The Ghost of Shinoda Forest Read online

  It was hard to see in the darkness, but it seemed that the assassins were moving in an odd pattern, darting tree to tree, ignoring bushes or other trees that were better cover. Then I realized they weren’t attempting stealth.

  “They’re removing your wards, Kenji-san.”

  “Why? Unless….”

  We all heard the low-pitched roar coming out the darkness.

  “Unless,” I said, “they’re taking no chances. It seems they’ve made a bargain with at least one resident of this forest.”

  There were oni, terrible ogres, in Shinoda forest. One for certain and possibly more, and in my previous visits I had barely managed to avoid them. Apparently we would not be so fortunate this time.

  It came crashing through the trees like the implacable brute it was. Red skin, black hair, curling tusks. It was twice the height of a human, thicker than two saké barrels, and it carried a massive club bound in black iron. The human shadows held back. I didn’t blame them. They had managed to set the devil loose on us, but that didn’t mean it was to be trusted.

  Kenji quickly began to chant a sutra, but I knew he wouldn’t be able to do much more than slow the oni down. As I looked at the thing, my tachi felt no more substantial in my hand than a lady’s hairpin, but it was better than nothing.

  Prince Kanemore stood a half-step in front of us, his tachi held low. I couldn’t see his face, but his entire posture was not that of a man in danger of his life. For an instant I wondered if he’d entered some state of resignation to his fate, since he didn’t move in the slightest as the oni approached us, its club raised high.

  “Highness, look out!”

  It felt a foolish thing to say, even as I was shouting it, but the creature scattered the remnants of our fire as he charged through and seemed about to smash the prince’s head in where he stood, but Kanemore took one quick step back, and the club thudded harmlessly into the earth.

  As for what happened next, well, I saw it and I’m still not sure I believe it. Kanemore sprang forward even faster than he had stepped back. Just as the oni began to raise his club for another strike, Prince Kanemore’s forward leap landed him directly on its club, on which he balanced as if it were no more unsteady than a log bridge over a stream. One more step and he was level with the oni’s thick neck. It had time only to bellow in rage and surprise before Prince Kanemore, with one swift, precise motion, cut its head off.

  Kanemore was standing back in his place between us before the creature had time to fall.

  I had always known that Prince Kanemore was formidable. I don’t think I realized until that moment exactly how formidable he was. Then the ogre’s headless body crashed to the earth, and the human assassins, with barely a moment’s hesitation, pressed forward.

  There were three of us, and both Kenji and I knew how to handle ourselves in a fight, but Prince Kanemore was the one who counted. Even so, he was still no more than human, and no one, not even the prince, could fend off a more than a score of attackers at once.

  “It’s rude to keep us waiting,” Prince Kanemore called out. “Or are you hoping another oni passes by?”

  A young man finally emerged into the weak light, dressed in a monk’s robes and carrying a ringed staff much like Kenji’s. “We’ve brought force enough,” he said. “Killing that brute won’t save you.”

  Kenji scowled. “I know you. You’re a sōhei from Enryaku Temple. What is the meaning of this?”

  “Meaning? Only that the right person ascend the throne. We’re here to see to it.”

  It appeared that the sōhei, the warrior monks that the temples sometimes used in religious disputes among themselves, had been brought to bear against a matter concerning the Imperial Court. If Enryaku Temple was meddling in politics again, that was good to know, assuming we lived long enough to make use of the information. If monks made up the rest of his forces, on the other hand, our chances of survival had lessened considerably. A substantial portion of the monks at Enryaku had always been trained fighting men, and their reputation as skilled warriors was well known.

  “And who would this ‘right person’ be, monk?” Kanemore asked. There was an edge in his voice I had heard before, and I was grateful that I was not that young monk just then.

  “Such knowledge does not matter to one about to pass from this world of pain,” the monk said and raised one hand in blessing.

  It was the signal to attack.

  The first ten through the trees were dressed as sōhei; their armor had been darkened for stealth and they carried swords, not staffs as their leader did. But there were only ten, by my count. Those who came after were more of a ragtag bunch, armed with crude weapons. No matter; there were more than enough of them.

  Standing our ground meant being surrounded and cut down. Kanemore nodded at me and I understood his intent. He charged right and I charged left, and as the sōhei pressed on toward Kenji, we turned the two flanks to face us.

