The Heike Story (47 page)

"The Princess and her maid are on their way to the temple," came the reply. "Tell Juro to come here."

"This is I, Juro."

"Is that you, Juro?"

"Who speaks?"

"Korekata of the Police Commission."

"You, sir?"

"Open the gates and let us through. I am escorting her highness in person. Need you question us further?"

"Quite unnecessary, sir, but we have our orders from General Yoshitomo and may not allow even you to pass, sir."

"Then call the general."

"I do not know where he is to be found."

"How much longer do you intend to keep her highness waiting here among these rough soldiers? What right have you to question her when I am her escort? Out of the way!"

"A moment, sir. It is our duty to guard this gate and even you cannot force your way through like this. If you insist, however, allow me to inspect the carriage," said Juro stepping forward and pushing aside the curtains with the end of his bow. Guards crowded behind Juro, waving their torches. The glare revealed two frightened young women, huddled motionless in each other's arms. The seventeen-year-old Emperor's eyes were closed and a deathly pallor lay on his delicate, girlish features. Juro, who took him for one of the ladies-in-waiting, ordered the carriage to pass on.

The carriage continued on its way through the throng of warriors and flaming torches, rumbled over the icy ground and into the night.

"Get on, there! Hurry!" Korekata and Tsunemunй cried to the panting ox-tenders as the carriage turned east at the end of the Palace wall.

Both of Kiyomori's daring schemes succeeded. The ex-Emperor escaped to Ninna-ji Temple, and the young Emperor was safely carried off from the Palace. Soon after this a fiery glow and black smoke north of the Imperial Palace caused wild stories to spread; there were rumors that Kiyomori had sent his troops up the river and attacked the imperial residence from the north, and that the monks of Mount Hiei had sided with Kiyomori and were marching on the capital.

Yoshitomo of the Genji sent his son Yoshihira with a small force to the Imperial Palace, while a company on guard there were dispatched north of the city gates to investigate the fire.

Meanwhile, with a sharp cracking of whips and hoarse cries, the ox-tenders strained at the carriage beast, urging it on toward Rokuhara.

"Wait—not so fast! Stop, we're out of danger now . . ." panted Korekata and Tsunemunй as they pursued the Emperor's carriage.

The ox-tenders slowed down and laughed. "Hear them squealing? Shall we wait for them?"

"Seems safe now."

The two men brought the conveyance to a stop and mopped their streaming faces.

The carriage soon reached the tree-lined avenue along the Kamo River, where dark shapes separated themselves from the shadows and came out to meet it. Kiyomori had sent two hundred warriors from Rokuhara to escort Nijo, and as they came to Gojo Bridge the clouds released a flurry of snow.

Rokuhara, which had lain silent and dark for so many nights, shone with countless lights at the Emperor's approach. Candles twinkled everywhere like stars through the falling snow. As soon as the Emperor arrived in Rokuhara, bands of Heike warriors were sent throughout the avenues of the capital, announcing that the ruler had taken up residence at Rokuhara at the Hour of the Tiger (four a.m.) and that the Cloistered Emperor was now at Ninna-ji Temple. All who were loyal to the Emperor were urged to go to Rokuhara.

By sunrise, courtiers and ministers, led by the Regent, were on their way to Rokuhara.

While all this was happening, Nobuyori, the leader of the revolt, lay in his room at the Imperial Palace in a drunken stupor, attended by ladies-in-waiting. His nightly bouts of drinking had finally alienated Tsunemunй and Korekata, who suspected that Nobuyori was not in his right mind. Mitsuyori's rebuke, moreover, had brought them to their senses and they lost no time in communicating with Kiyomori.

When a councilor arrived panting in Nobuyori's apartment to say that the royal prisoners were gone, Nobuyori sprang from his couch in alarm and then laughed hysterically.

"What impossible tale is this? A hallucination—Korekata and Tsunemunй are seeing to it that their majesties do not escape!"

"Sir, the guards have turned traitor and flown with the prisoners."

"Impossible!" Nobuyori insisted, but misgivings crossed his mind as he spoke; he quickly dressed, buckled on a sword, and ran headlong down the maze of corridors. A stream of oaths and bellows of rage came from Nobuyori when he discovered the truth.

"Let no one hear of this—not even our confederates," he ordered.

It was too late, however, to conceal what had happened. Yoshihira of the Genji already knew that the royal prisoners had escaped and immediately rode back to his father to report it.

"The incredible has already happened tonight! Kiyomori stole a march on us—his majesty has been carried off to Rokuhara and the Cloistered Emperor is now safe at Ninna-ji Temple. Could this possibly be true?"

Yoshitomo did not reply.

"Is this true, Father?" Yoshihira insisted.

Yoshitomo hesitated. "It is so. I also have heard the news, though Nobuyori has said nothing yet."

A look of consternation appeared on the youth's face.

"Yoshihira!"

"Yes—"

"What of the fire at the Palace?"

"That was a trick of the enemy. Kiyomori's troops were not there, but I found huts and farmhouses outside the city gates in flames."

"Kiyomori's cunning again, or else some crafty agent is advising him. I must admit that our enemy's performance tonight has been masterly. We are in for no easy time."

"But, Father, what use is there in defending the Palace when their majesties are no longer there?"

"No, I pledged the word of a Genji in this pact and cannot withdraw now. A warrior keeps faith even to death. If, however, I keep my word there will be no choice for me except bowing to the Heike or annihilation."

