Shogun (The Asian Saga Chronology) (82 page)

"Of course," Yabu said.  "How was Osaka?"

"Very good.  Remember those bandits, the ones that attacked you by land and sea?"

"Of course."

"We took four hundred and fifty heads that night.  Many were wearing Toranaga uniforms."

"
Ronin
have no honor.  None."

"Some
ronin
have," Jozen said, smarting from the insult.  He lived always with the shame of having once been
ronin.
  "Some were even wearing our Grays.  Not one escaped.  They all died."

"And Buntaro-san?"

"No.  He—"  Jozen stopped.  The "no" had slipped out but now that he had said it he did not mind.  "No.  We don't know for certain—no one collected his head.  You've heard nothing about him?"

"No," Naga said.

"Perhaps he was captured.  Perhaps they just cut him into pieces and scattered him.  My Master would like to know when you have news.  All's very good now at Osaka.  Preparations for the meeting go forward.  There'll be lavish entertainments to celebrate the new era, and of course, to honor
all
the
daimyos.
"

"And Lord Toda Hiro-matsu?" Naga asked politely.

"Old Iron Fist's as strong and gruff as ever."

"He's still there?"

"No.  He left with all your father's men a few days before I did."

"And my father's household?"

"I heard that the Lady Kiritsubo and the Lady Sazuko asked to stay with my Master.  A doctor advised the Lady to rest for a month—her health, you know.  He thought the journey would not be good for the expected child."  To Yabu he added, "She fell down the night you left, didn't she?"

"Yes."

"There's nothing serious, I hope," Naga asked, very concerned.  "No, Naga-san, nothing serious," Jozen said, then again to Yabu, "You've informed Lord Toranaga of my arrival?"

"Of course."

"Good."

"The news you brought us would interest him greatly."

"Yes.  I saw a carrier pigeon circle and fly north."

"I have that service now."  Yabu did not add that Jozen's pigeon had also been observed, or that falcons had intercepted it near the mountains, or that the message had been decoded:  "At Anjiro.  All true as reported.  Yabu, Naga, Omi, and barbarian here."

"I will leave tomorrow, with your permission, after the 'attack.'  You'll give me fresh horses?  I must not keep Lord Toranaga waiting.  I look forward to seeing him.  So does my Master.  At Osaka.  I hope you'll accompany him, Naga-san."

"If I'm ordered there, I will be there."  Naga kept his eyes lowered but he was burning with suppressed fury.

Jozen left and walked with his guards up the hill to his camp.  He rearranged the sentries and ordered his men to sleep and got into his small brush lean-to that they had constructed against the coming rain.  By candlelight, under a mosquito net, he rewrote the previous message on a thin piece of rice paper and added:  "The five hundred guns are lethal.  Massed surprise gun attacks planned—full report already sent with Masumoto."  Then he dated it and doused the candle.  In the darkness he slipped out of his net, removed one of the pigeons from the panniers and placed the message in the tiny container on its foot.  Then he stealthily made his way to one of his men and handed him the bird.

"Take it out into the brush," he whispered.  "Hide it somewhere where it can roost safely until dawn.  As far away as you can.  But be careful, there are eyes all around.  If you're intercepted say I told you to patrol, but hide the pigeon first."

The man slid away as silently as a cockroach.

Pleased with himself, Jozen looked toward the village below.  There were lights on in the fortress and on the opposite slope, in the house that he knew to be Omi's.  There were a few also in the house just below, the one presently occupied by the barbarian.

That whelp Naga's right, Jozen thought, waving his hand at a mosquito.  The barbarian's a filthy plague.

"Good night, Fujiko-san."

"Good night, Anjin-san."

The shoji closed behind her.  Blackthorne took off his kimono and loincloth and put on the lighter sleeping kimono, got under the mosquito net, and lay down.

He blew out the candle.  Deep darkness enveloped him.  The house was quiet now.  The small shutters were closed and he could hear the surf.  Clouds obscured the moon.

The wine and laughter had made him drowsy and euphoric and he listened to the surf and felt himself drifting with it, his mind fogged.  Occasionally, a dog barked in the village below.  I should get a dog, he thought, remembering his own bull terrier at home.  Wonder if he's still alive?  Grog was his name but Tudor, his son, always called him "Og-Og."

