Shogun (The Asian Saga Chronology) (41 page)

"That's the truth—
honto,
" he said calmly and raised his hand.  "I swear by Jesus of Nazareth and by my soul, I swear it is the truth."

She watched him in silence.  "Everything?"

"Yes.  Lord Toranaga wanted the truth.  Why should I lie?  My life is in his hands.  It is easy to prove the truth—no, to be honest, it would be very hard to prove what I've said—you'd have to go there and see for yourself.  Certainly the Portuguese and Spanish, who are my enemies, won't support me.  But Lord Toranaga asked for the truth.  He can trust me to tell it to him."

Mariko thought a moment.  Then she scrupulously translated what he had said.  At length:

"Lord Toranaga says, it is unbelievable that any human could live without bathing."

"Yes.  But those are the cold lands.  Their habits are different from yours, and mine.  For instance, in my country, everyone believes baths are dangerous for your health.  My grandmother, Granny Jacoba, used to say, 'A bath when you're birthed and another when laid out'll see thee through the Pearly Gates.'"

"That's very hard to believe."

"Some of your customs are very hard to believe.  But it is true that I've had more baths in the short time I've been in your country than in as many years before.  I admit freely I feel better for them."  He grinned.  "I no longer believe baths are dangerous.  So I've gained by coming here, no?"

After a pause Mariko said, "Yes," and translated.

Kiri said, "He's astonishing—astonishing,
neh?
"

"What's your judgment of him, Mariko-san?" Toranaga asked.

"I'm convinced he's telling the truth, or believes he's telling it.  Clearly it would seem that he could, perhaps, have a great value to you, my Lord.  We have such a tiny knowledge of the outside world.  Is that valuable to you?  I don't know.  But it's almost as though he's come down from the stars, or up from under the sea.  If he's enemy to the Portuguese and the Spanish, then his information, if it can be trusted, could perhaps be vital to your interests,
neh?
"

"I agree," Kiri said.

"What do you think, Yaemon-sama?"

"Me, Uncle?  Oh, I think he's ugly and I don't like his golden hair and cat's eyes and he doesn't look human at all," the boy said breathlessly.  "I'm glad I wasn't born barbarian like him but samurai like my father, can we go for another swim, please?"

"Tomorrow, Yaemon," Toranaga said, vexed at not being able to talk directly to the pilot.

While they talked among themselves Blackthorne decided that the time had come.  Then Mariko turned to him again.

"My Master asks why were you in the north?"

"I was pilot of a ship.  We were trying to find a northeast passage, senhora.  Many things I can tell you will sound laughable, I know," he began.  "For instance, seventy years ago the kings of Spain and Portugal signed a solemn treaty that split ownership of the New World, the undiscovered world, between them.  As your country falls in the Portuguese half, officially your country belongs to Portugal—Lord Toranaga, you, everyone, this castle and everything in it were given to Portugal."

"Oh, please, Anjin-san.  Pardon me, that's nonsense!"

"I agree their arrogance is unbelievable.  But it's true."  Immediately she began to translate and Toranaga laughed derisively.

"Lord Toranaga says he could equally well split the heavens between himself and the Emperor of China,
neh?
"

"Please tell Lord Toranaga, I'm sorry, but that's not the same," Blackthorne said, aware that he was on dangerous ground.  "This is written into legal documents which give each king the right to claim any non-Catholic land discovered by their subjects and to stamp out the existing government and replace it with Catholic rule."  On the map, his finger traced a line north to south that bisected Brazil.  "Everything east of this line is Portugal's, everything west is Spain's.  Pedro Cabral discovered Brazil in 1500, so now Portugal owns Brazil, has stamped out the native culture and legal rulers, and has become rich from the gold and silver taken out of mines and plundered from native temples.  All the rest of the Americas so far discovered is Spanish-owned now—Mexico, Peru, almost this whole south continent.  They've wiped out the Inca nations, obliterated their culture, and enslaved hundreds of thousands of them.  The conquistadores have modern guns—the natives none.  With the conquistadores come the priests.  Soon a few princes are converted, and enmities used.  Then prince is turned against prince and realm swallowed up piece meal.  Now Spain is the richest nation in our world from the Inca and Mexican gold and silver they've plundered and sent back to Spain."

Mariko was solemn now.  She had quickly grasped the significance of Blackthorne's lesson.  And so had Toranaga.

