The entrance, with its wide, gently arched bridge, was guarded by two keeps; one at the end of the approach road, the other set on a stone island halfway across the moat. This palace, with its pleasure gardens and artfully sculptured rock pools and waterfalls, was also a fortress with secret stairways, exits and entrances.

Toshiro had no need to show his papers at the outer keep. The guard-captain, alerted by a keen-eyed sentinel, recognised him with the aid of a spygla.s.s and rode out with two other samurai to meet him.

Captain Kamakura and Toshiro exchanged the usual salutations, but their voices lent a warmth to the formal exchanges. They were old friends despite the difference in their ages. Kamakura, the senior by some fifteen years, had helped Toshiro to perfect his swordmanship and would practise with him, or counsel him, whenever asked.

Over the last two years, Toshiro had been constantly on the move, arriving with eagerly awaited information only to find himself dispatched on some new errand with barely time to catch his breath. As a consequence, the two men had seen less of each other than they would have liked but their friendship remained undimmed.

Kamakura, a samurai cursed with five daughters, treated him like a surrogate son. Whenever Toshiro came to Aron-giren, the captain and his wife Yukio received him into their household with the utmost warmth and generosity. Although Toshiro had never doubted his mentor's sincerity, it was only natural to a.s.sume that at the back of this charming couple's mind was the hope that one of their daughters might find favour in his eyes. It was evidently a hope shared by their offspring because, over the years, all but the youngest, who was not yet thirteen, had taken it in turns to favour him with a more intimate form of hospitality.

Their nocturnal visits which, by custom, one was not expected to refuse, had been executed with an admirable discretion equal to that practised by the ladies of the court. And their subsequent behaviour gave not the slightest hint of what had occurred. Each one had remained as courteous and respectful as before. Toshiro had said nothing to their father. He preferred to think that the good captain had no idea what was going on.

However, the expertise his daughters had displayed could not have been achieved without some degree of parental guidance. Although it was something that he and Kamakura had never discussed, Toshiro knew that their mother had once been a courtesan. It was a well-known fact that the warmth of their embrace was often fuelled by a burning ambition.

The two hors.e.m.e.n who had ridden out with Kamakura dismounted and rejoined the guard as Kamakura and Toshiro trotted their ponies through the arches of the outer and inner keeps and went on into the main courtyard of the palace. Civilians - mainly tradesmen of low rank who found themselves on the bridge fell to their knees and pressed their faces to the close-fitting planks. The iron-shod feet of the ponies sent thunderous echoes through their heads as the riders pa.s.sed by.

As a member of the house of Hase-Gawa, Toshiro had his family home on the seaward edge of the northern marches. Only two domains were equally remote - the Fu-Ji and the Na-Shuwa, whose lands lay to the north-west and north-east of the Hase-Gawa. Beyond them lay the Fog People. Kamakura, on the other hand, resided on Aron-giren. As a close friend and his swordmaster it was only natural to offer his house to the younger man, even though accommodation was always available for Heralds whenever they arrived and wherever the court happened to be.

The Shogun had four other palatial fortresses on the mainland and numerous other residences on the Toh-Yota family estates.

Toshiro thanked Kamakura for the invitation and promised to dine with him at the earliest opportunity.

Unfortunately, he could make no plans until he had reported to the Shogun. Only then would he know whether he would have time to sample the delectable joys of family life in the Kamakura household before being dispatched on some new errand. In the meantime, he begged the good captain to convey his respectful yet tender greetings to Yukio, his wife, and her five daughters whose peerless beauty, selfless devotion and pristine decorum reflected nothing but credit upon their parents. Et cetera, et cetera.

Kamakura wheeled away and headed back across the bridge, his honour satisfied. Since his respect and friendship for the young man pre-dated Toshiro's elevation to the rank of Herald he knew that his offer of hospitality would not be construed as an attempt to curry favour. Nevertheless, as his wife constantly reminded him, any one of their eligible daughters would make an ideal match for Toshiro. And with a Herald for a son-in-law, the marriage prospects for the remaining girls would be immeasurably increased. One n.o.ble scion was the least they could expect. Maybe two!

