The Snow Empress_ A Thriller Part 25

Sano saw that their separate investigations had led them to different conclusions. "Who do you think it is?"

"It's Gizaemon." Hirata described how he'd searched the scene of Tekare's murder; he showed Sano the sa.s.safras toothpick. "This proves it."

"But I've proved it was Wente." As Sano related what the gold merchant had told him, enlightenment struck. "My version of the story and yours aren't mutually exclusive. They're both true."

Hirata nodded. "Gizaemon set the spring-bow. He must have known how Tekare treated Lord Matsumae-I doubt if anything much around here ever escaped his notice. He'd have wanted to punish Tekare and get her out of Lord Matsumae's life. But someone needed to make sure Tekare sprang the trap."

"That was Wente's job," Sano realized. "She quarreled with Tekare and provoked Tekare to chase her along the path."

Hirata marveled, "It was a j.a.panese-Ainu conspiracy."

Two people from different cultures historically at odds had joined forces. Their interests had intersected in murder. And Sano saw what this meant for him.

"So now we have two people to kill besides Lord Matsumae," f.u.kida said. "Which do we tackle first?"

Sano weighed Wente's simplicity and kindness to Reiko against Gizaemon's ruthless cunning. "I don't think the scheme was Wente's idea. It smells of Gizaemon. He's the leader of their conspiracy." He was also the force behind the war, now that Lord Matsumae was indisposed, and Sano's greatest adversary. "I choose Gizaemon."

"That may be a problem," Hirata said in the tone of a chief retainer duty-bound to contradict his master's bad decision. "Gizaemon is a tough prospect, surrounded by troops. Something might go wrong. If it does, we'll lose our chance at Wente."

"The woman should be easier. We should get her out of the way first," f.u.kida agreed.

"All right." Sano thought how bizarre this was, discussing which murder to commit first, as matter-of-factly as deciding which dish to order at a food stand. It occurred to him that he would probably never eat again. Even if they succeeded in killing all three targets, they wouldn't live much longer until the troops ganged up on and slaughtered them. "Wente it is."

"Follow me," Hirata said.

He slithered across the ground under the palace. Sano trusted that he knew where he was going; maybe he could sense the native women's energy. Sano and the other men crawled less gracefully after him. They'd traveled long enough for Sano's knees and elbows to grow sore, when Hirata stopped. He pointed upward, then at the lattice at the bottom of the nearest wall. He inched over to the lattice, peered outside, then heaved his shoulder against it.

The wooden grid broke loose. Everyone emerged into the garden outside the women's quarters. Troops called to one another, but none were in sight. Sano and his men ran up the steps, through the door, then down the corridor. Sano heard the concubines speaking in their language. Marume halted outside a sliding door, cracked it open, glanced in, and nodded to the others. They all invaded the room.

Women were kneeling grouped together, their tattooed mouths wide, staring at him and his men. Sano saw their ancient fear of his kind. The room was a shambles, with clothes and furniture flung around, ashes from the fire pit scattered on the mats, a loom broken. The women looked so much alike that Sano had to study their faces closely. He noticed fresh bruises, bleeding lips, and swollen eyes, but the person he wanted wasn't among them.

"We want Wente," he said. "Tell us where she is, and we'll leave you alone."

The oldest, a woman with a strongly beautiful face, uttered a brief phrase. The Rat translated, "'Wente's gone.""

"Gone where?" Sano said, impatient.

As the woman spoke, the Rat said, "She left the castle. She took dogs, a sled, and food." The woman pointed at Sano, and surprise altered the Rat's expression. "She took your wife."

"Reiko?" Sano's impatience turned to puzzlement. "Why?"

A torrent of words issued from the woman. "She doesn't know," the Rat said. "None of the concubines do. But Reiko and Wente were going on a long journey. They took enough food for several days."

Sano shook his head, trying to make sense of this. Things were changing too fast. What had diverted Reiko from her original plan and sent her off on a trip with Wente? A possible answer alarmed Sano.

"Maybe Wente pretended she'd found out that Masahiro escaped from the castle and he's alive," Sano said. "Reiko would have been desperate to believe in miracles and easily tricked. She would go to the ends of the earth with anyone she thought could give her back our son."

"Anyone, including a murder suspect," Marume said. His and the other men's faces showed dismay as they caught Sano's meaning.

