Seven Paths to Death Read online

  With a cry, Lady Osuni stamped on the body of the longdead creature, breaking a hole in it. “They eat the dead,” she said, as if that were enough explanation.

  Still kicking the shell, she shifted it a little. “Wait!” said Seikei. “The two front legs are supposed to point to the next landmark. Don’t move it!”

  “Let’s get on with it then,” she said. “I despise these foul things.”

  They moved on, and came to the end of the sixth map without any further incidents. By now the sun had sunk below the rim of the great basin they walked through, and the rocky landmarks cast longer shadows.

  “Hurry up!” said Lady Osuni.

  Seikei did his best, wondering if there really was a cave at the end of the last path, and how they were going to see inside it, at night. He noticed Kitsune was looking behind them more frequently now. “Stop worrying,” Lady Osuni told him. “We’re nearly there.”

  Seikei sneaked a look too, hoping for some sight of the judge and Bunzo. But there was nothing but the darkening sky and the looming stones. They seemed threatening now, as if the soldiers they represented would come to life at night.

  Three more landmarks . . . then two . . . and finally they came to a high, wide stone covered with shrubbery. Was this it?

  Then Seikei felt water lapping against his sandals and looked down to see a stream trickling away from the rock. He followed Lady Osuni, who was pushing aside some of the bushes that partially concealed the face of the stone.

  And there it was. An opening large enough for a person to stoop and crawl through. But beyond was nothing but darkness.

  “We can’t go in there.” It was Kitsune’s voice again. Seikei turned to see what, on anyone else’s face, he might have called a look of fear.

  “Of course we’re going in,” responded Lady Osuni. “We didn’t come all this way just to gape at a hole in the rock.”

  “There’s no light.”

  Lady Osuni triumphantly produced a small metal box from a pack. “There’s a burning coal in here. We can make torches from these branches.”

  When Kitsune had no answer for this, Lady Osuni motioned to her son. “Come, Shosho. Help me. And you too,” she ordered Seikei and Gaho.

  They fell silent while gathering and binding the branches. Then Seikei heard something in the distance. He raised his head. So did everyone else as the sound grew louder.

  Hoofbeats, echoing across the rocky plain. No way to tell how far away they were, but clearly there were several riders.

  “Ooka,” muttered Kitsune. Pointing to Seikei, he told Lady Osuni, “We can use him as a hostage and bargain our way out of here.”

  “Why should I want to get away when in a short time I will possess the most powerful weapons in Japan?” Lady Osuni said coldly.

  “You don’t know how many men Ooka has,” Kitsune argued.

  “Nor do I care. A ninja worried about being outnumbered? I see that your reputation was inflated. Stay here then, and surrender. Or come with me and triumph!” She pushed Seikei forward, handing him a flaming torch. “Lead the way.”

  The only way to stop her, Seikei thought, was to go along and make sure she couldn’t use the muskets. If Kitsune refused to enter the cave, then perhaps Gaho would help and they could overpower Shosho.

  “I’ll go,” Kitsune said in a voice that came close to wavering. Seikei recalled what Rofu had said—that Kitsune would lose his powers underground. Could that be true? Was that the reason for his fear?

  Pushed from behind, Seikei ducked and edged his way through the hole. He held his torch high as he emerged on the other side—and gasped.

  He stood inside a cavern that was so large he couldn’t see the top of it. The sound of dripping water echoed from all sides. Bizarrely shaped rock formations threw eerie shadows wherever he pointed his torch.

  Gaho was next to come through. “What a hiding place this would make,” he said.

  “That’s just what it is,” replied Seikei.

  “Have you noticed? It’s also much warmer here than it is outside.”

  Seikei nodded, thinking of the oddly warm channel their ship had passed through earlier.

  Shosho came through the hole. He waved his torch around long enough to see how big the cave was. It seemed to confuse him. He turned to Seikei. “Where are the weapons?” he asked.

  Seikei hesitated. He had never seen a cave this large. Even with three torches, there were still dark areas ahead where nothing could be seen.

  Kitsune struggled through the hole next. He was breathing hard—very strange, thought Seikei, for it took no great effort to get through the hole. As the ninja took a look at the vast space that surrounded him, his face fell and his knees seemed to wobble.

  Lady Osuni finally made her appearance. She turned her head from side to side, her bright eyes shining. She surveyed the scene like an owl preparing to hunt prey.

  “Well? Well?” she asked, but no one had anything to say. In typical fashion, she stepped forward, and the others could only follow.

  The dripping water, running off the plain above ground, had shaped the walls of the cavern in odd ways. On one side, Seikei saw a series of steps with water flowing down them. He wondered for a moment if they could lead the group to something important.

  Lady Osuni ignored them. She moved ahead, waving her torch. “Shosho!” she cried, bringing her son next to her. “Come! Come see the weapons that will make you the shogun!”

  Seikei hurried to catch up to them. His feet splashed through puddles. The water here seemed slightly deeper.

  Then he heard another sound, quite different from the dripping and splashing. A scraping sound. Something hard tapped on the stone, then abruptly ceased. Seikei had a feeling there was a living thing not far ahead. Listening.

