I woke up later that night. Except I was still asleep. It was one of those strange dreams where you know you are dreaming, but you feel as if you are awake. There was a noise off to the side of my bedroll, and I was unsurprised to find a beautiful woman standing there.
I occasionally had dreams that foreshadowed trouble. I thought of them as my omen dreams. In each of these dreams, the same woman appeared.
Here she was again, dressed in the finest robes. Her face was radiant, more beautiful than humanly possible. She smiled down at me and offered me her hand. I took it and got to my feet. She glanced over to where I’d concealed my naginata and other weapons and looked expectantly back at me.
Such was the power of the dream it didn’t seem at all out of place that I should arm myself. We started down the road, walking back towards the shrine.
We traveled without speaking, but it was a companionable silence. She had never said a word to me in any of these dreams, but that seemed perfectly natural. My proper course of action was always clear by the end of my dreams, so there was no need for speech.
We ascended from the road to the shrine. Nothing moved. We had a splendid view of Lake Awaumi, its water glistening in the light of the half moon. As we stood looking out over the expanse of water, a feeling of great peace came over me.
She turned to me and lightly ran her fingers down my cheek. They were incredibly soft. I had never experienced anything quite so sensual. With a mischievous smile, she lightly slapped my face with her open right hand. A soundless crash hurled me from my dream. I blinked my eyes, trying to orient myself.
It was still dark, and the moon hung low in the sky. I was standing at the entrance to the shrine just outside the high priestess' camp, with my naginata in hand and my tachi and kodachi in my belt. This was not a dream, nor was there anyone with me. I stood there, confused. The night was very still.
I heard a strange gurgling. The sound seemed to be coming from the same direction as the high priestess' quarters. I thought I saw a person bending over next to a tree.
As I approached the spot, I smelled blood and excrement. I tightened my grip on my weapon.
A member of the bushi escort was sitting with his back against the tree. Blood flowed over the front of his robe to pool on the ground beside him. His throat had been slit.
The forest was unnaturally quiet, lacking even the usual insect sounds. I didn’t see any of the other bushi who should have been standing watch.
There was another watch post nearby. I ran to it and found the guard slumped against his post, asleep. I shook his shoulder to try and wake him. No response. Shaking him harder finally got him to come around. “Whaa? Who?”
“One of the guards has been killed,” I told him. “You need to notify your commander. I am going to look around.”
The man staggered off.
I shook my head. I hadn’t noticed the bushi drinking that much. Had they had their own private celebration after I left?
The oppressive silence unnerved me. During the night, there is almost always one or two people wandering around a camp. Not tonight, though. No sound, no movement. Given the murdered sentry, the quiet was chilling.
I spotted motion near the keeper’s house. Keeping low and quiet, I hurried ahead.
It was a group moving swiftly towards the high priestess. Most of them carried tachi, but the man in front carried a tetsubo, a chest-high club studded with iron spikes. At his direction, some of his men moved to block the path to the bushi camp. The others spread out and surrounded the high priestess' quarters. He and another man mounted the three steps to the veranda of the building. The leader slid the door open, and his companion slipped inside, closing the door after him.
There were two bushi on the landing, one on each side of the entrance. They snored quietly, their backs braced against the wall. The man with the tetsubo kicked them awake. Realizing their peril, the two bushi grabbed their weapons and sprang to their feet.
The man watched them, smiling. Once they were armed and ready, he attacked. With one swipe of his club, the man smashed in the head of one of the bushi, skull fragments and brain matter splattering all over the wall. He dodged an attack by the other bushi, and a quick swing in the opposite direction disposed of him just as effortlessly. Both might as well still have been asleep, so fast was their defeat.
The man laughed cruelly as he looked at the corpses at his feet. “Bushi.” He spat on their bodies.
I had been approaching the building, moving as fast as I dared while staying to the shadows to avoid being spotted. From inside the house came screaming and the sounds of a struggle.
I can’t let these men hurt the high priestess!
I sprinted up the slope of the knoll to the house and mounted the steps as the leader reached for the door. Leaping onto the veranda, I swung my naginata in a tight arc positioned to take his head off at the neck.
He threw himself off the veranda into the grass by the stairs, my blade passing so close to his head I thought it might have cut a lock of his hair. I was amazed he had survived. If I had not seen it for myself, I would not have believed anyone could move so quickly.
As he regained his feet, I screamed “Assassins! Protect the high priestess!” at the top of my lungs and bolted inside. I shut the door behind me and put my back against it.
I was astonished to see the high priestess standing in the center of the room, a tachi in her hands. The intruder lay wheezing in agony at her feet in a ball, his hands clutching his groin. Her ladies-in-waiting were crowded around her, chattering in fright.
