Sowing Ghosts 10.3

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[continuing chapter 10]

“My place would have been less expensive and more private,” Katsumi said.

“But isn’t the view here so much better?” Hiroki said. He had taken her to a tea-shop whose ground floor was built out, on pilings, over the Kamo. The river was still getting over its winter sluggishness, the water more slate-coloured than the green-blue Hiroki liked to remember. But the day was sunny and mild, the promise of spring and blossom-time just that much more pronounced than it had been even yesterday. A cup of rich, fragrant spring tea and a sticky-sweet mochi rice cake was taking the edge off his hunger and soothing his spirit as well.

“I agree that the view is better, but our activities here will be confined to the drinking of tea and of conversation,” she said with a sad expression he knew, by now, to be mostly mocking. Katsumi was, no doubt about it, the strangest woman he had ever met.


“I will survive, just this once,” he told her, keeping his own face perfectly composed. “And here I cannot allow myself to be distracted.”

“I did not know that you objected so much to distraction.” Now she was smiling, showing him that she enjoyed their game.

“I have an overdeveloped sense of duty this afternoon, I suppose.” He sipped his tea. “I will do my best to fight it, in the ways available to me in a public place. What did you think of the latest book?”

“Don’t you want to know what I have learned about your scar-faced man?”

“In time, yes. But for now I am enjoying the day and the tea too much to want to think about murder and betrayal, at least for a few moments.”

“We can talk about the Gion Festival, then,” she said. “I am going to participate this year, and I’m very much looking forward to it.”

“That’s months away, Katsumi.”

“A month-long festival takes a lot of time to plan, you know. Even if we’re not allowed to build our floats and portable shrines until the festival starts, we have to design them and collect the materials for them.”

“Which is all very interesting, but which also avoids my question. Do you not have any opinions about Lady Sei’s Pillow Book?”

“I am trying, but reading is hard work when you come to it late. Perhaps you need to visit me more frequently, to ensure that I take the time to read.” She paused a moment while Hiroki enjoyed the thought of spending each evening with her and possibly even discussing poetry. Then she nodded her head, slightly. “I admit that I am finding Sei Shonagon’s writing much more interesting than that of Lady Murasaki.”

“Naturally,” Hiroki said, letting his smile broaden. “You and Lady Sei are much alike, in many respects.”

“Are you saying I should start writing lists of things I like and dislike?” She laughed. “I wanted to learn poetry.”

“I think you could do worse than to learn from Lady Sei,” he said. “And there is poetry in The Pillow Book. You just have to look for it.”

“I also think she was very self-absorbed. Do you really think that of me?”

“No, no. Not at all. I think you and she are alike in forthrightness. The thing you have to know about The Pillow Book is that it was written only for the lady herself. She never intended for us — for anyone — to read it. So of course the book only concerns herself. Read in that spirit, Katsumi, and I think you will enjoy the book very much.”

“I will try again,” she said, pouting. “And now can I tell you what I’ve learned for you?”

Hiroki surrendered. “Very well. Poetry lessons another time, then. What have you learned about the scar-faced man?”

“Scar-faced men,” she said. “There are two possibilities I have discovered so far.” She gulped the rest of her tea; when Hiroki tasted his own he found that yes, it had cooled practically to the point of being distasteful. He drained the cup and signaled for more. Then he nodded at her to continue.

“One is named Hoso Shimayaza. He is a captain, serving under a man named Hosokawa Takakuni.” She paused a moment. “I know that name.”

“You should,” Hiroki told her. “You’re the one who told me about the relationship between him and the young Yanagimoto Kataharu.” Katsumi nodded as memory refreshed itself. “Takakuni is the chief minister of the Omi shogunate, and Yanagimoto is supposed to be his enemy now. Very interesting. I don’t know very much about Takakuni, save that he’s much older than his equivalent in the Sakai party. So old that he’s my age, in fact.” Katsumi giggled. “And the second?”

“Is one Nakamura Yutai. He is a junior official in the administration of the Sakai shogunate. Like a clerk or a secretary, I think.”

“And so in about the same position as Kanegawa, the arms master’s secretary. Have you had a chance to see either of these men?”

“I’m sorry, but no. Neither of them lives in the capital, I’ve learned. Does that make a difference?”

“None at all. Both Omi and Sakai are near enough that it’s easy for someone to visit the capital for any length of time.” A young girl appeared at his side with their tea; Hiroki waited until she had gone again before continuing. “Please take me seriously here: for your safety’s sake as well as mine, do not be obvious in trying to discover anything more about these men. And for heaven’s sake do not seek them out as clients.”

“Surely you aren’t trying to tell me how to live my life, my lord.”

“I’m trying to tell you how to continue living your life. If either of those men is the one behind the attack on my superiors, then you cannot let them know that you exist, much less that you have been asking about them. Remember, Katsumi: you have been in public with me numerous times over the past week. Anyone watching me knows about you. Connecting yourself with my enemies in any way is a most dangerous thing to do.”

He was not at all proud of the fact that her face showed that she now took his warning seriously.

Next    Characters    Chapter 1    Chapter 2    Chapter 3    Chapter 4    Chapter 5    Chapter 6
Chapter 7    Chapter 8    Chapter 9    Chapter 10