  “Mama?” he heard Shosho say. “I thought I saw something.”

  “The weapons?”

  “No. Something moved.”

  “It’s just a shadow from the torches,” Lady Osuni said.

  Then Seikei saw it. Or part of it. Just ahead was a crevice on the floor of the cave. Not very wide—they could easily have jumped over it to go farther on. But what looked like one of the pointed rock formations slowly moved up from the depths below.

  Only it wasn’t a rock. It was like a long seashell. As Seikei stared, it kept getting longer, continuing to rise from the crevice till it nearly reached the ceiling.

  “Mama, it’s not a shadow,” said Shosho. “It’s—AAAAAAA!” He let out a terrible scream as the moving thing shot out and snapped shut on his leg. Shosho’s torch fell to the watery cave floor, where it hissed and then guttered out. Clumsily he unsheathed his sword and began to hack at the thing that held him.

  His mother ran to help, but as she grabbed him around the waist, a second jagged, sharp shell emerged from the crevice and clutched her as well. She tried to push it away with her torch, but the thing was impervious to pain.

  Seikei watched in horror as a round hard disc with jagged edges rose slowly from the crevice like an evil sun bringing dawn. Both of the shell-like claws that held the Osunis were attached to it. They were its legs. But the creature had more than two—they kept popping out of the crevice. Four, then six, then seven, Seikei counted as he dodged out of their way. On top of the central disc were two eyes on stalks, and Seikei felt their terrifying gaze fall on him for a moment.

  Fortunately for him the thing was more interested in the prey it had already captured. Both Lady Osuni and her son were screaming so loudly now that Seikei wanted to clap his hands over his ears. More legs encircled the two struggling figures: eight, nine, ten.

  The creature, for it was all one huge monstrous being, held them so securely by now that they almost ceased to struggle. It began to pull them inexorably into the crevice. Its hideous head disappeared first, and then, as Lady Osuni and her son cast desperate looks in Seikei’s direction, the legs pulled them inside as well.

  For a horrible moment, their screams continued, but then
died away. Seikei looked around him. Back toward the cave entrance, a single torch still flickered. Was Kitsune there? Or had he abandoned his mistress when she needed him most?

  25

  A VOICE IN THE DARKNESS

  Numb and shaking, Seikei walked back toward the remaining torch. As he drew closer, he saw that the person holding it was Gaho the gambler.

  “What happened?” Gaho asked. “What was all that screaming? Where are—”

  “The weapons had a guard to protect them,” Seikei said. “Do you remember the dead crab we saw on the way here?”

  “Yes.”

  “It had a brother. Or maybe a mother. I don’t know. It . . .” He couldn’t describe it any further. He just gestured toward the darkness behind him, where once again the only sound was dripping water.

  “Do you think they’re—?” Gaho asked with a look in that direction.

  “Yes,” said Seikei. “There is no hope for them.”

  “Odd, isn’t it?” said Gaho. “I mean, the way she seemed to hate crabs so much. Do you think it was the same one who carried off her husband?”

  “It may have been,” said Seikei. “What happened to Kitsune? I can’t believe he ran away.”

  “No, come see. You can do anything you like to him now.”

  Kitsune was lying in a watery place. His eyes flickered as Seikei approached, but they were like candles about to reach the end of their wick.

  “You’ve trapped me,” he said.

  “I?” Seikei was astonished. “I came here against my will.”

  “You read the maps for Lady Osuni. She would never have found this place on her own.”

  “She was going to kill me,” Seikei reminded him.

  “And what happened to her? And that foolish son of hers?”

  “Something lives in the cave. An enormous crab. It took them away.”

  Kitsune laughed and then, because it hurt him, he coughed. “You knew that all along, didn’t you?”

  Seikei could hardly believe the accusation. “No, I had no idea.”

  “And you knew, you must have known, what being underground would do to me. Who told you? Rofu? It must have been.”

  “I first met you in a cave,” said Seikei. “Don’t you remember?”

  “That was a shelter on a mountain,” Kitsune replied. “This . . . this . . .” His eyes searched the walls of the cave, looking for a way out. “I can feel the ground pressing against me. My kami cannot protect me here.”

  He looked at Seikei and took a deep breath. Seikei sensed what was coming. But it took a great effort for Kitsune to say it. “Help me. Get me out of here.”

  Seikei hesitated, torn between pity and fear.

  Gaho seemed surprised. “What are you waiting for?” he asked Seikei.

  “If I take him aboveground, his power will return,” said Seikei.

  “So why are you even thinking about it? Kill him.”

  “But . . . he’s helpless.”

  “Of course he is. Do you think I’d suggest it if he weren’t?”

  “I can’t kill a man who is unable to defend himself.”

  “If I’m playing cards and I have a winning hand, I raise the bet. I don’t worry that it’s not fair to those who have a losing hand.”

  “This isn’t a card game,” said Seikei.

  Gaho shrugged. “If it’s not, then I can’t help you.” He turned and walked off.

  “Where are you going?” Seikei asked.

  “There’s nothing for me here, so I’m going back aboveground. Somewhere I’ll find some people who want to test their skill at cards.”

