The Dragon Scroll

by I. J. Parker

  Seimei glared. "I am not at all tired," he snapped. "And it is not polite to call people old."

  Chuckling, she patted his cheek. "Oh, there's lots of life left in you yet," she said. "You're just the sort of man I like."

  Seimei retreated behind Tora again, to more laughter from their audience. "You talk to her, Tora," he yelped.

  Tora stopped grinning and put on a ferocious face. "Pay attention, woman!" he growled. "We're here on official business."

  She cocked her head at him. "Go ahead, ask."

  "There was a peddler here selling his wares the day you served us. He got knocked about a bit and spilled all his stuff in the street. Do you remember?"

  Her eyes suddenly moist with sentiment, she peered around Tora. "Do I! It was so sweet of you, Master Seimei, to make me a present of the peddler's things. See here?" She raised a hand to pat her hair. "That's the pretty comb you gave me. I wear it every day and think of you."

  Someone applauded and shouted some lewd advice.

  Seimei made a choking sound and clutched convulsively at Tora, who said, "Never mind that now. Where can we find the peddler?"

  She said slyly, "I'll tell you if Master Seimei comes back."

  Tora elbowed Seimei, who croaked, "Yes. As soon as we can."

  "Jisai hasn't been back since your master paid him, but you can ask his friend."

  The friend turned out to be the Rat, who was taking his ease with a cup of wine.

  "Getting drunk already?" Tora greeted him.

  "Just keeping out the cold," wheezed the Rat, looking at Seimei. "Who's the old geezer?"

  "I'll wait outside," Seimei snapped and turned to leave.

  Tora caught his sleeve. "We're all going. The Rat's going to show us the way to Jisai's place."

  "Jisai?" The Rat looked interested. "What's he done?"

  "We just have some questions," Tora said. "You coming or not?"

  "What's it worth to you?"

  "We'll pay your tab if you're quick about it."

  The Rat jumped up, grabbed his crutch, and hopped off toward the street.

  The bucktoothed waitress grinned. "He's had three flasks of the best wine and a platter of pickled plums," she informed Tora.

  Tora whispered in her ear, "Your boyfriend here has the cash. But you'll have to be nice to him. He hates parting with it." Aloud he said, "Pay her, Seimei. A promise is a promise, and the master's in a hurry."

  Eyeing the woman warily, Seimei pulled out a string of coppers. "That man was a walking lesson on why drinking is a shortcut to poverty," he said. "How much does he owe?"

  "Forty-five coppers."

  "Forty-five ..." Seimei blanched and clutched the money to his chest.

  She leaned forward to tap his cheek playfully. "But for you, my dear," she murmured, batting her eyes flirtatiously, "I'll make it a special price." Seimei stared at her teeth like a drowning man at a shark's jaws. "Make it ten coppers, love," she cooed, "and we'll spend the rest together."

  Applause and shouts of encouragement broke out all around them.

  Seimei counted out ten copper coins with trembling hands and ran.

  "Don't forget your promise!" she called after him.

  "Only ten coppers for all that wine!" Tora said outside, slapping Seimei on the back. "You'll have to tell me your secret with women, old man."

  Seimei glowered at him and then turned his wrath on the cheerfully whistling Rat. "Start walking! Even a dog that wags its tail can be beaten," he said.

  The Rat pulled in his tail. Hopping along on his crutch and complaining of the cold, the long way, and his indifferent health, he took them through dirty alleys, a derelict burial ground, and the courtyards of several tenement buildings where frozen laundry drooped from lines and women emptied their slops into the yard. Eventually he dispensed with his fake handicap, leaving the crutch in a hollow tree. Seimei maintained a disapproving silence.

  Thoroughly chilled and frustrated, they reached an area of open ground near the southern palisade of the city. Among a scattering of bare trees stood the makeshift tents and grass-covered huts of squatters. Black smoke rose against the twilight sky from open fires. Ragged women and children tended to their families' dinners, while the men huddled near the warmth, drinking and rolling dice.

  Exchanging cheerful greetings, the Rat dodged a line of frozen rags strung between two trees, kicked a snapping dog, and stopped in front of a particularly depressing hovel.

  A ragged mat covered its entrance, and broken cooking utensils littered the ground. Flicking the mat aside unceremoniously, the Rat ducked in and Tora followed. Seimei, wrinkling his nose at the stench released from inside, stayed outside. A spate of excited talk came from the hut.

  A group of dirty children quickly gathered around Seimei with pitiful wails: "Give us a copper." "Just a copper for a bowl of soup, master." They pushed against him, fingering the fabric of his robe, pointing at his black cap, feeling his sleeves, and inserting inquisitive hands under his sash. Seimei slapped the hands away and shouted, "Be quick about it, Tora!"

  Instead of an answer, Tora's arm shot out from behind the mat and pulled him inside. Seimei choked. Blinded by the sudden murky darkness, he felt as if he had been swallowed by some large, foul-smelling creature. Then he made out a human being cowering on a pallet covered with ragged blankets. The blankets had long since faded to the grayness of dirt, and the frail creature was of the same hue: gray skin, thin gray hair like cobwebs on a pale skull, grayish layers of clothing. Deep-set black eyes stared at Seimei with dull curiosity.

