Shike, p.32
Shike, page 32
Arghun Baghadur rode out before the battle standard of his army. The five generals facing him got down from their horses, ceremoniously unbuckled their belts and draped them over their shoulders, took off their helmets and put them on the ground.
Arghun spoke to them and acknowledged their submission with an inclination of his head. The tuman-bashis stood up and remounted. Arghun turned to face his troops. Again there was a moment as if the world held its breath. Then a roar went up from fifty thousand throats.
Arghun stood in his stirrups and addressed his tumans. His voice boomed across the parade ground, but he was too far away for those on the walls of the city to hear him.
"We'll find out later what he is saying," a voice said beside Jebu. "My scouts will tell us."
Yukio bowed to the governor. "Your Excellency need not expose yourself to danger in order to see what is happening among the barbarians."
Liu smiled. A party of Chinese guardsmen and silk-robed city officials stood behind him. Jebu saw that he had been carried to the top of the wall in a sedan chair.
"When those who govern refuse to go out and see for themselves, the country is lost," said Liu.
Across the two lakes Arghun raised his arm in a signal. A hill in the distant camp seemed to move. It lumbered down towards Arghun, followed by another gigantic grey shape, then another. Eor a moment Jebu could not understand what he was seeing. Einally he recognized that four enormous animals, the largest creatures he had ever seen, were moving towards Arghun. They were covered with brightly coloured cloths under which armour gleamed. High on the back of each animal was a rider who occupied a little castle. The beasts were fantastic under their armour-a, high, domed head; a nose as long as a tree limb, with a serpentine life of its own; two white spears, each the length of a man and the thickness of a leg, jutting out from either side of the mouth.
Jebu had seen such a beast before. After a moment he remembered where. It had been one of the strange animals he had seen in his vision of the Tree of Life, when Taitaro first gave him the shintai. He reached into his robe and rubbed the Jewel with his fingertips.
"Is it some kind of dragon?" Yukio whispered.
"It is a creature that is as terrible for the fear it inspires as for the damage it can do," said Liu. "They are much used in warfare by the nations of the south of us. I had heard that the Mongols acquired some war elephants when they invaded Nan Chao and Annam some years ago."
The elephants formed a line before Arghun, and the Mongols cheered the beasts with a roar. The elephants answered with a sound as of trumpets blown by giants.
Jebu felt an impulse from deep within, perhaps from the Self. "We have been tame spectators of Arghun's parade long enough." Drawing a willow-leaf arrow from his quiver, Jebu nocked it and took aim at the centre of Arghun's back.
"That little bow will never carry that far," said Liu.
"That little bow may surprise you, Your Excellency," said Yukio.
Jebu fired. A gust of wind sweeping down the river valley deflected the arrow. It arced over the counterwall and landed at the feet of Arghun's horse.
Immediately the Mongol dismounted and picked up the arrow. He examined it for a moment, then turned and looked up at the wall. A great distance separated them, but Jebu could see clearly the upturned face, the deep-set eyes, the rock-like cheekbones, the thick red moustache. He could not see Arghun's eyes, but he knew the tarkhan must be looking right at him.
He realized now that he had wanted Arghun to know that he was here. That was why he had shot at him. He had no wish to kill Arghun from this distance. Some day Arghun must die by his hand and must know that it was he, Jebu, son of Jamuga, who had done it.
Across the gulf that separated the walls of the Chinese city from the Mongol camp, the two men stared at each other.
Yukio took his longbow from the wall where it had been leaning and sent an arrow winging at Arghun. Other samurai followed his example. A hail of arrows fell around the Mongol leader.
With their bodies, the tuman-bashis shielded Arghun from the flights of arrows. They led him under the wooden wall of their encampment. A line of Mongol heavy cavalry, mounted archers with powerful crossbows, trotted out into the parade ground and returned the fire from the city. A hua pao mounted on a wooden Mongol tower boomed; then another. An iron ball crashed into the parapet, sending splinters of rock flying in all directions, and a man fell with a head wound.
