Tokyo Bay Read online

  Thinking these melancholy thoughts she moved gracefully across the soft tatami floor mats to where she had laid out her favourite kimono of midnight blue silk. Worn only on special nights, this kimono was decorated with silver stars that glistened luminously amongst its silken folds. Although not yet ready to put the garment on, she reached out a hand towards its shimmering fabric, anticipating the familiar sensual pleasure of close contact with its smooth richness. It was in that moment that she first registered fully the frantic sounds of raised voices and running feet from beyond the wood and rice paper shoji that separated the room from a balcony overlooking the narrow, flagstoned street outside.

  The excited night-time murmur and bustle of the Yoshiwara - the walled-in entertainment and pleasure district of Yedo - was not in any way strange to her ears, despite the fresh bloom of youth on her cheeks. Although not yet twenty; she had already spent three years delighting the high-ranking clientele of the Golden Pavilion geisha house. The distaste she felt for her current role in the Yoshiwara had always been successfully masked behind her smiling professional poise; for she had entered the Golden Pavilion reluctantly, to gain for her ruined father the high lump-sum payment that beauty such as hers commanded. A former samurai who had turned merchant, he had recklessly gambled away a fortune in the Yoshiwara’s gaming houses, and Tokiwa’s reluctant sacrifice had been made solely to help ward off the total impoverishment of her family. She had long since learned to close her ears to the harsh and boisterous sounds which nightly filled the street outside - but never before had she heard anything like the hysterical din now rising towards her balcony.

  Still naked, she carefully drew back the nearest shoji and peered discreetly down into the street. Amidst the seething crowd her eye fell first on a man who was stumbling under the weight of a frail, white-haired woman clinging to his back. Fear was etched deep in the face of the woman, who Tokiwa guessed was his mother, and, as he staggered along, she peered constantly backward, as though fearing pursuit by all the demons of hell. Tokiwa also saw younger women casting terrified glances over their shoulders as they hurried past with babies clasped in their arms. Weeping children clung to their fathers, and several families were frantically trying to push handcarts piled high with their meagre belongings through the milling throng.

  From all over the city temple bells were beginning to toll with an unfamiliar urgency, and men and women called out panicky warnings to one another as they ran. In an effort to hear what they were saying, Tokiwa clasped her arms about her naked breasts and took half a pace out onto the balcony.

  ‘The barbarians are sending floating volcanoes to destroy us!’ shrieked one man to another as they passed beneath her. ‘They’ve been seen from Cape Idzu. .. belching great clouds of black smoke!’

  ‘Twenty thousand brave samurai are already manning the cliffs!’ yelled another. ‘But they’re all doomed.’

  ‘Hundreds of hairy barbarian giants are following the volcanoes called another male voice desperately.

  ‘They’ll burn and rape all Yedo screamed a despairing female. ‘Nothing can save us!’

  Tokiwa shuddered with apprehension and lifted her eyes above the rooftops, seeking a glimpse of the smoke rising from these terrible floating volcanoes. But only the silent stars were visible above the city, shining bright and unobscured, as always in the July night. There was no visible trace of danger anywhere and in the immensity of the heavens the stars seemed to sparkle like magical gemstones. The sight of them reminded Tokiwa suddenly why she had laid out her favoured kimono just half an hour earlier, after receiving a secret written message that Prince Tanaka Yoshio of the southern Kago clan had arrived unexpectedly from Kyoto.

  The same note explained that he had ridden nonstop to Yedo from the imperial capital, and would pay a discreet visit to the Golden Pavilion some time that night. Looking down again at the panic-stricken crowds below her, she wondered whether he would come after all, now that the city was in such an uproar. And should she even bother to wait for him? Shouldn’t she perhaps take to her heels and join the rest of the crowds in their headlong dash to escape the clutches of the invading barbarians?

