The Emperor in Shadow

by Richard Parks

  “Another shikigami?” I asked. “This was what you were too embarrassed to tell me?”

  Kenji sighed. “A priest and abbot such as myself, practicing Chinese yin-yang magic? I am so very ashamed.”

  “I’d say rather you were so very idle at Kamakura, to have even considered the attempt,” I said. “But, as with the sword blessing you did earlier, let us pray this proves useful.”

  The owl met the dark bird just beyond the farthest of the fishing boats clustered around the harbor. Morofusa’s archers had already loosed a few arrows at the creature, but to no visible effect. Knowing the rough size of the owl, which had the appearance of one of the giant fishing owls found in Hokkaido, I judged the size of the dark creature flying toward us as about twice its size, larger than the largest owl or eagle I had ever seen. If we were right it was also a shikigami, then its true form was nothing more than paper, and ordinary weapons could destroy it—the difficulty being getting close enough to strike it was problematic at best.

  I prayed Kenji’s shikigami would have better luck than Morofusa’s archers, but we soon had the answer. No sooner had the owl matched talons with the intruder than Kenji’s shikigami was torn to pieces. The morning sun caught little flashes of white from the tumbling pieces as they fluttered down to the water.

  “That was even more embarrassing,” Kenji said, going back to his prayer beads.

  In another moment the creature was past the fishing boats, past Morofusa’s archers. It dived low and headed for shore, and I immediately understood why. As the dark bird skimmed no more than a man’s height over the water, Morofusa’s men could not fire on it without risking hitting the people on shore, including Princess Tagako. The creature was headed straight for her.

  Akimasa ordered his archers to loose, and I started to gainsay him before I realized how foolish that would have been. Morofusa’s men were now in the line of those arrows, but both Akimasa’s and Morofusa’s first obligation was to protect the princess. I saw two arrows strike the creature, but none apparently did enough damage. The shikigami didn’t even bother to try to dodge. Kenji and I moved in front of the dais, flanked by Akimasa’s archers, still shooting, but I knew it wouldn’t be enough unless one of them hit the right spot by chance.

  “It’s a large one,” I said, “but the script may exist in a small area of the paper. It’s only luck if they hit the right place.”

  All the while, Princess Tagako had continued the blessing ceremony as if nothing at all was happening, but now the timbre of her voice changed. Yet it wasn’t fear I heard there—it was anger. I felt the air around us crackle as if lightning were about to strike. There wasn’t time to ponder its meaning. I had badly misjudged the dark bird’s size. It was perhaps four times the size of Kenji’s great fishing owl, with a wingspan proportionate.

  “Up close!” I said, as we were rapidly running out of options.

  Kenji, myself, and three bushi mounted the dais and took positions to shield the priestess. No more than a moment later the dark bird reached the shore and immediately swooped skyward and then down, claws extended, straight for Tagako, who was still chanting. Another arrow pierced the bird straight through, to no effect. Kenji had his staff, and the rest of us had our swords out, but I knew we wouldn’t be able to swing on the creature properly without risking hitting the princess.

  How do we stop it?

  We didn’t. Tagako did.

  When the shikigami was no more than the distance of a rooftop from the priestess’s head, there was a flash of light and the creature bounced as if it had slammed into a stone wall. It landed on the sand but in a moment was back on its taloned feet and gathering itself to take to the air again. Kenji and two of the bushi leaped forward just as I did, but I was in the better position and reached it just as it took wing. My tachi sliced through the air and struck the creature just above the left wing. For a moment my blade stuck and the force of its takeoff picked me up and threw me with as if I’d been struck by a great ocean wave. I felt myself spinning, and then I struck hard and everything went black.

  When I came back to myself enough to open my eyes, the world was still spinning. I groaned and closed them again. “Guard . . . guard the princess . . . ”

  “Proper, but a little late,” Kenji said. “I was beginning to wonder if you were coming back.”

  It took me several more moments before I dared open my eyes again. The world was still a bit unsteady, and I didn’t recognize where I was. “Princess Tagako?”

