Sano Ichiro 6 Black Lotus (2001)

by Laura Joh Rowland

  As he fought his way closer to Reiko's palanquin, an object the size of a teapot soared through the air ahead of him, trailing a short tail with a burning end. It thudded to the ground amid a nearby group of combatants and exploded with a tremendous boom and blinding flash of light.

  Sano exclaimed in shock. His horse reared. A huge smoke cloud burgeoned at the site of the explosion. Out of this flew bodies hurled by the blast. Agonized screams arose. The Black Lotus had begun deploying gunpowder bombs intended for the destruction of Japan. All around the temple, priests ignited fuses and flung more bombs. More explosions produced more screams and maimed corpses. Injured survivors moaned. Then Sano saw a bomb land on the roof of the palanquin.

  "Reiko!" he yelled, horrified. "Get out! Run!"

  He vaulted from his saddle, over the priests around him, and landed hard in a crouch. The impact rolled him heels over head, across rough grass, until he halted some ten paces from the palanquin. Still gripping his sword, he leapt to his feet, just as the palanquin exploded.

  The blast threw him backward. He felt intense heat. Broken boards showered down upon him. Gunpowder fumes seared his lungs. Then he was crawling through the smoke, frantically pawing the wreckage of the palanquin.

  "Reiko!" His ears were ringing from the explosion; he could barely hear himself. A dark afterimage of the flash obscured his vision. "Where are you? Answer me!"

  Heedless of the flames that licked his hands, he flung aside splintered panels. A motionless, bloody form appeared.

  "No!" The violent denial erupted from Sano.

  Then he noticed the corpse's shaved head: It was a nun. Yet Reiko must be here somewhere. Willing her to be alive, Sano worked furiously until he'd cleared all the debris off the palanquin's shattered base. But he found no trace of Reiko, nor Haru. Sano's relief was transient, obliterated by fresh horror. He looked up and saw Hirata running toward him.

  "They're gone," he shouted over the noise of more explosions.

  "What?" Hirata, grimy and sporting cuts in his armor, halted and looked at Sano in confusion. "Who?"

  "Reiko and Haru."

  "Where?"

  "I don't know." As Sano looked around for the women, dread sank icy roots deep in his heart. "Help me gather some troops. We've got to find them."

  Gripping her dagger, Reiko hurried down the tunnel, stumbling over rocks embedded in the floor, past closed doors. The lamps cast her fleeting shadow on the walls; the passage wound on. Reiko couldn't see Haru, but the tunnels amplified noises, and she followed Haru's wheezes. She became aware of other, distant noises --- marching footsteps, garbled voices, and the ring of metal on stone. Her heart seemed to expand with her fear, thudding against her rib cage. If the Black Lotus discovered her, they would surely kill her. But she had to catch Haru.

  A turn brought Reiko to a fork in the tunnel. From one branch came the unexpected, chilling sound of children laughing and chattering. The Black Lotus had evidently hidden their young underground. From the other passage came a loud pounding, and Haru's voice shouting, "Let me in!"

  Reiko ran down that passage. She rounded a curve and saw Haru banging on a door. It opened inward, and Haru tumbled through it. The door creaked shut. Reiko halted, panting. Her terror burgeoned as she wondered who had taken Haru in and a likely answer occurred to her. Still, she was duty bound to stick with Haru. She crept to the door.

  It wasn't completely closed, and there was a small, barred window at eye level in its iron-banded surface. Cautiously, Reiko peered through the window. Color dazzled her eyes. The spacious room inside was lined with curtains printed in brilliant, swirling abstract patterns of crimson, orange, and purple. The curtains shimmered in the light of lanterns; bathing in garish radiance the people in the room.

  At the back, High Priest Anraku sat cross-legged on a platform. His white robe glowed ruddy; his brocade stole sparkled. To his right stood Priest Kumashiro, like a bronze statue in saffron robe and armor tunic, swords at his waist. Abbess Junketsu-in, clad in white robe and head drape, was kneeling on the tatami at the left side of the room. Opposite her knelt Dr. Miwa, in formal dark kimono.

  Reiko realized that this was where the Black Lotus leaders planned to wait out the conflagration they'd devised. Eight priests --- evidently high sect officials --- stood along the walls. Everyone stared at Haru, crouched on hands and knees in the center of the room, facing Anraku.