"Reiko could have stumbled onto evidence that incriminated Wente," Sano said. "Maybe Wente was only afraid Reiko would. But whatever the truth, Wente must have lured Reiko out to the wilderness, to silence her permanently."

He didn't think Wente would use outright physical violence against Reiko. That seemed not in character for Wente, considering her part in Tekare's murder. More likely, Wente would take Reiko far enough from town that she couldn't make her way back alone, then abandon her to die of the cold. Wente's devious cruelty shocked Sano. The thought of Reiko, innocent and vulnerable, alone with the murderess!

The native woman shouted something at Sano, waving her hands to get his attention. It sounded like a warning. The Rat said, "She says your wife and Wente are in danger. Gizaemon knows they left. He's gone after them."

Misfortune piled on top of misfortune. Reiko was at the mercy of one killer and under pursuit by the other. "How did Gizaemon find out? When was this?"

As the woman spoke, the Rat anxiously translated: "Wente and Lady Reiko left about three hours-ago. Gizaemon came here just before us. He was looking for Lady Reiko."

Sano realized what had happened while he and his men had been out solving me crime. The guards in the guest quarters had regained consciousness, had reported that the prisoners were missing. Gizaemon had launched a hunt for them and searched for Reiko in the women's quarters.

"He asked these women if they'd seen her," the Rat continued. "They said no. Wente had sworn them to secrecy. But he guessed that they were lying." The woman gestured at the tumbled furniture and clothes. "He got mad and wrecked the room. Then he noticed that Wente wasn't here. He asked where she was. He seemed even more upset about her being gone than about Lady Reiko. He beat the women until they gave up and told him Wente had taken Lady Reiko away."

Sano put together the rest of the story. "After Tekare's murder, Gizaemon would have ordered Wente to keep quiet." Gizaemon had thought himself safe because she knew that incriminating him would incriminate her as well. "But when I started investigating the murder, he became afraid that Wente would crack." Now Gizaemon was less concerned that Reiko, Sano, and their comrades were at large than threatened because Wente had escaped his control. "He can't let her go free to tell anyone about his part in Tekare's death; he can't risk that Lord Matsumae might hear. He has to cover his tracks by doing what he knows he should have done sooner."

"Eliminate Wente," concluded Marume.

Sano's horror multiplied as he realized what that meant for his wife. "When Gizaemon kills Wente, he can't leave a witness. If Reiko is there to see, she'll figure out why he did it. She can't be permitted to live and tell. Gizaemon will kill her, if Wente hasn't yet." The situation altered drastically once more, as did Sano's plans. "We have to get to Reiko and Wente before Gizaemon does."

"All right," Marume said. "We'll go after them. But what about Lord Matsumae? Should we forget about him, or kill him first?"

Sano's att.i.tude toward Lord Matsumae s.h.i.+fted to fit the new reality. Lord Matsumae hadn't murdered Tekare. And although Sano wasn't willing to forgive him for everything else, including Masahiro's death, there was a reason to keep him alive. Sano thought of Reiko and Wente somewhere in the vast, winter wilderness of Ezogas.h.i.+ma. He and his men lacked the equipment and skills to find the women. They would surely get lost and freeze to death before they could save Reiko, and Gizaemon had a big head start.

"No," Sano said, "we shouldn't forget Lord Matsumae, but we won't kill him-at least not yet. We need him."

32.

Sunset painted brilliant copper bands across the sky. Reiko and Wente rode the sled through a meadow whose snow glowed with fiery, reflected light. They and the dogs trotting ahead of them were alone in the wilderness landscape that spread as far as Reiko could see.

They'd spent the long day following a trail that Masahiro must have stumbled onto when he'd run from the soldiers who'd chased him. Before the snow it would have been visible; now it was buried. They'd met no one, seen no human footprints. At first Reiko had spied small villages in the distance, settled by j.a.panese traders and farmers, but in late afternoon they'd crossed into Ainu territory.

Now Reiko felt as if she'd truly broken loose from everything familiar. Ainu territory was the loneliest place she'd ever been. She experienced a city-dweller's fear of nature untamed by man and the fear that she wouldn't find Masahiro. All that connected her to him was an invisible trail of scent. She clung to Wente as the sled b.u.mped over ice. Her body was stiff from the cold. The full moon rose; the sky darkened into cobalt that quenched the sunset. More stars than Reiko had ever seen glittered like crystals. The cold intensified. How would she and Wente survive a night in this frozen kingdom?

