by Anthony Grey
Seeing crystal beads of water glistening in the moonlight on her arms and upper body, she remembered how she had been bathing at the Golden Pavilion when she heard the first commotion in the streets of Yedo, little more than twenty-four hours earlier. So much had happened since then, she reflected. Her life and the lives of millions of others, it seemed, had been plunged into turmoil by the arrival of the black ships in Yedo Bay and people everywhere were openly fearful. She also felt a continuing sense of unease deep inside herself, but at the same time part of her welcomed wholeheartedly the prospect of danger and change. The stiffing boredom of her nights at the Golden Pavilion - providing entertainment for an interminable flow of rich, fat, ageing clients - had at least been interrupted; and those feelings that her soul was always weeping silently within her at her unfortunate plight had been relieved she realised, if only temporarily. Yet intuitively she sensed that, whatever happened now, nothing would be quite the same again, and this thought caused her to raise her arms aloft once more and embrace the next deluge of falling spray with a renewed sense of exhilaration and gratitude.
Alone under the waterfall, in the heart of the darkened forest, she realized she felt more free than she had ever done in all her life - and the feeling made her head swim with a pleasurable giddiness.
17
‘LET’S GO OFF THE track here!’
Robert Eden spoke breathlessly over his shoulder, slowing his sweating horse to a walk for the first time and turning in among trees that stood only a few yards apart on the densely wooded hillside. Sentaro, riding a few yards behind him, obediently followed his instructions as the track curved sharply away downhill. For a few minutes they made their way cautiously forward along the same contour line until they reached a point where the moonlight scarcely penetrated the thick foliage. When Eden was certain they could no longer be seen from the track they had abandoned, he raised his hand to call a halt.
‘We can rest here he whispered, his chest heaving from exertion. ‘And we’ll be able to hear if we’re still being followed.’
Both men strained their ears for sounds of pursuit, but they heard no hint of horses or human voices; only the steady, soothing rush of a distant waterfall broke the deep silence of the mountain woodland. After listening for a minute or more Eden reached over and patted his Japanese companion on the shoulder.
‘You ride well, Sentaro,’ he said softly in Japanese. ‘I think we’ve managed to shake off our pursuers.’
The castaway nodded, his face serious. ‘Yes, master. But news that a “hideous barbarian” has come ashore will spread very fast. Everybody in this region will be watching for us. .
‘Don’t worry We’ll keep a step in front, somehow.’ In the half darkness Eden smiled, betraying the fierce feeling of elation which their narrow escape had aroused in him. ‘Let’s head for that waterfall. We need a drink as much as the horses.’
They trekked on slowly and quietly through the trees with the sound of rushing water becoming gradually louder in their ears. When at last they came in sight of the open plateau onto which the waterfall was cascading, Eden reined in his horse with a stifled exclamation of wonder. The moon, higher now in the sky, was bathing the wooded cliff in its gentle silver glow, and the tumbling water frothed like cream into the pool at the foot of the soaring rocks. The natural beauty of the mountain glade, encountered so suddenly and unexpectedly amidst the darkness of the woods, was breathtaking, and Eden gazed at the enchanted scene in an awed silence.
He felt a strong impulse to plunge instantly into the pool, and only gradually did he become aware that a human figure was already moving in and out of the torrents of creamy water. At first he thought his eyes were being deceived by some trick of the light - that he was mistaking shadows for a long mane of dark hair spreading across slender shoulders and down the beguiling curve of a naked back. But, watching more closely, he began to realize that the moving shadows possessed their own gentle unity; he saw a head turn slowly, and a lovely, delicate face lift among the misty white sprays; he saw moonlight reflected softly by slender arms and the upward curve of a breast; then at last he saw an unmistakably beautiful naked girl wading across the pool with a languid, unselfconscious grace.
‘How lovely she is,’ breathed Eden, as Sentaro halted beside him. ‘A moment ago I thought I must be imagining things - I felt I was gazing at some mythical Japanese water nymph.’ He paused and looked enquiringly at the castaway. ‘Who could she be, do you think? And why is she here all alone in the middle of the night?’
