She awoke a few seconds before Yoshi.

He was up instantly, one moment asleep, the next completely ready for the day. She held his padded yukata for him, then clasping her kimono tightly around her, she opened the shoji door, then the other one, knelt and helped him into straw slippers. The guard began to bow, caught himself in time and watched all around again as Yoshi padded off to the outhouse area.

Sumomo was kneeling near the door, waiting patiently, a maid beside her with a brazier and hot tea and breakfast trays. "Good morning, Mistress. It's cold this morning, may I make you tea?"

"Yes, yes please, Sumomo, quick as a wink. Close the door, it is chilly."

Koiko hurried back to her inner rooms, calling out, "We will leave midmorning, Sumomo. We can change into travelling clothes then."

"Yes, Mistress." Sumomo was still standing at the outer doorway trying to contain her shock. She had seen at once that her bundle had been moved, the knot tying the square of silk holding it together not exactly as she did it. Her day kimono was still folded nearby but it too had been moved.

Hardly breathing, she waited until the maid left, then unfolded the kimono. When her fingers felt the hidden shuriken in the secret sleeve pocket her heart started again.

But wait, she thought, blood rushing into her face, just because they're still there does not mean that someone hasn't discovered them. Do not panic!

Think! Who would search my bundle here and why?

A thief? Never! Abeh? A guard? Koiko?

Yoshi? If one of them, logically I would already be dead or at least roped and answering questions and ...

"Sumomo, is the tea ready yet?"

"Yes, I'm coming, Mistress..."

Quickly, and because of the cold, she put the kimono on over her sleeping yukata--she had already done her early first wash and brushed her teeth and her hair that was still in a conventional braid-- tied her obi and replaced her sheathed knife, all the time her mind working at full speed: Was it one of them? Perhaps the searcher wasn't careful.

He could have missed them, easy if not expecting them. Perhaps the searcher wasn't practiced?

Koiko? Why should she search my possessions now? Of course that had been done by the other maids when she had first arrived in Koiko's quarters--the shuriken had been on her person.

As her mind raced she set the rice gruel to keep warm, made the tea and took a cup into the bathroom where Koiko had finishing bathing herself from the buckets of hot water made fragrant with extract of flowers. The water was delivered at dawn through a small trapdoor so that none would be spilled on the tatamis, and the guests not disturbed. Night containers were removed in the same way.

"I'll wear my brown kimono with the carp,"

Koiko said, sipping gratefully, the cold crinkling her skin however much she willed herself to pretend the cold did not exist, "and the golden-colored obi."

Sumomo hurried to obey, heart still grinding, fetched the garments, helping her to dress.

When the obi was tied to her satisfaction, Koiko knelt on one of the futons. Sumomo knelt behind her to brush her lustrous, waist-long hair. "That's good, Sumomo, you're learning, but please make the strokes longer and smoother."

Outside the tempo of the awakening Inn was increasing. Maids and soldiers and people calling to one another, Abeh's voice and then Yoshi's. The two women listened but could not distinguish what was being said. The voices moved away.

"Twenty more strokes and then I will eat and have another cup of tea. Are you hungry?"

"No, Mistress, thank you, I have already eaten."

"You did not sleep well?" Koiko said, noticing a nervousness about her.

"No, Lady Koiko. So sorry to tell you my problem, but sometimes I have difficulty sleeping, then when I do sleep I have bad dreams," Sumomo said ingenuously, still distracted. "The doctor gave me some medicine to calm me. I forgot to take it with me last night when I changed rooms."

"Ah, is that so?" Koiko hid her relief.

"Perhaps you should take some now."

"Oh but that can wait an--"

"Please, I insist. It's important you should be calm."

Obediently, and gratefully, Sumomo found the bottle. It had not been tampered with. She took a sip and re-corked it. The inner warmth began almost at once. "Thank you, Mistress," she said, then continued brushing.

After the hot rice gruel and pickles, some cold roasted eel with a sweet sour sauce, and rice cakes, Koiko said, "Please sit down, Sumomo, and pour yourself some tea."

"Thank you, Mistress."

"Lord Yoshi has decided I am not to accompany him anymore but to follow, by palanquin, at a more moderate pace."

"Some of the guards mentioned that while I was waiting for you. Everything will be ready whenever you wish to start."

"Good." Now that Koiko had discovered the truth about the bottle she was much more at ease but it had not changed her decision to be prudent--her duty to Katsumata already done. "You are safely out of Kyoto now," she said softly and Sumomo's stomach twisted. But for the elixir she would have panicked. "It is time to part, Sumomo. Today.

Do you have money?"

"No, Mistress," Sumomo wanted to sound matter of fact. "But would it be poss--"

"No need for you to worry, I can give you some." Koiko smiled, misunderstanding the fluster, and continued firmly, "Your papers, are they in order?"

"Yes, but may I st--"

"It is best for both of us. I have considered every possibility. It is best if I travel on alone. You may stay here or return to your home in Satsuma--I would advise that--or make your own way to Yedo."

"But please may I stay with you?"

"It is wise if you go your own way now--of course you realize it was an extreme favor to your guardian that I accepted you. Now you are safe," she said kindly.

"But... but what will you do, you have no maid. I want to serve you an--"

"Yes, and you have been very good, but I can easily hire someone. Please do not worry about that. Now, will you go back to Kyoto?" When Sumomo did not answer, just stared numbly, she said gently, "What did your guardian say you were to do, when you left me?"

"He, he did not say."

Koiko frowned. "But surely you must have a plan."

"Oh yes, Mistress," Sumomo said, rattled--even more flustered--her mouth running away with her, "he told me I was to stay with you until Yedo. Then, then if it was your pleasure, I was to leave."

"To go where?"

"To, to go to Oda-sama."

"Yes, of course, but where in Yedo?"

"I am not sure. May I pour you s--"

"You are not sure, Sumomo?" Koiko's frown deepened. "Do you have another family to go to if he isn't?"

"Well, yes, there's an Inn, they will know where he is or there will be a message for me but I swear I will not be a burden during the journey, not at all, you teach me so much..."

The more Koiko listened as the girl rushed on-- foolishly, she thought, for obviously I've made up her mind--the less she liked what she was hearing, or Sumomo's agitation, the way she spoke and dropped her eyes.

She closed her ears to the reasons and used the time to gather her own thoughts. They became more ominous. "Your guardian, will he be in Yedo too?"

"I do not know, so sorry. Please, let me pour you som--"

"This Oda-sama is Satsuma--is he part of the Satsuma garrison?"

"No." Sumomo cursed herself, she should have said, I don't know. "The Sats--"

"Then what is he doing in Yedo?"

"I do not know, Lady," Sumomo said lamely, her mind not fast enough, more dismayed every moment, "I have not seen him for almost a year, that is ... I was told he would be at Yedo."

Koiko's eyes bored into her. Her voice became edged. "Your guardian said this Oda-sama was shishi so he..." Her voice trailed off as, saying the word aloud, the enormity of what she had done, and risked, by agreeing to have this girl with her, inundated her. "Shishi believe Lord Yoshi is their prime enemy," she moaned, "if he's enemy th--"