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Black Arrow

[Sugawara Akitada 04]

By I. J. Parker

Scanned & Proofed By MadMaxAU

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  CHARACTERS

In Japan, Family names precede given names for persons of rank.

Main Characters

Sugawara Akitada                             Deputy governor of Echigo province

Tora, Hitomaro, Genba                     His lieutenants

Seimei                                                 His secretary

Tamako                                               His wife

Hamaya                                              Head clerk of the provincial administration

Yasakichi, Oyoshi                              Two coroners

Chobei, Kaoru                                    Two sergeants of constables

Characters Involved in the Cases

Uesugi Maro                                      The old lord of Takata castle, provincial chieftain,

and high constable of Echigo

Uesugi Makio                                     His son and heir

Kaibara                                               Steward to the Uesugi family

Hideo                                                  Servant to the old lord

Toneo                                                  Hideo’s grandson

Hokko                                                 The abbot of the Buddhist temple

Takesuke                                            Commander of the provincial guard

Mrs. Sato                                             An innkeeper’s widow

Kiyo                                                      Her maid

Takagi, Okano, Umehara                 Three travelers arrested for murder

Sunada                                                A wealthy merchant

Boshu                                                  Sunada’s agent

Hisamatsu                                          A judge

Mrs. Omeya                                      A widow

Goto                                                     A fishmonger

Ogai                                                     His brother, a deserter

Koichi                                                   A porter

Also: Tradesmen, outcasts, servants, and constables

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BLACK

ARROW

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PROLOGUE

THE FATAL ARROW

Echigo Province, Japan:

Leaf-Turning Month (September), A.D. 981

T

he evening sun slanted through the branches of tall cedars and splashed across a bloodred maple on the other side of the clearing. From the valley below came sounds of horses and shouts of men.

A young woman emerged from the trees, leading a child—a boy, no more than three years old, in bright blue silk and with his hair childishly parted and tied into loops over his ears. The young woman was slender and beautiful, and dressed in a costly white silk gown embroidered about the hem and full sleeves with nodding golden grasses and purple chrysanthemums. Her long hair, which almost reached the hem of her dress, was fastened with a broad white silk ribbon below her shoulders.

In the middle of the clearing the child pulled free to chase a butterfly. The young woman called out anxiously, then laughed and ran after him.

From the thicket, Death watched the two with hot eyes, clasping the large bow with his left hand, while the right slowly reached over his shoulder to pull the long, black-feathered arrow from the quiver slung across his back.

The boy lost the butterfly and turned toward the woman, who sank to her knees and spread her arms wide to receive the child.

Death bared his teeth. He was close, his bow powerful, the arrow special. With luck it might take only the one shot. He placed it into its groove, pulled back firmly, and aimed.

With a shout of laughter the boy hurled himself into the waiting arms, and Death released the long steel-tipped missile. He watched as it found its mark just below the silken ribbon in the woman’s black hair, heard the muffled blow clearly in the sudden silence, and watched as she fell forward, slowly, burying the small figure of the child beneath her. Heavy silken hair slipped aside, and a large red stain appeared on her white silk gown, spreading gradually from the black-feathered arrow like a crimson peony opening its petals in the snow.

Even the birds had fallen silent.

Death remained frozen for a few moments, watching, listening. But there was neither cry nor movement under the white silk, and he slowly lowered the bow.

The silence was broken by a small bird’s voice, then by the humming of insects and distant shouts of the hunting party in the valley. Death quickly left the clearing.

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ONE

THE OUTPOST

Echigo Province, Japan

Gods-Absent Month (November), A.D. 1015

T

wo men armed with hunting bows rode single file down the steeply sloping track toward the dark huddle of buildings on the plain below. They hunched into heavy clothing against a sharp wind that swept across the black-and-gray landscape of rock, evergreens, and sere grasses. Below them the black roofs of the town were a blot in a wintry plain, and beyond the plain a pewter ocean stretched toward a distant line where it melted into the murky grayness of low clouds. A highway ran along the shore. Behind the horsemen rose mountains, their tops hidden in gray vapor.

The prospect was dismal.

Most of the town straggled along the black line of the highway, which looked not unlike a dead snake with a large rat bulging its middle. The rat bulge contained the tribunal and a small temple, surrounded by low, steep-roofed houses—the center of Naoetsu, capital of Echigo province.

This was the rough north country, won only recently from its barbaric inhabitants and not yet fully civilized. In the short summers, the plain between the mountains and the ocean was green with fields of rice, ramie, and beans, and the ocean dotted with fishing boats. Echigo was a fertile province, but now it prepared for the long winter, when a thick blanket of snow covered the land, and men and beasts lived like bears inside their homes until the snow melted in the spring.