by Ben Stevens
It seemed certain that the whole of mankind would perish. India, Mongolia and Russia (or so declared the frantic rumors) were already devoid of people, while the few desperate, scattered survivors in China and Korea had resorted to cannibalism. Meanwhile the smaller, faraway countries to the West had so many dead that there was no longer even any room left to bury the bodies. The people lay where they’d died, in their homes or out in the streets and fields, there to have their decaying carcasses half-devoured by wild dogs, pigs and crows.
Finally, nightmarishly, the plague struck Japan. Yes – that isolated little group of islands was at last discovered by the foul sickness which caused even parents to recoil in horror from their infected infants. ‘The Black Death’ was how it soon became known; for this name most effectively described the hideous, dark-purple or black boils which would appear on a person’s groin, and under his or her armpits.
But first there came the feeling of fever, often curiously accompanied by a sufferer stating that they could smell something ‘sweet’. Soon the victim was bedbound, crying out in agony as the boils sprouted from their writhing, sweating bodies. There was a raging thirst no amount of water seemed able to slake, the sufferers in their torment raking at their own face and eyes with their fingernails. Sometimes, horrifically, their very skin split open like soggy rice-paper – on their arms, legs and bellies.
The only mercy – the only mercy – was the fact that few people infected by this plague survived anything longer than two days. (By some strange fluke, a very few people did actually recover from the sickness – but here the percentage was far less than one in a hundred.) Then the body was buried or burned – if someone cared enough to perform such tasks, or had just remained long enough by the sufferer’s side to see them through to their end – or else just left to rot.
Whole areas became barren of human life; it was realized that the best chance of survival lay in finding some remote place that was largely devoid of other people – where one might thus avoid ‘close contact’ with others, as it were. Soon, the simple line of advice to those living anywhere where other people were plentiful was this – ‘Travel as far as you can, travel as fast as you are able, and return not.’
And still people continued to die…
‘…The cause of this plague is simple,’ declared the astronomer to the Imperial Court robustly. ‘An unfavorable alignment of Saturn, Jupiter and Mars, in the fourth quarter...’
He looked sternly around him, taking in even the Empress herself with his steely stare, as though daring anyone to challenge him. When no one spoke, thereby silently challenging him to explain exactly what it was he meant, he continued a little less confidently –
‘This caused an earthquake in the Kinai region, which consequently released bad vapors into the atmosphere…’
‘Have there been similar earthquakes in China, India, Russia, Mongolia – to name just a few other countries that have been half-destroyed by this plague?’ questioned my master, scarcely keeping the anger out of his voice. ‘Really, these so-called ‘bad vapors’ must be blowing all across the world!’
The court astronomer stared balefully at him, but made no reply. His ‘explanation’ concerning the reason for this plague was clearly absurd.
And yet – what was the reason? Such was why my master (and thus I) had been called to the Imperial City by the Empress, to debate with those other advisors and counselors to Japan’s ultimate ruler as to just what lay behind the emergence of this aptly-entitled ‘Black Death’.
‘The Japanese people have turned their backs on their true gods,’ declared a Shinto priest, dressed in white robes. ‘For far too long, we have allowed Japan’s true, native religion to be entwined with this alien, foreign doctrine of Buddhism. This is a false creed. And so we are being punished, with this vile plague that had until recently been entirely absent from any part of Japan!’
Much to my surprise, my master (who had, after all, received training as a Buddhist monk in China in his early adult life) nodded gravely at these words.
‘It is true that some villages and towns have a similar view. And so Buddhist temples are being torn down, with statues and other artifacts also being thrown in rivers. And yet the plague continues to devastate such places. How do you account for this?’
The question was fired abruptly at the priest, who stammered slightly as he replied –
‘It… it shows quite clearly that Japan’s real gods will not… not intervene until… until all of Japan renounces the imported untruth of Buddhism…’
‘By which time, all of Japan will be dead anyway,’ declared my master, his voice cold and brutal. The priest glared at him, but like the court astronomer did not continue further with his line of ‘reasoning’.
‘Ennin-sensei,’ said the Empress then, her usually stern face softening slightly as she surveyed the man whom most of Japan knew she held in special affection. The man who had saved her from being utterly destroyed – physically as well as mentally – by the evil monk named Sesshu.
Sesshu was again at liberty, having somehow escaped from the remote island where he’d been marooned upon the Empress’s orders. But that (along with the fact that Sesshu had recently made a concerted attempt upon the lives of my master and me, and was undoubtedly behind a string of murders and other serious crimes) was a problem which paled into insignificance, when contrasted with this terrible plague.
‘Ennin-sensei – have you any theory concerning this… this pestilence?’ continued the Empress, who was dressed in a splendid green-and-gold kimono and sat upon a wide, embroidered purple cushion. We were all of us – the Empress, advisors and her ever-present bodyguard – sat in a large room within the Imperial Castle, a fire burning as it was a particularly cold and dank autumn.
