Free White Serpent Castle by Lensey Namioka Page A

“Don’t bother with your pretenses. My guess is that you have already spoken with Shigeteru, and you know exactly what his plans are.”
    Without giving him a chance to reply, she stood up, and with a gentle swish of silk, she was gone.

Chapter 9
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    At first Matsuzo was too happy mingling once more with a cultured society to be bothered by Zenta’s continued absence. When he burst out with poetry on his travels, the common people that he met would stare blankly, or worse, snicker. Now at last he was in the company of people who understood the finer things of life. Or so he thought at first.
    It gradually dawned on Matsuzo that the chamberlain’s men were actually hard-bitten warriors with no interest at all in the poetic possibilities of the Sixteenth Day Moon. The moon-viewing party was just a pretense to impress the envoy and his men.
    Matsuzo realized eventually that his listeners were more interested in his background than in his poetry. They persistently questioned him about his family and his travels, but most of all they wanted to know everything he could tell them about Zenta. Where had he met the ronin? Under what circumstances? How long ago?
    Matsuzo soon lost his patience. Pleading fatigue, he rose abruptly and declared himself ready for bed. He felt an urgent need to find Zenta and warn him that the suspicions of the chamberlain’s men were by no means over. Their questioning showed that clearly.
    But finding Zenta proved to be a problem in that confusing garden of twisted paths. Rounding a bend, Matsuzo came upon two of the envoy’s retainers, who were sitting rather morosely on a stone bench. They didn’t seem to be enjoying the party very much.
    One of them looked up at Matsuzo and said wryly, “Gay, isn’t it? From the day we arrived at the castle, there has been a dinner party every night to stretch out the evening. I’m beginning to think that the chamberlain will do anything to put off going to bed. He probably gets nightmares.”
    Now these were truly men of culture, not like those provincial warriors of the castle, thought Matsuzo. Aloud, he said, “You must find the parties here very dull compared to the sophisticated ones given by the daimyo at his capital.”
    â€œWe don’t know anything about the daimyo’s parties,” said the retainer. “Both of us were ronin when Saemon hired us for the envoy’s special mission to this castle. We’ve never even seen the daimyo.”
    â€œThen you are not the envoy’s permanent retainers?” asked Matsuzo, surprised. He thought it really remarkable that the envoy had not brought his most trusted men.
    â€œThe envoy is too exalted a person to concern himself with selecting and hiring samurai,” said the retainer. “Saemon made all the arrangements for assembling the retinue.”
    â€œWhen Saemon told us that we would be part of the retinue of the daimyo’s envoy, we were delighted with our luck,” said the other retainer. “Little did we know that we’d find ourselves in this strange castle where people look over their shoulders all the time and mutter about white serpents.”
    â€œThat’s not all,” said the first retainer. “Let me tell you what happened yesterday. I was taking a walk with Saemon, and by accident we found ourselves near Lady Tama’s quarters. Jihei saw us there and set after us with a dozen of his men. One would think that we had indecent designs on the women! When the envoy heard about the incident, he was naturally furious. Jihei had to apologize, but it doesn’t alter the fact that they are keeping us under close watch and treating us almost like prisoners.”
    â€œThe chamberlain’s men are certainly in an unnatural state of excitement,” said Matsuzo. “Did you hear about our experience at the gate this afternoon? We came here looking for work, and before we knew it twenty