Across the Nightingale Floor

by Lian Hearn

  “Well, the alliance is to go forward,” Lord Shoichi said eventually. “Lord Iida has proposed that it be sealed by a marriage between the clans. His closest ally, Lord Noguchi, has a ward. Lady Shirakawa Kaede is her name.”

  Shigeru was admiring the teacup, holding it out in one hand. He placed it carefully on the matting in front of him and sat without moving a muscle.

  “It is our desire that Lady Shirakawa become your wife,” Lord Masahiro said.

  “Forgive me, Uncle, but I have no desire to marry again. I have had no thoughts of marriage.”

  “Luckily you have relatives who will think of it for you. This marriage is greatly desired by Lord Iida. In fact, the alliance depends on it.”

  Lord Shigeru bowed. There was another long silence. I could hear footsteps coming from far away, the slow, deliberate tread of two people, one carrying something. The door behind us slid open and a man stepped past me and dropped to his knees. Behind him came a servant carrying a lacquer writing table, with ink block and brush and red vermilion paste for the seals.

  “Ah, the adoption papers!” Lord Shoichi said genially. “Bring them to us.”

  The secretary advanced on his knees and the table was set before the lords. The secretary then read the agreement aloud. The language was flowery but the content was simple enough: I was entitled to bear the name of Otori and to receive all the privileges of a son of the household. In the event of children being born to a subsequent marriage, my rights would be equal to theirs, but not greater. In return I agreed to act as a son to Lord Shigeru, to accept his authority, and to swear allegiance to the Otori clan. If he died with no other legal heir, I would inherit his property.

  The lords took up the seals.

  “The marriage will be held in the ninth month,” Masahiro said, “when the Festival of the Dead is over. Lord Iida wishes it to take place in Inuyama itself. The Noguchi are sending Lady Shirakawa to Tsuwano. You will meet her there and escort her to the capital.”

  The seals seemed to my eyes to hang in the air, suspended by a supernatural power. There was still time for me to speak out, to refuse to be adopted on such terms, to warn Lord Shigeru of the trap that had been set for him. But I said nothing. Events had moved beyond human control. Now we were in the hands of destiny.

  “Shall we affix the seal, Shigeru?” Masahiro said with infinite politeness.

  Lord Shigeru did not hesitate for a moment. “Please do so,” he said. “I accept the marriage, and I am happy to be able to please you.”

  So the seals were affixed, and I became a member of the Otori clan and Lord Shigeru’s adopted son. But as the seals of the clan were pressed to the documents, we both knew that they sealed his own fate.

  BY THE TIME WE RETURNED to the house, the news of my adoption had been borne on the wind ahead of us, and everything had been prepared for celebration. Lord Shigeru and I both had reasons to be less than wholehearted, but he seemed to put whatever misgivings he had about marriage aside and to be genuinely delighted. So was the whole household. I realized that I had truly become one of them over the months I had been with them. I was hugged, caressed, fussed over, and plied with red rice and Chiyo’s special good-luck tea, made from salted plum and seaweed, until my face ached with smiling and the tears I had not shed from grief filled my eyes for joy.

  Lord Shigeru had become even more worthy of my love and loyalty. His uncles’ treachery towards him had outraged me on his behalf, and I was terrified about the plot they had now laid against him. Then there was the question of the one-armed man. Throughout the evening I felt Kenji’s eyes on me: I knew he was waiting to hear what I had learned, and I was longing to tell him and Lord Shigeru. But by the time the beds were spread out and the servants had retired, it was past midnight, and I was reluctant to break the joyful mood with bad tidings. I would have gone to bed saying nothing, but Kenji, the only one of us who was truly sober, stopped me when I went to douse the lamp, saying, “First you must tell us what you heard and saw.”

  “Let it wait till morning,” I said.

  I saw the darkness that had lain behind Shigeru’s gaze deepen. I felt an immense sadness come over me, sobering me completely. He said, “I suppose we must learn the worst.”

  “What made the horse shy?” Kenji asked.

  “My own nervousness. But as he shied I saw the one-armed man.”

