SI3 The Way of the Traitor (1997) Read online

  Miochin gave a string of coins to the thieves. Outside, Sano and Hirata drew their swords, then burst into the room.

  oTokugawa Special Police Force. You're all under arrest! Sano cried.

  Amid exclamations of dismayed surprise, the thieves unsheathed their swords; Miochin and sons grabbed weapons off the wall. Aware that the penalty for theft and murder was death, the criminals advanced on Sano and Hirata, blades drawn, faces taut with desperation.

  oThe building is surrounded, Sano said. oDrop your weapons and surrender.

  Miochin laughed. oWhen oxen fly and snakes talk! he jeered. oYou shan't execute me for trying to earn my rice!

  The criminals assaulted Sano and Hirata, who fought back, blades flashing. The detective corps, hearing the commotion, stormed into the room. Sano battled Miochin. The sword tester's blade lashed the air like a whirlwind. Gradually he drove Sano backward, into the courtyard. Sano returned cut for cut while he skirted a mound of sand upon which bodies would be tied to bamboo stakes for the testing of swords. He stumbled over a pile of charred bones and turned a backward somersault over a stone furnace where Miochin evidently destroyed the remains of his ill-gotten corpses. Landing on his feet, Sano lunged at Miochin. In the streaming downpour they clashed in mortal combat. The sword tester was fighting for his life and liberty. In a way, so was Sano.

  Now he entered a plane where the corrupt regime that held him captive disappeared. He forgot the shogun; he forgot Aoi, and his self-imposed loneliness. He spared a last, worried thought for his men, who expertly battled the thieves and Miochin's sons. Their shouts and movements soon faded from his consciousness. All that mattered was his victory over this evil criminal.

  A heady euphoria heightened Sano's perception. Quickly he saw that Miochin's strength lay in his feint and recovery. He lowered his sword, apparently intending a cut across Sano's stomach. Then his blade suddenly changed direction. Sano parried the sword testers diagonal chest slice almost too late. His counterstrike slashed Miochin's thigh. Miochin gasped in pain, but didn't falter. Then Sano took a risk he would have once instructed his students to avoid.

  When Miochin hoisted his sword in both hands for a deadly vertical slash, Sano gambled that this was another feint. Resisting the instinctive urge to raise his weapon and shield his torso, he lowered and swung his blade.

  It gashed Miochin's belly from side to side. The sword tester howled in horrified surprise. Reflex carried his arms out of the feinted downslash and sideways for the crosscut he'd really intended. The light went out of his eyes before he hit the ground.

  Sano stepped back. He saw his men, all alive and well, hurrying to his rescue. The other criminals lay dead in the shop. Releasing the tension from his body in a series of deep gasps, Sano let the rain wash Miochin's blood off his sword, then sheathed it. Although killing and death were a samurai's natural domain, he hated taking lives. The act placed him uncomfortably close to the murderers he hunted. But this instance he could justify as necessary.

  oSsakan-sama. Hirata's voice cracked as he addressed Sano, his face stricken. oSumimasen "excuse me, but that was a dangerous thing to do. You could have been killed. It's my duty to serve and protect you. You should have let me take Miochin.

  oNever mind, Hirata. It's over now. And, merciful gods, with no casualties on his side! Still gasping for breath, Sano said, oWe'll report the raid to the local police. They can close down the shop, clear away the dead, and return the stolen corpse. His heart still pumped the exhilarating tonic of victory through his veins. Miochin's thieves would no longer prey on travelers or grieving families.

  Hirata tore the hem from his cloak and bound Sano's left forearm, which bled from a cut he hadn't noticed. oYou'll need a doctor when we get back to Edo Castle.

  Back to Edo Castle. The four words deflated Sano's spirits. At the castle, he must report to the shogun and face again the fact that a weak, foolish despot owned his soul. Glumly Sano looked forward to resuming his place in the corrupt Tokugawa political machine, and his bleak existence in an empty house haunted with memories of Aoi.

  Until another search for truth and justice again gave his life honor and meaning.

