White Serpent Castle

by Lensey Namioka

  Saemon considered the proposal in silence for some minutes. “Your plan might work,” he said finally. “But instead of sending you, I prefer to send some of the chamberlain’s men that we have here as prisoners. They will make good spokesmen for us, and their comrades will believe them more readily.”

  Realizing that there was no hope of persuading Saemon to release him, Zenta said wryly, “All right, let’s bring in the prisoners and try to convince them.”

  Saemon gave a command. After a few minutes a dozen of the castle men were led into the room. They blinked at the company. From their expression it was obvious that they were wondering why the envoy’s men, honored guests of the castle, should suddenly rise and overrun the outer fortress.

  “Unbind them,” ordered Saemon. His men took out their swords and cut the ropes with quick, efficient flicks. The prisoners rubbed their arms and looked more bewildered than ever.

  Saemon drew himself up to his full height. He passed his eyes slowly over the castle men and cleared his throat impressively. “I can see that you are all loyal men of the castle, resolved to do your duty to Lord Okudaira’s family. The time has come to test that loyalty.”

  It was a good beginning. Every samurai has been trained from early childhood to loyalty for his feudal lord and family.

  “As you know,” continued Saemon, “the chamberlain has sworn to be a faithful vassal of Lord Okudaira. Let us look at his behavior towards his lord’s family. First, in violation of civilized behavior, he ordered his men into the ladies’ private quarters. Next, he actually ordered his men to attack Lady Tama! In desperation, the poor lady has fled to us for protection.”

  Saemon pointed, and the men turned to stare at Lady Tama. They couldn’t recognize their lord’s proud daughter in that slim boyish figure.

  Then Ume laughed hoarsely. “You stupid fools! You can’t recognize Lady Tama just because she washed her face and tied her hair back?”

  A few of the men smiled. They had no difficulty recognizing Ume at least.

  Next Saemon indicated Zenta and Matsuzo.

  “As some of you know, these two gentlemen came to the castle with the intention of serving Lord Okudaira’s family. Because they refused to enter the chamberlain’s service exclusively, he ordered them arrested at once. It was only my master’s timely arrival which saved their lives.”

  Saemon was twisting the truth a little, but his story had a plausible sound, since most of the castle had heard about the fight in the courtyard and the envoy’s intervention.

  “Not content with that, the chamberlain has tried to place the blame for my master’s murder on these two innocent newcomers. But my men and I are not deceived by his lies. We believe that the real killer of my master is somewhere in the inner fortress. We fled from there to save ourselves from being massacred. “I ask you, as true samurai and men of honor, to make your choice. Should you continue to serve this usurping chamberlain, whose ambition will lead him to certain ruin?

  Or should you cast your lot with us?”

  The prisoners whispered among themselves, and after a while they nodded. One man came forward to act as spokesman for the rest. “We believe that our duty is here with you. Tell us what to do and we will obey.”

  Lady Tama’s face glowed. Saemon permitted himself a grave smile as he addressed the men. “I was sure I could count on loyal men like you. The daimyo will hear of this when I report to him. And Lady Tama is rejoicing in your loyalty to her family.”

  Lady Tama responded to Saemon’s cue and gave the men an encouraging smile.

  Saemon continued. “You say that you wish to help our cause. I have a task for you that is dangerous, one which only the brave will undertake. I ask you to go to the inner fortress and find as many of your friends as you can so that you can tell them the whole truth. Tell them how Lady Tama came to us for protection from the chamberlain’s attacks, and how we fled here to escape the fate of our master. When your friends hear you, they will all join us in overcoming these murderers!”

  His listeners looked shaken. It was easy enough to say that they saw the truth, but if they were caught proclaiming it by Jihei, they could expect no mercy. They shuffled uncomfortably and avoided each other’s eye.

