Any other man might well have fallen to his knees before her, professed his love at once, yet not him. He felt shy, which was new to him as he had never lacked for confidence and never lacked any with regards to women (save Himari).
"Why do you stare? Stop that, you are being rude to Tsubaki-donō!" the woman's handmaiden shouted shrilly at the pair of men who immediately looked from one another to her, at last able to tear their eyes from the maiden in question.
It was with more than a little discomfort that Satomine, realized what it was that he had been caught doing and immediately bowed his head. "Apologies milady, it was not due to disrespect that we stared, but only that we were… struck is all."
"Struck by what sir?" the handmaiden demanded impatiently, while her lady stared quietly to discomfort of Satomine.
It was in an act of the utmost impulsiveness that the young bushi fell to one knee to the astonishment of his companion and the ladies, saying as he did so. "Forgive me, milady however I must ask of thee that we be permitted to escort the two of ye home."
The request was a bold one.
It was the sort that he might well have made to the lady Himari. This lady was to flush scarlet before she bowed her head before them in a feminine display of timidity. Bold as she could be such as when she had drawn her tantō in defence of her maid, she had not expected them to be as courteous as they had demonstrated themselves to be. Yet she ought to have foreseen it, for buried deep within each of their spirits lay the old manly one that had first settled Zipangu and first conquered the vast mountains of the north and the great plains in the east, and that had once upon a time sought to challenge the isle to the east of the main island upon which they lived now.
Studying them with watchful eyes, she was to in time nod her head. It was with more than a little envy that Tomizen interjected himself between them, proclaiming as he did so. "I have done it milady, I slew the greatest number of them and must insist that you allow me the honour to escort you. Satomine you may escort the maid."
"Nonsense! Stay away from the lady," the maid hissed at him only for the middle-aged warrior to study her with scornful eyes that made her shrink back ever so slightly.
Satomine could feel his temper begin to get the better of him, as his right hand slipped over to the hilt of his katana. Seeing this Tomizen snorted and katana already in hand he was better prepared for what might happen.
The young warrior knew Tomizen well. The man was one of the better warriors of the Takimoto, one who had engaged in far, far more battles than he could ever hope to participate in. The man had fought in the front in each of them, and had won some measure of fame in the north. He was unsure if he could truly win in a serious bout against him.
It was as this fought raced across his mind that the youth took notice of the still panting and scarlet faced Yoshiyori who was staring at Tsubaki-donō as though he had been struck by lightning. "Tomizen, it is not for myself to decide you are absolutely correct."
"I am?"
"Indeed, it is absolutely correct that it is for Yoshiyori-donō to determine such a matter." Satomine replied with more than a little eagerness.
It was with more than a little delight that he savoured the other man's visible irritation. He could not truly refuse, given that the youngest of their companions was indeed in command. Yoshiyori was the son of Yoshinobu, and though not heir it was he who represented Yoshitada. Realizing how the younger guardsman had duped him made Tomizen's face purple with rage to such an extent that for a moment the youth was concerned he might well strike him.
Somehow the older man though managed to win out over his ill-temper, and turning to the youngest of the sons' of the Takimoto he demanded of him, "Your command my liege?"
"Ah yes, yes indeed," Yoshiyori stammered uncertainly as he wilted visibly under the stern glare of the oldest of their group and also the lovely Tsubaki. "I must say that it is only- er proper to escort the lady home."
A moment of silence passed. Satomine breathed a sigh of relief, an inaudible one that only the other guardsman and the maid caught. One reacted with disgust and the latter with gratitude as she nodded her head approvingly, before whispering to her lady who continued to study the kneeling bushi.
"Thank you," she said gratefully to them, ere she turned away from them.
She might well have advanced into the fog across the great bridge and to the west of the great mountain that dominated the east of the bridge and that cast such a long shadow of it and the neighbouring region. It was to the west that there were smaller mountains and hills where a great many shrines and warrior-shrines were to be found. These were the homes of brigands as some had long since dubbed them, monks really who lived near the capital they were more than prepared to bandy about weapons, to march on the city at any time that a Tennō or Tahara family member contradicted them.
