Laura Joh Rowland - Sano Ichiro 08 - Dragon King's Palace

by Dragon King's Palace(lit)

  "This is Lady Keisho-in's maid, Suiren, who survived the massacre?" Hoshina asked the doctor.

  "Yes, Honorable Police Commissioner," said Dr. Kitano. He had a creased, intelligent face, and sparse gray hair knotted at his nape. He wore the dark blue coat of his profession.

  Hoshina turned to the officials. "Leave us," he said, annoyed that they'd come to gawk at Suiren, when he himself had important business with her. "You, too," Hoshina told the maids. He gestured for the sorceress and priest to move away. "Not so loud."

  Soon he was alone with his own men, the highway soldiers and the apprentices, Dr. Kitano and the patient. While the priest and sorceress quietly continued their ritual in a corner, Hoshina crouched by Suiren. She lay still, apparently oblivious to the world. Her breath sighed slowly through her chapped, parted lips. Hoshina frowned in concern.

  "Is she asleep?" he said to Dr. Kitano.

  "She's unconscious," the physician said.

  The news dismayed Hoshina. He addressed the patrol captains: "You brought her back to Edo?"

  "Yes, Honorable Police Commissioner." The captains, brawny and keen-featured, sweating in their armor, spoke in unison.

  "How long has she been like this?" Hoshina said.

  "Ever since we found her after the massacre," said one captain.

  "Describe how you found her," Hoshina said.

  "We were examining the bodies to see if there were any survivors," said the other captain. "We thought she was dead. There was blood all over her, and she didn't move."

  "But then we heard her moan. We rushed her to Odawara post station. The local doctor treated her," continued the first captain. "He warned us that she was too sick to travel, but our superiors said she had to be taken to Edo. We were afraid she would die on the way here."

  Hoshina had hoped that a quick, easy interview with the witness would give him the identity of Lady Keisho-in's kidnappers. Disappointed, he turned to Dr. Kitano. "Exactly what are her injuries?"

  "I was just about to examine her."

  Dr. Kitano gently unwrapped the bandage from Suiren's head, exposing hair clipped away from a large, indented purple bruise above her right temple. Frowning, he covered the wound, then drew back the sheet that blanketed Suiren and opened the white cotton kimono she wore. A white bandage swathed her abdomen. Dr. Kitano removed this. Underneath, a gash slanted from just below the left side of her rib cage to her navel. The wound, crusted with dried blood and stitched together with horsehair, oozed yellowish fluid. Hoshina winced; Dr. Kitano's frown deepened. Suiren didn't even stir.

  "This is a very bad sword cut," the physician said. "The head wound is also serious."

  Dr. Kitano touched the skin around Suiren's sunken eyes, lifted the lids, and peered into her dull, sightless pupils, according to ancient Chinese medical technique. His fingers palpated her cheeks, rubbed her dry, brittle-looking hair, and squeezed her neck. He opened her mouth, revealing pale gums and tongue, then sniffed the air near her face. Finally, he clasped one wrist, then the other. The sorceress's tambourine marked the lengthy passage of time as Dr. Kitano felt the pulses that corresponded to different internal organs. When he finished, he covered the maid and lifted his troubled gaze to Hoshina.

  "She is suffering from a deficiency of blood, fluid, and ki-life energy," Dr. Kitano said. "There is also internal festering and inflammation."

  "Can you heal her?" Hoshina said.

  "I'll do my best," Dr. Kitano said, "but it will be a miracle if she lives."

  Hoshina cupped his chin in his hand and brooded over Suiren while the tambourine rang and the priest chanted. The maid represented a chance to save Lady Keisho-in and solidify Chamberlain Yanagisawa's position in court long enough for the shogun to name Yoritomo his heir. But Hoshina had other, personal reasons for wanting Suiren to recover. If he could extract from her a clue that led to the kidnappers, he would win the shogun's esteem and gratitude for himself. The bakufu would have to recognize him as a power in his own right, not just as Yanagisawa's lover. And Yanagisawa would have to treat Hoshina with the respect he craved instead of always demeaning him.

  "I must question Suiren about the kidnapping," Hoshina told Dr. Kitano. "Wake her up."

