“That explains why Shijan sent armed men to reclaim his cousin,” Shin mused.
“Undoubtedly. The Ide wish to ensure that the Shiko are treated fairly, and do not trust you to arbitrate the matter without bias.”
“My word, did they write that in the letter?”
Batu frowned. “No. I was summarizing.”
“Ah.” Shin extended his hand. “May I?”
Batu sighed and handed the letter over. Shin scanned it quickly and folded it. The Ide had decided to take a hand in things – likely, they simply wanted to pressure Batu into passing the expected sentence. “Well, this complicates matters somewhat, I admit. But perhaps to our advantage. If we could speak to them, make them understand the situation…”
“There is no situation,” Batu said. “There is nothing to be done here, except the obvious. The yojimbo will die, and negotiations will resume.”
“And then, when the next interruption occurs? Or the one after that?” Shin folded his hands into his lap. “Think, Batu – look at the whole picture, not just your part of it.”
“The whole picture is not my concern, Shin.” Batu thumped the desk with his hand. “This part is. A magistrate has a duty – I have a duty. If I do not fulfil this duty on behalf of my clan, what good am I?”
“Duty is open to interpretation,” Shin countered.
“Not for some of us.” Batu set the writing desk aside and rose abruptly. Shin followed suit, though he remained still as Batu began to pace. The look on the other man’s face was familiar from their days as students.
“Willow bark might be of help,” Shin ventured.
“It is not. Some pain must simply be endured.” Batu rubbed his brow, eyes closed. “When the representative arrives, I will have no choice. Surely you understand that.”
“Understanding and agreement are two different things.” Shin paused. “There is an option – the representative must be delayed, but without causing insult.”
“I don’t see how.”
Shin smiled. “Because you are not a Crane.” He tapped his lips with his fan, pondering the situation. “You Unicorns are trained to ride, and we Cranes are trained to prevaricate.” Shin hoped he sounded more confident than he felt. The truth was, he wasn’t certain that Batu wasn’t right. That the only solution available to them at the moment was the most obvious, but he didn’t feel like giving up just yet.
Batu seemed convinced, however. He sighed. “I won’t pretend that I’m not hoping you’re right, Shin. It’s just that I doubt the Fortunes are kind enough to let you prove it.”
“Nothing ventured, nothing gained,” Shin said.
Batu looked away. “It’s against my better judgment, but – fine.” He slumped. “I will find some matter to occupy me for the next few days and delay my decision as long as possible.” He sighed. “Perhaps someone will be murdered by brigands.”
“That would be most fortuitous.”
Batu peered at him. “I was joking.”
“I wasn’t.” Shin turned as someone tapped gently at the door.
“Enter,” Batu called out.
Nozomi slid the door open. “Lord Batu, Lord Shin’s man has returned.”
“Kitano? Excellent.” Shin snapped his fan closed and gestured. “Let’s see what he has to say for himself. Show him in.” He glanced at Batu. “With your permission, of course.”
Batu gestured. “When has that ever stopped you? Bring the man in, Nozomi.”
Accompanied by Kasami and Nozomi, Kitano entered the study. He looked somewhat bedraggled and tired. Shin wondered how long the man had been awake. Kitano blinked when he noticed Batu’s presence, and he swallowed nervously.
“Well?” Shin said. “I hope you have something to tell me, after being out all night.”
Kitano nodded hurriedly. “I did as you asked, my lord. It took some doing, but I found them.” He hesitated, cutting his eyes towards Batu.
Shin nodded encouragingly. “Speak freely, Kitano.”
“A certain house of… ill repute in Northern Owari. Under the sign of the hare.”
“The Jade Hare,” Batu said. “I know it.”
“Do you now?” Shin looked at him in some surprise. Batu shook his head.
“Don’t be a fool. I am magistrate. I know every geisha and gambler in this city, and I know where they ply their trades.”
“Did you speak to them?” Shin asked.
Kitano ducked his head. “I tried, my lord. I do not know whether they will show up or not, but…” He rummaged in his clothes and came out with a pouch that clinked pleasingly. “I expect they might, if only to get their money back.”
“You stole it from them?” Batu asked, displeased.
Kitano flushed. “No, my lord! I’m no thief. I won it off them in a dice game.”
“Fairly?” Shin inquired, smiling slightly.
“Well, no. But they cheated first – and badly, might I add. And they tried to beat me afterwards, when I claimed my winnings.” Kitano gestured to his knife. “Luckily, I was quicker than they were.”
“I do hope you didn’t injure them,” Shin said, more for Batu’s sake than because he cared.
“Nothing more than a scratch, my lord,” Kitano said. He hesitated. “There is one other thing, my lord… Zeshi Reiji was there as well. They – ah – seemed to know each other.”
“How curious.”
Batu laughed. “I wondered if his name would come up.”
Shin frowned. “You knew he was involved?”
“I knew he was often seen in Gen’s company. If anyone was placed to murmur gossip about Aimi to him, it was Reiji. But gossip is not a crime, else every courtier in the land would have lost their head by now.”
“You did not think to inquire as to whether he might’ve said something?”
