"No, Sire. No, I don't think so."
"How many were there?"
"About two hundred samurai, with porters and baggage horses. Twice that number of Grays escorting them. One of the baggage horses had panniers of carrier pigeons."
"Good. Next?"
"As soon as I was able, I left. There's a noodle shop near the Mission that many merchants, rice and silk brokers, Mission people use. I - I went there and ate and listened. The Father-Visitor is again in residence here. Many more converts in Osaka area. Permission has been granted for a huge Mass in twenty days, in honor of Lords Kiyama and Onoshi."
"Is that important?"
"Yes, and astonishing for such a service to be permitted openly. It is to celebrate the Feast of Saint Bernard. Twenty days is the day after the Obeisance Ceremony before the Exalted."
Yabu had told Blackthorne about the Emperor through Uraga. The news had swept through the whole ship, increasing everyone's premonition of disaster.
"What else?"
"In the marketplace many rumors. Most ill-omened. Yodoko-sama, the Taiko's widow, is very sick. That's bad, Anjin-san, because her counsel is always listened to and always reasonable. Some say Lord Toranaga is already near Nagoya, others say he's not yet reached Odawara, so no one knows what to believe. All agree the harvest will be terrible this year, here in Osaka, which means the Kwanto becomes even more greatly important. Most people think civil war will begin as soon as Lord Toranaga's dead, at which time the great daimyos will begin to fight among themselves. The price of gold is very high and interest rates up to seventy percent which-"
"That's impossibly high, you must be mistaken." Blackthorne got up and eased his back, then leaned wearily against the gunwale. Politely Uraga and all samurai got up too. It would have been bad manners for them to sit while their master stood.
"Please excuse me, Anjin-san," Uraga was saying, "it's never less than fifty percent, and usually sixty-five to seventy, even eighty. Almost twenty years ago the Father-Visitor petitioned the Holy Fa - petitioned the Pope, to allow us-to allow the Society to lend at ten percentage. He was right that his suggestion - it was approved, Anjin-san - would bring lusters to Christianity and many converts for, of course, only Christians could get loans, which were always modest. You don't pay such highs in your country?"
"Rarely. That's usury! You understand 'usury'?"
"I understand the word, yes. But usury would not begin for us under one hundred percentage. I was going to tell you also now rice is very expensive and that's a bad omen - it's double what it was when I was here a few weeks ago. Land is cheap. Now would be a good time to buy land here. Or a house. In the tai fun and fires perhaps ten thousand homes die, and two, three thousand people. That's all, Anjin-san."
"That's very good. You've done very well. You've missed your real vocation!"
"Sire?"
"Nothing," Blackthorne said, not yet knowing how far he could tease Uraga. "You've done very well."
"Thank you, Sire."
Blackthorne thought a moment, then asked him about the function tomorrow and Uraga advised him as best he could. Finally Uraga told him about his escape from the patrol.
"Would your hair have given you away?" Blackthorne asked.
"Oh yes. Enough for them to take me to their officer." Uraga wiped the sweat off his forehead. "So sorry, it's hot, neh?"
"Very," Blackthorne agreed politely, and let his mind sift the information. He glanced seaward, unconsciously checking the sky and sea and wind. Everything was fine and orderly, the fishing boats complacently drifting with the tide, near and far, a spearman in the prow of each under a lantern stabbing down from time to time, and most always bringing up a fine bream or mullet or red snapper that curled and twisted on the spike.
"One last thing, Sire. I went to the Mission - all around the Mission. The guards were very alert and I could never get in there - at least, I don't think so, not unless I went past one of them. I watched for a while, but before I left I saw Chimmoko, Lady Toda's maid, go in."
"You're sure?"
"Yes. Another maid was with her. I think-"
"Lady Mariko? Disguised?"
"No, Sire. I'm sure it was not - this second maid was too tall."
Blackthorne looked seaward again and murmured, half to himself, "What's the significance of that?"
"Lady Mariko is Chris - she's Catholic, neh? She knows the Father-Visitor very well. It was he who converted her. Lady Mariko is the most very important Lady, the most famous in the realm, after the three highest nobility: the Lady Ochiba, the Lady Genjiko, and Yodoko-sama, the wife of the Taiko."
