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Yuki refilled the tea bowls before she left, and the two older men drank noisily. I could smell food cooking. It seemed like days since I’d last eaten. I was sorry I had not accepted Yuki’s offer of food the previous night; I was faint with hunger.
    Kotaro said, “I told you I was first cousin to your father. I did not tell you that he was older than me and would have become master at our grandfather’s death. Akio is my nephew and my heir. Your return raises questions of inheritance and seniority. How we deal with them depends on your conduct in the next few months.”
    It took me a couple of moments to grasp his meaning. “Akio was brought up in the Tribe,” I said slowly. “He knows everything I don’t know. There must be many others like that. I’ve no wish to take his or anyone else’s place.”
    â€œThere are many,” Kotaro replied, “and all of them more obedient, better trained, and more deserving than you. But none has the Kikuta gift of hearing to the extent that you have it, and no one else could have gone alone into Yamagata Castle as you did.”
    That episode seemed like something from a past life. I could hardly remember the impulse that had driven me to climb into the castle and release into death the Hidden who were encaged in baskets and hung from the castle walls, the first time I had killed. I wished I had never done it: If I had not drawn the Tribe’s attention to myself so dramatically, maybe they would not have taken me before . . . before . . . I shook myself. There was no point in endlessly trying to unravel the threads that had woven Shigeru’s death.
    â€œHowever, now that I’ve said that,” Kotaro continued, “you must know that I cannot treat you in any way differently from theothers of your generation. I cannot have favorites. Whatever your skills, they are useless to us unless we also have your obedience. I don’t have to remind you that you have already pledged this to me. You will stay here for a week. You must not go outside or let anyone know you are here. In that week you must learn enough to pass as a juggler. I will meet you at Matsue before winter. It’s up to you to go through the training with complete obedience.”
    â€œWho knows when I will meet you again?” Kenji said, regarding me with his usual mixture of affection and exasperation. “My work with you is done,” he went on. “I found you, taught you, kept you alive somehow, and brought you back to the Tribe. You’ll find Akio tougher than I was.” He grinned, showing the gaps between his teeth. “But Yuki will look after you.”
    There was something in the way he said it that made the color rise in my face. We had done nothing, had not even touched each other, but something existed between us, and Kenji was aware of it.
    Both masters were grinning as they stood up and embraced me. Kenji gave me a cuff round the head. “Do as you’re told,” he said. “And learn to juggle.”
    I wished Kenji and I could have spoken alone. There was so much still unresolved between us. Yet, maybe it was better that he should bid me farewell as though he truly were an affectionate teacher whom I had outgrown. Besides, as I was to learn, the Tribe do not waste time on the past and do not like to be confronted with it.
    After they’d left, the room seemed gloomier than ever, airless and stuffy. I could hear through the house the sounds of their departure. The elaborate preparations, the long good-byes of mosttravelers, were not for them. Kenji and Kotaro just walked out the door, carrying everything they needed for the road in their hands: light bundles in wrapping cloths, a spare pair of sandals, some rice cakes flavored with salted plums. I thought about them and the roads they must have walked, tracing and retracing their way across the Three Countries and beyond, for all I knew,