Across the Nightingale Floor (27 page)

I can't believe I'm hearing this ,
Kaede thought. I am caught up in such treachery. She speaks of Iida's murder as
lightly as if he were a peasant or an outcaste. If anyone heard us, we would be
tortured to death. Despite the growing heat, she shivered.

“What will they do with him?”

“He will become one of them, and
his life will become a secret to us and everyone.”

So I will never see him again , she
thought.

They heard voices coming from the
path, and a few moments later Lady Maruyama, her daughter, Mariko, and her
companion, Sachie, came across the stream and sat down with them. Lady Maruyama
looked as pale as Shizuka had earlier, and her manner was in some indefinable
way changed. She had lost some of her rigid self-control. She sent Mariko and
Sachie a little way off to play with the shuttlecock toy the girl had brought
with her.

Kaede made an effort to converse
normally. “Lady Mariko is a lovely girl.”

“She has no great beauty, but she
is intelligent and kind,” her mother replied. “She takes more after her father.
Maybe she is lucky. Even beauty is dangerous for a woman. Better not to be
desired by men.” She smiled bitterly, and then whispered to Shizuka, “We have
very little time. I hope I can trust Lady Shirakawa.”

“I will say nothing to give you
away,” Kaede said in a low voice.

“Shizuka, tell me what happened.”

“Takeo was taken by the Tribe. That
is all Lord Shigeru knows.”

“I never thought Kenji would betray
him. It must have been a bitter blow.”

“He said it was always a desperate
gamble. He blames no one. His main concern now is your safety. Yours and the
child's.”

Kaede's first thought was that
Shizuka meant the daughter, Mariko, but she saw the slight flush in Lady
Maruyama's face. She pressed her lips together, saying nothing.

“What should we do? Should we try
to flee?” Lady Maruyama was twisting the sleeve of her robe with white fingers.

“You must do nothing that would
arouse Iida's suspicions.”

“Shigeru will not flee?” The lady's
voice was reed-thin.

“I suggested it, but he says he
will not. He is too closely watched, and besides, he feels he can only survive
by showing no fear. He must act as though he has perfect trust in the Tohan and
the proposed alliance.”

“He will go through with the
marriage?” Her voice rose.

“He will act as though that is his
intention,” Shizuka said carefully. “We must also act the same, if we want to
save his life.”

“Iida has sent messages to me
pressing me to accept him,” Lady Maruyama said. “I have always refused him for
Shigeru's sake.” She stared, distraught, into Shizuka's face.

“Lady,” Shizuka said, “don't speak
of these things. Be patient, be brave. All we can do is wait. We must pretend
nothing out of the ordinary has happened, and we must prepare for Lady Kaede's
wedding.”

“They will use it as a pretext to
kill him,” Lady Maruyama said. “She is so beautiful and so deadly.”

“I don't want to cause any man's
death,” Kaede cried, “least of all Lord Otori's.” Her eyes filled with tears
suddenly, and she looked away.

“What a shame you cannot marry Lord
Iida and bring death to him!” Lady Maruyama exclaimed.

Kaede flinched as though she had
been slapped.

“Forgive me,” Lady Maruyama
whispered. “I am not myself. I have hardly slept. I am mad with fear—for him,
for my daughter, for myself, for our child. You do not deserve my rudeness. You
have been caught up in our affairs through no fault of your own. I hope you
will not think too badly of me.”

She took Kaede's hand and pressed
it. “If my daughter and I die, you are my heir. I entrust my land and my people
to you. Take care of them well.” She looked away, across the river, her eyes
bright with tears. “If it is the only way to save his life, he must marry you.
But then they will kill him anyway.”

At the end of the garden, steps had
been cut in the fortification wall down to the moat, where two pleasure boats
lay moored. There was a gate across the steps, which Kaede guessed would be
closed at nightfall, but which now stood open. The moat and the river could be
seen through it. Two guards sat lazily by the wall, looking stupefied by the
heat.

“It will be cool today out on the
water,” Lady Maruyama said.

“The boatmen might be bought. . .
.”

“I would not advise it, lady,”
Shizuka said urgently. “If you try to escape, you will arouse Iida's
suspicions. Our best chance is to placate him until Arai is closer.”