  Saemon had expected this hesitation, and he now brought out his strongest argument which he had saved for this moment, “We have already dispatched a messenger to the daimyo to report on the murder. If this castle is still in the hands of the usurper chamberlain when the daimyo arrives with his army, the daimyo will reduce the castle to rubble and put everyone to the sword.”

  No messenger had been sent to the daimyo, but the prisoners could not know this. The daimyo was one of the notable warriors of the day, and the thought of his avenging army descending on the castle was as terrifying as Jihei’s wrath. Finally the man who had been their spokesman bowed and said that he would obey. The others slowly followed his example.

  Saemon gave orders for their weapons to be returned to them. Then they were let out one by one, not all from the same door. A few looked frightened but resolute, while others could not conceal an air of relief.

  Looking at the latter, Matsuzo said dubiously, “Some of these men might join the chamberlain’s side again as soon as they get back, and some others looked as if they would just go and hide themselves.”

  “Many of them probably will,” answered Saemon. “Let’s hope that enough of them will have the courage to carry out their promise. Fortunately for us, our news is the kind that spreads like fire once it starts.”

  The first indication of their success came less than an hour later.

  “The watch for the door facing south reports that a number of men are approaching!” shouted a man rushing into the room.

  Saemon ran. When he arrived at the southern gate, the watchman had a second report for him. “They are shouting that they have a message for us. There is a man holding a written message from the chamberlain. He wants us to admit him.”

  “Tell him to approach alone,” ordered Saemon. “Tell him that we have arrows trained on all the rest.”

  As his men leaned out to transmit his orders, Saemon turned triumphantly to Lady Tama. “The men we sent must have done some good after all! I think we are winning some of the garrison over.”

  Lady Tama laughed happily. “I think you’re right! If the chamberlain is ready to parley, he must be frightened. Otherwise he would simply order a general attack.”

  “Here is the messenger, sir,” announced one of his men.

  The messenger from the chamberlain bowed deeply to Saemon as he presented the paper. The awe that the castle men had felt for the envoy still extended to his chief retainer.

  While Saemon read the letter, the messenger examined the company curiously. He stared hard at Lady Tama until he recognized her. Then he blushed in confusion and lowered his eyes.

  “The impudent barefaced liar!” exclaimed Saemon. “He says that we have kidnapped you and are holding you here against your will. He orders us to send you back immediately.” He gave a furious laugh and handed the letter to Lady Tama.

  After reading the paper she turned to the messenger. “Look at me. Do I seem like a helpless prisoner? Go back and tell the chamberlain I loathe him so much that I would rather kill myself than return!”

  “Wait, I want to ask this man something before we send him back,” said Saemon. “What happened to the men whom we captured here and then released?”

  The messenger looked very frightened. “I didn’t see any of them myself,” he stammered. “But I was told that some of them were spreading lies. They were causing so much alarm that Jihei gave orders for them to be arrested.”

  There was a stir in the room. This was good news. The fact that Jihei felt it necessary to take action meant that the castle men were seriously disturbed by the developments.

  “You can now see for yourself that those men were not telling lies, but the truth,” Saemon told the messenger. “Go back to the chamberlain and tell him tha
t Lady Tama is staying here. Soon all loyal samurai of the castle will come to her side.”

  When the messenger left, Lady Tama said softly, “I think it’s going to work! Did you see that messenger’s face? We convinced him that as long as I am with you, the chamberlain has no legitimate standing.”

  “I think that there is enough doubt and unrest, anyway, to prevent Jihei from mustering his men for a general attack on us,” said Saemon.

  “The longer they wait, the better it is for us,” said Lady Tama. “They will have time to worry about the daimyo’s anger falling on their heads. Every minute passed increases their fear.”

  As the little army in the outer fortress waited, their hopes grew that the enemy was really being disrupted by uncertainty and dissension. The castle had been under great tension, and the time was right for an insurrection.

  Ume had some beds prepared. Several times she asked her mistress to lie down and try to sleep, but Lady Tama was too excited to rest. Zenta was the only person to make use of the beds. Stretching out and closing his eyes, he cut himself off from the discussion and speculation taking place all around him.