Many of them were rivals to one another, and yet there were those who were allied together. They all worshiped different kami, some it was Hachiman, others it was Takemikazuchi, or Bishamonten or Futsunushi, with each of the monasteries noteworthy for the brown, black, white robes of their brothers and for their devotion. Each shrine was a place of music, of deep chants as most of the monks were bound to sing sutras of a sort that Satomine could not quite understand the origin of. Many of those chants had of course come from further west, from the land of Zhongguo as some called it, or Lián. The Lián were the current reigning dynasty and had held supremacy for nigh on four hundred years, ruling over a vast and unchallenged empire. An empire that had lost only two great wars and they were that which they fought against the Tangug when they had struggled to conquer the Tanyul Peninsula and the other when they had gone south against the kingdom of Annam. Both conflicts that had embarrassed the ruling dynasty as they had continued on due in no small part to the sense of legitimacy that belonged to them, as the dynasty that had survived the Wars of Darkness and due to the age of the line of Lián.
It was however the previous line of Luo that had come to sing the great chants after an Elf from the west had journeyed south bearing the teachings more than a thousand years prior. That Elf was a warrior by the name of Ainan. It was he who had come bearing the teachings of his faith, that of the god of light Wili and of his brother Wé. Once he had taught many of their chants and founded his first monastery he had thrown away his sword (which remained still lost), and had gone on to found another fifty shrines in Luo. Many of his teachings had later been melded with the local faiths so that the chants were in the languages of the Orient, and though the brother gods had lost some measure of their popularity the teachings remained.
The teachings crossed the sea after the collapse of the Luo dynasty, and melded with the way of life on Zipangu.
It was a relief that few if any of the mountains in the region were out and about, for the last time that one of the Takimoto had traversed through the region, he had endured attacks by the local monks. Aware that it was Yoshitada, Satomine had of course developed a poor opinion of the locality so that he was nervous as they stepped across another bridge and began to make their way down another path.
Noticing how he glanced all about as she walked by the side of their horses, Tsubaki-donō was to remark, "Do hurry, if you are to join my father and I for dinner."
"Show us to thy farmhouse and we will accept his thanks," Tomizen retorted pompously, which brought out a laugh from Yoshiyori. "Doubtless he is a local tax-collector or chieftain."
Satomine was not so foolish as to think her a simple farmer's daughter. She had neither burst into tears at the sight of blood, nor had she cringed or backed away. She had eyed them coolly, and was also dressed in slightly finer cloth than most other country-pumpkins. Her kimono was made of a fine red and white silk and that she had a servant showed how high her rank was.
It was nonetheless a surprise to him when the young Tsubaki turned about, her cheeks flushed scarlet with rage as her eyes flashed with fury. "I am no farmer or lower official's daughter, but that of Masaharu, head of the Nohara!"
*****
The trio of men escorted the ladies further to the west. They had to traverse a forest of tall trees that wore their green leaves on outstretched branches that were every inch as glorious as they were defiant and warm to the touch. It was thus with more than a little fondness that Satomine moved about them. They reminded him of the trees further to the north, from whence he had come and yet were a reminder that he had returned south as well.
He had missed the south.
Once long ago, Yoshinobu-donō had brought the youth with him to visit the head of the Tahara family. It was at that time that he had seen a number of the shrines that dotted the landscape leading to the capital what was more was that he had used him as a herald even within the city. At no time had he introduced the youth to the Nohara clan.
When it had happened that the subject of the once great rivals of the Takimoto was brought to Yoshinobu's attention he had laughed loudly and derisively. "Those trained monkeys? Ha! They were a force in the time of our ancestors, yet are little more than a pale shadow destined to continue to decline! Why, Masaharu cannot even control his own vassals let alone secure for himself an appointment as a regional governor in the western regions his predecessors once dominated!"
It was with a wince that Satomine remembered that incident. They had been in the midst of a poetry reading celebration with the lord of the Tahara when a servant had arrived to plead whilst the Kampaku was preoccupied with the head of the Takimoto to put in a word for the Nohara.
The scorn that Satomine's lord had shown was something that had oddly enough made him even at that time pity the rival lord. If it had been his master that had been insulted he would have killed Yoshinobu on the spot. Yet all the servant could do was red-faced bow, and grovel before retreating from that place.