  Thinking they were in the wrong place, he was backing out again when Tora moved and he saw that the frail figure was an old woman and that the peddler Jisai sat cross-legged beside her. He wore the same rags, probably, thought Seimei, still caked with the same mud. Between them stood a cracked brazier that produced more acrid smoke than warmth.

  Seimei held a sleeve over his nose and mouth and told Tora, "That's the man. Ask him and let's go."

  "Where's your manners, old-timer?" sneered the Rat, who seated himself on the bare dirt floor near the peddler. "We just got here. Sit down and be sociable."

  Seimei cast a pleading glance at Tora, who ignored him and settled down also. After a moment, lifting the back of his blue robe carefully above his hips, Seimei lowered himself to the floor.

  What followed next, to the extreme frustration of the fastidious Seimei, was a leisurely discussion of the weather and conditions among the squatters. Then the ill health of the peddler's wife was examined symptom by symptom. Seimei was consulted about medicines and thawed a little. He was urged to take the old woman's pulse and look into her eyes. Teas, ointments, and plasters were weighed for their efficacy, and anecdotal evidence of local curatives--frog skins, charred mole meat, and powdered cockroach featured in these--heavily laced the conversation.

  With weak quavers from the patient, a shrill whine from the peddler, Tora's deep voice, and the Rat's wheezing commentary, the dissonant but cozy chat proceeded in unhurried fashion without the least reference to the purpose of their visit.

  When Seimei's store of advice was as exhausted as the old woman's litany of complaints, the conversation began to lag. Tora stretched and said, "Well, it's good to see old friends again, Jisai. Our master sent us to make sure those bastards that tripped you up did no permanent damage."

  His words were ill-advised. The peddler and his wife now fell to reciting a whole string of Jisai's physical problems, supposedly incurred during the incident. His back ached, one hip was out of joint, a knee inexplicably refused to bend, and he had terrible headaches followed by bouts of dizziness. In short, he was totally disabled, could not work, did not sleep well at night, was in constant pain, would never work again. Doctors' bills were mounting, what with two patients, and they had had nothing to eat for days.

  Seimei gave a snort and lifted the lid of a pot that stood on a rickety bamboo stand beside him. "Bean soup?" he asked, wrinkling his nose.

  "A kind ne
ighbor brought it," said the peddler. "A waste! The wife's too sick to eat it cold, and I'm too weak to build a fire to heat it." He sighed deeply and added, "Even if I had some wood."

  Seimei snorted again.

  Tora said, "Maybe we can help." He stretched out his hand for Seimei's string of coppers. "Our master's a very charitable man. He would wish us to leave a little something."

  Seimei, muttering under his breath, counted out a coin at a time until Tora withdrew his hand and placed a small stack of money before the old woman. She gave them a toothless smile and said, "A great man, your master. You're blessed to be working for such a saint."

  "And you're a wise woman, Auntie," said Tora. He rose. "Well, we'd better go." Seimei opened his mouth in outraged protest when Tora added casually, "By the way, there was a little blue flower among the stuff you sold the master. You remember it?"

  The peddler nodded. "A fine piece." he croaked. "Pure gold. Worth a whole string of coppers."

  Tora ignored this. "Remember where you got it?"

  The peddler's eyes narrowed. "Couldn't say. I picked it up someplace. What's so special about it?"

  "Nothing. My master was going to throw it away, so I took it to give to my girl. Now she wants more stuff like it."

  "Would you spend some real money, say a silver bar?" the peddler suggested.

  "That much? No kidding? Well, that's too bad. My girl will be disappointed," said Tora calmly, and stooped to gather up the coins he had laid before Jisai's wife. "We're on our way then. My master will be glad to hear that you've recovered and how good your business is."

  "Wait, wait!" cried the peddler, jumping up with astonishing agility. "I just remembered. I got it from one of the whores. She wanted drink money for her man. I don't know where she got it. I don't ask questions."

  "Who is she and where does she live?" Tora let the coppers jingle in his hand.

  "Her name's Jasmin. Lives near the market, I think."

  Surprisingly, the Rat grunted, "That's Scarface's slut. I know her."

  Tora stared at the Rat, then tossed the coins to the peddler. "There, you old rascal," he snapped. "You'd better use the money to get back in business, or both you and your old woman will have your backbones poking through your navels."

  Outside Tora grasped the Rat by his bony shoulder. "What's this about Jasmin and that Scarface bastard?"

  The Rat twitched his shoulder free and whimpered, "Is that the thanks I get? I help you get what you want and you knock me around for it?"

  "Sorry." Tora let him go.

  "I'm cold again." The Rat shivered. "And thirsty."

  "No more wine," warned Seimei.

  Tora took Seimei's arm and walked him a few steps away. "Look," he said, "this guy needs wine to go on. You've got your work, and your proper robe and hat, and your medicines, and your master and me to nag. He's got nothing. Wine is all he lives for. Not everybody's as lucky as we are."

