Dragon Sword and Wind Child (40 page)

It was Lady Iwa. Her voice sounded strange and fragile, yet, to one familiar with it, it was warmer than any other. Saya turned to question her, but Chihaya pulled her away.

“Saya, let's go home.”

WHEN SHE CAME TO HER SENSES
her feet and hands were numb with cold. Opening her eyes and wondering what the prison guard had done with her fur wrap, she found herself not in the palace but surrounded by the people of Darkness. Lord Akitsu and Lord Shinado were there, and Torihiko, too. With them, looking as if nothing had happened, was Chihaya.

“You're late. Where were you dawdling?” he said smiling.

“The Goddess of Darkness . . .” Saya whispered. Her throat felt strange and she couldn't speak.

With deep emotion, Lord Akitsu said, “It's just as Lady Iwa told us. She said that both of you would return.”

“We met Lady Iwa. Lord Ibuki, too.” As she spoke, Saya was hit by the realization that she had come back from the dead. Although it should not have been possible, she was actually breathing. Blood pulsed through her veins. Sensation had returned. She could speak. Suddenly she burst into tears and felt hot teardrops scalding her frozen cheeks. Chihaya gently slipped his arm about her as though she would break and raised her to a sitting position. She thought regretfully that if only there were not so many people here, she could have rested in his embrace and cried to her heart's content.

Lady Iwa's tiny corpse was laid out in the same hut, wizened and frail. The spirit which had made her seem so intimidating when she was alive had vanished.

“She was so old no one knew her age. Perhaps it was her time to die,” Lord Akitsu said quietly. But Saya shook her head.

“No. She took my place in the Land of the Dead for my sake. She told me there was something I must do.”

“What was that?” Torihiko asked.

“The Goddess of Darkness stopped me as I was about to return and said—”

But before she could finish speaking, a shower of gold and silver dust fell glittering through the cracks of the roughly thatched roof. Or rather, so it appeared. It was in fact light of such blinding intensity that it seemed to pierce the roof like a white shaft. Before their startled eyes, the inside of the hut grew brighter than the seashore on a midsummer's day. The outlines of walls and people became indistinct. Terrified, they looked at one another.

“Is it the coming of the God of Light?”

“It can't be! The two immortals have not yet reappeared.”

“Is this the end of Toyoashihara?”

“But I thought we won.”

Pushing aside the people who were shouting in confusion, Chihaya rushed outside. The door opened on an incredible flood of light. The sky had turned pearl-white, robbing everything else of color. The mountains of Mahoroba looked like ghosts, and several rainbows clung to the mountaintops. The ground glittered like shattered crystal, so that it was impossible to discern its contours. And not a single shadow could be seen. Chihaya raised one leg to see if he could find his shadow but it was so bright he could barely see his foot. Shielding his eyes, he raised his head slowly. Over the eastern row of mountains, he could just make out the upper half of a towering golden form framed by the rainbows on the mountain ridges. He felt Saya come running after him.

“Don't look!” he ordered her sharply. “Anyone who looks at my father will be blinded. Don't open your eyes until I tell you.”

Startled, Saya clapped both hands over her eyes, but she could still feel light burning gold and black against her eyelids. It had been a near thing.

From above them flowed a voice that moved the heart like the strum of a bass string.

“Dragon Child, did you fulfill your task and summon the Goddess of the netherworld?”

“No,” Chihaya answered weakly. “She wouldn't come.”

“I saw you descend into the Land of the Dead.” The God's voice was tinged with displeasure. “For what purpose, then, did you go? And why have you returned alone?”

Saya suddenly stepped forward, and with both eyes still covered addressed the God of Light.

“O my beloved.”

Chihaya had put a hand on her shoulder to restrain her but withdrew it hastily. Saya's body was as rigid as stone, and she spoke in a trance. Moreover, the words she uttered were not her own.

“The girl who stands before you is unique—she has returned from the Land of the Dead. For your sake I have twice broken the sacred rules of the netherworld: once when I allowed your son to enter the Land of the Dead, and once when I allowed my daughter to return to the Land of the Living. In this way I have permitted myself the smallest measure of selfishness—to borrow this girl's body and allow myself to meet you for a fleeting moment.”

