The Incense Game (40 page)

“Yes, Your Highness,” Sano said, bowing.

“I’m so excited. All these years I’ve prayed for a grandson, and this is a dream come true!” She turned to Priest Ryuko. “My dearest love, you can be his step-grandfather.”

Priest Ryuko smiled down at her, nodded, and said, “Suppose you go inside and give Yoshisato my regards while I speak to Chamberlain Sano.” After Lady Keisho-in left, he said, “My sources tell me that you discovered it was Minister Ogyu and his wife who poisoned those women, and they’re both dead.”

“Your sources are well informed,” Sano said.

Ryuko spoke in a lowered voice. “Regarding what you discovered about me—don’t try to use it against me. I’ve told Lady Keisho-in that there’s a rumor that I fathered a child on another woman. I’ve assured her that the rumor is false, and she believes me.” He added, “You just saw how high in her favor I am. And she’s high in His Excellency’s. All is well within the upper stratus of the Tokugawa court.”

“What about the astronomer’s proclamation that the cosmos is displeased with an important person in his regime who’s to blame for the earthquake?” Sano asked.

Ryuko waved his hand, as if brushing away a fly. “That’s old news. All the shogun cares about is the astronomer’s latest proclamation, the one about Yoshisato.”

Yanagisawa must have bribed the court astronomer to back his hoax, Sano thought.

“Lady Keisho-in is safe, and so am I.” Ryuko added with a sly smile, “Probably safer than you, Chamberlain Sano.”

*   *   *

YANAGISAWA MET YOSHISATO
inside the guesthouse. “We need to talk,” Yanagisawa said, glancing up and down the corridor to make sure no one was listening.

“I don’t think so.” Yoshisato tried to brush past Yanagisawa.

Yanagisawa caught his son’s arm. “I have to coach you on how to prevent the shogun from being manipulated by our enemies.”

“You’ve already drummed that into my head,” Yoshisato retorted. “How could I forget? Do you think I’m stupid?”

“What’s the matter?” Yanagisawa asked, surprised by his son’s anger.

“Nothing. Your scheme worked. You’ve positioned me to rule Japan after the shogun dies. Everything is fine.”

“I also saved your life,” Yanagisawa reminded him. “Now that the shogun has accepted you as his son, the order for you to be convicted of treason has been canceled. Ienobu can’t touch you. You should be grateful.”

“Oh, I’m grateful.” Yoshisato said the last word as if it tasted bad. “Grateful to you for disowning me, for foisting me off on the shogun. Grateful because you don’t have to pretend to be my father.”

Astonishment struck Yanagisawa. He’d never dreamed that Yoshisato would mind. “But it was necessary.” Now he saw that Yoshisato hated him for denying their kinship. “We agreed.”

“Not that I had much choice.”

“You should be happy about the way things worked out,” Yanagisawa said. “You’ll get to be the next shogun without sleeping with the current one.” The shogun drew the line at sex with the fruit of his own loins.

“Oh, yes, I’m happy.” Yoshisato gave a bitter laugh. “Because now that I’m the shogun’s son, I don’t need you anymore.” He smiled.

For the first time Yanagisawa saw himself in Yoshisato. It chilled him to the core.

*   *   *

SANO SPENT THE
rest of the day organizing the relief mission for the provinces. By evening, the team members had been designated and provisioned, the carts and oxen assembled. The mission would leave at dawn tomorrow, accompanied by troops to guard the cash contributed by the
daimyo
. For the first time since the earthquake, Sano felt as if he’d actually accomplished something, even though so much remained to be done.

When he got home, he found Reiko propped up in bed. She was watching Akiko play with her dolls. Sano smiled at the cozy scene and greeted his family. A maid brought them a dinner of rice, soup made from dried bonito and seaweed, and pickled radish.

“Aren’t you going to eat?” Sano asked Reiko as he wolfed down the food.

She sipped a cup of mint tea. “No, I feel sick to my stomach. But that’s a good sign that I’m not going to lose the baby. The doctor says it should be fine.”

Sano was glad but still a little angry with her. “You should have told me about the baby before I let you help me with the investigation.”

“But if I had told you, then you wouldn’t have let me help. We might be in the middle of a civil war now.”

