Shogun (The Asian Saga Chronology) (56 page)

"She's at your home now?"

"No.  Neither she nor my father nor any of my brothers or sisters or family.  I am the last of my line."

"There was a catastrophe?"

Mariko suddenly felt tired.  I'm tired of speaking Latin and foul-sounding Portuguese and tired of being a teacher, she told herself.

I'm not a teacher.  I'm only a woman who knows her duty and wants to do it in peace.  I want none of that warmth again and none of this man who unsettles me so much.  I want none of him.

"In a way, Anjin-san, it was a catastrophe.  One day I will tell you about it."  She quickened her pace slightly and walked away, nearer to the other litter.  The two maids smiled nervously.

"Have we far to go, Mariko-san?" Sono asked.

"I hope not too far," she said reassuringly.

The captain of Grays loomed abruptly out of the darkness on the other side of the litter.  She wondered how much that she had said to the Anjin-san had been overheard.

"You'd like a kaga, Mariko-san?  Are you getting tired?" the captain asked.

"No, no thank you."  She slowed deliberately, drawing him away from Toranaga's litter.  "I'm not tired at all."

"The barbarian's behaving himself?  He's not troubling you?"

"Oh, no.  He seems to be quite calm now."

"What were you talking about?"

"All sorts of things.  I was trying to explain some of our laws and customs to him."  She motioned back to the castle donjon that was etched against the sky above.  "Lord Toranaga asked me to try to get some sense into him."

"Ah yes, Lord Toranaga."  The captain looked briefly at the castle, then back to Blackthorne.  "Why's Lord Toranaga so interested in him, Lady?"

"I don't know.  I suppose because he's an oddity."

They turned a corner, into another street, with houses behind garden walls.  There were few people about.  Beyond were wharves and the sea.  Masts sprouted over the buildings and the air was thick with the smell of seaweed.  "What else did you talk about?"

"They've some very strange ideas.  They think of money all the time."

"Rumor says his whole nation's made up of filthy merchant pirates.  Not a samurai among them.  What's Lord Toranaga want with him?"

"So sorry, I don't know."

"Rumor says he's Christian, he claims to be Christian.  Is he?"

"Not our sort of Christian, Captain.  You're Christian, Captain?"

"My Master's Christian so I am Christian.  My Master is Lord Kiyama."

"I have the honor to know him well.  He honored my husband by betrothing one of his granddaughters to my son."

"Yes, I know, Lady Toda."

"Is Lord Kiyama better now?  I understand the doctors won't allow anyone to see him."

"I haven't seen him for a week.  None of us has.  Perhaps it's the Chinese pox.  God protect him from that, and God curse all Chinese!"  He glared toward Blackthorne.  "Doctors say these barbarians brought the pest to China, to Macao, and thence to our shores."

"
Sumus omnes in manu Dei,
" she said.  We are all in the hands of God.

"
Ita, amen,
" the captain replied without thinking, falling into the trap.

Blackthorne had caught the slip also and he saw a flash of anger on the captain's face and heard him say something through his teeth to Mariko, who flushed and stopped also.  He slid out of the litter and walked back to them.  "If thou speakest Latin, Centurion, then it would be a kindness if thou wouldst speak a little with me.  I am eager to learn about this great country of thine."

"Yes, I can speak thy tongue, foreigner."

"It is not my tongue, Centurion, but that of the Church and of all educated people in my world.  Thou speakest it well.  How and when did thou learn?"

The cortege was passing them and all the samurai, both Grays and Browns, were watching them.  Buntaro, near Toranaga's litter, stopped and turned back.  The captain hesitated, then began walking again and Mariko was glad that Blackthorne had joined them.  They walked in silence a moment.

"The Centurion speaks the tongue fluidly, splendidly, doesn't he?" Blackthorne said to Mariko.

"Yes, indeed.  Didst thou learn it in a seminary, Centurion?"

"And thou, foreigner," the captain said coldly, paying her no attention, loathing the recollection of the seminary at Macao that he had been ordered into as a child by Kiyama to learn the languages.  "Now that we speak directly, tell me with simplicity why did thou ask this lady: 'Who else knoweth . . .'  Who else knoweth what?"

"I recollect not.  My mind was wandering."

"Ah, wandering, eh?  Then why didst thou say: 'Things of Caesar render to Caesar'?"

