THE DIAMOND CHARIOT
The Further Adventures
of Erast Fandorin
BORIS AKUNIN
Translated by Andrew Bromfield
CONTENTS
Cover
Title Page
Dragonfly-Catcher
KAMI-NO-KU
The first syllable, which has a certain connection with the East
The second syllable, in which two earthly vales terminate abruptly
The third syllable, in which Vasilii Alexandrovich visits the WC
The fourth syllable, in which a hired gun sets out on the hunt
The fifth syllable, which features an interesting passenger
NAKA-NO-KU
The first syllable, in which Vasilii Alexandrovich takes leave
The second syllable, in which Masa violates his neutrality
The third syllable, in which Rybnikov gets into a jam
The fourth syllable, in which Fandorin feels afraid
The fifth syllable, consisting almost completely of face-to-face conversations
The sixth syllable, in which a tail and ears play an important part
The seventh syllable, in which it emerges that not all Russians love Pushkin
SHIMO-NO-KU
The first syllable, in which iron stars rain down from the sky
The second syllable, entirely about railways
The third syllable, in which Rybnikov gives free rein to his passion
The fourth syllable, in which the name of the Japanese God is taken in vain
The final syllable, the longest one of all
Between the Lines
A butterflys flight
The old kuruma
A heros eyes
The blue die does not like Badger
The blue die loves the gaijin
The flag of a great power
A cobbled street running down a hill
A perfectly healthy corpse
Sparks of light on a katana blade
The ermines glassy stare
The silver slipper
The first ray of sunlight
A mamusis heart
Snow at the New Year
A white horse in a lather
The final smile
Early plum rain
Sirius
Horse dung
A tiger on the loose
The scent of irises
Loves call
The garden gate
The science of jojutsu
A one-handed clap
A spray of acacia
A little piece of happiness
2.18
The scales fall from his eyes
A word once given must be kept
An autumn leaf
Insane happiness
Ticklish
Off with his head
The photograph of his wife
Dong, dong
A headache
A quiet voice
A dragonflys rainbow wings
A blue star
A briar pipe
Two hands tightly clasped
A dead tree
The glowing coals
The death of an enemy
The love of two moles
The nocturnal melding of the world
Spilled sake
A big fire
He didnt answer
A postman
The real akunin
Thus spake Tamba
PS
Also by Boris Akunin
Copyright
THE DIAMOND CHARIOT
In Two Books
Book 1: Dragonfly-Catcher
Book 2: Between the Lines
BOOK 1
DRAGONFLY-CATCHER
Russia, 1905
KAMI-NO-KU
The first syllable, which has a certain connection with the East
On the very day when the appalling rout and destruction of the Russian fleet near the island of Tsushima was approaching its end and the first vague and alarming rumours of this bloody Japanese triumph were sweeping across Europe on that very day, Staff Captain Vasilii Alexandrovich Rybnikov, who lived on a small street with no name in the St Petersburg district of Peski, received the following telegram from Irkutsk: Dispatch sheets immediately watch over patient pay expenses.
Thereupon Staff Captain Rybnikov informed the landlady of his apartment that business would take him to St Petersburg for a day or two and she should not, therefore, be alarmed by his absence. Then he dressed, left the house and never went back there again.
Initially Vasilii Alexandrovichs day proceeded entirely as usual that is, in a bustle of ceaseless activity. After first riding to the centre of the city in a horse cab, he continued his peregrinations exclusively on foot and, despite his limp (the staff captain dragged one foot quite noticeably), he managed to visit an incredible number of places.
He started with the Major General Commandants Office, where he sought out a clerk from the transport accounts section and returned with a solemn air one rouble, borrowed from the clerk two days previously. Then he called into the Cossack Forces Directorate on Simeonovskaya Square, to enquire about a petition he had submitted two months ago, which had got bogged down in red tape. From there he moved on to the Military Department of Railways he had been trying for a long time to obtain a position as an archivist in the drafting office there. On that day his small, fidgety figure was also seen in the Office of the Inspector General of Artillery on Zakharievskaya Street, and the Office of Repairs on Morskaya Street, and even at the Committee for the Wounded on Kirochnaya Street (Rybnikov had been attempting without any success to obtain an official note concerning a concussion suffered at Luoyang).
The agile army man managed to show his face everywhere. Clerks in offices nodded offhandedly to their old acquaintance and quickly turned away, immersing themselves, with an emphatically preoccupied air, in their documents and conversations about work. They knew from experience that once the staff captain latched on to someone, he could worry the life out of them.
Vasilii Alexandrovich turned his short-cropped head this way and that for a while, sniffing with his plum-shaped nose as he selected his victim. Having chosen, he seated himself unceremoniously right there on the victims desk and started swaying one foot in a shabby boot, waving his arms around and spouting all sorts of drivel: about the imminent victory over the Japanese macaques, his own heroic war exploits, the high cost of living in the capital. They couldnt just tell him to go to hell after all, he was an officer, and hed been wounded at Mukden. They poured Rybnikov tea, regaled him with papiroses, answered his gormless questions and dispatched him with all possible haste to some other section, where the whole business was repeated all over again.
Between two and three oclock in the afternoon, the staff captain, who had called into the office of the St Petersburg Arsenal on a procurement matter, suddenly glanced at his wristwatch with the mirror-bright glass (everyone had heard the story of this chronometer at least a thousand times it had supposedly been presented to him by a captured Japanese marquis) and became terribly agitated. Blinking his yellowish-brown eyes at the two shipping clerks, who by now were completely exhausted by his gabbling, he told them:
Well, that was a great chat. Im sorry, but I have to leave you now. Entre nous, an assignation with a lovely lady. The fever-heat of passion and all that. As the Jappos say, strike while the irons hot.
He gave a brief snort of laughter and took his leave.
What a character, said the first shipping clerk, a young warrant officer. But even hes managed to find himself some woman or other.
Hes lying, just talking big, the second clerk said reassuringly he held the same rank, but was much older. Who could ever be seduced by an old Marlborough like that?
The worldly-wise shipping clerk was right. In the apartment on Nadezhdinskaya Square, to which Rybnikov made his way via a long, roundabout route through connecting courtyards, the staff captain was not met by a lovely lady, but a young man in a speckled jacket.
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