“That’s all changed.” Yanagisawa smiled at Ienobu’s vexation. He advanced down the corridor, forcing Ienobu to shuffle backward. “You have only yourself to blame.” If not for Ienobu’s order to leave the capital, Yanagisawa might still be lying in bed, a threat to no one.
“You mustn’t bother my uncle,” Ienobu protested. “He doesn’t want to see anybody.”
“He’ll see me.” Yanagisawa kept going, with feigned confidence. How would the shogun take his sudden reappearance?
“You had better get your affairs in order for your trip to your new post in Tosa Province,” Ienobu said, shuffling faster. “You’re supposed to leave in a few days.”
Yanagisawa snorted. That this grotesque insect thought to dispense with him so easily! “I’m not going.”
“My uncle ordered you to go. You have to obey.”
“We both know who those orders really came from.” Yanagisawa jabbed his finger at Ienobu as he bore down on him. “I don’t obey you. ”
Ienobu stopped with his back against the closed door to the shogun’s chambers. “You can’t go in there.” His eyes bulged with his fear that Yanagisawa would undo his efforts to secure his place as heir to the dictatorship.
“Who’s to stop me?” Yanagisawa said.
“Guards!” Ienobu called. Two soldiers came. “Take this trespasser outside.”
Yanagisawa gave the guards a look that concentrated the power of his personality, that bespoke his reputation as a man to be feared. “You’re dismissed. Leave.”
The guards went. Yanagisawa said to Ienobu, “Step aside.”
Furious yet impotent, Ienobu obeyed.
A victory always energized Yanagisawa, and this first one over Ienobu reassured him that he hadn’t lost his touch. But his heart raced as he entered the room, shut the door behind him, and approached the shogun, who lay on cushions on the dais with his eyes closed. Two pages hovered. Yanagisawa shot them a glance; they tiptoed from the room. This might be the most important conversation he’d ever had. He waited, tense with nerves.
“Who’s there?” the shogun said.
“It’s I,” Yanagisawa said.
Surprise fluttered the shogun’s eyes open. “Yanagisawa- san?” He sat up, squinting in disbelief, then smiled. “You’re back!” He held out his hand to Yanagisawa. “Ahh, it’s good to see you again!”
He’d obviously forgotten that he’d ever been upset with Yanagisawa, ever demoted him. Yanagisawa breathed easier. He mounted the steps to the dais, knelt, and took the shogun’s soft, moist hand. That quickly he was back where he belonged.
“Where have you been?” the shogun asked. “Why did you leave me for so long?”
“I was in mourning for Yoritomo.” Yanagisawa’s voice cracked.
“Who?” The shogun frowned in confusion, then said, “Ahh, yes, your son.”
Yanagisawa felt hot outrage roil inside him. Yoritomo had been the shogun’s lover for nine years. He’d died trying to save the shogun’s life, and the shogun barely remembered who he was! Yanagisawa compressed his lips in a tight, false smile. He reminded himself that he’d always known how selfish and callous the shogun was and that he’d often taken advantage of it. He warned himself that losing his temper would get him in trouble, which Ienobu would love.
“I’m here now,” he said. “Ready to serve Your Excellency.”
He hated having to suck up to the shogun. Someday he wouldn’t have to anymore. When that day came, he would be safe at the top of the regime.
“Well, ahh, I’m glad. So many, ahh, terrible things have happened. The earthquake, and all the problems. I’m at my, ahh, wit’s end.” The shogun clung to Yanagisawa’s hand. “But now that you’re here, I feel better. You’ll tell me what to do, won’t you?”
Yanagisawa’s smile turned genuine. “Oh, I certainly will.”
The door scraped open. Ienobu poked his head into the room. Trust him to intrude when things were going so well, Yanagisawa thought with annoyance.
“Nephew, I don’t need you now,” the shogun said. “My old friend Yanagisawa is back.”
