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

"Yes. Yes, I'll help you, Anjin-san. But, please excuse me, I cannot betray the Church."

"All I ask is that you talk to Toranaga, or help me to talk to him if you think that's better."

A distant bugle sounded. They looked out of the windows again. Everyone was staring west. The head of a procession of samurai around a curtained litter approached from the direction of the castle.

The cabin door opened. "Anjin-san, you will come now, please," the samurai said.

Blackthorne led the way on deck and down to the jetty. His nod to Alvito was coldly polite. The priest was equally glacial.

To Mariko, Alvito was kind. "Hello, Mariko-san. How nice to see you."

"Thank you, Father," she said, bowing low.

"May the blessings of God be upon you." He made the sign of the cross over her. "In nomine Patris et Filii et Spiritus Sancti."

"Thank you, Father."

Alvito glanced at Blackthorne. "So, Pilot? How is your ship?"

"I'm sure you already know."

"Yes, I know." Alvito looked Erasmus over, his face taut. "May God curse her and all who sail in her if she's used against Faith and Portugal. "

"Is that why you came here? To spread more venom?"

"No, Pilot," Alvito said. "I was asked here to meet Lord Toranaga. I find your presence as distasteful as you find mine."

"Your presence isn't distasteful, Father. It's just the evil you represent."

Alvito flushed and Mariko said quickly, "Please. It is bad to quarrel this way in public. I beg you both to be more circumspect."

"Yes, please excuse me. I apologize, Mariko-san." Father Alvito turned away and looked at the curtained litter coming through the barrier, Toranaga's pennant fluttering, and uniformed samurai before and after, hemming in a straggling, motley group of samurai.

The palanquin stopped. The curtains parted. Yabu stepped out. Everyone was startled. Nonetheless they bowed. Yabu returned the salutation arrogantly.

"Ah, Anjin-san," Yabu said. "How are you?"

"Good, thank you, Sire. And you?"

"Good, thank you. Lord Toranaga's sick. He asked me to come in his place. You understand?"

"Yes. Understand," Blackthorne replied, trying to cover his disappointment at Toranaga's non-arrival. "So sorry Lord Toranaga sick."

Yabu shrugged, acknowledged Mariko deferentially, pretended not to notice Alvito, and studied the ship for a moment. His smile was twisted as he turned back to Blackthorne. "So desu, Anjin-san. Your ship's different from the last time I saw it, neh? Yes, the ship's different, you're different, everything's different - even our world's different! Neh?"

"So sorry, I don't understand, Sire. Please excuse me but your words very fast. As my-" Blackthorne began the stock phrase but Yabu interrupted gutturally, "Mariko-san, please translate for me."

She did so.

Blackthorne nodded and said slowly, "Yes. Different, Yabu-sama."

"Yes, very different - you're no longer barbarian but samurai, and so is your ship, neh?"

Blackthorne saw the smile on the thick lips, the pugnacious stance, and suddenly he was back at Anjiro, back on the beach on his knees, Croocq in the cauldron, Pieterzoon's screams ringing in his ears, the stench of the pit in his nostrils, and his mind was shouting, 'So unnecessary all that - all the suffering and terror and Pieterzoon and Spillbergen and Maetsukker and the jail and eta and trapped and all your fault!'

"Are you all right, Anjin-san?" Mariko asked, apprehensive at the look in his eyes.

"What? Oh - oh, yes. Yes, I'm all right."

"What's the matter with him?" Yabu said.

Blackthorne shook his head, trying to clear it and wash the hatred off his face. "So sorry. Please excuse me. I'm - I - it's nothing. Head bad - no sleep. So sorry." He stared back into Yabu's eyes, hoping he had covered his dangerous lapse. "Sorry Toranaga-sama sick - hope no trouble Yabu-sama. "

"No, no trouble. " Yabu was thinking, yes trouble, you're nothing but trouble and I've had nothing but trouble ever since you and your filthy ship arrived on my shores. Izu gone, my guns gone, all honor gone, and now my head forfeit because of a coward. "No trouble, Anjin-san," he said so nicely. "Toranaga-sama asked me to hand over your vassals to you as he promised." His eyes fell on Alvito. "So, Tsukku-san! Why are you enemy to Toranaga-sama?"

"I'm not, Kasigi Yabu-sama."

"Your Christian daimyos are, neh?"

"Please excuse me, Sire, but we are priests only, we're not responsible for the political views of those who worship the True Faith, nor do we exercise control over those daimyos who-" "The True Faith of this Land of the Gods is Shinto, together with the Tao, the Way of Buddha!"

Alvito did not answer. Yabu turned contemptuously away and snapped an order. The ragged group of samurai began to line up in front of the ship. Not one was armed. Some had their hands bound.

Alvito stepped forward and bowed. "Perhaps you will excuse me, Sire. I was to see Lord Toranaga. As he isn't coming-"

"Lord Toranaga wanted you here to interpret for him with the Anjin-san," Yabu interrupted with deliberate bad manners, as Toranaga had told him to do. "Yes, to interpret as you alone can do so cleverly, speaking directly and at once, neh? Of course you have no objection to doing for me what Lord Toranaga required, before you go?"

"No, of course not, Sire."

"Good. Mariko-san! Lord Toranaga asks that you see the Anjin-san's responses are equally correctly translated." Alvito reddened but held onto his temper.

"Yes, Sire," Mariko said, hating Yabu.

Yabu snapped another order. Two samurai went to the litter and returned with the ship's strongbox, heavy between them. "Tsukku-san, now you will begin: Listen, Anjin-san, firstly, Lord Toranaga's asked me to return this. It's your property, neh? Open it," he ordered the samurai. The box was brimful with silver coins. "This is as it was taken off the ship."

"Thank you." Blackthorne was hardly able to believe his eyes, for this gave him power to buy the very best crew, without promises.

"It is to be put in the ship's strong room."

"Yes, of course."

Yabu waved those samurai aboard. Then, to Alvito's growing fury as he continued with the almost simultaneous translating, Yabu said, "Next: Lord Toranaga says you are free to go, or to stay. When you are in our land you are samurai, hatamoto, and governed by samurai law. At sea, beyond our shores, you are as you were before you came here and governed by barbarian laws. You are granted the right for your lifetime to dock at any port in Lord Toranaga's control without search by port authorities. Last, these two hundred men are your vassals. He asked me to formally hand them over, with arms, as he promised."

"I can leave when and how I want?" Blackthorne asked with disbelief.

"Yes, Anjin-san, you can leave as Lord Toranaga has agreed."

Blackthorne stared at Mariko but she avoided his eyes, so he looked again at Yabu. "Could I leave tomorrow?"

"Yes, if you want to." Yabu added, "About these men. They're all ronin. All from the northern provinces. They've all agreed to swear eternal allegiance to you and your seed. All are good warriors. None has committed a crime that could be proved. All became ronin because their liege lords were killed, died, or were deposed. Many fought on ships against wako." Yabu smiled in his vicious way. "Some may have been wakos - you understand 'wako?'"

"Yes, Sire."

"Those who are bound are probably bandits or wako. They came forward as a band and volunteered to serve you fearlessly in return for a pardon for any past crimes. They've sworn to Lord Noboni who handpicked all these men for you on Lord Toranaga's orders - that they've never committed any crime against Lord Toranaga or any of his samurai. You can accept them individually, or as a group, or refuse them. You understand?"