The Tengu's Game of Go by Lian Hearn Read Free Book Online

it.
    Mu admired his pupil and had become fond of him. Ima liked him, and the animals, fake and real, came to accept him. Take in return treated them all with respect and kindness.
    â€œEverything’s going fine,” Mu told Tadashii on one of the tengu’s visits. Take had not yet met him, as the tengu always came after the boy had fallen into one of the short sleeps of exhaustion Mu allowed him. “Except I am worried about my daughter. She likes him too much. What will I do if she falls in love with him? We share the same father—the relationship is too close. He is a young warrior and she is the daughter of a fox woman. I don’t want her to be hurt.”
    â€œI told you, I am no expert in these matters,” Tadashii said. “It’s easy enough to separate them. I’ll take Shikanoko’s son away with me for a while. And, since you will be visiting your brother soon, you can take Kinpoge with you. If she wants a man, let her marry one of her cousins.”
    â€œI will be visiting my brother?” Mu repeated. “I can tell you, that’s not going to happen.”
    â€œI believe it is,” Tadashii replied. “Where is Shikanoko’s son?”
    â€œAsleep by the stream. You’re not taking him now?”
    â€œNo time like the present,” Tadashii said, unfurling his wings and flexing them. “He must be ready for us.”
    He flew as silently as an owl to the stream, picked up the sleeping boy with one hand, called out a farewell, and disappeared above the treetops.
    Even Mu, who had come to know Tadashii well over the years, was startled by this abrupt departure. Kinpoge, when she woke the next morning, was inconsolable.
    â€œWhere did the tengu take him? Why? When will he come back?” She was fighting back tears.
    â€œIt’s part of his training.” Mu tried to reassure her. “He will be fine. You remember Tadashii often took me away. Didn’t I always come back?”
    â€œYou are an adult. You can look after yourself. Take is only a boy,” she argued.
    â€œTake can look after himself very well,” Ima told her. “He has grown up in the weeks he has been here.” He tried to put Kinpoge on his knee to comfort her, but she struggled from his grasp.
    â€œYou sent him away to spite me!” she accused her father angrily. “You don’t want us to be friends!”
    â€œMaybe I don’t, but so what? You are too young to know what is best for you. And anyway, girls should obey their fathers.” Mu tried to maintain his composure. Only Kinpoge could unsettle him so much. He closed his eyes, breathed deeply, seeking to enter the state of no attachment that made him the warrior of nothingness. He heard Kinpoge sigh in exasperation and walk away. He heard the clink of Ban’s bridle and the slight rush of air as the skull horse took off.
    Tadashii is right. If she is to be married the only appropriate bridegroom will be one of her cousins.
    A dog began to bark. Ima said, “Someone is coming.”
    Mu heard the sounds at the same time: twigs breaking, leaves rustling, the four-beat step of horses. He opened his eyes.
    Chika rode into the clearing on a tall brown horse, leading another smaller gray, laden with baskets. He was wearing a green hunting robe with a chrysanthemum crest, a bow on his back, a sword at his hip. Despite his mustache and beard, Mu recognized him at once, though years had passed since the day he had last seen him when Tsunetomo, the one-eyed warrior, had slung his youngest brother, Ku, unconscious, over the back of his horse and had ridden away with Kiku, Kaze, and Chika, leaving Mu destroyed in body and heart.
    Mu let the memory reform in his mind, looking at it dispassionately, observing how he had recovered from it and how it had given him the strength he now possessed. At the same time, he studied Chika, seeing the boy he had been, the man he had become. Kiku, he thought,