L5r - scroll 03 - The Crane Read Online Free Page A

his own son, and it would ring for a new Doji boy and never again for Hoturi. He looked forward to that day. Placing the ancient katana gently in his obi beside his grandfather's wakizashi, Hoturi stepped into the corridor.
    The servant, still kneeling patiently outside in the hallway, bowed his head to the floor and pressed his palms to the mahogany wood beneath him.
    "Tell my wife that I will meet her in the gardens after I have dressed," Hoturi commanded as he passed.
    The servant nodded a brief, "Hai," and leaped to the task.
    The Crane Champion had returned home, and all would be well again.
    xxxxxxxx
    In the garden, flowers blossomed despite the oncoming frost. Crane gardeners, skilled beyond normal measures, used humble magics to encourage the last few buds to spring into beautiful blossoms. Though the plum leaves changed through the year, the flowering vines retained their color and rich scent until the first snow. Outside the palace, forests warred with paddies of rice, struggling to reclaim lands the Crane had tamed. Inside, the courtyard gardens blended wilderness and domestic peace. Every detail, from the small blight on a leaf to the great stone lanterns in the willow-shrouded pond, was shaped to embody peaceful meditation.
    Artisans sat among the garden's curving paths, practicing their arts outside the palace libraries. There would be only a few more perfect days this year. Best to capture their image and remember their beauty, to live the moment rather than allow it to escape. The Kakita halls were a place of perfection, where all the arts of Rokugan were studied and appreciated. Students from across the empire came here to learn the delicate magic of the artisan—the maya of imagination and expression. They were not shugenja, like the spell-crafting priests of Rokugan's Phoenix and Dragon clans. Still, the arts of the Kakita artisans were respected in the emperor's court and through the land.
    A pair of soft cushions rested beside the path, dark gray against the green grass. Two women sat there, trading stories and whispering of the visitors who had begun to arrive for the Festival of the Last Harvest. A white-haired head bowed low to a darker one, and gray eyes laughed into green ones, but the women's features were very similar. They were alike enough to pass as sisters.
    ". . . she is the prettiest of his legitimate daughters, so of course he hopes she will marry well."
    "Well, perhaps, but a Crab? They're barely articulate." The banter was kind-hearted. Shizue, daughter of Satsume, plucked a small white blossom from a nearby bush and tested its fragrance delicately.
    The dark-haired maiden sighed. "I wish she would simply fall in love." Her features were long and thin but held a certain sweetness that caught the eye. Although none could call her a creature of perfection, Doji Ameiko was a beautiful woman in her own right. Petite, she had a slightly crooked smile that hid gleaming white teeth, and her almond-shaped eyes danced behind dark lashes.
    Shizue laughed. "Ameiko, women don't marry for love. You should know that. Love comes later."
    A sigh. "No?"
    "Did you love Hoturi when you married him?"
    The answer was lost in a flutter of Unicorn maidens who pursued a puppy around the path. Their chatter echoed across the lake and resounded from willow trees. Behind the trees strode a tall figure, his eyes searching through the shading branches.
    "Here he comes," whispered Doji Shizue. Her eyes sparkled, and her turned-up nose crinkled affectionately. "I'll leave you two alone. I'm sure Yoshi could use my help with the arrangements for the Phoenix Clan arrivals." As she spoke, she rose from her pillows with a graceful bow.
    "Shizue-san ... ?" Ameiko whispered, and the storyteller half-turned. "Thank you, for keeping me company." She bowed her head slightly."
    Shizue smiled. "For you, Sister, anything."
    Ameiko watched her sister-in-law step toward the Crane Champion, her walk shifting but graceful. Had it not