Laura Rowland: The Cloud Pavilion

"Get off," one of them ordered the oxcart drivers.

"Take us with you, or they'll kill us," Gombei cried.

"You brought them here. You traitors!"

As Hirata caught up with Gombei and Jinshichi, one of the rnin cut the two men across their throats. Blood spurted as they collapsed. The quick, brutal violence horrified Sano even though their deaths were punishment well deserved. Hirata kicked their bodies into the river. Swords drawn, he and Sano clambered up the gangplank, which was slick with blood. Marume and Fukida and their other troops were close behind them. Hirata lunged at the guards on the boat. His blade moved in arcs and slashes too fast for the men to parry. They fell back even as their master shouted at them to stop the intruders. Hirata and Sano leaped aboard.

The crewmen disconnected the gangplank. It fell, carrying Marume, Fukida, and the rest of Sano's men into the river with it. The oars began to move as the crew below deck rowed. The boat pulled away from the bank.

"I'll handle this," Hirata called to Sano as the guards rallied and he began to fight them. "Save the shogun's wife!"

Sano grabbed the boat owner by the front of his kimono and held the sword to his neck. "Where is she?"

"I don't know what you're talking about!"

Sano flung the man into the battle raging between his guards and Hirata. As the boat accelerated down the river, people peered curiously out from the teahouses. Sano saw Marume and Fukida in the water, swimming after the boat. He tried to slide open the cabin door. The wooden panel felt oddly heavy. It was loose in its frame, but locked from the inside. He applied more strength, felt the lock break, and stepped inside.

Dim, silvery light enveloped him. He heard grunts, cries, and rustling that quickly ceased. An odd softness on the floor cushioned his feet. The boat tilted; the door slid shut. Sano found himself in a world of eerie silence. Unnerved, he clutched his sword. As he gazed at his surroundings, he discovered why he couldn't hear any noise from outside.

The walls, floor, ceiling, and windows of the cabin were padded with gray cloth. It glowed silver in the light from a metal lantern suspended from the ceiling. The cloth was ripped in many places, hanging in tatters. There Sano could see white cotton bulging behind the fabric.

He was in the pavilion of clouds.

This was the place where Chiyo had been raped, which she'd described to Reiko. The strange decor plus the drugs explained her memories. The cabin had been furnished to keep sounds from escaping. Sano let out his breath.

He heard someone else breathing fast and hard.

He wasn't alone.

The veils of ripped cloth that dangled from the ceiling partially hid a bizarre tableau in the corner. A naked man with a shaved head lay on his stomach, his muscular legs splayed, arms and hands propping up his body, on a mattress on the floor. His face was turned toward Sano. He didn't move, as if by remaining motionless he could remain unnoticed. His eyes gleamed with lust, silvery reflections, and fright.

It was Joju.

Under him was the nude, emaciated body of an old woman. She lay on her back, her head hidden by the cloth. Alongside her withered limbs and bony torso, a spread of ruddy color glowed, staining her pale, sagging skin crimson. At first Sano thought it was blood and Joju had murdered the shogun's wife. His heart seized. Then she stirred and moaned. Sano saw that the color was Joju's red brocade stole.

"Get up, Joju," Sano said. "Put on your clothes. You're under arrest."

The exorcist slowly pushed himself upright. Sano could see him wondering how much trouble he was in and how to get out of it. His penis withdrew from between the old woman's spread legs. It was limp and shriveled, dripping with semen and blood.

He'd finished the rape.

Sano was dismayed to realize that he'd arrived too late.

But not too late to catch Joju in the act.

Joju yanked his saffron robe out from beneath the woman, who moaned softly. She must have been sedated with the same drug used on Chiyo, Fumiko, and the nun. He pulled the robe over his head and said, "Why are you arresting me?" He'd recovered a semblance of his suave poise. "For having relations with an illegal prostitute?" He uttered a hollow imitation of his boisterous laugh. "That's a minor offense. I'll be let off with a fine. My reputation won't even suffer with the people who matter. You might as well not waste your time."

"I'm arresting you because you violated the shogun's wife and you're a party to her kidnapping. For that, you'll be executed." Sano glanced at the unconscious Lady Nobuko. Her breasts were flat pouches; her rib cage jutted beneath translucent skin laced with blue veins. White pubic hair barely covered her crotch. She looked pitiful and vulnerable. "Now get up." Sano beckoned. "Step away from Lady Nobuko."

Joju didn't move. "You think this is the shogun's wife?" He laughed again, louder. "Well, it isn't."

He pulled aside the dangling cloth that hid the woman's head. Her hair was white, her face as soft and wrinkled as wadded rice paper. She must be in her seventies, much older than Lady Nobuko. The woman Gombei and Jinshichi had kidnapped was someone else. Surprise, disappointment, and confusion stunned Sano.

"Who is she?" he said.

"I don't know. Who cares?"

"Where is Lady Nobuko?" Sano demanded.

"I've no idea," Joju said.

If the two oxcart drivers hadn't kidnapped her, then who had? What was happening to her at this moment? Sano had been so sure he would find Lady Nobuko here!

"Why don't we just agree to call this a misunderstanding, and you let me go?" Joju said. "If you don't tell anybody what you saw here, then I won't tell the shogun that you persecuted me and flubbed the search for his wife."

"How dare you try to bargain with me?" Sano's consternation quickly turned to rage.

Joju had raped this woman, no matter that she wasn't Lady Nobuko. And Sano had noticed the similarity between her and one of the previous victims. She was near the same age as the nun, and the unblemished whiteness of her skin indicated that she came from the same high class. Sano remembered his brief glimpse of Joju's penis, now hidden beneath the saffron robe, and further enlightenment struck.

"The blood on you isn't this woman's," Sano said. "It's your own. You're covered with running sores. It was you who raped the nun. You gave her your disease and drove her to suicide."

The look on Joju's face showed his downslide from confident expectancy into apprehension as Sano spoke. His guilt was as obvious as if words describing his crime had been inked on his face, and it was clear that he could tell that Sano had no intention of letting him go. He suddenly snatched at something under the red stole beside the old woman. It was a knife with a shiny steel blade and a black lacquer handle. Even as Sano rushed to grab it and lash his sword at Joju, the exorcist held the blade to the woman's throat.

"Leave me alone, or I'll kill her," he said.

Sano froze, his sword still raised.

"Drop your weapon." Joju's voice and gaze were steady with determination. So was his hand holding the knife.

Sano let his sword fall. It landed noiselessly on the padded floor. Disarmed and immobilized, he cursed himself for underestimating Joju. He knew the exorcist was a fraud and a rapist, but hadn't thought him capable of murder.

"Walk out the door and don't come back," Joju said.

The boat rocked; the door slid open. In came the sounds of feet pounding the deck and blades clashing. Sano heard Marume shout, "Take that!" The detectives must have climbed aboard the boat. Thuds shook the cabin's wall as bodies bumped it. Sano realized that when Chiyo had been imprisoned in the cabin, the door must have opened long enough for her to hear the rain and thunder outside. Then the boat rocked again and the door slid shut, sealing Sano and Joju in eerie quiet once more.