was always sound. He was the one who first told Daigoro of his father and the Battle of Komaki. “ ‘Shichio manipulates men as deftly as a potter shapes clay,’” Daigoro said. “As soon as I tell Hideyoshi the truth, I’ll also have revealed that it was my father who bested him that day.”
“Not bested,” Katsushima said. “Duped. The difference between those two is the difference between having never heard of Shichio and having Shichio as your worst enemy.”
“I am the last person you need to remind of that. So what changed? Why should I loose this arrow now, when before you advised me to stay my hand?”
“Have I changed my counsel? No. Your wife tells you to put this arrow to the string. I say that is good advice—if you are right about this new enemy in Hideyoshi’s court. If Shichio has a rival there, someone who can wring the truth out of his lies, then arm this person with every weapon you can give him. Let him be the one to destroy Shichio.”
Akiko gave Katsushima a startled look. “I thought you would tell my husband to claim his vengeance himself.”
“Against a man, yes. Against a viper, no. Better to stand back and let someone else stomp the life out of it. Less chance of getting bitten that way.”
Katsushima looked at the bow and arrow in his hand, then held them out to Daigoro. “She’s right about this much: you have one shot. How certain are you that this new rival has come to call on Shichio?”
Daigoro only had to think about it for a moment. “It’s the only explanation that makes sense.”
“Then do not miss.” He bowed as Daigoro took the bow from him, followed by the arrow. Then he headed for the stables.
That left Daigoro alone with his beloved. The sun was still hot, so Aki took him by the hand and drew him into the shadow of the gatehouse. For the thousandth time he wondered why she even consented to hold his hand. His fingers were callused and scarred; hers were as soft as chrysanthemum petals. Her father had once hoped to marry her to one of the great lords of Kyoto. Instead she was the abandoned wife of a penniless cripple. Theirs was an arranged marriage, but they had quickly fallen in love. Daigoro had no idea what she saw in him.
“It does, doesn’t it?” he asked her. “Make sense, I mean.”
Akiko smiled sweetly. “It might. We could be certain if we knew the regent was expecting a new visitor. Someone of high station, of course. Better still if we knew this person had vested interests that were at odds with Shichio’s.”
“Aki, what haven’t you told me?”
She pressed her lips together and refused to speak. Her eyes glittered giddily.
“Aki?”
“There’s been a bird. I overheard my father talking with his pigeon keeper this afternoon.”
“And?”
“Nene, Lady in the North. Hideyoshi’s wife. She arrived yesterday. Rumor has it she’s come to rid herself of Shichio once and for all.”
9
The sun was setting much too fast for Shichio’s liking. He had no love of traveling by night. Not in Izu, not so long as the Bear Cub was unaccounted for. His sedan chair was safe, but by the gods, it was slow.
He slid back one of the side panels and barked at the headman of the bearers. “Hurry, damn you! I’ll have your skins if we don’t make camp by nightfall.”
Cool air and the scent of juniper washed over him. He could still taste the salt on the air, but at this altitude the tang of the sea wasn’t so strong. The view from here was breathtaking. Far below him, where the northern slope of Mount Daruma ran down to the shore of Suruga Bay, the water had taken on a lavender hue. Beyond the bay loomed the ghost of Mount Fuji, purple like the sky beyond it, all but invisible. To the west, an orange sun fell swiftly toward the waves.
For that instant, Shichio regretted his grudge against Hashiba for setting camp in such an inconvenient spot. Shichio’s company had reached the wharf ages ago, only to find the fleet at sea. Even now he could see the turtle ships. They seemed to be ablaze, their interlocking metal shields reflecting the sunset like a hundred bonfires. Beyond them lay the flagship, Nippon Maru, so huge that it looked like an island castle in the middle of the bay. When Shichio demanded a launch to be sent at once,