“I wish I had some of thatspecial ginseng from China that makes you live forever,” Tora muttered. “Whatif the old lord’s ghost comes after us?”
“If he does, he’ll save you alot of hard work,” Akitada said dryly.
Tora reached for his amuletinside the shaggy bearskin.
Oyoshi said with a sigh, “Livingforever is a curse, not a blessing.”
Tora shuddered visibly, andAkitada snapped, “Pull yourself together.”
“Only the spirits of the deadmake me nervous,” Tora said defensively.
“Ssh!” Akitada raised his hand.He thought he heard sounds: dry branches cracking and small creaks. They heldtheir breaths and calmed their mounts, but there was only the wind in thetrees.
Akitada felt as tense as Tora,but for different reasons. In the murky grayness, the dim shapes of the gravemarkers stood in their patches of snow like a frozen army watching over thetomb in their midst. The image reminded him of their danger as they trespassedon the sacred land of ancient warlords. He took some consolation from the factthat the snow had been trampled by those who had attended the funeral. Theirtracks would be lost among the old ones.
Pushing aside the sense ofimpending disaster, he said briskly, “Come. Let’s get it over with. Bring yourtools, Tora.” They dismounted, and tied up their horses.
Walking across the clearing andclimbing uphill past the silent markers, they found the entrance of the tomb.The large stone doorway, its moss and lichen scarred by the recent opening, wasalmost as wide and tall as a man. When Akitada went closer, he saw that it wasinscribed with sacred texts and the Uesugi crest. Marks in the muddy groundshowed that the stone pivoted outward.
“Come here, Tora, and see ifyou can lever it open.” Akitada said.
“Amida!” prayed Tora, but heobeyed, selecting from among his tools an iron truncheon he had picked up inthe constables’ armory.
It took a while. Akitada andOyoshi waited, stamping their icy feet and moving their arms to keep warm,while Tora muttered prayers and magic spells under his breath and probed thedoor to the burial chamber of the late Lord of Takata.
Around them the ancient pinesand cedars stirred and creaked as the wind blew through them, and Akitada feltdoubly like a trespasser. Not only was this Uesugi land, the final restingplace of their dead, but it was a spirit world which should be inhabited atthis hour only by shifting shadows and strange sighs of the wind.
“Hurry up!” His voice soundedunnaturally loud.
Tora grunted, leaning all hisstrength into the iron bar. The space between the stone doorway and its framewidened with a harsh grating sound. Tora muttered another prayer, then put hishand inside and pulled. Akitada went to help him, and with more jarring andscraping, the great stone moved outward. A dark tunnel gaped before them.
Tora backed away.
“Come on” snapped Akitada. “Surelyyou don’t expect me to finish the job.”
“Look!” Tora choked andpointed. “It leads straight to hell.”
“Nonsense.” But when Akitadapeered down the tunnel, he saw faint firelight flickering deep inside. Behindhim, Tora was shaking so badly that his teeth chattered.
“All right, stay here.” Akitadatook up the lantern, struck a flint and lit it, then ducked into the tunnel.The air was moist and cold, and it smelled of the earth. The tunnel was builtof granite: Cut stones formed the walls and large slabs the low ceiling. He hadto walk with his head bent. Under his feet were more stones. His lantern threwweird moving shapes against the wall beside him, as if shadowy creatures movedon either side.
The tunnel was not perfectlystraight, but curved slightly to the left. After a few paces, Akitada found thesource of the flickering light. The tunnel suddenly widened and arched up intoa small chamber, and here rested a sarcophagus. Offerings of food for the deadlord had been placed at its foot between two burning oil lamps. The oil in thedishes was getting very low. Soon eternal darkness would descend on the tomb.
He heard steps behind him andturned. Dr. Oyoshi joined him with his case of instruments and looked aroundcuriously. “I knew they built this,” he said. “Years ago. They said Lord Marorequested it. Look at the paintings.”
