Shōgun полностью

"Please excuse my bad manners, Anjin-san. Thank you for giving him his sword," he said, his voice polite, Alvito translating. "I apologize for shouting. Thank you for allowing me to blood my sword honorably." His eyes dropped to the heirloom Toranaga had given him. Carefully he examined its edge. It was still perfect. He undid his silk sash to cleanse the blood away. "Never touch a blade with your fingers, Anjin-san, that will ruin it. A blade must feel only silk or the body of an enemy." He stopped and looked up. "May I politely suggest you allow your vassals to test their blades? It will be a good omen for them."

Blackthorne turned to Uraga. "Tell them."

When Yabu returned to his house it was late in the day. Servants took his sweat-soiled clothes and gave him a fresh lounging kimono and put his feet into clean tabi. Yuriko, his wife, was waiting for him in the cool of the veranda with cha and saké, piping hot, the way he liked to drink it.

"Saké, Yabu-san?" Yuriko was a tall thin woman with gray-streaked hair. Her dark kimono of poor quality set off her fair skin nicely.

"Thank you, Yuriko-san." Yabu drank the wine gratefully, enjoying the sweet, harsh rasp as it slid down his parched throat.

"It went well, I hear."

"Yes."

"How impertinent of that ronin!"

"He served me well, Lady, very well. I feel fine now. I've blooded Toranaga's sword and made it really mine." Yabu finished the cup and she refilled it. His hand fondled his sword hilt. "But you wouldn't have enjoyed the fight. He was a child-he fell into the first trap."

She touched him tenderly. "I'm glad he did, husband."

"Thank you, but I hardly got up a sweat." Yabu laughed. "You should have seen the priest though! It would have made you warm to see that barbarian sweating-I've never seen him so angry. He was so angry it almost choked him to hold it in. Cannibal! They're all cannibals. Pity there's no way to stamp them out before we depart this earth."

"Do you think the Anjin-san could?"

"He's going to try. With ten of those ships and ten of him, I could control the seas from here to Kyushu. With only him I could hurt Kiyama, Onoshi, and Harima and smash Jikkyu and keep Izu! We only need a little time and every daimyo'll be fighting his own special enemy. Izu would be safe and mine again! I don't understand why Toranaga's going to let the Anjin-san go. That's another stupid waste!" He bunched his fist and slammed it on the tatamis. The maid flinched but said nothing. Yuriko did not make the slightest move. A smile flickered across her face.

"How did the Anjin-san take his freedom, and his vassals?" she asked.

"He was so happy he was like an old man dreaming he had a four-pronged Yang. He-oh yes-" Yabu frowned, remembering. "But there was one thing I still don't understand. When those wako first surrounded me I was a dead man. No doubt about it. But the Anjin-san stopped them and gave me back my life. No reason for him to do that, neh? Just before, I'd seen the hate written all over him. So naïve to pretend otherwise-as if I'd trust him."

"He gave you your life?"

"Oh yes. Strange, neh?"

"Yes. Many strange things are going on, husband." She dismissed the maid, then asked quietly, "What did Toranaga really want?"

Yabu bent forward and whispered, "I think he wants me to become commander-in-chief."

"Why should he do that? Is Iron Fist dying?" Yuriko asked. "What about Lord Sudara? Or Buntaro? Or Lord Noboru?"

"Who knows, Lady? They're all out of favor, neh? Toranaga changes his mind so often no one can predict what he'll do now. First he asked me to go in his place to the wharf and told how he wanted everything said, then he talked about Hiro-matsu, how old he was getting, and asked what I really thought about the Musket Regiment."

"Could he be readying Crimson Sky again?"

"That's always ready. But he hasn't got the Fruit for it. That will need leadership and skill. Once he had it, not now. Now he's a shadow of the Minowara he was. I was shocked at how he looked. So sorry, I made a mistake. I should have gone with Ishido."

"I think you chose correctly."

"What?"

"First have your bath, then I think I have a present for you."

"What present?"

"Your brother Mizuno is coming after the evening meal."

"That's a present?" Yabu bristled. "What would I want with that fool?"

"Special information or wisdom, even from a fool, can be just as valuable as from a counselor, neh? Sometimes more so."

"What information?"

"First your bath. And food. You'll need a cool head tonight, Yabu-chan."

Yabu would have pressed her but the bath tempted him, and in truth, he was filled with a pleasing lassitude he had not felt in many a day. Part of it was due to Toranaga's deference this morning, part to the generals' deference over the last few days. But most of it was due to the killing, the ripple of joy that had rushed from sword to arm to head. Ah, to kill so cleanly, man to man-in front of men-that's a joy given to so few, so rarely. Rare enough to be appreciated and savored.