This then was the uncomfortable atmosphere in which he and those around him entered the countryside estate of the Nohara. It was the last refuge of the once great clan that had ruled over the western provinces and even for a brief time helped the Imperial Court to dominate the whole of Montō. So that they had long before Yoshinobu's father Yorinobu had become the premiere lord of the eastern provinces, with the transfer of command relying as much to the Imperial Court's fatigue of Nohara rebellions and due in no small part to Masanaga the greatest of the Tahara family's Sesshō's preference for Yorinobu.
It was a decision that had always confused the young bushi, who wondered why the Takuma Nohara had been dismissed and had what wealth they had torn from them. Their cousins' may well have revolted a number of times, but they had remained loyal and defeated every rebellion on behalf of the Imperial Court.
"Do come inside, father should be in the midst of practicing his archery in the courtyard," Tsubaki encouraged them quietly once more, as she motioned for them to follow her, which they did if reluctantly.
The estate was one of the most moderate sized homes in the whole of the countryside estates that surrounded the capital city. It was a place of minimal glory with an overgrown garden, and with three principal buildings which were tiny in comparison of even the smallest of Yoshinobu's many estates. Two of the buildings were straight as arrows and pointed vertically away from the travellers, while the third was horizontal with a lovely step that led to a door just past the gates to the small estate. The courtyard all about it, Satomine could already see was a small thing of barely three meters wide. The roof-tiles he thought looked ill-done and as though they ought to have been replaced.
The estate in all was in pitiful condition with the exterior looking as though it had been hastily repaired and broken again only to hurriedly be put back together by an untrained hand. The gardens were the sole thing that impressed Satomine who saw that it was in full bloom, with there being tulips, daisies; lilies these last ones in particular stole his attention. They were growing all about the estate, between the different buildings and all about the front and he guessed that they might be to the rear of the keep.
His mother had liked Lilies as he recalled. They brought with them the reminder of her scent, of how she always smelt of lilies and white plum and her love of the flowers. He almost smiled then. Almost. As it was, he was realising why it was that earlier Tsubaki's smell had enchanted him so for she smelt also of lilies though mixed with lavender. A smell he loved and reminded him also of warm memories, though he was not quite certain at first. Later it was to occur to him that for some reason that smell and that of leather reminded him of his father.
The interior of the building was far better maintained the exterior. Where the exterior had elicited rude snorts of contempt and comments from his travelling companions (and that had served to draw furious glances from the women), the interior drew a sigh of relief from the youth. The room they entered was an entrance hall, from there they were guided to the right through a slim hallway to the next hall. This one though was grander if one could use that word to describe the diminutive five meter long and wide hall.
"So this is the home of the Nohara, what a jest! Nothing compared to us Takimoto!" Yoshiyori sneered with more than a little amusement.
"Oh do be quiet," Tsubaki hissed at him, having overheard him.
The young woman spoke at the same time that Satomine did, though his reprimand was to draw a sneer and snort from Tomizen. "Quiet Yoshiyori! You represent to-day the Takimoto! To speak so of the long-time comrade clan of our own is to bring shame to the house of your father!"
To his credit the youth looked suitably embarrassed though this was no balm for Satomine's temper. He did not say it but he felt privately certain that Yoshinobu might well have done something similar. He still loved the old man but had to recognize that his comportment towards the Nohara was shameful and wondered as to the reason for the enmity between the two clans where they had once been close with the Nohara having even once been the lords of the Takimoto nigh on a hundred and fifty years prior when Masakatsu the Bandit-Emperor as he was known, a great warrior and hero of Montō who had proclaimed himself Tennō having even been liege-lord of the Takimoto. Pulling his mind away from such musings, he was to focus on taking in the sights all around him amazed at the poverty of this once proud clan that had yielded such heroes and villains as Heishi-no-kimi and Masakatsu among others.
In the middle of it was a small cooking fire with a small pot on it and an old man kneeling by it. Extremely hirsute he had for raiment a single dirty grey kimono and his hair done up in a topknot, he had dark piercing eyes and glanced up at them with an initially pleased look only for it to turn into one of astonishment at the sight of so many guests.
"What is this Tsubaki? Who are these people?" He asked in a deep voice that sounded as though it could well have burst from the depths of a mountain.
"These are the ones who rescued me father!" Tsubaki informed him.
"Rescued?"
"Yes, this is Satomine-san, oh please do sit down, sit before my father!" She urged eagerly fussing over the young man who flushed red at her ministrations.
