"But I am Guardian and I must advise against--"

"I don't want your advice! No one asked me if I wanted a Guardian, I don't need a Guardian, Cousin, least of all you."

Yoshi looked at the youth shaking with rage.

Once I was just like you, he thought coldly, a puppet to be ordered this way or that, to be sent away from my own family to be adopted by another, or to be married, or banished and almost murdered six times and all because the gods decided I would be born the son of my father--as you, pathetic fool, were born the son of your father. I'm like you in many ways, but never a fool, always a swordsman, aware of the puppeting, and now hugely different.

Now I am no longer a puppet. Sanjiro of Satsuma doesn't know it yet, but he's made me puppeteer.

"While I am Guardian, I will guard and protect you, Sire," he said. His eyes flicked to the girl, so tiny and delicate, outwardly. "And your family."

She did not meet his eyes. No need. Both knew that war was declared. "We are glad of your protection, Toranaga-sama."

"I'm not!" Nobusada screeched. "You were my rival, now you're nothing! In two years I'm eighteen and then I'll rule alone and you ..." He pointed a shaking finger at Yoshi's impassive face, everyone appalled--except the girl. "Unless you learn to obey I'll... you'll be banished to the North Island forever.

We-are-going-to-Kyoto!"

He swung around. Hastily a guard flung the door open. All bowed as he hurried out.

She followed, then the others and when they were alone again Anjo wiped the sweat off his neck. "She's ... she's the source of all his... agitation, and "brilliance,"" he said sourly. "Since she arrived the fool's become even more stupid than he was and not because he is fornicating himself blind."

Yoshi hid his astonishment that Anjo would make such an obvious though dangerous comment aloud.

"Tea?"

Anjo nodded, morosely, jealous again of his elegance and strength. Nobusada's not such a fool in some ways, he was thinking. I agree with him about you, the sooner you're removed the better, you and Sanjiro, you're both trouble.

Could the Council vote to restrict your powers as Guardian or banish you? It's true you send that foolish boy mad every time he sees you--and her.

If it were not for you I could manage that bitch, Emperor's stepsister or not. And to think that not only was I in favor of the marriage but I put tairo Ii's stratagem into place, even against the Emperor's opposition to such a match.

Didn't we refuse his reluctant first offer of his thirty-year-old daughter, then his one-year-old baby, until eventually, under pressure, he agreed on his stepsister?

Of course the close connection of Nobusada with the Imperial family strengthens us against Sanjiro and the outside lords, against Yoshi and those who wanted him appointed Shogun instead. The connection will be all-powerful once she has a son --that will mellow her and drain her venom. Her pregnancy is overdue. The boy's doctor will increase the dose of ginseng, or give him some of the special pills to improve the boy's performance, terrible to be so limp at his age.

Yes, the sooner she's carrying the better.

He finished his tea. "I will see you at the meeting tomorrow." Both bowed perfunctorily.

Yoshi left and went out onto the battlements needing air and time to think. Below he could see the vast stone fortifications with three encircling moats within moats and impregnable strong points and drawbridges, the walls monstrous. Within the castle walls were quarters for fifty thousand samurai and ten thousand horse, along with spacious halls and palaces for chosen, loyal families--but only Toranaga families within the inner moat--and gardens everywhere.

In the central keep, above and below him, were the most secure living areas and inner sanctum of the reigning Shogun, his family, courtiers and retainers. And the treasure rooms. As Guardian, Yoshi lived here, unwelcome and on the fringe but also secure and with his own guards.

Beyond the outer moat was the first protective circle of daimyo palaces. These were vast, rich, sprawling residences, then circles of lesser ones, then even lesser ones, one such residence for each daimyo in the land. All had been sited by Shogun Toranaga personally and ordered constructed to conform with his new law of sankin-kotai, alternative residence.

"Sankin-kotai," he said, "requires all daimyos to build at once and maintain forever a "suitable residence" under my castle walls in exact positions I have decided, where he, his family and a few senior retainers are to live permanently--each palace to be lavish, and without defenses. One year in three the daimyo will be allowed, and required, to return to his fief and to stay there with his retainers, but without his wife, consorts, mother, father or children, or children's children, or any member of his immediate family--the order in which daimyos leave or remain is also to be carefully regulated according to the following list and timetable..."

The word "hostage" was never mentioned though hostage taking, ordered or offered to ensure compliance, was an ancient custom. Even Toranaga himself had been hostage when a child to the Dictator, Goroda; his own family had been hostage to Goroda's successor, Nakamura, his ally and liege lord; and he, the last and greatest, decided merely to extend the custom into sankin-kotai to keep everyone in thrall.

"At the same time," he wrote in his Legacy, a private document for selected descendants, "Following Shoguns are ordered to encourage all daimyos to build extravagantly, to live elegantly, to dress opulently and entertain lavishly, the quicker to divest them of their fief's yearly revenue of koku which, by correct immutable custom belongs only to the daimyo concerned. In this way all will soon become debt ridden, ever more dependent on us and, more important, without teeth--while we continue to be thrifty and eschew extravagance.

"Even so, some fiefs--Satsuma, Mori, Tosa, Kii for example--are so rich that even these extravagances will leave too dangerous a surplus. From time to time the ruling Shogun will therefore invite the daimyo to present him with a few leagues of a new trunk road, or palace, or garden, pleasure place, or temple, such amounts, times, and frequency are laid down in the following document..."

"So clever, so far-thinking," Yoshi muttered.

Every daimyo in a silken net, powerless to rebel.

But all ruined by Anjo's stupidity.

The first of the Emperor's "requests" brought by Sanjiro to the Council--before Yoshi had become a member--was to abolish this ancient custom. Anjo and the others had prevaricated, argued and finally agreed. Almost overnight the rings of palaces emptied of all wives, consorts, children, relations and warriors and in days became a wasteland with only a few token retainers.

Our most important curb gone forever, Yoshi thought bitterly. How could Anjo have been so inept?

He let his gaze drift beyond the palaces, to the capital city of a million souls that serviced the castle and fed off it, a city crisscrossed with streams and bridges, most constructed of wood. Now there were many fires--the blossoms of earthquakes--all the way to the sea. One great wooden palace was in flames.

Yoshi noticed idly that it belonged to the daimyo of Sai. Good. Sai supports Anjo. The families are gone but the Council can order him to rebuild and the cost will crush him forever. Forget him, what's our shield against the gai-jin? There must be one! Everyone says they could burn Yedo but not break into the castle or sustain a long siege. I do not agree. Yesterday Anjo again told the Elders the well-known story of the Siege of Malta some three hundred years ago, how Turk armies could not pry even six hundred brave knights from their castle. Anjo had said, "We have tens of thousands of samurai all hostile to gai-jin, we must win, they must sail away."