Journey Through Fire (16 page)

A
servant nodded once and hurried out of the room.

“I had no idea that a cuckoo was in the nest,” the Shogun admitted, looking over to me. He regarded me for a moment and then turned back to Daisuke. “I have tolerated the Lord Steward's campaigns for power until now, but no more.” His brow furrowed and he brought his hands together, raising his fingertips to his lips as he thought.

“What will you do?” Daisuke asked gently. “We need to know.”

The Shogun looked past Daisuke to his mother, who still sat on the raised platform. I watched her closely and noted the way that she gazed back at her son. Her face didn't change, but I saw her hand move toward her obi sash and for the first time I realized that this woman had a dagger by her side. Her hand came to rest on its hilt, as if ready for action. Was she telling her son something?

“I will call a meeting,” the Shogun decided. His mother's grip tightened around the dagger. “With the councillors. The heads of the clans will decide with me what should be done. If I'm to take action, I need good advice first.”

The doors to the room were flung open and the Administrator stepped inside. His face was smooth and unlined, but I could see that his smile was forced.

“You called for me?” he asked, kneeling.

“Yes,” the Shogun snapped. He strode across the room. “Why have we not been informed of the aggressive campaign of Lord Hidehira? Why have you not told us about his latest attacks? Are we to be kept blind to the suffering of our people?”

The Administrator shifted nervously, as the Shogun's mother looked on. “I apologize if I have offended you,” he said. “I thought matters were under control. I did not want to worry you with trivial details.”

“There is nothing trivial here. The monks are under attack!” The Shogun flung an arm out at Daisuke and his fellow warriors. “Your men must have known this. When were you going to tell us?”

The atmosphere in the room was tense. I could not bear to look at the man who had allowed our friends, the monks, to fight alone. I noticed that Hana's gaze
had fallen to the floor also. Long moments passed.

“Go,” the Shogun eventually said, walking back to his place on the raised platform. “Leave us.” He turned to address the room. “All lords should be in attendance tomorrow. We will have a formal discussion of recent—and future—events.” People turned to the door of the room and filed out. Mother nodded to us, and we followed. I looked one last time at the Shogun's mother. Our eyes met and she smiled.

As I turned back, I saw the Administrator bow low to her, but the smile quickly faded from his face. I could only guess that she had not acknowledged his bow. He backed out of the room, beside us.

Out in the main hall, I hurried over to Daisuke.

“It's so good to see you!” I said, but Moriyasu pushed in front of me.

“I beat Kimi at three games of Go in a row!” he said proudly.

Daisuke laughed and looked over at me. “Is this true, Kimi? You may need your strategies more than ever now.” Daisuke looked out of a window at the garden. “Can we talk outside?” he said. “There is much for us to speak of.”

Behind Daisuke, I could see Hana waiting with Mother, who had a worried look on her face. I shook my head. “Can we meet later?” I asked. “My family needs me now. We were in the middle of a meeting
with the Shogun when you arrived.”

Daisuke bowed. “I understand. Things are moving quickly. We will speak later.” I watched him join the rest of the warrior monks, who were waiting farther down the walkway, then hurried to my mother and sister.

“We need to talk,” Mother whispered to Hana, Moriyasu, and me. “Quickly back to our rooms!”

We walked back to our quarters and Mother pulled the sliding door shut behind her. Then she turned to face us, her cheeks flushed pink.

“This is the best chance we've ever had against your uncle,” she said, coming to sit on the bed beside Hana. Moriyasu listened hard from his position in a corner of the room. “We have put our case to the Shogun and so have the monks. Two sets of people driving home the message that Uncle is a serious threat. We are lucky indeed that Daisuke arrived when he did. Together, we may well persuade the Shogun to take up arms.”

I could hear the blood pounding in my ears. Finally, after all this time, was I to be handed the chance to fight for justice?

“In the next few hours, I need you all to stay strong and support one another in whatever comes next,” Mother said, looking at us carefully. I wondered if she could sense the tension between Hana and me.

Moriyasu nodded his head vigorously. “Of course!” he told us, striding into the center of the room.

