Cloud of Sparrows Read Free

angle—examining loyalty was, after all, his occupation—it had become increasingly clear that the days of personal allegiance were coming to an end. Loyalty, in the future, must be to a cause, a principle, an idea, not a man or a clan. That such an unprecedented thought had entered his mind was a marvel in itself, and yet another sign of the outsiders’ insidious influence.
    He shifted the telescope’s focus from the palaces to the bay just beyond. Six of the seven ships at anchor were warships. Outsiders. They had changed everything. First, the arrival of the fleet of Black Ships, seven years ago, commanded by that arrogant American, Perry. Then the humiliating treaties with outsider nations, giving them the right to enter Japan and freeing them from the jurisdiction of Japanese law. It was like being tortured and raped in the most terrible ways, not once, but repeatedly, while being required to smile and bow and express gratitude. Kawakami’s hand clenched as if gripping his sword. How cleansing it will be to behead them all. One day, without a doubt. Unfortunately that day was not this one. Edo Castle was the most strongly fortified place in all of Japan. Its mere existence had helped keep rival clans from testing the Tokugawa hold on power for nearly three centuries. Yet any one of those ships could reduce this great fortress to bloody rubble in a matter of hours. Yes, everything had changed, and those who would survive and prosper must change as well. The outsiders’ way of thinking, scientific, logical, cold, was what allowed them to produce their amazing weapons. There had to be a way to use their thinking without becoming the stinking offal-eating demons that they were.
    “My lord.” The voice of his lieutenant, Mukai, came from outside the door.
    “Enter.”
    Mukai, on his knees, slid the door back, bowed, entered on his knees, slid the door closed, and bowed again. “The new maritime arrival is the Star of Bethlehem . It sailed from San Francisco, on the western coast of America, five weeks ago, and ported in Honolulu, in the Hawaiian Islands, before proceeding here. Its cargo does not include explosives or any quantity of firearms, and none of its passengers are known agents of outsider governments, military experts, or criminals.”
    “The outsiders are all criminals,” Kawakami said.
    “Yes, my lord,” Mukai agreed. “I meant only that none of them have actual criminal records so far as we know.”
    “Meaningless. The American government is exceedingly poor at keeping track of its people. It is to be expected, since so many of them are illiterate. How can sensible records be kept when half the record keepers themselves can neither read nor write?”
    “Very true.”
    “What else?”
    “Three Christian missionaries, with five hundred English-language Bibles.”
    Missionaries. That worried Kawakami. The outsiders were extremely ferocious in matters of what they called “freedom of religion.” This was, of course, a totally nonsensical concept. In Japan, the people of every domain followed the religion decreed by their Great Lord. If the Great Lord subscribed to a particular sect of Buddhism, then the people were also of that sect. If he was Shinto, then they were Shinto. If he was both, as was often the case, they, too, were both. Every subject was also at liberty to follow any other religion he chose. Religion was concerned with the other realm, and the Shogun and the Great Lords were not concerned about any realm but this one. Christianity was an entirely different matter. That outsider doctrine had treason built into it. One God for the entire world, a God above the gods of Japan, and above the Son of Heaven, His Most August Imperial Majesty, the Emperor Komei. The first Tokugawa Shogun, Ieyasu, had wisely proscribed Christianity. He had expelled the outsider priests, crucified tens of thousands of converts, and that was that for more than two hundred years. Christianity was still officially