“I can’t argue with that.” Sano never could argue with his wife when she was right. Things had worked out better than he’d expected, although he regretted the deaths of Minister Ogyu’s nurse and Madam Usugumo’s apprentice, which Reiko had told him about. If he hadn’t told Ogyu where Korin was, Ogyu couldn’t have taken Korin out of jail and brought him to the theater where he’d died. Then again, if Ogyu hadn’t, perhaps he’d have killed Reiko at the nurse’s house and Sano couldn’t have saved her. The events of that night were far from simple or clean. Sano knew that Reiko mourned for her guards, especially Lieutenant Tanuma, whose dying words had saved her life. Sano also pitied the Ogyu children, now orphans, adopted by relatives. Their parents’ deaths would surely haunt them all their lives.

Akiko stacked wooden blocks, building a house. She put her dolls inside, shouted, “Boom!” then knocked down the blocks. She clapped her hands and laughed.

“I wish she wouldn’t keep doing that,” Reiko said.

“Maybe it comforts her to make a game of it.” Sano hoped the bombing wouldn’t have any permanent ill effects on Akiko. Some scars were invisible. As Reiko sipped her tea, he told her about the shogun’s dramatic announcement. She sputtered tea and choked.

“The shogun has a new heir, and it’s Yanagisawa’s son, but he thinks Yoshisato is his!” she exclaimed. “I can’t believe it!”

“Neither could I, but in retrospect, passing his son off as the shogun’s seems just like Yanagisawa. This could be the biggest political upheaval of the shogun’s reign.”

“It’s disgusting how Yanagisawa took advantage of the earthquake.”

Sano thought back over the past month. “He’s not the only person who has, or has tried to. There’s Ienobu, who ingratiated himself with the shogun while the shogun’s usual companions were either too busy or dead. There’s Lord Hosokawa, who used the regime’s financial problems to blackmail me into investigating the murders, and the
daimyo
who wanted to overthrow the Tokugawa regime while it was vulnerable. There’s Korin, who cheated earthquake victims, not to mention the scores of merchants who are making fortunes off them. Don’t forget the people who tried to get rid of Lady Keisho-in and the shogun by blaming them for the earthquake. And then there’s Masahiro and his promotion.”

“Masahiro deserved that promotion,” Reiko protested, loath to include him in such dubious company. “He’s very capable, even though he’s only twelve.”

“But there’s no denying that he benefited from the disaster,” Sano said. “There’s no denying that the disaster has created opportunity.”

“That’s a different point of view.” Reiko didn’t sound convinced.

“Look around, and you’ll see other examples of opportunity arising from disaster. I’m chamberlain because Yanagisawa’s son Yoritomo died. Going further back, I got into the Tokugawa regime fourteen years ago because someone tried to assassinate the shogun and I saved his life.”

Reiko warmed to Sano’s theory. “Hirata is the top fighter in Edo because he was crippled and he studied the mystic martial arts.” Suddenly stricken by revelation, she said in a hushed voice, “I’m who I am because my mother died giving birth to me.”

“Does everything good have origins in something bad?” Sano mused. “Perhaps. One thing I’m sure of is that when it comes to taking advantage of the earthquake, Yanagisawa has everyone else beaten.”

Apprehension clouded Reiko’s eyes. “What does his coup mean for you?”

“Yanagisawa has gained a big advantage over me. If that were all, I’d predict that the two of us would continue our feud as always, with one’s fortunes rising when the other’s falls. But Yoshisato changes the equation. He’s an unknown quantity.”

“Does this mean Ienobu is out of the picture?” Reiko said.

“I wouldn’t count on it,” Sano said. “He has allies who are enemies of Yanagisawa and won’t want Yoshisato inheriting the dictatorship. And Ienobu isn’t the kind of man to accept defeat without a fight.”

Masahiro came into the room, greeted his parents, and said, “Is there any food left?”

“Yes. You’re in luck,” Reiko said.

Sano remembered something. “What did Ienobu say to you this morning?”

Masahiro ducked his head over his rice bowl. “He said I was overstepping my station. He told me to stop giving advice to the shogun, or he would make me sorry.”

“What kind of advice?” Reiko said, sounding as puzzled as Sano was.

“Just some things you and Father taught me.”

“How did Ienobu know you were advising the shogun?” Sano said.

“He heard us,” Masahiro said.

“Didn’t I tell you to be careful?”

“I try to be. But the shogun was upset, and he asked me what to do. I had to say something. And it was during his exercise in the garden. I’d never seen Ienobu there. He doesn’t like the cold. But he was there that day.”

“What an unfortunate coincidence,” Reiko said sympathetically.

But Sano’s instincts tingled in warning. “Somehow I don’t think it was a coincidence. Why did Ienobu choose that particular time to brave the cold in the garden?”

