by Lisa Shea
I looked helplessly down at the spread of equipment before me. “I’m afraid that -”
Cooper waved a hand, laughing as she settled down opposite me, tucking her legs neatly beneath her. “Not to worry, girl. We don’t care about the precise count of the whisking motion. We’re just happy to be here with you.” She reached under her kimono fold and drew out a stopped pottery container. “Besides, I brought some saké. Figured we might need something a bit warmer for our souls, while we chat.”
I looked between the two of them, my shoulders easing. “You are both wonderful friends.”
Cooper’s eyes shone. “And you were always my favorite pupil. You have a true gift for understanding other cultures. And to think your parents want to marry you off to that cretin of a man …” She shuddered. “So far his claim to fame is that he helped round up the Christians in his household, to get them expelled from his province. He wants to keep Japan pure.”
Her grin grew. “You can imagine his utter horror when he learned about Robert.”
My eyes flared wide at the name. We were in feudal Japan. A land of Nobunaga and Tokugawa. How in the world did a “Robert” figure in to all of this?
Mary went to the small alcove and reached past the slender bud vase with its sprig of delicate blue flowers. She brought out a trio of translucent white porcelain saké cups and handed them to Cooper. Then she plunked down at my side and pulled over the tea bowl. She winked at me. “Let me get this all set up for you, in case that shark of a stepmother of yours comes in to check on us. We want the scene to look right for her.”
Cooper poured the sake while Mary put just the right amount of powdered green tea, or matcha, into the tea bowl. Mary bubbled away while she worked. “It’s all over the castle. How Tanaka reacted when he heard that your assigned bodyguard was not only a fallen samurai, one being punished for speaking out one time too many, but that he was Robert. The one associated with that incident.
My face tinted with color. I desperately wanted to know more, but clearly if I claimed I was ignorant of the whole thing they would think me an absolute loon. I went with a neutral approach. “So news of the incident upset Tanaka?”
Mary laughed out loud, her teeth shining in the soft light. “Upset? The man was nearly apoplectic, from what I heard! As you might imagine, he falls squarely in the camp that Robert’s mother should have been drowned, when her ship went down on its way bringing her to her wedding. That it was utter blasphemy that that Portuguese sailor, Robert, leapt in from a passing ship, risking his own life, to save her. That it shook the foundations of the world that the grateful bridegroom invited Robert to attend their wedding as a guest of honor and then - horror! - named his first-born son after the man.”
Cooper nodded knowingly, passing a small saké cup to me, then to Mary. She held hers up high. “To the fates. May we stay alive and find what we seek, despite all who work against us.”
I could agree with that with every beat of my heart.
I touched my glass to hers, then to Mary. Then I took a sip. The rice wine was delicate and floral, and it traced warmly down my throat. I drew in a deep breath, easing. I was here with friends. Maybe together we could figure this out.
A light patter sounded on the roof, and Cooper chuckled. “Looks like we made it in just before those spring rains began. Perfect. We can hole up in here for hours and nobody will come and bother us.” She grinned as her eyes moved up to the wood rafters. “Or is that the little mouse-friend you’ve been taking care of out here?”
Mary took up the finished tea bowl, admired it for a moment, and then put it off to one side. “Maybe he’ll come and have a sip of tea with us.” She glanced back toward the closed door as the rain came down harder. “I just feel sorry for Robert out there, at the end of the path. Hopefully he’s found a ginkgo tree to get beneath. I know one thing for sure. He’ll never leave his post.”
Cooper took a sip of her saké. “The man is loyal, that’s for sure. And intelligent.” Her eyes twinkled. “Although maybe not wise, with the way he’s spoken up about the things your father has been doing. Robert got himself demoted to babysitting duty, after all. And when you go off to court …”
She shook her head. “I know Tanaka will make Robert’s life a living hell. Tanaka will undoubtedly bring up, at every turn, that Robert never should have been born. That his mother should have sunk to a watery grave in that typhoon. That that was the natural order of things, until the sailor interfered.”