An angry flush worsened Ienobu’s looks. He started to withdraw, but Yanagisawa said, “Wait a moment.” Ienobu froze, suspicious. “Your nephew sent me an order stamped with your signature seal,” Yanagisawa told the shogun. “It said I’m supposed to leave Edo and take up a new post in Tosa Province. Is that what you want?”
“What? For you to leave?” The shogun shook his head, bewildered and dismayed. “No.” He clung harder to Yanagisawa.
“Then you rescind the order?” Yanagisawa asked.
“Yes, of course!” The shogun waggled his finger at Ienobu. “Never again take the liberty of acting on my behalf without asking me! Now leave us in peace.”
“Yes, Honorable Uncle.” Ienobu cast a venomous glance at Yanagisawa.
Yanagisawa smiled. Ienobu shut the door harder than necessary. Yanagisawa said to the shogun, “I have good news for you.”
“Really?” the shogun said eagerly. “I could use some good news, to make up for all the, ahh, bad things that have been happening.”
“There’s a very handsome, charming young man that I think you would like,” Yanagisawa said. “His name is Yoshisato. I’ll introduce you to him, if I may.”
Interest brightened the shogun’s eyes. “Indeed you may. Bring him soon.” He hauled himself to his feet, using Yanagisawa’s hand as a support. “I have to go to the Place of Relief. Masahiro, come help me.”
Yanagisawa was startled to see the boy step out of the shadows in the corner. It was Sano’s son. He was taller than when Yanagisawa had seen him-almost a man. He’d been there all along, heard the entire conversation. Yanagisawa inwardly cursed his own obliviousness. He would have to be more alert.
The shogun leaned on Masahiro’s arm. Masahiro accompanied him toward the door that led to his inner chamber. Yanagisawa studied the boy through narrowed eyes. Sano was responsible for Yoritomo’s death. Sano’s own son was still alive. Yanagisawa seethed with envy and hatred.
Masahiro looked over his shoulder at Yanagisawa. His gaze was sharp, intelligent. He was so much like Sano! Yanagisawa had to exert all his self-control to keep himself from killing Masahiro. He rose and walked out of the chamber. Ienobu was waiting for him in the corridor.
“I know what you’re up to.” Ienobu was so agitated that he looked like a swatted fly trying to flap its smashed wings. “You’re trying to put your other son in the shogun’s bed. You want to make him the shogun’s heir and yourself the father of the next dictator!”
“That sounds like a good plan,” Yanagisawa said smoothly. “Thank you for suggesting it.”
Ienobu pointed a shaking, withered finger at Yanagisawa. “Mock me if you want. Your plan won’t work. It might have with Yoritomo. He had Tokugawa blood; he was eligible for the succession. This one doesn’t. He can never be shogun.”
Here lay the flaw in Yanagisawa’s plan. Trust Ienobu to point it out.
“But I am a Tokugawa.” Ienobu thumped his concave chest, triumphant. “I’m first in line for the succession. And I won’t be pushed out of my rightful place by a bastard of yours who services my uncle.”
“‘Bastard?’” Yanagisawa laughed. “It takes one to know one.” He watched Ienobu turn purple with rage at this reference to his own parentage. “And if you want to inherit the dictatorship, you can’t just rest on your Tokugawa blood. You’d better start servicing your uncle. How hard can you suck?”
Ienobu gaped so wide in astonishment that Yanagisawa could see every big tooth in his mouth. He sputtered, “Nobody has ever spoken to me that way!”
“Now somebody has.” Yanagisawa strode off.
He regretted his words the moment he was outside the guesthouse. During his time away from court he’d lost too much self-control. He shouldn’t have fanned the fire of his enmity with Ienobu. The man wouldn’t give up after one failed attempt to get rid of him. Yanagisawa thought of Masahiro and what the boy’s closeness to the shogun signified. Sano was undoubtedly using his own son as a spy, and to gain power. Yanagisawa would have to deal with them soon. Striding through the wintry garden, he thought of Yoshisato and cursed under his breath.