Yamada Monogatari: To Break the Demon Gate (8 page)

I smiled, remembering the old proverb: “The man who dances is a fool. The man who does not is also a fool. If both are fools, one may as well dance.”

One may, indeed.

When I returned to my rooms that evening, the Widow Tamahara greeted me with a bowl of rice and a bit of fish and a question. That question was not, as I dreaded, the usual one about the rent.

“Wasn’t that the most awful thing?”

“Ummm . . . ”

“Honestly, Lord Yamada, your obvliviousness is really quite astonishing,” the Widow Tamahara said, correctly interpreting my blank stare as total incomprehension. “You have not heard? The news is all over the city!”

I wasn’t so certain of that. Counting my travels to the northeast and southeast gates,
I
had been “all over the city” and had heard no great news. Then again, I had spoke to no one save Kenji and Nidai. “What is it?”

“One of Princess Ai’s attendants has been murdered! Within the Palace Compound itself! Can you imagine?”

I could imagine, and from what I knew of life at Court, I was just surprised that it happened so seldom. Princess Ai I also knew, or at least remembered. She was a principal wife of the current Emperor and known as much for her bad temper as her beauty. If one of her attendants had been murdered, I’d have placed odds that Ai herself was responsible, acting on some fit of pique or another. Perhaps this explained why the western gate of the Imperial Compound had been sealed off; priests would have been summoned and purification rites begun as soon as the body was removed. Even so, the Princess and all her attendants would be ritually impure for the next month and probably “exiled” from the Compound proper to one of the various outlying mansions within the city until said impurity was removed. I could also imagine what a good humor that would place Her Highness in.

“A tragedy,” I said. Considering that the Widow Tamahara had just brought me my evening meal despite my being late with the rent, I had no wish to antagonize her by revealing my disinterest. “I’m afraid I spoke to no one today who had heard the news. If it’s not indelicate to ask, how was this done? Do they know who is responsible?”

Tamahara-san rubbed her scrawny neck. “That’s the strangest part of all. What I have heard suggests that there were no marks on the poor girl, no wounds. Even most poisons leave some sign, but there was nothing. Perhaps she was smothered in her sleep.”

I frowned. “Most poisons” perhaps, but not all by any means. Still . . . “This happened during the night? Among the other attendants?”

“Yes, as I understand it.”

Now that was indeed a bit strange. If the girl in question had slipped from Ai’s chambers to, say, keep an assignation with a lover then her separation from the others made the possibility of an attack much more likely. Yet if the girl had been sleeping in a group with the other close attendants, as was usual, then for someone to slip inside and do violence to one without alerting the rest the culprit would either have to be very stealthy or everyone else present had to be complicit.

“If there were no wounds, why is it presumed the poor girl was murdered?”

“That’s a good question, Lord Yamada. I do not know. Yet my sources were quite emphatic on that point.”

The incident was more than a little curious, assuming that the Widow Tamahara’s information was good, but I knew better than to put too much faith in the old woman’s sources; in general they were no better than the typical street gossips. No doubt the unfortunate girl had died of some unknown but virulent ailment; the gods and demons of disease were a busy lot and sometimes not detected and exorcised quickly enough, even among the upper classes.

“Doubtless the one responsible will be found out,” I said. “The Palace has great means at its disposal.”

“I suppose,” Tamahara-san said, chewing a fingernail thoughtfully. “Is there a possibility you will be engaged in this matter?”

Again, the rent; I knew we’d get back to the subject sooner or later. “It’s possible. I guess we’ll have to wait and see.”

The Widow Tamahara looked almost hopeful as she left me to my rice. For my own part, I put what remained of my faith in the Widow Tamahara’s rice and fish. It was all I could really count on, though probably not for very much longer. Given that reality, I took time to savor my simple meal, hungry as I was.

I had barely finished that meal when I received yet another message. The author of this one, however, was not in the least bit mysterious, nor was the messenger. The young man kneeling on my veranda under the watchful eye of the Widow Tamahara was dressed in the familiar red and black colors and bore the butterfly
mon
of the Taira.

