Lian Hearn - Heaven's Net Is Wide

The Otori clan welcomes the just and the loyal. Let the unjust and the disloyal beware.

AKANE WAS PLEASED by the inscription and deeply grateful to the young Otori heir who had arranged it. Now she had to make decisions about her own future. On the night of her father’s death, she had allowed Wataru to see her back to Fire Mountain. There she kept to her room for three days, seeing no one, not even Hayato, and hardly eating. After that, she went to her mother. Hayato wrote to her daily, urging her to accept his offer, declaring his love for her. Her mother quickly became aware of the situation, and it comforted her considerably; she also urged Akane to accept and began to make her own plans for her daughter’s future life. However, four weeks after the stonemason’s death, and a week after the carved stone had been erected, Haruna came to visit her.

“I am very sorry,” Akane apologized. Her mother was serving tea to them both. The fragrance filled the room. Haruna was dressed in a simple but formal robe; she had come by palanquin. Their fans fluttered in the still, humid air. “I have neglected you and my work. After all you have done for me, there is really no excuse. I will return very soon. My mother is almost well enough to do without me.”

“But our guest must know about Lord Hayato,” her mother exclaimed. “Akane must accept him. Haruna, persuade her yourself.”

“I would like to speak to your daughter alone,” Haruna replied, in her usual tone that allowed no argument, and Akane’s mother bowed to her and left.

“Come closer,” Haruna said. “This is for your ears only. I had intended to advise you to accept Hayato. Of course, he has offered me a great deal of money for you, but apart from that I believe he would make you happy. He is not likely to tire of you, and he will always support you and any children you might have together. I am very fond of you, Akane, and I have known Hayato for a long time. It would be a very satisfactory arrangement.”

“But?” Akane questioned when the older woman fell silent.

“A few days ago I was summoned to the house of Lord Mori Yusuke, the horsebreaker. His son, as you may know, is a close friend of Lord Otori’s sons, especially close to Lord Shigeru. It seems there is a certain interest in you in that quarter.”

“Kiyoshige is only a boy,” Akane said, smiling.

“Not Kiyoshige. Shigeru.”

“Lord Shigeru does not know me. Has he ever even seen me?” He would not remember the girl in the river.

“Apparently he has. He saw you on the recent tragic occasion and gave instructions that you and your family were to be looked after: there is money available for you. Kiyoshige will deliver it to me.”

Akane was silent for a few moments. Then she said lightly, “It is an act of kindness, no more. Lord Shigeru has always had a reputation for compassion.”

“Lord Mori and his son seemed to think it could be more than that. Shigeru is a man now; there are no plans yet for his marriage. He will be provided with a concubine. Why should it not be you?”

“The honor is far too great for me,” Akane said, fanning herself more vigorously, for the suggestion had made her pulse beat quickly and brought a flush of heat to her skin. When she was a child, the clan lords had seemed almost like gods to her, completely removed from people of her class. They lived in an elevated world, occasionally glimpsed at ceremonies, barely even gossiped about. The encounter in the river no longer seemed real to her. She could hardly even bring herself to consider being in the same room as the Otori heir, let alone lying with him, skin against skin.

“To tell you the truth, it’s an ambition I’ve sometimes dreamed of for you,” Haruna replied. “But Hayato’s offer made me think again. I had decided to lay aside my ambitions for the sake of your happiness, until the suggestion came from their side. The Otori situation, great honor though it is, has many drawbacks. Your life would necessarily be more secluded; you would have to put up with all the intrigue of the castle, and of course they would not allow any children.”

“This is my mother’s main reason for supporting Hayato’s case,” Akane said. “She longs for grandchildren. But I have no desire for children. Why bring them into this world just to suffer?” After a moment, she added, “Anyway, do I have a choice? Surely Lord Shigeru’s wishes cannot be refused?”

“His wishes have not yet been voiced as such: the Mori family were simply sounding things out, as it were. However, I had the feeling they were advising against any other precipitous decisions that you might make.”

“Hayato has hardly been discreet,” Akane said.

“It’s true. Everyone knows he is pursuing you.”

“I suppose he will be ‘advised’ as well.”

“Almost certainly.”

“So I am supposed to refuse Hayato and do nothing until Lord Shigeru voices his wishes,” Akane said with a flash of anger.

“You only need do what you have been doing: Stay here with your mother and continue not to see Hayato. As I said, money has already been provided for you. You do not need to work.”

“It’s not only money I work for,” Akane said. “How long do I have to live without a man?” She was already missing her favorite lover, longing to feel again the intensity of the passion that had momentarily numbed her grief.

“Not long,” Haruna promised. “Shall I take a favorable response back to the Mori?”

Akane sat in silence. She could hear her mother in the kitchen, the sounds of the street and the river. She stood suddenly, as if seized by anger, and walked to the door and back again. “What other response can there be?”

After Haruna had left, Akane ignored her mother’s eager questioning and went to sit in her father’s workshop, among the piles of half-carved stones. It was empty and silent. She missed its constant noise, the tap of iron on iron and the sigh of iron on stone. Wataru had returned to his own village, saying he was too old to serve anyone else, and Naizo had been taken on by another mason who had already offered to buy her father’s store of stone. Soon the oxcarts would come and carry them away. The air was full of dust, and the sun’s rays seemed almost solidified by the motes, as if they themselves were about to become stone. She let her gaze linger over all the different shades of gray that lay between white and near-black-rocks brought from mountainside, riverbed, and seashore, hewn, hauled, and lifted by men’s strength.

How strange were the workings of fate, she mused. Lord Shigemori had ordered her father’s death; if that had not taken place, she would never have come to the attention of his son. If she went to him, she would be raised to a position her family could never have dreamed of-but she would have no children.

Yet, she thought, my father has no use for grandchildren. He will not be like other spirits. He will stay forever with his bridge-many will bring him offerings and gifts, almost as if he were a god himself.

She rose then and took flowers and wine to place before the stone. It had rained and the sky was overcast-the bridge, the streets, the river’s surface all as gray as the stones.

As she had expected, there were other offerings there. Her father had worshippers now and always would have. He did not need grandchildren. She prayed to his spirit and told him what she was going to become. There seemed a certain balance in place: she also would be a sacrifice-to the river god, to the Otori-though she thought her sacrifice would not be unpleasurable.

WEEKS WENT PAST without any further word from the horsebreaker or from the castle. Akane was disappointed.

“They have changed their minds,” she said to Haruna, who called on her regularly to keep her spirits up and bring money to her mother.