Lord of the Darkwood (22 page)

Her calmness added to the awe Hina felt for the magical object in her hands. She put it down carefully, leaned over the older woman, and placed her hand on the burning forehead.

“Your hands are so cool,” the Abbess said. Her eyes closed and she seemed to sleep for a few moments. Then she said, “Where are you going?”

Hina said, “I am going into the Darkwood to find Shikanoko.”

“Shikanoko, the outlaw?”

“Your son. You called him Kazumaru. I don't believe he became a monster, as you feared.”

“So you are going in search of him?” the Abbess said wonderingly. “He has been much on my mind, as I lie here, dying. Why are you looking for him? Is it because you love him? But how can that be? You can't have been much more than a child when you knew him, if you knew him at all…” Her speech became more rambling and incoherent and Hina could not follow everything she said. She was afraid the end was near, and was about to call the nun, when the dying woman spoke more clearly. “When you find him, tell him his mother forgives him.”

“Maybe you should ask him to forgive you,” Hina said. “If you had not left him when he was a child … I am sorry, it is none of my concern.” But then she felt strongly that it was her concern, and her anger and pity rushed to the surface. “You abandoned him! That is what made him become a sorcerer.”

There was a long silence. She feared the Abbess had stopped breathing and leaned over her to check. The woman raised her head toward her and spoke with surprising force. “You are right. I see it all so clearly now. I thought I was seeking holiness. I so wanted to be good. But in the end I gave my cat more affection than I ever gave my son, and for that I am dying.” Her voice was filled with despair and bitterness.

She must not die like this, after a whole life dedicated to the sacred
, Hina thought. Take had remained on the threshold while they had been talking. Now Hina turned to him. She had not intended to tell him who his father was until they found Shikanoko—for all her confident words, she could not know what he might have become, what grief and loneliness might have wrought in him. She might never find him; she might find a monster. But she had to let Take meet his grandmother, now fate had brought them so close.

“Take,” she called softly, “come here!”

He knelt beside them, his eyes widening in pity as he saw the damaged hands.

“You know her?” he said. “Who is she, poor lady?”

“She is the abbess of the temple where I lived for some years, after you and I were rescued from the lake. And she is your grandmother.”

The Abbess's eyelids had closed, but now they flew open and she searched for Take's face. “Who is this boy?” she whispered.

“He is called Takeyoshi. He is Shikanoko's son. His mother was Akihime, the Autumn Princess. He is your grandson.”

“Is it true?” the Abbess said, and Take echoed her with the same words, as their eyes locked.

“It is true,” Hina said.

Tears flowed from the Abbess's eyes. “I want to touch his face, stroke his hair, but I cannot bear the pain.”

Take put his own hand to her face and wiped away the tears with his fingers.

“When you find your father, ask him to forgive me,” she said.

She did not speak again. Her face took on a calm and joyful expression. Little by little the smell of sickness abated and was replaced by a fragrance like jasmine.

Hina found her lips repeating one of the sutras, that she had chanted so many times at the temple, that she had read aloud to the Abbess, as her tears fell for the dying woman.

The nun came in and joined in the chanting. The hut seemed to glow with light.

“The Enlightened One is coming for her,” the nun whispered. “He will take her straight to Paradise.”

The Abbess began to breathe rapidly. Her eyelids fluttered. She seemed to want to speak, or maybe she was praying. Then the quick breaths ceased in one last sigh. Her eyes opened, but they no longer looked on this world.

Kon called piercingly and the monkey, Noboru, screeched in response.

The nun said, “The other nuns went to Rinrakuji, to get help. They will be back soon. I'll stay with her body, but you should not linger here. Rinrakuji is a Miboshi temple now. I don't know what you are supposed to have done, or who you really are, but you don't want to get embroiled in their questions and their procedures.”

“What will happen to you?” Hina said.

“They will no doubt find a place for us, washing dishes, sweeping floors. There are many ways a nun can serve.”

“But you have had your own temple, free from the control of men! You will find it hard to serve them now.”

“It could not last,” the nun said in a resigned voice. “All over the country, men are gaining power over women. They are in the ascendant, and will be for years to come. Women are condemned to begin their decline. It is all one, part of the great cycle.”

Hina knelt to ask for her blessing and Take imitated her. Then they bowed in farewell to the corpse and left the hut, Hina clasping the stone.

Once outside Take turned to her, his eyes bright with unshed tears.

“Tell me everything.”

“I will,” she replied, with a swift glance at Yoshi, who was waiting with Saru, both sitting on their haunches. The monkey was on Saru's shoulder, searching his hair for fleas. The horse was cropping grass at the edge of the stream. “But not now. Later, when we are alone, I promise.”

“What's happening?” Saru said. “Are we stopping here for the night?”

“What's the matter with you?” Yoshi said to Take. “Is something wrong?”

“A woman died in there,” Hina said.

Both young men drew the cross sign in the air.

“Let's get going, then,” Saru said with a nervous laugh. “I'm not all that fond of the dead.”

“Shouldn't we help bury her?” Yoshi said.

“People will be coming soon,” Hina said. “Really, it's best if we leave without delay.”

Take seemed about to speak, but Hina shook her head at him. He ran to the stream, surprised the horse with a whack on its rump, jumped from rock to rock, and disappeared into the forest. The horse flung up its head and galloped after him. The others had to follow.

