Lian Hearn - Heaven's Net Is Wide

“Your husband does not mind if she leaves?”

“We have four daughters and three sons. We can spare one child for a man who lost all his children. I come with my husband’s permission. I would never act against his wishes, as Lord Otori already knows.”

“Lord Otori may not recall every detail of the lives of everyone he meets,” Kiyoshige said, not knowing that Shigeru did recall everything about the night-the injured, feverish man; the woman daring to address him directly; her husband’s anger and incomprehension.

“Have the letter written for the two of them,” he said to Irie. “They have my permission to travel to the West. I will stamp it with my seal.”

“YOU WILL NOT become like our father?” Takeshi said later, when the brothers were alone.

“What do you mean?” Shigeru replied.

“Consulting priests all the time, taking advice from all sorts of undesirable people.” Takeshi caught his older brother’s look of disapproval and said rapidly, “I don’t mean any disrespect. But everyone talks about it and deplores it. Now you receive this woman and extend your protection to her brother… why? It seems so strange. I don’t want to hear people deploring my older brother’s behavior.”

“What people say about it should not matter, as long as I hold the behavior to be correct.”

“But your reputation is important,” Takeshi said. “If people admire you and love you, they are more likely to do what you want. The more popular you are, the safer you are.”

“What are you talking about?” Shigeru smiled.

“Don’t laugh at me. You should be on your guard. I hear things, you know. I keep my ears open, and moreover Kiyoshige and Kahei tell me a lot. You don’t go to the places Kiyoshige takes me to.”

“You should not go to them, either!” Shigeru interjected.

“People don’t take any notice of me after a while, especially if they are drinking. I pretend to be still a child…”

“You still are a child!”

“Not really,” Takeshi replied. “But I don’t mind acting like one. Often I pretend I’m asleep and curl up on the floor while they loosen their tongues above my head.”

“And what do these loose tongues have to say?”

“I am not being disloyal myself. I am simply repeating what is said because I think you should know.”

“I understand.”

“They fear our father’s indecisiveness in the face of Tohan aggression. They are concerned about the role our uncles play in the clan’s decisions. They predict that the East will be handed over to the Tohan rather than defended.”

“Not while I live,” Shigeru said. “We will spend the autumn and winter preparing for war; it is my intention to start gathering men and training them.”

Takeshi’s eyes brightened with excitement. “Just don’t start a war until I’m old enough to fight!”

By now Shigeru had seen many men die. He would never forget the moment when life left the body of the first man he had killed-Miura. He did not fear his own death, though he still intended to make it significant, but the idea of Takeshi’s death was unendurable. All the more reason not to delay the confrontation with the Tohan. But if it is next year, as it probably will be, Shigeru thought, at fourteen, he will not be too young to take part. How can I keep him out of the battle?

“Anything else you can tell me?” he asked.

“Maruyama Naomi’s husband is in favor of an alliance with the Tohan. This is causing unease among the other Seishuu families-especially the Arai. People say we should join with the Seishuu before they support Iida Sadamu and we find ourselves caught between them and pincered.”

Shigeru sat in silence for a while, remembering his earlier thoughts on an alliance through marriage with the Seishuu. “I have never been to the West,” he said finally. “I would like to go there; I would like to see how they arrange affairs in Maruyama, for instance.”

“Take me with you,” Takeshi begged. “There is still plenty of time before the snows begin-and autumn is a fine season for traveling. And let’s go to Kumamoto too. I want to meet Arai Daiichi-they say he is a mighty warrior.”

“The eldest son?”

“Yes-he is only young, but he is said to be the best swordsman in the Three Countries! But he is probably not as good as my elder brother,” Takeshi added loyally.

“I suspect you will be a better swordsman than I,” Shigeru said. “Particularly if you go to Matsuda Shingen at Terayama.”

“I would like to be taught by Matsuda-but I don’t know that I could stand all those months in the temple.”

“You would learn a lot. Maybe you should spend the winter there. We will call on Matsuda on the way.”

“On the way back,” Takeshi pleaded.

“You should stay at least a year,” Shigeru said, thinking, He will be far from the battlefield there.

Takeshi groaned. “Too much studying.”

“Training the body is of no use unless you also train the mind. And besides, the study is fascinating in itself, as well as being a means to an end.”

“These things interest you-you are like our father! That’s why I’m warning you not to get drawn in, as he has. Let’s not take any notice of signs or omens or what the gods say or don’t say. Let’s just put our trust in ourselves and our swords!”

A few moments beforehand, Shigeru had said his brother was still a child, and Takeshi’s voice was full of a boy’s enthusiasm and optimism; nevertheless, Shigeru felt that this was their first conversation as adults. Takeshi was growing up, and a new element had entered their relationship. Twice now Takeshi had offered advice and Shigeru had taken it.

Shigeru decided that night to entrust the patrolling of the eastern borders for the rest of the year to Lord Kitano, and to his wife’s family, the Yanagi of Kushimoto. Since the previous year, both families had supplied men and horses. He summoned the captains and told them he was returning to Hagi, leaving careful instructions on the frequency and size of the patrols and ordering them to send weekly messengers to the city to keep him informed on every detail.

The apparent lack of activity among the Tohan across the border made him uneasy. He wished he had a network of spies, as the Tohan had, to bring accurate news back from Inuyama. He was careful to tell no one else of his half-formed plan to travel to the West and see what alliances could be made with the Seishuu, fearing such a development would be seen as unnecessarily aggressive and would provoke Iida into open warfare.

Two days later they rode north to the sea, then turned west and followed the coast road to Hagi. The typhoon season had been a mild one and seemed to be over early. Clear autumn weather made the journey enjoyable, and the men were cheerful at the prospect of returning home.

In the open country, Shigeru rode ahead with Irie to discuss his idea with the older man. Ever since they had journeyed together to Terayama, Irie had become his most trusted adviser. Ascetic and taciturn by nature, Irie was tireless and clearsighted. His hair was grizzled with age, but he was still as strong as a twenty-year-old. He was a realist, but he was different from the fickle pragmatists Kitano and Noguchi, for example. His loyalty to Shigeru and the Otori clan was absolute, undivided by self-serving acts or opportunism. And his grasp of the complex situation now facing the Three Countries was acute. He put no faith in signs and talismans, but he was cautious by nature and would not lightly take the sort of action that would plunge the Three Countries into war, which Shigeru knew was what the young men-Kiyoshige, Miyoshi Kahei, his own brother-desired, and the outcome he himself favored. He felt he needed Irie to check his own impulsiveness, to help him be decisive but not rash.