The Fires of the Gods (A Sugawara Akitada Novel)

by I. J. Parker

  ‘Agreed.’ Shokan nodded. ‘But please hurry!’

  RAT BAIT

  Jirokichi was in a quandary. He had thought a gift of twenty pieces of gold would satisfy anyone, let alone a young man with a family who depended on this lord who had neither wealth nor position. Yet the man who had saved him from the damned louts had returned to Hoshina to threaten Jirokichi’s life.

  What was he to make of that?

  It was crass ingratitude, of course. And maybe this Tora wanted to extort more money. Why else would he demand to speak to Jirokichi in person?

  Hoshina was afraid and wanted Jirokichi to stay in hiding. ‘That one’s a sly one,’ she said. ‘Mark my words, he’s big trouble. And he works for an official. You shouldn’t go out at all for a while.’

  Jirokichi shook his head. ‘I don’t know. Why did he help me in the first place? There was nothing in it for him. He couldn’t know I’d pay him. Something else is going on. I think it’s got something to do with the fires. He wanted to know about those.’

  Hoshina’s eyes grew big. ‘You aren’t going to meddle in that, Jirokichi? That’s very bad trouble. That’ll kill you. And me, too.’

  Jirokichi sighed and nodded. ‘You’re right. We’d better stay as far away from that as we can. But I still feel bad. It’s that fellow Tora that’ll get killed if he keeps poking his nose into this.’

  ‘Serves him right then.’

  Jirokichi did not know what to say. Hoshina sometimes surprised him. He had not thought that she could be so cold about another human life. Perhaps he should be flattered that she loved him as much as all that, but in reality she frightened him.

  ‘All right, love,’ he said, ‘I’ll stay away from the fire business, and I’ll be careful when I go out. But there’s a job to do tonight.’

  Jirokichi set out right after the hour of the rat had been called by the night watch. The time had always seemed to him preordained. It was the hour for thieves, his own time, decreed by the gods since the very beginning of the world. And the gods had blessed his work.

  But his funds were running low after he had left the twenty gold pieces for Tora. There were several families in need. One of them had just lost their small tailor shop when it had burned down along with all their clients’ orders. The tailor had gone into a deep depression over what he owed to those who had trusted him with their property, and his wife had left a plea for help at one of the small altars set up to Jirokichi.

  Jirokichi was embarrassed by the little altars, but they were really very useful places for people in need to leave their requests. He visited them on his nightly rambles and read the notes people had left. If he found one worthy, he paid the petitioner a surreptitious visit to make sure he or she was telling the truth.

  Since the fires had started, he had found several good families in tragic need. Tonight he would steal something for the tailor.

  The night was nearly perfect for his work: warm, but no longer as hot and oppressive as in the daytime. Instead the dark had a velvety smoothness that was almost a caress. A new moon hung in the sky, and stars sparked brightly, but Jirokichi was dressed in black and had blackened his face, hands, and bare feet. His shirt and pants were molded closely to his body so they would not snag when he wriggled through small windows or openings. He stayed on the shadowed sides of houses and chose alleys and narrow streets whenever he could. Moving quickly and silently, he reached the back of the large dwelling in good time.

  The house was one of those ample and steeply roofed buildings like large farms in the country. Jirokichi had been here several times already to note the layout and construction of the house and outbuildings. The shop was in front and the merchant’s office right behind it. House and outbuildings were surrounded by a wall that gave access to an alley in the rear. Jirokichi had talked to neighbors about how many people lived there and had been very pleased to hear that the servants slept elsewhere. Only the merchant and his new wife remained in the living quarters at night.

  The previous night he had returned to climb the roof of the main house and peer in through the hole that let the smoke escape. Below him lay the family’s large common room with its open hearth. To his surprise, there had still been a light in the office in spite of the late hour, and he had heard the murmur of male voices.

  Jirokichi had contented himself with a good look around to remember the layout of the cross-beams, and then he had left quickly. It was disappointing, but when he had heard the rumble of thunder, he had been relieved. Navigating a steep thatched roof when it was wet with rain was very dangerous. The thatch turned as slick as ice.

