Part 7 (1/2)
”I agree. No one sees Arai as a problem in the long term. It would be easy enough to lie low until he's calmed down, as you say. But there is another matter that could be far more serious. It seems s.h.i.+geru left us an unexpected legacy. The Kikuta believe he kept records of our networks and members and that these records are now in Takeo's possession.”
Her heart stopped in her throat. It seemed to her that she had brought the past to life just by thinking about it.
”Is it possible?” she replied, trying to respond normally.
”The Kikuta master Kotaro is convinced of it. At the end of last year he sent Takeo to Hagi, with Akio, to locate the records and bring them back. It seems Takeo went to s.h.i.+geru's house, saw Ichiro, and then got away from Akio somehow and headed for Terayama. He evaded and killed two agents and an Otori warrior on the way.”
”An Otori warrior?” s.h.i.+zuka repeated stupidly.
”Yes, the Kikuta are stepping up their contacts with the Otori, both in alliance against Arai and to eliminate Takeo.”
”And the Muto?”
Kenji grunted. ”I have not made a decision yet.” s.h.i.+zuka raised her eyebrows and waited for him to go on. ”Kotaro is a.s.suming the records were being looked after at the temple, which in hindsight seems obvious to me. That wicked old Matsuda never gave up plotting despite becoming a priest, and he and s.h.i.+geru were very close. I think I can even recall the chest s.h.i.+geru carried them in. I can't imagine how I overlooked it. My only excuse is that I had other things on my mind at that time. The Kikuta are furious with me, and I'm left looking like an idiot.” He grinned ruefully. ”s.h.i.+geru outfoxed me-me, whom they used to call the Fox!”
”That explains the edict against Takeo,” s.h.i.+zuka said. ”I thought it was for disobedience. It seemed fierce, but it didn't surprise me. When I heard he was working with Akio, I knew there would be trouble.”
”My daughter said so too. She sent a message to me while Takeo was still in our house in Yamagata. There was some incident: He outwitted my wife and escaped for a night, nothing major, and he came back by morning, butYuki wrote then that he and Akio would end up killing each other. Akio very nearly did die, by the way. Muto Yuzuru's men pulled him out of the river, half-drowned and half-frozen.”
”Takeo should have finished him off,” s.h.i.+zuka couldn't help saying. Kenji smiled without mirth. ”I'm afraid that was my first reaction too. Akio claimed he tried to prevent Takeo from getting away, but I learned later from Yuki that he was already under instructions to kill him, once the whereabouts of the records had been discovered.”
”Why?” s.h.i.+zuka said. ”What good does his death do to them?”
”It's not a simple situation. Takeo's appearance has disturbed a lot of people, especially among the Kikuta. His lack of obedience and his recklessness don't help.”
”The Kikuta sound so extreme, whereas you always seemed to give Takeo a lot of leeway,” s.h.i.+zuka said.
”It was the only way to handle him. I learned that as soon as I got to Hagi. He's got good instincts, he'll do anything for you if you win his loyalty, but you can't force him. He'll break rather than give in.”
”Must be a Kikuta trait,” s.h.i.+zuka murmured.
”Maybe.” Kenji sighed deeply and stared into the shadows. He did not speak for a while, then said, ”For the Kikuta, everything is black-and-white: you obey or you die... the only cure for stupidity is death... all the things they're brought up to believe.”
If the Kikuta ever find out my part in all this, they will kill me, s.h.i.+zuka thought. / dare not tell Kenji either dare not tell Kenji either. ”So now Takeo is not only lost to the Tribe, but holds information with which he can destroy us?”
”Yes, and that information will buy him an alliance with Arai sooner or later.”
”He will never be allowed to live,” s.h.i.+zuka said with renewed sorrow.
”He's survived so far. It's proved harder than the Kikuta thought it would be to get rid of him.” s.h.i.+zuka thought she detected a note of rueful pride in her uncle's voice. ”And he has the knack of surrounding himself with devoted followers. Half the Otori clan's young warriors have already crossed the border to join him inTerayama.”
”If he and Kaede marry, as I am sure they will,” s.h.i.+zuka said, ”Arai will be enraged. It may take more than s.h.i.+geru's records to placate him.”
”Well, you know Arai better than anyone. There's also the question of his sons, and of you. I haven't told the boys that their father ordered your death, but they're sure to find out sooner or later. It won't bother Taku-he's Tribe through and through-but Zenko idolizes his father.
He's not going to be as talented as Taku, and in many ways it would be better for him to be raised by Arai. Is there any possibility of it?”
”I don't know,” s.h.i.+zuka said. ”The more land he conquers, the more sons he will want, I would imagine.”
”We should send someone to him to see how he's reacting-to Takeo's marriage, to the Otori-and how he feels toward the boys. What about Kondo? Shall I send him?”
”Why not?” s.h.i.+zuka replied with a certain relief. ”Kondo seems fond of you. Will you marry him?”
