The Iris Fan Read Free Page A

like a maggot, Sano thought. “Are you getting slow on the uptake in your old age?”
    Manabe pushed Sano to his knees. Charcoal braziers under the tatami floor breathed heat through iron grilles, but Sano, chilled to the bone, took no comfort from it. Angry at the futility of his own stubbornness as well as at Ienobu for mocking and punishing him, Sano said, “When are you going to stop denying that you’re responsible for Yoshisato’s death? Do you really think you can get away with it forever?”
    Ienobu grimaced in impatience. “I am not responsible. That woman Korika set the fire.”
    “She said in her dying confession that you put her up to it,” Sano said.
    Chamberlain Yanagisawa, the other man on the dais, responded in a suave voice, “And who heard this dying confession?”
    “My wife,” Sano said. His temper boiled at the challenge from Yanagisawa.
    They’d been enemies for twenty years. From the outset Yanagisawa had viewed Sano as his rival for political power, and he’d developed an extreme hatred toward Sano. Sano’s own antagonism toward Yanagisawa stemmed from Yanagisawa’s attacks on him and his family. Their feud had escalated when Yanagisawa had tried to pass his son off as the shogun’s son. It was a fraud that Sano couldn’t let slide even though the shogun had accepted Yoshisato, the cuckoo’s egg. Not only would Yanagisawa’s gaining control over the regime mean doom for Sano, it was a crime against the lord that Sano was duty-bound to serve. Bushido demanded that Sano redress it no matter that Yoshisato was dead. And now Yanagisawa was committing yet another breach of honor by allying with Ienobu, the man responsible for the murders of both Yoshisato and the shogun’s daughter.
    Sano couldn’t figure out why.
    “Oh, well, then.” Yanagisawa’s look said that of course a wife would lie to support her husband.
    Sano studied Yanagisawa, whom he hadn’t seen in four years. At age fifty-one, Yanagisawa exemplified how handsome a man can remain as he gets older. Red and bronze satin robes infused color into his skin, still firm over strongly modeled bones. Silver threads in his glossy black hair enhanced his masculine beauty. But his eyes, which had once gleamed as if made of liquid darkness, were now dry and hot like stones baked in a fire. Viewing him and Lord Ienobu side by side, Sano had the odd sense that Ienobu thrived by sucking Yanagisawa’s marrow.
    “Why are you so quick to believe he’s innocent?” Sano pointed at Ienobu. “He had the best motive for Yoshisato’s murder. It cleared the way for him to become the next shogun.”
    “So you told me more than four years ago,” Yanagisawa said with a tired air. “So you’ve been saying ever since, to anyone who’ll listen.”
    “May I remind you again, there’s no evidence that anyone besides Korika was involved in the arson,” Lord Ienobu said.
    “How did she get to the heir’s residence, set it on fire, and leave without being caught?” Sano demanded. “The residence was heavily guarded. And there’s new evidence that she had help.” He explained about Manabe and the other men. “I think they killed Yoshisato’s guards. That’s why Korika wasn’t caught.”
    “My men have an alibi,” Ienobu said.
    “Your men are one another’s alibi. There’s nothing else to prove they weren’t at the heir’s residence murdering Yoshisato.”
    “There’s nothing to prove they were, either,” Ienobu said
    “I say Manabe and his henchmen killed Yoshisato as well as the guards, and the fire only disguised the real cause of their deaths.”
    Yanagisawa shook his head sadly. “You’ve come up with some wild stories in the past, but this time you’ve gone completely insane.”
    “Me? That’s the coal calling the ink black! You’re the one who wanted to put Yoshisato at the head of the regime. You’re the one who lost your chance to rule Japan when Yoshisato died. Lord Ienobu was Yoshisato’s rival and your