“Tell us who did send you to kill the tutor,” Sano ordered.
His voice was drowned by the men’s sobs, threats from Lord Matsudaira and General Isogai, and the shogun saying feebly, “Quiet, everyone quiet!”
“We must atone for betraying our master,” Ishikawa cried. “We must restore our honor.” He and Ejima reached under their sleeves and whipped out daggers.
Aghast, Sano lunged and grabbed for the weapons. So did Hirata, Lord Matsudaira, and a horde of troops. They and Sano collided while the shogun exclaimed, “What’s going on?”
Amid the confusion, Ishikawa and Ejima plunged the daggers into their bellies and ripped the blades through their innards. They screamed in agony.
Sano, Hirata, Lord Matsudaira, and the troops fell back from the two men, who collapsed onto the floor. Ishikawa and Ejima moaned and convulsed. Blood poured from their cut bellies.
“Merciful Buddha!” The shogun’s complexion turned green. “I’m going to be sick!” He leaned over the edge of the dais and retched.
“You should have searched them for hidden weapons,” Lord Matsudaira berated General Isogai.
“I didn’t think there was any need,” Isogai retorted. “Who knew they would commit seppuku right in the palace?”
“Someone fetch a doctor!” Sano shouted.
“It’s too late,” Hirata said. “Those wounds are fatal.”
Ishikawa’s and Ejima’s faces turned white; the life rapidly drained from their eyes. Lord Matsudaira shouted, “Don’t you dare die yet!” He grabbed the men by the front of their robes and shook them. “Not before you tell the shogun that Chamberlain Sano ordered you to assassinate the tutor!”
“Before you die, confess the truth,” Sano urged, shoving Lord Matsudaira away. “It wasn’t me. Who was it?”
Ishikawa raised a trembling hand and pointed toward the dais. A gout of blood erupted from Ejima’s mouth as he spoke his last words: “It was Lord Arima.”
In the shocked silence, everyone turned to stare at Lord Arima. He’d not spoken during the whole scene, and Sano had almost forgotten he was present. Lord Arima looked startled, but the expression vanished at once, absorbed by his oily skin.
“I had nothing to do with the murder,” he said, unperturbed. “Those men falsely accused me.”
“They incriminated you with their dying words,” Sano said as he began to understand how and why the murder had transpired. Sano burned with anger at Lord Arima. “I believe them.”
The shogun moaned as Yoritomo wiped his face. “Take them away,” he ordered his guards. “I can’t bear to look at them.” As the guards carried the bodies out the door, he whined, “I don’t understand. Why would Arima have wanted to assassinate the tutor? Why would he employ Chamberlain Sano’s men?”
Sano heard breaths drawn by everyone in the room: The conversation had taken a dangerous turn. Lord Matsudaira said quickly, “He didn’t, Cousin. This is all a misunderstanding. He’s innocent. I’ll vouch for him.” His hard gaze told Sano that he’d better help gloss over the bad moment, or else.
But the suicides right before his very eyes had jolted the shogun out of his tendency to back down when Lord Matsudaira handled him. “I’m tired of your always, ahh, making excuses, always putting me off,” he snapped. “I demand a better explanation.”
And Sano was too furious at this latest attack on him by his enemies to collaborate with Lord Matsudaira in hoodwinking the shogun. Forsaking caution, he said, “Lord Arima acted on Lord Matsudaira’s behalf.”
“But why would Lord Matsudaira want the tutor killed and you incriminated?” the shogun said, confused and impatient.
Lord Matsudaira looked astonished by Sano’s nerve. “Watch your mouth, Chamberlain Sano,” he said in an ominous tone.
The troops stared at him and Sano. The atmosphere was noxious with their hunger for open, all-out conflict at last. Sano knew that things could go disastrously for him if he proceeded in this direction, but his anger goaded him on.
“Lord Matsudaira stands to benefit from everything bad that happens to me,” he said.
“That’s nonsense,” Lord Arima said evenly. “Your Excellency, I don’t know what the honorable chamberlain is talking about. If I were you, I wouldn’t listen.”
“Well, you’re not me.” The shogun stood up in a huff.
“Cousin, the honorable chamberlain is just upset and not thinking clearly,” Lord Matsudaira said with a venomous glare at Sano. “In fact, we’re all upset because of what his men just did. Let’s postpone this discussion until we’ve had a chance to calm down.”
“I’m calm enough!” the shogun said, shrill with hysteria. “Furthermore, I’m sick of everybody talking around me, arguing with one another, and acting as if they’re hiding things behind my back. I want to know what’s happening!”
“Nothing is,” Lord Matsudaira said. “This meeting is adjourned.” He beckoned his troops and began a hasty retreat. Lord Arima glided after them. “You’re coming, too, Chamberlain Sano.”
General Isogai and the army troops herded Sano toward the door, but the shogun cried, “Wait! I haven’t given you permission to go. I order you to stay!” He told his guards, “Block the exit!”
They obeyed. Sano saw panic in Lord Matsudaira’s eyes. He felt the same reckless excitement as when he’d embarked on what he’d thought to be a suicide mission in Ezogashima last winter.
“Nobody leaves until I get to the bottom of this.” Standing on the dais, hands on his hips, the shogun swelled with righteousness. He’d even lost his stammer, Sano was amazed to note. “Now someone tell me: What is going on?”
Lord Matsudaira’s and General Isogai’s eyes shot warnings at Sano: If he replied, he was dead. Nobody spoke.
“Have you all lost your tongues?” the shogun said. “Well, then, I’ll pick a volunteer.” He pointed at Lord Arima. “You seem to be in the middle of everything. You answer me.”
Unruffled as ever, Lord Arima looked to Lord Matsudaira for guidance. Lord Matsudaira mouthed, Not a word.
“Surround him,” the shogun ordered his guards. “Draw your swords.” Blades hissed out of sheaths. He said to Lord Arima, “Speak up or die!”
As Lord Arima stood in a circle of blades pointed at him, his calm manner didn’t change, but Sano felt his thoughts spin as smoothly as greased wheels and then click to a stop.
“Lord Matsudaira wants to seize power over the regime,” Lord Arima said. “He wants to destroy Chamberlain Sano and everyone else who stands in his way.” In case the shogun didn’t understand the implications for himself, Lord Arima added, “He wants to be dictator, Your Excellency. He’s been preparing for years to overthrow you.”
24
The secret was out.
The shogun beheld Lord Arima with openmouthed shock. Sano was suspended between disbelief, astonishment, and dread, the emotions he saw on the faces around him. Everyone was so still, and the room so quiet, that he could hear the wind gusting outside. Lord Matsudaira broke the silence.
“Lord Arima didn’t mean it,” he said. “He was just frightened into saying stupid things.” Sano had never seen anyone look less frightened than Lord Arima. “It’s not true. I’m not-”
“It is true.” Ghastly enlightenment hushed the shogun’s voice. He pressed a hand to his chest and swayed. “These past few years I thought I was imagining that you don’t like me, that you think you’re better than I, that you were envious. I told myself those were just my stupid fancies. But I was right. Now I understand. You’re trying to steal my place!”
Sano was as surprised that the shogun had suspected it all along as he was shocked that any man could have ignored his truest instincts. He felt as though he were witnessing a miracle. The shogun had awakened at last.
“Traitor!” the shogun howled. “My own kin, plotting against me! Scoundrel!”
