Shogun (The Asian Saga Chronology) (144 page)

"I'm going with you," Jan Roper said truculently, following him.  "We're in harbor so we take precedence and I want some arms."

Blackthorne turned on him and a dozen swords left their scabbards, ready to kill Jan Roper.  "One more word out of you and you're a dead man."  The tall, lean merchant flushed and came to a halt.  "You curb your tongue near these samurai because any one of them'll take your head before I can stop them just because of your goddamned bad manners—let alone anything else!  They're touchy, and near you I'm getting touchy, and you'll get arms when you need them.  Understand?"

Jan Roper nodded sullenly and backed off.  The samurai were still menacing but Blackthorne quieted them, and ordered them, on pain of death, to leave his crew alone.  "I'll be back soon."  He walked down the gangway and got into the skiff, Uraga and another samurai following.  Chisato, the captain, went up to Jan Roper, who quailed under the menace, bowed, and backed away.

When they were well away from the ship Blackthorne thanked Uraga for catching the traitor.

"Please, no thanks.  It was only duty."

Blackthorne said in Japanese so that the other man could understand, "Yes, duty.  But your koku change now.  Now not twenty, now one hundred a year."

"Oh, Sire, thank you.  I don't deserve it.  I was only doing my duty and I must—"

"Speak slowly.  Don't understand."

Uraga apologized and said it slower.

Blackthorne praised him again, then settled more comfortably in the stern of the boat, his exhaustion overcoming him.  He forced his eyes open and glanced back at his ship to reassure himself she was well placed.  Van Nekk and the others were at the gunwale and he was sorry that he had brought them aboard though he knew he had had no option.  Without them the journey would not have been safe.

Mutinous scum, he thought.  What the hell do I do about them?  All my vassals know about the
eta
village and they're all as disgusted as. . . . Christ Jesus, what a mess! 
Karma, neh?

He slept.  As the skiff nosed into the shore near the pier he awoke.  At first he could not remember where he was.  He had been dreaming he was back in the castle in Mariko's arms, just like last night.

Last night they had been lying in half-sleep after loving, Fujiko a party to the loving, Chimmoko on guard, when Yabu and his samurai had pounded on the door post.  The evening had begun so pleasingly.  Fujiko had also discreetly invited Kiku, and never had he seen her more beautiful and exuberant.  As bells ended the Hour of the Boar, Mariko had punctually arrived.  There had been merriment and saké but soon Mariko had shattered the spell.

"So sorry, but you're in great danger, Anjin-san."  She explained, and when she had added what Gyoko had said about not trusting Uraga, both Kiku and Fujiko were equally perturbed.

"Please don't worry.  I'll watch him, never fear," he had reassured them.

Mariko had continued, "Perhaps you should watch Yabu-sama too, Anjin-san."

"What?"

"This afternoon I saw the hatred in your face.  So did he."

"Never mind," he had said.  "
Shigata ga nai, neh?
"

"No.  So sorry, it was a mistake.  Why did you call your men off when they had Yabu-sama surrounded at first?  Surely that was a bad mistake too.  They would have killed him quickly and your enemy would have been dead without risk to you."

"That wouldn't have been right, Mariko-san.  So many men against one.  Not fair."

Mariko had explained to Fujiko and Kiku what he had said.  "Please excuse me, Anjin-san, but we all believe that is a very dangerous way of thinking and beg you to forsake it.  It's quite wrong and very naïve.  Please excuse me for being so blunt.  Yabu-san will destroy you."

"No.  Not yet.  I'm still too important to him.  And to Omi-san."

"Kiku-san says, please tell the Anjin-san to beware of Yabu—and this Uraga.  The Anjin-san may find it difficult to judge 'importance' here,
neh?
"

"Yes, I agree with Kiku-san," Fujiko had said.

Later Kiku had left to go and entertain Toranaga.  Then Mariko broke the peace in the room again.  "Tonight I must say
sayonara
, Anjin-san.  I am leaving at dawn."

"No, there's no need now," he had said.  "That can all be changed now.  I'll see Toranaga tomorrow.  Now that I've permission to leave, I'll take you to Osaka.  I'll get a galley, or coastal boat.  At Nagasa—"

"No, Anjin-san.  So sorry, I must leave as ordered."  No amount of persuasion would touch her.

