Now the monk’s howls subsided. Losing consciousness, Pious Truth sank in the basin.
“He is almost gone,” Dr. Miwa said.
Moving close to the basin, Kumashiro unsheathed the dagger that hung at his waist. The magic door was opening. Everything glowed with new color, as if lit by the sun. Kumashiro tipped the monk’s head back. The pulse of fans beat louder in his ears. Swiftly he drew his blade across the monk’s throat. Crimson blood gushed into the water. As Pious Truth’s spirit energy filled him, Kumashiro savored the rapture, not caring that Dr. Miwa watched him. They were bound in a conspiracy of silence, forced to tolerate each other’s proclivities, for the good of all.
Eventually, Kumashiro cleaned and sheathed his blade. “Let’s get rid of him,” he said.
Dr. Miwa and the nuns lifted the corpse from the basin and wrapped it in a white shroud. Kumashiro and Miwa carried it through the tunnels to the crematorium. Here the nuns stoked a stone furnace and worked the bellows until the fire roared hot like a dragon’s breath. Kumashiro and Miwa dumped the corpse inside. As the assistants chanted, “Praise the glory of the Black Lotus,” and the smell of burning flesh seared his lungs, Kumashiro felt regret that the joy of killing was so transient, and relief that he’d eliminated another threat.
To protect his way of life, he must protect the Black Lotus.
17
Behold the Bodhisattva of Infinite Power!
His body is shapely,
A thousand moons cannot rival the perfection of his face,
His eye is as brilliant as a million suns.
– FROM THE BLACK LOTUS SUTRA
Early morning traffic streamed down the boulevard that led south from Edo Castle through the daimyo district. Between the fortified estates, pedestrians and mounted samurai made way for troops escorting a huge palanquin that bore the Tokugawa crest. Inside the palanquin rode Reiko and Lady Keisho-in, seated opposite each other, bound for the Black Lotus Temple. The weather was cool and misty, and the women shared a quilt spread over their laps and legs.
“You look as if you’re thinking about something unpleasant,” Lady Keisho-in said. Her plump body and heavy jowls bounced with the palanquin’s movement. “What’s wrong?”
Reiko had been brooding about her argument with Sano yesterday and the sleepless night she’d spent alone while he stayed in his office. She suspected that Sano hated quarreling as much as she, but both of them were too proud to compromise. Recalling how he’d left the house today without even saying good-bye to her, Reiko felt the stinging pressure of more tears.
“Everything is fine,” she said with false brightness. Aware of her responsibility to entertain the shogun’s mother, she pointed out the window. “Look! Such pretty furniture in that shop!”
“Beautiful!” exclaimed Lady Keisho-in.
Reiko kept up the conversation while they rode through town, but as they traveled the woodland highway approaching the Zōjō district, worry grew within her. Eventually Sano would find out that she’d disobeyed his orders. The fear of losing his love plagued Reiko. She chatted with Keisho-in, all the while thinking that unless she could find new evidence in favor of Haru or against someone else, Haru would be convicted and the Black Lotus would go free. Besides, Reiko had already embarked on the forbidden trip; going the rest of the way could do little more harm.
Beneath the quilt, Keisho-in’s leg bumped Reiko’s. “I’m sorry,” Reiko said, politely taking the blame.
She shifted position to give Keisho-in more room, but soon they bumped again. Keisho-in giggled. Reiko flinched as Keisho-in’s toe tickled her thigh.
“I know a good way to pass the time,” Keisho-in said coyly.
There was no mistaking her intention. Reiko drew her knees up to her chest in appalled, defensive haste. The old woman wanted her, just as she’d feared. What should she do?
Lady Keisho-in moved closer. Her age-spotted hand stroked Reiko’s cheek. “Ah, you’re so lovely,” she said, sighing.
Turning away from Keisho-in’s sour breath, Reiko stifled a cry of protest. “I can’t do this.” The words slipped out of her even though she knew the danger of spurning the shogun’s mother.
“Why not?” Keisho-in asked. “There’s plenty of time before we reach the temple.” Then she drew back, and her gaze sharpened as she studied Reiko. “What you mean is you don’t desire me. You think I’m old and ugly.” Hurt and anger welled in her rheumy eyes. “I can see it on your face. You led me on so I would help you, and now you reject me.” She shouted out the window to their escorts: “Stop so I can throw out this sly little whore. Then take me home.”
The procession halted. “Wait. Please,” Reiko entreated. Being stranded on the road was a minor inconvenience compared to the dire consequences facing her unless she placated Keisho-in.
“I shall tell my son that you hurt my feelings. He’ll punish your husband for your cruelty.” With a dramatic gesture, Lady Keisho-in flung open the palanquin’s door. “Now get out!”
Reiko envisioned Sano stripped of his position, livelihood, and honor-or executed. Dread filled her. “Forgive me, Honorable Lady, I didn’t mean to reject you,” she said.
Keisho-in still looked peeved, but she shut the door.
“It’s just that I’ve never been with a woman before,” Reiko said truthfully, thinking fast. “I’m too shy to do it here, where people might see or hear us. I would be too inhibited to pleasure you now.”
“I suppose you’re right.” Her humor restored, Keisho-in ordered their escorts to continue on to the temple. As the palanquin began moving, she settled back on her cushions. “We shall wait until later.”
Reiko silently thanked the gods for the reprieve and hoped that later never came.
Outside, the traffic noises increased as the procession reached the Zōjō district; shouts drifted from the marketplace. Soon the bearers set down the palanquin, opened the door to a view of the Black Lotus Temple gate, and helped the shogun’s mother out. Reiko followed. She and Keisho-in and their guards entered the temple precinct, where a group of priests came to meet them.
“Welcome, Your Highness,” said a priest at the center of the group. It was Kumashiro. He frowned at Reiko, and the lizard-shaped scar on his head purpled with an influx of blood.
“We want to see High Priest Anraku,” said Lady Keisho-in.
Reiko saw a flicker of displeasure in Kumashiro’s gaze, then the knowledge that he couldn’t refuse the shogun’s mother. He said, “Of course, Your Highness. Please come with me.”
At least her risky episode had gotten her this far, Reiko thought, resolving to make the interview worthwhile.
Kumashiro led her and Keisho-in to a garden of dense, twisted pines behind the abbot’s residence. Reiko saw a thatched roof through the boughs. As they walked along a shaded path toward it, a suave male voice spoke: “A million thanks for gracing us with your presence, Most Honorable Mother of His Excellency the Shogun. Greetings, Lady Reiko.”
Keisho-in said in surprise, “How does he know who it is without seeing us?”
“But I did see you.” Amusement inflected the voice. “My knowledge comes from inner vision, not mere eyesight.”
Probably the high priest employed spies to give him advance notice of visitors, Reiko speculated.
The cool, damp air in the forest was scented with pine resin. A pavilion composed of a raised tatami platform and a roof supported on wooden posts appeared. In the center, a man with a shaved head sat cross-legged, hands upturned on his thighs. Clad in a white robe, he seemed to glow in the misty daylight.
“Please join me,” Anraku said, nodding at two cushions that lay before him.
Keisho-in scrambled up the steps of the pavilion, left her sandals on the bare wooden floor at the edge of the tatami, and knelt upon a cushion. Following, Reiko saw Kumashiro slip away through the trees. While Anraku performed the customary social ritual of offering refreshments, Reiko studied him.