Laura Rowland: Black Lotus

Reiko jerked and grunted, trying in vain to break free of Kumashiro. She’d delayed Midori’s death, but now they were both captives of the Black Lotus.

“The sōsakan-sama will come looking for his wife,” Kumashiro said to Anraku. “We have to get out before he finds his way down here… What do you want me to do with her?”

Anraku raised a hand, counseling patience. “It seems you have betrayed me yet again, Haru,” he said. “Therefore, the task I assigned you is no longer sufficient to demonstrate your loyalty.” He said to Kumashiro, “Place Lady Reiko by our other prisoner.”

Kumashiro propelled Reiko across the room. She resisted, but he shoved her into place, facing Haru. The other sect members grouped together along the wall behind the girl.

“Another act of disloyalty requires an additional test,” Anraku told Haru. “To secure the privilege of staying with me, you must now kill both Lady Midori and Lady Reiko.”

As her heart pumped wildly and her lungs heaved, Reiko realized that she and Midori would die together, by the hand of the girl Reiko had tried to save.

Anraku said to Haru, “You may dispose of Lady Reiko first.”

Through dizzying faintness, Reiko saw Haru looking everywhere except at her. The girl raised the sword, and Kumashiro walked Reiko forward until her throat met the tip of the blade. The cold prick of steel interrupted her breath. She experienced a strong urge to vomit and a terrible despair. Her thoughts flew to her son.

Images of Masahiro’s lively face filled her mind. Memory recalled the sound of his laughter, the feeling of holding his warm little body. Reiko also remembered herself and Sano and Masahiro happy together at home. With a fierce intensity, she longed for her husband and son. Love of them strengthened her will to survive. The desire to save Midori and see Sano and Masahiro again revived her courage and her wits. She must forestall death and hope for a miracle.

Sano, Hirata, and four detectives ran through the Black Lotus precinct, skirting buildings and trees. While they fought off priests, Sano looked for Reiko, to no avail. The smoke stung Sano’s eyes; he ached from strikes to his armor. Another explosion flared. And Sano knew with a sudden, sobering certainty what had happened to Reiko and Haru.

“They’ve gone underground!” he shouted to Hirata, who was battling three priests.

Reasoning that the buildings must contain entrances to the tunnels, Sano raced up the steps of the main hall. The door was open, the cavernous interior unoccupied. Incense and lamps burned on a raised altar before a mural of a black lotus flower. As Sano halted inside and scanned the room, his men joined him. He saw that the altar’s base was fronted by carved panels. The center one hung open on hinges. Darkness yawned behind it.

“Over there,” Sano said, hurrying to the portal that the Black Lotus hordes had apparently neglected to close after emerging from the tunnels.

He and his men ducked beneath the altar and dropped into the earthy-smelling space under the building. Walking crouched beneath the floor joists, they found a hole in the ground. Sano saw a ladder reaching down the shaft to a lighted pit, heard tortured wails and a mechanical pulsation.

“Be careful,” he said. “There’s someone down there.”

“Midori.” Hirata’s voice exuded fear and the hope that she was within reach. “I’ll go down first.”

He sheathed his sword and hurtled down the ladder. Sano and the detectives followed. When they reached the bottom and paused to rearm themselves, Hirata was already racing down a tunnel. An overpowering stench hit Sano as he sped after Hirata. A din of voices crying, “Help! Let us out!” erupted. Down the tunnel, Hirata skidded to a stop and exclaimed, “Merciful gods!”

Catching up, Sano saw doors, bolted with thick iron beams, lining the tunnel. From inside the chambers, skeletal hands reached outward through tiny barred windows in the doors. This was the Black Lotus’s secret prison.

“Midori! I’ve come to get you!” Hirata yanked the bolt away from one cell and threw open the door.

Cheers arose. Out of the cell stumbled some twenty emaciated young men dressed in dirty rags. Their faces were gaunt, their hair shaggy. Sano and the detectives opened other cells, releasing hundreds more men and women in similar condition, who’d apparently run afoul of the Black Lotus. Hirata pushed through the crowd, calling, “Midori!”

Prisoners stampeded toward the exit. Sano and Hirata inspected the cells. They found a few remaining prisoners, too weak to move, but no Midori.

“She’s not here,” Hirata said, stricken by disappointment.

“Stay calm. We’ll find her,” Sano said, although he, too, had hoped to find Midori among the prisoners and was worried about why she wasn’t there. “Midori is alive,” he said, hoping he was right. “We’ll save her, and Reiko too.”

He felt panic erode his own self-control, but his words calmed Hirata, who nodded and assumed a stony composure. They and the detectives hurried deeper into the tunnels. Entering a three-way junction, Sano heard fierce yells. He and his party froze, trapped, as priests waving swords charged toward them from all directions.

“Haru-san,” Reiko compelled herself to say through her terror, “look at me.”

Emitting a frightened mewl, Haru stared at the sword in her hands. Then her gaze slowly rose, drawn by Reiko’s desire to reestablish a connection between them.

“You don’t really want to kill me, do you?” Reiko said, feigning calmness while Kumashiro held her tight and the sword’s sharp touch contracted her throat muscles.

Haru said with defiant bravado, “I have no choice.”

Reiko’s heart sank. Haru’s choice was between their friendship and Anraku, and Reiko knew how the odds lay. “We all have choices,” Reiko said, improvising fast. “I chose to take your side when no one else did. I chose to help you against my husband’s wishes. Don’t you owe me a favor?”

Haru’s mouth worked; uncertainty clouded her eyes. But as Reiko dared to hope, Kumashiro said to Anraku, “Time is short. If Haru won’t kill Lady Reiko, I can.”

Reiko sensed his blood lust in the hot pressure of his flesh against hers. Suddenly the clattering noise stopped. Quiet settled upon the underground; everyone looked around in surprise.

“The slaves have deserted the air bellows,” Kumashiro said. “Soon we won’t be able to breathe down here. Let me dispose of the prisoners so we can go.”

“No. It is Haru’s duty,” Anraku said firmly.

A new resolve set Haru’s jaw. Anraku fixed a tantalizing stare on Reiko. She saw that this had become a contest between them. He cared less about making a timely escape than about controlling his followers, because his desire for power over them outweighed all other concerns. But Reiko was competing for her life.

“Haru-san, he doesn’t deserve your loyalty,” she said. “After the fire, did he try to protect you? No-he let you shift for yourself. When you were in jail, did he comfort you?” Reiko shook her head regretfully. “He never came near you. Did he try to clear your name and save you from execution? On the contrary: He left you to the law.”

“I don’t care about the past,” Haru said belligerently. “All that matters is that Anraku-san and I are together again.”

But Reiko could tell that Haru did mind his desertion. “He and his followers did everything possible to incriminate you,” Reiko said. “Dr. Miwa and Abbess Junketsu-in revealed your bad reputation. Kumashiro tried to force you to confess. The orphans placed you at the scene of the crime. Black Lotus priests attacked you in jail.”