The Heavenward Path

by Kara Dalkey

  "It's just-you don't even know if the ghost was telling the truth. How do you know he was all those things he claimed to be?"

  "I saw his tomb. What is left was magnificent, things only a king would have. And Riko confirmed his story."

  "So these are the things we know." Suzume held up her fingers. "One, he was probably a king. Two, he had a shrine that a nearby village served. Three, Lord Tsubushima's clan destroyed that village and plundered the tomb."

  "Yes," I said. "So how could the ghost be lying?"

  "Well, how do you know Chomigoto is such a friend of Lord Emma-O that he can make the Lord of Death punish you if you don't do as he asked? You say that all Chomigoto-sama can command are the winds and dreams."

  I paused, uncertain. "But… well… it would seem natural that he is acquainted with Lord Emma-O."

  "So is almost any ghost, since most people pass through Emma-O's court, if the stories are true," said Suzume. "That doesn't mean your ghost is telling the truth. Maybe Lord Emma-O banished him to our world for some other reason. And here he finds a young noble girl he can frighten into improving his lot in life-well, afterlife. Maybe his tomb is far away and forgotten because he was a bad king. Or he ruled only for a very short time and there is no reason to remember or worship him."

  I was so shaken, I could hardly speak. "But… I did make a sacred promise to him. And my sister and I were safely sheltered, and the tengu did come for us."

  "I'm not sure a visit from the tengu could be called 'help,' " Suzume said, glaring back toward the village.

  "Anyway, I promised; so I must do something, neh?"

  "How do you know it was Chomigoto who sent the tengu? I thought tengu lived in that forest, or went there often. Perhaps he did nothing and is just taking advantage of your trust to get you to do things for him."

  I could not answer. Truly, it was amazing how suspicious Suzume was, and yet, if she was right, what a fool I had been! I could ask the tengu. I could ask Goranu, now that he was healing. He was there that night, after all. I would not be asking him to do anything for me, so I would not be demanding much. I resolved to do so.

  We sat in silence for a long while, eating the last crumbs of the rice cakes. The mist had quite closed in now, and I could see nothing beyond the pool and the rocks on the other side. It seemed appropriate to be so isolated from the rest of the world. Suzume's words had so turned my thoughts upside down that I no longer knew what sort of world I lived in.

  One sees a mirror,

  one sees a pool of water;

  all is illusion.

  I was startled by the sound of something scuttling in the tall grass nearby.

  Suzume leaned close and whispered in my ear, "Look, down there by the water's edge."

  I did and saw a pair of thin little yellow-green arms and hands dipping a pinecone into the water and washing it. "How charming," I whispered back. "I have never seen a wild monkey so close."

  "That's not a monkey. Look at it more closely."

  The creature moved into the water a bit, and I saw it had a turtle's back. Its hands were webbed like a frog's, and its head was like a monkey's except for a depression in the crown.

  "It's a kappa," said Suzume. "They say that kappa like to drown people, especially little boys who are bad. And they drink blood. But they also say it can be good luck to catch one, for kappa have much knowledge and magic. If the water on top of its head spills off, it will become weak. So if you catch it and threaten to turn it upside-down, you can make it promise you all sorts of things in exchange for letting it go."

  I turned and frowned at her. "What a terrible thing to do to such a creature."

  "Oh, don't be that way. Kappa are nasty beasts, and besides, we wouldn't really hurt it, just threaten to. You need help right now, don't you? Come on, let's see if we can grab it."

  She slid off the rock and crept toward the animal before I could grab her sleeve to stop her. I was sure I could not move fast enough in my kimonos to catch such a creature, even if I wanted to, which I did not.

  The kappa heard Suzume approaching and stood up straight in alarm. It chittered a moment, dropped the pinecone, and ran off up the hillside under the grass and ferns. Its gait was awkward as it tried to keep its head upright. Suzume ran determinedly after it, and soon she disappeared into the mist.

  "Suzume!" I jumped off the rock and ran after her. "Suzume!" Mama once said the Good People must always look after their servants, but I felt very annoyed. What can one do if the servant insists on behaving foolishly? Nonetheless, I followed her, trying to run uphill in my bulky kimonos and wooden sandals, as the mist drifted close around me, clinging to my trailing sleeves.

