Shike - Robert J. Shea (best finance books of all time .TXT) 📗
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Ryuichi was outraged. He wanted to cry out, to demand that Horigawa apologize. The Shima family was being insulted here. But he remained silent. He was too frightened to speak.
Sogamori held up the sword again. “This will belong to Atsue when he performs his manhood ceremony as a Takashi.”
“We are overwhelmed by my lord’s offer to adopt the boy Atsue,” Ryuichi said. “Only, we plead for time. The boy’s mother is so newly bereaved.”
“Do you compare her suffering with mine?” Sogamori rasped. “What was she to my son but another courtesan? What right does she have to mourn? We will have the boy here today.”
The realization that he would have to face Taniko drove Ryuichi to make one last effort. “But she is the boy’s mother. She loves him.”
“She is still married to me,” Horigawa cut in. “By law I am the boy’s father. I say he shall go to Lord Sogamori.”
Ryuichi stared at Horigawa, astonished.
“Thus the woman is no obstacle, Ryuichi-san,” said Sogamori.
“I have a further thought, Your Excellency,” said Horigawa. “To ensure that she is kept under proper control, I shall take her back into my household.” He turned to Ryuichi and bared his blackened teeth. “You have borne the burden of caring for her long enough.”
Ryuichi was overcome with horror. She’ll kill herself, he thought. “No, no, that will not be necessary.”
“Let her be taken to Horigawa’s house at the same time Atsue comes here.” Sogamori laughed mirthlessly. “Peace will be restored to Ryuichi’s household.”
Horigawa said, “My journey to China on Your Excellency’s behalf will be an arduous one. It may be a year or more before I return. I will need the companionship and help of a wife. I have so immersed myself in my duties that I have not had time to seek one. On this voyage I shall have to make do with the one I-have.”
But Taniko hates you, Ryuichi thought. You killed her baby daughter, now you are helping to steal her son. Merciful Buddha, she has lost Kiyosi, and now she will lose Atsue. And then to fall into the hands of Horigawa again-she will surely go mad.
“Yukio has escaped to China after killing my son,” Sogamori brooded. “Well, there is one Muratomo on whom I can avenge myself. Listen, Ryuichi.”
Ryuichi shrank back. “Yes, my lord.”
“Send your swiftest messenger to your brother Shima Bokuden in Kamakura. Tell him the Imperial chancellor finds the continued existence of Muratomo no Hideyori a danger to the serenity of the realm. He is commanded to execute Hideyori immediately. I want the head brought back to me by the same messenger.”
If only Bokuden were here, Ryuichi thought. He would know what to do. In the midst of all his anguish, the prospect of Hideyori’s death troubled Ryuichi least of all. Hideyori had never brought any good to the Shima house, and Yukio had destroyed their entire little world. Ryuichi had no tears to spare for the Muratomo.
“As you wish, my lord.”
Horigawa said, “The other Muratomo will not escape your wrath in China, Your Excellency. Through me, your vengeance will follow him to the Central Kingdom.”
“Prince Horigawa is a remarkable man, Ryuichi-san,” said Sogamori. “He is small in body, but within that small head of his is encompassed the entire Chinese language, not only all its literary classics but all its terms of trade and warfare. The prince can equally well address the Sung Emperor or bandy words with the lowliest sailor on the docks. The messages he carries to China and the information he brings back will be precious to me. If he needs your niece, he must have her.” “I understand, my lord,” Ryuichi quavered.
“I will send a carriage with you for the boy, Ryuichi-san. Do not let your family trouble me again.”
Horigawa rose. “I will go along myself, with my own carriage, to bring my wife back to my house.” He bowed to Sogamori. “Would His Excellency be pleased to send some of his samurai with us as an escort?”
“Tell the captain of the guard to assign twenty outriders to you.” Eilled with despair, Ryuichi bowed, turned and shuffled out of Sogamori’s presence.
Taniko and Atsue were playing go when they heard the carriages and mounted men come rumbling through the gate of the Shima mansion. Atsue’s hand, about to place a white stone in a move that threatened a whole line of Taniko’s black stones in a corner, hesitated in mid air. He put the white stone down slowly, and they sat and looked at each other.
The returning party made much more noise than Uncle Ryuichi and his outriders had on leaving, as if there were more horses, perhaps more carriages, with him now. The nervousness Taniko had felt all morning turned to dread. Pushing the go table aside, she took Atsue in her arms.
After a time, the shoji screen to her chamber slid back, and Aunt Chogao’s tear-streaked face appeared in the opening. One look, and Taniko’s fear turned to a wild, despairing terror. Her aunt shook her head helplessly.
“Your uncle wants Atsue in the main hall.”
Taniko kept her arms around the boy. “If he wants Atsue he will have to come and tear him from me.”
Sobbing, Chogao left. Atsue was crying in Taniko’s arms. She patted the small shoulder beneath the dark green robe.
“Mother, kill me like you killed that man, and then kill yourself. We’ll meet Eather in the Pure Land.”
Taniko bit her lip. “You have a long life before you, Atsue-chan. I would rather lose you than harm you in any way. And even in the worst moments of my own life I’ve never wanted to kill myself. Let us commend ourselves to the mercy of Amida. Homage to Amida Buddha.”
“Homage to Amida Buddha,” Atsue repeated.