  Seimei blinked. Then he said, "But wine has ruined him. It will kill him. Look at the pathetic creature. And he calls me an old geezer!"

  Tora sighed. "Dying is easy; it's the living that's hard. Wine makes him forget a little."

  Seimei stared at the Rat. "How old are you?" he called to him.

  The Rat cocked his head. "Fifty-two. And you?"

  "I shall be sixty," Seimei said proudly, straightening his back and giving the Rat a pitying glance. "You look worn out, poor fellow. Let's go find some warm place where you can rest a little before we go on."

  The Rat knew all the wine shops and led them to a place where they could warm their backs near the cooking ovens and their stomachs with a flask of warm wine.

  "All right," said Tora. "Start talking!"

  The Rat drank deeply and said, "Far as I can tell, this Scarface showed up a couple of weeks ago and started working the street girls. Then he got to collecting from the vendors. They say he takes in a lot of money, but he gambles. Jasmin, the stupid skirt, is besotted with him." The Rat shook his head and drank again. "He's ugly enough to scare a ghost and he beats her."

  Tora nodded. "We met. He had a couple of thugs with him, a big drooling idiot and a short weasel of a guy."

  "Yushi and Jubei. Better watch yourself. They use knives and they don't ask 'May I?'"

  Seimei did not like the sound of this. "Who is this Jasmin?" he asked nervously.

  "A friend of a friend," Tora said. "I guess we'd better go ask her about that flower. You've had enough wine for today, Rat. Let's go."

  Outside, darkness had fallen. A bitter wind whistled through the narrow streets and blew bits of refuse and dead leaves along. They passed through dark alleys where rats scurried away and drunks and vagrants were curled up in corners. Gradually the glow of lights rose above the dark roofs.

  "The market," said Tora.

  Seimei shivered, more with dread than cold, for he wore a quilted gown under his blue robe. He was not used to seeing so much filth and misery in one day and worried about meeting Scarface and his friends. The market seemed to lie at the center of all their troubles. They had started their ill-fated visit there and kept returning to it. Each time it led to greater unpleasantness. It was almost as if he were trapped in some sort of maze from which there was no escape.

  Just then there was the sound of running feet, and he swung around with a gasp. But it was only some boys. They shouted as they ran past.

  Tora frowned. "Something's happened ahead," he said. "They've sent for the prefect."

  "Must be a murder," cried the Rat, hopping about excitedly. "We don't call the prefect for a fight or an accident. Let's go see!" He disappeared around the next corner, Tora hard on his heels.

  Seimei strongly disapproved and followed more slowly. His day had been bad enough already. When he reached the corner, he saw a crowd at the end of the street. Lanterns bobbed, casting shifting shadows. People pressed around a narrow passageway between two old houses with cracked windowless walls, their rotten thatch mottled in the eerie glow from the market beyond. Tora and the Rat were pushing through the chattering crowd and disappeared into the dark passage.

  Panic seized Seimei. They had abandoned him among harlots, thieves, and murderers, in a place where people did not bother to call the constables until it was too late. There was a killer loose, perhaps close by, and Seimei had no idea how to get back to the tribunal by himself.

  He nervously approached the outer fringes of the crowd. A slatternly-looking young woman with a bawling child was talking to an old crone. "Serves the whore right," she said with callous satisfaction. "One of her tricks, I bet. Filthy harlots. Women like her go after every man they can grab, even perverts."

  "They say he slit her throat from ear to ear," said the crone.

  Seimei shuddered. A very low crime. But he had no choice. He had to find Tora. He cleared his throat nervously.

  The woman with the child turned, saw his blue robe and black hat, and said, "It's the prefect! Let him pass!" The crowd parted and Seimei walked forward quickly, trying to look as official as possible. He scurried through the dark passageway and came to a torch-lit courtyard.

  It was quieter here. More lanterns gleamed and dim lights shone from doors on the upper and lower floors. People were leaning on the railings and sitting on rickety stairs. They gave Seimei curious stares but quickly lost interest. The courtyard was covered with garbage, and ragged clothing dried on the railings. The air was smoky and odorous from cooking fires.

  In the middle of the yard, a small group of people was looking up at a door on the second floor. Someone had hung a lantern near it. Its light shone on the red-patterned curtain.

  Tora was not in sight, but the Rat stood leaning against a post. Seimei joined him. "What happened?" he asked. "Where is Tora?"

  The Rat looked uncharacteristically glum. "Gone up for a look," he wheezed, nodding toward the red curtain. "Looks like somebody finally did for the poor skirt."

  A fat woman in a dirty black silk dress was sitting on the steps gasping for b
reath and moaning. Two female friends supported her on either side, fanning her face and taking turns talking earnestly to her.

  "Was that woman attacked, too?" Seimei asked.

  "No. That's the landlady. Nosy female came home and noticed the red curtain, so she went to look. Hah! Did she get a surprise, old cat!"