The Initiate Brother Duology (79 page)

“They do, my lady.”

“Is it not possible that this young woman has been sent to us to that end, Brother? The Shonto are often the objects of such scrutiny.”

“I believe, in this case, Lady Nishima, that this girl is truly what she claims.”

Nishima sipped her cha and regarded Shuyun, who sat looking down, as politeness dictated. “You have an ear for truth, Brother Shuyun?”

“So my teachers believed, Lady Nishima. Though it should be remembered that this ability is never infallible.”

“How unfortunate.” Nishima swirled her cha leaves as though she would change the message written there. “I would be pleased to assist a seeker who
has lost her way, if I can. Please have her sent to me and I will see what she seems suited for.”

“I thank you, Lady Nishima. I do not think she will disappoint you.”

Nishima smiled. There was an awkward silence. Shuyun finished his cha, but before he could excuse himself Lady Nishima spoke again.

“How do you recognize truth, Shuyun-sum, what is it that informs you? More cha?” As she said this, she poured cha into his bowl.

“Well, perha…certainly. Thank you.” He took up the full vessel and sipped.

“I am unable to explain, Lady Nishima, I apologize. I simply know.”

“It is a feeling, then?”

“Perhaps. It cannot be described but only named.”

“It is most intriguing, Brother. But do those who are raised to the Botahist Way know feelings, Shuyun-sum? Are feelings not part of the Illusion?” Nishima found a small crease in her robe that she smoothed.

Shuyun considered for a few seconds. “Botahara taught that feelings were illusory, yes. It is written that our desires trap us in the world of Illusion.”

“Then you are not troubled by feelings, Brother Shuyun?”

“I am not so enlightened, Lady Nishima.” He gave a small, almost embarrassed, smile. “Even the Botahist-trained have feelings—one does not allow them to rule one’s actions, however.”

Before he could protest, Nishima ladled more cha into his bowl.

“You resist them, then?”

“I’m not certain that
resist
is the proper description, Lady Nishima.”

“You do not resist them?”

“Followers of the Way order their lives according to the principal virtues, not according to their desires.”

“But Brother, when a follower of the Way feels desire, or any other emotion, do they resist it? Did not Botahara teach that resistance was folly? I find this concept difficult.”

Shuyun set his cup on the table and placed his palms together, touching his fingers to his chin in thought. “When one has traveled far enough down the Sevenfold Path, one does not feel desire, Lady Nishima. Until such time we practice meditation, we chant, and we learn focus. Certainly duty and desire are not always compatible, Lady Nishima, but, as you have said, the Shonto choose duty.”

Nishima nodded slowly. “Though I often wonder at what cost, Shuyun-sum,” she said softly.

Shuyun looked away as though some detail in the room begged his attention and what Nishima said had not been heard. “I have not seen Lady Okara for several days,” Shuyun said evenly. “Does she fare well?”

Nishima smiled at the sudden change of subject. “Well enough to serve art’s purpose, Brother. I often wish I could say the same.”

“I have heard Lady Okara speak of your art in the most flattering terms, Lady Nishima,” he said, his voice losing its edge of formality. “She speaks also of your artist’s soul. It is my impression that she is somewhat envious.”

“Oh, certainly she is not!” Nishima felt her face flush with pleasure at Shuyun’s words—even a fan would not hide this.

“Recently she spoke of her quest to learn to see again. It seems Lady Okara believes that over the years she has developed habits of being and feeling that act as a wall to the world and prevent her from seeing. But she does not seem to mean seeing the world, she means seeing within. ‘The part of the scene that exists within,’ were the words she used.

“It is Okara-sum’s belief that you have the open spirit of the true artist, Lady Nishima, and she traveled to Seh with you in an attempt to recapture this. Perhaps you are her teacher, Lady Nishima.”

“Lady Okara is my teacher, Shuyun-sum, make no mistake. I have been blessed with brilliant teachers.”

“It is said that a child learns wisdom from the parent, but the truly wise parent learns joy from the child. Do not be confused by appearances; a wise teacher learns from the student, always.”

“And what have the esteemed Brothers learned from Initiate Brother Shuyun?” Nishima asked suddenly and watched his reaction closely.

Shuyun shrugged. “I do not know, Nishima-sum, I do not know.” He opened his hands in a gesture that seemed to indicate emptiness.

“We know only those things which we allow ourselves to know,”
Nishima said.

A troubled smile appeared on the monk’s face. “That is Botahist teaching, Nishima-sum.”

Nishima gestured with her hand as though she encompassed her entire life, and her long sleeve swept gracefully through the air. “I have been blessed with brilliant teachers.”

“Brother Satake?”

Nishima nodded. There was an awkward silence while Lady Nishima prodded the coals in the burner, causing them to spark to life.

“My Order guards its teachings with a certain jealousy, Nishima-sum,” Shuyun said at last.

She nodded again, poking distractedly at the coals. “Give me your hand, Shuyun-sum,” she said suddenly, and she reached out and took his hand and placed it palm out against her own. Regulating her breathing with some skill, she pushed. Shuyun resisted for the merest fraction of a second and then pulled away slightly. When he pushed against her own hand there was almost no resistance. Shuyun could feel the chi flow. Chi in an uninitiated woman—a peer of the Empire of Wa!

Lady Nishima took his hand in her own. “As impossible as it may seem, there is much in common in our experiences, in our lives, Shuyun-sum.”

“Brother Satake broke his sacred oath,” Shuyun said. He felt his focus wander as he said this. Even though he had suspected Brother Satake had broken his oath, the shock of proof was great.

“He lived by his own oath, Shuyun-sum. His teachers could have learned much from Brother Satake, but they were mired in their own ways, their own habits.”

Gently Shuyun removed his hand from her own. “Please…excuse me…I must go.” Without further ceremony Shuyun rose and walked out like a man in a daze.

