"Hearn,.Lian.-.Otori.02.-.Grass.For.His.Pillow.v1.1" - читать интересную книгу автора (Hearn Lian)

One of Arai’s men—she remembered his name was Niwa—
greeted her at the veranda’s edge and led her to the doorway. The
shutters all stood open. Arai sat at the end of the room, three of his
men next to him. Niwa spoke her name and the warlord looked up
at her. For a moment they studied each other. She held his gaze
and felt powers strong pulse in her veins. Then she dropped to her
knees and bowed to him, resenting the gesture yet knowing she
had to appear to submit.

He returned her bow, and they both sat up at the same time.

Kaede felt his eyes on her. She raised her head and gave him the
same unflinching look. He could not meet it. Her heart was
pounding at her audacity. In the past she had both liked and trusted
the man in front of her. Now she saw changes in his face. The lines
had deepened around his mouth and eyes. He had been both
pragmatic and flexible, but now he was in the grip of his intense
desire for power.

Not far from her parents’ home, the Shirakawa flowed through vast
limestone caves where the water had formed pillars and statues.
As a child she was taken there every year to worship the goddess
who lived within one of these pillars under the mountain. The statue
had a fluid, living shape, as though the spirit that dwelt within were
trying to break out from beneath the covering of lime. She thought
of that stone covering now. Was power a limy river calcifying those
who dared to swim in it?

Arai’s physical size and strength made her quail inwardly,
reminding her of that moment of helplessness in Iida’s arms, of the
strength of men who could force women in any way they wanted.
Never let them use that strength, came the thought, and then:
Always be armed. A taste came into her mouth, as sweet as
persimmon, as strong as blood: the knowledge and taste of power.
Was this what drove men to clash endlessly with each other, to
enslave and destroy each other? Why should a woman not have
that too?

She stared at the places on Arai’s body where the needle and the
knife had pierced Iida, had opened him up to the world he’d tried to
dominate and let his life’s blood leak away. I must never forget it,
she told herself. Men also can be killed by women. I killed the most
powerful warlord in the Three Countries.

All her upbringing had taught her to defer to men, to submit to their
will and their greater intelligence. Her heart was beating so
strongly, she thought she might faint. She breathed deeply, using
the skills Shizuka had taught her, and felt the blood settle in her
veins.