Shogun (The Asian Saga Chronology) (55 page)

"It's the same with us.  How do you cook?  Over a wood stove?"  Blackthorne's strength had returned quickly and his legs no longer felt like jelly.  She had refused to take the litter back, so he lay there, enjoying the air and the conversation.

"We use a charcoal brazier.  We don't eat foods like you do, so our cooking is more simple.  Just rice and a little fish, raw mostly, or cooked over charcoal with a sharp sauce and pickled vegetables, a little soup perhaps.  No meat—never meat.  We're a frugal people—we have to be, only so little of our land, perhaps a fifth of our soil, can be cultivated—and we're many.  With us it's a virtue to be frugal, even in the amount of food we eat."

"Thou art brave.  I thank thee.  The arrows flew not, because of the shield of thy back."

"No, Captain of Ships.  It cometh from the will of God."

"Thou art brave and thou art beautiful."

She walked in silence for a moment.  No one has ever called me beautiful before—no one, she thought.  "I am not brave and I am not beautiful.  Swords are beautiful.  Honor is beautiful."

"Courage is beautiful and thou hast it in abundance."

Mariko did not answer.  She was remembering this morning and all the evil words and evil thoughts.  How can a man be so brave and so stupid, so gentle and so cruel, so warming and so detestable—all at the same time?  The Anjin-san was limitlessly brave to take Ishido's attention off the litter, and completely clever to feign madness and so lead Toranaga out of the trap.  How wise of Toranaga to escape this way!  But be cautious, Mariko, she warned herself.  Think about Toranaga and not about this stranger.  Remember his evil and stop the moist warmth in your loins that you have never had before, the warmth courtesans talk about and storybooks and pillowbooks describe.

"Aye," she said.  "Courage is beautiful and thou hast it in abundance."  Then she turned to Portuguese once more.  "Latin is such a tiring language."

"You learned it in school?"

"No, Anjin-san, it was later.  After I was married I lived in the far north for quite a long time.  I was alone, except for servants and villagers, and the only books I had were Portuguese and Latin—some grammars and religious books, and a Bible.  Learning the languages passed the time very well, and occupied my mind.  I was very fortunate. "

"Where was your husband?"

"At war."

"How long were you alone?"

"We have a saying that time has no single measure, that time can be like frost or lightning or a tear or siege or storm or sunset, or even like a rock."

"That's a wise saying," he told her.  Then added, "Your Portuguese is very good, senhora.  And your Latin.  Better than mine."

"You have a honeyed tongue, Anjin-san!"

"It's
honto!
"

"
Honto
is a good word. The
honto
is that one day a Christian Father came to the village.  We were like two lost souls.  He stayed for four years and helped me immensely.  I'm glad I can speak well," she said, without vanity.  "My father wanted me to learn the languages."

"Why?"

"He thought we should know the devil with which we had to deal."

"He was a wise man."

"No.  Not wise."

"Why?"

"One day I will tell you the story.  It's a sadness."

"Why were you alone for a rock of time?"

"Why don't you rest?  We have a long way to go yet."

"Do you want to ride?"  Again he began to get up but she shook her head.

"No, thank you.  Please stay where you are.  I enjoy walking."

"All right.  But you don't want to talk anymore?"

"If it pleases you we can talk.  What do you want to know?"

"Why were you alone for a rock of time?"

"My husband sent me away.  My presence had offended him.  He was perfectly correct to do this.  He honored me by not divorcing me.  Then he honored me even more by accepting me and our son back again."  Mariko looked at him.  "My son is fifteen now.  I'm really an old lady."

"I don't believe you, senhora."

"It's
honto.
"

"How old were you when you were married?"

"Old, Anjin-san.  Very old."

"We have a saying: Age is like frost or siege or sunset, even sometimes like a rock."  She laughed.  Everything about her is so graceful, he thought, mesmerized by her.  "On you, Venerable Lady, old age sits prettily."

"For a woman, Anjin-san, old age is never pretty."

"Thou art wise as thou art beautiful."  The Latin came too easily and though it sounded more formal and more regal, it was more intimate.  Watch yourself, he thought.

