by Gai-Jin(Lit)
Only a nasty busybody would do such a thing, she had thought. Or a spy. Ah! Is
Katsumata dispassionately playing one of his intricate games within games, using me to wheedle a spy in to watch my Tora-chan and me? I will deal with her tomorrow, meanwhile she can sleep elsewhere.
When this had been arranged, telling Sumomo only that Lord Yoshi preferred to be alone, she came back and quickly searched Sumomo's bundle, not knowing why, for she was not certain the girl had actually tried to spy on them.
There was nothing unusual in there. A few clothes, a bottle of some kind of medicine, nothing else. The neatly folded day kimono was ordinary and merited only a cursory glance.
Relieved, she had retied the bundle. As to the bottle... surely it could not be some kind of poison?
Before rejoining Yoshi she had resolved to make sure that it wasn't. Sumomo would take some.
Never wrong to provide against a potential danger. Yoshi had said, "That's what killed
Utani. He did not post proper sentries."
So sorry, what killed Utani was the news of the tryst whispered to my maid from the samurai barracks that I allowed her to pass on, to Meikin who told Hiraga. I wonder how
Hiraga is? As a client, the two times he was a client when I was sixteen, he was no better or worse than the faceless others, but as a shishi, the best. Curious...
Yoshi snuffled in his sleep but did not awaken. Her hand touched him lightly, encompassed by his warmth. Sleep, my dear one, you please me more than I dare tell myself, she thought, then continued thinking about the past.
Curious that I remember only two faces amongst all the others: just Katsumata and
Hiraga. Curious that I was groomed to be Lord
Toranaga Yoshi's Lady--for a time. How fortunate I am. A year, perhaps two, no more than three and then I will marry. Tora-chan will choose him for me. Whoever he is he will be samurai. Eeee, how many sons shall I have? The old woman soothsayer said three sons and two daughters, the Chinese monk two sons and two daughters.
She smiled to herself. Oh I shall be so wise ruling my husband's household and so good to my sons and so strict with my daughters but, never mind, they will marry well.
She awoke a few seconds before Yoshi.
He was up instantly, one moment asleep, the next completely ready for the day. She held his padded yukata for him, then clasping her kimono tightly around her, she opened the shoji door, then the other one, knelt and helped him into straw slippers. The guard began to bow, caught himself in time and watched all around again as Yoshi padded off to the outhouse area.
Sumomo was kneeling near the door, waiting patiently, a maid beside her with a brazier and hot tea and breakfast trays. "Good morning,
Mistress. It's cold this morning, may I make you tea?"
"Yes, yes please, Sumomo, quick as a wink. Close the door, it is chilly."
Koiko hurried back to her inner rooms, calling out, "We will leave midmorning,
Sumomo. We can change into travelling clothes then."
"Yes, Mistress." Sumomo was still standing at the outer doorway trying to contain her shock. She had seen at once that her bundle had been moved, the knot tying the square of silk holding it together not exactly as she did it. Her day kimono was still folded nearby but it too had been moved.
Hardly breathing, she waited until the maid left, then unfolded the kimono. When her fingers felt the hidden shuriken in the secret sleeve pocket her heart started again.
But wait, she thought, blood rushing into her face, just because they're still there does not mean that someone hasn't discovered them. Do not panic!
Think! Who would search my bundle here and why?
A thief? Never! Abeh? A guard? Koiko?
Yoshi? If one of them, logically I would already be dead or at least roped and answering questions and
...
"Sumomo, is the tea ready yet?"
"Yes, I'm coming, Mistress..."
Quickly, and because of the cold, she put the kimono on over her sleeping yukata--she had already done her early first wash and brushed her teeth and her hair that was still in a conventional braid-- tied her obi and replaced her sheathed knife, all the time her mind working at full speed: Was it one of them? Perhaps the searcher wasn't careful.
He could have missed them, easy if not expecting them. Perhaps the searcher wasn't practiced?
Koiko? Why should she search my possessions now? Of course that had been done by the other maids when she had first arrived in Koiko's quarters--the shuriken had been on her person.
As her mind raced she set the rice gruel to keep warm, made the tea and took a cup into the bathroom where Koiko had finishing bathing herself from the buckets of hot water made fragrant with extract of flowers. The water was delivered at dawn through a small trapdoor so that none would be spilled on the tatamis, and the guests not disturbed. Night containers were removed in the same way.
"I'll wear my brown kimono with the carp,"
Koiko said, sipping gratefully, the cold crinkling her skin however much she willed herself to pretend the cold did not exist, "and the golden-colored obi."
Sumomo hurried to obey, heart still grinding, fetched the garments, helping her to dress.
When the obi was tied to her satisfaction,
Koiko knelt on one of the futons. Sumomo knelt behind her to brush her lustrous, waist-long hair. "That's good, Sumomo, you're learning, but please make the strokes longer and smoother."
