“Be at your ease, Lieutenant,” the Emperor said, with warmth.
“Thank you, Sire. I am honored that…” He went through the formalities the situation required and the Emperor let him do so, not yet ready to allow the familiarity that he granted Jaku Katta.
Finally the Emperor gestured with his fan. “Have you something for me from your esteemed brother?”
“I do, Sire, the report he promised you this morning.”
“Excellent. Please leave it here.” The Emperor pointed with his fan to the edge of the dais. As he had ordered all the servants out for the sake of privacy, there was no one to carry the scroll and it was out of the question that the Emperor would receive it himself.
“May we enquire into the well-being of your family?” the Emperor asked.
“I am honored that you would ask, Sire. My wife and son are healthy and dutiful and ever grateful for the honor the Emperor has given our name. My brothers…” He broke into a smile. “Excuse me, Sire, but how can they be anything but blissful at their good fortune in being allowed to serve our revered Emperor?”
“Ah. And what of your brother’s concerns? Is he still troubled by the unfortunate woman and child he had taken under his roof?”
“They trouble him no more, Sire.”
The Emperor waited.
“They have departed this plane for the time being.”
“How sad. An accident?”
“The woman took her own life and that of her son, Sire.”
“So tragic, yeh? After all your brother had done for them?”
“Most certainly, Sire.”
“And you still don’t know who she was, this woman?”
The brother of Jaku Katta shifted uncomfortably and the Emperor fixed him with an intense stare.
“It seems possible, Sire, that this woman had been at one time a very minor lady-in-waiting to the Lady Nishima Fanisan Shonto. Though it seems more likely that she was a favored servant.”
The Emperor moved, placing an elbow on his armrest and leaning his chin on his fist. He showed no other reaction.
“How kind of your brother to take in a woman who had fallen from such a position. Few would have such compassion. And to tell no one! Modesty, no doubt. Very noble of him. Of course, we will say nothing of this to him. It shall be his secret, but we must admit that this act of kindness has affected us greatly.”
There was silence while the Emperor digested this new information.
“So, the Lady Nishima. Hmm. I wonder if this unfortunate woman would have provided Katta-sum with any information about the great lady?” His eyebrows rose, punctuating the sentence.
“It seems possible, Sire. Information about the Shonto is crucial to the Imperial purpose at this time.”
“Ah, yes, the Imperial purpose.”
“My brother would never bother the Emperor with mere speculation, Sire. I’m sure if he can verify any information he may have received, then he would report it.”
“I don’t doubt it for an instant, Lieutenant, so say nothing about this conversation. I would never have a man as proud as your brother think that I doubt him. Not for a moment.”
“As you wish, Sire. You can count on my discretion.”
The Emperor nodded his thanks. “The Lady Nishima is a desirable woman, yeh?”
“I agree, Sire.”
“Unfortunate that Katta-sum does not have the rank to merit such a woman. Most unfortunate.”
Jaku Tadamoto said nothing.
“And what of my lovely Sonsa, Tadamoto-sum? Have you done as I asked? I wish to be reassured that she is in no danger.”
“I assure you that she is not, Sire. And her devotion to you seems unquestionable. She lives only for dance and for her Emperor.”
“Huh. I am truly fond of her, Tadamoto-sum, but,” the Emperor paused as though searching for words, “I am an Emperor, after all, and she…” He let his open hand drop. “But I would like to see her happy and settled.”
Ah, I have your attention now, young Jaku, the Emperor thought. “I must consider this. An Emperor must always be fair, yeh? Just as he must reward loyalty. I will consider this.”
Jaku Tadamoto nodded agreement.
“Yes,” the Emperor said distractedly, then he turned his attention back to the man sitting in front of him as though seeing him for the first time. The Son of Heaven smiled broadly.
“I thank you for discussing these things with me, Tadamoto-sum. I worry about your brother. He is so dedicated in his duties and takes so little time for himself, yeh? We must talk again. There are other matters we wish to discuss with you. We value your counsel, and your loyalty has not gone unnoticed. We will talk soon.”
