“Yes. This is the Land of the Dead. But when my children first return to this world, their wounds are so deep that it’s hard to sleep peacefully. First I must ease their pain in this way.”
“Won’t you show yourself to me?” Saya asked, and a breeze like a sigh blew across the marsh grasses.
“I am everything that you see around you. Think of all the things you have never stopped loving as my arms, my lap. I have no body. I discarded it long ago, when that one rejected me. Now I live in many forms at once.”
“O merciful Goddess, the God of Light wishes to summon you to the world above, to bring you back to life,” Saya said. Not knowing where to direct her words, she gazed at her own shadow on the water as she spoke. “The God in heaven gives no thought to we who live in Toyoashihara. He intends to destroy the land and return the world to chaos. But you are the loving Goddess. Surely you will have compassion for the world above?”
“There’s no need to ask,” the Goddess responded emphatically. “I gave birth to all that is in Toyoashihara. Where is the mother who does not love her children? I love Toyoashihara more than you do.”
Saya finally smiled. “Thank you. Now I can be at peace.”
“Then follow the path. Your long-forgotten mother awaits you.” Urged along, Saya began to walk, but after a few steps she stopped.
“Something still troubles you, doesn’t it?” the Goddess of Darkness said indulgently. “Go ahead. Tell me what you want, and I’ll fulfill your desire.”
Saya hesitated at first but then, gathering her courage, said, “I wish to see the field of wild roses once more. Will you show it to me?”
The summer scenery seemed to blur for a moment and then the marsh became a meadow and the season turned to autumn. A cool highland breeze caressed her cheeks and clouds swept across the sky. A mass of pale purple flowers swayed in the wind, just as she remembered them. The beauty of the flowers filling the hollow was breathtaking, perhaps even more breathtaking than reality, but it was true to the memory she had treasured in her heart.
What a fool I am! The beauty of the flowers pierced her like a knife, and she instantly regretted her request. What use was it to recall this meadow when Chihaya was not here? It was like rubbing salt into a wound. Saya stood filled with misery, too wretched to cry.
The autumn breeze swayed through the flowers, through her hair, like a tender caress. When the burning agony of her loss had passed and died to a smoldering ember, a feeling of resignation began to grow within her, seeping through her. For the swaying purple flowers, in their silence, spoke to her, telling her that this was a peaceful place, a place of rest, that there was no point in suffering.
This pain is just an illusion. I should be ashamed of myself. It’s pointless to grieve. Chihaya and I have been separated by a distance so absolute that we can never reach each other again. All I can do is accept this fact, she thought listlessly. She could feel the Goddess coaxing her, soothing her. How sweet it would be to let herself be carried away by oblivion and sink into the depths of slumber. But still she clung stubbornly to her pain.
If only I could see Chihaya one more time, just once more, then I could forget him.
A figure appeared suddenly at the edge of the hollow.
It came down the slope, disappearing and reappearing in the tall grasses. The shock was so great that she stood numb, unable to move. No matter how merciful the Goddess might be, Saya had never dreamed that she would go to such lengths as this. Chihaya appeared, looking about him doubtfully. He seemed like a traveler in a foreign land. She stared at him, speechless. But when he caught sight of her standing in the midst of the flowers he broke into a run and raced toward her.
A few seconds before he reached her, she suddenly found that she could move and, leaping into his embrace, she collided violently with his chest. Just to be able to touch him seemed to her a miracle. Feeling that anything was permissible, she kissed him. Regardless of whether or not it was an illusion, if it was this satisfying, she did not care.
“I came looking for you,” Chihaya murmured in her ear, his arms still wrapped around her. “As long as I’m with you, it doesn’t matter if I never return to the earth again.”
Saya thought, That’s just what I wanted him to say. Now there’s nothing else I desire. She smiled.
“Did Torihiko give you the magatama?” she asked. “Keep it always— even if you forget me.”
“It was thanks to the magatama that I came here,” Chihaya replied.
“Lady Iwa told me. She said that this stone was part of you, that it would find its way back to you. I’m amazed that I actually made it.”