Outside the tempo of the awakening Inn was increasing. Maids and soldiers and people calling to one another, Abeh's voice and then Yoshi's. The two women listened but could not distinguish what was being said. The voices moved away.
"Twenty more strokes and then I will eat and have another cup of tea. Are you hungry?"
"No, Mistress, thank you, I have already eaten."
"You did not sleep well?" Koiko said, noticing a nervousness about her.
"No, Lady Koiko. So sorry to tell you my problem, but sometimes I have difficulty sleeping, then when I do sleep I have bad dreams," Sumomo said ingenuously, still distracted. "The doctor gave me some medicine to calm me. I forgot to take it with me last night when I changed rooms."
"Ah, is that so?" Koiko hid her relief.
"Perhaps you should take some now."
"Oh but that can wait an--"
"Please, I insist. It's important you should be calm."
Obediently, and gratefully, Sumomo found the bottle. It had not been tampered with. She took a sip and re-corked it. The inner warmth began almost at once. "Thank you, Mistress," she said, then continued brushing.
After the hot rice gruel and pickles, some cold roasted eel with a sweet sour sauce, and rice cakes, Koiko said, "Please sit down, Sumomo, and pour yourself some tea."
"Thank you, Mistress."
"Lord Yoshi has decided I am not to accompany him anymore but to follow, by palanquin, at a more moderate pace."
"Some of the guards mentioned that while I was waiting for you. Everything will be ready whenever you wish to start."
"Good." Now that Koiko had discovered the truth about the bottle she was much more at ease but it had not changed her decision to be prudent--her duty to Katsumata already done. "You are safely out of
Ky@oto now," she said softly and Sumomo's stomach twisted. But for the elixir she would have panicked. "It is time to part, Sumomo. Today.
Do you have money?"
"No, Mistress," Sumomo wanted to sound matter of fact. "But would it be poss--"
"No need for you to worry, I can give you some." Koiko smiled, misunderstanding the fluster, and continued firmly, "Your papers, are they in order?"
"Yes, but may I st--"
"It is best for both of us. I have considered every possibility. It is best if I travel on alone. You may stay here or return to your home in Satsuma--I would advise that--or make your own way to Yedo."
"But please may I stay with you?"
"It is wise if you go your own way now--of c
ourse you realize it was an extreme favor to your guardian that I accepted you. Now you are safe," she said kindly.
"But... but what will you do, you have no maid. I want to serve you an--"
"Yes, and you have been very good, but I can easily hire someone. Please do not worry about that. Now, will you go back to Ky@oto?" When Sumomo did not answer, just stared numbly, she said gently, "What did your guardian say you were to do, when you left me?"
"He, he did not say."
Koiko frowned. "But surely you must have a plan."
"Oh yes, Mistress," Sumomo said, rattled--even more flustered--her mouth running away with her, "he told me I was to stay with you until Yedo. Then, then if it was your pleasure,
I was to leave."
"To go where?"
"To, to go to Oda-sama."
"Yes, of course, but where in Yedo?"
"I am not sure. May I pour you s--"
"You are not sure, Sumomo?" Koiko's frown deepened. "Do you have another family to go to if he isn't?"
"Well, yes, there's an Inn, they will know where he is or there will be a message for me but I swear I will not be a burden during the journey, not at all, you teach me so much..."
The more Koiko listened as the girl rushed on-- foolishly, she thought, for obviously I've made up her mind--the less she liked what she was hearing, or Sumomo's agitation, the way she spoke and dropped her eyes.
She closed her ears to the reasons and used the time to gather her own thoughts. They became more ominous. "Your guardian, will he be in Yedo too?"
"I do not know, so sorry. Please, let me pour you som--"
"This Oda-sama is Satsuma--is he part of the Satsuma garrison?"
"No." Sumomo cursed herself, she should have said, I don't know. "The Sats--"
"Then what is he doing in Yedo?"
"I do not know, Lady," Sumomo said lamely, her mind not fast enough, more dismayed every moment, "I have not seen him for almost a year, that is
... I was told he would be at Yedo."
Koiko's eyes bored into her. Her voice became edged. "Your guardian said this Oda-sama was shishi so he..." Her voice trailed off as, saying the word aloud, the enormity of what she had done, and risked, by agreeing to have this girl with her, inundated her. "Shishi believe Lord
Yoshi is their prime enemy," she moaned, "if he's enemy th--"
"No, Lady, he is not, not him, only the Sh@ogunate, the Bakufu are enemy, he is above all that, he is not enemy,"
Sumomo said vehemently, the lie coming easily, then added before she could stop herself, "Katsum--my guardian impressed that on all of us."
"All of you?" Koiko's face went chalky.
"Namu Amida Butsu! You're one of his acolytes!" Katsumata had told her that a few, select young women were being trained by him to be members of his warrior band. "He, he trained you too?"
"I am just a humble loyalist, Lady,"
Sumomo said, fighting for control, and to keep her face guileless.
