Seven Paths to Death Read online

  Seikei wasn’t so sure of that. “Only a hundred? The shogun has thousands of swordsmen to defend him.”

  “But don’t you see? Their swords are useless against men armed with muskets. Our men will kill their enemies before they even get close.”

  She put her hand on his arm while describing this. It took great self-control for him not to pull away. What an awful picture of warfare. It was sickening for Seikei to think of men of honor being cut down so easily. But could it really be done?

  He thought of the demonstration he had seen at the shogun’s palace. All he had seen was the death of a bird, but the way it fell from the sky . . . so suddenly, as if an invisible arrow had struck it. Seikei shivered.

  “Join me,” Lady Osuni said.

  Seikei felt paralyzed, totally unsure how to respond. He wanted to tell her how loathsome she was, but he knew he must win her confidence in order to stop her.

  “You can be of great help,” she said. “It won’t be forgotten after our victory. And my son . . . Shosho will need advisers.”

  So that was who Shosho was. Well, he would need advisers, that’s for sure, thought Seikei.

  He noticed Gaho nodding eagerly at him behind Lady Osuni’s back. The gambler had no honor, and of course he thought Seikei didn’t either. What was the honorable thing to do now? Seikei shook his head to clear it.

  “The criminal wants sympathy for what he’s done,” he suddenly recalled the judge saying. “To find the truth you must convince him you are on his side.”

  And what had Gaho told him? You have to stay in the game if you want to win. There was some truth to that. If Seikei wanted to thwart Lady Osuni’s plans, first of all he would have to keep her from killing him. He could at least go along until she ordered him to do something dishonorable.

  “I will join you,” he said.

  The skepticism disappeared from Lady Osuni’s face. Seikei realized that he had done exactly what she thought was the smart thing. Since she had no sense of honor at all, she couldn’t understand people who did. She thought anyone should be glad to join her.

  “When we reach shore,” she said, “you will bring the maps.”

  “Yes,” he said, but the wind still howled outside, as if mocking them. A wave caught the boat and tossed it into the air like a toy. Seikei felt his stomach go with it. Was he doing the right thing? Would he survive long enough to find out?

  22

  CRABS ARE BAD LUCK

  When the storm blew itself out at last, Seikei went on deck. What he saw frightened him: nothing but sea in all directions. It was as if the land had simply disappeared during the storm. Sailing in the middle of an empty sea made him feel more lost than he had ever been in his life. He wondered how they could possibly find their way back.

  But then, as the sun gradually emerged from behind the clouds, the crew raised the sail and Seikei understood. The sun always rose in the east. From that you could figure out the other directions. If they sailed north long enough, they would reach the coast of Japan.

  Unless . . . they had traveled so far to the west that they were beyond the end of Japan. What then? The smugglers he had met in Osaka told him that if you went far enough west, you would reach China, but they were great liars. Under the law of the shogunate anyone who left Japan for another country was forbidden ever to return. Seikei had heard tales of fishermen who disappeared that way.

  Lady Osuni was almost as angry as she had been during the storm. She blamed the crew for allowing the ship to be blown off course.

  They were either used to her, or paid so well that they didn’t care, and went to work. Lady Osuni then cast a few hints that Kitsune wasn’t doing his job either.

  The ninja wasn’t going to tolerate it. “It was not my choice to make this voyage by sea,” he said. “There was time to wait and collect all the information we needed before leaving Edo. Then we could have taken the Tokaido Road. But when you left your residence—”

  “If your men were competent, we would have all the maps,” Lady Osuni snapped back. She must be paying Kitsune very well, Seikei thought. He could see the ninja struggling to control his temper.

  “Fortunately,” Lady Osuni continued, “I have persuaded Seikei here to give me his full cooperation. He is a bright young man, in many ways like my son.”

  Kitsune’s eyebrows rose. “Is that so?” he said in a voice that sounded like fingernails scratching silk. “You’re cooperating voluntarily, are you?” he asked Seikei.

  “Yes,” Seikei responded. He tried to sound loyal and enthusiastic, but it was a struggle.