No one has ever called me beautiful before, she repeated to herself.  I wish it were true.  "Here it is not wise to notice another man's woman," she said.  "Our customs are quite severe.  For example, if a married woman is found alone with a man in a room with the door closed—just if they are alone and talking privately—by law her husband or his brother or his father has the right to put her to death instantly.  If the girl is unmarried, the father can, of course, always do with her as he pleases."

"That's not fair or civilized."  He regretted the slip instantly.

"We find ourselves quite civilized, Anjin-san."  Mariko was glad to be insulted again, for it had broken the spell and dispelled the warmth.  "Our laws are very wise.  There are far too many women, free and unattached, for a man to take one who belongs elsewhere.  It's a protection for women, in truth.  A wife's duty is solely to her husband.  Be patient.  You'll see how civilized, how advanced we are.  Women have a place, men have a place.  A man may have only one official wife at one time—but of course, many consorts—but women here have much more freedom than Spanish or Portuguese ladies, from what I've been told.  We can go freely where we please, when we please.  We may leave our husbands, if we wish, divorce them.  We may refuse to marry in the first place, if we wish.  We own our own wealth and property, our bodies and our spirits.  We have tremendous powers if we wish.  Who looks after all your wealth, your money, in your household?"

"I do, naturally."

"Here the wife looks after everything.  Money is nothing to a samurai.  It's beneath contempt to a real man.  I manage all my husband's affairs.  He makes all the decisions.  I merely carry out his wishes and pay his bills.  This leaves him totally free to do his duty to his lord, which is his sole duty.  Oh, yes, Anjin-san, you must be patient before you criticize."

"It wasn't meant as a criticism, senhora.  It's just that we believe in the sanctity of life, that no one can lightly be put to death unless a law court—the Queen's law court—agrees."

She refused to allow herself to be soothed.  "You say a lot of things I don't understand, Anjin-san.  But didn't you say 'not fair and not civilized'?"

"Yes."

"That then is a criticism,
neh?
  Lord Toranaga asked me to point out it's unseemly to criticize without knowledge.  You must remember our civilization, our culture, is thousands of years old.  Three thousand of these are documented.  Oh yes, we are an ancient people.  As ancient as China.  How many years does your culture go back?"

"Not long, senhora."

"Our Emperor, Go-Nijo, is the one hundred and seventh of his unbroken line, right back to Jimmu-tenno, the first earthling, who was descended from the five generations of terrestrial spirits and, before them, the seven generations of celestial spirits who came from Kuni-toko-tachi-noh-Mikoto—the first spirit—who appeared when the earth was split from the heavens.  Not even China can claim such a history.  How many generations have your kings ruled your land?"

"Our Queen's the third of the Tudor line, senhora.  But she's old now and childless so she's the last."

"One hundred and seven generations, Anjin-san, back to divinity," she repeated proudly.

"If you believe that, senhora, how can you also say you're Catholic?"  He saw her bridle, then shrug.

"I am only a ten-year Christian and therefore a novice, and though I believe in the Christian God, in God the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost, with all my heart, our Emperor is directly descended from the gods or from God.  He is divine.  There are a lot of things I cannot explain or understand.  But the divinity of my Emperor is without question.  Yes, I am Christian, but first I am a Japanese."

Is this the key to all of you?  That first you are Japanese? he asked himself.  He had watched her, astonished by what she was saying.  Their customs are insane!  Money means nothing
to a real man?
  That explains why Toranaga was so contemptuous when I mentioned money at the first meeting.  One hundred and seven generations?  Impossible!  Instant death just for being innocently in a closed room with a woman?  That's barbarism—an open invitation to murder.  They advocate and admire murder!  Isn't that what Rodrigues said?  Isn't that what Omi-san did?  Didn't he just murder that peasant?  By Christ's blood, I haven't thought of Omi-san for days.  Or the village.  Or the pit or being on my knees in front of him.  Forget him, listen to her, be patient as she says, ask her questions because she'll supply the means to bend Toranaga to your plan.  Now Toranaga is absolutely in your debt.  You saved him.  He knows it, everyone knows it.  Didn't she thank you, not for saving her but for saving him?

The column was moving through the city heading for the sea.  He saw Yabu keeping the pace up and momentarily Pieterzoon's screams came soaring into his head.  "One thing at a time," he muttered, half to himself.

