Sano Ichiro 5 The Samurai's Wife (2000)

by Laura Joh Rowland

  Despair slumped Hoshina's shoulders, and his face looked suddenly ravaged by fatigue. "If that's what you really believe, then so be it." Still, he kept advancing. Yanagisawa's back struck a solid wooden pillar, abruptly halting his retreat. Hoshina moved closer until his throat was touching the tip of Yanagisawa's blade.

  "So kill me now," Hoshina said, "and I'll die satisfied with the knowledge that I did my best for the man who means more to me than my own life."

  The sight of the sharp steel point indenting Hoshina's bare skin filled Yanagisawa with awe. No man dedicated to self-interest would ever offer up his life this way. Yanagisawa could finally believe in Hoshina's honesty. And he saw a chance to put a tragedy behind him and atone for his own sins.

  Shichisaburo had died for love of him. Rather than do what was right and honorable, Yanagisawa had condemned the actor to execution. But he needn't relive the past. He drew a deep breath. If he could find within himself the mercy to forgive, the courage to relinquish pride...

  Hoshina's steady gaze, filled with a mixture of faith and fear, compelled Yanagisawa's decision. The breath rushed out of him; the sword fell from his grasp. Hoshina's face lit with happiness. They exchanged a long, silent look that conveyed forgiveness and gratitude, affirmed love, and stirred desire, while jubilant shouts from the battlefield heralded the imminent Tokugawa victory.

  Eventually, they picked up and sheathed their weapons, then stood side by side, watching the battle, uncertain what to say. Hoshina ventured, "Now can I tell you what I learned about the coin?"

  "Yes, if you like." Yanagisawa's heart was soaring with such happiness that he hardly cared about the clue.

  "The coin was minted by a powerful Miyako gangster clan by the name of Dazai," Hoshina said.

  "That's interesting," Yanagisawa said, not wanting to admit that he already knew and let Hoshina think his effort had been wasted.

  "My informant is a Dazai retainer," Hoshina said. "He told me that the gang trades in stolen goods. Usually the chief buys them outright from thieves and keeps the money he makes from reselling them. But when the merchandise is very rare or valuable, he pays after he's found the right buyer. He gives the thief one of these." Hoshina held up the coin, explaining, "The Dazai are former samurai. They have a sense of honor. The coin is their pledge that they'll either pay for the merchandise eventually, or return it."

  The unexpected news revealed a startling new dimension to the murder case. "The coin was found with two others in Left Minister Konoe's house," Yanagisawa said. "That means he sold things to the Dazai. Things he'd obtained illegally, that he couldn't sell on the open market."

  "And the fact that such coins were found among Konoe's possessions meant he'd never been paid." Eagerness animated Hoshina's face. "So I asked my informant if the Dazai still had the merchandise. He said yes. I talked him into letting me into the warehouse where they hide stolen goods. I saw what they got from Konoe: antique kimonos, with chrysanthemum crests on the fabric. I recognized them from when I inspected the imperial storehouses."

  "Konoe stole from the palace?" Yanagisawa struggled to fathom the notion of the metsuke spy as a thief. "Why?" Then he shook his head. "The Dazai wouldn't have asked; all they would care about was the money they could make by selling imperial treasure to rich collectors."

  "But I know why," Hoshina said excitedly. "The kimonos weren't all that Konoe had sold the Dazai. He'd been bringing them valuable artifacts for years, a little at a time. But here's the most interesting part: After selling the things, the Dazai didn't pay Konoe. Some of the gold they kept, as part of a secret deal they had with him. The rest they delivered to a priest at Lord Ibe's house, along with weapons and ammunition. Do you know what that means?"

  It meant that he and Sano had completely misunderstood a critical element of the murder case, Yanagisawa realized. "Konoe was behind the imperial restoration attempt," he said, stunned by the revelation. "The troops were armed with money raised by stealing palace treasure." Not through loans from the bank to which Yanagisawa had followed Jokyoden's messenger; not with payments made by Ichijo during secret meetings at the Ear Mound. "Konoe's deal with the Dazai must have been a pact to combine forces to overthrow the Tokugawa. He got the revolt under way, and his allies carried on after his death. Merciful gods..."