  Concern shadowed the doctor's eyes. "It is not advisable to disturb her. She needs rest."

  Hoshina experienced overwhelming impatience. Unless he could find the kidnappers and rescue Lady Keisho-in, he might never make his name in the bakufu. He and Yanagisawa might fall so far from the shogun's grace that their plans for the future could never work. And failure, like success, posed serious personal ramifications for Hoshina. His lover admired skill and despised incompetence, and so far, Hoshina had managed to do everything Yanagisawa asked-but what if the kidnapping case proved more than he could handle? Would Yanagisawa cease to want him?

  Even as Hoshina rued his love for a man as difficult yet alluring as the chamberlain, the thought of losing Yanagisawa stabbed terror into his heart.

  "Suiren may be the only person who can give me information about who kidnapped the shogun's mother," Hoshina said. "It's imperative that she speak to me."

  "She must not exert her vital energy, which is already depleted," Dr. Kitano said. "And unconsciousness spares her terrible pain. Please give her time to grow stronger."

  "I don't have time," Hoshina said, angered by the physician's calm, authoritative manner. "If Suiren dies without telling what she knows, we may never get Lady Keisho-in back or capture the criminals." And Hoshina might never achieve his desires. He rose, squared his shoulders, and glared down at Dr. Kitano, asserting his rank. "I order you to awaken her now."

  Dr. Kitano's composure wavered as he beheld Hoshina. "The honor code of my profession forbids me to endanger the life of my patient."

  Hoshina thought the man was less concerned about violating the code than afraid that he would kill the only witness to the kidnapping and the shogun would punish him. "I'll take responsibility for whatever happens to her," Hoshina said. Better that Suiren should die during an interrogation than before he ever tried to question her.

  Nodding reluctantly, Dr. Kitano called to his apprentices: "Bring me some musk."

  An apprentice brought a ceramic cup full of coarse powder to Dr. Kitano. The acrid, animal scent of the musk tinged the air. Hoshina watched Dr. Kitano hold the cup near Suiren's nose. As the maid inhaled, her nostrils quivered; her lips twitched in an involuntary grimace. Her eyelids fluttered slowly open. Hoshina nodded his approval to Dr. Kitano.

  "Try not to upset her," the physician warned.

  Hoshina knelt beside the maid, leaning over her. "Suiren-san," he said. Her blurry gaze wandered over his face. Fear enlivened her still features. "Don't be afraid. You're safe at home in the castle." Hoshina spoke gently, stifling his excitement. "I'm the police commissioner of Edo."

  Breath eased from Suiren; her face relaxed. Her eyelids drooped, veiling her again in sleep.

  "Give her another whiff of that musk," Hoshina ordered Dr. Kitano.

  The doctor complied with reluctance. "This medicine is very potent, and repeated doses are dangerous to persons in weak health."

  When Suiren smelled the musk, her eyes blinked wide. She looked as alarmed as though she'd forgotten, or hadn't understood, who Hoshina was and what he'd told her.

  "Do you remember traveling on the Tokaido with Lady Keisho-in?" Hoshina asked. "Do you remember being attacked?"

  Her eyes clouded with confusion; then terror glazed them. A piteous groan shivered her body.

  "Did you see who abducted Lady Keisho-in?" Hoshina pressed as his urgency mounted.

  Groaning louder, the maid tossed her head from side to side. She writhed and gasped in pain. Sweat moistened her complexion, which had turned gray.

  "It's all right. Be still," Dr. Kitano soothed, stroking her forehead. He fixed a stern gaze on Hoshina. "She can't speak. And whatever she remembers is upsetting her. That's enough."

  Hoshina ignored the physician. He wondered why Suiren
had lived while everyone else in Keisho-in's entourage had died. An idea occurred to him. "Are you the kidnappers' accomplice?" he said, grasping Suiren by her shoulders. "Did you tell them that Lady Keisho-in would be traveling on the Tokaido? Did they spare your life as a reward?"

  Suiren shrieked. The blank light of panic shone in her eyes. Thrashing under the sheet, she resembled a moth trying to escape a cocoon.