Woods abruptly immersed the sled. The moonlight on the snowy trail didn't penetrate the thick shadows among the trees. The trail was a tunnel roofed by the starlit sky, a road to nowhere. Reiko was beginning to dread what she would find at its end, when a clearing opened ahead of her. Wente called to the dogs and dismounted from the sled as it coasted to a stop. The dogs barked at a hut that had materialized as if by magic. Reiko clumsily rose as Wente ran to the hut.

"What is this place?" Reiko could hardly believe that a man-made structure existed here.

"Men come here when hunt," Wente said.

The hunting cabin was padded with thatch and blanketed with snow, a shelter from the cold. All day Reiko had refused to acknowledge the probability that the dogs would find Masahiro's dead, frozen body. Now relief rushed through her. She staggered toward the hut, calling, "Masahiro! Masahiro!"

Wente lifted a mat of thatch from the wall. The dogs, still tethered to the sled, lunged at the doorway she uncovered, frantic to reach the quarry they'd tracked all day. Wente looked inside, then turned a somber face to Reiko.

"Not here," Wente said.

Disappointment wounded Reiko even as she refused to believe. "He must be! He has to be! Masahiro!" She scrambled into the hut. In the dim moonlight that shone through the doorway she saw dirt mounded against mat-covered walls, a fire pit filled with cold ashes. The hut was vacant. Reiko sagged to her knees, too anguished to cry.

Wente brought the dogs into the cabin, and they eagerly sniffed around. Kneeling by the fire pit, she sifted ashes through her fingers and smelled them. "Hunters not gone long."

Reiko supposed she could tell how recently they'd burned their fire, but what did it matter? Masahiro wasn't here. The dogs barked and growled, worrying at something they'd found in a corner. It was a stack of floor mats.

"They smell boy," Wente said. "He sit there, sleep there."

That didn't comfort Reiko. "But where is he now?" she cried. Against her will, she pictured him lying in a snowdrift, eyes closed, motionless. Yet she imagined his chest rising in slow breaths. The stubborn hope of saving him refused to die.

Wente left the cabin, and Reiko hurried after her. "We have to keep looking. Let's go!"

But Wente untied the bundle of provisions on the sled and carried it into the cabin. "We stay here tonight. Morning come, we go."

"We can't wait that long," Reiko said, aghast.

"Night cold, dangerous." Wente unpacked the food, the bedroll. "We need warm, eat, sleep."

"I don't care!" Although chilled to the bone, Reiko said, "I must find my son before it's too late!"

"Tomorrow." Wente's manner was sympathetic but firm. "Dogs need rest."

The dogs lay on the cabin floor, huddled together, exhausted. Reiko gave up because her life depended on their good health. She helped Wente fetch sticks from the forest to build a fire. Wente struck an iron fragment against a quartz stone. Sparks ignited wood dust. She lit a wick in a ceramic oil lamp and set the lamp on the edge of the fire pit. Desolate, Reiko stared at the floor. The lamp's flame illuminated grimy black patterns on the mat, from spilled ashes. They looked almost like written characters...

Wente started to walk across them. Reiko cried "Wait! Don't!" and pointed at the floor. "It's another message from my son. He wrote it in ashes." She read: "Mama, Papa, I met some nice native hunters. I'm going home with them to their village. Masahiro."

A huge, blissful relief overwhelmed Reiko. Her nightmarish picture of Masahiro dying in the snow changed to a happy scene of him fed, protected, and accompanied to a safe place by natives. He'd cheated death again!

"Village not far," Wente said. "We get there tomorrow."

She built a little fire and fed the dogs, who soon fell asleep. Reiko and Wente drank hot herb tea and ate soup made from lily-root starch dumplings and dried salmon. The food, the bright, crackling fire, and the snoring dogs soothed Reiko, as did the certainty of seeing Masahiro tomorrow. Although the cabin was far from warm enough, she fell into a snug, contented doze. But Wente was restless; she kept going to the door and peeking at the night.

"What's the matter?" A danger that hadn't previously occurred to Reiko now scared her fully awake. "Are there bears outside?"

Wente shook her head and sat down, but she had a tense, listening air. A moment later she was up again for another peek.

"Something is wrong," Reiko said. "Tell me what."

