Across the Nightingale Floor Read Online Free PDF Page A

sleep outside tonight, grass for our pillow, for there is
no town near enough to stay in. We will cross the fief border by a secret route
I know, and then we will be in Otori territory, safely out of reach of Sadamu.”
    I did not want to spend the night
on the lonely plain. I was afraid of ten thousand ghosts, and of the ogres and
goblins that dwelled in the forest around it. The murmur of a stream sounded to
me like the voice of the water spirit, and every time a fox barked or an owl
hooted I came awake, my pulse racing. At one stage the earth itself shook, in a
slight tremor, making the trees rustle and dislodging stones somewhere in the
distance. I thought I could hear the voices of the dead, calling for revenge,
and I tried to pray, but all I could feel was a vast emptiness. The secret god,
whom the Hidden worship, had been dispersed with my family. Away from them, I
had no contact with him.
    Next to me Lord Otori slept as
peacefully as if he had been in the guest room of the inn. Yet, I knew that,
even more than I was, he would have been aware of the demands of the dead. I
thought with trepidation about the world I was entering—a world that I knew
nothing about, the world of the clans, with their strict rules and harsh codes.
I was entering it on the whim of this lord, whose sword had beheaded a man in
front of my eyes, who as good as owned me. I shivered in the damp night air.
    We rose before dawn and, as the sky
was turning gray, crossed the river that marked the boundary to the Otori
domain.
    After Yaegahara the Otori, who had
formerly ruled the whole of the Middle Country, were pushed back by the Tohan
into a narrow strip of land between the last range of mountains and the
northern sea. On the main post road the barrier was guarded by Iida's men, but
in this wild isolated country there were many places where it was possible to
slip across the border, and most of the peasants and farmers still considered
themselves Otori and had no love for the Tohan. Lord Otori told me all this as
we walked that day, the sea now always on our right-hand side. He also told me
about the countryside, pointed out the farming methods used, the dikes built
for irrigation, the nets the fishermen wove, the way they extracted salt from
the sea. He was interested in everything and knew about everything. Gradually
the path became a road and grew busier. Now there were farmers going to market
at the next village, carrying yams and greens, eggs and dried mushrooms, lotus
root and bamboo. We stopped at the market and bought new straw sandals, for
ours were falling to pieces.
    That night, when we came to the
inn, everyone there knew Lord Otori. They ran out to greet him with
exclamations of delight, and flattened themselves to the ground in front of
him. The best rooms were prepared, and at the evening meal course after course
of delicious food appeared. He seemed to change before my eyes. Of course I had
known he was of high birth, of the warrior class, but I still had no idea
exactly who he was or what part he played in the hierarchy of the clan.
However, it was dawning on me that it must be exalted. I became even more shy
in his presence. I felt that everyone was looking at me sideways, wondering
what I was doing, longing to send me packing with a cuff on the ear.
    The next morning he was wearing
clothes befitting his station; horses were waiting for us, and four or five retainers.
They grinned at each other a bit when they saw I knew nothing about horses, and
they seemed surprised when Lord Otori told one of them to take me on the back
of his horse, although of course none of them dared say anything. On the
journey they tried to talk to me—they asked me where I'd come from and what my
name was—but when they found I was mute, they decided I was stupid, and deaf
too. They talked loudly to me in simple words, using sign language.
    I didn't care much for jogging
along on the back of the horse. The only horse I'd ever been close to was
Iida's,