‘It’s a long story and one it’s probably best you don’t know. If you must tell anyone about me, it might be safer to say that you met an albino.’
He raised his eyebrows at that, but nodded acquiescence. ‘If that is your wish.’
Temperance continued to watch as he carried on with his preparations, impressed that he seemed very sure of what he was doing.
‘Are you being followed?’ the monk asked suddenly, taking her by surprise.
‘What? Oh, er …’
‘Don’t worry, I won’t tell. It’s just that what we are about to do will probably make your friend scream, and if anyone is following you they may hear him.’
‘Then what do you suggest?’
‘We have to gag him.’
It seemed an extreme measure, but Temperance couldn’t afford to take the chance of Kazuo’s screams reverberating around the mountainside. She nodded and the monk deftly fashioned a gag which he bound round Kazuo’s mouth. ‘There, that should do. Now, could you sit on him, please, facing away from me, and hold down his shoulders with all your might. I’ll be as quick as I can.’
What followed must have been a nightmare of pain for Kazuo. Temperance suffered with him every step of the way, but although he opened his eyes and tried to scream through the gag, she could see that he wasn’t in his full senses. His eyes were wild and frantic, but there was still no spark of recognition when he looked at her and she could only pray that if he came through this ordeal, he wouldn’t remember it.
She hung on for dear life, using all her weight to keep Kazuo still, and the monk worked as quickly as he could. She could smell burning flesh and hear the hissing of the hot iron against the wound. She gagged at the thought of it, but somehow she managed to swallow her bile. At last, she heard the monk say, ‘There, that will do. You may let go now.’ She breathed a sigh of relief and noticed that Kazuo was dead to the world.
‘I think he’s fainted.’
‘Just as well. He will be hurting at first, but I think I have stopped his wound from festering now, so if we can just keep him alive for another day or two, he should start to recover. Although I must say, someone’s done a very thorough job of beating him up which probably isn’t helping.’
‘Yes.’ Temperance thought it best not to say who had done this to Kazuo. ‘We can’t stay here,’ she added. ‘We have to move on.’
‘How far behind were your pursuers?’
‘I have no idea. We were supposed to be heading north-west, but I’m afraid I lost my way yesterday, so that might have made it harder for them to follow our tracks. They can’t be that far away though, certainly no more than half a day’s ride.’
‘Hmm. Might I suggest something?’
‘Please do.’
‘If I could borrow your horse for a few days, I will ride back the way you came and then continue in a different direction, stopping at the villages along the route. I know the people hereabouts and I can ask them to say that they’ve seen you heading south-west. It might help. Then I’ll sell your horse and buy another one and return to you.’
Temperance didn’t know what to do. On the one hand, it sounded like an admirable scheme and would give Kazuo a chance to recover and have some much needed rest. On the other, how did she know she could trust this man, despite the fact that he was a monk? Were there not greedy monks as well as ordinary men? What if he sold their horse and never came back? Or even led Tanaka to them?
She sighed and glanced at Kazuo. One thing was clear, he couldn’t go any further for the moment, so she decided she would have to take the chance that the monk was honest. ‘Very well, I accept your suggestion with thanks. It is very kind of you to put yourself out on our behalf.’
He shook his head with a smile. ‘I do it gladly. I enjoy helping my fellow men. Come with me, I want to show you something.’
Slightly bemused, Temperance followed him to the front room of the temple, where the stone god was now clearly visible, a shaft of sunlight streaming down onto his bald head.
‘This is Musubi-no-Kami, the god of love, and over there is the lovely Kannon, the goddess of mercy.’ The monk pointed to an alcove Temperance had missed the previous night, where a smaller bronze statue of a beautiful goddess stood. ‘I swear by both these deities that I will return to you with all haste, as soon as I have carried out my tasks, and I will pray to them to keep you safe while I’m gone.’