*   *   *

They walked until well after nightfall, the three-quarters moon of the seventh month lighting their path, and slept briefly on the ground until the forest birds began to call before dawn.

Yoshi and Saru went on ahead, but Take, alongside Hina, walked more and more slowly until they were a long distance behind.

“I thought my father must have been a warrior,” he said, when the others were out of earshot. “It would explain so much about me. But what else do you know about my parents?”

She told him all she remembered from her childhood, the day Shikanoko arrived on the brown mare, his unparalleled skill with the bow, how he brought down the Prince Abbot's werehawk and had been able to ride the stallion Nyorin, which no one else could, after the death of its master, Akuzenji.

“He was born at Kumayama, and is the true heir to that estate. It lies a little farther to the east from my father's twin estates of Matsutani and Kuromori.”

“Kuromori? The Darkwood?”

“Yes.”

Take gestured at the huge forest through which they were walking, the mossy trunks, the twisted roots, the fern-fringed streambeds. “So all this was your father's?”

“If the Darkwood belonged to anyone, it was to him. But we lived on the southwestern corner. All this part is completely wild.”

“What happened to your father?” Take asked.

“He died at the side of the Crown Prince, along with your other grandfather, Hidetake, in the Ninpei rebellion.”

Take absorbed this silently, glancing at Hina with new concern. She wondered how much he had heard of the legends, rumors, and ballads that had sprung up around Lord Kiyoyori and his son, the dragon child, and what he knew of the struggle between the Miboshi and the Kakizuki.

“Who owns the Darkwood now?” he said. “Weren't you his heir?”

“My uncle, Masachika. He had been sent to join the Miboshi when he was a young man, so he ended up on the side of the victors. He thinks I am dead, and must never find out otherwise. It was he who came to Nishimi and discovered the Princess, your mother, hiding there, not long after you were born. That's when I ran away with you, and the acrobats rescued us.”

“Did he kill her?” Hina saw in his face that he was already thinking of revenge.

“Not directly. He had her transported to Miyako and she died there.”

“And my father—what is his name?” he said after a long silence.

“Shikanoko. He was always called just that. It means the deer's child.”

“Is he still alive?”

“It seems so, for they are searching for him. Unless he died in the Darkwood. But, as I told the Abbess—I don't know if you heard—I am also looking for him.”

“My grandmother,” he stated. “The first of my family I have ever met, and then she died within moments. I lay awake all night, thinking of her, praying for her soul.”

“Yes, I did, too,” Hina replied.

They walked on slowly. Yoshi and Saru were out of sight ahead, but from time to time they heard Kon calling and Noboru chattering.

“A little while ago,” Hina said, thinking she should explain her reasons more fully, “a man came to visit me. I knew him when we were children. He was the son of my father's senior retainer, and the same age as me. After my father's death he fell on hard times, but was taken in by a man who has become powerful in the north, in Kitakami. This man and his brothers were the children of a woman who came to our house at the same time as Shikanoko. She bewitched my father and he fell in love with her.”

She was surprised how hard it was to say this. Her face was burning.

“They are his children? Your brothers?” Take said, puzzled.

“There was some sorcery at work. They were all born at one time, they had several men for their fathers. My father was one, Shikanoko another.”

“So they are my brothers, too?”

“In a way, yes.” She did not want to tell him everything she had learned from Chika, how the brothers had gone with Shikanoko to Ryusonji and caused the Princess's death. “This man, my childhood friend, Chika, begged me to go and find Shikanoko. There are many forces at work and I don't understand them all, but I believe they are converging, with the purpose of restoring the true emperor to the throne.”

“People say this terrible drought and the other disasters are all a punishment for the Miboshi's arrogance in choosing the emperor they wanted,” Take said.

“You can say such things here in the forest,” Hina said, “but never utter them where anyone else can hear you. Your tongue would be ripped out! But certainly in Heaven's eyes there is something grievously wrong. I feel we are being called to set it right. I don't know what to do, except go into the Darkwood in search of your father.”

“So my father knows who and where the true emperor is?”

Hina said nothing, not sure how to answer.

Take was frowning as he persisted, “Or is it that you are going to tell him? Are you the only person who knows?”

“Maybe I am, apart from the gods,” Hina said quietly.
And Kai
, she thought, but she did not voice this.

 

AUTHOR'S NOTE

The Tale of Shikanoko
was partly inspired by the great medieval warrior tales of Japan:
The Tale of the Heike
,
The Taiheiki
, the tales of Hōgen and Heiji, the
Jōkyūki
, and
The Tale of the Soga Brothers
. I have borrowed descriptions of weapons and clothes from these and am indebted to their English translators Royall Tyler, Helen Craig McCullough, and Thomas J. Cogan.

I would like to thank in particular Randy Schadel, who read early versions of the novels and made many invaluable suggestions.

 

ALSO BY
LIAN HEARN

TALES OF THE OTORI

Across the Nightingale Floor

Grass for His Pillow

Brilliance of the Moon

The Harsh Cry of the Heron

Heaven's Net Is Wide

Blossoms and Shadows

The Storyteller and His Three Daughters

THE TALE OF SHIKANOKO

Emperor of the Eight Islands

Autumn Princess, Dragon Child

 

A NOTE ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Lian Hearn
is the pseudonym of a writer—born in England, educated at Oxford, currently living in Australia—who has had a lifelong interest in Japan, has lived there, and studies Japanese. She is the author of the bestselling series
Tales of the Otori
. You can sign up for email updates
here
.