  “Ando. I saw him too. I did not know if you had, you gave no sign of it.”

  “Did he recognize Takeo?” Lord Shigeru asked immediately.

  “He looked carefully at both of you for an instant and then pretended to have no further interest. But just the fact that he is here suggests he had heard something.” He looked at me and went on, “Your peddler must have talked!”

  “I am glad the adoption is legal now,” Shigeru said. “It gives you a certain amount of protection.”

  I knew I had to tell him of the conversation I had overheard, but I was finding it hard even to speak of their baseness. “Forgive me, Lord Otori,” I began. “I heard your uncles speaking privately.”

  “While you were counting—or miscounting—the household, I suppose,” he replied dryly. “They were discussing the marriage?”

  “Who is to be married?” Kenji said.

  “I seem to have been contracted into a marriage to seal the alliance with the Tohan,” Shigeru replied. “The lady in question is a ward of Lord Noguchi; Shirakawa is her name.”

  Kenji raised his eyebrows but did not speak. Shigeru went on, “My uncles made it clear that Takeo’s adoption depended on this marriage.” He stared into the darkness and said quietly, “I am caught between two obligations. I cannot fulfill both, but I cannot break either.”

  “Takeo should tell us what the Otori lords said,” Kenji murmured.

  I found it easier to speak to him. “The marriage is a trap. It is to send Lord Shigeru away from Hagi, where his popularity and opposition to the Tohan alliance may split the clan. Someone called Arai is challenging Iida in the West. If the Otori were to join him, Iida would be caught between them.” My voice tailed away, and I turned to Shigeru. “Lord Otori knows all this?”

  “I am in contact with Arai,” he said. “Go on.”

  “Lady Shirakawa has the reputation of bringing death to men. Your uncles plan to . . .”

  “Murder me?” His voice was matter-of-fact.

  “I should not have to report so shameful a thing,” I muttered, my face burning. “It was they who paid Shintaro.”

  Outside, the cicadas shrilled. I could feel sweat forming on my forehead, it was so close and still, a dark night with no moon or stars. The smell of the river was rank and muddy, an ancient smell, as ancient as treachery.

  “I knew I was no favorite with them,” Shigeru said. “But to send Shintaro against me! They must think I am really dangerous.” He clapped me on the shoulder. “I have a lot to thank Takeo for. I am glad he will be with me in Inuyama.”

  “You’re joking,” Kenji exclaimed. “You cannot take Takeo there!”

  “It seems I must go, and I feel safer if he is with me. Anyway, he is my son now. He must accompany me.”

  “Just try and leave me behind!” I put in.

  “So you intend to marry Shirakawa Kaede?” Kenji said.

  “Do you know her, Kenji?”

  “I know of her. Who doesn’t? She’s barely fifteen and quite beautiful, they say.”

  “In that case, I’m sorry I can’t marry her.” Shigeru’s voice was light, almost joking. “But it will do no harm if everyone thinks I will, for a while at least. It will divert Iida’s attention, and will give us a few more weeks.”

  “What prevents you from marrying again?” Kenji said. “You spoke just now of the two obligations you are caught between. Since you agreed to the marriage in order that the adoption should go ahead, I understand that Takeo stands first with you. You’re not secretly married already, are you?”

  “As good as,” Shigeru admitted after a pause. “There is someone els
e involved.”

  “Will you tell me who?”

  “I have kept it secret for so long, I’m not sure I can,” Shigeru replied. “Takeo can tell you, if he knows.”

  Kenji turned to me. I swallowed and whispered, “Lady Maruyama?”

  Shigeru smiled. “How long have you known?”

  “Since the night we met the lady at the inn in Chigawa.”

  Kenji, for the first time since I’d known him, looked really startled. “The woman Iida burns for, and wants to marry? How long has it been going on for?”

  “You won’t believe me,” Shigeru replied.

  “A year? Two?”

  “Since I was twenty.”

  “That must be nearly ten years!” Kenji seemed as impressed by the fact that he had known nothing about the affair as by the news itself. “Yet another reason for you to hate Iida.” He shook his head in amazement.

