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surprise. 'Why has your father sent you to me?'
'He thinks I am possessed by a cat spirit,' she said
quietly. 'He thought Kenji might have passed some of the Tribe's knowledge of
these things on to you.'
'Show me.'
'I don't want to,' she said.
'Let me see this cat spirit, if it is there.' His voice was sceptical and
dismissive. Maya responded with a flash of anger. It ran through her body,
direct and non-human, making her limbs soften and stretch, rippling her coat;
her ears flattened and she showed her teeth, prepared to spring.
'Enough,' Taku said quietly, and touched her lightly on the cheek. The animal
self subsided, and purred.
'You didn't believe me,' Maya said blankly. She was shivering.
'If I didn't before, I do now,' he replied. 'Very interesting. And I daresay
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useful. The question is, just how shall we use you best? Have you ever taken
on its form completely?'
'Once,' she admitted. 'I followed Sunaomi to Akane's shrine and watched him
wet himself!'
Taku heard something beneath the bravado. 'And?' he questioned.
Maya did not answer for a few moments; then she muttered, 'I don't want to do
it again! I don't like the feeling.'
'Whether you like it or not has nothing to do with it,' he said. 'Don't waste
my time. You must promise that you will do only what Sada or I tell you, no
going off on your own, no risks, no secrets from us.'
'I swear it.'
'It's not a good time for all this,' Taku said with some irritation to Sada.
'I'm trying to keep Kono under control and watch my brother's activities in
case he makes any
unexpected move. Still, if Takeo has requested it, I suppose I'd better keep
her near me. You can come to the castle with me tomorrow. Dress her as a boy,
but live here. You can be what you please, but she must live as a girl here.
Most of the household already know who she is; she must be protected as far as
possible as Lord Otori's daughter. I'll warn Hiroshi. Will anyone else
recognize you?'
'No one ever looks at me directly,' Maya told him. 'Because I am a twin.'
'Twins are rather special to the Tribe,' he said. 'But where's your sister?'
'She stayed in Hagi. She will go to Kagemura soon.' Maya felt a sudden pang of
longing for Miki, for Shigeko and her parents. I am here like an orphan, she
thought, or an exile. Maybe I'll be like Father, discovered in a remote
village, with more talent than anyone else in the Tribe.
'Now go to bed,' Taku told her abruptly. 'There are things I have to discuss
with Sada.'
'Lord Taku.' Maya bowed submissively to him and bade them both goodnight. No
sooner had she re-entered the house than one of the maids seized her and sent
her off to prepare the bedding. She unfolded the mats and spread the quilts,
walking softly through the long, low rooms of the house. The wind had risen
and whistled through all the cracks, autumn in its mouth, but Maya did not
feel the cold. She was listening all the time to the muffled words from the
garden. They had told her to go to bed and she had obeyed them, but they had
not forbidden her to listen.
She had her father's acute hearing, and all year it had been growing more
sensitive and more finely attuned. When she at last lay down she set her ears,
trying to filter
out the whispering of the girls who lay on either side of her. Gradually they
fell silent, their low voices replaced by the last of the summer insects,
bewailing the coming cold and their own deaths. She heard the hushed, feathery
beat of the owl's wings as it floated through the garden, and breathed out
almost inaudibly. Moonlight threw a latticed pattern on the paper screens; the
moon tugged at her blood, making it race through her veins.
In the distance Taku said, 'I brought Kono here that he might see the loyalty
in Maruyama to the Otori. I'm afraid Zenko has let him believe that the
Seishuu are on the verge of seceding once more, and that the West will not
stand by Takeo.'
'Surely Hiroshi is completely trustworthy?' Sada murmured.
'If he is not, I might as well cut my own throat,' Taku said.
Sada laughed. 'You would never take your own life, cousin.'
'I hope I never have to. I might be forced to it out of sheer boredom if I
have to put up with Lord Kono for much longer.'
'Maya will be a welcome distraction, if it is boredom you fear.'
'Or another responsibility that I could well do without!'
'What startled you when you looked in her eyes?'
'I was expecting a girl. What I saw was nothing like a girl: it is something
unformed, waiting to find its shape.'
'Is it a male spirit, or something to do with the cat possession?'
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'I really have no idea. It seemed different. She is unique - probably very
powerful.'
'And dangerous?'
'Probably. To herself more than anything.'
'You are tired.' A note came into Sada's voice that made Maya shiver with a
mixture of longing and jealousy.
Sada said, even more quietly, 'Here, I will massage your brow.'
There was a moment of silence. Maya held her breath. Taku let out a deep sigh.
Some kind of intensity had fallen on the darkened garden, on the unseen
couple. She could not bear to listen any more, but pulled the quilt over her
head.
A long time later, it seemed, she heard their footsteps on the veranda. Taku
said in a low voice, 'I did not expect that!'
'We grew up together,' Sada replied. 'It need not mean anything.'
'Sada, nothing between us can be meaningless.' He paused as if he would say
more, but then said briefly, 'I will see you and Maya tomorrow. Bring her to
the castle at midday.'
Sada came quietly into the room and lay down next to Maya. Pretending to be
asleep, Maya rolled against her, breathing in her smell, mingled with Taku's,
still on her. She could not decide which one she loved the most: she wanted to
embrace them both. At that moment she felt herself theirs for life.
The next day, Sada woke her early and set about cutting her long hair to
shoulder length and then pulling it back into a topknot, leaving the forehead
unshaven, like a young boy not yet of age.
'You are not a pretty girl,' she said, laughing. 'But you
make a very nice-looking boy. Scowl a bit more, and keep your lips together.
You must not be too beautiful! Some warrior will spirit you away.'
Maya tried to set her features in a more boyish way, but excitement, and the
unfamiliar feel of her hair and clothes, the male words in her mouth, made her
eyes gleam and brought colour into her cheeks.
'Calm down,' Sada scolded her. 'You must not draw attention to yourself. You
are one of Lord Taku's servants; one of the lowest, too.'
'What will I have to do?'
'Very little, I expect. Learn how to deal with boredom.'
'Like Taku,' Maya said without thinking.
Sada gripped her arm. 'You heard him say that? What else did you hear?'
Maya stared back at her. For a moment she did not speak. Then she said, 'I
heard everything.'
Sada could not prevent the smile curving her lips. 'Never speak of it to
anyone,' she murmured, with complicity. She drew Maya close and embraced her. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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