  Dr. Miwa said to her, "How did you get here?"

  "The sōsakan-sama brought me. I sneaked away." Haru spoke as if proud of her cleverness.

  "Did anyone see you enter the tunnels?" Kumashiro said, obviously concerned about security in the temple's underground.

  He looked toward the door, and Reiko ducked beneath the window. She heard Haru say, "No, there was so much confusion, nobody knows I left." Haru was still lying, Reiko observed with irony; the girl couldn't have forgotten that there was one person who would have noticed her absence. "Oh, Anraku-san, I'm so glad to be with you again." Haru's voice trembled with emotion, then faltered, "Aren't you glad I came back?"

  "After you traded our secrets to get better treatment for yourself?" Junketsu-in said incredulously. Reiko understood that the sect had learned the results of Haru's trial. "You betrayed us. And now you expect us to welcome you? Hah!"

  Reiko risked another peek through the window and saw Anraku appraising Haru in thoughtful silence. Haru beseeched him, "Please let me explain. I only did what I did because they made me." Though Reiko couldn't see Haru's face, she could picture its expression of wounded innocence. Haru was still making excuses, Reiko noted in disgust, and still blaming other people for her actions.

  "Wicked little traitor," Junketsu-in hissed at Haru.

  "I'll get rid of her," Kumashiro said. Striding over to Haru, he grabbed her arm.

  "Let me go," Haru cried. As Kumashiro hauled her toward the door, she appealed to Anraku, who sat grave and still on his altar: "I can't bear to be separated from you again. If you throw me out, they'll catch me and kill me. I'm sorry for causing you trouble. I beg you to forgive me. If you let me stay, I'll prove how loyal I am." She was crying now, and Reiko glimpsed her panic-stricken face. "I promise!"

  Anraku spoke with quiet authority. "Release her."

  Kumashiro hesitated; his brows slanted downward in displeasure, but he obeyed. Haru thudded onto the floor. Anraku held out his hand to her.

  "Come," he said.

  With a glad cry, Haru crawled over to him, seized his hand, and pressed it to her face. "I knew you wouldn't forsake me." Now she wept for joy. "I'll do anything to repay your mercy."

  "My lord, don't you see that she's playing on your sympathy, just as she's always done?" Junketsu-in said. "How can you still be so blind to her evil ways?" She leaned anxiously toward Anraku. "Please don't take her back. She'll destroy us all --- if she hasn't already."

  "I'm afraid the abbess is right," Dr. Miwa said timidly, sucking breath through his teeth.

  Reiko watched Anraku draw Haru close, and anger glint in his eye. "Do not accuse me of blindness or gullibility," he said. "I see and understand all that mortal fools such as you cannot." Miwa and Junketsu-in cringed from his wrath; Haru sat below the platform, snuggling against his knees. "Haru has played the role for which she was destined. She performed the blood sacrifice necessary to set the cosmic forces in motion. She occasioned the persecution that generated spiritual energy within the Black Lotus. And now she has ushered in the third sign heralding our day of glory: The siege of the temple."

  Reiko marveled at how the high priest had interpreted events to fit his prophecies. Indeed, he seemed to believe his own insane logic. His faith in it, plus the force of his personality, had turned his followers' desire for spiritual fulfillment into a desire to kill and die for him.

  Regarding Haru fondly, Anraku caressed her hair. "My child, you are indeed an instrument of fortune. Because of you, the triumph of the Black Lotus is at hand."

  And he viewed mortal crimes as steps toward s
piritual enlightenment. The magnitude of his madness and his perversion of Buddhism astounded Reiko.

  Haru preened like a child praised for good behavior and directed a triumphant gaze toward Junketsu-in. "You always hated me because I'm more important to him than you are. Now I'm going to tell you exactly what I think of you. You're a mean, jealous, stupid whore." As Junketsu-in sputtered indignantly, Haru laughed, then turned to Dr. Miwa. "And you're a dirty, disgusting lecher."

  Dr. Miwa glowered; Haru's contemptuous stare encompassed him and the abbess. "You tried to get rid of me, but it didn't work," Haru taunted. "You'll both be sorry you said bad things about me." Then, while Anraku beheld his followers with lofty amusement, she glared at Kumashiro. "And you'll be sorry you tried to scare me into confessing."

