The Way Of The Traitor Part 7

oOh, no. Ghosts kill men and eat their hearts. All the townspeople stay away from the harbor when the lights come.

Deaf broke in, oI'll tell you what the lights are, young stranger. They're a magic spell, cast by the Chinese priest. Abbot Liu Yun, his name is. Runs a temple for the Chinese sailors. Hates the Dutch, he does. Especially the one who disappeared. Conjured up a demon to take him away.

The mention of a name quickened Hirata's interest. Could this Abbot Liu Yun, by magic or other device, somehow have abducted Jan Spaen?

oIt wasn't the Chinese priest, Pipe shouted.

oOh, but it was, Deaf shouted back.

Pipe reached across Hirata and swatted Deaf with his feeble hand. oYou old fool. It was the spirits of dead men who took the barbarian away.

oOuch! No, the Chinese priest!

Shouts and running footsteps drowned out the argument. Hirata looked up the street, then groaned. Hurrying toward him, red-faced and panting, came his two guards, their uniforms smeared with egg yolk and slime. oYou don't go anywhere without us, the tall man said angrily. oGovernor Nagai's orders.

Hirata said to Pipe, oWhy does Abbot Liu Yun hate the Dutch barbarian? And where could he have taken him?

But the soldiers' presence cowed the old men. Feigning exaggerated senility, Pipe blinked uncomprehendingly. Deaf said, oEh? Eh?

Hirata thanked them, paid the proprietor, and rose, only slightly discouraged. Perhaps these odd rumors reflected some truth about Des.h.i.+ma that, when exposed, might also reveal the barbarian's whereabouts. Walking up the street between the two guards, Hirata plotted how to escape them.

Somehow he would help Sano find Trade Director Jan Spaen. By doing so, he would achieve the highest expression of samurai duty and loyalty. He must not fail his present master as he had his first.

Chapter 5.

WHEN THE PATROL barge drew into Nagasaki Harbor, Sano noticed that the horde of troops on the beach had swelled. Townspeople poured from the steep city streets onto the sand. Shouts carried across the water as soldiers tried to maintain order and the mob surged around the focus of interest at the waters edge. Sano, Interpreter Iis.h.i.+no, and the barge crew leaned over the railing to watch.

oWhat is it, what is it? Iis.h.i.+no said, hopping and craning his neck.

The barge docked at the harbor patrol station, a building with a square watchtower, mounted on stilts over the water. On the long pier waited a party of officers. A sense of foreboding stole over Sano. When the crew had secured the barge, he was the first one off.

oWhat's going on over there? Sano asked. oHas something happened?

The harbor patrol captain stepped forward and bowed. oSsakan-sama. The search for the missing barbarian is over. His dead body has washed ash.o.r.e.

oOUT OF THE WAY! Let us through! shouted the harbor patrol officers who had escorted Sano from the barge to the beach, where the Dutch traders body had been recovered from the sea. They cleared a path through the crowd that had come to witness the anticlimax of the great manhunt.

Gritty sand cus.h.i.+oned Sano's footsteps as he walked past staring faces to the water's edge, with Interpreter Iis.h.i.+no close by his side. Both ends of the beach's long curve terminated at warehouses that jutted into the harbor. Beyond them to the right Sano could see Des.h.i.+ma's walled compound. Ahead waited a circle of soldiers and officials, their expressions grave. As Sano approached, his initial relief at hearing that Director Spaen had been found gave way to disappointment.

The investigation was over. He was out of danger. The Dutch s.h.i.+p and the Des.h.i.+ma barbarians were no longer his responsibility. He could simply doc.u.ment today's events, then spend the rest of his time in Nagasaki completing a cursory inspection and staying out of trouble until he could return to Edo. He and Hirata could visit scenic spots and relax at seaside inns. Yet Sano's spirit rebelled at the prospect of such meaningless leisure. He remembered his hunt for the body thieves: the painstaking investigation; the battle; his ultimate triumph. With an almost physical hunger, he wanted to experience it all again.