  “How convenient,” Kitsune commented, letting Seikei know that at least one person on the ship still did not trust him.

  A favorable wind sent the ship northward, and in a few hours land again came into view. Of course, it was unfamiliar because they had no idea what part of the coast they were near.

  The land was not directly north of them, and they had to set a northeasterly course. “We’ve overshot the channel,” the ship’s pilot told Kitsune. “We have to go back.”

  Kitsune’s face told what he thought of the delay, but there was nothing to do but wait. Finally, in the middle of the afternoon, they reached a wide channel where they turned north. Almost at once Seikei felt the air become warmer and more humid. It was the kind of weather Edo only had for a few weeks in summer. Yet this was still early spring.

  The heat, uncomfortable to Seikei, only seemed to invigorate Lady Osuni. She set men to fishing and waited eagerly for them to catch something. “The fish here are the best in Japan,” she told Seikei. “Nowhere else is there a warm current to make them grow plump and tender.”

  As soon as the first fish, a large bluefish, was pulled into the boat, Lady Osuni grabbed it. While the fish was still struggling in her hands, she slit its side with a small, goldhandled knife. Stripping the skin, she cut off bites of the flesh and stuffed them into her mouth. When she noticed Seikei watching, she said, “They must be fresh for the taste to be at its best.”

  As they traveled through the channel, they passed small islands. Seikei could see strange-looking trees growing on them, and occasionally a flock of brightly colored birds flashed their scarlet and azure wings across the sky.

  “These are things that can only live where it’s hot like this,” Gaho said. “We’re getting close to Yamaguchi.” He had come up on deck for air after the storm had passed.

  “Why is it so warm?” asked Seikei.

  “The warm water that flows from deep beneath the sea,” replied Gaho. “People say it comes from an underwater volcano.”

  “How could a volcano erupt under the sea?” asked Seikei. “Wouldn’t the water cool it?”

  “Water, fire, constantly are at war with each other,” said Gaho. “Here, the power of the fire warms the sea. Strange things happen.” The gambler was probably just making up a story, but Seikei felt uneasy.

  Later, Gaho brought him some of the fish to eat. “What kind is this?” Seikei asked.

  “The sailors called it horse mackerel,” Gaho replied.

  Seikei tried a piece. “It’s soft and mushy,” he said. “I don’t like it.”

  Gaho shrugged. “You can eat a lot of things when you’re hungry.”

  Seikei realized he had to keep up his strength, so he forced down the rest of the fish. Watching the sailors pull in a net, he saw some crabs struggling in the mesh. He had always enjoyed eating crabs, and was disappointed to see the sailors throw them back. “Why did you do that?” Seikei asked.

  “Lady Osuni hates them,” one of the men said. “Bad luck, she tells us. She would have us whipped if we kept them.”

  Seikei shook his head. How could anyone follow such a crazy person? Then he realized that he himself had agreed to do just that.

  The channel was filled with jagged shoals just beneath the surface, and so when nightfall came, they had to anchor to avoid running aground. Lady Osuni and Kitsune argued some more over that decision. Seikei could feel the tensio
n rising between them. Each was ready to blame the other for any little mistake.

  Seikei dragged a mat on deck because it was too hot in the cabin to sleep. Even up here, the air was steamy. Seikei almost wished it would rain again. Even the water was still, as if something heavy pressed down on it. Every sound was magnified in the darkness. Insects buzzed and whined all around him, and he could hear hollow scraping sounds as something rubbed against the ship’s hull. What could that be? Not a fish, certainly. Something much larger, and hard. It bothered him so much that he dreamed of strange, hard-shelled creatures even when he slept. Their claws reached out for him, and he awoke in a sweat.

  23

  THE STONE SOLDIERS

  In the morning, the crew raised the sail as soon as there was enough light to steer by. At midday they emerged from the channel. Land appeared on the horizon ahead of them. The sight elated Lady Osuni. “Yamaguchi,” she said. “Where the Osunis rule, not the shogun.”