  Then came a cry from the watch. “There is a large procession of men coming! They are stopping at the moat, and they are sending another messenger forward.”

  The messenger this time was a different man. Perhaps the answer brought back by the other man had infuriated the chamberlain, and the unfortunate messenger had been silenced.

  Saemon read the message and crushed the paper in his fist. “The chamberlain says that far from being disloyal to Lord Okudaira’s family, he is the champion of the rightful heir. To prove that, he is bringing out Yoshiteru. He says that if we are concerned with the safety of the boy, we should surrender immediately.” For a moment Lady Tama was too angry to speak. “Why, he was the one who kept insisting that Yoshiteru was too young to command here! What does he think he is doing?”

  Zenta stared out the window at the group standing near the moat, illuminated by the torches. He saw the small figure of the boy. Standing behind him and holding him by the arms was a woman dressed in white. Zenta’s heart contracted with fear. It was too distant to make out her features clearly, but he knew without doubt that this was the woman who took the boy cricket hunting and tried to push him into the moat.

  “Isn’t it clear?” Zenta said. “You pointed out earlier that the chamberlain had no legitimate standing without you. He has that standing now with Yoshiteru in his hands.”

  “Yoshiteru will never speak out for the chamberlain!” declared Lady Tama.

  “Yoshiteru may have a knife at his back,” said Zenta.

  “But how can our surrender help?” asked Lady Tama with stiff lips. “It still doesn’t prevent him from killing the boy when I am in his power.”

  “There is only one thing to do,” said Zenta quietly. “Let me go out to them.”

  “What can you possibly do?” she cried. “You haven’t a chance of rescuing him. You’re just throwing your life away!”

  Zenta examined her face in silence. He had already made his decision. What he was going to say was cruel, but it had to be done. “Lady Tama, since Shigeteru has been murdered, you have only one brother left. Do you want Yoshiteru killed also?”

  Chapter 14

  Saemon sighed. “I was pretty sure that you knew the truth. That’s the reason why I could not afford to let you fall into the chamberlain’s hands again. If he should learn from you that we are not retainers of the daimyo’s envoy but merely a band of ronin here under false pretenses, then we shall not last half an hour, as you so unkindly put it.”

  “How did you find out that the envoy was really Shigeteru in disguise?” asked Lady Tama.

  Zenta looked at her rueful face and smiled. “It was your behavior more than anything else. Your grief at his murder was the grief for a lost brother.”

  “That couldn’t have been the only reason why you were suspicious,” said Lady Tama.

  “No, it was during the dinner party on the night I arrived when I first suspected the envoy was not what he seemed,” said Zenta. “I was curious to find out how well he was acquainted with Lord Okudaira, and I mentioned the famous poetry party where the men improvised verses all night to Ono no Komachi, the legendary ninth century beauty. To my complete astonishment, the ‘envoy’ put me in my place for presuming to gossip about my betters.”

  Matsuzo suddenly remembered the envoy’s rebuke during the dinner party, and Zenta’s startled reaction. He knew now that it was not humiliation, but the surprising discovery about the envoy that had shocked Zenta into dropping his chopsticks.

  “I think the ‘envoy’ was trying to change the subject,” continued Zenta. “But it showed that he thought I was talking about your father’s current love affairs. Then I knew that he had not been with Lord Okudaira as he had claimed. To devise a further test, I asked him about the daimyo’s archery contest this spring, when the weather was so bad.”

  Lady Tama broke in. “But the weather was superb during the contest! I remember it perfectly!”

  “Precisely. But a person who had not been there at the time could not know this. None of the castle people at dinner knew either, since they had been hired locally by the chamberlain and did their service entirely at the castle. Well, your brother fell into the trap. He agreed with me about how muddy the track was and invented a story about some illness to explain why he did not take part in the contest.”

