by I. J. Parker
Somehow Akitada reached his inn and stumbled into his room. His bedding had been spread out, and he fell on it and slept instantly.
The sun was already high when he woke. His body ached and he looked in surprise at his swollen wrists. Memory returned quickly and caused him to sit up. That was when his head began to hurt again. He felt it gingerly and decided the swelling behind his ear was not serious. Neither were his other injuries. His sword lay beside him, still covered with dark stains from the blood he had spilled.
He owed the dwarf his life and must do something for him. Perhaps .he would not be averse to joining the Sugawara household. Akitada was in the habit of picking up stray human beings here and there, and none had ever disappointed him. He smiled a little at the thought of his family's faces when he arrived with a dwarf with spiky red hair.
But the events of the night had brought serious problems while not telling him anything about the whereabouts of the princess. For one thing, the imperial secretary's letter had fallen into the hands of a crime boss. The heavens above knew what use that unknown individual would make of it. And then there was the likelihood that he had walked into a trap that had been set after he started asking uncomfortable questions. He would have to see Lady Tamba and Lady Ayako as soon as possible.
But first things first. He got up and looked at his sword. Shaking his head, he called for service by sticking his head out the door and shouting down the corridor.
He expected his hostess, but instead a middle-aged, broad-faced woman with a bulky figure and a sullen expression responded. It seemed she was the maid. He asked her to bring him hot water and his morning gruel.
Before eating and even before washing, he used some of the water to clean his sword. In his luggage was a small polishing cloth, and he used some lamp oil to return the blade to its original dull gleam.
He had killed before. Sometimes it had been the slaughter of war, but always he had been sickened by it. Now he was unable to eat his rice gruel and left it untouched.
Still, sword polishing was a quiet time, good for reflection. He had been slow and awkward with his sword last night. Fortunately, the robbers had been a good deal worse than he or he would be dead now. For that matter, a dwarf had to take on one of the men. Junichiro was no bigger than a child and handicapped by the odd deformity of his body. He had used only a knife to kill a full-grown man.
Sometimes we survive for no good reason at all. And for what?
Was he alive today to raise his family? To save the princess and perhaps spare his country the upheavals that the offense of the two foolish young people brought on it? To give an unfortunate creature a home? He felt capable only of the fast and the last, but it was the princess who needed help most urgently. He could hardly bear thinking about what had happened to her after she left Minamoto's lodge.
For that matter, she might have ended her life after all, though Akitada had begun to suspect that Princess Takahime was the sort of strong-willed female who would not kill herself over a man.
When he was done, he washed, brushed the dust off his black robe, and pushed the sword through his sash. There was no sign of Junichiro when he left the inn. Perhaps he, too, had overslept. Akitada got on a horse again and rode to the Bamboo Palace.
All was quiet here. The same dice game seemed in progress, and the guards were no more alert than they had been last rim . The same servant was called and led him to the same pavilion. He did not see Lady Ayako
and felt another twinge of unease over her fate. Perhaps she had really tried to meet him and had been intercepted. Too much of a coincidence, he decided and rejected the idea. He would have an explanation from her.
He had interrupted another morning meal, and Lady Tamba looked at him reproachfully. Her mother said, "Ah, there you are! And what did you learn?"
He seated himself uninvited. "Something, but not nearly enough, Lady Tachibana"
The old lady snorted. "It never is with you officials. Busybodies, all of you. What does the Minamoto youngster have to say?"
Akitada hesitated. He decided he would not mention the fact the young people had become lovers. Let them think what they wanted. He said, "He convinced Her Highness to return to her duty, and left briefly to make arrangements to take her home. When he got back, she was gone."
"Gone!" cried Lady Tamba in a tragic tone.
"Hush. He doesn't mean she was dead. Or do you, Sugawara?"
"No. She had left his hunting lodge. He searched everywhere but could not find her."
