The Heavenward Path (9 page)

Read The Heavenward Path Online

Authors: Kara Dalkey

BOOK: The Heavenward Path
4.29Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
    "Oh, I do not know. It does not matter now what you are supposed to do. We are not in the Palace or my father's house."
    Suzume stood and straightened her kimonos… incorrectly, I noted. "I'm sorry, then. There is so much that I haven't learned yet. Sometimes I think life was easier as a rice cake girl."
    "I am sure you are right," I said.
    "Will you forgive me if I tell you something else?"
    "I am sure I will."
    "You look terrible."
    Such a comment coming from her almost made me laugh. "I what?"
    "No, really. You look the way you did two years ago when your house burned down and you had to come stay with me."
    "That bad?" My hand strayed to my hair, which, of course, was all tousled. I had not thought about it, but my kimonos had been torn by the brambles in the forest, and my face was doubtless pale from shock, and my eyes red from weeping. "Yes, I suppose you are right."
    "Here." Suzume reached into the bottom of her deep sleeve. "I have some rice cakes left. I brought them thinking I might need to bribe the tengu." She handed me one.
    It had been crushed out of whatever shape it had been first molded into, but there were bits of seaweed and poppy seeds on it, and the handful of rice tasted wonderful. "Thank you," I said, covering my mouth because it was still full of rice.
    Suzume laughed, and I almost did, too. "If you please, Great Lady," she said, "let us get out of this dreary village and find a pleasanter place to eat the rest of these."
    I nodded, and we walked away from the huts. We followed a path that led up the hillside of the valley, hoping for an enjoyable view. But the clouds drifted lower and lower until we couldn't see the tengu village at all.
    We finally stopped at a rock outcropping that overlooked a pool of water. On a sunny day, this place might have been lovely, but the mist was now so heavy around us that it felt eerie, as though we were cut off from the rest of the world.
    As we ate our rice cakes, I told Suzume all about the shrine and Lord Chomigoto and the things he demanded of me. Mama used to say that confiding in one's servants was a mistake, for they remember everything you say and might gossip or do even more harmful things with it later. But Suzume was different. She had been my friend first. And there was no one else around to trust. So I blurted out the whole story to her.
    When I had finished, she said, "So… why didn't you bargain with the ghost?"
    "What? Bargain with the ghost of a warrior priest-king?"
    "Why not? You know, if you can't do all those things he asked for, you should have talked him down to just fixing the shrine. That's what my papa would have done. When he buys rice from the farmers, they always try to ask a high price. He talks them down to what is reasonable, which is what they expect him to do, so no one is upset. It's just a game, he says, and the only person hurt is the stupid merchant who won't bargain."
    I am sure my mouth hung open.
    "Ooops," Suzume said, eyes suddenly wide. "I didn't mean to say you were stupid, Great Lady."
    "No, of course you did not," I said, wondering if she had.
    "It's just-you don't even know if the ghost was telling the truth. How do you know he was all those things he claimed to be?"
    "I saw his tomb. What is left was magnificent, things only a king would have. And Riko confirmed his story."
    "So these are the things we know." Suzume held up her fingers. "One, he was probably a king. Two, he had a shrine that a nearby village served. Three, Lord Tsubushima's clan destroyed that village and plundered the tomb."
    "Yes," I said. "So how could the ghost be lying?"
    "Well, how do you know Chomigoto is such a friend of Lord Emma-O that he can make the Lord of Death punish you if you don't do as he asked? You say that all Chomigoto-sama can command are the winds and dreams."
    I paused, uncertain. "But… well… it would seem natural that he is acquainted with Lord Emma-O."
    "So is almost any ghost, since most people pass through Emma-O's court, if the stories are true," said Suzume. "That doesn't mean your ghost is telling the truth. Maybe Lord Emma-O banished him to our world for some other reason. And here he finds a young noble girl he can frighten into improving his lot in life-well, afterlife. Maybe his tomb is far away and forgotten because he was a bad king. Or he ruled only for a very short time and there is no reason to remember or worship him."
    I was so shaken, I could hardly speak. "But… I did make a sacred promise to him. And my sister and I were safely sheltered, and the tengu did come for us."
    "I'm not sure a visit from the tengu could be called 'help,' " Suzume said, glaring back toward the village.
    "Anyway, I promised; so I must do something, neh?"
    "How do you know it was Chomigoto who sent the tengu? I thought tengu lived in that forest, or went there often. Perhaps he did nothing and is just taking advantage of your trust to get you to do things for him."
    I could not answer. Truly, it was amazing how suspicious Suzume was, and yet, if she was right, what a fool I had been! I could ask the tengu. I could ask Goranu, now that he was healing. He was there that night, after all. I would not be asking him to do anything for me, so I would not be demanding much. I resolved to do so.
    We sat in silence for a long while, eating the last crumbs of the rice cakes. The mist had quite closed in now, and I could see nothing beyond the pool and the rocks on the other side. It seemed appropriate to be so isolated from the rest of the world. Suzume's words had so turned my thoughts upside down that I no longer knew what sort of world I lived in.
    
