“Leave her with me, Ota-san.” He flicked a glance at her erstwhile attacker, who seemed to be his chief henchman. “You can all go.”

“But she’s dangerous.” Ota stood firm, his hand still gripping Reiko’s arm. His comrades also held their positions. “She killed four of our men during the ambush. She attacked Jiro and me this morning. You shouldn’t be alone with her.”

Nor did Reiko want to be alone with him. Although she feared her escorts, she wished they would stay.

Angry impatience flamed in the man’s eyes. “Then wait outside,” he ordered his men.

Ota spoke quietly to Reiko: “Behave yourself, or your friends will be punished.”

Then he released her. He and his fellows walked out the door, but Reiko sensed him loitering nearby. She saw the other men line up on the veranda, ready to protect their master.

He descended from the dais and approached Reiko. His flared nostrils twitched as though scenting prey; saliva gleamed on his pursed lips. Reiko folded her arms across her bosom and stepped backward. Her heart beat an escalating rhythm as she eyed the swords at his waist.

Had he brought her here so that he could kill her? Had he kidnapped her and her friends because he enjoyed slaughtering helpless women?

He advanced nearer with that proud yet hesitant swagger. The odor of incense was stronger around him, as if soaked into his skin and clothes. “What’s your name?” he said, his gaze intent on her face.

She didn’t want to tell him, but she was afraid of what he would do if she didn’t answer. She opened her mouth. No speech emerged. Swallowing the dry lump in her throat, she tried again. “Reiko,” she whispered.

A shadow of displeasure crossed his features. “That name doesn’t suit you. I shall call you… Anemone.” He lingered on the word, savoring it.

Reiko hoped she wouldn’t be here long enough for him to call her anything, but if he bothered to rename her, then perhaps he intended her to live awhile. Her mettle revived, emboldening her. “Who are you?” she said.

His brows rose in surprise, as if he thought she should have already known. After a moment’s hesitation, he said, “You can call me ‘Dragon King.’ ”

She frowned, baffled by his strange talk. Why would he name himself after the legendary spirit? She was also perturbed that he wouldn’t tell her his real identity.

A secretive smile touched his lips. “Yes, I am the Dragon King, who rights the wrongs done by evil men and balances the cosmic forces in the universe.”

What he meant by that eluded Reiko’s comprehension. “Where am I?” she asked.

“You’re with me, where you belong.”

He prowled in a circle around her. Pivoting, Reiko watched him, leery that he would attack her. If she was to die, she wouldn’t succumb without a battle, and she wanted some answers first. She said, “I mean, where is this place?”

“This is a castle that a member of my clan built as a summer home. He was a general during the civil wars, more than a hundred years ago. One day, enemy troops attacked him here. They fired mortars, gunshots, and flaming arrows from rafts on the lake. The castle caught fire. The enemy invaded. Although my clansman and his army fought bravely, they were doomed. He committed seppuku to avoid the disgrace of capture.”

Ice congealed along Reiko’s nerves as she recalled the bloodstains on the floor.

“But the past doesn’t concern us, Anemone,” said the Dragon King. “That chance has reunited us is all that matters.”

Again, he behaved as if they knew each other, although Reiko was more sure than ever that they’d never met. What part did he think chance had played in his abduction of her? And why insist on calling her Anemone? What significance did the name hold for him?

“I shouldn’t have expected you to recognize me,” he said in a rueful tone. “When we were last together, I was a mere boy. But I recognized you at once. You are as young and beautiful as ever.” Reverence hushed his voice and misted his eyes as he gazed at Reiko. “You are just as you’ve appeared in my dreams ever since the night I lost you.”

Reiko deduced that she resembled someone he’d known. Could it be the reason he’d kidnapped her? The idea that mistaken identity had occasioned the murder of a hundred people horrified Reiko. But when they’d met after her escape attempt, he’d seemed surprised to see her. And why kidnap the other women if she was the one he wanted?

An injured expression altered the Dragon King’s aspect. “Why do you not speak?” he asked. “Have you nothing to say to me after all this time apart?”

Reiko blurted, “Are you going to kill me?”

The Dragon King cocked his big head, clasped one fist inside the other, and regarded her for a long, suspenseful moment, while emotions she couldn’t interpret flitted across his face. “Hopefully not,” he said at last.

Her puzzlement outlived her relief, because the Dragon King thrust out both hands as if to seize her. Reiko cried out and instinctively flung up her arms to strike back, then recalled that her friends’ safety depended on her good behavior. The Dragon King withdrew his hands and held them palms up, assuring her that he meant no harm. An anxious, propitiating smile rendered his countenance all the more disturbing.

“Come, we shall celebrate our reunion with a banquet,” he said.

He moved to her side. His hand touching her sleeve urged her across the room, up onto the dais. Near the mural lay a cloth set with a sake decanter, two cups, two pairs of chopsticks, and dishes that contained cold rice, roasted fish, boiled greens, and preserved fruits. Reiko unwillingly knelt where the Dragon King indicated. He knelt too close beside her, poured the sake, and handed her a cup.

“A toast to a new beginning,” he said, raising his cup while his gaze devoured her.

He drank, and Reiko decided he was playing some private, bizarre game. The need to protect her friends compelled her to play along and drain her cup. The liquor burned her insides like corrosive poison.

“Please eat, Anemone,” he said.

Reiko picked up the chopsticks and obeyed. Despite her hunger, every bite stuck in her throat. She didn’t want to encourage his weird fancies. What bearing might they have upon his crimes?

The Dragon King poured more sake and drank again. He didn’t eat; he just watched her. “You’re awfully quiet, my dearest. What are you thinking?”

Summoning her nerve, Reiko said, “Why did you do it?”

The Dragon King started and blinked, as if he’d just awakened from a dream. He seemed not to know what she was talking about.

“What I want to know is why you kidnapped us,” Reiko said, and saw comprehension creep into his gaze. She said, “If it’s money you want, my family will pay you whatever you ask. So will Midori’s and Lady Yanagisawa’s families. The shogun will give away the whole Tokugawa treasury to get his mother back.”

“I don’t want money.” The Dragon King dismissed the notion with an adamant shake of his head. “The purpose of my scheme is justice, not wealth. Justice and vengeance. Both require blood sacrifice of the innocent as well as the guilty.”

“You wanted revenge? For what?” Reiko said, more perplexed than enlightened. “What did those people your men killed ever do to you?”

“Nothing.” His callous dismissal said he harbored no regrets about the massacre. “They were just in the way.”

“In the way of kidnapping Lady Keisho-in, Lady Yanagisawa, Midori, and me?” When the Dragon King nodded, Reiko said, “But we’ve never hurt you. You’ve no cause to hold us prisoners and mistreat us.”

“Haven’t I?” Sudden rage flamed in his eyes. “Didn’t you entice me into immoral degradation?” He leaned closer to Reiko, and his words sprayed hot liquor fumes into her face.

Disconcerted by his abrupt change of mood, she lurched upward in an attempt to rise. She saw the men on the veranda aiming bows and arrows at her through the cracked doors. She thought of her helpless friends and sank to her knees.