kidnapping had blocked other energy pathways.
She rolled Lady Yanagisawa onto her stomach, then measured four finger-widths from her spine at waist level, locating the potent points named the Sea of Vitality. Reiko pressed, waited, and released, again and again, so many times she lost count. Her hands ached; she gasped with exertion. Now she sensed Lady Yanagisawa’s ki surging through veins and tissues. Suddenly a deep, ululating groan burst from Lady Yanagisawa. Her limbs began to thrash; her body jerked.
Reiko sprang back, frightened that she’d overstimulated Lady Yanagisawa into convulsions. Then Lady Yanagisawa heaved onto her back. Shuddering all over, she sat upright, hands clawing the floor, and stared wild- eyed at Reiko.
“Where am I?” The question burst from Lady Yanagisawa in a loud, hoarse voice. “What happened?”
Reiko smiled with relief that Lady Yanagisawa had come back to life. Keisho-in and Midori, startled awake by the commotion, blinked in puzzlement. Lady Yanagisawa gazed around the room. As she recognized her surroundings, a look of horror came into her eyes.
“Oh, no,” she wailed, her face crumpling. “I dreamed that I was home with Kikuko-chan. It was so peaceful. Why did I have to wake up?” She lay down, curled her knees to her chest, and covered her head with her arms. Sobs wracked her. “I want to go back to sleep!”
“Please do,” Keisho-in said crossly. “Your noise is getting on my nerves.”
Reiko pounced on Lady Yanagisawa and forced apart her arms, exposing her anguish-stricken face. “You can’t hide anymore. I won’t let you.”
“Please, no, leave me alone.” Lady Yanagisawa squeezed her eyes shut, blinding herself to Reiko and the horrible fact of their captivity. “I want to dream again. I want Kikuko-chan.”
Reiko was furious that Lady Yanagisawa preferred unconsciousness to taking action, even as she pitied the woman’s suffering. She shouted, “If you want Kikuko-chan, then stop this nonsense right now!”
She slapped Lady Yanagisawa’s cheek. Lady Yanagisawa uttered a cry of pained surprise. Her eyes opened; her sobs halted as she gaped at Reiko.
“It’s your duty to fight your way home to your daughter,” Reiko said, glad that she’d finally gotten Lady Yanagisawa’s attention, yet ashamed of hitting the woman. “It’s your duty to help me save Lady Keisho-in and Midori. Do you understand? Are you going to behave yourself? Or do I have to slap you again?”
All the resistance went out of Lady Yanagisawa. She uncurled her body and sat up, though with slow movements and a desolate expression that bespoke her reluctance.
“Will you help me?” Reiko said, hopeful yet cautious. Lady Yanagisawa bowed her head and nodded. Triumph at her small victory heartened Reiko, despite Lady Yanagisawa’s lack of enthusiasm. Reiko beckoned Keisho-in and Midori. The pair seated themselves close to her and Lady Yanagisawa.
“Here’s what we’re going to do,” Reiko said, then began whispering her plan.
11
His Excellency has given orders that no one should disturb him,” said the guard stationed outside the door of the shogun’s private quarters.
Sano, Chamberlain Yanagisawa, and Police Commissioner Hoshina had come to report the progress of their investigation to the shogun. Sano exchanged glances of surprise with the other men: They’d all thought the shogun would be anxious for news, and hadn’t expected to be denied entry.
“What’s going on in there?” Chamberlain Yanagisawa’s face darkened with offense that their lord, to whom he usually enjoyed free access, had shut him out.
“His Excellency is having a private consultation,” the guard said.
“With whom?” Yanagisawa demanded.
Just then, the shogun’s reedy voice called, “Come in.”
The guard opened the door, and Yanagisawa strode through ahead of Hoshina and Sano. Inside the chamber, an ornate metal lantern that hung from the coffered ceiling shone down upon a low platform. On this sat Tokugawa Tsunayoshi, wearing his cylindrical black cap and a jade-green satin dressing gown, supported by heaped silk cushions. Near him, below the platform, knelt a Buddhist priest clad in a saffron robe.
