Autumn Princess, Dragon Child by Lian Hearn

Author:Lian Hearn
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
ISBN: 9780374715021
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux

9

HINA

Hina had been in Nishimi for four months. She was kept busy with the endless lessons that Takaakira had arranged for her: lute, poetry, classics, history, literature, genealogy. Mostly she enjoyed them, and she worked hard at her studies, practicing music daily and writing poems in reply to the ones Takaakira sent her. He returned hers with corrections and suggestions, which both annoyed and saddened her but also made her determined to write just one with which he could find no fault.

He supervised her progress, coming to her rooms every afternoon to listen to her sing and play. He did not praise her often, with the result that she remained unaware of her gifts and retained the unself-consciousness of a child.

Her teachers were the two elegant women who had come from Miyako, across Lake Kasumi. The younger one, Sadako, provided instruction in poetry and music, while Masako, older and stricter, was an expert in classics and history and had a passion for genealogy. Both women brought their own servants. Bara looked after Hina, and there were also cooks and maids, grooms and gardeners, and various warriors, Takaakira’s retainers, who had appropriated the long, low building to the left of the stables as their quarters. They challenged one another to horse races and archery competitions, went hunting in the forest and along the lakeshore, and kept themselves busy while waiting hopefully for orders to attack the Kakizuki forces, who had retreated to Rakuhara, several days’ journey farther west.

The house was built in the style of a country palace, both rustic and luxurious. Its rooms stood around three sides of a square whose fourth side was open to the lake to capture cool breezes off the water in summer. On the west a bamboo grove, with a garden in front of it, shaded the residence from the setting sun. A stream had been diverted from the lake to flow through the garden. To the north was a stretch of pasture where many horses were kept; the stables stood on its edge, facing south to keep the horses warm in winter.

The lake itself protected the house from the dangerous northeast, and a shrine stood on the shore where, Hina had learned, the Lake Goddess was worshipped and honored with offerings of wine, fruit, and rice.

Mostly the shore was sandy, but the house was built on an elevated piece of land, where cliffs rose above the lake and the water below was deep. Wooden steps led down over the boulders to a jetty, where fishing vessels were tied up and trading boats came whenever the weather permitted.

Lady Masako told Hina that the beautiful house had belonged to a nobleman, Hidetake, who was a close friend of the former Crown Prince, and held a high position in the court when it was under Kakizuki sway. His wife, Masako told her, had been wet nurse and foster mother to the Prince’s son, Yoshimori, who was now, some still dared think, though not say openly anywhere east of Rakuhara, the true emperor, if he was still alive.

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