  “It is more than love,” Shigeru said quietly. “We are allies as well. Between them, she and Arai control the Seishuu and the southwest. If the Otori join them, we can defeat Iida.” He paused and then went on, “If the Tohan take over the Otori domain, we will see the same cruelty and persecution that I rescued Takeo from in Mino. I cannot stand by and watch Iida impose his will on my people, see my country devastated, my villages burned. My uncles—Iida himself—know that I would never submit to that. So they mean to remove me from the scene. Iida has invited me into his lair, where he almost certainly intends to have me killed. I intend to use this to my advantage. What better way, after all, to get into Inuyama?”

  Kenji stared at him, frowning. I could see Shigeru’s openhearted smile in the lamplight. There was something irresistible about him. His courage made my own heart catch fire. I understood why people loved him.

  “These are things that do not concern the Tribe,” Kenji said finally.

  “I’ve been frank with you; I trust that all this will go no further. Lady Maruyama’s daughter is a hostage with Iida. Apart from that, more than your secrecy, I would be grateful for your help.”

  “I would never betray you, Shigeru, but sometimes, as you yourself said, we find ourselves with divided loyalties. I cannot pretend to you that I am not of the Tribe. Takeo is Kikuta. Sooner or later the Kikuta will claim him. There is nothing I can do about that.”

  “It’s up to Takeo to make that choice when the time comes,” Shigeru said.

  “I have sworn allegiance to the Otori clan,” I said. “I will never leave you, and I will do anything you ask of me.”

  For I was already seeing myself in Inuyama, where Lord Iida Sadamu lurked behind his nightingale floor.

  · 6 ·

  aede left Noguchi castle with no regrets and few hopes for the future, but since she had hardly been beyond its walls in the eight years she had been a hostage with the Noguchi, and since she was only fifteen, she could not help but be entranced by everything she saw. For the first few miles she and Lady Maruyama were carried in palanquins by teams of porters, but the swaying motion made her feel sick, and at the first rest stop she insisted on getting out and walking with Shizuka. It was high summer; the sun was strong. Shizuka tied a shady hat on her head, and also held up a parasol over her.

  “Lady Shirakawa must not appear before her husband as brown as I am.” She giggled.

  They traveled until midday, rested for a while at an inn, and then went on for another few miles before evening. By the time they stopped, Kaede’s mind was reeling with all she had seen: the brilliant green of the rice fields, as smooth and luxuriant as the pelt of an animal; the white splashing rivers that raced beside the road; the mountains that rose before them, range after range, clad in their rich summer green, interwoven with the crimson of wild azaleas. And the people on the road, of every sort and description: warriors in armor, bearing swords and riding spirited horses; farmers carrying all manner of things that she’d never seen before; oxcarts and packhorses, beggars and peddlers.

  She was not supposed to stare at them, and they were supposed to bow to the ground as the procession went past, but she sneaked as many looks at them as they did at her.

  They were accompanied by Lady Maruyama’s retainers; the chief among them, a man named Sugita, treated the lady with the easy familiarity of an uncle. Kaede found that she liked him.

  “I liked to walk when I was your age,” Lady Maruyama said as they ate the evening meal together. “I still prefer it, to be truthful, but I also fear the sun.”

  She gazed at Kaede’s unlined skin. She had been kind to her all day, but Kaede could not forget her first impression, that the older woman did not like her and that in some way she had offended her.

  “You do not ride?” she asked. She had been envying the men on their horses: They seemed so powerful and free.

  “Sometimes I ride,” Lady Maruyama replied. “But when I am a poor defenseless woman traveling through Tohan land, I allow myself to be carried in the palanquin.”

  Kaede looked questioningly at her. “Yet, Lady Maruyama is said to be powerful,” she murmured.

  “I must hide my power among men,” she replied, “or they will not hesitate to crush me.”

  “I have not been on a horse since I was a child,” Kaede admitted.

  “But all warriors’ daughters should be taught to ride!” Lady Maruyama exclaimed. “Did the Noguchi not do so?”

  “They taught me nothing,” Kaede said with bitterness.