He held out a small scroll with both hands and announced, “From Prince Kanemore.”

The scroll itself would have told me that much once I broke the seal—I recognized Prince Kanemore’s hand immediately. There was no poem, and frankly, I would have been surprised if there had been. The message had all the signs of Kanemore’s blunt style:

Lord Yamada, please do me the honor of accompanying the bearer wherever he directs, and do not worry. I will explain upon your arrival. Kanemore

That was the extent of the message. I looked at the young man. “Where are we going?”

“My apologies, my lord, but I am not allowed to say.”

I sighed, and directed the young man to wait while I changed my clothing to something at least somewhat cleaner. For all I knew, Kanemore planned to bring me to the Imperial Compound itself, and my clothing was in even sorrier condition than it had been during my last visit. I really just wanted to find a clear spot on my floor and go to sleep, but refusing the summons was out of the question. This time, however, I did put on my
tachi.
While I was more than willing to trust Prince Kanemore with my life, the part of his message that said “don’t worry” was having the opposite effect. The young Taira
bushi
glanced at the sword when I returned to the veranda but made no objection.

“Lead on,” I said.

When we first headed north I was afraid my worries were accurate, but instead of turning west toward the Imperial Compound we turned east. The light was failing rapidly, but the young man had not brought a lantern and showed no inclination to find one. He moved quickly and surely along those narrow streets, and it was all I could do to keep up. It wasn’t until we had reached the gate that I realized our destination was Zenrin-ji, a temple on the eastern edge of the city not too far from the cremation grounds near Mount Toribe. We passed two other Taira
bushi
outside the gate, and though they were clearly in a high state of watchfulness, they did not challenge us. We proceeded directly to the Lotus Hall, greeted by the steady drone of monks chanting a
sutra.
At the far end of the hall I could see a statue of Kwannon, Goddess of Mercy. On a raised wooden bier before the statue there lay the body of a young woman in funeral white. I was taking all this in and barely noticed when the
bushi
escorting me suddenly kneeled and bowed low, then discreetly withdrew.

“Yamada-san, thank you for coming.”

“I am at your service,” I said.

I had recognized the voice. Prince Kanemore stood at the rear of the hall with a scowling older monk who, by his demeanor, I took to be the man in charge of the temple. Kanemore confirmed this at once.

“Lord Yamada, I do not believe you have met this gentleman. He is Master Kintei, Chief Priest of Zenrin-ji.”

“I am honored.” I bowed to them both, and the priest’s bow of acknowledgment was little more than a nod of his head. He quickly turned his attention back to Kanemore. I didn’t bother asking any questions; I knew the time for that was coming soon. As for the two of them, they immediately resumed a discussion that had clearly been interrupted by my arrival.

“And I must say again, Highness, that this matter is highly irregular. If the Ministry of Justice has no issues, why do you? Yes, highly irregular.” The chief priest’s voice was rough and whispery.

“I know that, yet I must respectfully ask for your indulgence in this . . . situation. I must also ask that you accept my assurance that the gravity of the matter leaves me no choice. You have my word that there will be no insult to the unfortunate young woman. I . . . I know her family well.”

“I will hold you to that promise, Highness. I would be negligent in my duties otherwise.”

Kanemore bowed slightly to the old man who merely nodded curtly in my direction and reluctantly withdrew. The chanting never stopped, but after a moment I realized it was coming from outside the building and that Kanemore and I were alone in the Lotus Hall. He smiled at me a little wistfully, and it was only then I saw the weariness in his eyes. I realized to my shock that he looked as bad as I felt.

“It’s good to see you again, despite the circumstances,” Kanemore said, then hesitated. “Are you well?”

I almost laughed. “If by ‘well’ you mean ‘sober,’ then yes, I am quite well. Disgustingly, annoyingly well.”

He smiled faintly then. “Yet I must, under the circumstances, be grateful for this unfortunate condition.”

“The ‘circumstances,’ I confess, I don’t quite understand.”

“Lord Yamada, the young woman on the bier is—or was—Taira no Kei, an attendant to Princess Ai. She died, apparently, in her sleep sometime last night. I know there have been rumors.”

