Yamada Monogatari: To Break the Demon Gate Read Free Page B

he said after we had passed through the eastern gate, “was very strange.” The man had, besides his martial prowess, quite a gift for understatement.
    “You didn’t know about the letter?”
    “Teiko never mentioned it before, though it doesn’t surprise me. Yet . . . ”
    “The business with the Minister of Justice does surprise you, yes?”
    He looked at me. “Since my sister trusts you, I will speak plainly—Lord Sentaro is Chancellor Yorimichi’s primary agent in the Fujiwara opposition to Takahito. If I had been in Lord Sentaro’s place, I would have destroyed that letter the moment it fell into my hands and danced a tribute to the Gods of luck while it burned.”
    I rubbed my chin. “Yet Teiko-hime is convinced the letter was not destroyed.”
    Kanemore grunted again. “Over the years I’ve gone where my Emperor and his government have required. My sister, on the other hand, knows no world other than the Imperial Court. If Teiko were a
koi,
the Court would be her pond, if you take my meaning. So why would something that is immediately obvious to us both be so unclear to her?”
    “Perhaps we’re the ones who aren’t clear,” I said. “Highness, let’s assume for that moment that your sister is right and that the letter was simply stolen. That would mean that Lord Sentaro had a good reason for not destroying it in the first place.”
    “That makes sense. Yet I’m having some difficulty imagining that reason,” Kanemore admitted.
    “As am I.”
    I looked around. Our path paralleled the river Kamo for a time, then turned southwest. Despite the lateness of the hour, there were a few people on the road, apparently all in a rush to reach their destinations. Demons were about at this time of night, and everyone’s hurry and wariness was understandable. Kanemore and I were the only ones walking at a normal pace by the light of the setting moon.
    “Your escort duties must be over by now and, as I’m sure you know, I’m used to moving about the city on my own,” I said.
    Kanemore looked a little uncomfortable. “It was Teiko’s request. I know you can take care of yourself under most circumstances,” Kanemore said, and it almost sounded like a compliment, “but if someone
did
steal the letter, they obviously would not want it found, and your audience with my sister will not be a secret. Sentaro himself saw you, for one.”
    “I didn’t think he recognized me.”
    “I would not depend on that,” Kanemore said drily. “The man forgets nothing. His enemies, doubly so.”
    “You flatter me. I was no threat to him, no matter how I might have wished otherwise.”
    “If I may be so impolite as to ask, why did you resign your position and leave the Court? It could not have been easy to secure the appointment in the first place.”
    Not easy at all, considering the stain on my family’s honor, though of course Prince Kanemore was too polite to mention it. While I had little doubt that he had already heard the story from Teiko, I didn’t mind repeating events as I remembered them.
    “Your sister was kind to me, in those early days. Of course there would be those at Court who chose to misinterpret her interest, especially after the late Emperor chose her as a secondary wife. I had become a potential embarrassment to Princess Teiko, as Lord Sentaro delighted in making known to me.”
    “Meaning he would have made certain of it,” Kanemore said. “I wondered.”
    I shrugged. “I made my choice. Destiny is neither cruel nor kind. So, Kanemore-san, I’ve answered a personal question of yours, now I must ask one of you: what are you afraid of?”
    “Death,” he said immediately. “I’ve never let that fear prevent me from doing what I must, but the fear remains.”
    “That just means you’re not a fool, which I already knew. So, you fear death. Do you fear things that are already dead?”
    “No . . . well, not especially,” he said, though he didn’t sound completely convincing or