Koiko looked around in disbelief, her mind almost stopped, the blissful world she had been inhabiting fallen apart. "You are one of them, you are!"
Sumomo stared back at her, not knowing how to extricate herself from the pit that had suddenly opened in front of them. "Lady, please, let us think clearly. I, I am no threat to you, nor you to me, let us leave it like that. I swore to protect you and I will, and Lord Yoshi if need be. Let me travel with you. I swear I will leave the moment we reach Yedo. Please?" Her eyes willed Koiko to agree. "You will never regret the kindness. Please. My guardian asked a lifetime favor. Please, I will serve you..."
Koiko hardly heard the words. She watched her as a mouse would a poised cobra, no thought in her head but how to escape, how to make all this a dream. Is it a dream? Be sensible, your life is in the balance, more than your life, you must collect your wits.
"Give me your knife."
Sumomo did not hesitate. Her hand went into her obi and she gave her the sheathed knife.
Koiko took the blade as if it were on fire.
Not knowing what else to do with it, never having handled or owned or needed one before, all weapons forbidden in the Floating World, she thrust it into her own obi. "What do you want with us? Why are you here?" her voice barely audible.
"Just to travel with you, Lady," Sumomo said as though to a child, not realizing her own face was stark.
"Just to travel with you, there is no other reason."
"Were you part of the assassins, the attackers on Sh@ogun Nobusada?"
"Of course not, I am only a simple loyalist, a frien--"
"But you were the spy who whispered that my Lord was going outside the barracks to meet Ogama--it was you!"
"No, Lady, I swear it. I have told you he is not the enemy, that was a lone madman, not one of ours, I keep say--"
"You have to leave, you must," Koiko said in a tiny voice. "Please go. Please go now, please. Quickly."
"There is no need to worry or be afraid.
None."
"Oh, but I am, I am terrified, and terrified that someone should, should denounce you, Yoshi would..." The words seemed to suspend themselves in the air between them. Their eyes locked, Sumomo willing her, Koiko helpless and wilting under their strength. Both seemed to have aged, Koiko torn apart that she could have been so naive and that her idol had used her so evilly, Sumomo furious that she was so stupid not to have agreed instantly the moment this meddlesome whore had proposed she should leave.
Fool, fool, both were thinking. "I will do as you say," Sumomo muttered, "I will leave even though..."
The shoji opened. Yoshi strode in jauntily, heading for the inner room. Their trance shattered. They hastily bowed. He stopped in midstride, all his senses shrieking danger.
"What is it?" he asked sharply. He had noticed their instant of fear before their heads bowed.
"Noth... nothing, Sire," Koiko said, collecting herself as Sumomo hurried for the brazier to fetch fresh tea. "You will have tea, breakfast perhaps?"
His eyes went from woman to woman.
"What-is-it?" he said slowly, the words like ice needles.
Sumomo knelt humbly, "We, we were so sorry not to be going with you, Sire, it was just that, just that the Lady Koiko was so sad. May I serve tea, Sire?"
The silence gathered. His fists bunched on his hips, face set, bare legs planted.
"Koiko! Tell-me-now!"
Koiko's mouth began to move but the words would not come out. Sumomo's heart stopped, then thundered in her ears as Koiko dragged herself to her feet, tears beginning and she stammered, "You see, she... it is true but she is not quite what
..."
Instantly Sumomo was on her feet, her right hand darting into her sleeve and bringing out a shuriken.
Yoshi set his teeth, seeing it. Her arm curled back for the throw--he was unarmed, an open target, his swords in the inner room. At once he ducked left, hoping the feint would confuse her, preparing to hurl himself at her, his eyes fixed on her hand. Unperturbed, she aimed for his chest and threw viciously.
The barbed circle of steel spun across the room. Frantically he arched his body and skewed around. One of the barbs caught the edge of his kimono and sliced through the material but touched no flesh and went on to disappear through the shoji and thwackked into one of the posts in the inner room as, jerked off balance by the supreme effort, he slammed into a wall and buckled into a heap.
For an instant everything seemed a slow dream
...
Sumomo reaching endlessly in her sleeve for the next shuriken, seeing only the great enemy lying helpless and his dimwitted whore who had caused this unnecessary conclusion gaping at her, a pillar of fear
--but feeling no fear herself, only elation, sure that this was her zenith, the moment she had been born for and had trained all her life for, and that now, invincible champion of the shishi, she would conquer and, dying, live in legend forever...
Koiko, standing paralyzed, aghast that she had been duped by the godlike
guru who had betrayed her, told her nothing but lies, the girl equally a cheat, and because of them this monstrous conspiracy was happening: her Patron would die and even if he did not die, she was disgraced and would die, either by his hand or those of the guards, everything in this life wasted, never to marry her samurai, never to have sons, never in this life, better to end it quickly by her own hand than foully by theirs but how, how, and then she remembered Sumomo's knife...