Chasing the Secret

by Maya Snow

  “He’s not sinking,” Tatsuya insisted. “He’s fine for a few moments. I want to get you out first.”

  I remembered how much Tatsuya disliked Manabu. Surely he didn’t mean to let him drown? I glanced at Tatsuya’s fingers stretching toward me and quickly snatched mine back. “Help Manabu first,” I said flatly.

  Tatsuya’s dark eyes met mine. “Only when you’re safe, Kimi,” he said. “Give me your hand.”

  “No,” I said, tears of frustration welling in my eyes. “You help Manabu. Please. He’s one of the last survivors of my father’s household…help him for my sake.”

  Tatsuya muttered something beneath his breath and glanced over his shoulder to see if Hana was coming. But she was nowhere to be seen, lost among the shadowy clump of trees where she searched for a branch.

  Tatsuya turned back and gave me one last long look and then quickly shrugged off his longbow and arrows. Tossing the arrows aside, he spread himself flat on the mud and reached the longbow out toward Manabu. “Grab this,” he said to the servant. “And hold on tight. I’m going to pull you out.”

  My heart in my mouth, I watched as Tatsuya strained against the mud that threatened to engulf Manabu. I could feel it soaking up through my hakama trousers, cold and wet and clinging, almost sucking at me. For a moment, hopelessness came over me in waves. We were so close to Mother. So close. And yet again we could not reach her.

  Hana is safe, I thought. She can tell Mother that I tried…. Manabu will keep her safe.

  I heard Tatsuya grunt, and then Manabu cried out. With a huge sucking sound, he came free. Relief swept through me as I saw him grasp Tatsuya’s wrist with his one hand, and Tatsuya was dragging him away, both of them stumbling, limbs half-entwined as they staggered to the edge of the mud patch where Manabu collapsed, panting.

  At that moment, Hana came running back with a long, sturdy branch in her hand. She threw herself onto her knees at the edge of the mud patch. “Grab hold of this, Kimi.”

  I felt muddy water seeping up around my chin as I stretched out toward the branch. But I couldn’t reach it. I strained forward. My legs were stuck. The mud seemed to have a life of its own, dragging me down, setting like hard clay around my knees.

  All at once, my own limbs gave a squelching, popping sound—and then I was free! The mud sloshed around me, gurgling greedily, but Tatsuya had me by my kimono. He pulled, and Hana grabbed my arm, and together the three of us half-stumbled, half-crawled to where Manabu was laying.

  “Buddha be praised,” I said, weak with relief as I hugged Hana.

  Manabu looked up at Tatsuya. “Thank you,” he said. “You saved my life.”

  Tatsuya nodded curtly but said nothing. I tried to catch his eye to say my own thanks, but he avoided my gaze.

  “We shouldn’t stay here,” Hana warned, glancing up at the heavy sky. “If the rains come again, we could be caught once more.”

  “Let’s try to make it over to that rock,” Manabu suggested, pointing.

  “Good idea,” I said. “It’s nice and high. We can climb up onto it and try to get an idea of the safest way around this mud.”

  With mud clotting our hair and clothes, we picked our way carefully to the rock. Breathless, we hauled ourselves up onto it.

  Hana reached out to help Manabu, and then turned to look at me, her face suddenly full of laughter. Mud was smeared across her cheeks and chin.

  “Earlier I thought I’d seen enough rain for a lifetime,” she said, turning her hands over and examining her black palms. “But now I pray for rain again to wash us clean.”

  I scrambled to my feet and looked in the direction of the lake. The half-moon was bright now, lighting a silver path across the water all the way to the far side. “We’re almost there,” I said to Hana. “We can bathe in the lake and rinse our clothes and hair.”

  She stood up beside me, her fingers lightly touching mine in our secret signal of kinship. “Mother is there somewhere,” she said. Then her gaze sharpened. “Look, Kimi, can you see that enormous boulder at the edge of the lake, next to that tree stump? That could be three of the elements—earth, wood, and water.”

  I nodded. “But what about the fire and metal? I can’t see any smoke, or houses, or even any signs of life.”

