Hitomaro accepted eagerly.Before he left the wineshop, he got directions to her village. The intervening hours he passed talking to market vendors about the three convicts.
Shortly after sunset he was walking rapidly along the country road in the gatheringdusk. He carried a gift of rice cakes stuffed with sweet bean paste, and felt ageneral sense of satisfaction with his day. His master would be especiallypleased to hear that he had already made friends with two of the
Because Hitomaro was preoccupied with the genealogy that had produced two such extraordinary women as his curly-haired hostess and the pale goddess he had met earlier, he was unprepared for an ambush.
At a bend in the narrow road,near a stand of pines surrounding a small shrine to the fox spirit, a band of rough men, their faces covered with black cloth below their eyes, fell upon him with cudgels and staffs. Dropping his packages, he went into a defensive stance,ducking and fending off the blows, but he was unarmed and badly outnumbered. He took them for a band of robbers at first, but since he was wearing old clothes,they could hardly have expected to enrich themselves.
When he realized who they were,he fought back with renewed fury though he was at a disadvantage against somany cudgels, wielded with such expertise. At first they struck at his arms and legs and his lower back. He landed a few kicks to a groin or two and put his fist into a few faces, but then a well-placed hit to the side of his head senthim reeling. Flashes of red-hot pain exploded behind his eyes and his kneesbuckled. He collapsed in the roadway.
When he came to he was still lying down. Every part of his body hurt, but mostly his head. He tried to push the pain aside to concentrate on where he was. Odd sounds of rummaging and murmuring meant he was among people, and he opened his eyes a slit. He seemedto be lying on a dirt floor, looking up at an opening in a strange conical roof. Firelight flickered across beams and rafters that were tied together withvines. Nets, woven from sedge and holding various household goods, hungsuspended from them. The flickering light and a certain warmth on one side ofhis body told him that he lay next to a fire. Its smoke spiraled up toward apatch of starry sky.
He turned his head painfully and verified that the fire was contained in a sunken pit. Beyond he saw dim shapes-people- seated or standing in the outer gloom that the firelight did notreach. He grunted experimentally, and one of the shapes approached and becameYasuko, the waitress from the wineshop.
“Oh, it’s you,” he mumbled. “Idon’t remember getting here.” He grimaced and felt his scalp gingerly, wincing again at the sharp pain in his shoulder and arm. He noticed blood on his hand and sleeve, and his hand looked bruised and swollen. Memory returned suddenly,and he jerked upright with a string of bloodcurdling curses.
“Lie down!” instructed a deep,commanding voice. Hitomaro obeyed because pain and a sudden dizziness made theroom spin crazily. When his head cleared, he looked up at an old man with a silken mane of white hair and a long beard. The old man was bending over him to apply a cool and fragrant compress to his head. Hitomaro sighed with relief and closed his eyes again.
Then Yasuko began to wash the blood from his hands and face and he looked at her. She smiled. “You are in good hands,” she said. “The master himself was visiting our village when Kaoru brought you home.”
She was very gentle with him.Hitomaro murmured, “Oh. Much obliged. I was way laid near a fox shrine.” When she was done, he raised himself again, more carefully, and looked around. “I had some rice dumplings I meant to give you, but I must’ve dropped them when those bastards jumped me. At first, I thought it was a hell of a thing to do to a fellow for a few dumplings … Who’s Kaoru?”
“I am.” Slim and muscular, the young man wore the traditional garb of a woodsman. Like Hitomaro, he had a short beard and mustache but his hair was long and loose. He came closer and looked down at Hitomaro. “I doubt it was the dumplings,” he said. “Those men were set on giving you a beating, maybe even killing you. It was hard to get their attention.” He smiled, his teeth very white against the brown skin.
Hitomaro smiled back, painfully since his lip was split and swollen. “No, it wasn’t the dumplings. You’re the one who brought me here?” he asked. “Thanks, friend. I won’t forget the favor.How did you manage it by yourself?”