I smiled to myself; my little brother was growing up. I glanced at Hana, who looked back at me as if to say that she would tolerate me for the next few hours.

Mother held up a hand. “We will need to keep our nerve. If the Shogun picks up on any uncertainty or fear, it could be our undoing. We have to show that we are worthy. We must wear brave faces. Can you promise me to try?”

I kneeled before Hana and my mother. Moriyasu came beside me.

“Yes, Mother,” I said. “I promise.”

 

Not long after, Moriyasu, Hana, and I met Daisuke at one of the benches in the pond garden.

“What has happened since we last saw you?” I asked. A petal from the azalea floated down through the air and came to rest in Daisuke's lap. He lifted it and smelled its aroma before casting it to float across the water of the pond.

“We had to evacuate the infirmary,” he began. “We did not want the sick and elderly suffering in an attack.” His lips drew tight and I could see that painful memories were playing out in his head.

“Tell us,” Hana said softly.

“Not everyone was strong enough for the trip.” Moriyasu gazed up at Daisuke and I could see his lip tremble.

Moriyasu shook his head. “No,” he said, pulling away across the bench. “Please tell me it's not true.” I guessed my brother was thinking about the little girl and boy he had said good-bye to at the gates of the monastery.

“Don't worry,” Daisuke said. “Your friends were among the lucky ones. They survived the journey. But others didn't.”

Our brother got to his feet. He looked over at Hana and me. “I must go and tell Mother,” he said. We watched Moriyasu walk away from us, back to our rooms.

“He will make a good leader,” Daisuke said.

Daisuke reached a hand into a bag that he had been carrying. I recognized this bag—it was the one he had taken on our trip collecting herbs. He pulled out a ceramic jar.

“Hana's medicine!” I cried out in delight. Memories of collecting the sunflower seeds flooded back, and in my imagination I felt the heat of the sun once again. Daisuke passed the jar to Hana.

“Mother will be able to rub this in for me,” she said, getting to her feet. Then she bowed to Daisuke and hurried away. I didn't mind that Hana had left
us alone; I wanted to tell him about the man we had followed.

“There's a ninja here, in the grounds of the compound,” I said in a low voice.

“Where?” he asked, looking around him.

“I don't know. Hana and I saw a man creep out one night to meet three ninja who had scaled the wall. He attacked us and I caught sight of his tattoo.” I described the strokes scored across the man's skin.

Daisuke nodded. “The same sign we saw when the monastery was attacked,” he said. “I've been asking some discreet questions. The villagers tell me that's the sign of the most powerful ninja family of all.”

“Well, whoever he is, he's still here somewhere,” I said. “He disappeared into the walkways, and we lost him. But he's definitely in the compound. What are we going to do? Hana doesn't want to get involved anymore, but I don't see how we can let this go. There's a killer in our midst!”

Daisuke gotten to his feet. “You're right. First, we will speak to your sister. She needs to understand how serious this is.” Daisuke strode across the courtyard, and I ran to keep up. I led him to our rooms, but Hana was nowhere to be found. Moriyasu was practicing Go, alone.

“She went out to the Administrator's garden,” he said, without looking up. “Mother's busy, so Hana
went to sit outside with her oil.”

I had never stepped foot into this part of the Administrator's garden before—at least, not during daylight hours. Hana must have been given an invitation to sit there by Akane.

We found Hana sitting beneath a maple tree. She smiled to herself as she rubbed the glistening oil across her arm. “Look!” she greeted us. We gazed at her scars and could see the skin glisten a healthy pink. The oil was saturating her skin with goodness; it could only be a matter of time before the scars faded completely.

Hana turned her arms in the sunshine. They looked like the necks of swans, as she circled her limbs gracefully through the air. She gazed up at us, delighted, and Daisuke smiled back at her. Then Hana's face froze.

“What is it?” I asked. She looked past me and her hands fell to her lap as she hurried to cover her arms again. She scrambled to her feet, almost knocking over the precious jar of oil.

“Let me explain…,” she started to say. I swiveled around and saw Tatsuya.

