Yamada Monogatori_Demon Hunter Read online

  “How many bowls?”

  “Rice? For this? Yamada-san, I’ll accept three good bronze, but only because it’s you.”

  Reluctantly I counted out the coins. “Done, but this better not be one of your worthless fakes for travelers and the gullible.”

  He sat up a little straighter. “Direct copy from the Diamond Sutra, Yamada-san. I was even sober when I did it.”

  “I hope so, since if this doesn’t work and somehow I survive, I’ll be back to discuss it. If it does work, I owe you a drink.”

  He just smiled a ragged smile. “Either way, you know where to find me.”

  I did. Whatever Kenji’s numerous faults as a priest and a man, at least he was consistent. I carefully stashed the paper seal and headed for Lord Abe’s estate. I wasn’t sure how much time I had left, but I didn’t think there was a lot.

  There was less than I knew.

  Before I even reached the gate at the Abe estate, I saw a lady traveling alone. She was veiled, of course. Her wide-brimmed boshi was ringed with pale white mesh that hung down like a curtain, obscuring her features. I couldn’t tell who it was but her bearing, her clothes, even the way she moved betrayed her as a noble. A woman of that class traveling unescorted was unusual in itself, but more unusual was the fact that no one seemed to notice. She passed a gang of rough-looking workmen who didn’t even give her a second glance.

  Once the density of the crowd forced her to brush against a serving girl who looked startled for a moment as she looked around, then continued her errand, frowning. The woman, for her part, kept up her pace.

  They can’t see her.

  At that point I realized it was too late to keep watch at the Abe estate. I kept to the shadows and alleyways as best I could, and I followed. I could move quietly at need and I was as careful as I could be without losing sight of her; if she spotted me, she’d know that fact long before I did. I kept with her as the buildings thinned out and she moved up the road leading out of the city.

  She’s going to the Inari Shrine.

  Mount Inari was clearly visible in the distance, and the woman kept up her pace without flagging until she had reached the grounds of the shrine. Its numerous red torii were like beacons, but she took little notice of the shrine buildings themselves and immediately passed on to the path leading up to the mountain.

  Hundreds of bright red gates donated by the faithful over the years arched over the pathway, giving it a rather tunnel-like appearance. I didn’t dare follow directly behind her now; one backward glance would have betrayed me. I moved off the path and kept to the edge of the wood that began immediately behind the shrine buildings. It was easy now to see why hunters might frequent the area; the woods went on for miles around the mountainside. There were fox statues as well, since foxes were the messengers of the God of Rice; they were depicted here in stone with message scrolls clamped in their powerful jaws. The wooden torii themselves resembled gates, and I knew that’s what they were, symbolic gates marking the transition from the world of men to the world of the spirits, and this was the true destination of my veiled Lady. I didn’t want to follow her further but I knew there was no real choice now; to turn back meant failure or worse. Going on might mean the same, if I was wrong about what was about to happen.

  The woman left the path where the woods parted briefly to create a small meadow. I hid behind a tree, but it was a useless gesture.

  “You’ve followed me for quite some time, Yamada-san. Please do me the courtesy of not skulking about any longer.”

  I recognized the voice. Not that there was any question in my mind by then, but there was no point in further concealment. I stepped into the clearing. “Greetings, Lady Akiko.”

  Lady Abe no Akiko untied her veil and removed her boshi. She was showing her age just a little more in the clear light of day, though she was still very handsome. “Following me was very rude, Yamada-san. My son will hear of it.”

  “Perhaps there is a way we can avoid that unpleasantness, Lady, if not all unpleasantness. You’re here about your grandson, aren’t you?”

  She covered her mouth with her fan to indicate that she was smiling. “Of course. Family matters have always been my special concern.”

  Someone else entered the clearing. Another woman, dressed and veiled in a manner very similar to Akiko. “You said you’d come alone,” the newcomer said. It sounded like an accusation.

  “It was not my doing that he is here,” Lady Akiko said. “And it will make no difference. Surely you can see that?”

  “Perhaps.” The newcomer removed her boshi, but her voice had already announced her. Lady Kuzunoha. She glared at me as she approached. Now she and Lady Akiko were barely a few paces apart.