He had felt Fujiko watching him in the silence, his heart aching with the thought of Mariko leaving.  He had looked across at Fujiko.  She asked them to excuse her for a moment.  She closed the shoji behind her and they were alone and they knew that Fujiko would not return, that they were safe for a little time.  Their loving was urgent and violent.  Then there were voices and footsteps and barely enough time to become composed before Fujiko joined them through the inner door and Yabu strode in, bringing Toranaga's orders for an immediate, secret departure.  "—Yokohama, then Osaka for a brief stop, Anjin-san, on again to Nagasaki, back to Osaka, and home here again!  I've sent for your crew to report to the ship."

Excitement had rushed through him at this heaven-sent victory.  "Yes, Yabu-san.  But Mariko-san—Mariko-san go Osaka also,
neh?
  Better with us—quicker, safer,
neh?
"

"Not possible, so sorry.  Must hurry.  Come along!  Tide—understand 'tide,' Anjin-san?"

"
Hai
, Yabu-san.  But Mariko-san go Osaka—"

"So sorry, she has orders like we have orders.  Mariko-san!  Explain to him.  Tell him to hurry!"

Yabu had been inflexible, and so late at night it was impossible to go to Toranaga to ask him to rescind the order.  There had been no time or privacy to talk any more with Mariko or Fujiko, other than to say formal good-bys.  But they would meet soon in Osaka.  "Very soon, Anjin-san," Mariko had said. . . .

"Lord God, don't let me lose her," Blackthorne said, the sea gulls cawing above the beach, their cries intensifying his loneliness.

"Lose who, Sire?"

Blackthorne came back into reality.  He pointed at the distant ship.  "We call ships
her
—we think of ships as female, not male. 
Wakarimasu ka?
"

"
Hai
."

Blackthorne could still see the tiny figures of his crew and his insoluble dilemma confronted him once more.  You've got to have them aboard, he said to himself, and more like them.  And the new men'll not take kindly to samurai either, and they'll be Catholic as well, most of them.  God in heaven, how to control them all?  Mariko was right.  Near Catholics I'm a dead man.

"Even me, Anjin-san," she had said last night.

"No, Mariko-chan.  Not you."

"You said we're your enemy, this afternoon."

"I said most Catholics are my enemies."

"They will kill you if they can."

"Yes.  But thou . . . will we truly meet in Osaka?"

"Yes.  I love thee.  Anjin-san, remember, beware of Yabu-san. . . ."

They were all right about Yabu, Blackthorne thought, whatever he says, whatever he promises.  I made a bad mistake calling my men off when he was trapped.  That bastard'll cut my throat as soon as I've outlived my usefulness, however much he pretends otherwise.  And yet Yabu's right too:  I need him.  I'll never get into Nagasaki and out again without protection.  He could surely help to persuade Toranaga.  With him leading two thousand more fanatics, we could lay waste all Nagasaki and maybe even Macao. . . .

Madonna!  Alone I'm helpless.

Then he remembered what Gyoko had told Mariko about Uraga, about not trusting him.  Gyoko was wrong about him, he thought.  What else is she wrong about?

BOOK

FIVE

CHAPTER 52

Once more in the crowded Osaka sea roads after the long journey by galley, Blackthorne again felt the same crushing weight of the city as when he had first seen it.  Great swathes had been laid waste by the
tai-fun
and some areas were still fire-blackened, but its immensity was almost untouched and still dominated by the castle.  Even from this distance, more than a league, he could see the colossal girth of the first great wall, the towering battlements, all dwarfed by the brooding malevolence of the donjon.

"Christ," Vinck said nervously, standing beside him on the prow, "doesn't seem possible to be so big.  Amsterdam'd be a flyspeck alongside it."

"Yes.  The storm's hurt the city but not that badly.  Nothing could touch the castle."

The
tai-fun
had slammed out of the southwest two weeks ago.  They had had plenty of warning, with lowering skies and squalls and rain, and had rushed the galley into a safe harbor to wait out the tempest.  They had waited five days.  Beyond the harbor the ocean had been whipped to froth and the winds were more violent and stronger than anything Blackthorne had ever experienced.

"Christ," Vinck said again.  "Wish we were home.  We should've been home a year ago."

Blackthorne had brought Vinck with him from Yokohama and sent the others back to Yedo, leaving
Erasmus
safely harbored and guarded under Naga's command.  His crew had been happy to go—as he had been happy to see the last of them.  There had been more quarreling that night and a violent argument over the ship's bullion.  The money was company money, not his.  Van Nekk was treasurer of the expedition and chief merchant and, jointly with the Captain-General, had legal jurisdiction over it.  After it had been counted and recounted and found correct, less a thousand coins, van Nekk supported by Jan Roper had argued about the amount that he could take with him to get new men.