Yanagisawa halted in his tracks. Sano and Hoshina paused on either side of Yanagisawa. They all regarded the priest with consternation, while his gaze challenged them. This was Priest Ryuko, spiritual advisor and lover to Lady Keisho-in. In his forties, he had a high, shaved scalp and the long nose, hooded eyes, and sensuous lips of a Buddha statue. A gold brocade stole cloaked his broad shoulders and glittered in the lantern light. To find him in intimate company with the shogun gave Sano a presentiment of trouble.
“Ahh, greetings,” Tokugawa Tsunayoshi said, his face bright with eager anticipation. He beckoned Yanagisawa, Sano, and Hoshina.
Recovering his composure, Yanagisawa moved to kneel in his usual place, the position of honor at the shogun’s right. Sano and Hoshina knelt a short distance from the platform, opposite their lord. They all bowed to him.
“Have you found the honorable Lady Keisho-in?” Tokugawa Tsunayoshi asked, looking around as if he expected to see her.
An uneasy moment of silence passed; then Yanagisawa said, “I regret to say that we have not.”
Disappointment dimmed the shogun’s expression. Yanagisawa turned to Priest Ryuko. “How pleasant to see you. What brings you here?”
His tone made Sano envision a steel razor swathed in silk. That Yanagisawa detested the priest was no secret. Ryuko possessed an ambition for power that equaled the chamberlain’s. His longtime association with Lady Keisho- in had elevated him to the status of highest-ranking priest in Japan and indirect advisor to the shogun. His influence over Tokugawa Tsunayoshi, and thousands of clerics in temples all over the country, threatened Yanagisawa’s domination.
“I came to give spiritual solace to His Excellency in his time of trouble,” Priest Ryuko said in a suave voice that didn’t conceal his hatred for the chamberlain, who waged a covert, ongoing campaign to expel him from the court.
“I see.”
Yanagisawa’s expression conveyed a skepticism that Sano shared. Priest Ryuko had obviously seized on the kidnapping as a chance to ingratiate himself with his lord, for reasons clear to everyone present except Tokugawa Tsunayoshi. The priest knew his position in court depended on Lady Keisho-in, and should she die, he would lose his powers-unless he secured the shogun’s protection. Antipathy edged Sano’s own distrust of Ryuko. The man cared more about his selfish interests than about the welfare of Keisho-in, Reiko, or the other women.
“Why haven’t you, ahh, rescued my mother?” the shogun demanded, oblivious to undercurrents in the atmosphere.
“Please allow me to remind Your Excellency that less than a day has passed since we learned of Lady Keisho- in’s kidnapping,” Hoshina said with cautious deference. “The investigation requires time.”
“You’ve had plenty of time. Have you done anything besides, ahh, waste it?” Inflated with dangerous petulance, the shogun leaned forward, glaring at Hoshina, Yanagisawa, and Sano. Just as Sano had feared, their lord expected instant results. “What, ahh, progress have you made toward bringing my mother home to me?”
A hint of amusement curved Ryuko’s full lips as he observed the interchange. Hoshina scowled at the priest. Chamberlain Yanagisawa said, “A number of promising leads were pursued today. The sosakan-sama will describe what he has discovered.”
Trust Yanagisawa to make him speak first and throw him into the fire of the shogun’s wrath, as if heaving water on a burning house, Sano thought. “I interrogated two Black Lotus criminals this morning,” he said. “They told me about a priest named Profound Wisdom, who’s high among the sect’s leaders. They say the Black Lotus has been planning a major attack on the Tokugawa regime. It could be the kidnapping, and arranged by Profound Wisdom. He’s deserted his secret temple, but my men and I searched the city and arrested forty-eight Black Lotus members today. I’ll question them at Edo Jail. Someone among them should be able to tell me where the priest is.”
The shogun nodded, pacified. Chamberlain Yanagisawa maintained a neutral composure, and Hoshina relaxed.