  “Yamada-san, this no longer concerns you,” Lady Kuzunoha said.

  “I respectfully disagree. My responsibility ends only when Lord Abe’s son is found.”

  Lady Akiko glared at her former daughter-in-law. “And this . . . this vixen who betrayed my son knows where he is! Do you deny it?”

  “Of course not,” Lady Kuzunoha said haughtily. “I know exactly where my son is. As do you.”

  Lady Akiko practically spat out the words. “Yes! With the person who took him!”

  “Yes,” Lady Kuzunoha said grimly. She drew her dagger. “Let us settle this!”

  “Pitiful fool!”

  It turned out that Lady Akiko already had her dagger unsheathed, concealed in the sleeve of her kimono. She lashed out and Lady Kuzunoha gasped in pain. She clutched her hand as her dagger fell uselessly into the grass. In a moment Akiko had Kuzunoha’s arms pinned at her sides and her dagger at the young woman’s throat.

  “One doesn’t survive so long at court without learning a few tricks. Or, for that matter, giving your enemies a sporting chance. Now prove the truth of my words, worthless vixen! Tell me before this witness where Lord Abe’s son is, and do not try any of your fox tricks else I’ll kill you where you stand!”

  “You will not taste my blood that easily, Old Woman.”

  The fight was far from over. Lady Kuzunoha’s power was gathering around her like a storm; the air fairly crackled with it. Lady Akiko held her ground, but the hand holding the knife was shaking, and I knew it took her a great effort to keep the blade pointed at Lady Kuzunoha’s throat.

  “Tell Yamada-san where Doshi is if you want to live!” Lady Akiko said. “And no lies!”

  “Why would he believe anything I say,” Lady Kuzunoha said calmly, “if he does not believe what I have told him before now?”

  I knew that, in a few seconds, anything I did would be too late. I stepped forward quickly, pulling out Kenji’s seal as I did so. Both women watched me intently as I approached. “Lady Kuzunoha, do you know what this is?” She nodded, her face expressionless.

  Lady Akiko wasn’t expressionless at all. Her look was pure triumph. “Yamada-san, you are more resourceful than I thought. I will recommend to my son that he double your fee.”

  I gave her a slight bow. “I am in Lord Abe’s service.” I concentrated then on Lady Kuzunoha. “If you know what this is, then you know what it can do to you. Do you truly know where your son is?”

  She looked resigned. “I do.”

  “That’s all I need. Please prepare yourself.”

  Lady Kuzunoha went perfectly still in Lady Akiko’s grip but before either of them could move again, I darted forward and slapped the seal on Lady Akiko’s forehead.

  “Yamada sarrrrrr—!”

  My name ended in a snarl of rage, but Lady Akiko had time to do nothing else before the transformation was complete. In Lady Akiko’s place was an old red fox vixen with three tails. Lady Kuzunoha stood frozen, blinking in surprise.

  There was no more time to consider. My sword was in my hands just as the fox gathered itself to spring at Lady Kuzunoha’s throat. My shout startled it, and it sprang at me instead. My first slash caught it across the chest, and it yipped in pain. My second stroke severed the fox’s head from its body. The fox
that had been Abe no Akiko fell in a bloody heap, twitching.

  I had seen Lady Kuzunoha butcher two men with barely a thought, but she looked away from the remains of her former mother-in-law with a delicacy that surprised me. “I-I still had some hope that it would not come to this. That was foolish of me.”

  “She didn’t leave me much choice.”

  Lady Kuzunoha shook her head. “No, your life was already worthless to her. Doubly so since you knew her secret. Speaking of that, how did you know?”

  I started to clean my sword. “Lady Kuzunoha, I have just been forced to take a rather drastic step in the course of my duties. I’ll answer your questions if you will answer mine. Agreed?”

  She forced herself to look at Lady Akiko’s body. “There is no reason to keep her secrets now.”

  “Very well. There were two things in particular. Someone put me on the trail of a youkai that was pretending to be you. Once I knew that you didn’t send either it or those bandits, that left the question of who did. More to the point, you told me that Doshi was mostly fox, remember?”