  Caught in an agony of indecision, she turned her head and listened carefully. Behind her the interior of the Golden Pavilion was still and silent. With a sudden stab of fear she realized that the other geishas and maids must have all fled from the house while she bathed. Looking down agitatedly into the street, she searched for the familiar, proud-striding figure of Prince Tanaka, with his twin samurai swords jutting from his hip. But amongst the confused mêlée there was no sign of him. Nobody, she noticed, even paused now before the inviting, lantern-lit doors of the Golden Pavilion - except the hunched figure of a mendicant monk in muddied brown robes. Something unnatural in his demeanour caused her glance to linger on him, and in that same instant the beggar lifted his cowled head to stare directly up at the balcony.

  Stifling a murmur of alarm, Tokiwa hurried back into the room and quickly covered her nakedness with a full-length under-kimono of translucent white gauze. She began hurriedly to dress her loose hair before a mirror, snatching up pins and tortoiseshell combs to hold the elaborate chignon in place. But before she had half finished the task, the shoji screens behind her slid silently apart and the ominous figure of the hooded beggar appeared in her mirror.

  A cry of fear escaped her lips, but she did not move. Slipping one small hand into the bodice of the under-kimono, she withdrew it in the moment of turning, and faced the beggar with a short, glittering dagger held determinedly in front of her. For several seconds he remained motionless too, his face almost invisible beneath the cowl. Then suddenly his right hand emerged from beneath the mud-stained robe, holding out a long curved sword. After flourishing it once, the beggar lifted the weapon in front of his face, as if in an elaborate formal salute. With his other hand he swept aside the hood, and she found herself staring in astonishment into the unsmiling face of Prince Tanaka Yoshio. His stern, handsome features remained expressionless as he studied Tokiwa - then he bowed and lowered his sword.

  ‘Your remarkable courage matches your rare beauty, O Tokiwa-san he said approvingly. ‘I have already learned to admire your haiku and your playing of the samisen. But this new aspect of you I have never seen before.’

  Tokiwa put aside her dagger in turn, and sank to a kneeling position. ‘My lord is not the only one to be surprised,’ she said quietly, bowing her head respectfully in his direction. ‘Beneath that beggar’s hood I did not recognize you.’

  After studying her further in silence, Tanaka took a pace forward, the shimmering sword still unsheathed at his side. Aware of this, Tokiwa kept her head bent.

  ‘Perhaps I should arrive in disguise more often he said quietly, trying to hide the tremor of excitement in his voice. ‘To find you unprepared in this way is not unwelcome to my eyes.’

  Beneath the filmy under-kimono her golden body was effectively naked, and neither of them moved as he gazed down at her. Her back was narrow and long, but her haunches, although slender, were generously rounded, and her dark-tipped breasts pressed full and youthfully ripe against the revealing garment. His eyes lingered for a long moment on the indistinct shadow at the apex of her loins, then returned to the exposed curve of her graceful neck.

  ‘Is it safe to remain here?’ asked Tokiwa in an anxious voice, still without raising her head. ‘Or will the floating volcanoes of the barbarians destroy the city tonight?’

  Instead of replying, Tanaka used his long sword to flick her dagger expertly into a corner, putting it well beyond her reach. Then he raised his blade slowly to the nape of her bared neck and rested its tip gently against her glossy black hair. With only a slight movement of his wrist he removed an ivory comb and two silver pins, which tumbled noiselessly to the tatami at her side. He watched her long hair cascade down over her shoulders, then manoeuvred the weapon into the loosely tied sash of the undergarment, and unfastened it. Using the sword-tip with great delicacy, he drew
open the front of the kimono to unveil her breasts fully to his gaze.

  ‘The danger to our country is grave and very urgent,’ he murmured, and swished the sword suddenly across her body to throw open the lower half of the kimono. During another long silence he stared down at the nakedness of her lower belly and thighs; then he sucked in his breath fiercely. ‘Perhaps it has already come to your notice: you are in personal danger too, because of your liaison with me!’

  For the first time she raised her head to look up at him, and her expression showed alarm. ‘Shouldn’t we then flee at once, my lord?’