    
One sees a mirror,
    
one sees a pool of water;
    
all is illusion.
    
    I was startled by the sound of something scuttling in the tall grass nearby.
    Suzume leaned close and whispered in my ear, "Look, down there by the water's edge."
    I did and saw a pair of thin little yellow-green arms and hands dipping a pinecone into the water and washing it. "How charming," I whispered back. "I have never seen a wild monkey so close."
    "That's not a monkey. Look at it more closely."
    The creature moved into the water a bit, and I saw it had a turtle's back. Its hands were webbed like a frog's, and its head was like a monkey's except for a depression in the crown.
    "It's a kappa," said Suzume. "They say that kappa like to drown people, especially little boys who are bad. And they drink blood. But they also say it can be good luck to catch one, for kappa have much knowledge and magic. If the water on top of its head spills off, it will become weak. So if you catch it and threaten to turn it upside-down, you can make it promise you all sorts of things in exchange for letting it go."
    I turned and frowned at her. "What a terrible thing to do to such a creature."
    "Oh, don't be that way. Kappa are nasty beasts, and besides, we wouldn't really hurt it, just threaten to. You need help right now, don't you? Come on, let's see if we can grab it."
    She slid off the rock and crept toward the animal before I could grab her sleeve to stop her. I was sure I could not move fast enough in my kimonos to catch such a creature, even if I wanted to, which I did not.
    The kappa heard Suzume approaching and stood up straight in alarm. It chittered a moment, dropped the pinecone, and ran off up the hillside under the grass and ferns. Its gait was awkward as it tried to keep its head upright. Suzume ran determinedly after it, and soon she disappeared into the mist.
    "Suzume!" I jumped off the rock and ran after her. "Suzume!" Mama once said the Good People must always look after their servants, but I felt very annoyed. What can one do if the servant insists on behaving foolishly? Nonetheless, I followed her, trying to run uphill in my bulky kimonos and wooden sandals, as the mist drifted close around me, clinging to my trailing sleeves.
    
INDIVIDUALITY
    
    
The moon sits on a puddle; until I touch it- then it is shattered!
    