While she was distracted, those behind him grunted at this show of favour. Yoshiyori demonstrated more than a little displeasure as he grimaced at his friend. Tomizen for his part glared foul murder at him, so that Satomine preferred to turn his back to him. His attention was soon fixed upon the man whom the maid introduced as Masaharu-donō, with her and Tsubaki throwing themselves into an aggrandized version of the story of how he rescued them. He had to correct them more than once (or six times for that matter) on the number of enemies (according to them there might well have been hundreds). So eager were they to explain what had happened that Masaharu chuckled incessantly throughout the story.
Yet always throughout it, his piercing eyes buried beneath bushy eyebrows on a high-cheek boned face with a thick beard and thin lips transfixed Satomine. He could hardly keep from looking at the muscular old man, keep from finding himself staring back at those eyes that were almost as mesmerizing as those of the man's daughter.
The story took many hours to retell, due to Masaharu asking them to commence it again twice, because of his own amusement and also in part his annoyance at Tomizen and Yoshiyori's interruption. This was the first hint any of them had, of the lion that hid beneath the polite and genial exterior of the old man.
*****
"Verily I say to thee Satomine-san, my daughter is my prize, she is all that I have," Masaharu murmured to the youth before him, leaning towards him as he spoke. "I have been disgraced for some time and have little hope of reclaiming the glory passed down by my ancestors."
"Take heart Masaharu-donō, hope is herewith us," Satomine reprimanded the other man sharply.
"But how are we to have it in such times? If Takimoto-donō has fallen, and the Takimoto are hard-pressed we have only Montō to fall back upon and they have been in disarray for more than seventy years now. It is entirely why Takimoto-donō left that place for the lands of Miitsu." Masaharu replied despondently as he looked down at his hands in defeat, before he glanced outside to study the leaves and suns-kissed earth there. "I am a little past fifty years of age, and have never proven myself. I have never done aught that could be considered impressive. So that when I think of my daughter I fret, and fear that the name of the Nohara, blessed and honoured as it is will fade away and perish with me."
Something of his despairing words stuck with Satomine. He had never seen or heard an elder speak so timorously, so limply. Always he had been surrounded by an older generation greater than his own, a people who had projected strength and hope for the future. Even those who had betrayed the Empire had demonstrated themselves to be strong men of conviction. Certainly theirs was a dark conviction, but it was a conviction nonetheless.
The resolve that Yoshinobu had failed to pass onto his sons' had been as a comet in the skies, so that all were given over to wonder at the sight of it. This man, who ought to have been the equal or rival of Yoshinobu was however a weak man.
Should he not command the whole of the Nohara that greatest of western tribes that had once conquered all of Montō twice over? First with Masakatsu, and then with the likes of Nohara-no-kimi from nearly a century prior, with that latter prince having given up his lands to live closer to the lands of Ise-no-kuni with his daughter. It struck Satomine suddenly as a mistake, that or the stories about the man's timidity were true he mused darkly.
"Bah such feminine weakness, how can you sit there bemoaning your fate and not have that urge to seize glory for thyself?" Tomizen demanded visibly disgusted by the other man, only to gain his feet. "No matter I have decided to leave for the capital, as I will not simply sit here and wait for fate to come to me! I will go seize it myself! Now come along Yoshiyori-donō!"
The youth in question startled and in the midst of finishing the generous helping of rice that the Nohara patriarch had given him nearly jumped through the ceiling up above them. Surprised and visibly distressed he could only gape and stare at the other man. Remembering that the Nohara were once the enemies of the Takimoto though, he clambered to his feet and was to swallow what little rice remained in his throat and addressing Satomine in his most commanding tone he ordered him.
"Come along Satomine-san, do come along. Tomizen-san is correct; we must hurry to the capital to warn the Imperial family of what has happened."
Satomine might well have obeyed them, he was in the midst of bowing to the man before him when the lord of the Nohara suddenly spoke up. Reaching out with one hand he raised it in a commanding gesture his deep voice deepening with sudden force as a spark of fire took possession of his dark eyes. "Hold Satomine-san! I would speak with you a little longer!"
All three men were bewildered by this sudden burst of life on the part of the old man. They could only gape for a moment. Taking affront at the sudden explosion of passion on the part of their elder the two other men took their leave, with the likes of Tomizen half dragging the reluctant Yoshiyori away.
