The Initiate Brother Duology (47 page)

“It is not your fault, Kento-sum. The captain has much to atone for which affects his decisions. And, as you say, there was the incident on the canal.”
Nishima fell silent, lost in thought, and her companion waited with no sign of impatience.

“That is all for now, Kento-sum. We will discuss arrangements for my departure after I have talked to Rohku Saicha. You may send him to me now. Oh, and Kento-sum, please have a maid bring me some small sprigs of laughing poplar.”

“Certainly, Lady Nishima. The weeping birch still retains its leaves, if that would be appropriate.”

Nishima laughed. Of course, Kento had seen the carefully folded letter on the table. “Perhaps not in this case.”

“As you say.” The small woman bowed and slipped out of the room. Almost immediately a maid came in to clear the morning meal away.

Nishima was left on her own. She suppressed an urge to open the letter she had written to Jaku and instead took Jaku’s own letter from her sleeve. In doing so, she caused the coins Tanaka had given her to ring against each other.

“Uncle,” Nishima whispered to the empty room, “do not be too bold yet. There are things even you do not suspect.”

Nishima pushed open the screen to her garden and walked out onto the veranda. A ground mist still wrapped itself around the bushes and boulders even though the sun was quickly burning off the thin cloud layer. Nishima leaned against a post and unfolded the letter from Jaku Katta. She found that reading it gave her a lightness of spirit that she could not suppress. This is foolish, she told herself. Jaku is certainly beyond redemption—a womanizer and an opportunist.

Yet despite these thoughts the lightness she felt did not disappear.

A tap on the screen caused Lady Nishima to bury Jaku’s letter in her sleeve. The face of Lady Kento appeared in the opening. “Rohku Saicha, my lady.”

“I will speak with him out here.”

Almost immediately, there was a bustle of servants as mats and cushions were laid out on the low veranda. Lady Nishima seated herself and nodded to a servant.

Rohku Saicha entered the room from the hall, wearing the light armor of a guard on duty. This was a statement for Nishima and she did not fail to notice it. Crossing to the veranda, he knelt and bowed in the most rigid and military manner, setting his helmet carefully beside him.

He is determined, Lady Nishima thought. This will be difficult. The stocky frame of the Captain of the Guards betrayed his resolution. He would not easily allow his young mistress to have her way again—not after what had happened with the Imperial Guards on the canal.

“Saicha-sum,” Nishima said warmly, “it is a pleasure to have your company.”

“It is I who am honored, Lady Nishima.” Rohku answered formally. “You wished to speak with me?”

“Yes. How is your son, Saicha-sum? Does he prosper?”

“He has journeyed to Seh in Lord Shonto’s guard.” Rohku kept his eyes cast down, as though he were not on less formal terms with Lady Nishima.

“I shall worry less knowing this,” Nishima said. She was about to go on in this vein when she realized that Rohku Saicha sat before her as unmoving as a stone Botahara. He would not be swayed by anything but an irrefutable argument.

“Saicha-sum, I have received information from Tanaka that is of crucial import to Lord Shonto.”

“What information, my lady?”

Nishima struggled within herself, was about to tell him, and then shook her head. “It is information of such a delicate nature that if I were to tell you it would then be dangerous to our lord for you to remain in the capital. It is better that you do not know.”

Rohku nodded his head. “Then it is unsafe for you to remain here?”

“That is true.”

“Yet you are the student of Lady Okara who has received an Imperial Patronage to educate you. To leave is to insult the Emperor. This is a difficult situation.”

“Saicha-sum, I cannot stay. The information I have is too significant; it is only a matter of time until it is discovered that I possess this knowledge. If the Emperor were to find out what I know, he would assume that my father had the same information and this would mean open war between the Yamaku and the Shonto. You must believe that.”

“Lady Nishima, I would never doubt your words. It is your response to this information that I question, as is my duty. I believe you will now suggest that you must go to Seh, taking this information to your father.”

“It…it is the only course possible, Saicha-sum.”

“While I, who am to guard you, will be forced to choose between my
duties in the capital and my sworn duty to protect you. Either choice will mean that I have broken my vow to my liege-lord.”