Batu sighed. “It was not pertinent.”
“Not…?” Shin shook his head. “You made a mistake.”
Batu’s eyes narrowed. “I apologize that my foresight was not the equal of yours,” he growled. Shin waved his words aside.
“You are forgiven. Aimi claims to have given the poems Ruri wrote her to a servant to burn. Only someone likely intercepted those poems. It had to have been someone in the household… perhaps Reiji.”
“Unless the servant sold them,” Kitano interjected.
Shin and the others looked at him. Kitano blanched and hastily added, “Some servants do that. Not me!”
“I am sure,” Shin said, soothingly. “But keep talking.”
Kitano licked his lips. “You… You don’t see us, but we see you. Some of them – some of us, we train ourselves to be blind. Others…don’t. So they sell what they know. There’s always someone looking for information or gossip. You just have to know where to find them. Sometimes they find you, depending.” He scratched his cheek and said, “Something like that, there’s any number of people who might pay well for such a thing.”
“Poems?” Batu asked, in disbelief.
Shin nodded. “Poems are as good a proof as any of illicit attachment. If someone was looking to blackmail Aimi – or Ruri – the poems would be the ideal lever.”
From near the door, Kasami said, “Only they didn’t blackmail either of them. They showed them to Gen, to provoke him. Why?”
“Because they knew how he would react,” Shin said. “They wound him up and aimed him at the object of his ire. He already disliked Ruri, we know that much. Having received this confirmation of his doubts, he did what any half-wit bushi would do.”
“He got himself killed is what he did,” Batu said. “And made trouble for all of us.”
“No, whoever wound him up did that, and I believe they did so knowingly.” Shin stared at the ceiling, arranging the facts in his mind. Shaping the framework. “A courtier never wastes a secret. Secrets are currency. You onl
y spend them when you have to. Whoever did this had to know Gen and Aimi personally, else why would Gen have listened to them? They also had to have a reason for exacerbating hostilities between the two families. But would a member of either family gain from such a thing?”
“Maybe they think their side can win,” Nozomi said, suddenly. Shin looked at her. She flushed slightly and went on. “Peace most benefits the weaker party. If this person thought that their family might achieve victory in an outright war… then the peace would be an obstacle to that, my lord.”
Kasami nodded. “She’s right. The war itself might be what they want.” She paused and looked at Shin. He nodded.
“It sounds rather familiar, doesn’t it?”
Batu peered at them. “What do you mean?”
“It’s not important,” Shin said. He looked at Batu. “I need to speak to Shijan again, if possible. Tomorrow. Have him come here. In the afternoon, of course. But insist upon it.”
“He won’t come.”
“Tell him I wish to apologize.”
Batu snorted. “I’ve never known you to apologize.”
“Nor do I intend to.” Shin smiled. “But he doesn’t need to know that.”
Chapter Nineteen
Ide Sora
As morning wore on into afternoon, Kasami stood outside the house, one hand resting on the hilt of her katana. As a concession to their host, she wore only a kimono – though she refused to part with her swords while outside. Nozomi stood below her, on the steps, similarly attired. Hiro knelt behind them, near the door. He kept his eyes downcast and his mouth shut. Kasami approved of servants who knew their place.
However, she did not approve of those who could not keep to their appointments. “They are late,” she said. The Ide had sent word they were coming, and not with the greatest of politeness. Lord Batu had warned that they might be in no mood to be polite, and so she and Nozomi were prepared for any unpleasantness that might ensue. She looked at the other woman. “So what do you think of it all?”
“What do you mean?”
“This business with the ronin – Ruri.” Kasami spoke cautiously. Her conversation with Ruri was still bothering her. For as long as she could remember, a life of service had seemed the highest calling a bushi of her rank might aspire to. Duty was to be gloried in, for with it came purpose. When one did not have either, what was left?
“Your master asked me that before,” Nozomi said.
“Now I ask you.”
Nozomi peered at her, a slight smile curving across her face. “I think I would have done the same as the ronin. You?”
“I have done the same.”
“I do not think I would have run.”
“Nor I,” Kasami said, with some satisfaction. It was good to find another who agreed with her. “She claims her mistress ordered her to flee.” She paused. “I think Lord Shin would do the same – he is soft, despite my best efforts.”
Nozomi looked away. “It is a rare lord who concerns themselves with the lives of their subordinates. I do not know what Lord Batu would do. I doubt he knows himself.”
“He does not strike me as a man given to uncertainty,” Kasami said, carefully.
“He is not – but in some ways, he is. I am sure your master is the same.”
Kasami gave a bark of laughter. “He is anything but uncertain. Too full of himself, if anything. It gets him into trouble – and me with him.”
“So I have heard.” Nozomi frowned. “Is it true he once kidnapped a daughter of the Scorpion, and from her own bedchambers?”
Kasami grimaced. “Yes, though it was not as simple as the story claims.”
“Were you there?”
“I was. Though I was otherwise occupied at the time.”
Nozomi raised an eyebrow, and Kasami shrugged. “Someone had to distract the guards,” she said, without elaboration.