  Tonight there was no danger of rain. He climbed the rear wall and peered in. Yard and house lay silent and dark. Flinging a leg over the top of the wall, he turned on his stomach with both legs dangling inside, then lowered himself by his arms. His profession had not only made him quick and silent in his movements, but it had also given him very strong arms and legs.

  He landed with a faint thud and immediately slipped behind a pile of boxes and large containers.

  All remained still.

  Jirokichi had not been making empty boasts when he had told Tora that he was successful only because he prepared carefully. Not all of his attempts turned up good targets. Some wealthy men’s houses were inaccessible because of night-time guards, or a noisy dog or mewling cats. The latter problem he had once thought to solve by returning with several live rats in a cloth bag. These he had let loose to distract the cat, but the ensuing clatter as the cat scampered after the rats while the panicked rats looked for escape in unfamiliar surroundings had woken the owner more surely than if Jirokichi had simply strangled the cat. He had almost been caught – with the owner’s full money purse on his person. Only the fact that the merchant had blamed the racket on the rats had saved him. It was this incident that had later given Jirokichi the nickname the Rat.

  He climbed to the top of a small shed that gave access to the roof of the main house, then made his way up it, walking softly on the thick thatch until he reached the small opening near the top that let the smoke from cooking fires escape. Here he stopped and peered down. The fire in the hearth was out, and the place lay in darkness and silence, except for faint sounds of snoring. He made his move.

  At this point, things got tricky. Because of the darkness, he now had to work by touch and memory. He pictured the wide cross-beams in his mind and squeezed through the opening, letting his bare feet dangle down until they found the beam. He felt around with his toes and stood up.

  Only the fact that Jirokichi was as small and slight as a child of ten permitted such work. A larger man would not have been able to fit through the roof opening and would have been too heavy to traverse the tops of flimsy interior walls.

  By now his eyes could make out a few things, and he walked along the wide beam to the opposite side of the house. Jirokichi never suffered from vertigo. He had apprenticed with one of the rope walkers in the market when he was a boy, but given up the profession as too uncertain a year later.

  The lower part of the house was open to the roof, and only the eave chambers were enclosed by walls. The center of the house was the common room. Jirokichi reached a place above the merchant’s office via one of the cross-beams. There he sat down and fished a key from the secret pocket Hoshina had sewn into his pant leg.

  This was one of several thin gadgets fashioned of hard steel by a clever smith who believed that Jirokichi traded in used furniture and needed to open chests where the owner had lost the key. This particular ‘key’ fit locks like the ones on merchants’ money chests.

  He prepared to drop down to the floor when a loud pounding made him freeze in place. He listened.

  The sound was too muffled to have come from the front of the house, but it was certainly loud enough to wake the owner.

  There it was again. And now he heard other sounds, and a light sprang up in one of the eave rooms. The merchant had woken and was muttering angrily.

  Jirokichi br
iefly considered making his way back to the roof opening, but the light would catch his moving figure, and the merchant might look up and see him. The main support beams were visible from most of the rooms below. Instead of risking capture, he scooted as far as possible into the dark corner where the roof descended and two beams crossed. There he cowered and waited.

  The merchant’s heavy steps receded. Somewhere in the back of the house, a wooden bar slid back and a door opened. Jirokichi heard excited male voices and the merchant’s angry growl. Then the door slammed, the bar fell into place, and more steps returned. The merchant was bringing visitors into the common room.

  When they appeared, lit eerily by the flickering light of the merchant’s oil lamp, Jirokichi’s heart skipped a beat. He recognized the two scruffy young louts instantly. They were the ones that had maltreated him so brutally. One of them was the ugly bastard with the knife scar on his cheek. The other was the thin one with the hungry look. He had a black eye.

  They looked around curiously, but seemed polite and deferential. Their presence here surprised Jirokichi. Wealthy merchants like the one below did not associate with such scum. Besides, he would have expected them to use their knives to rob the older man.

