Across the Nightingale Floor (29 page)

I was no longer listening.
“Friendship? He deceived and betrayed him!”

Kikuta's voice went quiet. “You
have great skills, Takeo, and no one's doubting your courage or your heart.
It's just your head that needs sorting out. You have to learn to control your
emotions.”

“So I can betray old friends as
easily as Muto Kenji?” The brief moment of calm had passed. I could feel the
rage about to erupt again. I wanted to surrender to it, because it was only
rage that wiped out shame. The two young people stepped forward, ready to
restrain me, but Kikuta waved them back. He himself took my bound hands and held
them firmly.

“Look at me,” he said.

Despite myself, my eyes met his. I
could feel myself drowning in the whirlpool of my emotions, and only his eyes
kept me from going under. Slowly the rage abated. A tremendous weariness took
its place. I could not fight the sleep that rolled towards me like clouds over
the mountain. Kikuta's eyes held me until my own eyes closed, and the mist
swallowed me up.

When I woke, it was daylight, the
sun slanting into the room beyond the secret one and throwing a dim orange light
into where I lay. I couldn't believe it was afternoon again: I must have slept
for nearly a whole day. The girl was sitting on the floor a little way from me.
I realized the door had just closed; the sound had wakened me. The other guard
must have just stepped out. “What's your name?” I said. My voice was croaky, my
throat still sore.

“Yuki.”

“And him?”

“Akio.”

He was the one she'd said I'd
wounded. “What did that man do to me?”

“The Kikuta master? He just put you
to sleep. It's something Kikuta can do.”

I remembered the dogs in Hagi.
Something Kikuta can do.

“What hour is it?” I said.

“First half of the Rooster.”

“Is there any news?”

“Of Lord Otori? Nothing.” She came
a little closer and whispered, “Do you want me to take a message to him?”

I stared at her. “Can you?”

“I've worked as a maid at the place
he is lodged in, as I did at Yamagata.” She gave me a look full of meaning. “I
can try and speak to him tonight or tomorrow morning.”

“Tell him I did not leave
voluntarily. Ask him to forgive me. . . .” There was far too much to try to put
into words. I broke off “Why would you do this for me?”

She shook her head, smiled, and
indicated we should say no more. Akio returned to the room. One of his hands
was bandaged, and he treated me coldly.

Later they untied my feet and took
me to the bath, undressed me, and helped me into the hot water. I was moving
like a cripple and every muscle in my body ached.

“It's what you do to yourself when
you go mad with rage,” Yuki said. “You have no idea how much you can hurt
yourself with your own strength.”

“That's why you have to learn
self-control,” Akio added. “Otherwise you are only a danger to others as well
as yourself.”

When they took me back to the room
he said, “You broke every rule of the Tribe with your disobedience. Let this be
a punishment to you.”

I realized it was not only
resentment for my wounding him: He disliked me and was jealous too. I didn't
care one way or the other. My head ached fiercely, and although the rage had
left me, it had been replaced with the deepest sorrow.

My guards seemed to accept that
some sort of truce had been reached, and left me untied. I was in no condition
to go anywhere. I could hardly walk, let alone climb out of windows and scale
roofs. I ate a little, the first food I had taken in two days. Yuki and Akio
left, their places taken by Keiko and the other young man, whose name was
Yoshinori. Keiko's hands were also bandaged. They both seemed as hostile
towards me as Akio. We did not talk at all.

I thought of Shigeru and prayed that
Yuki would be able to speak to him. Then I found myself praying in the manner
of the Hidden, the words coming unbidden onto my tongue. I had absorbed them,
after all, with my mother's milk. Like a child I whispered them to myself, and
maybe they brought me comfort, for after a while I slept again, deeply. The
sleep refreshed me. When I woke, it was morning, my body had recovered a little
and I could move without pain. Yuki was back, and when she saw I was awake, she
dispatched Akio on some errand. She seemed older than the others, and had some
authority over them.

She told me immediately what I
longed to hear. “I went to the lodging house last night and managed to speak to
Lord Otori. He was greatly relieved to hear you are unharmed. His main fear was
that you had been captured or murdered by the Tohan. He wrote to you yesterday,
in the vain hope you might be able to retrieve the letter someday.”