“But when I explain, Lord Shonto will understand. He does not value obedience to the point of stupidity. Our lord understands that situations change and, to survive, we must change also.”

“Lady Nishima, what you ask is impossible. I cannot allow it. You will not only offend the Son of Heaven by your absence, but you will put yourself at risk, risk that I have sworn to protect you from. And there is more. Before your father left for the north, he told me that it was possible that he would send for you. He did not say why, but he did tell me that I was not to let you leave until I received an order from him. Perhaps our lord anticipated this information you have received, Lady Nishima, in which case it would be unwise to act before Lord Shonto orders us to.”

“Captain Rohku, let me assure you that my father could not have anticipated this information. Of this I entertain no doubts. If, as you say, Lord Shonto plans that I shall join him in Seh, then it is only a matter of timing. I shall go now with information that may save his life.”

“Lady Nishima there are other ways to send information secretly, even across the Empire.”

“Other ways, yes, but for other information. This will travel only in my head. I will accept nothing else.” Nishima reached out as though she would touch the soldier but instead she gripped the rail of the banister. “Saicha-sum, you endanger your lord’s life with this obstinacy. You know that there is a plot against Lord Shonto. I have crucial information about this. You are letting what you think of as your recent oversight cloud your eyes. But our lord trusts no one more than you or you would not be sitting before me. He values you for your judgment. Do not lose faith in it. What I say must have the feel of truth to it, I know it must.”

The guard still avoided her gaze. “I cannot, my lady, I…. Too many things argue against this. What of the Emperor…?”

“He need not know, Saicha-sum, but if it is discovered that I am gone, the Son of Heaven will be forced to act as though I left with his blessing. He will choose to save face, Saicha-sum—what else can he do?”

Rohku Saicha looked at his young mistress. “For such an insult, he could turn his back on the Shonto.”

“Saicha-sum!” Nishima said in exasperation. “He is our lord’s mortal enemy! He plots against our House and you are worried that he will scorn us?”

“Lady Nishima, you need not lecture me. What you say is the whispered truth, but the spoken truth is that the Emperor honors our lord and trusts him with the security of our Empire. One cannot insult an Emperor who honors your family and, indeed, honors you with his patronage.”

“Now it is you who lecture me, Saicha-sum. You must understand that the risk of the Emperor’s displeasure in this matter is of no consequence compared to the risk of me remaining in the capital and of Lord Shonto not receiving this information.”

“Lady Nishima,” the Captain threw up his hands. “This is easily decided. We will ask Lord Shonto.”

“But Saicha-sum, how can that be done? The reason I must travel to Seh cannot be trusted to a letter. It is not possible. Only the Imperial Messengers would be fast enough, and that is out of the question!”

“I have my orders from our liege-lord,” he said, the emphasis on “our.” “I will not break them, nor will I willingly insult the Emperor, thereby giving him reason to act against my lord’s House. I am sorry, Lady Nishima, but without word from Lord Shonto you must stay in the capital. If you do not struggle against my precautions, I believe you will be safe here.”

Nishima reached into her sleeve pocket and felt the coins she had received from Tanaka. It is no good, she thought. If I show these to Rohku, he cannot stay in the capital either. It can only be a last resort.

“Is this your final word then, Captain?”

“It is, Lady Nishima. I apologize for opposing your will in this matter, but I feel it is my duty to do so.”

“Then you will excuse me, Captain, I have other things to attend to.”

Rohku Saicha bowed and was about to rise but stopped. “There is one other matter, Lady Nishima. I am aware that you have received correspondence from the general, Jaku Katta. I must tell you that the general is an object of interest to Shonto security.”

“Oh, really, Captain?” Nishima said innocently. “An advisor to our much revered Emperor is an object of our suspicion? Aren’t you concerned that the Benevolent Son of Heaven will be offended by such an attitude?”

“Lady Nishima, there is nothing to be gained in fighting me,” Rohku said seriously.

