The Emperor in Shadow

by Richard Parks

  Morofusa’s attitude was one I had encountered many times before in my dealings with the military families. While of necessity I had donned armor and fought alongside bushi during the war against the Abe, I was not a bushi, nor did I aspire to be. I could not see the unquestioning obedience I had seen in Yorinobu and others as an altogether positive thing.

  “I am no one’s enemy,” Princess Tagako said, “But I understand your meaning, Morofusa-san. Has there been any further word from the Capital?”

  Her last question was directed at me, so I bowed again. “Fortunately I was not mistaken when I told Lord Yorinobu that his bushi were standing down. Once the emperor’s representatives arrived in force at the barriers, they were quick to comply. We can expect the new governor with Taira reinforcements within two days. Your return to the Capital should suffer no further delays.”

  Princess Tagako sounded a bit wistful. “I know you gentlemen have other duties. Yet what shall I do without you?”

  I had been wondering the same thing, so far as her safety was concerned. Now that the immediate danger seemed past, I had received part of the answer in a personal communication from Prince Kanemore. “I am informed you will be taken, if it pleases you, to Prince Kanemore’s mansion compound in the third ward. I hope I have the privilege of being of further service to you, but I trust his ability to protect you until the threat can be identified and removed.”

  “So do I,” she said.

  Later I found myself wondering if she had been referring to Prince Kanemore or to me or even both. I thought about this far more often than I considered proper, and yet I was still wondering on the day we finally returned to Kyoto.

  It had been three long years since my last visit to the Capital. I am not sure what I expected to see, as nothing seemed to have changed. The shrine at Gion still drew its crowds of worshippers, Shijo Bridge still arched over a branch of the Kamo river. I planned to go there some night to verify this, yes, on moonlit nights the ghosts of men and women who had killed themselves for love still made a stately procession over the water and under the bridge. I did notice a very few, very small youkai lurking about but nothing which caused me any concern. It was as if I had never left. Except in the multiple instances where it was nothing of the sort.

  The Widow Tamahara’s establishment still served wine and otherwise plied its trade, but my old rooms had long since been given over to wine storage, which seemed oddly appropriate, given my history. Not that my return there had ever been a viable option under the circumstances. Only belatedly did it occur to me I needed to make lodging arrangements, but apparently this had already been settled. Akimasa and Morofusa’s escort duties were done, so they left us to make their reports to Lord Yoriyoshi’s son Yoshiie, who was in the city at the time. After they left, my attendants gently ushered Kenji and me to a palatial compound only a little smaller than my home in Kamakura. There was something about the house and garden which seemed very familiar.

  “Whose house is this?” I asked Hiroshi, the same runner who had delivered Princess Tagako’s first letter to me.

  “Yours, my lord,” was the somewhat bemused reply.

  I frowned. “Kenji-san, did I buy a house in the Capital and simply forget?”

  The priest shrugged. “While it does sound like something you might do, I cannot recall hearing of such a thing. Hiroshi-kun, is this perhaps merely an expression, meaning that the real owner has given Lord Yamada the use of it while in the Capital?”

  “No, Master Kenji,” Hiroshi insisted. “Lord Yamada is the owner.”

  I missed Ichiro badly at that moment. Surely, he would know the circumstances, but I allowed myself to be ushered inside, where a collection of servants—including cooks, masters of the wardrobe, couriers, grooms, and other servants, male and female—were arranged and waiting to greet us.

  “Obviously, you were expected,” Kenji said dryly.

  A balding older man identified himself as Takamasa, my steward for the property. He came forward and bowed, holding up a sealed scroll. I wasn’t sure what I expected to find there, but suddenly I knew why the mansion seemed familiar.

  Lord Yamada,

  As I am no longer connected to this world, I have no need of this place. For your past friendship and aid to me in my time of confusion and anger, to pay my debt I make a gift of it to you. May the Buddha bless you.

  The One You Knew as Lady Snow

  I let Kenji read it in turn. “Now I know why this place looked familiar to me,” he said. “It belonged to Taira no Hoshiko. I do not know the name she uses as a nun, but I knew she was still alive.”

