The Heavenward Path (10 page)

    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."

    "I know that," snapped Goranu. "Do you want to hear the dream or not?"

    "Your pardon," I said. "Please, go on."

    "The first one was a skinny fellow. Looked like he had been starving awhile. He came down a mountain and smiled at me and said I shouldn't be upset at failing to achieve enlightenment."

    "Ah! That would be Sakyamuni," I said. "He tried fasting to find the path, but it failed. He found another way to enlightenment later."

    "He told me that, in a previous life, I was a monk who had fallen away from proper behavior. That was why I was reborn a tengu. Can you imagine? Me… a monk! What greater insult could he give me?" Goranu crossed his arms on his chest and scowled at the waterfalls.

    "I can imagine it," I said, but too softly for him to hear.

    "Then he left, and another spirit arrived, riding a lion and holding a scroll in one hand and a sword in the other. A plump, pretty fellow like some of your noblemen at Court."

    "Ah, that would be Monju-bosatsu. He is a spirit of great learning and knowledge."

    "Yes, well, this fellow said that I was being a fool and that my feet would never find the Path, because I was heading the wrong direction and my motives were not pure. Can you imagine that? A nobleman saying my thoughts weren't pure!"

    "Yes," I whispered. "I can imagine it."

    "The third spirit," Goranu went on, "was the biggest show- off of all. He came in sitting on a lotus blossom, on top of a four-headed white elephant."

    "Fugen-bosatsu," I said, nodding. "He governs long life and compassion."

    "Whatever. He, at least, spoke to me with a bit of kindness and told me all was not lost. He said there was a way to achieve what I wished without killing myself over it. Then he left before telling me what that way might be!"

    "Such is the nature of dreams," I said. "But what is it you wish?"

    He stared at me intently. "I have told you what I wish. Two years ago, remember?"

    I looked down at the floor and saw the wood grain waver. "Yes, I believe I do remember."

    "I told you I wanted to marry you. But… it is forbidden in tengu culture for us to marry mortals."

    I felt as unsettled as the waters beneath the cataracts in the gorge. The thought of marriage to Goranu was bizarre, and yet… pleasant. But many people think of tengu as demons. I said softly, "In mortal custom, also, it would be forbidden."

    "So. In our present lives it cannot be. But I was hoping if I could die and be reborn a mortal, there might be a chance. Our lives are so entwined that surely we will meet again in another, future life, I thought. Alas, the bosatsu say that my hopes are foolish. I am just a silly tengu after all."

    I did not know what to say, so I did not respond.

    His gaze upon me changed. "It is not impossible, not unknown, that a tengu might… love a mortal. Even create a child by one…" He swiftly looked away. "But that would shame you. And I could not do that."

    I pulled my kimonos tighter around me, as if to hold in my feelings, as a gardener will build a rock wall beside a spring stream to keep the rising waters from invading the flower beds.

    Part of me wanted Goranu to stop speaking of such forbidden things. Another part wanted to hear of nothing else.

    "Besides," Goranu continued in a forced hearty tone, "it is intended that you marry an eleven-year-old cousin of the Emperor. Surely the affections of a tengu pale in comparison."

    I slapped the floor of the pavilion with the heel of my hand. "Stop that! I will not marry Prince Komakai! Not if… I can avoid it." I ran my fingers over the wood grain of the floor planks. How real it seemed for an illusion. "Besides," I went on, "if I disappoint Lord Chomigoto, I will be going to the Hall of Death very soon anyway."

    "Lord Chomigoto!" said Goranu, sitting up suddenly. "Old Blowhard the ghost? What has he to do with you?"

    "Do you not remember? Wasn't it he who sent you to the shrine in the forest where you found Amaiko and me?"

    Goranu scratched his chin. "Let me see. I don't remember talking to him that night. I do remember something in the wind, but nobody sent us to the shrine. We tengu would never follow orders from a ghost, especially a priest-king ghost."

    So. Suzume was at least partly right. "But Lord Chomigoto is the kami of the shrine! My promise to repair it was made to
him
."

    "
He
is the kami of that shrine? Oh no!" Goranu doubled over with laughter, holding his stomach.

    "Did you not know that?"

    "I'm a tengu! We don't pay attention to shrines."

    "But you know who Lord Chomigoto is."

    "Of course! He wanders our mountain forests and tries to talk to us and order us around. We tengu always just laugh at him."

    "So is it not true that a village of his worshipers was destroyed by Lord Tsubushima's clan? Or that Lord Chomigoto's tomb was robbed?"

    "Oh yes. All that happened."

    "You tengu did nothing to stop the massacre of the village?"

    "The horrible things mortals do to one another are none of our affair."

    "I see." I paused to consider this a moment. "Then I suppose you would not know or care if Lord Chomigoto would have an association with Lord Emma-O."

    "Oh, he almost certainly does. Old Blowhard told us that he begged Emma-O to let him return to this world to seek vengeance or redress or something."

    "Oh." My heart sank. "Then he will be able to send Lord Emma-O's demons to fetch me when I fail to do all he has asked."