The Shrine Virgin

by I. J. Parker

  Saburo said, "I don't recall seeing either your name or that of Lord Fujiwara on our tax rolls."

  "That's because this is a private estate. Our taxes go directly to the capital."

  Saburo pursed his lips. "You maintain your own roads then?"

  "Yes." Kitagawa was becoming irritated -or perhaps nervous.

  "What about using the main highways? Do you furnish labor to maintain those?"

  The belto looked from Saburo to Tora, who had gone to inspect a map on one of the walls. "Lord Shigeie has dispensations. It's all legal. I can show you the documents."

  But Saburo implied that he had lost interest. "Thanks. Maybe another time. Tora, wasn't there something you wished to ask?"

  "Ah, yes." Tora turned from the map to look at Kit agawa. "We've had reports of pirates attacking shipping along this coast Do you know anything about that?"

  Kitagawa's eyes moved from one to the other of his visitors and back again. He made an impatient gesture. "Pirates? I know nothing about pirates. What's this all about? Why all these questions? Has someone accused me of not paying my taxes? Or something worse?" He paused. "Or are you just trying to insult me and my master?"

  Tora chuckled. "Now why would we want to do that? We're just getting information about conditions in Mikawa and meeting its more important inhabitants. So you aren't aware of any pirate activity? Do you have any visiting ships or boats tying up at your dock? They might have mentioned something."

  .The dock is for our own boats." Kitagawa bit his lips. "I mean it's for the fishermen who live on our land."

  "Oh. I see. Well, I think that's all," Tora said, smiling more widely. "Thanks for the wine. Remarkably good stuff."

  Saburo got to his feet. "Yes. Excellent wine," he murmured. "Better than what we had in the capital." Kitagawa jumped up. "Allow me to send some to the tribunal," he said. "As a welcome gift for the governor and his staff."

  "Very kind," remarked Tora, "but we are not allowed to accept bribes." He turned to Saburo. "What a pleasant excursion we've had coming here, Kuruda. It's just the sort of outing one needs after a day inside. We must do this again."

  Kitagawa said nothing, but he was visibly agitated. He bowed, and they walked out, Tora chuckling softly. Outside, they got back on their horses and trotted through the open gate and back onto the highway. Tora laughed out loud. "Did you see his face? We put the fear of the gods into the bastard," he said. "Take my word for it, he's a crook. Did you see how red he got when you talked about taxes and conscript labors'" Saburo smiled. "And he did not like you studying that map at all."

  "But when you praised the wine, he relaxed. He thought we were extorting gifts."

  "And you made sure he understood what we thought of him by threatening him with other visits." They both laughed. Then Saburo said more soberly, "Somehow I don't think the master would have approved of that."

  17 A Shocking Tale

  Akiltada returned to his inn. The bereaved innkeeper was at the counter, staring into space. When Akitada asked him if he could get a bath, the man seemed to be confused for a moment.

  "A bath?'" he asked. Then he brushed his bushy hair back and said, "Oh, a bath. Yes, I think the water should he hot. I made a fire earlier. Sorry, sir. It's been a terrible day."

  Akitada, feeling slightly guilty for disliking the man, told him again that he was very sorry for his loss, then went to take an early bath. He had no change of clothing except for one undershirt, so he put this on and his black robe over it. At least he would keep himself as

  clean as possible. The used shirt he carried back to the entrance where he asked his host to have someone wash it for him, paying for the service with a handful of coppers.

  Then he set out, stopping only for a bowl of noodles from a vendor before returning to the stable to rent another horse. The sun was setting as Akitada rode back to Minamoto's lodge, hoping to catch its elusive owner in.

  He was in luck. Lord Minamoto had just returned. As Akitada rode through the open gate, he was just getting out of the saddle. Both man and beast looked exhausted. The old gatekeeper had the bridle in his hand to lead the horse to the stable. When he saw Akitada he cried, "Not you again! Close that gate behind you and tie up your horse." Then he shuffled off in the direction of the small stable.