“Your Highness!” I gasped, chest heaving as I tried to catch my breath. “There are several more men out here. Can you keep him under control?”
“I can handle him.” Her voice was a bit unsteady. Whether from fear or excitement, I couldn’t tell. Probably a bit of both, I suspected.
Just then, a tremendous blow against the door announced the return of the man with the tetsubou. The door shook in its frame, and I was knocked forward into the room. I threw my shoulder against the door to hold it closed. Another violent blow rattled the entire house. I could hear wood splintering. The door couldn’t withstand much more, so I threw it open and stabbed my naginata blindly through the entryway.
Moving with the same preternatural speed he demonstrated earlier, my assailant jumped back to avoid the blade, vacating the area immediately in front of the doorway. I stepped out onto the landing. As long as I blocked the entrance, no one could get at the high priestess.
The lamps from the house cast a bit of light, giving me my first good look at my opponent. I was somehow not surprised to see the man from Ōtsu. He wore the same brown jacket and had the same wild hair. I hadn’t noticed the breadth of his shoulders or the thick muscles of his chest and arms.
This will be difficult.
His teeth gleamed in the lamplight as he gave me a ferocious grin.
The time I spent studying him was nearly my undoing. He swung his testubou at my head, and I barely managed to catch it on the haft of my weapon. Had it struck, I would have ended up like the two dead bushi sharing the landing with me.
I disengaged and cut at his arm. His testubou flashed out, catching the blade of my weapon and immobilizing it. His tremendous strength came as a nasty surprise. I had fought hundreds, maybe thousands of men, and I don’t think I ever met anyone as quick or as strong as him. He twisted his testubou to force my naginata down towards the ground and tried to tear my weapon out of my hands.
I let the blade of the naginata drop and struck at his head with the weighted butt of the weapon. He ducked, but I managed to land a glancing blow on his right temple. I followed up with a slash at his right arm. He stepped backwards out of my reach.
Damn! I can’t touch him! Naginata against a tetsubou should not be this hard.
From behind me came the sound of shattering wood. “They are trying to come in the back window,” cried the high priestess.
“Whatever you do, keep them out!” I yelled in reply.
I pressed my attack, striking at him several times in rapid succession.
Three of his men appeared around the corner and started towards me. “Stop!” he commanded them. “First decent fight I’ve had in a long time.”
He’s crazy.
He ducked low and stepped in under the naginata. He made a lightning strike at my left arm. I shifted the naginata in time to block his blow, but the impact was so powerful it numbed my left hand and entire arm. I almost dropped the naginata.
Behind me, a commotion inside the building was followed by the whoosh of a container of lamp oil catching fire all at once. A long, agonizing scream rang out in the night. The stench of burning flesh and hair filled the night.
The clash of weapons sounded from the side of the building followed by the sound of running feet. A voice cried, “Bushi! Run!”
Several of the attackers fled into the trees.
A frown crossed my opponent’s face, and he risked a quick glance over his shoulder. Turning back to me, he smiled. “We’ll finish this another time.”
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He launched a furious attack that forced me back up the stairs as more of his men made their way into the trees. Finally, he threw his tetsubou at my head. When I ducked, he sprang back out of range and sprinted into the woods. I raced to follow him, but he was nowhere to be seen. The only movement in the forest was a large badger scampering away into the cover of the forest.
A quick circuit around the building confirmed all the attackers were gone, except for a single burning corpse just outside the back window of the building. I went back around to the front.
The military escort commander came running up as I reached the entrance. He stopped me on the veranda and began snapping questions at me. “What happened here? Where is the high priestess?”
Her voice floated out to us from inside the building. “I am fine, commander. Come in and see for yourself.”
He and two companions pushed past me into the building. I followed a moment later.
The commander ordered one of his men to relieve the high priestess and guard the prisoner.
Her face hidden modestly behind a fan, the high priestess explained what happened. “We were asleep when this person,” she pointed at the captive, “burst into our room. He started yelling orders, which woke us all up. He acted in a very threatening manner. He told me to gather my luggage together and began bullying my ladies.”
She looked back at the man with withering contempt. “He was so intent on terrorizing everyone else, he apparently assumed I would just follow his orders. I …” She blushed and hid further behind her fan. Then she mimed a kick, her foot aimed between his legs. “He curled up on the floor and dropped his weapon. I picked it up, and then the inspector crashed through the door, warning us of more ruffians outside. He held the door against our attackers. Some of them tried to break open the back window and start a fire in here. They failed.”
At the beginning of the high priestess' tale, the escort commander glowered at me as if everything was my fault. His expression lightened as she spoke, and when she finished, he grudgingly admitted, “Well, seems it was a good thing you were here, then.”
