“It will continue to be difficult. Perhaps even more so.”
“Yes, Sire. But it’s better to know both sides of the coin. Much of what he said has been found to be true—for instance, about the world being split by Spaniards and Portuguese, about the priests smuggling guns—however impossible it is to believe. You need never fear about my loyalty, Sire. However bad it becomes, I will always do my duty to you.”
“Thank you. Well, it’s been very interesting, what the Anjin-san said, neh? Interesting but nonsense. Yes, thank you, Mariko-san, you’re a valued counselor. Shall I order you divorced from Buntaro?”
“Sire?”
“Well?”
Oh to be free, her spirit sang. Oh, Madonna, to be free!
Remember who you are, Mariko, remember what you are. And remember that “love” is a barbarian word.
Toranaga was watching her in the great silence. Outside, mosquitoes strayed into the spirals of incense smoke to dart away to safety. Yes, he brooded, she’s a falcon. But what prey do I cast her against?
“No, Sire,” Mariko said at last. “Thank you, Sire, but no.”
“The Anjin-san’s a strange man, neh? His head is filled with dreams. Ridiculous to consider attacking our friends the Portuguese, or their Black Ship. Nonsense to believe what he says about four ships or twenty.”
Mariko hesitated. “If he says a navy is possible, Sire, then I believe it’s possible.”
“I don’t agree,” Toranaga said emphatically. “But you’re right that he’s a balance against the others, him and his fighting ship. How curious—but how illuminating! It’s as Omi said: At the moment we need the barbarians, to learn from them. And there’s much yet to learn, particularly from him, neh?”
“Yes.”
“It’s time to open up the Empire, Mariko-san. Ishido will close it as tight as an oyster. If I were President of the Regents again, I’d make treaties with any nation, so long as it’s friendly. I’d send men to learn from other nations, yes and I’d send ambassadors. This man’s queen would be a good beginning. For a queen perhaps I should send a woman ambassador, if she were clever enough.”
“She would have to be very strong and very clever, Sire.”
“Yes. It would be a dangerous journey.”
“All journeys are dangerous, Sire,” Mariko said.
“Yes.” Again Toranaga switched without warning. “If the Anjin-san sailed away with his ship weighed with gold, would he come back? He himself?”
After a long time she said, “I don’t know.”
Toranaga decided not to press her now. “Thank you, Mariko-san,” he said in friendly dismissal. “I want you to be present at the meeting, to translate what I say for the Anjin-san.”
“Everything, Sire?”
“Yes. And tonight when you go to the Tea House to buy Kiku’s contract, take the Anjin-san with you. Tell his consort to make the arrangements. He needs rewarding, neh?”
“Hai.”
When she was at the shoji Toranaga said, “Once the issue between Ishido and myself is settled, I will order you divorced.”
Her hand tightened on the screen. She nodded slightly in acknowledgment. But she did not look back. The door closed after her.
Toranaga watched the smoke for a moment, then got up and walked into the garden to the privy and squatted. When he had finished and had used the paper, he heard a servant slide the container away from beneath the hole to replace it with a clean one. The mosquitoes were droning and he slapped them absently. He was thinking of falcons and hawks, knowing that even the greatest falcons make mistakes, as Ishido had made a mistake, and Kiri, and Mariko, and Omi, and even the Anjin-san.
The hundred and fifty officers were aligned in neat rows, Yabu, Omi, and Buntaro in front. Mariko knelt near Blackthorne to the side. Toranaga marched in with his personal guards and sat on the lonely cushion, facing them. He acknowledged their bows, then informed them briefly of the essence of the dispatch and laid before them, for the first time publicly, his ultimate battle plan. Again he withheld the part that related to the secret and carefully planned insurrections, and also the fact that the attack would take the northern and not the southern coastal road. And, to general acclaim—for all his warriors were glad that at last there was an end to uncertainty—he told them that when the rains ceased he would issue the code words “Crimson Sky” which would launch them on their attack. “Meanwhile I expect Ishido illegally to convene a new Council of Regents. I expect to be falsely impeached. I expect war to be declared on me, against the law.” He leaned forward, his left fist characteristically bunched on his thigh, the other tight on his sword. “Listen. I uphold the Taikō’s testament and acknowledge my nephew Yaemon as Kwampaku and heir to the Taikō. I desire no other lands. I want no other honors. But if traitors attack me I must defend myself. If traitors dupe His Imperial Highness and attempt to assume power in the land, it is my duty to defend the Emperor and banish evil. Neh?”
A roar of approval greeted this. Battle cries of “Kasigi” and “Toranaga” poured through the room to be echoed throughout the fortress.
“The Attack Regiment will be prepared to embark on the galleys for Yedo, Toda Buntaro-san commanding, Kasigi Omi-san second-in-command, within five days. Lord Kasigi Yabu, you will please mobilize Izu and order six thousand men to the frontier passes in case the traitor Ikawa Jikkyu swoops south to cut our lines of communication. When the rains cease, Ishido will attack the Kwanto. . . .”
Omi, Yabu, and Buntaro all silently agreed with Toranaga’s wisdom of withholding information about this afternoon’s decision to launch the attack in the rainy season, at once.
That will create a sensation, Omi told himself, his bowels churning at the thought of warring in the rains through the mountains of Shinano.
“Our guns will force a way through,” Yabu had said so enthusiastically this afternoon.
“Yes,” Omi had agreed, having no confidence in the plan but no alternative to offer. It’s madness, he told himself, though he was delighted that he had been promoted to second-in-command. I don’t understand how Toranaga can conceive that there’s any chance of success in the northern route.
There isn’t any, he told himself again, and half closed his ears to Toranaga’s stirring exhortation in order to allow himself to concentrate once more on the problem of his revenge. Certainly the attack on Shinano will give you a dozen opportunities to manipulate Yabu into the front line at no risk to yourself. War, any war, will be to your advantage, provided the war’s not lost. . . .
Then he heard Toranaga say, “Today I was almost killed. Today the Anjin-san pulled me out of the earth. That’s the second time, perhaps even the third, that he’s saved my life. My life is nothing against the future of my clan, and who is to say whether I would have lived or died without his help? But though it is bushido that vassals should never expect a reward for any service, it is the duty of a liege lord to grant favors from time to time.”
Amid general acclaim, Toranaga said, “Anjin-san, sit here! Mariko-san, you as well.”
Jealously Omi watched the towering man rise and kneel at the spot to which Toranaga had motioned, beside him, and there was not a man in the room who did not wish that he himself had had the good fortune to have done what the barbarian had done.
“The Anjin-san is given a fief near the fishing village of Yokohama to the south of Yedo worth two thousand koku yearly, the right to recruit two hundred samurai retainers, full rights as samurai and hatamoto to the house of Yoshi Toranaga-noh-Chikitada-Minowara. Further, he is to receive ten horses, twenty kimonos, together with full battle equipment for his vassals—the rank of Chief Admiral and Pilot of the Kwanto.” Toranaga waited until Mariko had translated, then he called out, “Naga-san!”