Jaku Tadamoto backed out of the Audience Hall, his heart soaring.
A look of confusion came over the Emperor’s face as the doors closed. He shook his head. How could such an intelligent man allow his desires to set his course, the Emperor wondered? Strange. Well, perhaps he would give Tadamoto-sum the girl at some future date. No one else would dare to court her. The Emperor smiled at the thought of the previous night. Tadamoto-sum had not earned her yet.
Such strange brothers. So Jaku Katta desires Lady Nishima. The Emperor snorted. Had the general taken leave of his senses? The entire family will bring ruin upon themselves over women! Lady Nishima! Jaku must realize how impossible that is. The Black Tiger plots—but what? A secret alliance with Shonto? To deliver me into Shonto hands? Perhaps he plots with one of my useless sons. Is it possible that Jaku could be truly smitten with Shonto’s daughter—endangering himself like a lovesick fool?
The Emperor reached behind him and took the ancient sword of his office from its stand, drawing it half out of its scabbard, without thinking.
And what of this woman and her son, he wondered? A maid of Lady Nishima, huh. I’m willing to wager a province that she was connected with the attempt on Shonto’s life. If that is indeed what it was! Oh, Katta-sum, what a disappointment you are to me. This throne infects everyone around it with the desire to possess it. Worse than any woman, yeh? He laughed bitterly. The difference between us, Katta-sum, is that I possess this most desirable of women, the Throne, while you never shall.
There came a knock on the screen to his right and a servant opened the private door revealing his Sonsa mistress, a questioning smile on her face, her head cocked to one side showing the fine curve of her neck.
“Ah, Osha-sum!” He broke into a toothy grin as she came toward him, seeming to float as all the Sonsa did. The shoji closed behind her as she crossed the room, without a bow, directly into his arms in one lithe motion, seeming to curl all of herself against him at once. His face flushed and his pupils went wide with pleasure.
“How good to touch you, Sire. My body misses you.”
“Since this morning?” he teased.
“Oh, yes. Certainly. It missed you as soon as we parted and gave me no peace all through my training. I danced so badly, completely unable to concentrate as a Sonsa should.”
He kissed her neck and she arched it with pleasure. The fine silk of her kimono seemed almost as soft as her skin as he touched her. The bow of her sash came undone easily as soon as he pulled it and the Emperor realized it had been tied in a “lover’s knot.” He laughed at this discovery.
“Oh, ho! The servants will have noticed,” he teased.
“Oh, no. It isn’t possible, I can tie the knot perfectly. No one can tell the difference. I have practiced for you.”
“You have so many talents that are never seen on the stage. Are all the Sonsa so talented?”
Her outer robe of sky blue fell open to reveal her three inner kimonos and these he opened slowly, kissing her shoulders, thrilled by the softness of her skin. Her breasts were tiny; he had never known a woman so small.
“The light in my chamber is beautiful this time of day,” he whispered to her, his breathing already heavy. She took his face between her hands and kissed him passionately.
A shoji behind the
dais opened into a hall that led to his sleeping chambers. Sunlight poured into the room through paper screens set high in the walls, a beautifully filtered light like the sun falling through forest leaves. A massive, low bed lay bathed in this light, its coverlets of flower patterns resembling the forest floor. They sank into this softness.
She did not find him unusual as a lover, this man who commanded so huge an Empire. In fact he would have been quite ordinary but for the passion he had for her which seemed boundless. And he was strong, stronger than she would have guessed and the Sonsa were usually unerring judges of the human body. The Son of Heaven knelt slowly, lifting her with him, supporting her with little effort.
When they finished, he was like a man who had fought a battle. He lay on top of her completely spent, his breathing deep and languorous. At that moment she always felt amazing abandon, and her mind wandered in the most surprising manner, leading her to wonder about other men, many of them, like the tiger-eyed Jaku Katta whom she had seen earlier as he came from his audience with the Emperor. And Lord Shonto, with whom she had danced the night before. She laughed at herself for these fantasies, calling herself “the secret Yellow Empress” after the Empress Jenna, who, it was said, had known a thousand men while she controlled her son on the Dragon Throne. It was even rumored that she had known her own son. Amazing!