  “I knew that story about the illness was a bad idea,” muttered Saemon. “One should never embroider a lie.”

  Zenta smiled. “He had been telling a whole string of lies. Once I knew that he was lying, the rest was easy. Everyone in the region was expecting Shigeteru to return. If the envoy was really Shigeteru, it explained why he was traveling with a meager train of only forty men, and why many of the men had a raw, provincial look.”

  He bowed politely to Saemon. “I don’t mean you, of course.”

  “Shigeteru told me that you were looking at him rather strangely,” said Saemon. “That’s why he wanted to have a private talk with you. If it turned out that you knew our secret, he was going to try to get you on our side. But someone killed him before he had a chance to see you again.”

  Zenta nodded. “The chamberlain suspected that I had information about Shigeteru. In fact he thought for a while that I was Shigeteru. I may still be able to use this fact to our advantage.”

  “What do you mean to do?” asked Lady Tama in alarm. “Of course we can’t let you go back to the chamberlain with our secret.”

  “Yoshiteru’s safety is more important than your secret,” said Zenta. “Don’t you realize that if you lose this brother also, then the command of this castle will pass away from your family altogether? That is, unless you marry the chamberlain. And you refuse to do that.”

  “I don’t have to marry the chamberlain in order to become mistress of this castle!” said Lady Tama angrily. “There are other men I can marry.”

  Zenta’s eyes were stern. “Do you really want to become mistress of the castle at the expense of your brother’s life?”

  Lady Tama stared back at him. Then slowly her eyes filled with tears. She lowered her head and finally said with a catch, “No, you are right. You must go and attempt to rescue Yoshiteru.”

  “Let me go with you,” Matsuzo said to Zenta. “No,” said Zenta. “If you accompany me,

  the chamberlain will be more wary and tighten his precautions around Yoshiteru.”

  From the windows of the outer fortress, they watched him slowly make his way to the waiting group. He had the careful walk of a man who was conserving his strength.

  Down by the moat the chamberlain broke into a smile of pure delight when he recognized the approaching figure.

  Zenta soon found that the press of men around him prevented him from getting any closer. He raised his voice. “I have been sent by Lady Tama to negotiate.”

  As the report of what he said was carried down, a path opened
in front of him. On the other three sides, the chamberlain’s men were careful to press close.

  Zenta pushed forward until he was within ten feet of the chamberlain. From that point on naked swords blocked his way.

  “That’s close enough!” cried the chamberlain nervously. “Now tell me what Lady Tama has to say.”

  “I have been instructed to say that in exchange for releasing Yoshiteru to her, Lady Tama will persuade the envoy’s men to withdraw their accusation that you murdered their master,” Zenta announced.

  Jihei and the chamberlain exchanged looks. After a moment the latter said, “I refuse to bargain with Yoshiteru’s life. However, if Lady Tama and the envoy’s men will step down from their ridiculous position in the outer fortress, I myself will prove that I am innocent of the murder.”

  Zenta pretended to think over the proposal. Then he nodded. “Actually, this is what I have been trying to tell them. For all her beauty, Lady Tama sometimes acts like a spoiled child.”

  There was a stir among the men. It was possible that the men of the castle didn’t like to hear a member of their lord’s family criticized by a stranger.

  Zenta turned as if to leave. “Shall I return and tell them that this is your final word?”

  “Wait, don’t go yet,” said the chamberlain with heavy friendliness. “Stay a while. There are still a few things I want to discuss with you.”

  Zenta paused. “Yes, it would be pointless to return. I’ve known for some time that the position of Lady Tama and her supporters is hopeless.”

  At this statement there was a faint sound from Yoshiteru, and the woman holding him tightened her grip. Zenta refused to meet the boy’s eyes.

  The chamberlain beamed. Things were turning out better than he had expected. “As I have told you before, it can be quite rewarding to cooperate with me,” he said cordially. “After you have proved your loyalty, you will find it a very good life.”