The Heavenward Path (24 page)

    "I am so very sorry that I have brought you to this, Dento-san."

    "Oh, I doubt very much it is your fault. It might well have come to pass in any case. Ah, well, let us begin." Dento lit a stick of the incense and placed it across the brazier. He knelt and said, "Chomigoto-sama, kami of this shrine, I, who am descended from your kin and your clan, come at last to do homage to you."

    My skin began to tingle, and I felt a strong foreboding. A wisp of white issued from around the stone block sealing Chomigoto's tomb. "Dento?"

    The old monk did not hear me, or ignored me. "Accept, O Kami Chomigoto, the gift of my service, thereby releasing my acolyte, who was formerly known as Fujiwara no Mitsuko, from her debt."

    "Your service," said the voice of Lord Chomigoto, hissing on the wind, "is accepted!"

    Suddenly, a flash of white light enveloped Dento, and he sat bolt upright. I was nearly knocked off my feet by the power released from the foundation of the shrine.

    "Dento-san!" I shouted. "Are you all right?"

    The old monk slowly stood, raising his arms up high. "Ahhhhhhhhhhh!" he cried.

    "What is it, Dento-san?"

    "I live!" he shouted, and then turned to face me. His eyes glowed with a green light, and his face was suffused with a pale shimmer. It was no longer Dento. "I have overcome the old priest's magic, and now his powers shall he mine!"

    "No!" I screamed and stumbled back. This was a true possession, not like the one Kiwako pretended at the Palace. I had no idea what to do.

    "Now I will topple the Yamato and the Fujiwara! You, daughter of the Nakatomi," he pointed at me, "shall become my bride. Together we will found a new dynasty and become the new Emperor and Empress of this land!"

    I was nearly frozen with fear. Nothing Suzume or Goranu or Dento had taught me had been preparation for this. I plucked a sakaki wand out of Dento's pack and waved it at him. "Begone!" I shouted. "Leave this man!"

    "Ah-ha-ha-ha!" Chomigoto-Dento laughed. "You have nowhere near the knowledge to resist me. I have been gathering magical skill for centuries. Surrender to me, little Fujiwara, or you will see the chambers of Lord Emma-O within this very hour."

    "No," I whimpered, still wildly casting my gaze about for something, anything, that might help. I saw the bowls of offerings down beside my feet. I knew rice was sometimes a hindrance to demonic spirits, so I picked up that bowl and threw the rice onto the ground between me and the possessed Dento.

    "Ha!" Chomigoto-Dento laughed again. "I am no mere mono no ke to be held at bay with rice. I now live, in a body of great power! There is nothing you can do." He stepped upon the grains of rice, uncaring. Stretching his hand out to me, he said, "Touch me and all your fears will vanish. You will serve me willingly, happily, and I will make you my honored queen, venerated by all those we conquer."

    Desperate, I looked over at the bowls again.
You respect rank and power too much
, Goranu had once said. I acted like a wild creature, unthinking. I took up the bowl of sand and threw it in Chomigoto-Dento's face.

    He staggered back a moment. "What! How dare you!"

    I picked up the bowl of chalk and threw that, too.

    "Stupid creature!" He became enraged and rushed at me.

    With nothing left to do, I picked up the bowl of wasabi and, as he was nearly upon me, threw it in his eyes and nose.

    "Arrrrrrggggh!" Chomigoto-Dento screamed, holding his face. "Ungrateful child!" He roared. "Now feel the power of my cur-cur-cur-ka-
CHOO
!" A bolt of green lightning escaped from his hand, but because of his sneeze, it missed me.

    "Run around him!" Goranu called from the trees above and behind me. "Keep moving!"

    My knees were terribly weak from fear, but my heart lifted upon hearing his voice, and I managed to get to my feet. I staggered to one side of the shrine foundation and then the other. Suddenly, there were many of me encircling Chomigoto- Dento, each of the other images looking as real as I was.

    "Hold still!" cried Chomigoto-Dento. "Which one are you?"

    "Here!" yelled one of the other images, waving her hand. "I'm over here, you silly ghost."

    Chomigoto-Dento unleashed another bolt of green lightning from his hand that, of course, did the illusion no harm but split the tree behind it in half. "Ah-ah-ah-ah-
CHOOOO
!" he sneezed even louder.