One of his subordinate officers came by to report. Apparently, most of the intruders had escaped the camp, leaving behind only two wounded and the charred corpse. The commander glanced at the prisoner on the floor and remarked, “Not all of them got away.”
Suddenly, the prisoner sprang to his feet. With both hands, he grasped the blade of the man guarding him. Then, he impaled himself on the tachi, running himself through, piercing the heart. He coughed twice, blood foaming out his mouth, then collapsed to the floor, dragging the guard’s tachi with him.
The commander knelt down next to the man, pulled the tachi from his chest, then examined the wound and the blood pooling on the floor. He shook the man several times, then stood up slowly. “He’s dead.”
I started shaking in a nervous reaction to the fight. I should not have survived the battle. I hadn’t been that badly overmatched by an opponent since I was a child facing my instructors. If the man with the tetsubou hadn’t been toying with me, I was certain I would have been killed.
I wondered at his prowess. I had never fought anyone with such speed and power. What was he?
The high priestess saw my distress and took pity on me. “Do you need the inspector for anything?” she asked the commander. It was a command disguised as a question. “No?” she confirmed, then turned to me. “Go get some rest. Thank you for your help tonight.”
“Wait!” I said. I motioned for the high priestess and the escort commander to follow me outside. When I was certain no one else could hear us, I told them in a quiet voice, “I think Ukon is a spy.” I explained what I had seen in Ōtsu and during the party, and about the man in the brown jacket.
“I’ll send some men with the imperial inspector to arrest Ukon and the guardsmen,” said the escort commander. I panicked a bit. I had no idea whether I could actually arrest anyone. I had no idea how to arrest them.
“Perhaps not,” said the high priestess. “Thanks to the inspector, we know these people are working against us. I will write a letter to the emperor and have the guardsman watched. And Ukon will learn nothing important from me again. Better the enemy you know and can watch than a foe in the shadows.” Turning to me, she said, “I am amazed you managed to discover so much in the short time you have been with us. We are truly fortunate to have such an experienced and observant official with us.” I had no idea what to say to that, so I just bowed.
“Now, go back and get some sleep,” she ordered.
I was so exhausted I have no recollection of stumbling back to my bedroll.
I slept late the next day. Mouse came by for just a few moments to apologize that he had slept through the evening’s excitement.
The rest of the camp regarded me as a hero. Everywhere I went, people offered me food and saké and asked to hear about the raid. Even the imperial guardsmen were polite, if surly. I found some dice games going and joined in. It turned out my luck at dice was about as good as my ability to pick winners of cricket fights. Fortunately, Mouse was winning. He gave me some of Surei’s money back, but only after giving me a hard time.
No one was in any hurry to go anywhere. The high priestess had been ritually defiled by the death of the captive in her presence. She couldn’t continue her journey until she underwent purification rituals. The caravan couldn’t leave until she was ready, so everyone had to wait. The imperial guardsmen friends of our honor guard returned to the capital the next day, quite subdued.
The bushi escort used the time to bury the dead and clean up. I got the feeling the escort commander was furious they had failed to stop the attack, and he took it out on his men. He had them performing rigorous drills for most of each day. It was painful to watch, and I was glad I didn’t have to join them. In addition to drilling all day, the bushi were forbidden to drink anything but lake water. To prevent a mass drugging, each bushi was responsible for filling his own water pouches.
As part of the purification process, the high priestess moved out of the shrine keeper’s lodge and into a pavilion pitched next to the lake. The servants screened off the immediate surroundings where she and her under-priestesses performed their ritual ablutions. Even with the constant drilling of the escort, the commander kept the high priestess under guard by at least one-quarter of his men at all times, day and night. The members of the escort weren’t getting a lot of sleep.
Late in the afternoon that day, a servant accompanied by two bushi came bearing a note addressed to Imperial Inspector Minamoto. Curious, I opened it.
At your convenience, I would like to thank you for your brave actions on my behalf.
It bore the signature of the high priestess.
They took me to a small silk pavilion set apart from the main tent. While unadorned, it was crafted of the finest materials. There was nothing to indicate the presence of the high priestess except for the armed bushi standing guard.
The servant stopped at the entrance and held the flap open for me. After I had gone inside, she let it drop back into place.
The dim illumination inside made it hard to see after the bright sunlight outside. It took a few moments for my eyes to adjust. The high priestess sat behind a curtain to receive me. Ukon was the only servant in attendance. The high priestess spoke in a soft voice from behind the screen. “I felt it was important I personally express to you my gratitude for your brave defense of us in the face of overwhelming odds.” She gestured towards a container of saké on a nearby table. “Ukon, pour us something to drink.”
When Ukon picked up the saké jug, we saw it was empty.