"It was just a pleasantry.  I was in discussion with this lady, who tells illuminating stories that are sometimes difficult to understand."

"Yes, there is much to understand.  What sent thee mad at the gate?  And why didst thou recover so quickly from thy fit?"

"That came through the beneficence of God."

They were walking beside the litter once more, the captain furious that he had been trapped so easily.  He had been forewarned by Lord Kiyama, his master, that the woman was filled with boundless cleverness: 'Don't forget she carries the taint of treachery throughout her whole being, and the pirate's spawned by the devil Satan.  Watch, listen, and remember.  Perhaps she'll impeach herself and become a further witness against Toranaga for the Regents.  Kill the pirate the moment the ambush begins.'

The arrows came out of the night and the first impaled the captain through the throat and, as he felt his lungs fill with molten fire and death swallowing him, his last thought was one of wonder because the ambush was not to have been here in this street but further on, down beside the wharves, and the attack was not to be against them but against the pirate.

Another arrow had slammed into the litter post an inch from Blackthorne's head.  Two arrows had pierced the closed curtains of Kiritsubo's litter ahead, and another had struck the girl Asa in the waist.  As she began screaming, the bearers dropped the litters and took to their heels in the darkness.  Blackthorne rolled for cover, taking Mariko with him into the lee of the tumbled litter, Grays and Browns scattering.  A shower of arrows straddled both litters.  One thudded into the ground where Mariko had been the instant before.  Buntaro was covering Toranaga's litter with his body as best he could, an arrow stuck into the back of his leather-chainmail-bamboo armor, and then, when the volley ceased, he rushed forward and ripped the curtains apart.  The two arrows were imbedded in Toranaga's chest and side but he was unharmed and he jerked the barbs out of the protective armor he wore beneath the kimono.  Then he tore off the wide-brimmed hat and the wig.  Buntaro searched the darkness for the enemy, on guard, an arrow ready in his bow, while Toranaga fought out of the curtains and, pulling his sword from under the coverlet, leapt to his feet.  Mariko started to scramble to help Toranaga but Blackthorne pulled her back with a shout of warning as again arrows bracketed the litters, killing two Browns and a Gray.  Another came so close to Blackthorne that it took the skin off his cheek.  Another pinned the skirt of his kimono to the earth.  The maid, Sono, was beside the writhing girl, who was bravely holding back her screams.  Then Yabu shouted and pointed and charged.  Dim figures could be seen on one of the tiled roofs.  A last volley whooshed out of the darkness, always at the litters.  Buntaro and other Browns blocked their path to Toranaga.  One man died.  A shaft ripped through a joint in Buntaro's shoulder armor and he grunted with pain.  Yabu and Browns and Grays were near the wall now in pursuit but the ambushers vanished into the blackness, and though a dozen Browns and Grays raced for the corner to head them off, all knew that it was hopeless.  Blackthorne groped to his feet and helped Mariko up.  She was shaken but untouched.

"Thank you," she said, and hurried over to Toranaga to help screen him from Grays.  Buntaro was shouting to some of his men to douse the flares near the litters.  Then one of the Grays said, "Toranaga!" and though it was spoken quietly everyone heard.

In the flickering light of the flares, the sweat-streaked makeup made Toranaga seem grotesque.

One of the officer Grays bowed hastily.  Here, incredibly, was the enemy of his master, free, outside the castle walls.  "You will wait here, Lord Toranaga.  You," he snapped at one of his men, "report to Lord Ishido at once," and the man raced away.

"Stop him," Toranaga said quietly.  Buntaro launched two arrows.  The man fell dying.  The officer whipped out his two-handed sword and leaped for Toranaga with a screaming battle cry but Buntaro was ready and parried the blow.  Simultaneously the Browns and the Grays, all intermixed, jerked out their swords and jumped for space.  The street erupted into a swirling melee.  Buntaro and the officer were well matched, feinting and slashing.  Suddenly a Gray broke from the pack and charged for Toranaga but Mariko immediately picked up a flare, ran forward, and shoved it into the officer's face.  Buntaro hacked his assailant in two, then whirled and ripped the second man apart, and cut down another who was trying to reach Toranaga as Mariko darted back out of the way, a sword now in her hands, her eyes never leaving Toranaga or Buntaro, his monstrous bodyguard.