  Without replying he moved the sharp point of the sword until it touched the fullness of one of her breasts. After a moment’s pause he continued to draw it upwards, and she shivered as she felt its needle- sharp tip trace a fine line across her flesh. ‘When it encountered the collar of the kimono, he lifted part of the flimsy garment to expose all of her arm and her right shoulder. His eyes were growing bright with desire, and he rested the blade of the sword on her shoulder to study his handiwork.

  ‘While the dangers are great: he said huskily, ‘they are not as simple as they seem. The fears of the people of Yedo are somewhat exaggerated ..‘

  From outside in the street the sounds of panic were increasing. The clatter of feet and shouts of alarm grew louder and more confused. Still intensely aware of the sharp-edged blade on her shoulder, Tokiwa struggled to control her breathing. ‘But the sea-borne volcanoes will bring death to many people of Nippon! Surely it’s not foolish to be frightened.’

  ‘Those rumours are false. The barbarians have not sent floating volcanoes against us.’ With the blunt edge of his sword Tanaka caressed her hair, smoothing it downward along the curve of her spine. ‘The smoke comes out of their ships - which have iron machines on board. The machines can burn coal inside them and somehow help the ships sail against the wind. They are very powerful, and can tow other sailing ships easily behind them.’

  Feeling the cold steel now against her back, Tokiwa shuddered involuntarily. ‘But what do they want here, my lord? Why have they come?’

  ‘They have come to humiliate our nation - perhaps to enslave and colonize us. At the very least they will try to force us to welcome their trading ships, against our will!’

  Tanaka matched the fierceness of his words with another swift movement of the sword, which lifted the undergarment from her body and dropped it in a heap on the tatami beside her. Uncertain what to expect, Tokiwa kept her eyes averted from his face, and waited. Although she could not see his expression, she could sense that the sight of her entirely naked body had aroused his desire to a new pitch of intensity and she was not surprised when a moment later the sword reappeared in her range of vision. Its point descended very deliberately to rest on one of her bare knees, then probed down between her thighs until it touched the matting on which she knelt. The cutting edge of the blade was turned inward and she parted her legs with a sharp intake of breath as Tanaka began to move it with slow deliberation towards the most vulnerable point of her body.

  “Why am I in danger because of our association, my lord?’ asked Tokiwa desperately, her eyes still fixed on the moving steel. ‘And how does the coming of the barbarians put you at risk?’

  ‘Because their arrival has caused great strife among our ruling factions. We are badly divided on how to respond!’

  ‘I don’t understand, my lord. .

  ‘Perhaps you understand more than you admit, O Tokiwa-san! And perhaps already you know my enemies! Perhaps they even paid you, and armed you with that dagger, to assassinate me - is that what happened?’

  He continued to shift the sword steadily, forcing her to spread her thighs ever wider to avoid the blade’s lethal caress. Risking a quick glance at his face, she saw that his eyes were hot with a terrible mixture of suspicion and desire. She wondered desperately if she should try to rise to defend herself, but some deep instinct rooted her to the floor. The ancient Bushido code, she knew, impelled a samurai to act without hesitation on his first instinct to kill

  - and the law of the land gave him impunity to do so. Every geisha who entertained samurai was acutely aware of these facts, and therefore behaved with the greatest discretion in the company of warriors. Remembering this, Tokiwa lowered her head in the coy, submissive manner which her training and experience had taught her was erotically pleasing to all men of Nippon. Half turning from him, she slowly brushed her long hair aside with one hand, to reveal completely the vulnerable curve of her naked neck.

  ‘My lord, please believe me,’ she said softly, speaking over her shoulder. ‘I wished you no harm. I have been much honoured by your past visits. They have always brought me the greatest pleasure. Today I was merely preparing to defend my life against an unknown intruder. I know nothing of the danger to you or the disputes among the ruling factions.’

  The sword had arrived within an inch of the fine whorls of dark hair that shadowed the naked arch of her thighs, and it was still moving. But although she wanted desperately to shrink away from it, she held to her decision not to show fear openly, and remained motionless on the tatami. Hardly daring to breathe, she watched the approaching blade with a calm, expressionless face.

