I cried, elatedly.I rushed to Pertinax and we clasped hands, and then embraced. Tears burned in his eyes. Tajima stood to one side, very still, but as far as I could read him, he was muchly pleased and reassured. We exchanged bows.“I am pleased to see Tarl Cabot, tarnsman,” he said.“And I my friends,” I said.“You are a prisoner,” said Pertinax.“A guest,” I said, “one not permitted to leave.”Tajima looked about.“None are near,” I said.I had been permitted to meet them in the open, within the main gate to the grounds.“The shogun,” I said, “looks for allies, not enemies. He wishes to put us at our ease. Thus he refrains from prohibiting our private converse.”“I fear it makes little difference,” said Pertinax, looking at the mighty panels of the heavy, now-closed-and-barred gate.“We are to be entertained,” I said. “Expect gifts, and smiles.”“We conjecture,” said Tajima, “that you did not desert the holding of Lord Temmu, repudiating your allegiance to that house, but were somehow betrayed into the keeping of the enemy.”“That is what happened,”