For a long time Nishima sat staring at the door where Shuyun had disappeared. Then she shook her head as if to clear it. Reaching for her writing table, she prepared her brush with exaggerated care. She read the lines she had already committed to paper and then continued.

She could find no words to complete her thought.

*   *   *

Shimeko sat with her eyes cast down while Lady Nishima examined her brush work in the dim morning light that filtered through the screens of her
chambers. The former Botahist nun sat without movement as she had been trained to do and nothing in her appearance betrayed the confusion she felt. Was she truly going from serving a respected senior Sister to the service of this pampered aristocrat, barely older than she was herself?

“It is a fine hand, Shimeko-sum, strong without being plain.” Nishima nodded toward her, half a bow. Setting the paper aside, she smiled warmly at the young woman who sat before her. Shimeko sat with her shawl pulled tightly around her face, hiding her cropped hair.

“You will excuse my curiosity, Shimeko-sum, I can’t help but wonder why you would seek service with the Shonto. I do not wish to pry into your reasons for leaving the Sisterhood, but life in the Shonto House will be very different.”

Shimeko spoke without raising her head. “Do you wish to hear the truth, my lady?”

“Always,” Nishima said, the word coming out clipped and controlled.

“I did not come to your gate to seek service with the Shonto. I came to offer my service to Brother Shuyun.” She sat looking down, her expression unchanging, her tone even.

“I see. May I ask why?”

“I believe Brother Shuyun is a pure spirit, Lady Nishima, untainted by the machinations of his Order.”

“Huh. Then you take service with me against your will?”

“No, my lady, I will gladly serve the household that Brother Shuyun serves.”

“I see. Will you be able to make the adjustments necessary, Shimeko-sum? You do not have to treat me with this level of deference, I am not a senior Sister who demands utter humility from others.”

“Please excuse me, Lady Nishima.” She raised her eyes and met Nishima’s for the briefest second. An attempted smile showed some potential. “If someone will instruct me, I’m certain I will learn.”

“We could find you a teacher, Shimeko-sum.” Nishima glanced at the page of brush work again. “You are a scholar?”

“I was only an Acolyte, my lady. An Acolyte cannot call herself a proper scholar. My accomplishments were modest compared to the Sisters I served.”

“I see. Could you go to the Palace Archives and find information for me?”

“If the information is there and somewhat ordered, I am confident I could, Lady Nishima.”

“Good. This is what I want to know. On the canal did you see the fane of the vanquished Brothers? The one called the Lovers?”

“My lady, it endangers the spirit to look at such things,” the young woman said, casting her gaze down again.

“You did not look, then?”

The former nun struggled for a moment and then she shrugged, her cheeks coloring a little.

“Well, it is not necessary to look. I want to know what the scholars have written about the sect that inhabited that fane. Scholars, mind you, not members of any Botahist Order. Certainly the Imperial historians could not have allowed such a thing to pass without comment. Are you able to do this without compromising your beliefs?”

“My beliefs, Lady Nishima?” She traced a circle on the floor. “Yes, I think so.”

“Excellent. I would like this information as soon as possible, thank you.”

Shimeko sat, her posture and expression unchanged.

“You may go, Shimeko,” Nishima said.

“Thank you, my lady.” She bowed in the Botahist manner and backed toward the door without rising.

“Shimeko?”

“Yes, my lady?”

“You know that servants are seldom addressed as sum?”

The former Sister paused in her retreat. “Brother Shuyun calls me Shimeko-sum, my lady,” she said simply.

Nishima considered this. “Then I will call you Shimeko-sum also.”

S
ISTER SUTSO HURRIED down what seemed an endless hallway until she found the door she had been looking for. Pulling her robe closed at the throat, she pushed open the door that led out into an unlit courtyard. A cold wind swirled about her, pulling wildly at her robes and whistling among the pillars. An occasional drop of rain was smeared across her forehead, though due to the wind they did not seem to fall from the sky. Almost running, the secretary to the Prioress found the door she was looking for, despite the complete darkness, and pushed into a second hall.

Pulling up the hem of her robe, she ran up several flights of stairs, surprising a group of Acolytes who had never seen such undignified behavior in a senior Sister.

Another long hallway, then a shortcut through the Archives of Divine Inspiration, another hall and then the great stairway. There, one flight down, went the Prioress, Sister Saeja, her sedan chair carried by four Acolytes.

Sutso descended the stairs and only slowed her pace as she came up beside the chair. She controlled her breathing with great discipline so that it seemed she had not hurried at all, perhaps had come upon the Prioress by accident.

“Prioress,” Sutso said, bowing as low as the situation would allow.

The old woman’s eyes seemed to appear out of the wrinkled folds that were her eyelids. She nodded and closed her eyes again as though conserving her strength.

“Is there anything I can do, Prioress?” Sutso asked, pitching her voice in tones the old woman could still hear.

“There will be no change of plan,” came a soft whisper. “Continue with our preparations. There is so little time.”

“Do you have commitments I am unaware of?” Sutso asked.

“No, child,” the ancient head moved from side to side, “but this is not unexpected. Since Morima-sum’s time of testing, they have been gathering like the carrion eaters they have become. I remain this still only to draw their attention from things of importance.” Her face creased in a smile and her eyes flickered open, eyes full of humor.

“Why do they call a council now?”

“They hope to tire me, child, that is their true purpose.” She smiled again. “Sister Yasuko’s letter. They have learned that there are events outside of their narrow world that could adversely affect their dearest ambitions. Seh is on everyone’s lips suddenly, replacing talk of Monarta.”

The chair wobbled slightly and then the bearers recovered. The Prioress held out a thin hand. “Give me your hand, child. I do not want to slide down the grand stairway alone.”