Lady Nishima raised her eyebrows. “Huh,” she said, in imitation of her father. “It was only recently that General Katta was honored by my father for saving my father’s life, just as the Emperor honors my father for his bravery
in meeting the barbarian threat. It can hardly be indiscreet for me to correspond with a friend of Shonto—a friend who has the ear of the Emperor.” Nishima had drawn herself up to full sitting height. “Captain.”

Rohku Saicha seemed to struggle with himself for a split second, but then he bowed and began to rise.

“I don’t remember giving you permission to rise in my presence.”

The guard’s mouth almost fell open, but he recovered instantly and dropped again to his knees. Bowing low, he backed across the veranda and through the inner room without rising.

Nishima fixed her eyes on her garden though in fact she saw nothing. The inner shoji closed with the slightest noise—Rohku Saicha was gone.

There, Nishima thought, I have acted like a spoiled child. She pushed her fingertips to her temples and closed her eyes. If I had not forced my way out of here without proper guard and ended up in that embarrassing situation on the canal, Saicha-sum would not be reacting as he is. I have taken advantage of his affection for me and now he has hardened himself to resist me, no matter what. He punishes himself for his perceived failures this way, earning coldness from me for doing what he sees as his duty. Yes, he hurts himself. I have known him many years and now I see him becoming a martyr to his duties. Poor Saicha-sum. Does he not know that he lets what happened in Lord Shonto’s garden control him? This would be a great danger—he would be reacting only to his sense of failure rather than to the situations he encounters. This is something that could be easily exploited. I could exploit it.

Nishima stood and reached a pair of sandals on a high shelf, slipping them on as she stepped into the garden. I will not let Rohku Saicha stop me from traveling to Seh. If he cannot be made to change his mind by tomorrow evening, then I shall find a way to leave without his cooperation. If I leave with Saicha-sum’s assistance, there is a good chance that Lord Shonto will accept this decision as necessary once he sees the letter from Tanaka. If I am forced to deceive Rohku so that I may leave, it will be the end of our good captain. Lord Shonto would never forgive him for stupidity. I hope he will see reason.

Lady Nishima stopped and took a deep breath of the morning air. It still went cold into the lung, but already the sun was having its effect; the sky cleared and the light fell warm into her small garden. It was a morning to gladden the heart and Lady Nishima found herself turning gracefully in the steps of a courtier’s dance. Ah, see, she thought, I do dance secretly, and she
laughed. Clapping her hands twice, she took a last look at her garden and then turned as a servant knelt on the edge of her veranda.

“Prepare my bath, and please have Lady Shishika lay out robes for me to choose from.”

When the servant was gone, she again found herself dancing. We are in terrible danger, she told herself, how can I be light of heart at a time like this. She did not admit to herself that it was the poem in her sleeve that made her so. But when she swept her arm in a graceful circle and heard the jingle of coins, she stopped. Shaking her head as though she had just heard a lie, Nishima turned and went to her bath.

*   *   *

The wind came up out of the east and even a hundred miles inland, in the capital, it was called the “sea wind.” When it heralded a storm, the big gulls that sailed the river as far as Yankura drifted into the capital like refugees driven before an advancing army. Nishima could hear their throaty calls even now.

The wind hissed through the plum trees outside her rooms sending a draft between the shojis, yet the sunlight still filtered through the screens oblivious to the changing weather. Fingers of steam rising from the bath wove among the shafts of sunlight as though they were strands of silk on a loom.

Nishima slipped out of the cold air into her bath. The water was deliciously hot and Nishima let herself sink down into it as though it were sleep itself, for the night had been long and without rest.

She closed her eyes and the patterns of color formed by courtiers’ robes swam in her imagination. The celebration of the Emperor’s ascension had been full of surprises. Poor Kitsura, she thought, I’m sure she never dreamed that such a thing could happen. The Emperor desires her, there is no doubt of that; and we know what Botahara said of desire.

She ran her hands up from her stomach over her breasts and then crossed them at her neck, pushing her breasts flat with her arms. So the handsome general courted her. Or was it her name that fascinated him? She felt nothing but confusion when she considered this question. It seemed that her usual womanly senses had deserted her in this matter.

“If the mind is too full of facts there is no room for knowledge,” Satake had told her, yet she could not cast out the facts.