"Hurry up, I hate it here.
Climb!"
Equally uncomfortable, Hiraga eased his long sword in his belt. Ori backed nervously, gripping his sword hilt. Abruptly the two men faced each other, near safety perhaps, but nothing solved between them.
The match guttered and went out.
In the blackness they could no longer see each other. Without thinking each had at once retreated against the tunnel wall away from the lip.
Hiraga, more battle cunning, dropping to one knee, his hand on his hilt ready to slash the legs from under Ori if he attacked, listening intently for a sword sliding from its sheath.
"Hiraga!" Ori's voice rasped out of the black, well out of range, further away down the tunnel. "I want her dead, I will go after her--for sonno-joi and me. You want to stay.
Solve the problem."
Silently Hiraga stood. "You solve it," he hissed and at once, soundlessly, changed positions.
"I cannot. I cannot solve it, I have tried."
Hiraga hesitated, expecting a trick.
"First put your swords down."
"And then?"
"Next: because she obsesses you above sonno-joi, you will not be armed near me in Yokohama, you will leave for Kyoto tomorrow and tell Katsumata, he is your Satsuma leader. When you return we will do it, everything as you said."
"And if I do not return?"
"Then I will do it--in a time of my choosing."
The voice grated even more. "But she could leave, escape, neh? What if she leaves before I return?"
"I will make sure I hear about any move and will send you word. If you cannot be here in time, I will decide. She--and her husband if by then they're married--they will only go to Hong Kong. You--or we--can follow her there." He heard Ori's heavy breathing and waited, on guard against a sudden rush, knowing he could not trust Ori while she was alive and near but this seemed to be the best plan for the moment. Killing him would be a waste. I need his wisdom. "You agree?"
He waited. And waited. Then, "Yes.
What else?"
"Last: the cross, you will throw it down the well." Hiraga heard sudden, angry intake of breath. The silence grew.
"I agree, Hiraga-san. Please accept my apologies."
Then his sharp ears heard the slight sound of cloth being moved, something went past him and then the tiny sound of metal hitting the well wall behind him, almost immediately to vanish below. Sound of swords being grounded.
Hiraga lit a match. Indeed now Ori was standing defenseless. At once Hiraga darted forward, Ori rushed back in panic but Hiraga only collected the swords. Before the match died he had had time to throw the swords also into the well.
"Please obey me, Ori. Then you have nothing to fear. I will go first, wait till I call down to you."
The rungs were jagged with rust, some loose. The ascent was precarious. Then, far above, thankfully he saw the mouth of the well open to the sky, speckles of stars between clouds. Night sounds, wind and sea. Climbing again but more cautiously. It took all of his strength to ease himself up to the stone balustrade and peer around.
The abandoned well was near the canal fence, in a wasteland of weeds and derelict junk.
Seashore not far off. Broken-down houses, deep potholes in the dirt roadways. Snarl of a foraging dog nearby. Raucous voices singing on the wind. Now Hiraga had his bearings. They were in Drunk Town.
Friday, 17th October: In the morning light in Yedo Castle, Misamoto--the fisherman, fake samurai, and Yoshi's spy--was trembling on his knees in front of the alarmed Council of Elders, the English version of Sir William's reply shaking in his hand. Beside him cowered a Bakufu official.
"Speak up, fisherman!" Anjo, the chief Elder repeated, the audience room hushed and tense and chill. "Never mind if you don't understand all the Ing'erish words, we want to know if has the Bakufu official translated the message accurately? Is that what the gai-jin message says? Exactly?"
"It's, well, yes, more or less, yes, Sire," Misamoto mumbled, so frightened he could hardly speak. "It's as the lord Official... more or less, Sire... more ... or..."
"Have you seaweed for a tongue, fish offal for brains? Hurry up! Lord Toranaga says you can read Ing'erish--read!" An hour ago Anjo had been awakened by the unnerved Bakufu official who had brought Sir William's reply in Dutch and English. Hastily Anjo had convened a meeting of the Council where the official had just repeated his translation of the Dutch. "What does the paper say in Ing'erish?"
"Well, Sire, yes, it's, er..." Again Misamoto's voice died away, once more choked with panic.
Exasperated Anjo looked at Yoshi. "This fish head is your spy," he said with just the right amount of ice. "It was your idea to fetch him, please make him speak up."
"Tell us what the letter says, Misamoto,"
Yoshi said kindly, inwardly almost blind with frustration and anger. "No one is going to hurt you. In your own words. The truth."
"Well, Sire, it's more or less as... more or less as the lord Official said, Sire,"
Misamoto stuttered, "but this's, this letter's, I don't know all the words, Sire, but some of them ... well, well..." His face was twisted with fear.
Yoshi waited a moment. "Go on, Misamoto, don't be afraid, speak the truth, whatever it is. No one will touch you. We need the truth."
"Well, Sire, the gai-jin leader,"
Misamoto stammered, "He says he's going to Osaka in eleven days as the Official said, but not, not to make a, a "Ceremonial visit"..." He quailed under the strength of their eyes, so terrified that now his nose was running and saliva dribbled his chin, then he blurted out, "He's not at all happy in fact he's strongly angry and he's going... going to Osaka with his fleet, going in force to Kyoto with cannon, sixty-pounders, and cavalry and soldiers to see the Son of Heaven and the Lord Shogun--he's even named them, Sire, Emperor Komei and the boy Shogun, Nobusada."
Everyone gasped, even the guards-- normally impassive and not supposed to be listening. Misamoto shoved his head to the tatami and kept it there.
Yoshi pointed at the Bakufu official who blanched as all attention focused on him. "Is that correct?"
"Ceremonial visit, Sire? For your august ears that should be the correct translation ... the barbarian wording is rude and uncouth and should, I sincerely believe, be correctly construed as a Ceremonial, State visit, an--"
"Does it say with "cannon and cavalry" and such?"
"In principle, Sire, the lett--"
To everyone's shock, Yoshi almost shouted, "Yes or no?"
The Official swallowed, aghast that he was ordered to answer so directly, the first time in his life, and appalled that he was being challenged and ordinary rules and manners and the niceties of diplomacy were being disregarded. "I regret to inform you that in principle, it does mention those but such an impertinence is clearly a mistake and--"
"Why did you not translate accurately?"