By his words Yoshitomo confessed what he had dared not until now. He had been mistaken in Nobuyori and bitterly regretted what he had done. Yet, Yoshitomo reflected, had he not linked his fate with the Vice-Councilor's, Shinzei's hostility would in the end have led to an armed clash between the Genji and the Heike. Shinzei was dead now, but Kiyomori still remained. There was no denying that the Genji had sustained a serious setback with the kidnapping of the Emperor by the Heike. In the actual conduct of a war, however, Yoshitomo was confident that his experience was far superior to Kiyomori's.

A councilor who had been sent by Yoshitomo to Nobuyori now appeared.

"I have seen the Minister and he denies the reports. He assures me that nothing unusual has happened at the Palace."

The faces gathered around the watch-fires exchanged smiles of pity at Nobuyori's cowardice.

"Then nothing more is to be said," Yoshitomo remarked, "so let those who are assigned to guard the Palace form rank and call the roll."

Nobuyori, the General of the Guards, was about to review his troops from the Great Hall facing the Palace plaza. To either side of him were ranged the splendor of the Court—the ministers and highest-ranking officials, and while the review proceeded, messenger after messenger arrived on horseback through the snow with the latest report on Kiyomori's movements. A company had already assembled, it was said, on the riverbank, awaiting orders to attack. There were also other rumors that Kiyomori's troops were deployed along the flanks of the Eastern Hills, preparing to make a surprise attack on the Palace.

Two thousand Genji waited on horseback in the Palace plaza, as icicles slowly formed on their visors and the blood in their veins foamed with impatience and fear.

Nobuyori wore armor dyed lavender, shading to a deep purple at the hips; under it was a tunic of scarlet cloth; the sword he carried had a sheath inlaid with a fine pattern of chrysanthemums in pure gold; the rivets on his horned helmet glittered and sparkled through the falling snow. His coal-black steed, a famous pedigreed mount from the imperial stables, was hitched to the cherry tree growing at one side of the wide staircase that ascended to the Great Hall.

Yoshitomo was turned out with more than usual care for the details of his accouterment, and his three sons had also put on their finest tunics and the Genji armor. Of the three, the youngest, Yoritomo, a boy of thirteen, drew many glances from the troops. Because of his extreme youth, his father and brothers watched over him with great care; he had just been wakened from a nap in the guardhouse and led, sleepy-eyed and shivering, onto the parade ground in a complete suit of boy's armor. The sight of this pitifully young lad come to take his first lesson in bloodshed moved the soldiers.

By morning the snow had ceased falling and the avenues of the capital were dazzling, but no smoke of cooking-fires rose from the shuttered houses of the common people.

Yoshitomo had prepared to attack Rokuhara instead of taking the defensive. His son Yoshihira, who was sent to reconnoiter, returned soon with the report that he had seen Yorimasa of the Genji riding toward Gojo Bridge. "I fear, Father, that Yorimasa has deceived us by his excuses of being ill; he is on his way to Rokuhara. Let me pursue him and challenge him."

Yoshitomo, stung to the quick, replied: "No, I shall go myself." But as he turned his horse's head, he said with a bitter laugh: "Why should it matter to us what Yorimasa and his kind, do? I care nothing for him."

Not long after, Yoshitomo and Yorimasa faced each other across the river near Gojo Bridge, and Yoshitomo spurred his horse forward, crying contemptuously:

"So, Yorimasa, you who are a Genji have sided with the Heike? A curse on the day that you were born a Genji! Shame on you for coming to challenge the Genji in battle!"

Then Yorimasa appeared and proudly replied: "You speak the truth, Yoshitomo. From times immemorial the Genji have been loyal to the throne, and it is you who have disgraced the Genji by siding with that traitor Nobuyori. I weep at the shame you have brought on the Genji!"

DRUMS BEAT

The Emperor Nijo, his entire suite, and the ministers of state occupied the main buildings at Rokuhara, and so crowded were they even then that the outbuildings and cookhouses also were taken over for his attendants.

Kiyomori's son Shigemori crossed the court where the snow had been trampled and turned to mud by innumerable feet, and approached the main building in search of his father.

"Is my father with his majesty?" he asked of an attendant who was leaning over a balustrade.

"No, he is not here," was the reply.

Shigemori wandered from an inner court to the two-storied gate, peered into the guardhouse and then retraced his steps. A search of every building on the estate was impossible. The sun would be up in the meantime, Shigemori thought, looking apprehensively at the sky. He feared seeing the light break along the shoulder of the Eastern Hills. His father, in his present state of elation, might forget that the fateful business of fighting still lay ahead of them. The troops, who had spent the night along the river, were getting restive, waiting for orders to advance.

Shigemori mumbled impatiently to himself. It was unlikely that his father would be in the servants' quarters near the stables. Still, it would be worth while looking there, he thought, and turned his steps in that direction, when he came upon his father crossing the gallery that led from the kitchens.

"Why, Father, here you are!"

"Is that you, Shigemori? What did you want?"

"No wonder I couldn't find you. I never thought to find you here."

"I've been speaking to the cooks myself. I had to see that everything was right for his majesty."

"Why don't you leave that to the cooks and their helpers? The soldiers are tired out with waiting for your orders."

"There's still time until dawn."

"As soon as it's light, the enemy will attack first at the Gojo Bridge, and Rokuhara will be lost if they do."

"Send out some men to reconnoiter."

"That has already been done."

"That will be enough for the time being."

"But we mustn't lose our chance to make the first move at daybreak. That will mean sure victory for us."