  The young lord had turned and now stood there, looking pale and apparently not caring about much, least of all his servant's bad manners. His clothes were sadly disheveled, dirty, and torn in places.

  Akitada dismounted, tied up his horse as instructed, and then shut the gate. When he turned, Minamoto still stood in the same place.

  "We have to talk," Akitada told him, his anger building again. "Inside!"

  Minamoto said nothing but walked ahead and into the lodge.

  The big room looked the same. Apparently completely exhausted, its owner collapsed on one of the cushions, gesturing vaguely toward the other. He said tonelessly "I'm too tired to move. There's wine over there." His hand gestured again.

  Akitada saw a stoneware jar and some cups. He filled two from the heavy jar and brought one to Minamoto. "Drink and then talk!" he said sternly.

  The young man looked at him dully and emptied the cup.

  "Where is the princess?"

  "I don't know. I've looked everywhere. I cannot find her." He stared down at his clenched hands. "I must have been cursed at birthl They should have killed me then." Covering his face, he rocked back and forth, moaning.

  Akitada sat down and sipped from his cup. The wine was excellent, but it did nothing for the anticipation of disaster that had seized him. He said, "I know you had a hand in Her Imperial Highness's disappearance. What possessed you to seduce a consecrated priestess?"

  There was no answer.

  "I think you brought her here. What happened to her?"

  Another moan, and then a muttered, "I told you, I don't know."

  Akitada's anger was suddenly too much for him. He was not sure whether it was his frustration with not getting answers or the fact that the boy he had once loved like his own son had so bitterly disappointed him as a man.

  He snapped, "Straighten up, man. You're no longer a child who can hide behind his tears. What have you done to her?"

  The hands fell from the face. Lord Minamoto was very pale, but he looked back at Akitada with dry eyes and said in a reasonably firm voice, "You are right. She was here, but she left. I thought she'd gone back to the Bamboo Palace until Lady Tamba sent for me. She wasn't there. Since then, I've been searching everywhere. At fast I thought she got lost in the forest, but it's been too long. Something must have happened to her."

  Akitada said coldly, "It would seem the Tamba woman also bears some responsibility for this unpardonable incident, but ultimately whatever happened is your fault."

  "Don't you think I know that?" Minamoto jumped to his feet. Akitada might have envied him such agility if he had not been so furious with him. The young man looked about him wildly. "I'll find her, whatever it takes. I'll go out again to search the forest. I swear I won't eat or sleep until she's safe."

  Something did not sound quite right. Akitada stared up at him. Even he could see that the boy he had taught so many years ago had grown into the kind of man who turned women's heads. Minamoto's handsome face was pale, but the large eyes shone with passion, a passion that was not romantic in the least. While he had indeed won the love of the Ise Virgin, his own emotions did not seem those of a lover. He behaved more like someone who had failed in an important duty. Even if

  she had been here with him, if there had been a torrid and utterly reprehensible affair between these two, he had not been in love with her. True, he was very upset now, but that seemed more due to guilt for not having safeguarded her person than the grief of a man in love.

  This realization did not endear the young man to Akitada. Rather, it made him seem callow and unfeeling. He bit his lip and said, "Sit down again. You'd better tell me the whole shameful tale."

  Minamoto flushed and
then paled again. He raised his hands helplessly and opened his mouth to say something, then nodded and sat.

  He spoke without looking at Akitada. "Princess Takahime is a distant cousin of mine," he began. "As children, we were frequently together. I liked her. Then she became the Ise Virgin and her brother our emperor. She was proud of her appointment." He paused and glanced at Akitada. "She was only eight. Since then she has passed sixteen years here and has become lonely and very unhappy. Other young women her age are married and have families of their own, but she knows that will never happen for her. She started to write to me of her despair about a year ago. I wrote back, trying to reassure her." He paused and hung his head again. "Such correspondence is improper, but we are cousins and childhood friends, and I felt concern for her."