The patter above us grew louder. Cooper settled into her spot by the low fire. “Still, you can hardly refuse to go to court - and your parents are dead-set on you making that connection for them to the Imperial family. So I’m not sure what other choice there is.” Her eyes went to the flame. “Sometimes the best you can do is appreciate the moment, then see what the next one brings.”
The fluttering noise above us gave a soft slide.
My heart tensed.
My appearance in a given place and time had never been haphazard. It had never been months before the sea-change. I had never been allowed to lounge for weeks on a tropical beach, building up knowledge for what was to come. I had always been dropped in at the critical juncture, where I could take in the key visions and then act. Which meant right now -
I drew up into a crouch and moved to the low door. I slid it open on its well-oiled rails and looked out. The rain was falling steadily now, a sheet of shimmering silver against a backdrop of glistening pine and juniper. A narrow, stone-marked path curved serenely into the shadowy depths.
My throat was tight, and my call barely had breath behind it. “Robert?”
Mary’s voice came low, tense. “Hellfire! Cooper, look!”
I spun.
A small, grey mouse had crept out to the cooling tea bowl and had apparently lapped at the liquid within. But now it was twitching convulsively, its beautiful black eyes wide open in fear, its tiny paws clawing at the air.
My breath filled me, and I screamed, “Robert!”
The rice-paper window was kicked in, and a lithe, black-outfitted person vaulted into the room, short sword out in one hand. A black mask shielded their face. Mary’s scream pierced their air, and I fell back onto the side wall in shock. A ninja? They’d been vastly overplayed in modern movies, with their shurikens of death and their mystical abilities. But ninja had certainly existed in the feudal period -an elite cadre of well-paid assassins -and they definitely deserved their lethal reputation.
Cooper grabbed up the utility knife from the tea set. Her eyes blazed with fury. “Girls, get out of here! I’ll hold him off!”
I grabbed up the hot teakettle, still half-full of boiling water, and lobbed it at him.
His scream filled the small room, as the scalding water sprayed across him, but he deftly dodged and the kettle itself slammed into the back wall, shaking loose the scroll of the tiger. It fluttered to the ground.
The ninja’s eyes were honed in on me, and he dove -
Robert came bursting in through the door, sword out, every inch of his body honed for action.
I would have known it was him. It didn’t matter that he was clearly Japanese or that his hair was slicked back in the traditional style, pulled into a glistening knot at the back of his head. It didn’t matter that he wore a black kimono with gold wheels embroidered at each breast. It was in the readiness of his muscles as he drew into the room. The look in his eyes which said, no matter what it took, he would keep me safe.
He threw himself in between the vaulting ninja and me, drawing his sword hard across his body. The ninja met the blow with his own blade, and the sharp crack of them hitting split my ears. Then the men were tumbling, wrestling, a fist slamming hard into the side of a head, a kick blasting into a shin. The fire was hit and flame spread across the room, embers catching the beautiful tatami alight.
Mary clutched at Cooper, her face frozen in shock.
I looked around for something to grab. The room was elegant - too simple in its elega
nce - and there was nothing … nothing …
My eyes went again to the scroll, to the wand of wood which stretched across its top. I grabbed it up, the ethereal artwork ripping. The tumble of men groaned and grunted, and I waited -
The ninja’s head came up in triumph, his knife flashing down -
With every ounce of my body’s strength I slammed the wooden rod into the ninja’s temple.
Crack.
He fell like a stone across Robert’s body.
Silence fell like a heavy blanket across the room - and suddenly the pattering of the rain, the crackling of the fire, and even Robert’s deep breaths echoed in the small space.
Robert’s eyes drew to me. “Are you all right?”
I shook my head in disbelief. He had a jagged cut across one cheek, and his kimono was torn at the arm. Who knew what other injuries he had. “Me? What about you?”
