arms as dirt trickled through the rafters and startled exclamations arose from Anraku’s chamber. She heard Dr. Miwa cry, “They’re setting off the bombs,” and Junketsu-in’s panicky voice: “The temple will come down and crush us!”
The idea terrified Reiko, yet the thought of Sano up there in the explosions terrified her even more. A burning smell drifted through the tunnel-the temple must be on fire. Reiko fought the urge to run to Sano. Looking through the window, she saw Junketsu-in, Miwa, Kumashiro, and the priests huddling near Anraku as if craving shelter from him.
Another blast rocked the hanging lanterns. As Reiko braced herself against the lurch of the ground under her feet, Anraku said suavely, “Perhaps it would be best to pursue destiny elsewhere.”
So he still had some sense of self-preservation, Reiko thought, quailing at the calamity that his flight posed for her. If Haru went with him, Reiko must follow.
“I’ve ordered provisions packed for a journey,” Kumashiro said. “There’s enough money for us to live on indefinitely. Your followers in the provinces will shelter us. We’ll hide until the hunt for us dies down, then take on different names and recruit new followers. You and I will revive the Black Lotus and found another temple.”
Reiko saw shock freeze the countenances of the abbess and doctor as they absorbed Kumashiro’s meaning. Haru, still seated close to Anraku, looked around, confused. Junketsu-in demanded of Kumashiro, “You think you’re going to take him away with you and leave the rest of us here? Well, I won’t stand for that. Where he goes, I go.”
Dr. Miwa said with a nervous smile, “Honorable High Priest, surely you’ll need me to help you start over.”
As Anraku surveyed the group, cunning gleamed in his eye. “We’ll all go,” he said. Reiko supposed that he needed devoted attendants to help him survive, and thrived on the discord among them. He rose and stepped off his platform, raising Haru to her feet.
“Not her,” Kumashiro said.
Haru’s brow puckered; Anraku hesitated. Junketsu-in chimed in eagerly, “She can’t keep secrets. If she travels with us, she’ll tell the wrong people who we are. The bakufu will find us. We’ll never be safe with her around.”
“She’s an escaped criminal,” Dr. Miwa said. “The police will hunt us even harder, to get her. We must abandon her to improve our chances of survival.”
If they did abandon Haru, then Reiko would be spared the trouble of pursuing them. Reiko held her breath, hoping she could capture Haru after Anraku and his officials departed, then warn Sano before they got too far.
Haru stared at her enemies, aghast. She clutched Anraku’s arm. “But I want to go with you. You won’t leave me?”
“The fewer who go, the easier to hide,” Kumashiro said.
Anraku shook off Haru and stepped away from her.
“No!” Haru screamed. Dropping to her knees, she hugged Anraku’s legs and babbled, “Nothing can separate us. My path is the path that unites all others-you said so, don’t you remember? The future of the Black Lotus depends on me. We were meant to be together, forever. You must take me with you.”
Watching, Reiko exhaled, silently imploring Anraku to leave Haru and take the others away. Anraku focused a speculative, searching gaze on Haru. He said to the priests, “Bring our prisoner.”
His order, which seemed to have no bearing on the circumstances, baffled Reiko.
“Not her, too,” Junketsu-in protested.
A pair of the priests vanished through a doorway behind the curtains at the back of the room. They reemerged carrying a limp, horizontal figure clad in a gray robe. The arms dangled; long hair trailed on the floor. The head lolled toward Reiko.
It was Midori, Reiko realized in shock.
Midori’s eyes were closed, her lips slack. Unconscious, she didn’t stir when the priests laid her on the floor near Anraku’s platform. She lay motionless except for the slow rise and fall of her bosom as she breathed. The sect must have drugged her with sleeping potion, Reiko supposed. Even as she experienced the joy of finding her friend, fear knifed through her. What did Anraku mean to do with Midori?
Junketsu-in said vehemently to Anraku, “She’s a spy. You can’t bring her along.”
“I’ve enough potion to keep her unconscious for a long time,” Dr. Miwa said, ogling Midori’s body.
Now Reiko realized with dreadful certainty that she must follow the fugitives. She couldn’t leave Midori to them, and there would be no time to fetch Sano. Yet new hope awakened inside her, fragile and vibrant as butterfly wings. At least she’d located Midori. Might she somehow rescue her friend?
“Lady Midori still has an important purpose to serve,” Anraku said, unperturbed.
“You’re going to take her and not me?” Haru shrilled in panic. She clutched Anraku tighter. “But you can’t!”
“If we have to carry her, she’ll slow us down,” Kumashiro pointed out.
Another bomb exploded. Junketsu-in screamed; everyone ducked. There was a rumbling sound like a flood of rocks: a tunnel had collapsed nearby.
“Let’s go now, before it’s too late,” Junketsu-in pleaded. “We can just leave Lady Midori here with Haru.”
As Reiko’s heart leapt at the possibility, Midori slept on, oblivious. A strange smile shimmered on Anraku’s lips.
“A new vision has just revealed to me the final purpose for which Lady Midori is destined.” He stared down at Haru. “Do you truly wish my forgiveness?”
“Yes,” she gasped, lifting a hopeful face to him, “more than anything in the world.”
“You wish to prove your loyalty to me?”
“Oh, yes.” Haru was wheezing, pathetic in her eagerness.
“You would do anything to earn the privilege of accompanying me?”
“Anything!” Haru cried, as Reiko tried to figure out where the conversation was leading.
The high priest’s smile broadened. “Then kill Lady Midori.”
Horror reverberated inside Reiko like the toll of a shattered bell. Through her panic she saw Junketsu-in’s and Miwa’s faces go blank with surprise at Anraku’s order. Kumashiro frowned, as though disappointed to be deprived of killing Midori himself, or perhaps doubtful that Haru could accomplish the task. Haru slowly unclasped her arms from Anraku and sat back on her heels. Reiko read trepidation in the furrowed lines of the girl’s profile.
Then Haru nodded, murmuring, “If you wish, Anraku-san.”
She stood and walked toward Midori. Reiko, aghast to see her friend’s life placed in the hands of a murderer who cared about nothing except appeasing Anraku, felt a shout of protest rise in her: Haru, no!
Anraku mounted his platform. “Give her your sword,” he said to Kumashiro.
Reiko watched in shock as the priest drew his long sword and offered it to Haru. She clumsily grasped the hilt in both hands. Raising the blade over her head, she positioned herself a few paces from Midori’s neck. She drew a deep breath and gradually lowered the blade, looking sideways at Anraku.
He nodded and smiled encouragingly. Kumashiro and Dr. Miwa watched the moving blade, while Junketsu-in turned away and clapped a hand over her mouth. A nightmarish state of paralysis gripped Reiko, numbing her thoughts and muscles. She couldn’t move; she could only watch. Haru’s wheezes and the clattering in the tunnels marked the slow passage of time. Midori’s eyelids fluttered. The blade hovered low over her throat. Haru winced. Her knuckles tightened convulsively on the sword.
The undeniable knowledge that Midori’s death was imminent jarred Reiko out of her paralysis. “Stop!” she shouted.
Pushing the door open, she burst into the room.
36
Go with fearless heart,
Begrudge neither limb nor life,
But with a single mind concentrate
On the pursuit of ultimate enlightenment.
