Shogun_ A Novel of Japan Part 78

"But why didn't someone ask me first? That pheasant meant nothing to me."

"The pheasant has nothing do with it, Anjin-san," she explained. "You're head of a house. The law says no member of your house may disobey you. Old Gardener deliberately broke the law. The whole world would fall to pieces if people were allowed to flout the law. Your-"

Toranaga broke in and spoke to her. She listened, answered some questions, then again he motioned her to continue.

"Hai. Lord Toranaga wants me to a.s.sure you that he personally saw that Old Gardener got the quick, painless, and honorable death he merited. He even loaned the samurai his own sword, which is very sharp. And I should tell you that Old Gardener was very proud that in his failing days he was able to help your house, Anjin-san, proud that he helped to establish your samurai status before all. Most of all he was proud of the honor being paid to him. Public executioners were not used, Anjin-san. Lord Toranaga wants me to make that very clear to you."

"Thank you, Mariko-san. Thank you for making it clear." Blackthorne turned to Toranaga, bowed most correctly. "Domo, Toranaga-sama, domo arigato. Wakarimasu. Domo." domo arigato. Wakarimasu. Domo."

Toranaga bowed back agreeably. "Yoi, Anjin-san. s.h.i.+npai suru monojanai, neh? s.h.i.+gata ga nai, neh?" s.h.i.+npai suru monojanai, neh? s.h.i.+gata ga nai, neh?" Good. Now don't worry, eh? What could you do, eh? Good. Now don't worry, eh? What could you do, eh?

"Nane mo." Nothing. Blackthorne answered the questions Toranaga put to him about the musket training, but nothing that they were saying reached him. His mind was tottering under the impact of what he had been told. He had abused Fujiko before all his servants and abused the trust of all his household, when Fujiko had done only what was correct and so had they. Nothing. Blackthorne answered the questions Toranaga put to him about the musket training, but nothing that they were saying reached him. His mind was tottering under the impact of what he had been told. He had abused Fujiko before all his servants and abused the trust of all his household, when Fujiko had done only what was correct and so had they.

Fujiko was blameless. They're all blameless. Except me.

I cannot undo what's been done. Neither to Ueki-ya nor to her. Or to them.

How can I live with this shame?

He sat cross-legged in front of Toranaga, the slight sea breeze tugging at his kimono, swords in his sash. Dully he listened and answered and nothing was important. War is corning, she was saying. When, he was asking. Very soon, she was saying, so you are to leave at once with me, you are to accompany me part of the way, Anjin-san, because I'm going to Osaka, but you're going on to Yedo by land to prepare your s.h.i.+p for war....

Suddenly the silence was colossal.

Then the earth began to shake.

He felt his lungs about to burst, and every fiber of his being screamed panic. He tried to stand but could not and saw all the guards were equally helpless. Toranaga and Mariko desperately held onto the ground with their hands and feet. The rumbling, catastrophic roar was coming from earth and sky. It surrounded them, building and building until their eardrums were ready to split. They became part of the frenzy. For an instant the frenzy stopped, the shock continuing. He felt his vomit rising, his unbelieving mind shrieking that this was land where it was firm and safe and not sea where the world tilted every moment. He spat to clear the foul taste away, clutching the trembling earth, retching again and again.

An avalanche of rocks started from the mountain to the north and howled down into the valley below, adding to the tumult. Part of the samurai camp vanished. He groped to his hands and knees, Toranaga and Mariko doing the same. He heard himself shouting but no sound seemed to be corning from his lips or from theirs.

The tremor stopped.

The earth was firm again, firm as it had always been, firm as it always should be. His hands and knees and body were trembling uncontrollably. He tried to still them and catch his breath.

Then again the earth cried out. The second quake began. It was more violent. Then the earth ripped open at the far end of the plateau. This gaping fissure rushed toward them at an incredible speed, pa.s.sed five paces away, and tore onward. His disbelieving eyes saw Toranaga and Mariko teetering on the brink of the cleft where there should have been solid ground. As though in a nightmare he saw Toranaga, nearest to the maw, begin to topple into it. He came out of his stupor, lunged forward. His right hand grabbed Toranaga's sash, the earth trembling like a leaf in the wind.

