Higekuro glanced at Tora and Otomi, who were taking their time putting away the game pieces and managing to touch hands as much as possible. He smiled. “Tora’s like the son I never had,” he said. “I don’t want Otomi to get hurt, but I won’t deny my daughters some joy while they are young.” He met Akitada’s eyes and added with great seriousness, “Remember this: my daughters and I are outside the world you live in; we have made our own rules.”

Akitada had no idea how to respond to this puzzling advice, so he thanked his host for the wine and entertainment and gathered up his scrolls.

When Ayako returned, she wore long black trousers and a long-sleeved black shirt. Her hair was bound up in a black scarf. “Do you have any dark clothes?” she asked, frowning at Akitada’s white silk trousers and pale gray robe.

“Yes. Though nothing nearly as becoming as your costume,” he said with a warm smile.

She looked startled and turned away abruptly. “Let’s go then.”

* * * *

TEN

THE TEMPLE OF

FOURFOLD WISDOM

A

kitada, in his dark brown hunting clothes, joined Tora in the stable yard. Tora had brought horses from the governor’s stables and wore a quilted cotton coat that was so stained and faded it was hard to tell if it was green or black. A pair of badly patched blue trousers were tucked into his boots.

Akitada stared at him. “Is there some naked beggar outside the gate?”

“What’s wrong with my clothes?” Tora asked. “They’re dark. Had to give that greedy bastard of a stable boy ten coppers and my blue robe for them.”

The stable boy, who had saddled the three horses and was standing about yawning, decided to disappear.

“You gave him your new blue robe? I paid three strings of coppers for your clothes,” protested Akitada.

Tora snorted. “You were cheated. They didn’t keep me as warm as this.” He patted his quilted coat affectionately, then took the bridles of two horses and headed out the door, leaving Akitada to follow behind with the third.

Ayako regarded her horse with intense dislike.

“Come on,” mocked Tora. “Get up! He won’t bite.”

She gave him a furious look and scrambled up awkwardly. Taking the reins, she gingerly directed the docile beast onto the road. “Follow me,” she said over her shoulder. “We can’t use the Great Northern Gate. The guards ask questions.”

They passed quickly through dark deserted streets north of the tribunal and turned down a short alley that ended at the palisade enclosing the city. Someone had broken the boards there, making an opening wide enough for a horse and rider to pass through. A well-trodden path led down into the wide ditch and up the other side. Clearly they were not the only ones who avoided official scrutiny at the Great Northern Gate.

Once in the countryside, they traveled quickly along narrow farm roads. Mulberry groves, leafless at this time of year, raised screens of fine black branches against the starry sky. The moon, nearly full, moved with them in ghostly fashion behind the lacy boughs.

It was cold, and the horses’ breath hung white in the air when they snorted. They were riding single file, with Ayako leading the way and Tora bringing up the rear. Akitada’s eyes were on the slender, straight back of the young woman in front of him. He wondered if she was cold in her thin black cotton shirt and trousers. Belatedly it occurred to him that, being unfamiliar with horses, she had expected to ride in front of one of them.

Bringing his horse up beside hers as soon as the road widened a little, he asked, “Are you cold?”

“No,” she said curtly. “I don’t like horses, that’s all.”

“I’m sorry I did not ask before. Would you like to ride with me?”

For a moment she hesitated, then she stiffened her shoulders and shook her head.

“Why did you offer to come? You could have drawn us a map.”

“I wanted to come.” After a moment she grudgingly added, “Besides, you need me. I know how to get in. When my sister was attacked, I got suspicious of the monks and paid a visit to the temple.”

“And?”

“In the daytime they watch all visitors. I decided to come back after dark. The first time they almost caught me. Last time I found ... well, something strange.”

“What?”

“Wait till you see.” She kicked her horse into a faster trot, and Akitada fell behind.

The mulberry groves thinned, and an icy wind began to catch at their clothes. The narrow road joined a much wider highway leading into the mountains. Akitada looked back over his shoulder. Behind him stretched the plain toward the distant bay—a thin silver line marking the separation of the night sky from the land. Between them and the sea lay the city, an amorphous mass of snow-covered roofs, pine groves, and pagodas.

Tora sat huddled into his quilted coat, staring ahead. “Looks dark in those woods,” he muttered.

The mountains loomed ominously ahead, and the band of moon-silvered road led straight into them. Within minutes the pine forest swallowed them up.

The forest screened them from the wind, but small night animals frightened their horses, and many eyes, glittering sparks in the darkness of the trees lining the road, watched them pass. Tora cursed once, and when Akitada looked back, he saw in the dim moonlight that Tora was clutching the amulet he wore on a string around his neck. Tora’s superstitious fears were at odds with the courage he displayed against human opponents.

The road began to climb, twisting back and forth among rock outcroppings. It was in excellent condition and quite wide, clearly a result of the fame of Joto’s temple.

Soon Ayako stopped her horse and waited for them to come up. “There!” she said, pointing. The trees thinned ahead, and they saw the top of a tall pagoda stretching a graceful spire and curved roofs into the starry sky, its snowy ridge tiles and gilded eave ornaments, its bells and hanging lanterns shimmering in the moonlight. “We have to turn aside here,” Ayako told them. “The gate is guarded day and night. We’ll take the horses into the woods a little ways and walk from there.”

She seemed to know her way through the forest, but Akitada soon became completely disoriented. They stopped in a small clearing, dismounted, and tied up the horses.

Tora looked around, glowering. “Where the devil are we?”

Ayako said sharply, “Near the western wall of the temple. When we get closer, you must stop talking and try not to make any noise. They have patrols at night, and we are passing near the stables where the horses may give us away.”