Tale of the Warrior Geisha by Margaret Dilloway

Author:Margaret Dilloway
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Published: 2015-09-18T04:00:00+00:00

EIGHTEEN

Yamabuki Gozen

MIYANOKOSHI FORTRESS

SHINANO PROVINCE

HONSHU, JAPAN

Summer 1177

When Yamabuki closed her fingers around the dagger, she had but one thought. This is my chance to end it. No one would know what happened. They would think she had died to preserve her honor.

How would Yoshinaka react? Would he go back to Tomoe, heart and body? Yamabuki thought this might be for the best. She felt conflicted about him. She had thought that after she became pregnant, he would leave her alone, but he continued to want her in his bed. Sour with drink, sweaty after doing whatever he did all day, he took her from behind when her stomach became too large. “The midwife says it won’t harm you,” he said, when Yamabuki tried to protest.

And no matter how gentle he tried to be, she felt nothing for him. The worst part was seeing Tomoe, the jealous and hurt expression on her face unmistakable when Yoshinaka and Yamabuki emerged from his house in the morning. Yoshinaka never seemed to notice, always going off to drum up his armies or oversee the land. He paid not a bit of attention to Tomoe, the one person on this earth who loved him with all her heart and soul. He was indeed Kiso.

She knelt in the corner, listening to the sounds of fighting outside. It was still some distance away. She hoped.

She shifted into a more comfortable position, one hand on her round stomach, the other holding the dagger. Her heart pounded in a wild and unnatural rhythm, a thumpity-thump-thump-pause. Jigai. Her fingertips found where her blood pulsed in her throat and she rested the blade against the spot. How quick it would be. She pressed the blade lightly, and the pain jarred her alert. “Obāchan, where are you now?” Yamabuki said aloud.

Her unborn baby kicked her bladder so sharply she hunched over, this pain worse than the dagger.

She was alive.

“Little one, you want to survive.” She felt a strong and unexpected surge of love. Oh, she would do anything for him. Even continue to live here.

She pulled a futon over herself.

Shouting and clanging and horses neighing in fright got louder. Women crying. Perhaps some men. Yamabuki hoped the children were safe. Someone crashed into the wall, shaking the whole house. Then a man burst through the door, knocking it off the sliders.

From here she smelled his stink. Worse than Yoshinaka. Worse than a thousand pigs. The baby pushed her stomach. She tightened her hand around the dagger, but she was afraid. She was so weak. She wanted to run out past him, run and hide behind Tomoe. He would surely catch her, and then both she and her baby would be dead. She did not want to die.

Think of Tomoe. Be like her. Save your baby.

It was Obāchan-obake, but she couldn’t see her. The man’s breathing approached. She shifted the knife in her grip. Wait one more minute, then strike.

Suddenly the Taira man was right beside her. She shoved the futon off and stood. His mouth was slack.

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