by Gai-Jin(Lit)
Absently, he waved at the flies. Once when he was young he had lost his temper at two or three that were plaguing him and had tried to smash them to pieces. It had earned him an immediate smack around the face, his cheeks burning with hurt, but more with shame that he had caused his mother grief, and her need to administer the punishment.
"So sorry, my son," she said softly.
"Flies are like sunrise and sunset, inevitable, except they can be a torment--if you allow them to be. You must learn to dismiss them. Every day, for part of each day for as many days as necessary, please, stand there and let them crawl on your face and hands without moving. Until they become nothing.
Flies must become nothing--use your will, that is what you are given it for. They must become nothing to you, then they'll not cause you to ruin your harmony or, worse, ruin the harmony of others..."
Now, sitting there, he felt the odd fly on his back and face. They did not offend him.
Quickly he was done. The rice paper was of good quality. Feeling very alive and well, he held out his hands for the servant to pour water over them.
When his hands were clean, he doused water from another container onto his face, shivered, accepted a small towel and dried himself, stepped back on to the veranda and consciously opened his senses.
Around him the Inn was stirring, the few ponies being saddled and groomed, men, women, children, porters already eating and chatting noisily, or leaving for the next stage of their journey, to or from
Ky@oto. In the common area near the entrance gate, Abeh was checking men and equipment. When he saw Yoshi he joined him.
Because people were about he did not bow, finding that very hard. His uniform was smart and he was refreshed. "Good morning." He just managed to bite back the "sir." "We are ready to leave whenever it pleases you."
"After breakfast. Arrange a palanquin for
Lady Koiko."
"At once. For ponies, or porters?"
"Ponies." Yoshi strolled back to his quarters and told Koiko she would not be riding today, that he would see how much progress they made and then, tonight, he would decide. Sumomo would ride as usual.
By evening they barely made two stations.
HAMAMATSU
Yoshi chose the Inn of the Cranes for the night, neither the best nor the worst in village,
Hamamatsu--a pleasing collection of houses and
Inns straddling the Tokaid@o, renowned for its sak`e, where the road curled down towards the sea.
After eating alone as usual, Yoshi went to join Koiko--if they ate together invariably, by custom, she would take almost nothing having intentionally eaten beforehand so she could concentrate on his needs. Tonight it was his pleasure to play a game of Go. This was a complex game of strategy, played with counters and similar to draughts.
Both of them were good players, but Koiko was a virtuoso, so much so that she could, almost always, win or lose at whim. This made the game doubly difficult for her. He had ordered her never to lose deliberately, but he himself was a bad loser. If she won on a wrong day he would sulk. A win for him on one of his bad days would get him out of any ill humor.
Tonight he won. Narrowly. "Oh, Sire, you've destroyed me!" she said. "And I thought I had you beaten!" They were in her inner room, sitting with their legs in the small pit under the low table with a tiny charcoal brazier in it, and a thick padded cloth over the table tucked around them to keep drafts out and the heat in. "Are you warm enough?"
"Yes, thank you, Koiko. How are your aches and pains?"
"Oh, I have none. The masseuse was very good tonight." She called out, "Sumomo, sak`e and tea please."
In the outer room Sumomo fetched the flask and teapot from another brazier, opened the shoji, and brought them in. She served both well and Koiko nodded with satisfaction.
He said, "Have you learned the tea ceremony,
Sumomo?"
"Yes, Sire," Sumomo said, "but, but I am afraid I am sadly lacking in skill."
"Lord Yoshi is a master," Koiko said and sipped the sak`e, glad for it. Her rump and back ached from the day's jolting in the palanquin, her thighs from the two days of riding, and her head from the effort of losing while appearing to covet victory. All of which she hid, and the fact that her spirits were down over the lack of progress today.
Clearly this had disappointed him. But then, she thought, we both knew another forced march was not possible. He must go on and I will follow. It will be good to be without him for a while. This life is wearing, however wonderful he is.
They drank peacefully. Then he said, "Tomorrow, early, I will go on with thirty men leaving ten with you, Abeh in charge. You will follow me to Yedo leisurely."
"Of course. With your permission, may I follow as quickly as possible?"
He smiled. "That would please me, but only as long as you arrived not aching, either in body or in spirit."
"Even if I was, your smile would instantly cure me. Another game?"
"Yes, but not Go!"
She laughed. "Then I must make some preparations." She got up and went to the outer room, closing the shoji after her. He heard her talking to Sumomo but paid them no attention, his mind occupied with tomorrow, Yedo and gai-jin.
Their voices died away as they went out. He finished his sak`e, enjoying it, then walked into the innermost room where the futons and padded coverlets were spread over impeccable tatami.
Winter landscapes and colors were the dominant decorations. He took off his padded yukata, shivered, and slipped under the eiderdown.