The youngest of the sons' of the Takimoto was to command his second bodyguard on the journey, "Stay here, and we will wait for you just outside the city when the time comes, Satomine-san."
It was with more than a little reluctance that Satomine stayed where he was. As suddenly as the spark of impatience took life in the magnificent dark eyes of Masaharu it departed with that old man kneeling before him. "Please, Satomine-san! Stay the night! We are near to the capital, a few plain hours from there and I wish to keep you here! My daughter who despises men was so very grateful at your rescue of her, at your courage that she and our servant spoke of you before the other two! Please stay! I must show my gratitude, as I have never done anything right by any man or been allowed near greatness and you are the nearest I could ever come to stand or sit near to Takimoto-donō who though younger than I, has ever been my hero!"
The pleas of the old man were so completely and utterly pathetic that there was something about them that at once repulsed Satomine as it had before.
Ere he could take his departure though, a voice penetrated the small hall with such clarity and beauty that it left him chilled and warmed all at once as he stared transfixed at the hallway just behind his host.
"One dew drop,
While the moon lit,
The lady's heart did throb
For the prince fit
As the wisteria tree,
That did grow most free
In the garden's midst,
Never before did the suns'
Glimmer half as brightly,
So that her heart did lunge,
And did lightly
Trip, for how could the butterfly shun
The suns'? They that always shone rightly
Upon the dew, as they did the trees, and the hilly
Land from which she sprung?
Lo! I say to thee,
Long did her heart
Ache and long to be free,
Just as the Prince of her dream,
Went into shadow'd lands free
Of life and limb, in her heart
Always he shone bright as the suns'."
The lady Tsubaki entered the hall with her maid, Aimi trays in hand. On each of the trays were cups and pitchers full of saké that they laid before both of the men. The maid was to place with some care her tray before the patriarch who thanked her with a small smile on his moustached lips, while the man seated across from him glanced to one side to the lady of the house.
She was dressed now in a pink junihitoe with a white interior-dress that she struggled to shuffle about in and there was a delicateness to her movements as she placed before him the tray. It was when he inhaled though that he was to absorb the scent of oranges and plum that reminded him ever so much of his parents. His father had enjoyed oranges a great deal, while his mother was always smelt of plum.
In all it was a moment that he was to later when he was lying down on the ground, striving to sleep that he was to hum the song to himself with a prayer. A prayer to the kami his mother had loved above all others. Her prayers had always been reserved for his father, yet his own were for Yoshinobu that the lord of the Takimoto might find peace in the afterlife.
*****
The following day was a bright one. From the moment that the youth stepped outside of the house, he was greeted by the burning sight of the twin suns high on the horizon. Moved by the sight as he was by the kindliness of Masaharu and Tsubaki's invitation to join them for the day, he was concerned however for his liege.
He did not like being separated so long from Yoshiyori and was consternated for the youth's safety, on account of what dangers might well haunt the locality. It was because of this that he resolved as he watched the rising suns' to depart from this place for the capital as soon as he could.
Making to slip out of the Nohara estate he might well have made it further than he did were it not for Aimi. The moment that the door slid open he heard her feet slap against the veranda floor as she made for her lady's bedchambers. Cursing Satomine could well have strangled her. He had not known that she had been set to spy on his room, to lie in wait when he would attempt to slip away. He was to make for the principal hall, but only because it was through that particular hall that he might reach the entrance of the great compound.
He was hopeful that he might reach the front courtyard and cast off the Nohara for the day, grateful to them yet of a view to return to Yoshiyori's side. As he made to leave he was filled however with a pang of regret. Tsubaki was truly beautiful, and the soft manner in which she had looked on him when he had knelt before her and when she had sung and played her kotō for him had moved him.
Satomine was distracted from his thoughts by the sound of Masaharu's voice suddenly piercing through the darkness of the small hall. "I had hoped you might not slip away as a thief might in the dead of night, but such is the way of the world I suppose."
Startled he nearly leapt thirty feet in the air and through the ceiling, as the youth's eyes darted all about him throughout the empty hall only to settle on the ground a few feet away from his own feet.
