“I want Mama,” wailed Masahiro, his face hot and wet with tears against Sano’s cheek.
“Mama is away. She’ll be back soon.” Concern for his son filled Sano. He wondered if Masahiro sensed something was wrong. Maybe he’d noticed the pall that Reiko’s kidnapping had cast over the household.
“Excuse me, Sōsakan-sama,” Detective Arai said from the doorway. “A message just arrived from Chamberlain Yanagisawa. He wants to see you at his estate right away.”
Though Sano had never expected to visit Chamberlain Yanagisawa’s estate, he and four of his detectives now stood outside the stone wall topped with metal spikes. Dawn had paled the black sky to ashen pink, but the private compound seemed to gather the vestiges of night around itself. Pine trees inside cast deep shadows over the buildings. Sano’s sharp eyes discerned soldiers in the watchtowers and archers perched on the gabled tile roofs. The compound was a fortress within the fortress of Edo Castle, designed to protect Yanagisawa from attacks by foes inside the shogun’s court.
Guards at the ironclad gate confiscated the swords from Sano and his men, then escorted them into the estate. Sano wished they could keep their weapons. Truce or no truce, this was hostile territory. He and his detectives trod uneasily along a flagstone path, into a courtyard enclosed by soldiers’ barracks, and through grounds where more guards patrolled around the interconnected wings of the mansion. Watchdogs, led on leashes by servants, barked and growled at Sano as his escorts led him into a garden.
Here, mossy boulders dotted an expanse of raked sand. Stone lanterns bordered a path that wound through dew-misted lawn, past gnarled shrubs to a raised pavilion with a thatched roof and lattice walls. Through its arched open doorway Sano saw the tall, slim figure of Yanagisawa. The chamberlain paced back and forth, his silk robes dragging the stone floor. Catching sight of Sano, he halted and beckoned. Sano joined Yanagisawa in the pavilion. They bowed to each other, while his detectives and the guards waited a short distance away.
“Thank you for coming so promptly,” Yanagisawa said.
His manner was formal and composed, yet his eyes had the intense but unfocused gaze of a man experiencing severe shock. Sano comprehended that something dire had happened.
“Has Priest Ryuko persuaded the shogun to condemn us?” This seemed to Sano the only possible reason for Yanagisawa’s summons.
Yanagisawa impatiently waved a hand, dispelling Sano’s notion that the chamberlain had invited him here so they could ally against Priest Ryuko and save themselves from demotion, exile, or death. “After you so abruptly left the meeting last night,” Yanagisawa said, “I managed to convince His Excellency that Priest Ryuko had been too hasty in judging us and we deserve another chance to rescue Lady Keisho-in.” He spoke as if this hardly mattered and the clash with Ryuko had lost all significance. He resumed pacing.
“Then why did you want to see me?” Sano asked.
With a visible effort Yanagisawa halted his restless movements, faced Sano, and said in low monotone, “The ransom letter from the kidnappers has arrived.”
“What?” Surprise jolted Sano’s heart, which began thundering a rhythm of anticipation and alarm as he stared at Yanagisawa. “When? How?”
The chamberlain reached inside his surcoat and brought out a large folded white paper. “A patrol guard found it an hour ago, plastered on the castle wall. He brought it to me because he’s one of my spies.”
“Have you shown the letter to His Excellency?” Sano said.
Yanagisawa expelled his breath in a long, quavering gust. “Not yet. No one else knows about the letter.”
That he’d withheld important information from the shogun baffled Sano less than did the fact that Yanagisawa wanted to share the news with him first. “But why-”
“Read it.” Yanagisawa thrust the letter into Sano’s hands.
Nonplussed, Sano unfolded the paper. It bore columns of large characters written with black ink, in bold, elegant calligraphy. The message read:
The woman thrashes wildly in dark water,
Her long hair and robes spread,
Like the petals of a flower cut and tossed upon the lake.
Her cries for help pierce the night,
But alas, to no avail,
Cold waves engulf her beauty,
Water bubbles into her lungs,
Seaweed entwines her limbs,
She surrenders fear and suffering,
As she sinks into death.
The pale wraith of her spirit departs its lifeless body,
She drifts in enchanted slumber, Down unfathomable depths,
Through watery channels,
Into a cave far beneath the Eastern Sea.
There she awakens in a glittering garden,
Of sea urchins, anemones, shells, and coral.
She floats past brilliant, swimming fish,
Toward a palace built from luminous mother-of-pearl,
Where the Dragon King rules his underwater realm.
The Dragon King uncoils within his palace,
His green scales and golden claws gleam,
His eyes flash like crimson jewels,
And flames breathe from his mouth.
His undulating serpent’s body encircles her,
While she recoils in terror.
But the Dragon King whispers, "Fear not, my lady.”
He heaps pearls, gems, and gold coins at her feet.
“You shall be my queen and dwell here in my palace,
For all eternity.”
Your Excellency the Shogun-
Here is what you must do if you want your honorable mother returned to you. Denounce Police Commissioner Hoshina as a murderer, then execute him and display his corpse at the foot of the Nihonbashi Bridge. Obey my orders, and I will release Lady Keisho-in and her friends. Disobey, and they will be killed.
Sano gave minimal attention to the poem, which made no sense to him. Amazed, he reread the kidnappers’ demands and shook his head. He looked up at Chamberlain Yanagisawa, who watched him with controlled stoicism.
“The target of the kidnapping isn’t the shogun, or you, or me,” Sano said. “It’s Hoshina-san!” They couldn’t have guessed; nothing had forewarned them. And the theories they’d devised in ignorance had misguided their investigation. “We’ve been hunting suspects in the wrong places!”
“Indeed.” Yanagisawa turned away from Sano and gazed out of the pavilion.
As morning encroached upon the garden, shadows lifted; the landscape and colors gained definition. Sano experienced dawning relief because he now understood the kidnappers’ motive and how to save Reiko. Then came the immediate, awful realization that the terms of the ransom put her in worse jeopardy than he’d imagined.
“What are you going to do?” As Sano spoke, apprehension struck a new chord.
The chamberlain moved his shoulders in a gesture that bespoke the quandary weighing upon them. However much he wanted to rescue Lady Keisho-in and win the battle for the shogun’s favor, should he allow the execution of his lover? Sano realized that Yanagisawa must care a great deal for Hoshina, or he would have already taken the letter to the shogun, and Hoshina would be on his way to his death. Still wondering why Yanagisawa had chosen to break the news about the ransom letter to him this way, Sano faced his own dilemma. He couldn’t condone a blood sacrifice in exchange for the women, but Hoshina was his enemy, and Reiko’s life was at stake.
Sano said, “When are you going to tell Hoshina-san?”
“Right now.” Yanagisawa called to his guards: “Fetch the police commissioner.”
Soon Hoshina ambled up the path, clad in a beige silk dressing gown that exposed his bare chest, calves, and feet. He yawned, his eyes heavy with sleep. When he saw Sano, he stopped outside the pavilion and blinked in drowsy surprise.