  Reiko was appalled by Haru's selfish spite. The girl had committed murder and arson, and people were dying by the score, yet all she seemed to care about was regaining Anraku's esteem and taking revenge on her enemies. Reiko felt fresh shame over befriending Haru.

  "I must contradict your opinion of how well things have turned out," Kumashiro said to Anraku. "I've been aboveground and seen what's happening. Our people are being slaughtered. There won't be enough of them left to conquer Edo, let alone the rest of Japan. Our mission is doomed."

  "It wouldn't be, if you'd trained the nuns and priests into a better army." Junketsu vented on Kumashiro the animosity she dared not express toward Haru now that the girl had Anraku's favor. "You've only yourself to blame for our defeat."

  "Peasants are no match for samurai," Kumashiro said defensively. "I taught them as well as anyone could."

  "The poison I concocted is very potent," Dr. Miwa said in a voice timid yet prideful. "If even a few of the couriers reach the city, the result will be most gratifying."

  Junketsu-in gave a disdainful laugh. "A few doses of your stinking goo will accomplish too little to matter. If you'd perfected the poison gas, it would have spread on the wind. But Shinagawa proved that you're a miserable failure."

  Dr. Miwa muttered. Kumashiro walked over to Junketsu-in, his fists clenched. "What right have you to berate us?" he demanded. "You, who are a weak, ignorant female, and good for nothing. Hold your tongue, or I'll cut it out of your head."

  The antagonists either still trusted Anraku and didn't blame him for the havoc he'd wrought, or were afraid to criticize him, Reiko thought.

  "My lord." Kumashiro addressed Anraku in respectful entreaty. "The soldiers will soon come looking for us. We must leave at once."

  Panic shot through Reiko. If they left, what would she do?

  "We will stay," Anraku said, his expression obstinate. Haru rested her head on his knee, blissfully oblivious to the argument. "My army shall triumph. We shall achieve enlightenment here, on this night, as my vision has foretold. I'll not let the enemy drive me away."

  Yet Junketsu-in's face displayed fear and shock. She said, "They might be coming even now. They'll kill us all. I want to go."

  "You wish to desert me at the advent of my new world?" Impervious to reason, Anraku frowned. "Is this how you repay me for the wealth and privilege I've lavished upon you? With cowardice and disloyalty?" He flung out a hand, waving Junketsu-in away. "Then by all means, go. But if you do, our paths shall never again converge."

  "No," Junketsu-in cried, "I don't mean to desert you." She lurched toward Anraku, as if to throw herself into his arms, but Haru already occupied them. "I want you to come with me."

  A loud boom from aboveground shuddered the tunnel. Reiko gasped. Crouching, she covered her head with her arms as dirt trickled through the rafters and startled exclamations arose from Anraku's chamber. She heard Dr. Miwa cry, "They're setting off the bombs," and Junketsu-in's panicky voice: "The temple will come down and crush us!"

  The idea terrified Reiko, yet the thought of Sano up there in the explosions terrified her even more. A burning smell drifted through the tunnel --- the temple must be on fire. Reiko fought the urge to run to Sano. Looking through the window, she saw Junketsu-in, Miwa, Kumashiro, and the priests huddling near Anraku as if craving shelter from him.

  Another blast rocked the hanging lanterns. As Reiko braced herself against the lurch of the ground under her feet, Anraku said suavely, "Perhaps it would be best to pursue destiny elsewhere."

  So he still had some sense of self-preservation, Reiko thought, quailing at the calamity that his flight posed for her. If Haru went with him, Reiko must follow.

  "I've ordered provisions packed for a journey," Kumashiro said. "There's enough money for us to live on indefinitely. Your followers in the provinces will shelter us. We'll hide until the hunt for us dies down, then take on different names and recruit new followers. You and I will revive the Black Lotus and found another temple."

  Reiko saw shock freeze the countenances of the abbess and doctor as they absorbed Kumashiro's meaning. Haru, still seated close to Anraku, looked around, confused. Junketsu-in demanded of Kumashiro, "You think you're going to take him away with you and leave the rest of us here? Well, I won't stand for that. Where he goes, I go."

  Dr. Miwa said with a nervous smile, "Honorable High Priest, surely you'll need me to help you start over."