Yes, she thought, that is me, the secret Yellow Empress, desiring every man who catches my eye. She laughed inwardly, desiring them but making love to them only when she danced, and making them want her in return.
Osha thought of Shonto as she lay warm and still aroused. She had brushed against him as they had danced the Dance of the Five Hundred Couples. A certain amount of flirtation was expected in these dances, but she had been shameless and had learned that he was hard-bodied, like a much younger man, and fluid in his movements for one with no training. The famous Lord Shonto, the man her Emperor hated. Osha had been so curious to know who this man was when the rumors were stripped away. But of course there had been no time for them to speak, not there. All she had learned was that he was quick of wit, which she had expected, and that he seemed to enjoy the company of younger people, surrounded as he was by his daughter’s friends.
Why did the Emperor hate this man? Most curious. But he would never discuss Shonto with her, never Shonto. So very odd.
She drifted off into a soft dream, the Yellow Empress inside her given full rein. Osha smiled as she slept.
Six
LORD SHONTO SAT on a low dais in the upper Audience Hall leaning on his armrest, chin in hand. He gazed out at the long, empty room and watched the dust particles turning slowly in the sunlight that streamed through the open wall. On the straw-matted floor a pattern of large rectangles glowed golden in the light that fell between the posts. The autumn day was warm, the air rich with the smells of the season.
Shonto consciously controlled his breathing and tried to empty his mind of all its noise. He needed time to think after the visit of Jaku Katta. The lord sensed danger. Things were happening too quickly, becoming a rising wave of events that he neither controlled nor understood.
No one realized how much hope Shonto placed on the coming of his Spiritual Advisor, and now that the hour of their meeting had arrived he felt sudden, and unexpected, doubt. This was not Brother Satake returning; this was a very young man, a stranger of questionable loyalty with a lifetime of Botahist dogma behind him…and little experience of the real world—the very unspiritual world of Wa. Over the years Shonto had grown used to the quiet opinions of his former advisor, and relied heavily on the old monk’s penetrating insight—and that was what bothered Shonto. Satake-sum had had long years of experience that the lord, his junior by several decades, had been able to draw upon. But his new advisor was almost as many years his junior as Satake-sum had been his senior.
Shonto drummed his fingers on the armrest. The attack in the garden had affected him more than he liked to admit. How could such a thing have happened in his house? Oh, Jaku, my sixth sense tells me that you were behind this “assassination attempt.” If so, I will soon know. Even a Black Tiger can place a foot wrongly. Even a Black Tiger can be hunted.
A tap on the shoji brought Shonto back to himself. The face of a guard appeared in the doorway.
“Tanaka is here, Sire,” the guard said quietly—not “Tanaka-sum,” just “Tanaka,” the merchant, technically a servant.
Shonto nodded and the guard pushed the door aside, allowing a corpulent man in a dark robe of the merchant class to enter. Shonto did not smile, though Tanaka’s “disguise” always amused him. In Yankura, the Floating City, where the merchant oversaw Shonto’s vast trading interests, he was known for the quality of his clothing and his penchant for hats in the latest fashion. But here, before his liege-lord, he was somber and dressed in a far from new, traditional robe of his class.
The merchant bowed his head to the floor in the most humble manner and then sat back, saying nothing. The shoji closed behind him.
“Come forward,” Shonto said, gesturing to a place before the dais.
Tanaka walked forward on his knees, stopping several paces away from his lord. Shonto regarded the merchant, a man who had served his father. A loyal man. Tanaka’s intelligent face stared back at him and Shonto realized that the merchant was making his own assessment of his liege-lord. Shonto smiled.
“It is good to see you, old friend,” the lord said, paying the older man greater respect than the use of the honorific “sum” could ever convey.
Tanaka bowed. “I am honored that you receive me, Sire. May I say that it is good to see you looking so well. I was most concerned when I heard of the events of this morning.”
