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who means more to me than you.'
'My feelings for you are far more than those of a brother. I would never
mention this to you but for the fact that one or other of us may die tomorrow.
You are the most perfect woman I have ever known. I know your rank and
position place you far beyond me, but I can never love, nor will I ever marry,
anyone but you.'
She could not prevent herself from smiling. His words dispelled her sadness,
filling her with sudden delight and boldness.
'Hiroshi,' she said. 'Let us marry. I will persuade my parents. I do not feel
obliged to become Lord Saga's wife now that he has treated my father so
wrongly. All my life I have tried to obey my parents and act in the right way.
But now I see that in the face of death there are other things that take on a
new importance. My parents put love before their duty to their elders; why
should I not do the same?'
'I cannot do anything against your father's wishes,' Hiroshi replied, with
intense emotion. 'But to know that you feel the way you do satisfies all my
longings.'
Not all of them, I hope! Shigeko dared to think as they parted.
She wanted to go at once to her father, but restrained herself. By the time
she had washed and eaten, she was told he was already sleeping. A separate hut
had been
erected for her, and she sat alone in it for a long time, trying to compose
her thoughts and reignite the calm, strong flame of the Way of the Houou
within her. But all her efforts were undermined by flashes of memory - the
cries of battle, the smell of blood, the sound of arrows - and by Hiroshi's
face and voice.
She slept lightly and was wakened by the crack of thunder and splashing rain.
She heard the camp erupt into action around her, and leaped to her feet,
dressing quickly in the riding clothes she had worn the day before. Everything
was getting wet, her fingers more slippery.
'Lady Maruyama!' a woman's voice called from outside, and Mai came into the
hut, bringing a pot for Shigeko to urinate in. She took this away and returned
in a few moments with tea and cold rice. While Shigeko ate quickly Mai
disappeared again. When she came back, she was carrying a small leather and
iron cuirass and a helmet. 'Your father sent these for you,' she said. 'You
are to prepare at once, yourself and your horse, and go to him. Here, I will
help you.'
Shigeko felt the unfamiliar weight of the armour. Her hair caught in the
lacing. 'Tie it back for me,' she told Mai; then she took up her sword and
fastened it to her belt. Mai put the helmet on Shigeko's head and tied its
loops.
The rain lashed down, but the sky was paling. It was nearly dawn. She went
swiftly to the horse lines, through the water like a grey steel veil. Takeo
was already in armour, Jato at his side, waiting for Hiroshi and the grooms to
finish saddling the horses.
'Shigeko,' he said without smiling. 'Hiroshi has pleaded with me to send you
away, but the truth is I need every man I've got - and woman too. It is too
wet to use
firearms, and Saga knows this. I am sure he will not wait for the rain to
cease before he attacks. I need you and Gemba, since you are both archers.'
'I'm glad,' she said. 'I did not want to leave you. I want to fight alongside
you.'
'Stay with Gemba,' he said. 'If defeat seems inevitable, he will take you to
safety.'
'I will take my own life first,' she retorted.
'No, daughter, you must live. If we lose, you must marry Saga, and preserve
our country and people as his wife.'
'And if we win?'
'Then you may marry who you choose,' he replied, his eyes crinkling as he
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glanced at Hiroshi.
'I shall keep you to your word, Father,' she said lightly, as they both
mounted their horses.
Takeo rode with Hiroshi to the centre of the plain, where the horsemen were
assembling, and she followed Gemba to the northern flank, where footsoldiers,
archers and men armed with pikes and halberds were taking up positions.
There were several thousand of them, the archers arranged in two ranks, for
Kahei had drilled them in the art of alternating shots so that the hail of
arrows was almost continuous. If it had not been wet they would have done the
same with their firearms.
'Saga expects us to concentrate only on fire power,' Gemba said. 'He does not
expect us to be equally formidable with bows. He was surprised at the dog
contest, but he learned nothing from it. He will be equally surprised now.
'We are to remain here,' he added, 'even when the troops move around and
forwards. Your father wants us
to aim with care and take out their captains and other leaders. Make every
arrow count.'
Shigeko's mouth was dry. 'Lord Gemba,' she said. 'How did it come to this? How
did we fail to solve things peacefully?'
'When the balance is lost and the male force dominates, war is inevitable,'
Gemba replied. 'Some wound has been dealt to the feminine force, but I don't
know what it is. It is our fate to be here at this time, our fate to have to
kill or be killed. We must embrace it with all our resolve, wholeheartedly,
knowing that we did not desire it or seek it.'
She heard his words but hardly took them in, her attention focussed on the
scene before her as the light strengthened: the scarlet and gold of armour and
harness, the impatient horses tossing their heads, the banners of Otori,
Maruyama, Miyoshi and all the other clans of the Three Countries, the
cascading rain, the darkened trees of the forest, the white splash of
waterfalls against the mountain rocks.
Then, impossibly numerous, like ants disturbed from their nest, the first wave
of Saga's army came pouring through the pass.
Forty-six
The battle of Takahara was fought over three days during severe thunderstorms.
The fighting
continued from dawn to sunset: at night the combatants tended their wounded
and scoured the battlefield for spent arrows. Saga Hideki's forces outnumbered
Otori Takeo's army three to one, but the Emperor's general was hampered by the
narrow pass that gave onto the plain, and by the Otori command of the vantage
points. As each wave of Saga's men thrust into the plain, they were assailed
by the arrows from their right; those that survived the arrows were repelled
by the main Otori army, fighting first on horseback with swords, and then on
foot.
It was by far the most brutal battle Takeo had ever fought, the one he had
done his utmost to avoid. Saga's troops were disciplined and superbly trained.
They had already subdued vast areas to the north; they hoped to be rewarded
with the spoils of the Three Countries; they fought with the blessing of the
Emperor. On the other hand, Takeo's men were not only fighting for their
lives, they were fighting for their country, for their homes, their wives and
children, their land.
Miyoshi Kahei had been with the Otori army at the battle of Yaegahara when he
was fourteen years old, nearly thirty years earlier. The Otori had suffered a
crushing defeat, partly due to the treachery of their own vassals. Kahei never
forgot the years that followed: the humiliation of the warriors, the suffering [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]