Free The Ronin's Mistress by Laura Joh Rowland Page A

waved the flame inside several bamboo cups, which he placed upside down on the shogun’s stomach. This was an ancient Chinese medical treatment that promoted the flow of life energy through the body. The vacuum inside the cups drew blood to the areas underneath. The suction penetrated the tissues and released poisons. The position of the cups told Sano that the shogun was suffering from constipation again. The shogun was always suffering from something, always threatening to die. So far so good, but he had gotten frail. Maybe he would die soon, without a son or designated heir. And then would follow the battle over the succession.
    “What are you doing back so soon?” Yanagisawa asked Sano. “Shouldn’t you be out chasing the forty-seven r ō nin ?”
    “I’ve already captured them,” Sano said.
    “Oh.” Yanagisawa looked unpleasantly surprised.
    Sano described what had happened after he’d tracked the r ō nin to Sengaku Temple. Everyone was nonplussed.
    “That’s certainly peculiar,” said Elder Ohgami, Sano’s quiet, white-haired friend.
    “So the forty-seven r ō nin surrendered. All you had to do was scoop them up,” Yanagisawa concluded.
    “Nevertheless, the crime is solved,” Sano said, controlling his temper. Trust Yanagisawa to minimize his accomplishments. “The forty-seven r ō nin are under house arrest.”
    “Is it all over, then?” the shogun said with cautious hope. The cups attached to him looked like the nubs on a caterpillar.
    Swiftly, before Sano could say that it was and parlay his success into a pardon for past offenses, Yanagisawa shot down that hope. “No. It’s certainly not over.”
    “Why not?” Anxiety crinkled the shogun’s face. The physician slid the bamboo cups around on his pale, droopy stomach, massaging the organs beneath.
    “There’s still the matter of what to do with the forty-seven r ō nin, ” Yanagisawa said.
    “That’s easy. They should be convicted of murder and condemned to death,” Ihara declared. “They sought revenge against Kira after His Excellency ruled that Kira wasn’t at fault in the incident between him and Lord Asano and he shouldn’t be punished. They not only killed a helpless old man in cold blood; they defied His Excellency. It’s standard procedure that anyone who does that automatically pays with his life.”
    “This isn’t a standard case,” Ohgami pointed out. “The forty-seven r ō nin followed the Way of the Warrior. They avenged their lord’s death. Bushido trumps the law in this case.”
    “No, it doesn’t,” Yoritomo hastened to protest. “Their ultimate duty is to the shogun. And they went against his orders.”
    Sano sensed emotions rising fast among his colleagues. The case had touched a place deep inside them, where their samurai spirit lived. The forty-seven r ō nin ’s vendetta had raised questions about their own worth as samurai, as it had done for Sano.
    Exasperation showed on Ohgami’s face. “Lord Asano was their hereditary master. They were compelled by honor to avenge him, no matter what.”
    “Not everyone thinks so,” Ihara said. “Some people are already calling the forty-seven r ō nin heroes, but others think they’re criminals.”
    Sano suspected that those who called the r ō nin criminals felt guilty about the short shrift that they themselves gave to Bushido. They wanted to punish anyone who made them look neglectful of their own duties. The people who lauded the forty-seven as heroes took a vicarious pride in the deed which they would probably never have the courage to perform themselves. Sano felt torn because he could see both sides of the argument.
    On one hand, Bushido was the foundation of his life. His father had raised him to believe that nothing was more important than a samurai’s duty to his master. His samurai blood told him that the forty-seven r ō nin had done right to murder Kira.
    On the other hand, he had a duty to his own lord, the shogun. The forty-seven r ō nin