  I saw one of the monks fall immediately, but I was too busy staying alive to follow Kanemore’s progress. I managed to cut one of them in the leg and he was down, and then I was merely faced with two, more cautious than the one now on the ground trying to keep from bleeding to death.

  I wasn’t getting any openings, and all my attention was on defending against both at once. I knew more attackers were coming and also knew I was about to die and soon Kanemore as well, and then, in due course, Prince Takahito.

  It seems I’ve failed you after all, Teiko-hime.

  Something hit one of the men attacking me. It looked like a white blur, but suddenly there was only one man in front of me, a man startled and distracted and off guard, so I killed him. Then I was able to see what had knocked down the other man.

  It was Lady Kuzunoha.

  She was in full fox-demon form, at least four times larger than a normal fox, with two tails and pure white fur now spattered with red. She had torn the first man’s throat out. She tilted back her bloody muzzle and she screamed, and for a moment almost everyone froze in place.

  Prince Kanemore, two dead bodies at his feet, seized the opportunity to take down a third sōhei. Kenji was bloodied but still standing. The men behind the monks looked behind them as a chorus of answering shrieks rose from the forest from where they had come

  I was careful to raise my voice enough so that the surviving attackers could hear. “Perhaps it wasn’t wise to remove the seals.”

  A wave rolled out of the forest. Not just foxes, but water-goblins, several wild-haired ghosts, and youkai of all sorts. The fight turned in that instant, and now the attackers were in full disarray. All of the men except the sōhei tried to run, but there was nowhere to go.

  The criminals and other rabble were pulled down first. The remaining sōhei abandoned their attack for mutual defense, but now the odds were overwhelmingly not in their favor. One by one they died, until there was only one left, spared only because Lady Kuzunoha adopted her human form again and stood over him.

  “Not this one,” she said clearly, and the youkai drew back. At another word from her, the rest of the denizens of Shinoda Forest withdrew silently into the woods, while Lady Kuzunoha daintily wiped the blood from her lips with a small cloth.

  Prince Kanemore was winded but unharmed. Kenji’s wounds were dramatic but not serious, and for a few moments I was busy binding them up.

  “It seems we owe you our lives, Lady Kuzunoha,” Prince Kanemore said after he had caught his breath. He bowed to her.

  “We would have come sooner,” she said, nodding toward Kenji. “But it took us some time to find a way past your friend’s handiwork. Fortunately, your attackers cleared a path for us.” She then noticed the dead oni. “Oh, that one. He always was an idiot.” She looked down at the cowering young priest and nudged him with her foot. “Get up.”

  “How did you know?” I asked.

  “I was already suspicious, as I imagine you were. When I learned that there were men in our forest aside from yourselves, it was not hard to ascertai
n their intentions. And yet I cannot even count this service against my debt to you, Lord Yamada.”

  “How so?”

  “It was strictly self-interest. If Prince Kanemore had been slain in Shinoda Forest, it would have been necessary for the Imperial Court to take action. I fancy that those most responsible for the crime would have insisted the most stridently, and I did not want our home burned down around us.”

  Kanemore bowed again. “For what it may be worth, Shinoda Forest will not be touched so long as I have any say in the matter.”

  I could see that Prince Kanemore’s opinion of Lady Kuzunoha had elevated considerably since their first meeting, but I wasn’t surprised. She had that effect.

  “I have unfinished business with this one,” she said, kicking the priest again, who would likely have cowered lower, if that were possible.

  “I think we do as well,” I said. “May we go first?”

  Lady Kuzunoha demurely withdrew a few paces while I reached down and hauled the monk to his feet. He wasn’t entirely steady. He still held his staff, and he used it to lean on. I should have taken it away from him, but part of me hoped he would do something foolish.

  “Who set you against Prince Kanemore?” I asked.

  “No one,” he muttered. “I thought there were those who would reward me within the Court if Prince Kanemore was removed.”

  It almost sounded plausible, if one assumed the fellow was a complete simpleton. I did not so assume. “So you took it upon yourself to involve the sōhei of Enryaku Temple in a plot to murder a Royal Prince on the off-chance that someone would approve? Sir Monk, you will have to do better than that.”

  “Much better,” Kenji growled.

  “The abbot of Enryaku ordered it,” the monk said then, pushing my patience just a little closer to its limit.

  “If the abbot had been involved, he would not have trusted this mission to so few. More, I know the abbot. As does Prince Kanemore. We do not believe you. Now. I will not ask this again.”

  “Nor will I.”

