"Ah so sorry but truth is usually treasonous at your level, Lord--and very difficult to obtain." The weathered old face broke into a smile. "The truth: If you raise the Shogunate banner almost none, the daimyos here will not combine against Ogama of Choshu, not while he holds the Gates."
"How many samurai does Ogama have here?"
"They say over two thousand, handpicked men, all well placed in fortified guard houses around the palace, close to nominal guards on our Gates." Akeda smiled mirthlessly seeing Yoshi's eyes narrow. "Oh everyone knows it's against the law, but no one reminded him and no one has stood up to him. He's been sneaking them in in tens and twenties since he threw out that old fox Sanjiro, Katsumata and his Satsumas. You know they escaped by boat to Kagoshima?" He slid deeper into the water.
"Rumor has it Ogama has another two to three thousand Choshu samurai within ten ri."
"Eh?"
"His grip tightens on Kyoto, every day a little more, his patrols control the streets, except for an occasional shishi band who pick a fight with anyone they fancy does not honor sonno-joi, particularly us and anyone allied to the Shogunate. They are fools because we are equally opposed to gai-jin, their foul Treaties and want them out."
"Are shishi here in strength?"
"Yes. Rumor is they are getting ready for some mischief. A week ago some of them picked on an Ogama patrol, openly calling Ogama a traitor. He was furious and has been trying to hunt them down ever since. There is ..."
A knock stopped him. The Captain of the Guard opened the door. "Excuse me, Lord Yoshi, an emissary from Lord Ogama is at gate, requesting an audience with you." Both men gasped.
Yoshi said angrily, "How could he know I have arrived? For the last fifty ri we have been disguised. I waited outside Kyoto till dark, we bypassed the barricades and met no patrols. There must be a spy here."
"There are no spies inside here," Akeda grated. "On my head, Sire.
Outside they are legion, everywhere, for Ogama, shishi, and others--and you are not easily disguised."
"Captain," Yoshi said, "say that I'm asleep and may not be disturbed. Ask him to come back in the morning when he will be received with due honor."
The Captain bowed and began to leave. Akeda said, "Order the whole garrison on full alert!"
When they were alone, Yoshi said, "You think Ogama would dare attack me here? That would be a declaration of war."
"What he dares doesn't concern me, Sire. Only your safety. Now you are my responsibility."
The water heat was into Yoshi's joints now and he lay back letting the warmth take him for a moment, glad that Akeda was in command, reassured by his presence, although not swayed by his opinions.
He had not anticipated being discovered so soon.
Never mind, he thought, my plan is still good.
"Who is Ogama's running dog, his Court go-between?"
"Prince Fujitaka, a first cousin of the Emperor--his wife's brother is the Imperial Chamberlain."
The air hissed from Yoshi's mouth and the General nodded sourly. "Difficult to break that link, except with a sword."
"Unthinkable," Yoshi said shortly, and thought, unless it were possible. Either way very stupid to say such a thing out loud, even in private. "What news of Shogun Nobusada and Princess Yazu?"
"They're expected in a week an--"
Yoshi looked over sharply. "They are not expected for two or three weeks."
The old man's voice rasped. "Princess Yazu ordered them to cut back to the Tokaido and take the short route, clearly anxious to see her brother, to guide her husband to kowtow to him against all tradition--the sooner to bury the Shogunate and give it to Ogama."
"Even here, old friend, you should guard your tongue." "I am too old to worry about that now--now that your neck is in Ogama's vise."
Yoshi sent for maids who brought towels and dried both men and helped them into fresh yokata.
He picked up his swords. "Wake me at dawn, Akeda. I've much to do."
Just before dawn in the southern outskirts where the river curled south towards Osaka and the sea, twenty-odd ri away, where the lanes and streets and alleys were haphazard, so different from the straight-lined rigidity of the city, where the smell of feces and mud and rotting vegetation was heavy, Katsumata, the Satsuma shishi leader and confidante of Lord Sanjiro, awoke suddenly, slid from under the coverlet and stood in the darkened room, listening intently, sword ready.
No sound of danger. Below were the muted noises of maids and servants lighting the day's fires, chopping vegetables, preparing the foods of the day.
His room was on the second floor, under the rafters, in this, the Inn of Whispering Pines. A dog barked in the distance.
Something is wrong, he thought.
He opened the shoji silently. Along the passageway were other rooms, three occupied by other shishi, two per room. The last was for the women of the Inn.
To one side was a small window overlooking the forecourt. Below nothing moved. Again his gaze ranged the area and the gate and the street beyond.
Nothing. Again. Nothing. Then a glint, more felt than seen. At once he slid doors aside and hissed the code word. Instantly the six men leapt to their feet, sleep vanished, and rushed after him, swords in hand, down the rickety stairs, through the kitchen area and out the back door. At once over the fence and into the next garden in a carefully rehearsed retreat, into the next, over that fence and into the alleyway, down it, quickly diverting into a passage between the low hovels. At the end of this cul-de-sac he turned left and eased a door open. The alert guard's spear menaced his throat. "Katsumata-san! What's wrong?"
"Someone has betrayed us," Katsumata panted, and motioned to a Choshu youth, spare like himself, steel hard but half his age, nineteen.
"Circle, see, then come back. Do not be observed or get caught!"
The youth vanished. The others followed Katsumata across the messy entranceway into the hovel itself. Within were many rooms, this building discreetly connected to others on either side, and more shishi. Twenty, all armed, most captains of shishi cells, now awake and ready to fight or retreat--one of them, Sumomo, Shorin's sister, Hiraga's fiancee.
Silently they gathered, waiting for orders.
When they were escaping the Inn not one of the servants or maids had acknowledged them or their headlong departure, continuing their labors as though nothing had happened. All froze a few seconds later when an Ogama patrol burst through the front door, and started to go through the sleeping rooms, waking guests and girls and the mama-san while others leapt up the stairs to search the rooms aloft. Wails of surprise and fright and protest and squeals from the women now occupying the four rooms above, that, moments ago, had housed the shishi--again all part of Katsumata's careful planning.
In the ensuing uproar of cries and outrage from the mama-san, and as much as the enraged Ogama officer cursed and demanded to know where the ronin outlaws had gone, bashing a few of the male servants around the face, it was to no avail.
Everyone trembled and loudly protested innocence: "Ronin? In my respectable, law-abiding House? Never!" the mama-san cried.
But when the patrol had departed and they were all safe, the mama-san swore, her acolytes swore, and servants swore, everyone cursing the spy who had betrayed them.
"Katsumata-san, who was it?" Takeda asked, a heavy-set, almost neckless Choshu youth of twenty--a kinsman of Hiraga--his heart still racing from their narrow escape.
Katsumata shrugged. "Karma if we find him, karma if we do not. It only proves what I hammer into you: be prepared for betrayal, instant flight, instant fight, trust no man or woman except a blooded shishi and sonno-joi." Everyone in the crowded little room nodded.