Laura Rowland: The Cloud Pavilion

The exorcist emerged from the hall where he'd once conducted rituals. He was naked, crawling on his hands and knees, with a dead fish crammed in his mouth. Two soldiers led Joju by a rope tied around his neck. They dragged him around the temple grounds three times. Gagging on the rotten fish, hooted at by the mob, he passed Sano without acknowledging his presence. At the temple's gate, the soldiers yanked Joju to his feet; they untied the rope. He spat out the fish and wiped his mouth on his hand. Now his eyes found Sano. They were black with bitter hostility.

The chief ministry official flung a gray hemp robe at Joju and said, "You are hereby expelled from the religious order. You are also banished from Edo."

Joju put on the humble robe. Head bowed, he limped out the gate. The jeering crowd followed him. One woman lingered. It was the beggar named Okitsu. She sidled up to Sano.

"That was worth waiting to see." An impish grin brightened her dirty face.

"It wouldn't have been possible if not for you," Sano said.

Okitsu nodded as though she understood. Then she ambled off. Fate worked in strange ways, Sano thought. Okitsu had gotten her revenge.

A group of male commoners loitered near Sano's party. Four were talking about the scene they'd just witnessed. The fifth hovered at the group's edge. A breeze flapped the wicker hat he wore. When he put up his hand to hold it on his head, Sano saw a large, irregularly shaped brown freckle on his wrist.

"Well, if it isn't Toda Ikkyu," Sano said.

Toda started. "How did you know it was me?"

"Let's just say I've learned a few things from my son." Sano smiled, watching Toda wonder what feature of his Masahiro had noticed and mentioned to Sano. "I've been wanting to talk to you, but you've been pretty scarce lately."

"I've been busy," Toda said.

Sano knew Toda had been avoiding him, with good reason. "You knew who they were."

"What are you talking about?" Toda was all innocence.

"The three women you saw meeting with Yanagisawa," Sano said. "They were Lady Nobuko, the shogun's daughter Tsuruhime, and his former concubine Oden."

The bland expression Toda wore didn't hide his shock. "How did you find out?"

"You said you didn't know who they were. But you did. You know everybody associated with the shogun. You must have recognized them instantly. You lied."

Comprehension glinted in Toda's eyes. "It was Masahiro again. I suppose you also know what became of Yanagisawa's scheme to marry his son to Tsuruhime, ensure that Yoritomo would be the next shogun, and secure his own future?"

"Yes."

"Your son has a talent for espionage," Toda said wryly. "If you'll give him to me, I'll teach him to be the best spy who ever lived."

"My son will never work under a man who double-crossed his father," Sano said.

Toda smiled. "I warned you that I work for both you and Yanagisawa. I try to play fair. I told you about his secret meeting, but I didn't tell you who the women were. I let him know that I was spying on him for you, but I didn't tell him I witnessed his three meetings."

Three meetings? Sano frowned because he'd thought there had been only two. Neither Toda nor Masahiro had mentioned a third. Toda had lied again, by omission. And so had Masahiro.

"So I'm even with you and Yanagisawa," Toda said. "You shouldn't bear me any grudge."

"What you mean is that even if I do bear a grudge, I can't kill you, because someday I may need your services," Sano said. "But next time I'll have a better idea of how far to trust you."

Toda shrugged, his confident superiority restored: He'd successfully navigated another battlefield between two rivals. "That's politics."

He turned and shuffled off, looking for all the world like a peasant to everyone except Sano.

"Don't look now," Marume said, "but here comes another sorry bastard."

The sight of Yanagisawa striding toward him filled Sano with the anger that enflamed his blood every time he thought of what Yanagisawa had done.

"Greetings," Yanagisawa said, smiling as if nothing were amiss.

He'd completely escaped the responsibility the shogun had once placed on him for the disappearance of Lady Nobuko. While Sano had been busy trying to rescue her, Yoritomo had talked the shogun into forgiving Yanagisawa and heaping all the punishment on Sano. The shogun had demoted Sano to his former post of principal investigator. Sano had moved back to his old estate, while Yanagisawa had reclaimed the compound he'd lived in before he'd been exiled. Yanagisawa was now the shogun's only second-in-command, Japan's only chamberlain, once more. That was a crushing blow to Sano, but he knew things could have been worse.

His allies had persuaded the shogun to spare Sano and demote him instead of executing him and his family. They didn't want Yanagisawa in charge of the regime now or in the future. They needed someone to check his power, and Sano was the only man around who had the potential.

"I'm surprised to see you," Sano said evenly. Toda wasn't the only one who'd been avoiding him.

"I had to see this spectacle. Joju wasn't my favorite person in the world."

"I don't suppose he was." Sano knew Yanagisawa didn't like anyone who had strong influence over the shogun. Which was why he'd finally delivered the blow Sano had been expecting.

"Having Joju humiliated and banished was a risky move on your part, since he was still the shogun's favorite exorcist the last I heard," Yanagisawa said. "Does the shogun know?"

"Not yet," Sano said. "In some cases it's better to ask forgiveness after the fact than to ask permission beforehand."

Since he was already in trouble, he'd decided he might as well deliver Joju to justice. That, plus the fact that Ogita, Nanbu, and the oxcart drivers had gotten their comeuppance, was something of a consolation prize.

"That's what I always say." Yanagisawa continued, "I heard about the massacre in the paupers' cemetery. The official word is that Nanbu and Ogita were murdered by bandits. But we both know that the official word isn't always the truth, don't we?"

Sano made no comment. He would never reveal what had actually happened. Neither would Chiyo, Fumiko, Jirocho and his gang, or Reiko and her bodyguards. And all the other witnesses were dead.

"No matter," Yanagisawa said. "Your investigation was a success. Everyone responsible for kidnapping and raping your cousin and those other women has been punished."

"Not everyone." Sano leveled a hard gaze on Yanagisawa.

Yanagisawa raised his eyebrows. "You've accused me of many things in the past, but come now; you can't think I'm to blame this time."

"I don't just think. I know." Sano tried to control his temper. Losing it would only give Yanagisawa more advantage than he already had. "The oxcart drivers didn't kidnap the shogun's wife. Nanbu, Joju, and Ogita didn't rape her. What happened to her was your doing."

"Mine?" Pointing at his own chest, Yanagisawa laughed. "I never touched Lady Nobuko."

"Not personally. You have people to do your dirty work."

Yanagisawa regarded Sano with annoyance, caution, and pity, the kind of look that one gives a madman. "Why would I do such a thing?"

"Because it was the perfect way to sabotage me. You staged Lady Nobuko's kidnapping to look as if it were one in the series I was investigating. You hoped the shogun would blame me. Which he did. Which put me out of his favor." Sano's indignation mounted higher with each consequence of Yanagisawa's scheme he named. "Which is just what you wanted."

"How can you think that? Maybe in the past I would have done it, but since I came back I've done nothing but cooperate with you. Everything that's happened to you was just your bad luck." Shaking his head, Yanagisawa said, "I'm ready to let bygones be bygones."