Laura Rowland - The Assassin's Touch

Shock emptied the breath from Sano as he realized that the Ghost had been stalking Lord Matsudaira while Sano had been combing the streets around the Jade Pavilion in search of him. “Where exactly did you see Kobori?”

“On the main avenue.”

“Did you speak to him?”

“No. I waved to him, but he didn’t see me. He walked away.”

“I don’t suppose you know where he went,” Sano said. One sighting put him no closer to catching the Ghost. Kobori could have gone anywhere in the city during the half a day since Nakai had seen him.

Captain Nakai raised his finger and beamed. “Oh, but I do. I wanted to figure out who he was, and I thought that another, closer look might jog my memory. Besides, there was nothing better to occupy my time. So I rode after Kobori. He went to a house. A girl let him in.”

Sano experienced a second, even more profound shock as he comprehended what Nakai had seen: the Ghost going to ground in his lair, which he shared with a girl who had to be Yugao. A malcontent’s aimless rambling about town had produced better results than many a focused, diligent inquiry. Sano shook his head in wonder at the mysterious permutations of fate. That his original prime suspect should turn up with the clue that would lead him to the murderer!

“Where is this house?” Sano said, gripped by excitement at the thought that he was on the brink of capturing Kobori.

Nakai started to answer, then abruptly closed his mouth. His eyes gleamed with cunning as he realized that he had knowledge crucial to Sano. “If I tell you where the house is, you have to give me something in return. I want a promotion to the rank of colonel and a stipend twice as large as I’m getting now.” He swelled with rash, greedy exuberance. “And I want a post in your retinue.”

Incredulous, scornful laughter burst from Marume and Fukida. “You have a lot of nerve,” Marume told Nakai.

“You should be ashamed of trying to extort favors from the chamberlain,” Fukida said.

Sano was offended by Nakai’s crassness, but he desperately needed the information, and he owed Nakai a favor. Even though Nakai had his character flaws, Sano wouldn’t begrudge him a place in his retinue. He could do much worse than a man capable of single-handedly killing forty-eight enemy troops in battle.

“Very well,” Sano said. “I’ll get you your official promotion and increase your stipend when I have time. But as of this very moment, you’re mine to command, and I order you to tell me where that house is.”

“Thank you, Honorable Chamberlain!” Breathless and ecstatic, Nakai bowed. He didn’t notice the dark looks that Marume and Fukida gave him. He gazed at Sano with a combination of possessiveness, reverence, and eagerness to please. “I can do better than tell you where the Ghost is hiding. I’ll lead you there myself.”

An old woman, dressed in a torn, dirty cotton kimono and a battered wicker hat, swept the back alley that ran between two rows of mansions in the Nihonbashi merchant district. With her body hunched as if from decades of spine-breaking work, she crept along. Her broom gathered up vegetable peelings spilled from waste containers and debris blown in by the wind. Her feet in straw sandals shuffled through puddles of water that dripped from laundry hung on lines stretched across balconies and leaked from night soil bins. Servants came and went through the mansions’ back gates, but they paid no attention to her. Street-cleaners were virtually invisible to citizens higher on the social scale.

Reiko peered out from under the hat that hid her face, watching for Tama. She’d been cleaning this alley for two hours, moving back and forth, sweeping the same debris into her dustpan then scattering it, but Tama had yet to return from the fish market. The sky faded and shadows immersed the alley as twilight approached.

When she’d left the mansion earlier, Reiko had been certain not only that Tama was hiding the couple, but that the girl must eventually take them more food. Reiko believed that Yugao hadn’t wanted her to talk to Tama because Tama would tell her about Yugao’s relationship with Kobori. She’d stationed some of her guards near the mansion, then outfitted herself as a street-cleaner and returned to the alley on foot, her remaining escorts trailing her at a distance. The guards who’d stayed to wait for her had pretended not to know her, but had covertly shaken their heads to indicate that Tama still hadn’t shown up. Now Reiko’s back ached from stooping. She was tired of foul odors, and she’d memorized every radish peel and crumb she’d collected. A stray dog wandered into the alley, sniffed the garbage containers, then squatted and defecated. Reiko wrinkled her nose at the foul dung as she hobbled past it and hoped Tama would soon appear. The alley resounded with the noise of maids preparing dinner and chattering among themselves. Smoke infused with the savory odors of garlic and soy sauce wafted over Reiko. Her stomach growled with hunger. She’d reached one end of the alley and turned to begin another monotonous sweep, when she saw Tama walking toward her from the opposite end, followed by a porter laden with a covered wooden bucket. Reiko’s spirits soared as high as the moon that shone in the sky over the alley. As Tama and the porter entered the gate, Reiko kept her head down, sweeping industriously, warning herself that she might have a long wait for Tama to lead her to the fugitives.

But soon the gate opened and Tama slipped out. She wore a cloak and carried a bundle tied at the corners. She scurried down the alley, casting a furtive look toward the house she’d just left. She passed Reiko without noticing her.

Reiko shouldered her broom, picked up her dustpan, and followed Tama. Outside the alley, the district was filled with townspeople hurrying to get home before dark. Merchants hauled sliding doors closed across their storefronts. Soldiers on night patrol populated the streets. Reiko darted through the crowds, straining not to lose sight of Tama’s small, quick figure. She glanced around for her escorts.

“We’re right behind you,” Lieutenant Asukai murmured.

They trailed Tama through a marketplace. Vendors were haggling with a few last customers or packing up unsold vegetables. As Reiko hastened past the stalls, she heard a man’s voice call, “Hey, you! Street-cleaner!” A hand grabbed her arm. It belonged to a large, hulking vendor.

“Sweep up that mess,” he ordered, pointing to some wilted cabbage leaves strewn on the ground.

“Let me go!” Reiko swung her broom at him.

The vendor ducked, released her, and cursed. “What do you think you’re doing?”

He lunged at her. Lieutenant Asukai seized him and flung him against a stall that held jars of pickled radishes. The vendor fell; jars crashed around him. Reiko dropped her broom and dustpan and ran. Lieutenant Asukai caught up with her.

“Where did she go?” Reiko cried in panic.

Across the marketplace, one of her other guards waved and pointed. Reiko saw Tama hurrying down an aisle of stalls. She and her escorts resumed the pursuit. It led them out of Nihonbashi, to the northern outskirts of town. Here the houses were farther apart, interspersed with trees and small farms. Dusk tinged with gold settled softly upon the tranquil landscape. Road traffic consisted of a few patrolling soldiers amid peasants carrying firewood or pushing barrows. Reiko lagged farther behind Tama, afraid that the girl would see her and her escorts.

Yet Tama never turned around; she seemed more intent on reaching her destination than wary of being pursued. She hurried along the road, which followed the gradual upward slope of the land. Farms gave way to hillside forest. Birds shrilled loudly in the trees that arched their boughs over the road, creating deep pools of darkness that the fading sunlight couldn’t penetrate. Tama’s figure was as indistinct as a shadow moving swiftly ahead of Reiko. The road was deserted except for their procession. The air grew chilly with the rising altitude and the approach of night. Reiko felt the warmth of exertion seep away from her body; she shivered in her thin garments. She could hear Tama puffing and scrambling uphill, and she stifled the noise of her own labored breaths, her own trudging footsteps. She heard an occasional twig snap or leaf crackle as her escorts followed, although when she looked over her shoulder, they were barely visible in the darkness. Above the road, amid the forest, houses spaced far apart jutted from the hillside, but Reiko neither heard nor saw any signs of human life. A gong boomed in a shrine in the city below. Dogs or wolves howled somewhere too near Reiko.