by Shin
With difficulty, he maneuvered the horse through the crowd and resumed his search. Having read an illustrated version of The Tale of Genji, he had an idea of how the shogun would look tonight. The women of that period four hundred years past had worn layers of sashless kimonos-five or six, each a different color, with flowing skirts that dragged on the ground and sleeves that covered their hands. They'd worn their hair long and loose and parted in the middle. But where was the shogun? What was he doing?
Sano tried to put himself in Tokugawa Tsunayoshi's position. As a man eager to shed the burdens of power and fame for one night, where would he go? The elaborate costume suggested that he wanted to mingle with the revelers in the streets and teahouses, protected from enemies or supplicants by a disguise not as easily penetrated as a simple mask. He could be anywhere, although he wouldn't have come alone. He'd have brought bodyguards with him, possibly dressed in costumes of the same period. With that little to go on, Sano fought his way down the street. He only hoped Lord Niu had no more information about the shogun's plans than he did.
Where were Lord Niu and the other conspirators? In their place, Sano would ambush Tsunayoshi outside the quarter for a quick, neat kill away from all the confusion, and an easy getaway. Yet he dared not try to predict the mad Lord Niu's actions. Neither did he have any idea what disguises the conspirators might be wearing.
Realizing he couldn't cover the whole quarter with any speed, Sano began stopping people he met. He shouted, "Have you seen- " and then described the shogun's party the way he imagined it. The answers he got were varied-"
"No. Yes. Maybe. I don't know!" from a drunken merchant.
"Don't be so serious. Come have a drink!" from some rowdy young samurai.
-and largely useless.
Then a pleasure house doorman said, "An old-fashioned lady, you say? Why are you looking for her, when there are so many pretty modern girls here?"
The mention of girls and the sight of the parading yujo reminded Sano of Wisteria. She'd helped him once; maybe she would again. She must have many friends in Yoshiwara who could join in the search, and enough samurai admirers to stand against Lord Niu's men. He started toward the Garden of the Heavenly Palace. Then he spotted another procession of yujo gathered outside a teahouse. Joy and concern flooded him in equal measures as his gaze found the woman at the end.
Except for her distinctive round eyes, he wouldn't have recognized Wisteria. Much thinner and paler, she wore a plain cotton kimono. Beside her swayed a very drunk man. As Sano watched, he flung an arm around Wisteria, hand groping for her breast. Wisteria's face was frozen in a grimace that barely resembled a smile.
Sano had no time to wonder what had caused the high-ranking beauty to sink to such depths. "Lady Wisteria!" he called. Somehow he reached her side without trampling anyone. He called her name again.
"Wisteria!" he shouted, lifting his mask for a moment so she could see his face. "Wisteria, do you remember me?"
Her false smile vanished. "You!" she shouted, eyes ablaze with hatred. "I helped you. I gave myself to you. And look what's become of me!"
Her angry gesture encompassed her drab, haggard appearance, her oafish customer, her place at the end of the line. Sano's heart contracted. He had, he recalled now, reported their conversation to Magistrate Ogyu. Ogyu must have ordered her demoted to low-class prostitute and social nonentity so that no one would pay attention to any stories she might tell about Noriyoshi's murder. Another life ruined by his actions. But he couldn't let guilt or pity stop him from doing what he must.
"Lady Wisteria, forgive me. I need your help again. I have to find-"
"Stay away from me!" she shrilled. "You've done enough harm already!"
Shaking free of her customer, she turned and fled. Her small size let her squeeze through narrow openings in the crowd as Sano could not. He had no choice but to let her go.
He turned away hastily when he saw another doshin pushing through the crowd toward him. He dismounted and continued down the street, leading the horse. From ground level, he could no longer look down over the crowds, but his new vantage point hid him from his pursuers and let him peer into doorways and open windows. In the teahouses and restaurants he saw many tall, heavy women that had to be men in disguise, but no one matching the shogun's description.
