After eating alone as usual, Yoshi went to join Koiko--if they ate together invariably, by custom, she would take almost nothing having intentionally eaten beforehand so she could concentrate on his needs. Tonight it was his pleasure to play a game of Go. This was a complex game of strategy, played with counters and similar to draughts.
Both of them were good players, but Koiko was a virtuoso, so much so that she could, almost always, win or lose at whim. This made the game doubly difficult for her. He had ordered her never to lose deliberately, but he himself was a bad loser. If she won on a wrong day he would sulk. A win for him on one of his bad days would get him out of any ill humor.
Tonight he won. Narrowly. "Oh, Sire, you've destroyed me!" she said. "And I thought I had you beaten!" They were in her inner room, sitting with their legs in the small pit under the low table with a tiny charcoal brazier in it, and a thick padded cloth over the table tucked around them to keep drafts out and the heat in. "Are you warm enough?"
"Yes, thank you, Koiko. How are your aches and pains?"
"Oh, I have none. The masseuse was very good tonight." She called out, "Sumomo, sak`e and tea please."
In the outer room Sumomo fetched the flask and teapot from another brazier, opened the shoji, and brought them in. She served both well and Koiko nodded with satisfaction.
He said, "Have you learned the tea ceremony, Sumomo?"
"Yes, Sire," Sumomo said, "but, but I am afraid I am sadly lacking in skill."
"Lord Yoshi is a master," Koiko said and sipped the sak`e, glad for it. Her rump and back ached from the day's jolting in the palanquin, her thighs from the two days of riding, and her head from the effort of losing while appearing to covet victory. All of which she hid, and the fact that her spirits were down over the lack of progress today.
Clearly this had disappointed him. But then, she thought, we both knew another forced march was not possible. He must go on and I will follow. It will be good to be without him for a while. This life is wearing, however wonderful he is.
They drank peacefully. Then he said, "Tomorrow, early, I will go on with thirty men leaving ten with you, Abeh in charge. You will follow me to Yedo leisurely."
"Of course. With your permission, may I follow as quickly as possible?"
He smiled. "That would please me, but only as long as you arrived not aching, either in body or in spirit."
"Even if I was, your smile would instantly cure me. Another game?"
"Yes, but not Go!"
She laughed. "Then I must make some preparations." She got up and went to the outer room, closing the shoji after her. He heard her talking to Sumomo but paid them no attention, his mind occupied with tomorrow, Yedo and gai-jin.
Their voices died away as they went out. He finished his sak`e, enjoying it, then walked into the innermost room where the futons and padded coverlets were spread over impeccable tatami.
Winter landscapes and colors were the dominant decorations. He took off his padded yukata, shivered, and slipped under the eiderdown.
When Koiko returned he heard her pottering in the outer room, then she came in and she went straight to the bathroom where there were containers for the night, should they be needed, jugs of water to drink, and others for washing. "I sent Sumomo to sleep in another room tonight," she called out to him, "and asked Abeh to post a guard outside with orders not to disturb you till dawn."
"Why did you do that?"
She came back into the room. "This is our last night for a time--I mentioned to him I would not be travelling with you tomorrow--and I wanted you totally to myself." Leisurely she stepped out of her kimono and snuggled beside him.
Though he had seen her naked many times, and felt her touch many times, and slept with her many times, tonight was many times better than it had ever been.
KYOTO In the palace in Kyoto, one of the Lord Chancellor's spies knocked on his bedroom door, waking him, and handed him the carrier pigeon message container. "This has just been intercepted, Lord."
The tiny cylinder was addressed to Chief Bakufu Palace Advisor, Saito and bore the personal seal of Tairo Nori Anjo. He hesitated, then broke the seal with a manicured nail.
Anjo had sent the message at dawn: The gai-jin leader has insolently rejected the Imperial command to leave Yokohama and they are preparing to invade us. Draft the Order for National Mobilization for the Emperor's signature which, with this document, I formally request the Emperor to sign at once. Then send copies urgently to all daimyos. Make arrangements for Shogun Nobusada to return to Yedo at once to head our forces, the Princess Yazu can, preferably should, stay in Kyoto.
Lord Yoshi is formally required to return at once.
The Lord Chancellor thought a while, smugly decided Saito would be overruled and the Emperor advised never to sign a mobilization order. With great care he replaced the message and resealed the tube with his secret duplicate seal.
"Put it back, make sure it is delivered," he said and when alone, he chuckled.
War! Good. Anjo was the perfect choice for tairo. They will all drown in their own urine, along with all gai-jin, and Yoshi, all of them.
Except the Princess. She will stay, to become a widow--the sooner the better.
HAMAMATSU VILLAGE Monday, 8th December
HAMAMATSU VILLAGE Monday, 8th December: Sumomo awoke well before first light. Her dreams had been bad. She was no longer on the Tokaido with Koiko and Lord Yoshi but back in Kyoto, chased by Bakufu soldiers led by Abeh into the trap of the burning shishi house, screams everywhere, blood everywhere, guns firing, in panic squeezing down into the narrow tunnel after Takeda and Katsumata, the hole barely big enough, crawling after them, the sides encroaching, scraping her and becoming narrower. Not enough air to breathe, filled with dust. Takeda's feet ahead as he wriggled onward gasping, someone or something just behind her, then Takeda becoming Yoshi kicking at her, stopping her then vanishing--with nothing up ahead but an earth coffin.
When her heart slowed and eyes could focus in the shaded light of the oil flame, she saw one of the guards watching her from his futons next to hers.
Last night she had accompanied Koiko to talk to Abeh and he had told her to sleep in this communal room, plenty of space for her to one side--a perfectly satisfactory arrangement. Four guards were using it, two sleeping and two on duty. There she had made a bed, not easily to sleep, her mind in turmoil for she had overheard Yoshi telling Koiko they would not travel onward with him, and overheard Koiko saying to Abeh, "Lord Yoshi has decided from tomorrow I, and my party, will follow leisurely."
"What arrangements does he want made, Lady?"' "I believe he said he wants to leave you and ten men to guide me to Yedo, so sorry to be a problem."
"It is no problem for me, Lady, so long as he is safe."
Safe, and out of reach, Sumomo had thought, dismayed by the change in plan. So much could go wrong between now and Yedo.
Eventually she had slept. To dream.
Normally she did not dream. Last thing at night and in the morning she would always say a prayer, Namu Amida Butsu, just the name of the Buddha Amida, which was enough if there was a god to pray to. Last night she had forgotten. Now, silently she said the words, and closed her eyes.
In moments she was again in the shishi hut.
That had been the worst experience of her life, the attack without warning, gunfire through the walls and in the same instant the head of the youth beside her exploded, no time for the lad even to shout but others did, partly in panic, partly in agony as random bullets poured at them, Katsumata paralyzed for a moment, then directing the defense, ordering some to charge out the front others the back. Both charges driven back, she not knowing where to hide, knowing all was lost, fire beginning and more screams and more blood and this the end, Namu Amida Butsu, Namu Amida Butsu, then hands grabbing her roughly, shoving her down into the hole after the escaping Takeda--who, raving, had dragged another man out of the way, as Katsumata had torn someone else away--as her savior shishi, whose face she never saw, was murdered in his turn and a fight ensued that blocked the escape until it was too late.