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where to find Sugita. Tell him we are coming and that he is to keep the
enemy bottled up in the ravine. The foot soldiers and farmers will come
with me."
"That's good," Hiroshi said approvingly. "The ford is full of boulders;
the footing is not really favorable to war horses. And the Tohan will
think you are weaker than you are and underestimate you. They won't
expect farmers to fight."
I thought, I should be taking lessons in strategy from him.
Jiro said, "Am I to go with Lord Miyoshi too?"
"Yes, take Hiroshi on your horse, and keep an eye on him."
The horsemen rode away, the hoofs echoing across the broad valley.
"What hour is it?" I asked Makoto.
"About the second half of the Snake," he replied.
"Have the men eaten?"
"I gave orders to eat quickly while we were halted."
"Then we can move on right away. Start the men now; I'll ride back and
tell the captains and my wife. I'll join you when I've spoken to them."
He turned his horse's head, but before he moved off he gazed briefly at
the sky, the forest, and the valley.
"It's a beautiful day," he said quietly.
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I knew what he meant: a good day to die. But neither he nor I was
destined to die that day, though many others were.
I cantered back along the line of resting men, giving the orders to
move on and telling their leaders our plan. They got to their feet
eagerly, especially when I told them who our main enemy was; they
shouted mightily at the prospect of punishing the Tohan for the defeat
at Yaegahara, the loss of Yamagata, and the years of oppression.
Kaede and the other women were waiting in a small grove of trees, Amano
as usual with them.
"We are going into battle," I said to Kaede. "Iida Nariaki's army
crossed the border ahead of us. Kahei has ridden around the side of
them, where we hope he will meet up with his brother and Sugita. Amano
will take you into the forest, where you must stay until I come for
you."
Amano bowed his head. Kaede looked as if she were going to speak, but
then she, too, inclined her head. "May the All-Merciful One be with
you," she whispered, her eyes on my face. She leaned forward slightly
and said, "One day I will ride into battle beside you!"
"If I know you are safe, I can give all my concentration to the fight,"
I replied. "Besides, you must protect the records."
"A battlefield is no place for a woman!" Manami said, her face drawn
with anxiety.
"No," Kaede replied, "I would only be in the way. But how I wish
I had been born a man!"
Her fierceness made me laugh. "Tonight we will sleep in Maruyama!" I told
her.
I kept the image of her vivid, courageous face in my mind all day.
Before we left the temple, Kaede and Manami had made banners of the
Otori heron, the white river of the Shirakawa, and the hill of the
Maruyama, and we unfurled them now as we rode through the valley. Even
though we were going into battle, I still checked out the state of the
countryside. The fields looked fertile enough, and should already have
been flooded and planted, but the dikes were broken and the channels
clogged with weeds and mud.
Apart from the signs of neglect, the army ahead of us had stripped the
land and farms of whatever they could find. Children cried by the
roadside, houses burned, and here and there dead men lay, killed
casually, for no reason, their bodies left where they'd fallen.
From time to time when we passed a farm or hamlet, the surviving men
and boys came out to question us. Once they learned that we were
pursuing the Tohan and that I would allow them to fight, they joined us
eagerly, swelling our ranks by about a hundred.
About two hours later, when it was well past noon, maybe coming into
the hour of the Goat, I heard from ahead the sounds I had been
listening for: the clash of steel, the whinnying of horses, the shouts
of battle, the cries of the wounded. I made a sign to Makoto and he
gave the order to halt.
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Shun stood still, ears pricked forward, listening as attentively as I
did. He did not whinny in response, as though he knew the need for
silence. "Sugita must have met them here, as the boy said," Makoto
murmured. "But can Kahei have reached him already?"
"Whoever it is, it is a major battle," I replied.
The road ahead disappeared downhill into the ravine. The tops of the
trees waved their new green leaves in the spring sunshine. The noise of
battle was not so great that I could not also hear birdsong.
"The bannermen will ride forward with me," I said.
"You should not go ahead. Stay in the center, where it is safer. You
will be too easy a target for bowmen."
"It is my war," I replied. "It's only right that I should be the first
to engage in it." The words may have sounded calm and measured; in
truth I was tense, anxious to begin the fight and anxious to end it.
"Yes, it is your war, and every one of us is in it because of you. All
the more reason for us to try and preserve you!"
I turned my horse and faced the men. I felt a surge of regret for those
who would die, but at least I had given them the chance to die like
men, to fight for their land and families. I called to the bannermen
and they rode forward, the banners streaming in the breeze. I looked at
the white heron and prayed to Shigeru's spirit. I felt it possess me,
sliding beneath my skin, aligning itself with my sinews and bones. I
drew Jato and the blade flashed in the sun. The men responded with
shouts and cheers.
I turned Shun and put him into a canter. He went forward calmly and
eagerly, as though we were riding together through a meadow. The horse
to my left was overexcited, pulling against the bit and trying to buck.
I could feel all the muscular tension in the rider's body as he
controlled the horse with one hand while keeping the banner erect in
the other.
The road darkened as it descended between the trees. The surface
worsened, as Hiroshi had predicted, the soft, muddy sand giving way to
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