The Iris Fan Read Free Page B

enemy, yet you joined forces with him when Yoshisato’s ashes were barely cold!” Perplexed, Sano said, “Why?”
    The arid heat in Yanagisawa’s eyes flared, as if with anger smoldering beneath his calm façade. “I’ve let bygones be bygones. You really should try it. It would make your life easier.”
    “How could you? I know you cared about Yoshisato. I saw how upset you were when you saw his burned corpse.” Yanagisawa grimaced, as if more vexed at Sano for bringing up trivia than grieved by the loss of his son. Lord Ienobu watched them complacently. “It wasn’t just because you’d lost your political pawn. You loved him.” A father himself, Sano recognized paternal love when he saw it. And Sano had contended with Yanagisawa for so long that they were almost mystically attuned to each other. “You were devastated that Yoshisato was gone. How could you sell him out by allying with his enemy?”
    “Lord Ienobu and I were enemies, yes,” Yanagisawa said smoothly, “but we decided it would be best for both of us if we teamed up.”
    “You mean you decided to hitch your cart to the shogun’s new heir.”
    “If you cooperated with Lord Ienobu instead of beating your head against a stone wall,” Yanagisawa said, “you would be better off. And so would your family.”
    His family was the only reason Sano regretted opposing Ienobu. They’d suffered badly on account of it.
    “You really should have accepted the deal I offered you,” Lord Ienobu said.
    Several times he’d offered Sano respectable posts in the regime in exchange for ceasing the campaign to prove him guilty of Yoshisato’s murder and knock him out of line for the succession. Sano had turned Ienobu down flat. It was a point of contention between Sano and Reiko.
    Angry at Yanagisawa and determined to shake some sense into him, Sano asked, “Don’t you want to avenge Yoshisato’s death? Why won’t you help me bring his murderer to justice? You owe it to the shogun, if not to Yoshisato or yourself. You’re a miserable excuse for a samurai!”
    “False accusations against Lord Ienobu didn’t get me on your side. Insults certainly won’t.” The hostility in Yanagisawa’s eyes said he hadn’t forgotten their two decades of bad blood. Maybe the bad blood was enough to make him think Ienobu was innocent rather than believe anything Sano said, but Sano sensed something terribly off about Yanagisawa.
    “What’s wrong with you?” Sano asked in honest, concerned bewilderment.
    Lord Ienobu raised a hand. “Sano- san , you’ve used up your last chance to stop your ridiculous investigation. I’m going to put an end to it once and for all.”
    “How? You’ll kick me out of the regime?” Sano laughed scornfully. “If you could, you already would have. The fact that I’m still here must mean the shogun either still has some affection for me or he isn’t sure I’m wrong about you. You can demote me to cleaning toilets, but I’ll prove you’re guilty of murder and treason.”
    Lord Ienobu grinned; his lips peeled back from his protruding teeth. “Things have changed. I’ve been appointed Acting Shogun. Until His Excellency recovers from the measles, I have the power to do as I like.”
    Sano was too shocked to hide his dismay. “Appointed by whom?”
    Yanagisawa smiled, sharing Ienobu’s triumph. “The Council of Elders.” The four old men on the Council comprised Japan’s principal governing body and the shogun’s top advisors. “They decided Lord Ienobu should take charge temporarily.”
    “When did this happen?”
    “Today.”
    The lower Sano fell, the longer it took news to trickle down to him. He’d unwittingly made a bad mistake by going after Manabe and his henchmen tonight, when the stakes had just risen drastically. A cold, dreadful hollow formed in Sano’s gut. He’d been courting disaster for more than four years, and now it was here.
    Lord Ienobu opened his mouth to pronounce the words that would make Sano a r