Yugao would attack her before she could defend herself.
“You don’t have to do this,” Reiko said. “We can just walk out of here.” Her survival depended on manipulating Yugao. “You’ll be safe.”
“Don’t talk such nonsense,” Yugao retorted. “You’ll turn me over to your father. And he’ll have me executed.”
It didn’t seem the time for Reiko to point out that Yugao had previously demanded that Magistrate Ueda execute her. Yugao had changed her mind and didn’t appear willing to change it back again. “That won’t happen. I’ve told my father that I think you’re innocent; you didn’t murder your family. He believed it. If you hadn’t run away, you’d have been acquitted,” Reiko lied.
Yugao sneered. “You never told him any such thing. You thought I was guilty from the start.”
“No, I didn’t. I’ve been trying to help you all along.” The knife was so close to Reiko’s face that she could smell the iron; her skin tingled as she imagined the slash, the pain, her blood spilling. “Let me help you now.”
“Oh, I’m sure that when your father hears that I killed Tama, he’ll set me free!”
“I’ll tell him that you didn’t mean to kill her; it was an accident,” Reiko improvised. “The only things you’ve done wrong are escaping from jail and associating with a criminal. Just come with me back to Edo.”
“Why would I want to do that?” Yugao asked in disdain. “There’s nothing there for me.”
“My father will pardon you. You can start a new life. You won’t be an outcast anymore.” Reiko cautiously held out her hand. “Just give me the knife.”
Sudden rage flared in Yugao’s eyes. “Do you want the knife that badly? Well, I’ll give it to you!”
She slashed at Reiko’s hand. Reiko cried out as the blade cut her palm. Blood oozed from the deep gash.
“That should teach you to try to fool me,” Yugao said with malicious satisfaction. “Now keep your mouth shut while I decide what to do.”
Sano shouted at his men, ordering them to band together and close off Kobori’s escape route. But anarchy reigned, as if the Ghost had cast a spell that drove the troops mad. Sano felt his army’s hysteria growing with each cry that signaled another death at Kobori’s hands. He fought his own desire to run wild. Corpses lay strewn among trees and bushes. Now three soldiers fled the gardens and disappeared into the forest. A mass stampede followed them.
“The cowards are deserting,” Marume said, alarmed as well as disgusted. “Hey!” he shouted. “Come back here!” He charged after the deserters.
“No! Don’t!” Sano said, but too late to stop Marume.
A slender figure clad in black emerged from behind a clump of bushes on the terrace above. It stood alert but relaxed, like a tiger after a successful hunt, watching the army flee. Then he turned and looked straight down at Sano and Fukida. His eyes gleamed; his teeth flashed in a curved white line as he smiled. Sano’s heart lurched.
The man was Kobori.
“There he is!” Fukida exclaimed.
Sword drawn, he lunged up the slope, compelled by the madness that had seized the army. Sano vaulted after him, calling, “We have to stick together!” They must not make the same error their troops had. As a team they had a chance against Kobori. Alone, they risked their comrades’ fate.
The few remaining troops rallied to the chase, converging on Kobori from all directions. Kobori waited until Fukida had breasted the terrace and his pursuers were within some ten paces of him. Then he faded into the bushes. As Sano reached these, his men rushed about in confusion, calling, “Where did he go?” Someone crashed into him. A sword whistled through the air too close to his face.
“Watch out!” he cried.
“He ran into the woods!” said Fukida’s excited voice.
Bushes crackled and foliage snapped as the horde bounded off after the Ghost. Sano cursed in frustration. They would never find Kobori in there. He was as good as gone. While the noise of his men thrashing through the woods receded into the distance, Sano sheathed his sword and bent over, resting his hands on his knees, overcome by weariness and despair.
“Chamberlain Sano,” a voice whispered. It was soft, yet had a latent power that made it audible above the other noises.
Like a cat hissing, as Tama had described it to Reiko.
Sano felt his skin ripple. The Ghost was here. He must have eluded the troops, then come back.
A visceral, primitive terror froze Sano. Only his eyes moved, trying to locate Kobori in the shadows around him. His heart drummed an accelerating rhythm of dread. But although he could sense Kobori’s presence like malignant decay breeding in the gardens, he couldn’t see the Ghost.
“Your men are busy chasing one another in the woods,” Kobori said. “The ones I haven’t killed or scared away, that is.” His tone was amused yet vicious, conversational yet threatening. “It’s just you and me.”
Reiko sat in her corner, her injured hand wrapped in her sleeve and still oozing blood. Yugao still stood before her, holding the knife. They listened to the shouts and the running footsteps outside the mansion. Yugao’s gaze skittered, as if she wanted to see what was happening but dared not leave Reiko. Her hand trembled and the knife wavered with the strain that Reiko sensed building inside her. The lantern burned dimmer, a dying sun that emitted sickly ochre light and rancid smoke. The atmosphere was dense with the odors of blood and Yugao’s feverish perspiration. Reiko knew that sooner or later Yugao would snap. Either she must risk her life trying to talk Yugao into surrendering, or keep quiet and die anyway.
“Do you hear that commotion?” Reiko said. “Do you want to know what it is?”
“Be quiet,” Yugao ordered, “or I’ll cut you again.”
“My husband and his troops have invaded the grounds,” Reiko said. “Pretty soon they’ll be inside the house.”
“No, they won’t.” Goaded into conversation, Yugao spoke with utter confidence. “They’ll never get past him.”
Reiko understood that Yugao was referring to Kobori, the Ghost. “He’s only one man. There are hundreds of them. He can’t fight them all.”
“Is that what you think?” Yugao’s expression turned sly, disdainful. “Well, you don’t know him.”
There came a shriek so loud that it seemed to pierce the walls of the house and so filled with agony that Reiko gasped.
“Did you hear that?” Yugao said. “Do you want to know what it is?”
Her tone teased Reiko. “He’s killing your husband’s men. Just listen!” More shrieks arose. “You can count them as they die. He’s the best fighter there ever was!”
She brimmed with admiration for Kobori, and an excitement that was almost sexual. Reiko suddenly found herself afraid that the Ghost’s wondrous martial arts skills really could defeat an entire army. She realized that she’d been counting on Sano to save her, but maybe he was already dead. She thought of Hirata, waiting outside. If she called him, Yugao would kill her before he could reach her. She had to get out of this predicament on her own.
“No matter how good Kobori is, he can’t hold out against so many troops,” Reiko said. “They’ll kill him eventually. And you’ll be left to take the blame for what he’s done.”
Yugao laughed. “I can tell you’re not too sure of what you’re saying. Why should I believe it?”
“It’s true,” Reiko said, trying to sound confident. “You’d do better to cut loose from Kobori. It’s him that my husband is really after, not you. It’s not too late to save yourself, if we go now.” She rose carefully, sliding her back up the corner, watching Yugao.
“Sit down!” Yugao jabbed the knife at Reiko, who hastily dropped to her knees again. “I’ll never leave him! And I won’t listen to you any longer!”
Reiko ventured a different tactic: “Suppose that Kobori does win. He’ll be a fugitive forever. Lord Matsudaira will never stop chasing him. What kind of life do you think you’ll have with Kobori?”
“At least we’ll be together,” Yugao said. “I love him. Nothing else matters.”
“Here’s something that should,” Reiko said. “Kobori has murdered at least five Tokugawa officials. But maybe you didn’t know that.”
“Of course I did. I know all about him. I even saw him do it once. But maybe you didn’t know that,” Yugao