“Oh, I was not alone.” Kaoru smiled again, and, reaching for a large, beautifully made bow, said, “Meet my assistant, Dragon Flash.” He whistled softly, “And my best friend, White Bear.”A large, shaggy white dog appeared. The dog leaned against the woodsman’s leg and looked down at Hitomaro. Yawning largely, he revealed a set of ferocious teeth, then let his tongue loll out to give Hitomaro a friendly greeting.
“You managed to incapacitate two of them. I wounded four,” the woodsman said. “White Bear savaged the legs and buttocks of four more, and the rest decided to run for it, carrying offtheir wounded. There were twelve altogether, I think.”
“You have made a bad enemy,”remarked the old man to Hitomaro, as he came to change the compress on his head. “Perhaps you would rather not tell us your name under the circumstances.You are among friends here. We know all about keeping secrets and we often give refuge to those in trouble with the authorities.”
“The authorities?” Hitomaro looked shocked. “Good heavens! Those bastards were scum. They were the hiredthugs of a fellow called Sunada. We had a small disagreement earlier in the dayafter one of them roughed up a friend of a friend.”
The old man sighed. “Sunada’smen? In this place, authority is not always in official hands, so watch your self, my son.” Turning to Yasuko, he said, “He will stay here overnight. A very light supper, and a solid breakfast, and he should do well enough. Now I must check on my other patient.”
“No!” Hitomaro began toscramble up again, but the white-beard placed a surprisingly strong hand against his chest and forced him back. “You don’t understand,” Hitomaro pleaded. “I have to return to the city tonight. I’m meeting a friend.”
“Why?” Just that word, but the inflection expressed surprise rather than curiosity, as if in the larger scheme of things nothing mattered but Hitomaro’s health.
“Well…” Hitomaro hedged, thensaid, “Never mind.”
The old man nodded. “You will stay.” His tone left no room for argument.
Yasuko accompanied the healer to the door and bade him farewell with many deep bows. When she returned,Hitomaro said, “You have strange doctors here. He was a
She smiled. “Not just any
“I admit that compress of his is very soothing. Who’s his other patient?”
“Oh, that one!” She sniffed. “An army deserter came here to hide. He showed his gratitude by raping one of our girls.There was a fight after that. We should’ve known from his broken teeth that he was bully. I think someone broke his arm.”
“Why do you hide criminals?”
“They aren’t always criminals.Some just don’t get along with the authorities. The master insists we take in anyone who’s in trouble. He says in a world without justice, every man deserves a second chance. It’s a rule that can’t be broken. Most of those who came to us have been grateful. I’ll get your dinner now.”
After she left, an old crone sidled up and sat down next to Hitomaro. She stared fixedly at his bandaged head and muttered under her breath.
Her glittering eyes made him nervous. “What’s that, Grandmother?” he asked.
Suddenly she bent over him soclosely that he flinched away from her foul breath. “Are you afraid, myhandsome lord?” She cackled crazily, rocking back and forth. “Blood. Red bloodand white snow. Ah, the pretty flower and the pretty bud.” She leaned over him again. A thin thread of saliva drooled from her toothless gums. She hissed, “The dead will have their due, my lord. Where will you hide then? In your grave?”She doubled over with a wild shriek of laughter.
“Quiet, Grandmother!” Kaorureached down and helped her up. “Time for your supper and bed.”
The crone clung to him, whimpering now. “Make him go away. Make him go away.” Kaoru made soothing noises and tookher to the far corner of the house, where he bedded her down and gently wrappeda blanket around her. Yasuko took her a bowl of food, and Kaoru returned toHitomaro.
“Grandmother is a shamaness,”he said. “Such women suffer great mental strain in their work. She’s beenhaving spells of confusion for the past year, and today has been an especiallybad day for her. I hope you will forgive her.”
“Of course, but what the devil was she talking about? What blood? Which dead?”