“The rumor is that she was murdered.”

Prince Kanemore let out a breath. “I should have realized the story would spread. But yes, I believe she was.”

I frowned. I had assumed that Tamahara-san’s talk on the matter had just been gossipy chatter, and what I had said in return merely idle speculation, and yet here was the matter again, real and immediate in the dead body of this young woman.

“How? It was my understanding the unfortunate girl died in the foyer adjacent to Princess Ai’s chambers, surrounded by a throng of attendants. From what I know of such arrangements, chances are that no one could possibly have reached the girl without stepping on at least three others. Or am I mistaken?”

Kanemore looked grim. “No, that’s exactly where she was when she died, and before you ask, no, there was no sign of any of the more common poisons. For that matter, I do not believe she
was
poisoned. The new Minister of Justice instructed me to make certain the body was examined for wounds, even the smallest, while it was being prepared for the funeral rites. My people were meticulous; there was not so much as a bug bite found. There was a bluish cast to her face as if she’d been strangled, but it was faint, and there were no marks on her neck, other than her own.”

“Her own?”

“When she was found, she had both her hands at her throat as if she had been choking, but the other girls insist she had eaten nothing since the evening meal. The size of the marks on her neck suggest those marks came from her own fingers.”

“Then how, if she was murdered, was it done?”

“That is what I had hoped you might be able to answer. I apologize for the ritual impurity this will entail. You won’t be able to participate in a temple ceremony or enter the Imperial Compound for a month.”

“Prince Kanemore, you know very well I give less than a pail of slops for either ceremonies or, no offence intended, being inside the compound.”

He smiled a rueful smile. “As do I in principle, but in practice I cannot afford to be away from the Palace now. Besides, I likely would be forced to quarter with Princess Ai in the Sanjo mansion, so I believe I must decline.”

I almost laughed, but then I thought of the grim duty before me, and the impulse faded. “Very well. I would ask that you guard the doors, but I see you’ve already arranged for it.”

Kanemore grunted. “I don’t expect Kei’s nearest family to arrive before tomorrow, but it’s best to be cautious. We shall have ample warning of any early arrivals.”

Quite sensibly so. The last thing either Kanemore or I needed was for the girl’s father or uncles to arrive and find a stranger taking such liberties with the remains of their child.

It was clear why Prince Kanemore had interrupted the funeral rites so that he and I were alone in the hall with the body of the dead girl. What was less clear was what he expected me to find that the priests and the current Imperial Minister of Justice, Lord Sentaro’s replacement, had apparently missed. Still, there was no point in delaying the matter, and plenty of reason not to do so. I reluctantly approached the bier.

One wished to keep one’s detachment at such times, but it was difficult. With her face painted white and her eyebrows drawn black, Taira no Kei looked like a little girl napping after a long day of playing grown-up. While it was true that life was uncertain and transient, there was something about looking at the dead body of a girl who could not have been older than twelve that tipped my balance of right and wrong. Whether a
kami
of disease was responsible or something more sinister, Taira no Kei’s death was simply
wrong,
and nothing Kanemore or I could do would set it right again. One was left only with questions such as “how?” and, perhaps more to the point, “why”? Answering the first might lead one well along the path to the second. I leaned close.

Fortunately there was no need to disturb the girl’s clothing. When Kanemore said the body had been thoroughly examined, I had no good reason to doubt his judgment in that regard. That fact spared me some awkwardness but did not leave me much to go on. The bluish pallor was easy enough to spot, once I rubbed off a bit of the white makeup near her jaw line. The marks on her neck were very clear to see, even through the makeup. I examined them closely, then carefully ran my fingers over the girl’s throat.

Curious
. . .

I then combed my fingers through the dead girl’s hair as close to the scalp as I could manage, and then down to the nape of her neck. There was some slight swelling at the back of her head, but nothing to indicate a fatal blow.

No matter how lifelike the body appeared, there was no way to mistake the lack of warmth and the stiffness of the corpse for other than what it was—a shell whose spirit had fled. There was nothing left now, save the mortal flesh soon to be burnt on the slopes of Mount Toribe.