by Anthony Grey
She’d had no contact with anybody except the peasant maidservant since Prince Tanaka’s departure three days earlier. Eiko had been brought to the pavilion by a group of Tanaka’s samurai within hours of Tokiwa’s request being made, and they had embraced warmly on her arrival. The fact that they had shared the danger of Tokiwa’s secret flight from the yadoya had forged a strong bond of affection between them, and Eiko had shown her gratitude for the honour of being appointed as Tokiwa’s personal maid by meeting her everyday needs with fastidious care and devotion. But, despite the comfort provided by Eiko’s presence, Tokiwa had found herself growing more anxious whenever she tried to imagine where Prince Tanaka might be searching for the foreign barbarian, and what the outcome of his search might be. She also found that her brief taste of freedom during that night-time dash from the yadoya had left her feeling permanently restless and she had not been able to settle quietly into the long hours of emptiness and waiting at the pavilion.
Although she was not as closely guarded as before, she had noticed that the samurai guards and sentinels of her host were still keeping watch on the pavilion
- but more subtly, from a distance. In addition the high walls and closed gates of the estate confined her completely, heightening her sense of unease. Eiko was quartered away from her, with the other servants of the castle, and Tokiwa had quizzed her constantly about events taking place beyond its walls. But Eiko had not been able to relate anything more than vague gossip and rumours that ever greater numbers of Nipponese fighting men were gathering on the shores of the bay, preparing to attack the foreign invaders.
‘Have you learned anything about the foreign ships tonight?’ asked Tokiwa, without much hope, as the maid gently dried her shoulders with a soft towel. ‘Is there any fresh news at all?’
‘No, O Tokiwa-san, I’ve heard nothing new,’ said Eiko politely as she continued her task, ‘but perhaps Prince Tanaka will soon be able to tell you more.’
Tokiwa turned and looked sharply at the maid. ‘Why do you suddenly mention Prince Tanaka? There’s been no information about him either for days.
‘I am very sorry; O Tokiwa-san,’ exclaimed Eiko apologetically, ‘but I thought you knew. Prince Tanaka rode into the castle about an hour ago with a group of his samurai. Some were wounded, and all of them looked travel-stained and weary I assumed you would already have received a note to say he would be visiting you tonight, after he has bathed and rested.’
‘I’ve heard nothing yet,’ murmured Tokiwa, turning away.
They lapsed into silence, but as the vague sensations in her body became noticeable again, Tokiwa brushed one hand across her ribs and touched the soft under-curve of each of her breasts in turn. She felt almost sure this time that she could sense a new fullness and ripeness in herself and sue put her head back and closed her eyes, luxuriating in the curiously pleasurable feelings.
‘You are very beautiful, O Tokiwa-san.’ Eiko was patting away the last traces of moisture, her face alight with admiration, and when she had finished she moved away a pace and gazed at Tokiwa wide- eyed. ‘I understand very well why every guest at the Golden Pavilion falls in love with you - and why Prince Tanaka has made you his favourite. I’m sure you will not have to wait too long before he calls on you.’
‘I expect you’re right.’ Opening her eyes, Tokiwa turned to face the maid, her hand still resting lightly on her naked bosom. They looked at each other in silence for a moment, then Tokiwa frowned. ‘Do you notice any difference in me from other days, Eiko?’
‘Any difference, O Tokiwa-san?’ asked the maid in surprise. ‘Why should there be any difference?’
‘Unless I’m imagining it, my body feels a little strange
‘In what way does it feel strange, Tokiwa-san?’ asked the maid, drawing the towel with a gentle finality down her mistress’s slender back. ‘You look just the same as before.’
Tokiwa frowned and let her hands fall across the flat curve of her belly and down to her loins. She stared at them for a long time, then her eyes shifted slowly across the contours of her lower body, as though she was searching for some clue without knowing what it was.
‘I don’t know how to explain what I feel. It’s as if my body knows some kind of secret that nobody else knows - not even me.’
‘Do you feel as though you are suffering from some malady, O Tokiwa-san?’ asked the maid anxiously. ‘Do you think all your frightening experiences have brought on some invisible illness?’
