Sano longed for the power to divine their thoughts. Was Hoshina afraid because he and Lord Matsudaira really had conspired to murder the shogun’s heir apparent? Or was there no conspiracy, and did Hoshina fear only that Yanagisawa would drive a wedge between him and Lord Matsudaira by implicating him in the murder? The accusation against Hoshina could hurt him either way. Sano had to admire Yanagisawa’s cleverness.

Desperate, Hoshina addressed the shogun. “Chamberlain Yanagisawa is just flinging mud at me in the hope that you won’t notice the stains of guilt on him!”

The shogun put his arms over his head to shield himself from the storm of conflicting ideas. The distrust in his eyes encompassed all three combatants.

“Chamberlain Yanagisawa killed Daiemon, and I’ll tell you exactly why,” Hoshina said, brazen in his need to save himself. “Daiemon knew that Yanagisawa killed Senior Elder Makino. He was going to use his knowledge to destroy Yanagisawa. Therefore, Yanagisawa had Daiemon assassinated.”

“Daiemon knew nothing of the sort,” Yanagisawa said with a gesture that disdained Hoshina’s attempt to pin both crimes on him. “I didn’t kill Makino. I didn’t kill Daiemon, either. But you needn’t take my word against Lord Matsudaira’s or the police commissioner’s for it, Your Excellency. Let’s consult an impartial source.” Yanagisawa turned to Sano. “Tell us how your investigation has exonerated me of both crimes.”

His intent gaze reminded Sano of the rewards he’d promised in exchange for Sano’s cooperation. Sano felt a stab of dismay. So far, his investigation hadn’t proved Yanagisawa guilty of either murder, but it hadn’t cleared him, and honor forbade Sano to twist the truth to benefit Yanagisawa. Yet Sano realized that the chamberlain was giving him one last chance to accept his offer. If he refused now…

“Sōsakan Sano has nothing to say in defense of the chamberlain,” Lord Matsudaira said. His emphatic tone reminded Sano that he’d been ordered not to speak. “His findings show that the chamberlain is guilty of two murders, while I and my associates are innocent of any wrongdoing.” He nodded to Sano, and an ominous smile thinned his lips. “You now have my permission to say so.”

Although Sano was loath to lie for Yanagisawa, he couldn’t compromise the facts to please Lord Matsudaira either. He sat tongue-tied while the path he’d been navigating between the two adversaries became a narrow, slippery ridge with deep chasms on either side.

“Have you lost your voice, Sōsakan Sano?” the shogun said, peeved by the argument whose undertones escaped him. “Tell me what to believe. Everyone else will, ahh, remain silent. All this shouting is, ahh, giving me a headache.”

Damned no matter what he said, Sano opted for the truth. “Daiemon might have seen or heard or found out something that told him who killed Makino. Maybe the murderer did kill Daiemon to keep him quiet.”

Hoshina looked vindicated and Lord Matsudaira appeased. But Yanagisawa’s face darkened with the thought that Sano had chosen to side with his enemies.

“That’s possible because Daiemon was at the scene of the murder that night,” Sano continued. “He told me so. But his presence there also makes him a suspect. It’s possible that he killed Makino himself.”

Yanagisawa nodded, placated. Lord Matsudaira bristled because Sano had impugned his dead nephew.

Sano continued tiptoeing along the slippery ridge. “But there are other possible reasons for Daiemon’s murder-such as bad blood between him and Chamberlain Yanagisawa.” Sano forbore to say why and break the news of the faction wars to the shogun. As Yanagisawa glared at him, and gratification vied with caution on Lord Matsudaira’s and Hoshina’s faces, Sano said, “I’ve not even begun making inquiries regarding Daiemon. His family will have to be investigated because many murders are committed by someone close to the victim.”

Loud gusts of breath issued from between Lord Matsudaira’s clenched teeth as he tried to control his fury at Sano’s agreeing that he might, as Yanagisawa had suggested, have killed his own nephew.

“The police are also suspects,” Sano said, and watched Hoshina tense, ready to lunge at him in a rage. He described the strange tale of how they’d heard about the murder and how quickly they’d arrived on the scene. “And they’re closely associated with Lord Matsudaira.”

Fear, hostility, and foreboding thickened the atmosphere in the room. Sano knew he’d cast enough aspersion on Chamberlain Yanagisawa, Lord Matsudaira, and Police Commissioner Hoshina to land them all in deep trouble no matter who was guilty or not. But the shogun regarded Sano with an expression of utter, blank confusion.

“I ahh, did not quite follow everything you said,” Tokugawa Tsunayoshi said. His timid voice conveyed his ever-present fear of seeming stupid. “What I want to know is, who killed Makino? Who killed Daiemon?”

Yanagisawa and Lord Matsudaira impaled Sano with sharp, steely gazes, each compelling him to name the other. This, Sano realized, was his last opportunity to choose sides, the end of negotiating the path between the two rivals. He felt angry as well as hounded by them. His natural stubbornness hardened his will. He would not bend to pressure, come what might.

“It’s too early to know who the murderer is,” Sano said. “There are still other suspects who must be investigated, such as the members of Senior Elder Makino’s household and the woman who met Daiemon at the house of assignation and is now missing.”

Disappointment sagged the shogun’s posture. Lord Matsudaira and Chamberlain Yanagisawa glared at Sano. He saw that by refusing to bend to either, he’d outraged both. Then their gazes turned cold and distant; they looked away from him. Sano imagined himself standing at the edge of a river full of perilous rapids. He envisioned the tenuous security offered by Yanagisawa and Lord Matsudaira as fragile rope bridges, slashed by his own sword, falling into the water.

“Well, ahh, you had better get busy,” the shogun told Sano. “I hold you responsible for, ahh, finding out who killed Daiemon as well as Senior Elder Makino.”

In addition to all his other troubles, Sano must now solve two murder cases instead of one. Maybe they were related, and the killer was the same person in both instances, maybe not. But both cases promised him the same, dire penalties for failure-demotion, exile, or death.

“You’d better watch your step, Sōsakan Sano,” Lord Matsudaira said in a tone replete with malevolence.

“A man who walks alone has no one to catch him if he falls,” Yanagisawa said softly. “A warrior who throws away his shield during battle invites injury.”

Menace, scorn for Sano’s stubbornness, and pity mingled in his voice. His meaning was clear: If Sano failed to solve the crimes, he couldn’t expect either faction to protect him from punishment as he could have if he’d allied himself with one or the other. And Yanagisawa had just revoked the truce that had shielded Sano against attacks from him.

“As for you…” The shogun pointed a trembling finger at Yanagisawa, Lord Matsudaira, and Hoshina. His eyes shone with the atavistic fear of a man confronted by evil spirits. “I don’t want to see any of you again until, ahh, I am certain that you did not kill Daiemon or Senior Elder Makino.”

Concern marked Yanagisawa’s, Lord Matsudaira’s, and Hoshina’s faces. Sano saw that this meeting had worsened their situation, too. Their open attacks on each other had backfired, and they’d all lost the shogun’s trust. Without it, one faction might crush the other but fail to reach the ultimate goal of dominating the present regime or the next. To what lengths would they go to recoup this critical ammunition that could determine the victor?

“You are dismissed,” the shogun said, flapping his hand at Sano, Lord Matsudaira, Chamberlain Yanagisawa, and their men. As they rose, so did Yoritomo. The shogun reached toward him and caught the hem of his robe. “You may stay.”