He rounded a corner into a street barely wide enough for four men to walk side by side. The quarter's outer wall blocked its far end. Brilliant lanterns, strung across the street between the roofs of the houses, danced overhead. The dense crowd brought Sano to an abrupt halt. He stood on his toes and craned his neck. All around him, men celebrated with increasing abandon as the festivities neared their peak. Caged yujo cried out encouragements and invitations. The ground under Sano's feet was slippery with sour-smelling mud. Then he saw a sleek dark head that reached above the others, about thirty paces away. A momentary gap in the crowd gave him a glimpse of a large, homely white face and long, flowing hair. The man-woman smiled and waved to someone. His billowy gold sleeve fell back to reveal layered kimonos underneath: red, green, blue, white.
At the same time as Sano recognized Tokugawa Tsunayoshi, the crowd pressed against him. Three samurai, masked but in ordinary clothes, were moving his way, clearing a path ahead of the shogun. Six more bodyguards, three mounted and three on foot, covered their master's back and sides. Sano pushed at the bodies that stood between him and the middle of the street. He had to intercept the shogun before he disappeared into the crowd.
"Stop pushing!" someone yelled, shoving Sano back against a railing.
"Out of the way, out of the way," called the shogun's bodyguards.
Sano knotted his horse's reins around the railing. Then he wedged himself between two men. The first bodyguard neared him. An elbow knocked his mask askew, and as he righted it, he saw the bodyguard pause and turn his head in response to a call.
A doshin appeared beside the guard. They began a conversation that the other two front-runners joined, shouting in one another's ears because of the crowd noise. Sano couldn't hear what they were saying, but he could guess. The doshin was asking or telling them about a certain dangerous fugitive.
Sano continued to work his way forward. At whatever risk to himself, he must use this opportunity to warn the shogun. The Conspiracy of Twenty-One might make their move at any instant.
Just then, a distant boom sounded. A hush fell over the crowd; men paused in the act of speaking, drinking, dancing, walking. Heads lifted in listening anticipation, among them those of the shogun and his party. Another boom followed, then another. Suddenly the night came alive with the clamor of a million gongs and bells, some high-pitched and sweet, others deep and sonorous. A cheer swept the quarter. It was midnight, and the priests in temples all over Edo had begun to exorcise the evil of the Old Year and ring in the good of the New. The peals and booms echoed off the distant hills and rocked the ground. The very air shuddered.
Sano listened with the rest of the crowd, momentarily spellbound as they were by the awe-inspiring music. Then, on the high right edge of his field of vision, he saw a movement. He turned.
A samurai dressed in dark robes, leggings, and mask crept along a roof. As Sano watched, the man knelt and took an arrow from the quiver that hung from his shoulder. He fitted the arrow to his bow and drew back on the string, aiming straight at the shogun.
"Look out, Your Excellency!" Sano shouted, pointing. "There. On the roof!"
His voice was lost in the noise of the bells and gongs. Although he couldn't even hear himself, he kept shouting.
"Your Excellency!"
No one standing farther than three steps away could see him, either. Sano plunged toward his horse, untied the reins, and mounted. He drove the animal against the massed bodies. Standing in the stirrups, he waved and shouted. No one moved. They couldn't. Still the bells and gongs tolled. The shogun kept his rapt gaze on the sky. Now Sano saw with increasing panic that two more archers had taken up positions on other roofs.
"You! Up there! Stop!" he yelled.
His cry coincided with an instant's lull between peals. Two of the archers kept eyes and bows trained on their target, but the nearest turned toward him. No sooner had Sano guessed his intent than the archer swung his bow around and set free the arrow. It flew at Sano in a blur of speed. He had barely time for a quick intake of breath, and none to dodge. Then his horse screamed, rearing under him. He saw the arrow sticking out of its neck.