Tokiwa shook her head. ‘No, it’s not a sickness. I feel as though I’m suddenly full to overflowing with something pleasant. But I don’t know what.’
‘Is it near the time of the moon for bleeding?’ asked the maid in a whisper, although they were quite alone in the pavilion.
Tokiwa nodded her head. ‘Yes, it is. In fact the normal time of the moon has already passed by a few days.’
The anxious expression of the peasant maid relaxed suddenly and she smiled. ‘I think I understand, O Tokiwa-san. .
‘What do you understand?’
‘I remember my older sister having feelings like these. Not quite so strong as yours perhaps - and she did not express them as gracefully.’
‘What do you mean?’
‘She felt as you describe each time she was found to be with child.’
Tokiwa looked silently at the peasant maid, her expression showing that she was not greatly surprised.
‘This is probably your body’s secret, O Tokiwa-san - that for the first time you are with child.’
Tokiwa nodded slowly, her face serious, her eyes bright with emotion.
‘Is the father Prince Tanaka Yoshio?’ whispered the maid excitedly, laying the towel aside and gazing eagerly into Tokiwa’s face. ‘If you are bearing his son, his future will be assured - .
Tokiwa did not reply but instead stared down at herself again, wondering how her slender body would change and alter its shape during the coming months. Then a fierce surge of instinctive excitement and apprehension coursed through her at the prospect of bringing forth new life for the first time. For a moment or two she felt faintly dizzy at the thought; then her mind sped back to those harrowing moments when Prince Tanaka. - while continuing to bark orders at his samurai leader - was rising and plunging harshly above her, drawing sharp cries of pain from her with his every movement.
‘Prince Tanaka may not wish to father a child with me,’ said Tokiwa, speaking in a faraway voice. ‘His anger might exceed his pleasure if he knew’ She fell silent for a while, then turned back to the maid. ‘I trust you to keep my secret, Eiko. You must say nothing to anyone.’
The maid looked startled, then nodded vigorously in assent. ‘Of course, O Tokiwa-san. You can rely completely on my loyalty’
Eiko had brought a night kimono of transparent white gauze to the bath chamber, and she solicitously helped Tokiwa into this before leading her back into the pavilion. She had already laid out a sleeping pallet beside a softly glowing andon but, in case Tokiwa wished to strum the samisen and sing quietly for a while before retiring to sleep, she had also laid out the instrument and her midnight blue kimono decorated with silver stars.
‘I have washed and mended your favourite garment,’ said Eiko quietly. ‘It had become muddied and torn on your terrible journey. But it’s now ready for you to wear again.’
Tokiwa looked down at the kimono. Its lustrous silk shimmered in the dim light, arid the sight of it brought back memories which she had successfully held at bay during the past few days. She remembered wrapping the kimono hurriedly about herself during her frantic dash from the Golden Pavilion in Yedo. She had shivered with fright in it during that long, jolting ride through the terror-filled night inside the curtained travelling chair. After her foolhardy flight from the inn and the shocking encounter with the foreign barbarian by the waterfall, she had been grateful to feel its soothing comfort about her when she finally reached the protection of the half-ruined barn. But all these recollections paled into insignificanc
e when she remembered the barbarian’s halting description of the magic cloak of stars which he had drawn about himself at the top of Mount Fuji in his dream.
The distant moonlit image of the real Fuji-san, which had been visible in those moments through the open grain-doors of the barn, had seemed to cast a spell on them both and, closing her eyes, Tokiwa shuddered slightly on reliving the intensity of the moment. She wondered anew at her own actions in removing the kimono so unhesitatingly to drape it around the barbarian’s broad shoulders, as he stood looking down at her with his strangely penetrating blue eyes. A curious breathlessness tightened her chest as the memories tumbled rapidly one upon another, and she heard again his hypnotic foreign voice gasping and murmuring the strange, unintelligible words of his own language at the height of their passion.