  The young man seemed to be pleading for understanding and forgiveness, but Akitada said, "You're quite right. You should never have written. And you should certainly never have tried to see her. I assume that is what you did do eventually?"

  Minamoto sighed. "One cannot put away one's feelings of pity so easily. Yes. I had purchased some land and this hunting lodge and came here from time to tine. She wrote that it made her feel better to know she had a friend nearby. But we did not meet face to face until this year, and then it was because Lady Tamba asked me to come."

  Again that cursed female.

  "That woman is evil," Akitada snapped, adopting the chief priest's word.

  The young nobleman looked a little surprised at Akitada's language. "She is a romantic," he said. "She thought our story, or at least the story Takahime told her, was hearthreaking. She wept for the princess when I first arrived there and begged me to see her because she feared she would do herself some harm." He broke off and shuddered. "I think I made things worse," he said with a catch in his voice. "I think she may have killed herself after all. I'll never forgive myself."

  A long silence fell.

  Akitada considered. He was inclined to give the young fool some benefit of doubt. It sounded as if he had somehow become trapped into the relationship. He thought how to ask his next question and decided bluntness would serve him best. "Did you become lovers ~"

  At first there was no answer, just another shudder, then Sadamu said very quietly, "Yes."

  Whatever the outcome of this, the damage was done. Princess Takahime, the consecrated Ise Virgin, had been defiled. And Akitada did not have the faintest idea what could he done about it. Her lover,.of course, would be condemned, perhaps to death, but more likely to exile because of his imperial blood. 'The princess would he replaced by some other imperial daughter. The next one was not likely to be as young as Takahime had been, and that would present problems to those who would make the selection. She would have to be a proven virgin. Possibly Takahime's brother would be blamed and coerced to abdicate and become a monk. Akitada did not know the young emperor, but he thought such a political move would be altogether unfair and bad for the nation.

  Not that there was any fairness in making an eightyear-old child Ise Virgin for her foreseeable future, for Takahime was expected to serve until her brother died or abdicated.

  If she was still alive.

  He looked at the white-faced young man sitting across from him. His fate, too, would be unfair, even though he had acted rashly and without consideration for Takahime or the goddess she served. The two young people had stumbled into a tragic affair, she out of loneliness and despair, and he out of pity.

  In a gentler tone, he asked, "Do you love the princess?"

  Sadamu turned troubled eyes to him. "Yes. Yes, of course. Why else would I have done what I did?" Good question. Akitada almost smiled. Instead he sighed. "What exactly happened? Describe the events up until the last time you saw her'"

  "Lady Tamba sent me a note." He shook his head at the memory. "She said she'd found a way for us to be together. The next day Takahime arrived here. She was alone and in plain clothing, without her usual makeup, and with her hair twisted up at her neck. She looked like one of the young girls in the village. I almost didn't recognize her. She said she'd traded places with someone, and wasn't it the most wonderful adventure?"

  He stopped and looked helplessly around the room. "I didn't know what to do. This is no place for the emperor's sister. When I said I would take her back, she started crying. She said, she had nothing to live for now that I had rejected her love. I ... I tried to calm her, told her I cared for her ... and one thing led to another." He sighed.

  Akitada could picture it perfectly. Did it excuse his behavior? No, of course not. But he could understand it. The thing had happened not out of romantic passion but out of pity and affection.

  "How long was she here?'

  "The rest of that day and the night. And the early part of the next day. I went out to buy some food for her and a comb. She left while I was gone."

  Akitada raised his brows. "Why did she leave?" Lord Minamoto shook his head miserably. "We'd quarreled. I'd woken to the realization of what I had done. We talked about it. She wanted to live with me as my wife, but I said she must go back." He glanced at Akitada. "She was the Virgin, after all. I couldn't marry her."

  Yes, that was impossible. The rejection would certainly send the young woman running. But had she gone to kill herself?

