Shike by Robert J. Shea (the reading list txt) 📕

had a proposal that would persuade Hideyori to spare Sametono, though, by appealing to the Shogun’s desire to stabilize the realm. She had talked it over with Eisen the night before, after Sametono arrived. The monk agreed that her idea might work.

“But it means you must sacrifice the rest of your life,” the Zen master pointed out.

“There is no one to make the sacrifice and no future to be sacrificed,” Taniko rejoined.

“Your words stink of Zen,” Eisen shot back. Taniko knew that this was a grudging compliment to her deepening understanding. Eisen hardly ever encouraged her, believing, as he put it, that praise is poison. She did not need him to tell her that she was making progress. She knew now that you could not acquire true understanding from anyone else, and no one could give you enlightenment. All you could do was increase your awareness that you already were a Buddha, an Awakened One. Only you could do that for yourself. As she moved through each day in a state of awareness maintained, enhanced and deepened by sitting in zazen meditation, she found that her decisions were right for each situation, and their consequences more beneficial to all. At the same time, she cared less about results. She did what she felt an enlightened person would do and refused to concern herself about whether things turned out as she wished.

Now, rage threatened to break through her philosophical calm. The wound left by Horigawa’s murder of her baby at Daidoji had never healed. Nothing could rouse her to a more consuming anger than the thought of a child being killed. That children were being drowned and buried alive at Heian Kyo was hateful enough. That Horigawa was supervising the executions-with her own father helping him-tore that old wound open to bleed afresh. That her grandson, Atsue’s son, had nearly been one of the victims left her speechless with fury when Moko told her the tale and presented the wide-eyed, travel-weary child to her.

At first her rage was directed against Hideyori himself. He, after all, had given the command for the slaughter. After a time of meditation she realized that it was useless to hate Hideyori. He had lived with fear and death since his boyhood, and nothing could change him. Now that he had achieved supreme power he felt more vulnerable and more fearful than ever. How different he was from Kublai Khan, who easily assumed that the world was his by right of birth.

“I have heard news that distresses me sorely,” she told Hideyori. “Perhaps it would not move you, since you are a man and a warrior. I know what it is to have the child I bore torn from my arms and murdered. They are killing babies in Heian Kyo.”

Eor a moment Hideyori’s face was blank. Then it rearranged itself into a mask of shock and sympathy. “Who is killing babies, Tanikosan? By what authority?”

“My father and Prince Horigawa. By your orders, they say.” Taniko did not for a moment believe his air of surprise. These days, nothing went on in the Sunrise Land without his knowledge and permission.

“I have ordered the death penalty for all Takashi who threaten our peace,” said Hideyori. “That is why I signed the warrant of execution for Notaro. I have never intended that children be killed.”

“I am happy to hear that,” said Taniko quickly. “My grandson is a Takashi, but he is only four years old, and I am sure he has no desire to raise a rebellion against you.”

Hideyori looked away from her and was silent for a long time. This is the moment, she thought, that will decide whether Sametono lives or dies. Hideyori knows what I’m going to ask him. He will have to admit that he wants the child killed, or he will have to let the boy live with me. At last Hideyori turned to her, and she saw indecision in the dark eyes. Her hold over him was still strong.

“The blood of Sogamori and Kiyosi flows in his veins.” No more pretence that Hideyori was unaware of the boy’s existence.

“The blood of Amaterasu Omi Kami flows in his veins as well,” said Taniko. “Surely he is to be treasured for that.”

Hideyori shook his head. “That only makes him more dangerous.” “Besides all those illustrious ancestors, this little boy is the grandson of Shima Taniko,” Taniko said softly, “if that means anything to you.” “If it did not, he would be dead already.”

“If my lord could find a place in his heart for Sametono, my gratitude would know no bounds.”

Hideyori was silent. Each time she spoke, he weighed and digested her words, carefully calculating his reply. At last he gave a short, barking laugh.

“How ironic. Was this not precisely Sogamori’s undoing? Was it not his lust for my father’s mistress, the Lady Akimi, that persuaded him to spare Yukio’s life-and incidentally mine? Shall I, for your sake, nurture a hatchling of the Red Dragon so that it may grow to devour my clan in turn?”

Now was the time to try him with her proposal. “You have the power to change the hatchling’s colour from red to white, my lord. Adopt him as your own son.” Hideyori looked amazed and angry. He opened his mouth to speak, but she hurried on. “Forgive me for mentioning it, but it has been your karma not to have children of your own. You have no son to inherit the Shogunate, this great title you have created for yourself. If you choose a successor from among your allies, you will make one family too powerful and all the others envious and rebellious. This boy’s close kin are all dead, except for me. Make Sametono your son, and his cause becomes your cause. You never need fear that he will lead a rebellion against you. True, he is descended from Sogamori and Kiyosi, but what better way to heal the wounds of these years of civil war than by uniting the Red Dragon and the White in one family? If you do not have sons of your own blood, which is the worthiest in the land, you can at least choose your heir from the next best lineage-that of the greatest of the Takashi.”

