The Heavenward Path (7 page)

    "
Yes
," said the ghost. He pointed at the opening. "
Enter, and learn who I am
."

    "But I cannot! I must not! I-"

    "
ENTER
!"

    I should have stood my ground and chanted the Lotus Sutra to drive him off. But I felt guilty for having forgotten my promise. So I gathered the skirts of my kimonos and stepped into the opening.

    I had to feel my way down in the dark, and the stone wall of the stairway was cold and damp. I had descended seventeen steps when the ghost, who was right behind me, commanded, "
Stop
."

    I was relieved to do so. And then a pale, greenish light filled the space in front of me. It revealed a rectangular chamber. But it was empty, save for bits of broken pottery that littered the floor.

    "
Once this room was filled with gold and silver
," said the ghost.
"
The finest of tachi swords lay here, and bronze mirrors, moon-shaped jewels, copper shields, and hardwood lances. All gone now. Stolen
."

    "I am so very sorry," I said softly.

    "
Heh
." The ghost extended his arm toward the far wall. "
They did not get it all, however. They did not find me!
" With a deep rumbling, a rectangular section of stone in the wall opened inward.

    I trembled and turned to the ghost. "If you please, Most Noble Ancient Lord-"

    "
Yes. I know of your transgression against Lord Emma-O, Judge of the Dead. He has spoken to me. And I will see that you are taken to receive his judgment, unless you do as I bid
."

    So he knew. Two years before, after my brother-in-law was slain on the Western Road by the warrior monks of Heian Kyo, I had embarked on a strange journey to find my sister's grieving soul. This journey had taken me to the very court of Lord Emma-O, Judge of the Dead. I had been disguised, with ashes rubbed on my face, as a departed soul, and I had been warned not to speak. But when Emma-O said he had not seen whom I searched for, I had whispered that that was impossible. Hearing my voice, Lord Emma-O knew I was a living person trespassing in his land, and I would have been arrested by him had not Goranu helped me escape. Ever since, I had avoided cemeteries and those realms where Lord Emma-O's demons might catch me. I had hoped staying in temples would shield me from his anger. How was I to know the kami to whom I had made a sacred promise was a powerful ghost? Naturally he would have met Lord Emma-O.

    As there was nothing else I could do, I bowed my head and entered the doorway the ghost had opened.

    The room beyond was bigger and dominated by a huge block of polished black stone in the center. Surrounding the black stone block were hundreds of haniwa, red-painted pottery figures depicting all manner of men, women, and animals. I had to step very carefully to make sure I knocked none of them over. The black stone block rose as high as my shoulders, so I was able to see on its top a suit of armor made solely of jade pieces bound with silver wire. But now the armor protected only bones. A magnificent mask of jade carved in the likeness of a fierce, scowling demon covered the skull.

    "
I was Lord Chomigoto: warrior, priest, king. As I lay dying, I asked to be buried here, where I loved to hunt, rather than on the Kinki Plain where my ancestors lay. Here I have rested for six centuries.

    "
Perhaps it was an error to be placed here, so far from my people. A great shrine was planned to be built outside my tomb, but it was never begun. Politics and war caused me to be forgotten. Only a village of the descendants of my most devoted followers remained here to remember, and they built the little shrine that you took refuge in.
"

    "How very sad," I murmured. "Surely you deserved better."

    "
There is worse
," intoned the ghost. "
A great crime was committed here. Eighty years ago, a clan of brigands moved into this territory. It was they who found my tomb and plundered it. The villagers tried to stop the thieves, but the robbers killed them, even women and children. Only a few escaped to scatter across the land
."

    "What a horrible crime," I whispered. "And you could do nothing?"

    "
I dwelt in the Land of the Ancestors at that time. But the wails and pleas of the dying villagers reached me in dreams, and I pleaded with Lord Emma-O to let my spirit return. He warned me it would be useless, but he granted my wish. When I arrived, however, it was too late, and I found that, as a spirit, I was powerless to avenge my people. I remembered enough of worldly wizardry to command the winds and bring nightmares, but that is all. Alone I have waited these eighty years
."

