Shogun_ A Novel of Japan Part 125

"Please excuse me, Sire, but what is there to resolve?"

Kiyama's restraint broke and he shouted, "The future and good order of the realm for one thing, the future of the Mother Church for another, and you for another! It's clear your close contact with the barbarian has infected you and addled your brain as I knew it would!"

Mariko said nothing, just stared back at him.

With an effort Kiyama brought himself back into control.

"Please excuse my ... my temper. And my bad manners," he said stiffly. "My only excuse is that I'm gravely concerned." He bowed with dignity. "I apologize."

"It was my fault, Sire. Please excuse me for destroying your harmony and causing you trouble. But I have no alternative."

"Your son's given you one, I've given you several."

She did not answer him.

The air in the room had become stifling for all of them although the night was cool and a breeze fanned the flares. "You're resolved then?"

"I have no choice, Sire."

"Very well, Mariko-san. There's nothing more to be said. Other than to say again I order you not to force the issue-and I ask it."

She bowed her head.

"Saruji-san, please wait for me outside," Kiyama ordered.

The youth was distraught, barely able to speak. "Yes, Sire." He bowed to Mariko. "Please excuse me, Mother."

"May G.o.d keep you in His hands for all eternity."

"And thou."

"Amen to that," Kiyama said.

"Good night, my son."

"Good night, Mother."

When they were alone Kiyama said, "The Father-Visitor's very worried."

"About me, Sire?"

"Yes. And about the Holy Church-and the barbarian. And about the barbarian ship. First tell me about him."

"He's a unique man, very strong and very intelligent. At sea he's ... he belongs belongs there. He seems to become part of a ship and the sea, and, out to sea, there's no man who can approach him in bravery and cunning." there. He seems to become part of a ship and the sea, and, out to sea, there's no man who can approach him in bravery and cunning."

"Even the Rodrigues-san?"

"The Anjin-san overcame him twice. Once here and once on our way to Yedo." She told him about Rodrigues arriving in the night during their stay near Mishima and about the concealed weapons and all that she had overheard. "If their ships were equal, the Anjin-san would win. Even if they were not, I think he'd win."

"Tell me about his ship."

She obeyed.

"Tell me about his va.s.sals."

She told him as it had happened.

"Why would Lord Toranaga give him his ship, money, va.s.sals, and freedom?"

"My Master never told me, Sire."

"Please give me your opinion."

"So that he can loose the Anjin-san against his enemies," Mariko said at once, then added without apology, "Since you ask me, in this case the Anjin-san's particular enemies are the same as my Lord's: the Portuguese, the Holy Fathers prompting the Portuguese, and the Lords Harima, Onoshi, and yourself, Sire."

"Why should the Anjin-san consider us his special enemies?"

"Nagasaki, trade, and your coastal control of Kyushu, Sire. And because you are the chief Catholic daimyos." daimyos."

"The Church isn't Lord Toranaga's enemy. Nor the Holy Fathers."

"So sorry, but I think Lord Toranaga believes the Holy Fathers support the Lord General Ishido, as you do."

"I support the Heir. I'm against your Master because he does not and he will ruin our Church."

"I'm sorry, but that's not true. Sire, my Master's so superior to the Lord General. You've fought twenty more times as his ally than against him, you know he can be trusted. Why side with his avowed enemy? Lord Toranaga's always wanted trade, and he's simply not anti-Christian like the Lord General and the Lady Ochiba."

"Please excuse me, Mariko-san, but before G.o.d, I believe Lord Toranaga secretly detests our Christian Faith, secretly loathes our Church, and secretly is committed to destroying the succession and obliterating the Heir and the Lady Ochiba. His lodestone is the Shgunate-only that! He secretly wants to be Shgun, is planning to become Shgun, and everything is pointed to that sole end."

"Before G.o.d, Sire, I do not believe it."

