I. Parker: Death of a Doll Maker

“What happened?” Tora urged.

“We discovered some men digging on our mountain and sent them away. My father thought they must be searching for silver or gold. Then the same man came to us again. This time he claimed the land belonged to him. Our mountain is on the border between Osumi and Higo. The man was the district prefect on the Higo side. The case went to Dazaifu to be resolved by the assistant governor general. We won. Then, within a month, my father was attacked on the road and left for dead. When he didn’t come home, I went to look for him. He was barely alive and told me the men who attacked him had worn the prefect’s colors. He died in my arms. I carried him home and left immediately for the prefect’s house. There, I killed him in front of his family. I was arrested, tried, sentenced to exile, and our land was confiscated by the government. So, there you have it.”

Tora shook his head. It wasn’t all that rare an occurrence, he thought. Everywhere in the country such things happened, and men in power always ended up getting what they wanted. “I’m sorry,” he muttered. “Was there silver in your mountain?”

“How should I know? I never got to see my home again. I spent months in the prison in Dazaifu until they moved me to Hakata for transport to Tsushima.”

Silence fell.

Shigeno frowned. “I wonder,” he said and stood up to look around. “I don’t think we were at sea long enough to reach Tsushima. This might be some other island. Ikishima maybe.”

“So we’re lost?”

“Well, yes, but we may be much closer to Kyushu than we thought.”

Tora brightened. “Come, let’s walk again. There must be some fishing village on the coast. We can borrow a boat. And once we get home, I’ll have my master look into your case.”

Shigeno received this promise with a snort of derision. “Forget it. He’ll have no chance against the Dazaifu. I bet he won’t even try. I’m fed up with officials. As for borrowing a boat, how will you accomplish that? Fishermen need their boats. They won’t let you have one without getting paid extremely well.”

He had a point, but Tora waved it aside. “We’ll think of something when we get there.”

To their surprise, they found a house very soon after this. It clearly belonged to a fisherman, because a sturdy boat with a mast lay on shore. Smoke curled from a kitchen shed next to the house.

Tora laughed. “Look, they are even cooking our dinner for us.” He started down the hill toward the house, Shigeno on his heels. They had covered half the distance when they heard the screams.

Tora cursed and started running, Shigeno at his heels. Somehow, they both guessed what was happening. Tora was the first to burst through the door of the small wooden house. The room was barely large enough for the three people it held, and Tora stumbled over the legs of an unconscious man on his way in.

The rest of the floor space was taken up by a woman and the convict Takeshi who was raping her. With one step, Tora reached him, seized him by his hair and pulled him off the woman. Then he hit him. Takeshi screamed. Blood spurted from his nose and trickled into his mouth.

“Here,” snarled Tora to Shigeno. “Tie up this bastard. He just lost his bid for freedom.”

He tried to help the woman up, but she scurried into a corner, looking at them fearfully. She was still young and not unattractive. The unconscious male on the floor was at least twenty years older. Apart from having been knocked out by the disgusting Takeshi, he seemed all right.

Tora sighed. “Well, that settles it. He’ll hardly agree to lend us his boat after this. We’ll have to borrow it without permission.”

Shigeno grinned. “Steal it, you mean?”

Tora turned to the woman. “Your father’s all right. He’ll come round in a little while. I’m sorry about what happened.”

She looked from him to the man on the floor. “My husband,” she whispered.

“Oh, sorry. I’m Tora, and my big friend is Shigeno. The other animal is called Takeshi. We were shipwrecked.”

She relaxed a little.

Tora asked her, “Where are we? I mean, what’s the name of this island?”

She giggled at the question. “Ishida.”

Tora grinned at Shigeno. “You were right. This isn’t Tsushima.”

She rolled her eyes. “No, not Tsushima.”

“Well, we need to borrow your boat. And maybe some food?”

The mention of food startled her into action. She jumped up, stepped over her husband with barely a glance, and ran to the kitchen shed.

Shigeno had found some rope and trussed up the unconscious Takeshi. “What shall we do with him? Leave him here?”

Tora considered. The fisherman looked sturdy enough, but he was short. “It would serve him right, but he might get loose and start all over again. No, he’s under arrest. We’ll take him back to Hakata and put him in jail.”

Shigeno snorted, but he followed Tora to the kitchen shed.

The young woman was stirring a large pot suspended over a charcoal fire. A wonderful smell came from it. Tora snatched up a couple of chipped bowls and held them out to her. “Please,” he begged. “We’re very hungry.”

She glanced at him, smiled briefly, then used a ladle to fill both bowls with the fish and vegetable stew.

They ate hungrily, sipping and slurping the food, burning their mouths, and shoveling in the rest with their fingers. She watched them.

“You can’t have the boat,” she finally announced. “My husband needs it for fishing.”

Tora returned his bowl and flashed her his best smile. “I know. I wish I had money to give you, but we have nothing. We need to take the boat to get back to Hakata. Afterward we’ll return it. With payment.”

She looked anxious. “Are there more men coming? Like that other one?”

Tora thought of the survivors they had left behind. It was very likely they would come this way. He eyed the fishing boat. It looked sturdy and large enough. “I tell you what,” he said, suddenly inspired. “We’ll take you and your husband and our prisoner with us. Your husband can handle the boat, and you’ll both be safe. In Hakata, we’ll pay you, and I’ll buy you the prettiest gown you can find.”

She looked toward the house. “My husband, is he really all right?”

“Let’s go see!”

The fisherman was already stirring when they got back. He was sitting up, holding his head in his hands. It took a while to explain to him. Fortunately, he did not know Takeshi had been raping his wife, and nobody told him. They apologized that their escaped prisoner had attacked him and proposed the boat journey.

The man’s wife said, “They’ll pay good. Fifty pieces of silver.” She shot Tora a sly glance.

“Fifty pieces of silver?” echoed the fisherman, looking stunned.

Tora nodded. “Fifty pieces of silver.”

Tora’s fate overshadowed everything else. Even though the discovery of Governor Tachibana’s body ranked as a political incident of the first order, Akitada did not travel to Dazaifu to report and receive instructions. Instead, he and Saburo stayed in Hakata to view Hiroshi’s corpse. The weather had turned cold and wet again, and the doll maker’s son had washed up in Hakata harbor. According to the coroner, he had been strangled.

Immediately afterward Akitada used Maeda’s office to dictate to Saburo a terse account of Tora’s presumed abduction and the recovery of the ex-governor’s corpse.

“Address it to Lord Fujiwara Korenori, Assistant Governor General, Dazaifu. The subject is ‘murder of Lord Tachibana Moroe.’ Write, ‘The body of His Excellency Lord Tachibana Moroe, was discovered today in an abandoned well in Hakata. I await further reports from the Hakata coroner, but it appears the former governor was murdered about a month ago, probably on the day of his intended departure for the capital. The case is being investigated by Lieutenant Maeda of the Hakata police force since all crimes are handled locally in Chikuzen province.