Part 2 (1/2)
The entrance, with its wide, gently arched bridge, was guarded by two keeps; one at the end of the approach road, the other set on a stone island halfway across the moat. This palace, with its pleasure gardens and artfully sculptured rock pools and waterfalls, was also a fortress with secret stairways, exits and entrances.
Tos.h.i.+ro had no need to show his papers at the outer keep. The guard-captain, alerted by a keen-eyed sentinel, recognised him with the aid of a spygla.s.s and rode out with two other samurai to meet him.
Captain Kamakura and Tos.h.i.+ro exchanged the usual salutations, but their voices lent a warmth to the formal exchanges. They were old friends despite the difference in their ages. Kamakura, the senior by some fifteen years, had helped Tos.h.i.+ro to perfect his swordmans.h.i.+p and would practise with him, or counsel him, whenever asked.
Over the last two years, Tos.h.i.+ro had been constantly on the move, arriving with eagerly awaited information only to find himself dispatched on some new errand with barely time to catch his breath. As a consequence, the two men had seen less of each other than they would have liked but their friends.h.i.+p remained undimmed.
Kamakura, a samurai cursed with five daughters, treated him like a surrogate son. Whenever Tos.h.i.+ro came to Aron-giren, the captain and his wife Yukio received him into their household with the utmost warmth and generosity. Although Tos.h.i.+ro had never doubted his mentor's sincerity, it was only natural to a.s.sume that at the back of this charming couple's mind was the hope that one of their daughters might find favour in his eyes. It was evidently a hope shared by their offspring because, over the years, all but the youngest, who was not yet thirteen, had taken it in turns to favour him with a more intimate form of hospitality.
Their nocturnal visits which, by custom, one was not expected to refuse, had been executed with an admirable discretion equal to that practised by the ladies of the court. And their subsequent behaviour gave not the slightest hint of what had occurred. Each one had remained as courteous and respectful as before. Tos.h.i.+ro had said nothing to their father. He preferred to think that the good captain had no idea what was going on.
However, the expertise his daughters had displayed could not have been achieved without some degree of parental guidance. Although it was something that he and Kamakura had never discussed, Tos.h.i.+ro knew that their mother had once been a courtesan. It was a well-known fact that the warmth of their embrace was often fuelled by a burning ambition.
The two hors.e.m.e.n who had ridden out with Kamakura dismounted and rejoined the guard as Kamakura and Tos.h.i.+ro trotted their ponies through the arches of the outer and inner keeps and went on into the main courtyard of the palace. Civilians - mainly tradesmen of low rank who found themselves on the bridge fell to their knees and pressed their faces to the close-fitting planks. The iron-shod feet of the ponies sent thunderous echoes through their heads as the riders pa.s.sed by.
As a member of the house of Hase-Gawa, Tos.h.i.+ro had his family home on the seaward edge of the northern marches. Only two domains were equally remote - the Fu-Ji and the Na-Shuwa, whose lands lay to the north-west and north-east of the Hase-Gawa. Beyond them lay the Fog People. Kamakura, on the other hand, resided on Aron-giren. As a close friend and his swordmaster it was only natural to offer his house to the younger man, even though accommodation was always available for Heralds whenever they arrived and wherever the court happened to be.
The Shogun had four other palatial fortresses on the mainland and numerous other residences on the Toh-Yota family estates.
Tos.h.i.+ro thanked Kamakura for the invitation and promised to dine with him at the earliest opportunity.
Unfortunately, he could make no plans until he had reported to the Shogun. Only then would he know whether he would have time to sample the delectable joys of family life in the Kamakura household before being dispatched on some new errand. In the meantime, he begged the good captain to convey his respectful yet tender greetings to Yukio, his wife, and her five daughters whose peerless beauty, selfless devotion and pristine decorum reflected nothing but credit upon their parents. Et cetera, et cetera.
