The Heike Story (84 page)

The futility of trying to escape east was apparent, for the Heike would give the alarm and block every road leading east. Kichiji alone could assist them. They waited then for Konno-maru, who finally appeared a little before dawn.

"Yes, it took me by surprise. I hadn't expected this to happen until midnight, and I had great difficulty following you."

"We're sorry about that. It couldn't be helped. We said midnight, but our plans changed suddenly because a better chance came. . . . We're lucky to be here, though. What of Kichiji? What did he have to say?"

"He laughed at our impatience and seemed to think that there was nothing he could do but fall in with our plans."

"So he agrees with us?"

"Did Kichiji then offer some ideas, or did he insist that it was still too soon to tell you what they were? What did he say, Konno-maru?"

Dawn was beginning to fill the sky, and a faint radiance filtered in through a small window of the hut.

The Tengu hung on Konno-maru's words.

"Kichiji is more than ever with us, but he has some conditions. He says he will not answer for Ushiwaka's life if we don't accept his terms."

"What are they?"

"He will answer only for Ushiwaka's safety. The rest of you, he says, must look after yourselves."

"What! He's going to leave us out of this entirely?"

"Yes, he says that Ushiwaka's safety depends on that."

"How is that possible?"

"No one in this region knows who you are. People take you for Tengu demons, but if you come with Ushiwaka, Kichiji believes that that will be enough to put his life in danger."

"Konno-maru, do you believe he's right?"

"I do. We have played our part. Now that Ushiwaka has left Kurama Mountain, there is nothing more for us to do but leave him and disappear."

"And what will Ushiwaka do without us?"

"Kichiji will take care of the rest."

"Do we dare trust him?"

"If he was not to be trusted, he would never in the first place have trusted us—so he says."

"What if you're mistaken?"

"If anything goes wrong, then Kichiji will be the first to pay for it—and with his life. There's not much use in saying more. All we can do is trust him," Konno-maru said.

The rest now turned to Ushiwaka expectantly, and Masachika asked:

"You have just heard how matters are. What is your will?"

Faced now with the fulfillment of his greatest hope, Ushiwaka replied without hesitation: "I do not wish to go east at once. If I go, there's no telling whether I shall ever see my mother again. I must go to the capital—alone, or with all of you. I must see my mother. . . . Take me this once to see her."

News of Ushiwaka's escape reached Rokuhara toward dawn. Soldiers and agents set out immediately for Kurama Mountain, where the monks most familiar with the mountain terrain had already begun the hunt for Ushiwaka. By noon, when several hundred warriors from Rokuhara arrived on Kurama Mountain, Ushiwaka and his followers were on their way to Sajiki Peak. When they reached it, Konno-maru said: "From here the roads lead to the provinces of Shiga, Tamba, and Sanjo, and we shall leave you now. I alone will stay with our young master until he reaches the capital." Then he turned to Ushiwaka. "I will stay with you until you are ready to leave for the northeast with Kichiji. After that you will be entirely alone. You're quite sure you want to go, aren't you, Ushiwaka?"

Ushiwaka hesitated; then he again asked: "Konno-maru, will you really take me to see my mother? When will you do this?"

"I must first talk to Kichiji," Konno-maru replied. "Kichiji will think of a way to do it."

"Can't you manage alone, Konno-maru? Why must you first speak to Kichiji?"

"I promised that nothing would be done without his consent."

"Now—for the future!"

"Which way are you going, Goro?"

"First to Tamba, where I'll stay in hiding for a time."

"And you, Adachi?"

"I'm thinking of going to North Shiga. And you, Kamata?"

"I'll cross to Omi and then to Owari, where my father was assassinated together with Lord Yoshitomo."

One by one the men took leave of Ushiwaka, with promises to rally to him in the east. At sunset Ushiwaka and Konno-maru were alone on Sajiki Peak, towering above Kurama Mountain; the sun was setting and the mist eddied about them.

"Ushiwaka, will you be able to walk much farther?"

"Of course!"

"We shall see the lights of the capital tomorrow at this time. A carriage will be waiting for us at a certain spot."

"A carriage? . . . And where shall we be going?"

"That I don't know, but you need not worry about it. Kichiji will see to everything. You need only trust him. If I have reason to doubt him, he'll not get off alive."

The two started down the peak. They saw no one until dusk, when they met a stranger of whom they asked the way. They went on for several leagues, until they passed a small settlement, then far below them they saw some lights dotting the darkness.

"Konno-maru, are those the lights of the capital?"

"No, that is Mount Atago over there—the lights of the Atago Shrine and the monastery."

"We've come a good way, but are we any nearer the capital?"

"Not yet. We've been doubling on our tracks to escape pursuit, but we're getting closer and closer to the capital."

"Ushiwaka—" Konno-maru said suddenly, "when we reach the capital you must never call me Konno-maru, but Kowaka."

"Call you Kowaka?"

"That's what people there call me."

"Oh? . . . I'm hungry, Konno-maru," he said.

"That's natural. I'll see if I can find you something to eat. Wait in that shrine over there."