He stood, frozen on the spot, staring at the scars on Hana's arms. He twisted away, as though trying to deny what he had just seen.

“I was in a fire,” Hana said. “I was trying to rescue
Kimi…” Her sentence trailed off. Tatsuya was backing away, shaking his head slowly. I could see that he didn't want to know, didn't want to hear what had happened to us without him by our side.

“I am on guard duty,” he stuttered. “I cannot stop to talk.” He looked up, once, at Hana's beautiful face.

Her eyes were brimming with tears. “Don't, Tatsuya,” she begged him, her voice breaking. But he turned on his heel and marched away, pushing past a couple of samurai soldiers coming the other way.

“Fool!” one of them called after him. “Show more respect.”

I couldn't have put it better myself. I turned back to my sister and tried to touch my fingertips to her own, in our secret signal of kinship. I wanted to comfort her. She pushed me away angrily.

The look in my sister's eyes at that moment was one I had never seen before. Disgust. And it was aimed at me.

“This is your fault,” she said. “If you hadn't jumped out from our hiding place back in the innkeeper's hut, none of this would ever have happened to me.” She raised her arm and shook it in my face.

“Please, Hana. Don't,” I pleaded.

“Don't what? Tell you the truth?” With her kimono billowing behind her, she ran out of the garden.

I took a step to follow her.

“No, Kimi,” Daisuke said. I had almost forgotten he was there. “Leave her be. She needs time. She will apologize for what she's said today.”

I looked at the empty space where my sister had been only a few moments before. Was I the person who had made Hana this angry? I shook my head and brought my hands up to cover my face.
Did I really do this to my sister?
I thought.

I heard the crunch of gravel as Daisuke came to stand beside me.

“Time heals all wounds, my master tells me,” he said. “Even wounds to the heart. Your sister is angry now, but she won't be forever. In the meantime, be patient.”

Daisuke was right. I let my hands fall from my face.

“That's better,” Daisuke said, smiling at me. “Now. We need to find out about this ninja.”

“Where do we start?” I asked.

“I can speak to the samurai. They'll take me more seriously than you trying to ask them questions. Is there anyone here you can speak to?”

I remembered Emiko. “Yes,” I said. “In the kitchens.”

Daisuke smiled. “You make friends wherever you go,” he said. “Well, good. You go to the kitchens and I'll go to the samurai's quarters. Let's see what we
can discover. We'll meet back here at dusk.”

I turned to go.

“And Kimi,” Daisuke called after me. I looked back at him. “Be careful. Don't draw attention to yourself. This is dangerous.” I slid a hand up my sleeve and pulled out the kitchen knife that had not left my side, so that Daisuke could see its blade.

“Don't worry about me,” I said.

 

Emiko wasn't in the kitchen. She wasn't in the laundry either.

“Have you seen Emiko?” I asked a man who was scrubbing bowls. He nodded toward the stable. “Thank you!” I called over my shoulder.

I burst into the stable and froze at the door. Three samurai soldiers were in the small building, turning over boxes and digging among the hay. I tried to back out, unnoticed, but one of the guards swiveled around.

“What are you doing here?” he asked angrily.

I pulled my shoulders back. “Choose your words carefully,” I said. “You shouldn't address me like that!” I watched as the soldier scanned my appearance, taking in the luxurious silk of my kimono. His gaze faltered.

“I apologize,” he said. “I was startled. Are you lost?”

“No. Even girls from the court know where the
stables are. I like the horses,” I said. “I bring them treats sometimes.”

One of the soldier's companions strode over toward me. “There has been thieving in the kitchens,” he said. “And smuggling of food. It's dangerous here for someone such as yourself.” I could smell his sour breath and tried not to shudder in disgust.

As I stepped forward, I heard one of the rafters creak. I glanced up and saw Emiko! She had climbed into the loft of the stables to hide.
She must have been here when the soldiers arrived,
I realized.

“Let me past,” I ordered. “I came here to see the horses and that's what I'm going to do.” I tried to look up at Emiko without the guards noticing.