These remembered sounds brought with them an echo of the powerful sensation she had then felt that something was dissolving and melting dizzyingly inside her, and in that instant she knew without any doubt that there was a direct link between those extraordinary moments and her present distracted feelings. This new knowledge struck her with such force that she opened her eyes at once to find the peasant maid patiently holding out the blue kimono towards her.
‘I didn’t tell you all of my story, Eiko she said in a faltering voice. ‘I mentioned the great panic among the crowds fleeing from the hideous aliens - but I left out one very important thing.’
‘What did you miss out, O Tokiwa-san?’
She stared at the maid uncertainly for a minute or two. ‘I know it would be wiser for me to keep my own counsel: she said at last, ‘but I need so much to tell somebody I can trust.’
‘You honour me with your confidences, O Tokiwa-san.’ The maid moved forward quietly so that she could slip the dark blue kimono around her mistress. ‘I won’t ever betray that trust:
Smiling her thanks, Tokiwa settled herself in a comfortable kneeling position and gestured for Eiko to follow suit. Taking up her samisen, she strummed it reflectively, then looked up at Eiko, still playing softly.
‘While bathing at the waterfall I was being observed without my knowing it. I told you only that Gotaro, the chief guard of Prince Tanaka, came to recapture me - but the truth is different. Although Gotaro tried to make me his prisoner again, he was thwarted unexpectedly by another fighter.’
‘Who was that?’ whispered the surprised maid.
‘A foreign barbarian!’ Tokiwa stopped playing and looked up, her eyes burning with a sudden brightness. ‘1 was rescued by a foreign barbarian!’
The maid’s eyes grew wide, and she stifled a cry by raising a hand to her mouth. ‘You must have been terrified, O Tokiwa-san!’
Tokiwa bent her head and began playing the instrument softly once more. ‘I’d spent two nights being terrified at the prospect of meeting a hideous alien, so I thought I would die at the very sight of one. But after I got over my shock I found there was very little of which I needed to be afraid.’
‘How could a foreign barbarian rescue you?’ asked Eiko incredulously. ‘They are all on the black ships in the Bay of Yedo.’
‘He had swum ashore secretly. A great manhunt was mounted to capture him. Thousands of warriors were marching and riding in pursuit.’
‘Then how did you encounter him?’
‘As I’ve said, he was watching unnoticed as I bathed in the moonlight. He saw I was in danger when Gotaro appeared and rushed out of hiding to fight him off.’
The peasant maid gazed at her thunderstruck. ‘Didn’t he have long fangs like an animal as we’ve been told, O Tokiwa-san? Was his body enormous and covered in long black hair?’
Tokiwa shook her head and smiled indulgently, while continuing to pluck a plaintive melody from the samisen. ‘He was taller than most of the men of Nippon... and also broader at the shoulder. He fought furiously with his sword. .. He was very strong.’
‘But you weren’t frightened of him?’ breathed Eiko.
‘He had a Nipponese companion, a fisherman who had been shipwrecked far from our shores. He had sailed home to Nippon in the black ships. He told me he had known the barbarian for a long time and they had become true friends.’
‘But how did he look?’ asked Eiko with a desperate curiosity.
‘His eyes were blue like the sky;’ said Tokiwa closing her own eyes briefly, as though to remember better. ‘And his hair was the colour of the leaves in autumn... He had learned something of the language of Nippon, so we were able to talk. But he was not curt and formal as the men of Nippon so often are. His manner with rite was gentle and courteous
Something in the tone of the geisha’s voice caused the maid to look sharply at her. ‘O Tokiwa-san, were you ever alone at any time with this foreign barbarian?’
Tokiwa stopped plucking the samisen and gazed out into the darkened garden of the pavilion. ‘Yes, we were left alone in a ruined, barn when the fisherman climbed to a hilltop temple to pray The barbarian was exhausted, and fell asleep in the loft. I felt moved by gratitude to take him up some rice to eat. As I climbed the ladder I could see Fuji-san shimmering beautifully in the moonlight through the open loft doors. .
She broke off and fell silent, still looking towards the garden. The maid waited impatiently for her to continue, shifting restlessly on her haunches. When she could contain herself no longer, she leaned forward and touched Tokiwa’s arm lightly.
