The Tengu's Game of Go (24 page)
Read The Tengu's Game of Go Online
Authors: Lian Hearn
Take pulled the bow, Ameyumi, from his back and fitted the arrow to the cord, with steady hands.
Kon flew screeching at the tengu's head.
Take aimed at the body, hoping not to hit the bird. The arrow thrummed loudly above Kon's cries and Kai's screams. The tengu made a hideous noise and opened its claws, letting Yoshi and Saru fall heavily to the ground. Then it pulled out the arrow and threw it away, drew its sword, and flew toward Take.
Nyorin reared, striking out with his front hoofs. In that moment Take slipped from his back, dropped the bow, and drew Jato. The sword came alive in his hand, just as the tengu delivered a savage blow at his head. He parried it, felt the shock run up to his shoulder, then jumped sideways as the backward sweep of the tengu's sword nearly took off his arm.
For a few moments he fought instinctively and defensively, then gradually, as time stretched out, he recalled the teachings of both Mu and Tadashii. He recovered his stance and began to notice the tengu's weaknesses. The arrow had done some damage and the tengu was losing bloodâ
so they definitely do bleed, purpleâ
and despite its enormous strength, it was slower than he was.
Kon, meanwhile, was doing his best to distract the tengu, making fluttering attacks at its face and neck. The herons returned, with their long beaks and harsh cries, and, at Kai's urging, flew at the tengu, further disabling it. It slashed out at them angrily and one fell flapping to the ground, but in that moment Jato found the unprotected chest and thrust upward through the ribs to the heart.
Blood gushed out, purple and frothy, but still the tengu did not die. It threw its sword at Take and, with a look of hatred in its eyes, made a gesture of surrender and farewell. Its wings moved slowly, barely enough to lift it from the ground and clear the treetops, its feet scraping through the branches, blood dripping in large spots like summer rain.
A noise came from the mountains, an echo of Tadashii's laughter.
Maybe I just won your game for you
, Take thought,
but now I have my own endgame to play.
Yoshi and Saru lay on the ground, unmoving. For a moment he was afraid the fall had killed them, but then Saru moaned and he saw Yoshi's eyes flicker open. He knew he should kneel and offer his sword to the Emperor, but his fury got the better of him.
“You nearly got me killed! The birds of the air came to my aid! You could not defend yourself or help me?”
He looked at the dying heron with sorrow. “Even the heron knows who you are and gave its life for you. Kon has followed you loyally for years. Won't you recognize that, admit you are the Emperor and accept it?”
For a few moments Yoshi did not reply. A deep silence filled the clearing. No birds called; even Kon was mute.
Then the Emperor got to his feet and walked toward Kai. He held her in a close embrace, swept back her hair, and kissed her ears. He whispered something to her and she looked at Take and nodded, tears pouring from her eyes. The Emperor glanced at the heron and at Kon and then turned to Takeyoshi.
“Kai does not want to be an emperor's concubine. I am entrusting her to you. Bring the child up as your own. Maybe one day, if she agrees, you will marry. To honor the heron you will take it as your crest, and, as your name, Otori, like the houou that Kon has become. Now help me onto the horse.”
Otori Takeyoshi bowed and obeyed, then lifted Kai up behind Yoshimori.
“You can walk.” The Emperor turned the stallion's head and rode in the direction of the capital, Take on one side, Saru on the other, the golden houou flying overhead.
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The Emperor acted as he had threatened, and his first act, after ascending the Lotus Throne, was to exile Shikanoko from the city. Next he granted lands in the extreme west to Iida no Saru and Otori Takeyoshi, in the wild area that would come to be known as the Three Countries. In exchange for her estates of Matsutani and Kuromori, and in recognition of her family's sacrifices and losses, he gave the domain of Maruyama, where her mother had been born, to Kiyoyori's daughter, Lady Hina, stipulating only that it should always be inherited through the female line.
It was as though he wanted no one around him who knew what he had been formerly, nothing to remind him of all he had lost.
The Kakizuki lords ran the city as they had before, taking over Aritomo's improved administration and more productive taxation system, and continuing to love music, poetry, and dancing as much as ever.
