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

mother. When she sought her in her mind she met nothing but
darkness. She tried to re-call her face but could not. Nor could she
summon up her sisters’ appearance. The youngest would be
almost nine. If her mother, as she feared, was dead, she would
have to take her place, be a mother to her sisters, run the
household, overseeing the cooking, cleaning, weaving, and sewing
that were the year-round chores of women, taught to girls by their
mothers and aunts and grandmothers. She knew nothing of such
things. When she had been a hostage she had been neglected by
the Noguchi family. They had taught her so little; all she had
learned was how to survive on her own in the castle while she ran
around like a maid, waiting on the armed men. Well, she would
have to learn these practical skills. The child gave her feelings and
instincts she had not known before: the instinct to take care of her
people. She thought of the Shirakawa retainers, men like Shoji
Kiyoshi and Amano Tenzo, who had come with her father when he
had visited her at Noguchi Castle, and the servants of the house,
like Ayame, whom she had missed almost as much as her mother
when she had been taken away at seven years old. Was Ayame
still alive? Would she still remember the girl she had looked after?
Kaede was returning, ostensibly married and widowed, another
man dead on her account, and she was pregnant. What would her
welcome be at her parents’ home?

The delay irritated the men too. She knew they were anxious to be
done with this tiresome duty, impatient to return to the battles that
were their real work, their life. They wanted to be part of Arai’s
victories over theTohan in the East, not far away from the action in
the West, looking after women.

Arai was only one of them, she thought wonderingly. How had he
suddenly become so powerful? What did he have that made these
men, each of them adult, physically strong, want to follow and obey
him? She remembered again his swift ruthlessness when he had
cut the throat of the guard who had attacked her in Noguchi Castle.
He would not hesitate to kill any one of these men in the same way.
Yet, it was not fear that made them obey him. Was it a sort of trust
in that ruthlessness, in that willingness to act immediately, whether
the act was right or wrong? Would they ever trust a woman in that
way? Could she command men as he did? Would warriors like
Shoji and Amano obey her?

The rain stopped and they moved on. The storm had cleared the
last of the humidity and the days that followed were brilliant, the sky
huge and blue above the mountain peaks where every day the
maples showed more red. The nights grew cooler, already with a
hint of the frost to come.

The journey wound on and the days became long and tiring. Finally
one morning Shizuka said, “This is the last pass. Tomorrow we will