Shōgun

Hiro-matsu, his sword inevitably loose in his hands, scowled. "I still think this is all dishonorable and unnecessary. Soon we'll be able to forget it. We'll piss all over Ishido without this sort of treachery."

Yabu said, "Please excuse me, but without these guns and this strategy, Hiro-matsu-san, we'll lose. This is a modern war, this way we've a chance to win." He looked back at Toranaga, who had not yet dismounted. "I heard in the night that Jikkyu's dead."

"You're certain?" Toranaga pretended to be startled. He had got the secret information the day he left Mishima.

"Yes, Sire. It seems he's been sick for some time. My informant reports he died two days ago," Yabu said, gloating openly. "His heir's his son, Hikoju."

"That puppy?" Buntaro said with contempt.

"Yes-I agree he's nothing but a whelp." Yabu seemed to be several inches taller than usual. "Sire, doesn't this open up the southern route? Why not attack along the Tokaidō Road immediately? With the old devil fox dead, Izu's safe now, and Suruga and Totomi are as helpless as beached tuna. Neh?"

Toranaga dismounted thoughtfully. "Well?" he asked Hiro-matsu quietly.

The old general replied at once, "If we could grab the road all the way to Utsunoya Pass and all the bridges and get over the Tenryu quickly-with all our communications secure-we'd slice into Ishido's underbelly. We could contain Zataki in the mountains and reinforce the Tokaidō attack and rush on to Osaka. We'd be unbeatable."

Sudara said, "So long as the Heir leads Ishido's armies we're beatable."

"I don't agree," Hiro-matsu said.

"Nor I, so sorry," Yabu said.

"But I agree," Toranaga said, as flat and as grave as Sudara. He had not yet told them about Zataki's possible agreement to betray Ishido when the time was ripe. Why should I tell them? he thought. It's not fact. Yet.

But how do you propose to implement your solemn agreement with your half brother to marry Ochiba to him if he supports you, and at the same time marry Ochiba yourself, if that's her price? That's a fair question, he said to himself. But it's highly unlikely Ochiba would betray Ishido. If she did and that's the price, then the answer's simple: My brother will have to bow to the inevitable.

He saw them all looking at him. "What?"

There was a silence. Then Buntaro said, "What happens, Sire, when we oppose the banner of the Heir?"

None of them had ever asked that question formally, directly, and publicly. "If that happens, I lose," Toranaga said. "I will commit seppuku and those who honor the Taikō's testament and the Heir's undoubted legal inheritance will have to submit themselves humbly at once to his pardon. Those who don't will have no honor. Neh?"

They all nodded. Then he turned to Yabu to finish the business at hand, and became genial again. "However, we're not on that battlefield yet, so we continue as planned. Yes, Yabu-sama, the southern route's possible now. What did Jikkyu die of?"

"Sickness, Sire."

"A five-hundred-koku sickness?"

Yabu laughed, but inwardly he was rabid that Toranaga had breached his security net. "Yes," he said. "I would presume so, Sire. My brother told you?" Toranaga nodded and asked him to explain to the others. Yabu complied, not displeased, for it was a clever and devious stratagem, and he told them how Mizuno, his brother, had passed over the money that had been acquired from the Anjin-san to a cook's helper who had been inserted into Jikkyu's personal kitchen.

"Cheap, neh?" Yabu said happily. "Five hundred koku for the southern route?"

Hiro-matsu said stiffly to Toranaga, "Please excuse me but I think that's a disgusting story."

Toranaga smiled. "Treachery's a weapon of war, neh?"

"Yes. But not of a samurai."

Yabu was indignant. "So sorry, Lord Hiro-matsu, but I presume you mean no insult?"

"He meant no insult. Did you, Hiro-matsu-san?" Toranaga said.

"No, Sire," the old general replied. "Please excuse me."

"Poison, treachery, betrayal, assassination have always been weapons of war, old friend," Toranaga said. "Jikkyu was an enemy and a fool. Five hundred koku for the southern route is nothing! Yabu-sama has served me well. Here and at Osaka. Neh, Yabu-san?"

"I always try to serve you loyally, Sire."

"Yes, so please explain why you killed Captain Sumiyori before the ninja attack," Toranaga said.

Yabu's face did not change. He was wearing his Yoshitomo sword, his hand as usual loose on the hilt. "Who says that? Who accuses me of that, Sire?"

Toranaga pointed at the pack of Browns forty paces away. "That man! Please come here, Kosami-san." The youthful samurai dismounted, limped forward and bowed.

Yabu glared at him. "Who are you, fellow?"

"Sokura Kosami of the Tenth Legion, attached to the Lady Kiritsubo's bodyguard at Osaka, Sire," the youth said. "You put me on guard outside your quarters-and Sumiyori-san's-the night of the ninja attack."

"I don't remember you. You dare to say I killed Sumiyori?"

The youth wavered. Toranaga said, "Tell him!"