Nozomi gave a soft laugh and shook her head. “Trouble indeed. I have a hard time imagining Lord Batu engaging in such… adventures.”
“Count yourself lucky.” Kasami looked up at the branches of the trees that shaded the front of the house. “Your master has done very well for himself. He does his duty and is respected for it.”
It was Nozomi’s turn to frown. “That is not entirely accurate.”
“No?”
“Sadly, no. When he – when we – arrived, the city had not known the authority of a magistrate for some time.”
“There was one here, surely?”
“There was. He was old, and liked his sake and his opium, and he liked to keep his opinions to himself. Many preferred him to a more… active adjudicator.”
“You said the city was largely sedate.”
“Only because most of the criminal gangs had killed each other by the time we arrived.” Nozomi looked down. “There’s only one, now. They control every illicit activity in the city, and even a few legitimate ones.”
“If you know this, why have you not dealt with them?”
“Why has the imperial governor not dealt with the smuggling gangs in the City of the Rich Frog?” Nozomi asked. She shrugged. “They are useful.”
Kasami nodded in understanding. There were some things bushi could not do, or rather, be seen to do; those tasks – illegal, but often necessary – frequently fell to others. Smuggling was one such. Murder was another.
She was spared from having to comment on this by the arrival of their guests. The Ide’s appearance was accompanied by the clatter of armor and the stamp of hooves. An escort of two dozen ashigaru in full armor trotted alongside the horses. Nozomi stiffened at the sight of them.
Bodyguards were common enough, as were escorts – but this was something else. A show of force. The Ide were flexing their muscle for all to see. Kasami, used to such displays, was unimpressed. The Lion regularly paraded three times this number of soldiers through the streets of the City of the Rich Frog.
As such, she kept her hands away from her weapons. Nozomi followed suit, though it was clear that it was more of an effort on her part. Then, it was her master who was being threatened, albeit in a roundabout fashion.
Lord Koji was the first to swing down from his saddle. He approached slowly, and seemed unhappy to be there. He looked up at Kasami and Nozomi and said, “The Lady Sora has come to pay her respects to Lord Batu. For their sakes, I hope your masters have something to tell her.”
•••
Shin watched the Ide representative seat herself. Ide Sora was a short woman, and stout. Matronly, Shin might have said, were she not somewhat younger than himself and had he not seen the glint in her eye as she entered the receiving room. She presented herself with barely any announcement, and bullied her way in, in defiance of protocol. Proof of her irritation, if not her determination.
She did not come alone. While her bodyguards waited outside, in a polite but wary standoff with Nozomi and Kasami, Suio Umeko was with her, as were Lord Koji and his wife. The matchmaker had her eyes downcast, and looked as if she would rather be anywhere else. Koji looked nervous, but defiant. Himari just looked concerned.
The introductions did not go well. Though they were of similar rank, Shin would not have known it from Batu’s behavior. Deferential was too polite a word for it. Obsequious, perhaps. Servile, even. Sora clearly intimidated him.
“My lady, there was no need for you to come all the way to Hisatu-Kesu,” Batu was saying. “The matter of the ronin is in hand, and will be resolved shortly.”
“I too regret the necessity of my presence, Iuchi Batu. Would that you had resolved the matter before my arrival, and I could depart, satisfied.”
“And miss out on the pleasures of this city?” Shin said, from where he sat to Batu’s right. “That would be a shame, I think.”
She stiffened and turned to fix him with a steely eye. “My apologies,” she said. “I did no
t notice you there.” Umeko made a strangled sound that might have been a laugh, and the Shiko had the good grace to look embarrassed. Shin and Sora ignored them.
“All is forgiven. I am sure you were otherwise preoccupied.”
Sora looked him up and down. “You are the Daidoji.”
“Daidoji Shin.” He bowed. “At your service.”
“You are most certainly not.” She sniffed. “It is disappointing, but unsurprising, that the Iuchi sent a Crane to do their work for them.”
Shin tilted his head. “A little surprising, I should think.”
She sniffed again. “The Iuchi are easily distracted by the whispers of spirits. The day-to-day is tedious for them.”
“Clearly we have spoken to different Iuchi.”
“Clearly.” She looked at Batu. “I understand from Lord Koji that the matter is settled to the satisfaction of both families.” She indicated Koji with her fan. “Why then is the murderer still alive?”
Batu hesitated. “My lady, it is… complicated.”
“Then uncomplicate it. A simple blow from your sword will serve, I think.”
Shin laughed softly. When she turned to look at him, her expression one of annoyance, he said, “I was given to understand that Ide emissaries are often practitioners of the peaceful path. Compromise and mutual satisfaction.”
“Yes, but here a compromise has already been reached. You stand in its way. So I will do my best to move you aside.”
Shin allowed himself a smile. He saw a faint flicker of growing irritation in her eyes, and let the smile widen into something sharp. “I stand in the way of but one aspect of the matter – the unjust death of the yojimbo, Katai Ruri.” He gestured airily. “As for the rest, well, as you said. It is done.”
“The yojimbo’s death is the crux of the matter. Without it, the pattern unravels.”
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