It finally began to dawn on Saya that something was odd. This was not something that Chihaya would say if he were truly an illusion. She let go of him and stared into his face, her eyes wide. “You don’t mean—you can’t possibly have really come? You’re not just a dream that the Goddess of Darkness is showing me?”
“Yes, I’ve really come, to the Land of the Dead.”
“How?”
Chihaya stared back at her blankly. “But I just told you.”
At that moment a strong gust of wind hit them, taking their breath away, ripping the flowers from their stalks, hurling the dead grasses into the air. Pummeled by leaves, they shielded themselves, looking up when the wind had passed to see the sky filled by dark black clouds twisting slowly like a tornado.
“I sense the presence of one who has no right to be here. Someone, who, like oil in water, doesn’t belong. Who are you? And why have you come uninvited?” The Goddess’s voice shook the air, no longer gentle but filled instead with a menacing rage.
Chihaya, oblivious to the sudden change, answered unhesitatingly, “I am Chihaya. My father is the God of Light. I came here to meet Saya and if possible to take her back—”
Saya hastily jabbed him with her elbow and interrupted. “It was my fault, O divine Mother. Because I gave him my magatama, he has come with it in search of me.”
“What have you done?” the Goddess demanded harshly. “I gave you that magatama as a sign of the Water Maiden. It should have been returned to me. Yet you have given it to a Prince of Light and so exposed the path that I have taken such pains to conceal.”
Saya turned pale with shock. “I beg your forgiveness. I didn’t mean—”
“As for the God of Light, I intended to forgive him; though he feared and shunned me, turned his face from me and fled; though he sealed the entrance to the path with stone and severed relations with me. He mercilessly kills my children who live upon the earth and causes me to suffer. Yet this, too, I could forgive. But now he invades my very home. Even my mercy has its limits!” The deadly menace in her voice made their blood run cold and filled them with a dread far surpassing the terror inspired by her children, the raging gods of the earth. Although she was trembling like a leaf, Saya managed to speak.
“Chihaya is not an instrument of the God of Light. He fought on our side.”
“Don’t waste your breath,” Chihaya said from beside her. “She won’t listen.”
They turned on their heels and fled, with the surging black cloud in pursuit. Jet-black tentacles of darkness as dense as mud were just reaching out to grab them when suddenly a voice called out.
“Hurry! Take Morning Star!”
Morning Star, the white mark on his forehead shining, waited, his hooves pawing the ground. And holding him in check was Lord Ibuki. “Flee while I distract the Goddess.”
Without wasting time on words, they leaped astride Morning Star, who raced across the dark sky as though he had wings. The vault of the underworld was bejeweled with unblinking stars. Some were as large as walnuts and they cast a faintly colored light. The black stallion ran longer than they could tell, finally landing on a bare rock ledge. It was very dark, with no other light than that of the stars. Lord Ibuki was already waiting for them.
“I didn’t expect to meet you again so soon. You seem to be creating havoc even in the underworld,” he
said frankly.
“I longed to see you again,” Chihaya began in a choked voice. “There’s so much I wanted to say—”
“I know, so there’s no need to say anything. This isn’t the time or place. You’ve angered the Goddess of this land. There’s nowhere you can hide. Even here you’re safe only for a moment.” Wheeling about, Lord Ibuki asked Saya, “Where’s your magatama? Of all times, now is the time you most need your power to still the gods. If you become the object of her wrath, your suffering will be eternal. In this world, death will not be the end of it.”
Saya said hurriedly to Chihaya, “He’s talking about the blue stone. You have it, don’t you?”
“I brought it with me, yes, but . . .” He looked troubled and faltered, pointing to his stomach. “It’s in here. I forgot to think of a way of returning it.”
Saya and Lord Ibuki gaped at him in astonishment. Then Saya asked in a small voice, “What should we do now?”
Lord Ibuki groaned. “Don’t ask me! After all, I’m just a dead man.”
To their left the stars began to go out one by one. A blackness so total that it seemed to crush the very sky gathered above their heads.