After what seemed a long time, Konno-maru returned and found that Ushiwaka had flung himself down to sleep on the shrine porch. He could hear his even breathing as he lay there under the stars. Konno-maru shook him awake, and together they devoured the food that Konno-maru had brought from a farmhouse; then they lay down to sleep until the short summer's night whitened into dawn.

They walked on for half the day. From time to time they met strangers from whose appearance they could tell that they were nearing Kyoto.

"We're not far from Saga now," Konno-maru told Ushiwaka as they came in sight of a hill against whose side nestled a thatched cottage, enclosed by a brushwood hedge. "Look, he's come as he promised! There's the ox-carriage on the road below the cottage," Konno-maru exclaimed.

Ushiwaka was unmoved by what he saw, but the look of relief on Konno-maru's face caused him to look up expectantly. Konno-maru cautiously approached a gate in the hedge and peered over it into the cottage.

Finally he called softly:

"Good-day, is this where the recluse Giwo lives?"

A sound of chanting ceased. "Yes?—" came a fresh voice from within; then a face, surprisingly young and lovely for a nun's, appeared over the hedge. "Who is it, please?"

"Are you not Giwo?"

"No, I am her younger sister."

Konno-maru smiled as he recognized her. "Don't you remember me—Kowaka, Toji's servant?"

"Is it really you, Kowaka? Come inside and wait. I'll call Giwo."

Giwo appeared almost immediately, and Konno-maru greeted her, saying:

"Ah, Giwo! How long is it since I last saw you? I've thought of you often, but—"

"Has all gone well with you, Kowaka? Are you still with Toji?"

"Yes, it's lively there. The work's pleasant, and the years slip by before I know it. Yes, it must be at least eight years since I went with you to Rokuhara."

"It's like a dream, isn't it? Five or six years have gone by since I came to live here with my mother, sister, and Hotokй."

"Yes indeed, all those years since you went to Rokuhara. You never came back to us after that."

Giwo's face clouded. "Please, Kowaka, don't talk of the past. Now that I have taken the vows of a nun, I blush when I think of it."

"Forgive me; it was stupid of me to go on like that—and that reminds me of why I'm here."

"You promised to meet Master Kichiji here, didn't you?"

"Yes, he's Toji's most respected and generous patron."

"He often asked me to perform for him. I was quite amazed when he arrived here yesterday."

"Yesterday?"

"Yes, we talked for some time, then he left, saying that he had hired a boat on the Hozu River and was taking several of Toji's girls to spend the evening on the water."

"Has he come back yet?"

"He was back again early this morning to admire the morning-glories about the house, and told me that you might be coming to fetch him. He ordered his carriage to be left in the shade where you would see it. I was to tell you that he was staying at that temple you can see from here."

Konno-maru thanked Giwo and said good-by. Then he motioned to Ushiwaka, and together they walked over to the carriage. Konno-maru lifted a blind and looked inside. The interior smelled of incense, perfume, and scented oils.

"Ushiwaka, will you wait inside here? I shall be back right away."

From the back of the carriage Konno-maru pulled out a white tunic such as ox-tenders wear and threw it on over his clothes before setting out for the temple.

Ushiwaka examined the carriage's interior curiously. The mustiness and the cloying odors stifled him. They reminded him of his mother—her letters about which clung the same fragrance, the smell that he had come to think of as the smell of women. He lifted the blinds, which Konno-maru had carefully drawn, and looked out from time to time.

Kichiji lay napping in a room in the temple when a priest appeared and wakened him, saying that a manservant had arrived to fetch him. Kichiji quickly got up and went to a door at the back of the temple.

"Kowaka! So you've come—my thanks!"

"I was afraid that I wouldn't get here in time," Konno-maru replied. "Shall we leave at once?"

After thanking the priest, the two left the temple for Giwo's cottage, near by.

"I shall be back again," Kichiji smiled. "I'm afraid, though, that I've put you to some trouble," he said apologetically as he stepped into his carriage.

His sudden appearance took Ushiwaka by surprise; he stared at Kichiji without saying a word. As the carriage jolted into motion, Kichiji leaned toward him and whispered:

"You need not fear anything now that I'm here."

After a moment's silence Kichiji once more whispered: "But —if you're not a Heike, you're a nobody. That's how the world is today. If you're depending on me to help you escape to the northeast, then you must be ready to put up with a number of things and to do exactly as I tell you."

The carriage drew to a stop as they arrived in front of a villa by a river. The sound of wheels brought two dancing-girls running from among the willow trees. Kichiji alighted and greeted them.

"Where are the others? Gone on ahead, did you say? Never mind, then, I can hire a horse or litter for myself."

After chattering somewhat inconsequentially, the two dancing-girls squeezed themselves into the carriage beside Ushiwaka.

"Well, you might as well start on ahead." Kichiji waved to Kowaka, who nodded and laid his whip to the ox.

Ushiwaka guessed from their conversation that the dancing-girls were sisters—one, Kichiji's mistress. They stared frankly at Ushiwaka, whispered to each other, and then smiled at him.

"Charming, isn't he?"

"Rather small for his age, though, don't you think?"

With sidelong glances the two women remarked on Ushiwaka's appearance from time to time as though they had acquired a household pet. Ushiwaka felt suffocated by the rich scent of the women's garments; his heart thumped, and he kept his face glued to the small window as he stared out at the scenery.