Heaven's Net Is Wide Lian Hearn (leveled readers .TXT) 📖

on the floor and, when Harada came in and knelt, placed a cup before him and one in front of Shigeru. Harada unwound the head covering, revealing a terrible scar that covered one side of his face. He had lost the eye, and the whole cheek seemed to have been cut away. The girl flinched at the sight of him and turned her eyes away.

“Please call me if you need more tea,” she whispered and left them.

Harada drained the cup at a gulp, causing Shigeru to wonder if he had eaten or drunk anything that day, and then reached inside his jerkin and brought out a small flat package.

“I am to give Lord Otori this to prove my message is genuine.”

Shigeru took it. The wrapping was of a silk as fine as gossamer, faded gray, very old. A faint smell of incense clung to it. He untied it and took from inside a small folded piece of paper. Inside this was a dried fern shoot, perfect in every detail yet, like the silk, faded in color.

“You have been in Maruyama?” he said quietly.

Harada said, “The message is that there is much the two parties need to discuss in person and in secret. The eastern part of the other domain needs inspection. The other person involved will be just across the border.”

He named a mountain shrine, Seisenji, and spoke of the pilgrimage that the “other person” intended to make while in the district.

“At the next full moon,” he added. “What reply should I take back?”

“I will be there,” Shigeru said. He was about to ask more: why Harada had gone to Maruyama after the battle, how he had survived the injury, when there was a disturbance outside. The girl screamed loudly and angrily, the boy was shouting; there was a rush and tramp of feet on the boards and three armed men burst into the temple.

But for the dimness of the light, Shigeru would have had no chance, but in the second it took for them to adjust their eyes and recognize him, he was on his feet and Jato was in his hand.

He did not wait to inquire what their purpose was-he had no doubt they had come expressly to kill him; they each had long swords, drawn and ready. Their faces were hidden except for their eyes, and their garments were unmarked. He was outnumbered-Harada, he knew, was unarmed-and speed was his only advantage. To kill the first two was almost like a reflex. The blade moved of its own volition in its snakelike way, in two jabbing strokes: the downward to the left that cut the first man deep in side and belly, the upward to the right that whipped back across the second’s throat. The third assailant was a step behind them and could see better. His blade came whistling down at Shigeru’s neck, but Shigeru had raised Jato in front of his face and was able to parry the blow and force the blade away.

His adversary was fast, strong, and cunning-a fighter of great ability, possibly the most skillful Shigeru had ever encountered apart from Matsuda Shingen. In brief moments between the complete concentration of the fight, he wondered why Harada remained apart from it. This was no ordinary challenge but an unprovoked surprise attack. There was no honor involved. As he felt himself begin to tire, he wondered if Harada had in fact betrayed him, had lured him to this place precisely for such an attack. But the fern, no one knew of that-had she betrayed him? The thought filled him with such rage and despair that it gave him supernatural power. He drove at his opponent with fury, forcing the man to retreat a few steps onto the veranda. Here the boy, with great resourcefulness, thrust a pole between his legs and tripped him up, while the girl threw the teakettle full in his face.

Shigeru finished him off, Jato taking his head. He was astonished by the intervention of the pair-normally villagers took no part in warriors’ battles, large or small. He would have expected these two to run away and hide. The boy was trembling, perhaps partly at his own temerity, but he said to his sister, “Go and tell Father,” and then, “Are you hurt, Lord Ot-” He broke off. “Sir, I mean!”

“No. I thank you.” He was breathing hard, still in the grip of the shock and intensity of the sudden attack. “Help me carry the bodies outside. And bring water. We will wash the blood before it stains the floor.”

“How did they dare!” the boy exclaimed. “To attack you within the shrine! Truly the god punished them!”

“With your help,” Shigeru added.

“It was wrong of me! I should not have interfered. But I was so angry.”

With Harada’s help, they dragged the bodies beyond the shrine precinct, and the boy brought water from the spring and sluiced the floor. The dead men stared with sightless eyes while their blood turned the clear water pink.

“Who were they?” Shigeru said to Harada.

“Lord Otori; I have no idea. This had nothing to do with me, I swear it.”

“Then why did you bring me to this place? And leave me to fight them alone?”

“You suggested the meeting place,” Harada said hurriedly. “I could not have known-”

“You had time to inform your accomplices.”

“I did not! I would never betray you. You know who sent me. Sh-they are your ally. They have already proved that.”

“Yet you stood aside and did nothing.”

“This is what I wished to explain to Lord Otori. There is this matter I have to speak to you about.” Harada glanced around-the sound of scrubbing came from the shrine hall where the boy was fully occupied. The girl had not yet returned with her father. Harada said swiftly, “I have to ask you to release me from your service.”

“You seem to have released yourself already!” Shigeru accused him. “No arms, no fighting spirit. What has happened to you?”

“I have taken a vow never to kill again,”