"Mariko-san might want Confession? Or a Mass? Or a conference? She sent Chimmoko to arrange them?"
"Any or all, Anjin-san. All ladies of the daimyos, both of friends to the Lord General and of those who might oppose him, are confined very much to the castle, neh? Once in, they stay in, like fish in a golden bowl, waiting to be speared."
"Leave it! Enough of your doom talk."
"So sorry. Even so, Anjin-san, I think now the Lady Toda will come out no more. Until the nineteenth day."
"I told you to leave it! I understand about hostages and a last day." It was quiet on deck, all their voices muted. The guard was resting easily, waiting out their watch. Small water lapped the hull and the ropes creaked pleasantly.
After a moment, Uraga said, "Perhaps Chimmoko brought a summons - a request for the Father-Visitor to go to her. She was surely under guard when she crossed First Bridge. Surely Toda Mariko-noh-Buntaro-noh-Jinsai was under guard from the first moments she crossed from Lord Toranaga's borders. Neh?"
"Can we know if the Father-Visitor goes to the castle?"
"Yes. That is easy."
"How to know what's said - or what's done?"
"That is very hard. Very sorry, but they would speak Portuguese or Latin, neh? And who speaks both but you and me? I would be recognized by both." Uraga motioned at the castle and at the city. "There are many Christians there. Any would gain great favor by removing you, or me-neh?"
Blackthorne did not answer. No answer was needed. He was seeing the donjon etched against the stars and he remembered Uraga telling him about the legendary, limitless treasure it protected, the Taiko's plunder - levy of the Empire. But now his mind was on what Toranaga might be doing and thinking and planning, and exactly where Mariko was and what was the use of going on to Nagasaki. 'Then you're saying the nineteenth day is the last day, a death day, Yabu-san?' he had repeated, almost nauseated by the knowledge that the trap was sprung on Toranaga. And therefore on him and Erasmus.
'Shigata ga nai! We go quickly Nagasaki and back again. Quick, understand? Only four days to get men. Then come back.'
'But why? When Toranaga here, all die, neh?' he had said. But Yabu had gone ashore, telling him that the day after tomorrow they would leave. In a ferment he had watched him go, wishing that he had brought Erasmus and not the galley. If he had had Erasmus he knew that he would have somehow bypassed Osaka and headed straight for Nagasaki, or even more probably, he would have limped off over the horizon to find some snug harbor and taken time out from eternity to train his vassals to work the ship.
You're a fool, he flayed himself. With the few crew you've got now you couldn't have docked her here, let alone found that harbor to wait out the devil storm. You'd be dead already.
"No worry, Sire. Karma, " Uraga was saying.
"Aye. Karma." Then Blackthorne heard danger seaward and his body moved before his mind ordered it and he was twisting as the arrow swooshed past, missed him fractionally to shudder into the bulkhead. He lunged at Uraga to pull him down to safety as another arrow of the same volley hissed into Uraga's throat, impaling him, and then they were both cowering in safety on the deck, Uraga shrieking and samurai shouting and peering over the gunwale out to sea. Grays from the shore guard poured aboard. Another volley came out of the night from the sea and everyone scattered for cover. Blackthorne crawled to the gunwale and peeped through a scupper and saw a nearby fishing boat dousing its flare to vanish into the darkness. All the boats were doing the same, and for a split second he saw scullers pulling away frantically, light glinting off swords and bows.
Uraga's shrieking subsided into a burbling, gut-shattering agony as Grays rushed on to the quarterdeck, bows ready, the whole ship now in an uproar. Vinck came on deck fast, pistol ready, ducked over as he ran. "Christ, what's going on - you all right, Pilot?"
"Yes. Watch out - they're in the fishing boats!" Blackthorne slithered back to Uraga, who was clawing at the shaft, blood seeping from his nose and mouth and ears.
"Jesus," Vinck gasped.
Blackthorne took hold of the arrow's barb with one hand and put his other on the warm, pulsing flesh and pulled with all his strength. The arrow came out cleanly but in its wake blood gushed in a pumping stream. Uraga began to choke.