“Do you have any better ideas?” Hoshina clenched his fists; his eyes blazed at Ryuko. “A gadfly only hinders men of action.”
The priest made a moue of contempt, then addressed the shogun: “My duty is not to solve the crime but to point out to Your Excellency that the sōsakan-sama and police commissioner have made serious errors of judgment.”
Sano and Hoshina looked at each other, flabbergasted by the priest’s nerve. They burst into protest, but the shogun waved his hand, angrily silencing them. “Yes, you have, ahh, made terrible mistakes,” he said. “You are so blinded by, ahh, prejudice that you would be lucky to find a fish in a bucket!” Saliva sputtered from his mouth. He turned a beseeching look on Chamberlain Yanagisawa. “At least I can rely on you to, ahh, rescue my beloved mother?”
“Of course, Your Excellency.” Yanagisawa kept his voice smooth, but Sano sensed his agitation. “I have identified several suspects. One of them probably masterminded the kidnapping. I expect results very soon.”
The shogun looked perturbed by this reassuring yet vague answer. Sano had often seen Chamberlain Yanagisawa use the shogun’s fear of seeming stupid to keep him from pressing for more information than Yanagisawa wanted to give. Sano guessed that Yanagisawa’s suspects included Lord Matsudaira and other Tokugawa clan members, who might have abducted Lady Keisho-in as leverage to force the shogun to eject Yanagisawa from the regime. Clearly, Yanagisawa had no solid evidence against the shogun’s relatives and therefore hesitated to accuse them.
A flash of comprehension in Ryuko’s eyes said he realized all this. His full lips thinned in a sly smile. “Who are these mysterious suspects?” he asked Yanagisawa.
The words spread a malevolent net of danger. Sano’s heart skipped. Hoshina drew a sharp intake of breath. Yanagisawa stared, furious because he saw Ryuko’s trap yet was powerless to avoid it.
“To reveal the names of the suspects now would jeopardize the investigation,” Yanagisawa said in a voice cold enough to freeze fire. “We must not put the kidnappers on their guard, nor panic them into harming their hostages.”
Priest Ryuko chuckled, seeing through Yanagisawa’s evasion. “There’s little danger of that, because you obviously have no suspects at all. You can’t name them because they don’t exist.”
He couldn’t name them-nor defend his competence-because casting aspersion upon his Tokugawa enemies would impugn his loyalty to the shogun, Sano understood. A muscle twitched in the chamberlain’s jaw, and anger roiled like lava in his dark eyes. The rare experience of watching someone outmaneuver Yanagisawa gave no pleasure to Sano, because this time they were on the same side.
Yanagisawa said cautiously, “Your Excellency-”
“Be quiet!” the shogun shrieked.
Amazed silence paralyzed the assembly. Yanagisawa looked dumbfounded that the shogun would speak to him thus. Hoshina sat with his jaw dropped and his gaze disbelieving. Sano knew his own expression must appear similar. A smug smile crept over Priest Ryuko’s lips.
“Not another word from you!” The shogun pointed at Yanagisawa; his voice and hand trembled with ire. He jabbed his finger at Sano and Hoshina. “Nor you, either. You have all, ahh, disappointed me. You do not deserve to be heard!”
Sano, Yanagisawa, and Hoshina sat speechless, afraid to move. The shogun held the power of life and death over everyone, and years of faithful service or even sexual companionship wouldn’t excuse a retainer who angered him. He’d executed men for minor offenses, and in his current bad mood, he might condemn his chamberlain, police commissioner, and sōsakan-sama for talking out of turn. Sano experienced deep distress and a terrible urge to laugh. None of Chamberlain Yanagisawa’s expertise at manipulating the shogun would do them any good if he wasn’t allowed to speak.
The shogun turned to Priest Ryuko. “The men I counted on have let me down,” he lamented. “Will you help me?”
Ryuko’s dignified, somber mien didn’t hide his satisfaction. “I’ll try my humble best, Your Excellency.” He slid a sly glance at Yanagisawa, whose countenance was livid with suppressed, murderous rage.
“Then tell me how I can save my mother,” the shogun said, ready to place in Ryuko the faith he’d lost in Sano, Yanagisawa, and Hosh-ina.
“With your permission, I shall divine the answer from the oracle bones,” said Priest Ryuko.
He summoned three monks and murmured orders to them. They fetched a brazier filled with hot coals, and a black lacquer table that held incense burners, candles, sake in a cup, fruit, a bowl of cooked rice, cherry-wood sticks, and the cleaned, polished undersides of five turtle shells. The monks lit the incense and candles. One placed a turtle shell in Ryuko’s hands; the others heated sticks in the coals.
“Oh, deities of fortune, I respectfully entreat you to tell us, where is the honorable Lady Keisho-in?” Ryuko said.
A monk handed him a stick whose tip glowed fiery red. Priest Ryuko pressed the tip into a hollow bored on the turtle shell’s inner side. The shogun watched in avid anticipation, and Sano with the same disapproval that marked the faces of Yanagisawa and Hoshina. Although fortune-tellers had performed such rites on turtle shells or animal bones since ancient times, and oracles had revealed secret truths and governed the actions of emperors and generals, divination could be used by charlatans to trick the gullible.
“What must His Excellency do to bring his mother safely home?” Priest Ryuko intoned.
His assistants fanned his stick, which flamed against the turtle shell. The stench of burnt bone mingled with the sweet incense.
Sharp cracking noises erupted as the heat fissured the shell. Priest Ryuko repeated the process until the sticks had burned down to stubs, smoke hazed the chamber, and all five shells bore multiple cracks.
“What does the, ahh, oracle say?” the shogun asked eagerly.
Priest Ryuko aligned the shells on the table. As he studied the cracks through which the gods communicated the answers to queries, his expression turned grave. “The gods decline to reveal where Lady Keisho-in is,” he said.
Of course, Sano thought, while disappointment clouded the shogun’s face and Hoshina and Yanagisawa grimaced in disgust. Ryuko was too smart to name Keisho-in’s whereabouts and risk that events would prove him wrong.
“They say you must earn the knowledge,” he told the shogun.
“How? What must I do?” Tokugawa Tsunayoshi leaned toward Ryuko, hands clasped with anxious hope.
“Your regime is out of harmony with the cosmos,” Ryuko said. "Evil influences surround you and threaten your clan’s future. You must purge your court of those evil influences. Restore its spiritual balance, and the path for Lady Keisho-in’s return shall be cleared.”
“Ahh, that advice eases my mind.” Immediately the shogun’s relief turned to confusion. “But how can I, ahh, know who around me is evil?” he asked.
Sano felt a pang of dismay as he guessed what Ryuko would answer.
“I will divine names of the evil persons you must expel from the court,” Priest Ryuko said.
He flashed a triumphant gaze at the chamberlain and police commissioner. Sano watched their horror and panic at realizing that Ryuko had gained much control over the shogun and could depose them via false oracles. But Sano burned with an outrage that exceeded his fear of losing his own post. He felt a consuming hatred for Priest Ryuko that extended to everyone else in the room. Ryuko, Yanagisawa, and Hoshina all sought to use the kidnapping to advance themselves. All they cared about was their own political careers. And all the shogun cared about was his mother. None of them spared a thought for Reiko, Midori, or the hundred people who’d died during the massacre.
Sano’s anger swelled against the barrier of his self-control. He had to leave before he killed someone. He rose, and the other men stared, surprised that he would stand before the shogun dismissed him. Sano bowed to everyone. Then, for the first time ever, he walked from the chamber without permission from his lord. The anger roaring in his head drowned out the sound of the shogun’s voice calling to him.