Shogun (The Asian Saga Chronology) (73 page)

"Is it as sharp as they say?" Yabu asked.

"Yes."

"You do me great honor. I will treasure your gift."  Yabu bowed, conscious that, because of the gift, he would be the first in the land after Toranaga.

Toranaga bowed back, and then, unarmed, he walked for the gangway.  It took all his will to hide his fury and not to let his feet falter, and he prayed that Yabu's avariciousness would keep him mesmerized for just a few moments more.

"Cast off!" he ordered, coming onto the deck, and then turned shoreward and waved cheerfully.

Someone broke the silence and shouted his name, then others took up the shout.  There was a general roar of approval at the honor done to their lord.  Willing hands shoved the ship out to sea.  The oarsmen pulled briskly.  The galley made way.

"Captain, get to Yedo quickly!"

"Yes, Sire."

Toranaga looked aft, his eyes ranging the shore, expecting danger any instant.  Yabu stood near the jetty, still bemused by the sword.  Mariko and Fujiko were waiting beside the awning with the other women.  The Anjin-san was on the edge of the square where he had been told to wait—rigid, towering, and unmistakably furious.  Their eyes met.  Toranaga smiled and waved.

The wave was returned, but coldly, and this amused Toranaga very much.

Blackthorne walked cheerlessly up to the jetty.

"When's he coming back, Mariko-san?"

"I don't know, Anjin-san."

"How do we get to Yedo?"

"We stay here.  At least, I stay for three days.  Then I'm ordered there."

"By sea?"

"By land."

"And me?"

"You are to stay here."

"Why?"

"You expressed an interest in learning our language.  And there's work for you to do here."

"What work?"

"I don't know, I'm sorry.  Lord Yabu will tell you.  My Master left me here to interpret, for three days."

Blackthorne was filled with foreboding.  His pistols were in his belt but he had no knives and no more powder and no more shot.  That was all in the cabin aboard the galley.

"Why didn't you tell me we were staying here?" he asked.  "You just said to come ashore."

"I didn't know you were to remain here also," she replied.  "Lord Toranaga told me only a moment ago, in the square."

"Why didn't he tell me then?  Tell me himself?"

"I don't know."

"I was supposed to be going to Yedo.  That's where my crew is.  That's where my ship is.  What about them?"

"He just said you were to stay here."

"For how long?"

"He didn't tell me, Anjin-san.  Perhaps Lord Yabu will know.  Please be patient."

Blackthorne could see Toranaga standing on the quarterdeck, watching shoreward.  "I think he knew all along I was to stay here, didn't he?"

She did not answer.  How childish it is, she said to herself, to speak aloud what you think.  And how extraordinarily clever Toranaga was to have escaped this trap.

Fujiko and the two maids stood beside her, waiting patiently in the shade with Omi's mother and wife, whom she had met briefly, and she looked beyond them to the galley.  It was picking up speed now.  But it was still within easy arrow range.  Any moment now she knew she must begin.  Oh, Madonna, let me be strong, she prayed, all her attention centering on Yabu.

"Is it true?  Is that true?"  Blackthorne was asking.

"What?  Oh, I'm sorry, I don't know, Anjin-san.  I can only tell you Lord Toranaga is very wise.  The wisest man.  Whatever his reason, it was good."  She studied the blue eyes and hard face, knowing that Blackthorne had no understanding of what had occurred here.  "Please be patient, Anjin-san.  There's nothing to be afraid of.  You're his favored vassal and under his—"

"I'm not afraid, Mariko-san.  I'm just tired of being shoved around the board like a pawn.  And I'm no one's vassal."

"Is 'retainer' better?  Or how would you describe a man who works for another or is retained by another for special . . ."  Then she saw the blood soar into Yabu's face.

"The guns—the guns are still on the galley!" he cried out.

Mariko knew the time had come.  She hurried over to him as he turned to shout orders at Igurashi.

"Your pardon, Lord Yabu," she said, overriding him, "there's no need to worry about your guns.  Lord Toranaga said to ask your pardon for his haste but he has urgent things to do on your joint behalves at Yedo.  He said he would return the galley instantly.  With the guns.  And with extra powder.  And also with the two hundred and fifty men you require from him.  They'll be here in five or six days."

"What?"

