Free The Snow Empress: A Thriller by Laura Joh Rowland Page B

Matsumae started treating them even worse when her daughter died.”
    Comprehension stole through Reiko. “When was this?”
    “Last spring.”
    “How old was her daughter?”
    “Eight years.”
    The same age as Masahiro. “Has she any other children?”
    “No.” Lilac added, “Lord Matsumae adopted a cousin as his heir. She’s too old to have any more.”
    At last Reiko understood why Lady Matsumae had reacted so violently when asked whether she had any children and if she knew what it was like to lose one. Reiko had unintentionally touched a raw wound. Now she pitied Lady Matsumae; she regretted her own words and the fact that she’d provoked Lady Matsumae’s cruelty toward the helpless Ezo concubine. She wondered how Lady Matsumae’s daughter had died, but shied from talking about a child’s death while her own son was missing. And she had more pressing concerns.
    “I want to find my son,” she said. “Can you help me?”
    Lilac drew back from Reiko. Her eagerness to please dissolved into worry.
    “You know something, don’t you?” When Lilac wouldn’t meet her eyes, Reiko pleaded, “Tell me!”
    “I think I saw him,” Lilac said reluctantly.
    Dizzied by hope, Reiko said, “When was this? Where?”
    “About a month ago. Here at the castle. A little boy, with three soldiers. I’d never seen them before.”
    They had to have been Masahiro escorted by Lord Matsudaira’s men, Reiko thought. The hesitation in Lilac’s speech made it clear that she didn’t want to tell this story because the ending wouldn’t please Reiko, but Reiko had to know the truth. “What happened?” she demanded.
    Lilac sighed. “Lord Matsumae’s troops brought them inside the palace, to Lord Matsumae’s chambers.”
    Lord Matsumae had lied when he’d told Sano he didn’t know anything about Masahiro, when he’d claimed the boy had never reached Fukuyama City.
    “I don’t know what happened in there, but…”
    “Go on,” Reiko prompted, even though dread filled her.
    “After a while, the troops brought out the soldiers. They had ropes wound around them, and gags in their mouths. The troops took them to the courtyard. They made them kneel down. And then-” Lilac gulped. “They cut off their heads.”
    Reiko felt a terrible darkness crowding out all the light in the world. There was no reason to think that Lord Matsumae had spared her son after killing his escorts. “What about the boy?” She forced the words out past the breath caught inside her.
    “I don’t know,” Lilac said. “He wasn’t with the soldiers.”
    A fragile, tenuous relief seeped through Reiko. If Masahiro hadn’t been killed during the execution Lilac had seen, perhaps he was still alive. “What happened to him?” she almost didn’t dare to ask.
    “I don’t know. He never came out of the palace, at least not that I saw.”
    He could have been killed inside by Lord Matsumae, who’s mad enough to murder the chamberlain’s child.
The voice of her common sense taunted Reiko.
Lord Matsumae lied because he didn’t want Sano to know he’d killed Masahiro. He was sane enough to be afraid of punishment.
But Reiko’s spirit refused to believe it.
    “Have you seen him again?” Reiko demanded.
    Lilac recoiled, frightened by the intensity of Reiko’s gaze. “No.”
    “Could he still be in the castle?” Reiko sat very still, her ears pricked, her eyes wide, mouth open, every sense straining to detect her son’s whereabouts.
    “He could,” Lilac said, but she sounded more as if she wanted to please Reiko than as if she thought so.
    One of the other maids peeked in the door. “Lilac! Lady Matsumae wants you.”
    “I have to go,” Lilac said, rising.
    Reiko clutched her arm and whispered, “Can you find out if my son is here? Will you look for him for me? Please!”
    Sly satisfaction glittered through the sympathy in Lilac’s eyes. “I’ll try.”
    As she hurried off, Reiko knew that she’d put herself right where Lilac wanted,