  Lady Hoshiko was already a nun when I met her, years before, but I didn’t know this at the time, and she had been careful to conceal her vocation. It was true I had spared her life when her crimes and her own sorrow demanded her head, but considering the guilt she had to live with, I was not certain I had done her any kindness. She, it seemed, did not agree. While I did not remember such a large staff when Lady Hoshiko had lived here, I was told all had been arranged beforehand.

  “This answers the question of where we will live while we are in the Capital,” I said. “The question it doesn’t answer is how she knew we were back.”

  Takamasa-san bowed again. “Your pardon, my lord, the return of the high priestess was a much anticipated event in many circles of the Capital, shrines and temples included. It was common knowledge you were to be leading her honor guard.”

  I had not attempted to keep my return to Kyoto a secret. The idea there might be a need to do so had never crossed my mind.

  I frowned. “Yes, but why would anyone care?”

  Kenji gave me a look of pure pity. “Lord Yamada, as it is written, a man cannot cross the same river twice, since the second time he is not the same man and it is not the same river, so too with your departure and return. When we departed Kyoto you were one Lord Yamada. Now you are quite another. You tend to forget this.”

  “Said the priest, now abbot,” I said, but Kenji just smiled.

  “My point stands.”

  I had nothing more to say, since I knew he was right. We were given a tour of the mansion and grounds at my request. I remembered some of it, but there were places in Lady Snow’s former home I had never seen. “It’s much larger than I remember.”

  “You almost sound disappointed,” Kenji said. “Besides, it is expected provincial lords will keep houses in the city for when business calls them to the Capital, as it has with you. The former Lady Snow saved you quite a bit of rice and gold.”

  And cost me a bit, too, with another household to maintain.

  Not that this was a real problem for me. That it wasn’t only emphasized Kenji was right—I did tend to forget.

  Not the same man. Not the same river.

  Even now, three years later, I was still uncertain as to whether Lord Yoshiie had blessed or cursed me with the grant of my estate at Kamakura, but my poor attempts at self-reflection were not relevant to the business at hand. First I prepared a letter of thanks for Lady Hoshiko and had Takamasa arrange for its delivery. Then I considered what needed to be done next.

  “I need to speak with Prince Kanemore.”

  This proved more difficult than I had anticipated. I sent Hiroshi with a sealed letter requesting an audience, but he soon returned, letter unread, to find Kenji and me enjoying a meal on the south veranda.

  “I apologize, my lord, but I was informed Prince Kanemore is not in the Capital at the moment. However, he did leave a message for you.”

  I took the letter from Hiroshi and broke the seal.

  Old Friend,

  The emperor requires an errand of me, so I will not be able to meet with you upon your return. I know you have questions, but I fear they must wait. For now, know Princess Tagako is safe. I have seen to her quarters and guard personally, and I would trust the men protecting her with my own life. Now your primary concern must be to help Princess Shigeko’s troubled spirit find rest, as much for her own sake as that
of the future of the throne. I will return as soon as I can.

  —Kanemore

  I dismissed Hiroshi, then showed this letter to Kenji as well before I destroyed it.

  “He used the informal form of his signature, rather than the more correct Kanemore-ō,” Kenji said.

  “Is that all you have to say?”

  He shrugged. “What should I say? After all that has happened, is it not strange Kanemore is away just now? If this hasn’t already occurred to you, I would be shocked.”

  “If the emperor commanded . . . ”

  “You trust your friend. That is enough. We have work to do.”

  I believe one reason Kenji and I had managed to become and remain friends for so many years, despite both our flaws, was that speaking with him was sometimes like a cold slap in the face when it was exactly what one needed. I certainly had not felt this way in the beginning, but now I sometimes wondered if I had the best of our friendship, despite Kenji’s new temple.

