door.
It wasn’t completely closed, and there was a small, barred window at eye level in its iron-banded surface. Cautiously, Reiko peered through the window. Color dazzled her eyes. The spacious room inside was lined with curtains printed in brilliant, swirling abstract patterns of crimson, orange, and purple. The curtains shimmered in the light of lanterns; bathing in garish radiance the people in the room.;
At the back, High Priest Anraku sat cross-legged on a platform. His white robe glowed ruddy; his brocade stole sparkled. To his right stood Priest Kumashiro, like a bronze statue in saffron robe and armor tunic, swords at his waist. Abbess Junketsu-in, clad in white robe and head drape, was kneeling on the tatami at the left side of the room. Opposite her knelt Dr. Miwa, in formal dark kimono.
Reiko realized that this was where the Black Lotus leaders planned to wait out the conflagration they’d devised. Eight priests-evidently high sect officials-stood along the walls. Everyone stared at Haru, crouched on hands and knees in the center of the room, facing Anraku.
Dr. Miwa said to her, “How did you get here?”
“The sosakan-sama brought me. I sneaked away.” Haru spoke as if proud of her cleverness.
“Did anyone see you enter the tunnels?” Kumashiro said, obviously concerned about security in the temple’s underground.
He looked toward the door, and Reiko ducked beneath the window. She heard Haru say, “No, there was so much confusion, nobody knows I left.” Haru was still lying, Reiko observed with irony; the girl couldn’t have forgotten that there was one person who would have noticed her absence. “Oh, Anraku-san, I’m so glad to be with you again.” Haru’s voice trembled with emotion, then faltered, “Aren’t you glad I came back?”
“After you traded our secrets to get better treatment for yourself?” Junketsu-in said incredulously. Reiko understood that the sect had learned the results of Haru’s trial. “You betrayed us. And now you expect us to welcome you? Hah!”
Reiko risked another peek through the window and saw Anraku appraising Haru in thoughtful silence. Haru beseeched him, “Please let me explain. I only did what I did because they made me.” Though Reiko couldn’t see Haru’s face, she could picture its expression of wounded innocence. Haru was still making excuses, Reiko noted in disgust, and still blaming other people for her actions.
“Wicked little traitor,” Junketsu-in hissed at Haru.
“I’ll get rid of her,” Kumashiro said. Striding over to Haru, he grabbed her arm.
“Let me go,” Haru cried. As Kumashiro hauled her toward the door, she appealed to Anraku, who sat grave and still on his altar: “I can’t bear to be separated from you again. If you throw me out, they’ll catch me and kill me. I’m sorry for causing you trouble. I beg you to forgive me. If you let me stay, I’ll prove how loyal I am.” She was crying now, and Reiko glimpsed her panic-stricken face. “I promise!”
Anraku spoke with quiet authority. “Release her.”
Kumashiro hesitated; his brows slanted downward in displeasure, but he obeyed. Haru thudded onto the floor. Anraku held out his hand to her.
“Come,” he said.
With a glad cry, Haru crawled over to him, seized his hand, and pressed it to her face. “I knew you wouldn’t forsake me.” Now she wept for joy. “I’ll do anything to repay your mercy.”
“My lord, don’t you see that she’s playing on your sympathy, just as she’s always done?” Junketsu-in said. “How can you still be so blind to her evil ways?” She leaned anxiously toward Anraku. “Please don’t take her back. She’ll destroy us all-if she hasn’t already.”
“I’m afraid the abbess is right,” Dr. Miwa said timidly, sucking breath through his teeth.
Reiko watched Anraku draw Haru close, and anger glint in his eye. “Do not accuse me of blindness or gullibility,” he said. “I see and understand all that mortal fools such as you cannot.” Miwa and Junketsu-in cringed from his wrath; Haru sat below the platform, snuggling against his knees. “Haru has played the role for which she was destined. She performed the blood sacrifice necessary to set the cosmic forces in motion. She occasioned the persecution that generated spiritual energy within the Black Lotus. And now she has ushered in the third sign heralding our day of glory: The siege of the temple.”