  IN THE MORNING, after a long night of giving orders and filing reports at police headquarters, Sano, Hirata, and the other detectives arrived at Edo Castle, which perched on its hilltop above the city, beneath low, ominous storm clouds. At the castle gate, a massive, ironclad door set in a high stone wall, guards admitted Sano and his men into the maze of passages and security checkpoints.

  oI'll meet you at home, Sano told Hirata, referring to the mansion in the castle's Official Quarter where he and his retainers lived.

  He followed a passage that wound up the hill between enclosed corridors and watchtowers manned by armed guards. He entered the inner precinct, crossed the garden, and stopped before the shogun's palace, a vast building with whitewashed plaster walls, carved wooden doors, beams, and window lattices, and a many-gabled gray tile roof.

  oSsakan Sano Ichir, reporting to His Excellency, he told the guards stationed outside.

  They bowed and opened the door without asking him to leave his swords or searching him for hidden weapons: He'd earned the shogun's trust. oYou may proceed to the inner garden, the chief guard said.

  Sano walked down cypress-floored corridors past the government offices that occupied the building's outer rooms. A sliding door, manned by more guards, led him outside again, where he followed a flagstone path through Tokugawa Tsunayoshi's private garden. The pine trees' densely fringed boughs hung still and heavy in the humid heat. Lines filled the air with a cloying sweetness; bees buzzed lazily; dead maple leaves lay motionless on the pond's glassy surface. Above the castle, a dark storm front bled across the gray sky like an ink wash on wet paper. Distant thunder rumbled. The oppressive atmosphere intensified the trapped sensation that Sano always felt in the castle. He prayed for the shogun to assign him a new criminal investigation, not another ghost hunt or spying job. Then, as he neared the thatch-roofed pavilion, he stopped, disconcerted.

  Chamberlain Yanagisawa Yoshiyasu "the shogun's second-in-command "occupied the center of the pavilion's raised wooden floor. Dressed in a cool silk summer kimono patterned in blue and ivory, he knelt before a large sheet of white paper, his slim hand holding a brush poised over it. A servant waited beside him, ready to replenish the ink, refill the water bowl, or supply him with fresh paper from a thick stack. In two rows flanking Yanagisawa knelt the five men who comprised the Council of Elders, the shogun's closest advisers and Yanagisawa's flunkies. More servants circled the pavilion, flapping fans to create an artificial breeze. But Tokugawa Tsunayoshi himself was nowhere in sight.

  In a series of rapid, graceful curves and slashes, Yanagisawa swept his brush over the paper, writing a column of characters. oSsakan, he murmured. oWon't you join us.

  Sano climbed the steps onto the pavilion, knelt, bowed, and offered formal greetings to the assembly. oHonorable Chamberlain, I've come to report to the shogun. Apprehension tightened Sano's chest: Yanagisawa's presence during an audience with the shogun boded ill for him.

  Chamberlain Yanagisawa contemplated the verse he'd written. He frowned, shook his head, and motioned for the servant to remove the page. Then he looked up at Sano. Thirty-two years old, he'd been the shogun's lover since his youth. Tall and slender, with fine features and large, liquid eyes, he possessed an arresting masculine beauty at odds with his character.

  oI'm afraid His Excellency is unavailable at the moment, he said. oWhatever you have to say, you may say to me.

  His suave tone barely concealed a massive hostility. From Sano's first days as ssakan, Chamberlain Yanagisawa had viewed him as a rival for Tokugawa Tsunayoshi's favor, for power over the weak lord and thus the entire nation. He'd tried to sabotage Sano's investigation of the Bundori Murders, and have Sano beaten to death. Sano had survived, and succeeded anyway. Unfortunately he'd also caught Chamberlain Yanagisawa in a trap he'd set for the killer, who had
taken Yanagisawa hostage, terrifying and brutalizing him before Sano could come to the rescue. Chamberlain Yanagisawa would never forgive this unintentional offense.

  oHis Excellency ordered me to report directly to him upon my return to Edo Castle, Sano said. He knew Yanagisawa was deliberately blocking his access to Tokugawa Tsunayoshi. Long ago he'd abandoned the submissive manner that demeaned him without appeasing the chamberlain. Now he refused to back down. oI will speak to him. Sano understood Yanagisawa's anger, but all sympathy had fled when the chamberlain's retaliation campaign began. For the past year, Yanagisawa had spread vicious rumors about Sano, ranging from alleged drunkenness, sexual perversion, and embezzlement to violent abuse of citizens and disloyalty toward the regime. Sano had been forced to waste much time and money battling the slander and bribing cooperation from people whom Yanagisawa had ordered not to help him. Yanagisawa's spies dogged him constantly.