  Tatsuya tilted his mud-smeared face up to the sky. “It will be dawn soon,” he said. “We may be able to see more in the daylight.”

  “We should head toward the boulder,” Manabu said. “Perhaps there’s something beyond it that we cannot see from here?” He glanced at me and smiled. “We might be lucky enough to find a village where there are people who can help us.”

  Soon we came to the shoreline. A chill mist curled up from the lake. I heard the soft lap of water as a fish jumped. As we neared the boulder, dawn’s early light streaked across the sky.

  I saw it then—a ledge of red stone slicing across the otherwise gray boulder.

  “There,” I said breathlessly, pointing. “That red stone must signify fire.”

  We hurried onward, following the shoreline as the morning dawned around us. A clear, crisp, pale light washed color into the landscape. Birds began to wheel across the sky, and somewhere a couple of frogs rasped their song.

  When we reached the boulder, I saw that there was a streak of something silvery in the red stone. Excitement rippled through me and I turned to Hana. “Metal,” I said. “The last of the elements!”

  I put out one hand and placed it flat on the surface, feeling the cool smooth hardness beneath my palm. A feeling of peace and serenity stole over me.

  Hana sank to her knees beside me. “Mother has been here,” she said softly. “I’m sure of it.”

  “But where is she now?” I asked impatiently. We had been journeying for so long, surely we were at the end….

  Looking as if she were in a trance, Hana bent forward in a formal seiza position, then bowed low, her fingers pointing together and almost touching. After a moment she sat back in seiza again, her face looking as beautiful as the flowers she had been named for. “We have come to the right place, Kimi,” she said.

  As she glanced up at me I saw a sparkle of tears in her dark eyes. But they were tears of happiness because she was smiling.

  “What is it, Hana?” I asked, kneeling beside her.

  Still smiling, she leaned forward to reach beneath the ledge of red stone.

  Behind us, Tatsuya rested his hand on the scabbard of his sword and came to stand next to Manabu. Both were silent as they watched Hana’s hands move from side to side. She was feeling for something…searching beneath the ledge.

  At last her hands were still for a moment. Then she drew out a beautiful black-lacquered box.

  “Kimi…,” she whispered.

  My heart almost stopped beating as I looked down at the box in her hands. The Yamamoto symbol was carved into the lid….

  I knew at once that Mother had left it here for us to find.

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  Hana cupped the box in both hands and offered it to me. “It must contain another message,” she whispered.

  Trembling with excitement, I took the black-lacquered box from Hana’s hands and carefully lifted the lid. A delicate scent drifted out and was carried up to my nose on the clear, crisp morning air.

  Cherry blossom. Mother’s favorite perfume. And inside the box was a single twig of a cherry blossom tree.

  I lifted the branch out slowly and held it up to try and catch the first rays of daylight.

  “Isn’t there anything else in the box?” Hana asked, her face puzzled. “No letter…no paper scroll…?”

  I shook my head. “Just the cherry blossom branch.”

  We checked the box thoroughly to make sure there was no letter concealed beneath a false bottom or stuck into the lid. But there was nothing. I held the slender branch in my hand and stared at it. Mother was sending us a message, but her meaning was closed to me.

  “It’s a mystery,” Hana murmured. She looked around at the shadowy shores of
the lake. “If there were cherry blossom trees around here, it might make some sense—perhaps it might be a pointer to another clue.” She gently took the branch from me and turned it over in her fingers. “But this is just a piece from a cherry blossom tree.”

  My shoulders sagged and exhaustion suddenly washed over me. Mother seemed as far away as she ever had. I was cold, tired, covered with mud, and close to tears.

  Hana must have seen the expression on my face because she gently took the lacquered box from my hands and put the twig away. She handed the box to Tatsuya and slipped her hand into mine.

  “Come, Kimi,” she said quietly. “Come down to the water with me. We’ll wash off some of the mud.”

  We left Tatsuya and Manabu, who hunkered down at a wary distance from each other. Both of them appeared to be keeping lookout, Manabu closely scrutinizing the shoreline while Tatsuya kept checking over his shoulder.

