On the return journey, it was Takeko’s turn to be silent. Jimmu did not disturb her, but at last Takeko announced, “I don’t want to go back to Mitsukage Castle, Jimmu.”

“But it’s your home,” Jimmu pointed out. “Aren’t you happy there?”

“I’m suffocating there!” Takeko growled. “You’re the only thing about the place that isn’t boring. You know what I wish?”

“What?”

“That I really was a local squire’s daughter, and that you were a samurai,” Takeko said. “Then we could be sweet-hearts.”

Thinking that Takeko was joking, Jimmu laughed.

“Why would you want me for a sweetheart?” he said.

Takeko’s eyes darkened with anger.

“Men are stupid!” she snapped. “They don’t notice anything!”

She urged her horse into a gallop.

Jimmu galloped in pursuit. When he caught up with Takeko, he leaned across, grasped her horse’s reins, and brought both their mounts to a halt.

Takeko glared sullenly. Her lips were tightly pursed.

Jimmu was shaking inside.

“Yes,” he said, in a voice that he hardly recognized as his own.

“Yes what?”

“Yes, if you were a squire’s daughter,” mumbled Jimmu. “We could—what you said.”

Takeko smiled.

The smile was as wide as the sky, and Jimmu lost himself in it.

13 - MITSUKAGE CASTLE ISE PROVINCE

13

MITSUKAGE CASTLE ISE PROVINCE

AUTUMN 1572

Messengers from Lord Oda Nobunaga arrived daily at Mitsukage Castle, and they brought news of war. The Takeda forces had taken Futamata Castle, and were preparing to move south against Lord Tokugawa Ieyasu’s fortress of Hamamatsu in Totomi province. Lord Ieyasu had asked Lord Nobunaga for reinforcements, and Lord Nobunaga had instructed Lord Ankan to march his men to Hamamatsu, and place them at Lord Ieyasu’s disposal.

When Jimmu heard of this, he was convinced that it was a sign. Fate had determined that he must share a battlefield with Choju Ankan, and he intended that Ankan would die there, tasting neither the sweetness of victory in battle nor the bitterness of defeat.

Mitsukage Castle prepared itself for conflict. Blacksmiths’ hammers chimed day and night. Soldiers sharpened their weapons on whetstones. Provisions were made ready for loading onto packhorses. Captain Muraki abandoned tutoring Jimmu in order to oversee the drilling of new recruits. Jimmu continued his exercises, fencing with his shadow, which his imagination turned into Ankan the dragon.

During one solitary session in the exercise yard, Jimmu was interrupted by Takeko’s maidservant.

“My Lady wishes to see you at the pool in the garden,” said the maid. “You will go there now, and she will join you shortly.”