Across the Nightingale Floor

by Lian Hearn

  He has come to arrest Shizuka, she thought in terror.

  Shizuka said, “It’s very late, lord. Lady Shirakawa is exhausted,” but Abe’s voice was insistent. His footsteps retreated. Shizuka turned to Kaede and just had time to whisper, “Lord Iida wishes to visit you,” before the floor sang again.

  Iida stepped into the room, followed by Abe and the one-armed man, whose name she’d learned was Ando.

  Kaede took one look at their faces, flushed with wine and with the triumph of their revenge. She dropped to the floor, her head pressed against the matting, her heart racing.

  Iida settled himself down cross-legged. “Sit up, Lady Shirakawa.”

  She raised her head unwillingly and looked at him. He was casually dressed in nightclothes, but wore his sword in his sash. The two men who knelt behind him were also armed. They now sat up, too, studying Kaede with insulting curiosity.

  “Forgive me for this late intrusion,” Iida said, “but I felt the day should not end without me expressing my regrets for your unfortunate situation.” He smiled at her, showing his big teeth, and said over his shoulder to Shizuka, “Leave.”

  Kaede’s eyes widened and her breath came sharply, but she did not dare turn her head to look at Shizuka. She heard the door slide closed and guessed the girl would be somewhere close, on the other side. She sat without moving, eyes cast down, waiting for Iida to continue.

  “Your marriage, which I thought was to form an alliance with the Otori, seems to have been the excuse for vipers to try to bite me. I think I have exterminated the nest, however.” His eyes were fixed on her face. “You spent several weeks on the road with Otori Shigeru and Maruyama Nakomi. Did you never suspect they were plotting against me?”

  “I knew nothing, lord,” she said, and added quietly, “If there was a plot, it could only succeed with my ignorance.”

  “Unnh,” he grunted, and after a long pause said, “Where is the young man?”

  She had not thought her heart could beat more quickly, but it did, pounding in her temples and making her faint. “Which young man, Lord Iida?”

  “The so-called adopted son. Takeo.”

  “I know nothing of him,” she replied, as if puzzled. “Why should I?”

  “What kind of a man would you say he was?”

  “He was young, very quiet. He seemed bookish; he liked to paint and draw.” She forced herself to smile. “He was clumsy and . . . perhaps not very brave.”

  “That was Lord Abe’s reading. We know now that he was one of the Hidden. He escaped execution a year ago. Why would Shigeru not only harbor but adopt a criminal like that, except to affront and insult me?”

  Kaede could not answer. The webs of intrigue seemed unfathomable to her.

  “Lord Abe believes the young man fled when Ando recognized him. It seems he is a coward. We’ll pick him up sooner or later and I’ll string him up next to his adopted father.” Iida’s eyes flickered over her, but she made no response. “Then my revenge on Shigeru will be complete.” His teeth gleamed as he grinned. “However, a more pressing question is: What is to become of you. Come closer.”

  Kaede bowed and moved forward. Her heartbeat had slowed—indeed, seemed almost to have stopped. Time slowed too. The night became more silent. The rain was a gentle hiss. A cricket chirped.

  Iida leaned forward and studied her. The lamplight fell on his face, and when she raised her eyes she saw his predatory features slacken with desire.

  “I am torn, Lady Shirakawa. You are irretrievably tainted by these events, yet your father has been loyal to me, and I feel a certain responsibility towards you. What am I to do?”

  “My only desire is to die,” she replied. “Allow me to do so honorably. My father will be satisfied with that.”

  “Then there is the question of the Maruyama inheritance,” he said. “I’ve thought of marrying you myself. That would deal with the problem of what happens to the domain, and would put an end to these rumors about your dangerous effect on men.”

  “The honor would be too great for me,” she replied.

  He smiled and ran one long fingernail across his front teeth. “I know you have two sisters. I may marry the older one. All in all, I think it is preferable if you take your own life.”

  “Lord Iida.” She bowed to the ground.

  “She’s quite a wonderful girl, isn’t she?” Iida said over his shoulder to the men behind him. “Beautiful, intelligent, brave. And all to be wasted.”