‘Thank you.’ Temperance looked around her once more, the neglect even more noticeable in daylight. ‘What happened to this place? Why is it deserted? It must have been breathtakingly beautiful once.’
‘It’s been empty for many years, long before I came here, but I’ve been told that it is haunted by a former priest. The unlucky man happened to fall in love with a beautiful lady who came to pray to the god of love. Knowing that he could never marry her, he threw himself off the balcony. His soul still roams this place.’
Temperance shivered. ‘That’s all I need,’ she muttered, but the monk smiled.
‘Don’t worry. I have slept here many a night and I have never seen or heard anything untoward. I’m sure it’s just a story. Now, I’d better be on my way. Keep on giving the young man the willow bark and make him drink as much water as you can. I will pray for you both.’
The day passed slowly and although Temperance was kept busy with her patient, the hours still seemed to drag on ad infinitum. By nightfall Kazuo appeared no better and she was beginning to despair of him ever recovering. She was exhausted from fighting with him each time she tried to give him the willow bark as he was stronger than her even when ill. To hold him down and make him swallow the bitter tasting concoction was a struggle. She persevered, however, and in between she occupied herself by collecting more firewood and making herself eat a little.
To her relief there were no sounds of pursuit and she began to hope that the monk’s cunning plan had worked. The heavy rainfall of the night before should have helped to obliterate their tracks as well, which was all to the good. If their pursuers were using dogs to track them, hopefully the water had obscured their scent.
If only Kazuo would get better, but there seemed little hope of that.
The night-time brought more strange noises and creaking timbers, but without the howling wind Temperance was able to think rationally and refused to let it frighten her. She lay down next to Kazuo as before, but was woken during the darkest part of the night by him thrashing around and shouting something about ‘injustice’.
‘Kazuo, calm down. Listen to me, there’s no one here. Please, shush,’ she begged him, but it wasn’t until she began to sponge his face with cold water that he stopped ranting and lay still again. He was, however, drawing in shallow breaths that rasped through the silence in a way that chilled Temperance to the bone. Was this it? Was he going to die now and leave her here, stranded in the middle of a strange country with no idea where to go? It didn’t bear thinking of.
With renewed determination she began to sponge him down, even pulling open his tunic to dribble the cool water onto his chest, which was as burning hot as the rest of him. Over and over again, she repeated the process, until at last he felt cooler to the touch, and appeared to have gone back to a more peaceful sleep. Temperance wrung out the cloth one last time and laid it across his brow, then wrapped them both up inside the blanket and held him in her arms.
‘Please, my love, don’t die. I couldn’t bear it if you did,’ she whispered, and she realised that it was the truth. She loved this man, despite all the barriers between them and despite the fact that she knew they were not destined to be together.
Love took no notice of such things, however, and had crept over her without warning, insinuating itself into her heart without giving her a chance to resist, and now it was too late. For a crazy moment, she wondered if the little god in the main temple chamber had had a hand in this madness, but in truth she knew that she had loved Kazuo almost from the first moment she’d seen him. She would only be deceiving herself
if she thought otherwise.
She closed her eyes and waited for sleep to claim her, but instead she felt Kazuo’s arms come around her waist, pulling her closer, and then his mouth nuzzled her cheek. ‘Temi?’ His voice was rough, but sounded more lucid than before, and Temperance blinked in the darkness and put a hand to his brow. It was still cool.
‘Kazuo? Are you all right? Can you hear me?’
‘Yes, a bit too loudly actually.’ A small chuckle rumbled through his chest and she felt it through his tunic.
‘Sorry,’ she whispered. ‘I’ve been so worried about you. Are you really better?’
‘Mmm, tired … thirsty …’
‘Wait, I will give you some water. And please, can you drink some willow bark? I haven’t the strength to fight you again.’
‘Don’t want to fight … will drink.’
‘Thank God!’ She hurried to give him the infusion while he was still awake enough to accept it without protest, and although he made a noise of disgust, he drank it all. Temperance was so relieved, she lay down and hugged him tightly, wanting to laugh and shout with joy. ‘Well done, that ought to help.’