  INDIVIDUALITY

  The moon sits on a puddle; until I touch it- then it is shattered!

  I ran until I was nearly out of breath. Then, dimly through the mist, I saw Suzume up ahead of me, sitting on a low stone. I staggered up and plopped down on the rock beside her, unable to speak for my gasping.

  "I couldn't catch it," Suzume said, despondent.

  "And now," I said, when I could speak again, "we are lost." The fog was so thick that we could see no more than the immediate ground around us.

  "Not really," Suzume said. "We know we have to go downhill. Eventually, we'd reach the valley. Then we'd turn to our right and walk until we reached the tengu village. It's simple. I had to learn a good sense of direction in the streets of Heian Kyo."

  I, however, had wandered on stranger paths than Suzume

  would ever see, and I was not convinced that proceeding back the way we came would return us to where we started.

  "Should we start back now, Great Lady Puddle?"

  "Allow me to catch my breath more, if you please." I wasn't sure I liked her calling me that, but I did not know what else to suggest. We sat together in silence as the fog crept closer and our hair and clothes grew damp.

  As I was beginning to consider standing up for the long walk back, I saw red-orange light flickering in the gloom ahead of us, farther up the mountainside. At first I thought it might be torchlight, but as it approached, it seemed too low to the ground.

  Suzume noticed it, too. "What is that?"

  "I do not know. Do kappa carry torches?"

  "Not that I have heard."

  And then it came out of the mist. A small creature, looking somewhat like a dog, except that it had hooves like a deer, and short straight horns. But most amazing of all were the flames that flickered about its shoulders and hindquarters.

  Suzume leaned close to me. "What is it? Is it dangerous?"

  "I have seen it in paintings. Ah, now I remember. It is a kirin."

  "I have not heard tales about kirin."

  "I do not remember anything about them, except that they are messengers of a sort. I do not think they are dangerous." In truth, I was not sure at all, but I did not want to frighten Suzume or myself.

  The kirin stopped a short distance away and said, in a high, flutelike voice, "Greetings. You are here, no doubt, to consult with Kai-Lung, Keeper of Knowledge, the Wisest of the Wise."

  Suzume and I looked at one another. "What does it mean?" she asked me. "What sort of name is Kai-Lung?"

  "It sounds Chinese to me," I replied. "My father speaks and reads that language, and I have heard him tell of great scholars

  who used to come from Changan to teach in Heian Kyo. Maybe this Kai-Lung is one such traveling philosopher who has taken hermitage in the mountains."

  "Yes," said the kirin, with what seemed to be a smile. "Kai-Lung has traveled here from across the Western Sea."

  "Well, maybe we should talk to him," said Suzume. "We are in need of wisdom. Maybe he can tell us what to do about your ghost-king."

  I was worried about disturbing the meditations of a philosopher, but the words of the kirin implied that he expected visitors. "Perhaps you are right."

  Suzume boldly stood and bowed to the kirin. "This is Great Lady Fujiwara no Mitsuko, and she wishes to have audience with the
wise Kai-Lung. Please do us the honor of taking us to him at once."

  Well, she was learning-although servants properly should not include themselves in any business. They are best if they are invisible, Mama always used to say.

  The kirin tittered and then coughed. "As you wish. Please do me the honor of following me." It turned around and tripped daintily along the mountain path.

  We followed, but with considerably more difficulty. At one point we had to climb over some steep rocks, and in another place we skittered over slippery rocks that were flat as plates. At last, Suzume and I stood in a patch of bare dirt surrounded by dark, shadowed mist, as if some cliff or other feature loomed very close all around us.

  "Kai-Lung will speak with you shortly," said the kirin, and disappeared. I could not tell if it was by magic or just the mist.

  Suzume and I stood close together for some time. I confess I was frightened by the gloom and the occasional, muffled sound of rock sliding against rock. I wondered what the philosopher could be doing. Building a wall? I think Suzume was frightened, too, from the way she clung to my sleeve.