"You want far too much, Pilot!  You'll have to offer them less!"

"Christ Jesus!  Whatever it takes we have to pay.  I must have seamen and gunners."  He had slammed his fist on the table of the great cabin.  "How else are we going to get home?"

Eventually he had persuaded them to let him take enough, and was disgusted that they had made him lose his temper with their pettifogging.  The next day he had shipped them back to Yedo, a tenth of the treasure split up among them as back pay, the rest under guard on the ship.

"How do we know it'll be safe here?" Jan Roper asked, scowling.

"Stay and guard it yourself then!"

But none of them had wanted to stay aboard.  Vinck had agreed to come with him.

"Why him, Pilot?" van Nekk had asked.

"Because he's a seaman and I'll need help."

Blackthorne had been glad to see the last of them.  Once at sea he began to change Vinck to Japanese ways.  Vinck was stoic about it, trusting Blackthorne, having sailed too many years with him not to know his measure.  "Pilot, for you I'll bathe and wash every day but I'll be God-cursed afore I wear a poxy nighty!"

Within ten days Vinck was happily swinging the lead half-naked, his wide leather belt over his paunch, a dagger stuck in a sheath at his back and one of Blackthorne's pistols safely within his clean though ragged shirt.

"We don't have to go to the castle, do we, Pilot?"

"No."

"Christ Jesus—I'd rather stay away from there."

The day was fine, a high sun shimmering off the calm sea.  The rowers were still strong and disciplined.

"Vinck—that's where the ambush was!"

"Christ Jesus, look at those shoals!"

Blackthorne had told Vinck about the narrowness of his escape, the signal fires on those battlements, the piles of dead ashore, the enemy frigate bearing down on him.

"Ah, Anjin-san."  Yabu came to join them.  "Good,
neh?
"  He motioned at the devastation.

"Bad, Yabu-sama."

"It's enemy,
neh?
"

"People are not enemy.  Only Ishido and samurai enemy,
neh?
"

"The castle is enemy," Yabu replied, reflecting his disquiet, and that of all those aboard.  "Here everything is enemy."

Blackthorne watched Yabu move to the bow, the wind whipping his kimono away from his hard torso.

Vinck dropped his voice.  "I want to kill that bastard, Pilot."

"Yes.  I've not forgotten about old Pieterzoon either, don't worry."

"Nor me, God be my judge!  Beats me how you talk their talk.  What'd he say?"

"He was just being polite."

"What's the plan?"

"We dock and wait.  He goes off for a day or two and we keep our heads down and wait.  Toranaga said he'd send messages for the safe conducts we'd need but even so, we're going to keep our heads down and stay aboard."  Blackthorne scanned the shipping and the waters for dangers but found none.  Still, he said to Vinck, "Better call the fathoms now, just in case!"

"Aye!"

Yabu watched Vinck swinging the lead for a moment, then strolled back to Blackthorne.  "Anjin-san, perhaps you'd better take the galley and go on to Nagasaki.  Don't wait, eh?"

"All right," Blackthorne said agreeably, not rising to the bait.

Yabu laughed.  "I like you, Anjin-san!  But so sorry, alone you'll soon die.  Nagasaki's very bad for you."

"Osaka bad—everywhere bad!"

"
Karma
."  Yabu smiled again.  Blackthorne pretended to share the joke.

They had had variations of the same conversation many times during the voyage.  Blackthorne had learned much about Yabu.  He hated him even more, distrusted him even more, respected him more, and knew their
karmas
were interlocked.

"Yabu-san's right, Anjin-san," Uraga had said.  "He can protect you at Nagasaki, I cannot."

"Because of your uncle, Lord Harima?"

"Yes.  Perhaps I'm already declared outlaw,
neh?
  My uncle's Christian—though I think a rice Christian."

"What's that?"

"Nagasaki is his fief.  Nagasaki has great harbor on the coast of Kyushu but not the best.  So he quickly sees the light,
neh?
  He becomes Christian, and orders all his vassals Christian.  He ordered me Christian and into the Jesuit School, and then had me sent as one of the Christian envoys to the Pope.  He gave land to the Jesuits and—how would you say it—fawns on them.  But his heart is only Japanese."