by I. J. Parker
“Yoshimine Taketsuna.”
The shrimp’s eyes grew round. “Two names. A gentleman. No wonder you act like you own the place. How come they sent you here?”
“I killed someone.”
“Ah!” They looked at each other and nodded understanding.
Introductions followed. The small man with the bandages was Jisei; he had just returned from a work detail digging tunnels deep into the earth and bringing out rocks. His knees and elbows had become infected after a year’s crawling on all fours. “I’ll be reassigned now,” he told Taketsuna importantly. “Maybe I’ll even get to go home.” He looked away, across the top of the stockade, a dreamy smile on his lined face.
Haseo, a huge burly man, spat. The others introduced him; apparently he rarely spoke himself and appeared to take little interest in the conversation. They only knew his name and imagined that he, too, must be a convicted killer. Haseo did not correct them.
They passed the long hot afternoon in desultory conversation interspersed with naps.
The two big fellows, one crippled with a badly set leg, the other one-eyed, were pirates, Kumaso and Yoshi. They passed the time telling of adventure at sea, of stolen treasure, monsters of the deep, and apparitions of floating fairies. According to Jisei, they also had an uncanny talent for predicting the weather.
Jisei, the shrimp, had been on Sadoshima longest, having been sent here for stealing a golden scepter from the hand of a temple statue.
All of them awaited reassignment, though none was as optimistic as Jisei. They expected to be put to work building roads, digging irrigation canals, building stockades, or repairing public buildings.
Taketsuna wanted to ask about Jisei’s strange tunneling when shouts sounded outside the gate. The guards rushed to throw open both sides of the double gate and stood to attention. A contingent of uniformed runners entered at a trot, carrying the banner of the governor of Sado. His Excellency followed on a fine horse, and more runners brought up the rear. “Make room for the governor!” shouted the frontrunners in unison, and the prisoners immediately prostrated themselves.
All but one, that is. Taketsuna wanted a good look at the man who ruled this island in the emperor’s name. The governor was an elderly man with a clean-shaven, intelligent face and eyes which roamed around the yard until they found the prisoners. For a moment he locked eyes with Taketsuna, then the new prisoner quickly prostrated himself with the rest. He had seen the expression on the other man’s face and wondered if he looked worse than he felt.
The governor’s visit was short and did not seem to concern the prisoners. The great man and his escort left after only the briefest stop in the guardhouse.
This was not the only excitement of the day, for an hour later there was another shout outside the gate. This time the guards were in no rush to admit the visitor. They exchanged some unintelligible words with someone outside and finally cracked the gate grudgingly to admit a fat man in the black robe of a minor official. He was followed by a ragged youngster with a bamboo case.
The fat man also cast a glance toward the prisoners and then waddled to the guardhouse.
“That’s the doctor,” Jisei informed Taketsuna. “Hope he looks at my knees. They been getting worse. What do you think?” Jisei lifted one of the stained rags around his knees.
Taketsuna looked and averted his eyes. A huge area of swollen, dirt-encrusted flesh, ringed by angry purplish red skin, oozed a bloody liquid and yellow pus. If Jisei did not get some medical attention soon, he would get a fever and die from the infection.
Moments later, one of the guards emerged from the guardhouse and strode briskly toward the prisoners. Jisei scrambled to his feet.
But the guard’s eye was on Taketsuna. “You,” he barked. “Get up. You’re to see the doctor.”
Taketsuna rose and followed him into the building, past disinterested guards, and into the far corner of the open space, where two screens of woven bamboo had been set up to create some privacy. The arrangement astonished the prisoner, but he was grateful for it. His present condition was still so novel that he found it difficult to put aside past habits of modesty.
The doctor proved, on closer inspection, less confidence-inspiring. The black gown was covered with stains, his fingernails were dirt-rimmed, and his eyes bleary and bloodshot.
“Harrumph,” said the doctor. “I’m Ogata, physician and medical officer for the prisoners. Was told to have a look at you. You’re Taketsuna? No family names here, I’m afraid. Strictly forbidden. You don’t look too good. What happened?”