"My Master says this is a worthless conversation.  How could they give themselves such rights?"

"They didn't," Blackthorne said gravely.  "The Pope gave them the rights, the Vicar of Christ on earth himself.  In return for spreading the word of God."

"I don't believe it," she exclaimed.

"Please translate what I said, senhora.  It is
honto.
"

She obeyed and spoke at length, obviously unsettled.  Then:

"My Master—my Master says you are—you are just trying to poison him against your enemies.  What is the truth?  On your own life, senhor."

"Pope Alexander VI set the first line of demarcation in 1493," Blackthorne commenced, blessing Alban Caradoc who had hammered so many facts into him when he was young, and Father Domingo for informing him about Japanese pride and giving him clues to Japanese minds.  "In 1506 Pope Julius II sanctioned changes to the Treaty of Tordesillas, signed by Spain and Portugal in 1494, which altered the line a little.  Pope Clement VII sanctioned the Treaty of Saragossa in 1529, barely seventy years ago, which drew a second line here"—his finger traced a line of longitude in the sand which cut through the tip of southern Japan.  "This gives Portugal the exclusive right to your country, all these countries—from Japan, China to Africa—in the way I have said.  To exploit exclusively—
by any means
—in return for spreading Catholicism."  Again he waited and the woman hesitated, in turmoil, and he could feel Toranaga's growing irritation at having to wait for her to translate.

Mariko forced her lips to speak and repeated what he had said.  Then she listened to Blackthorne again, detesting what she heard.  Is this really possible? she asked herself.  How could His Holiness say such things?  Give our country to the Portuguese?  It must be a lie.  But the pilot swore by the Lord Jesus.

"The pilot says, Lord," she began, "in—in the days that these decisions were made by His Holiness the Pope, all their world, even the Anjin-san's country was Catholic Christian.  The schism had not—not yet occurred.  So, so these—these papal decisions would, of course, be binding on—on all nations.  Even so, he adds that though the Portuguese have exclusivity to
exploit
Japan, Spain and Portugal are quarreling incessantly about the
ownership
because of the richness of our trade with China."

"What's your opinion, Kiri-san?" Toranaga said, as shocked as the others.  Only the boy toyed with his fan uninterestedly.

"He believes he's telling the truth," Kiri said.  "Yes, I think that.  But how to prove it—or part of it?"

"How would you prove it, Mariko-san?" Toranaga asked, most perturbed by Mariko's reaction to what had been said, but very glad that he had agreed to use her as interpreter.

"I would ask Father Tsukku-san," she said.  "Then, too, I would send someone—a trusted vassal—out into the world to see.  Perhaps with the Anjin-san."

Kiri said, "If the priest does not support these statements, it may not necessarily mean this Anjin-san is lying,
neh?
"  Kiri was pleased that she had suggested using Mariko as an interpreter when Toranaga was seeking an alternative to Tsukku-san.  She knew Mariko was to be trusted and that, once Mariko had sworn by her alien God, she would ever be silent under rigorous questioning by any Christian priest.  The less those devils know, the better, Kiri thought.  And what a treasue of knowledge this barbarian has!

Kiri saw the boy yawn again and was glad of it.  The less the child understands the better, she told herself.  Then she said, "Why not send for the leader of the Christian priests and ask about these facts?  See what he says.  Their faces are open, mostly, and they have almost no subtlety."

Toranaga nodded, his eyes on Mariko.  "From what you know about the Southern Barbarians, Mariko-san, would you say that a Pope's orders would be obeyed?"

"Without doubt."

"His orders would be considered as though the voice of the Christian God was speaking?"

"Yes."

"Would all Catholic Christians obey his orders?"

"Yes."

"Even our Christians here?"

"I would think, yes."

"Even you?"

"Yes, Sire.  If it was a direct order from His Holiness to me personally.  Yes, for my soul's salvation."  Her gaze was firm.  "But until that time I will obey no man but my liege lord, the head of my family, or my husband.  I am Japanese, a Christian yes, but first I am samurai."

"I think it would be good then, that this Holiness stays away from our shores."  Toranaga thought for a moment.  Then he decided what to do with the barbarian, Anjin-san.  "Tell him . . ."  He stopped.  All their eyes went to the path and to the elderly woman who approached.  She wore the cowled habit of a Buddhist nun.  Four Grays were with her.  The Grays stopped and she came on alone.

