Part 3 (1/2)
The guard-captain led Tos.h.i.+ro along the path towards the open-sided summerhouse where Yoritomo sat crosslegged, lost in contemplation of the stone landscape. The five samurai seated behind him in a semicircle sprang silently to their feet, then relaxed their grip on the handles of their long-swords when they saw who it was. These men, like the guard around the garden, had been raised from birth in the Toh-Yota family household and were totally dedicated to the protection of the Shogun. The guard-captain bowed low and backed away as Tos.h.i.+ro mounted the wide lower step of the veranda and knelt down in line with the Shogun's left shoulder. Yoritomo continued to stare straight ahead at the garden. Tos.h.i.+ro placed his forehead on the straw matting covering the top step and waited.
'What kept you?” said the Shogun, in perfect American-English. It was a language he and his Heralds were able to speak fluently - although they were not encouraged to use the same colloquial mode of address.
The five guards, now ranged on the far side of Yoritomo, spoke only j.a.panese.
Tos.h.i.+ro a.s.sumed a cross-legged position. 'There were certain aspects of the situation that needed further investigation, sire. It wasn't easy. They're playing the cards close to their chest.”
'Are they holding many aces?”
'I'm not sure, but. there's a joker in the pack.”
Yoritomo dragged his eyes reluctantly from the pebble garden and let them rest briefly on Tos.h.i.+ro. The Shogun also wore a wig made from Mute hair but it was a more imposing arrangement made of coiled plaits combined with a small, flat pill-box hat and lacquered wooden combs - a design exclusive to his rank as the overlord of
Ne-Issan. 'Is this going to be as bad as I think it is?”
Tos.h.i.+ro bowed low. 'It's not good.”
Yoritomo sighed and returned to his contemplation of the stone landscape. 'Okay, let's have it...”
CHAPTER TWO.
During the past six months, Tos.h.i.+ro's princ.i.p.al task had been to monitor the work being carried out at the Heron Pool - a new craft centre that had been set up to the west of Ba-satana. At the beginning of the previous year Lord Yama-s.h.i.+ta, who held the licence to trade with the Northern Mutes, had persuaded Yoritomo of the need to rediscover the secrets of powered flight. His plan had been to seek the aid of the Mutes in obtaining a flying-horse and its rider. Much could be learned from a close examination of both, saving months, perhaps even years, of fruitless experimentation.
In pressing his case, Yama-s.h.i.+ta had emphasised that there was little time to lose. The desert warriors of the south - called lone-dogs because of their height and their angular, bony features - were poised to move north into the lands of the Plainfolk. In a few short years, their powerful weaponry might be turned against Ne-Issan.
Through his contacts with the Mutes, Yama-s.h.i.+ta knew that the flying-horses were an important element in the long-dogs' military strategy. Ne-Issan must equip itself with its own airborne cavalry in order to meet the threat when it eventually came.
Yoritomo promised to think the matter over. It all made sense, of course. Lord Hiro Yama-s.h.i.+ta - who, with the merger between the Yama-Ha'and the Matsu-s.h.i.+ta families, had become the single most powerful domain-lord in Ne-Issan - was a hardheaded realist. Any proposal put forward by him merited serious consideration.
It had been the Yama-h and the Matsus.h.i.+ta, builders of the first wheelboats, who had opened up the lucrative western trading routes and had tapped into the seemingly exhaustible supply of Mutes - the strangely marked half-humans that made up the bulk of Ne-Issan's labour force. The licences, which gave them a virtual monopoly on trade with the west, had been granted by Yoritomo's grandfather. The Yama-Ha and Matsuos.h.i.+ta had long been allies of the Toh-Yota and had supported them in their bid for the Shogunate. But the unprecedented marriage between the two houses had resulted in an unwelcome concentration of power and, if one looked at the map with the eye of a military commander, their combined domains were poised like a dagger at the heart of the TohYota.
Fortunately, the forty-year-old Yama-s.h.i.+ta seemed to be more interested in trade deals than political alliances, but it was a situation that had to be kept constantly under review. The country had been riven more than once by factional disputes, and despite the era of firm central government inst.i.tuted by the Toh-Yota, the domain-lords had kept a jealously guarded measure of independence. While all had sworn oaths of fealty to the Shogunate, there were some whose word could not be taken entirely at its face value. As a result, Yoritomo, like the previous holders of high office, kept two lists in his head - one headed fudai, those considered loyal and trustworthy; the other, tozama, unreliable.
Hiro Yama-s.h.i.+ta, despite his family's links with the Toh-Yota, occupied a grey area in between.
After consulting Ieyasu (the Chamberlain had known Hiro since he was a boy), Yoritomo agreed to the acquisition of a flying-horse and its rider. Through Yama-s.h.i.+ta's trading activities, a number of long-dogs 'had fallen into their hands. Their interrogation had enabled the Shogun to build up a partial picture of the strange underground domain known as the Federation.
But their testimony was flawed. These captive long-dogs were criminals, renegades - like the small bands of rootless ronin that lurked in dark recesses of the forests blanketing the slopes of the western hills. The pale warriors of this underground world could also be disloyal to their masters. Even so, the threat from the south could not be ignored. Hence the chosen strategy, put into effect through Yama-s.h.i.+ta, to arm the Mutes, who were numerically superior to both sides.
Because of their alien culture and backwardness, the Mutes could never be considered as allies, but their concept of warrior-hood was worthy of respect. The years of trading had brought about a state of friendly neutrality. No pledges had been exchanged, no plans were ever discussed but, over the last few years, Plainfolk territory had become a buffer zone protecting the frontiers of Ne-Issan. The warrior clans were now armed auxiliaries who, if everything went according to plan, would wear the long-dogs down in a slow war of attrition.
On Ieyasu's advice, Yoritomo had awarded the manufacturing licence for the flying-horses to Kiyomori Min-Orota, whose lands, bordering the Eastern Sea, lay just across the water to the north of Arongiren.
Kiyomori's father had married one of Yoritomo's aunts and the Min-Orota were on the list markedfudai.
As the snows deepened, burying the old year, Tos.h.i.+ro had returned with his first dispatch: a flying-horse had landed near Bu-faro, a harbour on Lake In on the western border of Lord Yama-s.h.i.+ta's domain. It carried two riders: a long-dog called Brickman and his escort, a female Mute warrior from the clan M'Cail, who were the donors of this long-awaited object.
Without more ado, the craft and its riders had been s.h.i.+pped via the ca.n.a.l and river system to Ro-diren and from there by road to the aptly named Heron Pool, the site chosen for this new enterprise. The workshops had not yet been constructed at the time of Tos.h.i.+ro's first visit, but he had brought back sketches of the alien craft together with verbal portraits of Brickman, the brown-skinned long-dog, and Clearwater, his blue-eyed Mute escort.