“I’m all right. We ran into a storm coming over, and I’m not used to sailing. But there’s a man outside whose wounds have become infected.”
The doctor nodded, then stepped closer to peer at Taketsuna’s face. A strong smell of sour breath and wine assailed the prisoner’s nose and made him flinch.
“Hmm. I suppose the welcoming committee issued its usual warning,” the physician said, probing Taketsuna’s cheekbone and jaw with surprisingly gentle fingers. “Open your mouth.” He pursed his lips and shook his head. “Eating will be a bit painful for a while, but you should get over that.”
Taketsuna smiled a little, painfully. “So far there has been no food. Only water. I could eat raw greens at this point.” He wondered if the physician had heard his comment about little Jisei.
The physician cocked his head. “When did they feed you last?”
“A bowl of gruel on the ship after the storm. It was all the food I’ve had in three days. I was seasick.”
“No wonder you’re swaying on your feet. Never mind. You’ll get fed. And, as soon as I’ve checked the rest of you, you can sit down. Take off those filthy rags.”
The prisoner glanced at the doctor’s stained gown and smiled again, but he complied without protest.
“Heavens,” muttered the physician, stepping back and walking around the patient. “You’ve got muscles. Ever do any wrestling?”
“Just for exercise.”
“They’ll put you to hard labor if they see that. You’d better keep your clothes on at all times and slouch a bit when you walk.”
“What sort of labor?”
The physician was feeling the bruised ribs. “Roads. Dikes. Mines. Lifting and carrying rocks. Not healthy unless you’re used to it.” He moved around to the prisoner’s back and pressed near the lower spine. “Does this hurt?”
The prisoner shook his head, and the physician came around to face him again, prodding about the abdomen, asking about pain. Again the prisoner shook his head.
“You can get dressed now,” the doctor said, digging about in his medicine case and pulling forth a stoppered flask. “My guess is . . .” he said, pausing to take a long swig from the bottle before extending it to Taketsuna, “that you have never done a day’s hard physical work in your life, and the sort of forced labor the stronger prisoners do here will cripple or kill a man like you. Have you any skills?”
Taketsuna was holding the flask dubiously. The contents smelled like wine, and he wondered what it would do to his empty and painful stomach. “I can read and write,” he said. “I could do secretarial work or bookkeeping, I suppose.”
“If you’re not going to drink, give it back,” the doctor snapped crossly, extending his hand.
Taketsuna took a deep swallow and doubled over, coughing. The wine, if that was what it was, packed an incredible punch.
“Hmph,” commented the doctor, “not much of a stomach, either. Can’t imagine why they put someone with your background on the hard labor detail. I’ll see what I can do for you.” He raised the flask to his mouth and drank deeply, waving the prisoner out.
An hour later, when Taketsuna was sitting with the others in the shade of the wooden palisade again, the doctor emerged from the guardhouse in the company of the officer. The doctor’s gait was unsteady and his path less than straight, but he made his way over to them.
“That doctor’s as drunk as a frog in a sake barrel,” mutt
ered one of the pirates.
Jisei smiled. “That’s never stopped him before. He’ll look at me now. And maybe he’ll get us better food, like last time.”
The physician ignored Jisei’s eager greeting and merely looked at each man blearily, had them open their mouths and perform some simple actions, before moving on to the next man. When it was Jisei’s turn, he frowned at the wounds on his knees and arms and pursed his lips. But even here, he made no comment, merely digging a small earthenware jar from his medicine chest. Turning to the guard officer, he said, “All these men look filthy. Have them bathe, and then put this ointment on this man’s wounds.”
The officer stepped back, affronted. “What, me? You’re drunk! They’re prisoners, not honored guests.”
The doctor handed the ointment to Taketsuna. “Here, you do it.” To the guard, he said, “If you don’t keep these men clean and well fed, they’ll sicken and die, and nobody will get any work out of them. Do you want me to report you to the governor?”