  She actually blushed. “Careless of me. I did not intend . . . ”

  I smiled grimly. “I know, and at first I thought you’d simply mis-spoken. But, assuming you had not, for Doshi to be more than merely half fox meant his father was at least part fox himself. How could this be? The simplest reasonable answer was Lady Akiko. Did Lord Abe know about his mother? Or himself?”

  “No to both. Fortunately his fox blood was never dominant. Lady Akiko and I knew about each other all along, of course. She opposed the marriage but couldn’t reveal me without revealing herself. We kept each other’s secret out of necessity until . . . ”

  “Until Doshi was born?”

  She nodded, looking unhappy. “I knew by then I couldn’t stay, but I thought my son’s position was secure. I was in error. There was too much fox in him, and Lady Akiko was afraid his fox nature would reveal itself, and disgrace the family. The position of the Abe family was always her chief concern.”

  “If the boy was such a danger, why didn’t she just smother him in his sleep?”

  Lady Kuzunoha looked genuinely shocked. “Murder her own grandson? Really, Yamada-san . . . Beside, it’s easy enough to dedicate an unwanted child to some distant temple with no questions about his origin. In preparation, Lady Akiko had him hidden within the shrine complex; the Abe family is their foremost patron, so it was easy to arrange. Once I knew my son was missing it took me a while to follow his trail and to arrange a meeting.”

  “Duel, you mean.”

  She looked away. “Just so. While I may have hoped otherwise, it was destined that either I or Lady Akiko would not leave this clearing alive. Her solution to the problem of Doshi was quite elegant, but you were an obstacle to that solution and, once you found me, so was I.”

  “Which explains why she went to so much trouble trying to prevent me from finding you in the first place. Was she correct then? Won’t Doshi be a danger to the family now?”

  “Yes,” said Lady Kuzunoha frankly. “Yet my husband already knows that. Perhaps not how great a risk, I concede, but I don’t think that would deter him. Do you?”

  I finished cleaning my sword and slid it back into its scabbard. “No, but as grateful as he’s going to be at the return of his son, Lord Abe is going to be considerably less so when I explain what happened to his mother, proxy or no.”

  Lady Kuzunoha covered her mouth as she smiled. “Yamada-san, perhaps there is an ‘elegant solution’ to this as well. For now, kindly produce my lord’s proxy seal and we’ll go fetch my son.”

  That proved easily done. The presence of both the seal and Lady Kuzunoha herself was more than enough to send one of the shrine priests scurrying ahead of us to a small outbuilding near a koi pond. There we found Doshi in the care of a rather frightened wet nurse. Lady Kuzunoha paid off the poor woman generously, thanked her for her solicitude, and sent her on her way. The baby looked up, lifting its little arms and gurgling happily, as Lady Kuzunoha smiled down at him.

  “Probably time you were weaned, my son.” She turned to me. “Please take him, Yamada-san. You’ll need to get him back to his father quickly; he’ll have to make his own arrangements for Doshi’s care. I will give you some writing to take to my husband before you leave.”

  I hesitated. “Don’t . . . don’t you wish to hold your son? This may well be your last chance.”

  She smiled a sad smile. “Thank you for that offer, but I can only echo the words of my lord in this, Yamada-san: if I held him again, what makes you think I could let him go?”

  I had no answer to that, but I did have one last question. “One thing still bothers me: you were unable to maintain the deception of being human, but Lady Akiko had been in the family much longer than you. How did she manage?”

  Lady Kuzunoha laughed softly. “Yamada-san, as I told you before: the mask will slip, and we cannot control when or how. For me, my right hand would turn into a paw without warning. For Lady Akiko, it was her scent.”

  I blinked. “Scent?”

  She nodded. “Her true scent, as a fox. But the human nose is a poor tool at best. Those close to her would either miss the scent entirely or at worst mistake it for . . . something else,” she finished, delicately. “Lady Akiko was simply luckier than I was.”

  That may have been so, but Lady Akiko’s luck had finally run out. I was afraid that mine was about to do the same.

