"John Dalmas - Yngling 4 - The Yngling in Yamato" - читать интересную книгу автора (Dalmas John)

and practitioner of the martial arts,
both armed and unarmed;
and friend
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PROLOG
The Black Castle of Osaka, though considerably smaller, was scarcely less handsome than the Emperors
palace, and much more ancient. Its massive outer walls were thirteen centuries old, far older than any written
record in Yamato. Within them, of course, the original buildings were long gone, burnt during the Great Plague.
But some of their older replacements, whose jet-black roof tiles gave the castle its name, dated back as far as three
centuries.
High in the residence of its lord, two men sat in a comfortable chamber, with wall panels open to the evening breeze.
The day had been hot, was still hot, and they'd exchanged the formal karm-shimo of the wedding ceremony for light
kimonos. Both were takaidaimyo-lords overlords. One was ArakawaHideo, master of the castle and father of the bride.
The other was Kyushu Tadaki, a maternal uncle of the groom, Ten-no-Suji Terasu.
Even given the groom's ambivalent status with the imperial court, one might have expected a wedding between
such elevated families, traditionally less than friendly, to be attended by daimyo and their retainers from numerous
districts. This ceremony, however, had been small, attended mainly by members of Arakawa's immediate family
and senior retainers, and those of Lord Kyushu.
Absently, Kyushu sipped sake from the delicate porcelain bowl he held, then muttered, "It's as if we were
hiding the wedding."
He said it sourly. Arakawa grunted. "What we're doing is dangerous enough already. It is best we made small of
this ceremony."
"Hikari will hear of it soon, nonetheless. And it calls attention to itself by its very smallness."
1
2
True. But it also shows deliberate avoidance of anything resembling imperial ambitions, and thus disarms his
suspicions to a degree. Hikari may be reluctant to act, but he is not a fool And what he lacks in steel is made up
for by the men around him-and by the restrictions his father imposed on us."
Arakawa said this last with distaste. The older man scowled but did not argue. He simply said, "I do not care for
subterfuge or delay. They are foreign to my nature."
"I understand. But if the blood-bath comes to pass before we are ready, it will be our blood, and the blood of our
armies. And our families will be wiped out, root and stock; we will have no second chance."
 ONE
Fanns allri nannan som Ynglingen han-
milt som mjök (önar leene),
stark som storm (men allri rastne),
vis somjodens sälva annen.

Å varelse var han, ej dykt.

There was never other like the Youngling,
mild as milk (his eyes smiling),
strong as storm (but never raging),
wise as the spirit of the earth.

And Living man he was, not myth.

Prefatory verse of Thejarnhann Saga,
Kumalo translation