Shogun (The Asian Saga Chronology) (181 page)

Many times Blackthorne had looked over his shoulder expecting her there, but she was never there and never would be and this did not disturb him.  She was with him forever, and he knew he would love her in the good times and in the tragic times, even in the winter of his life. She was always on the edge of his dreams.  And now those dreams were good, very good, and intermixed with her were drawings and plans and the carving of the figurehead and sails and how to set the keel and how to build the ship and then, such joy, the final shape of
The Lady
under full sail, bellied by a sharp sou'wester, racing up the Channel, the bit between her teeth, halyards shrieking, spars stretched on a larboard tack and then, 'All sails ho!  Tops'ls, mainsails, royals, and top topgallants!' easing out the ropes, giving her every inch, the cannonade of the sails reaching on the other tack and 'Steady as she goes!' every particle of canvas answering his cry, and then at long last, full-bodied, a lady of inestimable beauty turning hard aport near Beachy Head for London . . .

Toranaga came up the rise near the camp, his party grouped around him.  Kogo was on his gauntlet and he had hunted the coast and now he was going into the hills above the village.  There were still two hours of sun left and he did not want to waste the sun, not knowing when he would ever have the time to hunt again.

Today was for me, he thought.  Tomorrow I go to war but today was to put my house in order, pretending that the Kwanto was safe and Izu safe, and my succession—that I will live to see another winter and, in the spring, hunt at leisure.  Ah, today has been very good.

He had killed twice with Tetsu-ko and she had flown like a dream, never so perfectly, not even when she'd made the kill with Naga near Anjiro—that beautiful, never-to-be-forgotten stoop to take that wily old cock pigeon.  Today she had taken a crane several times her own size and come back to the lure perfectly.  A pheasant had been pointed by the dogs and he had cast the falcon to her circling station aloft.  Then the pheasant had been flushed and the soaring, climbing, falling had begun, to last forever, the kill beautiful.  Again Tetsu-ko had come to the lure and fed from his fist proudly.

Now he was after hare.  It had occurred to him that the Anjin-san would enjoy meat.  So, instead of finishing for the day, satisfied, Toranaga had decided to go for game for the pot.  He quickened his pace, not wanting to fail.

His outriders led the way past the camp and up the winding road to the crest above and he was greatly pleased with his day.

His critical gaze swept over the camp, seeking dangers, and found none.  He could see men at weapon training—all regimental training and firing was forbidden while the Tsukku-san was nearby—and that pleased him.  To one side, glinting in the sun, were the twenty cannon that had been salvaged with such care and he noticed that Blackthorne was squatting cross-legged on the ground nearby, concentrating over a low table, now like any normal person would sit.  Below was the wreck and he noted that it had not yet moved, and he wondered how the Anjin-san would bring it ashore if it could not be pulled ashore.

Because, Anjin-san, you will bring it ashore, Toranaga told himself, quite certain.

Oh, yes.  And you will build your ship and I'll destroy her like I destroyed the other one, or give her away, another sop to the Christians who are more important to me than your ships, my friend, so sorry, and the other ships waiting in your home land.  Your countrymen will bring those out to me, and the treaty with your Queen.  Not you.  I need you here.

When the time's right, Anjin-san, I'll tell you why I had to burn your ship, and by then you won't mind because other things will be occupying you, and you'll understand what I told you was still the truth:  It was your ship or your life.  I chose your life.  That was correct,
neh?
  Then we'll laugh about the "Act of God," you and I.  Oh, it was easy to appoint a special watch of trusted men aboard with secret instructions to spread gunpowder loosely and liberally on the chosen night, having already told Naga—the moment Omi whispered about Yabu's plot—to rearrange the roster so that the following shore and deck watch were only Izu men, particularly the fifty-three traitors.  Then a single
ninja
with a flint out of the darkness and your ship was a torch.  Of course neither Omi nor Naga was ever party to the sabotage.

So sorry, but so necessary, Anjin-san.  I saved your life, which you wanted even above your ship.  Fifty times or more I've had to consider giving your life away but so far I've always managed to avoid it.  I hope to continue to do that.  Why?  This is a day for truth,
neh?
  The answer is because you make me laugh and I need a friend.  I daren't make friends among my own people, or among the Portuguese.  Yes, I will whisper it down a well at noon but only when I'm certain I'm alone; that I
need one friend
.  And also your knowledge.  Mariko-sama was right again.  Before you go I want to know everything you know.  I told you we both had plenty of time, you and I.