  Kenji’s hand was on my shoulder, pushing me back as I tried to rise, though Kenji himself was only a blur. “She’s safe, though it’s a small miracle no one was killed. A few of Morofusa’s men were arrow-bit, but none seriously.”

  My head felt as if I’d been kicked by an entire herd of horses. “What happened?”

  “You must have nicked the script that provided the enchantment,” Kenji said, “After your blow, the bird couldn’t fly. Akimasa’s bushi were able to finish it off.” He held up a tattered length of washi. “There wasn’t much left to examine, I’m afraid. They were rather thorough, once they came to grips with it. But we did learn one thing.”

  I rubbed my aching head. “And what was that?”

  “We now know for certain Princess Tagako is the target.”

  True enough. That much had been obvious even before the bird reached shore. “That light. It wasn’t you, was it?”

  Kenji looked thoughtful. “I wish I could say it was. I think it was Tagako herself, though what she did? I have no idea.”

  I tried to rise again, and this time Kenji helped me sit up. I looked around. “Are we in Uji again? How long was I stunned?”

  “About a day and a half. You were brought here in Takago’s palanquin, once I determined it was safe to move you.”

  “Where is she?”

  “In her quarters, of course. In regard to your injuries, naturally our return to the Capital will be delayed.”

  I wasn’t certain how I felt about this. In some ways I considered her safer here in Kanemore’s country estate than she might have been in Kyoto. On the other hand, I needed to be back in the Capital to fulfill my obligation to Fujiwara no Yorinobu. Whatever internal family squabble was currently dividing the Fujiwara, I knew it might not last, and the sooner more ministerial positions were in the hands of imperial sympathizers, the better.

  “How soon before I can travel?”

  “I understand your impatience, but you’re not going anywhere for a few days. Accept your fate and heal gracefully, if you don’t want the fury of the former high priestess to fall on you.”

  As Kenji had just reminded me, the blessing ceremony at Osaka Bay was her final duty as high priestess. Once she returned to Kyoto, she would simply be Princess Tagako, if one could call her “simply” anything at all.

  “Once her duties are discharged, the high priestess is expected back in the Capital in less than two weeks, and it is the return itself which marks the official end of her term. Won’t this delay cause problems?”

  “Princess Tagako has sent messengers to the court explaining our situation. If she is required to continue without you, we’ll soon know.”

  “My presence is not the issue. Would she be safe?”

  Kenji shrugged. “Is she safe here? She is well guarded, true, but she’s also a stationary target. Any potential assassin knows where to find her.”

  That was nothing less than truth, but there was nothing for it but to await word. I rolled over and started to rise, but there was hardly a spot on my body which didn’t feel bruised.

  Kenji was at my elbow. “I’m not sure this is a good idea,” he said. “What is it you need?”

  “The privy.”

  I was getting a little air on the veranda the following morning when Princess Tagako’s attendants arrived to arrange her kicho in front of a nearby doorway so she could enter it without being seen. I then heard a faint rustle, and her sleeve was visible at the bottom of the screen.

  �
��Forgive me for neglecting you, Lord Yamada, and please accept my thanks for saving my life.”

  I wondered if she was going to broach the subject, which gave me an opening for the question I wanted most to ask.

  “I think you may have saved your own life, and the rest of us merely assisted with this fortunate endeavor. May I ask what you did that deflected the creature’s first attack?”

  “As my last act as high priestess of the Grand Shrine of Ise, I prayed to Amaterasu-ōmikami, of course, and the goddess showed favor to her humble servant.”

  The flash of light.

  Now I understood. If Tagako’s interpretation was accurate, the gods had been prevailed upon to intervene, and not just any god—the titular deity of the royal family herself. Or Tagako’s belief and focus had summoned the power from within herself. There was no way for me to be as certain as Princess Tagako seemed to be about which was the case, but in all honesty this did not concern me. The outcome did.

