Junketsu-in thrilled at the thought, but a niggling doubt disturbed her. "Everything will happen no matter what?” she asked, though afraid to offend Anraku by revealing her fears that the fire and murders might thwart him.
“Destiny waits for nothing.” Dreams swirled in Anraku’s eye. “No one can stop me.”
Still, Junketsu-in’s doubt persisted. Could Anraku not understand that Sano’s investigation and Lady Reiko’s meddling might ruin his plans? On rare occasions such as this, when Junketsu-in’s innate common sense resurfaced, she even had misgivings about Anraku’s supernatural powers. Granted, he exercised formidable control over his followers; however, his strength derived as much from their labor and the political clout of his patrons. Faith had inspired his visions, but human might and method would make them fact. Was he a fool not to know this? Or was Junketsu-in a fool who didn’t understand the cosmic forces driving his schemes?
As usual, her attempt at objectivity failed. She only knew she loved Anraku, and that she owed him her life.
One spring evening twelve years ago, police officers had burst into Iris’s house while she was entertaining a lover. They shackled her and dragged her out to the street. The police commander said to her, “You’re under arrest for prostitution outside the licensed quarter.”
It was Commander Oyama, although Iris didn’t learn his name until later. His strong build and arrogant good looks attracted her. With an inviting smile, she said, “If you let me go, I’ll show you how grateful I am.”
He considered her offer. “Unshackle her,” he ordered his men, then followed Iris into her house. But after they’d finished, he went to the door and called to the waiting police: “Take her to jail.”
“Wait,” cried Iris. “You promised to let me go.”
Oyama laughed. “Promises to a whore mean nothing.”
The magistrate sentenced Iris to work as a prostitute in the Yoshiwara pleasure quarter for ten years. She reveled in the sex, but hated the cramped quarters and the mean brothel owner who kept the money she made. She despised Oyama for using her, and plotted revenge against him, but first she had to escape the Yoshiwara.
After three years she attracted a rich merchant who promised to pay off the brothel for her keep and bribe the bakufu to commute her sentence, but soon another courtesan stole his affection. Iris was furious. At a party in the brothel, she attacked her rival, clawing the woman’s face to shreds. The magistrate sentenced her to a flogging. Her hatred for Oyama grew, as did her need for revenge. Shortly afterward, she was sitting in the window of the brothel, on display for the passing crowds, when a priest approached her.
“Greetings, Iris,” he said. “I’ve come for you.”
She gave him a disdainful sneer, because priests were poor and therefore no use to her. But this one was very handsome, with one eye covered by a patch. “Tell the proprietor you want me,” Iris said, intrigued in spite of herself.
The next thing she knew, she and the priest were riding through the Yoshiwara gate in a palanquin. The priest was Anraku, and he’d bought her freedom.
“But why?” Iris said. “Where are you taking me?”
“I am your destiny. We are going to my temple, where you will join the nunnery.”
A celibate life of prayer didn’t appeal to Iris, but desire for Anraku had already kindled in her, and she thought she could manipulate him into letting her go and giving her money to live on. Butt when they reached the temple, Anraku left her in the convent. There she joined other novices in a regimen of prayer, harsh discipline, little sleep, and no contact with anyone outside. The training confused her mind. She didn’t see Anraku again until ten days later, in a private audience.
“How does your training progress?” he asked.
By this time Iris was desperate for Anraku. “Please,” she murmured, reaching for him.
Anraku only smiled his enigmatic smile. “No. The time is not yet right.”
Iris endured a year as a novice. She lived for brief visits from Anraku. At last he initiated her, gave her a new religious name, Junketsu-in, and revealed the secret passage of the Black Lotus Sutra that was meant for her.
“The union of male and female fosters spiritual energy,” he said. “Woman is the fire, man the smoke. Her door is the flame, his member the fuel. Pleasure is the spark, and climax a sacred offering. Intercourse is a path to enlightenment. That is the path you must follow. I shall be your guide.”
That night he began teaching her the thousand erotic rituals described in the Black Lotus Sutra. Never had Junketsu-in known such fulfillment. Anraku became her beloved god; his words were fact and law to her. Anraku made her abbess of the convent, where she lived in luxury, waited upon by the nuns she ruled, and performing duties ordered by the high priest. Junketsu-in thought she would live happily until the day when Anraku’s prophecies were realized, but soon things began to go wrong, with results that imperiled her today.
Now Junketsu-in said to Anraku, “If the sōsakan-sama accuses me of the crimes, will you protect me?”
“You are protected by your faith in me,” Anraku said.
Yet she needed more than that. If Sano discovered the things she’d done, he might decide she was the only person with reason to have committed all three murders and framed Haru. The girl and the victims, who had come into the Black Lotus one after the other, like a parade of demons, had turned Junketsu-in’s life into hell.
The first demon was Chie.
Junketsu-in had known from the start that Anraku had many lovers; still, she’d believed that no one else could satisfy him the way she did-until Chie arrived. The humble, earthy peasant woman had exuded a powerful sexuality that had captivated Anraku. Junketsu-in argued against admitting Chie as a novice, but Anraku overrode her.
Jealousy plagued her as she spied on him wooing Chie the way he’d done her. She vented her anger on Chie, beating the meek novice, denying her food, calling her names, and spreading lies about her; she’d begged Anraku to expel Chie, in vain. Junketsu-in suffered the torment of secretly watching the pair engage in ritual intercourse. Anraku began ignoring Junketsu-in, while Chie became his new mate and chief nurse in the temple hospital. Junketsu-in had affairs with other priests, hoping to make Anraku jealous, but he proved indifferent. Then she learned that Chie was pregnant.
Anraku had sired children by other women, but Junketsu-in hadn’t cared because he paid little attention to his offspring; nor had she cared that she was barren. But watching Chie grow large with the fruit of his seed was more than Junketsu-in could tolerate. She poisoned Chie’s food, trying to induce a miscarriage. When that failed, Junketsu-in threw Chie on the ground and kicked her stomach. Hastened labor resulted in the birth of a son, Radiant Spirit. Though Anraku took no notice of the event, Junketsu-in ordered the nuns at the nursery to underfeed and neglect the child. While she was waiting for him to die and plotting how to regain her place with Anraku, into her life came the second demon.
Seven years had passed since Commander Oyama had arrested Junketsu-in, and they met again at the ceremony where the sect’s high officials welcomed him as a patron. After the ceremony, Oyama sought out Junketsu-in for a private word.
“So you’re a holy woman now,” he said with the derisive laugh she recalled too well. “Life has treated you kindly.”
“No thanks to you,” Junketsu-in said as her hatred resurfaced.
Oyama leered at her. “I shall enjoy renewing our acquaintance.”
“Not if I can help it.”
But Anraku ordered her to instruct Oyama in ritual sex. She objected to servicing her old enemy, but Anraku said, “It is my will, and you must obey or leave the Black Lotus.” Despite his cruelty, Junketsu-in still loved and desired him. She submitted to degrading encounters in the cottage with Oyama, who mocked her past even as he took his pleasure from her. Meanwhile, Radiant Spirit survived; Chie remained Anraku’s favorite. And along came the last demon.