  Dr. Kitano said to Hoshina, "If she doesn't calm down, she'll hurt herself. Leave her alone." His voice was harsh with censure.

  "Who kidnapped Lady Keisho-in?" Hoshina demanded. "Where did they take her? Tell me!"

  Suiren's mouth formed silent words, but her thrashing weakened. Her eyes rolled back in her head, and the lids closed. Her gasps subsided into slow, somnolent breathing as unconsciousness reclaimed her. Frantic because she'd appeared ready to talk, Hoshina shook the maid.

  "Wake up!" he shouted.

  "Stop!" Dr. Kitano dragged Hoshina away from Suiren. "You'll hurt her!"

  Furious, Hoshina pulled free of Dr. Kitano. "Use the musk on her again. Quick!"

  "No more," Dr. Kitano said, with the stony defiance of a man driven to stand by his principles no matter the cost. "Your interrogation will be the death of her. And whatever she knows, she'll take to her grave."

  Hoshina stood, panting in frustrated ire. He gazed helplessly at Suiren, who lay unmoving and incommunicative. His hands clenched tight with his need to wrest facts from her, but he accepted temporary defeat. Recovering his composure, he addressed Dr. Kitano: "You'd better keep her alive."

  His tone implied the threat he didn't speak. He turned to his men. "Stay here and guard Suiren. Don't let anyone else talk to her." He must prevent Sano from questioning the maid and eliciting who and where the kidnappers were. "I'll be at the palace. If she wakes up, notify me at once."

  He stalked out of the sickroom. Outside, he paused under the pine trees. The hot, brassy light of late afternoon streamed through the boughs. Temple bells echoed across the city, heralding another hour gone. That half a day had passed while his inquiries had gotten nowhere shook Hoshina's confidence. And he began to doubt his theory that Suiren knew the kidnappers and had helped them arrange the crime. Would they have wounded an accomplice so badly? Lesser injuries would have sufficed to make everyone think she was an innocent victim who'd escaped death by a fluke of luck. Perhaps Suiren was indeed innocent; perhaps she didn't know who had abducted her mistress. But the circumstances didn't completely discount Hoshina's theory. The kidnappers might have accidentally hurt the maid worse than they'd intended-or meant to kill her so that she could never betray them.

  Hoshina decided that his theory merited further exploration. Although Suiren couldn't speak, there were other ways to find out whether she was his best lead or a dead end. He hastened out the gate and up the walled passage toward the palace women's quarters. There resided the ladies Suiren had lived with, as well as the female palace officials who'd supervised her. If she was party to the kidnapping, they might provide the clues Hoshina needed, whether or not she survived.

  And one good clue would put him ahead of everyone else who was looking for Lady Keisho-in.

  10

  Lady Yanagisawa, if you can hear, please listen to me," Reiko said.

  She knelt beside Lady Yanagisawa, as she'd done most of the day. The glaring sun had dimmed and shifted westward, but still Lady Yanagisawa lay in her same, deathlike state. Her vacant eyes fixed on the ceiling, where the holes showed a sky tinged with the gold of approaching twilight. Outside, the windless weather quieted the forest. The waves lapped so quietly that Reiko could barely hear them above the chirping of songbirds and screeching from the gulls. Reiko clasped Lady Yanagisawa's limp hand. It was cold despite the ovenlike heat in the prison. Sweat trickled down Reiko's face, and she wiped her forehead with her sleeve. Anxiety mounted in her after countless failed attempts to communicate with Lady Yanagisawa.

  "We're still trapped," Reiko said. "We still don't know why those men kidnapped us or who they are, because they won't say. Two of them came back this afternoon, but they just looked us over, then left."

  Though Reiko had often heard the men outside during the day, they hadn't returned again. Flies buzzed around the empty food pail and full waste buckets. The heat worsened the stench. Mosquitoes whined and stung, and the women had red, itchy welts on their skin; yet hunger and discomfort were the least of Reiko's concerns.

  "The kidnappers can't be intending to just let us go," she told Lady Yanagisawa. "They mean some kind of harm, I know it. I'm so afraid Lady Keisho-in will provoke them again, no matter how hard I try to stop her."