  Suddenly, there came a rumble like continuous thunder, and I wondered if rocks were going to come raining down on us. Suzume and I held on to each other, as we could see nowhere to run.

  A huge boulder emerged from the mist-no! It was an enormous bewhiskered snout, followed by a reptilian head with eyes as big as my face and horns as long as I am tall.

  "A dragon!" Suzume screamed, and she fell to her knees. I stood as if I had been frozen into ice. I had seen dragons before, but only from a distance. They had been swimming in the waves behind King Ryujin when I met him on the beach of Enoshima. And, as Riko had so well remembered, in the sky above Lord Tsubushima's castle. But I had never been so close to a dragon as this. I was sure it could devour me in one bite if it wished. We looked all around and saw that the dragon's long, scaly body surrounded us, high as a wall, impassable. I realized with horror that some of the rocks we walked over to reach this place must have been the scales of the dragon itself.

  "I am the one who is called Kai-Lung," said the dragon in a voice like the rumble of an earthquake. "Who wishes to speak with me?"

  I looked at Suzume, but she appeared no longer interested in doing formal announcements. I bowed very low to the dragon and said, "I… I… do. I am Fujiwara no Mitsuko." Then, in a flash of inspiration, I added, "I send greetings to your king, Ryujin-sama."

  "Ah," said Kai-Lung. "You know of the Dragon King of the Sea?"

  "I… had the honor of meeting him two years ago. He did me a kindness then, which I have not forgotten."

  "You were honored, indeed," said Kai-Lung. "What is your question?"

  "My… question?"

  "You have come to me for wisdom, have you not? Please do not be tiresome. I allow one question to any mortal brave and fortunate enough to find me. What is your question?"

  I bowed my head, wishing I had more time to give thought to how I would ask for help. "Oh Great Kai-Lung-" I began.

  "That is redundant," the dragon muttered.

  I pressed on. "I made a promise to one who now demands of me more than I promised. This one threatens to harm me if I do not do all he asks; yet what he asks is not in my power, nor can I find anyone who has such power to help me."

  "And your question is?" asked the dragon.

  I flailed the air around me with my arms, feeling helpless. "What do I do now? You see, the one I made the promise to is the ghost of an ancient king and-"

  "Enough!" The dragon lowered his head to the ground. "I will now contemplate your question. Do not speak to me again until I have answered it." Kai-Lung then closed his eyes and became very still.

  As I waited, I became more perplexed. How could even a wise creature such as this understand my situation without knowing the details? Suzume and I huddled together, and I wondered if we would be forced to wait for hours, days, or longer.

  "What will your question be, when it is your turn?" I asked her, my head resting on her shoulder.

  "I think I will ask him how we get home."

  "You are more practical than I am."

  "That is what servants are for, neh?"

  We did not, as it happens, have to wait very long before Kai-Lung again raised his massive head and opened his eyes. "I have your answer," he rumbled.

  Suzume and I stood up, and I said, "I am ready to hear it."

  "You," Kai-Lung intoned, "have been foolish. Therefore, go. And be foolish no more."

  I waited for further explication, but there came none.

  "Is that all?" asked Suzume. "We have come all this way just to hear that? Why, you could have said that to almost any mortal, for almost any question!"

  "Yes," said Kai-Lung, with a sardonic smile. "I could. And that, I assume, was your question, and I have answered it."

  "This isn't fair!" said Suzume. "You must give the Great Lady more of an answer than that, and that wasn't my question!"

  "Suzume-" I said, trying to calm her.

  "What!" roared Kai-Lung, raising his head to tower over us. "You dare to say my answers are unacceptable?" His eyes began to glow red, and steam rushed from his nostrils.

  The earth shook beneath my feet, and I could hear rocks tumbling from cliffs nearby. I grabbed Suzume and covered her mouth. "Please forgive us, Great Kai-Lung. We meant no disrespect! We will leave your presence and trouble you no more." I pulled Suzume with me as I ran out of the clearing.