"Yes," Mariko was saying.  "It must be very difficult for you.  Our world is so very different from yours.  Very different but very wise."  She could see the dim figure of Toranaga within the litter ahead and she thanked God again for his escape.  How to explain to the barbarian about us, to compliment him for his bravery?  Toranaga had ordered her to explain, but how?  "Let me tell you a story, Anjin-san.  When I was young my father was a general for a
daimyo
called Goroda.  At that time Lord Goroda was not the great Dictator but a
daimyo
still struggling for power.  My father invited this Goroda and his chief vassals to a feast.  It never occurred to him that there was no money to buy all the food and saké and lacquerware and tatamis that such a visit, by custom, demanded.  Lest you think my mother was a bad manager, she wasn't.  Every groat of my father's revenue went to his own vassal samurai and although, officially, he had only enough for four thousand warriors, by scrimping and saving and manipulating my mother saw that he led five thousand three hundred into battle to the glory of his liege lord.  We, the family—my mother, my father's consorts, my brothers and sisters—we had barely enough to eat.  But what did that matter?  My father and his men had the finest weapons and the finest horses, and they gave of their best to their lord.

"Yes, there was not enough money for this feast, so my mother went to the wigmakers in Kyoto and sold them her hair.  I remember it was like molten darkness and hung to the pit of her back.  But she sold it.  The wigmakers cut it off the same day and gave her a cheap wig and she bought everything that was necessary and saved the honor of my father.  It was her duty to pay the bills and she paid.  She did her duty.  For us duty is all important."

"What did he say, your father, when he found out?"

"What should he say, other than to thank her?  It was her duty to find the money.  To save his honor."

"She must have loved him very much."

"Love is a Christian word, Anjin-san.  Love is a Christian thought, a Christian ideal.  We have no word for 'love' as I understand you to mean it.  Duty, loyalty, honor, respect, desire, those words and thoughts are what we have, all that we need."  She looked at him and in spite of herself, she relived the instant when he had saved Toranaga, and through Toranaga, her husband.  Never forget they were both trapped there, they would both be dead now, but for this man.

She made sure that no one was near.  "Why did you do what you did?"

"I don't know.  Perhaps because . . ."  He stopped.  There were so many things he could say: 'Perhaps because Toranaga was helpless and I didn't want to get chopped. . . . Because if he was discovered we'd all be caught in the mess. . . . Because I knew that no one knew except me and it was up to me to gamble. . . . Because I didn't want to die—there's too much to do to waste my life, and Toranaga's the only one who can give me back my ship and my freedom.'  Instead he replied in Latin, "Because He hath said, render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's."

"Aye," she said, and added in the same language, "aye, that is what I was attempting to say.  To Caesar those things, and to God those things.  It is thusly with us.  God is God and our Emperor is from God.  And Caesar is Caesar, to be honored as Caesar."  Then, touched by his understanding and the tenderness in his voice, she said, "Thou art wise.  Sometimes I think thou understandst more than thou sayest."

Aren't you doing what you swore you would never do? Blackthorne asked himself.  Aren't you playing the hypocrite?  Yes and no.  I owe them nothing.  I'm a prisoner.  They've stolen my ship and my goods and murdered one of my men.  They're heathen—well, some of them are heathen and the rest are Catholics.  I owe nothing to heathens and Catholics.  But you'd like to bed her and you were complimenting her, weren't you?

God curse all consciences!

The sea was nearer now, half a mile away.  He could see many ships, and the Portuguese frigate with her riding lights.  She'd make quite a prize.  With twenty bully boys I could take her.  He turned back to Mariko.  Strange woman, from a strange family.  Why did she offend Buntaro—that baboon?  How could she bed with that, or marry that?  What is the "sadness"?

"Senhora," he said, keeping his voice gentle, "your mother must have been a rare woman.  To do that."

"Yes.  But because of what she did, she will live forever.  Now she is legend.  She was as samurai as—as my father was samurai."

"I thought only men were samurai."

"Oh, no, Anjin-san.  Men and women are equally samurai, warriors with responsibilities to their lords.  My mother was true samurai, her dutifulness to her husband exceeded everything."