"I know-but that doesn't make you right." He watched her a moment, then said, "By your own admission this Anjin-san and his ship are very dangerous to the Church, neh? neh? The Rodrigues agrees with you that if the Anjin-san caught the Black Ship at sea it would be very bad." The Rodrigues agrees with you that if the Anjin-san caught the Black Ship at sea it would be very bad."

"Yes, I believe that too, Sire."

"That would hurt our Mother Church very much, neh?" neh?"

"Yes."

"But you still won't help the Church against this man?"

"He is not against the Church, Sire, not really against the Fathers, though he distrusts them. He's only against the enemies of his Queen. And the Black Ship is his goal-for profit."

"But he opposes the True Faith and is therefore a heretic. Neh?" Neh?"

"Yes. But I don't believe everything we've been told by the Fathers is true. And much has never been told to us. Tsukku-san admitted many things. My liege Lord ordered me to become the Anjin-san's confidant and friend, to teach him our language and customs, to learn from him what could be of value to us. And I've found-"

"You mean valuable to Toranaga. Neh?" Neh?"

"Sire, obedience to a liege lord is the pinnacle of a samurai's life. Isn't obedience what you require from all your va.s.sals?"

"Yes. But heresy is terrible and it seems you are allied with the barbarian against your Church and infected by him. I pray G.o.d will open your eyes, Mariko-san, before you lose your own salvation. Now, last, the Father-Visitor said you have some private information for me."

"Sire?" This was completely unexpected.

"He said there was a message from the Tsukku-san a few days ago. A special messenger from Yedo. You have some information about-about my allies."

"I asked to see the Father-Visitor tomorrow morning."

"Yes. He told me. Well?"

"Please excuse me, after I've seen him tomorrow, I-"

"Not tomorrow, now! The Father-Visitor said it had to do with Lord Onoshi and concerned the Church and you were to tell me at once. Before G.o.d that's what he said. Have things come to such a filthy pa.s.s that you won't even trust me?"

"So sorry. I made an agreement with the Tsukku-san. He asked me to speak openly to the Father-Visitor, that's all, Sire."

"The Father-Visitor said you were to tell me now."

Mariko realized she had no alternative. The die was cast. She told him about the plot against his life. All that she knew. He, too, scoffed at the rumor until she told him exactly where the information had come from.

"His confessor? Him?" Him?"

"Yes. So sorry."

"I regret Uraga's dead," Kiyama said, even more mortified that the night attack on the Anjin-san had been such a fiasco-as the other ambush had been-and now had killed the one man who could prove his enemy Onoshi was a traitor. "Uraga will burn in h.e.l.lfire forever for that sacrilege. Terrible what he did. He deserves excommunication and h.e.l.lfire, but even so, he did me a service by telling it-if it's true." true." Kiyama looked at her, an old man suddenly, "I can't believe Onoshi would do that. Or that Lord Harima would be a party to it." Kiyama looked at her, an old man suddenly, "I can't believe Onoshi would do that. Or that Lord Harima would be a party to it."

"Yes. Could you-could you ask Lord Harima if it's true?"

"Yes, but he'd never reveal something like that. I wouldn't, would you? So sad, neh? neh? So terrible are the ways of man." So terrible are the ways of man."

"Yes."

"I will not believe it, Mariko-san. Uraga's dead so we can never get proof. I will take precautions but ... but I cannot believe it."

"Yes. One thought, Sire. Isn't it very strange, the Lord General putting a guard on the Anjin-san?"

"Why strange?"

"Why protect him? When he detests him? Very strange, neh? neh? Could it be that now the Lord General also sees the Anjin-san as a possible weapon against the Catholic Could it be that now the Lord General also sees the Anjin-san as a possible weapon against the Catholic daimyos?" daimyos?"

"I don't follow you."

"If, G.o.d forbid, you died, Sire, Lord Onoshi becomes supreme in Kyushu, neh? neh? What could the Lord General do to curb Onoshi? Nothing-except, perhaps, use the Anjin-san." What could the Lord General do to curb Onoshi? Nothing-except, perhaps, use the Anjin-san."

