Free The Incense Game by Laura Joh Rowland

A black hulk with jagged outlines where broken towers and walls rose, it seemed a haunt for demons.
    Hirata rode up beside Sano on the avenue outside the castle and said, “You were right. It was poison.” In a low voice, in case of spies, Hirata described Dr. Ito’s examination.
    “Just as I thought,” Sano said without satisfaction. “I’ve been hoping I could tell Lord Hosokawa I made a mistake and his daughters weren’t murdered. Because he’s put me in a bad position.” He told Hirata about the bargain that Lord Hosokawa had forced him to make.
    Hirata let his breath out in a whistle. “That is bad. I suppose we’d better not waste any time. Where do we start the investigation?”
    “Meet me at my house and we’ll talk about it. Right now I have to report to the shogun.” As they neared the castle gate, Sano said, “Have you anything else to tell me?”
    He noticed that Hirata paused for an instant before replying, “No. Nothing.”
    *   *   *
    SANO FOUND THE shogun right where he’d left him, in the guesthouse with Ienobu. The pair sat on the dais in the same positions. The same lanterns burned; the air in the room was just as stale. Sano had the strange sensation that time had stood still for them, whereas a lifetime had passed for him since morning, when all he’d had to worry about was building a new Edo up from the ruins.
    “Well, ahh, it’s about time you came back,” the shogun said.
    “We’ve already finished dinner.” Ienobu scrubbed his protruding teeth with a napkin.
    Their tray tables held the remains of an abundant meal—fish with plenty of meat left on the bones, rice bowls half full, vegetables and dumplings picked over. Sano thought of all the hungry people in Edo. He tried not to think ill of the shogun for wasting food. His own stomach growled. He hadn’t eaten since breakfast.
    “What took you so long?” the shogun demanded.
    “I did an extensive inspection of the city, so I could bring you an accurate report.” Sano couldn’t breathe a word about how he’d really spent the day. Lord Hosokawa’s warning shackled his tongue. “The daimyo have started to rebuild their estates. The townspeople are clearing out their neighborhoods. Everyone is hard at work.” Sano downplayed Edo’s miserable state, lest he upset the shogun. “Things are progressing.”
    “No, they are not!” the shogun exclaimed. “I went up in a guard tower today and had a look at the city. And what did I see? Ruins everywhere! And all those tents.” His face puckered with disgust. “Everyone has reverted to, ahh, savagery!”
    Sano felt his temper slipping even faster than it had that morning. He wanted to say, Where else do you expect the homeless people to live? And, Why did you send me on a tour of inspection when all you had to do was climb a few steps and see for yourself? If he hadn’t gone on the tour, he wouldn’t have found the bodies and he wouldn’t be in this impossible position.
    “Fixing Edo is going to take time,” he managed to say instead. “What you saw was the preliminary stage. Things will improve rapidly from now on.”
    He saw Ienobu smirk: The man was enjoying his struggle to control his tongue. Sano suspected that the shogun’s idea to view Edo from the guard tower had come from Ienobu.
    “You’d better be right,” the shogun said. “Because you’re always using work as an excuse for why you’re too busy to be with me. And since you, ahh, have so little to show for all the time you’ve been gone, I’m beginning to wonder what you’re really up to.”
    If he only knew, Sano thought. But the shogun would never know everything Sano did on his behalf. That now included hiding the fact that the daimyo were close to rising up against his regime. Sano realized that his conspiracy of silence with Lord Hosokawa was tantamount to treason. The irony of it astounded him. That his samurai loyalty required him to commit treason in order to protect his