“My men won’t like it,” grumbled the officer. Seeing the doctor’s implacable silence, he relented. “Oh, very well. They can have a bath if they heat the water and clean the bath afterwards.”
“And food!”
“Of course, Master Ogata. We’ll sauté some kisu fish for them, with ginger shoots and sesame seeds,” the officer sneered. “Perhaps you can spare some of your wine for their banquet?”
The fat physician hunched his shoulders, then turned his back on them and staggered off.
But they got their bath and a hot dinner. Taketsuna appreciated both far more than the others and was grateful for the drunken physician’s visit. From snatches of conversation among the prisoners, he gathered that forced labor could be brutal and hoped he might be spared that. Not only Jisei, whose wounds he had tended after the bath, bore the scars of his toils. There was also Yoshi’s missing eye, lost when a guard’s whip caught him across the face instead of the back, and Kumaso’s crooked ankle, broken and badly set after a rock fell on it. And the bath had revealed that the silent Haseo’s back was so heavily scarred by crisscrossing stripes and welts that he must have been near death after his punishment.
With darkness they drew closer together against the night chill. Kumaso and Yoshi engaged in a game of “rock, scissors, paper” like two carefree children. Taketsuna thought with longing of his distant family.
The stars above were particularly clear tonight. He lay back, his arms folded under his head against the sharp bits of gravel, and wondered if he would get used to his new life, used to sleeping on the hard, cold ground without cover and under the open sky, used to humiliation and rough physical labor, used to beatings. The last was the most difficult, a disgrace impossible to be borne without retaliation. He wished for the warmth of silken quilts, but being tired, he dozed off.
The discomfort of the cold night and the hard soil beneath him woke him somewhat later. Two of his companions were whispering softly.
“Forget it. It’s too dangerous. They might find out.”
The other man made some inaudible protest.
“Lot of good that’ll do you, when you’re dead. You know what they say about the Second Prince’s murder.”
Startled, Taketsuna sat up. The whispering stopped. “Who was that?” he asked softly. “Who was talking?”
Silence.
He reached over and shook the shoulder of the sleeper next to him. The man grunted and sat up with a curse. “What the devil d’you want? Can’t a man have a little peace at night?” he complained sleepily.
At the gate the dozing guards came awake. “Quiet over there,” one of them shouted, “or we’ll give you what for, you lousy pieces of dung.”
Taketsuna whispered an apology, lay back down, and closed his eyes. He did not have much chance to sleep, because a short time later someone arrived to pick up the new prisoner.
The sleepy guards grumbled but seemed resigned to comings and goings all day and night. Taketsuna was chained again and walked off behind a burly guard. This time they entered the city. The streets were silent, and the shops shuttered. Moonlight lit their way. The prisoner shivered in the cool night breeze and tried to suppress his nervousness. Mano extended from the flat shore of the bay halfway up the encircling hills, and the provincial headquarters rose well above the rest of the city, with a commanding view of its many roofs and the shimmering silver of the bay and ocean beyond. Taketsuna risked a glance backward, as they climbed the wide stairs to the gate leading into the government compound, and was struck by the extraordinary beauty of a scene in such sharp contrast to the misery of certain of Sadoshima’s inhabitants.
The government compound was smaller than those Taketsuna had known in his former life, but it seemed in good repair and had the usual separate courtyards surrounding buildings of various sizes. The governor’s residence occupied a tree-shaded section just beyond the tribunal and archives. Except for the guards on night duty at the main gate and at the gate to the governor’s quarters, the compound lay deserted. Their arrival was barely noted. Taketsuna’s guard saluted the guards at the gate and led his prisoner past the tribunal to a smaller building just behind it. Here another pair of guards nodded them through the doorway. They walked down a long hallway lit by flickering oil lamps and stopped in front of a pair of wide doors. The guard knocked. Someone called out, “Enter!” and they stepped into a large room which was bare except for a desk and the seated figure of the governor.
The guard stood to attention, and Taketsuna knelt, touching his face to the polished floor.