"It's possible," Kiyama said slowly.

"There's only one reason to protect the Anjin-san-to use him. Where? Only against the Portuguese-and thus the Kyushu Christian daimyos. Neh?" daimyos. Neh?"

"It's possible."

"I believe the Anjin-san's as valuable to you as to Onoshi or Ishido or my Master. Alive. His knowledge is enormous. Only knowledge can protect us from barbarians, even Portuguese."

Kiyama said scornfully, "We can crush them, expel them any time we like. They're gnats on a horse, nothing more."

"If the Holy Mother Church conquers and all the land becomes Christian as we pray it will, what then? Will our our laws survive? Will laws survive? Will bushido bushido survive? Against the Commandments? I suggest it won't-like elsewhere in the Catholic world-not when the Holy Fathers are supreme, not unless we are prepared." survive? Against the Commandments? I suggest it won't-like elsewhere in the Catholic world-not when the Holy Fathers are supreme, not unless we are prepared."

He did not answer her.

Then she said, "Sire, I beg you, ask the Anjin-san what has happened elsewhere in the world."

"I will not. I think he's bewitched you, Mariko-san. I believe the Holy Fathers. I think your Anjin-san is taught by Satan, and I beg you to realize his heresy has already infected you. Three times you used 'Catholic' when you meant Christian. Doesn't that imply you agree with him there are two Faiths, two equally true versions of the True Faith? Isn't your threat tonight a knife in the belly of the Heir? And against the interests of the Church?" He got up. "Thank you for your information. Go with G.o.d."

Mariko took a small, thin, sealed scroll of paper from her sleeve. "Lord Toranaga asked me to give you this."

Kiyama looked at the unbroken seal. "Do you know what's in it, Mariko-san?"

"Yes. I was ordered to destroy it and pa.s.s on the message verbally if I was intercepted."

Kiyama broke the seal. The message reiterated Toranaga's wish for peace between them, his complete support of the Heir and the succession, and briefly gave the information about Onoshi. It ended, "I don't have proof about Lord Onoshi but Uraga-noh-Tadamasa will have that and, deliberately, he has been made available to you in Osaka for questioning if you wish. However I do have proof that Ishido has also betrayed the secret agreement between you and him giving the Kwanto to your descendants, once I am dead. The Kwanto has been secretly promised to my brother, Zataki, in return for betraying me, as he has already done. Please excuse me, old comrade, but you have been betrayed too. Once I am dead, you and your line will be isolated and destroyed, as will the whole Christian Church. I beg you to reconsider. Soon you will have proof of my sincerity."

Kiyama reread the message and she watched him as she had been ordered. 'Watch him so carefully, Mariko-san,' Toranaga had told her. 'I'm not sure of his agreement with Ishido about the Kwanto. Spies have reported it but I'm not sure. You'll know from what he does-or doesn't do-if you give him the message at the right time.'

She had seen Kiyama react. So that's also true, she thought.

The old daimyo daimyo looked up and said flatly, "And you are the proof of his sincerity, looked up and said flatly, "And you are the proof of his sincerity, neh? neh? The burnt offering, the sacrificial lamb?" The burnt offering, the sacrificial lamb?"

"No, Sire."

"I don't believe you. And I don't believe him. The Onoshi treason, perhaps. But the rest ... Lord Toranaga's just up to his old tricks of mixing half-truths and honey and poison. I'm afraid it's you who've been betrayed, Mariko-san."

CHAPTER 54.

"We'll leave at noon."

"No, Mariko-san." Lady Sazuko was almost in tears.

"Yes," Kiri said. "Yes, we'll leave as you say."

"But they'll stop us," the young girl burst out. "It's all so useless."

"No," Mariko told her, "you're wrong, Sazuko-chan, it's very necessary."