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

reduced, over the years in which the warrior class has risen to power, to the level of objects, to be used in marriage alliances or to give their husbands children but never to be allowed equal rank or even any real power. Only Maruyama is different.”

She looked away over the valley, and then her eyes returned to his face. “Will Lord Otori help me to protect my domain and my people?”

“I was looking to the Seishuu for help,” he admitted.

“Then we must help each other. We will be allies.”

“Can you bring the whole of the West into alliance with the Otori?” he queried, and added, “I need more than sympathy. I don’t mean to be insulting, but I have seen how the Iida operate in the East, the way they have dominated the Tohan, destroying those families that will not submit to them; their use of children, especially daughters, as hostages. Forgive me, but you are particularly vulnerable. You say you have a three-year-old daughter. Your husband has strong ties with the Iida family; your daughter will be sent to Inuyama as soon as she is old enough.”

“Maybe. I have to be prepared for that, but at the moment not even Iida Sadamu has the power to demand hostages from the Maruyama. And if the Otori can hold him in check, he never will.”

“The Middle Country is a useful defense,” he said, with some bitterness. “But if we fall, you will follow.”

“The Seishuu know this,” she replied. “That is why Iida will find no allies among us.”

“We cannot fight on two fronts,” he said. “But I also should not leave Yamagata undefended, to the south and west.”

“You have my promise that we will not attack, nor permit any Tohan incursions.”

He could not help staring at her, filled with doubt. How could she make such assurances? Even Arai Daiichi, a man, an eldest son, had not been able to promise this. She could have come to him with Iida’s knowledge, acting as a decoy to give him false security.

“You can trust me,” she said quietly. “I swear it.”

So Muto Shizuka had also sworn to him-and in front of witnesses. Here they were overheard by no one other than the sparrows.

“Do you trust no one?” she questioned, when he had been silent for a long time.

“I trust Matsuda Shingen,” he said.

“Then I will swear it in front of him.”

“I believe your intention,” Shigeru said. “It is your ability to achieve it that I have to doubt.”

“Because I am a woman?”

He saw anger flash briefly in her face and felt obscurely disappointed in himself for persisting in insulting her. “Forgive me,” he said. “Not only that-because of the circumstances-”

She interrupted him. “If we are to deal with each other, we must be honest from the start. You think I am not used to the way you look at me. I have been accustomed to it since I was a child. I know all your thoughts: I have had them voiced to me with far less courtesy and forbearance than you show, all my life. I am used to dealing with men, older than you, with less hereditary power maybe, but certainly with more deviousness. I know how to achieve my own ends and how to enforce my will. My clan obey me, I am surrounded by retainers I can trust. Where is my husband now, do you suppose? He stayed in Maruyama, on my orders. I travel without him when I please.” She stared at him, holding his gaze. “Our alliance will only work, Lord Otori, if you understand all of this.”

Something was exchanged between them, some deep recognition. She spoke from the same assurance of power that he had, so profound it was as if it formed the marrow of his bones. They had both been raised in the same way, to be the head of their clan. She was his equal; she was Iida Sadamu’s equal.

“Lady Maruyama,” he said formally. “I trust you and I accept your offer of alliance. Thank you. You have my deepest gratitude.”

She replied in similar vein. “Lord Otori, from today the Maruyama and the Otori are allies. I am deeply grateful to you for championing my cause.”

He felt the smile break out on his face, and she also smiled frankly at him. The moment went on a little too long, and she spoke into a silence that had become almost awkward. “Will you return to the women’s rooms with me? I will prepare tea.”

“Gladly,” he replied.

She bowed deeply and rose to her feet. Shigeru followed her along the path between the rocks and the dark-leafed shrubs. They walked around the side of the main halls and courtyards of the temple and descended the slope to where a group of small buildings were set aside for the use of women visitors. The main guest rooms lay a little farther up the hill, around the hot springs, and beyond them, beneath the huge cedars, were the graves of the Otori lords and their retainers, the moss-covered headstones and lanterns dating back for hundreds of years. Doves were coo-cooing from the roofs, and the sparrows chattered in the eaves. From the forest beyond came the poignant autumn cry of kites. In the inner depths of the temple, a bell pealed out clearly.

“It will be cold tonight,” Lady Maruyama remarked.

“Will you stay here?”

“No, I will stay at the inn at the foot of the mountain and return to Maruyama tomorrow. You will remain here for a few days?”

“Two at most. I must make sure my brother is settled in, and there are several matters on which I need to seek Matsuda’s advice. Then I have various affairs to deal with in Yamagata -the fief is administered from there at this time of year. But I will be back in Hagi before the solstice, before the snow.”

They came to the veranda of the women’s guesthouse, and stepped out of their shoes onto the boards. A woman a few years older than