Shogun

"Yes," Yabu said. Another samurai called him urgently from the battlements and he went outside.

Old Lady Etsu was lying against the battlement, cradled by her maid, her face gray, eyes rheumy. She peered up at Yabu, focusing with difficulty. "Kasigi Yabu-san?"

"Yes, Lady."

"Are you senior officer here?"

"Yes, Lady."

The old woman said to the maid. "Please help me up."

"But you should wait, the doc-"

"Help me up!"

Samurai on the battlement veranda watched her stand, supported by the maid. "Listen," she said, her voice hoarse and frail in the silence. "I, Maeda Etsu, wife of Maeda Arinosi, Lord of Nagato, Iwami, and Aki, I attest that Toda Mariko-sama cast away her life to save herself from dishonorable capture by these hideous and shameful men. I attest that . . . that Kiyama Achiko chose to attack the ninja, casting away her life rather than risk the dishonor of being captured . . . that but for the barbarian samurai's bravery Lady Toda would have been captured and dishonored, and all of us, and we who are alive owe him gratitude, and also our Lords owe him gratitude for protecting us from that shame . . . . I accuse the Lord General Ishido of mounting this dishonorable attack . . . and of betraying the Heir and the Lady Ochiba . . ." The old lady wavered and almost fell, and the maid sobbed and held her more strongly. "And . . . and Lord Ishido has betrayed them and the Council of Regents. I ask you all to bear witness that I can no longer live with this shame . . . ."

"No-no mistress," the maid wept, "I won't let you-"

"Go away! Kasigi Yabu-san, please help me. Go away, woman!"

Yabu took Lady Etsu's weight, which was negligible, and ordered the maid away. She obeyed.

Lady Etsu was in great pain and breathing heavily. "I attest to the truth of this by my own death," she said in a small voice and looked up at Yabu. "I would be honored if . . . if you would be my second. Please help me onto the battlements."

"No, Lady. There's no need to die."

She turned her face away from the others and whispered to him, "I'm dying already, Yabu-sama. I'm bleeding from inside - something's broken inside - the explosion .... Help me to do my duty .... I'm old and useless and pain's been my bedfellow for twenty years. Let my death also help our Master, neh?" There was a glint in the old eyes. "Neh?"

Gently he lifted her and stood proudly beside her on the abutment, the forecourt far below. He helped her to stand. Everyone bowed to her.

"I have told the truth. I attest to it by my death," she said, standing alone, her voice quavering. Then she closed her eyes thankfully and let herself fall forward to welcome death.

CHAPTER 58

The Regents were meeting in the Great Room on the second level of the donjon. Ishido, Kiyama, Zataki, Ito, and Onoshi. The dawn sun cast long shadows and the smell of fire still hung heavy in the air.

Lady Ochiba was present, also greatly perturbed.

"So sorry, Lord General, I disagree," Kiyama was saying in his tight brittle voice. "It's impossible to dismiss Lady Toda's seppuku and my granddaughter's bravery and Lady Maeda's testimony and formal death - along with one hundred and forty-seven Toranaga dead and that part of the castle almost gutted! It just can't be dismissed."

"I agree," Zataki said. He had arrived yesterday morning from Takato and when he had the details of Mariko's confrontation with Ishido he had been secretly delighted. "If she'd been allowed to go yesterday as I advised, we wouldn't be in this snare now."

"It's not as serious as you think." Ishido's mouth was a hard line and Ochiba loathed him at that moment, loathed him for failing and for trapping them all in this crisis. "The ninja were only after loot," Ishido said.

"The barbarian is loot?" Kiyama scoffed. "They'd mount such a vast attack for one barbarian?"

"Why not? He could be ransomed, neh?" Ishido stared back at the daimyo, who was flanked by Ito Teruzumi and Zataki. "Christians in Nagasaki would pay highly for him, dead or alive. Neh?"

"That's possible," Zataki agreed. "That's the way barbarians fight."

Kiyama said tightly, "Are you suggesting, formally, that Christians planned and paid for this foul attack?"

"I said it was possible. And it is possible."

"Yes. But unlikely," Ishido interposed, not wanting the precarious balance of the Regents wrecked by an open quarrel now. He was still apoplectic that spies had not forewarned him about Toranaga's secret lair, and still did not understand how it could have been constructed with such secrecy and not a breath of rumor about it. "I suggest ninja were after loot."

"That's very sensible and most correct," Ito said with a malicious glint in his eyes. He was a small, middle-aged man, resplendently attired with ornamental swords, even though he had been routed out of bed like all of them. He was made up like a woman and his teeth were blackened. "Yes, Lord General. But perhaps the ninja didn't mean to ransom him in Nagasaki but in Yedo, to Lord Toranaga. Isn't he still his lackey?"