"Oh," cried Lady Tamba, "then she's been abducted by criminals." Her face was a mask of horror. "Think of what they'll do to herl You must find her at once."
Her mother snorted. "It's been two days. They most likely have already done it."
Her daughter covered her face. "She's ruined! We're all ruined. His Majesty's anger will fall on us all." Akitada cleared his throat. "I'd like to speak to Lady Ayako."
Lady Tamba ignored him, but her mother turned a sharp eye on him. "Ayako tried to get out last night. I thought she was meeting one of the young scamps from the guard. Was she meeting you?"
"Yes. I wondered why she didn't show up."
She tsked and shook her head. "Loose morals all around. You're too old to be seducing well-born young palace women. Can't imagine what she sees in you. Best get your women in town."
Akitada flushed with anger. "Send for her," he snapped.
They complied, and after some moments, Lady Ayako joined them. She blushed when she saw Akitada and sent him a beseeching glance.
He ignored it. "When I was here last time, you made an appointment to meet me at the Tanoe shrine after dark because you had some information about the princess. Will you confirm this?"
The two senior ladies-in-waiting stared at her in surprise. Lady Ayako spread her hands helplessly. "I was just trying to help," she told them. "I thought he might find the princess."
"But what could you tell him?" Lady Tamba asked. "We already told him all that happened."
"I was going to tell him how she left. You know. About the woman with the silks?"
Akitada sat up. "What woman with silks?" Perhaps Lady Ayako was not, after all, a part of the plot to abduct the princess. He had slowly come around to thinking that nothing that happened was an accident, but perhaps some events had innocent reasons.
Old Lady Tachibana said, "Mrs. Akechi has a shop in town. She brought some special silks for Her Highness to choose from." She paused and glanced at her daughter. "You might as well tell him. It doesn't change what happened."
There she was wrong. It changed everything.
The story, as told reluctantly by her daughter, was that Mrs. Akechi's periodic visits had given Princess Takahime an idea how she might visit her lover without anyone noticing.
Her mother added, "It was a very stupid thing to do. They didn't tell me until after she was gone. It seems they got the idea from the chief priest's daughter taking Takahime's place for the big ceremony last month. The princess insisted that they try to find her a substitute who could play her part here while she was with Minamoto."
The selection had fallen on Mrs. Akeclhi's assistant who had played her part until she got tired of waiting. Site had then left to go home. The next day, Lord Minamoto had arrived to ask if the princess had returned. Consternation had ensued.
The shop assistant, Akitada knew, had been Michiko, the girl who had been found murdered the day the arrived.
He left the Bunboo Palace, his mind in such turmoil that he barely knew what he told the women. He got on his horse and rode to Lord Minamoto's lodge. This time the gate stood wide open.
Akitada rode in and shouted, "Gatekeeper?" There was no answer.
He dismounted and tied up his horse. Then he walked up the steps to the door of the lodge and threw it wide. The room was empty. Bedding and some clothing still lay tangled on he floor. There was no sign of' the owner, and he old servant seemed to have disappeared also.
He looked around the room
but could make nothing of it other than that it had been a sudden departure. He thought of the silk shop girl's gruesome death and his own capture the night before and began to feel uneasy. If they-and he did not have the slightest idea who they might be --were bent on doing away with anyone who knew of Princess Takahime's disapppearance, then they height have seized Lord Minamoto and his servant. But surely they would not have troubled taking an aged servant.
Leaving the lodge building, Akitada began to search for the old man's body.
When the approached a small kitchen building, he was surprised to hear singing. The voice was cracked and the words slurred, but at least he was spared the gory sight of another slashed throat.
He ducked in under the curtain and found the old gatekeeper reclining against a rice cooker with his arm around a sake jar. He was drunk and was singing to himself with his eyes closed.
Akitada walked over and shook his shoulder.
The old man's eyes popped open; he stared a moment, then said, "Go 'way! Nobody home." He immediately closed his eyes again and opened his mouth to sing.