    "Over here!"

    "Over here!"

    "No, me! Curse me!"

    I continued to run back and forth, paying no attention to how tired my legs were becoming, fighting back my fear. To the tengu, no doubt, this was all very amusing, but I was running for my life.

    "Aghhhhhhhhhhh!" In frustration, Chomigoto-Dento spun around, flinging curse bolts willy-nilly, some striking quite close to me. Then he stopped and tilted his face toward the sky. "No… no… ah-ah-ah-" He pinched his nose shut. But he could not stop gasping and at last, eyes squeezed shut and watering in pain, he let loose with a mighty "
AHHHHHHH-CHOOOOOOOOO
!"

    A spray of white substance came exploding out of Dentd's mouth and nose, coalescing into the ghostly form of Chomigoto floating beside him. Dento collapsed onto the ground.

    A chorus of cheers and whistles and clacking of beaks erupted from the trees around us.

    "You worthless tengu!" roared the ghost. "You think I am defeated, but you will see. I have more power than you know!"

    The stone to Lord Chomigoto's tomb burst out of its hole, and two horse-headed oni ran out carrying loops of shining rope. They flung these over the ghost, saying, "Chomigoto-san. Lord Emma-O would speak with you. Now." Tightening the nooses around Chomigoto's form, the oni dragged him back into the tomb.

    "No!" cried the ghost. "No! He does not understand. This is my vengeance. He promised me vengeance!"

    As soon as the oni and the ghost were inside, the sealing stone flew up into the air and planted itself in the entry hole.

    Goranu said behind me, "Lord Emma-O is stern, but just."

    I turned and smiled at Goranu, then I ran to Dento, who still lay on the ground. "Dento-san! Sensei! Are you all right?"

    He moaned loudly, still holding his face, but he allowed me to help him up to a seated position. "Did you have to throw the wasabi?" he groaned.

    "I am so sorry, Dento-san. I did not know what to do. So I tried everything."

    He nodded and patted my shoulder. "Never mind. You did well. You have the makings of a fine ubasoku."

    There was a flapping of great wings, and Kuroihane alighted before us, holding a wet cloth. "Here, old man. You look even more a wreck than usual. Maybe this will ease your runny old eyes."

    I took the cloth from the tengu and gently applied it to Dento's face.

    The ubasoku sighed. "Thank you."

    "Hey, hey! Pretty good, Mountain Puddle." Suzume came running up to me smiling.

    "Thank you," I said, still too shaken to think clearly. "But you mustn't call me that anymore."

    "I know, but we don't have another name for you yet. Hey, did you like the weapons we set out for you? Worked pretty well, didn't they?"

    "You left those offerings?"

    "Yes! We knew Old Blowhard was up to something. The chalk was left in case he tried to attack invisibly. The sand is from the temple garden in Kyomizudera. The tengu had to send me in to gather it myself, since they couldn't enter the holy grounds. And the wasabi just seemed like a good idea."

    "Why did you not just warn us before we got to the shrine?"

    "We didn't know what to warn you about. And we didn't want to hang around here and make Old Blowhard suspicious and change his plans. We figured whatever he would do, you two could handle."

    "I am honored by your faith in me," I said.

    Suzume grinned. "Well, now that you're not going to Court, I'm willing to be your servant again."

    "Ubasoku do not have servants."

    "But they can have friends, neh? Besides, you're not an ubasoku yet. And you will need someone to gather firewood and water while you are studying. And since you need to be trained by tengu, we'll have them around, too. What could be better?"

    I looked uncertainly at Dento. "Can she travel with us? Is that not too much attachment to my previous life?"

    "Considering," said Dento, still wiping his face, "that I will be in poor condition for a while-ai, I feel like that ghost sapped the marrow from my bones-I think we should accept whatever assistance is offered."

    I turned to Goranu. "I am so very glad to see you again."

    Goranu scratched the back of his head and looked around at the trees. "Well, I couldn't let Old Blowhard get his way and ruin everything."

    "Yes. Well. Dento says that so long as I have a new life, I may choose the path it takes. And I cannot imagine such a path if you are not there with me. Even if it keeps me bound to the Great Wheel for this turn or the next. The world is not so bad, neh? I have so much more to learn, and I am beginning to look forward to learning it. Will you stay and teach me, and perhaps we can think about… other things?"