  Down at the edge of the lake, I scooped up handfuls of cool, clear water and began to wash my hands. Hana pulled her hair out of the topknot, bent forward, and swept her long hair over one shoulder, slowly rinsing it clean of mud. I had a brief flash of memory—our wooden bathhouse at home, filled with clouds of hot steam.

  Hana’s voice broke into my thoughts. “We’ve come so far, Kimi,” she said. “I can’t bear to think that we might be defeated now.”

  “I don’t think Mother would have left something that was too obscure,” I said thoughtfully. “There must be something that we’ve missed.”

  Hana squeezed a stream of silvery blue water from her hair. She looked tired, and I realized that apart from our brief sleep during the storm we had had no real rest since we’d left the inn.

  “It’s not yet full daylight,” I said as we made our way back up the shore to the others. “Why don’t we settle down for a while? You can get some sleep while I try to figure things out.”

  Hana nodded gratefully as she twisted her wet hair up into a topknot and secured it tightly. She leaned up against the red rock, closed her eyes, and seemed to sink quickly into sleep. I sat beside Tatsuya, holding the lacquered box in my hands, idly opening and closing its lid as I willed the box to give up its secrets.

  Soon, I was too tired to stay awake any longer. I propped the lacquered box in the grass next to me and lay down beside Hana. Exhaustion swept over me in a numbing tide….

  I dreamed of Master Goku.

  I was back in the meditation room at the dojo, fragrant incense hanging on the air. Master Goku walked toward me across the polished floor, almost gliding, his black robes rippling around his bare feet. His gaze rested on my face for a moment.

  “Steady your mind, Kimi,” he said. “Steel your heart.”

  I awoke with a jolt, blood hammering through my veins. Beside me, Tatsuya was resting his head against the rock behind him, eyes closed. Manabu had walked down to the water’s edge. He had picked up a stick and was using it to make swirling shapes in the half-dried mud.

  I became aware of Hana beside me. Her dark eyes were open and she was looking at me.

  “I’m sorry,” I whispered. “Did I wake you?”

  “I had a dream,” she whispered back. “I saw Goku.” Her face clouded. “We were in the meditation room and he told me to steel my heart.”

  “I had the same dream,” I said, startled. “That’s what woke me.”

  I sat up and pushed a loose strand of hair off my face. The dream must be meaningful somehow.

  The lacquered box was still propped in the grass beside me, and something caught my eye—a shimmer of light and a pearl of moisture. The swirling mist coming up from the lake had left a trail of condensation across the outside of the lacquered lid.

  I frowned and lifted the box, looking closer.

  Beads of moisture from the swirling mist had formed around a shape on the lid. A kanji shape! Excitement rushed through me as I realized Mother must have smeared some kind of oil on the lacquer to make a message.

  “Look, Hana,” I whispered. “There’s a message.”

  Hana stared at the lacquered box. “A message,” she murmured. “What does it say?”

  I studied the kanji for a moment. “Safe house,” I read aloud, “is where river meets lake.”

  I looked up, across the lake. The sun was rising quickly now, flashing off the water and making a thousand tiny diamond shapes that sparkled and danced. The mist rose like steam clouds, and far away on the distant side of the smooth water I could just make out the mouth of a wide river, and a cluster of rooftops that looked like a small town.

  “There,” I said, pointing. “That’s where Mother’s safe house is.”

  Tatsuya stirred beside me, blinking and frowning. “Sorry,” he said. “I must have fallen asleep for a moment. What’s going on?”

  Manabu, hearing our voices, dropped his stick and started to walk back toward us. His face was full of concern. “Is everything all right?” he asked.

  “Kimi has found a message from Mother,” Hana told them both, her eyes shining with happiness. “There’s a safe house on the other side of the lake!”

  Tatsuya shaded his eyes with his hand. “It could take a while to walk all the way around there,” he said with a frown. “Perhaps half a day.”

  My heart sank. There had to be another way. “What about a boat?”

  Manabu looked from me to Hana and back again. “I thought I saw a fishing village a little farther along the shore,” he said, pointing past the big overhang of rock. “The early sunlight picked up a few rooftops. It doesn’t look like much, just a handful of tiny hovels, but maybe we could get some food there, and one of the fishermen might have a boat he would lend us.”