Irate, Akitada pulled him up and shook him hard enough to hear his teeth rattling together. "Get up, you stinking drunk! Where's your master?"
"Ouch! Don't! Can't get up. Weak." He demonstrated by collapsing instantly.
Akitada muttered a curse and lifted him off the ground, half carrying and half dragging him to the well outside. There he dropped him on the ground while he pulled up some water in the wooden bucket. He had to empty two buckets of water over the old man before his eyes focused and he started to get to his feet.
"Wha. . .," he spluttered. "What d'you want?" "Your master, you lousy piece of useless garbage." "Now wait There's no call for that. It's my holiday. A man deserves a little holiday after working day in and out for sixty years." He burped and wiped water from his face with a shaking hand.
Akitada bit his lip. "Where is Lord Minamoto?" "Gone home! I told you. I'm on holiday. There's nobody here."
"Home where?"
"To Taka city. Where his big house is. He only comes here for the hunting."
If only!
Akitada sank down on the well rim. So Minamoto had fled his responsibilities in the disaster he was partially responsible for. How very wrong he had been about the boy Sadamu! He had grown into another selfish, overbearing, and cowardly aristocrat.
Leaving the old man to his drunken holiday, he got back on his horse and returned to Uji-tachi. The story told by Lady Ayako had given him a sudden interest in Mrs. Akechi and her silk business.
21 Three Young Women
It was already his fourth day in Ise. No doubt they were beginning to worry at home. He must find a way to send a reassuring letter, though there was little to be reassured about except the fact that he was alive.
Two young women had been found murdered and there was no trace of the Virgin. It seemed more and more likely that she, too, was dead and simply had not been found yet.
But one fact argued against this: everything he had been told so far suggested that someone, a shadowy figure in the background, had been manipulating things. And if this was the case, the capture of the Virgin was part of a more complex plan. Alas, Akitada had no idea what this plan might be or who was behind it.
He was inclined to absolve the women of the Bamboo Palace from anything more serious than foolish dreams about young love. The atmosphere in highborn women's closed quarters tended to overexcite females. They became bored and thought of nothing but men and romantic encounters. Even older married women like Lady Tamba were not proof against such nonsense. He blamed thie popularity of books like Lady Murasaki's Genji for this.
Lord Minanoto was another matter. Akitada might have believed his tale of merely submitting to the princess's passion, if he had not then run from his responsibility like a coward. Akitada had counted on his help and his resources in tracing the princess. Now there was little hope of finding her quickly, and the more time passed the more unlikely it was that he would do so.
The matter of his own capture surely meant that whoever was behind the grand scheme had found out why he had come and decided to remove him. Again, he considered Lieutenant Matsuura, the chief priest, and Lord Minanoto as possible players in such a plot.
What did he really know about Matsuura? He could not even recall meeting the man in the capital. Matsuura's flattery had blinded him to any possible lies. But if Matsuura had not been a police officer in the capital, then someone else had asked him to make contact with Akitada as soon as he arrived and to keep an eye on him afterward. If this was the case, Akitada had stupidly worked into their hands by promising to report to Matsuura.
The chief priest was in the best position to be the mastermind in the plot. He had known all along why Akitada was here. But if he had abducted the princess, his purpose in doing so was not clear. Surely he would not have gone this far simply to expose Lady Tamba's incompetence.
In the end, Akitada decided that there was only one person whom he could trust, and that was Junichiro. Alas, the little man was not much use when what Akitada needed were soldiers to scour the area and all its buildings for the princess.
When he reached Uji-tachi, he returned his horse to the stable and walked to the police station.
Lieutenant Matsuura greeted him eagerly. "My lord, I'd hoped to see you yesterday. Your sage advice would have been most welcome."
They were alone in Matsuura's office and the door was closed, but Akitada snapped, "No titles!" The man's carelessness suggested that he could have re vealed Akitada's identity accidentally. He asked, "Have you said anything about me to anyone? A constable, perhaps, or your wife? Anyone at all?"