When Koiko returned he heard her pottering in the outer room, then she came in and she went straight to the bathroom where there were containers for the night, should they be needed, jugs of water to drink, and others for washing. "I sent Sumomo to sleep in another room tonight," she called out to him, "and asked Abeh to post a guard outside with orders not to disturb you till dawn."
"Why did you do that?"
She came back into the room. "This is our last night for a time--I mentioned to him I would not be travelling with you tomorrow--and I wanted you totally to myself." Leisurely she stepped out of her kimono and snuggled beside him.
Though he had seen her naked many times, and felt her touch many times, and slept with her many times, tonight was many times better than it had ever been.
KY@OTO
In the palace in Ky@oto, one of the Lord
Chancellor's spies knocked on his bedroom door, waking him, and handed him the carrier pigeon message container. "This has just been intercepted,
Lord."
The tiny cylinder was addressed to Chief
Bakufu Palace Advisor, Saito and bore the personal seal of Tair@o Nori
Anjo. He hesitated, then broke the seal with a manicured nail.
Anjo had sent the message at dawn:
The gai-jin leader has insolently rejected the Imperial command to leave Yokohama and they are preparing to invade us. Draft the Order for
National Mobilization for the Emperor's signature which, with this document, I formally request the Emperor to sign at once. Then send copies urgently to all daimyos. Make arrangements for Sh@ogun Nobusada to return to Yedo at once to head our forces, the Princess
Yazu can, preferably should, stay in Ky@oto.
Lord Yoshi is formally required to return at once.
The Lord Chancellor thought a while, smugly decided Saito would be overruled and the Emperor advised never to sign a mobilization order. With great care he replaced the message and resealed the tube with his secret duplicate seal.
"Put it back, make sure it is delivered," he said and when alone, he chuckled.
War! Good. Anjo was the perfect choice for tair@o. They will all drown in their own urine, along with all gai-jin, and Yoshi, all of them.
Except the Princess. She will stay, to become a widow--the sooner the better.
HAMAMATSU VILLAGE
Monday, 8th December:
Sumomo awoke well before first light. Her dreams had been bad. Sh
e was no longer on the
Tokaid@o with Koiko and Lord Yoshi but back in Ky@oto, chased by Bakufu soldiers led by Abeh into the trap of the burning shishi house, screams everywhere, blood everywhere, guns firing, in panic squeezing down into the narrow tunnel after
Takeda and Katsumata, the hole barely big enough, crawling after them, the sides encroaching, scraping her and becoming narrower. Not enough air to breathe, filled with dust. Takeda's feet ahead as he wriggled onward gasping, someone or something just behind her, then Takeda becoming Yoshi kicking at her, stopping her then vanishing--with nothing up ahead but an earth coffin.
When her heart slowed and eyes could focus in the shaded light of the oil flame, she saw one of the guards watching her from his futons next to hers.
Last night she had accompanied Koiko to talk to Abeh and he had told her to sleep in this communal room, plenty of space for her to one side--a perfectly satisfactory arrangement. Four guards were using it, two sleeping and two on duty. There she had made a bed, not easily to sleep, her mind in turmoil for she had overheard Yoshi telling Koiko they would not travel onward with him, and overheard
Koiko saying to Abeh, "Lord Yoshi has decided from tomorrow I, and my party, will follow leisurely."
"What arrangements does he want made,
Lady?"'
"I believe he said he wants to leave you and ten men to guide me to Yedo, so sorry to be a problem."
"It is no problem for me, Lady, so long as he is safe."
Safe, and out of reach, Sumomo had thought, dismayed by the change in plan. So much could go wrong between now and Yedo.
Eventually she had slept. To dream.
Normally she did not dream. Last thing at night and in the morning she would always say a prayer, Namu Amida Butsu, just the name of the Buddha Amida, which was enough if there was a god to pray to. Last night she had forgotten. Now, silently she said the words, and closed her eyes.
In moments she was again in the shishi hut.
That had been the worst experience of her life, the attack without warning, gunfire through the walls and in the same instant the head of the youth beside her exploded, no time for the lad even to shout but others did, partly in panic, partly in agony as random bullets poured at them, Katsumata paralyzed for a moment, then directing the defense, ordering some to charge out the front others the back. Both charges driven back, she not knowing where to hide, knowing all was lost, fire beginning and more screams and more blood and this the end, Namu Amida
Butsu, Namu Amida Butsu, then hands grabbing her roughly, shoving her down into the hole after the escaping Takeda--who, raving, had dragged another man out of the way, as Katsumata had torn someone else away--as her savior shishi, whose face she never saw, was murdered in his turn and a fight ensued that blocked the escape until it was too late.