He drew to his feet, his sword still in his hand. “We have to get you to safety. Quick, everyone out.”
We tumbled out of the teahouse and onto the glistening stones outside. We were in a small clearing within a forest, surrounded by pine and juniper. Only the thin, stone-marked path led on to some distant location.
I turned to Cooper and Mary. “You two get to safety. You’ll only be at risk being around me right now. And don’t say anything to anyone about what you’ve seen. Robert and I have to figure this out.”
Mary’s eyes were wide. “Are you sure?”
Cooper took her by the arm. “Those two know what they’re doing,” she assured Mary, “and the quicker we can let them on their own, the better off they’ll be.” She stepped to me and drew me into a warm hug. “You take good care of yourself,” she murmured. Then she turned and hooked Mary by the arm. In a moment they had vanished down the curving path.
The teahouse groaned, and then orange flame flickered through the caved-in window.
Robert was staring at it as if captivated. “It’s like in my dream.”
I stepped up to him. “The dream where I was trapped in the flames, on a second floor, and you knew you had to rescue me?”
He spun on me, his eyes widening. “How did you know about that?”
I took his hand in mine. “Or perhaps the dream where you faced the lion, and were caged, and I was the one who set you free?”
His gaze was lost in mine.
I brought his hand to my face, to lay it gently against my cheek. “I know, Robert. I know what you have endured, to try to guide my father and stepmother onto a good path. A healthy path for them and for the people of this province. And I also know it’s doomed to failure. You’ve been assigned to my protection. Do you think it’s coincidence that my life was put in jeopardy? What would happen to you when this attack on me became known?”
The flames behind us licked higher, and they cast his face into deep shadows.
I nodded. “They’d get rid of their most vocal opponent, and my presentation at court would go that much more smoothly. I have no doubt that they are behind this.”
His head was shaking. “I can’t believe it of your parents. Not this. This is too low, even for them.” He ran a hand along his neatly combed hair. “Maybe it’s those two women, the ones eager to have Tanaka for their very own.”
I gave a low laugh. So Anna and Sofia were at it, even in this time frame. I looked up into his eyes. “This blatant attack is hardly their style,” I pointed out. “They’d be ones to spread false rumors about me, that I was engaged in immoral behavior and was unworthy of the match.” My gaze fell into his. “Maybe something like I’d fallen in love with my bodyguard and wanted to run away with him.”
His breath stilled.
Behind us, the building shuddered as the flames fully engulfed it. The crisp tatami and delicate woodwork became rich food for a hungry beast.
I nudged my head up the path. “I know my parents. They won’t be far. They’ll want to know, soon, how their little plot went. They’re not good on patience. Do you have a sense where they might be lurking?”
His eyes drew into focus at that, and he nodded. “The alcove in the meditation garden. It gives a perfect view of the end of the path. And I know a back way to an overlook. Come on, this way.”
He put his hand around mine.
Warmth coursed through me, spreading through my body like hot tea on a cold winter’s afternoon. It filled me and strengthened me, sending flutterings through my stomach.
He looked down at me and groaned. His eyes held mine. “How could anyone think of hurting a woman such as you. You deserve to be treasured. To be held tight and kept safe against all the world showers down.”
My lips curved into a smile. “And you shall.”
His breath caught, and I almost thought he would draw me in. But he gave himself a shake and turned, leading me off into the woods.
I wasn’t sure how he saw where we were going, through the twisting trees and growing shadows, but his course was steady and firm. Above us the rain pattered steadily against the canopy of leaves and needles, but little of it dripped down to us within the mossy depths. I breathed in the rich, woody fragrance, content beyond all measure. It didn’t matter that my parents had just tried to set up a horrific attack on my life in order to get Robert exiled - or perhaps even killed. It didn’t matter that they were striving to marry me off in a political maneuver to a man who seemed a beast. All that mattered was that Robert’s hand was clasped in mine, that his eyes were bright with focus, and that we were together.
