"Please excuse me, I don't know, Lord, I don't know."

"Then think. And give me your answer at dawn."

"But... yes, Lord."

Yoshi leaned back on his silk cushions and focused his mind on yesterday's meeting of the Elders. Eventually Anjo had had to withdraw the order to evacuate the castle for without a clear majority the order would be invalid--so he, as formal Guardian, had forbidden the Shogun's departure.

I won, this time, but only because that stubborn old fool, Toyama, insisted on voting for his insane attack plan, thus neither for me or against me. Anjo is right: the other two normally vote with him against me. Not because of merit but because I am who I am--the Toranaga who should have been Shogun, not that stupid boy.

Because Yoshi was safe in his palanquin, alone but for Misamoto who could not know his inner thoughts, he allowed his mind to open the compartment marked Nobusada, so secret, so volatile, so dangerous, and permanent.

What to do about him?

I cannot contain him much longer. He's infantile and now in the most dangerous claws of all, those of the Princess Yazu: Emperor's spy and fanatic against the Shogunate who broke her engagement to her adored childhood playmate, a handsome and very eligible Prince, the Shogunate who forced her into permanent exile from Kyoto and all her family and friends and into a marriage to a weakling whose erection is as limp as a banner in summer and may never give her children.

Now she has schemed this State visit to Kyoto to kowtow to the Emperor, a masterstroke that will destroy the delicate balance of centuries: Authority to subdue the whole Empire is granted by Imperial Edict to the Shogun and his descendants who is also appointed Lord High Constable. Therefore orders issued by the Shogun to the country are its laws.

One consultation must lead to another, Yoshi thought, and then the Emperor rules and we do not.

Nobusada will never realize it, his eyes clouded by her guile.

What to do?

Again Yoshi went down the well-trodden but oh so secret path: he is my legal liege lord.

I cannot kill him directly. He is too well guarded unless I am prepared to throw away my own life with the deed which, at the moment I am not. Other means? Poison. But then I would be suspect, correctly, and even if I could escape the bonds that surround me--I'm just as much prisoner as this Misamoto--the land would be plunged into a never-ending civil war, gai-jin will be the only gainers, and worse I would have betrayed my oath of allegiance to the Shogun, whoever he is, and to the Legacy.

I have to let others kill him for me. The shishi? I could help them but to help enemies committed to your own destruction is dangerous. One other possibility. The gods.

He permitted himself a smile. Good luck and bad luck, wrote Shogun Toranaga, fortune and misfortune are to be left to Heaven and natural law--they are not things that can be got by praying or worked by some cunning device.

Be patient, he heard Toranaga saying to him. Be patient.

Yes, I will be.

Yoshi closed that compartment until the next time and again considered the Council. What shall I tell them? Of course by now they will know I met the gai-jin. I will insist on one absolute rule in future: we must send only clever men to these meetings. What else? Certainly about their soldiers, gigantic, with their scarlet uniforms and short skirts and enormous feathered hats, every man with a breech-loading gun, shining with care, as cherished as any of our blades.

Shall I tell them that these enemies are fools, who have no finesse and can be ruled through their impatience and hatreds--Misamoto told me enough to conclude they are as fractious and hate-ridden as any daimyo? No, this I will keep to myself. But I will tell them tomorrow our Delegation will fail unless we devise a delay gai-jin will be happy to accept.

What should that be?

"That messenger, Misamoto," he said idly, "the tall man with the big nose, why did he speak like a woman, using women's words? Was he a half man-half woman?"

"I don't know, Sire. Maybe he was, they have many aboard ship, Sire, though they hide it."

"Why?"

"Don't know, Sire, difficult to understand them. They don't talk open about fornication as we do, of the best position or if a boy is better than a woman. But about speaking like a woman: in their language men and women, they all speak the same, I mean they use the same words, Sire, unlike Japanese. The few sailors I met who could speak some words of our language, men who'd been to Nagasaki, they spoke the same as the big nose did because the only people they speak with are whores, learning our words from our whores. They don't know our women speak different from us, from men, Sire, use different words as civilized persons should."

Yoshi hid his sudden excitement. Our whores are their only real contact, he thought. And they all have whores, of course. So one way to control them, even attack them, is through their whores, female or male.

"I will not order my fleet to bombard Yedo without a formal written order from the Admiralty, or Foreign Office," the Admiral said, his face flushed. "My instructions are to be circumspect, like yours. We are NOT on a punitive mission."

"For God's sake, we have had an incident that must be dealt with. Of course it's a punitive mission!" Sir William was equally angry.

The eight bells of midnight sounded, and they were in the Admiral's quarters aboard the flagship at the round table, the General, Thomas Ogilvy, the only other person present. The cabin was low, large and heavy-beamed, and through the stern windows the riding lights of other vessels could be seen.

"Again, I believe without force they will not budge."

"Get the order, by God, and I'll budge them." The Admiral refilled his own glass with port from the almost empty cut-glass decanter.

"Thomas?"

"Thanks." The General held out his glass.

Trying to contain himself, Sir William said, "Lord Russell has already given us instructions to press the Bakufu for damages, twenty-five thousand pounds, over Legation murders, the Sergeant and Corporal last year--he will be even more incensed over the current incident. I know him, you don't," he added, exaggerating for effect. "I won't receive his approval for three months. We must obtain satisfaction now or the murders will continue. Without your support I cannot maneuver."

"You have my full support, short of war, by God. Bombarding their capital commits us to war. We're not equipped for that. Thomas? You agree?"

The General said carefully, "To surround a village like Hodogaya and eliminate a few hundred savages and put a minor native potentate into chains is a lot different than trying to secure this vast city and invest the castle."

Witheringly, Sir William said, "Then what about your "no conceivable operation that the forces under my command cannot conclude expeditiously"!"

The General reddened. "What one says in public as you well know bears little relation to practice, as you well know! Yedo is different."

"Quite right." The Admiral drained his glass.

"Then what do you propose?" The silence grew. Suddenly the stem of Sir William's glass snapped between his fingers, and the others jumped, unprepared. "Damn!" he said, the destruction somehow diminishing his rage. Carelessly he used the napkin to mop up the wine. "I'm Minister here.

If I find it necessary to make it an order and you refuse to obey, which of course you have a right to do, I will ask for your immediate replacement, of course."

The Admiral's neck went purple. "I have already put the facts before the Admiralty. But please don't mistake me: I am more than ready to seek vengeance for the killing of Mr.Canterbury and the attack on the others. If it's Yedo, I merely require the written order as I have said. There's no hurry, now or in three months, these savages will pay as we require, with this city or a hundred others."