Free Across the Nightingale Floor by Lian Hearn Page A

Still,
there were two of them armed to the teeth. They should be able to deal with one
old man.
    I tore through the garden, kicked
off my sandals, and climbed the stairs in a couple of bounds. Lord Shigeru was
sitting in the upstairs room, gazing out over the garden.
    “Takeo,” he said, “I've been
thinking, a tea room over the garden would be perfect.”
    “Lord . . .” I began, then was
transfixed by a movement in the garden below. I thought it was the heron, it
stood so still and gray, then I saw it was the man I had left at the gate.
    “What?” Lord Shigeru said, seeing
my face.
    I was gripped by terror that the
assassination attempt was to be repeated. “There's a stranger in the garden,” I
cried. “Watch him!” My next fear was for the guards. I ran back down the stairs
and out of the house. My heart was pounding as I came to the gate. The dogs
were all right. They stirred when they heard me, tails wagging. I shouted; the
men came out, astonished.
    “What's wrong, Takeo?”
    “You let him in!” I said in a fury.
“The old man, he's in the garden.”
    “No, he's out there in the street
where you left him.”
    My eyes followed the man's gesture,
and for a moment I, too, was fooled. I did see him, sitting outside in the
shade of the roofed wall, humble, patient, harmless. Then my vision cleared.
The street was empty.
    “You fools!” I said. “Didn't I tell
you he was dangerous? Didn't I tell you on no account to let him in? What
useless idiots are you, and you call yourselves men of the Otori clan? Go back
to your farms and guard your hens, and may the foxes eat every one of them!”
    They gaped at me. I don't think
anyone in the household had ever heard me speak so many words at once. My rage
was greater because I felt responsible for them. But they had to obey me. I
could only protect them if they obeyed me. “You are lucky to be alive,” I said,
drawing my sword from my belt and racing back to find the intruder.
    He was gone from the garden, and I
was beginning to wonder if I'd seen another mirage, when I heard voices from
the upstairs room. Lord Shigeru called my name. He did not sound in any
danger—more as if he were laughing. When I went into the room and bowed, the
man was sitting next to him as if they were old friends, and they were both
chuckling away. The stranger no longer looked so ancient. I could see he was a
few years older than Lord Shigeru, and his face now was open and warm.
    “He wouldn't walk on the same side
of the street, eh?” the lord said.
    “That's right, and he made me sit
outside and wait.” They both roared with laughter and slapped the matting with
open palms. “By the way, Shigeru, you should train your guards better. Takeo
was right to be angry with them.”
    “He was right all along,” Lord
Shigeru said, a note of pride in his voice.
    “He's one in a thousand—the sort
that's born, not made. He has to be from the Tribe. Sit up, Takeo, let me look
at you.”
    I lifted my head from the floor and
sat back on my heels. My face was burning. I felt the man had tricked me after
all. He said nothing, just studied me quietly.
    Lord Shigeru said, “This Muto
Kenji, an old friend of mine.”
    “Lord Muto,” I said, polite but
cold, determined not to let my feelings show.
    “You don't have to call me lord,”
Kenji said. “I am not a lord, though I number a few among my friends.” He
leaned towards me. “Show me your hands.”
    He took each hand in turn, looking
at the back and then at the palm.
    “We think him like Takeshi,” Lord
Shigeru said.
    “Unnh. He has a look of the Otori
about him.” Kenji moved back to his original position and gazed over the
garden. The last of the color had leached from it. Only the maples stiff glowed
red. “The news of your loss saddened me,” he said.
    “I thought I no longer wanted to
live,” Lord Shigeru replied. “But the weeks pass and I find that I do. I am not
made for despair.”
    “No, indeed,” Kenji agreed,