  “Speaking of Princess Shigeko, she is one of the topics I had hoped to broach with His Highness. There is a risk contacting Lord Fujiwara no Yorinobu directly—the chance others in the Fujiwara clan would learn of it. I had hoped to ask Kanemore to tell me more about Shigeko. I never met her, and so know very little about her. In this situation, this is a disadvantage.”

  “You cannot contact Lord Yorinobu at all?”

  I smiled. “There is a way but only in extreme circumstances, which we have not yet reached. That leaves the problem of what to do now.”

  I had an idea and summoned Takamasa.

  He kneeled in front of me. “You sent for me, my lord?

  “I did. I’ve been away from the Capital for some time and so was unable to pay proper respect upon the passing of the emperor’s former consort, Princess Shigeko. Certainly a man such as yourself would keep his ear to the ground on happenings within the city. Would you know if she preferred one temple or shrine above another?”

  I could almost see the man preen. “Yamada-sama, while I certainly am not privy to the activities of the royal family, it was no secret that she favored Enryaku-ji. She left them a substantial gift, or so I have heard.”

  “Thank you, Takamasa-san. You have been very helpful.”

  When the man was gone, Kenji let his disgust show. “She might not have been sekkan-ke, but Princess Shigeko was still a Fujiwara. What did you expect?”

  It was true Kenji and I had our share of clashes with this particular temple on more than one occasion, but it was also true that the current abbot, Master Daiwu, was a good and holy man, somewhat to his own surprise and despite whatever his original intentions in that regard were.

  “I know two things I didn’t before. The first is that I must go speak with the Abbot of Enryaku-ji. The other is that Takamasa is a gossip.”

  Kenji grinned. “Of course he is. Such a one has likely risen from nothing to become the overseer of a great household. One does not do that without an advantage, and information is currency sometimes more valuable than gold here, or had you forgotten?”

  “Not at all. I was counting on it, and kept my question such that it shouldn’t spark a great deal of interest. That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t watch what we say. Why do you think I didn’t just send Hiroshi to ask among the attendants of this house? The next thing we know, ‘Lord Yamada is making inquiries into Princess Shigeko’s death’ would have been all over the city. That is something we definitely do not want falling on the wrong ears.”

  Kenji frowned. “There are wrong ears? Whose?”

  “I have no idea at present,” I conceded, “but it would certainly attract the notice of the Fujiwara’s sekkan-ke, plus right now we have an angry ghost and we have no idea what made her that way. If it turns out that, somewhere in the city, there’s a living person who is responsible for her state, I think it best they don’t know what we’re doing, don’t you?”

  Kenji paused to devour another rice ball. “I am not very keen on facing another inugami, or worse,” he said when he could talk again. “An angry ghost is quite enough.”

  When we finished eating, I called for ink and paper and wrote another letter, this time to Abbot Daiwu requesting an audience. Because Hiroshi was near exhaustion from his previous responsibilities and Enryaku-ji was outside the city and up the slope of a mountain, I used a different courier to deliver the letter.

  “We should have a reply by tomorrow,” I said. “For now, I think I would like to take a walk.”

  “Possibly right by Shigeko-hime’s haunted palace?” Kenji asked.

  “That could very well happen,” I said.

  There was, however, a complication. Before Kenji and I could step out of the compound, Morofusa appeared at the gate with a detachment of five men.

  “Greetings, Lord Yamada. Where are we to escort you?”

  I blinked. “It is pleasure to see you, Morofusa-san, but I thought your assignment was completed.”

  “Lord Yoshiie thought it best that you have additional protection while in the Capital, so my comrades and I have been assigned to you again for the time being.”

  “May I ask how you knew to come here?”

  He sighed. “Honestly, Lord Yamada . . . I conferred with Hiroshi-kun before we parted. I suspected that Lord Yoshiie might take this course.”

  It seemed everyone had known about my new house except Kenji and me. I wasn’t sure whether I should be annoyed or amused. “I do not wish to interfere with your orders from Yoshiie-sama. At the moment, however, my situation dictates that I draw as little attention to myself as possible, Morofusa-san. Also, would it not be prudent to secure my house, as I will be spending a great deal of time here? I suggest you assign most of your men to that purpose.”