  In the absence of any spoken words, the noise from the street seemed to grow louder. Above the frenzied tolling of temple bells, the angry voices of several running men increased in volume as they drew nearer. The sword, now almost touching her, stopped moving, and she guessed that he had paused to listen to the disturbance outside. But she found that she dared not raise her head in case it provoked him further in some way she could not anticipate.

  ‘Those of us close to the Emperor in the south believe it is wiser to try and learn the secrets of these barbarians!’ said Tanaka suddenly in a fierce whisper. ‘Leaders of the great Satsuma and Chohshu clans are in agreement with my father and others like him who lead the smaller southern clans. We believe we must try to find out by guile what makes the foreign barbarians so strong. Only then can we strengthen and save our nation.’

  ‘And who is it that opposes you?’ cut in Tokiwa quickly, sensing her chance might have come.

  ‘Several clan leaders here in the north wish to strike against them at once! They believe it’s the only way to expel the barbarians from our sacred soil once and for all. Men like Lord Daizo of Haifu and his many supporters are determined to fly in the face of fortune, no matter how many thousands of lives they may sacrifice.’

  With a muffled exclamation of anger Tanaka began edging the sword towards her again, and it took all her courage to remain still.

  ‘Your cause is clearly the wisest, and I could not oppose you: said Tokiwa quickly. ‘I never had any reason to betray you. I give you my assurance you will always have my complete loyalty’

  She lifted one hand from the matting and gently caressed the shimmering blade. With her heart pounding inside her chest, she turned her head at the same time to look directly into his eyes.

  ‘Won’t you sheathe your fine steel now, my lord:

  she whispered urgently. ‘And replace it quickly with what I most desire - yourself!’

  Turning slightly on the mat, she arched the whole of her upper body invitingly around the sword.

  Lifting both arms she held them out towards him in a beseeching gesture. For an uncertain moment he stared down at her, his breath quickening, his hand tightening on the weapon’s hilt. Then he relented and the sword ceased its movement. She saw the flame of desire brighten in his eyes and his chest heaved.

  ‘As I rode here, I prayed fervently to the kami that you would prove yourself loyal, O Tokiwa-san said Tanaka thickly. ‘But I could leave nothing to chance. I had no choice. I had to test your true feelings with my sword. I hope you understand.’

  ‘I understand, my lord,’ whispered Tokiwa, struggling to hide her desperate sense of relief. ‘I understand perfectly’

  ‘Good... Anticipating such an outcome I’ve already arranged a secret hideaway for you, where you
will be safe from both the foreign barbarians and my enemies.’

  “Where is that, my lord?’

  ‘It’s a remote country inn with a distant view of Mount Fuji, some twenty miles or so from Yedo. Servants and guards of mine, who have followed me here from the south, are waiting nearby to escort you there now!’

  ‘I am overwhelmed by my lord’s kindness.’ Tokiwa bowed her head while whispering her formal expression of gratitude. Then, acutely aware that she had still to consolidate her victors she looked up and held out her arms to him again. ‘But surely my lord wishes what I also crave? To share a fleeting moment of passion before we part

  Holding her gaze, he slowly lifted the sword clear of her loins. After reversing the blade, he inserted its tip into the opening .of the lacquered scabbard which he had concealed under the beggar’s robes, and slid it home in a single fluid movement. Laying down the weapon within easy reach on the tatami, he quickly discarded the muddied disguise, leaving himself bare-chested. Dropping to his knees at her side, he unfastened the waistband of his loose hakama and, with a muffled cry, took her roughly into his arms.

  Tokiwa closed her eyes tight as she prepared to yield to the blindness of his desire. As she had expected, he clutched at her nakedness selfishly, without making any attempt to arouse desire in her in return. With practised obedience she allowed herself to be forced roughly down onto her back, simulating a small cry of pleasure to match his mounting excitement. Then she tensed, anticipating the fierce, conquering thrust of his loins. But, before this happened, his embrace suddenly froze and he lifted his head to listen.