Eisei became the abbot at Ryusonji and, with the advice of Sesshin, developed a close enough relationship with the dragon child to ensure its blessings and protection. The two werehawks lived with them. He and Sesshin also composed
The Tale of Shikanoko
: the ballads of the Emperor of the Eight Islands, the Autumn Princess and the Dragon Child, the Lord of the Darkwood, and the Tengu's Game of Go, as they are known today.
Nagatomo went to Maruyama with Lady Hina.
In Kitakami, Mu and Kiku disagreed about everything until MuâMaster Muto by nowâmoved with Ibara and their children to Hagi, where Otori Takeyoshi was building a castle. Take's courageous and cheerful nature had endeared him to the natives of his new land. He knew that life was like a game of Go, complex and demanding, but still only a game, and he was determined to play it as best he could. He and Kai came to love each other, marry, and have many children.
Kinpoge married her cousin Juntaro, but her life and Take's continued to be entwined, one with the other. The tengu Tadashii had been wrong, for once, when he said they would not see each other again.
Shikanoko spent more than a year on a lonely island off the far southern coast, with only Gen for company apart from the islanders, who taught him ways to fish, as well as various secrets and spells that calmed storms and summoned sea monsters. It amused him that he had, indeed, straddled the Eight Islands, from north to south, as Kongyo had dreamed, but as an exile not as a ruler. Somewhat against his wishes, he gained a reputation for wisdom and power, and in his second spring on the island he began to receive many visitors seeking help and advice.
One of these came in the third month, when the island's surface was covered with tiny purple and yellow flowers and the air was filled with the chirping of seabird chicks. He wore a black silk covering over his face.
Gen wagged his wispy tail and whimpered.
“Nagatomo!” Shikanoko said in delight, and embraced his old friend. “What brings you here?”
“It seems you have been pardoned, to the extent that you may leave the island, though you may not return to the capital.”
“I hope I never visit that place again in my life!” Shikanoko replied. “But where am I to go?”
“Anywhere you like, west of the High Cloud Mountains.”
Shikanoko was silent, remembering, reflecting. Then he said, “So I am never to see the Darkwood again, nor Kumayama?”
Nagatomo did not reply directly but said, “Lady Hina sent me.”
“Is she well?”
“She invites you to Maruyama. She said to tell you she must have a daughter to inherit the domain, but a daughter cannot be born without a father.”
Shikanoko smiled and said, “She must have hundreds clamoring to be her husband.”
“She will marry no one but you,” Nagatomo said. “My opinion is, you owe it to future generations.”
“So I do,” Shika agreed. He was imagining his daughters, as wise and beautiful as Hina, as brave as Takeyoshi. And then he remembered Hina's hands on his face as she removed the mask, and a wave of hope and longing swept over him.
“We will leave on the next tide,” he said.
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The Tale of Shikanoko
was partly inspired by the great medieval warrior tales of Japan:
The Tale of the Heike
,
The Taiheiki
, the tales of HÅgen and Heiji, the
JÅkyÅ«ki
, and
The Tale of the Soga Brothers
. I have borrowed descriptions of weapons and clothes from these and am indebted to their English translators Royall Tyler, Helen Craig McCullough, and Thomas J. Cogan.
I would like to thank in particular Randy Schadel, who read early versions of the novels and made many invaluable suggestions.
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All four volumes of
Lian Hearn
's
The Tale of Shikanoko
will be published in 2016.
EMPEROR OF THE EIGHT ISLANDS
April 2016
AUTUMN PRINCESS, DRAGON CHILD
June 2016
LORD OF THE DARKWOOD
August 2016
THE TENGU'S GAME OF GO
September 2016
FSG Originals
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ALSO BY
LIAN HEARN
TALES OF THE OTORI
Across the Nightingale Floor
Grass for His Pillow
Brilliance of the Moon
The Harsh Cry of the Heron
Heaven's Net Is Wide
Blossoms and Shadows
The Storyteller and His Three Daughters
THE TALE OF SHIKANOKO
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Lian Hearn
is the pseudonym of a writerâborn in England, educated at Oxford, currently living in Australiaâwho has had a lifelong interest in Japan, has lived there, and studies Japanese. She is the author of the bestselling series
Tales of the Otori
. You can sign up for email updates
here
.
    
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CONTENTS