‘Ouch! My ribs …’
‘Oh, sorry, I forgot.’ She loosened her grip on him and would have removed her arms altogether, but he protested.
‘No, hold me. Feels good.’ He snuggled close, wincing slightly, but then coming to rest with his head on her shoulder.
Temperance smiled into the darkness. Perhaps all would be well.
She woke just after dawn and sat up with a gasp, wondering if the happenings of the night had been a dream. Was Kazuo really better? She put her hand up to his brow and drew a sigh of relief when she found it cool to the touch. Before she could remove it, however, it was covered by another hand and pulled down towards Kazuo’s mouth. He kissed each finger tenderly and opened sleepy eyes.
‘My saviour,’ he whispered hoarsely.
‘Not really. I just did what I had to.’ It was such a joy to find his eyes actually looking at her, clear and intelligent once more, that she couldn’t help but smile broadly.
‘Why didn’t you go back to your family when you had the chance?’
Temperance avoided his gaze. ‘I wanted to help you first.’
‘You could have been killed.’
‘I still could, but I’m here now, so there’s no point thinking about that.’
‘Where are we? Are we being pursued?’
‘I have no idea. In a temple somewhere.’ She went on to tell him a little of their journey, but after a while he stopped her by putting his finger on her mouth.
‘Never mind. Later you can tell me everything. For now, let’s enjoy the peace.’
To her surprise he replaced the finger with his mouth and kissed her slowly, as if savouring something he had thought gone forever. Temperance was stunned at first, but soon became lost in the kiss and returned it in full measure. It was a gentle kiss, without any of the urgency of true desire, but there was desire in it nonetheless, conveyed by the reverence with which each caressed the other’s lips. Having lived through what she considered hell, Temperance thought she had died and gone to heaven.
All too soon, however, he broke off, too weak to continue. ‘I’m sorry,’ he murmured. ‘Later. Must rest.’
‘Of course. Close your eyes, there’s no hurry.’
And she knew they had all the time in the world.
As long as Tanaka didn’t find them.
Chapter Twenty-Five
‘I can’t believe it could be that difficult to find one clumsy girl and a weak man on a horse. A foreign girl at that!’
Tanaka surveyed the countryside around them with an angry scowl and noticed that several of his retainers cowered in fright whenever his glance came anywhere near them. No doubt they knew from experience that if their master couldn’t find the true target for his wrath, they were likely to be substitutes. Tanaka couldn’t care less. He had to vent his frustration on someone and that was what servants were for in his opinion.
‘The villagers said they’d seen such a couple pass this way,’ his second-in-command reminded him diffidently.
‘I know, I know, but how can they travel so fast? That horse must be half dead by now.’
‘At least we know we are going in the right direction, my lord.’
‘They’re leading us a merry dance, I tell you, and I’m tiring of it. You should have—’ But the hapless man was spared the rest of this sentence, as the foreigner, looking petulant and disgruntled, chose that moment to ride up to Tanaka and ask through his interpreter why they were dawdling.
‘Dawdling! How dare you?’ Tanaka felt a vortex of rage swirl inside him and pinned the gai-jin with an angry glare. Out of the corner of his eye he heard his retainers draw a collective sigh of relief as they realised that their master had found an outlet for his temper other than them. Several of them smirked behind raised hands. ‘I’ll give you dawdling, you good for nothing, gai-jin son of a whore!’
Tanaka whipped his sword from the scabbard and jumped off his horse, grabbing the bridle of Haag’s mount and tugging violently. The sword swished through the air in an angry arc, too close to Haag’s ear for comfort. The foreigner squawked indignantly and scrabbled for his own much smaller sword. For a while he put up a spirited fight, but he was never going to beat someone like Tanaka with such a puny weapon.
