Shogun

"Yes, but not gunners and not sailors as he'd need 'em - he's not got time to train Jappos. By next year maybe, but not against us."

"Why in the name of the Madonna and the saints the priests gave him one of their dictionaries I'll never know. Meddling bastards! They must've been possessed by the Devil! It's almost as though the Ingeles is protected by the Devil!"

"I tell you he's just clever!"

"There are many who've been here for twenty years and can't speak a word of Jappo gibberish, but the Ingeles can, eh? I tell you he's given his soul to Satan, and in return for the black arts he's protected. How else do you explain it? How many years've you been trying to talk their tongue and you even live with one? Leche, he could easily use Jappo pirates."

"No, Captain-General, he's got to get men from here and we're waiting for him and you've already put anyone suspect in irons."

"With twenty thousand cruzados in silver and a promise about the Black Ship, he can buy all the men he needs, including the jailers and the God-cursed jail around them. Cabron! Perhaps he can buy you, too."

"Watch your tongue!"

"You're the motherless, milkless Spaniard, Rodrigues! It's your fault he's alive, you're responsible. Twice you let him escape!" The Captain-General had squared up to him in rage. "You should have killed him when he was in your power."

"Perhaps, but that's froth on my life's wake," Rodrigues had said bitterly. "I went to kill him when I could."

"Did you?"

"I've told you twenty times. Have you no ears! Or is Spanish dung as usual in your ears as well as in your mouth!" His hand had reached for his pistol and the Captain-General had drawn his sword, then the frightened Japanese girl was between them. "Prees, Rod-san, no angers-no quarre', prees! Christian, prees!"

The blinding rage had fallen off both of them, and Ferriera had said, "I tell you before God, the Ingeles must be Devilspawned - I almost killed you, and you me, Rodrigues. I see it clearly now. He's put a spell on all of us - particularly you!"

Now in the sunshine at Osaka, Rodrigues reached for the crucifix he wore around his neck and he prayed a desperate prayer that he be protected from all warlocks and his immortal soul kept safe from Satan.

Isn't the Captain-General right, isn't that the only answer, he reasoned again, filled with foreboding. The Ingeles' life is charmed. Now he's an intimate of the archfiend Toranaga, now he's got his ship back and the money back and wako, in spite of everything, and he does speak like one of them and that's impossible so quickly even with the dictionary, but he did get the dictionary and priceless help. Jesus God and Madonna, take the Evil Eye off me!

"Why'd you give the Ingeles the dictionary, Father?" he had asked Alvito at Mishima. "Surely you should have delayed that?"

"Yes, Rodrigues," Father Alvito had told him confidently, "and I needn't have gone out of my way to help him. But I'm convinced there's a chance of converting him. I'm so sure. Toranaga's finished now .... It's just one man and a soul. I have to try to save him."

Priests, Rodrigues thought. Leche on all priests. But not on dell'Aqua and Alvito. Oh, Madonna, I apologize for all my evil thoughts about him and the Father Alvito. Forgive me and bury the Ingeles somehow before I have him in my sights. I do not wish to kill him because of my Holy Oath, even though, before Thee, I know he must die quickly....

The duty helmsman turned the hourglass and rang eight bells. It was high noon.

CHAPTER 55

Mariko was walking up the crowded sunlit avenue toward the gates in the cul-de-sac. Behind her was a body guard of ten Browns. She wore a pale green kimono and white gloves and a wide-brimmed dark green traveling hat tied with a golden net scarf under her chin, and she shaded herself with an iridescent sun shade. The gates swung open and stayed open.

It was very quiet in the avenue. Grays lined both sides and all the battlements. She could see the Anjin-san on their own battlements, Yabu beside him, and in the courtyard the waiting column with Kiri there, and the Lady Sazuko. All the Browns were in full ceremonials in the forecourt under Yoshinaka, except twenty who stood on the battlements with Blackthorne and two to each window overlooking the forecourt.

Unlike the Grays, none of the Browns had armor or carried bows. Swords were their only weapons.

Many women, samurai women, were also watching, some from the windows of other fortified houses that lined the avenue, and some from battlements. Others stood in the avenue among the Grays, a few gaily dressed children with them. All of the women carried sunshades though some wore samurai swords, as was their right if they wished.

Kiyama was near the gate with half a hundred of his own men, not Grays.

"Good day, Sire," Mariko said to him, and bowed. He bowed back and she passed through the archway.

"Hello, Kiri-chan, Sazuko-chan. How pretty you both look! Is everything ready?"

"Yes," they replied with false cheeriness.