  “No use of the sword and knife? No archery?”

  “I did not know women learned such things.”

  “In the West they do.” There was a short silence. Kaede, hungry for once, took a little more rice.

  “Did the Noguchi treat you well?” the lady asked.

  “In the beginning, no, not at all.” Kaede felt herself torn between her usual guarded response to anyone who questioned her, and a strong desire to confide in this woman, who was of the same class as she was and who was her equal. They were alone in the room, apart from Shizuka and Lady Maruyama’s woman, Sachie, who both sat so still Kaede was hardly aware of them. “After the incident with the guard, I was moved to the residence.”

  “Before that?”

  “I lived with the servant girls in the castle.”

  “How shameful,” Lady Maruyama said, her own voice bitter now. “How do the Noguchi dare? When you are Shirakawa . . .” She looked down and said, “I fear for my own daughter, who is held hostage by Lord Iida.”

  “It was not so bad when I was a child,” Kaede said. “The servants pitied me. But when the springtime began, and I was neither child nor woman, no one protected me. Until a man had to die . . .”

  To her own astonishment, her voice faltered. A sudden rush of emotion made her eyes fill with tears. The memory came flooding back to her: the man’s hands, the hard bulge of his sex against her, the knife in her hand, the blood, his death before her eyes.

  “Forgive me,” she whispered.

  Lady Maruyama reached across the space between them and took her hand. “Poor child,” she said, stroking Kaede’s fingers. “All the poor children, all the poor daughters. If only I could free you all.”

  Kaede wanted nothing more than to sob her heart out. She struggled to regain control. “After that, they moved me to the residence. I was given my own maid, first Junko, then Shizuka. Life was much better there. I was to be married to an old man. He died, and I was glad. But then people began to say that to know me, to desire me, brings death.”

  She heard the other woman’s sharp intake of breath. For a moment neither of them spoke.

  “I do not want to cause any man’s death,” Kaede said in a low voice. “I fear marriage. I do not want Lord Otori to die because of me.”

  When Lady Maruyama replied, her voice was thin. “You must not say such things, or even think them.”

  Kaede looked at her. Her face, white in the lamplight, seemed filled with a sudden apprehension.

  “I am very tired,” the lady went on. “Forgive me if I do not talk more tonight. W
e have many days on the road together, after all.” She called to Sachie. The food trays were removed and the beds spread out.

  Shizuka accompanied Kaede to the privy and washed her hands when she had finished there.

  “What did I say to offend her?” Kaede whispered. “I don’t understand her: One moment she is friendly, the next she stares at me as if I were poison to her.”

  “You’re imagining things,” Shizuka said lightly. “Lady Maruyama is very fond of you. Apart from anything else, after her daughter, you are her closest female relative.”

  “Am I?” Kaede replied and, when Shizuka nodded emphatically, asked, “Is that so important?”

  “If anything happened to them, it is you who would inherit Maruyama. No one’s told you this, because the Tohan still hope to acquire the domain. It’s one of the reasons why Iida insisted you should go to the Noguchi as a hostage.”

  When Kaede said nothing, Shizuka went on, “My lady is even more important than she thought she was!”

  “Don’t tease me! I feel lost in this world. I feel as if I know nothing!”

  Kaede went to bed, her mind swirling. She was aware of Lady Maruyama’s restlessness through the night as well, and the next morning the lady’s beautiful face looked tired and drawn. But she spoke to Kaede kindly and, when they set out, arranged for a gentle brown horse to be provided for her. Sugita lifted her onto its back, and at first one of the men walked at its head, leading it. She remembered the ponies she had ridden as a child and the ability began to come back. Shizuka would not let her ride for the whole day, saying her muscles would ache too much and she would be too tired, but she loved the feeling of being on the horse’s back, and could not wait to mount again. The rhythm of its gait calmed her a little and helped her to organize her thoughts. Mostly she was appalled at her lack of education and her ignorance of the world she was entering. She was a pawn on the board of the great game the warlords were playing, but she longed to be more than that, to understand the moves of the game and to play it herself.