Kamakura wheeled away and headed back across the bridge, his honour satisfied. Since his respect and friends.h.i.+p for the young man pre-dated Tos.h.i.+ro's elevation to the rank of Herald he knew that his offer of hospitality would not be construed as an attempt to curry favour. Nevertheless, as his wife constantly reminded him, any one of their eligible daughters would make an ideal match for Tos.h.i.+ro. And with a Herald for a son-in-law, the marriage prospects for the remaining girls would be immeasurably increased. One n.o.ble scion was the least they could expect. Maybe two!
Women! Despite their supposedly submissive, secondary status, it was rare to find one able to resist the lure of social advancement. It was just as well they had a mult.i.tude of domestic tasks to attend to: otherwise their days would be filled with all manner of vainglorious dreams, In his years of service with the Shogunate, Kamakura had seen enough to know that, unless governed by an acute and disciplined intellect, bodies freed from the daily grind of physical labour or the demands of soldiering soon became breeding grounds for discontent.
Idleness led first to the unbridled pursuit of pleasure, then, when jaded appet.i.tes could no longer be whetted by the most deviant perversions, the ladies of the court turned into malicious gossips and schemers.
Having destroyed their own sense of moral worth, they set out to destroy those around them. There were men of privilege who fell into this category too - and it had led to the collapse of more than one Shogunate.
n.o.bility, reflected Kamakura, was not all it was trumped up to be. It was the samurai ethic that was the bulwark against mental and physical corruption, and he was thankful that the new Shogun was the embodiment of all he held dear. Unfortunately, Yukio, his wife who, as a young concubine, had pleasured the present Shogun's father did not share this jaundiced view of the n.o.bility even though her lord and master, in a fit of generosity, had presented her to Kamakura in return for services rendered. Yukio, then a slim girl with a flawless, resilient body, had submitted dutifully as her status demanded but, like all women, she had found ways to convey her resentment.
That was in the beginning. Their relations.h.i.+p had improved in the intervening years for, with time, he had proved a reasonable catch, especially when Yoritomo, on his accession to power, had promoted him to the rank of guard-captain and, at the same time, had swept the remaining sybarites out of his father's 'pleasure dome'.
But the gilded life of the Inner Court leaves an indelible mark.
Kamakura knew that, in her heart of hearts, Yukio wished she could have married into the n.o.bility which, for a daughter of a well-to-do merchant family, had not been beyond the bounds of possibility. There were times when even Kamakura wished he could have been born with a silver cup to his lips. But he was old enough and wise enough to know that the fledgling heirs to wealth, power and privilege often found themselves holding a poisoned chalice.
Entering the palace, Tos.h.i.+ro presented himself to Ieyasu, the Court Chamberlain, and learned that word of his arrival had already reached the Shogun. The Herald was to join him in the pebble garden as soon as he had cleansed his travel-stained body.
Ieyasu, a tall angular man with a lined, cadaverous face, prided himself on his efficiency. How it was achieved was something of a mystery to Tos.h.i.+ro. Ieyasu never seemed to do anything and on the rare occasions.
Tos.h.i.+ro had seen him in motion, each gesture, like his speech, was slow, deliberate and precise. He exuded a quality of stillness - and a disquieting degree of menace like a female spider poised at the centre of an invisible web of power.
Tos.h.i.+ro thanked the Chamberlain in the customary manner and exited backwards from his presence.
Ieyasu made his way to the window and watched Tos.h.i.+ro swagger across the small courtyard below followed by the two pages who carried his travelling bags. Such energy! Such muscular dedication! Where would it all end? Under the previous Shogun, Ieyasu had acted as a filter for the information that the Heralds had carried to and from court.
But Yoritomo had changed all that. Nowadays, this new band of jumped-up jack-a-knaves reported to the Shogun in person - and in private! An unheard-of and most unwelcome break with ancient tradition which opened the way to a further dilution of the powers held by the office of the Chamberlain.