Grass for His Pillow by Lian Hearn
reviewed by Cindy Lynn Speer
In this sequel to Across the Nightingale Floor, Takeo leaves Kaede, and their paths diverge for a time. He goes with the Tribe, who demand uncompromising obedience, and who, hiding him from the angry Arai, train him further in their ways. Sickened by some of the things they force him to do and too strong willed to bend easily, Takeo begins to make other plans.

Across the Nightingale Floor by Lian Hearn
reviewed by Cindy Lynn Speer
Tomasu is one of The Hidden, a group whose religion is so persecuted that they hide in their villages, resorting to secret signs drawn against the inside of the hand as a means of identifying themselves when among strangers. Tomasu is a wanderer, and it is his wanderings that take him away from his village in time enough to avoid the massacre of his family. Lord Iida has long hated the Hidden, and has taken the opportunity to wipe their kind from the earth. Tomasu returns a little too early, and only through fortune and the intervention of a mysterious warrior is he able to escape his village's fate.