  The helmsman was now in familiar territory. He steered a course due east along the shoreline, confident he knew where he was going. Seikei brought the first of the maps on deck and studied it.

  He drew his finger along the shoreline to the point at the sea’s edge where the path began. The two strong marks on either side of the path still puzzled him. Were they sentries, standing side by side?

  The helmsman shouted and Seikei looked up. There they were! Not exactly as he had imagined them, but now he understood that part of the map for the first time. The two sentries were pillars. Not carved ones, but natural formations that seemed to have been here for a very long time.

  On the plain beyond the coast, Seikei saw, were hundreds more. Jagged rock sentries, some tall, some short. Only if you had a map could you tell which ones marked the invisible path to a hiding place. Otherwise they were just a random collection of ancient stones.

  Seikei’s eyes went back to the first two, the starting point of the path. Now he could see that a man—a real man, not a stone—stood there as if waiting for them. He looked vaguely familiar, but Seikei could not see him well enough at this distance to identify him.

  Lady Osuni, however, had sharp eyes—and of course she had seen him many times. “Shosho,” she called across the water. The man, her son, Lord Osuni, heard her and waved.

  Hearing someone standing behind him utter a curse, Seikei turned. Kitsune was there, looking angry. “How did that fool get here?” he said in a low voice.

  They landed the boat and Lady Osuni was first to disembark. She and her son embraced. They made quite a pair, Seikei thought. Though Shosho was considerably taller than his mother, he acted as docile toward her as one of her pet koi.

  Seikei recovered the rest of the maps from the ship’s cabin. “Help me carry these,” he said to Gaho.

  “I’d just as soon stay here,” Gaho protested.

  “If Lady Osuni thinks you are no longer useful . . .” Seikei said, drawing his finger across his throat to finish the sentence.

  Gaho gathered up the maps.

  As they stepped on shore, Kitsune was questioning Shosho. “I find that hard to believe,” Kitsune said.

  “Are you doubting my son’s word?” asked Lady Osuni.

  “Let us say I find it odd that he managed to escape from Judge Ooka and arrive here before we did.”

  “Well, here he is,” Lady Osuni said. “Do you think he is a ghost?”

  “Just how did you manage to slip out of Judge Ooka’s grasp?” Kitsune asked Shosho. “Tell me, please. I enjoy learning from a master.”

  “They took me to a mansion, not a jail,” Shosho replied. The crafty look came over his face again. “But they forgot to lock the door.”

  “Forgot.”

  “Yes. So when no one was looking, I just walked out. There was a horse all saddled by the front gate, so I took it.”

  “A horse. Waiting for you.”

  “That’s right. So I set out for the Tokaido Road because I knew where Mother was going. I moved fast.”

  “And led Judge Ooka and his men here.”

  “And led—” Shosho frowned. That hadn’t been part of his story.

  “I don’t see anyone following Shosho,” said Lady Osuni. “Do you?”

  “Trust me,” said Kitsune. “They’re waiting to see where you’ll go next.”

  “Is this an excuse for you to break our agreement?” Lady Osuni asked.

  Kitsune’s mouth set in a straight line. “Once I make an agreement,” he said, “I keep it.”

  “Fine. Then get ready, because we’re going to follow the path on those maps at once.”

  “So get ready,” Shosho added, with a wave of his hand as if ordering a servant. As Shosho turned away, Seikei saw the look Kitsune gave him. Seikei was glad he hadn’t been on the receiving end of that look.

  Gaho was still unhappy to be going on the search. “This isn’t going to turn out well for either of us, you know,” he said to Seikei.

  “You’re the one who said I should tell Lady Osuni I was her true son.”

  Gaho shook his head. “Who knew you’d actually try it?”

  The first map showed them the direction of the path that led away from the beach. Seikei compared it with what he saw on the landscape. There were so many of the tall rocks . . . Then he saw the pattern the mapmaker had intended. “Up there,” he pointed, and started to walk.

  Lady Osuni left her servants and crew with the boat, taking along only Kitsune and Shosho. “As long as we reach our destination,” she said, “we can defeat any number of people who might, or might not,be following us.”