“O my beloved wife.” His voice trembled slightly. “A fleeting moment cannot suffice. I have come now like this to take your hand once more. Show yourself in your willowy form, with your long black hair flowing.”

The Goddess of Darkness replied sadly, “Do you still not understand? My body has long since crumbled into dust, as fate decreed. It was destined to be thus when earth and heaven were sundered.”

“And that's precisely why we must turn back time. Let's return earth and heaven to the original sea of chaos and, side by side, go back to that time. I need you.”

The Goddess sighed faintly. “You sent me the Sword. Why did you attempt such a dangerous thing?”

“I've never once forgotten you. Though I knew that you despised me.”

The Goddess exclaimed in surprise, “But it was you who despised me! After you cut yourself off from me, you hated even my children who lived upon the earth.”

“Because you preferred to remain within that dark pit rather than be by my side.”

“My beloved husband,” the Goddess said, deeply touched, “Toyoashihara moves with the seasons. She needs a mother—someone to give birth, to nurture and love her. I can't turn back or stop time. All of my children would die.”

“Do you love Toyoashihara more than you love me?”

“O beloved.” Her gentle tone softly but firmly restrained his simmering rage. “I have received the Sword. Now I know your fierce longing, a longing so great that you would destroy even your own tempestuous self. I can therefore forgive everything you've done, and doubtlessly I'll continue to do so in future. How great was our longing for each other. We were not so far apart as we had thought. The children of Toyoashihara realized this before we did. Behold your son and my daughter, who stand here before us. Is not the union of these two the same as if we had taken each other by the hand?”

As the God of Light remained silent, she continued, “Cherish Toyoashihara. I may have lost my body, but my hand is in every corner of this land. I am reaching out to you with love. People make bowls by kneading water and clay and baking them in the fire. Just as water and fire, which are incompatible, are thus united, so, too, can we be joined as one.”

The God whispered in a low voice, “An earthen vessel? It sounds like Toyoashihara—so easily broken, yet kneaded and fired again and again. And you're telling me not to take this task away from them?”

“Yes. If you let your anger rule you, if you destroy this land in rage, the efforts of these two will have been in vain. Rather let them be a sign. Let them be a memento of us, you and me.”

“I understand,” the God of Light said suddenly. Yet his voice was filled with sorrow. “But do you understand my loneliness as I sit alone in our great palace in heaven with no one at my side? You don't know the coldness of that high and empty void.”

The Goddess replied with sympathy, “But you have such wonderful children.”

Chihaya, his eyes adjusting at last to the light shed by the God, finally noticed his brother and sister at the top of the hill. They stood on a slight rise in front of their father, like two shimmering pillars. Princess Teruhi's eyes were downcast, and her cheeks were pure white and translucent. Standing before her father, with whom she was at last united, she looked like a modest and reverent maiden. Prince Tsukishiro appeared to be looking toward Chihaya, but it was still too bright for him to tell.

The God of Light regarded his twin children for a while.

“O my children who have served me upon the earth,” he said softly. “What do you wish in recompense for your services? Ask of me anything. Teruhi, what of you?”

Princess Teruhi raised her face. In a serene, bright voice she replied, “I desire nothing. I only wish to accompany you, Father, to your palace in heaven.”

“And you, Tsukishiro?”

“I, too,” Prince Tsukishiro replied.

“Then so be it. You shall both accompany me.”

Finally the God of Light turned to Chihaya. Under his gaze, Chihaya felt himself blinded once again as everything about him was bathed in light.

“And you, my youngest. What do you desire, Son of the Sword?”

Chihaya was somewhat surprised but answered frankly, “I wish to be granted mortality. If it's possible, let me live like the people of Toyoashihara, let me grow old as they do; let me die and seek rest with the Goddess.”

The God of Light paused before replying. But at last he spoke. “It is granted.”

