Then he saw Yabu’s samurai massed around the bay and his sense of well-being vanished.
“Welcome to Izu, Lord Toranaga,” Yabu said. “I ordered a few men here to act as escort for you.”
“Good.”
The galley was still two hundred yards from the dock, approaching neatly, and they could see Omi and Igurashi and the futons and the awning.
“Everything’s been done as we discussed in Osaka,” Yabu was saying. “But why not stay with me for a few days? I’d be honored and it would prove very useful. You could approve the choice of the two hundred and fifty men for the Musket Regiment, and meet their commander.”
“Nothing would please me more but I must get to Yedo as quickly as possible, Yabu-san.”
“Two or three days? Please. A few days free from worry would be good for you, neh? Your health is important to me—to all your allies. Some rest, good food, and hunting.”
Toranaga was desperately seeking a solution. To stay here with only fifty guards was unthinkable. He would be totally in Yabu’s power, and that would be worse than his situation at Osaka. At least Ishido was predictable and bound by certain rules. But Yabu? Yabu’s as treacherous as a shark and you don’t tempt sharks, he told himself. And never in their home waters. And never with your own life. He knew that the bargain he had made with Yabu at Osaka had as much substance as the weight of their urine when it had reached the ground, once Yabu believed he could get better concessions from Ishido. And Yabu’s presenting Toranaga’s head on a wooden platter to Ishido would get Yabu immediately far more than Toranaga was prepared to offer.
Kill him or go ashore? Those were the choices.
“You’re too kind,” he said. “But I must get to Yedo.” I never thought Yabu would have time to gather so many men here. Has he broken our code?
“Please allow me to insist, Toranaga-sama. The hunting’s very good nearby. I’ve falcons with my men. A little hunting after being confined at Osaka would be good, neh?”
“Yes, it would be good to hunt today. I regret losing my falcons there.”
“But they’re not lost. Surely Hiro-matsu will bring them with him to Yedo?”
“I ordered him to release them once we were safely away. By the time they’d have reached Yedo they would have been out of training and tainted. It’s one of my few rules: only to fly the falcons that I’ve trained, and to allow them no other master. That way they make only my mistakes.”
“It’s a good rule. I’d like to hear the others. Perhaps over food, tonight?”
I need this shark, Toranaga thought bitterly. To kill him now is premature.
Two ropes sailed ashore to be caught and secured. The ropes tightened and screeched under the strain and the galley swung alongside deftly. Oars were shipped. The gangway slid into place and then Yabu stood at its head.
At once the massed samurai shouted their battle cry in unison. “Kasigi! Kasigi!” and the roar that they made sent the gulls cawing and mewing into the sky. As one man, the samurai bowed.
Yabu bowed back, then turned to Toranaga and beckoned him expansively. “Let’s go ashore.”
Toranaga looked out over the massed samurai, over the villagers prostrate in the dust, and he asked himself, Is this where I die by the sword as the astrologer has foretold? Certainly the first part has come to pass: my name is now written on Osaka walls.
He put that thought aside. At the head of the gangway he called out loudly and imperiously to his fifty samurai, who now wore Brown uniform kimonos as he did, “All of you, stay here! You, Captain, you will prepare for instant departure! Mariko-san, you will be staying in Anjiro for three days. Take the pilot and Fujiko-san ashore at once and wait for me in the square.” Then he faced the shore and to Yabu’s amazement increased the force of his voice. “Now, Yabu-san, I will inspect your regiments!” At once he walked past him and stomped down the gangplank with all the easy confident arrogance of the fighting general he was.
No general had ever won more battles and no one was more cunning except the Taikō, and he was dead. No general had fought more battles, or was ever more patient or had lost so few men. And he had never been defeated.
A rustle of astonishment sped throughout the shore as he was recognized. This inspection was completely unexpected. His name was passed from mouth to mouth and the strength of the whispering, the awe that it generated, gratified him. He felt Yabu following but did not look back.
“Ah, Igurashi-san,” he said with a geniality he did not feel. “It’s good to see you. Come along, we’ll inspect your men together.”
“Yes, Lord.”
“And you must be Kasigi Omi-san. Your father’s an old comrade in arms of mine. You follow, too.”
“Yes, Lord,” Omi replied, his size increasing with the honor being done to him. “Thank you.”
Toranaga set a brisk pace. He had taken them with him to prevent them from talking privately with Yabu for the moment, knowing that his life depended on keeping the initiative.
“Didn’t you fight with us at Odawara, Igurashi-san?” he was asking, already knowing that this was where the samurai had lost his eye.
“Yes, Sire. I had the honor. I was with Lord Yabu and we served on the Taikō right wing.”
“Then you had the place of honor—where fighting was the thickest. I have much to thank you and your master for.”
“We smashed the enemy, Lord. We were only doing our duty.” Even though Igurashi hated Toranaga, he was proud that the action was remembered and that he was being thanked.
Now they had come to the front of the first regiment. Toranaga’s voice carried loudly. “Yes, you and the men of Izu helped us greatly. Perhaps, if it weren’t for you, I would not have gained the Kwanto! Eh, Yabu-sama?” he added, stopping suddenly, giving Yabu publicly the added title, and thus the added honor.
Again Yabu was thrown off balance by the flattery. He felt it was no more than his due, but he had not expected it from Toranaga, and it had never been his intention to allow a formal inspection. “Perhaps, but I doubt it. The Taikō ordered the Beppu clan obliterated. So it was obliterated.”
That had been ten years ago, when only the enormously powerful and ancient Beppu clan, led by Beppu Genzaemon, opposed the combined forces of General Nakamura, the Taikō-to-be, and Toranaga—the last major obstacle to Nakamura’s complete domination of the Empire. For centuries the Beppu had owned the Eight Provinces, the Kwanto. A hundred and fifty thousand men had ringed their castle-city of Odawara, which guarded the pass that led through the mountains into the incredibly rich rice plains beyond. The siege lasted eleven months. Nakamura’s new consort, the patrician Lady Ochiba, radiant and barely eighteen, had come to her lord’s household outside the battlements, her infant son in her arms, Nakamura doting on his firstborn child. And with Lady Ochiba had come her younger sister, Genjiko, whom Nakamura proposed giving in marriage to Toranaga.
“Sire,” Toranaga had said, “I’d certainly be honored to lock our houses closer together, but instead of me marrying the Lady Genjiko as you suggest, let her marry my son and heir, Sudara.”
It had taken Toranaga many days to persuade Nakamura but he had agreed. Then when the decision was announced to the Lady Ochiba, she had replied at once, “With humility, Sire, I oppose the marriage.”
Nakamura had laughed. “So do I! Sudara’s only ten and Genjiko thirteen. Even so, they’re now betrothed and on his fifteenth birthday they’ll marry.”