Jebu positioned himself in front of the governor. "This is too dangerous a place for you, Your Excellency."
Liu waved away Jebu's words with a slender hand. "I am the least important person on these walls." But he allowed Jebu to hurry him to his sedan chair.
The duel of arrows had turned into a general battle of archery and artillery. Across the lake the Mongol formations were moving aside as the auxiliary troops and siege machines, shielded by civilian prisoners, began to advance: The battle for Kweilin had begun in earnest. It would not end, Jebu thought, until the city had fallen.
Chapter Nine
"Until yesterday, I had not seen Arghun again since that night," Jebu said. "He did not continue to pursue me but left the Sacred Islands." "When was that?" asked Governor Liu.
"In the last Year of the Ape, Your Excellency."
"Eleven years ago," said Liu. "That was when the Great Khan Kuyuk died. Whenever a Great Khan dies, the Mongols stop whatever they are doing, wherever they are, and return to their homeland to elect a new Great Khan. Kuyuk was the grandson of Genghis Khan. He was the third of the Great Khans. Mangu is the fourth."
A Chinese officer entered the governor's audience chamber. "The Mongol commander has sent another emissary, Your Excellency. He asks for a meeting with the governor and the military commander of the city."
Liu turned to Jebu. "You have met this man before. Your observations might be valuable. Please come with us."
"I would be honoured," said Jebu.
Yukio said, "He has been determined to kill you since you were an infant. If we cross the moat to parley with him, he might very well have you assassinated on the spot."
"We will not cross the moat," said Liu. "We will meet with him on the temple island in Lake Shan hu. He will not have his men with him, and he will be covered by our archers on the walls."
"If I come as an envoy he will not harm me," said Jebu. "That is the Mongol law."
On an island in the centre of Lake Shan hu stood a small, exquisite Buddhist temple built centuries before. Neither the Mongols nor the Chinese cared to damage it, and the octagonal stupa with its copper ornament had miraculously escaped accidental harm despite the many rocks and fire missiles that had flown over it. Still, the Buddha taught the Middle Way, neither self-indulgence nor self-destruction, and the monks of the temple were not foolhardy. In accordance with the Middle Way they had long since abandoned the temple. Liu and Arghun now agreed on it as a site for their meeting.
A gold and red boat with a dragon figurehead, brought around through the moat from the river gate, carried Liu, Yukio and Jebu to the island. Two flag bearers, a Chinese carrying the White Dragon of Kweilin and a samurai with the White Dragon of Muratomo, made up the rest of the party. They disembarked and stood before the gateway of the low wall around the little temple.
Arghun and an officer carrying the standard of the three white horsetails were borne from the opposite shore in a sampan. Arghun's only adornment was the square gold medallion of rank, which he wore on a chain around his neck.
His face had changed little since Jebu had last seen him, eleven years ago. The long wings of his red moustache hung below his beardless chin. His eyes, narrow and icy blue, stared implacably at Jebu. Jebu stared back and heard Yukio draw a breath and move defensively closer to him.
He tried to control his emotions as he had been taught. He admitted to himself that he was afraid. He could not visualize himself defeating Arghun in battle. At the same time, he could not forget the old saying, "A man may not live under the same heaven with the slayer of his father." Sooner or later, he must kill Arghun.
But that was not a Zinja saying. As a Zinja, he was not the son of Jamuga, he was not the person Arghun wanted to kill, he was not the person who had a blood debt to kill Arghun. He was simply a manifestation of the Self, and the Self was everywhere, in Arghun as well as in Jebu.
Still, he could not resist addressing Arghun in a Mongol speech he had learned and memorized. "Greetings, murderer of my father."
Arghun stopped walking towards them and stared at Jebu with his cold blue eyes. In Mongol he said, "So you have learned the language of your father. Yet you fight against your father's people."
"I fight my father's murderer."
"There is no place for you in the world. You will not find your home on earth until you lie in it."
Liu spoke. "Have you come to exchange threats with this monk or to meet with the rulers of Kweilin?"
