by I. J. Parker
He said as much to Minamoto as they rode more sedately behind the carriage.
Minamoto grunted, then said, "The storm will return and be worse than before. It's close to sunset now. When night falls, it will sound as if all of hell had opened up. Where will you stay?"
"I should go back and deal with Sukemichi. I wish I knew what to do about him. He cannot be charged with this crime, or any of his others."
"Leave him be and stay at my place. There will be another day." He bit his lip and added, "I shall hold myself responsible for seeing him punished. That I swear by the sacred gods who are all around us."
Akitada was unhappy about this outcome, but the reputation of the princess must be protected at all cost. At least he had managed to set her free. As soon as she was safely in her palace he intended to return to Ujitaclu to make sure Junichiro was safe. He said as much to Minamoto.
And then they would go home where he hoped and prayed that all was well.
They took the carriage to the women's quarters of the Bamboo Palace and backed it against the veranda as before. Doors opened and young women ran out to form two lines. The princess, followed by Lady Ayako, emerged and hurried between them into the building. Then the doors closed again, and it was over.
==
Akitada and Minamoto paused at the intersection of the roads to Uji-tachi.
Minamoto looked as drawn and exhausted as Akitada felt, but he smiled. "She is safe," he said. "Thank you. I think I shall be in your debt forever now. If there is anything I can do for you or for someone you wish to sponsor for a position, you only have to ask."
Akitada did not return the smile. "Thank you. There is nothing. I hope you'll forgive me for some of the things I said to you."
"I deserved them and shall endeavor to be a better man in the future."
A short pause fell as they both searched for something else to say.
Then both glanced up at the sky, where the crescent of blue was shrinking rapidly. Minamoto said, "We'd better hurry. I think it's about to start again."
At that moment, one of Sukemichi's mounted warriors appeared at a full gallop. When he saw them, he
brought his horse to halt so abruptly that the animal slid on the wet road and threw him.
Akitada called out, "Is anything wrong?"
The man struggled to his feet. He was covered with mud. "The high constable, sir. He's wounded. I'm going for a doctor."
Minamoto asked, "What? What happened?"
The soldier wiped at some of the mud on his armor and cast a glance at his horse, which had stopped and now stood waiting. "I'm not sure, sir. They say his woman did it. Stabbed him, I mean. They say he's bad."
Akitada glanced at the gathering clouds above. "You'll need the police also. Best hurry. The storm is about to return."
The soldier nodded, saluted, and ran to his horse. Akitada sighed. "I'd better have a look." Minamoto said, "I'll come with you."
==
They reached Sukemichi's residence with the first gusts of rain. The gates stood open. Soldiers milled about in the courtyard, glanced at them, but did not stop them.
In the women's quarters, they found a scene of carnage. Sukemichi lay on the floor. Several maids hovered around him. He looked dead, but when he heard them he opened his eyes. "The doctor?" he croaked, "Hurry. It hurts. Oh, it hurts so much." He moaned. Minamoto muttered, "Amida!"
The women made room, and Akitada knelt beside Sukemichi to check his wounds. There were at least four of them. Sukemichi's silk robe was deeply stained across his chest and his belly, and both sleeves were soaked with blood. Someone had wrapped cloth bandages around the arms, but the chest and belly wounds had been left alone. Akitada looked around and saw the bloody knife that had done the damage. It lay next to another figure. Mrs. Akechi was dead. She had been beheaded.
"What happened?" he asked Sukemichi.
"The she-fiend stabbed me. After all I've done for her and her brat." Sukemichi groaned again. "The doctor," he pleaded.
"How did you manage to abduct her highness?" "The doctor, please."
"There will be no doctor for a while. You might as well confess while we wait."
Sukemichi was silent for a moment. He stared up at the ceiling.
"Come on," Akitada urged. How did this come to pass?"