“Arai will not approach Inuyama
while Iida lives,” Lady Maruyama said. “He will not commit himself to a siege.
We have always considered this castle impregnable. It can only fall from
within.”

She glanced again from the water to
the keep. “It traps us,” she said. “It holds us in its grip. Yet, I must get
away.”

“Don't attempt anything rash,”
Shizuka pleaded.

Mariko came back, complaining it
was too hot to play. She was followed by Sachie.

“I will take her inside,” Lady
Maruyama said. “She has lessons, after all. . . .” Her voice tailed away, and
tears sprang in her eyes again. “My poor child,” she said. “My poor children.”
She clasped her hands across her belly.

“Come, lady,” Sachie said. “You
must lie down.”

Kaede felt tears of sympathy in her
own eyes. The stones of the keep and the walls around her seemed to press in on
her. The crickets' shrill was intense and brain-numbing; the heat seemed to
reverberate from the ground. Lady Maruyama was right, she thought: They were
all trapped, and there was no way of escaping.

“Do you wish to return to the
house?” Shizuka asked her.

“Let's stay here a little longer.”
It occurred to Kaede that there was one more thing she had to talk about.
“Shizuka, you seem able to come and go. The guards trust you.”

Shizuka nodded. “I have some of the
skills of the Tribe in this respect.”

“Out of all of the women here, you
are the only one who could escape.” Kaede hesitated, not sure how to phrase
what she felt she must say. Finally she said abruptly, “If you want to leave,
you must go. I do not want you to stay on my account.” Then she bit her lip and
looked swiftly away, for she did not see how she would survive without the girl
she had come to depend on.

“We are safest if none of us tries
to leave,” Shizuka whispered. “But apart from that, it is out of the question.
Unless you order me to go, I will never leave you. Our lives are bound together
now.” She added, as if to herself, “It is not only men who have honor.”

“Lord Arai sent you to me,” Kaede
said, “and you tell me you are from the Tribe, who asserted their power over
Lord Takeo. Are you really free to make such decisions? Do you have the choice
of honor?”

“For someone who was taught
nothing, Lady Shirakawa knows a great deal,” Shizuka said, smiling, and for a
moment Kaede felt her heart lighten.

She stayed by the water most of the
day, eating only a little. The ladies of the household came to join her for a
few hours, and they spoke of the beauty of the garden and the wedding
arrangements. One of them had been to Hagi, and she described the city with
admiration, telling Kaede some of the legends of the Otori clan, whispering of
their ancient feud with the Tohan. They all expressed their joy that Kaede was
to put an end to this feud, and told her how delighted Lord Iida was with the
alliance.

Not knowing how to reply, and aware
of the treachery beneath the wedding plans, Kaede sought refuge in shyness,
smiled until her face ached, but hardly spoke.

She glanced away and saw Lord Iida
in person crossing the garden, in the direction of the pavilion, accompanied by
three or four of his retainers.

The ladies immediately fell silent.
Kaede called to Shizuka, “I think I will go inside. My head aches.”

“I will comb out your hair and
massage your head,” Shizuka said, and indeed the weight of her hair seemed
intolerable to Kaede. Her body felt sticky and chafed beneath the robes. She
longed for coolness, for night.

However, as they moved away from
the pavilion, Lord Abe left the group of men and strode towards them. Shizuka immediately
dropped to her knees, and Kaede bowed to him, though not as deeply.

“Lady Shirakawa,” he said, “Lord
Iida wishes to speak to you.”

Trying to hide her reluctance, she
returned to the pavilion, where Iida was already seated on the cushions. The women
had withdrawn and were engaged in looking at the river.

Kaede knelt on the wooden floor,
lowering her head to the ground, aware of his deep eyes, pools of molten iron,
sweeping over her.

“You may sit up,” he said briefly.
His voice was rough and the polite forms sat uneasily on his tongue. She felt
the gaze of his men, the heavy silence that had become familiar to her, the
mixture of lust and admiration.

“Shigeru is a lucky man,” Iida
said, and she heard both threat and malice in the men's laughter. She thought
he would speak to her about the wedding or about her father, who had already
sent messages to say he could not attend, due to his wife's illness.

His next words surprised her.

“I believe Arai is an old
acquaintance of yours?”