From amid the waiting officers, the commander came forward and bowed to Sano. oWe left the body just the way we found it, he said uneasily. oIt seemed the right thing to do, under the circ.u.mstances.

Before Sano could request an explanation, Hirata hurried up to join him, accompanied by two guards, one short and paunchy, the other tall and thin. Simultaneously Governor Nagai arrived with Chief Ohira and two other men.

oWhat circ.u.mstances? Nagai demanded.

In answer, the circle of officers opened to admit Sano, Hirata, and Governor Nagai's party, then closed protectively around them. Everyone gazed down at the dead Director Spaen.

Tall and muscular, the barbarian lay sprawled on his back on the damp sand just above the waterline. His square jaw, firm chin, and jutting nose reflected the masculine vigor he must have possessed in life. But now his face was a stark, pallid white; death had leached expression from his eyes. His parted lips revealed a bloated tongue and strong teeth. Strands of his long, straw-colored hair stirred in the wind. He wore only a pair of knee-length black trousers. His bare feet, though pale and large, were nonetheless human: So much for the Dutch dog-feet story. Sano's stomach contracted when he looked at the corpse's midsection.

Wounds gashed Director Spaen's stomach and chest, the worst just below his left breast as if a wild animal had gnawed and slashed there, exposing pink tissue and splintered white bone. Snails and tiny crabs clung to the torn flesh. Flies buzzed and swarmed over the corpse; seaweed entwined the hair. But natures encroachment hadn't yet obliterated the shocking signs of human malice. The wounds, narrow and clean except for the chest mutilation, had been inflicted with a sharp knife. Between them, bruises stained Director Spaen's skin with blotches of purple, green, and yellow. Faint red indentations encircled his wrists and ankles, while his neck had swollen around some sort of ligature.

Sano stooped to examine this, gingerly pus.h.i.+ng aside the flaccid, cold flesh. Embedded there was a slender chain; from it dangled a small gold pendant. In meticulous detail, this portrayed a naked, bearded male barbarian suspended by his wrists from a cross. A wreath of thorns crowned his drooping head; a stake penetrated his chest.

oGesu: the martyred Christian deity, Sano said.

oContraband, which is forbidden in j.a.pan. Governor Nagai shot a hard, questioning glance at Chief Ohira.

oAll Christian relics were confiscated from the Dutch upon their arrival, Ohira said tonelessly, oas the law requires. Jan Spaen never wore a crucifix while in my charge. I can a.s.sure you that I don't know where it came from.

Sano walked to the water and washed his hands in the cold, foamy waves, cleansing himself of the spiritual pollution incurred by contact with death. Returning to Governor Nagai, he said, oPossibly the crucifix came from the killer.

There could be no doubt that this was murder, which meant that his troubles, instead of ending with Spaen's death, had just begun.

Crowd noises filled the drawn-out silence within the circle. Then Governor Nagai, belatedly following the social convention that must be observed even during a crisis like this, introduced his other companions to Sano. oThis is Yoriki Ota. He was a stout, coa.r.s.e man whose veinous nose glowed bright red, as if from drinking too much sake. oAnd Kiyos.h.i.+, the eldest of Chief Ohira's six children.

The two men bowed. Kiyos.h.i.+ was a slender youth whose bare crown was several shades lighter than his tanned face, freshly shaven in the ceremony that initiated samurai into manhood at age fifteen. He had sensitive features, but his body was muscular, with an athletic grace. Old bruises shadowed his high cheekbones; healed cuts marked his forearms. His well-shaped hands were callused, and Sano glimpsed faint ink stains on the fingers: the mark of a scholar. This was how he himself had looked at that age, pursuing martial arts and academic learning with equal ardor. Watching Chief Ohira gaze at Kiyos.h.i.+, Sano's heart ached. His own father had looked at him the same way, not quite managing to conceal his love and pride. He envied Kiyos.h.i.+ and Chief Ohira that important bond which he himself had lost with his father's death a year and a half ago.