I want to know how to navigate a ship around the earth and understand how a small island nation can defeat a huge empire.  Perhaps the answer could apply to us and China,
neh?
  Oh yes, the Taikō was right in some things.

The first time I saw you, I said, "There's no excuse for rebellion," and you said, "There's one—if you win!"  Ah, Anjin-san, I bound you to me then.  I agree.  Everything's right if you win.

Stupid to fail.  Unforgivable.

You won't fail, and you'll be safe and happy in your large fief at Anjiro, where Mura the fisherman will guard you from Christians and continue to feed them misinformation as I direct.  How naïve of Tsukku-san to believe one of my men, even Christian, would steal your rutters and give them secretly to the priests without my knowledge, or my direction.  Ah, Mura, you've been faithful for thirty years or more, soon you'll get your reward!  What would the priests say if they knew your real name was Akira Tonomoto, samurai—spy at my direction, as well as fisherman, headman, and Christian?  They'd fart dust,
neh?

So don't worry, Anjin-san, I'm worrying about your future.  You're in good strong hands and, ah, what a future I've planned for you.

"I'm to be consort to the barbarian, oh oh oh?" Kiku had wailed aloud.

"Yes, within the month.  Fujiko-san has formally agreed."  He had told Kiku and Gyoko the truth once more, patiently giving the distraught girl face.  "And a thousand koku a year after the birth of the Anjin's first son."

"Eh, a thou—what did you say?"

He had repeated the promise and added sweetly, "After all, samurai is samurai and two swords are two swords and his sons will be samurai.  He's hatamoto, one of my most important vassals, Admiral of all my ships, a close personal adviser—even a friend. 
Neh?
"

"So sorry, but Sire—"

"
First
you'll be his consort."

"So sorry, first, Sire?"

"Perhaps you should be his wife.  Fujiko-san told me she didn't wish to marry, ever again, but I think he should be married.  Why not you?  If you please him enough, and I imagine you could please him enough, and still, dutifully, keep him building his ship . . .
neh?
  Yes, I think you should be his wife."

"Oh yes oh yes oh yes!"  She had thrown her arms around him and blessed him and apologized for her impulsive bad manners for interrupting and not listening dutifully, and she had left him, walking four paces off the ground where a moment ago she had been ready to throw herself off the nearest cliff.

Ah, ladies, Toranaga thought, bemused and very content.  Now she's got everything she wants, so has Gyoko—if the ship's built in time and it will be—so have the priests, so have—

"Sire!"  One of the hunters was pointing at a clump of bushes beside the road.  He reined in and readied Kogo, loosening the jesses that held her to his fist.  "Now," he ordered softly.  The dog was sent in.

The hare broke from the brush and raced for cover and at that instant he released Kogo.  With immensely powerful thrusts of her wings she hurtled in pursuit, straight as an arrow, overhauling the panicked animal.  Ahead, a hundred paces across the rolling land was a brambled copse, and the hare twisted this way and that with frantic speed, making for safety, Kogo closing the gap, cutting corners, knifing ever closer a few feet off the ground.  Then she was above her prey and she hacked down and the hare screamed and reared up and darted back, Kogo still in pursuit
ek-ek-ek
ing with rage because she had missed.  The hare whirled again in a final dash for sanctuary and shrieked as Kogo struck again and got a firm grip with her talons on its neck and head and bound on fearlessly, closing her wings, oblivious of the animal's frantic contortions and tumblings as, effortlessly, she snapped the neck.  A last scream.  Kogo let go and leaped into the air for an instant and shook her ruffled feathers into place again with a violent flurry, then settled back onto the warm, twitching body, talons once more in the death grip.  Then and only then did she give her shriek of conquest and hiss with pleasure at the kill.  Her eyes watched Toranaga.

Toranaga trotted up and dismounted, offering the lure.  Obediently the goshawk left her prey and then, as he deftly concealed the lure, she settled on his outstretched gauntlet.  His fingers caught her jesses and he could feel her grip through the steel-reinforced leather of the forefinger perch.

"Eeeeee, that was well done, my beauty," he said, rewarding her with a morsel, part of the hare's ear that a beater sliced off for him.  "There, gorge on that but not too much—you've still work to do."

Grinning, the beater held up the hare.  "Master!  It must be three, four times her weight.  Best we've seen for weeks,
neh?
"

"Yes.  Send it to the camp for the Anjin-san."  Toranaga swung into the saddle again and waved the others forward to the hunt once more.

