Would she have the cleverness to pillow with another man, to take his seed, then obliterate this same man to safeguard herself? Not once but twice?
Could she be so treacherous? Oh, yes.
Marry Ochiba? Never.
"I'm honored that you would make such a suggestion," Toranaga said.
"You're a man, Tora-chan. You could handle such a woman easily. You're the only man in the Empire who could, neh? She would make a marvelous match for you. Look how she fights to protect her son's interests now, and she's only a defenseless woman. She'd be a worthy wife for you."
"I don't think she would ever consider it."
"And if she did?"
"I would like to know. Privately. Yes, that would be an inestimable honor. " "Many people believe that only you stand between Yaemon and the succession."
"Many people are fools."
"Yes. But you're not, Toranaga-sama. Neither is the Lady Ochiba."
Nor are you, my Lady, he thought.
In the darkest part of the night the assassin came over the wall into the garden. He was almost invisible. He wore close-fitting black clothes and his tabi were black, and a black cowl and mask covered his head. He was a small man and he ran noiselessly for the front of the stone inner fortress and stopped just short of the soaring walls. Fifty yards away two Browns guarded the main door. Deftly he threw a cloth-covered hook with a very thin silk rope attached to it. The hook caught on the stone ledge of the embrasure. He shinned up the rope, squeezed through the slit, and disappeared inside.
The corridor was quiet and candle-lit. He hurried down it silently, opened an outside door, and went out onto the battlements. Another deft throw and a short climb and he was into the corridor above. The sentries that were on the corners of the battlements did not hear him though they were alert.
He pressed into an alcove of stone as other Browns walked by quietly, on patrol. When they had passed, he slipped along the length of this passageway. At the corner he stopped. Silently he peered around it. A samurai was guarding the far door. Candles danced in the quiet. The guard was sitting cross-legged and he yawned and leaned back against the wall and stretched. His eyes closed momentarily. Instantly, the assassin darted forward. Soundlessly. He formed a noose with the silk rope in his hands, dropped it over the guard's neck and jerked tight. The guard's fingers tried to claw the garrote away but he was already dying. A short stab with the knife between the vertebrae as deft as a surgeon's and the guard was motionless.
The man eased the door open. The audience room was empty, the inner doors unguarded. He pulled the corpse inside and closed the door again. Unhesitatingly he crossed the space and chose the inner left door. It was wood and heavily reinforced. The curved knife slid into his right hand. He knocked softly.
"'In the days of the Emperor Shirakawa...'" he said, giving the first part of the password.
From the other side of the door there was a sibilance of steel leaving a scabbard and the reply, "...there lived a wise man called Enraku-ji...'"
"'...who wrote the thirty-first sutra." I have urgent dispatches for Lord Toranaga.", The door swung open and the assassin lunged forward. The knife went upward into the first samurai's throat just below the chin and came out as fast and buried itself identically into the second of the guards. A slight twist and out again. Both men were dead on their feet. He caught one and let him slump gently; the other fell, but noiselessly. Blood ran out of them onto the floor and their bodies twitched in the throes of death.
The man hurried down this inner corridor. It was poorly lit. Then a shoji opened. He froze, slowly looked around.
Kiri was gaping at him, ten paces away. A tray was in her hands.
He saw that the two cups on the tray were unused, the food untouched. A thread of steam came from the teapot. Beside it, a candle spluttered. Then the tray was falling and her hands went into her obi and emerged with a dagger, her mouth worked but made no sound, and he was already racing for the corner. At the far end a door opened and a startled, sleep-drenched samurai peered out.
The assassin rushed toward him and tore open a shoji on his right that he sought. Kiri was screaming and the alarm had sounded, and he ran, sure-footed in the darkness, across this anteroom, over the waking women and their maids, into the innermost corridor at the far side.
Here it was pitch dark but he groped along unerringly to find the right door in the gathering furor. He slid the door open and jumped for the figure that lay on the futon. But his knife arm was caught by a viselike grip and now he was thrashing in combat on the floor. He fought with cunning, broke free, and slashed again but missed, entangled with the quilt. He hurled it off and threw himself at the figure, knife poised for the death thrust. But the man twisted with unexpected agility and a hardened foot dug into his groin. Pain exploded in him as his victim darted for safety.
Then samurai were crowding the doorway, some with lanterns, and Naga, wearing only a loincloth, his hair tousled, leapt between him and Blackthorne, sword on high.
"Surrender!"
The assassin feinted once, shouted, "Namu Amida Butsu-" In the Name of the Buddha Amida - turned the knife on himself and with both hands thrust it up under the base of his chin. Blood spurted and he slumped to his knees. Naga slashed once, his sword a whirling arc, and the head rolled free.
In the silence Naga picked the head up and ripped off the mask. The face was ordinary, the eyes still fluttering. He held the head, hair dressed like a samurai, by its topknot.
"Does anyone know him?"
No one answered. Naga spat in the face, threw the head angrily to one of his men, tore open the black clothes and lifted the man's right arm, and found what he was looking for. The small tattoo - the Chinese character for Amida, the special Buddha - was etched in the armpit.
"Who is officer of the watch?"
"I am, Lord." The man was white with shock.
Naga leaped at him and the others scattered. The officer made no attempt to avoid the ferocious sword blow which took off his head and part of his shoulder and one arm.
"Hayabusa-san, order all samurai from this watch into the courtyard," Naga said to an officer. "Double guards for the new watch. Get the body out of here. The rest of you are-" He stopped as Kiri came to the doorway, the dagger still in her hand. She looked at the corpse, then at Blackthorne.
"The Anjin-san's not hurt?" she asked.
Naga glanced at the man who towered over him, breathing with difficulty. He could see no wounds or blood. Just a sleep - tousled man who had almost been killed. White-faced but no outward fear. "Are you hurt, Pilot?"
"I don't understand."
Naga went over and pulled the sleeping kimono away to see if the pilot had been wounded.
"Ah, understand now. No. No hurt," he heard the giant say and he saw him shake his head.
"Good," he said. "He seems unhurt, Kiritsubo-san."
He saw the Anjin-san point at the body and say something. "I don't understand you," Naga replied. "Anjin-san, you stay here," and to one of the men he said, "Bring him some food and drink if he wants it."
"The assassin, he was Amida-tattooed, neh?" Kiri asked.
"Yes, Lady Kiritsubo."
"Devils - devils."
" Yes."
Naga bowed to her then looked at one of the appalled samurai. "You follow me. Bring the head!" He strode off, wondering how he was going to tell his father. Oh, Buddha, thank you for guarding my father.
"He was a ronin," Toranaga said curtly. "You'll never trace him, Hiro-matsu-san. "
"Yes. But Ishido's responsible. He had no honor to do this, neh? None. To use these dung-offal assassins. Please, I beg you, let me call up our legions now. I'll stop this once and for all time."
"No." Toranaga looked back at Naga. "You're sure the Anjin-san's not hurt?"
"No, Sire."