“Let’s get out of here,” Saya said, grabbing Chihaya’s arm.
“It makes no difference whether we run or not if in the end there’s no escape,” Chihaya said, gazing at the stars disappearing from sight. “Let’s go meet her instead. For it’s only right that we should seek proper judgment.”
“No!”
But Chihaya ignored her. Kicking his feet lightly against the rock ledge, he leaped effortlessly into the sky.
“Lord Ibuki,” Saya turned and asked desperately, “do you think that I can fly, too?”
“It’s up to you. After all, this isn’t the land of the living,” Lord Ibuki replied.
ONCE he was as close as he thought necessary, Chihaya addressed the black shadow.
“O great Goddess, Ruler of the netherworld, please hear me. Though I am the child of my father, I love you, and have always yearned for the Darkness.” Slender tendrils of darkness, like snakes, reached out and wrapped themselves around his neck, arms, and legs, and he felt them slowly tightening. Ignoring them, he continued, “Since the day I was born I have searched for a path to you. It was Saya who showed me a way, yet even without that, I so desired to meet you that—” The fingers of darkness squeezed him with a sudden bone-crushing force that prevented him from speaking any further.
“How dare you tell such falsehoods? Why would one with the power of renewal be attracted to that which is destined to rot and decay? Even I didn’t come here of my own accord.”
Chihaya tried to free himself, but it was futile. Although he knew he must not use the power of the Dragon, being unjustly accused had kindled his anger. Just as he thought he was about to explode he felt the touch of a small, light hand. It was Saya.
“O merciful Goddess. Please quell your anger,” she said boldly. For Saya, this was her last and most daring attempt to appease. “And if it doesn’t please you, then accuse me also. For though I’m a child of Darkness, I love the Light and served at the Palace of Light. Though Light and Darkness are incompatible, even we, who can’t live without you, love the Light. For it’s one of the purest, most beautiful things on the earth.
“I met Chihaya in the Palace of Light. At first he was the keeper of the Dragon Sword—the Sword with which the God of Light slew the fire god when you left for the Land of the Dead. When we learned that Chihaya was not one who stills the Sword, like me, but rather the Sword itself, we feared him. But this was wrong. For Chihaya, more than myself or anyone else, remained true to you. Perhaps because he’s the child of the Sword, the son of the Sword that the God of Light wielded in his grief for you.”
The air absorbed her voice, swallowing up any lingering vibrations. A silence like sleep filled the space between them. Then the Goddess of Darkness spoke quietly.
“Perhaps he grieved for me. But when he saw me in the underworld he turned away and deserted me. Since then he has cursed, shunned, and hated me.”
“No, that isn’t true. For if he really despised you, he wouldn’t even contemplate leaving his palace in heaven to meet you,” Saya said, leaning forward. “Even now the God of Light still longs for you—so much so that he is willing to sacrifice all of Toyoashihara.”
“Is that why you gave this youth your magatama?” the Goddess asked.
“No,” Saya replied, somewhat dampened. “I didn’t think. I just couldn’t bear to be parted from Chihaya. I gave it neither as priestess nor as the Water Maiden. I just did it.”
Realizing that he could now speak, Chihaya said, “I was commanded by my father to seek the Goddess of Darkness and to bring her back to the earth.”
Saya looked up at him in shock. “Chihaya!”
“This was sealed from me until I met you. I always wondered why I was given this body, but now I remember. I am my father’s messenger.” “But what will happen to Toyoashihara?” Saya whispered. Chihaya turned to the Goddess of Darkness and continued.
“However, I was a dangerous messenger. For by giving me the power to reach the Land of Darkness, he gave me the potential to destroy him. If I hadn’t reached you I would most likely have turned on him, and we would have fought until one of us was slain. But I came. Saya helped me to transcend the wall of hate between the Darkness and the Light. Is my father’s desire now clear to you?”
