her to stand at Daigoro’s side. Both of them were careful never to come within sword’s reach of Nene, lest they spur her guards into action.
“I’m impressed,” she said. “You’ve proven most resourceful. And not just with your little ambush. In truth I was not at all sure my invitation would reach you.”
She hadn’t sent birds, riders, or criers. She couldn’t have. She didn’t know where to send them; the Bear Cub was constantly on the move. Besides, Shichio’s hunters combed the countryside in search of bear tracks. They would have intercepted any message she sent directly. The only option left to her was to put whispers in the right ears and hope that some of those ears belonged to friends of the Bear Cub—or at least friends of friends, or paid informants, or even enemies too weak to kill him but willing to gamble that this might be a trap. The boy showed remarkable foresight in establishing a net of spies. If Nene’s intelligence was correct, he’d only been ronin for a matter of weeks.
“You said you could give me Shichio. How?”
“I have already estranged him from my husband. I have given him everything he could ever ask for: land, lordship, even a samurai’s birthright. Most importantly, I have given him a home far from here and even farther from the Kansai. But none of that will sate him. He will stay away for as long as he can, but soon or late he will wheedle his way back to my husband’s side.”
“Let him. I know the truth of the Battle of Komaki. I have already sent missives to Hideyoshi—pardon me, to the regent, to General Toyotomi. Once he learns Shichio is responsible for his most public defeat—”
“I’ve intercepted your messages. All of them. My husband will hear nothing of them.”
That got a surprised blink out of the boy. “Why?”
“Because Shichio is a snake, and it is in a snake’s nature to wriggle out of tight spaces. He will find holes we cannot see.” And I have ends of my own, she thought; it gains me nothing to shame my husband. “Your abbot’s story is a deadly arrow to Shichio, but it is no mean feat to shoot a snake. . . . Have I said something to amuse you?”
The boy wiped the smile from his face. “No, my lady. It’s just that you remind me of . . . of my beloved.” That last word seemed carefully chosen. “May I speak candidly, my lady?”
“Please.”
He bowed. “Begging your pardon, Nene-dono, but I do not think you need my help to kill Shichio. Nor will I believe that you crossed half the empire on the chance that I would accept an audience with you.”
Nene granted him a nod and a little smile. “True.”
“Then if I may ask, my lady, why are you here?”
He has uncommon grace for a ronin, she thought. “Myths, some would say. In Kyoto, the nobility sometimes entertain themselves with ghost stories and the tall tales of farmers’ wives. I happen to believe that some of these fables contain a kernel of truth. The legends of the Inazuma blades, for instance. Is it true that you carry Glorious Victory?”
“Glorious Victory Unsought.”
Nene was not accustomed to being corrected, but she chose to let it pass. “And is it true that the man who wields this blade cannot be defeated?”
“No, my lady.”
“Yet you bested fifty men in single combat.”
“It is not single combat with fifty on the opposing side,” said Katsushima.
The boy bowed, perhaps to conceal the hint of embarrassment in his face. Katsushima reacted quite differently; he swelled up like a rooster, filled with an almost fatherly pride. “Begging your pardon,” the Bear Cub said, “but the truth of the Battle of the Green Cliff was . . . well, rather complicated.”
“But you do not deny that Glorious Victory Unsought has uncanny power.”
“No, my lady.”
“What of the tanto known as Streaming Dawn? Do you know of it?”
That earned her a quizzical look. The boy exchanged a glance with Katsushima, too quick for Nene to read it. Did one of them carry Streaming Dawn? It was plain to see that in addition to their twin swords, both ronin wore curved knives in their belts. Could one of those have been the blade that promised eternal life?
Nene wanted to laugh at herself simply for having the thought. Ordinarily she was not one for such fantastic tales, but this case was different. She alone knew the lofty heights Hideyoshi’s dreams could