Four Grays banded together and hurled themselves at Blackthorne, who was still rooted near his litter.  Helplessly he saw them coming.  Yabu and a Brown leaped to intercept, fighting demonically.  Blackthorne jumped away, grabbed a flare, and using it as a whirling mace, threw the attackers momentarily off balance.  Yabu killed one, maimed another, then four Browns rushed back to dispose of the last two Grays.  Without hesitation Yabu and the wounded Brown hurled themselves into the attack once more, protecting Toranaga.  Blackthorne ran forward and picked up a long half-sword, half-spear and raced nearer to Toranaga.  Toranaga alone stood motionless, his sword sheathed, in the screaming fracas.

The Grays fought courageously.  Four joined in a suicidal charge at Toranaga.  The Browns broke it and pressed their advantage.  The Grays regrouped and charged again.  Then a senior officer ordered three to retreat for help and the rest to guard the retreat.  The three Grays tore off, and though they were pursued and Buntaro shot one, two escaped.

The rest died.

CHAPTER 24

They were hurrying through deserted back streets, circling for the wharf and the galley.  There were ten of them—Toranaga leading, Yabu, Mariko, Blackthorne, and six samurai.  The rest, under Buntaro, had been sent with the litters and baggage train by the planned route, with instructions to head leisurely for the galley.  The body of Asa the maid was in one of the litters.  During a lull in the fighting, Blackthorne had pulled the barbed shaft out of her.  Toranaga had seen the dark blood that gushed in its wake and had watched, puzzled, as the pilot had cradled her instead of allowing her to die quietly in private dignity, and then, when the fighting had ceased entirely, how gently the pilot had put her into the litter.  The girl was brave and had whimpered not at all, just looked up at him until death had come.  Toranaga had left her in the curtained litter as a decoy and one of the wounded had been put in the second litter, also as a decoy.

Of the fifty Browns that had formed the escort, fifteen had been killed and eleven mortally wounded.  The eleven had been quickly and honorably committed to the Great Void, three by their own hands, eight assisted by Buntaro at their request.  Then Buntaro had assembled the remainder around the closed litters and had left.  Forty-eight Grays lay in the dust.

Toranaga knew that he was dangerously unprotected but he was content.  Everything has gone well, he thought, considering the vicissitudes of chance.  How interesting life is!  At first I was sure it was a bad omen that the pilot had seen me change places with Kiri.  Then the pilot saved me and acted the madman perfectly, and because of him we escaped Ishido.  I hadn't planned for Ishido to be at the main gate, only at the forecourt.  That was careless.  Why was Ishido there?  It isn't like Ishido to be so careful.  Who advised him?  Kiyama?  Onoshi?  Or Yodoko?  A woman, ever practical would—could suspect such a subterfuge.

It had been a good plan—the secret escape dash—and established for weeks, for it was obvious that Ishido would try to keep him in the castle, would turn the other Regents against him by promising them anything, would willingly sacrifice his hostage at Yedo, the Lady Ochiba, and would use any means to keep him under guard until the final meeting of the Regents, where he would be cornered, impeached, and dispatched.

"But they'll still impeach you!" Hiro-matsu had said when Toranaga had sent for him just after dusk last night to explain what was to be attempted and why he, Toranaga, had been vacillating.  "Even if you escape, the Regents will impeach you behind your back as easily as they'll do it to your face.  So you're bound to commit seppuku when they order it, as they will order it."

"Yes," Toranaga had said.  "As President of the Regents I am bound to do that if the four vote against me.  But here"—he had taken a rolled parchment out of his sleeve—"here is my formal resignation from the Council of Regents.  You will give it to Ishido when my escape is known."

"What?"

"If I resign I'm no longer bound by my Regent's oath. 
Neh?
  The Taikō never forbade me to resign,
neh?
  Give Ishido this, too."  He had handed Hiro-matsu the chop, the official seal of his office as President.

"But now you're totally isolated.  You're doomed!"

"You're wrong.  Listen, the Taikō's testament implanted a council of
five
Regents on the realm.  Now there are four.  To be legal, before they can exercise the Emperor's mandate, the four have to elect or appoint a new member, a fifth,
neh?
  Ishido, Kiyama, Onoshi, and Sugiyama have to
agree, neh?
  Doesn't the new Regent have to be acceptable to all of them?  Of course!  Now, old comrade, who in all the world will those enemies agree to share ultimate power with?  Eh?  And while they're arguing, no decisions and—"