Hideyori’s frown deepened. “Why should I concern myself with who succeeds as Shogun after I am gone?”

Taniko shrugged. “True, you need not. If you don’t, the samurai will undoubtedly turn to your younger brother, Yukio, who has a son of his own. Perhaps that would please you just as well.”

Hideyori’s eyes glittered with rage, the reaction she had expected. “Neither my half-brother nor any offspring of his shall ever succeed me.” He paused for a moment. “Perhaps you are right. I must select my successor, and this boy may have been sent by the kami for that purpose. If I’m to adopt a son, he’ll need a mother, won’t he? I’ll need a wife. I have desired you ever since I met you.” Hideyori clenched his hands in his lap. She knew that he burnt to reach for her but was restraining himself. “Will you sleep with me and even marry me, when the obstacle of Prince Horigawa is eliminated? What about the vow you told me of?”

“Eisen Roshi assures me that I may set aside my vow for a good enough reason. He says that the past cannot bind the present, because the present is all there is.” Actually, since there had never been any vow, she had never discussed it with Eisen, but the remark about past and present was one he had made to her once.

Hideyori shook his head. “I do not like these teachings of the monk Eisen. I have talked with him, and he seems strange and irreligious to me. I suspect that the views of this Zen sect are not religion but a mockery of religion.”

“I have benefited profoundly from my study of Zen, my lord.”

“Your grandson is alive only because he is your grandson. Eisen has been allowed to settle here and gather disciples around him only because he is your teacher. Otherwise, I would have had him driven out long ago. I mean to bring order and discipline to that vast rabble of unruly monks that infest the Sacred Islands-as soon as I have dealt with other dangerous elements.”

Taniko knew that “dangerous elements” meant Yukio. Ever since she had learned that Yukio had killed Atsue, she had given up pleading his cause to Hideyori. She could not believe that Yukio was as Hideyori believed him to be, a dangerous rival plotting to use his victories as stepping stones to supreme power, but it was also hard to imagine Yukio striking down a helpless, innocent boy. If he had done the one, perhaps he was capable of the other.

“Regardless of what Eisen says, I believe that your vow is binding, and I will not lie with you.” Hideyori smiled faintly. “As you doubtless know, I do not lack for companions to share my bedchamber, even though, as you said, it is my karma to be childless. I want you because you are more beautiful and wiser than any woman I have ever known. When we are properly married, I will lie with you, not just for the pleasure of it, but to possess you utterly.” His pupils seemed to expand until they were huge black pools into which she felt herself falling. She ignored the fear that rippled through her. She was saving Sametono’s life, she reminded herself.

“May Sametono live, and may he remain with me?”

“Eor the present. Eor the future, I will consider your suggestion, and I will observe the boy closely. Should his conduct even once give me cause to doubt him, he will be sent immediately into oblivion.” Taniko bowed her head in acceptance, but within she was aglow. She had won. Recognizing that the price of her victory was eventual marriage to Hideyori, she determined to press him for more concessions.

“What of the other children being killed in Heian Kyo in your name? Will you also put a stop to that?”

Hideyori smiled. “The true samurai has compassion for the defenceless. I will order the killing of children stopped for your sake, and also because I want to be remembered in the chronicles as a man of compassion.”

Taniko whisked the green liquid in the ch’ai bowl to a froth and poured Hideyori another cupful. “A handsome gesture, my lord, but it may be lost to the chronicles if all the condemned children are dead by the time your order reaches Heian Kyo. It is my father and Prince Horigawa who spattered blood on your reputation. If you were to punish them, it would show the world that they acted against your wishes.”

Hideyori stared at her, sincerely shocked. “You advise me to punish your own father? Where is your filial piety?”

“The Sage has said that a wife shall forsake her own mother and father and give all her loyalty to her husband and his family. Anticipating our marriage, I make your interests paramount, my lord.”

“How would it be in my interest to turn your father against me? Your clan, the Shima, have always been my chief supporters.”

“That is precisely why you must not allow my father to become too powerful. He believes that he made you Shogun. He thinks himself your master, not you his. Who knows what he and Horigawa and GoShirikawa might be plotting down there in the capital?” The sure way to influence Hideyori was to play upon his suspicions. “My uncle Ryuichi would serve you better as chieftain of the Shima than my father.”

“Are you suggesting that I remove your father from the chieftainship of your clan? I sometimes think your designs are even vaster and bolder than mine.