Shogun - Clavell James - Страница 75

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"If you wanted to employ them, how would you go about it?"

"I would whisper it in three places - in the Heinan Monastery, at the gates of the Amida shrine, and in the Johji Monastery. Within ten days, if you are considered an acceptable employer, you will be approached through intermediaries. It is all so secret and devious that, even if you wished to betray them or catch them, it would never be possible. On the tenth day they ask for a sum of money, in silver, the amount depending on the person to be assassinated. There is no bargaining, you pay what they ask beforehand. They guarantee only that one of their members will attempt the kill within ten days. Legend has it that if the kill is successful, the assassin goes back to their temple and then, with great ceremony, commits ritual suicide."

"Then you think we could never find out who paid for the attack today?"

"No."

"Do you think there will be another?"

"Perhaps. Perhaps not. They contract for one attempt at one time, neh? But you'd be wise to improve your securityamong your samurai, and also among your women. The Amida women are trained in poison, as well as knife and garrote, so they say."

"Have you ever employed them?"

"No."

"But your father did?"

"I don't know, not for certain. I was told that the Taiko asked him to contact them once."

"Was the attack successful?"

"Anything the Taiko did was successful. One way or another."

Yabu felt someone behind him and presumed it to be the guards coming back secretly. He was measuring the distance to his swords. Do I try to kill Toranaga? he asked himself again. I had decided to and now I don't know. I've changed. Why?

"What would you have to pay them for my head?" Toranaga asked him.

"There is not enough silver in all Asia to tempt me to employ them to do this."

"What would another have to pay?"

"Twenty thousand koku - fifty thousand - a hundred - perhaps more, I don't know."

"Would you pay a hundred thousand koku to become Shogun? Your bloodline goes back to the Takashimas, neh?"

Yabu said proudly, "I would pay nothing. Money's filth - a toy for women to play with or for dung-filled merchants. But if that were possible, which it isn't, I would give my life and the life of my wife and mother and all my kin except my one son, and all my samurai in Izu and all their women and children to be Shogun one day."

"And what would you give for the Eight Provinces?"

"Everything as before, except the life of my wife and mother and son. "

"And for Suruga Province?"

"Nothing," Yabu said with contempt. "Ikawa Jikkyu's worth nothing. If I don't take his head and all his generation in this life I'll do it in another. I piss on him and his seed for ten thousand lifetimes."

"And if I were to give him to you? And all Suruga - and perhaps the next province, Totomi, as well?"

Yabu suddenly tired of the cat-and-mouse game and the talk about the Amida. "You've decided to take my head, Lord Toranaga - very well. I'm ready. I thank you for the dawn. But I've no wish to spoil such elegance with further talk, so let's be done."

"But I haven't decided to take your head, Yabu-san," Toranaga said. "Whatever gave you the thought? Has an enemy poured poison in your ears? Ishido perhaps? Aren't you my favored ally? Do you think that I'd entertain you here, without guards, if I thought you hostile?"

Yabu turned slowly. He had expected to find samurai behind him, swords poised. There was no one there. He looked back at Toranaga. "I don't understand."

"I brought you here so we could talk privately. And to see the dawn. Would you like to rule the provinces of Izu, Suruga, and Totomi - if I do not lose this war?"

"Yes. Very much," Yabu said, his hopes soaring.

"You would become my vassal? Accept me as your liege lord?"

Yabu did not hesitate. "Never," he said. "As ally, yes. As my leader, yes. Lesser than you always, yes. My life and all I possess thrown onto your side, yes. But Izu is mine. I am daimyo of Izu and I will never give power over lzu to anyone. I swore that oath to my father, and the Taiko who reaffirmed our hereditary fief, first to my father and then to me. The Taiko confirmed Izu to me and my successors forever. He was our liege lord and I swore never to have another until his heir became of age."

Hiro-matsu twisted his sword slightly in his hand. Why doesn't Toranaga let me get it over with once and for all? It's been agreed. Why all the wearing talk? I ache and I want to piss and I need to lie down.

Toranaga scratched his groin. "What did Ishido offer you?"

"Jikkyu's head - the moment that yours is off. And his province."

"In return for what?"

"Support when war begins. To attack your southern flank."

"Did you accept?"

"You know me better than that."

Toranaga's spies in Ishido's household had whispered that the bargain had been struck, and that it included responsibility for the assassination of his three sons, Noboru, Sudara, and Naga. "Nothing more? Just support?"

"By every means at my disposal," Yabu said delicately.

"Including assassination?"

"I intend to wage the war, when it begins, with all my force. For my ally. In any way I can to guarantee his success. We need a sole Regent in Yaemon's minority. War between you and Ishido is inevitable. It's the only way."

Yabu was trying to read Toranaga's mind. He was scornful of Toranaga's indecision, knowing that he himself was the better man, that Toranaga needed his support, that at length he would vanquish him. But meanwhile what to do? he asked himself and wished Yuriko, his wife, were here to guide him. She would know the wisest course. "I can be very valuable to you. I can help you become sole Regent," he said, deciding to gamble.

"Why should I wish to be sole Regent?"

"When Ishido attacks I can help you to conquer him. When he breaks the peace," Yabu said.

"How?"

He told them his plan with the guns.

"A regiment of five hundred gun-samurai?" Hiro-matsu erupted.

"Yes. Think of the fire power. All elite men, trained to act as one man. The twenty cannon equally together."

"It's a bad plan. Disgusting," Hiro-matsu said. "You could never keep it secret. If we start, the enemy would start also. There would never be an end to such horror. There's no honor in it and no future."

"Isn't this coming war the only one we're concerned with, Lord Hiro-matsu?" Yabu replied. "Aren't we concerned only with Lord Toranaga's safety? Isn't that the duty of his allies and vassals?"

"Yes."

"All Lord Toranaga has to do is win the one great battle. That will give him the heads of all his enemies - and power. I say this strategy will give him victory."

"I say it won't. It's a disgusting plan with no honor."

Yabu turned to Toranaga. "A new era requires clear thinking about the meaning of honor."

A sea gull soared overhead mewing.

"What did Ishido say to your plan?" Toranaga asked.

"I did not discuss it with him."

"Why? If you think your plan's valuable to me, it would be equally valuable to him. Perhaps more so."

"You gave me a dawn. You're not a peasant like Ishido. You're the wisest, most experienced leader in the Empire."

What's the real reason? Toranaga was asking himself. Or have you told Ishido too? "If this plan were to be followed, the men would be half yours and half mine"

"Agreed. I would command them."

"My appointee would be second-in-command?"

"Agreed. I would need the Anjin-san to train my men as gunners, cannoneers."

"But he would be my property permanently, you would cherish him as you do the Heir? You'd be totally responsible for him and do with him precisely as I say?"

"Agreed. "

Toranaga watched the crimson clouds for a moment. This planning is all nonsense, he thought. I will have to declare Crimson Sky myself and lunge for Kyoto at the head of all my legions. One hundred thousand against ten times that number. "Who will be interpreter? I can't detach Toda Mariko-san forever."

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