Sano, Hirata, Marume, f.u.kida, and the Rat lay in a row under the palace, peering through the lattice. Nightfall had diminished the activity inside f.u.kuyama Castle, and the grounds were empty except for two soldiers walking up the path to the front entrance. f.u.kida whispered, "How about these?"

"Too low in rank for our purposes," Sano said.

"Pretty soon it'll be too late to get anybody," Marume warned, but in a few moments along came Captain Okimoto. "Aha, that's more like it."

Marume burst through the lattice. Sano and the other men followed, swords drawn, and charged at Okimoto. "Hey, what-," Okimoto said, as he halted in surprise.

Sano and his men surrounded Okimoto. Hirata seized him from behind, stripped off his swords, and pressed an arm tight across his throat.

"Let me go!" Wheezing, Okimoto grappled with Hirata's arm; he kicked the air while Hirata held him effortlessly. The sentries at the palace door came running to his aid.

"Everybody drop your swords or he dies," Sano said. Weapons. .h.i.t the snow: The men were friends of Okimoto's. "Good. Now open the door."

The sentries reluctantly but promptly obeyed. Marume and f.u.kida ran up the steps. Hirata propelled Okimoto, who dragged his feet and choked out, "What do you want?"

"To speak with Lord Matsumae," Sano said. "You're going to help us get to him." Backing through the door, he called to the sentries, "Don't even think of following us."

He and his men marched Okimoto through the palace. They met soldiers who exclaimed, drew weapons, and blocked their way until Sano shouted, "Stand back! We've got your captain." Hirata squeezed Okimoto's throat harder. Okimoto made strangling sounds. "Let us pa.s.s, or we'll kill him."

They breached the chamber where Lord Matsumae howled in his bed, still wrapped in the quilt and rope. Two male servants held his head. His face was covered with blood that ran from his mouth in red trickles. He snarled and growled at the servants as they pried his jaws apart. The doctor stood by, holding a ceramic cup.

"What's going on?" Marume said.

The doctor looked more worried about his patient than frightened by the sudden arrival of the escaped prisoners. "Lord Matsumae tried to bite himself to death. We're trying to give him a sedative potion."

He poured liquid from the cup into Lord Matsumae's mouth. Lord Matsumae roared and spat out the potion. His lips and tongue were cut. Tekare obviously hadn't given up trying to kill him.

Okimoto cried out, "My lord!" Hirata released him, and he knelt by Lord Matsumae and broke down in tears. Sano saw that this mean, tough man truly cared for his lord, whose dire condition had shocked him. He said to the doctor, "Can't you cure him?"

The doctor shook his head regretfully. Sano said, "Let me try." He motioned everyone else away from the bed and crouched by Lord Matsumae. "Tekare, listen. I've found out who killed you."

She snarled, baring b.l.o.o.d.y teeth at Sano. "I already know. It's him!" She chomped on Lord Matsumae's lip. His voice screamed as more blood flowed.

"No," Sano said. "He's innocent of everything except punis.h.i.+ng other people for your death. It was your sister who murdered you.

"Wente?" Scorn laced Tekare's voice. "She's too weak and timid. She'd never have dared lift a finger against me."

Sano had at least distracted her from her attack on Lord Matsumae; now he had to convince her. "She was with you the night you died. She ran into the forest and you chased her."

"Yes. How did you know?"

"Your old friend Daigoro told me. He was there. He saw. Do you want to know why Wente ran?"

Tekare frowned, confused. "Because she was upset. Because she wanted to get away from me."

"That's what she wanted you to think, but it's not the reason. She was luring you to your death."

Even though Sano could see that he'd shaken her, Tekare said, "That's ridiculous. Wente isn't smart enough to think of using a spring-bow."

"She didn't need to be smart," Sano said. "She had an accomplice who was. They conspired to murder you. One to set the trap, one to make sure you triggered it."

"No!" Convinced now, Tekare wailed in outrage. The sister she'd thought inferior, whom she'd tyrannized all their lives, had defeated her. As her body convulsed inside the quilt and strained at the ropes, her hold on Lord Matsumae lapsed. His voice said, "See, my beloved, it wasn't me. I'm innocent."

"Would you like to know who Wente's accomplice was?" Sano asked.

Tekare sobbed and cursed. "She won't get away with this. I'll haunt her into her grave!"

"Who?" Lord Matsumae surfaced to ask the question.