Ah, Tudor, laddie.  It's been such a long time.

Wish I could see you all—even write a letter and send it home.  Let's see, he thought.  How would I begin?

"My darlings:  This is the first letter I've been able to send home since we made landfall in Japan.  Things are well now that I know how to live according to their ways.  The food is terrible but tonight I had pheasant and soon I'll get my ship back again.  Where to start my story?  Today I'm like a feudal lord in this strange country.  I have a house, a horse, eight servants, a housekeeper, my own barber, and my own interpreter.  I'm clean-shaven now and shave every day—the steel razors they have here must certainly be the best in the world.  My salary's huge—enough to feed two hundred and fifty Japan families for one year.  In England that'd be the equivalent of almost a thousand golden guineas a year!  Ten times my salary from the Dutch company. . . .

The shoji began to open.  His hand sought his pistol under the pillow and he readied, dragging himself back.  Then he caught the almost imperceptible rustle of silk and a waft of perfume.

"Anjin-san?"  A thread of whisper, filled with promise.

"
Hai?
" he asked as softly, peering into the darkness, unable to see clearly.

Footsteps came closer.  There was the sound of her kneeling and the net was pulled aside and she joined him inside the enclosing net.  She took his hand and lifted it to her breast, then to her lips.

"Mariko-san?"

At once fingers reached up in the darkness and touched his lips, cautioning silence.  He nodded, understanding the awful risk they were taking.  He held her tiny wrist and brushed it with his lips.  In the pitch black his other hand sought and caressed her face.  She kissed his fingers one by one.  Her hair was loose and waist length now.  His hands traveled her.  The lovely feel of silk, nothing beneath.

Her taste was sweet.  His tongue touched her teeth, then rimmed her ears, discovering her.  She loosened his robe and let hers fall aside, her breathing more languorous now.  She pushed closer, nestling, and pulled the covering over their heads.  Then she began to love him, with hands and with lips.  With more tenderness and seeking and knowledge than he had ever known.

CHAPTER 33

Blackthorne awoke at dawn.  Alone.  At first he was sure he had been dreaming, but her perfume still lingered and he knew that it had not been a dream.

A discreet knock.

"
Hai?
"

"
Ohayo,
Anjin-san,
gomen nasai.
"  A maid opened the shoji for Fujiko, then carried in the tray with cha and a bowl of rice gruel and sweet rice cakes.

"
Ohayo,
Fujiko-san,
domo,
" he said, thanking her.  She always came with his first meal personally, opened the net and waited while he ate, and the maid laid out a fresh kimono and tabi and loincloth.

He sipped the cha, wondering if Fujiko knew about last night.  Her face gave nothing away.

"
Ikaga desu ka?
"  How are you, Blackthorne asked.

"
Okagasama de genki desu,
Anjin-san. 
Anata wa?
"  Very well, thank you.  And you?

The maid took out his fresh clothes from the concealed cupboard that melted neatly into the rest of the paper-latticed room, then left them alone.

"
Anata wa yoku nemutta ka?
"  Did you sleep well?

"
Hai,
Anjin-san,
arigato goziemashita!
"  She smiled, put her hand to her head pretending pain, mimed being drunk and sleeping like a stone.  "
Anata wa?
"

"
Watashi wa yoku nemuru.
"  I slept very well.

She corrected him, "
Watashi wa yoku nemutta.
"

"
Domo.  Watashi wa yoku nemutta.
"

"
Yoi!  Taihenyoi!
"  Good.  Very good.

Then from the corridor he heard Mariko call out, "Fujiko-san?"

"
Hai,
Mariko-san?"  Fujiko went to the shoji and opened it a crack.  He could not see Mariko.  And he did not understand what they were saying.

I hope no one knows, he thought.  I pray it is secret, just between us.  Perhaps it would be better if it had been a dream.

He began to dress.  Fujiko came back and knelt to do up the catches on the tabi.

"Mariko-san? 
Nan ja?
"

"
Nane mo,
Anjin-san," she replied.  It was nothing important.

She went to the
takonama,
the alcove with its hanging scroll and flower arrangement, where his swords were always put.  She gave them to him.  He stuck them in his belt.  The swords no longer felt ridiculous to him, though he wished that he could wear them less self-consciously.

