“I went to Sano’s house,” she murmured.
“You’re coaching her.” Sano was dismayed but not surprised that Yanagisawa knew about Lady Someko’s visit.
“Do you want me to bring in your guards to confirm that she was in your house?” Yanagisawa retorted, then turned back to Lady Someko. “What did you hear there?”
“I heard…” Confusion wrinkled her forehead.
“You heard my wife tell you that Yoshisato went to visit the shogun’s daughter,” Sano said. “You were upset because you realized he could have put a smallpox-infected sheet in her room. You think he killed her.” It was true, and if Sano couldn’t get rid of Lady Someko, at least he could cast aspersion on Yoshisato and distract the judges.
Lady Someko seemed oblivious to Sano. The judges’ attention was on her. “I heard Sano talking to his wife and son.” Her eyes were half closed.
“I wasn’t there,” Sano said hotly to Yanagisawa. “Go ahead, bring in my guards-they’ll tell you that.”
“What did Sano and his wife and son say?” Yanagisawa said, impatient for Lady Someko to finish the story before Sano debunked it or she fell asleep.
“Sano said Yoshisato had to die,” Lady Someko murmured. “His wife suggested setting his house on fire. His son said to make it look like an accident. Sano agreed.”
The judges blinked in surprise. Horror launched Sano to his feet as the point of Lady Someko’s testimony became clear. Yanagisawa wasn’t content to persecute Sano. He was after Reiko and Masahiro, too. “We never said that! She couldn’t have heard it!”
Guards ran to Sano, pushed him down on the mat. Yanagisawa said, “So Sano didn’t conceive the murder alone. His wife and son conspired with him.” He added triumphantly, “They’re as guilty as he is.”
“No!” Sano struggled against the guards. White sand scattered.
“They deserve to be convicted along with Sano,” Yanagisawa told the judges.
“You invented the whole story for Lady Someko to tell!” Sano shouted. “It’s a lie!”
Yanagisawa ordered, “Silence him!” The guards pinned Sano on the floor, tied a kerchief around his mouth, and twisted his arm behind his back.
Lady Someko slumped, dozing. Yanagisawa said, “The trial is concluded. Judges, render your verdict.”
Immobilized, Sano looked pleadingly up at the judges. They exchanged perturbed glances. Sano felt them weighing their choices. They could convict Sano, whom they weren’t sure was guilty, and please Yanagisawa; or they could give Sano the benefit of their doubt and enrage Yanagisawa, whose retaliations were brutal.
“Guilty,” they chorused. Lord Nabeshima brushed particles of white sand off his robe.
Yanagisawa’s chest inflated with satisfaction. “What about his wife and son?”
Inspector General Nakae spoke with confidence now that he’d made his decision about Sano. “Both guilty of treasonous conspiracy to commit arson and murder the shogun’s heir.”
The other two judges nodded adamantly. Sano shouted protests through the gag.
“Your sentence is as the law requires.” Yanagisawa’s smile was cruel, exultant. “You and your wife and son are sentenced to death. So is your daughter. Also your father-in-law Magistrate Ueda, and your other close relatives, and top retainers and their families. You will all be burned at the stake tomorrow, after Yoshisato’s funeral.”
35
The clank of a shovel digging rocky soil echoed through the hills outside Edo. Their steep, forested terrain was dark except for the clearing, where lanterns surrounded a deep, round pit. Using a pulley hung from a branch that extended over the pit, Hirata hauled up a bucket full of dirt on a rope. He dumped the dirt in the woods, then said, “That’s deep enough.”
Far below him, at the bottom of the pit, Deguchi leaned on his shovel. His face was grimy; his shaved head glistened with sweat. He tossed his shovel to Hirata. Hirata caught it in hands that were sore and blistered. He and Deguchi had taken turns digging for more than two hours. Even with their supernatural strength it was hard work.
Deguchi climbed up. He and Hirata overlaid the pit with branches they’d cut, then covered the branches with leaves and twigs.
“That trap is set,” Hirata said. “Let’s do a final inspection on everything else.”
They walked around the clearing. Hirata held a lantern up to the trees. Ropes, tied to strong boughs, were camouflaged with vines coiled around them. Hirata shone the light into a clump of bushes that hid extra swords. He examined a patch of open ground and rearranged the leaves that he and Deguchi had scattered over the forty sharp blades they’d planted upright in the earth. “And in case all else fails-”
He lowered the lantern; the light touched the thick base of an oak tree. Tucked inside a hollow was a small paper bag.
Hirata collected equipment and blew out the flames in all the lanterns except the one he held. Deguchi unrigged the pulley and coiled the rope. They sat on the flat altar stone in the center of the clearing and gazed around the battlefield they’d prepared for their confrontation with Tahara and Kitano. Deguchi mouthed, Won’t they notice that something’s different?
Mystic martial artists were hypersensitive to changes in the environment. Hirata said, “We won’t give them time to react.”
Worry dimmed the glow in Deguchi’s eyes. Is this enough?
“We’ve done the best we can.” Hirata was worried, too. He and Deguchi couldn’t defeat Tahara and Kitano in a fair fight. He hoped their preparations would give them enough of an extra advantage. “We should go back to town and get a good rest, so we’ll be ready for tomorrow.”
They had to win, or they were dead.
* * *
When Reiko arrived home, she saw the army standing outside the walls, encircling the estate. Her heart began to pound with fear. She faltered up to the gate. Soldiers wordlessly opened it for her. She found the courtyard occupied by more troops guarding the barracks. Sano’s retainers peered out the barred windows like caged animals.
Panic weakened Reiko’s legs. The baby inside her seemed suddenly heavier. She gripped the railing as she mounted the stairs. Inside the mansion, she called to Sano. Her own voice echoed. She hurried through empty corridors. The chamber where she’d left Sano was also vacant. She clutched the walls, faint with terror.
“Mama!” Akiko cried. She and Tatsuo came running.
Reiko gasped, bent, and embraced Akiko. “Where is your father?”
“The soldiers took him,” Akiko said.
Horror clenched icy tentacles around Reiko’s heart. Sano had gone to his trial. “When?”
“A long time ago.”
Had he already been convicted and put to death? Reiko shut her mind against the thought. “Where is Masahiro?”
“He hasn’t come home yet,” Akiko said.
“Where are your sister and mother?” Reiko asked Tatsuo.
“Taeko sneaked out. Mama went to find her.” Tatsuo’s face was woeful.
“Where are the servants?”
“They left.”
Because they thought Sano was done for, Reiko realized. They wanted to avoid being punished along with him. Reiko’s self-control eroded like cliffs lashed by a stormy ocean. But the children needed her; she mustn’t fall apart.
“Come with me.” She put her arms around them and hurried them along the corridor.
“Where are we going?” Tatsuo asked anxiously.
Reiko didn’t know, but she couldn’t bear staying in the deserted house. It was too full of Sano’s absence. Outside they found Detective Marume arguing with one of the soldiers in the courtyard.
“Go back in the barracks,” the soldier ordered.
“I have to talk to my master’s wife,” Marume said angrily.
The soldier saw Reiko and the children on the veranda. “Oh, all right. Just stay outside where I can see you.”
Marume bounded onto the veranda, muttering, “When this is over, I’m going to slice off your fat rear end and you’ll never be able to sit down again.”