  She sat upright again, her face turned away from him, determined to show nothing to him.

  “I suppose you are a virgin.” He put out a hand and touched her hair. She realized he was far more drunk than he had appeared. She could smell the wine on his breath as he leaned towards her. To her fury, the touch made her tremble. He saw it and laughed. “It would be a tragedy to die a virgin. You should know at least one night of love.”

  Kaede stared at him in disbelief. She saw then all his depravity, how far he had descended into the pit of lust and cruelty. His great power had made him arrogant and corrupt. She felt as if she were in a dream, in which she could see what was going to happen but was powerless to prevent it. She could not believe his intentions.

  He took her head in both hands and bent over her. She turned her face away, and his lips brushed her neck.

  “No,” she said. “No, lord. Do not shame me. Let me just die!”

  “There is no shame in pleasing me,” he said.

  “I beseech you, not before these men,” she cried, going limp as if she were surrendering to him. Her hair fell forward, covering her.

  “Leave us,” he said to them curtly. “Let no one disturb me before dawn.”

  She heard the two men leave, heard Shizuka speak to them, wanted to cry out, but did not dare. Iida knelt beside her, picked her up, and carried her to the mattress. He untied her girdle and her robe fell open. Removing his sword and loosening his own garments, he lay beside her. Her skin was crawling with fear and revulsion.

  “We have all night,” he said, the last words he spoke. The feel of his body pressing against her brought back vividly the guard at Noguchi Castle. His mouth on hers drove her nearly mad with disgust. She threw her arms back over her head, and he grunted in appreciation as her body arched against his. With her left hand she found the needle in her right sleeve. As he lowered himself onto her she drove the needle into his eye. He gave a cry, indistinguishable from a moan of passion. Pulling the knife from beneath the mattress with her right hand, she thrust it upwards. His own weight as he fell forward took it into his heart.

  · 13 ·

  was soaked from the river and from the rain, water clinging to my hair and eyelashes, dripping like the rushes, like bamboo and willow. And although it left no mark on my dark clothes, I was soaked, too, with blood. The mist had thickened even more. Kenji and I moved in a phantom world, insubstantial and invisible. I found myself wondering if I had died without knowing it and had come back as an angel of revenge. When the night’s work was done I would fade back into the netherworld. And all the time grief was starting up its terrible chanting in my heart, but I could not listen to it yet.

  We came out of the moat and climbed the wall. I felt the weight of Jato against my flank. It was as if I carried Shigeru with me. I felt as if his ghost had entered me and had engraved itself on my bones. From the top of the garden wall I heard the steps of a patrol. Their voices were anxious; they suspected intruders, and when they saw the ropes that Yuki had cut, they stopped, exclaiming in surprise, and peering upwards to the iron rings where Shigeru had hung.

  We took two each. They died in four strokes, before they could look down again. Shigeru had been right. The sword leaped in my hand as if it had a will of its own, or as if his own hand wielded it. No compassion or softness of mine hindered it.

  The window above us was still open, and the lamp still burned faintly. The palace seemed quiet, wrapped in the sleep of the Hour of the Ox. As we climbed inside we fell over the bodies of the gua
rds Yuki had killed earlier. Kenji gave a faint approving sound. I went to the door between the corridor and the guardroom. I knew four such small rooms lay along the corridor. The first one was open and led into the antechamber where I had waited with Shigeru and we had looked at the paintings of the cranes. The other three were hidden behind the walls of Iida’s apartments.

  The nightingale floor ran around the whole residence and through the middle, dividing the men’s apartments from the women’s. It lay before me, gleaming slightly in the lamp light, silent.

  I crouched in the shadows. From far away, almost at the end of the building, I could hear voices: two men at least, and a woman.

  Shizuka.

  After a few moments I realized the men were Abe and Ando; as for guards, I wasn’t sure how many: perhaps two with the lords and ten or so others hidden in the secret compartments. I placed the voices in the end room, Iida’s own. Presumably the lords were waiting for him there—but where was he and why was Shizuka with them?

  Her voice was light, almost flirtatious, theirs tired, yawning, a little drunk.