“Maybe Hirata-
san
knows,” Masahiro said. “He was there, too. I saw him.”

A bad feeling rippled through Sano as he thought of the house that had mysteriously risen from the chasm. He wondered if Hirata’s presence at the scene wasn’t a coincidence either. “Yoshisato isn’t the only unknown quantity. There’s something else going on.”

*   *   *

THAT NIGHT HIRATA
climbed the hills to the clearing in the forest. There he found a ritual in progress. Tahara, Kitano, and Deguchi stood chanting inside the circle of flaming oil lamps, their hands touching, around the altar. They didn’t notice Hirata watching nearby. A figure hovered in the gold-flecked purple smoke from the incense burner. It was the giant warrior in the horned helmet and the old-fashioned armor, his face hidden by his helmet’s visor. Fiery veins of light connected him to the men. Hirata was surprised that he could see the ghost even though he hadn’t drunk the potion or breathed the smoke. Perhaps after seeing it once, he didn’t need to be in a trance to see it again. Its terrifying power boomed and pulsed. He resisted the urge to run.

“Why are you troubled, my lord?” Tahara asked the ghost. “Ienobu has witnessed Masahiro’s influence on the shogun. He can counteract it. Everything went just as we planned.”

Fury beset Hirata. The secret society had known all along, and not deigned to tell him, that his action would put Masahiro in jeopardy!

The ghost spoke in its alien language that Hirata could now understand. “The boy is a minor threat compared to the bastard who purports to be the shogun’s son.” Hirata frowned, confused. Something must have happened while he’d been away from court. “The bastard must be eliminated. Nothing must stand in the way of Ienobu’s becoming the next shogun.”

“How will Ienobu’s becoming the shogun destroy the Tokugawa regime?” Kitano asked.

“Ienobu and his allies are plotting changes in the regime,” the ghost replied. “Within a generation the Tokugawa will crumble under pressure from inside and outside. And I will have my revenge for my defeat at Sekigahara.”

Hirata burst into the circle of light. Tahara, Kitano, and Deguchi started. They turned toward him, their hands still touching. “What are you doing here?” Tahara said without his usual humor.

“Joining the ritual,” Hirata said. “Why didn’t you invite me?”

“We never told you that you would be part of every ritual.” Kitano’s eyes were cold.

“There’s a lot you never told me,” Hirata retorted. “Such as, that the spirit was an enemy of the Tokugawa. Or that its idea of ‘destiny’ is to destroy the regime that I serve!”

“If we’d told you, you wouldn’t have joined us,” Tahara pointed out. Deguchi nodded.

Their callousness fueled Hirata’s rage. “I was a fool to trust you, or it.” He flung out his hand toward the ghost, whose image wavered because he’d interrupted the three men’s concentration. “But I won’t trust you anymore. Because I’ve uncovered your lies.

“Ozuno wouldn’t give you his magic spell book, so you tried to steal it. He fought you. That’s how your face got cut up.” Hirata glared at Kitano, then Deguchi. “That’s why you’re mute.” He said to Tahara, “You didn’t inherit the book. You stole it from Ozuno on your second try, after you killed him. When you lured me into your secret society, you made me a party to our teacher’s murder!”

The men’s dismayed faces were taut and perspiring with their effort to maintain their trance. The veins of light dimmed. The ghost’s image faded.

“Then you forced me to endanger my master’s son.” Hirata was so angry that he could hardly speak. “All the while you were intentionally involving me in treason against the Tokugawa regime!”

“So the detective has found us out,” Tahara said. “Congratulations.”

Infuriated by his sarcasm, Hirata said, “Did you ever stop to wonder if I’m not the only one who’s been deceived? What did the spirit promise you in exchange for meddling with politics? Mystical powers such as have never been seen? A chance to train and lead a legion of superhuman martial artists that will rule the world someday?” It was a wild guess, but the men’s cagy expressions told Hirata it was correct. “How do you know that the spirit won’t dump you after he’s given you nothing more than a few magic tricks? Maybe you’ll have sold your honor for nothing but a selfish, petty man’s revenge on his dead enemy.”

For the first time Tahara, Kitano, and Deguchi looked worried. The ghost’s image shrank as their energy faded. “We’re going through with it.” Tahara sounded as though his fear of betrayal had only solidified his conviction. He looked to Kitano and Deguchi, who nodded. The ghost’s image enlarged, grew clearer. “And so are you. Or Sano will die.”