Arghun bowed politely to the governor. "This monk is the reason I called this parley," he said in Chinese. "I have a duty to fulfil. The spirit of Genghis Khan will not rest until this monk is dead."
"It appears that your Great Khan demands death for all of us," said Yukio. "That you harbour a particular hunger to take vengeance on our comrade is nothing to us."
Arghun's hard mouth curved in a faint smile. "You are wrong. It is important to you. It may save your lives. Were the decision mine, I would kill all of you when the city falls."
"You insult us," said Yukio. "You speak as if the outcome were already decided."
Arghun nodded. "I merely say what is so. I do not think that it will be difficult to take this city. I have conquered fourteen cities since the Great Khan graciously made me one of his tarkhans. Some were larger and better defended than this one. I do not think a handful of men from the Land of the Dwarfs will trouble us for long."
"You know better than that, Arghun," said Jebu. "You have been to our land. You have seen samurai fight. You have fought alongside them."
"Do you, half Mongol and half dwarf, think of it as your land?" Arghun spoke the very thought that sometimes darkened Jebu's life when he was alone-his feeling of being a stranger everywhere. There were moments when even the Zinja doctrine, even the contemplation of the Jewel of Life and Death, was not enough to drive away the sadness. He reminds me of this now, Jebu thought, because he wants to weaken me by discouraging me, to make me easier to kill. I must remember that I am the Self, and that is all I need to know.
Arghun turned to Yukio and Liu. "The men of the Land of the Dwarfs are fierce fighters, but they are ignorant of siege warfare."
"We will give them the benefit of our knowledge," said Liu.
"Even so, I will take your city. When I do, unless you agree to one condition, I will level it to the ground and execute every soul living in it."
"What condition?" said Liu.
Arghun pointed at Jebu. "Let me take the monk back with me when I return to my camp. He will die an honourable death. He is related to our ruling family. According to the law, the Yassa, the blood of such a person may not be spilled. He will be strangled with a bow string. It is a death reserved for those of high birth."
"Let me defend myself with my sword, and you may attempt to kill me with a bow string," said Jebu.
"You jest, but you have it in your power to save the lives of these men here, of your samurai comrades and of all the people of the city." "We will not consider it," said Liu quietly.
It is my death we are discussing, Jebu thought. I find this hard to believe.
"Suppose we surrender the entire city here and now," Liu said.
"Surrender the city and the monk, and you will continue as governor. The dwarfs we will take prisoner, but they will be treated well. The Great Khan Mangu's younger brother, Kublai Khan, has expressed a desire to see them."
"But Jebu will die?"
"The monk must die."
"And if we permit him to escape and then surrender?" Liu persisted.
"The city will be destroyed and its people put to the sword."
Liu said, "Because you have a yearning to kill this monk, you are willing to sacrifice the lives of thousands of your men, who will surely die trying to take this city. And you will throw away the city and the lives of all in it."
Arghun raised his gauntleted hands in an appeal to heaven. "They have understood nothing." He shook his head at Liu. "It is the command of Genghis Khan that all those of the blood of Jamuga be slain. Any Mongol would die happily to carry out his command."
Jebu had a sudden overwhelming conviction of what he must do. He saw it so clearly, he knew it must be what Taitaro called a Zinja insight.
He stepped forward. "Give us your oath that you will spare the city, whether it is surrendered to you or whether you take it by force, and I will go with you now."
He hoped that none of them would hear the slight tremor he himself detected in his voice. It was absurd that Liu and Yukio should think his life worth the lives of all the people of Kweilin and the warriors who defended them. They might believe it dishonourable to yield a comrade to death at an enemy's hands. But if so many lives could be saved in that way, it made no sense to protect one life.
"No," said Yukio. "I forbid it."
"I also," said Liu. "You would die for nothing. He would simply find another excuse to destroy the city."
"I believe that he will abide by his word."
Liu said, "Let me speak with you." Taking Jebu by the arm, he led him to the rocky shore of the island. Yukio and Arghun waited in silence.
Jebu said, "I am a Zinja monk, Your Excellency. I do not cling to anything, even life."
