Chapter 22: The Crown's Offer

The herald read it standing on the porch step, where the skillet had left a dent in the wood.

He had a retinue of twelve men in scarlet, a clerk, and a long scroll with a gold seal.

He read in the voice of a man who was paid by the word.

The yard was full.

The soldiers stood in rows, and the village stood along the fence.

Tamae stood in the kitchen door with a dish towel over her shoulder.

Jiro stood in the middle of it all in his indigo coat, with his arm in a clean sling and his hair uncombed.

He had not been told what the scroll would say.

"By order of the Crown," cried the herald. "The notice of the retirement of Jiro Kurogane, Sword Saint of the kingdom, is revoked as false."

A murmur ran around the fence.

"The Crown acknowledges that he was dismissed without cause, and in error."

"The Crown restores him to his post as captain of the royal guard, with the pension of twelve years, in full and backdated."

"And it offers him, in thanks, the title of Lord Warden of the Kita Marches, with a house in the capital and a hundred retainers."

He rolled the scroll with a snap.

"Master Kurogane," said the herald, with a bow so deep that his sash trailed in the dust. "The Crown awaits your answer."

The yard fell silent.

Hanae stood at the corner of the porch with flour on her apron.

She did not move, and she did not look at him.

A house in the capital, she thought.

A hundred retainers.

It was everything he had been robbed of, handed back on a gold plate.

She had promised herself she would never be a woman who held a man by his sleeve.