My master shook his head, as he said slowly –
‘Nothing… nothing as yet, Empress. This is a problem… a problem of a type I have never previously encountered…’
‘Then perhaps, Ennin-sensei, we should not be so quick to dismiss the considered opinion of others,’ interjected the astronomer quickly; and here I noticed that the Shinto priest flashed him an almost appreciative glance.
Ignoring this remark, his eyes displaying that peculiarly ‘inward’ stare I knew so well, my master continued, ‘We have realized by now that this sickness, plague or whatever you wish to call it wreaks the worst havoc in the most densely-populated areas of villages and towns.
‘That is to say, the poorest areas; there where the people live crammed together, in tiny buildings with filth and waste lying in the narrow streets and lanes just outside…’
Here my master paused, some thought appearing to strike him. The Empress remained respectfully silent, waiting for him to continue whenever he was ready.
‘All I could advise anyone wishing to avoid this plague is what we know already,’ said my master then, with a shrug. ‘Travel to some lonely spot – to the very top of a mountain. There, there is a chance that the plague may not find you, at least.
‘But as to the actual cause of this plague…’
My master shook his head, and motioned at a large, embroidered map of Japan spread out on the tatami mats. Areas outlined in red thread showed where the plague was believed to have struck. There were many such areas. In accordance with what my master had said, these red areas commonly included such areas where large populations had built up.
‘There seems to be no pattern to the spread of this plague,’ continued my master. ‘Somehow it is ‘introduced’, for want of a better word, into an area with a comparatively high concentration of people; and then it immediately wreaks its devastation. With – I say again – many of its victims being among the poorer inhabitants, who cannot afford to entertain such notions as fleeing.
‘There have been cases also,’ interjected the astronomer quietly, ‘of people sickening even in these ‘remote places’ – where there is only a small commune of people.’
My master nodded at this, and th
e astronomer consequently appeared a little heartened, having had his nonsensical explanation concerning the plague’s ‘cause’ previously dismissed out of hand.
‘Yes,’ said my master, ‘as though a new arrival to such a commune had somehow brought this ‘Black Death’ with them…’
Again, my master fell silent, those eyes above the high cheekbones gleaming with thought.
‘If there is such a thing as a ‘bad vapor’ spreading this disease, maybe it is the people themselves who are emitting it.’
I heard myself say these words with disbelief. I, a humble servant, daring to speak without first being bidden, in front of the Empress herself…?
And yet these were hardly normal times; and after all, I had shared many a case with my master, and achieved some little fame as the author of our adventures. As such, those gathered (including the Empress) looked serious at my words, and appeared to give them consideration.
‘Yes,’ said my master again, ‘that is possible. We may not yet know the true cause of this plague, but if it is somehow carried or spread by those it infects… That is quite feasible; and, moreover, already suspected by others.
‘We have Japan’s countless mountains acting as some sort of barrier, maybe, against the rapid spread of this pestilence. In other countries, much less mountainous, the devastation has been near-total – at least, according to those desperate stories we hear from travelers and such.
‘So, how does the Black Death just suddenly ‘arrive’, for want of a better word, in a farming village or town that is perhaps rather isolated from its nearest neighbor, the inhabitants as such often spending their entire lives meeting no one other than their immediate neighbors?’
‘It is the wrath of Japan’s true gods,’ grumbled the white-robed priest, although no one was now paying him the slightest attention. Even the astronomer looked attentively at my master, sensing that formidable mind circling around this mystery, all the while endeavoring to find an answer…
‘Maybe one settlement – a major settlement, far to the north – has the answer,’ said my master then, with a shrug. ‘If the people inside consented to communicate with anyone outside of this settlement’s great walls; if they hadn’t placed themselves in determined isolation.’
‘You didn’t know then, Ennin-sensei?’ said the Empress mildly.
“Know’, Empress?’ returned my master, his gaze at once quizzical.
‘Hearing of this settlement that is apparently entirely free of the plague, I sent one of my most trusted advisors, Noami – you remember him? – together with several escorting samurai. He was to try and make contact with this settlement – to demand entry in my name, and ask them if they knew of some way this pestilence might be avoided…
For a few moments, the Empress’s voice fell into silence. She looked troubled.
‘That was almost a month ago. Neither Noami nor any of the samurai have returned; nor has any word been sent concerning their wellbeing. So that I now fear… I somehow fear I sent him on a mission from which he, along with those samurai, will never return…’
‘I remember Noami well,’ nodded my master – and so did I. It was that courtier, after all, who had first spoken to us concerning the malign influence the monk named Sesshu had over the Empress, at the start of the case I entitled The Empress and the Monk.
‘So,’ continued my master, in what was almost a musing tone. ‘Noami and this samurai guard rode to this settlement peopled by the surviving members of the Au tribe – who have long believed themselves to be the original inhabitants of Japan, and whose fierce uprising several years ago was quelled only when several daimyo agreed to join forces in order to defeat them…?’
‘That is so,’ returned the Empress simply.
‘Then perhaps – with your permission, Empress – I can ride out for this settlement myself, with just my servant Kukai beside me, and try to discover just what happened to Noami and the others? And, perhaps, learn if it is really true that the Au tribe have found some way of avoiding this plague…?’
