CHAPTER FIFTY-SEVEN

THE BLADE THAT DEALS DEATH

Hanshiro sat at the writing stand in Futagawa’s shrine to Hachiman, the Shinto god of warriors. With a dagger he sliced the tip of the fourth finger of his right hand. He squeezed the finger until a puddle of blood formed in the bottom of a small bowl. He dipped a fine-haired brush into it, put it to the thick sheet of white paper, and began writing an oath of loyalty.

Cat watched him warily. She was seated on a pile of cushions that raised her head above his. The position symbolized that Hanshiro was below-the-eyes, a subordinate.

The abbot gestured to an acolyte, who brought forward a small brazier, set it down near Hanshiro, and fanned the coals. When the blood had dried, Hanshiro lit the paper and held it over another bowl while it burned. A second acolyte added hot water to the ashes, and Hanshiro swirled the bowl to dissolve them. Then he drank the mixture.

When he finished, the abbot and his assistants discreetly rose, bowed, and left. Kasane started to leave, too, but Cat motioned her to stay. She remained kneeling unobtrusively in a corner, but in effect Cat was alone with the bounty hunter.

“That was an impressive performance.” Cat’s voice was chilly and remote. “Did you drink a similar oath in the service of Kira?”

“No, my lady.”

“Then why have you pursued me?”

“The mistress of the Perfumed Lotus wanted you found.” Hanshiro knew that fact certainly wouldn’t raise him in Lady Asano’s esteem. “My sword would never have harmed you.”

“Crows circle your sword guard. Are you of the New Shadow school?”

“Yes.” Hanshiro was impressed. Lady Asano was a keen observer.

“Doesn’t the New Shadow school teach that weapons are unfortunate instruments hated by Heaven’s Way?”

“Heaven’s Way is to maintain life.”

“Then why do you offer to kill my enemies?”

“When one man’s evil causes suffering for thousands of people and that man is killed, then the blade that deals death is the one that also gives life.” Hanshiro could see that Lady Asano still distrusted him. “Perhaps time will convince you of my sincerity.”

“I don’t have time.” Cat tugged at the front hem of her secondhand jacket. She pulled the overlapping flaps tight so they wouldn’t bag open when she stood up. Under his steady gaze she had become acutely aware of her shabby traveling clothes. “All I wanted from your oath was your promise not to betray me.” She bowed curtly. “Now my companion and I must start. We have far to go, and the sun’s already high.”

“Your Ladyship …”

“I do not have the right to be referred to in that way,” Cat was irritated. If you weren’t an ignorant provincial, you’d know that, her silence said. She motioned to Kasane, who rose and gathered up their two bundles.

“Then what shall I call you?” This interview wasn’t going as Hanshiro had planned it.

“You have no need to call me anything.” Cat hardly glanced at him as she took her furoshiki from Kasane, who helped adjust it on her back. “Our paths fork here.”

Hanshiro didn’t show his surprise, but he had assumed she would be grateful to have his sword and his arm as protection.

“Lady Asano …” The command in Hanshiro’s voice was subtle, but so compelling that Cat hesitated at the door. In spite of her reproof he called her by the title her father’s death had stolen from her. “I know you must be on your way, but grant me a few moments.”

Cat returned to the cushions. She regarded him with a neutral, unreadable expression.

Hanshiro was more pleased than if she had meekly accepted his offer. She had heart. She had spirit. She had dignity. She was a mistress he could be proud to serve. And he would serve her, no matter what she said now.

“The travel permit from Lord Hino’s councilor is for me and my disciple and a servant,” Hanshiro said.

“Yes. You might as well take it back.” Cat drew the letter from the front of her jacket and held it out. “It won’t help me, but I thank you for your trouble.”

Cat knew her behavior was rude, but she was angry. He had harried her and frightened her and now thought he could make amends with a prick of the finger.

“At least allow me to present you with a small token, as an apology for the anxiety I’ve caused you.” Hanshiro pushed a new wicker traveling box across the tatami. Then he bowed and left so Cat could open it.

A gift. Cat drew the box to her and stared at it. Gifts could be very expensive for the recipient. What price would the Tosa rnin try to extract for this one?

When Cat took the lid off the box, Kasane moved close to see the contents. “It’s beautiful,” she breathed.

Cat held up the garment on top of the pile of folded clothes. It was a pale chrysanthemum-colored robe of wadded silk lined with striped satin. Pine trees, each needle embroidered, bordered a rushing blue river. The river started at the left front hem, spiraled to the right and around the side. On the back a huge carp the color of cedar bark leaped upstream against the rapids. It was the design invariably worn by actors portraying the youngest Soga brother in his struggle to avenge his father.

Under the robe were a hempen hakama and formal haori jacket the color of cedar and the accessories to make up a young warrior’s traveling outfit. At the bottom of the box was a servant’s livery of the same color with a horizontal stripe of dark rust.

“I’ll give them to the abbot.” Cat folded them neatly and replaced them in the box. “He can sell them to raise money for the temple.”

Kasane made no argument, but Cat could see she was crestfallen.