“You have it?”

She nodded. “He gave me something
else for you. I hid it in the closet.”

She slid open the door to the
closet where the bedding was stored, and from beneath a pile of quilts took out
a long bundle. I recognized the cloth: It was an old traveling robe of
Shigeru's, maybe the very one he had been wearing when he had saved my life in
Mino. She put it in my hands and I held it up to my face. There was something
rigid wrapped up inside it. I knew immediately what it was. I unfolded the robe
and lifted Jato out.

I thought I would die of grief.
Tears fell then: I could not prevent them.

Yuki said gently, “They are to go
unarmed to the castle for the wedding. He did not want the sword to be lost if
he did not return.”

“He will not return,” I said, the
tears streaming like a river.

Yuki took the sword from me and
rewrapped it, stowing it away again in the closet.

“Why did you do this for me?” I
said. “Surely you are disobeying the Tribe?”

“I am from Yamagata,” she replied.
“I was there when Takeshi was murdered. The family who died with him—I grew up
with their daughter. You saw what it was like in Yamagata, how much the people
love Shigeru. I am one of them. And I believe Kenji, the Muto master, has
wronged both of you.” There was a note of challenge in her voice that sounded
almost like an outraged—and disobedient—child. I did not want to question her
further. I was just immensely grateful for what she had done for me.

“Give me the letter,” I said after
a while.

He had been taught by Ichiro and
his handwriting was everything mine should have been but wasn't, bold and
flowing: Takeo, I am most happy that you are safe. There is nothing to forgive.
I know that you would not betray me, and I always knew that the Tribe would try
to take you. Think of me tomorrow. The main letter followed. . . .

Takeo, for whatever reasons, we
could not follow through with our gamble. I have many regrets, but am spared
the sorrow of sending you to your death. I believe you to be with the Tribe;
your destiny is therefore out of my hands. However, you are my adopted son and
my only legal heir. I hope one day you will be able to take up your Otori
inheritance. If I die at Iida's hands, I charge you to avenge my death, but not
to mourn it, for I believe I will achieve more in death than in life. Be
patient. I also ask that you will look after Lady Shirakawa.

Some bond from a former life must have
decreed the strength of our feelings. I am glad we met at Mino. I embrace you.

Your adopted father, Shigeru.

It was set with his seal.

“The Otori men believe you and the
Muto master to have been murdered,” Yuki said. “No one believes you would have
left voluntarily. I thought you would like to know.”

I thought of them all, the men who
had teased and spoiled me, taught me and put up with me, been proud of me, and
still thought the best of me. They were going to certain death, but I envied
them, for they would die with Shigeru, while I was condemned to live, starting
with that terrible day.

Every sound from outside made me
start. At one time, soon after midday, I thought I heard far in the distance
the clash of swords and the screams of men, but no one came to tell me
anything. An oppressive and unnatural silence settled over the town.

My only consolation was the thought
of Jato, lying hidden within arm's reach. Many times I was on the point of
seizing the sword and fighting my way out of the house, but Shigeru's last
message to me had been to be patient. Rage had given way to grief, but now, as
my tears dried, grief gave way to determination. I would not throw away my life
unless I took Iida with me.

Around the hour of the Monkey I
heard a voice in the shop below. My heart stopped, for I knew it was news of
some sort. Keiko and Yoshinori were with me, but after about ten minutes Yuki
came and told them they were to go.

She knelt beside me and put her
hand on my arm. “Muto Shizuka has sent a message from the castle. The masters
are coming to speak to you.”

“Is he dead?”

“No, worse: He is captured. They
will tell you.”

“He is to kill himself?”

Yuki hesitated. She spoke swiftly
without looking at me. “Iida has accused him of harboring a member of the
Hidden—of being one of them himself. Ando has a personal feud against him and
is demanding punishment. Lord Otori has been stripped of the privileges of the
warrior class and is to be treated as a common criminal.”

“Iida would not dare,” I said.

“He has already done it.”