"I spent my life serving His Majesty in this province, but there were never any thanks. All the positions at court were awarded to his relatives. I thought I'd be recognized if I had a wife with some influence. Then Haruko told me that the princess had a lover she was visiting. I thought, why not bring her here? I could court her, treat her well. It was a chance." He stopped and closed his eyes with a grimace of pain.
"Go on," said Akitada harshly. "How was Murata involved in this?"
"Murata found out where she was. His men watched Minamoto's lodge and I sent my soldiers to bring her here." He gasped with pain.
Akitada rose and got the knife. He returned to Sukemichi to cut his sash and check his wounds, but Sukemichi screamed at the sight of the knife in his hand. "Don't touch me! Get away Irom me ... ahh. . ." He choked, then convulsed, screamed again, and lay still.
Minamoto cane closer. "How horrible!" he said with a shudder. "Is he dead?"
Akitada checked. "Yes. Lost too much blood, I think. By the position of the chest and belly wounds it's a miracle he lived this long."
"Good! I heard what he said. Why did that woman attack him?"
They both stood and looked at the dead Mrs. Akechi. "What happened?" Akitada asked the maids. The calmest girl was white-faced and trembled, but she answered sensibly enough. "The master and his lady quarreled. She was very angry, and he told her to get out of his house and he hoped the storm would kill her. He hit her. She left, but then she came back with the knife. She told him, `You'll not get rid of us so easily,' and started stabbing him. The master screamed for help, and the guard posted outside ran in." She gulped. "He cut her head off."
"Thank you. You are very brave. Mrs. Akechi claimed they were married. Is this true?"
His praise made her weep. "I don't know. They were lovers. For many years. She lived in Uji-tachi but she came here to stay with him whenever he visited."
Akitada said, "There's nothing else you and the other ladies can do here. The doctor and the police will come if the storm permits it. Take the others elsewhere so you won't have to look at this."
She bowed, and they watched the women walk out. Outside, the storm lead returned in full force.
40 Storm Surge
Akitada and Minamoto ended up spending the night at Sukemichi's place. Neither police nor doctor made an appearance, but it did not matter any longer. Sukemichi and Mrs. Akechi had taken their secrets with them to the lower world.
When not listening to the storm, they talked off and on. They were agreed that these deaths made the princess safer. Fewer people knew what had happened. The women of the Bamboo Palace had too much to lose themselves if word got out, and the chief priest and his family would protect the reputation of the shrine at all costs.
At one point, Minamoto expressed again his remorse over what had happened between himself and the princess.
Akitada said drily he hoped the night of passion had no unexpected results.
Minamoto had the grace to blush. "I was careful," he said.
Akitada bit his lip. So the young man had made sure that the incident would not entangle him more deeply in the affair. That tended to prove that he had never been in love with Takahime and had not seduced her. It had been the princess who had seduced him.
Sukemichi had lived long enough to tell him he had ordered Michiko's death. It did not really matter any longer who bore the responsibility. Akitada hoped that her killers had been among the four men he and Junichiro had killed.
Only Murata and Junichiro were left of those who knew of the affair. Akitada was not worried about Junichiro, but Murata was another matter. The man would realize that he could bargain with his silence. Akitada
knew no way around this except to urge him to flee. It was very unsatisfactory.
Otherwise the night was frightening enough. All around them, the wind howled, trees crashed, shaking the ground, and roof tiles flew through the air and into rooms. At one point, one of the storage buildings collapsed and part of a gallery disappeared. Then the roof over the gate was lifted off and carried away. The storm deposited it in the courtyard in a pile of rubble. There was, miraculously, only one small fire.
Akitada thought of his family. Would the governor's residence withstand such forces? Would Tora stay with Yukiko and the children to make sure nothing happened to them and they were not too frightened? He knew that other worries awaited him when he got home. There would be damage everywhere. He was personally responsible for all public buildings and the temples and shrines. If the tribunal treasury could not pay for the repairs, he would have to. And the people of Mikawa would need support to help each other. He was impatient to be gone.
