time to lose. The desert warriors of the south - called lone-dogs
because of their height and their angular, bony features - were poised
to move north into the lands of the Plainfolk. In a few short years,
their powerful weaponry might be turned against Ne-Issan.
Through his contacts with the Mutes, Yama-Shita knew that the
flying-horses were an important element in the long-dogs' military
strategy. Ne-Issan must equip itself with its own airborne cavalry in
order to meet the threat when it eventually came.
Yoritomo promised to think the matter over. It all made sense, of
course. Lord Hiro Yama-Shita - who, with the merger between the
Yama-Ha'and the Matsu-Shita families, had become the single most
powerful domain-lord in Ne-Issan - was a hardheaded realist. Any
proposal put forward by him merited serious consideration.
It had been the Yama-h and the MatsuShita, builders of the first
wheelboats, who had opened up the lucrative western trading routes and
had tapped into the seemingly exhaustible supply of Mutes - the
strangely marked half-humans that made up the bulk of Ne-Issan's labour
force. The licences, which gave them a virtual monopoly on trade with
the west, had been granted by Yoritomo's grandfather. The Yama-Ha and
MatsuoShita had long been allies of the Toh-Yota and had supported them
in their bid for the Shogunate. But the unprecedented marriage between
the two houses had resulted in an unwelcome concentration of power and,
if one looked at the map with the eye of a military commander, their
combined domains were poised like a dagger at the heart of the
TohYota.
Fortunately, the forty-year-old Yama-Shita seemed to be more interested
in trade deals than political alliances, but it was a situation that
had to be kept constantly under review. The country had been riven
more than once by factional disputes, and despite the era of firm
central government instituted by the Toh-Yota, the domain-lords had
kept a jealously guarded measure of independence. While all had sworn
oaths of fealty to the Shogunate, there were some whose word could not
be taken entirely at its face value. As a result, Yoritomo, like the
previous holders of high office, kept two lists in his head - one
headed fudai, those considered loyal and trustworthy; the other,
tozama, unreliable.
Hiro Yama-Shita, despite his family's links with the Toh-Yota, occupied
a grey area in between.
After consulting Ieyasu (the Chamberlain had known Hiro since he was a
boy), Yoritomo agreed to the acquisition of a flying-horse and its
rider. Through Yama-Shita's trading activities, a number of long-dogs
'had fallen into their hands. Their interrogation had enabled the
Shogun to build up a partial picture of the strange underground domain
known as the Federation.