  Yet so far, the chamberlain's efforts to discredit Sano had failed, as had the covert assassination attempts: a horseman nearly running him down in the street; arrows fired at him while he was in the woods on the shogun's ghost hunts. Sano continued to enjoy the favor of Tokugawa Tsunayoshi, who had latched on to him with uncharacteristic steadfastness, requiring his constant service and company.

  But now he experienced a sinking feeling as Yanagisawa said, oHis Excellency has a fever that requires a strict regimen of rest and quiet. He can see no one now "except myself, of course. Yanagisawa's finely modeled mouth turned up in a malevolent smile. oI shall relay to him the news of sword tester Miochin's death: According to official sources, he and his thieves were captured and slain by special troops sent by me.

  Anger flared inside Sano, but seeing the elders waiting in veiled anticipation for him to make a scene, he controlled his temper. oYou can't hide the truth forever, Honorable Chamberlain, he said evenly. oWhen the shogun recovers, I'll tell him what really happened.

  Chamberlain Yanagisawa dipped his brush into the ink. Across the fresh paper that the servant had placed before him, he quickly wrote three characters. Sano read them upside down: success, wind, and tree.

  oI regret to say that you won't be here when His Excellency recovers. Chamberlain Yanagisawa pushed the paper away, accepted another from the servant, and reinked his brush. oBecause I have an assignment for you. One that will take you far, far from Edo.

  Away from the shogun, who would be angry at his absence, and into Yanagisawa's power. Dread stole over Sano; nervous sweat dampened his kimono. The elders stirred. Sano stood his ground. oYou can't do that. I report to the shogun alone. My duty is to him, not you.

  Yanagisawa laughed, as did the elders. oWith His Excellency indisposed, I am in charge. I can do anything I choose. And I choose to send you on an inspection tour of Nagasaki.

  oNagasaki? Sano echoed, horrified. The western port was two months' journey from Edo. The trip there and back, plus the work itself, could consume a year "a year during which Yanagisawa could destroy Sano's reputation, turn the shogun against him, and deprive him of his position. Yet Sano foresaw even more serious consequences than these.

  oYou seem displeased, ssakan. Chamberlain Yanagisawa fairly shimmered with amusement. oI can't see why. Nagasaki is a prestigious posting. All you need do there is document the state of the government, the economy, and the citizens.

  On the blank paper, he practiced the same characters again "success, wind, tree "then signaled the servant for a clean page. oYou needn't work very hard, and you can exact a portion of the revenue from foreign trade, while enjoying a leisurely life on the beautiful Kyushu coast.

  Sano didn't want money, leisure, or a trivial job. And he knew the dark side of the rich paradise that was Nagasaki. There, the most innocent behavior, wrongly interpreted as treason, could condemn a man to death "especially a man set up by his enemies for a fall from grace. Sano could guess why Yanagisawa was sending him to Nagasaki. The chamberlain knew his propensity for breaking rules and offending important people during his investigations. The chamberlain hoped that, in Nagasaki, Sano would get in enough trouble to destroy himself once and for all. And Yanagisawa's far-reaching power could virtually guarantee it.

  oReally, Ssakan Sano, you should thank me for this splendid opportunity. Chamberlain Yanagisawa held his brush over the new sheet of paper. oI believe I'm ready to write the entire verse now, he told the elders.

  oI'm sure you'll do it beautifully, Honorable Chamberlain, said Senior Elder Makino Narisada, who was Yanagisawa's chief crony. The sinews of his ugly skull face flexed in a sly grimace at Sano.

  oI have to stay in Edo for my wedding, Sano protested, though he didn't welcome marriage and had few personal ties to keep him home.

  Chamberlain Yanagisawa smiled smugly. oI'm afraid your plans will have to be postponed indefinitely.

  Sano stood and bowed. He had nothing to gain by agreeing, and nothing to lose by refusing. oWith all due respect, Honorable Chamberlain. I'm not going to Nagasaki.

