Black Lotus (19 page)

The monk sat in the basin, his head protruding from the water, which fogged the air as it gradually warmed. Anguish and terror filled his hollow eyes. Through bruised, swollen lips he mumbled, "Please, help, please, let me go, please…"

"The heat will purify his spirit," Dr. Miwa said with barely contained excitement.

Kumashiro addressed the monk: "If you don't cooperate, you'll boil to death." His own senses quickened as the magic door inched open. "This is your last chance to tell me what you said to Lady Reiko."

Thickening steam wafted up the chimney. Pious Truth jerked, howling while the water heated; his complexion turned scarlet. He heaved up from the basin, sank below the water's surface, and emerged, gasping.

"All right, I confess!" he blubbered. "I told her about the underground tunnels, and how the novices are treated, and that my sister was murdered in the temple."

This was serious indeed. Kumashiro feared that Lady Reiko would continue prying into temple affairs and convince her husband to act against the sect. Kumashiro must do something about the problem of Lady Reiko.

"Now that I've told you everything, please, have mercy!" Pious Truth begged.

"The cure has worked," Dr. Miwa said with satisfaction. "We can take him out."

"I promise I'll never talk to an outsider again!" Pious Truth sobbed in relief.

"No, don't," Kumashiro said to Dr. Miwa. "He's proven himself untrustworthy. Stoke the fire."

As Miwa's assistants complied, Pious Truth writhed, shrieking, "No, no, no!"

Kumashiro stood firm. He must shield the Black Lotus's interests, which had become his own on his first day at the temple.

When his clan had negotiated with the
bakufu
to spare his life by committing him to enter a monastery, Kumashiro had initially been furious and bitter. A peaceful religious existence seemed to him worse than torture, yet he didn't want to die, so he went to the Black Lotus monastery, having picked it at random. As soon as he arrived, High Priest Anraku summoned him to a private audience.

Anraku sat on a dais in a windowless chamber decorated with gold Buddha statues and carved lotus flowers, dimly lit by candles and so full of incense smoke that Kumashiro could barely see him. In a sonorous voice he said, "Honorable Samurai, do you know why you are here?"

"It was either this or execution." Kumashiro knelt, annoyed by the mystical trappings and suffocating smoke.

Resonant laughter rose from Anraku's shadowy figure. "That is not the real reason. My will brought you to the Black Lotus Temple so that you could become my disciple."

The incense clouded Kumashiro's thoughts, and Anraku's hypnotic voice eroded skepticism. "Why choose me?" Kumashiro said, interested in spite of himself.

"There is a vacancy in you that you can fill only by the act of killing," Anraku said. "The act infuses your world with sensation otherwise denied you. Your need for that sensation is so strong you would risk death to satisfy it."

"How did you know?" Kumashiro was shocked. "I've never told anyone."

"I saw into your spirit from afar," Anraku intoned. "The Black Lotus Sutra describes the one true path to enlightenment as a convergence of many paths, each designated for a particular individual. Killing is your path. Each life you absorb brings you closer to nirvana."

Revelation awed Kumashiro. What a miracle that his obsession was actually a blessing! Maybe his coming here was meant to be.

"Become my disciple, and I shall help you achieve your destiny," Anraku said.

Bowing low, Kumashiro said, "Yes, Honorable High Priest."

Anraku had initiated Kumashiro into the priesthood and placed him in charge of policing the temple. Kumashiro eliminated any sect member who showed indication of disloyalty. Soon he became the high priest's second-in-command. He gloried in his freedom to kill, but the need never waned. His best hope was to continue along his path until Anraku's schemes transformed him and the whole world.

Now the monk's howls subsided. Losing consciousness, Pious Truth sank in the basin.

"He is almost gone," Dr. Miwa said.

Moving close to the basin, Kumashiro unsheathed the dagger that hung at his waist. The magic door was opening. Everything glowed with new color, as if lit by the sun. Kumashiro tipped the monk's head back. The pulse of fans beat louder in his ears. Swiftly he drew his blade across the monk's throat. Crimson blood gushed into the water. As Pious Truth's spirit energy filled him, Kumashiro savored the rapture, not caring that Dr. Miwa watched him. They were bound in a conspiracy of silence, forced to tolerate each other's proclivities, for the good of all.

Eventually, Kumashiro cleaned and sheathed his blade. "Let's get rid of him," he said.

Dr. Miwa and the nuns lifted the corpse from the basin and wrapped it in a white shroud. Kumashiro and Miwa carried it through the tunnels to the crematorium. Here the nuns stoked a stone furnace and worked the bellows until the fire roared hot like a dragon's breath. Kumashiro and Miwa dumped the corpse inside. As the assistants chanted, "Praise the glory of the Black Lotus," and the smell of burning flesh seared his lungs, Kumashiro felt regret that the joy of killing was so transient, and relief that he'd eliminated another threat.

To protect his way of life, he must protect the Black Lotus.

17

Behold the Bodhisattva of Infinite Power!

His body is shapely,

A thousand moons cannot rival the perfection of his face,

His eye is as brilliant as a million suns.