    I ran until I was nearly out of breath. Then, dimly through the mist, I saw Suzume up ahead of me, sitting on a low stone. I staggered up and plopped down on the rock beside her, unable to speak for my gasping.
    "I couldn't catch it," Suzume said, despondent.
    "And now," I said, when I could speak again, "we are lost." The fog was so thick that we could see no more than the immediate ground around us.
    "Not really," Suzume said. "We know we have to go downhill. Eventually, we'd reach the valley. Then we'd turn to our right and walk until we reached the tengu village. It's simple. I had to learn a good sense of direction in the streets of Heian Kyo."
    I, however, had wandered on stranger paths than Suzume
    would ever see, and I was not convinced that proceeding back the way we came would return us to where we started.
    "Should we start back now, Great Lady Puddle?"
    "Allow me to catch my breath more, if you please." I wasn't sure I liked her calling me that, but I did not know what else to suggest. We sat together in silence as the fog crept closer and our hair and clothes grew damp.
    As I was beginning to consider standing up for the long walk back, I saw red-orange light flickering in the gloom ahead of us, farther up the mountainside. At first I thought it might be torchlight, but as it approached, it seemed too low to the ground.
    Suzume noticed it, too. "What is that?"
    "I do not know. Do kappa carry torches?"
    "Not that I have heard."
    And then it came out of the mist. A small creature, looking somewhat like a dog, except that it had hooves like a deer, and short straight horns. But most amazing of all were the flames that flickered about its shoulders and hindquarters.
    Suzume leaned close to me. "What is it? Is it dangerous?"
    "I have seen it in paintings. Ah, now I remember. It is a kirin."
    "I have not heard tales about kirin."
    "I do not remember anything about them, except that they are messengers of a sort. I do not think they are dangerous." In truth, I was not sure at all, but I did not want to frighten Suzume or myself.
    The kirin stopped a short distance away and said, in a high, flutelike voice, "Greetings. You are here, no doubt, to consult with Kai-Lung, Keeper of Knowledge, the Wisest of the Wise."
    Suzume and I looked at one another. "What does it mean?" she asked me. "What sort of name is Kai-Lung?"
    "It sounds Chinese to me," I replied. "My father speaks and reads that language, and I have heard him tell of great scholars
    who used to come from Changan to teach in Heian Kyo. Maybe this Kai-Lung is one such traveling philosopher who has taken hermitage in the mountains."
    "Yes," said the kirin, with what seemed to be a smile. "Kai-Lung has traveled here from across the Western Sea."
    "Well, maybe we should talk to him," said Suzume. "We are in need of wisdom. Maybe he can tell us what to do about your ghost-king."
    I was worried about disturbing the meditations of a philosopher, but the words of the kirin implied that he expected visitors. "Perhaps you are right."
    Suzume boldly stood and bowed to the kirin. "This is Great Lady Fujiwara no Mitsuko, and she wishes to have audience with the wise Kai-Lung. Please do us the honor of taking us to him at once."
    Well, she was learning-although servants properly should not include themselves in any business. They are best if they are invisible, Mama always used to say.
    The kirin tittered and then coughed. "As you wish. Please do me the honor of following me." It turned around and tripped daintily along the mountain path.
    We followed, but with considerably more difficulty. At one point we had to climb over some steep rocks, and in another place we skittered over slippery rocks that were flat as plates. At last, Suzume and I stood in a patch of bare dirt surrounded by dark, shadowed mist, as if some cliff or other feature loomed very close all around us.
    "Kai-Lung will speak with you shortly," said the kirin, and disappeared. I could not tell if it was by magic or just the mist.
    Suzume and I stood close together for some time. I confess I was frightened by the gloom and the occasional, muffled sound of rock sliding against rock. I wondered what the philosopher could be doing. Building a wall? I think Suzume was frightened, too, from the way she clung to my sleeve.
    Suddenly, there came a rumble like continuous thunder, and I wondered if rocks were going to come raining down on us. Suzume and I held on to each other, as we could see nowhere to run.
    A huge boulder emerged from the mist-no! It was an enormous bewhiskered snout, followed by a reptilian head with eyes as big as my face and horns as long as I am tall.
    "A dragon!" Suzume screamed, and she fell to her knees. I stood as if I had been frozen into ice. I had seen dragons before, but only from a distance. They had been swimming in the waves behind King Ryujin when I met him on the beach of Enoshima. And, as Riko had so well remembered, in the sky above Lord Tsubushima's castle. But I had never been so close to a dragon as this. I was sure it could devour me in one bite if it wished. We looked all around and saw that the dragon's long, scaly body surrounded us, high as a wall, impassable. I realized with horror that some of the rocks we walked over to reach this place must have been the scales of the dragon itself.
    "I am the one who is called Kai-Lung," said the dragon in a voice like the rumble of an earthquake. "Who wishes to speak with me?"

Other books

Would-Be Witch by Kimberly Frost
Outsourced by R. J. Hillhouse
The Punishment of Virtue by Sarah Chayes
Those Bones Are Not My Child by Toni Cade Bambara
The Urban Fantasy Anthology by Beagle, Peter S.; Peter S. Beagle; Joe R. Lansdale
Insatiable by Allison Hobbs
Springboard by Tom Clancy