The cleft was twenty paces deep and ten across and stank of death. Mud and rocks poured down, dragging Toranaga and him with it. Blackthorne fought for handhold and foothold, raving at Toranaga to help, almost pulled down into the abyss. Still partially stunned, Toranaga hacked his toes into the face of the wall and, half dragged and half carried by Blackthorne, clawed his way out. They both lay gasping in safety.

At that moment there was another shock.

The earth split again. Mariko screamed. She tried to scramble out of the way but this new fissure swallowed her. Frantically Blackthorne crawled for the edge, the after-shocks throwing him off balance. On the brink he stared down. She s.h.i.+vered on a ledge a few feet below as the ground reeled and the sky looked down. The chasm was thirty paces deep, ten wide. The lip crumbled away under him sickeningly. He let himself slide down, mud and stones almost blinding him, and caught hold of her, pulling her to the safety of another ledge. Together they fought for balance. A new shock. The ledge mostly gave way and they were lost. Then Toranaga's iron hand caught his sash, stopping their slide into h.e.l.l.

"For Christ's sake ..." Blackthorne cried, his arms almost torn from their sockets as he held on to her and fought for holds with his feet and free hand. Toranaga grappled him until they were on a narrow shelf again, then the sash broke. A moment's respite from the tremors gave Blackthorne time to get her onto the shelf, debris raining on them. Toranaga leapt to safety, shouting for him to hurry. The chasm howled and began to close, Blackthorne and Mariko still deep in its gullet. Toranaga could no longer help. Blackthorne's terror lent him inhuman strength and somehow he managed to rip Mariko out of the tomb and shove her upward. Toranaga clutched her wrist and hauled her over the lip. Blackthorne scrambled after her but reeled backward as part of his wall fell away. The far wall screeched sickeningly as it approached. Mud and stones tumbled off it. For a moment he thought he was trapped but he tore himself free and groped half out of his grave. He lay on the shuddering brink, his lungs gulping air, unable to crawl away, legs in the cleft. The gap was closing. Then it stopped-six paces across the mouth, eight deep.

All rumbling ceased. The earth firmed. The silence gathered.

On their hands and knees, helpless, they waited for the horror to begin again. Blackthorne started to get up, sweat dripping.

"Iye." Toranaga motioned him to stay down, his face a mess, a cruel gash on his temple where his head had smashed against a rock.

They were all panting, their chests heaving, bile in their mouths. Guards were picking themselves up. Some began running toward Toranaga.

"Iye!" he shouted. " he shouted. "Mate!" Wait! Wait!

They obeyed and went down on their hands and knees again. The waiting seemed to go on forever. Then a bird screeched out of a tree and took to the air screaming. Another bird followed. Blackthorne shook his head to clear the sweat from his eyes. He was seeing his broken, bleeding fingernails gripping the tufts of gra.s.s. Then in the gra.s.s an ant moved. Another and another. They began to forage.

Still frightened he sat back on his heels. "When's it safe?"

Mariko did not answer. She was mesmerized by the cleft in the ground. He scrambled over to her. "Are you all right?"

"Yes-yes," she said breathlessly. Her face was daubed with mud. Her kimono was ripped and filthy. Both sandals and one tabi were missing. And her parasol. He helped her away from the lip. She was still numbed.

Then he looked at Toranaga. "Ikaga desu ka?"

Toranaga was unable to speak, his chest grinding, his arms and legs raw with abrasions. He pointed. The fissure which had almost swallowed him now was just a narrow ditch in the soil. Northward the ditch yawned into a ravine again but it was not as wide as it once had been, nor as deep.

Blackthorne shrugged. "Karma."

Toranaga belched loudly, then hawked and spat and belched again. This helped his voice to work and a torrent of abuse poured over the ditch, his blunt fingers stabbed at it, and though Blackthorne could not understand all the words, Toranaga was clearly saying as a j.a.panese would, "The pox on the karma karma, the pox on the quake, the pox on the ditch-I've lost my swords and the pox on that!"

Blackthorne burst into laughter, his relief at being alive and the stupidity of it all consuming him. A moment, then Toranaga laughed too, and their hilarity swept into Mariko.

