Red Chrysanthemum (12 page)

“Merciful gods save us,” Lord Mori whispered. “There must be some other way!”

During that sleepless night, inspiration came to Lord Mori.

He saw how to remain true to his honor and thwart Chamberlain Sano without ill consequences. Hope bloomed amid despair.

The next evening he went to a rundown teahouse far from Edo Castle. He sat alone, clutching a cup of sake. In the dim, lamp-lit room, a few commoners drank and played cards with the proprietor; they ignored him. He peered anxiously outside at the street, visible beneath the curtains that hung across the entrance. Had anyone followed him here? Rain drizzled on the deserted neighborhood. Chamberlain Sano had spies everywhere. They could smell treachery as keenly as a dog scents blood. Lord Mori fidgeted and waited.

A samurai rode on horseback up the street. He dismounted outside the teahouse. As he entered, he shook raindrops off his cloak and removed his wicker hat. He glanced around the room, then knelt opposite Lord Mori.

“A fine night to be out,” he said.

“Er, yes.” Lord Mori had made discreet inquiries through a trusted friend, who’d arranged this meeting, but his nerves tensed tighter nonetheless. He studied his companion, a fellow of indeterminate age, nondescript appearance, and weary, bland expression. In a crowd, Lord Mori wouldn’t have given him a second look. Perhaps that was an advantage for a spy in the
metsuke,
the government intelligence service.

The proprietor came over to them; the spy ordered sake. They drank. The card game grew noisy as the players shouted bets and exchanged good-natured insults. The spy said, “You have something to tell me?”

Lord Mori nodded, but hesitated. His heart raced; he trembled with apprehension. “First you must promise that no one will ever know we spoke. You must never tell anyone where you got the information that I am about to relate.”

“Don’t worry. Your secret is safe with me.” The spy smiled. “This meeting never happened.”

Reassured, Lord Mori described Lady Reiko’s visit, proposition, and threats.

“That’s very interesting.” The spy looked impressed in spite of himself. Lord Mori sensed excitement under his blandness. “Many thanks for coming forward.” He rose to go.

“Wait.” Lord Mori clutched at his sleeve. “What are you going to do with my information? Will you pass it on to Lord Matsudaira?”

“Of course,” said the spy.

“And he’ll stop Chamberlain Sano from seizing power?” Lord Mori said eagerly.

“Yes, indeed.”

“Will he do it before Chamberlain Sano can punish me for not agreeing to help him take over the country?”

The spy smiled. “Chamberlain Sano will be crushed like an insect before he makes a single move. Don’t worry.”

Lord Mori rushed home to tell his wife and son what had happened. They all celebrated.

“You’ve saved us!” Lady Mori wept for joy as she hugged him.

“Father, you’re so clever,” Enju said with admiration.

“Yes, I am, if I do say so myself,” Lord Mori said proudly.

He’d never before felt such blissful relief. That night he slept well. In the morning he ate a good meal and caught up on work he’d neglected while fretting about Lady Reiko and Chamberlain Sano. He looked forward to hearing the news that Lord Matsudaira had banished or executed them.

That night he’d retired to his private chambers, put on his dressing gown, and was ready to climb into bed, when he heard knocking at the door. He opened it and found Lady Reiko standing on the veranda.

“What are you doing here?” Although Lord Mori wasn’t afraid of her anymore, he was surprised to see her.

She smiled her mischievous smile. “I told you I would come back.” Rain saturated the air and dripped from the trees in the dark, sodden garden, but she looked as immaculately groomed and beautiful as ever. “And here I am.”

“How did you get to my private chambers?” His guards shouldn’t have let her come.

“Oh, I have ways of getting wherever I want to go,” Lady Reiko said. “Aren’t you going to invite me in?”

How arrogant she was! How her husband’s power allowed her to impose on everybody! But soon she would learn her lesson. Lord Mori didn’t have to put up with her rudeness anymore. “I was just about to go to bed.” His first impulse was to throw her out of his estate, but then he thought what a pleasure it would be to watch her thinking she had him under her thumb, not knowing what lay in store for her.

“But we can have a drink first,” Lord Mori said.

Brimming with vindictive glee, he led Reiko to his sitting room. He bustled around, setting out cups, fetching his best sake, enjoying himself while acting nervous. Let her think him desperate to placate her. As they knelt and drank, he could hardly contain his mirth.

“Toda Ikkyu sends you his regards,” she said.

The name jolted Lord Mori. “Who?”

