He put that question aside for later and continued reading: The ronin, Ori, who became a gai-jin spy, is dead in the gai-jin camp. The other ronin, Hiraga, is believed to be there also.

Your spy says also he intercepted the "maid" you sent back, as ordered, and sent her far north to a very poor brothel. Her ronin lover was killed.

Yoshi smiled. This was Koiko's maid who had whispered of Utani's secret tryst to her ronin shishi. Halfway to Kyoto he had dismissed her, sending her back to Yedo on some imagined slight--of course Koiko had not objected. Good, he thought. Utani is revenged in some small measure.

Next, the Gyokoyama: I have completed money matters. May I use the coal possibility as a further pledge for any armaments ordered? Perhaps we should try to deal with the gai-jin direct, perhaps using Misamoto?

Please give me your council. Sire, your presence and wise advice is greatly missed.

Last, so sorry, famine has begun.

Yoshi re-read it. Knowing Hosaki so well, the way she had used "further pledge" meant that the negotiation had been rough and the price high.

Never mind, next year there will be no famine and the Gyokoyamas, if they live that long in lands I control, will be repaid.

He looked up at Koiko. She was staring into space, lost in dreams he knew he could never share. "Koiko?"

"Oh. Yes, Sire?"

"What were you thinking about?"

"What leaves whisper to leaves."

Intrigued he said, "It depends on the tree."

She smiled sweetly. "A maple, a blood-red maple."

"In what season?"

"Ninth month."

"If they were watching us they whispered, "Soon we fall, never to return, But they are blessed.

They grow on the tree of life. Their blood our blood."

She clapped her hands, smiling at him.

"Perfect. And if it was a pine in spring?"

"Not now, Koiko-chan, later."

Seeing the sudden seriousness, she became serious too. "Bad news, Sire?"

"No, and yes. I will leave at dawn."

"For Dragon's Tooth?"

He hesitated and she wondered if she had made a mistake in asking, but he was wondering what to do about her. Earlier, weighing the need for another forced march, he had decided to leave her and let her follow as quickly as she could. Now, looking at her, he did not want her to be away from him. Her palanquin would hold them back.

She could ride though not well enough and such a journey would be arduous.

Either way the plan he had agreed with Akeda would stay the same: "The first party of forty men, with a double wearing a set of my light armor, leaves just before dawn and heads leisurely and obviously for the North Road. Halfway to Yedo they will turn back and return here, my "double" vanished. The second party, mine, with the men I brought from Yedo, will leave shortly after the first and head rapidly for the Tokaido. Forced march, under the same captain--I will be disguised as an ordinary cavalry samurai and will remain so until I am safely in Yedo Castle."

"Very dangerous, Sire," General Akeda said heavily.

"Yes. You will watch Ogama, and hope. It is to his advantage I succeed in curbing Anjo."

"Yes. But you are an irresistible target outside, an easy one. Look at what happened today. Let me go with you."

"Impossible. Listen, if Ogama decides to mount his strike he will attack here first --better expect it. You must repel him whatever the cost."

"I will not fail in that, Sire," the old general said.

And I will not fail to reach Yedo, Yoshi thought with equal confidence. As to the attack, it only reminds me it was not the first and will not be the last.

He saw Koiko watching him. It is easier to be balanced when she is near me. The lamplight was glinting on her lips and in her eyes, and he saw the curve of her cheekbones and column of her neck, the raven hair, the perfect folds of her kimono and under-kimonos showing slightly from her white skin.

Smooth curves, her posture flawless, and her two hands held like flowers in her lap of azure silk.

She would have to travel light. No maids. And make do with whatever was available from Inn to Inn.

That would displease her for she likes perfection.

Perhaps she would balk at such inconsiderate and, for her, unnecessary haste. He remembered the first time he had suggested that.

It was not so long ago, just after he had decided to obtain her exclusivity and had told the mama-san, Makin, to leave with her for Dragon's Tooth to make arrangements with his wife at once--Hosaki had, correctly, deemed it wise to see the mama-san and Koiko herself as the financial commitment would be huge.

Meikin had told him the journey would take at least a week to plan, Koiko would of course be taking her own hairdresser and masseuse and three maids.

"Ridiculous," he had said impatiently.

"So many staff are not necessary for such a short journey and an unnecessary expense. You will both leave at once."

They had obeyed at once. Without attendants. It had taken them three days to reach the first way station outside Yedo, three days for the second. Angry, he had easily ridden the same distance from dawn to dusk.

"Lord Yoshi," Meikin had said, greeting him lavishly, feigning surprise. "How pleasant to see you."

"What is all the delay for?"' "Delay, Sire? We were ordered to leave at once. We are doing exactly as you ordered."

"But why are you taking so long?"' "So long, Sire? But you did not order us to make a forced march."

"You will hurry up," he snapped, noticing how she belabored "order." "Tell Koiko I wish to see her."

The mama-san had bowed and hurried away to Koiko's quarters, leaving him seething. When, at length she returned she said happily, "Koiko-san will be honored to see you, Sire, instantly Sire, the moment she can arrange a suitable maid to help her with her hair. She regrets it would be impertinent to receive you without the due preparation an honored, revered person such as you would expect, and adds, humbly, "please be kind enough to wait, she will be as quick as she can when the maids arrive..."

Sourly he had glared at her, knowing that as much as he would insist, he would have to wait. His only recourse was to storm into Koiko's room and lose total face and destroy any chance that she would ever be available to him again.

Who does she think she is? he had wanted to bellow.

He had not. He had smiled to himself. When you purchase a rare sword, you expect it to be made of the finest steel, with the best cutting edge and a fire of its own. He nodded coolly. "Send for her own maids--and hairdresser and masseuse --from Yedo very quickly indeed. It's your fault they are not here, you should have told me they were important to the Lady Koiko. She is correct not to see me improperly. I will expect this never to happen again!"

Meikin had flooded him with apologies and bowed him away abjectly, and he laughed all the way back to Yedo having bested them, making them lose face and giving them both a firm warning: do not play games with me again.

Koiko's eyes had never left his face, watching and waiting. "When you smile, Sire, it makes me very happy."

"What am I smiling about?"

"Me, Sire," she said simply. "I think because I help you laugh at life, and though Man's span on earth is but a quick hunt for shelter before the rains come down, you allow me to provide, from time to time, a shelter from the rain."

"Yes you do," he said contentedly. If I leave her here I won't see her for weeks, and life is only a cherry blossom exposed to a vagrant wind that knows no master--my life, hers, all life. "I do not want to leave you here."

"It will be good to be home again."

In his secret heart, he thought about Meikin.

I have not forgotten she is a shishi informant as your maid was. Stupid of the mama-san to risk you, risk me thinking you were also part of those murdering scum. "Do any of your maids ride, Koiko?"