  “I’ll fetch more wine,” I heard her say.

  “Yes, it looks like it’s going to be a long night,” Abe replied.

  “One’s last night on earth is always too short,” Shizuka replied, a catch in her voice.

  “It needn’t be your last night, if you make the right move,” Abe said, a heavy note of admiration creeping into his voice. “You’re an attractive woman, and you know your way around. I’ll make sure you’re looked after.”

  “Lord Abe!” Shizuka laughed quietly. “Can I trust you?”

  “Get some more wine and I’ll show you how much.”

  I heard the floor sing as she stepped out of the room onto it. Heavier steps followed her, and Ando said, “I’m going to watch Shigeru dance again. I’ve waited a year for this.”

  As they moved through the middle of the residence I ran along the floor around the side and crouched by the door of the antechamber. The floor had stayed silent beneath my feet. Shizuka went past me, and Kenji gave his cricket chirp. Shizuka melted into the shadows.

  Ando stepped into the antechamber and went to the guardroom. He called angrily to them to wake up, and then Kenji had him in a grip of iron. I went in, pulling off my hood, holding the lamp up so that he could see my face.

  “Do you see me?” I whispered. “Do you know me? I am the boy from Mino. This is for my people. And for Lord Otori.”

  His eyes were filled with disbelief and fury. I would not use Jato on him. I took the garrote and killed him with that, while Kenji held him and Shizuka watched.

  I whispered to her, “Where is Iida?”

  She said, “With Kaede. In the farthest room on the women’s side. I’ll keep Abe quiet while you go around. He is alone with her. If there’s any trouble here, I’ll deal with it with Kenji.”

  I hardly took in her words. I’d thought my blood was cold, but now it turned to ice. I breathed deeply, let the Kikuta blackness rise in me and take me over completely, and ran out onto the nightingale floor.

  Rain hissed gently in the garden beyond. Frogs croaked from the pools and the marshland. The women breathed deeply in sleep. I smelled the scent of flowers, the cypress wood of the bathhouse, the acrid stench from the privies. I floated across the floor as weightless as a ghost. Behind me the castle loomed, in front of me flowed the river. Iida was waiting for me.

  In the last small room at the end of the residence, a lamp burned. The wooden shutters were open but the paper ones closed, and against the orange glow of the lamp I could see the shadow of a woman sitting motionless, her hair falling around her.

  With Jato ready, I pulled the screen open and leaped into the room.

  Kaede, sword in hand, was on her feet in a moment. She was covered in blood.

  Iida lay slumped on the mattress, facedown. Kaede said, “It’s best to kill a man and take his sword. That’s what Shizuka said.”

  Her eyes were dilated with shock, and she was trembling. There was something almost supernatural about the scene: the girl, so young and frail; the man, massive and powerful, even in death; the hiss of the rain; the stillness of the night. . . .

  I put Jato down. She lowered Iida’s sword and stepped towards me. “Takeo,” she said, as if awakening from a dream. “He tried to . . . I killed him. . . .”

  Then she was in my arms. I held her until she stopped shaking.

  “You’re soaking wet,” she whispered. “Aren’t you cold?”

  I had not been, but now I was, shivering almost as much as she was. Iida was dead, but I had not killed him. I felt cheated of my revenge, but I could not argue with fate, which had dealt with him through Kaede’s hands. I was both disappointed and mad with relief. And I was holding Kaede, as I had longed to for weeks.

  When I think about what happened next, I can only plead that we were bewitched, as we had been since Tsuwano. Kaede said, “I expected to die tonight.”

  “I think we will,” I said.

  “But we will be together,” she breathed against my ear. “No one will come here before dawn.”

  Her voice, her touch, set me aching with love and desire for her.

  “Do you want me?” she said.

  “You know I do.” We fell to our knees, still holding each other.

  “You aren’t afraid of me? Of what happens to men because of me?”

  “No. You will never be dangerous to me. Are you afraid?”

  “No,” she said, with a kind of wonder in her voice. “I want to be with you before we die.” Her mouth found mine. She undid her girdle and her robe fell open. I pulled my wet clothes off and felt against me the skin I had longed for. Our bodies rushed towards each other with the urgency and madness of youth.

