The Ring of Water - Chris Bradford [18]
But equally he might run into a friend in Kyoto. And this thought gave Jack a small thrill. Perhaps he’d find Saburo or Kiku, who’d both remained behind at the Niten Ichi Ryū during the war. Maybe Sensei Kano, having led the escape from Osaka Castle, had returned to the school. Or he might even encounter Emi and her father, daimyo Takatomi, residing at Nijo Castle. Jack knew their lives had been spared and that the daimyo was now serving under the Shogun.
But the risks were far too high.
Besides, while Akiko’s father’s swords were important to him, retrieving the rutter had to be his priority. The concern was that if the two bandits had the logbook they might not realize its value, especially to the Shogun. They could have thrown the logbook away or, worse, used it as tinder for their campfire.
‘Come on, make your mind up!’ demanded Ronin impatiently.
The two of them now stood at the crossroads in the centre of town. Being located on the route between Kyoto and Nara, Kizu was a convenient stopover and therefore unusually busy for a rural settlement. A constant flow of foot traffic passed in all directions.
Jack hesitated, still unable to decide.
‘Kyoto’s north,’ stressed Ronin, pointing towards the long wooden bridge that spanned the Kizu River.
So is a great deal of trouble, thought Jack.
Behind him in an easterly direction lay the Iga mountains, beyond which was Toba and the false hope of staying with Akiko. Heading directly south would take them to Nara and the Tōdai-ji Temple. This was where the clue of the omamori had been leading them – it could be the destination of Manzo’s two friends and hopefully the rest of his belongings. But it was a gamble at most. West down a dirt track would bring them to Osaka and the coast, which he then planned to follow in the long trek south to Nagasaki. However, with nothing to his name, no swords with which to defend himself and a drunken samurai as company, the odds were stacked against him ever making it to Osaka, let alone Nagasaki.
Four directions. Four choices. And none offered Jack any certainty.
‘One who chases after two hares won’t even catch one,’ said Ronin, seeing the dilemma played out on Jack’s face.
Jack held up the amulet. ‘This clue says go south.’
‘Your swords are north.’
‘But everything else has gone the other way: my pearl, my money, my father’s diary –’
‘You don’t know that for certain. Anyway, what’s so special about a diary compared to a samurai’s swords?’ snorted Ronin.
Jack considered it unwise to explain the significance of the rutter. The samurai couldn’t yet be trusted with knowledge of its value as a navigational tool and a political instrument – though for Jack it was so much more than this. The rutter was his passage home to England, the key to him becoming a ship’s pilot, and the means for providing for his sister, Jess. But the logbook was also his only remaining link to his father. With it gone, Jack felt as if his father had been taken from him again. He’d do anything to get it back.
‘Do you think the men who stole from me were samurai or bandits?’ asked Jack, avoiding Ronin’s question.
‘They could be either,’ replied Ronin. ‘Manzo obviously thought himself a swordsman, but he acted like a bandit. Without a lord to serve, some samurai are turning to crime to survive. There are many more on the road now the war’s over.’
‘Well, we won’t know until we find them. The cooper said the duel was yesterday, so they can’t have gone too far.’
‘This way,’ argued Ronin, indicating the bridge north, ‘we have a name, a destination and a definite lead.’ He pointed south. ‘That way we have nothing. A guess, a hunch at most. We don’t even know what these two men look like, or if the omamori has anything to do with them.’
Jack had to concede this point. ‘But what happens when we find this Matagoro Araki? He won’t just hand over my swords.