“Wait, Eii-chan.” It was a man’s voice, behind them.

Eii-chan paused at the gate and turned, swinging Sano around with him, but not releasing Sano’s arm. Through a haze of pain, Sano saw young Lord Niu standing at the top of the steps, small but proud in his black robes.

“You can’t stay away from us, can you, Yoriki Sano?” Lord Niu said. He came forward and leaned against the gatepost. “Now I think you can see that interfering in our affairs can result in very unpleasant consequences. Yes? No?”

Sano, biting back another cry of pain, couldn’t reply.

Then, almost as an afterthought, Lord Niu said, “Oh, Eii-chan. You can let him go now.”

Eii-chan released Sano. Sano gingerly flexed his shoulder and arm. Nothing seemed broken, but his muscles ached. Anger flared inside him-not at Eii-chan, whom he regarded more as an animated tool than as a man, but at Lord Niu, who could have ended his misery sooner, but had deliberately chosen to let him suffer. The malicious glint in his eyes confirmed this. Sano wanted to rail against the insult, to hurl accusations and threats at Lord Niu: “Someone in your household killed Noriyoshi and your sister, and I’ll prove it!” But he held his peace, reminding himself of Tokugawa Ieyasu’s words: “Look upon wrath as thine enemy.” He couldn’t let anger make him careless.

“What is it you want with us now?” Lord Niu asked.

Swallowing his rage, Sano forced himself to lie courteously. “I only wanted to pay my respects to your family,” he said.

Lord Niu let out a burst of scornful laughter. “Do you mean to tell me that you have ceased your ridiculous investigation into our private tragedy?”

“Unless I find evidence indicating that it isn’t so ridiculous after all.” Sano couldn’t resist making a verbal counterattack. “Maybe you could give it to me?”

A momentary frown creased Lord Niu’s forehead-dismay, or simple irritation? “You can’t be serious. There is no such evidence, and even if there were, why would I have it?”

Was the emphatic denial a stall to buy Lord Niu time to recover his wits? Sano thought perhaps he could goad the daimyo’s son into an unguarded revelation.

“Noriyoshi had ties to another member of your family besides Yukiko,” he said.

But Lord Niu had regained his poise. Instead of acknowledging the question, he said to Eii-chan, “Return to the funeral. I think Yoriki Sano can find his own way home.”

Eii-chan turned and walked down the steps without a word. To Sano, Lord Niu said, “If you come near our estate or near any member of our clan again, I cannot guarantee your safety. Eii-chan and our other retainers take an unfavorable view of those who trespass on our property or persons.”

He delivered the words casually, but with a malevolent glow in his feverish eyes. Sano recognized the tacit threat: if he approached the Nius again, he would be killed.

“I see that you understand my meaning,” Lord Niu said. “Perhaps you’re not as stupid as I thought. Just foolhardy, but decidedly capable of learning your lesson.” A contemptuous smile twisted his mouth as his gaze held Sano’s. “Farewell, yoriki. I trust we won’t be seeing each other again.” He pushed himself away from the post and started slowly down the steps, his head high and his body rigid.

That’s what you think, Sano silently told Lord Niu’s retreating back. Resentment and humiliation burned dully in his blood like bad wine. His hand moved to his sword, gripping its hilt with all the force of his anger against Lord Niu, who had given him even more reason to investigate the Nius’ role in the murders.

Then Lord Niu turned. “Oh, by the way,” he called. “I wouldn’t bother trying to see Midori, if I were you. My mother has sent her to the nunnery at the Temple of Kannon in Hakone.” His laugh rang out as he continued on his way.

Sano watched Lord Niu rejoin the mourners at the funeral pyre. The flames had died down, although smoke continued to rise from the smoldering embers. As he started back toward the city center, a heady excitement stirred beneath his initial disappointment. Attending the funeral had endangered him, but not, perhaps, to no avail. Midori was in Hakone, a long, arduous journey west along the Tōkaido-the Eastern Sea Road that linked Edo with the imperial capital in Kyoto. This was bad news, but at least he knew where to find her. It wouldn’t be easy to justify a five-day leave of absence to Magistrate Ogyu; still, he could operate more freely once outside Ogyu’s domain.

Besides, the Nius’ continuing resistance to his investigation confirmed his suspicion that they wanted the mystery of Noriyoshi’s and Yukiko’s murders to remain unsolved. And their abrupt removal of Midori from Edo meant they were afraid that she might tell him why.

Chapter 13

Sano had departed from the Tōkaido’s starting point at the Nihonbashi Bridge at daybreak. Dressed in his winter traveling clothes-a wide, circular wicker hat, heavy robes, trousers, shoes and socks, and his warmest hooded cloak-he’d ridden southwest out of the awakening city. Now, as the sun burned the last of the dawn’s shimmering pink radiance from the sky, he approached Shinagawa, second of the fifty-three stations that marked the highway between Edo and Kyoto.

The wide, sandy road, banked in the middle and bordered on each side by regularly spaced tall firs, narrowed and began to climb. Sano could see ahead of him the many bent figures of pedestrians toiling toward Shinagawa. To his right, the land rose steeply toward the forested hills. On his left it dropped sharply away below a line of fishermen’s shacks to the sea. Small boats crowded the harbor. The faint shapes of larger ships floated on distant deeper water, against a hazy horizon. Seabirds wheeled and soared, filling the sky’s high blue bowl with darting wings and the air with their sharp, plaintive cries. The sibilant lap of the waves made a constant, gentler music. The clean, fresh salt breeze invigorated Sano, renewing his optimism and confidence. His journey was going to be a success. When he got to Hakone, Midori would give him proof that Noriyoshi and Yukiko had been murdered, and maybe even tell him the identity of the killer.

“Wait, Yoriki Sano-san! I have to stop!”

The shout that came from twenty paces behind him shattered Sano’s mood. With a sigh of irritation, he reined in his horse and looked over his shoulder. He watched as a smiling, wheezing Tsunehiko, mounted on a huge black steed, bounced up to him. For one blessed moment, he’d completely forgotten his traveling companion.

Tsunehiko scrambled off his horse. “I’ll be quick, I promise.” He hurried to the roadside, hiking up his cloak.

Shaking his head, Sano leaned over to grasp the reins of Tsunehiko’s horse before it could wander away. He watched his secretary urinate against a tree, wishing he were traveling alone and blaming himself for the fact that he wasn’t.

After Yukiko’s funeral yesterday, he had gone straight to Magistrate Ogyu’s mansion. He’d wondered whether he should wait awhile to ask for a leave of absence. If Ogyu had seen him at the funeral, it would be better to allow the magistrate’s anger time to cool. But a growing sense of urgency made Sano reluctant to postpone his journey. If he didn’t solve the mystery soon, he feared he might never do so.

He’d waited until after dark. At last two bearers rounded the corner with a palanquin. Magistrate Ogyu stepped out at the gate.

Sano greeted his superior, who, to his relief, didn’t mention the funeral. Then he said, “Honorable Magistrate, I must beg you to allow me a five-day leave of absence. As you know, my father is not well. His doctor has advised me to make a pilgrimage to the shrine at Mishima to pray for his recovery.”