Shogun - Clavell James (бесплатные полные книги .TXT) 📗

Joseph looked at him a long moment, then he gave it to him. "Please excuse me."

"I will pray for you," Michael said.

"Didn't you hear? I've renounced God!"

"I will pray that God will not renounce you, Uraga-noh-Tadamasa-san."

"Forgive me, Brother," Joseph said. He stuck the knife in his sash, jerked the door open, and walked blindly along the corridor out onto the veranda. People watched him curiously, among them Uo the fisherman, who was waiting patiently in the shadows. Joseph crossed the courtyard and went toward the gate. A samurai stood in his way.

"Halt!"

Joseph stopped.

"Where are you going, please?"

"I'm sorry, please excuse me, I - I don't know."

"I serve Lord Toranaga. So sorry, I couldn't help hearing what went on in there. The whole inn must have heard. Shocking bad manners . . . shocking for your leader to shout like that and disturb the peace. And you too. I'm on duty here. I think it's best you see the officer of my watch."

"I think - thank you, I'll go the other way. Please excuse-"

"You'll go nowhere, so sorry. Except to see my officer."

"What? Oh - yes. Yes, I'm sorry, of course." Joseph tried to make his brain work.

"Good. Thank you." The samurai turned as another samurai approached from the bridge and saluted.

"I'm to fetch the Tsukku-san for Lord Toranaga."

"Good. You're expected."

Toranaga watched the tall priest approach across the clearing, the flickering light of the torches making the lean face starker than usual above the blackness of his beard. The priest's orange Buddhist robe was elegant and a rosary and cross hung at his waist.

Ten paces away Father Alvito stopped, knelt, and bowed deferentially, beginning the customary formalities.

Toranaga was sitting alone on the dais, guards in a semicircle around him, well out of hearing. Only Blackthorne was nearby and he lolled against the platform as he had been ordered, his eyes boring into the priest. Alvito appeared not to notice him.

"It is good to see you, Sire," Father Alvito said when it was polite to do so.

"And to see you, Tsukku-san." Toranaga motioned the priest to make himself comfortable on the cushion that had been placed on a tatami on the ground in front of the platform. "It's a long time since I saw you."

"Yes, Sire, there's much to tell." Alvito was deeply conscious that the cushion was on the earth and not on the dais. Also, he was acutely aware of the samurai swords that Blackthorne now wore so near to Toranaga and the way he slouched with such indifference. "I bring a confidential message from my superior, the Father-Visitor, who greets you with deference."

"Thank you. But first, tell me about you."

"Ah, Sire," Alvito said, knowing that Toranaga was far too discerning not to have noticed the remorse that beset him, much as he had tried to throw it off. "Tonight I'm too aware of my own failings. Tonight I'd like to be allowed to put off my earthly duties and go into a retreat to pray, to beg for God's favor." He was shamed by his own lack of humility. Although Joseph's sin had been terrible, Alvito had acted with haste and anger and stupidity. It was his fault that a soul had been outcast, to be lost forever. "Our Lord once said, 'Please, Father, let this cup pass from me.' But even He had to retain the cup. We, in the world, we have to try to follow in His footsteps as best we can. Please excuse me for allowing my problem to show."

"What was your 'cup,' old friend?"

Alvito told him. He knew there was no reason to hide the facts for, of course, Toranaga would hear them very soon if he did not already know them, and it was much better to hear the truth than a garbled version. "It's so very sad to lose a Brother, terrible to make one an outcast, however terrible the crime. I should have been more patient. It was my fault."

"Where is he now?"

"I don't know, Sire."

Toranaga called a guard. "Find the renegade Christian and bring him to me at noon tomorrow." The samurai hurried away.

"I beg mercy for him, Sire," Alvito said quickly, meaning it. But he knew whatever he said would do little to dissuade Toranaga from a path already chosen. Again he wished the Society had its own secular arm empowered to arrest and punish apostates, like elsewhere in the world. He had repeatedly recommended that this be created but he had always been overruled, here in Japan, and also in Rome by the General of the Order. Yet without our own secular arm, he thought tiredly, we'll never be able to exercise real discipline over our Brethren and our flock.

"Why aren't there ordained priests within your Society, Tsukku-san?"

"Because, Sire, not one of our acolytes is yet sufficiently well trained. For instance, Latin is an absolute necessity because our Order requires any Brother to travel anywhere in the world at any time, and Latin, unfortunately, is very difficult to learn. Not one is trained yet, or ready."

Alvito believed this with all his heart. He was also bitterly opposed to a Japanese-ordained Jesuit clergy, in opposition to the FatherVisitor. 'Eminence,' he had always said, 'I beg you, don't be fooled by their modest and decorous exterior. Underneath they're all unreliable characters, and their pride and Japaneseness will always dominate in the end. They'll never be true servants of the Society, or reliable soldiers of His Holiness, the Vicar of Christ on earth, obedient to him alone. Never.' Alvito glanced momentarily at Blackthorne then back to Toranaga, who said, "But two or three of these apprentice priests speak Latin, neh, and Portuguese? It's true what that man said, neh? Why haven't they been chosen?"

"So sorry, but the General of our Society doesn't consider them sufficiently prepared. Perhaps Joseph's tragic fall is an example."

"Bad to break a solemn oath," Toranaga said. He remembered the year the three boys had sailed off from Nagasaki in a Black Ship to be feted in the court of the Spanish king and the court of the High Priest of the Christians, the same year Goroda had been assassinated. Nine years later they had returned but all their time away had been carefully controlled and monitored. They had left as naive, youthful Christian zealots and returned just as narrow-minded and almost as ill-informed as when they had left. Stupid waste, Toranaga thought, waste of an incredible opportunity which Goroda had refused to take advantage of, as much as he had advised it.

"No, Tora-san, we need the Christians against the Buddhists," Goroda had said. "Many Buddhist priests and monks are soldiers, neh? Most of them are. The Christians aren't, neh? Let the Giant Priest have the three youths he wants - they're only Kyushu stumbleheads, neh? I tell you to encourage Christians. Don't bother me with a ten-year plan, but burn every Buddhist monastery within reach. Buddhists are like flies on carrion, and Christians nothing but a bag of fart."

Now they're not, Toranaga thought with growing irritation. Now they're hornets.

"Yes," he said aloud. "Very bad to break an oath and shout and disturb the harmony of an inn."

"Please excuse me, Sire, and forgive me for mentioning my problems. Thank you for listening. As always your concern makes me feel better. May I be permitted to greet the pilot?"

Toranaga assented.

"I must congratulate you, Pilot," Alvito said in Portuguese. "Your swords suit you."

"Thank you, Father, I'm learning to use them," Blackthorne replied. "But, sorry to say, I'm not very good with them yet. I'll stick to pistols or cutlasses or cannon when I have to fight."

"I pray that you may never have to fight again, Pilot, and that your eyes will be opened to God's infinite mercy."

"Mine are open. Yours are fogged."

"For your own soul's sake, Pilot, keep your eyes open, and your mind open. Perhaps you may be mistaken. Even so, I must thank you for saving Lord Toranaga's life."