  “If you’re trying to avoid frightening me, Lord Yamada, I promise I have been frightened for some time.”

  I frowned. “Highness, I’m not sure I understand you.”

  While I could not see her face, I had no doubt she was annoyed. “I’m not a child, Lord Yamada. It is clear now I am the goal of this assassin, whoever he or they are. Yet there is more—while almost anyone with enough motivation to do so could create an inugami, to create a shikigami as powerful as that one would require a very skilled onmyōji. Such a one is either our enemy or in service to them, which amounts to the same thing.”

  I bowed low. “I must ask your forgiveness, Highness. While the thought had occurred to me, I had not presumed to burden you with it. And yet it was your own quick thinking which saved you at Osaka Bay, not those of us tasked for your safety.”

  She quickly dismissed my statement. “You crippled the shikigami, and otherwise it is equally possible—nay, likely—its second attack would have succeeded. When I said I owed you my life, I was not joking. Besides, I do not wish to rejoin the wheel of death and rebirth with a burden on my soul.”

  I blinked. “What burden, Highness?”

  She didn’t answer right away, and when she did her voice was so low I had to lean close to hear her.

  “There have been times, and more than a few, when I thought it best I left this world, that there was nothing for me here. Yet now I know someone else feels the same way, I am . . . displeased? No. Angry. How dare they come to the same conclusion as I? Who are they to decide this, to usurp my prerogative? I could almost laugh at myself, Lord Yamada. Such pride, such arrogance . . . on my part. I would surely spend extra time in hell for it.”

  There was another subject I wanted to broach. Whether hell was a part of it remained to be seen. “Highness, you once mentioned your enemies at court. Is it really possible that one such is behind this?”

  “ ‘Enemy’ in this context is far too strong a word, Lord Yamada. I was a biting bug too small to swat, and a superfluous one at that. I simply cannot imagine anyone at court still caring enough about me to go to all this trouble. It’s not as if I left a trail of damaged reputations or spurned lovers behind.”

  I hadn’t totally rejected the possibility, but it did seem unlikely in the extreme. While I had heard of imperial consorts as young as thirteen, Princess Tagako had been no more than eleven when her year of carefully supervised purification began, and this was before she could even take her position at Ise. Even though the saiō was required to be a virgin who remained celibate during her tenure, there had been precedent for a high priestess to take a lover. That precedent had also shown it was impossible to do without, sooner or later, being discovered. Not only would such be considered a direct affront to the emperor and the royal house, it would be a severe breach of ritual purity, I had heard nothing that even hinted at such a possibility.

  I considered. “If not for personal reasons, then there must be a political reason.”

  I still could not see her face, but I would have wagered a new sword she was smiling. “I daresay it is the only sort remaining,” she said. “But what could it possibly be?”

  The “why” of it all was a subject I had been considering ever since the first attack, but I felt no closer now to an answer than when I had begun. However, I was beginning to have a few suspicions as to “who,” and that was a start.

  CHAPTER NINE

  “This is worse than I first believed. Lord Yamada, you are lucky you weren’t crippled.”

  Kenji finished examining my right knee. There were physicians available in Nara, certainly, but in my experience few people knew more than Kenji when it came to treating physical injuries. Besides, I was very leery of allowing outsiders into the compound where it could be avoided. After two days I had recovered enough to hobble about with only a little stiffness, but I had badly twisted my knee in the fight with the shikigami, and that was taking longer to heal.

  “But it will heal, yes?”

  “In time . . . provided you don’t do anything to re-injure yourself. I would suggest you avoid inugami and shikigami for a few more days.”

  “That may not be my decision. Have we heard back from Kyoto?”

  Kenji frowned. “We’ve heard nothing so far, which is surprising. Our couriers have had plenty of time to reach the Capital and return with word.”

  “Has Morofusa returned? I need to speak with him.”

  “I’ll find out. You stay where you are.”

  I had sent Morofusa on an errand the previous day, and much could depend on what he discovered. However, before Kenji had taken three steps, Morofusa appeared at the sliding screen that served as the door to my quarters.