”He wants it,” she said. ”I told him I had to ask your advice. But I would like more time to think about it.”
”No need to rush into anything,” Kenji agreed. ”You can give him your answer when he returns.” His eyes gleamed with some emotion that she could not read. ”And I can decide what action to take.”
s.h.i.+zuka said nothing, but she studied Kenji's face in the lamplight, trying to make sense of all the pieces of information he had given her, trying to decipher the unspoken as much as the spoken. She felt he was glad to be able to share these concerns with her and guessed he had not told anyone else, not even his own parents. She was aware of the great affection he had had for s.h.i.+geru and still held forTakeo, and could imagine the conflict that having to collaborate in Takeo's death would cause him. She had never known him, or any other Tribe member, to speak so openly of divisions between the masters.
If the Muto and the Kikuta families were to fall out, could the Tribe survive? It seemed an even greater danger to her than anything Arai or Takeo might do.
”Where is your daughter now?” she asked.
”As far as I know, she is in one of the secret Kikuta villages north of Matsue.” Kenji paused and then said quietly, almost painfully, ”Yuki was married to Akio at the beginning of the year.”
”To Akio?” s.h.i.+zuka could not help exclaiming. ”Yes, poor girl. The Kikuta insisted and there was no way I could refuse them. There had been talk of a match between them ever since they were both children. I had no rational grounds for withholding my consent anyway, just the irrational sentiments of the father of an only child. My wife did not share these. She was strongly in favor, especially as Yuki was already pregnant.”
s.h.i.+zuka was astonished. ”With Akio's child?” He shook his head. She had never before seen her uncle unable to speak like this. ”Not Takeo's?”
He nodded. The lamps flickered; the house lay silent. s.h.i.+zuka could think of nothing to say in response. All she could think of was the child Kaede had lost. She seemed to hear the question again that Kaede had asked her in the garden at s.h.i.+rakawa: Would they Would they have taken the child as they took Takeo have taken the child as they took Takeo? That the Tribe should have a child of Takeo's seemed like something supernatural to her, the cruel workings of fate that humans cannot hope to escape, turn and twist as they might.
Kenji took a deep breath and went on: ”She became infatuated with Takeo after the incident at Yamagata, and took his side strongly against the Kikuta master and me. As you might imagine, I myself was in considerable anguish over the decision to take Takeo in Inu-yama before the a.s.sa.s.sination attempt on Iida. I betrayed s.h.i.+geru. I don't think I will ever forgive myself for the part I played in his death. For years I considered him my closest friend. However, for the sake of unity within the Tribe, I did as the Kikuta desired and delivered Takeo to them. But between you and me, I would have been happy to have died at Inuyama if that could have erased the shame I felt. I have not spoken of this to anyone except you.
”Of course, the Kikuta are delighted to have the child. It will be born in the seventh month. They hope it will inherit the skills of both its parents. They blame Takeo's upbringing for all his defects; they intend to raise this child themselves from birth-”
He broke off. The silence in the room deepened. ”Say something, Niece, even if it's only that it serves me right!”
”It is not for me to judge you for anything you have done,” she replied in a low voice. ”I am sorry for all you must have suffered. I am amazed at the way fate plays with us like pieces on a board.”
”Do you ever see ghosts?”
”I dream of Lord s.h.i.+rakawa,” she admitted. After a long pause she added, ”You know that Kondo and I brought about his death to preserve Kaede and her child.”
She heard the hiss of his breath, but he did not speak, and after a few moments she continued. ”Her father was out of his mind, on the point of violating and then killing her. I wanted to save her life and the child's. But she lost it anyway and nearly died. I don't know if she remembers what we did, and I would not hesitate to do the same thing again; but for some reason, perhaps because I have never spoken of it to anyone, not even Kondo, it haunts me.”
”If it was to save her life, I'm sure your action was justified,” he replied.
”It was one of those moments when there was no time to think. Kondo and I acted instinctively. I had never killed a man of such high rank before. It seems like a crime to me.”
”Well, my betrayal of s.h.i.+geru also seems like a crime. He visits me in dreams. I see him as he looked when we brought him up out of the river. I drew the hood from his face and asked him to forgive me, but he only had strength to speak to Takeo. Night after night he comes to me.” There was another long silence.
”What are you thinking of?” she whispered. ”You would not split the Tribe?”
”I must do what seems best for the Muto family,” he replied. ”And the Kikuta have my daughter and will soon have my grandchild. Obviously these are my first obligations. But I swore to Takeo when I first met him that while I was alive he would be safe. I will not seek his death. We'll wait and see which way he jumps. The Kikuta want the Otori to provoke him and lure him into battle. They've been concentrating all their attention on Hagi and Terayama.” He hissed through his teeth. ”I suppose poor old Ichiro will be their first target. But what do you think Takeo and Kaede will do once they're married?”
”Kaede is determined to inherit Maruyama,” s.h.i.+zuka replied. ”I imagine they will move south as soon as possible.”