Toranaga got to his feet. Gingerly. Then, warmed by the joy of life, he began clowning on the ditch, burlesquing himself and the quake. He stopped and beckoned Blackthorne to join him and straddled the ditch, opened his loincloth and, laughter taking him again, told Blackthorne to do the same. Blackthorne obeyed and both men tried to urinate into the ditch. But nothing came, not even a dribble. They tried very hard, which increased their laughter and blocked them even more. At length they succeeded and Blackthorne sat down to collect his strength, leaning back on his hands. When he had recovered a little he turned to Mariko. "Is the earthquake over for good, Mariko-san?"

"Until the next shock, yes." She continued to brush the mud off her hands and kimono.

"Is it always like that?"

"No. Sometimes it's very slight. Sometimes there's another series of shocks after a stick of time or a day or half a stick or half a day. Sometimes there's only one shock-you never know, Anjin-san. It's over until it begins again. Karma, neh?" Karma, neh?"

Guards were watching them without moving, waiting for Toranaga's order. To the north fires were raging in the crude lean-to bivouac. Samurai were fighting the fires and digging at the rock avalanche to find the buried. To the east, Yabu, Omi, and Buntaro stood with other guards beside the far end of the fissure, untouched except for bruises, also waiting to be summoned. Iguras.h.i.+ had vanished. The earth had gorged on him.

Blackthorne let himself drift. His self-contempt had vanished and he felt utterly serene and whole. Now his mind dwelt proudly on being samurai, and going to Yedo, and his s.h.i.+p, and war, and the Black s.h.i.+p, and back to samurai again. He glanced at Toranaga and would have liked to ask him a dozen questions, but he noticed that the daimyo daimyo was lost in his own thoughts and he knew it would be impolite to disturb him. There's plenty of time, he thought contentedly, and looked over at Mariko. She was tending her hair and face, so he did not watch. He lay full length and looked up at the sky, the earth feeling warm on his back, waiting patiently. was lost in his own thoughts and he knew it would be impolite to disturb him. There's plenty of time, he thought contentedly, and looked over at Mariko. She was tending her hair and face, so he did not watch. He lay full length and looked up at the sky, the earth feeling warm on his back, waiting patiently.

Toranaga spoke, serious now. "Domo, Anjin-san, neh? Domo." neh? Domo."

"Dozo, Toranaga-sama. Nane mo. Hombun, neh?" Nane mo. Hombun, neh?" Please, Tora-naga-sama, it was nothing. Duty. Please, Tora-naga-sama, it was nothing. Duty.

Then, not knowing enough words and wanting it accurate, Blackthorne said, "Mariko-san, would you explain for me: I seem to understand now what you meant and Lord Toranaga meant about karma karma and the stupidity of worrying about what and the stupidity of worrying about what is is. A lot seems clearer. I don't know why-perhaps it's because I've never been so terrified, maybe that's cleaned my head, but I seem to think clearer. It's-well, like Old Gardener. Yes, that was all my fault and I'm truly sorry, but that was a mistake, not a deliberate choice on my part. It is is. So nothing can be done about it. A moment ago we were all almost dead. So all that worry and heartache was a waste, wasn't it? Karma Karma. Yes, I know karma karma now. Do you understand?" now. Do you understand?"

"Yes." She translated to Toranaga.

"He says, 'Good, Anjin-san. Karma Karma is the beginning of knowledge. Next is patience. Patience is very important. The strong are the patient ones, Anjin-san. Patience means holding back your inclination to the seven emotions: hate, adoration, joy, anxiety, anger, grief, fear. If you don't give way to the seven, you're is the beginning of knowledge. Next is patience. Patience is very important. The strong are the patient ones, Anjin-san. Patience means holding back your inclination to the seven emotions: hate, adoration, joy, anxiety, anger, grief, fear. If you don't give way to the seven, you're patient patient, then you'll soon understand all manner of things and be in harmony with Eternity.'"

"You believe that, Mariko-san?"

"Yes. Very much. I try, also, to be patient, but it's hard."

"I agree. That's also wa wa, your harmony, your 'tranquillity,' neh?" neh?"

"Yes."

"Tell him I thank him truly for what he did for Old Gardener. I didn't before, not from my heart. Tell him that."

"There's no need, Anjin-san. He knew before that you were just being polite."

"How did he know?"

"I told you he is the wisest man in the world."

He grinned.

"There," she said, "your age has fallen off you again," and added in Latin, "Thou art thyself again, and better than before!"