  "The spy was the traitor!" Hoshina exclaimed.

  "Sano and I assumed that the revolt was the reason for Left Minister Konoe's murder." Chagrin overwhelmed Yanagisawa. "But if he was responsible for the plot, he didn't die because the killer wanted to keep him from reporting it to the bakufu."

  "Therefore the plot had nothing to do with Konoe's death," Hoshina said.

  "I just can't accept that!" Yanagisawa restlessly paced the street.

  "We can't ignore the facts," Hoshina said. "As soon as this complication is out of the way-" he gestured toward the battlefield "--we can go back to the palace and find out the truth about Konoe's murder."

  "I suppose you're right." Yanagisawa slowed his steps; yet he couldn't concede defeat. He devised a fresh theory around the conspiracy, like rebuilding a house to accommodate a giant piece of furniture that won't fit. He said, "Before, the question was, `Who was the traitor Konoe had discovered?' But what if we turn it around and ask, `Who knew Konoe was a traitor?'

  "I don't see where that leads," Hoshina said, bewildered.

  Instinct told Yanagisawa that he was heading in the right direction. "Suppose Konoe didn't die because he had compromising knowledge about anyone. Could the murderer have killed Konoe because he--or she-knew about his treason?"

  "Anyone who knew about the conspiracy could have destroyed the left minister by simply reporting it to the bakufu," Hoshina pointed out. "There would have been no reason for murder."

  Yanagisawa recognized other flaws in his theory. He had no proof that Right Minister Ichijo or Lady Jokyoden had known about the plot. Emperor Tomohito had known, but as part of the conspiracy, he couldn't have betrayed Konoe without getting himself in trouble. But Yanagisawa could guess who had known... and couldn't have hoped to gain by reporting Left Minister Konoe's crime to the bakufu.

  In a leap of thought and logic too rapid to express in words, Yanagisawa whispered, "Prince Momozono is the killer!"

  Hoshina laughed. "You're joking." Then, seeing that Yanagisawa was serious, he said, "Why do you think so?"

  Yanagisawa suddenly saw the personal ramifications of his discovery. He ran uphill to the plaza. There, amid trampled corpses, some hundred rebels still fought valiantly. Yanagisawa scanned the ranks of his army. Mounted troops rode down the enemy; teams of swordsmen battled each priest, gangster, and outlaw samurai. Yanagisawa didn't see Sano, who must have gone off in search of Emperor Tomohito. Sano hadn't heard Hoshina's story; he didn't know what would happen if he tried to capture the emperor.

  Now Yanagisawa saw his dearest wishes hovering on the horizon like a radiant constellation: Sano gone forever; the solution to the murder case in Yanagisawa's hands, his victory over the rebels certain; a secure future in the shogun's favor. All he had to do was absolutely nothing. Yanagisawa inhaled the scent of blood and gunpowder as he savored his triumph... but somehow it wasn't as satisfying as he'd expected. With astonishment, he realized that something had changed inside him. Tonight he'd experienced the Way of the Warrior. The taste of honor had diminished his appetite for the feud with Sano. Deliberately letting one of his soldiers die seemed disgraceful behavior for a samurai general.

  Yoriki Hoshina joined him. "What's wrong?"

  Yanagisawa stared at Hoshina. Now he understood that their reunion had also changed him, had altered his vision of the world. For two years Sano had been the bane of his existence; yet Sano had always acted out of duty to the shogun and dedication to his work, not out of a desire to injure Yanagisawa. Sano had saved his life, spared him punishment. And Yanagisawa had promised not to harm Sano. Could he repay the good fortune of his happiness by dishonoring their bargain and abandoning a comrade in danger?r />
  Looking up at Kiyomizu, Yanagisawa guessed that Sano had gone into the temple to find Emperor Tomohito. When he did, he would also find Prince Momozono. Yanagisawa took a hesitant step forward. But habit prevailed; a sudden change of heart didn't negate the goals of a lifetime. Yanagisawa backtracked two steps.

  Should he let fate take its course, or rush to Sano's rescue? Should he serve ambition and self-interest, or comradeship and honor?