  Prince Kanemore took one step forward, and his blade flashed in the weak light. The monk fell, and for a moment I thought Prince Kanemore had lost patience and killed him. Then I realized he had only sliced through the monk’s staff, sending him tumbling back to the ground.

  “Search him,” Kanemore growled, and I held the man down while Kenji did the honors.

  The man was carrying almost nothing, save a wrinkled slip of paper with some writing. Kenji handed it to me. “It’s a love poem, and I do not think it was written by our young man here.”

  Kanemore scowled. “Let me see.”

  I handed the paper over, but he did little more than glance at it. “The reference to the wisteria is no surprise. It’s the Fujiwara emblem. What interests me is that the poem also makes reference to the willow tree. Would you care to explain, monk?”

  He just glared at us, and Prince Kanemore sighed. “I know who our enemy is, and I will deal with it…with the assistance of the good monk here. To that end, Lady Kuzunoha, I must ask that you refrain from ripping him to shreds, at least until I am done with him.”

  “I will never betray her!” the monk shouted, and at last I understood. It was not politics or profit—at least on the young fool monk’s part—but love. And yes, monks and priests were supposed to be above and removed from such things. In theory. In practice, well, there were as many of casual piety like my friend Kenji as not. I almost sympathized with the man.

  “You already have,” Kanemore said. “And you will continue to do so for a while yet. Otherwise….”

  “You can kill me if you wish.”

  Prince Kanemore smiled. “That’s true. Your life does belong to me. And I am fully within my rights to bestow that life upon Lady Kuzunoha.”

  Lady Kuzunoha, who had been following the conversation with amused interest, knew a hint when she heard one. Immediately she was in full fox-demon form. Her teeth were very long and sharp.

  “Give him to me,” she said. “I want to play.”

  For a moment the monk apparently forgot to breathe. He turned back to Prince Kanemore like a drowning man grasping a twig. “What…what do you want me to do?”

  ♦ ♦ ♦

  Prince Kanemore was circumspect as always, but later I heard that Lady Akiko, known at the Court as Willow, sister to the Emperor’s Third Wife and aunt of one of the rival claimants to the Throne, had suddenly decided to leave the Court to take Holy Orders. I also heard that Prince Kanemore and his private guard personally escorted her to a very distant western temple to assure her safety. As for the young monk, I never did discover what happened to him. Nor did I ask. I had other things on my mind.

  It was six months before I entered Shinoda Forest again. It was perhaps foolish to do so, especially alone, but unfinished business was unfinished business, and I had no idea how else to settle this particular bit.

  I followed the path to the shelf of stone where I had seen Lady Kuzunoha in the image of Princess Teiko. I kneeled before the stone and closed my eyes, bringing the memory of Princess Teiko back to me.

  “I have failed,” I said. “I thought I could hang onto my anger and use it to push me to forget you. But as long as the anger was there, so were you.”

  “You were right to be angry,” she said.

  I opened my eyes. Princess Teiko kneeled on the rock, not in an elaborate Court dress but as I had seen her last, dressed in traveling clothes at the camp near Lake Biwa. She was sipping tea. I closed my eyes, blinked, but she was still there. I thought I knew why.

  “I tried to drink free of you and of myself. That did not work either.”

  “Obviously,” she said, but that was all.

  “I knew what I had to do. I chose drink instead. It was easier…no, not easier. At the time it was possible. I was weak, perhaps, but I did what I could do, and now that’s done. I will be ready to help your brother Kanemore when and if he needs me. I will see your son on the throne. There is just one more thing I must do first.”

  “Then do it,” she said. “For both our sakes.”

  “For using me…for taking advantage of my affections for your own ends. For everything. I understand why you did. I always understood, but only now I can forgive you for all of it. And I do.”

  She smiled then, and the image of Princess Teiko bowed low. “Thank you.”

  I returned the bow. When I looked up again, she was gone.

  “Lord Yamada? This is an unexpected pleasure.”

  Lady Kuzunoha stood beside the stone, looking at me. I think she was amused, but I wasn’t certain. As with Princess Teiko, it was—had been, rather, hard to tell sometimes.

  “I think our debts are properly settled, Lady Kuzunoha,” I said.

  She smiled at me then. “Lord Yamada, I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

  Lady Kuzunoha looked a little puzzled. Or perhaps it was my imagination. I didn’t know for sure, but that was all right. There were times when it simply wasn’t wise to be certain.

  Copyright © 2011 by Richard Parks