CHAPTER THREE
ARROWS
Yes, there he was. “On the wall,” Hiroki said. “One man. Look out.” Another arrow was on its way.
The bowman was far enough away that there would have been time enough to dodge the arrow had it reached them. Instead it smacked into the frozen mud a couple of paces short of where they stood. A good thing he was short with that arrow, Hiroki thought. I’m too slow, and he’s firing too quickly. No peasant, this one.
He motioned Shiro to Lord Matsukata, and ran himself to where Tetsuo was protecting Lord Naitō with his own body. “Get up,” he said, “and move quickly back up the street. There’s shelter.” He pointed at a corner building: if they could reach it the bowman wouldn’t be able to see them.
Shiro shouted a warning; his lance was already sweeping upward. The blade flashed in the last of the daylight; Hiroki heard a ringing sound, and the shattered arrow fluttered over his head and splashed into the roadside ditch.
“That’s astonishing,” Hiroki said as Shiro gazed, smiling, up at the blade. “Tell me, do you practice things like that?”
“I’ve never tried it before in my life,” Shiro said. “But I always wanted to know if it would work.”
A fourth arrow smashed into the frozen ground right at Shiro’s feet. He screamed in anger.
“Shiro, no!” Hiroki called. But if Shiro heard him as he charged toward the makeshift wall on which the assassin stood, he paid no attention.
“You should stop him,” Lord Naitō said. Cold as it was, sweat shone on his brow and his breathing was short.
“My first responsibility is to you, lord,” Hiroki told him. “Are you hurt?”
“No, good Tetsuo took the arrow that came for me. Please look to him.”
Hiroki turned to Tetsuo, who sat on his haunches, palms flat on his knees, breathing deeply. “Take a deep breath and hold it,” Hiroki told him, then went to the arrow. As quickly as he could he snapped the shaft as near to the head as was safe. Tetsuo grunted once but did not flinch.
“Off with the jacket now. Arms out behind you, Tetsuo, if you want to save this. Otherwise I’ll cut it away.”
“Not hurt enough to destroy a perfectly good jacket,” Tetsuo said. He moved slowly and with great care, and ended up on his knees, but he did move his arms to the extent that Hiroki could remove the full-sleeved jacket.
“I don’t even have to remove the arrowhead,” Hiroki said, smiling, once he’d got his hand inside the tear in Tetsuo’s kimono. “It’s sliced you open but the point didn’t go in. Thank the gods for a cold day and a thick jacket: if this had been warmer weather you’d have been wearing less, and you’d have had the head buried in you for certain.”
“Last time I’ll complain about winter, then,” Tetsuo said. “Am I bleeding badly? Feels as if I am.”
“I’m fairly certain this under-robe is ruined,” Hiroki said. “But I don’t think you’ve lost so much blood you won’t be able to walk the rest of the way home.” He got Tetsuo to his feet, used his dagger to cut away a square of fabric from the under-robe, and wadded it onto the finger-length slash at the top of Tetsuo’s right shoulder. “I hope this doesn’t interfere with your ability to use a sword,” he said quietly.
“I’m not going to let it.”
“Who do you think it was?” Lord Matsukata asked. “Could the Tanakawa clan have followed us here from Kozuke?”
“They could have,” Hiroki said, “if they knew we were coming here. But it seems unlikely to me that they could have guessed that, got here, and lay an ambush for us after we ourselves had only been in the capital a few days.” He thought about what he had just said. “By that reasoning nobody should have been interested in us. At this point there can’t be more than a handful of people who know who we are.”
“Well, somebody is clearly interested,” Lord Naitō said. “I doubt a random attacker would have mounted the city wall to lay an ambush. Nor do I imagine the man felt in need of target practice.”
“What interests me at the moment,” Tetsuo said, “is the fact that we’ve been standing here talking for a good while now, and nobody has come to ask us what this was all about. Is there nobody responsible for maintaining order here?”
“I think not,” Hiroki said.
“Which really means,” Tetsuo said, “that there is no government at all.”
“I only hope we don’t have to negotiate with both parties,” Lord Matsukata said. “If Lord Miyoshi cannot deliver the support he has promised, it will not go well for us.”
“And if the Omi shogunate learns that we negotiated with the Sakai shogunate first,” Lord Naitō said, looking unhappy, “I can’t imagine they would look too kindly on our approaching them as a second choice.”
“I would think,” Hiroki said, “that both parties must be accustomed to seeing petitioners who’ve gone to the other side first. Nobody really wants to create enemies, lords. So please don’t concern yourselves with the thought that we might not be welcome. If they think we have something they want, they will speak to us, just as the arms master did.”
“Is there any point in telling him about this attack?” Tetsuo asked Lord Naitō.
“Surely he will have heard about this by the time we see him tomorrow,” the lord replied. “It might be considered rude to draw attention to the fact, if he is not in fact capable of maintaining order in the capital.”
Tetsuo frowned, turning the expression into one of discomfort so as to avoid giving offence. “I suppose that means we just have to ignore what just happened,” he said.
“Or we deal with it ourselves,” Hiroki said. And now I understand, he thought, why I was sent here. He nodded his head in a bow of increased respect to Lord Tanuma.
Next Characters Chapter 1 Chapter 2
No comments:
Post a Comment