In his turn Sentaro stared admiringly towards the waterfall. ‘This is nothing unusual, master. It’s very common in my country to bathe naked. In our cities, and villages, we have many public bath-houses and there is no shame about nakedness here, as in your country...’ He broke off, pointing towards the shadows at the foot of the rocks, where the horse carrying the panniers was tethered to a tree. ‘See, there is her horse. Perhaps she lives nearby. Perhaps she likes to come here by night and bathe alone under cool water, in the silence of nature - I don’t know... But you are right, she is unusually beautiful.’
‘Could we talk to her?’ asked Eden impulsively, gazing again towards the pool. ‘Could we join her? Could we bathe in the pool too?’
Sentaro shook his head. ‘It is better not to, master. She would report us to the authorities. You would give away your presence here. It might even cost us our lives. .
Eden drew a long breath, looking longingly towards the waterfall where the naked girl was now moving out from under the cascades onto the stepping-stones of the pool. She shook her head from side to side in an unconsciously Joyful motion, tossing her long hair about her face, and as she moved from stone to stone, her slender body glistened like gold in the moonlight.
‘Master, there’s also another reason to be careful - look!’
Sentaro placed a cautionary hand on Eden’s arm, and pointed towards the tethered pack-horse. In the shadows under the rocks, Tanaka’s burly chief guard, Gotaro, was in the act of dismounting silently from his own horse. He too was staring towards the pool and the naked figure of Tokiwa and when he was satisfied that his arrival had gone unnoticed, he tied up his own mount beside the pack animal, drew his long sword silently from its sheath and began to creep forward with great stealth towards the waterfall.
‘What does he want?’ breathed Eden. ‘She seems to be in some kind of danger.’
‘Yes, perhaps: whispered the Japanese, watching the samurai swordsman with wide eyes. ‘It may be something personal between them . .
Eden saw the female figure reach the last steppingstone, where she had dropped her clothes, but as she bent to pick them up her eye fell on the helmeted figure of Gotaro. By this time he was rushing silently towards her around the margin of the pool, his long sword thrust out before him. She screamed piercingly and turned to flee towards the waterfall, but the surprisingly agile guard caught her easily by one arm. She screamed again as he threw her across his shoulder and began carrying her bodily towards the two horses. At every step she kicked and struggled furiously, but her strength was clearly no match for that of the samurai.
‘Matte kudasai!’ yelled Eden suddenly, flinging himself from his horse. ‘Wait!’
The astonished samurai stopped at the edge of the pool, then turned with sword raised to face the man sprinting swiftly out of the darkness to confront him. Eden still wore his hat pulled low over his face, and in his blue cottons and straw sandals he looked like nothing more than a burly Nipponese peasant from the fields. But Gotaro’s expression became puzzled and wary as the American stopped and drew his cutlass from the gun belt where he now carried it.
‘Kanojo o hanasa nakkatara kiru-zo!’ grunted Eden in a menacing tone, moving closer and raising the sword. ‘You will die unless you free her!’
‘Don’t interfere with what doesn’t concern you,’ growled Gotaro, standing his ground. ‘Or it will be you who dies!’
Without giving any further warning Eden lunged for
ward and lashed out instinctively with his curved blade, aiming a disabling blow at the samurai’s sword arm. But although he was not free to manoeuvre, Gotaro raised his own steel fast enough to deflect the force of Eden’s attack. As a result he took only a glancing blow on his shoulder which drew blood, but was not enough to disarm him. Letting out a guttural cry of rage, the samurai released his prisoner and turned to face Eden, his eyes glittering dangerously.
‘Ike! Uma no ho e ike! - Go to my horse!’ called Eden softly to the naked girl who was now crouching fearfully beside the pool. ‘Sugu ike! - Go quickly!’
He backed up slowly and deliberately, drawing the samurai away from her along the side of the pool; but all the time he kept his eye firmly fixed on the warrior’s face. ‘Help her, Sentaro,’ he called blindly over his shoulder. ‘Get her away!’