"But thou art beautiful, as always."

Her eyes warmed and she averted them from Toranaga. Blackthorne saw this and marked her caution. He got to his feet and stared down into the jagged cleft. Carefully he jumped into it and disappeared.

Mariko scrambled up, momentarily afraid, but Blackthorne quickly came back to the surface. In his hands was Fujiko's sword. It was still scabbarded, though muddied and scarred. His short stabbing sword had disappeared.

He knelt in front of Toranaga and offered his sword as a sword should be offered. "Dozo, Toranaga-sama," he said simply. "Kara samurai samurai ni ni samurai, samurai, neh?" neh?" Please, Lord Toranaga, from a samurai to a samurai, eh? Please, Lord Toranaga, from a samurai to a samurai, eh?

"Domo, Anjin-san." The Lord of the Kwanto accepted the sword and shoved it into his sash. Then he smiled, leaned forward, and clapped Blackthorne once on the shoulder, hard. "Tomo, neh?" Friend, eh? Friend, eh?

"Domo." Blackthorne glanced away. His smile faded. A cloud of smoke was drifting over the rise above where the village would be. At once he asked Toranaga if he could leave, to make sure Fujiko was all right.

"He says, yes, Anjin-san. And we are to see him at the fortress at sunset for the evening meal. There are some things he wishes to discuss with you."

Blackthorne went back to the village. It was devastated, the course of the road bent out of recognition, the surface shattered. But the boats were safe. Many fires still burned. Villagers were carrying buckets of sand and buckets of water. He turned the corner. Omi's house was tilted drunkenly on its side. His own was a burnt-out ruin.

CHAPTER 39.

Fujiko had been injured. Nigatsu, her maid, was dead. The first shock had collapsed the central pillars of the house, scattering the coals of the kitchen fire. Fujiko and Nigatsu had been trapped by one of the fallen beams and the flames had turned Nigatsu into a torch. Fujiko had been pulled free. One of the cook's children had also been killed, but the rest of his servants had suffered only bruises and some twisted limbs. They all were overjoyed to find that Blackthorne was alive and unhurt.

Fujiko was lying on a salvaged futon near the undamaged garden fence, half conscious. When she saw also that Blackthorne was unscathed she almost wept. "I thank Buddha you're not hurt, Anjin-san," she said weakly.

Still partially in shock, she tried to get up but he bade her not to move. Her legs and lower back were badly burned. A doctor was already tending her, wrapping bandages soaked in cha and other herbs around her limbs to soothe them. Blackthorne hid his concern and waited until the doctor had finished, then said privately, "Fujiko-san, yoi ka?" yoi ka?" Lady Fujiko will be all right? Lady Fujiko will be all right?

The doctor shrugged. "Hai." His lips came back from his protruding teeth again. " His lips came back from his protruding teeth again. "Karma, neh?"

"Hai." Blackthorne had seen enough burned seamen die to know that any bad burn was dangerous, the open wound almost always rotting within a few days and nothing to stop the infection spreading. "I don't want her to die." Blackthorne had seen enough burned seamen die to know that any bad burn was dangerous, the open wound almost always rotting within a few days and nothing to stop the infection spreading. "I don't want her to die."

"Dozo?"

He said it in j.a.panese and the doctor shook his head and told him that the Lady would surely be all right. She was young and strong.

"s.h.i.+gata ga nai," the doctor said and ordered maids to keep her bandages moist, gave Blackthorne herbs for his own abrasions, told him he would return soon, then scuttled up the hill toward Omi's wrecked house above. the doctor said and ordered maids to keep her bandages moist, gave Blackthorne herbs for his own abrasions, told him he would return soon, then scuttled up the hill toward Omi's wrecked house above.

Blackthorne stood at his main gate, which was unharmed. Buntaro's arrows were still embedded in the left post. Absently he touched one. Karma Karma that she was burned, he thought sadly. that she was burned, he thought sadly.

He went back to Fujiko and ordered a maid to bring cha. He helped her to drink and held her hand until she slept, or appeared to sleep. His servants were salvaging whatever they could, working quickly, helped by a few villagers. They knew the rains would be coming soon. Four men were trying to erect a temporary shelter.

"Dozo, Anjin-san." The cook was offering him fresh tea, trying to keep the misery off his face. The little girl had been his favorite daughter.