Blood gushed around the shaft in rhythmic spurts. Sano cried out, trying to steady the squealing, thrashing beast. But the horse lurched and started to fall sideways. As Sano fell with it, he saw the archers on the roof release their arrows. The shogun disappeared as if jerked to the ground from below.
Sudden mass hysteria threw the street into a writhing turmoil. People shoved and kicked, trying to reach safety. Their screams rose over the noise of the bells. Sano landed on bodies already knocked to the ground by his horse's wild convulsions. Feet trampled his chest. He managed to fight his way out from under someone who fell across him, only to receive a jarring kick to his chin. He regained his footing just in time to see two of the shogun's bodyguards pull themselves onto a roof and take up pursuit of the fleeing archers. Others closed protectively around their fallen master, while the rest began fending off the crowds that surrounded them. Dread and a horrible sense of failure gripped Sano. Was the shogun dead?
"Clear the street!" the bodyguards shouted. "Go on, move! Everybody. Now!"
The doshin who'd approached them earlier reappeared, wielding his jitte as his two assistants swung their clubs. The crowd stampeded toward Naka-no-cho. Shouts and screams filled Sano's ears: "What is it? What happened? Help!"
Sano realized that he could hear them because the bells had stopped ringing. He resisted the buffeting tide of humanity and pushed forward. He had to see-
In a space cleared by the departing crowd, a man lay dead, an arrow through his chest. Sano expelled a long, shaky breath of relief when he saw that it was one of the bodyguards. Tokugawa Tsunayoshi stood amid his remaining men, unhurt but obviously shaken. He pointed at the corpse, then toward the roofs. He scowled. He struck his men with his fists. His feminine costume contrasted sharply with his unladylike fury as he berated his men in angry whispers, probably demanding to know who the assassins were, and how they'd learned of his presence in Yoshiwara. Hands spread in helpless confusion, the guards ventured answers that he cut off with more blows.
Suddenly Lord Niu's plan became glaringly apparent to Sano. Ignoring the doshin, who had fixed him with a suspicious stare, he hurried toward the shogun. He pushed past everyone who got in his way. The shooting had been just a ploy to scatter the crowd and divert the guards-a prelude to the real attack. He had to warn Tokugawa Tsunayoshi that there were eighteen more assassins yet to come.
"You, there," the doshin said. He elbowed aside a pair of stumbling drunks and strode up to Sano. "Come over here."
Oblivious to the danger, Sano looked beyond the shogun toward the far end of the street. Among the fleeing bystanders, he saw three samurai who didn't appear in any hurry at all. Dressed in plain dark kimonos, with straw hats that shadowed their faces, they hung back and let others pass them. They were separated by some ten paces, with the man in the middle of the street slightly in the lead and the others flanking him. As they neared the shogun's party, they let the distance between them close and quickened their pace as a unit. The lead man raised his head for a brief look at the rooftops. The lanterns lit his tense young face. Sano recognized Lord Maeda from the secret meeting.
"Your Excellency!" he shouted, hurtling forward. "Behind you. Look out!"
Instead of turning, the shogun and guards stared at him. Lord Maeda was within a few steps of the guard that stood between him and Tokugawa Tsunayoshi. His hand went to the hilt of his sword.
Then, whether because of Sano's warning or because he'd sensed danger, the guard whirled. Lord Maeda whipped his sword from its scabbard. He swung it sideways and over his head. Before he could bring it down on his victim, the guard had his own weapon unsheathed in his left hand. He sliced a brutal gash across Lord Maeda's chest. Lord Maeda screamed. His blade sank deep into the man's neck. Both fell to the ground, mortally wounded.
A new uproar broke loose as people who hadn't yet left the street ran for safety. Shrill screams came from the women in the pleasure houses. Sano dodged running men. The doshin grabbed his arm.
"Who are you?" he demanded. "What do you know about this?"
Sano ignored him. "Take cover!" he shouted at the shogun. "There are more of them!"
