"Madonna, you listen, he can speak their jibberish now, eh? Why can't he use monkeys, eh? There are enough Jappo pirates to crew him twenty times over."
"Yes, but not gunners and not sailors as he'd need 'em - he's not got time to train Jappos. By next year maybe, but not against us."
"Why in the name of the Madonna and the saints the priests gave him one of their dictionaries I'll never know. Meddling bastards! They must've been possessed by the Devil! It's almost as though the Ingeles is protected by the Devil!"
"I tell you he's just clever!"
"There are many who've been here for twenty years and can't speak a word of Jappo gibberish, but the Ingeles can, eh? I tell you he's given his soul to Satan, and in return for the black arts he's protected. How else do you explain it? How many years've you been trying to talk their tongue and you even live with one? Leche, he could easily use Jappo pirates."
"No, Captain-General, he's got to get men from here and we're waiting for him and you've already put anyone suspect in irons."
"With twenty thousand cruzados in silver and a promise about the Black Ship, he can buy all the men he needs, including the jailers and the God-cursed jail around them. Cabron! Perhaps he can buy you, too."
"Watch your tongue!"
"You're the motherless, milkless Spaniard, Rodrigues! It's your fault he's alive, you're responsible. Twice you let him escape!" The Captain-General had squared up to him in rage. "You should have killed him when he was in your power."
"Perhaps, but that's froth on my life's wake," Rodrigues had said bitterly. "I went to kill him when I could."
"Did you?"
"I've told you twenty times. Have you no ears! Or is Spanish dung as usual in your ears as well as in your mouth!" His hand had reached for his pistol and the Captain-General had drawn his sword, then the frightened Japanese girl was between them. "Prees, Rod-san, no angers-no quarre', prees! Christian, prees!"
The blinding rage had fallen off both of them, and Ferriera had said, "I tell you before God, the Ingeles must be Devilspawned - I almost killed you, and you me, Rodrigues. I see it clearly now. He's put a spell on all of us - particularly you!"
Now in the sunshine at Osaka, Rodrigues reached for the crucifix he wore around his neck and he prayed a desperate prayer that he be protected from all warlocks and his immortal soul kept safe from Satan.
Isn't the Captain-General right, isn't that the only answer, he reasoned again, filled with foreboding. The Ingeles' life is charmed. Now he's an intimate of the archfiend Toranaga, now he's got his ship back and the money back and wako, in spite of everything, and he does speak like one of them and that's impossible so quickly even with the dictionary, but he did get the dictionary and priceless help. Jesus God and Madonna, take the Evil Eye off me!
"Why'd you give the Ingeles the dictionary, Father?" he had asked Alvito at Mishima. "Surely you should have delayed that?"
"Yes, Rodrigues," Father Alvito had told him confidently, "and I needn't have gone out of my way to help him. But I'm convinced there's a chance of converting him. I'm so sure. Toranaga's finished now .... It's just one man and a soul. I have to try to save him."
Priests, Rodrigues thought. Leche on all priests. But not on dell'Aqua and Alvito. Oh, Madonna, I apologize for all my evil thoughts about him and the Father Alvito. Forgive me and bury the Ingeles somehow before I have him in my sights. I do not wish to kill him because of my Holy Oath, even though, before Thee, I know he must die quickly....
The duty helmsman turned the hourglass and rang eight bells. It was high noon.
Mariko was walking up the crowded sunlit avenue toward the gates in the cul-de-sac. Behind her was a body guard of ten Browns. She wore a pale green kimono and white gloves and a wide-brimmed dark green traveling hat tied with a golden net scarf under her chin, and she shaded herself with an iridescent sun shade. The gates swung open and stayed open.
It was very quiet in the avenue. Grays lined both sides and all the battlements. She could see the Anjin-san on their own battlements, Yabu beside him, and in the courtyard the waiting column with Kiri there, and the Lady Sazuko. All the Browns were in full ceremonials in the forecourt under Yoshinaka, except twenty who stood on the battlements with Blackthorne and two to each window overlooking the forecourt.
Unlike the Grays, none of the Browns had armor or carried bows. Swords were their only weapons.
Many women, samurai women, were also watching, some from the windows of other fortified houses that lined the avenue, and some from battlements. Others stood in the avenue among the Grays, a few gaily dressed children with them. All of the women carried sunshades though some wore samurai swords, as was their right if they wished.
Kiyama was near the gate with half a hundred of his own men, not Grays.
"Good day, Sire," Mariko said to him, and bowed. He bowed back and she passed through the archway.
"Hello, Kiri-chan, Sazuko-chan. How pretty you both look! Is everything ready?"
"Yes," they replied with false cheeriness.
"Good." Mariko got into her open palanquin and sat, stiff-backed. "Yoshinaka-san! Please begin."
At once the captain limped forward and shouted the orders. Twenty Browns formed up as a vanguard and moved off. Porters picked up Mariko's curtainless palanquin and followed the Browns through the gate, Kiri's and Lady Sazuko's close behind, the young girl holding her infant in her arms.
When Mariko's palanquin came into the sunlight outside their walls, a captain of Grays stepped forward between the vanguard and the palanquin, and stood directly in her way. The vanguard stopped abruptly. So did the porters.
"Please excuse me," he said to Yoshinaka, "but may I see your papers?"
"So sorry, Captain, but we require none," Yoshinaka replied in the great silence.
"So sorry, but the Lord General Ishido, Governor of the Castle, Captain of the Heir's Bodyguard, with the approval of the Regents, has instituted orders throughout the castle which have to be complied with. " Mariko said formally, "I am Toda Mariko-noh-Buntaro and I have been ordered by my liege Lord, Lord Toranaga, to escort his ladies to meet him. Kindly let us pass."
"I would be glad to, Lady," the samurai said proudly, planting his feet, "but without papers our liege Lord says no one may leave Osaka Castle. Please excuse me."
Mariko said, "Captain, what is your name please?"
"Sumiyori Danzenji, Lady, Captain of the Fourth Legion, and my line is as ancient as your own."
"So sorry, Captain Sumiyori, but if you do not move out of the way I will order you killed."
"You will not pass without papers!"
"Please kill him, Yoshinaka-san."
Yoshinaka leaped forward without hesitation, his sword a whirling arc, and he struck at the off-balanced Gray. His blade bit deep into the man's side and was jerked out instantly, and the second more vicious blow took off the man's head, which rolled in the dust a little way before stopping.
Yoshinaka wiped his blade clean and sheathed it. "Lead on!" he ordered the vanguard. "Hurry up!" The vanguard formed up again and, their footsteps echoing, they marched off. Then, out of nowhere, an arrow thwanged into Yoshinaka's chest. The cortege lurched to a stop. Yoshinaka tore at the shaft silently for a moment, then his eyes glazed and he toppled.
A small moan broke from Kiri's lips. A puff of air tugged at the ends of Mariko's gossamer scarf. Somewhere in the avenue a child's cries were hushed. Everyone waited breathlessly.
"Miyai Kazuko-san," Mariko called out. "Please take charge."
Kazuko was young and tall and very proud, clean-shaven, with deepset cheeks, and he came from the grouped Browns near Kiyama who stood beside the gateway. He strode past Kiri's and Sazuko's litters to stand beside Mariko's and bowed formally. "Yes, Lady. Thank you."
"You!" He shouted to the men ahead. "Move off!" Taut, some fearful, all frantic, they obeyed and once again the procession began, Kazuko walking beside Mariko's litter. Then, a hundred paces in front of them, twenty Grays moved out of the massed ranks of samurai and stood silently across the roadway. The twenty Browns closed the gap. Then someone faltered and the vanguard trickled to a stop.