"This is to remind you of your oath, my son: that you will carry this blade with honor, that you will use only this blade to commit seppuku, that you will only commit seppuku to avoid capture on a battlefield, or if the Shogun orders it and the Council of Elders confirms the order unanimously. All other reasons are insufficient while the Shogunate is in jeopardy."
A terrible sentence, he thought, and lay back on his bed, safe for the moment in this room high up in his castle quarters where he had had so much pleasure. His eyes went back to the short sword. Today his need was very great. In his imagination he had rehearsed the act so many times that it would be so smooth and kind and releasing. Soon Anjo will send men to arrest me and that will be my excuse...
His sharp ears heard footsteps. Marching feet. His hands took up the short sword and the long sword and he was in defend-attack position.
"Sire?"
He recognized Abeh's voice. That did not mean safety, Abeh could have a knife at his throat or Abeh could be a traitor--after Koiko everyone was suspect. "What is it?"
"The man Inejin begs to see you."
"Have you searched him?"
"Seriously."
Yoshi used the rope he had had rigged, allowing him to slide back the bolt on the reinforced door without moving.
Inejin, Abeh and four samurai waited there.
He relaxed. "Come in, Inejin." Abeh and the others of his personal guard started to follow.
"There's no need, but stay within calling."
His spymaster came in and closed the door, noticed the bolt arrangement but did not comment, and knelt ten paces away.
"You've found Katsumata?"
"He will be in Yedo within three days, Sire.
His first place of calling will be the House of Wisteria."
"That den of scorpions?" Yoshi had not closed the trap on mama-san Meikin to learn the real extent of the plot against him before taking vengeance--vengeance best savored calmly. And he did not yet feel calm. "Could we take him alive?"
Inejin smiled strangely. "I doubt it, but may I tell the story in my own way, Sire?" He settled his aching knee more comfortably. "First about the gai-jin: a development hoped for and encouraged since the beginning has happened. A gai-jin spy has offered their battle plans for money."
His attention soared. "Not false ones?"
"I do not know, Sire, but it was whispered they contained troop and ship movements. The price was modest, even so the Bakufu official did not buy at once and began to haggle and the seller became frightened. With Anjo at the head..." The cracked leather lips twisted with disgust at the name.
"He's baka, unworthy!--if the head is rotten the body is worse."
"I agree. Stupid."
Inejin nodded. "They forgot Sun-tzu again, sire: To remain in ignorance of the enemy's condition, begrudging the outlay of a few hundred ounces of silver is the height of inhumanity.
Fortunately an informant whispered about it to me."
Inejin took a scroll from his sleeve and put it on the table. Yoshi sighed, pleased. "So ka!"
"With the help of my informant, I bought it for you, a gift, Sire. Also at great risk to my informant, I substituted a false scroll the Bakufu eventually will buy cheaply."
Yoshi did not touch the scroll, only looked at it with anticipation. "Please allow me to reimburse you," he said. Inejin covered his vast relief for he had had to pledge their Inn to the Gyokoyama to obtain the money. "See my cashier today. Is the information to be trusted?"
Inejin shrugged. Both knew another of Sun-tzu's precepts: An inside spy is the most dangerous, one who sells secrets for money. It takes a man of genius to penetrate such. "My informant swears that the information is to be trusted and also the spy."
"And it says?"
"The gai-jin plan is frighteningly simple.
On Battle Day, ten days after their ultimatum is delivered--if not complied with--their whole fleet moves against Yedo. The first day the attack area is furthest from the coast, Sire, the extreme range of their heaviest cannon, designed to pulverize all bridges and roads leading out of Yedo--these are pinpointed, more knowledge given them no doubt by the traitor Hiraga. That night, by the light of the fires they have begun, they bombard the castle. The next day the coastal areas are decimated. On the third day they will land a thousand rifle soldiers and drive for the castle gates. There they will mount siege mortars and smash the gates and bridges and as much of the castle as they can. On the fifth day they retreat and sail away."
"To Yokohama?"
"No, Sire. The plan says they will evacuate all gai-jin the day before Battle Day and retreat to Hong Kong until the spring.
Then they will come back in force. The cost of the war-- as with their Chinese wars, and is their custom--will be doubled, and demanded as reparations from the Shogunate and the Emperor as well as complete access to all Nippon, including Kyoto and an island ceded in perpetuity, to cease hostilities."
Yoshi felt a chill. If these barbarians could humble all China, Mother of the World, eventually they would humble us, even us. Complete access?
"This ultimatum? What further impertinence is this?"
"It's not in the scroll, Sire, but the spy promised details, as well as the Battle Date and any changes."
"Whatever the cost, buy them--if true these could make a difference in the outcome."
"Possibly, Sire. Part of the information is about gai-jin countermeasures. Against our fire ships."
"But Anjo told me they are secret!"
"It's not secret to them. The Bakufu is a rice sieve for the interested, as well as corrupt, Sire."
"Names, Inejin, and I'll spike them."
"Begin today, Sire. Begin at the top."
"That's treason."
"But the truth, Sire. You enjoy truths, not lies, unlike any leader I have ever known."
Inejin moved his knees, the ache intolerable. "The matter of this spy is complicated, Sire. It was Meikin who told me about him ..." Yoshi grunted. "Yes, I agree. But Meikin told me, Meikin who diverted the intermediary from the Bakufu to me, Meikin who will substitute the false document, at great danger, for she must attest to its truth, Meikin who desperately wishes to prove her loyalty to you."
"Loyalty? When her house is a sanctuary for shishi, a meeting place for Katsumata, a training bed for traitors?"
"Meikin swears the Lady was never part of a plot against you, never. Nor was she."
"What else can she say--the maid was, eh?"