“I knew him when he served Lord
Noguchi,” she replied carefully.

“It was on your account that
Noguchi exiled him,” Iida said. “Noguchi made a grave mistake, and he's paid
for it severely. Now it seems I'm going to have to deal with Arai on my own
doorstep.” He sighed deeply. “Your marriage to Lord Otori comes at a very good
time.”

Kaede thought, I am an ignorant
girl, brought up by the Noguchi, loyal and stupid. I know nothing of the
intrigues of the clans.

She made her face doll-like, her
voice childish. “I only want to do what Lord Iida and my father want for me.”

“You heard nothing on your journey
of Arai's movements? Shigeru did not discuss them at any time?”

“I have heard nothing from Lord
Arai since he left Lord Noguchi,” she replied.

“Yet, they say he was quite a
champion of yours.”

She dared to look up at him through
her eyelashes. “I cannot be held responsible for the way men feel about me,
lord.”

Their eyes met for a moment. His
look was penetrating, predatory. She felt he also desired her, like all the
others, piqued and tantalized by the idea that involvement with her brought
death.

Revulsion rose in her throat. She
thought of the needle concealed in her sleeve, imagined sliding it into his
flesh.

“No,” he agreed, “nor can we blame
any man for admiring you.” He spoke over his shoulder to Abe: “You were right.
She is exquisite.” It was as if he spoke of an inanimate piece of art. “You
were going inside? Don't let me detain you. I believe your health is delicate.”

“Lord Iida.” She bowed to the
ground again and shuffled backwards to the edge of the pavilion. Shizuka helped
her to her feet and they walked away.

Neither of them spoke until they
were back in the room. Then Kaede whispered, “He knows everything.”

“No.” Shizuka said, taking up the
comb and beginning to work on Kaede's hair. “He is not sure. He has no proof of
anything. You did well.” Her fingers massaged Kaede's scalp and temples. Some
of the tension began to ease. Kaede leaned back against her. “I would like to
go to Hagi. Will you come with me?”

“If that comes to pass, you won't
need me,” Shizuka replied, smiling.

“I think I will always need you,”
Kaede said. A wistful note crept into her voice. “Maybe I would be happy with
Lord Shigeru. If I hadn't met Takeo, if he did not love—”

“Shush, shush,” Shizuka sighed, her
fingers working and stroking.

“We might have had children,” Kaede
went on, her voice dreamy and slow. “None of that is going to happen now, yet I
must pretend it will.”

“We are on the brink of war,”
Shizuka whispered. “We do not know what will happen in the next few days, let
alone the future.”

“Where would Lord Takeo be now? Do
you know?”

“If he is still in the capital, in
one of the secret houses of the Tribe. But they may have already moved him out
of the fief.”

“Will I ever see him again?” Kaede said,
but she didn't expect an answer, nor did Shizuka give one. Her fingers worked
on. Beyond the open doors, the garden shimmered in the heat, the crickets more
strident than ever.

Slowly the day faded and the
shadows began to lengthen.

I was unconscious for a few moments
only. When I came round I was in the dark, and guessed at once I was inside the
cart. There were at least two people inside with me. One, I could tell from his
breathing, was Kenji, the other, from her perfume, one of the girls. They were
pinioning me, one arm each.

I felt terribly sick, as though I'd
been hit on the head. The movement of the cart didn't help.

“I'm going to vomit,” I said, and
Kenji let go of one arm. The sickness half-rose in my throat as I sat up. I
realized the girl had let go of my other arm. I forgot about vomiting in my
desperate desire to escape. I threw myself, arms across my head, at the hinged
opening of the cart.

It was firmly fastened from the
outside. I felt the skin on one hand tear against a nail. Kenji and the girl
grabbed me, forcing me down as I struggled and thrashed. Someone outside called
out, a sharp angry warning.

Kenji swore at me. “Shut up! Lie
still! If the Tohan find you now, you're dead!”

But I had gone beyond reason. When
I was a boy I used to bring wild animals home, fox cubs, stoats, baby rabbits.
I could never tame them. All they wanted, blindly, irrationally, was to escape.
I thought of that blind rush now. Nothing mattered to me except that Shigeru
should not believe I had betrayed him. I would never stay with the Tribe. They
would never be able to keep me.