-----FROM THE BLACK LOTUS SUTRA

Early morning traffic streamed down the boulevard that led south from Edo Castle through the daimyo district. Between the fortified estates, pedestrians and mounted samurai made way for troops escorting a huge palanquin that bore the Tokugawa crest. Inside the palanquin rode Reiko and Lady Keisho-in, seated opposite each other, bound for the Black Lotus Temple. The weather was cool and misty, and the women shared a quilt spread over their laps and legs.

"You look as if you're thinking about something unpleasant," Lady Keisho-in said. Her plump body and heavy jowls bounced with the palanquin's movement. "What's wrong?"

Reiko had been brooding about her argument with Sano yesterday and the sleepless night she'd spent alone while he stayed in his office. She suspected that Sano hated quarreling as much as she, but both of them were too proud to compromise. Recalling how he'd left the house today without even saying good-bye to her, Reiko felt the stinging pressure of more tears.

"Everything is fine," she said with false brightness. Aware of her re-sponsibility to entertain the shogun's mother, she pointed out the window. "Look! Such pretty furniture in that shop!"

"Beautiful!" exclaimed Lady Keisho-in.

Reiko kept up the conversation while they rode through town, but as they traveled the woodland highway approaching the Zōjō district, worry grew within her. Eventually Sano would find out that she'd disobeyed his orders. The fear of losing his love plagued Reiko. She chatted with Keisho-in, all the while thinking that unless she could find new evidence in favor of Haru or against someone else, Hani would be convicted and the Black Lotus would go free. Besides, Reiko had already embarked on the forbidden trip; going the rest of the way could do little more harm.

Beneath the quilt, Keisho-in's leg bumped Reiko's. "I'm sorry," Reiko said, politely taking the blame.

She shifted position to give Keisho-in more room, but soon they bumped again. Keisho-in giggled. Reiko flinched as Keisho-in's toe tickled her thigh.

"I know a good way to pass the time," Keisho-in said coyly.

There was no mistaking her intention. Reiko drew her knees up to her chest in appalled, defensive haste. The old woman wanted her, just as she'd feared. What should she do?

Lady Keisho-in moved closer. Her age-spotted hand stroked Reiko's cheek. "Ah, you're so lovely," she said, sighing.

Turning away from Keisho-in's sour breath, Reiko stifled a cry of protest. "I can't do this." The words slipped out of her even though she knew the danger of spurning the shogun's mother.

"Why not?" Keisho-in asked. "There's plenty of time before we reach the temple." Then she drew back, and her gaze sharpened as she studied Reiko. "What you mean is you don't desire me. You think I'm old and ugly." Hurt and anger welled in her rheumy eyes. "I can see it on your face. You led me on so I would help you, and now you reject me." She shouted out the window to their escorts: "Stop so I can throw out this sly little whore. Then take me home."

The procession halted. "Wait. Please," Reiko entreated. Being stranded on the road was a minor inconvenience compared to the dire consequences facing her unless she placated Keisho-in.

"I shall tell my son that you hurt my feelings. He'll punish your husband for your cruelty." With a dramatic gesture, Lady Keisho-in flung open the palanquin's door. "Now get out!"

Reiko envisioned Sano stripped of his position, livelihood, and honor --- or executed. Dread filled her. "Forgive me, Honorable Lady, I didn't mean to reject you," she said.

Keisho-in still looked peeved, but she shut the door.

"It's just that I've never been with a woman before," Reiko said truthfully, thinking fast. "I'm too shy to do it here, where people might see or hear us. I would be too inhibited to pleasure you now."

"I suppose you're right." Her humor restored, Keisho-in ordered their escorts to continue on to the temple. As the palanquin began moving, she settled back on her cushions. "We shall wait until later."

Reiko silently thanked the gods for the reprieve and hoped that later never came.

Outside, the traffic noises increased as the procession reached the Zōjō district; shouts drifted from the marketplace. Soon the bearers set down the palanquin, opened the door to a view of the Black Lotus Temple gate, and helped the shogun's mother out. Reiko followed. She and Keisho-in and their guards entered the temple precinct, where a group of priests came to meet them.

"Welcome, Your Highness," said a priest at the center of the group. It was Kumashiro. He frowned at Reiko, and the lizard-shaped scar on his head purpled with an influx of blood.

"We want to see High Priest Anraku," said Lady Keisho-in.

Reiko saw a flicker of displeasure in Kumashiro's gaze, then the knowledge that he couldn't refuse the shogun's mother. He said, "Of course, Your Highness. Please come with me."

At least her risky episode had gotten her this far, Reiko thought, resolving to make the interview worthwhile.

Kumashiro led her and Keisho-in to a garden of dense, twisted pines behind the abbot's residence. Reiko saw a thatched roof through the boughs. As they walked along a shaded path toward it, a suave male voice spoke: "A million thanks for gracing us with your presence, Most Honorable Mother of His Excellency the Shogun. Greetings, Lady Reiko."

Keisho-in said in surprise, "How does he know who it is without seeing us?"

"But I did see you." Amusement inflected the voice. "My knowledge comes from inner vision, not mere eyesight."