  Instead of being suspicious, the merchant merely looked angry. He snapped, ‘Wait here,’ then turned his back on them and padded off towards his office. Jirokichi wondered at that, and he wondered even more that they obeyed meekly.

  The merchant now stood directly below him. Jirokichi drew in his arms and legs as the light crept towards his crossed beams. Oblivious of the thief cowering above him, the man pulled out a bunch of keys on a string he wore around his neck and unlocked the money chest.

  When he lifted the lid, Jirokichi clamped a hand over his mouth to keep from gasping at the size of the treasure. Gold and silver in loose coins rose in piles, and bundles of bulging bags were stacked beside the piles. Golden ingots filled the sides, and more lay underneath the coins and bags. Jirokichi had never seen so much gold in one place.

  He knew from the neighbors that the merchant was lending money at high interest, but even that did not explain such wealth. Even as his mouth watered at the sight, he knew that there was far too much for a small man like himself to carry away.

  He considered various desperate methods of raising heavy weights up to the roof and lowering them outside. All proved impracticable. He watched in misery as the merchant counted out some gold coins, then closed and locked the chest.

  Jirokichi tried to console himself with the thought that even the amount of gold he could comfortably carry offered a rich reward for his trouble. Soon the merchant would get rid of the youths and go back to bed, leaving Jirokichi to reap the fruits of his labors.

  The merchant handed the gold to the scar-faced youth. ‘Here,’ he said, ‘that should take care of the next one. It’s more than you deserve. You’ve been getting careless. Two people dead already. Stay away from mat makers and paper merchants.’

  The youth took the gold, but he blustered a little. ‘It wasn’t our fault. We made sure to wake up the guy. Who knew about the old one in the back?’

  ‘You should’ve known better. And if you’re seen again, you’ll be useless. That’s when you’ll disappear permanently.’

  The rat saw the fear in their faces as they slunk off without another word. The merchant followed them out, then closed and barred his back door and returned to his sleeping quarters. The light went out.

  Jirokichi stayed in his cramped position for a long time, even after he could hear the merchant snoring again. He thought about what he had heard. The young punks weren’t the only ones who were scared. He eyed the money chest longingly and clutched the key in his sweaty hand. After a while, he started shivering. Not even the immense treasure below could tempt him to steal from this man. If he were caught here tonight, he would be a dead man, and if he were merely suspected of having been here, he would be hunted down. When he finally got up to leave, he still trembled so much that he almost slipped off the beam on his way back to the exit hole.

  Outside, on his way down the steep roof, he had to force himself to move carefully, but when he gained solid ground, he sped away as if all the devils of hell were after him.

  THE WITCH

  The new closeness Akitada had found in Tamako’s arms was both deeply moving and upsetting to him. She was clearly feeling better but, far from being reassured, he now realized how profoundly her loss would affect him. And that thought kept him in an almost continuous panic – a panic that was always worst in the mornings when he left her bed.

  The morning after Akitada’s meeting with Abbot Shokan, Akitada was once again pondering the thin line between happiness and despair, when an unsmiling Superintendent Kobe arrived. He was shown into Akitada’s study by Tora, who withdrew again quickly.

  In spite of a sinking feeling that he would not like what Kobe had to say, Akitada offered a jovial greeting: ‘Good morning, my friend. You’re out and about early, but it’s always a pleasure to see you.’ When Kobe did not respond to this and continued to glower, he asked, ‘Is something amiss?’

  ‘You might say so.’ Kobe sat down and glanced around the room, then seemed to remember his manners. ‘I hope all is well with your lady?’

  When he had left her, Tamako had been curled up under the quilt and smiling sleepily up at him. Akitada, putting aside his perverse fears, said, ‘Thank you. She is feeling much better.’

  ‘I’m very glad to hear it,’ Kobe said stiffly and fell silent.

  ‘Will you take a cup of wine?’

  ‘No.’

  This blunt refusal was an unpleasant surprise. Akitada tried to ignore it. ‘How may I be of assistance, then? Have there been more disturbances in the city?’

