After Kaoru had gone, Akitadastood for a few more moments at the open shutters. The idea of war was foreignto him. This day would decide life or death for many. Uesugi, Takesuke, andKaoru, perhaps even the fate of an emperor along with that of an old servantwho risked his life for the memory of a dead friend. His own also, and that ofTamako and their unborn child. There were no more choices, no options ofescape. He had accepted this charge and offered up the lives of his family andhis friends along with his own. Tamako’s warning about the letter to thecapital came to his mind. Uesugi was not his only worry. Did any man have theright to gamble with the lives of others?
He sighed, hating this harshnorthern land with its superstitions, its violence, its people’s predilectionfor secrets and plots.
There was a scratching at thedoor. He called, “Enter!” and closed the shutters. Oyoshi came in hesitantly.
“Do I disturb you, sir?”
“No. You are very welcome.”Afraid that his fears and self-doubts were written large on his face, Akitadawas effusive, inviting Oyoshi to sit and pouring him a cup of tea.
Oyoshi looked strained, butAkitada’s fussing seemed to reassure him. “I have waited anxiously to speak toyou since we found Mrs. Omeya’s body,” he said after a sip of tea. “You havebeen very busy, and this has been my first opportunity. How are things going,sir?”
“I will leave for Takata latertoday,” said Akitada, “to settle the Uesugi matter.”
“Oh, dear. Forgive me. I havechosen a bad time. Let me be brief then. I wish to resign my office as yourcoroner.”
“But why?” Akitada’s heartsank. He had expected something, but he pretended surprised shock.
Oyoshi smiled a little. “Thereis no need to spare my feelings, sir. Even before Mrs. Omeya’s death, I feltthat you regretted my appointment. I made a foolish mistake with the mutilatedbody, and that certainly proved me incompetent. Since then, I’m afraid, therehave been more serious suspicions. I won’t embarrass you or myself by askingwhat they are, but I wanted to tell you that I will leave as soon as you havefound a replacement.”
Akitada sighed. “My friend,” hesaid, “and I hope I may still call you that-I have made many mistakes since Iarrived. Perhaps some of my mistakes have cost lives and will cost more. Notthe least of my mistakes was to doubt you. I should have known that a man whowould risk his life to perform an illegal exhumation at my request would not atthe same time plot against me.” He bowed to Oyoshi. “I apologize humbly for myfoolishness.”
The doctor became so agitatedthat he spilled his tea. “Oh, no,” he cried. “Please don’t. You were quiteright to suspect everyone, and who more than myself? What could you know aboutme, who had hidden his past from everyone? What should you think when I gavethe wrong testimony in court? Why should you trust me when I was soconveniently on the premises when Mrs. Omeya was killed? You did quite rightand have behaved with the greatest justice and patience towards me.”
“You will stay then?”
Oyoshi did not answer rightaway. He put down his teacup and wiped his fingers. “There is another thing. Ikilled someone,” he said softly. “I had a very bad moment when Tora saidsomething about murderous doctors and looked at me in a very knowing way. May Itell you about it?”
Akitada said quickly, “There isno need. I am quite satisfied.”
“Allow me, sir. Many years ago,in another province, I served as personal physician to … a powerful man. Icaused my patient’s death after I discovered that my wife had spent more timein his bed than in mine. It was wrong to love her more than my duty.” He brokeoff and raised a hand to hide his face in shame.
“You were not found out?”
Oyoshi lowered his hand andsmiled bleakly. “No. He was ill and I attended him. Once I was a very goodphysician. I could have saved his life, but I let him die. Afterwards Idivorced my wife and left the area. I spent the next ten years traveling,working at fairs and treating the poor, earning a few coppers as a barber nowand then to buy medicines. For another fifteen years after that I tried thereligious life. I entered a monastery, but in the end the guilt would not leaveme and it grated on my ears to be called a holy man. So I took to the roadagain and ended up here, where I hoped to end my life in obscurity.” He gave ahollow laugh and shook his head.