  Minamoto had the same thought. "When I found her gone, I was so afraid. I thought she might have drowned herself in the river." He shuddered again. "I went to Uji-tachi several times to see if she'd been found. And today there was a body, but it was someone else's, and they said she'd been killed by prowlers, and I got frantic all over again. Dear Heaven, what can I do?"

  Akitada said nothing. In truth, he had no idea what they could do. "Does your servant know that she was here and spent the night?" he asked instead.

  Minamoto frowned. "What does that matter? He didn't know who she was. He thought I'd brought home a woman from the town."

  "Lieutenant Matsuura says you complained about someone trying to get into your lodge at night."

  "That was nothing. I was just trying to find out if anybody had been seen nearby."

  Akitada sighed. "Go to bed now. You can do nothing in your present state. I'll see what I can find out." The young man looked almost grateful. "I can't sleep," he protested, but Akitada saw that his eyes had glazed over with tiredness.

  "I'll return in the morning," he said, and left.

  18 A Deadly Assignation

  It was fully dark when Akitada approached the Tanoe shrine. He left his horse in town, told Junichiro he did not have time to share his evening rice with him, and then set out on foot for the Tanoe shrine. This was one of the small shrines that clustered about the big Ise shrines and was close to the Bamboo Palace.

  He did not know what to expect from lady Ayako and was nervous about a young gentlewoman wandering about these woods. It was clearly not safe to do so for pretty girls. At least it was still early enough for a few late shrine visitors to wander about with their lanterns. Akitada carried one also, having borrowed it from the inn, where Keiko's mother was again dealing with guests. Of her husband there was no sign.

  Once he left the shrine of the goddess behind, he was soon alone on the path, but this was well marked. With his lantern he could read directions and eventually reached a small wooden building, as simple as the main shrine and also half hidden behind fencing.

  Nobody was either on the path or inside the fence. Akitada walked all around the building, then decided to wait. He sat down on the stone basin at the entrance.

  For a while all remained quiet. A forest at night has a special kind of silence, a waiting stillness that accounted for people's fear of it. He listened. When he heard the first slight rustle and skittering sounds, he tensed. It becane quiet again. Just some small animal, he thought. The next sound came from another direction, deeper in the forest and made by something larger. As it was not the direction of the princess's palace, he tensed again and extinguished his light.

  He regretted it instantly. The da
rkness surrounding him was total. He got to his feet and listened. Yes, there it was again, and it seemed closer. Then he heard voic es, male voices, but also a cry that might have been a woman's.

  Drawing his sword, he plunged toward the cry into the darkness. "Who's there?" he shouted. "Stand back and drop your weapons."

  It was a feeble attempt meant to scare of whoever had caught Lady Ayako and was doomed to failure. He collided with branches and shrubs in the darkness, fell twice, knew there were people close to him, and then fell a third time.

  And this time he passed out.

  ==

  He came around with a sore head. Opening his eyes was strangely painful, though the light was dim. He was in some sort of hut. Off inn one corner, an oil lamp flickered beyond the backs and heads of lour men. There was no sign of Lady Ayako.

  He was lying on his side and he was bound hand and foot. A rope passed around his ankles and then around his wrists behind his back. He lay in this curled position, becoming aware that it was quite painful to be tied up this way.

  His sword was gone. Or rather, it now lay beside one of the men.

  No matter. It would not do him much good at the moment.

  One of the men drank froim an earthenware flask and belched. "How long do you think?'" he asked in a rough voice.

  Akitada could smell the sharp odor of wine. They were drinking.

  "An hour maybe. Wonder what was in that letter. Bet the boss gets rid of him."

  A third man growled, "Should've done it right away. Why bring him here and let him live?"

  Good point! Alas, it was not a cheerful prospect to wait an hour or so to find out if the "boss" was more tender-hearted than his henchmen. Akitada peered at the room through half-closed lids. He had no intention of cutting his precious hour of life short by letting them see he was conscious.