It was dawn before the storm abated enough for them to leave. Their own clothes, still clammy and wet, but also wrinkled and dirty by now, made them look like a pair of disreputable misfits returning from a debauch. No matter. The rain still fell sporadically. The forest around them looked devastated. Many trees were down, and others were leaning or denuded of branches. Twice they had to lead their horses around a fallen tree. Near the crossroads, they stopped to part as before, but had little to say to one another.
When Akitada reached the river, he saw that it had risen above its banks and carried large chunks of debris. He thought again of Junichiro's shed. It must be gone. No matter, as long as the little fellow had survived.
He passed shrine buildings that had collapsed, and the bridge, when he reached it, was in danger of being washed away. Shouting men were on the other side, waving to him and pointing. He looked. The debris floating down the river toward the sea, whole trees and huge branches, was caught against the bridge supports. The bridge groaned and creaked under the onslaught.
Crossing under such conditions could mean being swept away, horse and all, to certain death. But if he did not cross, he would be cut off for many days. The pull of home and his faintly was too strong. Spurring his horse, Akitada galloped onto the shifting timbers and made it across. The men on the other shore scattered and shook their heads as he passed.
He headed for Uji-tachi, where more devastation met him. The road was under water in places where the river had washed over the bank. Houses on both sides lay shattered like so much kindling. The River Palace leaned dangerously over the water. In one place, neighbors were carrying the dead from a collapsed building and laying them down in a row beside the street.
But the Golden Dragon had survived with only moderate damage. Akitada tied up his horse and went inside. The entry was full of weeping refugees, and the innkeeper and his staff were busy passing out food.
Akitada scanned faces, figures, bundles, looking for the colorful clothes, the red hair of Junichiro. He caught the innkeeper's eye and called across, "Junichiro? Is he here?"
The man shook his head, set down a large cauldron with rice and came to him. "Amida be praised you are safe, sir. Junichiro came right after you left. I told him what you'd said and he stayed, hanging about near the door. I think he was worried about you. People started coming and asking for shelter and I got busy, but then Murata-san carne from his room with his baggage. He wanted to leave and needed a bearer. Because of the storm, no one offered to go with him. He left most of his things and went out by himself, just carrying one bag. Junichiro carne to ask me where Murata-san was going in the storm, but I didn't know. The next thing I knew, Junichiro rail after him. And that's the last I've seen of either."
The shock of' Murata's flight hit Akitada hard. Junichiro had followed Murata because he knew that Akitada suspected him. He had gone out into the storm late yesterday, and he had not returned.
Akitada turned and went back outside to get on his horse. He began his search along the road to the coast. This took him first to Junichiro's shed, though there was not much reason for the dwarf to have gone there. The shed was gone, washed away as if it had never been. The river was well over its banks here, and the destruction all around suggested that the water had risen five or six feet before receding again. It had left behind tree trunks, shattered boats, lumber, and parts of houses, all tangled with bits of fabric, clothes, parts of sails, and perhaps the dead.
Despairing, Akitada looked for anything red and climbed about on the piles of destruction to peer at some red remnant or other.
During his search, he came to know in his heart that Junichiro had not survived. Nobody could survive this in the open and on this road. The fact that boats, sails and lumber had washed up this far inland, meant that the sea had backed up into the river.
He tried to convince himself that Murata would not have come this way, that he would have sought refuge with Sukemichi. He was about to turn his horse around and head back when the saw it.
Up ahead, where the road left the river and passed into the forest, there was a small patch of red.
He knew then, and a wave of nausea rose in his throat He bit his lip until it bled, then guided his horse to the spot The small body lay beside the road, sheltered against the storm by the low branches of a young pine. Junichiro was curled up on his side, his hands near his face, and his eyes closed. He might have been a peacefully sleeping child except for the mass of blood and brain matter that was the back of his head.
