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

The time may come for such a drastic step. Eor now, I will let your father and the prince feel my displeasure, but I will not be as severe as you suggest. I am under obligation to them. Time after time when Sogamori’s sword would have fallen on me, they shielded me.”

Taniko gave a cry of scorn. “My lord; no one knows those two better than I do. Horigawa pressed Sogamori day and night to have you killed. I was at Horigawa’s winding water banquet celebrating the Takashi victory over your father, Captain Domei. ‘Nits make lice,’ Horigawa said that evening, meaning you and Yukio. He changed his mind only when he realized that you could be of use to him. As for my father, I am sure he never told you this, but it was I who first put it into his mind to protect you. I wrote him a letter shortly after you went to him, suggesting that you would be more useful to him alive than dead.”

“I never knew that. I thought I had frightened and offended you that day I came to Daidoji seeking Horigawa. Why did you do that? Were you drawn to me even then?”

“To be honest, I was not, my lord.” It was Jebu and only Jebu who filled my heart in those days, she thought. “I was simply meddling in politics. It’s always been a vice of mine.”

“Vice? Hardly. Though you are a woman, you are more sagacious in matters of state than most men are. Perhaps you were an Emperor or a prime minister in a previous life.”

“My incurable urge to involve myself in politics led me to arrange a rendezvous between Sogamori and Lady Akimi, Yukio’s mother,” Taniko said. “As you know, it was she who persuaded him to hold his hand from Yukio and from you as well. Horigawa was so enraged that your lives were spared that he sequestered me in the country. That is the man to whom you consider yourself obligated.”

Hideyori stared at her in surprise. “I never knew you were so instrumental in that affair. It makes me all the more determined that you shall be the principal wife of the Shogun.”

Wife of the Shogun. Taniko’s head spun with excitement. Not even an Empress would enjoy as much power.

“What of Horigawa?”, she asked softly.

“To repay Horigawa for his complicity in the deaths of my grandfather, my father and so many other kinsmen of mine, he shall make a long overdue journey to the underworld. To reward him for his aid to me, which made possible the final victory of the Muratomo, I will see that his bereaved widow, Lady Taniko, is not only cared for fittingly, but exalted.” Hideyori grinned at her. “Does that suit you, Tanikosan?”

Taniko bowed her head. She knew that Eisen would say that desire for revenge was an attachment she must break, but she could not help feeling a thrill at the thought that for her sake, the most powerful man in the realm was prepared to bring about Horigawa’s death.

“It suits me,” she whispered.

“But, still-” Hideyori shook his head, “the great-grandson of Sogamori to succeed me as Shogun? To inherit what I have created? Shall the reward of the thirty-year struggle of the Muratomo to overthrow the Takashi be reaped by a Takashi? It is as if Sogamori had triumphed after all, in the end.”

“Who is the true father of a boy?” Taniko asked, having prepared beforehand to meet this objection. “Is it not he who rears and shapes the child? Sametono never knew a father. He is only four years old. You will be his father, and the great Muratomo chieftains will be his ancestors. It is you, not Sogamori, who will win in the end, because you will have changed the last child of his line into a Muratomo.”

Hideyori gazed at her admiringly. “Your mind slices like a sword into the heart of a problem. It is for this that I would make you my wife.” Then his expression hardened. “But there is one more concession you must make to me. I know that Yukio was your companion in China and that you hold him in high esteem. You have always urged me to trust him. Now I must insist that you renounce your friendship for him out of loyalty to me. I have learned that he intends to destroy everything I have built.”

Taniko sighed. Those years in China seemed so remote. She was a different woman now. She saw Jebu again as he had looked in Kublai Khan’s park at Khan Baligh that day they were reunited. Almost unrecognizable in his Mongol cap and cloak, his face gaunt, his red moustache drooping. It was Jebu who had rescued Sametono from the Rokuhara. Yet there had been no message from him, just Moko arriving with the boy.

“I have no idea what Yukio is doing now, my lord. How do you know he is plotting against you?”

“He has been in Heian Kyo ever since the battle at Shimonosek: Strait. His huge army is camped outside the city. He has begun the rebuilding of the Imperial Palace without my permission. He visits the Retired Emperor daily, and he is the darling of the Imperial Court. He has received numerous titles and honours and estates from GoShirakawa, including lieutenant in the Palace Guard.”

“I remember from my days at Court that most such honours bring with them no real power,” said Taniko.

“They are all ancient honours and should have been offered first of all to me, not to one of inferior birth, like Yukio. My father was captain of the Palace Guard. But these displays of Imperial favour are only the outward sign of the disease. I have learned that Yukio conspires with my enemies to take action against me and the Bakufu.”

“How do you know this, my lord?”

“I have received messages from your father.”

