Brilliance of the Moon (23 page)

Another slight tremor came, but she felt no fear. She saw the
mountain tremble against the pale violet sky. The dark shapes of the garden
trees were swaying, though there was no wind, and birds, disturbed, were
calling as if it were dawn.

Slowly their calls subsided and the dogs fell quiet. The thin
golden sickle of the new moon hung next to the evening star just above the
peaks. Kaede closed her eyes.

She smelled Fujiwara’s fragrance before she heard him. Then she
caught the tread of feet, the rustle of silk. She opened her eyes.

He stood a few feet away from her, staring at her with the rapt,
covetous look that she remembered so well. “Lady Shirakawa.”

“Lord Fujiwara.” She returned his gaze for longer than she should
before slowly prostrating herself until her brow touched the floor.

Fujiwara stepped onto the veranda, followed by Mamoru, who was
carrying carpets and cushions. Not until the nobleman was seated did he give
Kaede permission to sit up. He reached out and touched the silk robe.

“It’s very becoming. I thought it would be. You gave poor Murita
quite a shock when you turned up on horseback. He nearly speared you by
mistake.”

She thought she would faint from the fury that suddenly erupted
through the herb-induced tranquillity. That he should allude so lightly,
jokingly, to the murders of her men, of Amano, who had known her since she was
a child…

“How dare you do this to me?” she said, and heard Mamoru’s gasp
of shock. “I was married three months ago to OtoriTakeo atTerayama. My husband
will punish you—” She broke off, trying to regain control. “I thought we would
enjoy the moon before we talked,” he replied, showing no response to the
insulting way she had spoken. “Where are your women? Why are you here alone?”

“They ran when the earth shook,” she replied shortly. “Were you
not afraid?”

“I have nothing to be afraid of. You have already done the worst
anyone can do to me.”

“It seems we are to talk now,” he said. “Mamoru, bring wine and
then see that we are undisturbed.”

He looked meditatively at the moon without speaking for the next
few minutes until Mamoru came back. When the young man had retired into the
shadows again, Fujiwara indicated that Kaede should pour the wine. He drank and
said, “Your marriage to the person who calls himself Otori Takeo has been set
aside. It was undertaken without permission and has been ruled invalid.”

“By whose
authority?”

“Lord Arai; your own senior retainer, Shoji; and myself. The
Otori have already disowned Takeo and declared his adoption illegal. The general
opinion was that you should die for your disobedience to Arai and your
infidelity to me, especially when your involvement in Iida’s death became more
widely known.”

“We had an agreement that you would share my secrets with no
one,” she said.

“I thought we had an agreement that we would marry.” She could
make no response without insulting him further, and his words had in fact
frightened her. She was all too aware that he could order her death on a
moment’s whim. No one would dare either to disobey such an order or to judge
him afterward.

He went on: “You are aware of my high regard for you. I was able
to effect something of a transaction with Arai. He agreed to spare you if I
married you and kept you in seclusion. I will support his cause with the
emperor in due course. In return I sent your sisters to him.”

“You gave them to
Arai? They are in Inuyama?”

“I believe it’s
quite common to hand women over as hostages,” he returned. “Arai was incensed,
by the way, when you dared to keep Akita’s nephew as your hostage. It could
have been a good move, but you threw all that away when you acted so rashly in
the spring. All it achieved, then, was to offend Arai and his retainers
further. Arai was your champion before. It was very foolhardy to treat him so
badly.”

“I know now that Shoji betrayed me,” she said bitterly. “Akita’s nephew should never have been allowed to go home.”

“You mustn’t be harsh on Shoji.” Fujiwara’s voice was bland and
calm. “He was doing what he thought right for you and your family. As are we all.
I would like our marriage to take place as soon as possible: I think before the
end of the week. Rieko will instruct you in your dress and behavior.“

She felt despair descend on her like the hunter’s net over the
wild duck. “All men involved with me have died except my lawful husband, Lord
Otori Takeo. Aren’t you afraid?”

“Common talk is that
it
is
men who desire you who die; I feel no more desire for you than I ever did. I do
not want more children. Our marriage is to save your life. It will be in name
only.” He drank again and replaced the cup on the floor. “It would be
appropriate now to express your gratitude.“

“I am to be just one of your possessions?”

“Lady Shirakawa, you are one of the few people I have shared my
treasures with—the only woman. You know how I like to keep them away from the
eyes of the world, wrapped up, hidden.” Her heart quailed. She said nothing.

“And don’t think Takeo will come and rescue you. Arai is
determined to punish him. He is mounting a campaign against him now. The domains
of Maruyama and Shirakawa will be taken in your name and given to me as your
husband.” He let his gaze cover her as
i(
he would drink in every drop of her suffering. “His desire for you has indeed
been his downfall. Takeo will be dead before winter.”

Kaede had studied Fujiwara throughout the previous winter and
knew all the changing expressions of his face. He liked to think he was
impassive, his feelings always perfectly controlled, but she had grown adept at
reading him. She heard the note of cruelty in his voice, and caught the taste
of pleasure on his tongue. She had heard it before when he spoke Takeo’s name.
She had thought him almost infatuated with Takeo when she had told him her
secrets when the snow lay thick on the ground and icicles as long as men’s legs
hung from the eaves. She had seen the gleam of desire in his eye, the slight
slackening of his mouth, the way his tongue swelled around the name. Now she
realized that the nobleman desired Takeo’s death. It would give him pleasure
and set him free from his obsession. And she had no doubt that her suffering
would heighten his pleasure.

At that moment she resolved two things: She would show him
nothing, and she would live. She would submit to his will so that he had no
excuse to kill her before Takeo came for her, but she would never give either
him or the devil woman he’d assigned to her the satisfaction of seeing how
deeply she suffered.