“Your friend the
metsuke
spy,” Reiko said. “The one you met at the teahouse yesterday.”

Lord Mori felt a chill creep into his bones. She knew about the meeting! He was too upset to pretend he didn’t know what she meant, to deny any contact with Toda. “What—how… ?”

Reiko laughed. “You thought that if you reported my husband and me to Toda, he would go to Lord Matsudaira, who would protect you from us. Well, the trick is on you. Toda brought your story straight to my husband. He’s my husband’s spy, not Lord Matsudaira’s.”

Such horror dawned on Lord Mori that the liquor he’d drunk curdled into bile in his stomach. He thought he would vomit.

Anger, contempt, and malicious humor glinted in Reiko’s eyes. “You fool! You thought you could beat us. You should have joined us instead. But you’ve lost your chance. Now we know you can’t be trusted. Now you’ll pay.”

Lord Mori shrank from her in terror. He looked around, expecting to see Chamberlain Sano’s troops invading his estate. He tried to call his guards, but only a squeak came from his mouth. His throat felt choked up, swollen inside. His heart pounded so hard and loud that it felt like thunder reverberating through him. He realized he was suffering from more than just fright. Struck by panic, he lurched to his feet. Dizziness sent him reeling around the room. What was happening to him?

Reiko’s laughter echoed strangely in his ears. Her image wavered before him. “I put poison in your cup,” she said in a voice that sounded remote, distorted into an eerie drone. As he gasped and clutched his throat, she said, “But it won’t kill you. I’ll do the honors myself.”

She rose and glided toward him.
No! Leave me alone!
Lord Mori tried to cry but couldn’t. He staggered backward into his bedchamber. He collapsed with a thud that shook the floor. Reiko stood over him.

Help!
His lips formed the soundless word.

Reiko grabbed his feet and dragged him onto his bed. He tried to resist, but his limbs were paralyzed. He felt the poison spreading a noxious lethargy through him. She untied his sash and opened his robe. His mind was the only part of him that remained alert, his eyes the only part he could move. Wide with terror, they tracked Reiko as she undressed herself. She flung her garments into a corner. She stood naked except for a dagger strapped to her arm.

“I don’t want to get blood on my clothes,” she said.

She drew the dagger and plunged it into his abdomen. Horrendous pain stabbed him. He uttered a muffled squeal. Blood spewed from the wound, gurgled in his throat, splashed Reiko. She laughed at his suffering while she stabbed him again and again. Her beautiful, crazed face filled his vision as he swooned. She seized his genitals in her fist and lowered the blade to them.

Wild, helpless outrage thrashed inside Lord Mori. “You won’t get away with this,” he managed to whisper.

“Oh, yes, I will.” Her voice echoed and intertwined with the throbbing of his wounds. “I’m married to Chamberlain Sano. He’s invincible. No one can touch him. Or me.”

The blade slashed.

10

A horrendous scream burst from the medium. Everyone in the shogun’s audience chamber flinched. Lady Nyogo’s childish face contorted as though from the pain Lord Mori had felt when the knife cut him. Her body jerked in convulsions; her head tossed. The exposed whites of her eyes bulged. The scream propelled saliva from her mouth. Sano started to interrupt, as he had many times during the seance, to protest the outrageous lies she’d told about Reiko and himself. But the shogun waved a hand, silencing Sano yet again.

“Oh, spirit of Lord Mori,” the shogun said, “what happened next?”

Lady Nyogo twitched, groaned, and choked. Police Commissioner Hoshina and Captain Torai watched her, and Sano, with undisguised glee. Hirata looked as beset by apprehension as Sano felt. Lord Matsudaira fixed an ireful, ominous gaze on them. The medium’s convulsions diminished; she sagged.

“I felt my heart pumping the blood from me.” The deep, masculine voice was now weak, sorrowful. “I felt my life-force waning. The world dissolved into blackness before my eyes.” She breathed slow, labored sips of air. “And then I died.”

“What did Lady Reiko do?” the shogun asked eagerly.

“I didn’t see.” The voice faded. “My spirit drifted off into the cosmos. I can tell you no more.”

“She’s, ahh, coming out of her trance,” the shogun said.

Nyogo’s eyes closed; her face relaxed. She stirred, blinked, and stretched, as if awakening from a nap. Her innocent, puzzled gaze surveyed the men staring at her. “What happened?” She seemed to have forgotten. “Did I say anything?”