  ‘Another fire night before last, but I expect Tora told you about it. I’m here on the other matter.’

  The other matter could only be the Kiyowara case. Hoping to distract Kobe, Akitada said, ‘Tora reported his suspicions of some young hoodlums, but I’m afraid he was too generous in giving me credit. I had nothing to do with it.’

  Kobe fidgeted impatiently. ‘It has come to nothing. There’s no proof. The fact that they were near two fires was probably due to curiosity. The young don’t have enough to do and roam the city at night.’

  Raising his brows, Akitada said, ‘Tora caught them twice running from a fire. Surely that’s a little too much coincidence, don’t you think?’

  Kobe scowled. ‘Don’t waste my time with the fires,’ he snapped. ‘I’m here because you’re in the pay of the Kiyowaras. In spite of my warning! I won’t speak of the effect your involvement in the murder is bound to have on the Bureau of Censors or of the repercussions for your career. If you wish to ruin yourself and your good name, that’s your business. But I will not tolerate your ruining mine.’

  Akitada gasped, then sputtered, ‘I’m not in the pay of the Kiyowaras, as you call it. And in what way am I ruining your career?’

  Kobe seemed to swell with anger. ‘When you use our relationship to interfere in a murder investigation and to protect the guilty, you call my honesty and my loyalty to my emperor into question. I came to warn you that you may not count on the police to help you, and I have already informed Lady Kiyowara of this. Naturally, she was unhappy that you won’t be able to protect them from us.’

  The room had become chill. Akitada felt as if all his blood had drained from his upper body and was forming a painful knot in his belly. Kobe’s figure swam before his eyes. What had he done to deserve this from a man he had counted his friend for years? They had fallen out before, but Kobe had never insulted him like this, not even when Akitada had worked on a memorial to the emperor that criticized the police. He sat frozen, searching for an explanation, and finally hit on his dismissal from the ministry.

  ‘I see,’ he said bitterly. ‘This is a mere pretext. Now that I have lost my position in the government, you’re using this to cut the bonds of friendship. I had no idea you felt t
hat way.’

  Kobe’s face flushed. ‘That’s a damned lie. How dare you accuse me of such cowardly behavior?’

  The knot in Akitada’s belly dissolved into red-hot fury. He shot to his feet and shouted, ‘Because it is cowardly. And I shall not stop working for Lady Kiyowara to please you.’

  Kobe was on his feet also. He had turned nearly white. ‘Then I must warn you that you’re cutting your own throat and ruining your family. Given your refusal to stay out of this case, I shall have to assure the chancellor that I cannot be responsible for your actions now or in the future.’

  Akitada snapped, ‘So you also plan to ruin my chances of getting another appointment. When have you ever been responsible for my actions? Not once. But you liked it very well when you benefited from them because you were inadequate to the job. No, I had it right in the first place: now that my enemies have the upper hand, you consider me a heavy stone that threatens to drag you down. You’re nothing but an opportunist, Kobe.’ Akitada clenched his fists to control the tremor in his voice. ‘The fact that I have to earn a living outside the civil service is lost on someone who is in the pay of corrupt officials. No wonder you think me so dishonest that I would use your name to subvert the truth and protect a murderer.’

  They stood glowering at each other for a moment. Suddenly, Akitada felt drained. ‘You’d better leave,’ he said and turned his back on Kobe.

  He heard receding steps, and then the door slammed.

  The sound echoed in Akitada’s head as he walked unsteadily towards the veranda and looked out at the garden without seeing it.

  Eventually, he realized that Seimei and Tora had come into the room. Seimei cleared his throat, but Akitada did not turn until Tora plucked at his sleeve.

  ‘What was that all about, sir?’

  ‘Superintendent Kobe has accused me of… dishonorable behavior.’

  Tora sucked in a breath, then muttered a curse.

  Seimei came up. ‘It is said that we must inquire seven times before we doubt a friend. Surely there was a misunderstanding.’