"I mean to." His arms held her, both of them comfortable. "It could develop into that, yes, easily."
The room adjoined his sleeping quarters. Like the whole barracks complex it was masculine, with minimum furniture, the tatami first quality but in need of replacement. I won't be displeased to leave this place, he thought. Their ears caught the pad of approaching feet, his hand snaked to his sword hilt. Both of them tensed. "Sire?" a muffled voice said.
"What is it?" Yoshi said.
"So sorry to disturb you, Sire, a letter has just arrived, from Dragon's Tooth."
Without needing to be asked, Koiko went to the side of the door out of the way and stood there on guard. Yoshi readied. "Open the door, sentry," he called out. The door slid opened.
The sentry hesitated seeing Yoshi in a defense-attack position, sword loose in its scabbard. "Give the scroll to Lady Koiko." The sentry obeyed then went away again. When he had reached the end of the corridor and had gone through that door, Koiko closed this one.
She handed him the scroll and knelt in her place opposite. He broke the seal.
The letter from his wife asked after his health and gave news that his sons and the rest of his family were well and looking forward to his return. Then the information began: The prospectors have been travelling diligently with your vassal Misamoto. As yet they have found no gold but report large--the word they used was "huge"--deposits of high quality coal, easy to mine and near the surface. I understand them to say this is "black gold" and could be profitably bartered with the gai-jin for money. They continue to search. We hear Anjo had been made tairo and boasts that you will soon be invited to retire from the Council of Elders. Next, the confidant you visited on the way to Kyoto tells the following: the code word he gave you about an enemy is correct and that a similar plan is ready as the enemy's state policy.
Crimson Sky. So a lightning attack is "State Policy"! Will my agreement with Ogama hold?
He put that question aside for later and continued reading: The ronin, Ori, who became a gai-jin spy, is dead in the gai-jin camp. The other ronin, Hiraga, is believed to be there also.
Your spy says also he intercepted the "maid" you sent back, as ordered, and sent her far north to a very poor brothel. Her ronin lover was killed.
Yoshi smiled. This was Koiko's maid who had whispered of Utani's secret tryst to her ronin shishi. Halfway to Kyoto he had dismissed her, sending her back to Yedo on some imagined slight--of course Koiko had not objected. Good, he thought. Utani is revenged in some small measure.
Next, the Gyokoyama: I have completed money matters. May I use the coal possibility as a further pledge for any armaments ordered? Perhaps we should try to deal with the gai-jin direct, perhaps using Misamoto?
Please give me your council. Sire, your presence and wise advice is greatly missed.
Last, so sorry, famine has begun.
Yoshi re-read it. Knowing Hosaki so well, the way she had used "further pledge" meant that the negotiation had been rough and the price high.
Never mind, next year there will be no famine and the Gyokoyamas, if they live that long in lands I control, will be repaid.
He looked up at Koiko. She was staring into space, lost in dreams he knew he could never share. "Koiko?"
"Oh. Yes, Sire?"
"What were you thinking about?"
"What leaves whisper to leaves."
Intrigued he said, "It depends on the tree."
She smiled sweetly. "A maple, a blood-red maple."
"In what season?"
"Ninth month."
"If they were watching us they whispered, "Soon we fall, never to return, But they are blessed.
They grow on the tree of life. Their blood our blood."
She clapped her hands, smiling at him.
"Perfect. And if it was a pine in spring?"
"Not now, Koiko-chan, later."
Seeing the sudden seriousness, she became serious too. "Bad news, Sire?"
"No, and yes. I will leave at dawn."
"For Dragon's Tooth?"
He hesitated and she wondered if she had made a mistake in asking, but he was wondering what to do about her. Earlier, weighing the need for another forced march, he had decided to leave her and let her follow as quickly as she could. Now, looking at her, he did not want her to be away from him. Her palanquin would hold them back.
She could ride though not well enough and such a journey would be arduous.
Either way the plan he had agreed with Akeda would stay the same: "The first party of forty men, with a double wearing a set of my light armor, leaves just before dawn and heads leisurely and obviously for the North Road. Halfway to Yedo they will turn back and return here, my "double" vanished. The second party, mine, with the men I brought from Yedo, will leave shortly after the first and head rapidly for the Tokaido. Forced march, under the same captain--I will be disguised as an ordinary cavalry samurai and will remain so until I am safely in Yedo Castle."
"Very dangerous, Sire," General Akeda said heavily.
"Yes. You will watch Ogama, and hope. It is to his advantage I succeed in curbing Anjo."
"Yes. But you are an irresistible target outside, an easy one. Look at what happened today. Let me go with you."
"Impossible. Listen, if Ogama decides to mount his strike he will attack here first --better expect it. You must repel him whatever the cost."
"I will not fail in that, Sire," the old general said.
And I will not fail to reach Yedo, Yoshi thought with equal confidence. As to the attack, it only reminds me it was not the first and will not be the last.
He saw Koiko watching him. It is easier to be balanced when she is near me. The lamplight was glinting on her lips and in her eyes, and he saw the curve of her cheekbones and column of her neck, the raven hair, the perfect folds of her kimono and under-kimonos showing slightly from her white skin.
Smooth curves, her posture flawless, and her two hands held like flowers in her lap of azure silk.
She would have to travel light. No maids. And make do with whatever was available from Inn to Inn.
That would displease her for she likes perfection.
Perhaps she would balk at such inconsiderate and, for her, unnecessary haste. He remembered the first time he had suggested that.
It was not so long ago, just after he had decided to obtain her exclusivity and had told the mama-san, Makin, to leave with her for Dragon's Tooth to make arrangements with his wife at once--Hosaki had, correctly, deemed it wise to see the mama-san and Koiko herself as the financial commitment would be huge.
Meikin had told him the journey would take at least a week to plan, Koiko would of course be taking her own hairdresser and masseuse and three maids.
"Ridiculous," he had said impatiently.
"So many staff are not necessary for such a short journey and an unnecessary expense. You will both leave at once."
They had obeyed at once. Without attendants. It had taken them three days to reach the first way station outside Yedo, three days for the second. Angry, he had easily ridden the same distance from dawn to dusk.
"Lord Yoshi," Meikin had said, greeting him lavishly, feigning surprise. "How pleasant to see you."
"What is all the delay for?"' "Delay, Sire? We were ordered to leave at once. We are doing exactly as you ordered."
"But why are you taking so long?"' "So long, Sire? But you did not order us to make a forced march."
"You will hurry up," he snapped, noticing how she belabored "order." "Tell Koiko I wish to see her."
The mama-san had bowed and hurried away to Koiko's quarters, leaving him seething. When, at length she returned she said happily, "Koiko-san will be honored to see you, Sire, instantly Sire, the moment she can arrange a suitable maid to help her with her hair. She regrets it would be impertinent to receive you without the due preparation an honored, revered person such as you would expect, and adds, humbly, "please be kind enough to wait, she will be as quick as she can when the maids arrive..."