“Ah, alas, you could not, for these foreigners are everywhere here. They would find you.”
“Yet there are places among the tombs of Date of which they know naught. Koma and I alone knew of them, and the good priest of the temple Zuiganjii. There is one place—but I will not tell even you.”
Aoi wrung her hands.
“Oh, daughter, they will seek everywhere for you till they find you. You do not know the stubborn nature of these people.”
“Ah, but I do, my mother, for that nature is in me, too. If they seek stubbornly, I, too, can hide as well.”
Arising, she stood a moment, looking down thoughtfully upon Aoi.
“To-night,” she said, “they will come. There is little time to lose. When they ask for me, you will say, ‘She feared to gaze upon the augustness of her parent, and so fled.’ When they ask you, ‘Where fled?’ you will say, ‘Only the gods know whither.’”
