“You want me to kill somebody for your entertainment?” said Jimmu.

“No!” exclaimed Takeko. “It’s just that when you were fighting, you looked as if you were doing what you were born to do, and I envied you. I don’t know what I was born to do. I probably never will.”

Though he could not account for it, Jimmu sensed a kind of danger in the sadness of Takeko’s voice, and the moonlight shining on her neck. He longed to hear her laugh, but he quelled the longing and said, “I’ve been ordered to stay away from you.”

Takeko’s eyes widened. “By whom?”

“Captain Muraki. He hinted that Lord Ankan would be displeased if he knew that his daughter was keeping company with a common guardsman.”

“Captain Muraki is a numbskull!” hissed Takeko.

“He is concerned for your reputation.”

“And what concerns you, Jimmu?”

“I don’t want to be ordered to leave the castle,” Jimmu said.

“It’s not my father’s displeasure that should worry you, it’s mine!” Takeko said angrily. “One word from me, and you could lose more than your job. I could have you blinded, or boiled alive, or have your tongue torn out with white-hot pincers!”

Now she sounds like Choju Ankan’s daughter! Jimmu thought.

Takeko’s fit of pique exhausted itself, and she shook her head.

“I’m sorry, Jimmu,” she said. “I’d never do any of those things. Why did you come here tonight?”

“Because you sent for me, My Lady,” said Jimmu, “and because I felt it was my duty to tell you about Captain Muraki’s orders.”

Takeko turned away.

“If I send for you again, only come because you want to,” she said, and she walked across the garden toward the private quarters of the castle.

Jimmu remained at the pool, staring at the reflection of the moon on the water. The moon’s tranquillity mocked his chaotic feelings. He was thrilled to have been with Takeko, and already longed for their next meeting: yet she was the daughter of Choju Ankan.

Stop this! Jimmu told himself. She is as much your enemy as her father is.

But the more he thought about Takeko, the harder it was to see her that way.

10

MITSUKAGE CASTLE ISE PROVINCE

AUTUMN 1572

The following morning there was a cold snap. The puddles of autumn rain that filled the ruts in the road outside the castle whitened into ice; mud froze as hard as stone. The tiles on the roofs of the castle sparkled with frost. Off-duty men hung about the bathhouse and kitchens to keep warm.

Jimmu was so deep in thought that he barely registered the cold. He had told Lady Takeko what he believed it was his duty to say, but it was now obvious to him that his feelings toward her went beyond duty. Despite his best efforts to concentrate on his mission to kill Lord Ankan, daydreams flicked through his mind, like leaping grasshoppers. He imagined Takeko smiling at him, walking beside him along an avenue lined with blossoming cherry trees, laughing with him as they took cover from a sudden downpour . . .