    "How terribly unjust," I said. "I hope my small efforts may bring you some peace."

    "
Peace
!" boomed the ghost of Lord Chomigoto. "
Do you think it is peace that I want? Oh no, I have had much time to ponder what will satisfy these years of impotent exile. And when you came to me and gave me sakaki leaves and blessings and an offer to repay a small act of kindness and protection-you, a daughter of the Nakatomi, who served the Yamato clan, who usurped the throne of my people a century after my death-I could see the karma in this and was pleased to assist you in your hour of need. That is why I have willingly suffered your forgetfulness
."

    "Begging your pardon, Most Ancient Noble Lord, but my clan is Fujiwara now."

    "A
change in name does not make a change in blood. You are of the clan who serve the Yamato. Those of your blood owe me much. Therefore, my vengeance will be combined. In accordance with your promise, you will see to it that my shrine is rebuilt-as the greatest shrine this world has seen. You will see that my tomb is restored and that which has been stolen returned or replaced. You will gather the remnants of my people and see that I am properly honored once more
."

    I could hardly speak for my shock. I wished I could turn to clay and become one of the haniwa statues around me. "But… but Chomigoto-sama… how… how can I-"

    "
You will take this to show you have spoken to me
." A small, square pottery tile rose into the air and fell into my hand. One side of it had a raised symbol of a square inside two circles. "
Now go. Do as I have commanded. If I see that you are not doing all you can to bring this about, then I will have Lord Emma-O send his oni-demons to drag you down to the Dungeons of Hell
."

    "Yes, Chomigoto-sama." Terrified, I gathered my kimonos around me, bowed deeply to him, and hurried out of the chamber, through the bare room, and up the steps. Behind me, I heard a rumbling like thunder, or the drums of Susano-wo, Lord of Earthquakes.

    I staggered out through the opening in the rock slab and stopped to catch my breath among the debris of the small shrine. I stood for a long time, just staring at the clay tile in my hand. I am surprised, looking back, that I did not weep or cry. But my karmic burden was beginning to feel so great that it no longer seemed real-more like a tall tale told by a drunken nobleman. Not a real life at all.

    "Mitsuko! There you are!" Riko came running up to me.

    In my stupefied state, I asked, "Where is your horse?"

    "Spooked by those tengu. I wish your father were here to drive them off. Have you seen Sotoko?"

    "No."

    Riko swore coarsely under his breath. "I hope the others have found her. Sotoko!" When there came no answer, he went on, "What are you doing over here? Why did you wander from where I had left you? Oh. Was this your shrine?"

    "Yes."

    "Not much left, I see. Looks like it was a simple one, though. Should be easy enough to replace. Sotoko!" There was still no answer, and I suspect he continued talking to me to hide his growing fear. "Yes. Wood, paper, some thatch. We can gather all of these. Have it done in a day or two. Sotoko!"

    I shook my head. "Forgive me, Riko, but it is no longer so simple. It will have to be a bigger shrine."

    "What?" He frowned at me and then noticed the opening in the hill behind me. His face turned pale. "Is… is that a tomb?"

    "Yes. I have met the kami of the shrine. It is the ghost of an ancient Kofun priest-king. He is buried there."

    His eyes widened. "Sotoko didn't go in there, did she?"

    "No. I did. The tomb has been plundered, and the villagers who served the shrine were murdered long ago. The kami wants me to restore his tomb, and build a great shrine to him, and gather what is left of his people so that he may be honored once more."

    "Did you ask the kami where Sotoko was?"

    Truly, it seems people never listen to me. "I did not have the chance. He gave me this to prove that I had spoken with him." I handed Riko the clay tile.

    He stared down at it, and, if anything, his face turned even more pale.

    As he did not speak, I babbled on. "We must talk to your father, Lord Tsubushima, and ask his help. I do not know what more I can do. Surely your father knows this land and can give advice."

