concerned.” He bowed with dignity. “I apologize.”
“It was my fault, Sire. Please excuse me for destroying your harmony and causing you trouble. But I have no alternative.”
“Your son’s given you one, I’ve given you several.”
She did not answer him.
The air in the room had become stifling for all of them although the night was cool and a breeze fanned the flares.
“You’re resolved then?”
“I have no choice, Sire.”
“Very well, Mariko-san. There’s nothing more to be said. Other than to say again I order you not to force the issue—and I ask it.”
She bowed her head.
“Saruji-san, please wait for me outside,” Kiyama ordered.
The youth was distraught, barely able to speak. “Yes, Sire.” He bowed to Mariko. “Please excuse me, Mother.”
“May God keep you in His hands for all eternity.”
“And thou.”
“Amen to that,” Kiyama said.
“Good night, my son.”
“Good night, Mother.”
When they were alone Kiyama said, “The Father-Visitor’s very worried.”
“About me, Sire?”
“Yes. And about the Holy Church—and the barbarian. And about the barbarian ship. First tell me about him.”
“He’s a unique man, very strong and very intelligent. At sea he’s .?.?. he
“Even the Rodrigues-san?”
“The Anjin-san overcame him twice. Once here and once on our way to Yedo.” She told him about Rodrigues arriving in the night during their stay near Mishima and about the concealed weapons and all that she had overheard. “If their ships were equal, the Anjin-san would win. Even if they were not, I think he’d win.”
“Tell me about his ship.”
She obeyed.
“Tell me about his vassals.”
She told him as it had happened.
“Why would Lord Toranaga give him his ship, money, vassals, and freedom?”
“My Master never told me, Sire.”
“Please give me your opinion.”
“So that he can loose the Anjin-san against his enemies,” Mariko said at once, then added without apology, “Since you ask me, in this case the Anjin-san’s particular enemies are the same as my Lord’s: the Portuguese, the Holy Fathers prompting the Portuguese, and the Lords Harima, Onoshi, and yourself, Sire.”
“Why should the Anjin-san consider us his special enemies?”
“Nagasaki, trade, and your coastal control of Kyushu, Sire. And because you are the chief Catholic
“The Church isn’t Lord Toranaga’s enemy. Nor the Holy Fathers.”
“So sorry, but I think Lord Toranaga believes the Holy Fathers support the Lord General Ishido, as you do.”
“I support the Heir. I’m against your Master because he does not and he will ruin our Church.”
“I’m sorry, but that’s not true. Sire, my Master’s so superior to the Lord General. You’ve fought twenty more times as his ally than against him, you know he can be trusted. Why side with his avowed enemy? Lord Toranaga’s always wanted trade, and he’s simply not anti-Christian like the Lord General and the Lady Ochiba.”
“Please excuse me, Mariko-san, but before God, I believe Lord Toranaga secretly detests our Christian Faith, secretly loathes our Church, and secretly is committed to destroying the succession and obliterating the Heir and the Lady Ochiba. His lodestone is the Shogunate—only that! He secretly wants to be Shogun, is planning to become Shogun, and everything is pointed to that sole end.”
“Before God, Sire, I do not believe it.”
“I know—but that doesn’t make you right.” He watched her a moment, then said, “By your own admission this Anjin-san and his ship are very dangerous to the Church,
“Yes, I believe that too, Sire.”
“That would hurt our Mother Church very much,
“Yes.”
“But you still won’t help the Church against this man?”
“He is not against the Church, Sire, not really against the Fathers, though he distrusts them. He’s only against the enemies of his Queen. And the Black Ship is his goal—for profit.”
“But he opposes the True Faith and is therefore a heretic.
“Yes. But I don’t believe everything we’ve been told by the Fathers is true. And much has never been told to us. Tsukku-san admitted many things. My liege Lord ordered me to become the Anjin-san’s confidant and friend, to teach him our language and customs, to learn from him what could be of value to us. And I’ve found—”
“You mean valuable to Toranaga.
“Sire, obedience to a liege lord is the pinnacle of a samurai’s life. Isn’t obedience what you require from all your vassals?”
“Yes. But heresy is terrible and it seems you are allied with the barbarian against your Church and infected by him. I pray God will open your eyes, Mariko-san, before you lose your own salvation. Now, last, the Father-Visitor said you have some private information for me.”
“Sire?” This was completely unexpected.
“He said there was a message from the Tsukku-san a few days ago. A special messenger from Yedo. You have some information about—about my allies.”
“I asked to see the Father-Visitor tomorrow morning.”
“Yes. He told me. Well?”
“Please excuse me, after I’ve seen him tomorrow, I—”
“Not tomorrow, now! The Father-Visitor said it had to do with Lord Onoshi and concerned the Church and you were to tell me at once. Before God that’s what he said. Have things come to such a filthy pass that you won’t even trust me?”
“So sorry. I made an agreement with the Tsukku-san. He asked me to speak openly to the Father-Visitor, that’s all, Sire.”
“The Father-Visitor said you were to tell me now.”
Mariko realized she had no alternative. The die was cast. She told him about the plot against his life. All that she knew. He, too, scoffed at the rumor until she told him exactly where the information had come from.
“
“Yes. So sorry.”
“I regret Uraga’s dead,” Kiyama said, even more mortified that the night attack on the Anjin-san had been such a fiasco—as the other ambush had been—and now had killed the one man who could prove his enemy Onoshi was a traitor. “Uraga will burn in hellfire forever for that sacrilege. Terrible what he did. He deserves excommunication and hellfire, but even so, he did me a service by telling it—if it’s true.” Kiyama looked at her, an old man suddenly. “I can’t believe Onoshi would do that. Or that Lord Harima would be a party to it.”
“Yes. Could you—could you ask Lord Harima if it’s true?”
“Yes, but he’d never reveal something like that. I wouldn’t, would you? So sad,