  Reiko looked across the room at Keisho-in. The shogun's mother now lay asleep, snoring quietly, but she'd fumed and pounded on the door for much of the day. When the two men had come back, she'd ranted at them as though she'd forgotten how they'd hurt her that morning. Fortunately the men had ignored Keisho-in's diatribe. this time. Reiko didn't know how long their patience would last.

  "We have to escape." Reiko leaned close to whisper in Lady Yan-agisawa's ear: "I've thought of a way, but I can't do it alone. I don't trust Lady Keisho-in to help me. And Midori can't-she's about to have her baby any time now."

  A grunt issued from Midori, also asleep. Her body stiffened and she clutched her belly, then relaxed and sighed. Her occasional cramps had come more frequently as the day passed, and Reiko dreaded the onset of labor.

  "I need you," Reiko said to Lady Yanagisawa. Urgency raised her voice. "So please come out of this trance or whatever it is. Please help me save us!"

  Lady Yanagisawa didn't reply. Not the slightest glimmer of comprehension showed in her dull, lifeless eyes. Reiko's patience toward the woman was fading fast.

  "Maybe it's hard for you to bear what's happening," she said. "Maybe you'd rather hide inside yourself than face up to things. But think of your daughter. Kikuko-chan is at home, waiting for you. What will become of her if you don't return? She'll be so sad. She won't understand why her mother is gone. And who will take care of her?"

  Lady Yanagisawa's hand drooped flaccid in Reiko's. Only her slow breathing indicated that she wasn't dead.

  "I know your child means the world to you. You can't abandon her," Reiko said, trembling with anger now. "For Kikuko-chan's sake, you must recover your wits and do something besides just lie there!"

  No response came. Desperate, Reiko said, "Remember your husband. You've told me how much you love him and how much you wish he would love you. Unless we get home, you'll never see him again. He must know you've been kidnapped. He's probably wondering where you are and what's happened to you. Often, people don't discover how valuable something is until they've lost it. Absence increases affection. and do you know what I think?

  "I think your husband is realizing that he loves you. Your kidnapping has taught him the error of his ways. He's sorry he mistreated you and wants a chance to repent." Reiko told herself that the circumstances justified the lie. "Isn't that just what you've always dreamed of? But you can't have it if we die here. You'll never get to enjoy your husband's love unless you make an effort to go home to him."

  Reiko scrutinized Lady Yanagisawa, hoping that the promise of her heart's desire would stir the woman to action. But Lady Yanagisawa didn't even flinch. Exhausted and frustrated, Reiko dropped Lady Yanagisawa's hand. Talking to someone who couldn't or wouldn't hear was no use. She must try the only other way she knew to revive Lady Yanagisawa.

  As a young girl Reiko had learned the martial arts from a sensei hired by her father. The sensei had also taught her the ancient Chinese healing technique of applying pressure to the surface of the skin to stimulate the human body's natural curative abilities. She'd learned how pressing, striking, or piercing specific places on the body relieved pain in other areas, influenced the functioning of internal organs, and cured maladies both physical and mental. That ancient method could work to dramatic effect, Reiko knew from personal experience. When she'd given birth to Masahi
ro, the midwife had used it to relieve the labor pains and calm her. She remembered techniques for promoting the circulation of the blood and life force because she often practiced them on herself. But she'd never practiced on anyone else. The method released powerful energies that could be dangerous when mishandled by an amateur. She only hoped she could revive and not harm Lady Yanagisawa.

  With the middle finger of her right hand, Reiko palpated Lady Yanagisawa's upper lip just below the nose, at a potent point-a juncture between internal pathways that carried ki, the life force. Applying pressure here could revive someone who'd fainted and ease extreme emotional agitation. Reiko pressed, leaning her weight on her fingertip. Beneath the cool, moist surface of Lady Yanagisawa's upper lip she felt the inner tension that blocked the flow of ki. She counted to five, lifted her finger, then reapplied the pressure. She detected a faint, throbbing pulse-a good sign of renewed circulation. Again and again she pressed the potent point, and each time the pulse strengthened a little. But Lady Yanagisawa remained as inert as a corpse.