But the time for escape had passed. More dark-robed men appeared out of nowhere. They surrounded the shogun's party, thwarting the guards' efforts to hurry their master indoors. Suddenly the street swarmed with darting fighters and flashing blades. Steel rang upon steel. Hoarse cries filled the night. In the midst of the tumult stood Tokugawa Tsunayoshi, the military dictator who preferred the genteel arts to the martial, Confucian studies to affairs of state. Unarmed, he cowered behind the cover of his men, a pathetic figure in his rich robes and long wig. His white makeup gave a ghastly comic look to his confused, panic-stricken face.
The doshin let go of Sano and shouted for his assistants as he joined the battle. The guards fought with the brave and deadly expertise befitting top Tokugawa warriors, but the defense was outnumbered two to one. Sano drew his sword and plunged into the melee.
One of Lord Niu's men rushed at him, sword raised. Sano sidestepped and spun around. He slashed his attacker across the back. The man screamed and fell facedown, dead. Sano felt rather than heard another man coming at him from behind. Dropping to one knee, he pivoted, delivering a low cut that slit the man's belly and left him lying on the ground near the first. It happened so fast that Sano had no time to think. Years of training had prompted his actions. Now the knowledge that he'd killed for the first time roared through his soul like a hot, fierce wind.
He had done what he'd assumed he never would-fought in the service of his lord. He was a samurai in the truest sense. Fired with excitement and ardor, he leapt to his feet and turned to do battle again. He would save the shogun after all!
One glance around chastened him. The doshin and both assistants had fallen. The bodies of guards and Lord Niu's men lay crumpled in the street. A member of the conspiracy slashed and stabbed two outsiders who had taken up the fight. Then he joined his three remaining fellows in an advance on the four surviving guards who formed a protective cluster around the shogun. The cluster tightened as the conspirators steadily backed the defense against the stone wall. Blood stained the garments of all the combatants. The best against the best; evenly matched. Then, as Sano hurried to the aid of the Tokugawa forces, he saw a dark-robed figure slip out of a doorway and into the street. The man's face was turned away, but he walked with a familiar stiff gait.
Lord Niu.
With a cry of agony, one of the guards fell. His absence left a gap in the shogun's human shield. Before the other men could perceive and fill it, Lord Niu shot forward, unsheathing his sword.
"No!" Heedless of his own safety, Sano threw himself in front of Tokugawa Tsunayoshi. His blade checked Lord Niu's in a resounding clang.
The glee on Lord Niu's face turned to fury. His eyes blazed even brighter than usual. In a gesture so quick that Sano didn't see it, he whisked the mask off Sano's face with the tip of his blade. He bared his teeth in a savage smile.
"You," he said. "Still interfering in my affairs. Do you never learn your lesson?"
Paralyzed by sudden terror, Sano could only stare in silence. Lord Niu could have killed him in that same casual stroke. The knowledge destroyed the confidence that his first two victories had given him. Against his will he remembered Lord Niu's impressive performance in the practice hall. The upraised sword wavered in his hand. He wet his suddenly dry lips and forced himself to speak.
"I, Sano Ichiro, will not let you kill the shogun," he said in a voice that sound
ed timorous to his own ears.
Lord Niu laughed outright, a high, demonic cackle that made the hairs rise on Sano's nape. His nostrils flared as if he could smell Sano's fear. "You cannot stop me," he said. "You can only die in the effort. But if you choose, then so be it." Holding Sano's gaze, he crouched, poised to spring, sword ready.
As Sano faced Lord Niu, he focused a part of his mind inward, on his spiritual center. He sought the calmness, mental clarity, and inner harmony that directs and empowers a warrior during combat. But he found only chaos and turmoil from which no energy flowed. He couldn't banish pain, fear, or memory; he couldn't neutralize the power that these distractions held over him. That essential state of concentration eluded him. Without it, he was just a trained mechanism deprived of a guiding force. He was lost.
Lord Niu struck. His sword whipped across the space between them with an audible hiss.