  As Anraku surveyed the group, cunning gleamed in his eye. "We'll all go," he said. Reiko supposed that he needed devoted attendants to help him survive, and thrived on the discord among them. He rose and stepped off his platform, raising Haru to her feet.

  "Not her," Kumashiro said.

  Haru's brow puckered; Anraku hesitated. Junketsu-in chimed in eagerly, "She can't keep secrets. If she travels with us, she'll tell the wrong people who we are. The bakufu will find us. We'll never be safe with her around."

  "She's an escaped criminal," Dr. Miwa said. "The police will hunt us even harder, to get her. We must abandon her to improve our chances of survival."

  If they did abandon Haru, then Reiko would be spared the trouble of pursuing them. Reiko held her breath, hoping she could capture Haru after Anraku and his officials departed, then warn Sano before they got too far.

  Haru stared at her enemies, aghast. She clutched Anraku's arm. "But I want to go with you. You won't leave me?"

  "The fewer who go, the easier to hide," Kumashiro said.

  Anraku shook off Haru and stepped away from her.

  "No!" Haru screamed. Dropping to her knees, she hugged Anraku's legs and babbled, "Nothing can separate us. My path is the path that unites all others --- you said so, don't you remember? The future of the Black Lotus depends on me. We were meant to be together, forever. You must take me with you."

  Watching, Reiko exhaled, silently imploring Anraku to leave Haru and take the others away. Anraku focused a speculative, searching gaze on Haru. He said to the priests, "Bring our prisoner."

  His order, which seemed to have no bearing on the circumstances, baffled Reiko.

  "Not her, too," Junketsu-in protested.

  A pair of the priests vanished through a doorway behind the curtains at the back of the room. They reemerged carrying a limp, horizontal figure clad in a gray robe. The arms dangled; long hair trailed on the floor. The head lolled toward Reiko.

  It was Midori, Reiko realized in shock.

  Midori's eyes were closed, her lips slack. Unconscious, she didn't stir when the priests laid her on the floor near Anraku's platform. She lay motionless except for the slow rise and fall of her bosom as she breathed. The sect must have drugged her with sleeping potion, Reiko supposed. Even as she experienced the joy of finding her friend, fear knifed through her. What did Anraku mean to do with Midori?

  Junketsu-in said vehemently to Anraku, "She's a spy. You can't bring her along."

  "I've enough potion to keep her unconscious for a long time," Dr. Miwa said, ogling Midori's body.

  Now Reiko realized with dreadful certainty that she must follow the fugitives. She couldn't leave Midori to them, and there would be no time to fetch Sano. Yet new hope awakened inside her, fragile and vibrant as butterfly wings. At least
she'd located Midori. Might she somehow rescue her friend?

  "Lady Midori still has an important purpose to serve," Anraku said, unperturbed.

  "You're going to take her and not me?" Haru shrilled in panic. She clutched Anraku tighter. "But you can't!"

  "If we have to carry her, she'll slow us down," Kumashiro pointed out.

  Another bomb exploded. Junketsu-in screamed; everyone ducked. There was a rumbling sound like a flood of rocks: a tunnel had collapsed nearby.

  "Let's go now, before it's too late," Junketsu-in pleaded. "We can just leave Lady Midori here with Haru."

  As Reiko's heart leapt at the possibility, Midori slept on, oblivious. A strange smile shimmered on Anraku's lips.

  "A new vision has just revealed to me the final purpose for which Lady Midori is destined." He stared down at Haru. "Do you truly wish my forgiveness?"

  "Yes," she gasped, lifting a hopeful face to him, "more than anything in the world."

  "You wish to prove your loyalty to me?" • "Oh, yes." Haru was wheezing, pathetic in her eagerness.

  "You would do anything to earn the privilege of accompanying me?"

  "Anything!" Haru cried, as Reiko tried to figure out where the conversation was leading.

  The high priest's smile broadened. "Then kill Lady Midori."

  Horror reverberated inside Reiko like the toll of a shattered bell. Through her panic she saw Junketsu-in's and Miwa's faces go blank with surprise at Anraku's order. Kumashiro frowned, as though disappointed to be deprived of kilhng Midori himself, or perhaps doubtful that Haru could accomplish the task. Haru slowly unclasped her arms from Anraku and sat back on her heels. Reiko read trepidation in the furrowed lines of the girl's profile.