  35

  Everything's g-going to be all r-right, Your Majesty."

  Head tossing, body convulsing, Prince Momozono stumbled across the temple hall veranda toward his fallen, weeping cousin. Light from the ceiling lanterns splayed his ungainly shadow across the floor; his yelps punctuated the gunfire that boomed from the darkness down the hill. Knotted ropes circled his left ankle and wrist, the loose ends trailing; a cloth strip hung around his neck: The rebels must have bound and gagged him to keep him quiet.

  Sano beheld the prince in amazement. Momozono looked as pitiful as ever, but he harbored the force of kiai, and Sano recognized the potentially lethal complications introduced by Momozono's arrival. He scented the cold breath of danger; his mind raced.

  "I'm glad to see you safe, Honorable Prince," he improvised, anxious not to reveal that he knew Momozono was the killer. Getting the boys back to the city and Momozono into the custody of the bakufu seemed the best strategy. "Now that you're here, I can take you and His Majesty home."

  "No! I can't bear for everyone to see me in disgrace!" The emperor's sobs dwindled to panicky gasps. "I never want to go home again!"

  Prince Momozono lurched close to his cousin. He said, "We're n-not g-going with you."

  The pair looked like frightened children defying a bully. Sano's heart sank. "Neither of you has anything to fear," he said, thinking fast. "Prince Momozono wasn't party to the revolt, and Your Majesty will be spared the consequences of treason."

  Tomohito gazed uncertainly at Sano, betraying his need to give himself over to authority, but Momozono cried, "D-don't believe him, Your Majesty. You must learn to beware of p-people who want to use you for th-their own purposes. Look at what happened because you trusted the l-left minister!"

  Confusion disconcerted Sano. Did Momozono mean the right minister? Was Ichijo behind the conspiracy after all?

  "The left minister was my friend," Tomohito protested. "I wanted to rule Japan, and he helped me. He bought weapons with the money from selling imperial treasure. He raised an army to overthrow the Tokugawa for me. Before he died, he planned the siege of Miyako."

  Sano's jaw dropped. "Do you mean that Left Minister Konoe was responsible for the revolt?"

  Despite his astonishment, he saw that the revelation made perfect sense. The motives and means he'd attributed to Ichijo also fit the murder victim. Konoe, too, had been an ambitious man who'd wielded influence over the emperor. His position, like Ichijo's, had allowed him the freedom to go about recruiting troops. And Konoe, as chief court noble, would have ruled from behind the throne if he'd lived and the coup had succeeded.

  But his status as a metsuke agent had blinded Sano to these facts, and important clues. The notes from Konoe's secret house must have been his plans for organizing the coup, not observations scribbled while spying on Lord Ibe's estate. A man capable of murdering Kozeri's husband, then pursuing her for fifteen years after she repudiated him, was mad enough to attack the Tokugawa. Now Sano recalled Ichijo saying, "Konoe... I should have guessed," and understood that Ichijo had realized that Konoe was responsible for the plot. Emperor Tomohito had said he didn't need Konoe anymore, meaning that because Konoe had already launched the revolt, he was no longer necessary for its success. Sano silently cursed his failure to see what now seemed obvious.

  Prince Momozono bent over the emperor; while one arm flapped like a broken wing, the other clumsily embraced Tomohito's shoulders. "It's t-time to face the facts, Your Majesty. Day after d-day I listened to the left m-minister praising your ancestors who commanded power over Japan. I w-watched his h-hired martial arts experts teach you s-swordsmanship and convince you that you were a g-great warrior. He d-didn't think I understood what he was d-doing. I heard him fill your h-head with dreams of glory until you agreed that you must lead an uprising against the b-bakufu."

  "It was my idea." Tomohito's face puckered with doubt. "He was just helping me fulfill my destiny."

  Prince Momozono shook his head. "Y-you were too c-caught up in the left minister's scheme to n-notice what he m-muttered to himself every time he d-described the wonderful future when the Imperial C-court was restored to supremacy. But I heard. He s-said, `Then she will love me. Sh-she will be forced to obey m-me as her husband and l-lord.' Your Majesty, h-he planned a revolt to get power over the w-wife who left him!"