Seeing the joy that lit up Chihaya's face, he added in an amused tone, “I never imagined that you would fulfill your mission in this way—that you would ask for death from your own father. But if that is truly what you wish, so be it.”

Chihaya heard Princess Teruhi, who stood far away on the hill, whispering in his ear. Perhaps she spoke through an interval in time.

“My foolish little brother, you choose a different path right to the end. But then, that is your nature. Deep in my heart I have always liked you. I could not be your mother, but my feeling for you was like that of a mother for her child.”

A host of memories raced through his mind, but Chihaya could not voice his thoughts. In parting he could only whisper, “For always, without change.”

He heard Prince Tsukishiro's voice also from a distance. “If the Goddess of Darkness ever resumed her physical form, I think that she would look just like Saya. Although I'm not my father, that's what I believe.”

Chihaya looked at Saya, but she still stood with both eyes covered. He was tempted to speak to her but thought better of it, for it would be rude if the Goddess were still there.

The light gathered in the east and rose to heaven like a gleaming white pillar, then gradually faded from the rest of the land. The blue returned to the sky, the mountains regained their contours, and the buildings once again cast their shadows. The light suffusing the clouds dyed everything a vivid gold, and in the next instant all had returned to normal. But the ground still glittered white. Snow had fallen while no one noticed.

When Saya finally opened her eyes, she saw only the silent snowy landscape. A flock of sparrows descended on a harvested field now wrapped in white and pecked at fallen grains under the snow. A dog began to bark somewhere but ceased abruptly, daunted by the silence. Nothing had changed. It seemed she must have been dreaming.

“Has the God of Light gone?” she asked Chihaya softly.

“Yes, it's all over. Toyoashihara has been saved. My brother and sister have gone, too,” Chihaya replied and then added after a slight hesitation, “My brother watched you until the very end.”

“Why didn't you tell me sooner?” Saya demanded. “I'll never see him again. I kept my eyes covered just as you told me to.”

“I didn't want to tell you,” Chihaya said and burst out laughing.

“That's terrible!”

“Are you mad at me?”

“Of course!”

People began to poke their heads out of the buildings and come outside in groups. They looked about with expressions of wonder. They could hardly believe that nothing had changed, that everything had been restored. Torihiko flew up and shook a tree branch, dumping snow on everyone's head.

“It's over, it's over! No more Darkness, no more Light. No more friends or foes. There's nothing left to do. How about a snowball fight?”

“There's plenty to be done, idiot!” Lord Shinado said, shaking his fist. He had snow down his collar. “We have to build a new country—a country that embraces one ruler.”

Lord Akitsu came and stood before Chihaya and Saya. “You are the new rulers of all the people. In place of the God and Goddess, you will be the father and mother of Toyoashihara. If you can live together in harmony, this earthen vessel will never be broken.”

Saya was so astounded she could hardly believe her ears, and it seemed that Chihaya was no different. With a puzzled frown, he asked Lord Akitsu, “Just what are you telling us to do?”

Lord Akitsu put his hand to his chin. “Well, first of all, you must have a wedding.”

“A wedding?”

“Yes, I believe so.”

“But Chihaya hasn't given me a betrothal gift,” Saya said.

Chihaya choked for an instant and then said, “I gave you the Sword.”

“That doesn't count.”

“But I have nothing else.”

“That's true.” Saya looked up in surprise as though she had just realized it. “Neither of us owns anything. Well, I've never heard of two people with nothing being made rulers.”

“We'll build you a palace,” Lord Akitsu said. “We'll have a groundbreaking ceremony and bury the cornerstone deep in the earth. We'll raise the main post and build the roof high. Everyone will help. By the time it's built, spring will be here.”

Saya whispered privately to Chihaya, “I'll invite my parents to the wedding. And I'll tell them that we'll give them so many grandchildren they won't know what to do with them.”

“I heard that,” Torihiko said, beating his wings above their heads. He barely managed to dodge the snowball Saya threw at him.

Chihaya laughed but then asked seriously, “By the way, what's a wedding? I've never heard that word before.”