  “Come in. I was just inquiring about you.”

  Morofusa entered the room and dropped to his knees. “Your pardon, Lord Yamada. I searched, and made inquiries, but . . . ” He looked unhappy.

  “You couldn’t locate Harutada’s men?”

  “Actually, I did. Several of them. They were a bit wary, of course, but over drinks—which I bought—a few consented to talk to me. They all confessed themselves baffled, Lord Yamada. Not one of them could name the reason Harutada was executed, beyond what they were told. I am convinced none of them knew what ‘disobedience’ meant in regard to their late shōshō. At most they would say he was acting strangely when they were summoned for escort duty, but that was all.”

  On the face of it, what Morofusa was telling me was not logical. In any large group of men, one would expect a certain amount of gossip and grumbling, and with enough wine there were few who wouldn’t say what they really thought. That none of the late Harutada’s bushi understood or could even speculate as to what he had done to deserve such a harsh penalty was more than odd.

  “Where is Akimasa-san?”

  “Making his rounds of the walls, I believe. Do you require him?”

  “I require four really good scouts. Would you please confer with your counterpart and choose them for me?”

  “Certainly, my lord. What do you wish them to do?”

  “Send two each to discreetly approach the barriers at Yamashiro and Settsu and report what they see there. Only report, mind. They are to take no other action, whatever they may find, and return as soon as possible. Am I understood?”

  “Perfectly, Lord Yamada. We will see to it.”

  When Morofusa took his leave, Kenji turned to me again. “I know that tone in your voice. You’re following a trail, aren’t you? What do you expect to find at the border crossings?”

  “Say rather it is what I hope I do not find, but we’ll know soon enough.”

  At Prince Kanemore’s estate, we were not even a day away from Kyoto, and even less to either of the two barriers we could cross to reach it. By late afternoon, the scouts had already returned. Morofusa brought me the news himself.

  “Two hundred? Is he certain?”

  “If not more. It was difficult to count them all without being seen. The same for Settsu. Traffic into Kawachi province was most
ly unhindered, but it seemed everyone seeking to leave was searched. What does it mean?”

  “It means Princess Tagako is in even more danger than I thought. You and Akimasa together command forty bushi. I have seen for myself how they perform under threat, and I am satisfied. I trust you are, as well?”

  “Yes, my lord. They are all good men.”

  “They’re about to have another chance to prove it. I want them all ready to ride in two days, as well as the garrison of Taira bushi. That will add another ten.”

  “As you wish, my lord, but do we dare leave the princess unguarded?”

  “She will not be unguarded. She is coming with us. In the meantime, I have another mission for your scouts. This one will not take as long.”

  Once I had given Morofusa his instructions, I hobbled off to find Kenji. I was not surprised to find him in conversation with a small group of Tagako’s attendants on the south veranda. The women wore their kimonos in autumn colors now, yellow, gold and red, almost like delicate maple leaves. They all bowed as I approached, except for Kenji, who had his back to me and turned to see who it was.

  “Preaching the true path, Master Kenji?”

  He sighed. “I’ve found that an unnatural clinging to one subject, even a spiritual one, can make a person a bit of a bore. We were chatting about the weather.”

  The women laughed, placing their sleeves in front of their mouths.

  “Ladies, I hope you will pardon me, but I need to borrow this gentleman for a while.”

  The women merely bowed again, though I think more than one of them looked disappointed. As we walked away, I heard them begin to talk among themselves.

  “I wonder what they say about us when we are not around,” Kenji said.

  “Assuming they speak of us at all, probably something along the lines of, ‘I thought the old goat would never leave.’ ”

  Kenji shrugged. “I am old. And a bit of a goat, yes, but perhaps not completely unwelcome. Women find me amusing, I think.”

  I had to concede this talent was probably somewhat useful. For people with such constrained lives as Tagako and the women who served her, even the chance to speak to someone outside the Princess’s inner circle must have had novelty value, if nothing else.