Ryuichi came into the room. Behind him there walked a small, hatefully familiar figure wearing a tall black-lacquer hat.
“Good day to you, Tanikosan,” said Horigawa, baring his blackened teeth in a broad grin.
With a scream of rage Taniko reached for the nearest weapon, which happened to be a lighted oil lamp. She hurled it at Horigawa, who stepped aside, laughing at her. Ryuichi shouted an alarm as the small, orange flames raced up a paper wall. A servant rushed in with a pot of water and threw it on the fire, and Ryuichi beat out the remaining flames with a quilt.
“I see Lady Taniko is still given to setting houses on fire,” said Horigawa.
“It was you who put this idea in Sogamori’s mind,” said Taniko, wanting to spring upon her husband and strangle him.
Horigawa spread his hands. “On the contrary, I suggested to Lord Sogamori that the offspring of a woman of unsound mind and low birth could hardly be worthy of his attention. But he insisted. I am merely here to see that his wishes are carried out. By law you are my wife, and this boy is my son. He will be adopted by Lord Sogamori, and you, from now on, will be part of my household.”
His household. They were sending her back to Horigawa. Her mind reeled under the shock. Eor a moment she really did want to kill herself. Everything that had given her happiness in these past years was gone, as if swallowed by an earthquake.
She knelt and held Atsue. “We will not go.”
“That man isn’t my father,” Atsue sobbed.
“Of course not,” Taniko said through clenched teeth. “He is incapable of being anyone’s father.”
Ryuichi was pleading with Horigawa. “You don’t want her as a wife, Your Highness. I’ll see to it that she doesn’t trouble Lord Sogamori.”
A change came over Horigawa’s face. His cheeks reddened under his courtier’s white powder. His eyes narrowed and his thin lips drew back from the black teeth. In a voice choked with hatred he said, “She is my wife. Mine. I will dispose of her as I see fit. Do not interfere in this, Ryuichi.” Horigawa turned away from Ryuichi and called through the shutters to men standing on the veranda.
“Taniko,” said Ryuichi, “perhaps if you let the boy go without making a scene, we could persuade Prince Horigawa to allow you to stay with us.”
“Don’t deceive yourself, Uncle,” Taniko said coldly. “The prince has old scores to settle with me. As for you, you failed me when I needed you most. Now I don’t want to stay with you.”
“Try to understand, Taniko. All the world bends before Lord Sogamori as grass before the wind. I can’t withstand him.”
“I thought a samurai could withstand anything.”
Two men in red silk jackets and shin-length trousers, their long swords hanging from their belts, tramped into the room. They looked somewhat sheepish at entering the chamber of a lady unprotected by a screen. Standing against the wall, they kept their eyes averted from Taniko and looked questioningly at Horigawa.
“Really, Your Highness, this is unnecessary,” Ryuichi said. “You insult me by bringing your samurai into my house.”
“You have already shown yourself unable to make the members of your household obey the commands of Lord Sogamori,” said Horigawa. He turned to the samurai. “Take the boy from her and put him in Lord Sogamori’s carriage.”
Taniko remained kneeling with her arms around Atsue. Ryuichi held out his hands to her.
“Please, Taniko. Do not disgrace us like this.”
“It is you who disgrace yourself, Uncle.”
“Take the boy,” Horigawa snapped at the samurai.
The elder of the two men stepped forward and stood over Taniko. “Excuse me, my lady. Will you give us the boy?”
“I’m sorry,” said Taniko, “but I cannot do that.”
“We know you, my lady. It was you who helped one of our comrades into the beyond. You are held in great esteem by all samurai. But we must obey orders. Do not force us to shame you.”
Taniko closed her eyes and bowed her head. “Eorgive me.” She tightened her grip on Atsue.
“It is you who must forgive us, my lady.” The samurai bent over and took hold of her arms. Atsue screamed. Ryuichi stood moaning and wringing his hands.
Suddenly Taniko let go of Atsue and leaped at the younger of the two samurai, grabbing for his sword. She had it halfway out of its scabbard when the samurai’s open hand smashed down on the side of her head. She fell, stunned, unable to move.
“She must have been a warrior in a former life,” said the older samurai.
“Mother!” Atsue cried. Taniko opened her eyes and saw her son in the grip of the younger samurai. She held out her arms to him and he struggled to free himself.
“Get the boy out of here,” Horigawa said. The man dragged Atsue from the room.
Shutting Atsue’s screams out of her mind, Taniko turned to the older samurai. She had to speak very slowly to keep the sobs from breaking through.
“Before you leave, ask the servants to give you his flute, koto and samisen and take them with you to the Rokuhara. The flute, Little Branch, is a Takashi family heirloom given Atsue by his father. The boy’s practice should not be interrupted. He is a very fine musician.” She remembered years ago when Lady Akimi had said of Domei’s son, Yukio, “His flute-playing is beautiful to hear.” Yukio, because of whom Kiyosi was now dead. Yukio, whose life she had helped save.
Until this moment that had not occurred to her. Now the realization of it stunned her.
“Homage to Amida Buddha,” she whispered. Only the Lord of Boundless Light could understand the tangled karma that made her somehow responsible for Kiyosi’s death.
Taniko stood, turning to Horigawa. “Take me and do what you will.”
Walking with the small steps of a lady,
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