being dropped upon the floor.
‘Master?’
‘It was necessary that the other lock-pick be discovered on my person, meaning in turn that I could successfully keep this pick concealed by using a fairly old, and thus reasonably well-known technique of the ninja.
‘Namely, to partially swallow some narrow-bladed tool so that it remains lodged in the upper esophagus. With practice, it is quite possible to eat and drink, even, with such an obstruction remaining in place.
‘Had Sesshu suspected that I had done this, all would now be lost. But he did not, Kukai – so…’
Taking my arm, my master moved us to the door. Something scraped in the keyhole… a few moments passed… and then the door swung open.
My heart leapt as we stole back into the corridor, immediately shutting the door behind us. No vermin appeared to have escaped.
‘Quickly, Kukai,’ said my master, and keeping hold of my arm he pushed open the door of the room from where there came the smell of smoke.
And the smoke was thick inside. I saw that it came from a brick-lined ‘pit’ in the centre of the room, filled with slow-burning lengths of wood. Sacks of dry leaves, kindling and branches had been placed against one wall, doubtless when it was required to increase the fire’s ferocity.
Hanging from hooks close to the fire-pit were the straw-covered suits of armor. And in one wall, two face-sized apertures. I grasped their meaning at the same time as my master escorted me over to them, for my eyes were streaming and I needed to cough. Yet the moment I placed my face against one of the openings, there was cool, fresh air, a slight wind blowing. I could see nothing – all was dark – and yet I was obviously facing into some small tunnel that led to the outside of this building.
So, it was here that whoever entered the room filled with plague-rats had to stand afterwards, so that this smoke would kill any fleas there might be on their person? Fleas which in fact carried this pestilence…
Now that I was out of that dark room of squealing terror, my mind was working a little more methodically. Certainly, as horrific as it was, this notion of rat-fleas transmitting the Black Death certainly seemed more viable than the previous talk of the planets being ‘wrongly’ aligned, or some Shinto gods exercising their displeasure at the Japanese peoples’ acceptance of Buddhism…
A tap on my back, and I turned to face my master in that smoke-filled room. He’d picked up one of the burning sticks from the fire-pit, and bade me to grab two large sacks of dry leaves, and several lengths of wood. Then, we left the smoke-room, closing the door behind us.
My master pushed open the door of the room filled with rats. I again felt myself stiffen with fear – but taking one of the sacks of leaves from me, my master set light to a bottom corner by using the burning stick he was carrying.
This he threw inside the dark room, followed by the other sack and the several branches and sticks of wood. There was at once a frantic squealing… something else appeared to take light, the whole of that room other than the floor being made from wood…
‘I had no choice,’ muttered my master sadly, again closing and this time locking the door. As though this destruction of living things – even plague-carrying rats – was something he felt keenly upon his conscience.
‘Quickly, Kukai,’ he said then.
Almost running, although scarcely able to see in the dark corridor, I followed him. Somehow he led us back to the room with the decorated window cover, where our clothes, few possessions and even my small dagger continued to lie in a heap upon the grou
nd.
We got dressed in moments. Then, lighting the small oil lamp that was inside the room, my master set the two futon on fire. We hurriedly left the room, heading for the front of the building.
This time, near the entrance, we came across two guards. One gave a cry, his hand moving to draw his sword… But my master turned and spun there in the darkness, his hands and feet moving faster than thought, and in a moment the two men had crumpled and fallen, to lie still upon the ground. Whether they were just unconscious or indeed dead, there was no way of knowing.
Outside, there came repeated shouts of ‘Fire, fire!’ A bell began to ring; my master and I crouched low, people running past.
Then we were moving, heading (I realized) towards the stables where our horses had been placed. We could only hope that they were still there. I saw that we were planning to take flight, having destroyed the root cause of the plague within Japan. We had now to return to the Imperial Court and inform the Empress of everything that had happened, with all possible speed.
But Sesshu – the one who was behind all of this. What was to be done about him…?
Even as I thought this, there was a sudden hiss and a shape landed upon my master’s back. A thin line of metal glinted in the moonlight, a wooden handle on either end. This line was in a moment wrapped around my master’s neck, so quickly that even my master had no chance to dislodge that black-clad dwarf who was clinging to him like a limpet…
‘Ah, I see you’ve met Ukifune again,’ declared Sesshu, emerging from the shadows with Jubei and Ezo stood either side of him. ‘This diminutive ninja also carries some ill-feeling towards you, due to the fact that you caused him to be imprisoned by the daimyo Sakamoto – and Ukifune managed to escape only recently.
‘So perhaps he can deal with you, seeing as those plague-infected rats – which I see you have managed to destroy with fire – somehow did not…’
‘This is for you, Ennin,’ rasped the dwarf, my master’s fingers futilely trying to pull the garrote from his neck. In just a few moments, I knew, he would be dead…