Mariko explained patiently and politely again as Toranaga had told her to do.  Then, once Yabu understood, she took out a roll of parchment from her sleeve.  "My Master begs you to read this.  It concerns the Anjin-san."  She formally offered it to him.

But Yabu did not take the scroll.  His eyes went to the galley.  It was well away now, going very fast.  Out of range.  But what does that matter, he thought contentedly, now over his anxiety.  I'll get the guns back quickly and now I'm out of the Ishido trap and I've Toranaga's most famous sword and soon all the
daimyos
in the land will be aware of my new position in the armies of the East—second to Toranaga alone!  Yabu could still see Toranaga and he waved once and the wave was returned.  Then Toranaga vanished off the quarterdeck.

Yabu took the scroll and turned his mind to the present.  And to the Anjin-san.

Blackthorne was watching thirty paces away and he felt his hackles rise under Yabu's piercing gaze.  He heard Mariko speaking in her lilting voice but that did not reassure him.  His hand tightened covertly on the pistol.

"Anjin-san!" Mariko called out.  "Would you please come over here!"

As Blackthorne approached them, Yabu glanced up from the parchment, nodded in friendly fashion.  When Yabu had finished reading he handed the paper back to Mariko and spoke briefly, partly to her, partly to him.

Reverently Mariko offered the paper to Blackthorne.  He took it and examined the incomprehensible characters.

"Lord Yabu says you are welcome in this village.  This paper is under Lord Toranaga's seal, Anjin-san.  You are to keep it.  He's given you a rare honor.  Lord Toranaga has made you a hatamoto.  This is the position of a special retainer of his personal staff.  You have his absolute protection, Anjin-san.  Lord Yabu, of course, acknowledges this.  I will explain later the privileges, but Lord Toranaga has given you also a salary of twenty koku a month.  That is about—"

Yabu interrupted her, expansively waving his hand at Blackthorne, then at the village, and spoke at length.  Mariko translated.  "Lord Yabu repeats that you are welcome here.  He hopes you will be content, that everything will be done to make your stay comfortable.  A house will be provided for you.  And teachers.  You will please learn Japanese as quickly as possible, he says.  Tonight he will ask you some questions and tell you about some special work."

"Please ask him, what work?"

"May I advise just a little more patience, Anjin-san.  Now is not the time, truly."

"All right."

"
Wakarimasu ka,
Anjin-san?" Yabu said.  Do you understand?

"
Hai,
Yabu-san. 
Domo.
"

Yabu gave orders to Igurashi to dismiss the regiment, then strode over to the villagers, who were still prostrate in the sand.

He stood in front of them in the warm fine spring afternoon, Toranaga's sword still in his hand.  His words whipped over them.  Yabu pointed the sword at Blackthorne and harangued them a few moments more and ended abruptly.  A tremor went through the villagers.  Mura bowed and said "
hai
" several times and turned and asked the villagers a question and all eyes went to Blackthorne.

"
Wakarimasu ka?
" Mura called out and they all answered "
hai,
" their voices mixing with the sighing of the waves upon the beach.

"What's going on?" Blackthorne asked Mariko, but Mura shouted, "
Keirei!
" and the villagers bowed low again, once to Yabu and once to Blackthorne.  Yabu strode off without looking back.

"What's going on, Mariko-san?"

"He—Lord Yabu told them you are his honored guest here.  That you are also Lord Toranaga's very honored vas—retainer.  That you are here mostly to learn our tongue.  That he has given the village the honor and responsibility of teaching you.  The village is responsible, Anjin-san.  Everyone here is to help you.  He told them that if you have not learned satisfactorily within six months, the village will be burnt, but before that, every man, woman, and child will be crucified."

CHAPTER 31

The day was dying now, the shadows long, the sea red, and a kind wind blowing.

Blackthorne was coming up the path from the village toward the house that Mariko had earlier pointed out and told him was to be his.  She had expected to escort him there but he had thanked her and refused and had walked past the kneeling villagers toward the promontory to be alone and to think.

He had found the effort of thinking too great.  Nothing seemed to fit.  He had doused salt water over his head to try to clear it but that had not helped.  At length he had given up and had walked back aimlessly along the shore, past the jetty, across the square and through the village, up to this house where he was to live now and where, he remembered, there had not been a dwelling before.  High up, dominating the opposite hillside, was another sprawling dwelling, part thatch, part tile, within a tall stockade, many guards at the fortified gateway.