“Take his chains off!” The governor’s voice sounded remote. His tone was clipped and his speech cultured, but there was an abruptness and tension in his voice that made Taketsuna uneasy.
He felt the guard’s hands remove his chains but did not change his position.
“You may leave. Tell the guards outside that I do not wish to be disturbed.”
They must think the governor either a very brave man or a foolish one, thought Taketsuna. A desperate and violent criminal could easily make a hostage of him and bargain his way to freedom.
The door slammed behind the guard, and they were alone. A rustle of silk; then soft steps approached and passed Taketsuna. There was the click of a latch falling into place, then the stockinged steps returned and paused next to the kneeling Taketsuna. A hand fell on his shoulder.
“My dear fellow, please rise. It is quite safe now. We are alone.”
CHAPTER THREE
A CANDLE IN THE WIND
The governor was nearly as tall as the prisoner, but age had bent his back a little. The black cap did not hide the gray of his hair, or his robe of office the weariness on his lined face. In the candlelight his eyes looked deeply sunken as they searched the convict’s features anxiously. “You are the person who has been sent . . . I mean, you are the man known as Yoshimine Taketsuna?”
Thinking the governor’s tone and manner odd, the prisoner said cautiously, “Yes.”
“I was informed of your coming. The captain of your ship brought me a letter from . . . someone of very high rank. It told me that you were to help me in my present difficulties.”
The prisoner sighed. “May I see the letter, please?” he asked.
The governor fished it from his sash and passed it over. “My dear Sugawara,” he said earnestly, “I cannot tell you how sorry I am to see you like this.”
Akitada, who had been accustoming himself to the role of the convict Taketsuna, was angry. He looked around the room, bare except for the desk, a tall candle, two silk cushions, and four large lacquer trunks, and then went to throw open one panel of the sliding doors to the outside. A tiny landscape of rock, pebbles, lantern, and a few shrubs had been squeezed between the governor’s room and a high, blank wall. It was too small for anyone to hide in. He closed the door again and faced the governor.
“You should have destroyed this,” he said, after glancing at the short letter. “Please do it now.” He waited as the other
man held the letter into the candle flame until it grayed, shriveled, and became dust. “Our meeting,” Akitada continued, “is dangerous. But since I am here, and you are informed of my purpose, I suppose you had better tell me what you know.” Reaching up to the collar of his stained robe, he picked at a seam. After a moment, he eased a thinly folded sheet of paper from between the layers of fabric and extended it to the governor, who unfolded it and read quickly before raising it reverently to his forehead.
With a deep bow, he returned the document. “Yes, quite in order. The vermilion seal and the seals of His Majesty’s private office. I am deeply honored. As you saw, my letter instructed me to assist you in investigating the murder of the Second Prince. But my son—” He broke off and looked away. His thin hands, folded across his chest, clenched and unclenched convulsively.
Akitada said more gently, “Let us sit down.”
Mutobe looked flustered. “Yes, of course. Please forgive me. The past week has been terrible, terrible.” After they had seated themselves on the cushions—they were of good quality and not at all worn like those in Echigo—he looked at Akitada with deep concern. “Your face . . . I blame myself, but I could not prevent it.”
Akitada waved the apology away. “It is nothing.”
“Welcome to Sado, such as it is,” the governor said, still dubiously, “though, of course, you may not wish to continue with this dangerous impersonation now.”
“Why? Has the situation changed?”
“No. If anything . . . but heavens, sir . . .”
Akitada raised a hand in warning. “No names and no honorifics. I am a convict called Yoshimine Taketsuna.”
The governor swallowed and continued, “I cannot protect you. Not only is my administration compromised by the murder charge against my son, but now my son’s life is in danger. I dare not take any actions against my enemies.” He smiled bitterly. “It was my fault for attempting to curb Kumo and his minions. Now they are planning to get rid of me. The central government considers this island no more than a prison colony. The law here is enforced by the police, whose commander is a government appointee but works for Kumo, and by the high constable, who thinks he is responsible to no one but himself. So you see, your scheme is much too dangerous. A matter of life and death.”