Filled with remorse for coming so very near to stepping upon a lord's person as he had, for Masaharu's feet were not far from his own, he threw himself to his knees that he might bow. "Apologies tonō, I did not see you resting so near to the rear entrance of this hall! Do forgive me!"
Masaharu laughed loudly as he pulled himself up into a seated position from where he had rested, sounding well rested and cheerful as he did so. "Think naught of it my young friend, there are few halls here where I might rest and wished to do so here, where my grandfather once received grand guests before the collapse in our fortunes."
Satomine remained silent, unsure of what to say in response.
"Satomine-donō, I say to thee that you could wait before you depart, for we must eat and discuss what it is that has brought the herald of the revered Takimoto chieftain so far south." Masaharu declared to him, as he motioned for him to sit across from him as he had the prior day. "I know that you did not come so far south simply to save my beloved daughter, therefore tell me what has become of my distant cousin?"
This last statement might well have startled Tomizen but not Satomine. He knew already that the old man was liable to revel in the news of the death of Yoshinobu, for which the youth would be tempted to kill him on the spot.
It was when he hesitated that the old man prodded ever so gently, his eyes wide and concerned so that something in the bushi broke so that he gave into the urge to tell him all that had occurred. His expectations were that the old man might well interrupt, or otherwise sneer at the fact that his rival had passed.
He asked a few queries here and there, interrupting only to ask for clarification on this or that point. Otherwise he demonstrated himself to be a good listener, one who allowed for none of his thoughts to show themselves. His daughter Tsubaki when at last she presented breakfast remained nearby, quietly eating her own and listening intently.
It was when the youth had finished speaking that she addressed him, saying quietly with sincere grief, "Such dreadful… I do not have the words, nor do I know what to say! How- how you suffered so and fought nobly Takimoto-donō!"
It was now that Masaharu remarked stroking his fine grey beard with a thoughtful expression, his eyes piercing as those of Yoshinobu had once been. "It appears to me that the Takimoto have faltered, and have become complacent and foolish. The first error was made no mistake was committed by the noble Yoshinobu-donō." Satomine regained his feet, his face twisting with fury as his hand strayed to the hilt of his katana, his fury sparking at the merest mention of criticism of Yoshinobu, at which time the head of the Nohara continued. "It happens though that complacent and trusting as he was in the loyalty of his commanders, Yoshinobu-donō's heirs have committed far worse errors."
"Mind thy tongue!" Satomine hissed at him.
"It is no crime Satomine-san, to state that a man made a mistake, now will you draw that blade in my daughter's presence or will you regain thy calm and accept my offer of aid?" Nohara demanded of him meeting his gaze with a small smirk.
"How could you be of any service? You have nothing. Your family once a revered name is now little more than a farming clan with barely two katanas to your name!" Satomine snapped furiously ignoring as he did so the hurt and outraged glare that the silent Tsubaki gave him.
The chuck that resulted from the old man was one that stilled the anger of his guest who stared back in confusion. He had not expected that the other man should look at him so. "My dear Satomine-san, while the Nohara have been little more than glorified servants, and Miyakō guards we have forged important ties."
"What ties?"
"Ask yourself this, my young friend; who has permission to see the Imperial clan, or that of the Tahara?"
"Well, uh- the Takimoto are a powerful clan-"
"One that has been defeated, and that has since become consumed by her own importance in the north, so that she is now neglecting her duties, and must now come begging for assistance. The Takimoto have lost Montō which has fallen into chaos, all while the north has revolted against their rule. They must now turn to the Imperial Court, but it has become unfanged and dominated by the Tahara who will not receive anyone from outside the city." Masaharu declared with glimmering eyes that radiated with knowledge and wisdom, "Yoshinobu-donō was only given the slightest courtesy on account of his prior heroics twenty years prior."
It was at this time that the youth debating with himself quite heatedly and pondering the man's words with some reluctance. He loved Yoshinobu and the Takimoto with all his soul, and burnt with the desire for vengeance. Yet there was something in the words of the lord of the Nohara that he could not quite thrust aside.
Swallowing the bile that rose to his lips, he uttered then, words that he had not considered he might ever speak. "What is to be done, if the Imperial Court and the House of Tahara will not listen to us?"
At these words old Masaharu grinned at him amused, "Simple, you need only ask and the Nohara shall arrange a meeting between yourself and a member of the Imperial House…"