With a loud cry the samurai flung himself forward and, using both hands, swung his long blade through a fast arc, bringing it down from above his own head with all his strength. The stroke was aimed at splitting the American’s skull, but, because Eden was watching the warrior closely, he anticipated the direction of his lunge and stepped swiftly aside, at the same time swaying backward from the waist to avoid the blow. Gotaro’s weapon passed close enough to his face for Eden to feel a rush of air against his cheek, and its razor-sharp edge sliced away the front part of his sedge hat. When the samurai regained his balance and turned to face Eden again, his features registered shock and surprise, and he stared at the American for a moment in open-mouthed silence.
‘You are the banzoku!’ he shouted suddenly. ‘You are the barbarian spy!’
Circling Eden warily, the samurai glanced round towards Tokiwa, who had now struggled to her feet. She had been watching the fight with a numbed expression, but on catching sight of Eden’s uncovered face, she raised both hands to her mouth to stifle a gasp of astonishment.
‘You are in league with the banzoku,’ the samurai yelled at her in amazement. ‘You are helping the spy!’
‘No, no! It’s not true!’ Tokiwa shook her head, her expression suddenly desperate. ‘I have never seen the banzoku until this moment.’
She bent quickly to snatch up her flimsy cotton clothes and began to pull them on. Sentaro, who had at last emerged from the shelter of the trees, rushed up and tried to reassure her in a low voice, all the time glancing anxiously over his shoulder towards the two circling combatants.
‘She’s telling the truth!’ Eden spoke sharply in Japanese, moving menacingly towards the samurai again, with his sword at the ready. ‘But you must leave her alone. She’s not to be taken from here against her will!’
‘I will decide that - not you!’ yelled Gotaro and threw himself furiously at Eden, swinging his sword sideways in a flatter plane this time, aiming a mortal stroke at his opponent’s neck.
The American took a quick step backward, then dropped into a half crouch. Following his opponent’s example he clamped both hands tightly around the hilt of his own sword, in order to parry the ferocious blow. The clang of steel meeting steel rang loud across the glade, and shocks like electricity shot up both of Eden’s arms as his weapon shuddered in his grasp. But because his stance was more balanced he survived the blow better than his opponent.
The samurai, carried forward by his own momentum, was struggling to regain his equilibrium as he stumbled past Eden. Seeing this, the American stepped in close against him; still clutching his cutlass, he raised both fists above his head and drove them downward in a powerful blow which struck the samurai at the base of the skull. The Japanese faltered for a moment, his eyes glazing, then he dropped his sword. A moment later he collapsed into the rocky stream rushing from the pool and, caught by its waters, he slithered away helplessly down the steep hillside.
‘Hurry, master called Sentaro, as he watched Eden thrust the cutlass back into his belt. ‘The noise of your fighting has been heard. Others are coming. .
Eden stood still and listened; the sound of many horses descending at speed through the woods from the road above was becoming audible but the snap- ping of twigs and the quieter drum of hoofbeats nearby suggested that a solo rider was spurring his mount swiftly up the hillside below them. Glancing across the glade, Eden saw that Sentaro and the beautiful Japanese girl had reached the horses; but she looked deeply apprehensive and he raced across the clearing to sweep off the battered remains of his hat and incline his head smilingly towards her.
‘I’m Lieutenant Robert Eden: he said quietly in Japanese. ‘I’m honoured to have been of service to you.’
Tokiwa felt herself tremble as she gazed up at the shadowy face of the first banzoku she had ever encountered in her young life. She could not see his features clearly but his hair seemed to have the glint of fire in it and his smiling eyes were curiously round in a strong, pale face. He had wide, muscular shoulders and he seemed to tower dizzyingly above her. She could not recall how she had expected a banzoku to look, but nothing in her previous experience had prepared her for such a disturbing confrontation, and she found herself reduced to speechlessness.
‘This is Matsumura Tokiwa, master,’ cut in Sentaro, sensing her difficulties. ‘Tokiwa-san tells me she was being held under protective guard. But she escaped because she felt she was in danger.’