  Seikei realized that Lady Osuni thought the weapons were more powerful than they really were. At least, more powerful than he thought they were. He hoped he was right, because if he wasn’t . . . He shook his head. He had to be right.

  The first map was fairly clear, and they soon came to the end of the path marked on it. Seikei was certain he knew which map to switch to now. But it was the one that had been on the back of Michio, the firefighter, and so it was the hardest to read.

  “What’s wrong?” asked Lady Osuni as Seikei hesitated.

  “The marks are hard to read,” Seikei explained.

  “Well, of course they are,” she said. “It wasn’t intended that anyone could just walk up to the hiding place. But you have seen the original of this map. It should be easy for you to find the way.”

  “Maybe he needs some encouragement,” said Shosho, touching the hilt of his sword. Seikei regretted, not for the first time, that his own swords had been left behind at the gate to Yoshiwara.

  “That way,” he said, making his best guess. If the judge and Bunzo really had followed Shosho, maybe the best thing was to keep Lady Osuni wandering aimlessly. Sooner or later the judge would arrive.

  Or maybe not. Seikei told himself he couldn’t count on being rescued, like a child who’s always getting into trouble. He was in a position where he could thwart Lady Osuni’s plans. If he pretended not to be able to read the maps, sooner or later she would just take them away. He should help her find the muskets, and then . . .

  And then?

  Well, he’d think of something. Perhaps Lady Osuni wouldn’t know how to operate the muskets. She seemed surprised when Seikei said he did.

  “Well?” It was Lady Osuni, wanting to know where they should go next.

  “Up there,” said Seikei, guessing again.

  They reached the top of a hill and saw hundreds more of these tall, jagged rocks ahead. “Coral,” Lady Osuni commented when she examined one of the rocks. “This area was once under the sea.”

  She should feel right at home, Seikei thought.

  As they reached the final landmark on the second map, Seikei held his breath. If his guesses had all been correct, then they should be at the beginning of the third map. Gaho handed it to him and he unrolled it. He could feel the others looking over his shoulder as he studied it.

  He felt huge relief as he realized that yes, the maps did match up. There,
right in front of them, was the first landmark on map three—a trio of coral “soldiers.” He stepped forward confidently. The others followed.

  24

  THE END OF THE PATH

  By late afternoon, they had reached the end of the fifth map. Seikei had mixed feelings—triumph at having successfully decoded the maps, and fear as the group came ever closer to the hiding place.

  “Perhaps we should stop for now.”

  Everyone looked at the speaker with surprise. It was Kitsune. Seikei thought he looked out of breath, which was impossible, for ninjas pride themselves on their physical endurance.

  “What do you mean?” asked Lady Osuni angrily. “We can’t stop when we’re this close.”

  “It will be night soon,” said Kitsune. “If we haven’t reached the end by then . . .”

  “We will,” said Lady Osuni. “And your hesitation is only slowing us down.” She turned to Seikei. “What next?”

  Seikei pointed to the next landmark. As he looked around, he saw that they had been continually moving to lower ground. The rock-filled plain was shaped like a giant bowl. If it had once been under water, as Lady Osuni said, a huge pool must have collected here.

  He had been wondering about one of the landmarks on map six. Shaped differently than any of the other marks, it was a circle with ten lines extending outward from the center. Suddenly Seikei saw it—or what must be it—in front of him. He was stunned. It was the shell of a crab, bleached white by the sun. But it was a crab of enormous dimensions. Each of its ten legs was almost as long as a man. He shivered as he imagined what it would have been like alive. It could have crushed a horse in its legs.

  “Takaashigani,”Lady Osuni growled in a hate-filled voice, as if confronting her worst enemy.

  “A giant spider crab,” Gaho whispered to Seikei. “Some say that they lived long ago, but there is a story that when Lady Osuni’s husband was killed, a crab like this carried off his body.”

  Seikei remembered that the judge had said the same thing when he was questioning Ito. “That must be why she hates crabs,” he said.