“These clothes will make us conspicuous,” Cat said. “At the very least they’ll attract thieves.”

 

 

Kasane read her suitor’s poem aloud to Cat.

Alone in the night
I visit you by dream paths—
There’s no blame in that.

“He’s a bold, romantic rogue, Kasane.” Cat laughed.

“Here’s my answer.” Kasane was shy and proud. She had written this one herself. In her letter she confessed that someone else had copied the earlier poems for her.

I would read your words by moonlight
Or by the reflection of the snow
Or by the glow of the fireflies.
And if there were no moon or snow or fireflies
I would read it by the light of my heart.

“He’ll like it, I’m sure.” Cat curbed her impatience to get started. Thick gray clouds were moving in overhead, and she could hear distant thunder. Cat felt Hanshiro’s letter under her jacket. “‘Now is not the time to be thinking of yourself as one all alone.’” Surely the lowering sky was what was making her so melancholy.

Kasane hung her letter to the Traveler on the big wooden message board near Inari’s shrine. Cat whirled when someone spoke from close by.

“Forgive me, my lady.” Nameless bowed low.

“You’re the lantern painter.” Cat raised her staff, ready to strike. She recognized the young warrior from the attack at the ferry on the Tama River, and she was ready to break his nose again.

He looked much younger than Cat remembered him, probably no more than fifteen or sixteen. The bruise across his nose and under his eyes had faded to lavender. The nose itself was misshapen from her blow.

“Forgive me, Your Ladyship, for failing you.”

“What do you mean?”

“Didn’t Hanshiro-san tell you?”

“No.”

“I was trying to guard you, but I failed. In the fight last night he took all the topknots, shu, shu, shu. He prevented me from killing your enemies.”

“Who ordered you to follow me?”

“No one.” The boy looked thoroughly dejected. “I was a page in Ak when the news of your father’s shameful betrayal arrived. We all wept bitter tears. I swore with the others to defend our lord’s castle to the death or wreak vengeance on his enemy.

“But the councilor betrayed us. He meekly handed over the keys to the shgun’s agents. Then he became a profligate in the brothels, probably with the money he stole from your father’s estate.”

“And are there no plans to avenge the Asano name?”

“None that I know of, my lady. I went to Edo to try to kill Kira myself, for one cannot live under the same heaven with the slayer of one’s lord. But I was unsuccessful. Kira’s house is a fortress. His son, Lord Uesugi, has stationed extra bowmen there. I had decided to follow my lord in death when I heard you had escaped. I set out to find you and try my insignificant best to guard you against your enemies.”

The lad had also hoped that if some of Lord Asano’s former retainers were plotting revenge, Cat would lead him to them. He’d been disappointed all around.

“What have you been doing between Kawasaki and here?”

“I was in the scuffle at the theater in Kambara, and I joined the fray behind the pilgrims’ inn in Mishima.”

“You were there?”

“You almost broke my nose again.” In spite of his misery, Nameless smiled shyly. “Forgive the impertinence of a humble boy, my lady, but you were magnificent. You were also very difficult to follow.” He didn’t mention that he had blundered into Cat at the mountain pass near Nissaka and had pretended to be a babbling dry-goods clerk.

“And the Tosa rnin, what do you make of him?” Cat despised herself for asking, but she couldn’t help it. She wanted to hear everything she could about Hanshiro.

“He can drink a great deal, my lady.” The boy grimaced at the memory of trying to match Hanshiro at draining sake jars. “At first I thought he was one of Kira’s hirelings, but he’s on your side after all. That’s a great stroke of fortune for you. He’s an accomplished swordsman.”

“Thank you for your help.” When Cat picked up her bundle the boy tried to take it from her. Cat gently pulled it away. “Kasane and I will continue to travel alone,” she said.

“I can carry your things and protect you from ruffians and make arrangements at the inns. I’ll bargain with the river porters and the ferrymen and heat water for your tea at night.”

“We’ll get along by ourselves.” Cat wished she were as sure of that as she sounded. “We prefer to travel as we have been.”

She was half tempted to accept his offer; but after watching Hanshiro’s sure, graceful movements, after looking into his dark, gold-flecked eyes and reading his poetry, she couldn’t bear the thought of spending her days in the company of this boy.

She rationalized that she didn’t know anything about the boy except that he was persistent. She couldn’t trust him any more than she could trust the dangerous, taciturn rnin from Tosa. Yet how to refuse without wounding his pride?

“I have an important, personal favor to ask of you,” Cat said. “It will require great discretion, cunning, and courage.”

“Anything, my lady.”

“I want you to take a message to my mother.”

The boy’s eager expression faltered. “Back to Edo?”

“Yes. It grieves me to think how worried she must be. But the task is a dangerous one. My enemies will try to intercept you if they find you have word of me. You understand, don’t you?”

Cat told the absolute truth, but her face lied artfully. Her face said the letter would contain a message of far greater moment than reassurances to her mother. She let the boy think it would be the final link in a plot to avenge her father.

“Your wish is my will, my lady.” The boy wasn’t entirely fooled.