Matsuura's smile laded. "No. Never! I would not do such a thing, sir. I've been most careful."
"Hnnm." No doubt his three visits here and the fact that they discussed their business behind closed doors had aroused the curiosity of the constables. Akitada glanced at the door and the walls. "I ask because last night someone set a trap for me in the forest. It was a miracle that I managed to escape."
Matsuura's eyes grew round. "A trap? In the forest? But why?"
Akitada did not answer that. Instead he walked over to the map of the Ise district and peered at it
"Here's the Tanoe shrine," he said, pointing. "That's where several villains jumped me, knocked me unconscious, and carried me off.'
Matsuura was still gaping at him. "Carried you off? Why?"
Akitada turned and looked at him. "I have no idea. They did search me and took an old letter and a little money. I wasn't carrying much."
"But ... that's not like the prowlers. Or maybe it was them, but when they didn't find much to steal, they would have left you in peace."
"Hardly. I was tied up. Luckily, I managed to get loose. When they tried to stop me, I had to kill them." "You killed them? How many did you kill?'
"Four men."
"You killed four armed robbers?"
"They weren't very good, Lieutenant" Akitada's conscience objected to this tale, but he wanted to keep Junichiro out of it at all costs.
The lieutenant regarded him with such admiration that Akitada continued quickly, "I came to in a wooden building somewhere in the woods. They had been drinking. Because they thought I was unconscious, they went to sleep. I saw later that the hut was being used to store certain goods that might have been meant for the prowlers, as you call them, or pirates. I happen to know that pirates have been busy in Ise Bay."
"But that's extraordinary, sir." Matsuura rubbed his hands. "Such a discovery should give the high constable ample reason to clean up the entire area. I shall report to him immediately. What good luck that he happens to be here at the moment."
Akitada snapped, "You'll do nothing of the sort, Lieutenant. You said yourself that the high constable has not done his job in the past Meanwhile, you have two local murder cases on your hands, and one of the young women was found in the woods. It seems to me you have the authority as well as the duty to
investigate the prowlers yourself."
Matsuura nodded slowly. "Yes, I do, don't I? He cannot complain this time. Yes, quite right What do you suggest we'd better do?"
Akitada did not really wish to be drawn into local police work, but he wanted to know about the two dead women. He was particularly curious why the first girl, Michiko, had been beaten.
"I think you should tell me everything you know about your victims and the prowlers."
"Oh! You think there's a connection? That the prowlers killed these girls? They've never done so before."
"I don't know if they killed them, Matsuura. I don't have enough facts. What have you discovered about the first victim, Michiko?"
"Not much. We knew right away who she was. She worked in Mrs. Akechi's silk shop. Mrs. Akechi had no complaints about her and was very upset when she found out. She said she'd worked the day before as usual but didn't show up the next morning."
"How old was she and was she from here?"
"She was twenty-five, a farmer's daughter from Yamada, north of here."
"Hmm. Not very helpful. What about gossips? Junichiro thought she'd started working for one of the brothels at night."
"I checked. It's true, but she'd only just started. Still, there was quite a bit of money in her room. Two gold pieces and some silver. I think she was supposed to marry a farmer's son at home and was saving up for that."
Akitada sighed. He assumed that Michiko's willingness to play the princess had been partly due to extra pay. Most likely it had led to her death. But how and why? He said, "I'll speak to Mrs. Akechi. Perhaps she has remembered something else in the meantime. Now, what about the Inabe daughter? Keiko, was it?"
"She left home about a year ago to work for a family in Mikawa." Matsuura paused. "That's your province isn't it?"
"Yes, but I don't know everybody there," Akitada said with a smile.
Matsuura chuckled. "No, of course not, sir. I didn't mean that. Anyway, she'd come for a visit. Her mother said she was only there a day and a night."
"Short visit for such a long trip."