  “The judge will stop you, if he’s there,” Seikei warned.

  “I’ll take my chances on that. I’ve done nothing wrong.”

  Seikei didn’t reply. He stood there until Gaho’s torch was out of sight.

  “Are you going to help me?” Kitsune asked.

  After a moment, Seikei said, “No.”

  “Why not?”

  “Because you’re like Gaho.”

  Kitsune snorted weakly. “If you’re going to let me die, you might at least have the courtesy not to insult me.”

  “Gaho’s a leaf, like he said. He’ll go where life takes him. He won’t ever change. That’s what he will always be. And you . . . are a ninja.”

  Kitsune seemed to gain strength from this. “There’s nothing wrong with being a ninja,” he said. “People have always wanted ninjas to perform services for them. I could be of great help to you. Those weapons are still here in the cave, aren’t they?”

  Seikei stepped back, as if Kitsune had suddenly become dangerous again. “I don’t want them,” he said. “If they’re here, I hope they stay buried forever.”

  “They won’t, I assure you. Someone will find them and use them, even if you don’t.”

  “I hope not,” Seikei said quietly.

  “You were willing enough to help Lady Osuni get them.”

  “I had to make sure she couldn’t use them.”

  “That’s just an excuse,” said Kitsune. “You would have served her willingly.”

  Seikei shook his head. “No. She had never really seen one of these weapons. She had the idea that they were some kind of magic sticks that could be used to defeat any number of warriors. I have actually seen one of them demonstrated. You might kill one person with it, but then it takes time to prepare it to kill someone else. She would have needed many, many thousands of them to overthrow the shogun.”

  “You don’t know how many weapons there are,” said Kitsune. “It’s a big cave. There could be thousands. And if you had them, men would follow you.” His voice was like the silken web a spider spins to entrap its prey. “I would help you to gather them. I know many who would join you. Good men, not like Gaho. The crab is nothing. . . . I have poisons we could use on it.”

  Seikei began to hear Kitsune’s words as if they were coming from inside his own head. “You would be the most powerful man in Japan. You could live in the shogun’s castle. People would do whatever you wanted them to. Everyone would admire you, even your father. Judge Ooka would—”

  Seikei turned and began to walk away. It was difficult, like walking against a strong wind, but he knew he had to do it before he started thinking like Kitsune.

  “Stop!” Kitsune called. “If you leave me here, I’ll die.”

  “I’ll tell Bunzo where you are. He can decide what to do about you.” Bunzo wouldn’t fail this time. Of that Seikei was sure.

  Kitsune’s voice was fainter now, but Seikei still heard him snarl: “You’re a fool.”

  Seikei nodded. “Yes,” he said. “But not a leaf.”

  AUTHORS’ NOTE

  Nearly two thousand years ago, Chinese travelers visited Japan and wrote about the practice of tattooing. It never caught on in China, although it was common among Pacific Islanders and Native Americans. Even Egyptian mummies have been found with tattoos.

  In Japan, the social acceptability of tattoos changed over time. Some rulers ordered criminals to be tattooed as a means of identifying them. Samurai warriors in pre-Tokugawa times used tattoos to enhance their ferocious looks. Workers who shed most of their clothes on the job often decorated their backs and chests.

  Typically the Japanese made tattooing into an art form. Sometimes men decorated their entire bodies, except their faces, with elaborate designs that could take months or years to complete. These were most common in the nineteenth century.

  Yes, there really are giant crabs living in Japan to this day. They are called takaashigani, or the Japanese spider crab, and are the world’s largest. These creatures, which live as long as a century, may have a leg span as large as seven meters (twenty-two feet). Most of them are found in the waters of the Pacific Ocean off Japan’s coast.

  The channel through which Lady Osuni’s boat traveled is called the Bungo Suido. It is the place where three of Japan’s four main islands meet, and is noted for its warm current, which causes unusual plants and sea creatures to grow
there.

  Yamaguchi province (parts of which were called Suo province in Seikei’s time) is at the western end of Japan’s largest island, Honshu. Yamaguchi contains an immense system of caves that were named Akiyoshido by Crown Prince Showa (who would become Emperor Hirohito) during his visit in 1926. By some estimates, the caves extend over 420,000 square meters (4.5 million square feet), which would make them the third-largest cave system in the world. Above the caves are the Akiyoshidai plains, which are covered in jagged rocks made of dead coral, formed long ago when the area was under water. Continually dripping water from the plains created the underground caves. Today, tourists can visit some, but not all, of the caves. They are illuminated by electric lights, and so are a little disappointing to some who were expecting a spooky place. The hidden weapons are entirely from our imagination, as is the Osuni family.

  Tokugawa Ieyasu did in fact carry a statue of Marishi-ten with his army, and she looked as we describe her in these pages.

  Today, Japanese criminal gangsters are called yakuza; the word’s original meaning came from the card game, as we describe.

  As readers of our previous books know, Judge Ooka was a real person who lived in Japan in the early eighteenth century. He became widely known for his honesty and his clever solutions to crimes, which has caused people to call him the Sherlock Holmes of Japan. The character of Seikei is the authors’ creation.