She allowed her eyes to fill with contempt as she looked at
Fujiwara, and then she gazed past him at the moon.

The marriage took place a few days later. Kaede drank the
infusions Ishida brewed, thankful for the numbness they brought her. She was
resolved to have no feelings, to be like
ice
, remembering how long ago it was that Takeo’s gaze had plunged
her into the deep, cold sleep. She did not blame Ishida or Mamoru for the part
they played in her imprisonment, for she knew they were bound by the same rigid
code she was, but she swore Murita would pay for the murder of her men and her
horse, and she came to loathe Rieko.

She watched herself go through the rituals as if she were a doll
or a puppet manipulated on a stage. Her family were represented by Shoji and
two of her retainers; one she knew was a brother of Hirogawa, the man she had
had executed by Kondo when he had refused to serve her the day of her father’s
death.
I should have taken the lives
of his whole family
, she thought bitterly.
I spared them only to make an
enemy
of them
.
There were other men there, of high rank, who she imagined must have been sent by
Arai. They did not acknowledge her in any way and she was not told their names.
It made her realize all too clearly her new position: no longer mistress of a
domain, her husband’s ally and equal, but second wife to a nobleman, with no
other life than what he saw fit to allow her.

It was an elaborate ceremony, far more lavish than her wedding at
Terayama.The prayers and chanting seemed to go on endlessly. The incense and
bells made her head swim, and when she had to exchange the ritual three cups of
wine three times with her new husband, she feared she would faint. She had
eaten so little all week, she felt like a wraith. The day was unnaturally
oppressive and still. Toward evening it began to rain heavily.

She was taken from the shrine by palanquin, and Rieko and the
other women undressed and bathed her. They rubbed creams into her skm and
perfumed her hair. She was clad in night robes, more sumptuous than those she
usually wore in the day. Then she was taken to new apartments, in the deep
interior of the residence, ones she had never seen before nor even known
existed. They had been newly decorated. The beams and bosses glowed with gold
leaf, the screens had been painted with birds and flowers, and the straw
matting was fresh and sweet-smelling. The heavy rain made the rooms dim, but
dozens of lamps burned in ornately carved metal stands.

“All this is for you,” Rieko said, a note of envy in her voice.
Kaede did not reply. She wanted to say,
For what purpose, seeing
that he will never lie with me
?—but what business was
this of Rieko’s? Then the thought came to her: Maybe he intended to, just once,
as he had with his first wife to conceive his son. She began to tremble with
revulsion and fear.

“You don’t need to be afraid,” Rieko sneered. “It’s not as if you
don’t know what to expect from marriage. Now, if you were, as you should be, a
virgin…”

Kaede could not believe that the woman dared to speak to her in
such a manner and in front of the servants.

“Tell the maids to leave us,” she said, and when they were alone:
“If you insult me again I shall see that you are dismissed.”

Rieko laughed her empty trilling laugh. “I don’t think my lady
quite understands her situation. Lord Fujiwara will never dismiss me. If I were
you, I would be more afraid for my own future. If you transgress in any way—if
your behavior is anything less than what is expected of Lord Fujiwara’s wife—
you
may find
yourself
dismissed.
You think you are brave and that you would have the courage to take your own
life. Let me tell you, it is harder than it seems. When it comes to the point,
most women fail. We cling to life, weak things that we are.” She picked up a
lamp and raised it so the light fell on Kaede’s face. “You have probably been
told all your life that you are beautiful, but you are less beautiful now than
you were a week ago, and in a year you will be less beautiful still. You have
reached your peak; from now on your beauty will fade.”

She held the lamp a little closer. Kaede could feel the scorch of
the flame on her cheek.

“I could scar you now,” Rieko hissed. “You would be turned out of
the house. Lord Fujiwara will only keep you while you please his eye. After
that, the only place for women like you is the brothel.”

Kaede stared back without flinching. The flame flickered between
them. Outside the wind was rising and a sudden gust shook the building. Far in
the distance, as if from another country, a dog was howling.

Rieko laughed again and placed the lamp on the floor. “So it is
not for Your Ladyship to speak of dismissing me. But I expect you are overwrought.
I will forgive you. We must be good friends as His Lordship desires. He will
come to you soon. I will be in the next room.“

Kaede sat perfectly still listening to the rising wind. She could
not help thinking about her wedding night with Takeo, the feel of his skin
against hers, his lips against the back of her neck when he lifted away the
weight of her hair, the pleasure he brought to her whole body before he entered
her and they became one person. She tried to keep the memories at bay, but
desire had taken hold of her and it threatened to melt her icy numbness.

She heard footsteps outside and held herself rigid. She had vowed
not give her feelings away, but she was sure her aching body would somehow
betray her.

Leaving his servants outside, Fujiwara stepped into the room.
Kaede immediately bowed to the ground before him, not wanting him to see her
face, but the act of submission itself made her tremble more. Mamoru came in
behind the nobleman, carrying a small carved chest made of paulownia wood. He
placed it on the ground, bowed deeply, and crawled backward to the door of the
adjoining room.

“Sit up, my dear wife,” Lord Fujiwara said, and as she did so she
saw Rieko pass a wine flask through the door to Mamoru. The woman bowed and crept
out of sight but not, Kaede knew, out of earshot.

Mamoru poured wine and Fujiwara drank, gazing at Kaede with rapt
attention. The young man passed a cup to her and she raised it to her lips. The
taste was sweet and strong. She took only the smallest sip. It seemed that
everything conspired to set her body on fire.

“I don’t believe she has ever looked so lovely,” Lord Fujiwara
remarked to Mamoru. “Note how suffering has brought out the perfect shape of
her face. The eyes have a deeper expression and the mouth is molded like a
woman’s now. It will be a challenge to capture that.”