  "He did it for me!" Tomohito insisted, drumming his heels on the veranda while tears spilled down his cheeks.

  Then the siege of Miyako hadn't been intended as just a drive for political power, but to satisfy an obsessive love. The "accomplishment" that Konoe had mentioned to Kozeri wasn't his elevation to the post of imperial prime minister, Sano realized; the "special occasion" Konoe had wanted to celebrate with her wasn't a reward for turning in a traitor. Both euphemisms had referred to his takeover of Japan, which would place her and everyone else in his power. In his last letter to Kozeri, he'd alluded to the site of the revolt, which he knew because he himself had chosen it.

  Momozono knelt beside the emperor. "I c-couldn't let the 1-left minister get you in trouble. So I k-killed him."

  Sano was horrified. He needed a confession, but not here, with nothing to deter Momozono from killing to protect the emperor and eliminate a bakufu official to whom he'd just admitted he was guilty of murder.

  "You killed the left minister?" The exclamation burst from Tomohito. Then dismayed recollection came into his eyes. "The night Konoe was murdered, you were already in the Pond Garden when I got there. After we found his body, you asked where I'd been before we met. I said, in the study hall, alone. We agreed to say we'd been there together. When that other man died, I was alone in the worship hall, and you promised to say you'd been there, too. I thought you did it for my sake. But it was you who needed an alibi!"

  He jumped up and began beating the prince with his fists, shouting, "You tried to ruin my future. How dare you?"

  "I did it to s-save you! An anonymous 1-letter telling what the left m-minister was doing wouldn't have b-been enough to convince the bakufu-he was too important and r-respectable. I had no choice but to k-kill him. I didn't know that the r-revolt would go ahead after h-he was gone!" Raising his unwieldy arms in self-defense, Momozono accidentally struck Tomohito's chin, further enraging him.

  "I'll kill you!" Tomohito howled.

  "Stop!" Sano dragged Tomohito away from the prince, fearful that Momozono would turn against his cousin for failing to appreciate what he'd done. Sano considered slaying the prince, whose crimes merited the death penalty, but he abhorred killing and hoped to arrest Momozono without violence.

  On his knees, head tossing, Momozono cried, "If the revolt w-were to succeed and L-left Minister Konoe seize power, h-he would have exiled me, the way he tried to years ago. Were it to f-fail, Your Majesty would have b-been executed. And what w-would have happened to m-me then?"

  "Who cares about you?" Tomohito demanded, trying to maneuver around Sano so he could get at the prince.

  Selfishness was at the heart of every murderer's motive, Sano knew. Momozono had acted on the emperor's behalf, but he'd also been defending his own precarious position. He, of all the suspects, had the most to gain by Konoe's death and the most to lose by either his victory or defeat in a war with the Tokugawa. Only one question remained.

  "Why did you kill again?" Sano asked the prince.

  "I g-got the message that you were coming to the p-palace. I w-went to kill you so Lady Asagao would be f-freed and you wouldn't discover the c-conspiracy. On my way, I c-came upon four s-samurai, walking through the palace g-g
rounds. I heard them t-talking. A man with a drawling voice was p-praising the leader for framing L-lady Asagao and forcing her to confess."

  Aisu and Yanagisawa and their guards, Sano thought.

  "I r-realized that they were r-responsible for her arrest. They w-went on talking, and it was clear th-that they wanted to w-watch me kill you, then arrest me. It was a trap!" Momozono went into a fit of facial contortions. "I h-had to do what I'd set out to do, but I couldn't let them c-catch me. So I went after them. Two of the m-men ran away. I k-killed the one with the drawling v-voice and trapped the 1-leader. But then I heard you c-coming. I couldn't recover my strength quickly enough to s-scream again, so I ran away."

  A chance encounter had resulted in Aisu's death, Sano realized, and spared his own life. If he was clever enough, fortune might favor him again.

  "I commend your loyalty to His Majesty, and I understand what a terrible ordeal you've been through," Sano said gently, while he sought a way to persuade Momozono to surrender himself and the emperor. What kind of favorable terms could he offer a confessed murderer? "Let's go back to the palace where you can rest, and-"