"Here in our land your Order is called Ch'in-cha," said Liu. "I know something of its teachings. If you did not offer to die to save so many thousands of lives, you would not be a true Ch'in-cha. But for you actually to sacrifice yourself would be foolish. And it would show you lack the Ch'in-cha wisdom."
Jebu studied the old man's calm face curiously. Liu's black eyes seemed to give off a radiance.
"I am prepared to listen," Jebu said.
"If you accept Arghun's view of things, he has already imprisoned your mind, and he can kill you whenever he chooses. The future is closed to you. But as a member of the Order, you should know that no single view of anything is true, that the number of gates we face is always infinite. If you choose to go on living, many things might happen. You might be killed anyway, in battle. The Emperor might send reinforcements and drive the Mongols off. Arghun might be killed in battle and his accursed quest for your death would perhaps die with him. A plague might strike and wipe out all of us, besiegers and defenders. Or the Mongols might suddenly decide to lift the siege and go away."
"That will never happen. The Mongols never give up."
"You are quite an authority on Mongols, young monk. But I forget you are part Mongol yourself. Withdraw your offer to give yourself up to Arghun. I believe that life has more to teach you, and that this is not your time to die."
"I see nothing ahead of me." Jebu had tasted the sweetness of life and now life seemed altogether bitter. He had known Taniko and lost her. He had known victory in battle and then had been driven from his homeland in defeat.
Liu said, "The Ch'in-cha finds his happiness in nothing." "You know that?"
Liu smiled. "And the Ch'in-cha believes in nothing. Yet, you believe it is right for you to sacrifice yourself. But you have been taught that there is no right and wrong. The Ch'in-cha do not believe in good or evil." He paused, and his black eyes held Jebu's. "The Ch'in-cha are devils."
Jebu did not think, after all he had seen and done, that he could ever be greatly surprised again. But this moment left him voiceless. He could only stand and stare at Liu in wonder. He did not know if he dared say anything at all.
"Not all of us wear grey robes and live in monasteries," said Liu. "Have I convinced you not to throw away your life because of Arghun?"
Jebu bowed. "Eor now, Excellency, you have. I do not know why you have spoken to me as you have. I do not know if there is any reason why I should listen to you. I have no way of knowing if you are truly one of us or simply a person who has learned some of our secrets. But your words convince me, and I must follow my convictions."
"That is all I hoped for."
They went back to where Yukio and Arghun were standing, Liu walking first, Jebu a respectful distance behind.
"The young monk has decided that you have no right to demand his life," Liu said to Arghun. Yukio shot a relieved grin at Jebu.
Arghun's expression did not change. "He condemns your city to death."
"If you do conquer the city and kill all who live here," Liu said, "the guilt will be upon you. Nothing requires that you put so many people to death but your own thirst for blood."
Arghun turned to his standard-bearer and beckoned. The warrior went back to their sampan and took a large mahogany box from the bow. He carried it back to Arghun and laid it at his feet.
"I have brought this gift for you, Governor Liu Mai-tse," said Arghun. "You have been expecting reinforcements to help you withstand the siege. Understand now that you are doomed." Arghun bent down, undid the catch on the box and stepped back.
Yukio looked questioningly at Liu. Jebu held his breath, a terrible suspicion of what the box contained sweeping over him. Governor Liu signalled to Jebu to open the box.
Within it lay the pale, bloodless head of Governor Liu's son, on a bed of straw.
Chapter Ten
"I will not let them crush me," Taniko told herself over and over again. Not Horigawa and not the Mongols. They might rape and kill her, as they had that poor woman on the road. They might, as Horigawa predicted, enslave her and grind her down until she ended her life as a ravaged old woman. But there was that within her, that which was not Shima Taniko, the vulnerable woman, which no one could destroy. That could be what Jebu meant by the Self.
After she had waited a long time in a felt tent with the other members of Horigawa's party, two Chinese men beckoned her and escorted her a short distance to another tent. She heard the voices of men singing around the campfires. She couldn't understand the words, but the songs were plaintive and moving. The Chinese men left her alone.
