"Hearn,.Lian.-.Otori.01.-.Across.The.Nightingale.Floor.txt,.v3.1" - читать интересную книгу автора (Hearn Lian)

Lord Otori's horse lowered its head and rubbed it roughly against me. It whinnied and another horse answered from the stables. I held the bridle, and the lord dismounted. The retainers took the horses and led them away.

He strode through the garden toward the house. I stood for a moment, hesitant, not knowing whether to follow him or go with the men, but he turned and called my name, beckoning to me.

The garden was full of trees and bushes that grew, not like the wild trees of the mountain, dense and pressed together, but each in its own place, sedate and well trained. And yet, every now and then I thought I caught a glimpse of the mountain as if it had been captured and brought here in miniature.

It was full of sound, too--the sound of water flowing over rocks, trickling from pipes. We stopped to wash our hands at the cistern, and the water ran away tinkling like a bell, as though it were enchanted.

The house servants were already waiting on the veranda to greet their master. I was surprised there were so few, but I learned later that Lord Otori lived in great simplicity. There were three young girls, an older woman, and a man of about fifty years. After the bows the girls withdrew and the two old people gazed at me in barely disguised amazement.

"He is so like...!" the woman whispered.

"Uncanny!" the man agreed, shaking his head.

Lord Otori was smiling as he stepped out of his sandals and entered the house. "I met him in the dark! I had no idea till the following morning. It's just a passing likeness."

"No, far more than that," the old woman said, leading me inside. "He is the very image." The man followed, gazing at me with lips pressed together as though he had just bitten on a pickled plum--as though he foresaw nothing but trouble would spring from my introduction into the house.

"Anyway, I've called him Takeo," the lord said over his shoulder. "Heat the bath and find clothes for him."

The old man grunted in surprise.

"Takeo!" the woman exclaimed. "But what's your real name?"

When I said nothing, just shrugged and smiled, the man snapped, "He's a half-wit!"

"No, he can talk perfectly well," Lord Otori returned impatiently. "I've heard him talk. But he saw some terrible things that silenced him. When the shock has faded he'll speak again."

"Of course he will," said the old woman, smiling and nodding at me. "You come with Chiyo. I'll look after you."

"Forgive me, Lord Shigeru," the old man said stubbornly--I guessed these two had known the lord since he was a child, and had brought him up--"but what are your plans for the boy? Is he to be found work in the kitchen or the garden? Is he to be apprenticed? Has he any skills?"

"I intend to adopt him," Lord Otori replied. "You can start the procedures tomorrow, Ichiro."

There was a long moment of silence. Ichiro looked stunned, but he could not have been more flabbergasted than I was. Chiyo seemed to be trying not to smile. Then they both spoke together. She murmured an apology and let the old man speak first.

"It's very unexpected," he said huffily. "Did you plan this before you left on your journey?"

"No, it happened by chance. You know my grief after my brother's death and how I've sought relief in travel. I found this boy, and since then somehow every day the grief seems more bearable."

Chiyo clasped her hands together. "Fate sent him to you. As soon as I set eyes on you, I knew you were changed--healed in some way. Of course no one can ever replace Lord Takeshi...."

Takeshi! So Lord Otori had given me a name like that of his dead brother. And he would adopt me into the family. The Hidden speak of being reborn through water. I had been reborn through the sword.

"Lord Shigeru, you are making a terrible mistake," Ichiro said bluntly. "The boy is a nobody, a commoner.... What will the clan think? Your uncles will never allow it. Even to make the request is an insult."

"Look at him," Lord Otori said. "Whoever his parents were, someone in his past was not a commoner. Anyway, I rescued him from the Tohan. Iida wanted him killed. Since I saved his life, he belongs to me, and so I must adopt him. To be safe from the Tohan he must have the protection of the clan. I killed a man for him, possibly two."

"A high price. Lets hope it goes no higher," Ichiro snapped. "What had he done to attract Iida's attention?"