I heard footsteps approaching from
the outer room as outrage and shock sent energy flooding through me. I leaped
at the closet and pulled out the sword, drawing it in the same movement from
the sheath. I felt it cleave to my hands. I raised it above my head.

Kenji and Kikuta stepped into the
room. They went very still when they saw Jato in my hands. Kikuta reached
inside his robe for a knife, but Kenji did not move.

“I am not going to attack you,” I
said, “though you deserve to die. But I will kill myself . . .”

Kenji rolled his eyes upwards.
Kikuta said mildly, “We hope you won't have to resort to that.” Then after a
moment he hissed and went on almost impatiently, “Sit down, Takeo. You've made
your point.”

We all lowered ourselves onto the
floor. I placed the sword on the matting next to me.

“I see Jato found you,” Kenji said.
“I should have expected that.”

“I brought it, master,” Yuki said.

“No, the sword used you. So it goes
from hand to hand. I should know: It used me to find Shigeru after Yaegahara.”

“Where is Shizuka?” I said.

“Still in the castle. She did not
come herself. Just to send a message was very dangerous, but she wanted us to
know what happened, and asked what we intended to do about it.”

“Tell me.”

“Lady Maruyama tried to flee from the
castle yesterday with her daughter.” Kikuta's voice was level and
dispassionate. “She bribed some boatmen to take her across the river. They were
betrayed and intercepted. All three women threw themselves into the water. The
lady and her daughter drowned, but the servant, Sachie, was rescued. Better for
her that she had drowned, for she was then tortured until she revealed the
relationship with Shigeru, the alliance with Arai, and the lady's connection
with the Hidden.”

“The pretense that the wedding would
take place was maintained until Shigeru was inside the castle,” Kenji said.
“Then the Otori men were cut down, and he was accused of treason.” He paused
for a moment and then continued quietly. “He is already strung from the castle
wall.”

“Crucified?” I whispered.

“Hung by the arms.”

I closed my eyes briefly, imagining
the pain, the dislocation of the shoulders, the slow suffocation, the terrible
humiliation.

“'A warrior's death, swift and
honorable'?” I said, in accusation, to Kenji.

He did not reply. His face, usually
so mobile, was still, his pale skin, white.

I put my hand out and touched Jato.
I said to Kikuta, “I have a proposition to put to the Tribe. I believe you work
for whoever pays you most. I will buy my services from you with something you seem
to value—that is, my life and my obedience. Let me go tonight and bring him
down. In return I will give up the name of Otori and join the Tribe. If you
don't agree, I will end my life here. I will never leave this room.”

The two masters exchanged a glance.
Kenji nodded imperceptibly. Kikuta said, “I have to accept that the situation
has changed, and we seem to have come to a stalemate.” There was a sudden
flurry in the street, feet running and shouts. We both listened in an identical
Kikuta way. The sounds faded, and he went on, “I accept your proposal. You have
my permission to go into the castle tonight.”

“I will go with him,” Yuki said,
“and I'll prepare everything we may need.”

“If the Muto master agrees.”

“I agree,” Kenji said. “I will come
too.”

“You don't need to,” I said.

“All the same, I'm coming with
you.”

“Do we know where Arai is?” I
asked.

Kenji said, “Even if he were to
march all night, he would not be here before daybreak.”

“But he is on his way?”

“Shizuka believes he will not move
against the castle. His only hope is to provoke Iida into fighting him on the
border.”

“And Terayama?”

“They will erupt when they hear of
this outrage,” Yuki said. “The town of Yamagata too.”

“No revolt will succeed while Iida
lives, and anyway, these wider concerns are not ours,” Kikuta interrupted with
a flash of anger. “You may bring Shigeru's body down; our agreement covers
nothing more.”

I said nothing. While Iida lives .
. .

It was raining again, the gentle
sound enveloping the town, washing tiles and cobbles, freshening the stale air.

“What of Lady Shirakawa?” I said.

“Shizuka says she is in shock, but
calm. No suspicion seems to be attached to her, apart from the blame that goes
with her unfortunate reputation. People say she is cursed, but she is not suspected
of being part of the conspiracy. Sachie, the servant, was weaker than the Tohan
thought, and she escaped their torture into death before, it seems,
incriminating Shizuka.”