  Lord Abe received me in his private chambers after I placed his infant son back in the care of his servants.

  “Yamada-san, I am in your debt,” he said. “I-I trust Lady Kuzunoha was not . . . difficult?”

  From my kneeling position, I touched my forehead to the floor. “That relates to a matter I need to speak of. Lady Kuzunoha was quite reluctant, as you can imagine, but I was impertinent enough to acquire the assistance of Lady Akiko in this. They spoke, mother to mother, and Lady Akiko persuaded her.”

  “I see.”

  I could tell that he didn’t see at all, but the die was already cast. I produced the scroll Lady Kuzunoha had supplied. “Lady Akiko told me of the . . . differences, between your wife and herself. That her intense desire to protect the family’s name had perhaps blinded her to Lady Kuzunoha’s virtues. To atone for this—and other burdens—she has decided to renounce the world and join a temple as a nun. She also sent a personal message to you.”

  Lord Abe was a Gentleman of the Court, whatever else he might be. He concealed his shock and surprise very well. He took the scroll I offered and unrolled it in silence. He remained intent on what was written there for several moments longer than would have been required to actually read the words. I tried not to hold my breath.

  “My mother’s script,” he said, almost to himself. “Perfect.” He looked down at me, his expression unreadable. “I don’t suppose my mother revealed to you which temple she had chosen to join?”

  I bowed again. “She did not so confide in me, my lord, though I had the impression it was quite far from here. She seemed to feel that was for the best. She hoped you would understand.”

  He grunted. “Perhaps she is right about both. Well, then, Yamada-san. I’ve lost both my wife and my mother, but I have not yet lost all. It seems I must be content with that.”

  I breathed a little easier once I’d been paid and was safely off the grounds. I wasn’t sure how much of my story Lord Abe really believed, but if he didn’t realize full well that Lady Kuzunoha had written that message, I’m no judge of men. Perhaps that was another choice he made. As for myself, I chose to be elsewhere for a good long time. Hokkaido sounded best; I’d heard that it’s very sparsely populated and only a little frozen at this time of the year. But first I went to meet Kenji by the Demon Gate, since I’d given my word and now I owed him a drink.

  I owed myself several more.

  MOON VIEWING AT SHIJO BRIDGE

  In the early evening a tiny moth-demon was trying to batter its way into my room through a tear in
the paper screen, no doubt attracted by the scent of poverty. I was debating whether to frighten the silly thing away or simply crush it, when the Widow Tamahara’s delightful voice sent the poor creature fluttering away as fast as its little wings could carry it.

  “Yamada-san, you have a visitor!”

  Tamahara kneeled by the shoji screen that was the only door to my rooms. Besides the volume, there was an edge of excitement in the formidable old woman’s voice that worried me just a little. The fact that aristocracy impressed her had worked to my advantage more than once when the rent was late, but her deference meant that just about anyone could get closer to me than might be healthy. That is, if they were of the right station in life. Anyone else giving a hint of trouble in her establishment she would throw out on their ear, if they were lucky.

  “Who is it, Tamahara-san?”

  “A messenger and that is all I know. She’s waiting in the courtyard with her escort.”

  She?

  Well, that explained why Widow Tamahara had not simply brought the person to my rooms. That would not have been proper, and the Widow Tamahara always did the right thing, to the degree that she understood what ‘the right thing’ was.

  “Just a moment,” I said.

  After some thought I tucked a long dagger into my sleeve but left my tachi where it was. I wasn’t wearing my best clothes, but my best would have been equally unimpressive. At least everything was clean. I followed Tamahara out into the courtyard. The sun had set but there was light enough still.

  The woman kneeled near a small pine tree, flanked on either side by her escorts. No rough provincial warriors these; the two men were polite, impassive, well-dressed, and well-armed. The younger man wore the red and black clothing and bore the butterfly mon of the Taira Clan, the other wore plain black and bore no family crest or identification at all. I judged them as best I could. The escort wearing Taira livery I think I could have bested, if absolutely necessary and with a bit of luck. But the other . . . well, let’s just say I didn’t want any trouble. I also could not escape the feeling that we had met before.