Women! Despite their supposedly submissive, secondary status, it was rare to find one able to resist the lure of social advancement. It was just as well they had a mult.i.tude of domestic tasks to attend to: otherwise their days would be filled with all manner of vainglorious dreams, In his years of service with the Shogunate, Kamakura had seen enough to know that, unless governed by an acute and disciplined intellect, bodies freed from the daily grind of physical labour or the demands of soldiering soon became breeding grounds for discontent.

Idleness led first to the unbridled pursuit of pleasure, then, when jaded appet.i.tes could no longer be whetted by the most deviant perversions, the ladies of the court turned into malicious gossips and schemers.

Having destroyed their own sense of moral worth, they set out to destroy those around them. There were men of privilege who fell into this category too - and it had led to the collapse of more than one Shogunate.

n.o.bility, reflected Kamakura, was not all it was trumped up to be. It was the samurai ethic that was the bulwark against mental and physical corruption, and he was thankful that the new Shogun was the embodiment of all he held dear. Unfortunately, Yukio, his wife who, as a young concubine, had pleasured the present Shogun's father did not share this jaundiced view of the n.o.bility even though her lord and master, in a fit of generosity, had presented her to Kamakura in return for services rendered. Yukio, then a slim girl with a flawless, resilient body, had submitted dutifully as her status demanded but, like all women, she had found ways to convey her resentment.

That was in the beginning. Their relationship had improved in the intervening years for, with time, he had proved a reasonable catch, especially when Yoritomo, on his accession to power, had promoted him to the rank of guard-captain and, at the same time, had swept the remaining sybarites out of his father's 'pleasure dome'.

But the gilded life of the Inner Court leaves an indelible mark.

Kamakura knew that, in her heart of hearts, Yukio wished she could have married into the n.o.bility which, for a daughter of a well-to-do merchant family, had not been beyond the bounds of possibility. There were times when even Kamakura wished he could have been born with a silver cup to his lips. But he was old enough and wise enough to know that the fledgling heirs to wealth, power and privilege often found themselves holding a poisoned chalice.

Entering the palace, Toshiro presented himself to Ieyasu, the Court Chamberlain, and learned that word of his arrival had already reached the Shogun. The Herald was to join him in the pebble garden as soon as he had cleansed his travel-stained body.

Ieyasu, a tall angular man with a lined, cadaverous face, prided himself on his efficiency. How it was achieved was something of a mystery to Toshiro. Ieyasu never seemed to do anything and on the rare occasions.

Toshiro had seen him in motion, each gesture, like his speech, was slow, deliberate and precise. He exuded a quality of stillness - and a disquieting degree of menace like a female spider poised at the centre of an invisible web of power.

Toshiro thanked the Chamberlain in the customary manner and exited backwards from his presence.

Ieyasu made his way to the window and watched Toshiro swagger across the small courtyard below followed by the two pages who carried his travelling bags. Such energy! Such muscular dedication! Where would it all end? Under the previous Shogun, Ieyasu had acted as a filter for the information that the Heralds had carried to and from court.

But Yoritomo had changed all that. Nowadays, this new band of jumped-up jack-a-knaves reported to the Shogun in person - and in private! An unheard-of and most unwelcome break with ancient tradition which opened the way to a further dilution of the powers held by the office of the Chamberlain.

Ieyasu was one of the 'old school'. He had held the same post under Yoritomo's father and, barring some unforeseen disaster, was widely expected to remain in office until he became senile; a state which some of his critics felt he had reached already. On his accession, Yoritomo had pensioned off many of his father's staff, along with the inhabitants of the 'pleasure dome'. The sybarites and the obsequious self-serving leeches that somehow always manage to gravitate towards the centre of power had gone. But Ieyasu had remained. A new broom can never sweep entirely clean. And contrary to accepted wisdom, some old dogs are remarkably adept at learning new tricks.

In a nation built upon ancient traditions and held together by the rigid observance of age-old customs and protocols, changes are seen as a threat to the fabric of society - to be resisted at all cost. They can only be introduced gradually, if at all, and when making them, the wise leader does so whilst maintaining a strong sense of continuity with the past. Ieyasu was not the person Yoritomo would have liked as his Chamberlain but he was, without doubt, the best man for the job.

The sly old fox knew everything and everybody and Yoritomo then only twenty-three - was quick to see that he had to ally himself with Ieyasu until he had made his own position more secure. As a result, his cleansing operation had removed the froth and the sc.u.m but, when calm returned, the basic mixture was very much as before. Apart from the new status of the Heralds - a point which the old fox had deemed advantageous to concede - Ieyasu's power and influence remained unchanged, and most of the key positions were still occupied by like-minded place-men.