Somehow out of that hate-filled darkness into the open air. Fleeing, their panic run going on and on until, chests bursting, Katsumata lead them tortuously to his haven of last resort.
Iwakura's back door.
Immediately a council of war with the shishi there.
"I suggest we scatter for the time being,"
Katsumata had said. "We'll regroup and meet in the spring, third or fourth month. In the spring we will start a new offensive."
"Why wait?"' someone asked.
"Because we're betrayed, because there's a spy in our midst, or amongst our patrons. We are betrayed. We must conserve and scatter."
And so they had. "Sumomo, you'll go to Koiko..."
But before that her disorientation had been vast, unaccountable tears, rushing heart beat, too easily in panic. "It will pass,
Sumomo," Katsumata had said.
Again he had been right. He had given her a draft that had made her sleep, and calmed her.
By the time she saw Koiko she was like before, almost but not quite. "When you feel the fear returning, just take a little sip of the medicine," he had said.
"In a week or two you will be perfect again. Always remember, sonno-joi needs you perfect..."
She came out of her reverie, sweating again, the fear coming on again. It was still night. Her fingers reached for her bundle beside her head that held the small bottle. But the bundle was not there. She had not brought it with her when she had changed rooms.
Never mind, she thought, I do not need it, I can do without it.
She repeated that several times, twisting in her bed, the quilts damp and clammy around her. Then she noticed the guard still watching her.
"Bad dreams, neh?" he whispered, his voice kind.
She nodded silently.
"I could give you good dreams." He moved his quilt aside, invitingly. She shook her head.
He shrugged and turned over and forgot her, considering her stupid to reject such pleasure. Not offended she turned her back too, just a little amused. Her hand moved to her obi knife in its sheath at her waist. Its touch gave her the peace she needed. A last Namu Amida
Butsu.
She closed her eyes and slept without dreams.
Koiko was pleasantly awake. It was not quite dawn. Yoshi slept peacefully beside her. It was nice to lie there, drifting, knowing she would not have to endure another day's discomfort in a palanquin, being bumped from side to side, because of unseemly haste. And also because her night had been tranquil. Yoshi had slept solidly.
Occasionally a small snoring snuffle would tweak him but that did not disturb her. "Train your ears,
Ladies," the retired courtesan would cackle toothlessly and endlessly to all maiko in the school, "your working life will be spent with old men. All men snore, but old men really snore, but old men really pay--the young ones take your flowers and snore anyway."
Of all the men she had slept with, Yoshi was the most serene while asleep. Awake he was the most difficult. To stay ahead of. To satisfy.
Not physically. Physically he was strong and practiced and as much as she was trained to be uninvolved within an embrace, he would guide her so she too, most evenings, would gain the sheen of pleasure.
Katsumata was more of a magician.
He caressed her imagination and thoughts, stimulating her beyond anything she could have imagined. He was delighted when she mastered a new skill--like training her ears to hear underspoken words: "That is where the golden knowledge is, the important parts, signs of danger, of safety, of what is within the secret heart within the secret heart.
Remember, all of us here, men and women, have three hearts, one for all the world to see, one for their family, and one for themselves alone. Certain men have six hearts. Yoshi is one of these. He is your goal, the one for whom you must be the foil."
She chuckled to herself, remembering how she had said that Lord Yoshi was completely beyond reach and
Katsumata had smiled that smile of his and told her to be patient, "You have time enough. You are eighteen, there is not much more I can teach you. You must begin to expand yourself. Like every serious student, follow the most important law for all students: repay your teacher by making it your duty to surpass him! Be patient, Koiko, at the correct time your mama-san and I will ensure the Lord Yoshi becomes aware of you..."
And they had. Within the year. The first invitation to the castle six months and five days ago. Racing heart and fearful she would fail, but not really. She was prepared and had done her duty to her teacher.
But am I guide enough for Yoshi? I know he enjoys me and my company and my mind. Where should
I guide him? Katsumata never said, just told me that that will become clear. "Sonno-joi sums it up. Bind Lord Yoshi to you. Help him change. Gradually you will help him move even more to our side. Never forget, he is not enemy, on the contrary, he is vital to us, he will head the new Bakufu of loyal samurai, as tair@o
--there will no longer be any need for a Sh@ogun or
Sh@ogunate--with our new and permanent Council of Samurai helping him..."
I wonder what it will be like in the new era, if
I will liv
e to see it, she thought, lying there comfortably. Now, what about Sumomo?
It had been completely unnecessary to send her to another room--as if it mattered that she was next door, she would not be listening to their cries or thrashing about. That was not the reason. When Yoshi told Koiko quietly she would not be going on with him, she thought she had heard movements in the outer room, as though Sumomo had shifted closer and was actually trying to overhear what they were saying--an astonishing invasion of privacy, and bad manners.