    "I recognize this symbol," said Riko, still gazing at the tile. "I saw it on many things at my great-uncle's house. I remember stories I heard at his knee, about how our clan's ancestors came upon an abandoned tomb, and took its treasure, and wiped out the tribe of barbarians who guarded it. That, I was told, was how our clan acquired wealth and rose to greatness."

    I stared at him. "So it was your ancestors who killed the villagers?"

    Riko stared at the tomb opening, his face full of dread. "It would seem so. If this kami is truly the spirit of the lord-king of the tomb, you can expect no help from my father. He has ambitions that our family will join the ranks of the great nobility of Heian Kyo someday. He will do nothing that might reveal such a shameful event in our family's past."

    The sky seemed to have grown darker, and contrary breezes tugged at my hair and clothes. "Then I am lost," I whispered. Riko apparently did not hear me, or chose not to.

    "If I had known this tomb was here, I would never have brought you into this forest. You do not think," Riko said, his voice wavering, "that those tengu were sent by the kami-that he is taking vengeance by harming Sotoko, do you?"

    "Tengu do not kill," I said wearily. "They just like to play tricks. The kami did not mention my sister at all."

    "Riko!" It sounded like Sotoko, calling from some distance away.

    He looked up sharply from the tile. "Sotoko! Stay where you are! I'll be right there!" He dropped the clay tile and took off at a run toward the voice.

    I bent down and picked up the clay tile and slipped it into my sleeve. My heart numb, I thought,
Surely, there can be no one else in the world as wretched as I am now
.

    

    
Is this how an ant

    
feels when the stone he lifts in

    
his jaws crushes him?

    

    

    
Chirping in the fog. Is it a bird or a frog? Crunch. Oh. A cricket.

    

    I do not know how long I stood, unmoving, in the clearing. I understood now how one could wish one's soul to flee the body when a burden becomes too great to bear.

    The rattling clatter of beaks and the fluttering of wings intruded on my thoughts. Five tengu, wearing the shapes of enormous ravens, landed in the clearing in front of me.

    "Riko! Riko!" one of them said in perfect imitation of Sotoko's voice. The other tengu laughed.

    A flash of anger cut through my sorrows as a lightning bolt will, for a moment, rend dark clouds. "Stop that!" I said to the tengu.

    "Ooooh, look what we have here!"

    "It's Prince Goranu's little noble girl."

    "The one who drove him mad."

    "The one who made him want to be a Buddhist so he could be reborn a mortal."

    "Stop it!" I said again. "Did Lord Chomigoto send you here to make me even more miserable?"

    "Nobody sends us anywhere!"

    "Though we're very open to suggestion."

    "Besides, you deserve to be miserable after what you've done to Prince Goranu."

    "But I have done nothing to him," I said, my hands clenched into fists at my sides. "He chose to-"

    "Nothing? Why, you impudent mortal, Goranu has hidden himself away from the rest of us reading a sutra you gave to him. His fingers and mouth are nearly burnt black."

    Poor Goranu. If only I could have convinced him that I was an unworthy reason for his seeking the Heavenward Path. If only I could speak to him again, perhaps I could distract him with my misery. But how?

    Then in the wild mood that sometimes comes with despair, I turned to the closest tengu and said, "You are lying."

    The tengu jumped back, aghast. "What?"

    "What!" cried the other tengu, beaks agape.

    "We tengu never lie!"

    "Unless we feel like it."

    "I know you are lying," I persisted. "Because you want me to feel bad. You are just teasing me."

    "Of course we are teasing. That is what tengu do."

    "But that doesn't mean we're lying."

    "Prince Goranu is in terrible pain right this very moment."

    "And it is all your fault."

    I crossed my arms on my chest. "I do not believe you. I think that even now Goranu is watching us, ready to laugh at me for believing your lies."

    The tengu all stepped back, clacking their beaks and fluffing their feathers.

    "How dare she!"

    "The impudence!"

    "What a callous little thing she is!"

    "She stands there and calls us liars while her lover is dying."