She had told him that her father had been granted the swords for bravery after a particularly bloody battle in the far north of Korea, seven years ago during the first invasion.  The Japanese armies had ripped through the kingdom, victorious, slashing north.  Then, when they were near the Yalu River, the Chinese hordes had abruptly poured across the border to join battle with the Japanese armies and, through the weight of their incredible numbers, had routed them.  Fujiko's father had been part of the rearguard that had covered the retreat back to the mountains north of Seoul, where they had turned and fought the battle to a stalemate.  This and the second campaign had been the costliest military expedition ever undertaken.  When the Taikō had died last year, Toranaga, on behalf of the Council of Regents, had at once ordered the remnants of their armies home, to the great relief of the vast majority of
daimyos,
who detested the Korean campaign.

Blackthorne walked out to the veranda.  He stepped into his thongs and nodded to his servants, who had been assembled in a neat line to bow him off, as was custom.

It was a drab day.  The sky was overcast and a warm wet wind came off the sea.  The steppingstones that were set into the gravel of the path were wet with the rain that had fallen in the night.

Beyond the gate were the horses and his ten samurai outriders.  And Mariko.

She was already mounted and wore a pale yellow mantle over pale green silk trousers, a wide-brimmed hat and veil held with yellow ribbons, and gloves.  A rain parasol was ready in its saddle-sheath.

"
Ohayo,
" he said formally. "
Ohayo,
Mariko-san."

"
Ohayo,
Anjin-san.
Ikaga desu ka?
"

"
Okagesama de genki desu.  Anata wa?
"

She smiled.  "
Yoi, arigato goziemashita.
"

She gave not the faintest hint that anything was different between them.  But he expected none, not in public, knowing how dangerous the situation was.  Her perfume came over him and he would have liked to kiss her here, in front of everyone.

"
Ikimasho!
" he said and swung into the saddle, motioning the samurai to ride off ahead.  He walked his horse leisurely and Mariko fell into place beside him.  When they were alone, he relaxed.

"Mariko."

"
Hai?
"

Then he said in Latin, "Thou art beautiful and I love thee."

"I thank thee, but so much wine last night makes my head to feel not beautiful today, not in truth, and love is a Christian word."

"Thou art beautiful and Christian, and wine could not touch thee."

"Thank thee for the lie, Anjin-san, yes, thank thee."

"No.  I should thank thee."

"Oh?  Why?"

"Never 'why,' no 'why.'  I thank thee sincerely."

"If wine and meat make thee so warm and fine and gallant," she said, "then I must tell thy consort to move the heaven and the earth to obtain them for thee every evening."

"Yes.  I would have everything the same, always."

"Thou art untoward happy today," she said.  "Good, very good.  But why?  Why truly?"

"Because of thee.  Thou knowest why."

"I know nothing, Anjin-san."

"Nothing?" he teased.

"Nothing."

He was taken aback.  They were quite alone, and safe.

"Why doth 'nothing' take the heart out of thy smile?" she asked.

"Stupidity!  Absolute stupidity!  I forgot that it is most wise to be cautious.  It was only that we were alone and I wanted to speak of it.  And, in truth, to say more."

"Thou speakest in riddles.  I do not understand thee."

He was nonplussed again.  "Thou dost not wish to talk about it?  At all?"

"About what, Anjin-san?"

"What passed in the night then?"

"I passed thy door in the night when my maid, Koi, was with thee."

"What?"

"We, your consort and I, we thought she would be a pleasing gift for thee.  She pleased thee, did she not?"

Blackthorne was trying to recover.  Mariko's maid was her size but younger and never so fair and never so pretty, and yes, it was pitch dark and yes, his head was fogged with wine but no, it was not the maid.

"That's not possible," he said in Portuguese.

"What's not possible, senhor?" she asked in the same language.

He reverted to Latin again, as the outriders were not far away, the wind blowing in their direction.  "Please do not joke with me.  No one can hear.  I know a presence and a perfume."

"Thou thinkest it was me?  Oh, it was not, Anjin-san.  I would be honored but I could never possibly . . . however much I might want—oh no, Anjin-san.  It was not me but Koi, my maid.  I would be honored, but I belong to another even though he's dead."