Shonto nodded, not surprised that the news had reached Tanaka. The merchant had his own sources in Shonto’s staff, all well meaning, and impossible to purge for that very reason.
Except for the Lady Nishima, Tanaka was the closest thing to a friend Shonto had, and, in a way, their difference in rank was what allowed their friendship to exist—in Wa equals too often had conflicting interests. But the difference between Shonto and his merchant could never be bridged—master and servant always—and so the understanding between them, out of necessity, never seemed to breach the conventions of the society. But it was an association that both men valued and protected with all of their considerable powers.
“And how are things in the Floating City?”
“The Floating City seems to be floating these days on rumor and intrigue and an army of Imperial Guards dressed as anything but Imperial Guards.”
“This is unusual?”
“Not perhaps unusual, Sire, but ‘escalated.’ This young Brother seems to have the servants of the Emperor most concerned.”
“The actions of the servants of our Emperor can never be explained. Does your work go well?”
“Very well, Sire. This should be the most productive year ever. May I ask if you have heard the rumor that his Imperial Highness, in his wisdom, is considering outlawing coastal traffic in an effort to ‘combat the pirates’?”
“I have heard this, though Jaku Katta-sum was here this morning and said nothing of it. Do you think it’s true?”
“I hope not, Sire. It would have a great effect upon you and your allies. I believe that the Province of Seh would also feel the effects of such a law. Strange that this single action could be so entirely selective in whom it affects, yeh? Of course, we could survive it for a year, but even that would begin to tax us, and your allies—they would either be ruined or no longer allies. Personally, I believe we should consider other methods of dealing with this situation, if it arises.”
“Other methods? Please continue, Tanaka-sum.”
The merchant looked steadily at his lord for a second before speaking. “I make it my business to watch out for merchants who represent…powerful factions in Wa. If your interests are affected, I personally believe it would only be karma if these merchants I refer to were to be affected equally.
; “If the pirates are deprived of coastal traffic to prey upon, they will no doubt be forced to turn to sea traffic. More difficult for them but not impossible, especially if they were to have certain intelligence, yeh? And there are ways of importing goods other than those sanctioned by the Son of Heaven.”
“But those are outlawed and the penalty is death. Dangerous, yeh?”
“If you or your representative were to do so, Sire, certainly that would be dangerous, but others have their own business, their own karma.”
“And how soon could these other methods be employed?”
“Tomorrow, Sire.”
“Ah! So you have been anticipating this change in Imperial policy, old friend.”
“It is my duty to guard your interests to the best of my ability, Sire. To that end, I make sure I hear rumors at their origin.”
Shonto laughed and clapped his hands once, loudly. A screen opened to his right. “Bring cha for my guest and me.
“You are a most valuable man, Tanaka-sum. I think you should have a large estate on my fief to retire to when you are ready to rest. And your young son, the one with all the curiosity, if you approve, he shall go into my officer corps.”
The merchant bowed formally, overwhelmed by the suddenness of these gifts. “Agree? Of course! How could I refuse these honors. I accept on my son’s behalf. He shall make a fine officer, Sire, I’m sure of it. Thank you.”
Shonto shrugged. Cha arrived in steaming pots and separate tables were set for the two men, a servant kneeling by each, but Shonto waved them away. “We will pour for ourselves.”
When the shoji closed, Shonto leaned toward his guest. “So tell me about our young Brother.”
“Ah.” Tanaka lifted the lid of his tea pot to smell the steeping herb. “He is indeed something special, something out of the ordinary. You received my report of his sea crossing?”
“I read it while you bathed.”
The vassal-merchant shook his head. “Strange, the man committing suicide like that—the Emperor’s man. He had nothing to lose offering the poison to Shuyun-sum, yet he chose not to.” The merchant looked up, catching the lord’s eye. “He is a magnetic young man, Sire. He has that quiet strength all the Brothers have…but to a greater extent. He has…” Tanaka groped for words.
The Initiate Brother Duology Page 13