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[continuing chapter 12]
“It’s Miyoshi Motonaga,” Shiro said, having valiantly kept quiet until they had reached the road south from Mount Hiei to Kyoto. “That wakashū Togashi is betraying your friend Lord Hosokawa to him for money.”
“You don’t look well, Hiroki,” Tetsuo said. “Should we have risked discovery and asked the monks to look after you?”
“I can look after myself well enough once we’re back in the capital,” Hiroki said. “You both did very well, by the way. I’m pleased.”
“Thank you, Hiroki.”
“Aren’t you even a little surprised at this?” Shiro asked. He looked somewhat like a child who’d had his last moon-cake taken from him at the end of the autumn festival. “You’re behaving as if you already knew this — in which case why did we come out here in the first place?”
“Peace, Shiro, peace. I do already know it — though the money part is new to me, however little that should come as a surprise. But I learned it at the same time you did. Tell me what happened, and then I’ll tell you how I spent the time.”
Shiro cheered up immediately. He liked reporting, Hiroki knew. “Well, we had no trouble at all finding the monk Banzan.”
“That’s because we actually spotted the wakashū as soon as we reached the Miidera compound,” Tetsuo said. “He’s really a pretty stupid young man, isn’t he? He didn’t even think to look to see if he was being followed.”
“I don’t think he’s that young, either,” Shiro said. “I agree about the stupid thing, though. Because Tetsuo’s right: we pretty much just walked behind him until he went into one of the buildings, and then we sat outside and listened to him talking with his uncle and another man.”
“That was pretty bold of you,” Hiroki said, forcing a smile to disguise his pain.
“Oh, not really,” Tetsuo said. “Shiro found a hoe and a rake that had been left against a shed, so he took the hoe and I took the rake and we carried them over our shoulders into the compound. Nobody really looks at peasants and porters if they’re carrying something and look like they’re on their way to work.” Hiroki’s smile this time was genuine: he’d made that point to both the younger men numerous times as an argument in favour of using disguise when their natural spirits demanded warrior-like challenges.
“So you sat down and listened,” he said.
“Yes, and I don’t mind admitting I was astonished,” Shiro said. “I mean, the wakashū and Hosokawa are lovers, aren’t they?” Hiroki nodded. “Well, friends and lovers shouldn’t betray each other that way. Like I told you, Hiroki, that uncle, Banzan, had another man in the house with him when Togashi went in. And what do you think that Togashi did as soon as he was inside, but start arguing about the amount of silver the other man was going to pay him for delivering up his lover for assassination.”
“Did you happen to hear what his price was?” Hiroki didn’t really care, but some part of him was curious about the value a man might attach to the sort of betrayal Shiro was describing.
“They eventually settled on ten ounces of silver,” Tetsuo said. “That’s a lot of money.”
Shiro nodded. “I could dress very well for that kind of money.”
“We could live for a year on that money,” Tetsuo said.
“Did you hear how this betrayal is to happen?” Hiroki asked.
“Sorry,” Shiro said, “but no. It seems they had already discussed this, and today’s meeting was only to find out how cheaply the wakashū could be bought. A year’s rice for the betrayal of his lover? He’s as cheap as he is wicked.”
“I suspect the penuriousness is on the part of Miyoshi Motonaga,” Hiroki said. “I’ve no doubt Togashi asked for a lot more. He gives the impression of a man accustomed to living well.”
“He won’t live long,” Tetsuo said, “if I have anything to say about it. I’m not convinced that Hosokawa Katsunata is any friend of ours, Hiroki, but he still doesn’t deserve to be treated his way.”
“Nobody does,” Hiroki said. “And for what it’s worth, I have plenty of doubts about young Lord Hosokawa myself. That boy is frighteningly sure of himself.” I should send Jiro ahead so a bath will be ready for me when we arrive home, he thought. “How did you determine that the other man was Miyoshi Motonaga?”
“We both remembered his voice from our first day here,” Shiro said. “He speaks better than Lord Tanuma, maybe, but there’s something about his voice that is exactly the same.” That’s the voice of command, Hiroki told him silently. You recognize it well enough, you just haven’t fully identified it yet. “And then Togashi called him ‘Lord Miyoshi’ once they’d settled on a price, and because we knew it wasn’t Arms Master Miyoshi Takahashi that sort of confirmed it for us.”
“I don’t doubt that Lord Hosokawa is already alert to the threat posed by Miyoshi Motonaga,” Hiroki said, “but we’ll have to warn him about his good friend the wakashū Togashi. I’m not looking forward to that.”
Next Characters Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6
Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Chapter 12
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