Governor Nagai said, oI take a great interest in young men of talent. And Kiyos.h.i.+ is my most promising protAcgAc.

In the bakufu, samurai advanced by way of ability and connections. The governor's patronage would, Sano knew, guarantee Kiyos.h.i.+ a good post in Nagasaki's administration.

oAnd Kiyos.h.i.+ is studying the Dutch language with me, so that he can be an interpreter, Iis.h.i.+no added. oHe shows great apt.i.tude, great apt.i.tude. For once Iis.h.i.+no stood perfectly still. The shock of seeing the corpse had blanched his face, and without his usual nervous motion, he looked like a wax effigy of himself. Nonetheless, he managed a weak grin. oSay something in Dutch, Kiyos.h.i.+.

oNot now, Iis.h.i.+no, Nagai said impatiently, while Yoriki Ota grimaced in disgust: It was apparent that neither of them liked the interpreter. Kiyos.h.i.+ blushed. Chief Ohira frowned at his colleagues, as though resenting Iis.h.i.+no for calling unwanted attention to his son, and Nagai and Ota for some other, indiscernible reason. Sano detected between the men an alliance whose nature he couldn't grasp. Certainly Nagai, Iis.h.i.+no, and Ohira shared something more than an interest in Kiyos.h.i.+'s future, and whatever it was bound them together despite mutual antagonism. Sano remembered his arrival at the governors mansion and the exchange he'd overheard between Nagai and Ohira. He had a sense of secret tensions within Nagasaki's administration, an undercurrent of both discord and conspiracy. Did this relate to Director Spaen's disappearance "and murder?

oThe person who killed Director Spaen must be found and punished, Yoriki Ota said. oThe laws concerning murder apply even when the victim is a foreigner. Reluctantly he added, oSo. I guess I'll begin the investigation at once.

But he made no move to go. Everyone looked at Sano. And waited. In the expectant hush, Sano heard the gusting wind and the shriek of seabirds; the clamor of the crowd; the ocean's hiss and smack. Then his own voice, saying what he knew his companions wanted to hear.

oThe murder is related to Director Spaen's disappearance. Therefore, the responsibility for apprehending the killer is mine.

A reckless elation intoxicated Sano. Here was his chance to pursue knowledge and right a wrong. But the stakes were even higher than during the search for the missing barbarian. He faced his companions, both hoping and fearing that someone would challenge his right to commandeer the investigation.

No one did. Yoriki Ota nodded. Governor Nagai said, oAs you wish. Behind their neutral expressions, Sano sensed relief. Hirata's face shone with the certainty that Sano couldn't possibly refuse his a.s.sistance now. Sano hated to disappoint Hirata, but it was more crucial than ever to protect the young retainer from harm, and prevent subsequent anguish for himself.

Chief Ohira kept his worried gaze fixed on Kiyos.h.i.+, who stared at the ground. Face pale, lips trembling, and Adam's apple bobbing, he looked as if he was trying not to vomit. Interpreter Iis.h.i.+no sucked air through his teeth as he studied the corpse.

oOne of Director Spaen's comrades must have killed him, Iis.h.i.+no said. oWho else but a fellow barbarian could have hated him enough to tie him up, beat, stab, and strangle him? And who but a Christian Dutchman would leave a crucifix on him?

oYes. Well. Governor Nagai turned to Sano. oHow fortunate for you that such is the case. If a j.a.panese citizen were found to be the killer, the Dutch could interpret Director Spaen's murder as an act of military aggression, and retaliate in kind.

Everyone looked seaward. Sano could almost see the Dutch s.h.i.+p riding at anchor beyond the bright waves.

oAnd incriminating a j.a.panese citizen could have other unpleasant consequences besides jeopardizing national peace, Nagai added.