  I grinned. “What are we waiting for?”

  It was a short walk around the shoreline to the village.

  I could see two small flat boats pulled up on the mud in front of the cluster of hovels. One boat looked rickety but the other looked as though it might make it across the lake. Beside them sat a fisherman wearing a faded blue jacket and ragged trousers. His thin hands were tangled among the folds of a fishing net. He looked up from under bushy eyebrows as we approached. I gave him a friendly smile and stepped forward.

  “Kimi-gozen,” Manabu said, gently touching my sleeve. “While you talk to this man, perhaps I should go and see whether the villagers will let us have some food?” He made a wry face as he patted his stomach. “It’s a long time since any of us have eaten.”

  “That’s a good idea,” I said, fishing for the pouch of coins I’d taken from the innkeeper. “Here—take this.”

  Manabu took the pouch, bowed, and hurried away.

  With Hana and Tatsuya one step behind me, I turned back to the fisherman.

  “What do you want?” he asked, eyeing me warily.

  I made a formal bow. To show the utmost respect, I placed my hands flat to my thighs and turned my fingertips inward until they almost touched. “We are on our way to the little town at the mouth of the river,” I explained politely. “It’s such a long way to walk. We wondered if you might have a boat we could borrow, to reach the other side of the lake?”

  “You think I’d lend my boat to strangers?” The fisherman snorted. “My boat is my livelihood. If you don’t bring it back, then I don’t fish. And if I don’t fish, then my family doesn’t eat.”

  Hana crouched in front of the fisherman. “Perhaps you could row us across the lake yourself,” she suggested. “Then you would be able to bring the boat back afterward.”

  “Why should I do that?” the fisherman demanded. “I’m a busy man. I don’t have time to go jaunting across the lake on a pleasure trip.”

  Hana looked up at me. I hesitated for a moment and then held out the beautiful lacquered box. “We would pay you,” I said. “You can have this box; it must be worth something.”

  The fisherman raised his eyebrows. “My family can’t eat a box,” he said bitterly. “I don’t know where you travelers have come from, but in these parts there’s a food shortage.” H
e jerked his chin at me.

  I bit my lip, realizing that Uncle Hidehira’s iron grip must have reached even the Fujigoko lakes. “I’m sorry,” I said.

  “Sorry?” the fisherman tutted. “What are you sorry for, eh? It’s not your fault that my children are starving and my wife is ill.” With a grunt, he turned back to his nets.

  I crouched beside Hana. “There is still hope for the land,” I said gently to the fisherman. “There are many people who want to see an end to Lord Hidehira’s reign.”

  The fisherman refused to look at me. “I don’t know about that,” he muttered, his fingers moving quickly in the folds of his net. “I’ve said too much already…how do I know that you aren’t travelers but spies for the Jito, eh? Maybe you’ve been sent to trap me with words.”

  I shook my head. “We’re not spies,” I said, deciding to take a risk. If we were to borrow a boat and get to Mother, we had to persuade this man to trust us. “Too many people who were dear to us have been killed by Lord Hidehira. As long as we live we’ll be fighting against him—not for him.”

  The fisherman’s hands fell still. He glanced up at me. “Are you with the rebels?” he asked quietly.

  I nodded.

  A look of relief crossed his face. “And you want to go across the lake…to meet with others who disagree with the new Jito’s government?”

  I nodded again.

  “Then I would be honored to row you to the other side,” the fisherman said.

  I held out the lacquered box, but he shook his head.

  “I will take you for the good of the kingdom,” he said firmly. “Not because I want payment.”

  “Please,” I insisted. “The box is yours.”

  The fisherman reluctantly took the box in gnarled hands. “In that case, perhaps you will honor me by taking a bowl of something with my family. I can’t offer much more than soup, but it would do my wife good to see your faces and know that there is hope.”

  I glanced at Hana and Tatsuya, who both nodded.

  Manabu rejoined us just as we were following the fisherman to his hut. “These people are starving,” the servant said quietly as he handed the innkeeper’s coins back to me. “They don’t have any food to sell.”