Yes, the kill had been well done, but it had none of the excitement of a peregrine kill.  A goshawk's only what it is, a cook's bird, a killer, born to kill anything and everything that moves.  Like you, Anjin-san,
neh?

Yes, you're a short-winged hawk.  Ah, but Mariko was peregrine.

He remembered her so clearly and he wished beyond wishing that it had not been necessary for her to go to Osaka and into the Void.  But it was necessary, he told himself patiently.  The hostages had to be released. Not my kin, but all the others.  Now I've another fifty allies committed secretly.  Your courage and Lady Etsu's courage and self-sacrifice have bound them and all the Maedas to my side, and through them, the whole western seaboard.  Ishido had to be winkled out of his impregnable lair, the Regents split, and Ochiba and Kiyama broken to my fist.  You did all this and more:  You gave me time.  Only time fashions snares and provides lures.

Ah, Mariko-chan, who would have thought a little slip of a woman like you, daughter of Ju-san Kubo, my old rival, the arch-traitor Akechi Jinsai, could do so much and wreak so much vengeance so beautifully and with such dignity on the Taikō, your father's enemy and killer.  A single awesome stoop, like Tetsu-ko, and you killed all your prey which are my prey.

So sad that you're no more.  Such loyalty deserves special favor.

Toranaga was at the crest now and he stopped and called for Tetsu-ko.  The falconer took Kogo from him and Toranaga caressed the hooded peregrine on his fist a last time, then he slipped her hood and cast her into the sky.  He watched her spiral upward, ever upward, seeking a prey that he would never flush.  Tetsu-ko's freedom is my gift to you, Mariko-san, he said to her spirit, watching the falcon circle higher and higher.  To honor your loyalty to me and your filial devotion to our most important rule:  that a dutiful son, or daughter, may not rest under the same heaven while the murderer of her father still lives.

"Ah, so wise, Sire," the falconer said.

"Eh?"

"To release Tetsu-ko, to free her.  I thought the last time you flew her she'd never come back but I wasn't sure.  Ah, Sire, you're the greatest falconer in the realm, the best, to
know
, to be so sure when to give her back to the sky."

Toranaga permitted himself a scowl.  The falconer blanched, not understanding why, quickly offered Kogo back and retreated hastily.

Yes, Tetsu-ko was due, Toranaga thought testily, but, even so, she was still a symbolic gift to Mariko's spirit and the quality of her revenge.

Yes.  But what about all the sons of all the men you've killed?

Ah, that's different, those men all deserved to die, he answered himself.  Even so, you're always wary of who comes within arrow range—that's normal prudence.  This observation pleased Toranaga and he resolved to add it to the Legacy.

He squinted into the sky once more and watched the falcon, no longer his falcon.  She was a creature of immense beauty up there, free, beyond all the tears, soaring effortlessly.  Then some force beyond his ken took her and whirled her northward and she vanished.

"Ah, Tetsu-ko, thank you.  Bear many daughters," he said, and turned his attention to the earth below.

The village was neat in the lowering sun, the Anjin-san still at his table, samurai training, smoke rising from the cooking fires.  Across the bay, twenty
ri
or so, was Yedo.  Forty
ri
southeast was Anjiro.  Two hundred and ninety
ri
westward was Osaka and north from there, barely thirty
ri
, was Kyoto.

That's where the main battle should be, he thought.  Near the capital.  Northward, up around Gifu or Ogaki or Hashima, astride the Nakasendō, the Great North Road.  Perhaps where the road turns south for the capital, near the little village of Sekigahara in the mountains.  Somewhere there.  Oh, I'd be safe for years behind my mountains, but this is the chance I've waited for:  Ishido's jugular is unprotected.

My main thrust will be along the North Road and not the Tokaidō, the coastal road, though between now and then I'll pretend to change fifty times.  My brother will ride with me.  Oh yes, I think Zataki will convince himself Ishido has betrayed him to Kiyama.  My brother's no fool.  And I will keep my solemn oath to seek Ochiba for him.  During
the
battle Kiyama will change sides, I think he will change sides, and when he does, if he does, he will fall on his hated rival Onoshi.  That will signal the guns to charge, I will roll up the sides of their armies and I will win.  Oh yes, I will win—because Ochiba, wisely, will never let the Heir take the field against me.  She knows that if she did, I would be forced to kill him, so sorry.