she wants ‘it,’ or else the Bear Cub would have no reason to send the letter. It follows that the two of them have been in communication with one another.” Which I can spin into charges of sedition, he thought. “It also stands to reason that they must speak again, or else the Bear Cub has no way to give her whatever ‘it’ is. Tell me, are you the one assigned to make contact with him?”
“Yes.”
“You will tell me where and when.”
Nezumi bowed. “That’s why my lady sent me.”
Shichio couldn’t hide his skepticism. “Is it now?”
“Yes, my lord. When I find him, I’ll arrange for a meeting. The boy has something to give Lady Nene, and she insists on seeing it for herself. Whatever it is, my lady has promised your head in exchange.”
“What?”
“Of course.” Nezumi sat back smiling, amused and bemused in equal measure. “I thought you knew.”
“Make sense,” Shichio told him.
“My lady is laying a trap. So you can kill the Bear Cub.”
Shichio sneered. “Nene is not in the habit of giving me gifts. She is far more likely to help the Bear Cub take my head than to help me take his.”
“Heh heh. You’ve got it wrong. Lady Nene wants you to have every contentment. She wants you to be so happy here that you never consider coming back to Kyoto.”
Shichio studied Nezumi through narrowed eyes. Was this a bluff? No. A bluff rarely made perfect sense. Shichio reconsidered the ploy with Oda Tomonosuke in a new light. He was Nene’s informant, to be sure, but to what purpose? Was she devious enough to collect reports on Shichio’s happiness?
Yes. There was no end to her cunning. But Shichio would not be taken in so quickly. “Suppose I believe you. Suppose your lady honestly wants me to live out my days here in the blessed north, with a certain boy’s hollowed-out, gilded, jewel-encrusted skull as my chamber pot. If your mistress were to make this gift to me, how would she go about it?”
“She wouldn’t. She is to remain an innocent party. But what you do of your own accord is not her concern.” Nezumi reached into the sleeve of his over-robe and produced a small scroll. “See here,” he said, flattening the scroll on the tatami. “On the southern flank of Mount Fuji there is another volcano called Ashitaka. On the southern slopes of Ashitaka there is a hamlet so small that even the villagers themselves have not taken the trouble to name it.”
“Sounds charming,” Shichio grumbled. He’d grown up in such a village, knee-deep in muck, eternally sweating, besieged by biting flies. He was all too happy to leave those memories by the wayside. A few years back, while campaigning with Hashiba, he’d razed his village to the ground. He had taken a bitter-tasting pleasure in lighting the first torch himself. And now he had come full circle; Kanagawa-juku was large enough to warrant a name on the map, but only just.
“The hamlet sits at the mouth of a narrow valley,” said Nezumi. “Follow the stream up the valley and you will find Obyo Falls.”
“Or I can stand on my own roof and have a piss.” Shichio had never understood the commoners’ fascination with waterfalls. He much preferred a book of poetry or an evening of kabuki. It was not mere beauty that captivated him, but artistry. “Make your point.”
“At the falls there is a teahouse, as secluded as any place on earth. My lady will go there under the pretense of visiting a beautiful site. She will tell her husband she enjoyed her time in the north and wants to see more of it. The truth is that this teahouse is where I am to arrange a meeting between my lady and the Bear Cub.”
Shichio scoffed. “I think not. If there is one thing that boy is known for, it is sensing a trap. What makes you think he will come?”
“He is a fugitive. He knows my lady cannot meet him in the open. Besides, I’ll tell him it’s safe. Heh heh.” There was that ghoulish smile again. “What I won’t tell him is that there is a rock shelf overlooking the teahouse, about halfway up the cliff. From below it is invisible; the spray from the waterfall makes the plants grow thick and lush. From the teahouse one only sees the cliff and the greenery clinging to it. If my lord were to lie in wait up there, perhaps with a platoon of archers