  Behind us, the mountain continued to thunder with Kai-Lung's roars, shaking the ground beneath us. We scrambled down the hillside, sometimes tumbling and rolling a little ways before we regained our footing. I am sure my outer kimono was a complete ruin. Down and down we ran, and I did not know if the path my feet had found was the right one or not. Down and down, until we were below the mist, and I heard someone call, "There they are!"

  I tripped again and tumbled until I came to a stop, breathless, at the feet of the tengu Kuroihane.

  "You see, Prince Goranu? These mortals get into trouble no matter what you tell them. We should never have brought them here."

  I looked up to see Goranu in his young-man-with-a-long- nose form staring down at me. His gaze might have been fond, but he did not look happy. "I am beginning to think you are right, Kuroihane."

  "It wasn't our fault!" said Suzume, running up behind me.

  I stood, feeling quite embarrassed, and dusted myself off. "Please forgive us," I said with a bow. "We did not mean to upset the dragon. I did not even know he was there until Suzume decided to chase a kappa. And then a kirin asked us if we wanted to see Kai-Lung and, thinking he was just a hermit scholar, I said yes. And then the dragon asked me for a question, then gave me a useless answer, and when we told him so, he became angry, and we ran away."

  Goranu tilted his head and regarded me with a strange little smile. "I see I have been a bad influence on you, Little Puddle. You have become nearly as silly as a tengu."

  "But it is all true!" I said, exasperated.

  "That," said Goranu, "is what makes it so silly. Will you come aside and talk with me, in private?"

  "Of course." As we began to walk away, Suzume started to follow us.

  Goranu turned and said to her, "In private does not mean servants can come along."

  Suzume backed up a step, eyes wide. "But the Great Lady must have a chaperone nearby."

  "The so-called Great Lady and I have done well enough without one for two years," grumbled Goranu. "We don't need any eavesdropping gossips now. You just wait here until we return."

  Suzume looked back and forth, from me to Goranu. "But…"

  "Please, Suzume, do as he says," I told her.

  "Hmpf." Suzume flounced her kimonos and, tossing her head, turned to walk away. Over her shoulder, she said to me, "You never warned me that tengu were so rude."

  "Just be glad you are not a monk," Goranu shouted after her. "Then you would see tengu rudeness."

  "Poor thing," I said as Goranu and
I walked. "She wants to learn how to be a proper servant, and I am not a very good teacher."

  "Indeed," said Goranu. He was staring at the ground, and his arms were hidden within his jacket sleeves.

  I was uncertain what he meant. "I am glad to see you are better. Did you have a good rest?" I asked, hoping to draw him out more.

  "Good? No, I would not call it good." He did not say more, and I became frustrated with his reticence.

  "This fog, it is so dreary," I said at last. "It certainly dampens one's spirits, as well as one's sleeves."

  "Well, there is no need for the Great Lady to suffer so," said Goranu, and he waved his hands about. Suddenly, we were standing before a charming little pavilion that overlooked a gorge filled with ribbonlike waterfalls. The sun shone through a blue sky, and birds sang sweetly in the nearby pine trees.

  I nearly danced into the pavilion. "Why, this is wonderful, Goranu! Beautiful!"

  "Oh, don't get so excited," said Goranu, slumping against a support pillar of the pavilion. "It is just an illusion, after all."

  My patience was tried too far for me to remain polite. "Whatever is the matter with you?"

  Goranu sat down on the ground, his back against the pillar. He gazed upon me with an expression I could not read. "You truly do not understand, do you?"

  "I regret that my troubles lately may have made me blind."

  "Indeed, I think they have. Or perhaps you have always been so. It may be one of your most attractive features."

  I sighed noisily and sat down on the pavilion floor, some distance from him.

  Goranu stared out at the waterfalls. "After you took the sutra scroll from me, while I was sleeping, I had a dream."

  "Do tengu dream, then?"

  "We are not as unlike you mortals as you think. In my dream, I was visited by three shining personages who came down from the clouds to speak to me."

  "Truly? But this is very good news, Goranu! Those personages must surely have been bosatsu: those souls who have denied themselves entrance to nirvana so that they may help other souls along the Heavenward Path."