“Why didn’t you kill Ienobu first?” Hirata asked.
I couldn’t find him. I didn’t know his name. I didn’t see him until after the earthquake. I was at the castle for a religious ceremony, and there he was, the shogun’s nephew.
“By then you’d sworn to put the secret society ahead of everything else. You’d agreed to help the ghost make Ienobu the next shogun.” Hirata was stunned by Deguchi’s dilemma, which he’d never imagined. “If you killed him, you would be breaking your oath to the society.”
Deguchi’s expression was obstinate. I swore revenge on him before the secret society was formed.
Hirata saw that he and Deguchi both had preexisting commitments from before they’d joined the society. Hirata’s was his loyalty to Sano; Deguchi’s, to the wounded child he’d been.
“How were you supposed to get away with killing Ienobu?” Hirata asked. “Didn’t you think Tahara and Kitano would find out?”
Deguchi shrugged. They trust me.
“When they heard how Ienobu died, wouldn’t they have suspected you?”
I threw a bullet at him. He’d have looked like he’d been shot. It even made a noise like a gun. Things do when they move faster than sound travels. Tahara and Kitano wouldn’t have connected his death with me.
“You had everything figured out, didn’t you?”
Not everything. Deguchi looked mournful. General Otani will know what I just did. Nothing can be hidden from him. I wish Tahara and Kitano and I had never killed Ozuno and stolen the magic spell book! I don’t want to follow a ghost’s orders anymore! The passion in his words burned Hirata’s mind with a sizzle of nerve impulses. Tahara and Kitano used to be my best friends, but they changed. All they want is to learn new powers. They care more about pleasing the ghost than they care about me! Hirata saw the lonely orphan in Deguchi, angry because his friends had let him down. I wish I could get out of the secret society. If they find out I’m going against them, they’ll kill me. Or Otani will, the next time I go into a trance.
It was the same punishment with which the ghost had threatened Hirata.
That’s the price I’ll pay for revenge on Ienobu. My own life. Deguchi gave Hirata a quizzical look. Why were you following me?
“When I went into a trance during the ritual, General Otani ordered me to kill you.”
Deguchi flung Hirata’s hand away from him. Shock and fear were written on his face.
“Wait! I’m not going to do it!” Hirata saw a solution to his problems-and Deguchi’s. “I think we can help each other.”
Warily hopeful, Deguchi gestured for Hirata to explain. Hirata said, “I don’t want to be a slave to a ghost, either. I want to get out of the society, too. I decided I had to kill the other members. Someone had to be first. That was you. But now I don’t have to kill you.” Happier than he’d been in ages, Hirata extended his hand to Deguchi. “Let’s team up together. We’ll kill Tahara and Kitano before they can kill us.”
Deguchi stared at Hirata’s hand as if it were a blade that would slice him. Hirata knew that asking him to turn on his friends was asking a lot of Deguchi. And they both knew that killing Tahara and Kitano would be no easy task.
“It’s the only way we’ll ever be free,” Hirata said.
A long moment passed. Hirata exerted all the force of his mental powers, willing Deguchi to see reason. In the distance, a temple bell tolled the hour. Then, with an air of resignation, Deguchi grasped Hirata’s hand. How would we get rid of General Otani?
An iron band around Hirata’s heart loosened. He wanted to jump up and down and laugh with exultation. He had an ally against Tahara and Kitano! But it was too early to celebrate.
“We burn the magic book so that no one can learn the rituals and General Otani’s ghost can never come back,” Hirata said.
That’s not good enough. Ozuno said there are other copies of the book. Somebody else could summon the ghost. Who knows, it could come after us. Before we destroy the book, we have to learn the reverse spell that sends the ghost back to the world of the dead forever.
“Then that’s what we’ll do.”
Together they would vanquish Tahara, Kitano, and the ghost. Before his five days were up, Hirata would be free. He could reclaim his honor and his rightful place at Sano’s side.
23
As Sano was leaving the palace, a page came up to him, said, “Here’s a message,” and handed him a scroll container.
Sano opened it and unfurled the scroll. He read calligraphy as crooked as the man who’d written it: “Please meet me at the forest preserve, to discuss a matter of urgent importance to both of us. Ienobu.”
The forest preserve was a carefully maintained wilderness inside Edo Castle. In the early days after the earthquake, Sano had once gone to the preserve to escape the devastation and have a solitary rest from his constant toil. He’d found it overrun by other men there for the same purpose and servants sawing up fallen trees for firewood. Now the preserve was quiet, the foliage golden green where the late afternoon sun shone on it and black under the clouds. The only blight was Ienobu and two bodyguards, seated on a blanket spread on the grass, amid empty lacquer lunch boxes, below a canopy.
“I had a bet with myself that you would get here by the time we finished our picnic,” Ienobu said as Sano approached. The guards went to stand by the gate in the wall that surrounded the preserve, within clear sight of Ienobu and Sano but out of earshot. Ienobu extended his gnarled hand to Sano. “Please, join me.”
Sano knelt under the canopy. He and Ienobu exchanged bows.
“Did you have a good talk with my uncle?” Ienobu asked.
At first Sano was surprised that Ienobu knew he’d seen the shogun; then enlightenment struck. “It was you who told him I’m investigating Tsuruhime’s death.”
Ienobu grinned; his lips pulled farther back from his teeth. “Very astute of you.”
“You suggested that the shogun should ask me why I’m investigating,” Sano deduced. “You sent a page to waylay me outside the palace after I left.”
Ienobu nodded.
“How did you manage to get to your uncle? You were banned from court.”
“Oh, I still have friends inside the castle. They sneaked me into the palace. My uncle was a bit reluctant to see me, but when I told him that you’re investigating his daughter’s death, he listened.”
“How do you know I am?” Sano asked.
“I have friends in Lord Tsunanori’s estate. They said you’d been asking questions.”
“Who are they?”
Ienobu touched his finger to his lips. “A wise man repays favors with discretion.”
Sano had an image of an octopus with Ienobu’s face, sitting in a dark, underwater cave, its long tentacles rippling outward, their suction cups attaching to anything or anyone it thought useful. “Why did you tell the shogun?”
“I think he deserves to know what’s going on behind his back,” Ienobu said with a sanctimonious air.
“Forgive me if I don’t believe you’re that altruistic. Are you using me to attack Yanagisawa and Yoshisato? It would please you to have the shogun suspect them of killing his daughter.”
Ienobu laughed, a wheezy sound like stiff leather bellows pumping. “I can’t put anything over on you, can I, Sano-san?”
“Not when it’s obvious that you’d like Yoshisato to fall out of favor with the shogun so you can inherit the dictatorship. How did you know Yoshisato and Yanagisawa are suspects?”
“I figured you wouldn’t have convinced yourself that Tsuruhime was murdered and run a secret inquiry, except to get at them.”
Sano wondered whether Ienobu knew about Lady Nobuko, Korika, and the infected sheet. He didn’t ask lest he give away information that Ienobu would put to bad use. “I didn’t tell the shogun that they’re suspects.”