Stirling, S. M. - Emberverse - 11 - The Golden Princess by Stirling S. M

Author:Stirling, S. M. [Stirling, S. M.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Group US
Published: 2014-09-02T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

Barony Ath, Tualatin Valley

(Formerly northwestern Oregon)

High Kingdom of Montival

(Formerly western North America)

June/Minazuki 1st, Change Year 46/2044 AD/Shohei 1

“How are the men doing, General?” Reiko asked.

They were trotting down to the salle d’armes beside the little lake; it was a mild June day with a few fleecy clouds in a slightly hazy blue sky, perhaps a little warmer than it would have been on a June morning on Sado-ga-shima, perhaps a little less humid, though both were well within the range she was accustomed to.

The two of them were wearing hakama and the padded upper jacket used for serious drill, with boiled and varnished leather practice armor of an almost-familiar type over it, the wire-fronted helmets under their arms. Both were sweating freely from the stretching routines and forced-pace kata and a moderate three-mile run up and down hill with an occasional sprint, ready for some serious exercise.

“The men are well enough, Majesty. The barracks in the castle are . . . barracks. Certainly nothing any real samurai would complain of, far better than shipboard. The roof is solid, it’s dry, and there are cots and clean bedding and a bathhouse.”

The practice weapons to match the armor would be at the salle, as the Montivallans called their dojo. She carried a naginata, and their real swords were at their sides, of course; just as two of the Imperial Guard were following a dozen paces behind. She couldn’t remember walking under the sky without a guard and a blade of some sort at her own side since she turned twelve and was presented with an adult kimono by her mother at her mogi ceremony . . . and with a wakizashi from her father’s hands, an heirloom by the master-smith Kunihiro. The latter had caused some controversy, for giving a weapon at all and for a sword rather than a naginata.

You must prepare, my Reiko-chan, he’d said to her privately then, after they’d knelt in silence for a while with the blade between them. So that for those yet unborn there may be the brush and the poem and the chanoyu, for us today there must be a sword in the hand. And in our souls, the steel.

The only time she hadn’t actually had live steel on her person since were occasions of State when protocol dictated that an attendant walk behind her with the weapon just ready to her hand.

Egawa seemed to read something of her thoughts. He inclined his head before he went on more lightly:

“There’s even a field outside for besuboru.”

“Ah, they play that here?” Reiko said.

It was the most popular non-martial sport back home; she enjoyed it occasionally herself.

“Yes, a few differences in the rules but the same game. And the local people are friendly—in fact some—”

He coughed. Reiko smiled without showing it in the slightest. If she had been a man he was reporting to, even so exalted a man as her father, he would have joked about how friendly some of the local peasant girls had been to the exotic and romantic visitors.

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