“It may be that the real conspirators are my father and Horigawa. Horigawa would like nothing more than to set you and Yukio at each other’s throats. He has not given up his lifelong dream of destroying the samurai by pitting them against each other. He could be using my father. Indeed, GoShirakawa may have the same end in view. If the Muratomo quarrel among themselves, the Imperial Court gains power. Perhaps that is why the Retired Emperor shows so much favour to Yukio.”

“Everyone plots,” said Hideyori through clenched teeth. “No one can be trusted. I can rely on men only to betray one another. Your father pretends to be Yukio’s ally while reporting to me his plans and ambitions.”

“I know Yukio and I know my father. It is Yukio I trust.” “Yukio killed your son.”

Taniko sighed. “I can never be his friend, but I still believe him to be a man of honour.”

Hideyori’s face darkened. “You are a stubborn woman.”

His anger surprised Taniko. She realized that she was in danger, but his sharp words stung her to a quick retort. “My lord, I am simply setting aside my own feelings about Yukio and telling you what I believe to be true. You did say, only a moment ago, that you think highly of my wisdom.”

“Yukio is my enemy.” Hideyori’s eyes glittered with hate. “Erom the day he escaped from the Rokuhara he has been trying to make himself chieftain of the Muratomo. While I was held prisoner here in

Kamakura, Yukio was loose in the countryside, his every action a provocation to Sogamori to have me executed in retaliation. When Sogamori’s son Kiyosi was killed during Yukio’s escape from Hakata Bay, I was sure I was a dead man.”

Yes, yes, thought Taniko sadly, so much died when Kiyosi died.

“I would have been executed then, had not Horigawa chosen that moment to begin protecting me. Years later, Yukio returned with his army of Mongols and proclaimed himself clan chieftain, as if I were really dead. He found he could not dispose of me so easily. I risked my life to support his campaign against the Takashi, even though I was in a far more vulnerable position than he. I laboured in the shadows to found a new government, without which his victories would mean nothing. I sent him the ships he needed to win at Shimonoseki Strait. What I have done is ignored or condemned, while the land resounds with the praises of Yukio. Always Yukio, the mighty warrior, Yukio the brilliant general, Yukio the shining jewel of the house of Muratomo. I tell you, Yukio is nothing but a bandit, and his mother was nothing but a Court harlot, while mine was the daughter of a high priest. All friends of Yukio are my enemies, and I mean to destroy all my enemies. If you wish to live here with me, if you wish to adopt your Takashi grandson with my approval, you must bind yourself to me and to me alone. Do you agree to that?”

Taniko sat stunned. The wave of Hideyori’s rage had crashed over her and receded, leaving a pool of despair. Much of what he said made no sense. Now she knew that Hideyori’s hatred of his younger brother was a lifelong passion he would never be able to relinquish. Anything she might say to correct or contradict him could mean death for herself and Sametono. She was a prisoner. Hideyori would make use of her intelligence, yes, but for his own mad and murderous purposes. She would have no power as the Shogun’s wife. She could only be the Shogun’s instrument.

“I agree, my lord.” Even though she knew she must hide her feelings, she could not hold back her tears. Hideyori watched her for a moment, then reached out and took her hand.

When he spoke again, his tone was more reasonable. “Tanikosan, I know you feel under obligation to Yukio. Perhaps you feel pity for him. I, too, have not forgotten that he and I have the same father. I fear him because in the capital his innocence can be victimized by flatterers and dangerous influences. He is the sort of man around whom rebellious forces might gather, and there are many powerful persons who oppose the new order of the nation. I simply want Yukio in a less dangerous position.”

Hideyori’s sudden change of manner left ‘Taniko even more uncertain about what he intended. In a way it was more frightening than his previous rage had been. In her mind she said, homage to Amida Buddha.

From the pillow book of Shima Taniko:

It is now eight days since I agreed to Hideyori’s terms. I went to see Eisen and told him of the shape my future appears to be taking. I asked his advice and he merely said, “Show me the face you had before you were born.” Zen monks like to meditate on such strange-sounding problems as this, which their Chinese predecessors called kung-an, questions. Eisen had promised me a kung-an to study, but I hardly expected to get one instead of advice about Hideyori. Is this Eisen’s way of saying I should not think so much about my problems?

“Next time you come,” Eisen said, “bring the boy.”

Messengers have gone to the capital bearing decrees that strip my father and Horigawa of their powers as deputies of the Shogun, charging them with excessive zeal in executing women and children connected with the Takashi. My father is ordered to return to Kamakura. To think that he might have killed his own great-grandson. I am determined that he shall not enjoy power as long as I can prevent it.

Hideyori is also moving against Yukio. The day after we spoke he sent an order that no man under the Shogun’s authority may receive titles, gifts or offices from anyone else without the Shogun’s permission. Two days