‘And what happened then?’
Tokiwa drew in her breath very slowly. ‘He woke suddenly and flew for his sword. I believe he thought I had come to attack him. It was dark up there. For an instant I feared he might kill me - but he realized his mistake just in time. He laid aside his sword and apologized...’
‘Did he eat the rice that you had brought him?’ whispered Eiko. ‘Did the foreign barbarian like the food of Nippon?’
‘Although he had said he was very hungry he never ate any of it.’ Tokiwa put down the samisen on the floor beside her and sat back again, drawing one hand thoughtfully across the silken folds of her outer garment. ‘For a long time he just stared at this kimono, with a strange look in his eyes. Then at last he told me that the night before he had dreamed of climbing Mount Fuji in the dark. On the summit amongst the snows he had reached up and pulled down the starlit sky into his hands. The stars and the heavens were all made of silk, he said, and he wound them softly about his naked body like a robe.
There was also a great mirror of ice on the summit. But on looking in it he had seen only the image of a very beautiful girl of Nippon - and she was wearing the dark silk of the night heavens. ..‘
Eiko gasped aloud but said nothing.
‘I could still see Fuji-san itself sparkling in the moonlight,’ continued Tokiwa. ‘And there was a strange feeling in the ruined barn. It was almost as though I was living in the ancient times of our myths, when the kami walked among us. -
‘And what happened next, Tokiwa-san?’ asked the maid in a tense whisper. ‘What did you do then?’
‘Looking back now I am very surprised by my actions: murmured Tokiwa. ‘But because I was deeply moved by his dream, I took off this kimono with my own hands although I was wearing nothing beneath it. I drew the silken darkness around his bare chest and shoulders. .. I think he was surprised too. But because of the magic of the night I could feel no shame...’
‘In those moments you turned the dream into reality;’ said Eiko softly. ‘What you did was very beautiful. Perhaps the kami of the mountains and the night wished it so...’
Tokiwa looked up, her eyes alight suddenly with emotion. Faint spots of colour rose in her cheeks and she leaned excitedly towards the peasant maid.
‘Yes, our most sacred volcano was so white and pure in the moonlight! And before leaving the inn I had prayed as never before to the kami of Fuji-san. I had made promises to them, if they would help me. I made my escape without mishap - so what happened afterwards seemed like an omen. It was as though it was all meant to be. .
Tokiwa’s voice faded and she lowere
d her eyes. The maid shifted restlessly on the tatami, watching her transfixed, hardly daring to breathe in her impatience to know more.
‘The passion of the foreign barbarian was fierce:
whispered Tokiwa at last. ‘But he was tender too. He was not like the men of Nippon whom I have known. There was great gentleness in him.’
‘Did he not have the strength of ten men, as we’ve so often been told, Tokiwa-san?’ whispered the maid.
‘His body was powerful - but it was also kind in its way with me. I felt things I had never felt before.. . If what you say is true about how I feel, and I am truly with child, I think it must come from the time I shared with the foreign barbarian in that ruined barn.’
The eyes of the maid widened in shock as she absorbed the enormity of what she had heard. ‘Then you don’t think Prince Tanaka is the father?’
The geisha shook her head emphatically, but did not raise her eyes.
you not afraid for the future, O Takiwa-san?’ asked the maid tentatively after another silence.
‘This is a time of such great turmoil said Tokiwa, lifting her hands suddenly to cover her face. ‘I’m not sure yet what I truly feel. But whenever I think of the foreign barbarian, above everything I remember his gentleness. .
Tokiwa continued to hold her hands over her eyes, and for a long time the splashing of the miniature waterfall in the darkened garden was the only sound to disturb the stillness of the night.
‘Does Prince Tanaka know anything of what happened there?’ asked Eiko at last.
Tokiwa dropped her hands and looked directly at the maid, her expression suddenly anguished. ‘I lied to him! He asked me if I had unfastened my sash for the foreign barbarian, and I swore I had not.’
‘How did he know about your meeting with the barbarian?’ asked Eiko in surprise.
