“I was so terrified that I couldn’t move,” Haru went on. “I sat there for a long time, crying and wondering what to do. I thought of going to High Priest Anraku for help, but I was afraid he would get angry at me for killing an important patron. Finally I decided to make it look like an accident, I picked up the statue, left Commander Oyama lying in the cottage, and ran to the main hall. I wiped off the statue and set it in a niche with a lot of other statues like it. Then I got the idea that Commander Oyama was still alive. I had to see, so I went back to the cottage. That was when someone came up behind me and hit my head. I didn’t see who it was. The next thing I knew, the firebell was ringing, I was lying in the garden, and it was morning.”
Tears streaming down her face, Haru cast a beseeching gaze up at Sano. “Yes, I killed Commander Oyama. But not the others. I didn’t even know they were there. That’s the truth, I swear!”
It sounded as if someone else had killed Chie and the boy, then framed Haru for their murders by knocking her unconscious so that she would be found at the scene. Their bodies must have been put in the cottage while Haru was hiding the statue, or while she lay oblivious. Perhaps someone else had indeed set the fire. Yet Reiko had little hope of this, and even if the girl was telling the truth now, it would make little difference to her fate.
“Honorable Magistrate,” Sano said, “whether or not Haru is responsible for the deaths of the woman and boy, she has confessed to killing an important man. She deserves punishment.”
Nor did the possibility of a second murderer change the fact that Reiko had been wrong to ever believe in Haru’s innocence. Sick with shame and regret, Reiko wanted to rush from the room, but a stubborn need to see the case through to the end compelled her to stay.
“Haru, I pronounce you guilty of two instances of murder and arson,” Magistrate Ueda said solemnly. Reiko saw in his face his personal conviction that he’d chosen the correct verdict. “The law requires that I sentence you to death by burning.”
“No!” Haru’s shrill, terrified protest pierced the quiet of the courtroom. She writhed, as if already beset by flames. “Please, I can’t bear it.” She turned to Reiko, begging, “Help! Don’t let them burn me!”
Reiko wordlessly shook her head because she couldn’t help Haru even if she’d wanted to.
Sano exchanged glances with Magistrate Ueda. When the magistrate nodded, Sano said to Haru, “There is one way you can earn a quicker, more merciful death, if you wish.”
The girl exclaimed in desperate relief: “Yes! I’ll do anything!”
“You must tell me everything you know about what’s going on inside the Black Lotus Temple and what the sect plans to do,” Sano said.
Comprehension stunned Reiko. Now she knew why Sano had convened the trial, then pushed so hard for Haru’s conviction. He’d meant to break Haru, thus forcing her to inform on the Black Lotus. Reiko wished he’d told her his intentions even as she inwardly berated herself for not guessing them. By defending Haru, she’d almost ruined Sano’s attempt to get the facts needed to justify an inspection of the temple. She remembered the look he’d given her: He’d been trying to let her know what he was doing. By disregarding his silent plea, she might have cost Midori her life!
“But I can’t tell,” Haru said, recoiling in horror. “I mean, I don’t know anything.”
“Very well,” Sano said. “Then you must endure your original sentence.” He signaled to the guards. “Convey her to the funeral pyre at the execution ground.”
The guards moved toward Haru, who cried, “No! Wait!”
Sano’s raised hand halted the guards. Reiko watched Haru struggle against whatever loyalty or fear kept her in thrall to the Black Lotus. Her eyes flicked from side to side; she bit her lips. Sano looked directly at Reiko for the first time since before Haru had confessed; his frown warned Reiko to keep silent. She bowed her head, miserably aware that she’d already done too much wrong for her to even consider intervening. Haru’s fate was in her own hands now.
At last Haru slumped, her resistance gone. “The mountains will erupt,” she mumbled. “Flames will consume the city. The waters will flow with death, and the air will breathe poison. The sky will burn and the earth explode.”
A chill passed through Reiko as she recognized the words spoken by Pious Truth when the priests captured him. Puzzled exclamations broke out among the audience.
Haru spoke in an emotionless monotone, as if reciting a lesson: “High Priest Anraku has transformed his followers into an army of destroyers who will set fires and bombs around Edo and poison the wells. They will slay the citizens in the streets. The conflagration of death and destruction will spread all across Japan. Only the true believers of the Black Lotus will survive. They shall achieve enlightenment, acquire magical powers, and rule a new world.”
34
When the faithful hear the prophecy,
They will rush to meet their destiny,
And in body and mind be filled with joy.
– FROM THE BLACK LOTUS SUTRA
The highway approaching the Zōjō temple district lay beneath a clouded indigo night sky. Faint radiance from the full moon behind the clouds touched the hilltops. The forest bordering the road loomed still in the windless air. Hoofbeats and the steady rhythm of marching steps came from the direction of Edo to the north.
Sano, clad in full armor, rode beside Hirata near the head of a procession that numbered two hundred troops mounted and on foot, including all his detectives and guards, plus other Tokugawa soldiers from Edo Castle. Their lanterns illuminated grim faces beneath iron helmets.
“What if we’re too late?” Hirata said anxiously. “If the Black Lotus has hurt Midori…”
“We’re almost there. She’ll be fine,” Sano said.
Yet he, too, was worried that they wouldn’t reach the temple soon enough to rescue Midori. The necessary preparations for this expedition had consumed hours that might have cost Midori her life.
After Haru had confessed and agreed to inform on the Black Lotus, Magistrate Ueda had adjourned the trial. Sano and Hirata had thoroughly interrogated Haru about the sect’s activities. She’d confirmed Pious Truth’s story and admitted that she’d been among a group of sect members responsible for the trouble in Shinagawa, which was a rehearsal for an attack on Edo. She’d claimed to know where High Priest Anraku’s underground arsenal and prison were, and agreed to guide Sano there.
Next, Sano had reported the news to the shogun. Tokugawa Tsunayoshi had vacillated, torn between fear for his regime and fear of his relatives’ disapproval. In desperation, Sano had resorted to a ploy that Chamberlain Yanagisawa often used. He had praised the shogun for his wisdom and flattered his pride, then gently hinted that he would be making a terrible mistake to ignore the threat of the Black Lotus. When the shogun had begun yielding to Sano’s stronger will, Sano had described in lurid detail the widespread destruction that would occur unless they crushed the sect now. Finally, the frightened shogun had signed an edict granting Sano permission to do whatever was necessary to protect the regime.
Sano, ashamed of his manipulative, dishonorable behavior, had taken the edict and fled before the shogun could change his mind. Then Sano had gathered troops for an invasion of the temple. Things had turned out better than he’d expected-with one hitch.
Haru had balked at going to the temple. She’d cried, screamed, and struggled against his troops as they tried to put her in a palanquin, and called for Reiko. Even though they threatened to burn her, she still resisted, and she had the advantage because Sano needed her to guide him through the Black Lotus underground. Sano didn’t want Reiko involved in the expedition; nor did he welcome further association between her and Haru. But he feared that he wouldn’t get the promised cooperation from Haru unless someone calmed her down, so he’d hurried home to fetch Reiko.