Yoshi grunted, part from pleasure, part from an ice pick of anxiety that he might contract the same--who knows how or from where--or have it already in his innards waiting to fell him. "How long will he live?"
"Months, perhaps a year, not more. But you should be doubly on guard, Sire, because my informant says that while the body rots with no outward blemishes, the mind does not, just twists into dangerously implacable routes."
Like the stupid decision to permit the Princess to dominate, Yoshi thought, his head buzzing with what he had been told. "Next?"
"Next, Sire, about the shishi who attacked and assassinated Lord Utani and his paramour.
They were led by the same Choshu shishi who attacked Lord Anjo--Hiraga."
"The one whose likeness was sent to all barriers?"
"Yes Sire, Rezan Hiraga, at least that's what the captured shishi said the man's name was before dying. It is probably false. Another of his aliases is Otani."
"You have caught him?" Yoshi said hopefully.
"No, Sire, not yet, and unfortunately we have lost all trace of him so he must be elsewhere.
Possibly Kyoto." Inejin dropped his voice even more. "Rumor has it there is going to be another shishi attack in Kyoto. Many are believed to be collecting there. Many of them."
"What sort of attack? An assassination?"
"No one knows, yet. Possibly another coup attempt. The shishi leader with a code name, "the Raven," is said to have issued the summons.
I am trying to find out who he is."
"Good. One way or another shishi must be wiped out." Yoshi thought a moment. "Could their venom be directed against Ogama, or Sanjiro, the Emperor's real enemies?"
"Difficult, Sire."
"Have you discovered who told the shishi about Utani? About his secret tryst?"
After a pause Inejin said, "It was the Lady's maid, Sire, who whispered to the mama-san who whispered to them."
Yoshi sighed. "And the Lady?" "The Lady appears to be blameless, Sire."
Yoshi sighed again, pleased that Koiko was not involved, but deep inside, he was unconvinced.
"The maid is with us now--I will deal with her.
Make sure the mama-san suspects nothing, she be dealt with when I return. Have you discovered the other spy, the one feeding gai-jin with information?"
"Not for certain, Sire. I'm told the traitor is, or his alias is Ori, I don't know his full name but he's a Satsuma shishi, one of Sanjiro's men, one of the two Tokaido killers."
"Inept to kill one when four were such easy targets. Where is the traitor now?"
"Somewhere in the Yokohama Settlement, sire. He has become a secret confidant of both the young English interpreter and the Frenchman you told me about."
"Ah, him too." Yoshi thought a moment.
"Silence this Ori at once." Inejin bowed, accepting the order. "Next?"
"That ends my report."
"Thank you. You have done well." Yoshi finished the tea, deep in thought. Moonlight cast strange shadows.
The old man broke the silence. "Your bath is prepared, Sire, and you must be hungry.
Everything is ready."
"Thank you, but the night is good so I will go on at once. There's much to do at Dragon's Tooth. Captain!"
Quickly everyone assembled--Koiko and her maid hastily changed back into travelling clothes and she reentered her palanquin. With due deference, Inejin, his household, maids and servants bowed their guest on his way.
"What about all the food we prepared?" his wife, a round-faced, tiny woman, also of samurai descent, asked hesitantly, delicacies she had hastily but correctly bought at vast cost to tempt their liege lord on this sudden visit--more than three months of their profit for the single meal.
"We will eat it." Inejin watched the cortege trotting away through the sleeping village until it was gone. "It was good to see him, a great honor."
"Yes," she said and dutifully followed him back inside.
The night was gentle, enough moonlight to see by.
Beyond the village the dirt road twisted northwards through the trees, villages every few miles, all the land around well explored by Yoshi since childhood. It was quiet. No one journeyed at this time of night, except robbers, ronin or elite. They forded a brook, the land more open here. On the other side he called a halt, beckoning the captain.
"Sire?" the Captain asked.
To their growing excitement, Yoshi twisted in his saddle and pointed east and south, back towards the coast. "I am changing my plan," he said as though it was a sudden decision and not one planned over many days. "Now we go that way, to the Tokaido, but we bypass the first three barriers, then cut back onto the Road just after dawn."
There was no need to ask where they were heading.
"Forced march, Sire?"
"Yes. No further talking. Lead off!" A hundred and twenty leagues, ten or eleven days, he thought. Then Kyoto and the Gates.
My Gates.
YOKOHAMA In the late afternoon of the same day Hiraga ducked into the lee of a shack on the edge of Drunk Town where a small, grimy sailor waited nervously. "Gimme the money, mate," the man said. "You got it, eh?"
"Yes. Gun p'rease?"
"One day you's a toff, now you's a poxy nuffink." The man was grizzled-faced and suspicious, a wicked knife in his belt, another in a forearm holster. When Hiraga had first talked to him on the beach, he had been wearing his Tyrer-arranged clothes. Today he wore a dirty laborer's woolen smock, coarse trousers and scuffed boots. "Wot's yor game?"
Hiraga shrugged, not understanding him. "Gun, p'rease."
"Gun is it? I's the gun right enough." The shifty little eyes darted around, across the weed-infested, scrap heap strewn area between Drunk Town and the Japanese village-- called No Man's Land by the locals--but could sense no alien watchers. "Where's brass?" he said sullenly, "The money for crissake, the Mex!"
Hiraga reached into the pocket of the smock, everything feeling uncomfortable and outlandish, the clothes bought especially for today. Three Mexican silver dollars glittered in his hand.