Reiko marveled at how the high priest had interpreted events to fit his prophecies. Indeed, he seemed to believe his own insane logic. His faith in it, plus the force of his personality, had turned his followers’ desire for spiritual fulfillment into a desire to kill and die for him.
Regarding Haru fondly, Anraku caressed her hair. “My child, you are indeed an instrument of fortune. Because of you, the triumph of the Black Lotus is at hand.”
And he viewed mortal crimes as steps toward spiritual enlightenment. The magnitude of his madness and his perversion of Buddhism astounded Reiko.
Haru preened like a child praised for good behavior and directed a triumphant gaze toward Junketsu-in. “You always hated me because I’m more important to him than you are. Now I’m going to tell you exactly what I think of you. You’re a mean, jealous, stupid whore.” As Junketsu-in sputtered indignantly, Haru laughed, then turned to Dr. Miwa. “And you’re a dirty, disgusting lecher.”
Dr. Miwa glowered; Haru’s contemptuous stare encompassed him and the abbess. “You tried to get rid of me, but it didn’t work,” Haru taunted. “You’ll both be sorry you said bad things about me.” Then, while Anraku beheld his followers with lofty amusement, she glared at Kumashiro. “And you’ll be sorry you tried to scare me into confessing.”
Reiko was appalled by Haru’s selfish spite. The girl had committed murder and arson, and people were dying by the score, yet all she seemed to care about was regaining Anraku’s esteem and taking revenge on her enemies. Reiko felt fresh shame over befriending Haru.
“I must contradict your opinion of how well things have turned out,” Kumashiro said to Anraku. “I’ve been aboveground and seen what’s happening. Our people are being slaughtered. There won’t be enough of them left to conquer Edo, let alone the rest of Japan. Our mission is doomed.”
“It wouldn’t be, if you’d trained the nuns and priests into a better army.” Junketsu vented on Kumashiro the animosity she dared not express toward Haru now that the girl had Anraku’s favor. “You’ve only yourself to blame for our defeat.”
“Peasants are no match for samurai,” Kumashiro said defensively. “I taught them as well as anyone could.”
“The poison I concocted is very potent,” Dr. Miwa said in a voice timid yet prideful. “If even a few of the couriers reach the city, the result will be most gratifying.”
Junketsu-in gave a disdainful laugh. “A few doses of your stinking goo will accomplish too little to matter. If you’d perfected the poison gas, it would have spread on the wind. But Shinagawa proved that you’re a miserable failure.”
Dr. Miwa muttered. Kumashiro walked over to Junketsu-in, his fists clenched. “What right have you to berate us?” he demanded. “You, who are a weak, ignorant female, and good for nothing. Hold your tongue, or I’ll cut it out of your head.”
The antagonists either still trusted Anraku and didn’t blame him for the havoc he’d wrought, or were afraid to criticize him, Reiko thought.
“My lord.” Kumashiro addressed Anraku in respectful entreaty. “The soldiers will soon come looking for us. We must leave at once.”
Panic shot through Reiko. If they left, what would she do?
“We will stay,” Anraku said, his expression obstinate. Haru rested her head on his knee, blissfully oblivious to the argument. “My army shall triumph. We shall achieve enlightenment here, on this night, as my vision has foretold. I’ll not let the enemy drive me away.”
Yet Junketsu-in’s face displayed fear and shock. She said, “They might be coming even now. They’ll kill us all. I want to go.”
“You wish to desert me at the advent of my new world?” Impervious to reason, Anraku frowned. “Is this how you repay me for the wealth and privilege I’ve lavished upon you? With cowardice and disloyalty?” He flung out a hand, waving Junketsu-in away. “Then by all means, go. But if you do, our paths shall never again converge.”
“No,” Junketsu-in cried,”I don’t mean to desert you. “ She lurched toward Anraku, as if to throw herself into his arms, but Haru already occupied them. “I want you to come with me.”
A loud boom from aboveground shuddered the tunnel. Reiko gasped. Crouching, she covered her head with her