Yoritomo was aware of the situation, and although there were other means by which Ieyasu could have been removed he was content to leave things as they were.

Palace revolutions were destabilising events, which sent shock-waves through the country and gave people ideas.

Besides which, he enjoyed pitting his wits against the wily old campaigner. Time was on his side, and it was precisely this - his extreme youthfulness - that was the root of the problem. The Chamberlain, with his wealth of experience, honestly believed that someone as young as Yoritomo should not make any decisions without first seeking his advice and approval. He was, after all, his granduncle.

As one of the family, Ieyasu's loyalty to the Shogunate was beyond question but he was, above all, an influence-pedlar who knew every step of the way along the corridors of power; a man who could dispense sought-after privileges and preferments - and was not averse to enriching himself in the process. In so doing, the Chamberlain embraced an earthier tradition which pre-dated the rise of the samurai ethic by many thousands of years and which, given time, Ieyasu felt that Yoritomo would come to recognise as the only one worth preserving: the exercise and maintenance of power in a world of increasing complexity.

A problem that was as old as Time itself.

It was laudable of the young man to seek a return to the purer forms of conduct as prescribed by bushido: it was right that he should place new emphasis on its central tenet, girl - the sense of duty and obligation.

Without it there would be anarchy! But the drive to impose a stricter morality was counterproductive.

Human beings were flawed creatures that could never attain the perfection of the higher kami. Their inherent venality always surfaced sooner or later and, deplorable though it might be, it was through their weaknesses that they could be more effectively controlled.

Sinners were easier to do business with. And also much better company.

Despite his advanced years, Ieyasu had not forgotten how to enjoy himself. And in his case, it was not only the spirit that was willing.

The pebble garden was made up of a subtle arrangement of rocks set amid an undulating sea of fine gravel which had been raked into a seamless pattern of lines and whorls. Each morning at first light, and at various times throughout the day, leaves, twigs and all other extraneous matter were a.s.siduously removed by a team of light-footed gardeners who raked the gravel back into place as they made their exit.

When the Shogun came, the garden was always magically restored to pristine condition. It was a landscape frozen in time, an exquisitely harmonious arrangement of line and tone, texture and ma.s.s which, like all great masterworks, constantly revealed new depths to the eye of the beholder. It induced serenity and invited profound contemplation, rewarding and restoring those whose minds were able to achieve the necessary degree of stillness.

Yoritomo was one of those who drew strength from the garden - a treasured re-creation of a fragment of a past life in a place known to the chroniclers as The World Before. Yoritomo had fallen under its magic spell at the age of nine, and from then on had made daily visits to the same spot on the top step of the veranda whenever his branch of the family had been in residence at Yedo. His feelings toward it had not changed- only now, no one else was allowed to sit in his chosen place which, upon his accession, had a.s.sumed the status of a shrine.

Although austere by nature, Yoritomo was not, and had no wish to become, an ascetic saint-like figure.

During his adolescence, his periods of contemplation had been sandwiched in between the normal activities and youthful excesses one would expect a young n.o.bleman to indulge in. Sensual delights, while not encouraged, were not forbidden and although young samurai were taught that the companionship of other warriors was preferable to that of women, they were not always able to resist the lure of a sentimental - and sometimes illicit - relationship.

And neither could the new Shogun.

Toshiro, now clad in a broad-shouldered kimono of dark-toned brocaded silk, approached the guard-captain whose men were posted round the perimeter of the pebble garden. Both samurai wore white headbands fastened at the nape of the neck over wigs made of Mute hair, swept upwards to form the traditional top-knot. The guard-captain's headband bore the usual blood-red disc flanked by two word-signs denoting his rank and function.

On Toshiro's headband, the Shogun's bird emblem took the place of the red disc. A long and short sword, housed in gently curving scabbards, were thrust through the sash around his waist.

Had he been anyone else, he would have been obliged to remove them but, as a Herald of the Inner Court, he had the right to bear arms in the presence of the Shogun.

It was a sign of the extraordinary trust Yoritomo had in this band of young men. It was not entirely by chance that Toshiro happened to be the same age as the Shogun.

None of the new Heralds chosen by Yoritomo was over thirty; the youngest was twenty-five.