Blackthorne saw the smile on the thick lips, the pugnacious stance, and suddenly he was back at Anjiro, back on the beach on his knees, Croocq in the cauldron, Pieterzoon's screams ringing in his ears, the stench of the pit in his nostrils, and his mind was shouting, 'So unnecessary all that - all the suffering and terror and Pieterzoon and Spillbergen and Maetsukker and the jail and eta and trapped and all your fault!'
"Are you all right, Anjin-san?" Mariko asked, apprehensive at the look in his eyes.
"What? Oh - oh, yes. Yes, I'm all right."
"What's the matter with him?" Yabu said.
Blackthorne shook his head, trying to clear it and wash the hatred off his face. "So sorry. Please excuse me. I'm - I - it's nothing. Head bad - no sleep. So sorry." He stared back into Yabu's eyes, hoping he had covered his dangerous lapse. "Sorry Toranaga-sama sick - hope no trouble Yabu-sama. "
"No, no trouble. " Yabu was thinking, yes trouble, you're nothing but trouble and I've had nothing but trouble ever since you and your filthy ship arrived on my shores. Izu gone, my guns gone, all honor gone, and now my head forfeit because of a coward. "No trouble, Anjin-san," he said so nicely. "Toranaga-sama asked me to hand over your vassals to you as he promised." His eyes fell on Alvito. "So, Tsukku-san! Why are you enemy to Toranaga-sama?"
"I'm not, Kasigi Yabu-sama."
"Your Christian daimyos are, neh?"
"Please excuse me, Sire, but we are priests only, we're not responsible for the political views of those who worship the True Faith, nor do we exercise control over those daimyos who-" "The True Faith of this Land of the Gods is Shinto, together with the Tao, the Way of Buddha!"
Alvito did not answer. Yabu turned contemptuously away and snapped an order. The ragged group of samurai began to line up in front of the ship. Not one was armed. Some had their hands bound.
Alvito stepped forward and bowed. "Perhaps you will excuse me, Sire. I was to see Lord Toranaga. As he isn't coming-"
"Lord Toranaga wanted you here to interpret for him with the Anjin-san," Yabu interrupted with deliberate bad manners, as Toranaga had told him to do. "Yes, to interpret as you alone can do so cleverly, speaking directly and at once, neh? Of course you have no objection to doing for me what Lord Toranaga required, before you go?"
"No, of course not, Sire."
"Good. Mariko-san! Lord Toranaga asks that you see the Anjin-san's responses are equally correctly translated." Alvito reddened but held onto his temper.
"Yes, Sire," Mariko said, hating Yabu.
Yabu snapped another order. Two samurai went to the litter and returned with the ship's strongbox, heavy between them. "Tsukku-san, now you will begin: Listen, Anjin-san, firstly, Lord Toranaga's asked me to return this. It's your property, neh? Open it," he ordered the samurai. The box was brimful with silver coins. "This is as it was taken off the ship."
"Thank you." Blackthorne was hardly able to believe his eyes, for this gave him power to buy the very best crew, without promises.
"It is to be put in the ship's strong room."
"Yes, of course."
Yabu waved those samurai aboard. Then, to Alvito's growing fury as he continued with the almost simultaneous translating, Yabu said, "Next: Lord Toranaga says you are free to go, or to stay. When you are in our land you are samurai, hatamoto, and governed by samurai law. At sea, beyond our shores, you are as you were before you came here and governed by barbarian laws. You are granted the right for your lifetime to dock at any port in Lord Toranaga's control without search by port authorities. Last, these two hundred men are your vassals. He asked me to formally hand them over, with arms, as he promised."
"I can leave when and how I want?" Blackthorne asked with disbelief.
"Yes, Anjin-san, you can leave as Lord Toranaga has agreed."
Blackthorne stared at Mariko but she avoided his eyes, so he looked again at Yabu. "Could I leave tomorrow?"
"Yes, if you want to." Yabu added, "About these men. They're all ronin. All from the northern provinces. They've all agreed to swear eternal allegiance to you and your seed. All are good warriors. None has committed a crime that could be proved. All became ronin because their liege lords were killed, died, or were deposed. Many fought on ships against wako." Yabu smiled in his vicious way. "Some may have been wakos - you understand 'wako?'"
"Yes, Sire."
"Those who are bound are probably bandits or wako. They came forward as a band and volunteered to serve you fearlessly in return for a pardon for any past crimes. They've sworn to Lord Noboni who handpicked all these men for you on Lord Toranaga's orders - that they've never committed any crime against Lord Toranaga or any of his samurai. You can accept them individually, or as a group, or refuse them. You understand?"
"I can refuse any of them?"
"Why should you do that?" Yabu asked. "Lord Noboru pieked them carefully."
"Of course, so sorry," Blackthorne told Yabu wearily, conscious of the daimyo's growing ill humor. "I quite understand. But those who are bound - what happens if I refuse them?"
"Their heads will be hacked off. Of course. What's that got to do with anything?"
"Nothing. So sorry."
"Follow me." Yabu stalked over to the litter.
Blackthorne glanced at Mariko. "I can leave. You heard it!"
"Yes."
"That means. . . . It's almost like a dream. He said-"
"Anjin-san!"
Obediently Blackthorne hurried over to Yabu. Now the litter served as a dais. A clerk had set up a low table on which were scrolls. A little farther off, samurai guarded a pile of short swords and long swords, spears, shields, axes, bows and arrows, that porters were unloading from pack horses. Yabu motioned Blackthorne to sit beside him, Alvito just in front and Mariko on his other side. The clerk called out names. Each man came forward, bowed with great formality, gave his name and lineage, swore allegiance, signed his scroll, and sealed it with a drop of blood that the clerk ritually pricked from his finger. Each knelt to Blackthorne a final time, then got up and hurried to the armorer. First he was handed a killing sword, then the short one. Each accepted both blades with reverence and examined them meticulously, expressing pride at their quality, and shoved them into his sash with savage glee. Then he was issued other weapons and a war shield. When the men took up their new places, fully armed now, samurai again and no longer ronin, they were stronger and straighter and looked even more fierce.
Last were the thirty bound ronin. Blackthorne insisted on personally cutting the bonds of each. One by one they swore allegiance as had all the others: "On my honor as a samurai, I swear your enemies are my enemies, and total obedience."
After each man had sworn, he collected his weapons.
Yabu called out, "Uraga-noh-Tadamasa!"
The man stepped forward. Alvito was heartsick. Uraga - Brother Joseph - had been standing unnoticed among the samurai grouped nearby. He was unarmed and wore a simple kimono and bamboo hat. Yabu smirked at Alvito's discomposure and turned to Blackthorne.
"Anjin-san. This is Uraga-noh-Tadamasa. Samurai, now ronin. You recognize him? Understand 'recognize'?"
"Yes. Understand. Yes, recognize."
"Good. Once Christian priest, neh?"
"Yes."
"Now not. Understand? Now ronin."
"Understand, Yabu-sama."
Yabu watched Alvito. Alvito was staring fixedly at the apostate, who stared back with hatred. "Ah, Tsukku-san, you recognize him too?"
"Yes. I recognize him, Sire."