Akitada, having bent over thecoffin to see how it opened, straightened up. The chamber was taller than thetunnel, and high on each wall and on the ceiling were panels of white plaster.Each panel was decorated with ancient directional symbols: the black tortoiseof the north, the azure dragon of the east, the red bird of the south, and thewhite tiger of the west. The colors shone fresh in the light, and on theceiling sparkled gold stars: astronomical constellations.
“I have heard tales of theancient burials of the first emperors that must have been something like this,”he said. “Uesugi thought highly of himself.”
Oyoshi chuckled. “Maybe. Or maybehe wanted nothing to do with the Buddhist rites that insist on cremationbecause that’s what the Buddha chose. Lord Maro was a strange man.”
“I am told he went mad and hadto be confined. We need help with this stone lid.” Akitada called for Tora.
Tora slunk in, looking greenand panicky, but he did as he was asked, and together they shifted the stonelid enough to reveal the corpse.
Tora clutched his amulet andrecited a string of “Amidas.”
“Go back and keep watchoutside,” Akitada snapped. “We can manage the rest.”
Tora disappeared through thetunnel. Sounds of retching, interspersed with fervent calls upon the Buddha,reached them faintly.
The smell of death anddecomposition was very slight. For once the season had favored them; the coldstone had kept the body fresh and pliable.
The doctor placed the lights.Together they lifted the wrapped corpse and stretched it out on the stonefloor. Oyoshi unwound the silk wrappings. The emaciated form of a very old manappeared in the uncertain light. His protruding ribs resembled a bamboo cage,and the face, peaceful in death, was, with its sunken cheeks, toothless gums,and deeply recessed eyes, more skeletal than the body. Air currents surgedthrough the tomb, stirring the thin wisps of beard, and for a moment it lookedas if the dead man were about to speak.
Akitada crouched, watching asOyoshi, on his knees next to the body, began his examination. In the flickeringlights, the scene reminded him of gruesome paintings of the demons of hell in aBuddhist monastery.
Oyoshi was thorough butrespectful of the dead man. After verifying that the body bore no obviouswounds, he began his inspection with the head, first feeling the skull for softspots. These might mean that Lord Maro had been bludgeoned. Next he examinedthe eyes, ears, nostrils, and mouth for signs of bleeding. He inserted a silverprobe into the dead man’s mouth and studied it, and he looked closely at thethin neck. Then he went over the rest of the body, all the way to the old man’sbony feet with their yellowed toenails.
Akitada, impatient anddisappointed, asked, “Nothing?”
Oyoshi sat back on his heelsand shook his head. “No wounds, no signs of poison, no evidence ofstrangulation or smothering. No bruising. The condition of the body isconsistent with the disease of old age.”
Akitada cried in frustration, “Butthere must be something. Everything points to murder. Why else kill Hideo? Andwhy the suspicious behavior of Makio and Kaibara during the banquet, and nowToneo’s disappearance? None of it makes any sense unless the old lord wasmurdered that night.”
Oyoshi looked at Akitada. “Youare worried about the boy, aren’t you?”
“I am worried about a lot ofthings. One of them is this needless exhumation of a body. It is a sacrilegeand a capital offense. You and I, Doctor, and Tora also, will lose our freedomand perhaps our lives if anyone finds out about this. Let’s finish and leave.”
Oyoshi nodded. “You took agreat risk. You are a man with a soft heart. I knew it the first time I laideyes on you. It is an admirable quality.”
“And you are a foolish old man,”snapped Akitada, turning away. “Go ahead and wrap him up again. If you say hedied of natural causes, so be it. Tora, come help the doctor!”
Tora did not answer or appear.Faint sounds came from outside. The doctor’s donkey brayed, and a horse gave afrightened whinny.
Akitada said, “I wonder whatTora is up to.”
They listened, but all remainedsilent. Akitada regretted having come unarmed on this excursion. Spurred by a