    The snickering and hooting began again among the surrounding tengu.

    "Ooo, they're talking lovey talk!"

    "Maybe we'll get to see them bill and coo."

    Goranu turned and glared at them. "In order to get away from these clattering idiots…" He turned again and gazed down at me. "I will follow you anywhere you ask."

    And so, that afternoon, we set off: Dento, carried in a litter; Goranu; Kuroihane, who thought Dento needed some more lessons; Suzume; and me. We headed for a place in the mountains where we might begin our new lives.

    I have set these words down as a way of putting my past behind me, and for Kai-Lung, so that he might know the rest of the story, and for those readers who might find such a tale interesting, though it is hardly a normal sort of monogatari.

    As well, Esteemed Reader, I will give you that same gift that I offered to the dragon Kai-Lung. I will let you choose the ending of this story. Perhaps Goranu and I will find a way to remain together, though it might further increase my turns on the Wheel. Perhaps I will become a learned ubasoku, wandering the mountains with magical powers like the tengu, giving occasional aid to those in need. Perhaps my feet will find the Heavenward Path, and I will join the saintly souls at the River of Death someday. Who can see the future? Choose whichever ending pleases you.

    

    
The mountain path forks;

    
leading high, low, and straight on.

    
Which way shall I go?

    

    

    Even though
The Heavenward Path
is a fantasy, it is placed within a historical setting. But because Heian Japan is so far away in both time and location, it may be difficult for the reader to know just which parts are historical, which parts are from Japanese mythology of the period, and which parts I made up for the sake of the story.

    
The Heavenward Path
is set in approximately A.D. 1100, a time when the great cultural flowering of Heian Japan was beginning to decline. The Imperial Court had become rigid in its customs, and the nobility, the "Good People," as they called themselves, or the "People Who Dwell Above the Clouds," clung desperately to their status and looked down upon anyone who was of lesser birth.

    Mitsuko and her family are all fictional characters, but the Fujiwara clan did exist and held great social and political power. For a time, the Fujiwara clan was second only to the Imperial clan itself, the Yamato, and the Fujiwara held on to this status by often marrying their daughters into the imperial line. However, toward the end of the Heian period, other clans were beginning to assert themselves and gain more political clout at Court, threatening the Fujiwara supremacy. This is why Mitsuko faces the dilemma she does at the beginning of the book.

    Noblewomen of Heian Japan could wield some political power, either through marriage or by plotting behind the scenes. But at the same time, they lived closeted lives behind screens or curtains of modesty, dressing in many layers of voluminous kimonos to hide their shapes, and hiding their faces behind their sleeves in public.

    The noblewomen's greatest contribution to Japanese culture is their literature, their monogatari. Unlike noblemen, who wrote in the stilted Chinese language of scholars, the women were free to write whatever they pleased in their native language. Much of these writings have survived to this day. Some of them are diaries and accounts of likes and dislikes, such as
The Pillow Book of Sei Shonagon
. Some are stories, such as the great novel
The Tale of Genji
, now regarded as a masterpiece of ancient literature. Some are collections of poems and reminiscences, such as
The Sarashina Diary
. The noblewomen would write monogatari for each other and trade them back and forth, expecting that they would only be read by others like themselves. The closest modern equivalent are what are called "zines"-works written informally for a small audience of readers. But the Heian monogatari give such wonderful insight into the lives of the Japanese noblewomen that I drew upon them heavily as background for
The Heavenward Path
.

    There were two religions in Heian Japan: Shinto and Buddhism. Shinto is an animist faith based on reverence of kami, gods or spirits that inhabit awe-inspiring places or persons. Shinto is the oldest religion in Japan and forms the foundation of much of its culture. Buddhism originated in India and was introduced in Japan through China in the middle of the sixth century; it became popular among the Japanese nobility and scholars of the period. Buddhism emphasizes transcendence and turning away from the material world through meditation and the study of sutras, long religious poems. Although these two faiths are very different in beliefs, they coexisted and even blended in Heian culture. Thus those of a Buddhist sect, such as the character Dento, might still perform Shinto rites. It was not unknown for Buddhists to bless and leave offerings at Shinto shrines with the hope of converting the kami that dwelled there, and Shinto demons often were depicted as guardians for Buddhist temples.