CHAPTER 17

They all bowed low.  Toranaga noticed that the barbarian copied him and did not get up or stare, which all barbarians except Tsukku-san would have done, according to their own custom.  The pilot learns quickly, he thought, his mind still blazing from what he had heard.  Ten thousand questions were crowding him, but, according to his discipline, he channeled them away temporarily to concentrate on the present danger.

Kiri had scurried to give the old woman her cushion and helped her to sit, then knelt behind her, in motionless attendance.

"Thank you, Kiritsubo-san," the woman said, returning their bow.  Her name was Yodoko.  She was the widow of the Taikō and now, since his death, a Buddhist nun.  "I'm sorry to come uninvited and to interrupt you, Lord Toranaga."

"You're never unwelcome or uninvited, Yodoko-sama."

"Thank you, yes, thank you."  She glanced at Blackthorne and squinted to try to see better.  "But I think I did interrupt.  I can't see who— Is he a barbarian?  My eyes are getting worse and worse.  It's not Tsukku-san, is it?"

"No, he's the new barbarian," Toranaga said.

"Oh, him!"  Yodoko peered closer.  "Please tell him I can't see very well, hence my impoliteness."

Mariko did as she was told.  "He says many people in his country are shortsighted, Yodoko-sama, but they wear spectacles.  He asked if we have them.  I told him yes, some of us—from the Southern Barbarians.  That you used to wear them but don't anymore."

"Yes.  I prefer the mist that surrounds me.  Yes, I don't like a lot of what I see nowadays."  Yodoko turned back and looked at the boy, pretending to have just seen him.  "Oh!  My son!  So there you are.  I was looking for you.  How good it is to see the Kwampaku!"  She bowed deferentially.

"Thank you, First Mother," Yaemon beamed and bowed back.  "Oh, you should have heard the barbarian.  He's been drawing us a map of the world and telling us funny things about people who don't bathe at all!  Never in their whole lives and they live in snow houses and wear skins like evil
kami.
"

The old lady snorted.  "The less they come here the better, I think, my son.  I could never understand them and they always smell so horrible.  I could never understand how the Lord Taikō, your father, could tolerate them.  But then he was a man and you're a man, and you've more patience than a lowly woman.  You've a good teacher, Yaemon-sama."  Her old eyes flicked back to Toranaga.  "Lord Toranaga's got more patience than anyone in the Empire."

"Patience is important for a man, vital for a leader," Toranaga said.  "And a thirst for knowledge is a good quality too, eh, Yaemon-sama?  And knowledge comes from strange places."

"Yes, Uncle.  Oh yes," Yaemon said.  "He's right, isn't he, First Mother?"

"Yes, yes.  I agree.  But I'm glad I'm a woman and don't have to worry about these things,
neh?
"  Yodoko hugged the boy, who had come to sit beside her.  "So, my son.  Why am I here?  To fetch the Kwampaku.  Why?  Because the Kwampaku is late for his food and late for his writing lessons."

"I hate writing lessons and I'm going swimming!"

Toranaga said with mock gravity, "When I was your age I used to hate writing too.  But then, when I was twenty, I had to stop fighting battles and go back to school.  I hated that worse."

"Go back to school, Uncle?  After leaving it forever?  Oh, how terrible!"

"A leader has to write well, Yaemon-sama.  Not only clearly but beautifully, and the Kwampaku better than anyone else.  How else can he write to His Imperial Highness or to the great
daimyos?
  A leader has to be better than his vassals in everything, in every way.  A leader has to do many things that are difficult."

"Yes, Uncle.  It's very difficult to be Kwampaku."  Yaemon frowned importantly.  "I think I'll do my lessons now and not when I'm twenty because then I'll have important matters of state."

They were all very proud of him.  "You're very wise, my son," said Yodoko.

"Yes, First Mother.  I'm wise like my father, as my mother says.  When's Mother coming home?"

Yodoko peered up at Toranaga.  "Soon."

"I hope very soon," Toranaga said.  He knew Yodoko had been sent to fetch the boy by lshido.  Toranaga had brought the boy and the guards directly to the garden to further irritate his enemy.  Also to show the boy the strange pilot and so deprive Ishido of the pleasure of providing that experience for him.

"It's very wearisome being responsible for my son," Yodoko was saying.  "It would be very good to have the Lady Ochiba here in Osaka, home again, then I can get back to the temple,
neh?
  How is she, and how is the Lady Genjiko?"