  Yanagisawa laughed. Taking a deep breath, he wrote swiftly, covering the paper with flowing characters. He contemplated his work with a sigh of satisfaction, then laid down his brush. oOh, but I think you are, Ssakan Sano.

  He fingered the fine scars on his lip and eyelid: souvenirs of his traumatic experience with the Bundori Killer. Leveling at Sano a gaze filled with vengeful glee, he clapped his hands. Five guards rushed up to the pavilion.

  oSee that Ssakan Sano is on the ship that leaves for Nagasaki tomorrow, Yanagisawa told them.

  Furious at this blatant coercion, Sano could only stare.

  oAnd oh, before you leave to prepare for your trip, Ssakan Sano, Chamberlain Yanagisawa said, eyes alight with cruel mischief, owhat do you think of my poem? I composed it specifically with you in mind.

  With a graceful flourish, he turned the paper around to face Sano. Thunder rumbled; raindrops pelted the pavilion's roof. Sano read the characters:

  In this difficult and uncertain life

  Success often requires many endeavors "

  Ah! But the wind can fell a tree

  From more than one direction.

  Chapter 2

  Where is that miserable Nagasaki harbor patrol? They should have seen us by now, and come to welcome us. Regal in his many-plated armor and horned helmet, the captain stomped angrily around the deck of the ship. oThis is a disgraceful slight against the shogun's envoys. Someone will pay! To the crew, he shouted, oPrepare for landing, and discharging our passengers.

  He sneered at Sano and Hirata, who stood in the bow, hands shielding their eyes from the sun as the ship approached Nagasaki Harbor.

  Hirata sighed in relief. Due to frequent seasickness, he was pale, shaky, and thinner than when they'd left Edo. oI sure will be glad to get off this ship.

  oYou're not the only one, Sano said.

  When Chamberlain Yanagisawa had banished him, he'd dreaded reaching Nagasaki. Yet after two months at sea, sailing along the coasts of Honsh®, Shikoku, and Ky®sh®, he rejoiced at the thought of stepping onto land. Beyond the sparkling water, the green landscape of their destination looked like paradise, for the journey had been a terrible experience.

  Like all Japanese craft, the ship, whose square sail bore the Tokugawa triple-hollyhock-leaf crest, was unseaworthy because the government wanted to discourage citizens from leaving the country. With its shallow draft, the awkward wooden tub pitched at the slightest wave. Sano and Hirata had experienced nerve-racking passages through reefs, shoals, and ferocious summer storms. They'd shared the tiny cabin with the officers, while the sailors slept on the roof, and eaten a monotonous diet of salt fish, pickles, and rice cakes. The journey's relentless pace told Sano that Chamberlain Yanagisawa had ordered the crew not to stop for bad weather, hoping Sano might die in a shipwreck. Hostilities within the bakufu's upper echelon were no secret to the lower ranks, and the crew had treated Sano resentfully, knowing the chamberlain would sacrifice their lives to destroy an enemy. And Sano had never ceased worrying abo
ut how the hiatus from Edo would affect his future.

  Thuds and crashes erupted from the stern, where the crew was bringing baggage out of the hold.

  oI'll make sure they don't ruin your things. Hirata ran down the deck, shouting, oHey, be careful with those!

  Before leaving Edo, Sano had postponed his wedding again, angering his prospective in-laws and jeopardizing the match. He'd left his detective corps behind to serve the shogun in his absence, but knew it couldn't substitute for his personal attention; he might not have a post when he got home. He seethed with anger at the regime that rewarded his accomplishments with virtual exile. Surely Chamberlain Yanagisawa was sending the governor of Nagasaki instructions to ruin him.

  But now Sano's relief at surviving the journey inspired a burst of optimism. As he neared Nagasaki, his interest stirred. He'd never been this far from home. What unknown challenges awaited him in this land of troubled history and exotic foreign influences?

  The ship moved down a wide, convoluted channel in the Ky®shcoastline. Coves adorned the shores; woodlands topped high cliffs. Terraced rice fields ascended gentler inclines. Over small islands, seabirds soared and shrieked. Fishing boats dotted the calm water. In the distance, the city of Nagasaki cascaded down the lower slopes of steep hills.