"Domo," Blackthorne replied. " Blackthorne replied. "Sumimasen." I'm sorry. I'm sorry.

"Arigato, Anjin-san. Karma, neh?" Karma, neh?"

Blackthorne nodded, accepted the tea, and pretended not to notice the cook's grief, lest he shame him. Later a samurai came up the hill bringing word from Toranaga that Blackthorne and Fujiko were to sleep in the fortress until the house was rebuilt. Two palanquins arrived. Blackthorne lifted her gently into one of them and sent her with maids. He dismissed his own palanquin, telling her he'd follow soon.

The rain began but he paid it no heed. He sat on a stone in the garden that had given him so much pleasure. Now it was a shambles. The little bridge was broken, the pond shattered, and the streamlet had vanished.

"Never mind," he said to no one. "The rocks aren't dead."

Ueki-ya had told him that a garden must be settled around its rocks, that without them a garden is empty, merely a place of growing.

One of the rocks was jagged and ordinary but Ueki-ya had planted it so that if you looked at it long and hard near sunset, the reddish glow glinting off the veins and crystal buried within, you could see a whole range of mountains with lingering valleys and deep lakes and, far off, a greening horizon, night gathering there.

Blackthorne touched the rock. "I name you Ueki-ya-sama," he said. This pleased him and he knew that if Ueki-ya were alive, the old man would have been very pleased also. Even though he's dead, perhaps he'll know, Blackthorne told himself, perhaps his kami kami is here now. s.h.i.+ntoists believed that when they died they became a is here now. s.h.i.+ntoists believed that when they died they became a kami kami....

'What is a kami kami, Mariko-san?'

'Kami is inexplicable, Anjin-san. It is like a spirit but not, like a soul but not. Perhaps it is the insubstantial essence of a thing or person ... you should know a human becomes a is inexplicable, Anjin-san. It is like a spirit but not, like a soul but not. Perhaps it is the insubstantial essence of a thing or person ... you should know a human becomes a kami kami after death but a tree or rock or plant or painting is equally a after death but a tree or rock or plant or painting is equally a kami. Kami kami. Kami are venerated, never wors.h.i.+ped. They exist between heaven and earth and visit this Land of the G.o.ds or leave it, all at the same time.' are venerated, never wors.h.i.+ped. They exist between heaven and earth and visit this Land of the G.o.ds or leave it, all at the same time.'

'And s.h.i.+nto? What's s.h.i.+nto?'

'Ah, that is inexplicable too, so sorry. It's like a religion, but isn't. At first it even had no name-we only called it s.h.i.+nto, the Way of the Kami Kami, a thousand years ago, to distinguish it from Butsudo, the Way of Buddha. But though it's indefinable s.h.i.+nto is the essence of j.a.pan and the j.a.panese, and though it possesses neither theology nor G.o.dhead nor faith nor system of ethics, it is our justification for existence. s.h.i.+nto is a nature cult of myths and legends in which no one believes wholeheartedly, yet everyone venerates totally. A person is is s.h.i.+nto in the same way he is s.h.i.+nto in the same way he is born born j.a.panese.' j.a.panese.'

'Are you s.h.i.+nto too-as well as Christian?'

'Oh yes, oh very yes, of course....'

Blackthorne touched the stone again. "Please, kami kami of Ueki-ya, please stay in my garden." of Ueki-ya, please stay in my garden."

Then, careless of the rain, he let his eyes take him into the rock, past the lush valleys and serene lake and to the greening horizon, darkness gathering there.

His ears told him to come back. He looked up. Omi was watching him, squatting patiently on his haunches. It was still raining and Omi wore a newly pressed kimono under his rice-straw raincoat, and a wide, conical bamboo hat. His hair was freshly shampooed.

"Karma, Anjin-san," he said, motioning at the smoldering ruins.

"Hai. Ikaga desu ka?" Blackthorne wiped the rain off his face. Blackthorne wiped the rain off his face.

"Yoi." Omi pointed up at his house. " Omi pointed up at his house. "Watakus.h.i.+ no yuya wa hakaisarete imasen ostukai ni narimasen-ka?" My bath wasn't damaged. Would you care to use it? My bath wasn't damaged. Would you care to use it?