Akitada was relieved. “Legallyyou are not guilty of murder,” he said. “This will not prevent you from servingas coroner.”
“I must confess to yet anotheroffense,” Oyoshi said sadly. “When I saw you at Takata, ill, outnumbered,outmanipulated, and surrounded by forces you seemed neither by background norby personality equipped to handle, you seemed lost. Then, when you asked me toserve as your coroner, I formed the somewhat confused idea of throwing in mylot with you. Circumstances favored this, and the more I learned about you, themore convinced I became that joining your downfall would be my personalatonement. I planned to end my life with you and thus make amends for my past.But I was quite wrong. You have fought the evil in this province successfullyand you will prevail, while I must continue to bear my guilt.”
For a moment Akitada was sotaken aback by this that he did not know whether to laugh or be angry. Then heremembered the coming battle and said, “I suppose both my arrogance and myignorance, obvious to everyone but me, blinded me to the local problems in thebeginning. You were not wrong about me. I have little to be proud of, and had Iknown how badly I would bungle, I would have fled in panic. Let us hope thatsome good may still come of our most foolish actions. I want you to stay.”
Oyoshi brushed at his eyes. “Ifyou truly wish it, sir,” he murmured. He rose awkwardly and stumbled from theroom.
¦
Heavygray clouds swirled above and sleet stung their faces. Below them, the forestenclosing the frozen fields looked funereal, like a black stole draped across apallid hempen gown. It was past midday. Hours ago, Akitada and Takesuke hadridden up to the Takata gate and demanded Makio’s surrender. A hail of arrowshad been their answer. After that, Takesuke had withdrawn his troops, andAkitada, along with Hitomaro and Tora, had gone to meet Kaoru.
The four would make the dangerousattempt to get inside the fortified manor. They wore straw rain capes overlight armor and waited hidden among trees where they could see part of the roadleading up to the manor. A quarter of the hour passed before the old womanappeared, walking slowly and leaning on the arm of a girl.
“Isn’t that your sister?”Hitomaro asked Kaoru. “Why risk her life?”
“My cousin. She usually goesalong and I could not stop her.”
They waited again, nervouslynow, until the two women returned. The girl loosened the shawl around her headand let it blow in the wind for a moment before she retied it.
“Good girl! All is ready,” saidKaoru, adding grimly, “Let’s hope we do our part as well.”
Akitada looked up at the sky togauge the time. There was no sun. The icy wind pushed angry gray clouds beforeit, clouds so low that they hid the snowy tops of the distant mountains. Wispsof cloud drifted across the dark roofs of Takata manor- shredded silk gauzefrom a mourner’s train.
They left the trees at a runand dashed across the road. Up the hill, still at a run, they kept mostly to agully, a jagged scar which ran up the barren hillside. The gully gave them somecover, but then they were in the open again and close enough to the manor thata single archer on one of the galleries could pick them off one by one, likerunning deer.
As they ran uphill, the lowclouds finally released the first heavy drops. They congealed into sleet in thecold wind and stung their faces. Akitada clasped his heavy sword to his side soit would not get between his legs and trip him. His armor was also heavy andcumbersome, and the rain-soaked straw cape flapped wetly against him. Hisbreath soon came in hoarse gasps, his chest hurt, and his leg muscles ached,but he was ashamed to fall back behind the others. When they reached the steepoutcropping under the eastern wall, he sagged against the rock, drenched insweat despite the bitter cold.
They huddled there for alittle, in a blind spot where an overhanging gallery hid them from watchingeyes above, and waited for the signal. The icy wind cut through the straw coatsand turned the metal scales of their armor into ice against their wet bodies.Akitada’s teeth chattered from cold and nerves.
Below the land stretched away,empty sere fields traversed by the darker line of the road. They had come fromthe forest to the north and followed a path so narrow and overgrown that onlyKaoru had known how to find it. He had kept an eye on the ramparts above them,but they had seen no watchers. Takesuke and his men were on the other side,below the approach to the manor’s gate, and that was where Uesugi expected theattack to come