  I would have been happy to die afterwards, but like the river, life dragged us forward. It seemed an eternity had passed, but it could have been no more than fifteen minutes, for I heard the floor sing and heard Shizuka return to Abe. In the room next to us a woman said something in her sleep, following it with a bitter laugh that set the hairs upright on my neck.

  “What’s Ando doing?” Abe said.

  “He fell asleep,” Shizuka replied, giggling. “He can’t hold his wine like Lord Abe.”

  The liquid gurgled from flask to bowl. I heard Abe swallow. I touched my lips to Kaede’s eyelids and hair. “I must go back to Kenji,” I whispered. “I can’t leave him and Shizuka unprotected.”

  “Why don’t we just die together now,” she said, “while we are happy?”

  “He came on my account,” I replied. “If I can save his life, I must.”

  “I’ll come with you.” She stood swiftly and retied her robe, taking up the sword again. The lamp was guttering, almost extinguished. In the distance I heard the first cock crow from the town.

  “No. Stay here while I go back for Kenji. We’ll meet you here and escape through the garden. Can you swim?”

  She shook her head. “I never learned. But there are boats on the moat. Perhaps we can take one of them.”

  I pulled on my wet clothes again, shuddering at their clamminess against my skin. When I took up Jato, I felt the ache in my wrist. One of the blows of the night must have jarred it again. I knew I had to take Iida’s head now, so I told Kaede to stretch out his neck by his hair. She did so, flinching a little.

  “This is for Shigeru,” I whispered as Jato sliced through his neck. He had already bled profusely, so there was no great gush of blood. I cut his robe and wrapped the head in it. It was as heavy as Shigeru’s had been when I handed it to Yuki. I could not believe it was still the same night. I left the head on the floor, embraced Kaede one last time, and went back the way I had come.

  Kenji was still in the guardroom, and I could hear Shizuka chuckling with Abe. He whispered, “The next patrol is due any minute. They’re going to find the bodies.”

  “It’s done,” I said. “Iida is dead.”

  “Then let’s go.”

  “I
have to deal with Abe.”

  “Leave him to Shizuka.”

  “And we have to take Kaede with us.”

  He peered at me in the gloom. “Lady Shirakawa? Are you mad?”

  Very likely I was. I did not answer him. Instead, I stepped heavily and deliberately onto the nightingale floor.

  It cried out immediately. Abe called, “Who’s there?”

  He rushed out of the room, his robe loose, sword in his hand. Behind him came two guards, one of them holding a torch. In its light Abe saw me, and recognized me. His expression was first astonished, then scornful. He strode towards me, making the floor sing loudly. Behind him Shizuka leaped at one of the guards and cut his throat. The other turned in amazement, dropping the torch as he drew his sword.

  Abe was shouting for help. He came towards me like a madman, the great sword in his hand. He cut at me and I parried it, but his strength was huge, and my arm weakened by pain. I ducked under his second blow and went invisible briefly. I was taken aback by his ferocity and skill.

  Kenji was alongside me, but now the rest of the guards came pouring from their hiding places. Shizuka dealt with two of them; Kenji left his second self below the sword of one, and then knifed him in the back. My attention was totally taken up with Abe, who was driving me down the nightingale floor towards the end of the building. The women had woken and ran out screaming, distracting Abe as they fled past him and giving me a moment to recover my breath. I knew we could deal with the guards, once I had got Abe out of the way. But at the same time I knew he was vastly more skillful and experienced than I was.

  He was driving me into the corner of the building, where there was no room to evade him. I went invisible again, but he knew there was nowhere for me to go. Whether I was invisible or not, his sword could still cut me in two.

  Then, when it seemed he had me, he faltered and his mouth fell open. He gazed over my shoulder, a look of horror on his face.

  I did not follow his look, but in that moment of inattention drove Jato downwards. The sword fell from my hands as my right arm gave. Abe lurched forward, his brains bursting from the great split in his skull. I ducked out of the way and turned to see Kaede standing in the doorway, the lamp behind her. In one hand she held Iida’s sword, in the other his head.