There was a lightening ahead, and he crouched down. I matched his move. We cautiously crept forward to the edge, and I looked down over the craggy rocks.
There, beneath us, was a beautifully laid out garden. There were twisting hedge-paths and delicate white rocks. A pool of water dappled in the rain, and a bamboo rocker filled with rain, making its classic knock-knock sound as it tilted to let it out. To one side a sand garden rippled around large rocks, a mimic of an ocean with islands. Within the sand was one cluster of two rocks, one large, the other slender and black. Somehow I knew that I had always thought of those as my parents; my stepmother’s insidious ways worming herself in against my father. To the other side of the sand garden was a lone rock, scraggly and rough. That had always seemed me, alone and lost.
But as I looked at the scene from this overlook, I realized there was another rock I hadn’t seen before. It hadn’t been visible from a position at the same level of the garden. From up here, however, I could see it nestled into the woods. It was strong, sturdy, and it almost looked as if it were watching over the lone rock. Protecting it. Always there.
My breath left me.
Robert pointed. His voice was the softest of whispers. “There they are.”
My eyes followed his outstretched finger. Sure enough, a woman and a man were tucked into an alcove in the garden, not far beneath us. He wore an elegant, deep-purple kimono decorated with towers. Her kimono was in pale lavender, complimenting his, and was it my eyes or were those really golden coins scattered all over the fabric?
Her voice was low and sharp. “It’s got to be done by now. We should go look.”
He shook his head. “We have to be patient. We don’t know it’s even begun yet. If we go in too soon, then everything will be ruined.”
Her voice took on a snarl. “We already saw those two fool friends of hers leave. So she’s in there all alone. Surely he would realize it’s the perfect time to strike -”
A loud clanging noise sounded across the clearing. “Fire! Fire!”
My parents clutched at each other in surprise, and then they were running.
Robert drew to his feet. “We have to go down and -”
I grabbed at his hand. “We have to run. There’s not going to be any talking to them. Any reasoning. They have their plan and they’ll stop at nothing to see it through. We have to run for it.”
He turned to me in shock. “But we’ll be living on the land! Wearing rough, peasant garb and working the soil! You come from a we
althy castle. You deserve that life. You deserve -”
I drew his hands into mine. “I deserve you. And I don’t care where we are. I don’t care if we’re in a small cottage by a stream, and all we eat is what we grow in our garden. You’ll hunt us some rabbit, I’ll cook us some stew, and we’ll be happy. Because we’ll be together.”
He stared at me, and I could barely put a name to the rich kaleidoscope of emotions which swept through his face. At last he spoke. “Are you sure?”
I nodded my head, my smile growing. “I am absolutely, positively, whole-heartedly determined.”
He dropped to one knee, laying his sword across his hands before him. “Then I vow to you that I will always be at your side. I will protect you from all harm, and I will never fail you.”
My heart swelled, and I brushed my fingers along his cheek. “I know, Robert.”
There was a noise from the woods behind us, and he rose to step before me, his sword rising high. “Who’s there?”
The crunch came again, louder.
My heart hammered against my ribs. “Robert, no, wait!”
He strode toward the shadows. “Come out or I’ll -”
Blackness welled behind me.
Thunk.
Silence.
*
I groaned into awareness. My face was pressed into a rocky outcropping. I wearily drew myself up to sitting.
I was on the edge of a butte, somewhere in the American west, if I had to guess. Surely that was Monument Valley down beneath me, with its gorgeous, distinctive rocky pillars of rusty orange rising high out of a rippling desert. The sky above was cerulean blue, breathtaking in its high majesty. Only a few drifting white clouds interrupted that vast expanse.
There were no roads in sight. No signs at all of civilization. That only meant it was probably pre-1900s. I could easily be in the 1800s, the 1600s, the 1200s, or any other time period in between. The world went on in its eternal cycle, barely noticing the actions of mankind on its face.