Not far from him lay a staff, its end covered with blood.
Junichiro had been murdered, and Akitada knew who the killer had been.
He knelt beside him, touching his ice-cold hands. "Oh, Junichiro," he said. "You should have taken better care of yourself. Murata didn't matter, but you were important to me." He felt hot tears running down his face and did not care. Sitting down on the wet ground, he took the small body in his arms.
"Forgive me, little friend, he murmured. "Forgive me for drawing you into my problems. Forgive me for asking you to help me prove Murata's guilt Dear heaven, I sent you to your death. I demanded your life after you saved mine."
He never questioned that the killer had been Murata, desperate to escape the punishment awaiting him. He had dared the storm and would not have let a mere dwarf stand in his way.
Akitada did not know how long he sat like this, but in the end, he took off his silk robe and wrapped the small body tenderly in it. Then he placed the body on his horse and mounted behind it. In this way, he rode slowly back to Uji-tachi, taking great care not to jolt his burden.
41 Homecoming
The devastation at Oyodo was much worse than in Uji-tachi. The storm surge had come from the bay and washed away most of the houses and all the boats. Nobody was leaving Ise by water.
By now Akitada was nearly frantic with worry about his own family and his new province. So soon after arriving in Mikawa, he had been absent when catastrophe struck. It was a terrible beginning.
Apart from taking care of Junichiro's funeral, he spent his time searching for any means of transport back to Mikawa. Since the overland journey would take more than a week, he needed to find someone with a boat-any kind of boat who would take him back across the bay.
Meanwhile he paid no attention to the disposition of the bodies of Sukemichi or Mrs. Akechi. Someone else was burying them, and someone else would settle his estate.
He also felt no need to return to the Bamboo Palace or to bid farewell to the chief priest and his wife. Minamoto had offended so severely against what Akitada considered propriety that he had no wish to see him again either.
On the second day after the storm, they found Murata's body. He had drowned still clasping the satchel that held some of Minamoto's gold.
Finally, a fisherman was found who had managed to save his boat. He was willing to take Akitada home for a rich reward, promised on arrival in Komachi. It would assure him of a comfortable life for years to come.
The journey was une
ventful, the sea once again calm and the sky a cloudless blue. It almost fooled Akitada into thinking that his own world was untouched by the anger of the gods.
It was a mere dream.
Komachi harbor was in shambles, and the destruction reached far inland. After initial despair, Akitada began to see signs that people were clearing the debris and that the work had been organized efficiently. They walked together to the tribunal, he and the fisherman who expected his small fortune. Akitada was unshaven and still in his muddy, stained gray silk trousers and an undergown. His robe he had left behind to comfort Junichiro's body in his cold grave.
People paused to stare at him, but no one recognized him. "They did not look much better than he.
At the tribunal gate, Akitada scanned the compound and the roofs of buildings beyond anxiously. The single gate guard peered at him, then shouted, "He's back! Tell the secretary! "Tell everybody! The governor's back!" He performed a little dance-shocking behavior in a well-trained guardsman- and seemed so overcome with joy that Akitada felt himself smile at him. It was his first smile in days.
Perhaps his lightened mood was also due to the fact that the roofline of his residence seemed to he intact and that such a display of joy at his arrival could only mean that his family was well.
And so they were.
Saburo came running toward him, one eye strangely discolored and one hand tucked in his robe, but he greeted him with the same joy, assured him that Yukiko and the children and everyone else were well, and that Tora was in the city, organizing the clean-up of Komachi. In fact, Saburo hardly flinched when told how much gold he was to hand over to the fisherman.
Akitada left them to it and walked quickly through the back gate to his residence, carrying under his arm the silks he had purchased from Mrs. Akechi. He was halfway up the steps to Yukiko's pavilion before he thought of his disheveled appearance. He stopped in dismay, looking down at himself; feeling the stubbles on his chin. He could not let her see this way.