Probably the high priest employed spies to give him advance notice of visitors, Reiko speculated:

The cool, damp air in the forest was scented with pine resin. A pavilion composed of a raised tatami platform and a roof supported on wooden posts appeared. In the center, a man with a shaved head sat cross-legged, hands upturned on his thighs. Clad in a white robe, he seemed to glow in the misty daylight.

"Please join me," Anraku said, nodding at two cushions that lay before him.

Keisho-in scrambled up the steps of the pavilion, left her sandals on the bare wooden floor at the edge of the tatami, and knelt upon a cushion. Following, Reiko saw Kumashiro slip away through the trees. While Anraku performed the customary social ritual of offering refreshments, Reiko studied him.

He was in his early thirties, broad-shouldered and muscular, yet slender. With his tawny golden skin, square jaw, high cheekbones, and finely sculpted nose and mouth, Anraku was a man of striking beauty. His left eye, darkly luminous, gazed upon Reiko with faint mirth, as though he perceived and enjoyed her surprise. The other eye was covered by a black cloth patch.

His good looks hadn't escaped the notice of Keisho-in. She patted her hair, simpering. Nuns appeared, bearing trays of tea and cakes, which they silently served. Keisho-in exclaimed to Anraku, "But you didn't even call them!"

"My followers have an extra sense that makes speech unnecessary because they anticipate my orders," Anraku said.

He addressed Keisho-in but looked at Reiko. She supposed that Kumashiro had sent the nuns, and she was eager to prove that the Black Lotus was evil, but she couldn't help feeling Anraku's potent, seductive charm.

"Yesterday I had a vision that showed us here as we are now." Anraku's lips curved in a faint smile at Reiko. "So you wish to speak to me about Haru and the fire?"

The abbess must have told him she'd asked for an audience, Reiko supposed. "Yes, I do."

Lady Keisho-in frowned at Reiko, clearly wanting the priest's attention for herself. "Tell me," she said to Anraku, "why do you wear that eye patch?"

His sidelong glance at Reiko suggested that they had secrets to share after he humored the shogun's mother. He said, "My right eye is blind."

"Oh, what a pity," Keisho-in said.

"Not at all," Anraku said. "My partial blindness enables me to see things invisible to other people. It is a window on the future, a passage to the many worlds within the cosmos."

Keisho-in looked impressed. "How did it happen?"

The luminosity of Anraku's good eye darkened, as if he'd diverted light inward. "Many years ago, I was banished for wrongs that weak, jealous men falsely accused me of committing. I wandered the country alone, and wherever I went, I was reviled and persecuted. Hence, I fled the world."

Reiko remembered Minister Fugatami describing how Anraku had been expelled from a monastery because he'd usurped the priests' authority, then become an itinerant monk who'd lived by cheating peasants. Certainly he'd deserved punishment, but Reiko remained silent, curious to hear how he accounted for the missing years of his life.

"I climbed Mount Hiei," Anraku said, referring to the sacred peak near the imperial capital. "I meant to seek guidance at Enryaku Temple."

In ancient times Enryaku had been a sanctuary for criminals because police weren't allowed there, Reiko knew; fugitives might still find it a good place to hide.

"Then a heavy mist descended upon the mountain. The world around me turned white and hazy. As I toiled upward, the path under my feet disappeared. I was cold, wet, exhausted, and knew not which way to go." Anraku's hushed words evoked the frightening experience of walking blind through the mist. Lady Keisho-in's eyes were round with fascination. Even Reiko felt the power of his storytelling.

"Suddenly I emerged into clear air in a woodland dell on the moun-taintop. There were clouds filling the sky above me, and clouds hiding the land below. I looked around and saw a tiny cottage. An old man dressed in rags came out of the cottage and said, 'I will shelter you for the night if you work for your keep.'

"So I chopped wood, built a fire in the cottage, then cooked fish I caught in a stream. Night came, and I lay on the floor to sleep. At sunrise, I awoke to see the old man standing near me. Suddenly he was no longer old but ageless, and serenely beautiful. A brilliant light radiated from him. He was an incarnation of the Buddha."

"Astonishing," murmured Lady Keisho-in.

A story told by many religious frauds, thought Reiko; but Anraku seemed to believe his own tale.

"Then the Buddha became an old man again," Anraku said. "I begged him to make me his disciple, and he agreed. Every day for eight years, I labored at housework, but'he taught me nothing. Finally I grew frustrated. I said to the old man, 'I've served you well, and now I demand a reward.' But he just laughed as if he'd played a joke on me. Then there was a loud boom of thunder. White light streamed down through a crack in the sky and transformed the old man into the Buddha. He lifted his hand and said, 'Here is the knowledge you desire.'"

Anraku's hand rose. "Out of the Buddha's palm shot a bolt of lightning. It struck my eye. I fell, shouting in agony. As the pain burned deep into me, the Buddha said, 'I designate you the Bodhisattva of Infinite Power. You will spread my teachings across the land and bring to mankind the blessing that I am giving you.' Then he recited a text, and his voice etched the words into my memory. It was the Black Lotus Sutra. The secret path to enlightenment blazed before me like a river of stars.