The Way of the Gods

jiro Arisuga. Though it came to him, in whom it had lain latent, hardly. But, perhaps for that reason, as is t

tripped them both: the spiri

h less frequently. And the small heart of the small girl wo

g, no more carry your samisen, and are grown too suddenly for your years a m

o laughed again, as he had use

o more!

a thousand y

a myriad ye

ebbles are

s to our

orn lord o

mn with that light in your face who never sang it before-whose f

spite of his gayety. "I am going to die for the emperor the great death! I am going to set my father free to pursue

ds will love you. And I. But who, then, will

, I promis

ill crept o

doubtfully, "if I ca

still

e custodians cannot drive it away from the tombs. And w

spered, in her

ayly tou

e like that

le girl, touching him, as flesh touches fle

as in a land where both the spirits which loved one an

ear, and he well in it-much of his absorption had passed away, and

hers, with bodies

maiden sho

oughts. Well, perhaps I am. Yet I shall wait for you here. I can do that. The gods may not accept your sacrifice for a time. They may not accept it at all. And there may be no war for yo

re suddenly become a man and she were still a little girl, "supp

uga laug

ait," sai

er I have

hen your spirit may come. It is cruel to wait, alwa

ier stil

ll the goddesses

ouched h

nd it to me soon-the

can die the great death, too, and s

on your lips? Shall little you experience that arch esctasy: your death-wound spurting your own warm blood into your own face? Then out, out, out into the eternal solitude and silen

y. Yet it was wonderful that his gentleness held here. She understo

humbly. "I spoke when I had not

ghed h

ch are all good. But when you speak of the things which are a man's, I look at

that he was not mu

I were happy together. And if you die, still caring for me, your spirit will come and touch me, as you said. That much I know. You

ess of glory, the moment the call comes! This we did not know, the madness of glory, and I had never thought to learn. But it has come, and it is greater than all love. Sh

efore. It never could be. As he had said,

O