“Yes, indeed,” Lord Matsudaira said grimly.

“You did very well,” the shogun told her. “You may go now.”

As she rose, Sano said, “Wait just a moment.” Even though the seance had been impressive, he didn’t believe that Lord Mori’s spirit had spoken through her. He wasn’t about to let her leave until he’d exposed her as a fraud.

Nyogo hesitated; she looked to the shogun.

Police Commissioner Hoshina said quickly, “Your Excellency, we’re finished with the girl. We need to discuss the information she’s given us. Let her go.”

Sano doubted that Hoshina thought the medium was any more genuine than he did. But Hoshina had a vested interest in having everyone else believe her.

“Your Excellency, that seance was a hoax,” Sano declared. “None of what Nyogo said happened. That wasn’t the spirit of Lord Mori we heard. It was her pretending to be him.”

“No, you are mistaken,” the shogun said. “She’s a genuine medium. I have, ahh, communicated with my ancestors through her on many an occasion.” Stubbornness hardened his weak features. “I believe that what she said is the absolute truth. Shame on you for trying to discredit her.”

Sano’s heart sank because his protest had backfired and he’d angered the shogun, which he couldn’t afford to do. Hoshina gleamed with malicious satisfaction.

The shogun said to Lady Nyogo, “You’re dismissed.” As the door closed behind her, he announced, “Well, ahh, now we know how Lord Mori died and who killed him.”

Even while Sano opened his mouth to defend himself and Reiko against the medium’s ridiculous accusations, and Hoshina made ready to counter him, the shogun said, “But I don’t quite understand
why.”
He turned to Lord Matsudaira. “What was all that business about a war? Why would anyone plot to overthrow you? Why did Lord Mori think you rule Japan?”

Danger thickened the air. Nobody moved. Sano thought the shogun was at long last about to learn what was going on. Everyone waited in suspense for Lord Matsudaira’s answer.

“I don’t know, Honorable Cousin,” Lord Matsudaira said smoothly. “Lord Mori was mistaken about the part of his tale that had to do with me.”

“Oh.” The shogun nodded as if he preferred this simple explanation to a more complicated, truthful, and disturbing one.

“Then he could also have been mistaken about the part that had to do with my wife and myself,” Sano pointed out.

“Perhaps.” Lord Matsudaira fixed a hostile stare on Sano. “But perhaps not.”

Sano saw
that
even if Lord Matsudaira suspected the medium was a fraud, he was so insecure that he was ready to distrust Sano.

“Does this mean that not only did Lady Reiko kill Lord Mori, but Chamberlain Sano is plotting to take over the country from me?” Horror filled the shogun’s expression.

Before the seance, Sano had thought things couldn’t get worse; yet now he, as well as Reiko, had been implicated in the murder. “No, Your Excellency,” he said with calm, controlled sincerity, “because she didn’t and I’m not.”

“He’s lying,” Hoshina rushed to say. “He’s ambitious to seize power, and he sent his wife to do his dirty work for him.”

“Chamberlain Sano has built up a huge personal army during the past few years,” Torai said. “What is it for, if not to overthrow Your Excellency?”

The shogun looked at Sano with fearful loathing. “I thought you were my friend. How could you betray me like this?”

“I haven’t,” Sano insisted. “I maintain those troops to keep order and help me run the government for you.”

Pushed further onto the defensive, he launched a counterattack at Hoshina: “A few moments ago you were all in favor of believing Lady Mori’s story about the murder. Now you’ve jumped onto the medium’s story, which completely contradicts it. How can you justify that?”

Hoshina grinned. “I like the medium’s story better.”

That it incriminated Sano certainly benefited Hoshina’s campaign against him. Sano said, “There’s no evidence to support it.”

“Indeed there is,” Lord Matsudaira said with dark satisfaction. “Her version of Lord Mori fits the man I knew—a timid, weak soul.”

“You may have known Lord Mori, but you weren’t present at his murder,” Sano reminded him. “You can’t verify the critical part of the medium’s tale.”

“Well, then,” the shogun said, eager to think that Sano had not betrayed him and he hadn’t been a fool to trust Sano.

“There’s enough truth to the medium’s tale for us to be concerned about Chamberlain Sano’s loyalty,” Lord Matsudaira said. “We can’t take the chance that he’s planning to overthrow you. The Tokugawa regime has lasted ninety-five years because it’s always been quick to crush any potential threat. I recommend that you put Chamberlain Sano and his wife to death.”