Heaven's Net Is Wide

26

Two days later, Shigeru bade farewell to his brother and began the journey back to Hagi. The weather changed and became showery. The rain was cold; the easterly wind had a frosty bite, reminding him of the coming snows of winter. Kiyoshige was waiting with the horses at the foot of the mountain, together with Otori Danjo and Harada, the messengers he had sent to arrange the meetings with the Seishuu. They rode to Misumi, Danjo’s home, and the two men told Shigeru their opinions of their undertaking.

“Arai Daiichi has not really changed since we were boys-he was always the leader, always fearless,” Danjo remarked.

“He is a man of huge abilities,” Shigeru replied. “And, I would think, very ambitious.”

“He is irked, I suspect, by his position among the Seishuu-heir to a remote and not very wealthy domain, threatened by his nearest neighbors, the Noguchi, and kept from real power by his father’s refusal to die or retire. He is attracted to the Otori alliance because it would give him equal power with Lady Maruyama, but he dare not support it openly-such negotiations would seem like treachery to his father or to Iida, and either one would not hesitate to demand he take his own life.”

“I had hoped for much more,” Shigeru admitted.

“Our efforts have not been a complete failure,” Danjo replied. “I believe the Arai will follow Maruyama’s lead and not join in an attack from the East. At this stage, it may be the best you can hope for. And you may have started an alliance, which can only be good for the Middle Country. You, Arai Daiichi, Maruyama Naomi are all young. Who knows what great things you might achieve in the future?”

“You are optimistic, like your father,” Shigeru said, smiling.

“I agree with Lord Danjo,” Harada said. “Lady Maruyama seemed to grasp immediately the significance of your journey and your desire to meet her. She had been considering approaching your father, but early attempts had not met with much encouragement.”

“I knew nothing of them,” Shigeru exclaimed. “So much time has been wasted!”

“You cannot blame yourself,” Kiyoshige said. “We have been fully occupied in the East for the past two summers.”

“And will be next summer,” Shigeru replied. They rode in silence for a while, each wrapped in thoughts of the coming war.

Harada said, “Lord Otori, I thought you would like to know, I saw the man we rescued, Nesutoro, in Maruyama. He is settled with some of his people and is learning a trade-basket-making or something of that sort. His niece, the girl, Mari, has found work in the kitchens of the castle.”

“I am glad they are safe,” Shigeru replied, a little surprised that Harada should know the girl’s name, should have remembered it. He shot a look at his retainer, but the man’s swarthy face revealed nothing. Yet Shigeru knew how moved Harada had been by the courage, suffering, and death of Tomasu, and by Nesutoro’s fortitude. He wondered if some deeper connection had been made: was it possible for a warrior like Harada to be attracted to the beliefs of the Hidden? He would have to question him further about it.

How little he really knew about any of these men, of their inner beliefs, hopes, ambitions, and fears. He expected their loyalty and their obedience to his wishes; in their turn, they demanded the same obedience from the men who served them, and so it went, through the whole interlocking hierarchy of the clan, everyone linked to everyone else through a net of loyalty and obligation. But someone like Nesutoro stood outside the net: he would only obey some unseen force, a supposed god who was above all human rulers and who would judge them after death. And he would not take life-neither his own nor anyone else’s.

It was hardly the sort of thing he wanted to think about while he was preparing for a battle in which he would have to take the lives of many, and which he himself might not survive.

They did not linger at Misumi, spending only one night there. Shigeru talked till late with Eijiro and received his assurances that the branch family would start preparing for war and mustering men, as far as the snow permitted: if Irie were successful with the Noguchi, he now had the whole of the Middle Country preparing for war. The western borders were safe from attack; he resolved he would send Kiyoshige and Harada back to Chigawa before the end of the year. He wished he knew what Sadamu was up to, how many men he was assembling, what alliances he was brokering. But, at least, Kiyoshige and Harada would keep an eye on what was happening beyond the border and would give warning of any imminent attack. He was not displeased with the work of the past year. But the hardest task that lay ahead of him, he suspected, would be in Hagi itself, where his adversaries were his own family, his father and his uncles.

SHIGERU’S FIRST RESOLVE was to take control of the castle, and on the second day after his return he requested a private meeting with his father. When he arrived in the early afternoon, his mother was already in the room: she clearly intended to stay and, on the whole, he was glad of it, for he knew he could count on her support against his uncles. He had given orders that they were not to attend; if they came to the hall, they were not to be admitted. It was the first time he had opposed them so openly, but he had even more unpleasant commands in store for them, and he felt confident enough in his increased popularity and authority to confront them now.

His father did not look well, and when Shigeru inquired after his health, he said he had been troubled by back pain, urinated frequently and consequently slept badly, and had little appetite. Wine made his symptoms only worse, and he dreaded the cold. Despite the charcoal braziers, the room was already freezing. His father’s skin was tinged with yellow, and his hands trembled as they plucked at the amulets he carried in his sleeve. A special tea was brought, heavily laced with valerian; it seemed to alleviate the shivering but made his father’s mind sluggish and confused.

Shigeru conveyed formal greetings from the branch families and vassals and then told his parents the essence of his activities: the preparation for war, the agreement with the Arai and the Maruyama. His father looked troubled, but his mother gave him her open approval.

“I should inform my brothers,” Shigemori said.

“No, Father, that is precisely what I do not want you to do. All these negotiations must be kept as secret as possible. I know you think my uncles have been of some support to you in the past, but I believe their influence has not been beneficial to the clan. Now I am of age there is no need for them to involve themselves so closely in our affairs.”

“They could be sent away,” his mother observed. “They both have country estates that are pitifully neglected. There are too many people in the castle-all those children they keep producing. Lord Shigeru is right: we no longer need your brothers’ advice. You must listen to your son.”

Shigeru was delighted with this advice from his mother and, with his father’s reluctant permission, immediately put it into practice. He summoned his uncles the following day and told them of his desires, was unmoved by their fury or their arguments, and insisted that they retire to Shimano and Mizutani immediately.

Unfortunately, it proved harder to get rid of them than either he or his mother had expected. There were endless excuses: one of the wives was about to give birth, a child fell ill with a dangerous fever, the day was inauspicious, the river was in flood, horses could not be found; there was even a small earthquake. Then the year turned; the festival had to be celebrated in Hagi. As Shigeru returned home from the temple at Tokoji in the early hours of the morning on the first day of the year, snow was falling. It fell almost without letup for six weeks, closing the city off from the rest of the country and, equally, preventing his uncles from leaving.