“Ukon, go get a full jug for our brave protector.” As Ukon left the pavilion, the high priestess called after her, “Take two bushi with you, I don’t want anything happening to you.”
The high priestess paused as if searching for words. “After the debacle at the poetry competition, I wondered how you could possibly have gotten your appointment, but after your heroic actions last night, I can think of no one better qualified.”
She sighed. “I hope you have found the time write a note of apology to my brother. If not, there are paper, ink, and brushes on the table next to you. He is young and foolish, but he did write an apology to you. It’s also on the table.”
I groaned inwardly but picked up a sheet of paper and wrote a brief note of apology. It was traditional to add a poem. Under the circumstances, I thought it best to omit it.
As I was writing, the high priestess commented, “This posting in Isé will be good training for him. He needs to learn about country bushi and realize they are proud and not to be trifled with.”
When I finished my writing, I folded the paper and left it on the table. I picked up the captain’s apology and read it. It was stiff and formal but included an elegant poem, no doubt to show off his skill.
“I also wanted to give you a reward for saving us,” the high priestess said.
I began to protest, but she cut me off. “If only for my own honor, I want you to have something. Unfortunately, I don’t have anything suitable with me. However, I have an old … keepsake that has been in my family for a long time. It is not something I expect you will use very much, but I would still like you to have it.” She pulled out a box in an exquisite silk bag and handed it to me. “Go ahead, look at it.”
I pulled off the silk wrappings, removed the box, and lifted the lid. Inside a carved wooden receptacle lay an old mirror, slightly smaller than my head. The back was ancient bronze with some beautiful carving on it, including several strange symbols and letters. The front was polished to a level I had rarely seen. It was clearly a valuable antique. I was deeply touched, but I felt uncomfortable receiving it. “Your highness, I really can’t accept—”
“Take it. I insist you have something of me for your service. If you come by the shrine after we arrive in Isé, I will replace this poor item with a more suitable reward.”
I saw no way to turn it down, so I bowed and said, “Thank you.” I slid the box into my robes.
Wanting to know more about what happened, I asked, “Pardon my boldness, but have you discovered anything else about the attack?”
The high priestess sounded troubled. “As you saw, the prisoner killed himself rather than surrender. However, two of the wounded survived and were interrogated. All they knew was they were being paid to kidnap a woman staying in the shrine-keeper’s house, but they didn’t know who it was. Their leader told them the guards would be asleep, and there would be no resistance. All this was to ensure things went quickly and smoothly.”
I sat back, stunned. “Kidnap you? I am shocked anyone would do that. What could they hope to gain?”
She shook her head, “I don’t know, someone who wants to embarrass the emperor, perhaps.”
Not wanting to consider anymore the idea of her being kidnapped, I shifted the topic. “How did they know there would be no resistance?”
Her voice brimmed with outrage. “The saké at the party was drugged. I assume Ukon was the one who drugged it. Didn’t you find it strange it took so long for help to arrive after you sounded the alarm? All of the guards had been drugged. I was feeling poorly and didn’t eat or drink that night, so was unaffected by the wine.” She looked at me with her lips pursed. “I saw you drinking quite a bit. How is it you were not affected?”
I didn’t want to tell her about dreams and portents and mysterious, beautiful women, so I hedged a bit. I laughed weakly. “Truth be told, I don’t hold my drink well. Right after the two teams started brawling, I got sick and threw everything up, including all the saké. Later on, I woke up in the middle of the night and took a walk to clear my head. That’s when I saw them coming into camp.”
She nodded. “Whatever the reason, I thank the gods you took that walk. I shudder to think of what would have happened had you not been there.”
Ukon returned with the saké.
The high priestess gave it to me and said. “I do not wish to be rude, but I still have many things to do. I wanted to make sure I saw you, though.” She bowed. “Thank you again for your brave actions.”
I found myself standing outside the pavilion, blinking in the bright sunlight. Our interview already seemed like a dream. I wandered back to my camp, thinking about what she said. I was shaken someone would try to kidnap the high priestess of Isé for political or personal gain. It was inconceivable. What was the world coming to? Was nothing sacred?
The next morning, we got underway again. Although I had enjoyed the rest, I was becoming impatient. The sooner I got to Isé, the sooner I could discover what was wrong with Akiko’s shouen. The rest of the caravan shared my impatience. Even the oxen seemed more lively, as if they, too, wished for their journey to be done.
Unlike our earlier progress, the next three days passed in a blur of activity. We were on our way not long after sunrise and traveled until after dark. People were edgy after the attack, and any presence in front or behind us had the escort assuming a defensive formation and everyone else reaching for weapons. Although we traveled late into the night on the third day, we still couldn’t quite make the shrine. The final morning, we set out before dawn.
It was still morning when we came within sight of the Great Shrine. We had reached our destination.