The Goddess whispered in a voice like wind through the trees. “O Child of the Sword, you are so like him. You came all alone, fearless and undaunted. Yet you are different, too. For the Water Maiden’s magatama is now part of you.” She paused and then continued quietly, “You have stilled my anger. Looking at the two of you I can believe that he does indeed wish to meet me. I have received your message, Child of the Sword. But I don’t intend to clothe myself once more in the body I discarded in order to go to him. Therefore, Prince of Light, you must return to your father.”
“Are you saying that I must go back alone, empty-handed?” Chihaya protested.
“Your father did just that.”
“Then I would rather stay here.”
“You can’t do that. For you weren’t made to live in the Land of the Dead.”
“I’ll never go back without Saya. Never.” Chihaya grasped Saya’s hand and said brusquely, “It’s not enough to take back the magatama, I must take Saya, too.”
“But you can’t. I really died,” Saya protested. Just then, however, she heard someone else speak.
“It’s all right. Go on back to Toyoashihara.”
Saya looked about in surprise. “That voice . . .”
“Renewal requires a sacrifice. I will be that sacrifice. I’ve already lived too long. Surely it’s no crime to seek a rest. Besides, there’s something you must do. Go back with Chihaya.”
It was Lady Iwa. Her voice sounded strange and fragile, yet, to one familiar with it, it was warmer than any other. Saya turned to question her, but Chihaya pulled her away.
“Saya, let’s go home.”
WHEN SHE CAME TO HER SENSES her feet and hands were numb with cold. Opening her eyes and wondering what the prison guard had done with her fur wrap, she found herself not in the palace but surrounded by the people of Darkness. Lord Akitsu and Lord Shinado were there, and Torihiko, too. With them, looking as if nothing had happened, was Chihaya.
“You’re late. Where were you dawdling?” he said smiling.
“The Goddess of Darkness . . .” Saya whispered. Her throat felt strange and she couldn’t speak.
With deep emotion, Lord Akitsu said, “It’s just as Lady Iwa told us. She said that both of you would return.”
“We met Lady Iwa. Lord Ibuki, too.” As she spoke, Saya was hit by the realization that she had come back from the dead. Although it should not have been possible, she was actually breathing. Blood pulsed through her veins. Sensation had returned. She could speak. Suddenly she burst into tears and felt hot teardrops scalding h
er frozen cheeks. Chihaya gently slipped his arm about her as though she would break and raised her to a sitting position. She thought regretfully that if only there were not so many people here, she could have rested in his embrace and cried to her heart’s content.
Lady Iwa’s tiny corpse was laid out in the same hut, wizened and frail. The spirit which had made her seem so intimidating when she was alive had vanished.
“She was so old no one knew her age. Perhaps it was her time to die,” Lord Akitsu said quietly. But Saya shook her head.
“No. She took my place in the Land of the Dead for my sake. She told me there was something I must do.”
“What was that?” Torihiko asked.
“The Goddess of Darkness stopped me as I was about to return and said—”
But before she could finish speaking, a shower of gold and silver dust fell glittering through the cracks of the roughly thatched roof. Or rather, so it appeared. It was in fact light of such blinding intensity that it seemed to pierce the roof like a white shaft. Before their startled eyes, the inside of the hut grew brighter than the seashore on a midsummer’s day. The outlines of walls and people became indistinct. Terrified, they looked at one another.
“Is it the coming of the God of Light?”
“It can’t be! The two immortals have not yet reappeared.”
“Is this the end of Toyoashihara?”
“But I thought we won.”
Pushing aside the people who were shouting in confusion, Chihaya rushed outside. The door opened on an incredible flood of light. The sky had turned pearl-white, robbing everything else of color. The mountains of Mahoroba looked like ghosts, and several rainbows clung to the mountaintops. The ground glittered like shattered crystal, so that it was impossible to discern its contours. And not a single shadow could be seen. Chihaya raised one leg to see if he could find his shadow but it was so bright he could barely see his foot. Shielding his eyes, he raised his head slowly. Over the eastern row of mountains, he could just make out the upper half of a towering golden form framed by the rainbows on the mountain ridges. He felt Saya come running after him.
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