hideous. “Yes, yes. Now out with it. Samurai are not known for their humility, and neither are they known to break a sworn oath. Why should this Oda fellow deign to serve a crippled boy as a messenger, and why should he break his word?”
“Hard to say what goes on in another man’s mind, but I expect he did the first one in order to do the second.”
“Because?”
“The Bear Cub killed his son in a duel.”
“Did he now?” That was an interesting development. This Oda must have some personal connection to Nene, or else he would not have been granted an audience. Shichio could use a spy with Nene’s confidence, and his hatred for Daigoro might be just the thing to sway Oda’s loyalty. Shichio had deployed spies, troops, ships, and a mountain of gold to capture the Bear Cub. If Oda were to learn of that—accidentally, of course—then he might be manipulated into approaching Shichio to seek an alliance.
“I would like to speak with Lord Oda. When you return to your mistress, you will tell her so.”
“No need. He’s coming to you.”
“Oh?”
“Lady Nene sends him as a gift. She says he’s better than the sword master you’ve got—”
“Curse that woman!”
Shichio didn’t mean to say it aloud. It just burst out of him. How did she know he’d taken up kenjutsu? Did she know Wada-sensei by name, or was this just bluster? Was Oda so fell-handed that even Wada couldn’t stand against him? And did she honestly expect that Shichio would study under him? A gift, Nezumi said, but Shichio saw the truth: Oda had to be Nene’s spy. She knew he and Shichio shared the same hatred for the Bear Cub, and she hoped Shichio would befriend him on that basis alone—or if not, that his kenjutsu was strong enough for Shichio to keep him on as a sensei.
Well, that is a dance for two, Shichio thought. He would welcome Oda after all, and learn what he could from him, not just of swords but of Nene. And when Shichio had wrung every last drop out of him—
“I haven’t got all day,” Nezumi said.
The ungrateful bastard might just as well have scratched his balls like a mountain monkey. He sat cross-legged now, as if he were in his own home and not sitting before a daimyo. Shichio could hardly believe his cheek. How gratifying it would be to don the mask and show Nezumi everything he’d learned of swordsmanship. But alas, he could not. He needed what this man knew.
“Well?” Shichio said. “Out with it. Your mistress sent you to pass along her secrets. Tell me what you know, then be gone from my house.”
“The Bear Cub was wounded,” Nezumi said. “Oda’s healers nursed him back from death’s door. Even so, the boy was hardly fit to ride when Oda sent him away. North and east, that was his guess. Oda’s, I mean. He knows the boy didn’t ride west.”
“From where?”
“Ayuchi. Near Atsutahama. And he rode with that ronin of his, the tall one with the woolly hair.”
Shichio remembered the man. Katsuhiro? Katsuhama? Something like that. “When did they leave Ayuchi?”
“Six days ago. Maybe seven, maybe eight. I couldn’t say for sure. I know when Lord Oda spoke to my lady and I know my lady sent her pigeon within the hour. As soon as I received it, I came straight here—”
“Silence.” Six days. More than enough time to find the whelp, if only Shichio’s bear hunters weren’t the most inept bunglers he’d ever had the misfortune to hire. How could that wretched boy elude every last one of them? Now he was wounded and still he managed to slip them by. Thanks to Nene, it was harder than ever for them to report to their master. So long as Shichio had stayed in Izu, he was rarely more than a half-day’s ride from his informants. Now, banished to the barbarian north, everything took an eternity.
“I have been patient with you long enough,” he said. “When do you plan to tell me what ‘it’ is?”
“Which ‘it’ would that be?”
“The letter, you fool. ‘I have it.’ What is ‘it’?”
Nezumi shrugged. “I couldn’t say.”
“Because Lady Nene didn’t tell you or because she told you not to tell me?”
“Heh heh. Does it make a difference?”
It was all Shichio could do to leave his katana in its sheath. A good stabbing might improve this creature’s manners. “I will share something with you, Nezumi-san. I think your mistress knows what ‘it’ is. I think