off. But I felt guilty for having forgotten my promise. So I gathered the skirts of my kimonos and stepped into the opening.
I had to feel my way down in the dark, and the stone wall of the stairway was cold and damp. I had descended seventeen steps when the ghost, who was right behind me, commanded, " Stop ."
I was relieved to do so. And then a pale, greenish light filled the space in front of me. It revealed a rectangular chamber. But it was empty, save for bits of broken pottery that littered the floor.
" Once this room was filled with gold and silver ," said the ghost." The finest of tachi swords lay here, and bronze mirrors, moon-shaped jewels, copper shields, and hardwood lances. All gone now. Stolen ."
"I am so very sorry," I said softly.
" Heh ." The ghost extended his arm toward the far wall. " They did not get it all, however. They did not find me! " With a deep rumbling, a rectangular section of stone in the wall opened inward.
I trembled and turned to the ghost. "If you please, Most Noble Ancient Lord-"
" Yes. I know of your transgression against Lord Emma-O, Judge of the Dead. He has spoken to me. And I will see that you are taken to receive his judgment, unless you do as I bid ."
So he knew. Two years before, after my brother-in-law was slain on the Western Road by the warrior monks of Heian Kyo, I had embarked on a strange journey to find my sister's grieving soul. This journey had taken me to the very court of Lord Emma-O, Judge of the Dead. I had been disguised, with ashes rubbed on my face, as a departed soul, and I had been warned not to speak. But when Emma-O said he had not seen whom I searched for, I had whispered that that was impossible. Hearing my voice, Lord Emma-O knew I was a living person trespassing in his land, and I would have been arrested by him had not Goranu helped me escape. Ever since, I had avoided cemeteries and those realms where Lord Emma-O's demons might catch me. I had hoped staying in temples would shield me from his anger. How was I to know the kami to whom I had made a sacred promise was a powerful ghost? Naturally he would have met Lord Emma-O.
As there was nothing else I could do, I bowed my head and entered the doorway the ghost had opened.
The room beyond was bigger and dominated by a huge block of polished black stone in the center. Surrounding the black stone block were hundreds of haniwa, red-painted pottery figures depicting all manner of men, women, and animals. I had to step very carefully to make sure I knocked none of them over. The black stone block rose as high as my shoulders, so I was able to see on its top a suit of armor made solely of jade pieces bound with silver wire. But now the armor protected only bones. A magnificent mask of jade carved in the likeness of a fierce, scowling demon covered the skull.
" I was Lord Chomigoto: warrior, priest, king. As I lay dying, I asked to be buried here, where I loved to hunt, rather than on the Kinki Plain where my ancestors lay. Here I have rested for six centuries.
" Perhaps it was an error to be placed here, so far from my people. A great shrine was planned to be built outside my tomb, but it was never begun. Politics and war caused me to be forgotten. Only a village of the descendants of my most devoted followers remained here to remember, and they built the little shrine that you took refuge in. "
"How very sad," I murmured. "Surely you deserved better."
" There is worse ," intoned the ghost. " A great crime was committed here. Eighty years ago, a clan of brigands moved into this territory. It was they who found my tomb and plundered it. The villagers tried to stop the thieves, but the robbers killed them, even women and children. Only a few escaped to scatter across the land ."
"What a horrible crime," I whispered. "And you could do nothing?"
" I dwelt in the Land of the
I had to feel my way down in the dark, and the stone wall of the stairway was cold and damp. I had descended seventeen steps when the ghost, who was right behind me, commanded, " Stop ."
I was relieved to do so. And then a pale, greenish light filled the space in front of me. It revealed a rectangular chamber. But it was empty, save for bits of broken pottery that littered the floor.
" Once this room was filled with gold and silver ," said the ghost." The finest of tachi swords lay here, and bronze mirrors, moon-shaped jewels, copper shields, and hardwood lances. All gone now. Stolen ."
"I am so very sorry," I said softly.
" Heh ." The ghost extended his arm toward the far wall. " They did not get it all, however. They did not find me! " With a deep rumbling, a rectangular section of stone in the wall opened inward.
I trembled and turned to the ghost. "If you please, Most Noble Ancient Lord-"
" Yes. I know of your transgression against Lord Emma-O, Judge of the Dead. He has spoken to me. And I will see that you are taken to receive his judgment, unless you do as I bid ."
So he knew. Two years before, after my brother-in-law was slain on the Western Road by the warrior monks of Heian Kyo, I had embarked on a strange journey to find my sister's grieving soul. This journey had taken me to the very court of Lord Emma-O, Judge of the Dead. I had been disguised, with ashes rubbed on my face, as a departed soul, and I had been warned not to speak. But when Emma-O said he had not seen whom I searched for, I had whispered that that was impossible. Hearing my voice, Lord Emma-O knew I was a living person trespassing in his land, and I would have been arrested by him had not Goranu helped me escape. Ever since, I had avoided cemeteries and those realms where Lord Emma-O's demons might catch me. I had hoped staying in temples would shield me from his anger. How was I to know the kami to whom I had made a sacred promise was a powerful ghost? Naturally he would have met Lord Emma-O.
As there was nothing else I could do, I bowed my head and entered the doorway the ghost had opened.
The room beyond was bigger and dominated by a huge block of polished black stone in the center. Surrounding the black stone block were hundreds of haniwa, red-painted pottery figures depicting all manner of men, women, and animals. I had to step very carefully to make sure I knocked none of them over. The black stone block rose as high as my shoulders, so I was able to see on its top a suit of armor made solely of jade pieces bound with silver wire. But now the armor protected only bones. A magnificent mask of jade carved in the likeness of a fierce, scowling demon covered the skull.
" I was Lord Chomigoto: warrior, priest, king. As I lay dying, I asked to be buried here, where I loved to hunt, rather than on the Kinki Plain where my ancestors lay. Here I have rested for six centuries.
" Perhaps it was an error to be placed here, so far from my people. A great shrine was planned to be built outside my tomb, but it was never begun. Politics and war caused me to be forgotten. Only a village of the descendants of my most devoted followers remained here to remember, and they built the little shrine that you took refuge in. "
"How very sad," I murmured. "Surely you deserved better."
" There is worse ," intoned the ghost. " A great crime was committed here. Eighty years ago, a clan of brigands moved into this territory. It was they who found my tomb and plundered it. The villagers tried to stop the thieves, but the robbers killed them, even women and children. Only a few escaped to scatter across the land ."
"What a horrible crime," I whispered. "And you could do nothing?"
" I dwelt in the Land of the
Similar Books