Samurai were strutting through the village or standing talking in groups.  Most had already marched off behind their officers in disciplined groups up the paths and over the hill to their bivouac encampment.  Those samurai that Blackthorne met, he absently greeted and they greeted him in return.  He saw no villagers.

Blackthorne stopped outside the gate that was set into the fence.  There were more of the peculiar characters painted over the lintel and the door itself was cutout in ingenious patterns designed to hide and at the same time to reveal the garden behind.

Before he could open the door it swung inward and a frightened old man bowed him through.

"
Konbanwa,
Anjin-san."  His voice quavered piteously-Good evening.

"
Konbanwa,
" he replied.  "Listen, old man, er—
o namae ka?
"

"
Namae watashi wa,
Anjin-sama? 
Ah, watashi
Ueki-ya . . . Ueki-ya."  The old man was almost slavering with relief.

Blackthorne said the name several times to help remember it and added "san" and the old man shook his head violently.  "
Iyé gomen nasai! Iyé
'san,' Anjin-sama.  Ueki-ya! Ueki-ya!"

"All right, Ueki-ya."  But Blackthorne thought, why not "san" like everyone else?

Blackthorne waved his hand in dismissal.  The old man hobbled away quickly.  "I'll have to be more careful.  I have to help them," he said aloud.

A maid came apprehensively onto the veranda through an opened shoji and bowed low.

"
Konbanwa,
Anjin-san."

"
Konbanwa,
" he replied, vaguely recognizing her from the ship.  He waved her away too.

A rustle of silk.  Fujiko came from within the house.  Mariko was with her.

"Was your walk pleasant, Anjin-san?"

"Yes, pleasant, Mariko-san."  He hardly noticed her or Fujiko or the house or garden.

"Would you like cha?  Or perhaps saké?  Or a bath perhaps?  The water is hot."  Mariko laughed nervously, perturbed by the look in his eyes.  "The bath house is not completely finished, but we hope it will prove adequate."

"Saké, please.  Yes, some saké first, Mariko-san."

Mariko spoke to Fujiko, who disappeared inside the house once more.  A maid silently brought three cushions and went away.  Mariko gracefully sat on one.

"Sit down, Anjin-san, you must be tired."

"Thank you."

He sat on the steps of the veranda and did not take off his thongs.  Fujiko brought two flasks of saké and a teacup, as Mariko had told her, not the tiny porcelain cup that should have been used.

"Better to give him a lot of saké quickly," Mariko had said.  "It would be better to make him quite drunk but Lord Yabu needs him tonight.  A bath and saké will perhaps ease him."

Blackthorne drank the proffered cup of warmed wine without tasting it.  And then a second.  And a third.

They had watched him coming up the hill through the slit of barely opened shojis.

"What's the matter with him?" Fujiko had asked, alarmed.

"He's distressed by what Lord Yabu said—the promise to the village."

"Why should that bother him?  He's not threatened.  It's not his life that was threatened."

"Barbarians are very different from us, Fujiko-san.  For instance, the Anjin-san believes villagers are people, like any other people, like samurai, some perhaps even better than samurai."

Fujiko had laughed nervously.  "That's nonsense,
neh?
  How can peasants equal samurai?"

Mariko had not answered.  She had just continued watching the Anjin-san.  "Poor man," she said.

"Poor village!"  Fujiko's short upper lip curled disdainfully.  "A stupid waste of peasants and fishermen!  Kasigi Yabu-san's a fool!  How can a barbarian learn our tongue in half a year?  How long did the barbarian Tsukku-san take?  More than twenty years,
neh?
  And isn't he the only barbarian who's ever been able to talk even passable Japanese?"

"No, not the only one, though he's the best I've ever heard.  Yes, it's difficult for them.  But the Anjin-san's an intelligent man and Lord Toranaga said that in half a year, isolated from barbarians, eating our food, living as we do, drinking cha, bathing every day, the Anjin-san will soon be like one of us."

Fujiko's face had been set.  "Look at him, Mariko-san . . . so ugly.  So monstrous and alien.  Curious to think that as much as I detest barbarians, once he steps through the gate I'm committed and he becomes my lord and master. "