The Empress raised her eyebrows, as those courtiers and such exchanged startled glances. I also felt rather surprised (not to say a little alarmed) at my master’s sudden proposal.
‘Ennin-sensei, only a fool would ever claim to even vaguely know or understand you…’ declared the Empress, unable to repress a slight smile as she looked at him. ‘I tell you that one of my most trusted advisors is missing, together with the samurai bodyguard I ordered to go with him, and now you wish to go with just your servant, Kukai, to this isolated and quite possibly hostile settlement that is way to the north?’
‘That is correct, Empress. I will endeavor to learn if the people living there – the Au tribe – have truly realized some way of preventing the spread of this plague within their settlement,’ reiterated my master, adding, ‘And maybe I will also be able to discover just what happened to Noami…’
The Empress sighed.
‘Perhaps I should not have spoken so, to put such an idea in your head,’ she said. ‘But if you must go, go in my name. I hereby order that an Imperial Decree be made’ (here the Empress spoke to one of her advisors) ‘stating that every assistance must be given to Ennin-sensei.’
‘Thank you, Empress,’ said my master.
‘Is there anything else you require – anything at all?’
‘Merely two horses, Empress.’
‘But of course – and they shall be the finest, fastest creatures there are to be found within this city.’
‘Thank you, Empress,’ repeated my master.
2
Barely an hour later, my master and I were setting out from the Imperial City on horseback. A cold wind blew, with the certainty that the weather would only get colder the further north we headed. We were both wearing wide-brimmed straw hats (secured with a length of string underneath the chin), as well as straw-lined coats, which would serve to keep us reasonably dry in the event of any rain.
As we rode side-by-side, preparing to kick the horses into a gallop once we were fully out of the city and in the open, my master said –
‘Tell me, Kukai, what do you know concerning the Au tribe?’
I thought for a few moments, before replying –
‘Well, I know of course that they believe themselves to be the original inhabitants of Japan. In fact they have a saying – ‘The people of the Au tribe were here ten thousand years before the children of the Rising Sun’. I have heard that the men favor growing full beards – very unlike most Japanese, who prefer only limited facial hair, if they choose to grow such hair at all – and that they are a proud, warlike race.’
My master nodded.
‘Excellent, Kukai – excellent. And of their uprising several years ago…?’
‘They considered that they were permitted to a lot more territory than they had been given,’ I replied, encouraged by my master’s praise. ‘So they sought to take more territory by force, although they could never hope to win against the army which massed against them – the combined forces of several major daimyo, whose own territories were threatened by the actions of the Au.
‘After they inevitably lost – albeit after fierce fighting, which saw the opposing side lose a disproportionately large number of soldiers – they constructed a huge wall of massive wooden stakes all around their territory, with watchtowers regularly sited along it.
‘Inside this they exist, several thousand men, women and children. This settlement is also located next to the coast, so they have a harbor – the country of Russia, with whom they are believed to conduct limited trade, lies no great distance across the sea.’
‘I have long wished to visit the Au,’ said my master. ‘Just not, as it were, under such circumstances…’
‘You believe that their settlement is free of this pestilence, master?’ I asked quietly.
‘Quite possibly – and perhaps because of this self-imposed isolation of theirs. I should be interested to know if they still trade with Russia – if th
ere is anyone in that country still alive to trade with, although I can hardly believe these stories which claim it has been left completely depopulated by the plague.’
Such stories seemed to me to be entirely feasible; for I had seen, firsthand, the damage which the plague had caused within Japan in such a short time.
‘And Noami, master, and those samurai…’
‘I don’t know, Kukai. Maybe they stopped somewhere for refreshment, to rest the horses, and were overtaken by the plague… Or maybe they did reach that settlement that lies several hard days’ ride away, and there…’
His voice faded away; and as we started to move into open countryside we spurred the horses into a gallop, so making further conversation impossible. I should have liked to have known just how my master would have finished that last sentence…
Or maybe, I then reflected, some things were better left unsaid.
…As we rode, we periodically passed ruined villages and towns. The inhabitants fled or dead. Doors gaping open, exposing the darkness that lay within, a darkness cloaking who knew what horrors. Fat crows flying low above the muddy lanes. Overgrown fields, the crops long-since spoilt. The flyblown corpses of animals lying on their sides, bellies grotesquely swollen. No living person to be seen anywhere. I felt a sense of revulsion rising up within me, so that at once I thought I might shout out loud with the sheer horror of it all. How long, I thought, until every last person in Japan is killed by this pestilence?
How long?
…When we stopped for a rest, we stopped well away from these former dwelling-places of the dead. Oats for the horses we carried with us, along with basic provisions for ourselves. Unbeknown to me, my master had also packed a flask of sake. This he produced, during one such rest, filling two cups and passing one to me as we sat with our backs against a tree.
‘Are you okay, Kukai?’ he asked quietly.
Taking a deep breath, I replied –
‘Yes, master.’
‘This is why we have to go to this Au settlement, Kukai,’ continued my master. ‘If they know of some way to… avoid or even defeat this plague, then it is this we must discover. Before it’s too late…’
