Taketsuna was holding the flask dubiously. The contents smelled like wine, and he wondered what it would do to his empty and painful stomach. “I can read and write,” he said. “I could do secretarial work or bookkeeping, I suppose.”
“If you’re not going to drink, give it back,” the doctor snapped crossly, extending his hand.
Taketsuna took a deep swallow and doubled over, coughing.
The wine, if that was what it was, packed an incredible punch.
“Hmph,” commented the doctor, “not much of a stomach, either. Can’t imagine why they put someone with your background on the hard labor detail. I’ll see what I can do for you.” He raised the flask to his mouth and drank deeply, waving the prisoner out.
An hour later, when Taketsuna was sitting with the others in the shade of the wooden palisade again, the doctor emerged from the guardhouse in the company of the officer. The doctor’s gait was unsteady and his path less than straight, but he made his way over to them.
“That doctor’s as drunk as a frog in a sake barrel,” muttered one of the pirates.
Jisei smiled. “That’s never stopped him before. He’ll look at me now. And maybe he’ll get us better food, like last time.” The physician ignored Jisei’s eager greeting and merely looked at each man blearily, had them open their mouths and perform some simple actions, before moving on to the next man. When it was Jisei’s turn, he frowned at the wounds on his knees and arms and pursed his lips. But even here, he made no comment, merely digging a small earthenware jar from his medicine chest. Turning to the guard officer, he said, “All these men look filthy. Have them bathe, and then put this ointment on this man’s wounds.”
The officer stepped back, affronted. “What, me? You’re drunk! They’re prisoners, not honored guests.” The doctor handed the ointment to Taketsuna. “Here, you do it.” To the guard, he said, “If you don’t keep these men clean and well fed, they’ll sicken and die, and nobody will get any work out of them. Do you want me to report you to the governor?”
“My men won’t like it,” grumbled the officer. Seeing the doctor’s implacable silence, he relented. “Oh, very well. They can have a bath if they heat the water and clean the bath afterwards.”
“And food!”
“Of course, Master Ogata. We’ll saute some kisu fish for them, with ginger shoots and sesame seeds,” the officer sneered. “Perhaps you can spare some of your wine for their banquet?”
The fat physician hunched his shoulders, then turned his back on them and staggered off.
But they got their bath and a hot dinner. Taketsuna appreciated both far more than the others and was grateful for the drunken physician’s visit. From snatches of conversation among the prisoners, he gathered that forced labor could be brutal and hoped he might be spared that. Not only Jisei, whose wounds he had tended after the bath, bore the scars of his toils. There was also Yoshi’s missing eye, lost when a guard’s whip caught him across the face instead of the back, and Kumaso’s crooked ankle, broken and badly set after a rock fell on it. And the bath had revealed that the silent Haseo’s back was so heavily scarred by crisscrossing stripes and welts that he must have been near death after his punishment.
With darkness they drew closer together against the night chill. Kumaso and Yoshi engaged in a game of “rock, scissors, paper” like two carefree children. Taketsuna thought with longing of his distant family.
The stars above were particularly clear tonight. He lay back, his arms folded under his head against the sharp bits of gravel, and wondered if he would get used to his new life, used to sleeping on the hard, cold ground without cover and under the open sky, used to humiliation and rough physical labor, used to beatings. The last was the most difficult, a disgrace impossible to be borne without retaliation. He wished for the warmth of silken quilts, but being tired, he dozed off.
The discomfort of the cold night and the hard soil beneath him woke him somewhat later. Two of his companions were whispering softly.
“Forget it. It’s too dangerous. They might find out.” The other man made some inaudible protest.
“Lot of good that’ll do you, when you’re dead. You know what they say about the Second Prince’s murder.” Startled, Taketsuna sat up. The whispering stopped. “Who was that?” he asked softly. “Who was talking?” Silence.
He reached over and shook the shoulder of the sleeper next to him. The man grunted and sat up with a curse. “What the devil d’you want? Can’t a man have a little peace at night?” he complained sleepily.
At the gate the dozing guards came awake. “Quiet over there,” one of them shouted, “or we’ll give you what for, you lousy pieces of dung.”
Taketsuna whispered an apology, lay back down, and closed his eyes. He did not have much chance to sleep, because a short time later someone arrived to pick up the new prisoner.
The sleepy guards grumbled but seemed resigned to comings and goings all day and night. Taketsuna was chained again and walked off behind a burly guard. This time they entered the city. The streets were silent, and the shops shuttered. Moonlight lit their way. The prisoner shivered in the cool night breeze and tried to suppress his nervousness. Mano extended from the flat shore of the bay halfway up the encircling hills, and the provincial headquarters rose well above the rest of the city, with a commanding view of its many roofs and the shimmering silver of the bay and ocean beyond. Taketsuna risked a glance backward, as they climbed the wide stairs to the gate leading into the government compound, and was struck by the extraordinary beauty of a scene in such sharp contrast to the misery of certain of Sadoshima’s inhabitants.
The government compound was smaller than those Taketsuna had known in his former life, but it seemed in good repair and had the usual separate courtyards surrounding buildings of various sizes. The governor’s residence occupied a tree-shaded section just beyond the tribunal and archives. Except for the guards on night duty at the main gate and at the gate to the governor’s quarters, the compound lay deserted. Their arrival was barely noted. Taketsuna’s guard saluted the guards at the gate and led his prisoner past the tribunal to a smaller building just behind it. Here another pair of guards nodded them through the doorway. They walked down a long hallway lit by flickering oil lamps and stopped in front of a pair of wide doors. The guard knocked. Someone called out, “Enter!” and they stepped into a large room which was bare except for a desk and the seated figure of the governor.
The guard stood to attention, and Taketsuna knelt, touching his face to the polished floor.
“Take his chains off!” The governor’s voice sounded remote.
His tone was clipped and his speech cultured, but there was an abruptness and tension in his voice that made Taketsuna uneasy.
He felt the guard’s hands remove his chains but did not change his position.
“You may leave. Tell the guards outside that I do not wish to be disturbed.”
They must think the governor either a very brave man or a foolish one, thought Taketsuna. A desperate and violent criminal could easily make a hostage of him and bargain his way to freedom.
The door slammed behind the guard, and they were alone.
A rustle of silk; then soft steps approached and passed Taketsuna. There was the click of a latch falling into place, then the stockinged steps returned and paused next to the kneeling Taketsuna. A hand fell on his shoulder.
“My dear fellow, please rise. It is quite safe now. We are alone.”
CHAPTER THREE
The governor was nearly as tall as the prisoner, but age had bent his back a little. The black cap did not hide the gray of his hair, or his robe of office the weariness on his lined face. In the candlelight his eyes looked deeply sunken as they searched the convict’s features anxiously. “You are the person who has been sent . . . I mean, you are the man known as Yoshimine Taketsuna?”
Thinking the governor’s tone and manner odd, the prisoner said cautiously, “Yes.”
“I was informed of your coming. The captain of your ship brought me a letter from . . . someone of very high