‘What are you doing? I have a right to know what’s happening. She’s my wi– … betrothed!’ he shrieked and jumped off the horse on the other side, giving up on trying to defend himself with the sword. ‘You said I could come along. I’ll report you to the Shogun! You can’t treat a foreigner this way, I’ll …’
Tanaka didn’t reply, merely pursued Haag on foot growling furiously. He only understood the word shogun among the rest of the foreigner’s unintelligible words, but he had no intention of letting the fool tell anyone anything. Without further ado he knocked the man unconscious with a heavy blow on the back of the head from his sword hilt. That wasn’t nearly enough to rid him of his frustrations, however, so he proceeded to pummel the defenceless foreigner into the ground for good measure, raining blows on the unconscious man without stopping. No one intervened as they knew full well it would mean instant death.
When at last his fury was spent, Tanaka returned to his horse and mounted in one fluid motion, giving the order to set off immediately.
‘And bring that son of a foreign whore. I may wish to hit him again when he wakes up. As for you,’ he pointed at the men who had come with Haag, ‘I tire of seeing you whispering with the gai-jin. Either go back where you came from or follow my orders from now on. Understood?’
They all nodded and bowed without a moment’s hesitation.
Another day passed and towards evening Kazuo was sufficiently rested to sit up and partake of a little food. He was still as weak as a kitten and winced every time he had to move his leg, but when Temperance uncovered it in order to clean it, there seemed to be a marked improvement and no further infection. She sent up a silent prayer of thanks.
‘That monk obviously knew what he was doing,’ she said. ‘I do hope he’s not fallen foul of Tanaka. It was so kind of him to offer to help and to think I didn’t even ask him his name.’ She had told Kazuo the full story of their journey by now and he nodded agreement.
‘Indeed. He has bought us valuable time, but we really ought to move on soon.’
‘You’re in no state to go anywhere yet,’ Temperance protested.
‘By tomorrow I’ll be fine. We can’t stay any longer than that. It would be too risky.’
‘But where will we go? Back down south?’
Kazuo shook his head. ‘No, north. I have one more man to investigate and somehow I have to do it.’
‘The third man you were speaking of? Surely you can’t continue your quest now. It will have to wait.’
‘No, I must go on or else it will be too late. I’m more than half sure that my father’s downfall was all Tanaka’
s doing. From what I’ve seen of him so far, he is ruthless and ambitious in the extreme and I have no doubt he would have coveted my father’s position and influence. If he couldn’t gain it by fair means, he wouldn’t hesitate to use foul play. Still, it could be that the third man was his accomplice and I have to make certain. Besides, I still have no proof.’
Temperance sighed. ‘Wouldn’t it be better if you went back to your father’s house to recover fully first?’
‘No. This way I can pretend to have been injured by outlaws and perhaps I’ll be taken into the lord’s household and given shelter for a while. That will give me a chance to observe him.’
‘And what about me? Where will I be?’
Kazuo frowned. ‘Could you survive a few days on your own in the forest? If I leave you with enough food and build you a shelter? It would only be for a very short while.’
‘I suppose so, but what if you don’t return?’
‘I will.’
They were interrupted by the sound of horse’s hooves and Temperance’s stomach performed an uncomfortable somersault. When she peered out into the dusk, however, it was to find the monk tethering a new horse to a nearby tree and as she went out to greet him, he smiled at her.
‘You’re back so soon?’ Temperance picked her way down the treacherous steps carefully and smiled back.
‘Yes. I think I succeeded in my mission and I persuaded a farmer’s son to ride the other horse a bit further, pretending he’d been sent on an errand. He should be leading your pursuers well away from this area.’
‘Thank you, you’ve been most kind. In fact, I don’t know how to thank you enough and what’s more, I don’t even know your name.’ Temperance felt like hugging the little man, but thought that probably wasn’t allowed, so instead she bowed deeply to him in a gesture of pure respect and gratitude.
The Jade Lioness Page 25