‘Then we’re both fugitives,’ said Eden more urgently, lifting his head again to listen to the sounds of the approaching horsemen. ‘Shall we take you with us?’
Tokiwa looked apprehensively at Sentaro. ‘I don’t know. . .‘ she began in a faltering whisper.
‘We have no time for doubts: said Eden decisively, swinging into his saddle. ‘Mount up, Sentaro. And grab those panniers from her horse! We can’t go up or down this hill, but I’ve seen a path leading along the ridge through the waterfall.’
Leaning down, he circled Tokiwa’s waist with one arm and lifted, her up in front of him. Calling urgently for the castaway to follow, Eden spurred his horse into the pool. As they splashed through the cascading water and onto the ridge beyond, he tightened his arm protectively around the Japanese girl, wondering at the lightness and slenderness of her body. He could feel her limbs trembling with apprehension but she voiced no protest, and she did not struggle against his encircling arm as he sent his horse racing forward into the moonlit forest.
18
‘IT DOESN’T LOOK like a palace - but it might give us shelter for a while!’
Robert Eden signalled for Sentaro to wait with the Japanese girl, and jumped down from his horse to plunge through a grove of swaying bamboo which had sprouted around an abandoned barn. Its thatched roof had many gaping holes and its timber walls leaned at strange angles to the steep hillside but, inside, Eden found that heaps of straw still littered its earth floor and the planks of an upper loft at one end.
Moonlight entering through the ragged holes in the roof revealed twisted cartwheels, broken pieces of harness and the scattered matting and ropes of worn-out carrying baskets. The interior of the barn, however, was dry and the air was fresh, and Eden immediately rushed back to hold the fronds of bamboo aside and beckon Sentaro forward with the horses.
‘Tie them to the ladder leading up to the loft:
said Eden, gesturing to the far end of the barn. ‘And see if you can find some fodder.’
‘Of course, master.’
‘While Sentaro was tethering the horses, Eden turned to the Japanese girl, who ‘was standing uncertainly in the shadows by the entrance to the barn. Her face was taut and it was obvious, even in the gloom, that she was still trembling.
‘Tokiwa-san, your clothes are still wet from the waterfall,’ he said in Japanese. ‘In your panniers, do you have anything dry to wear?’
She did not speak, but Eden saw her nod quickly. He realized then that the fear triggered by coming face to face with a ‘hideous alien’ for the first time was being heightened by the shadowy darkness inside the barn.
‘Bring Tokiwa’s baskets over here, please, Sentaro,’ he said quietly to the castaway. �
��She has dry clothing stored in there. And if there’s a lantern, light it and shade it carefully so it won’t be seen from outside.’
He stood still in the middle of the barn and cocked his head, listening for sounds of pursuit. To his relief, the silence of the wooded hills outside was broken only by the occasional shriek of a night bird. They had ridden hard for perhaps fifteen minutes through the forest before slowing and beginning to search for somewhere to hide. After skirting several valleys of terraced rice fields, Sentaro had spotted the deserted barn close to the edge of the woodland.
‘I think we’ll be safe here for a while,’ said Eden soothingly as he watched Sentaro set down the panniers in front of the pale-faced Japanese girl and pass her a shaded paper lantern. ‘We should all try to get a little rest.’
Taking the lantern in one hand, Tokiwa knelt to rummage in her baskets. Several times she lifted her head to cast a quick, nervous glance in Eden’s direction, and he saw then that agitation was visible in every movement she made. Sentaro, who was watching her closely, also noticed her unease and he dropped to his knees on the earth floor beside her, his face creased in concern.
‘There’s no need to be afraid, O Tokiwa-san,’ he said gently. ‘Our people mistakenly call all foreigners “hideous barbarians” and “monsters”, but they’re not really hideous. I lived among them in America for four years after I was shipwrecked They treated me well and brought me back here on their black ships..’
Despite the reassuring tone of his voice, Tokiwa still did not respond or look up. Instead, she bent her head even lower, and her shoulders continued to shake as she fumbled unsuccessfully in each basket.