(eng) Patrick Tilley - Amtrak Wars 03 by Iron Master

Author:Iron Master [Master, Iron]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER ELEVEN

Having used his position as a Herald of the Inner Court to secure Steve a job as a roadrunner, Toshiro Hase-Gawa left Ari-dina and returned to the Summer Palace on Aron-giren. By changing mounts at post-house inns along the way, he was able to ride at full gallop for hour after hour.

Even for a seasoned rider like Toshiro it was an exhausting exercise, but he pressed on into the evening of each day, snatching a hot bath and a few hours' rest before rising at 0300 to resume his journey through the same grey twilight world he had left the night before.

Arriving at Yedo, the Herald exchanged the customary round of greetings with Kamakura, the ever-hopeful guard-captain, then, as protocol demanded, he presented his credentials to the Court Chamberlain's office. Ieyasu was unable to receive him personally, being indisposed with an intestinal complaint which had begun to plague him with increasing frequency.

To the principal private secretary who was holding the fort in his absence, Toshiro expressed his profound regrets at hearing of his illustrious master's ill health, and he asked him to convey personally to Ieyasu his respectful, yet heartfelt, good wishes and fervent hopes for a speedy recovery. The secretary responded in the same fulsome manner, assuring the Herald that the Chamberlain would be deeply gratified by his expressions of concern and goodwill. Et cetera, et cetera.

The ritual exchange ended with a series of bows and with Toshiro wondering if the Shogun had finally managed to find a poisoner with sufficient knowledge and subtlety to slip something past the troublesome old fox.

Yoritomo, the twenty-eight-year-old Shogun, received the Herald in his study on the first floor of the palace, overlooking the landscaped pool dotted with lilies and alive with red and white carp. The last message from samurai-captain Noburo, sent by carrier pigeon on the same day that Clearwater had been released, had put an end to the speculation about her identity. Once again, the Herald's sources of information had proved utterly reliable.

Toshiro knelt before the raised section on which the Shogun sat with five of his bodyguards. As soon as the usual formalities had been dispensed with, the Herald assumed a cross-legged position and proceeded to relate his' own face-to-face meeting with Clearwater at Midiri-tana. It was, of course, a highly edited account: he said nothing about her admission that both she and her companion were unmarked Mutes. But he did reveal that Noburo Naka-Jima had brought another long-dog with him, and gave a brief outline of how he had fallen into the ronin's hands.

This individual, explained Toshiro, was a 'mexican', a secret agent of similar rank to his own, working on the direct orders of the Federation's 'shogun'. 'From his' responses to my questions, it became clear that I had drawn the wrong conclusion from the reports previously available to me. Lord Yama-Shita has not entered into league with the Federation or their agents. To date, he has dealt solely with the grass-monkeys and the renegade long-dogs."

Yoritomo's face darkened as he lost a good 10 per cent of his cool.

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