Toru: Wayfarer Returns (Sakura Steam Series Book 1) by Stephanie R. Sorensen

Author:Stephanie R. Sorensen
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Historical fantasy. Alternate history Japan, 1850s, Tokugawa period. Samurai steampunk technofantasy.
Publisher: Palantir Press
Published: 2016-02-15T18:30:00+00:00

CHAPTER 11

EDO

“Different roads sometimes lead to the same castle.”

– George R.R. Martin, A Game of Thrones

The men summoned to Lord Abe’s home arose early the next morning, along with the fishmongers shouting their fresh wares at the Tsukiji wharf. They rode silently through the streets to Lord Abe’s stately home in the center of the city. They did not travel in force, to avoid attracting attention, but each had his hand on the hilt of his katana.

Tōru and Takamori rode first, the two lords behind, with Obata and Lord Tōmatsu’s chief bannerman Sugieda bringing up the rear. The ambush in Kyoto was only two weeks ago, fresh in their minds.

As Kato had suggested, they went to the back of Lord Abe’s enormous gardens, at the low gate where servants enter, rather than through the main gate watched by many eyes. Kato was waiting. He greeted them and handed off their horses to waiting grooms.

“Ohayō gozaimasu. My lord awaits you at the house. If you would leave your weapons here…” Kato gestured to one of his samurai to take and guard the daishō swords for the lords and their men. Tōru felt naked without his daishō swords at his hip, but no lord in the land countenanced armed visitors in their reception halls.

They followed Kato for several minutes along the path winding through the extensive gardens and groves of Lord Abe’s Edo estate hidden in the heart of the city. A few deer watched from a grove. Artfully tended man-made ponds and streams ran through the property, the sound of flowing water masking the traffic clatter on the road outside the estate.

At last they reached the shaded porch of Lord Abe’s home, overlooking a karesansui miniature rock garden. A gardener was raking the white stones and sand in one corner. Lord Abe rose to greet them as they ascended the few short steps to his porch.

After murmuring polite greetings and introductions, conducted with solemnity by his retainer Kato, Lord Abe gestured to low seats overlooking the Zen garden.

“The winter morning air is chilly, but if you are warm enough from your ride, perhaps you would enjoy sitting out here? I find this view opens my mind when there are difficult matters to discuss.”

Lord Abe was young, in his early thirties at most. Tōru wondered how a man so young had risen to be Chief Minister of the Council. Within the circle of those of appropriate birth, surely there were older men to entrust with such responsibility.

They took their seats, the lords on either side of Lord Abe, with Obata and Kato by Lord Aya and Sugieda by Lord Tōmatsu. Tōru and Takamori sat further away, kneeling while the senior men found more comfortable positions. The men accepted ocha tea and okashi snacks from a serving girl as they murmured thanks and commented on the beauty of the grounds.

Lord Abe and the two daimyō from the western part of the country conversed quietly about their journey, the fragrance of the tea, the surprising warmth so late in the year, matters of small consequence.

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