His order, which seemed to have no bearing on the circumstances, baffled Reiko.
“Not her, too,” Junketsu-in protested.
A pair of the priests vanished through a doorway behind the curtains at the back of the room. They reemerged carrying a limp, horizontal figure clad in a gray robe. The arms dangled; long hair trailed on the floor. The head lolled toward Reiko.
It was Midori, Reiko realized in shock.
Midori’s eyes were closed, her lips slack. Unconscious, she didn’t stir when the priests laid her on the floor near Anraku’s platform. She lay motionless except for the slow rise and fall of her bosom as she breathed. The sect must have drugged her with sleeping potion, Reiko supposed. Even as she experienced the joy of finding her friend, fear knifed through her. What did Anraku mean to do with Midori?
Junketsu-in said vehemently to Anraku, “She’s a spy. You can’t bring her along.”
“I’ve enough potion to keep her unconscious for a long time,” Dr. Miwa said, ogling Midori’s body.
Now Reiko realized with dreadful certainty that she must follow the fugitives. She couldn’t leave Midori to them, and there would be no time to fetch Sano. Yet new hope awakened inside her, fragile and vibrant as butterfly wings. At least she’d located Midori. Might she somehow rescue her friend?
“Lady Midori still has an important purpose to serve,” Anraku said, unperturbed.
“You’re going to take her and not me?” Haru shrilled in panic. She clutched Anraku tighter. “But you can’t!”
“If we have to carry her, she’ll slow us down,” Kumashiro pointed out.
Another bomb exploded. Junketsu-in screamed; everyone ducked. There was a rumbling sound like a flood of rocks: a tunnel had collapsed nearby.
“Let’s go now, before it’s too late,” Junketsu-in pleaded. “We can just leave Lady Midori here with Haru.”
As Reiko’s heart leapt at the possibility, Midori slept on, oblivious. A strange smile shimmered on Anraku’s lips.
“A new vision has just revealed to me the final purpose for which Lady Midori is destined.” He stared down at Haru. “Do you truly wish my forgiveness?”
“Yes,” she gasped, lifting a hopeful face to him, “more than anything in the world.”
“You wish to prove your loyalty to me?”
“Oh, yes.” Haru was wheezing, pathetic in her eagerness.
“You would do anything to earn the privilege of accompanying me?”
“Anything!” Haru cried, as Reiko tried to figure out where the conversation was leading.
The high priest’s smile broadened. “Then kill Lady Midori.”
Horror reverberated inside Reiko like the toll of a shattered bell. Through her panic she saw Junketsu-in’s and Miwa’s faces go blank with surprise at Anraku’s order. Kumashiro frowned, as though disappointed to be deprived of killing Midori himself, or perhaps doubtful that Haru could accomplish the task. Haru slowly unclasped her arms from Anraku and sat back on her heels. Reiko read trepidation in the furrowed lines of the girl’s profile.
Then Haru nodded, murmuring, “If you wish, Anraku-san.”
She stood and walked toward Midori. Reiko, aghast to see her friend’s life placed in the hands of a murderer who cared about nothing except appeasing Anraku, felt a shout of protest rise in her: Haru, no!
Anraku mounted his platform. “Give her your sword,” he said to Kumashiro.
Reiko watched in shock as the priest drew his long sword and offered it to Haru. She clumsily grasped the hilt in both hands. Raising the blade over her head, she positioned herself a few paces from Midori’s neck. She drew a deep breath and gradually lowered the blade, looking sideways at Anraku.
He nodded and smiled encouragingly. Kumashiro and Dr. Miwa watched the moving blade, while Junketsu-in turned away and clapped a hand over her mouth. A nightmarish state of paralysis gripped Reiko, numbing her thoughts and muscles. She couldn’t move; she could only watch. Haru’s wheezes and the clattering in the tunnels marked the slow passage of time. Midori’s eyelids fluttered. The blade hovered low over her throat. Haru winced. Her knuckles tightened convulsively on the sword.
The undeniable knowledge that Midori’s death was imminent jarred Reiko out of her paralysis. “Stop!” she shouted.
Pushing the door open, she burst into the room.
36
Go with fearless heart,
Begrudge neither limb nor life,
But with a single mind concentrate
On the pursuit of ultimate enlightenment.
– FROM THE BLACK LOTUS SUTRA
Startled faces turned toward Reiko. Haru jerked the sword away from Midori. During a brief silence, Reiko saw herself through everyone else’s eyes-a lone, scared young woman brandishing a dagger.
Then the stillness shattered. Abbess Junketsu-in exclaimed, “It’s Lady Reiko, the sōsakan-sama’s wife!” Kumashiro and the other priests advanced on Reiko.
“Stay away from me,” she commanded with shaky bravado. “I’m taking Lady Midori out of here.” She turned to Haru, who gawked at her. “You’re coming with us.”
Her words sounded foolhardy to herself. Anraku ordered calmly, “Subdue her.”
The priests surrounded Reiko. She stabbed at them, and a tumultuous chase ensued. Reiko whirled and darted, slashing bloody cuts on the arms grabbing at her. The injured men cursed. Kumashiro seized her around the waist, clamped a hand around her right wrist, and wrenched. Pain skewered through her hand, and she cried out in pain, dropping the dagger. Kumashiro’s steely arms encircled her, pinning her arms against her sides. He turned her to face Anraku.
“How rude of you to trespass in my private domain, Lady Reiko,” the high priest said with a sardonic smile.
“You’d better let me go, and Midori, too,” Reiko said, breathless and terrified. “My husband and his troops have invaded the underground. They’ll be here any moment.”
Anraku received her lie with cool amusement, then said to Haru, “So no one saw you enter the underground?”
She shrank from the accusation in his voice. “They didn’t. I swear.”
“Then how did Lady Reiko find us?” Anraku said.
“… I don’t know.”
“Obviously, you showed her the way,” Junketsu-in said spitefully. “You brought her here to attack us.”
“But I didn’t mean to,” Haru protested. “I never thought she would come after me, honest.”
Reiko jerked and grunted, trying in vain to break free of Kumashiro. She’d delayed Midori’s death, but now they were both captives of the Black Lotus.
“The sōsakan-sama will come looking for his wife,” Kumashiro said to Anraku. “We have to get out before he finds his way down here… What do you want me to do with her?”
Anraku raised a hand, counseling patience. “It seems you have betrayed me yet again, Haru,” he said. “Therefore, the task I assigned you is no longer sufficient to demonstrate your loyalty.” He said to Kumashiro, “Place Lady Reiko by our other prisoner.”
Kumashiro propelled Reiko across the room. She resisted, but he shoved her into place, facing Haru. The other sect members grouped together along the wall behind the girl.
“Another act of disloyalty requires an additional test,” Anraku told Haru. “To secure the privilege of staying with me, you must now kill both Lady Midori and Lady Reiko.”
As her heart pumped wildly and her lungs heaved, Reiko realized that she and Midori would die together, by the hand of the girl Reiko had tried to save.
Anraku said to Haru, “You may dispose of Lady Reiko first.”
Through dizzying faintness, Reiko saw Haru looking everywhere except at her. The girl raised the sword, and Kumashiro walked Reiko forward until her throat met the tip of the blade. The cold prick of steel interrupted her breath. She experienced a strong urge to vomit and a terrible despair. Her thoughts flew to her son.