As soon as he and Hirata managed to turn their horses in the narrow space, they saw, at the opposite end of the alley, another squadron of six samurai. Police Commissioner Hoshina sat astride his horse at the forefront.
“We’ve got you, Chamberlain Sano,” he said.
Sano kept his expression stoic although he felt a sick, falling sensation as he faced Hoshina down the alley. Hoshina and his troops must have been lurking nearby when Torai murdered Lily, and they’d rejoined forces after Torai had escaped Marume and Fukida. After all Sano’s skirmishes with Hoshina, was this the end?
Torai and his comrades blocked Sano’s exit at the rear. After Sano had survived nine years in the political battlefield of the Tokugawa regime, had his luck finally run out?
He and Hirata were spectacularly outnumbered, at the mercy of Hoshina, who had no mercy. But Sano drew his sword. So did Hirata, in front of him. “Move,” Sano ordered Hoshina. “Let us through.”
Hoshina uttered a laugh pitched high with glee and nerves. “Stubborn to the end, eh, Chamberlain Sano?” Torai and his other men laughed, too. “If you try to get past us, you’re even more foolhardy than I thought.”
Sano envisioned himself and Hirata slaughtered in a fierce, bloody rout, swords hacking at them until there was nothing left except gore. His muscles contracted. He smelled the sweet stink of his own fear and Hirata’s even though they hid it behind their hard, calm faces. His mind worked frantically. He’d always prided himself on his ability to outthink his enemies. Well, he’d better do it now.
Sano turned to Torai and said, “We found Lily. We know you killed her.”
“So what?” Torai said, grinning. With her blood on his collar, he looked like an executioner.
“You ordered him to get rid of her so she couldn’t testify on my wife’s behalf,” Sano said to Hoshina. The longer he kept them talking, the more time he had to effect an escape.
Hoshina’s smile bared teeth that gleamed with saliva. “You won’t live long enough to tell anybody.”
But Sano noticed that Hoshina stayed out of his reach instead of moving in on him. Hoshina was afraid of Sano, even with the numbers on his side. He knew a trapped beast was dangerous. Sano took a little heart.
“If you kill me, how will you explain it to Lord Matsudaira?” Sano asked.
Hoshina sneered at Sano’s ploy. “We were bringing you to your trial. You resisted. You and Hirata-san were killed in the fight.”
“He’s not going to believe that,” Sano said. “He’ll know you murdered us in cold blood.”
“Even if he does, he won’t care,” Hoshina said. “You poor sap, Lord Matsudaira is finished with you. Why do you think he’s putting you on trial? He wants to find you guilty so he can get rid of you with a clear conscience and everything official and proper.”
“In that case, he won’t be happy that you’ve deprived him of my trial,” Sano said.
“Shut up,” Torai said, then called to Hoshina, “he’s just trying to stall you.”
Doubts flickered in Hoshina’s eyes: Sano had gotten to him. He couldn’t resist answering, “I’ll bring Lord Matsudaira around.” His voice brimmed with overconfidence. “I always do.”
“Maybe you don’t know that more of my men know what Torai did because they were with me when I caught him leaving the house where he killed Lily.” Sano could tell from Hoshina’s glance at Torai that he was right. “They’ll tell my whole army. It’ll come after you to avenge my death.”
“They’d never get through my troops,” Hoshina said, but Sano heard a falter in his tone.
“Enough of this,” Torai groaned. “Let’s kill them now.”
Sano played on Hoshina’s insecurity: “You can’t. If you do, you’ll be signing your own death order.”
Hoshina dangled between his preference for playing politics instead of taking direct action and his reluctance to appear weak in front of his men. Finally he said, “I’ll take my chances.”
“If you insist. You’ve been wanting to do me in for seven years. Here I am. Come get me.” If you dare, said the gaze Sano leveled on Hoshina.
Torn between his lust for Sano’s blood and his ingrained caution, Hoshina hesitated.
Torai cried, “Come on, come on, what are you waiting for?”
Sano knew that Hoshina didn’t want to be accountable for killing him. Hoshina looked furious because he knew Sano knew.
“If you don’t want to kill him, let me!” Torai begged.
Instead Hoshina said, “Quiet!” His mouth pursed as he formed and discarded ideas. He whispered to one of his men, who nodded and rode off in a hurry.
“What in hell are you doing?” Torai demanded, so frustrated that he forgot his subservience to Hoshina. “Get rid of him now, or you’ll be sorry.”
“Oh, I’m getting rid of him, never fear,” Hoshina said.
After some moments, a shout came from behind him and his troops. Hoshina beckoned down the alley to Sano and Hirata.
“Drop your swords and come over here.”
“If you want us, come get us,” Sano said.
Hooves clattered up behind him. Sharp steel pricked his nape above his armor tunic. Turning, he saw Captain Torai, seated on his horse, holding a long, pointed lance. “Do it,” Torai said.
Much as Sano hated to give up his weapon, he knew it was no use against all these troops. He and Hirata let their swords fall.
“Both of them,” Hoshina ordered.
Sano and Hirata threw down their short swords.
“Move,” Torai said.
As they rode forward, Hirata whispered to Sano, “What are they going to do to us?”
“I guess we’ll find out,” Sano said, calm even though primed for the worst.
“Stop,” Hoshina said when they neared his end of the alley. He and his troops backed up, spread into a circle in the street outside. Into it stepped four peasant men carrying a palanquin. Bearers for hire, they looked confused and frightened.
“Get inside the palanquin,” Hoshina said.
It looked to Sano like a slow ride to hell. When neither he nor Hirata obeyed, Hoshina told his troops, “Give them a little help.”
The troops dismounted, swarmed around Sano and Hirata, and dragged them off their horses. During a brief, savage scuffle, Sano kicked one man in the chin, punched another in the throat. Hirata butted his head against faces, kneed groins. By the time they were wrestled onto the muddy ground, three troops lay bleeding and unconscious. The others lashed Sano’s and Hirata’s wrists behind them, bound their ankles, then knotted the wrist and ankle cords together so their knees were bent and they couldn’t move. The troops tied their sashes around their mouths as gags and flung them into the palanquin.
As the door closed, Hoshina said, “Enjoy the ride. It’ll be your last.”
Reiko’s procession drew up outside the Mori estate. A horde of samurai blocked the open gate, shouting angrily, spilling into the street while rain poured down on them. Peering out the window of her palanquin, Reiko saw fists waving and tussles breaking out. Some of the men wore flying-crane crests on their armor. They were Sano’s troops.
Lieutenant Asukai dismounted, ran over to the crowd, and called, “Hey! What’s going on?”
A guard who wore the crest of the Mori clan shoved Asukai. “Get lost!”
One of Sano’s soldiers saw him and Reiko’s other guards. “Asukai-san. What are you fellows doing here?”
“We’ve come to see Lady Mori,” Asukai said.
“Forget it,” the soldier said as the Mori guards manhandled him and his comrades into the street. “Chamberlain Sano ordered us to guard the estate, but they’re trying to throw us out.”
“We don’t have to put up with the likes of you anymore!” shouted a Mori guard.
Reiko realized that Sano’s authority had weakened so much that the Mori retainers no longer needed to tolerate his occupying their domain. Clambering out of the palanquin, she shouted to Lieutenant Asukai: “We have to get in there!”