“Where am I?” His voice was a feeble croak.
Kitano continued chanting as he stirred the pot. Tahara came to stand over Hirata. “In a safe place where no one will bother us.” His unfriendly face was still bruised from the battle. Not much time had passed since then.
“What happened?” he asked.
“General Otani punished you,” Tahara answered.
“What are you doing to me?”
“Secret medical treatments and mystical healing spells. Your wounds are pretty bad.”
Still chanting, Kitano pushed a strange apparatus on wheels toward Hirata. It was a bellows connected by a metal tube to the neck of a large ceramic jar. Kitano fetched the pot from the hearth. His scarred face was covered with raw, stitched-up gashes from his fight with Deguchi. He poured the pot’s contents into the jar, corked it, and inserted another, thinner tube through the cork. Tahara connected the end of the thin tube to a leather mask, which he pressed over Hirata’s nose and mouth. Kitano pumped the bellows. Hirata moaned as steam laced with sweet chemicals invaded his lungs.
“Why…?” The mask muffled his voice. The fog of sleep thickened.
“Why are we healing you instead of letting you die?” Tahara said, his hostile voice echoing in the cave. “Because General Otani has further use for you.”
With his last waking thought Hirata wished he were dead. That was better than being saved in order that he could continue his treasonous collaboration with Tahara, Kitano, and the ghost. Worse trouble was coming. But a glint of hope eased his anguish, illuminated the noxious black sleep that overtook Hirata’s consciousness.
As long as he was alive, he had a chance to destroy his enemies, make amends to his family and Sano, and restore his honor.
ALSO BY LAURA JOH ROWLAND
The Incense Game
The Rōnin’s Mistress
The Cloud Pavilion
The Fire Kimono
The Snow Empress
Red Chrysanthemum
The Assassin’s Touch
The Perfumed Sleeve
The Dragon King’s Palace
The Pillow Book of Lady Wisteria
Black Lotus
The Samurai’s Wife
The Concubine’s Tattoo
The Way of the Traitor
Bundori
Shinjū
About the Author
LAURA JOH ROWLAND is the author of sixteen previous novels in her acclaimed series of thrillers set in feudal Japan; two of them have been named among the Best Mysteries of the Year by Publishers Weekly, while a third was declared one of the five best historical mystery novels by The Wall Street Journal. Her most recent novel, The Incense Game, won the Reviewers’ Choice Award from RT Book Reviews for Best Historical Mystery. She lives in New York City.
This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
THE SHOGUN’S DAUGHER. Copyright © 2013 by Laura Joh Rowland. All rights reserved. For information, address St. Martin’s Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010.
www.minotaurbooks.com
Cover design by Laura Klynstra
Cover photographs: woman © CulturaRM/Masterfile; flowers © malamalama/Shutterstock.com
The Library of Congress has cataloged the print edition as follows:
Rowland, Laura Joh.
The Shogun’s daughter: a novel of Feudal Japan / Laura Joh Rowland.—First edition.
pages cm
ISBN 978-1-250-02861-7 (hardcover)
ISBN 978-1-250-02862-4 (e-book)
1. Sano, Ichiro (Fictitious character)—Fiction. 2. Japan—History—Genroku period, 1688–1704—Fiction. I. Title.
PS3568.O934S34 2013
813'.54—dc23
2013013933
eISBN 9781250028624
First Edition: September 2013
The Shogun's Daughter: A Novel of Feudal Japan (Sano Ichiro Novels) Page 36