  “Yamada-sama, does your situation allow for an escort of, say, myself and one other?” Morofusa asked.

  I had seen enough of Morofusa’s behavior under crisis that I frankly welcomed his company. “That would be acceptable.”

  Morofusa chose Ujiyasu as his second and Yoshitsune was placed in charge of my new house garrison, a reality preferable to trying to move discreetly around the city surrounded by six scowling bushi. It did serve as a reminder that my former occupation and my current situation simply could not be reconciled for long. Yoshitsune and the other three bushi went to report to Takamasa on my instructions, and Kenji and I set out into the city with Morofusa and Ujiyasu accompanying us.

  It was not very far from my new home to Prince Kanemore’s city mansion, as they were both located in the third ward. I had no intention of seeking an audience with Tagako-hime, but as it turned out we were to pass her current quarters on our way to the Second Avenue, where the late Shigeko-hime’s former home was located. I wanted to get a view of the walls and attendant security Kanemore had arranged. While I trusted my friend implicitly, I still preferred to see for myself.

  Or, perhaps, it was simply an excuse. Fortunately for me, my mission would not allow a great deal of time for further self-reflection.

  “Morofusa-shōshō, have you heard of anything of Prince Kanemore being away?”

  “No, my lord, though that is not something I would necessarily hear. I could probably find out, if you wish. I’m sure Lord Yoshiie would know of it.”

  I was not quite as sure of that as Morofusa was. It would rather depend on the delicacy of Kanemore’s mission. “No, it’s not important. I was just curious.”

  I had chosen the plainest clothing I owned for going out into the city, and Kenji had left his abbot’s surplice in Kamakura, so he had likewise reverted to the simpler attire of a mendicant priest. In truth, Morofusa and Ujiyasu were better appointed than we were, and I wondered whether the sight of two such nondescript persons escorted by two well-equipped bushi might incite more curiosity than an ostentatious display, since the city was well-accustomed to the latter. Fortunately we drew no more than a second glance or two while we walked the perimeter of Prince Kanemore’s home. I was pleased to see the guard posts at each gate
. In addition, there were raised platforms showing above the walls in all four directions with screens facing the streets, allowing a sentry a good view without making their presence too obvious. I could easily discern Kanemore’s hand in those details. I knew there were many more that I could not see.

  “Are you satisfied?” Kenji asked.

  “I could envision an attack or infiltration attempted, but success seems very unlikely. I’ll still feel better when we know why Her Highness was targeted in the first place.”

  Not only were we no closer to discovering the answer, in all likelihood we were moving away from it, as the problem of Shigeko-hime’s ghost must, for the immediate future, take precedent. Even so, I couldn’t help but think about Princess Tagako’s situation.

  “Kenji, I’m going to think out loud for a moment. Will you indulge me? Morofusa-san and Ujiyasu-san, please comment if you have anything to add, but no one is obligated to say anything at all. Is that understood?”

  “Hai, Yamada-sama,” said the latter two men, almost as one.

  Kenji just smiled. “When have I ever been known to keep silent, obligated or otherwise?”

  “Fair enough, Kenji-san. Now then, I have presumed, almost from the first, that the Fujiwara were behind the assassination attempts on Princess Tagako . . . not directly, I concede, as nothing Lord Yorinobu attempted had the scent of the Fujiwara on it. Too direct, too vicious. I believe him to be acting on behalf of the Fujiwara, but without anyone else directly connected to that clan involved.”

  “If he was being properly instructed by anyone familiar with their methods, the result might have been very different,” Kenji said.

  “Indeed, as we previously discussed. Now then, why would Lord Yorinobu need to act as hastily as he did? If the Fujiwara wanted Tagako dead, they could have simply waited until her return to Kyoto and chosen their time and method at leisure. Or struck at her in the Bamboo Palace. They’ve had plenty of time and opportunity.”

  “I wish I had something to add,” Morofusa said, “but it does seem odd. Why now?”